[243] Hanbury's Memorials, iii. 475.
The voluntary principle had been clearly laid down during the civil wars, and in addition to proofs of this already adduced, we may add the following:—
Henry Burton, in his Vindication of the Independent Churches, written in 1644, observed:—"What serveth the magistrate and the laws of a civil State for but to keep the peace? And as for parishes, will you allow no churches but parishes? or are parishes originally any other but of humane, politic, and civil constitution, and for civil ends? Or can you say that so many as inhabit in every parish respectively shall be a Church? Should such Churches and parishes then necessarily be Churches of God's calling and gathering? Are they not congregations of man's collection, constitution, and coaction merely? What Churches, then? And as for tithes, what tithes, I pray you, had the Apostles? Such as be faithful and painful ministers of Christ, He will certainly provide for them; as when He sent forth His disciples without any purse or provision, He asked them, 'Lacked you anything?' They said, 'Nothing.' Surely the labourer is worthy of his hire." And as for ministers' maintenance by tithes, Robert Baillie stated in his account of the Independents in 1646:
"The ancient way of maintenance by tithes, or lands, or set stipends, they do refuse, and require here the reduction to the apostolic practice. They count it necessary that all the Church officers should live upon the charge of the congregation,—the ruling elders and deacons, as well as the pastors and doctors; but all they will have them to receive is a mere alms, a voluntary contribution, laid down as an offering at the deacon's feet every Lord's Day, and by him distributed to all the officers and the poor of the congregation as they have need."
A series of propositions is contained in a document presented to the Parliament in the year 1647 (Hanbury, iii. 247) and one of the propositions is to the effect that the officers of the Church ought to be maintained by the free contributions of the people. The same opinion is expressed in Hooker and Cotton's Survey of Church Discipline, a publication reprinted in London in the year 1648. Though, under the Protectorate, times had changed, and the political relations of the Independents and Baptists had changed too, it cannot be doubted that many throughout the Commonwealth maintained the principle expressed in the extracts just given.
[244] From a MS. Life of Owen in the possession of the late Dr. Raffles.
[245] The Oxford Vice-Chancellors, though they hold office for four years, are re-elected each year of the four, and at each re-election make an official speech.
[246] Oratio ii.—Owen's Works, xxi. 581.
[247] Oratio v.—Owens Works, xxi. 611.
[248] Cromwell's Speeches, Carlyle, ii. 559.