"scheme of church government appears to be calculated for "the overthrow of monarchy."* We are at a loss to say whether this calumny discovers greater ignorance or bigotry. The twofold charge is asserted without the least shadow of Gerard. When were you bound to appear? White. At any time, I suppose, when I should be called. L. C. J. Why will you not come to your parish church? White. My lord, I did use to frequent my parish church before my troubles, and procured several godly men to preach there, as well as other places of preaching and prayer; and since my troubles, I have not frequented any private assemblies, but, as I have had liberty, have gone to my parish church. Therefore, they who have presented me, have done it out of malice; for if any of the things can be proved against me, or that I hold all things common, your lordship may dismiss me from hence to the gallows. Gerard. You have not usually frequented your own church. White. I allow I have more used other places, where I was better edified. Gerard. Then your presentation is in part true. White. Not so, if it please you; for I am presented for not coming at. all to my parish church. Gerard. Will you then come to prayers when there is no sermon ? White. I crave the liberty of a subject. But if I do not publicly frequent both preaching, prayer, and the sacraments, deal with me accordingly. Master of the Rolls. You must answer yes or no. White. You know my mind, how that I would avoid those things which are a grief to me, an offence to others, and disturb the quiet state of the church. Dean. You disobey the queen's laws. White. Not so, if it please you. Dean. What fault do you find in the common prayer? White. Let them answer to whom it appertains; for being in prison almost a whole year about these matters, I was indicted upon a statute relating to that book; and before I came to liberty, almost outlawed, as your worship Mr. Gerard knoweth. M. Requests. What scripture have you to ground your conscience upon against these garments! White. The whole scriptures are for destroying idolatry, and every thing. belonging unto it. M. Requests. These things never served to idolatry. White. Shough! they are the same as those which heretofore were used for that purpose. M. Requests. Where are they forbidden in scripture? White. In Deuteronomy and other places, the Israelites are commanded, not only to destroy the altars, groves, and images, with all thereto belonging, but also to abolish the very names. And God by Isaiah_commandeth us not to pollute ourselves with the garments of the image, but to cast them away as a menstruous clout. "M. Rolls. These are no part of idolatry, but are commanded by the prince. for civil order; and if you will not be ordered you shew yourself disobedient to the laws... White. I would not willingly disobey any law, only I would avoid ̧ those things which are not warranted by the word of God. * Maddox's Vindication, p. 210. evidence, excepting what might arise in his lordship's episcopal imagination. Mr. Hawkins and several others. had been beneficed ministers in London, but were now silenced and persecuted for nonconformity. The rest were M. Requests. You disobey the queen's laws; for these things are com manded by act of parliament. Dean. Nay, you disobey God; for God commandeth you to obey your prince. Therefore in disobeying her in these things, you disobey God. White. I do not avoid those things of contempt, but of conscience. In all other things I am an obedient subject. L.C.J. The queen's majesty was overseen not to make thee of her council, to make laws and orders for religion. White. Not so, my lord. I am to obey laws warranted by God's word. L. C. J. Do the queen's laws command any thing against God's word? White. I do not say so, my lord. L. C. J. Yes, marry, you do; and there I will hold you. White. Only God and his laws are absolutely perfect. All men and their laws may err. L. C. J. This is one of Shaw's darlings. I tell thee what, I will not say any thing of affection, for I know thee not, saving by this occasion; thou art the wickedest, and most contemptuous person, that has come before me, since I sat in this commission. White. Not so, my Lord; my conscience doth witness otherwise. M. Requests. What if the queen should command to wear a grey frize gown, would you then come to church? White. That were more tolerable, than that God's ministers should wear the habit of his enemies. L. C. J. How if she should command them to wear a fool's coat and a cock's comb? White. That were unseemly, my lord, for God's ministers. Dean. You will not be obedient to the queen's commands. M. Requests. Yes, you say so. But how are you obedient, when you will not do what she commandeth? White. I would only avoid those things that have no warrant in the word of God, that are neither decent nor edifying, but flatly the contrary, and condemned by the foreign reformed churches. M. Requests. Do the church and pews edify? And because the papists used these, will you, therefore, cast them away? White. The church and pews, and such things, are both necessary and profitable. Gerard. White, you were released, thinking you would be conformable, but you are worse than ever. White. Not so, if it please you. L. C. J. He would have no laws. White. If there were no laws, I would live like a christian, and do no wrong, though I received wrong. L. C. J. Thou art a rebel. White. Not so, my lord; a true subject. L. C. J. Yea, I swear by God, thou art a very rebel; for thou wouldst draw thy sword, and lift up thy hand against thy prince, if time served. White. My lord, I thank God, my heart standeth right towards God and my prince; and God will not condemn, though your honour hath so judged. L. C. J. Take him away. worthy, religious persons, but great sufferers in the same cause. These proceedings against zealous protestants, of pious and sober lives, excited the compassion of all unprejudiced beholders, and brought many over to their interests. It was, indeed, a great grief to the prelates, to see persons White. I would speak a word, which I am sure will offend, and yet I must speak it. I heard the name of God taken in vain. If I had done it, it had been a greater offence than that which I stand here for. Gerard. White, White, you do not behave yourself well. White. I pray your worship, shew me wherein, and I will beg your pardon and amend it. L. C. J. I may swear in a matter of charity. M. Requests. There is none here but pitieth thee. White. If it be so, I praise God for it. But because it is said, that at my last being before you, I denied the supremacy of my prince, I desire your honours and worships, with all that be present, to bear witness, that I acknowledge her majesty the chief governor, next under Christ, over all persons and causes within her dominions, and to this I will subscribe. I acknowledge the Book of Articles, and the Book of Common Prayer, as far as they agree with the word of God. I acknowledge the substance of the doctrine and sacraments of the church to be sound and sincere; and so I do of rites and orders, ás far as they agree with the word of God. Dean. Are not all things in the Articles and the Book of Common Prayer, taken out of the word of God? White. Though they were; yet being done by man, I may not give them the same warrant as the writings of the Holy Ghost. Dean. You will not then allow of sermons. White. We are commanded to search the scriptures, and to try the spirits; therefore, we must allow of sermons as they agree with the scriptures. L. C. J. Take him away. White. I would to the Lord Jesus, that my two years' imprisonment might be a means of having these matters fairly decided by the word of God, and the judgment of other reformed churches. L. C. J. You shall be committed, I warrant you. White. Pray, my lord, let me have justice. I am unjustly prosecuted. I desire a copy of my presentment. L. C. J. You shall have your head from your shoulders. Have him to the Gatehouse. White. I pray you to commit me to some prison in London, that I may be near my house. L. C. J. No, sir, you shall go thither. White. I have paid fines and fees in other prisons: send me not where I must pay them again. L. C. J. Yes, marry shall you. That is your glory. M. Requests. It will cost you twenty pounds, I warrant you, before you come out. White. God's will be done. The good man was then carried to the Gatehouse; but how long he remained in a state of confinement, we are not able to learn. These severe proceedings, instead of crushing, greatly promoted the cause of puritanism. ' The sword of persecution was always found a bad argument to convince men of understanding and conscience.—MS. Register, p. 176–178. going off from the first establishment of the protestant religion, concluding the service book to be unlawful, and the ecclesiastical state antichristian; and labouring to set up another kind of church government and discipline. But who drove them to these extremities? Why were not a few amendments made in the liturgy, by which conscientious persons might have been made easy; or, even liberty given them to worship God in their own way? How far these proceedings were justifiable by the laws of God, or consistent with that universal rule of conduct given by Jesus Christ, Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them, is left with the impartial reader to determine. ANDREW KINGSMILL, LL.B.-This excellent person was born at Sidmanton in Hampshire, in the year 1538, educated in Corpus Christi college, Oxford, and elected fellow of All Souls college in the same university, in 1558. He studied the civil law, in the knowledge of which he made considerable proficiency. But while he was thus employed, he did not forget to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. He discovered the warmest desires for a knowledge of the mysteries of the gospel, and for the attainment of which, he paid the closest application. He would receive nothing for truth, till he found the testimony of scripture for its support. By a constant and close attention to the word of God, its sacred pages became familiar to him; and, indeed, he so addicted himself to search and recite the holy scriptures, that he could readily repeat by heart, and in the Greek language, the whole of the epistles to the Romans and Galatians, the first epistle of John, and many other parts of the sacred volume.* Mr. Kingsmill did not so much esteem the preferment and profit, to which he might easily have attained by the profession of the law, as the comfortable assurance and blessed hope of eternal life, and to be useful in preaching the gospel to his fellow creatures. He, therefore, relin quished the law, entered the sacred function, and became an admired preacher in the university of Oxford. some time after the accession of Queen Elizabeth, there were only three preachers in this university, Dr. Humphrey, Dr. Sampson, and Mr. Kingsmill, all puritans. But upon Wood's Athena Oxon. vol. i. p. 195. For the rigorous imposition of conformity, Dr. Sampson being already deprived of his deanery, Mr. Kingsmill withdrew from the storm. He was averse to all severity in the imposition of habits and ceremonies; and being fixed in his nonconformity, he wrote a long letter to Archbishop Parker, against urging a conformity to the papists in habits, ceremonies, and other things equally superstitious.* Upon Mr. Kingsmill's departure from the kingdom, he resolved to take up his abode among the best reformed churches, both for doctrine and discipline, that he could meet with in a foreign land. During the first three years, he settled at Geneva, where he was highly esteemed by persons eminent for learning and piety. Afterwards, he removed to Lausanne, where he died in the month of September, 1569, aged thirty-one years. Though he was a zealous puritan, and an avowed nonconformist, seeing he was a man of such great worth, and universally beloved, Wood found himself obliged to give him an excellent character. Accordingly, he says he was too good for this world, and left behind him a most excellent pattern of piety, devotion, and every other amiable virtue.+ His WORKS.-1. A View of Man's Estate, wherein the great Mercy of God in Man's free Justification is shewed, 1574.-2. An excellent and comfortable Treatise for all such as are in any manner of way either troubled in Mind or afflicted in Body, 1578.-3. Godly Advice touching Marriage, 1580.-4. A godly and learned Exhortation to bear patiently all Afflictions of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.— 5. A Conference between a godly learned Christian and an afflicted Conscience, concerning a Conflict had with Satan.-7. A. Sermon on John iii. 16. CHRISTOPHER COLEMAN was a zealous puritan, and one of the preachers to the congregation of separatists in London. In the year 1567, he was apprehended, with the rest of his brethren, at Plumbers-hall, and cast into prison, where he remained a long time. This heavy sentence was inflicted upon him, for separating from the established church, and holding private meetings for divine worship, when he could not in conscience conform to the church of England. Having at length obtained his release, he wrote a letter, in the year 1569, to Secretary Cecil, earnestly urging him to employ his interest to promote a further Wood's Athenæ Oxon. vol. i. p. 126.—Strype's Parker, p. 157. + Athenæ Oxon. vol. i. p. 126, See Art. Robert Hawkins. |