II THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH BY ROBERT F. HORTON, M.A., D.D. Early Converts to Congregationalism THERE is a curious chain of conversions in the early history of English Congregationalism, which has often set me thinking. Barrow and Greenwood were, in 1586, prisoners in the Clink for their Nonconformity, and contrived by some surreptitious method, conveying the sheets in an empty milk jug and the like, to get a treatise on their Congregational principles published in Holland. They themselves were suitably hanged by Queen Elizabeth's government, and their Congregationalism was-happily disposed of?-not at all; the book persisted in living, and had such elements of vitality that Francis Johnson, a zealous clergyman, felt it his duty to undertake its refutation. But in attempting to refute, he was convinced by, the book, and became, renouncing all, himself the minister of a Congregational church, for which he was arrested and sent to the Clink. Whereupon Henry Jacob, the vicar of Cheriton, undertook to confute Francis Johnson, and in studying his arguments, as unfortunately one must do in order to make a satisfactory confutation, he in his turn was convinced, gave up his living, and became a Congregationalist; and as his own country had at present no room for these principles, except in the Southwark jail, he went over to Leyden and ministered to a congregation of refugees there. At last, in the milder days of King James, he returned to Southwark, "to continue the testimony by the confessors and martyrs in the immediate scene of their sufferings. I have sometimes wondered whether conversions of this kind would not be frequent to-day if any one attempted to confute the principles of Congregationalism. At present they convert few because no one assails them, and they are not of the aggressive and dominant type, sallying out on all occasions to make proselytes. In this respect Congregationalists and Quakers draw very near together. They are not of those who compass sea or land," or other Churches and denominations, to make a proselyte. They cherish no desire to have adherents that are not convinced, and are not therefore tempted to use secondary temptations to bring converts into their fold. The cause is in each case the same. The Church is viewed as the Society of the Holy Ghost, and the baptism of the Holy Ghost is not administered by human hands, but only by Divine. |