BROWNISTS, a religious sect, which sprung out of that of the Puritans towards the close of the sixteenth century. Their leader, Robert Brown, who wrote divers books in their behalf, was a man of good parts and some learning. He was born of a good family in Rutlandshire, and related to the lord-treasurer Burghley. He had been educated at Cambridge, but first published his notions, and began to inveigh openly against the discipline and ceremonies of the church, at Norwich in the year 1580; from which time he underwent divers prosecutions from the bishops, insomuch that he boasted he had been committed to no less than thirty-two prisons, in some of which he could not see his hand at noon-day. At length, with his congregation, he left the kingdom, and settled at Middleburg in Zealand, where they obtained leave of the states to worship God in their own way, and form a church according to their own model; which they had not long done before this handful of men, just delivered from the severities of the bishops, began to differ among themselves, and crumble into so many parties, that Brown their pastor grew weary of his office; and, returning to England in 1589, he renounced his principles of separation, was preferred to the rectory of a church in Northamptonshire, and died, after leading a very idle and dissolute life, in 1630.

The revolt of Brown was attended with the dissolution of the church at Middleburg; but the seeds of Brown-ism which he had sown in England were so far from being destroyed, that Sir Walter Raleigh, in a speech in 1592, computes that no less than twenty thousand persons followed it. The occasion of their separation was not any fault they found with the faith, but only with the discipline and form of government of the other churches in England. They charged corruption equally on the Episcopal form and on that of the Presbyterians, by consistories, classes, and synods; nor would they join with any other reformed church, because they were not assured of the sanctity and regeneration of the members who composed it, on account of the toleration of sinners, with whom they maintained it an impiety to communicate. They condemned the solemn celebration of marriages in the church; maintaining that matrimony being a political contract, the confirmation of it ought to come from the civil magistrate. They would not allow to be baptized any children of such as were not members of the church, or of such as did not take sufficient care of those baptized before. They rejected all forms of prayer, and held that the Lord’s prayer was not to be recited as a prayer, being only given for a rule or model whereon all our prayers are to be formed. The form of church government which they established was democratical. When a church was to be gathered, such as desired to be members of it made a confession and signed a covenant, by which they obliged themselves to walk together in the order of the gospel. The whole power of admitting and excluding members, with the decision of all controversies, was lodged in the brotherhood. The church officers were chosen from among themselves, for preaching the word and taking care of the poor, and separated to their several offices by fasting, prayer, and imposition of hands of some of the brethren. But they did not allow the priesthood to be any distinct order, or to give any indelible character. As the vote of the brotherhood made a man a minister, and gave him authority to preach the word and administer the sacraments among them, so the same power could discharge him from his office, and reduce him to the condition of a mere layman again. And as they maintained that the bounds of a church were defined by the number of those who could meet together in one place, and join in one communion, so the power of these officers was confined within the same limits. The minister or pastor of one church could not administer the Lord’s supper to another, nor baptize the children of any but those of his own society. Any lay brother was allowed the liberty of prophesying, or of giving a word of exhortation to the people; and it was usual for some of them, after sermon, to ask questions, and reason upon the doctrines which had been preached. In a word, every church on the Brownists model is a body corporate, having full power to do every thing which the good of the society requires, without being accountable to any presbytery, synod, assembly, convocation, or other jurisdiction whatever. Most of their discipline has been adopted by the Independents, a party which afterwards arose from among the Brownists. The Jaws were executed with great severity against the Brownists; their books were prohibited by Queen Elizabeth, their P er ^ s were imprisoned, and many of them were hanged. e ecclesiastical commission and the star-chamber, m n θ ’ distressed them to such á degree that they resolve quit’ their country. Accordingly, many families retir [7:5:605] and settled at Amsterdam, where they formed a church, and chose Mr Johnson for their pastor, and after him Mr Ainsworth, author of the learned commentary on the Pentateuch. Their church flourished near a hundred years.