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have been rather a favourite with Faller and he seems pleased to impute to him " a reverend esteem for Mr. Hooker," for the sake of calling him "a charitable adver'sary;" to confirm which, he relates, that on occasion of a foul aspersion being cast on the character of Hooker, Travers replied to the question of a friend, as to its validity, (Fuller, ibid.) "In truth, I take Mr. Hooker to be a holy man."

But we cannot close our numerous extracts without adding a few from another and more advanced school of Puritanism, the Brownists. These men contended for a still higher purity than all that went before them, and would communicate with none but such as were boly, like themselves. One of the articles alleged against Messrs. Greenwood and Barrow, two noted leaders of the sect, who suffered death (we blush as we write it) for their writings and opinions, though very mischievous, was the main tenance of the following:

"That all the precise (meaning those Puritans who were not Brownists), who refuse the ceremonies of the church, strain at a gnat and swallow a camel, and are hypocrites!" Again; "that all who make or expound any printed or written catechisms, are idle shepherds; that the children of ungodly parents ought not to be baptized; that to use set forms of prayer is blasphemous, &c." p. 24.

Their opinion of bishops may, perhaps, be decently collected from the following answers of Barrow :

"Chancellor. Do you know these two men? pointing at the Bishop and Archbishop.

"Barrow. Yes, my lord: I have cause to know them.

"Chancellor. Is not this the bishop of London?

"Barrow. I know him for no bishop, my lord.

"Chancellor. What is he then?

"Barrow. His name is Aylmer, my ford. The Lord pardon my fault, that I did not lay him open as a wolf, a bloody persecutor, and an apostate.

"Chancellor, What is that man, pointing to the Archbishop.

"Barrow. He is a monster; a miserable compound: I know not what to make of him. He is neither ecclesias tical nor civil, but that second beast spoken of in Revelation.

"Judge. Where is the place? Shewit. "When Mr. Barrow turned to Rer. xiii. the Archbishop arose; and in anger gnashing his teeth, he said, Will you suf fer him, my lords?" pp. 33, 34.

the ludicrous in such an extract How much is the strong effect of taken off, by the sense of the lamentable dishonour which it reflects on the very name and spirit of our common Christianity. To what purmake in fairness such exposures? pose are books written which must Are they intended to serve as illus trations of the free-born spirit of these "distinguished champions of religious liberty," so deserving of imitation, and "of whom the world was not worthy?" Surely Mr. Brook does not intend them to act as any palliation of the anger and indig nation of the right reverend judges. And yet have they not that effect?

In these examinations of Barrow and Greenwood, we find sufficient proof of their dangerous opinious of state government, as " that it is not possible for any one to alter the least part of the judicial law of Moses, without injury to the moral:" "that princes may be excommunicated;" "that no laws may be made by princes for the government of the church, but such as are plainly set down in Scripture:" so that, in fact, the And yet to punish the mere delivery state must be without a religion. of such opinions with death!!!

“Mr. Phillips, a most worthy and famous preacher, having conferred with Mr. Barrow, and beheld his holy prepara. tion for death, said, Barrow, Barrow, my soul be with thine. And we learn from the famous Hugh Broughton,“ that though Barrow and Greenwood were condemned for disturbance of the state, this would have been pardoned, and their lives spared, if they would have promised to come to church.” And

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thus," adds the sagacious. Mr. Brook, “they suffered for non-conformity !”

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We cannot forbear relating one incident about these unhappy and misled men, not related by Mr. Brook, but which we find in Collier :-Before their execution, Drs. Andrewes, Parry, Bisse, and White were sent to Barrow, to exhort him to recantation. He told them, they were not the men he most disliked in the present differences. For though, says he, you are mistaken, yet you think yourselves in the right, and walk up to that light which God has given you. But I cannot but complain of Mr. Cartwright and his brethren, by whose books we have been taught your calling is anti-Christian." Upon this they replied, "that calling had been approved by Cranmer, Ridley, &c." Barrow replied "Most true it is, that they and others were martyrs in Queen Mary's times: but these holy bands of mine,” says he, shaking his fetters, are much more glorious than of theirs; because they had the mark of Antichrist in their hands."

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(Collier, vol. ii. p. 638.) It is a question whether Presbyterian Cartwright, or Brownist Barrow, shew here to the best advantage.

The prelates, it seems, soon grew ashamed of hanging these Brownists for propagating their religious opinions. They therefore contrived a law for banishing them all out of the kingdom. But liberty, the idol of these sectaries, soon plays them a dog trick; and when fairly settled abroad, far from the reach of gibbets and pro

• This champion for religious liberty Bad a happy art of escaping just in proper time from dangerous positions. Coppingher and Hacket, two unhappy enthusiasts, who also suffered death, received a message from Cartwright, Travers, Egerton, and Clarke, when Coppingher desired a conference with them, that they would leave him to himself, or rather to Satan; and that they thought him unworthy to be con ferred withal,”

scriptions, Messrs. G. and F. Johnson, the leaders of the Brownists, are found in hot dispute about the marriage of the former to a rich and luxurious wife, which divides the whole church. Nor do many years pass, when behold another unhappy controversy between Messrs. Johnson and Ainsworth, a second Brownist, "about matters of discipline!" Mr. J. held for

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eldership alone;" Mr. A. for "the whole church, of which the elders are a part." The matter was not to be adjusted: Pope Johnson excommunicates Pope Ainsworth, who returns the compliment. And this small remnant of the Christian church was at length divided into two main branches-the Johnsonian Brownists, and the Ainsworthian Brownists! Controversies, however, still thicken; and in the heat of col lision, a full catalogue of the "Anti-Christian abominations yet retained in England," is evolved; which we would willingly give as the fullest we know any where. It will be found pp. 104, 105, vol. ii Still, however, divisions proceed amongst these reformers, as if to shew the infinite divisibility of party, as well as matter; till at length, happily, a perfect unity is effected, and the only unity of which such a church is capable, which we shall give in Mr. Brook's

own words:

"Mr. Smyth differed also from his brethren on the subject of Baptism. The Brownists who denied the Church of England to be a true church, maintained, that her ministers acted without a Divine commission; and consequently, that every ordinance administered by them was null and void. They were for some time, however, guilty of this inconsistency, that while they re-ordained their pastors and teachers, they did not repeat their baptism. This defect was easily discovered by Mr. Smyth.... But Mr. Smyth's certainly ap peared in this, that refusing to apply to the German Baptists, and wanting a proper administrator according to his views of the ordinance, he baptized him

p. 197.

self; on which account he was stigma- racteristic of the times we are tized by the name of a Se-Baptist!!" treating of, and most particularly* of the puritan body. This great revulsion of feeling, which we may date from the moment when the art of printing rouzed Europe from a state of moral and theological stupor, was, beyond all question, under God, the human means of the blessed Reformation. England very early participated, or, we. may say, led the way, in this moral resurrection; and scarcely, perhaps, could all the art of man or power of darkness combined, have arrested the progress of "Luther's light," which "sprang from Henry's lawless bed."

Having now, we think, fairly deduced the wide-spreading puritanical separation, in its ultimate tendencies, down to the single point of actual individuality, we think we may be fairly excused by our readers, if we consider this a proper place for treating it as evanescent, and breaking off our extracts, had we even any space to pursue them which we have not, from these Memoirs. Indeed, to return to England, and trace the party-coloured line down through the sullen, muttering reigns of James and Charles, to the actual catastrophes so much to have been expected on both sides, would be but to repeat much in spirit and temper of what has been already set down. Only we must say, that while many excellent characters and views of religion might be drawn out of Mr. Brook's subsequent pages, there seems a still larger preponderance of enthusiasm and extravagance than before: From the rough scholar, Hugh Broughton, to the villain Hugh Peters, through a long train, sometimes, of very pious and well-meaning men, sometimes of enthusiasts, and too often, we fear, of libellists, demagogues and rebels; we still trace amongst the Puritans the same wrongness of idea, on one point, and that wretched pertinacity of opinion so common to error of all sorts, with the same, or rather increasing, violence and ill-judging severity amongst their powerful opponents, which sets all hope of reconciliation at defiance. The heart sickens at the prospect; and we hasten to make a few general observations on the puritanical character which occur to us, as a proper conclusion to this too-longprotracted article.

It is not to be questioned, but a prodigious degree of personal ac tivity, zeal, and fervour, both of mind and body, was the great cha

For a long and. eventful course of years the impulse, once given, continued and propagated its mighty operation: and the gigantic acquisitions in every branch of learning, the progress of the human intellect, the convulsive changes, both political and religious, at home and abroad, within that period, all testify to In this. the extent of its range. impulse the Puritans largely partook; and their great mental and bodily exertions, their contempt of ease, their unextinguishable thirst for new discoveries, their unwearied zeal in propagating them abroad, in conversation, in print, but, more than all, in the pulpit, knew no bounds. For this, with every smatterer in their history, it is impossible for us not to give them their full credit. But as every great mutation draws with it corresponding inconvenience, and none more so than that which destroys the "vis inertia" of nature, which Dr. Paley quaintly observes "is necessary to keep things in their place;" so this grand revolution of mind and purpose drew with it a sad train of concomitant evils. The temporary fever seized on all the powers of the mind at once: it inflamed the bad as well as the good passions: it seized and distorted (may we say it? for "we bear this treasure in earthen vessels,"") the very gifts themselves of Divine grace. Hence

arose, in the first place, that violence and impetuosity of character, which belonged alike to all parties in this singular age. The bishops persecuting, the Puritans persecuted (if it be speaking correctly to use the word at all), were in this particular much alike. We know not which of the two will lay claim to the most or the least of this quality to us it appears the only extenuation to be pleaded for the wretched and unchristian conduct of either. Both were thoroughly convinced they were right: neither could brook the smallest opposition. And, perhaps, there is not a greater instance of pertinacity to be met with in the history of the world, than that a petty question, (such was its nature at first,) about a cap and a surplice, could not be adjusted in a wise and enlightened nation, and should give rise to a schism which has lasted to this day.

The question, however, was speedily widened; and a morbid sensibility of conscience soon acted as a second, and incurable evil, more particularly on the minds of the Puritans. The world, from having been, for generations preceding, swallowing camels, suddenly became unable to digest a guat. Every thing was suspected. The proper information of conscience, a due deliberation, a patient abiding of events, a submission to the judgment of others, a careful weighing of the opposite demands of conscience, and, above all, a fear of mistaking sudden impulses of unaccountable feeling for the sober suggestions of that commanding faculty, found no place in their system. And as extremes generally meet, the largest sacrifices of conscience ere long became necessary to maintain its own fancied sovereignty: and perhaps to this day, the sects which pretend to follow most implicitly and conscientiously the direction of immediate impulses, do not afford the happiest illustraCHRIST. OBSERV. No. 163.

tions of the artlessness and simplicity of the Christian character.

This disease was helped forward by another, of the widest possible range and deepest mischief-an ungoverned exercise of the intellectual powers on theological subjects. Every thing in theology, and in morals, became the subject of deep and perplexed speculation. Hence one refinement and hypothesis followed after another. System, that creature of the brainthe most dangerous charmer, and often most deceptive guide to poor, frail man-became the object of a new idolatry. And, like all other idols, it required very large offerings.-Unity in religious worship and opinion was sacrificed at its shrine. The simplicity and plainness of Scripture-statements were often wholly given up for the most mystical and fantastical doctrines. Questionable principles were fearlessly pushed forward to the most remote and infatuated conclusions. Applications of Scripture, the wildest and most unfounded, were set up, and treated as oracles. The hidden operations of the human mind were scrutinized with metaphysical exactness: and the transient glances or the vehement flashes of a disordered imagination were alike measured and scanned, and reduced as if into a system of solid religious experiences. In short, the understandings and imaginations of men, and often, we fear, without their hearts, were engrossed in the discovery of religious novelties. Instead of religion being but the ruling principle of their ordinary life and manners, itself became their whole and sole business; and their talk and their walk was to prove or to enforce their system and their discipline. They aspired after all knowledge, all mysteries, and all faith. They spake with the tongue of men and of angels. They ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. But in too many cases there was want3 P

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ing that which is "the greatest" of all; and without which they were as sounding brass and tinkling cymbals."

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Charity, we fear, was not the characteristic of those times. The ornament of a meek and quiet spirit was too much laid aside; and in its room appeared that which we mention as the fourth general evil, viz. an ambitious, conceited, and self-opinionated temper of mind. No unprejudiced person, we are persuaded, can read the ecclesiastical history of those times without discerning such a temper at work in almost every transaction it relates. The ruling prelates were by no means exempt from it. Their views of doctrine and discipline, and their determination to enforce them, may have been as unbending as those of the Puritans. But they had law and right-the right of possession, at least, it will be allowed-on their side. The Puritans, on the other hand, had their establishment to seek; and they were determined to move heaven and earth to obtain it. They wrote they preached they prayed they went from house to house, and were conversant with all ranks, from the highest to the lowest. As it was necessary, they supplicated, admonished, inveighed, and, finally, rebelled; and all to carry their own plans, and to impose upon others their own views. In the prosecution of their designs, they shewed themselves the most selfconfident of the human race."Such was Mr. Burton's courage, in his various citations before Laud, that he says, I was not at any time before him, but methought I stood over him as a schoolmaster over his scholars; so great was the goodness of God towards me.'" Vol. iii. p. 41. The consequence was, as might be expected, that the passions of a weak ungoverned man, like Laud, were inflamed to madness; but the cause

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was seated in the deep and unsub dued self-sufficiency of Burton. This was the general failing, we are bold to say, of his school, They had a lofty notion of themselves and their own attainments; and they thought themselves the more at liberty to indulge it, be cause, forsooth, they apprehended it to be the goodness of God towards them. In fact, they had an irregular conceit of superior light and inspiration: and whilst they were secretly beguiled with that common fondness every man has for his own opinion, they excused, or rather gloried in it, on the plea that their opinion was given them from above. They considered themselves as divinely designated and chosen for the greatest political as well as religious purposes. Their contempt for those who differed from them knew no bounds; and they propped each other up by mutual admiration and applause.

Such, we unfeignedly believe to have been the school of Puritans in Charles the First's time; and not very different that which immediately preceded, and perhaps unfortunately owed some of its doctrines to the unfortunate scruples of Hooper and Coverdale, We are not conscious of overcharging the picture. God forbid that we should desire to blacken it. Many of them were, with all their faults, we doubt not, good and holy men; and some among them, mistaken as we may deem them in certain points, were eminently distinguished by their piety. Their studies may, in many cases, be set up as instructive lights to posterity, and they had often deep and clear views of the things of God, On the other hand, there were many secondary causes which might be assigned for that most unhappy bias given to their minds on certain points.

1. Coming immediately after the darkness and abominations of Pope

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