[437] A push; but probably we should read "shout."
[438] The Assembly of Divines at Westminster.
[439] The Independents are well known. Their real founder is considered to have been one Mr. John Robinson, who became a Brownist and was admitted pastor of the English church at Leyden. When he died, many of his congregation went from Leyden into New England, whither they carried his opinions, which spread widely there, and then by letters and other means were conveyed back into Old England.
[440] The Anabaptists of England at that time are not to be confounded with the fanatics of the same name who appeared in Germany in 1521, soon after the dawn of the Reformation. The peculiar opinions of English Anabaptists were, that baptism ought to be administered only to adults, and that the mode of it ought to be by immersion, or dipping. They were divided into General and Particular, the former holding Arminian views of Christian doctrine, while the latter were strictly Calvinistic.
[441] The Antinomians professed to hold doctrinal sentiments rigidly Calvinistic; but they deduced from them conclusions deeply injurious to the interests of religion and morality.
[442] Of the Seekers or Expecters, Pagitt has given the following account:—"They deny that there is any true church, or any true minister, or any ordinances: some of them affirm the church to be in the wilderness, and they are asking for it there; others say that it is in the smoke of the temple, and that they are groping for it there" ("Heresiography," p. 141).
[443] Thomas Edwards, in his "Gangræna," enumerates sixteen sorts of sectaries of that time. 1. Independents; 2. Brownists; 3. Chiliasts, or Millennaries; 4. Antinomians; 5. Anabaptists; 6. Manifestarians, or Arminians; 7. Libertines; 8. Familists; 9. Enthusiasts; 10. Seekers and Waiters; 11. Perfectists; 12. Socinians; 13. Arians; 14. Antitrinitarians; 15. Antiscripturists; 16. Sceptics and Questionists, who question everything in matters of religion. In these different sects there were many subdivisions.
[444] In the contest between Charles I. and his English Parliament, Charles was induced to make proposals of a treaty to the Parliament. Uxbridge was fixed on as the place for conducting the treaty; and commissioners from the King, the Parliament, and Scotland, were appointed. But they found it impracticable to come to any agreement. He alludes to this in his sermon before the House of Lords.
[445] Thomas Goodwin, a distinguished Puritan divine, and latterly pastor of a church in London, styled by Anthony Wood "one of the Atlasses and patriarchs of Independency." He was in high favour with Cromwell. He was born at Rolesby, in Norfolk, in 1600, and died in 1679. His works extended to five volumes folio, and are invaluable. In his exposition of the first and part of the second chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians, there is an admirable defence of Calvinism.
[446] Jeremiah Burroughs, another eminent Puritan divine, was also a minister in London. He was born in 1599, and died in 1646. He is the author of numerous theological works, which, if not important, are useful. It is said that the divisions of the times broke his heart.