LIVES OF. THE PURITANS. members of the church, began to make disturbance, and set up a separate, assembly, according to the usage of the church of England. The chief promoters of this breach were Mr. Samuel Browne and his brother, the one a lawyer, and the other a merchant. The governor, perceiving this disturbance, sent for these two gentlemen, who accused the ministers of " departing from the order of the church of England ;" adding, " that they were separatists, and would shortly be anabaptists ; but as to themselves, they would hold to the orders of the church of England." To these accusations, the ministers replied, " That they were neither separatists nor anabaptists ; that they did not separate from the church of England, nor from the ordinances of God there, but only from the disorders and corruptions of that church ; that they came away from the common prayer and ceremonies, and had suffered much for their non- conformity in their native land ; and, therefore, being in a placewhere they might exercise their liberty, they neither could, nor would use them ; especially because theyjudged the imposition of these things to be sinful corruptions of the word of God.". The governor, the council, and the people in general, approved of the answers given by the, ministers. The two brothers, however, not being satisfied, and endeavouring to raise a mutiny among the people, were sent back to England, by the return of the same ships which carried them. Thefaith and patience of these adventurerswere exercised with other trials. The first winter after their arrival proved very fatal. it carried off nearly one hundred of their company, among whom was Mr. Houghton the elder of the church. Mr. Higginson himself, not being able to undergo the fatigues of a new settlement, fell into a hectic fever, of which he lingered till the month of August follow- ing. The last sermon he preached was from Matt. xi. 7. " What went ye out into the wilderness to see:" It was delivered to several hundreds 'of persons just arrived from England, whom he suitably reminded of their design to promote true religion, in transporting themselves to that country. 'Mr. Higginson was soon after confined to his bed, when he was visited by the chief personsof the colony. He was deeply bumbled under a sense ofhis own unworthi- ness; and when his friends endeavoured to comfort him by reminding him of his faithfulness and usefulness, he replied, Morton's New Eng. Men, p. 76, 77.-Mather's Hist. of New Eng. p. lg.
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