СНАР. XX. Robinson's views of the unscriptural constitution of the church of England are stated with distinctJAMES I. ness, and the reasonings by which he endeavours Unscriptural to support them are not easily to be refuted. constitution of the church of England, "All the natives and subjects of the kingdom," he says, "although never such strangers from all show of true piety and goodness, and fraught never so full with many most heinous impieties and vices (of which rank whether there be not an infinite, and far the greater number, I would to God it could with any reason be doubted), are without difference compelled and enforced by most severe laws, civil and ecclesiastical, into the body of that church. And of this confused heap (a few, compared with the rest, godly persons mingled among) is that national church, commonly called the church of England, collected and framed; and such is the material constitution of that church. And if now you demand of me how it is formally constituted, and whether upon profession of faith and repentance (in word at least), made by them of years, any combination and consociation of the members into particular congregations (which consociation doth formally constitute the ministerial church, and members thereof, as both the scriptures and reason manifest) either is or hath been made since the universal and antichristian apostasy and defection in popery? Nothing less, but only by their parish perambulation, as they call it, and standing of the houses in which they dwell. Every subject of the kingdom, dwelling in this or that parish, Mr. Brooks represents this treatise 1644; but the English copy from which I quote was printed in 1625.-Lives of Puritans, ii. 344. CHAP. XX. whether in city or country, whether in his own or other man's house, is thereby, ipso facto, made legally a member of the same parish in which that JAMES I. house is situated, and bound, will he nill he, fit or unfit, as with iron bonds, and all his with him, to participate in all holy things, and some unholy also, in that same parish church." " h "We do not judge it," he afterwards remarks, in answer to the cavils of an opponent, "an evil intolerable (though greatly to be bewailed) that evil men should be suffered in the church; but that all of most vile and desperate condition, that such and so great a kingdom affords, should thereinto, will they nill they, be compelled; nor that the discipline (as they call it) or ecclesiastical government instituted by Christ, is neglected or violated, but that another, plain contrary unto it, is set up by law, and fully and publicly every where exercised. Neither lies our exception against any personal or accidentary profanation of the temple, but against the faulty frame of it, in respect of the causes, constitution, matter, and form. Neither strive we about the walls of the city, but about the true and lawful citizens, the policy and government of the city of God, and essential administration of the same." i A just and necessary Apologie, p. 62. Ibid., 66. Robinson closes his treatise by an earnest appeal to the candour of his reader and the protection of his God. "If in any thing we err," says this enlightened advocate of scriptural truth, "advertise us brotherly, with desire of our information, and not (as our countrymen's manner for the most part is) with a mind of reproaching us, or gratifying of others; and whom thou findest in CHAP. Formation of the first independent church in England, 1616. The first independent church in England was XX. formed in 1616, by Mr. Henry Jacob, formerly a JAMES I. Brownist, though not of the most rigid class. His intercourse with Mr. Robinson at Leyden had modified his views, and he published the result in a treatise entitled, The Divine Beginning and Institution of Christ's true, visible, and material Church. 1610. Returning to London in 1616, he called several of his friends together, and consulted them on the propriety of uniting together in church fellowship for a purer administration of the ordinances of Christ than was to be secured in the establishment. They agreed to his proposal; and, after observing a day of solemn fasting and prayer, each of them made open confession of his faith, and then joining hands, solemnly covenanted with each other, in the presence of Almighty God, to walk truth, nor just succour from thy O most powerful Lord and gracious Father, humbly imploring help from God towards those who are by men left desolate. There is with thee no respect of persons, neither are men less regarders of thee, if regarders of thee, for the world's disregarding them. They who truly fear thee, and work righteousness, although constrained to live by leave in a foreign land, exiled from country, spoiled of goods, destitute of friends, few in number, and mean in condition, are for all that unto thee (oh, gracious God) nothing the less acceptable; thou numberest all their wanderings, and puttest their tears into thy bottle: are they not written in thy book? Towards thee, O Lord, are our eyes; confirm our hearts, and bend thine ear, and suffer not our feet to slip, or our face to be ashamed, O thou most just and merciful God." CHAP. XX. together in all God's ways and ordinances, according as he had already revealed, or should further make them known to them. Mr. Jacob JAMES I. was chosen pastor, and others were selected as deacons by the suffrage of the brethren. Thus another form of ecclesiastical government was erected in the kingdom, differing both from the episcopal and presbyterian. Limited as yet in the number of its supporters, it was destined at no distant period to engage the cordial support of many of the most vigorous and powerful intellects in the nation, and to become the retreat of religious freedom when assailed by presbyterian intolerance. Neal, ii. 92. Wilson's Hist. of Dissenting Churches, i. 39, CHAPTER XXI. CHAP. Selden's submission. Selden's Submission-Book of Sports-Emigration of Independents to MR. JOHN SELDEN, one of the most learned men in England, about the year 1618, aroused the fears JAMES I. and incurred the hatred of the clergy, by publishing a History of Tithes, in which he strenuously maintained that their sole title to ecclesiastical property was founded on the laws of the kingdom. The consequences of such of such a doctrine were dreaded by the clergy, while the character, learning, and reputation of Selden drew general attention to his treatise. "Never a fiercer storm," says Fuller, "fell on all parsonage barns since the reformation, than what this treatise raised up." The rage of his enemies knew no bounds; but instead of submitting their cause to the decision of the public judgment, they resolved on adopting their usual mode of suppressing obnoxious opinions. "The chief governors of the church," says Heylin, after mentioning some replies to Selden's treatise, "went a shorter way, and not expecting till the book was answered by particular men, resolved to seek for |