Pastor by their authority, they may also place him, and set him up by their authority; and so the poor Laity is stript of all liberty or power of choosing their officers; contrary to the Scriptures.'

PASTOR AND PEOPLE.-"The bond between the Minister and people, is the most strait and near religious bond that may be; and, therefore, not to be entered but with mutual consent.. It makes much, both for the provocation of the Minister unto all diligence and faithfulness; and also, for his comfort in all the trials and temptations which befall him in his ministry, when he considereth how the People unto whom he ministereth have committed that most rich treasure of their souls, in the Lord-yea, I may say, of their very 'faith' and 'joy,' to be helped forward unto salvation-to his care and charge, by their free and voluntary choice of him... Acts 20: 28, 29. John 10: 9, 12, 13. Acts 6: 1—5. 2 Cor. 1:24. It much furthers the love of the People to the person of their minister, and so, consequently, their obedience unto his doctrine and government, when he is such a one, as themselves, in duty unto God and love of their own salvation, have made choice of; as, on the contrary, it leaves them without excuse if they either perfidiously for sake or unprofitably use such a man's holy service and ministration. Lastly, it is agreeable to all equity and reason that all free persons and estates should choose their own servants, and them unto whom they give wages and maintenance for their labour and service. But so it is betwixt the People and Ministers: the People a free people, and the Church a free estate spiritual, under Christ the King; the Ministers, the Church's, as Christ's servants;' Church's provision to 'live,' and of her, as receive wages. Rom. 15: 31. 2 Cor. 4: 5. 1 Tim. 5: 18."

and so by the labourers' to 1 Cor. 9: 14.

ORDINATION.- "I will here interpose some few things touching 'succession,' and 'ordination' accordingly. First, then, we acknowledge, that in the right and orderly state of things, no ministers are to be ordained but by ministers, the latter by the former in the churches where they are, and over which the Holy Ghost hath set them... The Prelates, and those which level by their line, do highly advance Ordination, and far above the administration of the word, sacraments, and prayer; making it, and the power of excommunication, the two incommunicable prerogatives of a bishop, in their understanding, above an ordinary minister. But surely, herein these chief ministers do not succeed the chief ministers, the apostles, except as darkness succeeds light; and Antichrist's confusion, Christ's order. Where the apostles were sent out by Christ, there was no mention of Ordination; their charge was to go, teach all nations, and baptize them; and that the apostles accounted Preaching their principal work, and after it, baptism and prayer, the Scriptures manifest. Acts 6: 4. 1 Cor. 1: 17. And if Ordination had been, in those days, so prime a work, surely Paul would rather have tarried in Crete himself, to have ordained Elders there, and have sent Titus, an inferior officer, about that inferior work of Preaching, than have gone himself about that, leaving Titus for the other! Tit. 1: 5."

Controversy with Episcopius, the Arminian.

It was during the years 1612, 1613, that the controversy between the Arminians and Calvinists raged with the greatest violence at Leyden. Episcopius, who had just then been made professor of divinity in the university of Leyden, was the champion of the Arminian party. Polyander, an older professor in the university, headed the Calvinistic party. The two professors divided the students among them

selves, and opposed each other with great earnestness in their respective lecture-rooms. Mr. Robinson, ever on the alert to understand all truth, found time, notwithstanding his pressing engagements, to attend the lectures of both professors. These opportunities, added to his own accurate knowledge of the Scriptures, and his familiar acquaintance with the entire circle of theology, made him a complete master of the whole controversy. This, Polyander and his friends were not slow to discover: and when Episcopius sent forth his Arminian theses, with the offer to defend them publicly against all opponents, the Calvinists urged Mr. Robinson to accept the challenge, and to meet the Professor in a public dispute. This proposal Mr. Robinson at first declined, being a modest man, and withal a stranger in the city and an exiled foreigner: but being urgently solicited to undertake the defence of the truth, as preeminently qualified for the task, he at last consented. Twice or thrice he met the champion of Arminianism in a public disputation; and, as Governor Bradford assures us, puts him to an apparent non-plus, in a great and public audience ;" **" which, as it causes many to give praise to God that the truth had so famous a victory; so it procures Mr. Robinson much respect and honor from those learned men and others." *

66

The Baptismal Controversy.

In the year 1614 we find Mr. Robinson engaged in a defence of the Separation against the attack of Mr. Helwisse, the Arminian Baptist, the associate of Mr. Smyth in his new organization. The character of the work may be judged of by the title, which, according to the fashion of the day, was pretty full: "Of Religious Communion: Private and Public. With the silencing of the Clamours raised by

* In Prince, pp. 126–131.

† See page 318 of this work.

Mr. Thomas Helwisse against our retaining the Baptism received in England and administering of Baptism unto Infants. As also a Survey of the Confession of Faith, published in certain conclusions, by the remainders of Mr. Smyth's company: Prov. 14: 15. By John Robinson, 614." Quarto, pp. 131. "The remainders of Mr. Smyth's Company" were Mr. Helwisse's church, already noticed, who removed to London.

The author's design led him first, to define and defend the sentiments of the Separation respecting private and public communion with churches not scripturally organized. In respect to the former, he thus expresses himself: “I come to the thing I aim at in this whole discourse, which is, That we who profess a separation from the English national, provincial, diocesan, and parochial church and churches, in the whole formal state and order thereof, may, notwithstanding, lawfully communicate in private prayer, and other the like holy exercises, not performed in their church communion, nor by their church-power and ministry, with the godly amongst them; though remaining, of infirmity, members of the same church or churches; except some other extraordinary bar come in the way between them and us."

He next proceeds to justify separation from public communion with anti-scriptural churches;-such a communion as would be a virtual recognition of them as true churches. He says: "As we are, then, to join ourselves with them wherein God hath joined us; so are we, wherein He severeth us, to sequester and sever ourselves." What is next to be shown, accordingly, is this, "If the parish-assemblies, gathered by compulsion of all the parishioners pro

* It must not be lost sight of, that this was really the case, in those days, by the Statute of Uniformity, 1 Eliz. cap. 2.

miscuously, etc. be of God; then is our fellowship only of persons sanctified, at least outwardly, joining themselves by voluntary profession under the government and ministry of an eldership; conceiving prayers and thanksgiving according to the church's present occasions, by the teachings of the Spirit; and so administering the sacraments according to the simplicity of the Gospel,—not of God, nor from heaven. If, on the contrary, ours be of God and of his Christ; then is theirs of Antichrist.... Either the one or the other are plantings, which God hath not planted,' and 'shall be rooted up.'"* This proposition he proceeds to establish by defining the scriptural meaning of the Hebrew word 'kahal,' and the Greek έxxλnoia, [ecclesia] called by us church; that to this true New Testament church, ap. pertaint the covenant and promises, etc.; with all holy things. It follows, that a church truly constituted "must be of such persons as by and in whom God will and may thus be worshipped and glorified; and as are by Him, both in their persons and fellowship, separated and sanctified thereunto."

very

He next passes to an explanation and defence of their church government. The Separatists were much pressed by the Hierarchy and others with this objection to their government. That it was popular or democratical, and tended to the overthrow of the throne, as well as the estab lished Church of England. Our ancestors appear to have been sincere monarchists; and were, therefore, solicitous to rebut this objection to their system of church government. This, however, was not an easy task; for it was a fundamental point in the Separatist's systemn, that the church—i. e., the brethren constituting each churchwas the depository of all ecclesiastical authority—was the 1 Cor. 3: 21, 22.

Matt. 15: 13,

† Rom. 9: 4.