252 The HISTORY of the PURITANS. Chap. YT. Queen preachers who will not reform themfelves and their charge, becaufe they will Elizabeth, tarry till the magifirate command and compel them. For this he was lent í58t. for again into eu(tody, and upon examination confeffed himfelf the author, but denied that he was acquainted with the publication of the book; where- upon he was d fmif ed a fecond time, at the intercefl on of the lord trea furer, and fent home to his father with whom he continued four years;. after this he travelled up and down the countries, in company with his afiftant RichardHarrifon, preaching againft bifbops, ceremonies, ecclefzafli- cal courts, ordainingofminiflers, &c. for which, as he afterwards boated, he had been committed to thirty-two prifons, in Tome of which he could not fee his hand at noon-day. At length he gathered a feparate congre- gation of his own principles ; but the queen and her bifhops watching them narrowly, they were quickly forced to leave the kingdom. Several of his friends embarked with theireffe&s for Holland; and having obtained leave of the magitrates to worfhip God in their own way, fettled at Middle- burgh in Zealand. Here Mi-. Brown formed a church according to his own n del; but when this handful of people were delivered from the bifnops, their oppreffors, they crumbled into parties among themfelves, infomuch. that Brown being weary of his office, returned into England in the year. 1389, and having renounced his principles of feparation, became redor B.X. p. 268. of A Church in Northamptonfhire : Here he lived an idle and diffolute life, (according to Fuller) far from that fabbatarian tridtnef , that his followers afpired after. He had a wite, with whom he did not live for many years, and a church in which he never preached; at length being poor and proud, and verypaffionate, he truck the con liable of his pari(h, for de- manding a rate of him; and being beloved by no body, the officer fum- moned him before Sir Rowland St. yohn, a neighbouring jutice of peace,: who committed him to Northampton gaol; the decrepid old man not being able to walk, was carried thither upon a feather bed in a cart, where he fell`fiék and died, in the year. t 6&o, and in the. S i t year of his age. The revolt of Mr,. Brown, broke up his congregation at Middlebt rgb,. but was far from detroying the feeds offeparation, that he had fown in feveral parts of England ; his followers encreáfed, and made a confider- able figure towards the latter end of this reign ; and becaufe force of his principles were adopted and improved, by a contiderable body of puri, tans in the next age, I (hall here give an account of them. Principles of The BROWN I 5T5 did not differ from the church of England in any sr, the Brown- titles öf faith but were very rigid and narrow in points of difcipline. üts. They denied the church of England to be a true church, and her mi, niters to be rightly ordained. They maintained.the difcipline of the church,. of England, to be popifh and antichritian, and all.her. ordinances and fa- craments
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