[7c] Acts v. 38, 39. The conduct of the apostles “was a stand for principles; and in this respect they take their station at the head of the reformers of the world.”—Bogue and Bennett’s History of Dissenters, i. 290.
[8] Earl of Chatham, in the House of Lords, 1773.
[10] There is abundant evidence that the christian sects properly called with reference to their church government, Independents, are entitled to this honourable distinction. The Rev. Thomas Adkins in his recently published Records of the Independent Church at Southampton, (a book more especially valuable for its argumentative and explanatory observations,) has collected several testimonies in support of the statement that “The Independents were the first as a sect, in this country, to discover and to recognise, to their full extent, the sacred rights of conscience.”
The editor of Col. Hutchinson’s Memoirs, (a clergyman of the Established Church,) says, they “proceeded upon that principle which, how general soever it ought to be, is, however, unfortunately very uncommon, of allowing to all that liberty of conscience they demanded for themselves.”—Introd. p. 17.
Mr. Brodie, the learned author of the History of the British Empire from the accession of Charles I. to the Restoration, remarks that “The grand principle by which the Independents surpassed all other sects was, universal toleration to all denominations of christians whose religion was not conceived to be hostile to the peace of the state, a principle to which they were faithful in the height of power as well as under persecution.”—Vol. iii. p. 517.
“By the Independent divines, who were his instructors, (says the noble biographer of Locke,) our philosopher was taught those principles of religious liberty which they were the first to disclose to the world.”—Lord King’s Life of Locke, 4to ed. p. 178.
On the motion for inquiring into the cause of the death of the missionary Smith, Lord Brougham is reported to have said, “Mr. Smith was a pious and faithful minister of the Independents, that body, much to be respected indeed for their numbers, but far more to be held in lasting veneration for their unshaken fortitude, with which, in all times, they have maintained their attachment to civil and religious liberty, and holding fast by their own principles, have carried to its utmost pitch the great doctrine of absolute toleration.”
[14] He affirmed, from his own perusal of them, that in the primitive church there were but two orders of ministers, priests and deacons, and that “by the ordinance of Christ priests and bishops were all one.”—Vaughan’s Life of Wycliffe, 2nd ed. vol. ii. p. 275.
[15a] Stat. 26 Hen. VIII. c. 1.
[15b] Stat. 34 & 35 Hen. VIII. c. 1.