Mr. Robinson had been educated in the University of Cambridge, and beneficed near Great Yarmouth, in which neighbourhood he had also a separate congregation. They assembled in private houses for seven or eight years; but disturbance from the bishop’s officers, and ruinous proceedings in the ecclesiastical courts, induced them to remove to the continent. Mr. Robinson settled at Leyden. He had commenced his career a rigid Brownist; but a more extensive acquaintance with the world, and the conversation of learned men, particularly Dr. William Ames, an exile also for religion, rendered him more charitable and moderate. {95a} He struck out a middle course between the Brownists and Presbyterians. Maintaining the lawfulness of separation from the reformed churches, he did not deny that they were true churches: and while he contended that each christian society was invested with power to choose officers, administer the gospel ordinances, and exercise all needful discipline over its members, and that it was consequently _independent_ of all classes and synods; he nevertheless admitted the expediency of grave assemblies among the elders of churches for the purposes of mutual friendly advice. {95b} Mr. Robinson recommended his sentiments by a character in which eminent faculties and attainments were crowned and encircled by the predominating power of a solemn and affectionate piety. {95c} The Independents generally regard him as the father of their sect. But since they claim for their sentiments a yet nobler origin, they have preferred to be designated by the terms _Congregational_ or _Independent_; as indicating the point of church government in which they so materially differ from all who acknowledge the authority of bishops or a presbytery. Robinson, though distinguished by moderation, was not deficient in vigilance. After some years, his congregation began to be removed by death, and their children to form connexions with Dutch families. There was ground to apprehend that their church, few in number, might gradually be melted away into an irreligious population. No encouragement was afforded to return home; and after spending many days in solemn addresses to Heaven for direction, they formed the sublime resolution of transplanting themselves to the shores of America, “where they might enjoy liberty of conscience” with a more cheering prospect of propagating their principles. It was arranged that a part of them should first embark, and that their pastor and the rest should afterwards follow. A day of fasting and prayer was appointed; and Mr. Robinson preached, concluding his discourse with an exhortation which breathes a spirit of candour far in advance of the age in which he lived, and strenuously enforces the principle upon which the religious system of the protestant nonconformists is founded, and with which it must, ultimately, either sink into oblivion, or win its way to universal prevalence.