land. Besides, the English being yet in possession of the cautionary towns, many went over as chaplains to regiments, which, together with the merchants that resided in the trading cities, made a considerable body. The reverend and learned Dr. William Ames, one of the most acute controversial writers of his age, settled with the English church at the Hague; the learned Mr. Robert Parker, a Wiltshire divine, and author of the ecclesiastical policy, being distur bed by the high commission, retired to Amsterdam, and afterwards became chaplain to the English regiment at Does. burg, where he died. The learned Mr. Forbes, a Scots divine, settled with the English church at Rotterdam; as Mr. Pots, Mr. Paget, and others did at Amsterdam and other places. But the greatest number of those who left their native country for religion were Brownists,* or rigid separatists, of whom Mr.Johnson, Ainsworth, Smith, and Robinson, were the leaders. Mr. Johnson erected a church at Amsterdam, *These conscientious exiles, driven from their own country by persecution, instead of meeting with an hospitable reception or even a quiet refuge in Holland, were there loaded with reproaches, despised and "afflicted by all, and almost consumed with deep poverty." The learned Ainsworth, we are told, lived upon nine-pence a week and some boiled roots, and was reduced to the necessity of hiring himself as a porter to a bookseller, who first of all discovered his skill in the Hebrew language, and made it known to his countrymen. The Dutch themselves, just emerged from civil and religious oppression, looked with a jealous eye on these suffering refugees. And though the civil power, commonly in every state more friendly than the ecclesiastic to toleration, does not appear to have oppressed them, the clergy would not afford them an opportunity to refute the unfavourable reports generally circulated against them, on the authority of letters from England; nor receive their confession of faith; nor give them an audience on some points, on which they desired to lay their sentiments before them. But with a man at their head, of no less eminence than James Arminius, judged that they ought to petition the magistrate for leave to hold their assemblies for the worship of God, and informed against them in such a way as might have rendered them the objects of suspicion. "They seemed 'evidently," it has been remarked, "to have considered them in the same light, in which serious and conscientious dissenters from the religious 'profession of the majority will ever be viewed, as a set of discontent'ed, factious and conceited men, with whom it would be safest for them to have no connexion." Ainsworth's Two Treatises on The communion of Saints,' and ' An Arrow against Idolatry,' printed at Edinburgh, 1789, preface p. 15. 16, 17. ED. after the model of the Brownists, having the learned Mr. Ainsworth for doctor or teacher. These two published to the world a confession of faith of the people called Brownists, in the year 1602, not much different in doctrine from the harmony of confessions; but being men of warm spirits, they fell to pieces about points of discipline ;* Johnson excommunicated his own father and brother for trifling mat * A late writer, who appears to have accurately investigated the history of the Brownists, represents Mr. Neal as incorrect in his account of the debates, which arose among them. The principal leaders of this party,were the two brothers Francis and George Johnson,Mr.Ainsworth, and Mr. John Smith, who had been a clergyman in England. Three principal subjects of controversy occasioned dissentions in the Brownist churches. The first ground of dissention was the marriage of Francis Johnson, with a widow of a taste for living and dress; particularly unsuitable to times of persecution; his father and his brother opposed this connexion. This occasioned such a difference, that the latter proceeded from admonitions and reproofs, to bitter revilings and reproaches: and Francis Johnson, his colleague Ainsworth, and the church,at length, passed a sentence of excommunication against the father and brother. Mr. Neal, it seems, confounds this unhappy controversy with another that succeeded to it, but distinct from it, between Francis Johnson and Ainsworth. It turned upon a question of discipline. The former placing the government of the church in the eldership alone, the latter in the church, of which the elders are a part. This dispute was carried to an unchristian height, but, according to Mr. John Cotton of NewEngland, who was the contemporary of Johnson and Ainsworth, and had lived amidst the partisans of each side, they did not, as Mr. Neal represents the matter, mutually excommunicate each other; but Ainsworth and his company withdrew and worshipped by themselves, after Johnson and those with him had denied them communion. In the interim of these debates, a schism had taken place in the church, headed by Mr. John Smith, who advanced and maintained opinions similar to those afterwards espoused by Arminius; and besides his sentiments concerning baptism, to which Mr. Neal refers in the next paragraph several singu lar opinions were ascribed to him: as, that no translation of the Bible could be properly the word of God, but the original only was so : that singing set words or verses to God was without any proper authority: that flight in time of persecution was unlawful: that the new creature needed not the support of scriptures and ordinances,but is above them: that perfection is attainable in this life, &c. There arose against him a whole host of opponents; Johnson, Robinson Clifton, Ainsworth, and Jessop. His character as well as his sentiments were attacked with a virulence of spirit and an abusive language, that discredit the charges and expose the spirit of the writers. See some account of Mr. Ainsworth, prefixed to a new edition of his two treatises, p. 27-42; and Crosby's History of English Baptists, vol. i. p. 3, &c. and p. 265, &e. Ed. ters, after having rejected the mediation of the presbytery of Amsterdam. This divided the congregation, insomuch that Mr. Ainsworth and half the congregation excommunicated Johnson, who after sometime returned the same compliment to Ainsworth. At length the contest grew so hot, that Amsterdam could not hold them; Johnson and his followers removed to Embden, where soon after dying, his congregation dissolved. Nor did Mr. Ainsworth and his followers live long in peace, upon which he left them and retired to Ireland, where he continued sometime; but when the spirits of his people were quieted, he returned to Amsterdam, and continued with them to the day of his death. This Mr. Ainsworth was author of an excellent little treatise, entitled, an Arrow against Idolatry, and of a most learned commentary on the five books of Moses, by which he appears to have been a great master of the oriental languages and of Jewish antiquities. His death was sudden, and not without suspicion of violence; for it is reported, that having found a diamond of very great value in the streets of Amsterdam, he advertised it in print, and when the owner, who was a Jew, came to demand it, he offered him any acknowledgment he would desire; but Ainsworth, though poor, would accept of nothing but a conference with some of his Rabbies upon the prophecies of the Old-Testament relating to the Messiah, which the other promised; but not having interest enough to obtain it, and Ainsworth being resolute, it is thought he was poisoned.* His congregation remained without a pastor for some years after his death, and then chose Mr. Canne, author of the marginal references to the bible, and sundry other treatises. Mr. Smith was a learned man, and of good abilities, but of an unsettled head, as appears by the preface to one of his books, in which he desires that his last writings may always be taken for his present judgment. He was for refining upon the Brownist scheme, and at last declared for the principles of the baptists; upon this he left Amsterdam, * Others say, that he obtained this conference, and so confounded the Jews, that from pique and malice they in this manner put an end to his life. He died in 1622, or 1623, leaving an exemplary character for humility, sobriety, discretion, and unblameable virtue. See an account prefixed to his two Treatises, p. 60, 62. Ed. and settled with his disciples at Ley; where, being at a loss for a proper administrator of the ordinance of baptism, be plunged himself, and then performed the ceremony upon others, which gained him the name of a se-baptist.* He afterwards embraced the tenets of Arminius, and published certain conclusions upon those points in the year 1611, which Mr. Robinson answered; but Smith died soon after, and his congregation dissolved. Mr.John Robinson was a Norfolk divine, beneficed about Yarmouth, where being often molested by the bishop's officers, and his friends almost ruined in the ecclesiastical courts, he removed to Leyden, and erected a congregation upon the model of the Brownists. He set out upon the most rigid principles, but by conversing with Dr. Ames, and other learned men, he became more moderate; and though he always maintained the lawfulness and necessity of separating from those reformed churches among which he lived, yet he did not deny them to be true churches, and ad This is said on the authority of his opponents only, who, from the acrimony with which they wrote against him, it may be reasonably concluded, might be ready to take up a report against him upon slender evidence. His defences of himself and his opinions have not been, for many years, to be met with: but the large quotations from them in the writings of his opponents afforded not the least intimation either in the way of concession or justification, of his having done such a thing; the contrary may be rather concluded from them. The first ground of his separation from the established church, was a dislike of its ceremonies and prescribed forms of prayer, he afterwards doubted concerning the validity of baptism administered in a national church; this paved the way for his rejecting the baptism of infants altogether, and adopting immersion as the true and only meaning of the word baptism. His judgment on doctrinal points underwent similar changes. Hence Mr. Neal has called him a man "of an unsettled head." This language seems to insinuate a reflection on Mr. Smith: whereas it is an honor to any man; it shews candor, ingenuousness, an openness to conviction, and sincerity, for one to change his sentiments on further enquiry, and to avow it. A lover of truth, especially who has imbibed in early life the principles of the corrupt establishments of christianity, will continually find it his duty to recede from his first sentiments. Bishop Tillotson justly commended his friend Dr. Whichcot; because, while it is customary with learned men at a certain age to make their understandings, the doctor was so wise as to be willing to learn to the last; i. e, He was of an unsettled head. Crosby's History of the English Baptists, vol. i. p. 65, &c. Account. of Mr. Ainsworth, prefixed to his Two Treatises, p. 41. + Bayle's Dissuasive, p. 177. Ed. mitted their members to occasional communion, allowing his own to join with the Dutch churches in prayer and hearing the word, but not in the sacraments and discipline, which gained him the character of a SEMI-SEPARIST; his words are these ;*"We profess, before God and men, 'that we agree so entirely with the reformed Dutch church'es in matters of religion, that we are willing to subscribe 'to all and every one of their articles, as they are set down in the harmony of confessions.We acknowledge these reformed churches for true and genuine; we hold communion with them as far as we can; those among us that 'understand the Dutch language, frequent their sermons; ' and we administer the Lord's supper to such of their mem'bers as are known to us, and desire it occasionally." This Mr. Robinson was the father of the Independents. Mr. Henry Jacob was born in Kent, and educated in St. Mary Hall, where he took the degrees in arts, entered into holy orders, and became precentor of Christ-Church college, and afterwards beneficed in his own country at Cheriton. He was a person thoroughly versed in theological authors, but withal a most zealous puritan. He wrote two treatises against Fr. Johnson the Brownist, in defence of the church of England's being a true church, printed at Middleburgh, 1599, and afterwards published Reasons taken out of God's word, and the best human testimonies, proving a necessity of reforming our churches of England, &c. 1604.† But going to Leyden, and conversing with Mr. Robinson, he embraced his sentiments of dicipline and government, and transplanted it into England in the year 1616, as will be seen in its proper place. This difference among the puritans engaged them in a warm controversy among themselves, about the lawfulness *" Profitemur coram Deo & hominibus adeo nobis convenire cum ' ecclesiis reformatis Belgicis in re religionis ut omnibus & singulis ' earundem ecclesiarum fidei articulis, prout habentur in harmonia con❝fessionum fidei, parati sumus subscribere.-Ecclesias reformatas pro veris, & genuinis habemus, cum iisdem in sacris Dei communionem profitemur, & quantum in nobis est, colimus. Conciones publicas ab 'illarum pastoribus habitas, ex nostris qui norunt linguam Belgicam 'frequentant: sacram cænam earuin membris, si qua forte nostris eœti'bus intersint nobis cognita, participamus." + Life of Whitgift, p. 566. † Ath. Ox. vol. i. P. 394. VOL. II 10 |