.458. LIVES OF THE PURITANS. STEPHEN Moan was a person of good reputation, and endowed with considerable ministerial abilities. He was for some years deacon to the congregation of separatists in London, and a citizen of considerable property ; but, after the death of Mr. Samuel Howe, whose memoir is given in the preceding article, he -was chosen to the pastoral office, to the apparent hazard of his liberty and estate.. This con- gregation practised mixed communion, and his predecessor was a baptist, but Mr. More was an independent. The zeal of these people exposed them to the severe persecution of the prelates ; and they were obliged to assemble in pri- vate as they found an opportunity. This poor congrega- tion had subsisted almost by a miraclefor upwards of twenty- four years, shifting from place to place, to avoid the notice. of hungry informers ; but January 18, 1641, they ventured to set open their doors in Deadman's-place, Southwark. Fuller says, that on " this day happened the first fruits of anabaptistical insolence, when eighty of that sect, meeting at a house in St. Saviour's, Southwark, preached that the statute in the 35th of Elizabeth, for the administration ofthe CommonPrayer, was no good law, because madeby bishops that the king cannot make a good law, because not perfectly regenerate; and that he was only to be obeyed in civil matters. Being brought before the lords, they confessed the articles ; but no penalty was inflicted upon them."+ This, however, is a very partial and imperfect account of the matter, as appeared from their own records. As it is probable that only a small part of them were of the baptist persuasion, theywere more, properly a congregation of in- dependents than anabaptists. With respect to their insolence, if, by opening their doors for all to come to their assembly who might feel disposed, they .discovered their insolence, they must bear their own reproach. But if it refer to the opinions they delivered, what immediately followed will afford the best explanation. This is, therefore, an impartial statement of facts. Mr. More and his congregation having assembled in Deadman's-place, for the purpose of public worship on the Lord's day, though not with their former secrecy, they were discovered. and taken into custody by Sir John Lenthal, marshal to the King's-bench, who com- mitted most of them to the Clink. Next morning, six or seven of the men were carried before the house of lords, and charged with denying the king's supremacy in ecclesiastical Crosby's Baptists, vol. iii, p. 40. - -IA, Fuller's Church 1-1iR. b, xi. p. 172.
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