The theses were handed about in MS., and not published till 1589—six years after the death of the author—with only the fictitious name "Pesclavii," 1589. The work was reprinted at Amsterdam, in 1649. Two old English translations exist, published in 1659 and 1682. There is a modern one by Rev. R. Lee, D.D., Edinburgh, 1844.
The occasion of writing the theses, Erastus says, was a proposition that a select number of elders should sit in the name of the whole church, and judge who were fit to be admitted to the Lord's Supper, which he thought would introduce dangerous divisions.
Theodore Beza wrote a reply, published at Geneva, 1590. Selden's views of excommunication in his Table Talk (p. 56) are similar to those of Erastus, though not so full.
Hobbes wrote his Leviathan in 1651, in which he says (pt. iii., ch. 42, p. 287, London edition), "The books of the New Testament, though most perfect rules of Christian doctrine, could not be made laws by any other authority than that of kings or sovereign assemblies." His doctrine with regard to Christianity is, that socially considered it is "good and safe advice," but not obligatory law till the government of a country shall make it so. This part of the philosopher's theory runs on the same line with Erastianism, only it is pushed further.
[418] Altogether there were ten or eleven Independents in the Assembly. Baillie mentions Goodwin, Nye, Burroughs, Bridge, Carter, Caryl, Philips, and Sterry.—Letters, &c., ii. 110.
[419] His works have been recently republished. His Commentary on the Epistle to the Ephesians illustrates what is said here.
[420] See The Wounded Conscience Cured, &c., by William Bridge, 1642.
[421] Baillie remarks: "Liberty of conscience, and toleration of all or any religion, is so prodigious an impiety, that this religious Parliament cannot but abhor the very naming of it. Whatever may be the opinions of John Goodwin, Mr. Williams, and some of that stamp, yet Mr. Burroughs, in his late Irenicum, upon many unanswerable arguments, explodes that abomination."—See Tracts on Liberty of Conscience, 270.
[422] Neal says he died of consumption (Hist., iii. 377), but the following appears in the Perfect Occurrences, 13th November, 1646:—"This day Mr. Burrows, the minister, a godly, reverend man, died. It seems he had a bruise by a fall from a horse some fortnight since; he fell into a fever, and of that fever died, and is by many godly people much lamented."
[423] P. 190.