this all, for he had the Word of God to warrant him, and the examples of holy men; as of Ezekiah in breaking to pieces the brazen serpent; of Josiah in pulling down the altars to Baalim; of Epiphanius in rending to pieces the superstitious vaile hanging before a church at Anablatha, wherein was set forth the picture of Christ, or some saint; and of Leo, the Emperor, who broke down all images and idols in churches as standing there against the Council of Nice. As for this gentleman of whom we speak, his affection and action cometh near to that commendation which Ambrose gave unto Theodosius, 'Abscondit simulacra gentium, omnes enim cultus idolorum abscondit, omnes eorum ceremonias obliteravit.""

Thus, under this good squire of Stapleton and those he drew around him, the parish of TARVIN became the Puritan paradise of Cheshire.

What support to the work of God over the whole county was afforded by this one man, "full of zeal and of the Holy Ghost"! We can trace the results in the tone of the petition sent to the Long Parliament; in the subscription of the Solemn League and Covenant by not less than two-thirds of the clergy in the shire; and in the remarkable document, entitled, "An Attestation to the Testimony of our Reverend Brethren of the Province of London, to the Truth of Jesus Christ and to our Solemn League and Covenant, resolved on by the Ministers of Cheshire at their Meeting, 2nd May, and subscribed at their next Meeting, 6th July, 1648." Fifty-nine names are attached to this paper, in which "the truth of Jesus Christ" is the first concern, and Presbyterian claims, though not overlooked, are made subsidiary to it. To obtain a Presbyterian establishment for Cheshire was the earnest desire of these subscribing ministers; but, though in a majority, they were too late. In a few months, the last remains of the Duke of Hamilton's defeated forces which had fled into Cheshire were made prisoners at Nantwich. The second civil war was at an end, and with it the Presbyterian ascendency, which, as the result showed, had reached its height in 1646—“ that bustling year," as ADAM MARTINDALE calls it, "wherein the presbyterial and congregational governments were, like Jacob and Esau, struggling in the womb."

But before coming to Adam Martindale, we must take note of the distinguished JOHN LEY, B.D., who drew up the "Attes

1

tation." Though a prebendary of Chester, sub-dean of the diocese, and clerk in Convocation, he became a warmly-attached Presbyterian, and took the lead in the local movement. It was he that represented Cheshire in the Westminster Assembly, where he was made Latin Examiner, the Chairman of two important committees, and President of Sion College. As the writer of the "Attestation," his name naturally stands first of the fifty-nine; but the last, it is interesting to observe, is that of HENRY NEWCOME, who started in ministerial life as Mr. Ley's assistant, and who became ultimately Manchester's "darling preacher," and the leader of the Lancashire Presbyterians.

ADAM MARTINDALE was a Lancashire man; but having been much tossed about in his early days by the troubles of the Civil War, he spent the best of his days in Cheshire, where he received no fewer than five ministerial calls, besides six in Yorkshire. He was one who attached the highest importance to the "call" of the people, besides the presentation from the patron. He was happily settled in the prime of life over the wide and important parish of Rosthern (the parishioners contributing £10 quarterly to him).

Being much exercised, like many of his contemporaries, over the question of Church government, he prepared a Summary of Arguments for and against Presbyterianisme and Independencie, which secured high commendation from Richard Baxter. His verdict is for Presbytery. He had scruples, however, regarding its civil establishment as in Lancashire, where he objected to its coercive jurisdiction. The free Classis, or voluntary Union of Ministers and Churches in Cheshire, which he describes and praises, we shall afterwards notice.

"An excellent preacher, a person of great learning, deeply read in the Fathers and Councils, and one of the chief pillars of Presbyterianism."-Wood's Athenæ Oxon., vol. ii. pp. 190–194.

The Life of Adam Martindale, with the "Diary" and the "Autobiography" of Henry Newcome, are among the publications of the Manchester "Chetham Society," and are valuable authorities respecting Lancashire and Cheshire Presbyterians.

VI.

ENGLISH PRESBYTERIANS, AND THE ORIGIN OF

PRESBYTERIANISM IN AMERICA.1

THE earliest refugees on the shores of America were the Presbyterian Huguenots of France, who formed settlements in Florida about 1562, and in the Carolinas a few years later. one time it seemed as if the lands from the Delaware to the St. Lawrence might become French territory. The spirit and gift of colonizing passed, however, to the Anglo-Saxon race. English Puritanism of the older Presbyterian type was more or less mingled with the first emigrants and adventurers of the "Virginia" Company in the days of Queen Elizabeth. Of this class was ALEXANDER WHITAKER, the "self-denying Apostle of Virginia," 2 son of the distinguished Dr. William Whitaker, Puritan Professor of Divinity in Cambridge University, and cousin of Dr. William Gouge, of Blackfriars, a leading member of the Westminster Assembly, and first Moderator of the London Provincial Synod. As appears from a letter of his in June, 1614, he had organized the worship and discipline of his Church after the model of Cartwright and Travers. Meanwhile, LEWIS HUGHES, Vicar of Great St. Helen's, Bishopsgate, who had been removed by Bancroft for his nonconforming practices, was sent out by the Virginia Company to the Bermudas or Somers Islands in 1614; and writing to Lord Rich in 1617, he says:

"I have, by the help of God, begun a Church government by Ministers and Elders. I made bold to choose four Elders from the town, publicly by lifting up of hands and calling upon God. The Governor was out of town. At his return it pleased God to move his heart to like well and to

1 See American Presbyterianism, by Prof. Charles A. Briggs, 1885, chapter iii. especially, where are references to all the authorities.

2 Geo. Bancroft, History of the United States of America, vol. i. p. 104 (1883).

allow of what we had done, and doth give to the Elders all the grace and countenance he can." 1

This work was taken up and carried forward by both Scotch and English Puritan ministers. On account. of these tendencies in the Virginia Company, its charter was revoked by King James in July, 1624.

IN NEW ENGLAND. While time will never dim the peculiar lustre and glory of the heroes of the MAY-FLOWER in 1620, it is important to remember not only that prior to that date were there both French and English Presbyterians in America, but that among the founders of New England itself were both classes of Puritans-the Presbyterian Church-reformers and the Independent Separatists. The colonists who ventured over in the May-flower in 1620, under the godly elder Brewster, and who settled at Plymouth, brought with them from Delft and Leyden, in Holland, the mildly separatist style of Barrowism, in which Pastor Robinson had trained them; but the colony of 1625, planned by the "Patriarch of Dorchester," John White, maternal ancestor of the Wesleys, and sent out under Roger Conant to Massachusetts Bay, was distinctively Presbyterian. This was greatly strengthened by the arrival, in 1629, of a large additional company 2 under JOHN ENDICOTT, with SAMUEL SKELTON, who had just been thrust out of his Lincolnshire parish, and FRANCIS HIGGINSON, who had received similar treatment in Leicestershire. It was Francis Higginson who used the memorable words, on setting sail :—

"We will not say, as the Separatists were wont to say at their leaving England, Farewell, Babylon! Farewell, Rome! But we will say, Farewell, Dear England! Farewell the Church of God in England, and all the Christian friends there! We do not go to New England as Separatists from the Church of England, though we cannot but separate from the

1 For Laud's interference here, see Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, 1574-1660, p. 303; and for the later division into Independents and Presbyterians, ibid., Norwood's Letter to Prynne, of 15 May, 1647.

2 In 1628" The Company of Massachusetts Bay" had purchased from "The Council for New England" the lands between the Merrimac and the Charles Rivers, and obtained their charter from King Charles next year. Then there passed over in the following year, 1630, about 1500 additional Puritan emigrants in thirteen vessels. These settled at Charlestown, Boston, Cambridge, and other adjoining places, with JOHN WINTHROP as their Governor.

corruptions in it. But we go to practise the positive part of Church Reformation, and propagate the Gospel in America."

The charter of 1628, granted to this Presbyterian colony, has a very remarkable missionary declaration (noteworthy from the way John Eliot acted upon it), to the effect that to "Wynn and incite the natives of the country to the knowledge and obedience of the onlie true God and Saviour of mankind and the Christian faythe," was in the "royall intention and the adventurers' free profession, the principall ende of this plantation.” Between this Presbyterian settlement at SALEM, on "The Bay," of Massachusetts, and the Independent or "old" colony, at Plymouth, there sprang up a kindly intercourse and good mutual understanding, resulting in the ecclesiastical compromise of" The Cambridge Platform," in 1648. According to this "Cambridge Platform," there was to be a Congregational Presbytery or Eldership in every local Church, the Conjoint Synod agreeing also that there should be Councils of Advice, empowered to recommend to the Churches a renunciation of fellowship with any Church chargeable with any grave error or disorder, which would not submit to fraternal expostulations.

But prior to this, the number of more firmly pronounced Presbyterian ministers had been increasing in New England. Thus, as one has said :

"THOMAS PARKER and JAMES NOYES-par nobile fratrum-who came over in 1634, and became Pastor and Teacher of the Church at Newbury, were strongly inclined to some of the views afterward held by the majority of the Westminster Assembly, and they did not hesitate to teach them." 3

1 Cotton Mather's Magnalia, vol. i. p. 362; Dr. H. M. Dexter's Congregationalism, p. 414; and Prof. Briggs' American Presbyterianism, p. 93.

2 Dr. H. M. Dexter, Congregationalism, p. 431; and he adds at p. 463 "The early Congregationalism (of New England) was a Congregationalized Presbyterianism or a Presbyterianized Congregationalism, which had its roots in the one system and its branches in the other; essentially Genevan within the local Congregation and essentially other outside of it. The forty or fifty Churches which for the substance of it' adopted the Cambridge Platform held this general system with varying degrees of strictness, from the almost Presbyterianism at Hingham and Newbury to the large-minded and large-hearted Robinsonianism of the Mother May-flower Church."

3 We learn their views from "The True Copy of a Letter written by Mr. Thomas Parker, a learned and Godly Minister in New England unto a Member of the