,110: 9P LIVES OF THE PURITANS. country. His text was 1 Pet. v. 1-4, " The elders which are among you,.I exhort, who am also an elder," &c. That the reader may have a clear and correct view of the whole proceedings, it will be proper to state those erroneous and dangerous positions, said to be collected from his sermon, which were the following :-1. 44 That the church of God ought to be governed by elders.-2. That a particular form of church government is prescribed in the word of God.-3. That no other form ought to be allowed. -4. That the neglect to promote this government is one chief cause .of the present ignorance, idolatry, and dis- obedience.-5. That we have not this government.-- 6. That ministers ought to live upon their own cures. - 7. That there ought to be an equality among ministers, which the popish hierarchy, and all who belong to it, do not like.-8. That we have an Amaziah among us, who forbiddeth Amos to preach at Bethel : they do not exhort to feed the flock, but hinder those who would.". Admitting that these articles were impartially collected from his sermon, they do not appear_to be of any very dangerous tendency, and, therefore, not deserving of any very severe punishment ; but of this every candid reader will judge for himself. Mr. Johnson was commanded . to answer them, and declare what he had delivered in his sermon, upon his oath ; which, because hewas unwilling to accuse himself, he absolutely refused. He underwent several examinations, and was cast into prison, where he remained a long time. Mr. Cuthbert Bainbrigg, another zealous puritan, and prosecuted on a similar account, was his fellow-prisoner. These two persecuted servants of Christ, after suffering a long and painful imprisonment, laid their case at the feet of Lord Burleigh, chancellor of the university, a. particular account of which is given in another place.t Though Mr. Johnson refused to answer upon his oath, lest, as observed above, he should prove his own accuser, he delivered his answer to each of the articles in writing. As these articles are now before me, it will be proper to favour the reader with a sight of them: " That which I spake in my sermon," says Mr. Johnson, "was the following : 1. 44 I proved, by divers reasons, that as the church to which Peter wrote, and the other churches then fully established, had, for their instruction#and government, this Baker's MS. Collec. vol. vi. p.186.-Strype's Whitgift, p. 296,299. See Art. Cuthbert Bainbrigg.
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