[105b] In 1637. Nonconf. Mem. iii. 19. Mr. Bridge was afterwards one of the “five pillars of the Congregational party, distinguished by the name of the Dissenting Brethren, in the Assembly of Divines.” Neal, ii. 228. iv. 403.
[105c] Palm. Nonconf. Mem. iii. 19.
[107] Neal, iv. 172. Harmer’s MSS.
[108a] Nonconf. Mem. iii. 286.
[108b] It can hardly be doubted that if prudence had permitted, they would have done so at an earlier period, without any scruple as to the lawfulness of such a proceeding. They had, indeed, as Mr. Harmer suggests, “this to plead for themselves, among other things, that they entered not actually into these associations till the whole legal frame of the episcopal church was dissolved by the extinction of monarchy, and men left to follow their own light in these matters by the then public authority.” But to attach any importance to such an argument, would betray the advocate of religious liberty into a surrender of his great principle,—a principle clearly stated in a quotation occurring in connexion with the above language: “As freedom is the birthright of mankind, any number of persons may voluntarily unite themselves for such purposes, and under such regulations, as appear useful and convenient to them, provided they do not encroach on the rules of justice, and the rights of others. And if they may unite for other purposes, much more may they unite for the purposes of religion, and the service of their common Lord and Master.”—Harmer’s Misc. Works, 147, 149.
[109] Morell’s Hist. of England, ii. 253.
[110] Neal, iv. 69.
[112a] At Wymondham, North Walsham, Guestwick, Tunstead, Stalham and Ingham, Edgefield, Godwick, and Bradfield. The churches at Walpole, Bury, Wrentham, and Woodbridge, were formed somewhat earlier: that at Wattisfield in 1654, and that at Denton in the following year. Norwich Ch. bk. Neal, iv. 172. Harmer’s Misc. Works. 147.
[112b] At this period, the use of ordinal numbers, instead of the pagan names of days and months, was not peculiar, as at present, to the Society of Friends, but was common with serious persons of other denominations. The Friends have become singular in this respect from the desertion of the practice by other religious communities.
[112c] The early Congregationalists were much attached to the term covenant, which, while it was accurately descriptive of the transactions to which they applied it, derived, in their estimation, a peculiar sacredness from its employment in the Old Testament. See Harm. Misc. Works, 159.