of severity in the late times, were voted unfit for ecclesiastical promotions. Dr. Layfield, archdeacon of Essex, pleaded his privilege as a member of convocation, according to an old popish statute of Henry VI.* but the committee over-ruled it, and voted the doctor into custody of the serjeant at arms. Dr. Pocklington, canon of Windsor, and prebendary of Peterborough, was complained of for two books, one entitled the Christian Altar; the other, Sunday no Sabbath; which had been licensed by Dr. Bray one of the archbishop's chaplains. The doctor acknowledged his offence at the bar of the house, confessed that he had not examined the books with that caution that he ought, and made a public recantation in the church of Westminster; but Pocklington, refusing to recant about thirty false propositions, which the bishop of Lincoln had collected out of his books, was sentenced by the lord keeper to be deprived of his ecclesiastical preferments; to be for ever disabled to hold any place or dignity in the church or commonwealth; never to come within the verge of his majesty's court ; and his books to be burnt by the hands of the common hangman in the city of London, and the two universities. Both the doctors died soon after. The number of petitions that were sent up to the committee of religion from all parts of the country against their clergy is incredible;† some complaining of their superstitious imposi tions, and others of the immorality of their lives, and neg. There was no particular propriety, rather it was, as Dr. Grey intimates, somewhat invidious in Mr. Neal, thus to characterize this statute, relative to the privilege of the clergy coming to convocation, as it must, being of so antient a date, necessarily be popish; as is one fourth part of the statute law: and there are various instances of its being enforced since the reformation, and even in the present century ; of which Dr. Grey gives ample proof. Ed. + Dr. Grey judges it not at all incredible; because, on the authority of lord Clarendon. he adds, unfair methods of obtaining petitions were used in those times of iniquity and confusion. The disingenuous art of which, his lordship complains, was procuring signatures to a petition drawn up in modest and dutiful terms, and then cutting it off and substituting another of a different strain and spirit, and annexing it to the list of subscribers. This practice, if his lordship asserted it on good evidence, deserves to be censured in the strongest terms. A virtuous mind has too often occasion to he surprised and shocked, at the arts which party préjudice and views can adopt. History of the Rebellion, vol. i. p. 203. Ed. lect of their cures which shews the little esteem they had among the people, who were weary of their yoke, regarding them no longer than they were under the terror of their excommunications. Such was the spirit of the populace, that it was difficult to prevent their outrunning authority, and tearing down in a tumultuous manner what they were told had been illegally set up. At St. Saviour's, Southwark, the mob pulled down the rails about the communion table. At Halstead in Essex, they tore the surplice, and abused the servicebook; nay, when the house of commons was assembled at St. Margaret's, Westminster, as the priest was beginning the second service at the communion table, some at the lower end of the church began a psalm, which was followed by the congregation, so that the minister was forced to desist. But to prevent these seditious practices for the future, the lords and commons passed a very severe sentence on the rioters, and published the following order, bearing date Jan. 16, 1640-1, appointed it to be read in all the parish churches of London, Westminster, and the borough of Southwark, viz. "That divine service shall be perform'ed as it is appointed by the acts of parliament of this 'realm; and that all such as disturb that wholesome order 'shall be severely punished by law." But then it was added, "That the parsons, vicars, and curates, of the sev'eral parishes, shall forbear to introduce any rights or cer'emonies that may give offence, otherwise than those which are established by the laws of the land." The design of this proviso was to guard against the late innovations, and in particular, against the clergy's refusing the sacrament to such as would not receive it kneeling at the rails. There was such a violent clamor against the high clergy, that they could hardly officiate according to the late injunçtions, without being affronted, nor walk the streets in their habits (says Nalson) without being reproached as popish priests, Caesar's friends, &c. The reputation of the liturgy began to sink; reading prayers was called a lifeless form of worship, and a quenching the Holy Spirit, whose assistances are promised in the matter, as well as the manner of our prayers; besides, the nation being in a crisis, it was thought impossible that the old forms should be suitable to the exigency of the times, or to the circumstances of particular persons, who might desire a share in the devotions of the church. Those ministers, therefore, who prayed with fervency and devotion,* in words of their own conception, suitable either to the sermon that was preached, or to the present urgency of affairs, had crowded and attentive auditories, while the ordinary service of the church was deserted as cold, formal, and without spirit. The discipline of the church being relaxed, the Brownists or Independents, who had assembled in private, and shifted from house to house for twenty or thirty years, resumed their courage, and shewed themselves in public.We have given an account of their original, from Mr. Robinson and Mr. Jacob, in the year 1616, the last of whom was succeeded by Mr. John Lathorp, formerly a clergyman in Kent, but having renounced his orders, he became pastor of this little society. In his time the congregation was discovered by Tomlinson, the bishop's pursuivant, April 29, 1632, at the house of Mr. Humphrey Barnet, a brewer's clerk, in Black-Fryars, where forty-two of them were apprehended, and only eighteen escaped: of those that were taken, some were confined in the Clink, others in NewPrison and the Gate-house, where they continued about two years, and were then released upon bail, except Mr. Lathorp, for whom no favor could be obtained; he therefore petitioned the king for liberty to depart the kingdom, which being granted, he went, in the year 1634, to New-England, with about thirty of his followers. Mr. Lathorp was a man of learning, and of a meek and quiet spirit, but met with * Dr. Grey gives some specimens of this, which are very much in the style of those in the piece entitled "Scotch Presbyterian Eloquence." The improved taste of this age, and rational devotion, revolt at them. But Dr. Grey did not reflect, that the offensive improprieties, which he exposes, were not peculiar to extempory prayer, nor to the puritans; they were agreeable to the fashion of the age, and incorporated themselves with the precomposed prayers published by royal command.The thanksgiving for victory in the North, 1643, affords an instance of this. "Lord! look to the righteousness of our cause. See the ⚫ seamless coat of thy son torn, the throne of thine anointed trampled on, thy church invaded by sacrilege, and thy people miserably deceived with lies." Robinson's Translation of Claude's Essay on the Composition of a Sermon, vol. ii. p. 81. Ed. some uneasinesses, upon occasion of one of his people carrying his child to be re-baptized by the parish minister; some of the congregation insisting, that it should be baptized, because the other administration was not valid; but when the question was put, it was carried in the negative, and resolved by the majority, not to make any declaration at present, Whether or no parish churches were true churches? Upon this some of the more rigid, and others who were dissatisfied about the lawfulness of infant baptism, desired their dismission, which was granted them; these set up by themselves, and chose Mr. Jesse their minister, who laid the foundation of the first baptist congregation* that I have met with in England. But the rest renewed their covenant, to walk together in the ways of God, so far as he had made them known, or should make them known to them, and to forsake all false ways. And so steady were they to their vows, that hardly an instance can be produced, of one that deserted to the church by the severest prosecutions. Upon Mr. Lathorp's retiring into New-England the congregation chose for their pastor the famous Mr. Canne,† author of the marginal references in the bible, who, after be had preached to them in private houses for a year or two, was driven by the severity of the times into Holland, and became pastor of the Brownist congregation at Amsterdam. * According to Crosby this is a mistake, and there were three baptist churches in England before that of Mr. Jesse. One formed by the separation of many persons from Mr. Lathorp's, in 1633, before he left England. Another by a second separation from the same church in 1638, the members of which joined themselves to Mr. Spilsbury. And a third which originated in 1639, with Mr. Green, and Captain Spencer, whom Mr. Paul Hobson joined. Crosby's History of the English Baptists, vol. iii. p. 41. 42. Ed. Crosby says, that the church, of which Mr. Canue, Mr. Samuel Howe, and Mr. Stephen More, were successively pastors, was constituted and planted by Mr. Hubbard. And it is not certain, whether Mr. Canne was a baptist, or not. He was the author of three sets of notes on the bible, which accompanied three different editions of it. One printed by him at Amsterdam, 1647; which refers to a former one, and professes to add " many hebraisms, diversitie of readings, with con'sonancie of parallel seriptures, taken out of the last annotations, all 'set in due order and place." Another is commonly known, and bas been often reprinted. There was also an impression of it at Amsterdam, 1664. A new edition of the bible of 1664, is a desideratum. Two treatises of Henry Ainsworth, Pref. p. 35, note; and Crosby, vol. iii. p. 40. Ed. After Mr. Canne, Mr. Samuel Howe undertook the pas toral care of this little flock; he was a man of learning, and printed a small treatise, called, The sufficiency of the Spirit's Teaching.* But not being enough upon his guard in conversation, he laid himself open to the informers, by whose means he was cited into the Spiritual Courts, and excommunicated; hereupon he absconded, till being at last taken, he was shut up in close prison, where he died. His friends would have buried him in Shoreditch church-yard, but, being excommunicated, the officers of the parish would not admit it, so they buried him in a piece of ground at Anniseed Clear, where many of his congregation were buried after him.† Upon Mr. Howe's death the little church was forced to take up with a layman, Mr. Stephen More, a citizen of London, of good natural parts, and of considerable substance in the world; he had been their deacon for some years, and in the present exigency accepted of the pastoral office, to the apparent hazard of his estate and liberty. However, the face of affairs beginning now to change, this poor congregation, which had subsisted almost by a miracle for above twenty-four years, shifting from place to place, to avoid the notice of the public, ventured to open their doors in DeadMan's place, in Southwark, Jan. 18, 1640-1. Mr. Fuller calls them a congregation of Anabaptists, who were met together to the number of eighty; but by their journal or church book, an abstract of which is now before me, it appears to be Mr. More's congregation of Independents, who, being assembled in Dead-Man's place on the Lord's day, *The treatise here mentioned, we are informed, displayed strength of genius, but was written by a COBLER; as appears by the following recommendatory lines prefixed to it: "What How? how now hath How such learning found, Veil to a Cobler, if they knew but How." This treatise was founded on 2 Pet. iii. 16, and designed to shew not the insufficiency only of human learning to the purposes of religion, but that it was dangerous and hurtful. So that Mr. Neal was mistaken in speaking of its author as a man of learning. Crosby, vol. iii. p. 39, note. Ed. +Crosby's History of English Baptists, vol. i. p. 165. VOL. II. 51 |