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possible to form National Churches, in which there should be a uniformity of faith and ordinances, resembling that uniformity which had been maintained by other means and on other principles in the times gone by. In constructing these National Churches, it was the object, at least in England, so to form them, that the greatest number of people might be comprehended within them, with as little shock as might be to any favourite opinions or prejudices. England, it is to be remembered, had at that time many families, from the highest to the lowest ranks, dispersed all over the country, who adhered in principle and in heart to the ancient and then abrogated system, and who recollected with affectionate reverence the touching ceremonies of the ancient rituals, the beauty of the churches then but lately defaced, the works of art in painting and sculpture, in goldsmith's work and embroidery, with which they were adorned, and the sweet music of the choir and the bell-tower. In the frame of the new Church of England, the claims of these persons were not to be disregarded (they were at least Englishmen), and there was therefore more of condescension to them than some of the more rigid Reformers could approve. But in proportion as there

of

were attempts made to conciliate these people by retaining certain of the ancient forms and ceremonies, and by keeping up the episcopal order, there was offence given to another body of persons who seem to have held as a principle that there was nothing good in the ancient church, and that it was enough to say of any practice in religion to condemn it, that it was a relic popery. When all was done for the satisfaction, as far as could be, of both these parties, and a compromise was made perhaps as wisely and justly as could have been devised, though the great body of the English nation, both clerks and laymen, did enrol themselves as members of the national church, there were some who refused to do so or who yielded a reluctant and imperfect adhesion; Romanists, on the one hand, who pretty early rejected even occasional communion, and Puritans on the other, who did for the most part conform, though without concealing their objection to many of the rites and ceremonies of the church, and even to its constitution itself. The difficulty was to know how to deal with these persons of extreme opinions in opposite directions. Unfortunately the wisdom of toleration was not then understood among the persons in whose hands

temporal power was lodged, and they therefore determined that that power should be used to enforce compliance. Fine and imprisonment, deprivation of their benefices, degradation from the ministry, and even death itself, were awarded against both Catholic and Protestant nonconformists, and great was the suffering in consequence. But the storm of the persecution which casts so dark a shade over the reigns of Elizabeth and James, fell with far greater severity on the Romanists, who however mingled political projects of a very dangerous and often hateful kind with the zeal which they professed for the ancient order of the church. Some of the finest spirits of the time, such as Campion and Southwell, were sent by violence to the place whither Sir Thomas More had been sent. The Puritan also points to his martyrs and confessors, yet the Puritans were at that time a far less formidable body, with less compactness and less defined principles, and seemingly might have conformed altogether for the sake of peace and union, which are surely things far more valuable than testimonies, however earnest, against the cross in baptism or the ring in marriage.

Nothing however could extinguish this section of the church or break its spirit. The Puritans con

tinued members of the church, only pursuing courses

of their own in administering the ordi

nances, and it was not till about the middle

of the reign of Elizabeth that the disposi

Pertinacious

ness of the Puritan section of the

English

Churchleads to sepa

ration.

tion was manifested among them to break away from the church altogether, and to form communities of their own. And then it was but a few of them who took this course: the more sober part remained in the church. The communities of persons who separated themselves were formed chiefly in London there were very few in the distant counties, and those had no long continuance. It was not till the time of the Civil Wars that such bodies of Separatists, as they were called, or Congregationalists, or Independents, became numerous. At first they were often called Brownist churches, from Robert Brown, a divine of the time, who was for a while a zealous maintainer of the duty of separation. It was urged for these Communities, or as they called themselves Churches, that beside being formed on the Scripture model, and that those who belonged to them escaped from the tyranny of the authorities in the English church, they had two other advantagesfacility in excluding immoral persons from church

fellowship, and the liberty of making fresh changes in opinion or practice should fresh light break in upon them.

Rural Congregation of Separatists the Founders of New Plymouth.

THE BODY OF PERSONS WHO LAID THE FOUNDATION OF NEW PLYMOUTH, WAS ONE OF THESE CHURCHES OR COMMUNITIES OF PURITAN SEPARATISTS: persons so impatient under the yoke of the ceremonies which had been continued in the Reformed Church of England, that they had begun to regard it as unlawful to remain in the church, and who had formed themselves in church order, based upon their own principles, and consisting of a people with the offices of pastor, teacher, elders, and deacons. It was not one of the London Communities of this kind; but, what gives this subject the greater interest, it was a church that had been formed in quite a rural district in a county far remote from London.

It remained, till the publication of my

"Collec

Old state- tions" on this subject, an undetermined

ments respect

ing the Site of question to what point we are to look

that private

church. for the place of meeting of this church or

community, for discipline and worship, and consequently from what English population the members

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