pulpit, at the ordinations of diffenting ministers, to vindicate their claims, and to remove the obloquy caft upon their office. It was for that period not only a new, but the chief point of controverfy between the Church of England and the diffenters.

The partisans on each fide of this controversy, as well as in the dispute about church government, had the fame general point in view; namely, to affert and fupport the exclusive claims of one clafs of men, independently of the general body of christians, to peculiar authority and gifts as teachers of religion. The only question between them was, whether that authority supposed to be conveyed by impofition of hands were equally valid and divine when conveyed by the laying on of the hands of presbyters as of bishops. In each case the right of judging concerning the qualifications of candidates for the christian ministry, of electing to the office of preachers, and of investing them with it, is a purely clerical claim. "The people they are to preach to are not supposed "to know who are, or who are not, fit and proper "perfons; but they muft, as it has been expreffed, "take up with fuch fare as their reverend caterers "provide for them. Each party contended for "a fuperiority of character attached to minifters. "Each party had its ecclefiaftical hierarchy, or a • government by ministers; to whom the people "were expected to be in fubjection. In those

countries where prefbyterianifm is established by "law, this is one of its diftinguishing characteristics. "In the Church of Scotland, if the minifters are upon

66

a level with one another, the people are not upon a "level with their ministers, but in all ecclefiaftical "matters are governed by them. To be fure the "lowest ecclefiaftical jurisdiction is that of the kirk "feffion, where not the whole parish meet to concert matters, like a veftry in England, but a few indivi"duals; the minifter's own friends and whom he "appointed, as deacons; and moreover should these "men happen to differ in opinion from him, he "has only to appeal to the prefbytery, and then "he is upon his own ground, among the men in "black, and has all his own way.'

There was another fect which rose up in the times of which we are speaking, formed on more liberal principles:

§. 2. Of the Independents.

The feet to which we refer was that of the Independents; meaning to denominate by this term a religious party only, diftinguished from a political body, in the times of the civil wars, whose principles on civil government being democratical, while their religious tenets were widely different, were also called Independents.

The fundamental principle of the religious fect was this: "We are a voluntary fociety, and all upon "a level as brethren and fifters." They deemed a national establishment of religion of any fort to be inconfiftent with the New Teftament idea of a

• Proteftant Diffenters' Magazine, vol. vi. p. 295.

christian church. Their minifter was either one of their own body, appointed to this office by their own choice; or, if their own choice fixed on a member of another congregation, it was a condition of his being inftated in his office, that he should receive a difmiffal from the fociety with which he had been connected, and commence a member of the congregation which had invited him to be their minifter. Every member of the congregation, whether male or female, had a voice or vote in the choice of a minifter, in the admiffion or exclufion of members, and in all the concerns of the church. The minifter fat as prefident; but he was fupposed to have no more influence than any other member, nor was regarded as holding a higher rank, or being invested with any superior or exclufive power. He was even accountable for his proceedings to the people; who, as they had chofen him, claimed a right to divest him at their pleasure of his office. It was required of those who defired to be received into the church, except fuch as had a letter of honourable difmiffion from another congregation, to appear before the fociety, and give an account of themselves, viva voce, with the reafons why they requested to be permitted to join it; after which they were brought in, or admitted to the facrament, the bond of their union, or rejected by the vote of the church. This laft circumftance was a material mark of dif tinction from the prefbyterian difcipline; for in that, if a perfon would be admitted to the facrament, he muft apply to the minifter of the parish, and if ap

proved by him, his admiffion paffed of courfe, without any other perfon's being confulted. Another diftinguishing feature of the church difcipline of the Independents confifted in this point, that their minister was so far from being perfona ecclefiæ, as Blackftone denominates an incumbent, and invefted with facerdotal authority, that there was usually another perfon, not a minifter but a layman, whom they called a ruling elder. His office bore a refemblance to that of the cenfor among the Romans, or the ephori among the Lacedæmonians. He had the power to call the minifter or any other member to account in a fummary way, if the conduct of either appeared wrong; and if they did not fubmit to his reproof, to present them to the church for cenfure, degradation, or excommunication.

The churches of this denomination were properly called "congregational," in distinction from parochial;" because they confifted of members collected from any quarter of the vicinity, more near or remote, without any regard to nominal district; and because they looked on each church as in poffeffion of a diftinct and exclufive jurifdiction over its own members and affairs, out of the controul of any other man or body of men. Even when the prefbyterian government, under the authority of the civil power, prevailed in the land, this fect confidered themfelves as fubject to no extraneous jurifdiction of prefbyteries or fynods, or any other church. Their creed, their ceremonial, their difcipline, their finances, were fettled and regulated by themselves alone, within

their own walls, without looking to any others as directors or umpires. They indeed abhorred the idea of the smallest interference from any man or society; and were truly Independents.†

This fect arose under Mr. Robinson, pastor of an English church, amongst the adherents to Mr. Robert Brown, defcended from an honourable family in Rutlandshire, and a preacher in the diocefe of Norwich; from whence he fled to Holland from the perfecutions with which the Puritans were haraffed towards the end of the fixteenth century, and fettled at Middleburgh in Zealand. Mr. Robinson, a Norfolk divine, beneficed in the neighbourhood of Yarmouth, who became paftor of an English church at Leyden, was one of that company of exiles; and formed his congregation on the principles of independency, which he had at first imbibed from Mr. Brown. In 1604, among others who emigrated to avoid the rigorous proceedings of Bishop Bancroft, was Mr. Henry Jacob, precentor of Christchurch college; who meeting with Mr. Robinfon at Leyden, embraced his fentiments concerning church discipline and government. On his return to England, foon after 1610, he formed a defign, which he communicated to the most learned Puritans of those times, of forming a separate congregation on the principles of independency. In the 1616 was laid the foundation of the firft Independent or Congregational church in England, by Mr. Jacob and fome others who entered into his views. + Proteftant Diffenters' Magazine, vol. vi, p. 296, 7.

year