There were many hearty Congregationalists in the city at that time; not unlikely some who had been familiar with Barrowe, and Greenwood, and Penry, the martyrs; and some of the scattered remnants of Mr. Johnson's church; altogether, an ample number to constitute a new church. We know not how many, exactly; though evidently a considerable number. The only names which have come down to us, are those of Staismore or Staresmore, Browne, Prior, Almey, Throughton or Froughton, Allen, Gilbert or Gibbert, Farre and Goodal. These brave men, with others, men and women, met together in a private house, at Southwark, on the southern bank of the Thames, and observed a day of fasting and prayer for Divine direction in their important undertaking. Towards the close of the solemnity, satisfied that they had the approval of the great Head of the Church, each person present made open profession of his faith in Christ; and then, standing together, joined hands and entered into solemn covenant with each other and with a covenant-keeping God, to walk together in all the ways and ordinances of religion

ceedings concerning the conference with friends which led to the ultimate resolution of setting up a separate congregation," etc.

Vol. 1. p. 292. Neal was not likely to make this statement without good authority. He had manuscript materials in his hands which have not been published. Brook, generally a very careful writer, adopts this account without hesitation. - Vol. 11. p. 333. Mr. Felt says, that Jacob, "in this step, had the approbation of Hildersham, who was concealed to escape imprisonment." -Ecc. Hist. New Eng., 1. 17. Boston, 1855.

revealed to them in God's most holy word. With these simple, but expressive ceremonies were the persecuted Congregationalists of London once more gathered and bound together in a Christian church. On that, or a subsequent day, this little band of brethren, after further fasting and prayer, made choice of Henry Jacob for their pastor, and elected deacons, and probably elders,* and thus completed their organization as an independent church of Christ.

Thus was this goodly vine transplanted to her native soil again; there to live and thrive — to send out her boughs unto the sea and her branches unto the river bidding defiance to the boar out of the woods to waste her, and the wild beasts of the field to devour her. Thus was organized Congregationalism reëstablished among the graves of its martyrs, to become, in spite of the long-continued and fierce opposition of its enemies, a permanent and mighty agency in the kingdom.

* Neal, 11. 126; Hanbury, 1. 292; Robinson's Works, 111. 444-46, compared with 384.

Stairsmore, one of the original members of this church, was afterwards a member of Mr. Robinson's church in Leyden. See Letter from the Leyden church to the church in London. Robin son's Works, 111. 382-85. He returned to London, and seems to have been interested with Francis Blackwell, who at one time was connected with Mr. Johnson's church at Amsterdam, in a plan for removing to Virginia. A meeting held by them, ("I take it a fast," says Bradford,) was discovered, and Blackwell was apprehended; and to get himself out of difficulty, betrayed Stairsmore, who was apprehended and imprisoned. See his letter to John Carver, in Bradford's Hist., 39-40. Mass. Hist. Soc.'s ed.

This church is generally spoken of as the "first Independent church in England;" and Mr. Jacob, as the first Independent minister. This may have been the first church in England which was called by that name; and Mr. Jacob the first minister; though Edwards says, that there was an Independent church at Duckenfield, near Stockport, Cheshire county, of earlier date; which was organized before any of the exiles had returned from Holland.* But, however this may be, neither of these churches can claim to be the first English church organized on essentially Independent principles. The name by which these advocates of Congregationalism were known in England was now indeed changed from Separatists, Barrowists, and Brownists, to Independents; but the essential principles of church organization and government advocated by all of them were the very same: They maintained that a church might be organized independently of pope or prelate, prince or presbytery; and be complete in itself for all the purposes of church organization, and dependent only on Christ, the Great Head of the Church, and accountable to him alone for its faith and practice. This was the doctrine of the Gainsboro' and the Scrooby churches. This, for substance, was Separatism. This was Barrowism. This was Brownism. On these general principles were organized the English churches in Germany, during the reign of

*Gangrena, part 111. p. 165.

Queen Mary; as was also "the secret congregation of God's people," who maintained a precarious existence in England amidst the fires of that gloomy reign. And more than all this, essentially the same principles were embraced by the Christian organizations of the persecuted Lollards of a still earlier date.†

The only important particular in which Congregationalists, so called, differ from Independents, is in the greater use which the former make of councils and synods, and the closer fellowship of the churches; while the Independents differ from the Separatists and Brownists mainly in recognizing the existence of Christian churches among the congregations of the church of England, and in allowing occasional intercommunion between these different bodies. They all may, with propriety, be called Congregationalists, for they all believed that a single congregation of Christian people might be a church, complete, lacking nothing; and it was from the enunciation of this belief that the denomination, in after years, derived the title of CONGRE

GATIONALISTS.

*See ante, vol. 11. chaps. 10, 11.

† Ante, vol. 1. chaps. 8-14; particularly the first and last.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE CONFESSION AND

PROTESTATION OF MR. JACOB'S

CHURCH, 1616. - HIS MINISTRY ENDED IN 1624. EMI

THE church organized by Mr. Jacob lost no time in publishing to the world "A Confession and Protestation" of their faith, accompanied by "An Humble Petition to the king's majesty for toleration therein." In these publications they distinctly avow the particulars in which they dissent from the church of England, as well as those in which they agree with her; and assign their reasons for adopting an independent church organization so unlike the English establishment. They declare their belief, that Christ's kingly and prophetical offices, even in outward religious matters, are absolute and perfect. They acknowledge the all-sufficiency of the Scriptures in relation to

* Hanbury, 1. 293–306.