formist interest there. Of the Rev. Henry Welch, The terms nonconformist, presbyterian, and protestant dissenter, are used indiscriminately in these discourses, as they were all employed to designate those parties who, as Puritans, or in the puritan spirit, conscientiously disapproving of the doctrines or observances of the established Church, separated themselves from its worship, and formed societies in accordance with their own views and opinions. There was little diversity of theological sentiment at the period of this great breach in the church, between those who resigned, and those who retained, their livings. The opposition of the Puritans proceeded from their objection to-first, the use of the cross in baptism; secondly, the use of the surplice; thirdly, kneeling at the Lord's Supper, and administration of that sacrament to unfit persons; fourthly, Absolution; fifthly, subscription to the Book of Common Prayer, episcopal ordination, and the thirty-nine Articles, as containing nothing in them contrary to the Word of God. The liturgy was disliked, from its giving countenance to rites and ceremonies of catholic origin, and which had been most carefully removed from the simple "Directory for the public worship of God," as sanctioned by parliament during the time of the Protectorate. Indeed, the presbyterian form of worship was esteemed by the puritan party as at once more agreeable to primitive usage, and better calculated to promote the objects of public worship. Upon this model, accordingly, they intended to found those congregations which were subsequently assembled under their ministrations. But in this expectation they were deceived. The Meetings of the Presbytery ceased in 1660. And the only vestige of this ecclesiastical movement, which survived the return of the episcopal party to the established churches, was the revival of the Provincial Assembly soon after the Revolution in 1688, first in Cheshire, and then in Lancashire, by the newly-founded presbyterian societies, and which is still held annually under the designation of the Lancashire and Cheshire Provincial Meeting. Practically all the English presbyterian congregations were established on the principle asserted by the Independents,-that the affairs of each society should be free from all foreign control; that in the election of ministers, in the ministration of its ordinances, in the management of its property, and, indeed, in all its concerns, the sole direction should be vested in the society itself. It is curious, at the distance of more than a century and a half since the principles of church government were so hotly discussed, to find the Independents, who were then sticklers for the more stringent system of self-government, adopting a modified presbyterian discipline; while the descendants of the presbyterian founders have adhered in their societies to that independence which in the other great party exists only in name. The Rev. Richard Goodwin, whom we have recognised as the founder of this society, lived for a few years after his ejectment from the vicarage, while the Five Mile Act was in force, in seclusion near Manchester. Some relaxation in the law was made in 1672, by which the nonconformist divines were permitted to preach under certain restrictions. At that favourable period it was that he took out a license to preach in a house, which he or his friends had built on the south side of Deansgate, at the corner of Meal - House Lane, where he had service twice every Lord's - day. The ornaments and fittings on these premises, used now as dwelling houses, are sufficiently perfect to attest for what purpose they were originally designed. In this edifice, or in a more ancient building, recently taken down, on the north side of Nelson Square, called Barrett's Barn, the principles of Protestant Dissent were first asserted in the town of Bolton-leMoors, and public testimony was borne to their popularity by numerous families who had made costly sacrifices for the sake of vindicating the rights of conscience in matters of faith and judgment. Here the ejected minister continued to preach for about thirteen years, in the only place of religious worship then in the town besides the parish church. The population, hardly a fraction of what it is at present, generally gave their sympathy to their old pastor, even if they attended public worship at the parish church; while the more ardent of his adherents, especially those who appreciated the principle of the separation, and preferred the spirit or system of nonconformity, attached themselves with zeal to the new congregation, revered its minister, and identified themselves with the cause which they had so nobly supported. Many of the presbyterian families were bound by ties of kindred as well as affection to the ejected ministers. Mr. Goodwin himself was by marriage connected with many respectable families in the town. Others of the ejected divines were natives of the town or neighbourhood. Among these, none had a wider circle of family connexions than Oliver Heywood, whose attachment to the cause of nonconformity in these parts, was shewn by the efforts made by him in his frequent visits to keep alive its interests. Even at this distance of time it is pleasant to be able to trace, from his diaries, the very days that he preached, and the texts that he discoursed upon, in the pulpit of the Meeting House in Deansgate. On the 18th of September, 1672, a few months after it was opened, we find that he preached there. At the beginning of March, 1677, he was there again, as a hearer of a funeral sermon for his father, preached by Mr. Tildesley, from 2 Timothy, i. 12. On the 2nd of October, 1682, he attended the Monday's lecture as a hearer. In May, 1694, he preached a funeral sermon for Peter Heywood, one of his kinsmen, who had suddenly expired on the road, as he was going to Bury fair. In June, 1696, when the congregation was on the eve of removing to the new chapel in Bank-street, he preached there for the last time, on Isaiah xliv. 22, and administered the Lord's Supper at noon to about five hundred communicants. And on the day following went to hear Mr. Walker preach the lecture.* Mr. Goodwin, the first of our roll of ministers, died on the 12th of December, 1685, at the advanced age of seventy-two. He was interred within the parish church, though the exact spot is not indicated by any monumental memorial. Calamy, the biographer of the Bartholomew divines, describes him as "a plain, practical preacher," and as "having an excellent gift in prayer." "Such was his usefulness," he adds, "that he will have a great retinue of souls to present to his Master at the last day." The Rev. Robert Park, the ejected lecturer, who is described as the assistant of Mr. Goodwin, could not have taken any part in the service of "the Meeting Place," in Deansgate, as he died in 1669, three years before it was opened, at the age of seventy. What is probable is, that during the * Hunter's Life of Oliver Heywood. |