ought to choose their bishop; and, that every elder, though he be no doctor, nor pastor, is a bishop: That all the Precise [Puritans], which refuse the ceremonies of the church, and yet preach in the same church, strain at a gnat and swallow a camel, and are close hypocrites, and walk in a left-handed policy, as Master Cartwright, Wigginton, &c.: That all which make catechisms, or teach and expound printed and written catechisms, are idle shepherds, as Calvin, Ursin, Nowell, &c.: That the child of ungodly parents ought not to be baptized, as of usurers, drunkards, &c.: That set prayer is blasphemous. The foresaid broachers of these opinions, at this their first convention, made show of their conformity upon conference with some divines, and in hope thereof, were enlarged upon bonds, but all in vain ; for, after their liberty, they burst forth into further extremities; and were again committed to the Fleet, July 20, 1588, where they published their scandalous and seditious writings; for which they were proceeded withal at Justice Hall, near Newgate in London, March 21, 1592 [-3]."*

This may be considered to contain the substance of the indictment against the parties, brought by the advocates of the law-established church, upheld by that mystery of iniquity, the court of High Commission, which has received its merited doom, for its antichristian, unconstitutional, and arbitrary procedures; all to support the "lefthanded policy" of blending things which differ, the Church with the State; and, in turn, distinguishing, jesuitically, the one from the other.b The gravamen of the offence given by Barrowe and his fellow-sufferers, is in their having acted in unflinching opposition to this usurpation of ecclesiastical over civil concernments.c The price

Life of Whitgift, 1612, 4to. sect. 66, 67.

b The Court of High Commission was resisted so early as 1591 by Robert Cawdrey, a puritan minister, who appealed from it to the Court of Exchequer (5 Coke's Reports). This "brave stand for the rights of the, subject" induced Whitgift to send his prisoners for the future to the Star-chamber Court. The opposition he met with from the courtiers is strongly stated by Heylyn (lib. viii. sect. 21). Indeed, from what Bp. Barlow makes him say, at the Hampton Court Conference, Jan. 18, 1603-4, he was " forced, as ofttimes now it fell out, to sit alone; because," adds the archbishop, "albeit all the lords of the Privy Council were in, all the bishops, many of the judges-at-law, and some of the clerks of the Council, yet very few, or none of them, sitting with him at ordinary times, some of meaner place, as deans, and doctors of divinity and law, must needs be put in, whose attendance he might with some authority command and expect." The Phenix, 1707, vol. i. p. 172. A little while afterward, a noble lord present challenged Whitgift to his face with the illegality of his proceedings in the High Commission, when he had the hardihood to say before the king, that "his lordship was deceived, for if any article did touch the party any way, either for life, liberty, or scandal, he might refuse to answer, neither was he urged thereunto." Ibid. p. 173. Hume has denounced the former, a "real Inquisition; attended with similar iniquities and cruelties" (ELIZ. ch. xli.); and Dr. Lingard, a Roman Catholic, says "the chief difference consisted in their names. One was the Court of Inquisition, the other of High Commission," (Hist. of Eng. vol. v. ch. vi.) The Star Chamber Court met its fate simultaneously with the other, both being abolished in 1641, and, marvellous as it may appear, receiving the coup de grace from the hand of Lord Clarendon, in his History Ed. 1702, vol. i. p. 53, 54.

Hist. of the College of Corpus Christi, &c., commonly called Bene't, in the Univ. of Cambridge. By R. Masters, B. D., 1753, 4to. p. 229.

of their blood, however, purchased in part, the seemingly retributive justice which fell afterward on martyrs in the less righteous cause.a We seek not to palliate what we can nevertheless lament over, any indecorous reproaches which provoke wrath, especially if they have been directed against " Authority ;"b but, setting aside the claims of the office of Archbishop, which is conceded, by learned Catholics and Protestants, not to be even analogous to any found in the christian code; and, considering the then inconceivable excitement of the times, and the unappalled spirit which oppression had itself excited, not leaving us any thing to sympathize with; we iterate the abstract proposition conveyed in Barrowe's' reply to Whitgift's creature,d the Lord Chancellor Hatton, on pointing to the proud prelate, and asking, "What is that man?" "He is a monster! a miserable compound; I know not what to make of him. He is neither ecclesiastical nor civil; even that second beast spoken of in the Revelation [ch. xiii]." The mitiga

e

See Rapin's Hist. Eliz. an. 1593. vol. ii. p. 141. ed. 1733. b"Great caution must be used that we neither be emboldened to follow them in evil, whom for authority's sake we honour, nor induced in authority to dishonour them, whom as examples we may not follow." Hooker, Eccles. Polity, bk. vii. sect. 18. vol. iii. p. 197. ed. 1830.

"Let Cæsar's due be ever paid

To Cæsar and his throne;

But consciences and souls were made

To be the LORD'S alone."

Dr. Watts. Hymns, bk. ii. exlix. 5.

"I have shown you that the title of Archbishop was not so much as known in the first ages; so that they spoke of the bishop of Rome, or Alexandria, just as they did of any other bishop of a lesser city; and in their letters they treated one another like brethren, with a perfect equality, as may be seen by the inscriptions to St. Cyprian's Letters. As soon as charity grew cold, titles and ceremonies began to increase. The bishop of Alexandria is thought to be the first that took upon him the title of archbishop; the bishop of Antioch took that of patriarch; and the name of primate was peculiar to Africa." Abbé Fleury, sup. Disc. iv. p. 223. "I conceive the metropolitical governance was introduced by human prudence. There are indeed some who think it was instituted by the apostles; but their arguments do not seem convincing; and such a constitution doth not, as I take it, well suit with the state of their times, and the course they took in founding churches." Dr. I. Barrow, sup. p. 244. These statements are honest. What can we think of that of the opponent of such divines as Cartwright and Wigginton, who asserts, in allusion to Ephes. iv. 11, that "The name of a 'Pastor' doth comprehend both archbishops and bishops;" and further says, that "although this name, archbishop, is not expressed in the Scripture, yet is the office and function, as it is evidently to be seen in the examples of Timothy and Titus !" Whitgift, Def. p. 309, 313, and reasserted p. 372, 375. His successor, Bancroft, (Dangerous Positions, 1592. bk. ii. ch. viii.) was indignant at one of the satirists of that day, Martin, jun., asserting that "the laws that maintain the archbishops and bishops, are no more to be accounted of than the laws maintaining the stews," which those reverends licensed !

Paule, sect. 59.-" He was a mere vegetable of the Court, that sprung up at night, and sunk again at his noon. Sir Rob. Naunton, p. 205.

e "A brief of the Examination of me, Henry Barrowe, the 19 Nov. 1586, Defore the Arch B., Arch D., and Dr. Cussins [Cosin]: as neere as my memorie could carry being at Lambeth." 4to. Exam. 4th, Mar.,18, 1586-7. Reprinted in 1662, 4to.; and in the Harleian Miscellany, orig. ed. 4to. vol. iv. p. 326.- Our times have witnessed the following production: "The Church of England Identified, on the Authority of her own Historians, with the Second Beast, as described in Revelations, Chap. xiii. 11-18. By R. B. Sanderson, Esq., late

tions of official character which time has wrought may induce us to respect the individual sustaining it; yet, on a return of similar atrocities to those of Whitgift, "lordly prelacy" being the very root of all bitterness, we should not trust ourselves that we could refrain from Barrowe's plainness of speech, "treating the archbishop and doctors with some freedom.","

When required, at Lambeth palace, to swear to interrogatories, he persisted in refusing, on the double ground of the solemnity of oaths and the unconstitutional nature of the oath, Ex officio mero; but on Whitgift drawing forth the substance of the allegations which we have copied from Paule, Barrowe replied, " Much of the matter in this Bill is true; but the form is false." Four months after, certain other articles of inquiry were put to him, when he gave these answers: "The Lord's prayer is, in my opinion, rather a summary than an enjoined form; and, not finding it used by the apostles, I think it may not be constantly used.—In the word of God, I find no authority given to any man to impose liturgies, or forms of prayer, upon the church; and it is, therefore, high presumption to impose them.-In my opinion the Common Prayer is idolatrous, superstitious, and popish.-As the sacraments of the Church of England are publicly administered, they are not true sacraments.-As the decrees and canons of the church are so numerous, I cannot judge of all; but many of the laws of the Church of England, and the ecclesiastical courts and governors, are unlawful and antichristian.-Such as have been baptized in the Church of England are not baptized according to the institution of Christ; yet they may not need it again.-As it is now formed, the Church of England is not the true Church of Christ; yet there are many excellent Christians in it.-The Queen is supreme governor of the whole land, and over the church bodies and goods; but may not make any other laws for the Church of Christ than he hath left in his Word. I cannot see it lawful for any prince to alter the least part of the judicial law of Moses, without doing injury to the moral law, and opposing the will of God.-No private persons may reform the State, [the question related to the church,] if any prince neglect it, but they ought to abstain from all unlawful things commanded by the prince.

Fellow of Oriel College, and formerly Secretary of Presentations to the Lord Chancellor." 1836. 8vo. pp. 42.

a Masters, p. 227.-Whitgift's "greatest fault," according to Sir G. Paule, was choler." Life, sect. 118. See his character unfolded in the Life of T. Cartwright, B. D., inserted in vol. i. of Hanbury's ed. of Hooker's Eccles. Polity, 1830. Wigginton says, in Brook's Puritans, vol. i. p. 420, “The Archbishop hath treated me more like a Turk, or a dog, than a man, or a minister of Jesus Christ." Another Puritan of that day, says, as quoted by Bancroft (Dang. Posit. sup. ch. xii.) “ Of all the bishops that ever were in the see of the archbishop of Canterbury, there was never any did so much hurt to the Church of God as he hath done. No bishop that ever had such an aspiring and ambitious mind as he; no, not Cardinal Wolsey. None so proud as he; no, not Stephen Gardiner of Winchester. None so tyrannical as he; no, not Bonner... He sits upon his cogging stool, which may truly be called the chair of pestilence. His mouth is full of cursing against God and his saints. His feet are swift to shed blood: there is none of God's children, but had as lieve see a serpent as meet him." Dialogues iii. iv. [attributed to Throgmorton].

The government of the Church of Christ belongeth not to the ungodly, but every particular church ought to have an eldership." [Presbytery is the word in the question.]a

Who shall successfully impugn the general correctness of these opinions? Surely no one who enjoys the religious and civil freedom and the protection which the altered condition of circumstances has secured to us, will have so much hardihood as even to attempt such a design. The principles involved in Barrowe's opinions are evidently fatal to the very existence of the hierarchy, "which say they are apostles, and are not ;" and although the struggle has been maintained for ages, those principles are producing, by discussion alone, that final mighty result which shall remove every stumbling-block, though, from the blackness of the iniquity, every trace may not be obliterated of what the "man of sin" has any way superinduced into Christ's own Church! For this, "other men laboured, and we are entered into their labours." It behoves us, therefore, to promote, by all rational and scriptural means, with honesty and simplicity, “in the sight of all men," the same righteous cause; leaving it to Him whom we would serve, to “restrain the wrath of man,' "d which was permitted to fall on Barrowe, that he might seal his testimony, like “ righteous Abel," with his blood!

Notwithstanding his peculiar privations and sufferings, Barrowe contrived to compose his remarkable work intitled "A brief Discovery of the False Church; Ezek. xvi. 44. As the Mother, such the Daughter is:" printed in 1590.e

He disclaims, in the Preface, any "further credit" for his performance," than the Word of God giveth warrant; neither yet," he says, "would I be reproved for speaking the truth of God plainly and simply; although the same truth have long lain hid and buried, and be now, peradventure, generally impugned of all men." He represents "the iniquity of the times," such as that, through the rage of the enemy, he could not "keep one sheet by him, while he was writing another."

A little after, he writes, "But now remaineth the very Argument and subject of this Book, which of all other will be most disliked, and held most odious and heinous of all sorts of men; who will never endure to hear the magnificence of the False Church, wherein they have so long been nourished in so great delight,-reproved and cast down. So thoroughly are they intoxicate with the wine of her abominations, and all their senses bound in the fetters of her fornications, that they have no eyes to see, ears to hear, or hearts to believe the Truth. But especially the ship-masters, the mariners, merchantmen, and all the people that reign, row, and are carried in this False Church, they will never endure to see fire cast into her; they will never endure to suffer loss of their dainty and precious merchandise; but, rather, will raise up no small tumults and stirs against the servants

a Exam. Barrowe, sup. b Rev. ii. 2. c John iv. 38. d Psal. lxxvi. 10. In 4to. pp. 263. Subscribed, p. ult., "By the Lord's most unworthy servant and witness, in bonds, Henry Barrowe." It was reprinted, in 1707, 8vo. but with most unwarrantable liberties by the editor, who destroyed all the raciness of the original.

of God, seeking their blood by all subtle and violent means, as we read in the Scriptures their predecessors have always done; accusing them of treason, troubling the state, schism, heresy, and what not. But unto all the power, learning, deceit, rage, of the False Church, we oppose that little Book of God's Word, which, as the light, shall reveal her, as the fire consume her, as a heavy milstone shall press her and all her children, lovers, partakers, and abettors, down to hell; which Book we willingly receive as the judge of all our controversies, knowing that all men shall one day, and that ere long, be judged by the same. By this Book, whoso is found in error or transgression, let them have sentence accordingly."

This passage merits particular notice, where he says, "Neither need we unto this business, to go fetch our light out of men's writings, as sundry of the chief builders of this corrupt age do, or curiously to inquire or dispute about I wot not what marks of the true Church; which, while some endeavoured to set down, endless controversies, and vain strife about words, have arisen amongst them, without end, or edifying. Therefore, let us, for the appeasing and assurance of our consciences, give heed to the Word of God, and by that golden reed measure our temple, our altar, and our worshippers; even by these rules whereby the apostles, those excellent, perfect workmen, planted and built the first churches: comparing the synagogues of this Land unto them, in the people, the ministry, administration, order, government, &c. This way cannot deceive us; for neither can the simplest err therein, neither any polluted, how subtle and cunning soever, pass by it unespied, unreproved. For as there is but one Truth, so whatever is divers,―more or less, than that Truth,-is faulty and to be repented."a

Concerning the true limits of the Civil Magistrates' authority in ecclesiastical affairs, and striking at the very roots of their unscriptural assumptions, Barrowe writes, "Touching this doctrine, That a Christian Prince, which publisheth and maintaineth the Gospel, doth forthwith make all that Realm, which with open force resisteth not his proceedings, to be held a Church to whom a holy ministry and sacraments belong; without further and more particular and personal trial, examination, confession, &c.:' This doctrine, we find, by the Word of God, to be most false, corrupt, unclean, dangerous, and pernicious doctrine; contrary to the whole course, practice, and laws, both of the Old and New Testament; breaking at once all Christian order, corrupting and poisoning all Christian communion and fellowship, and sacrilegiously profaning the holy things of God. First, We know that no Prince, or mortal man, can make any a member of the Church. They may, by their godly government, greatly help and further the Church, greatly comfort the Faithful, and advance the Gospel, &c. But to choose or refuse, to call or harden,-that, the Eternal and Almighty Ruler of heaven and earth keepeth in his own hands, and giveth not this power unto any other. This also, we know, That whom the Lord hath before all worlds chosen, them He

a P. 7.