INDEPENDENTS, one of three leading denomina tions under which all Protestant Christians may be class ed, in as far as regards their tenets on the subject of church government.* They are generally considered as having derived from the Brownists, but may be said more correctly to have been founded as a distinct religious com munity about the year 1610, by John Robinson, a man of acknowledged piety and learning, who officiated as pastor of a small congregation in Leyden, and who first publish ed a declaration of their principles ill 1619, under the title of Apologia pro exulibus qui Browniste vulg.° ap pellantur. After his death, a number of his hearers. hav ing obtained from James I. a promise of full liberty of con science in America, removed thither with their families in 1620, where they founded the colony of New Plymouth, and became the parents of the independent churches in that quarter of the globe. The first independent society in England was established in 1616, by a Mr. Jacob, who had adopted the sentiments of Robinson; but the severity of the penal laws against nonconformists in those times pre vented the principles of this community from attracting much public notice, or making any considerable progress, till about the year 1640. From that period they increased rapidly both in number and reputation. Among the vari ous causes which contributed to this success, must doubt less be admitted the distinguished learning of many of their teachers, and the gei:eral sanctity of their manners. They enjoyed also the peculiar protection and patronage of Cromwell, whose favour could not well fail to augment the number of their followers in those days, but whose pre dilection for their tenets, perhaps, contributed not a little to draw upon them afterwards much undeserved obloquy. Instead of accounting for this friendly disposition of the Protector, by the supposed congeniality of their principles with republicanism, (of which, in fact, he had certainly be come the enemy and suhvertor.) it may be ascribed, frith just as much sliest/ of reason, to the circumstance of his apprehending, from their limited union, less danger of any powerful counteraction to his despotic views, than from the more systematic forms of the Episcopalian and Presby terian church policy. This growing influence and estima
tion of the independent name, to whatever cause it may have been owing, induced the greater part of the religious sectaries of that period to assume the same denomination, though neither always adhering to the principles nor pos sessing the respectability of the genuine independents. After the restoration of Charles II. their cause greatly de clined; and in the year 1691, after the accession of Wil liam Ill. they entered into an association with the Presby terian dissenters in England, by which they seem to have in some measure departed from the original principles of their sect, and to have conformed in many points to the sentiments of their new allies. Since this period the greater part of the different dissenting societies in England have, on their part, adopted the leading principles and practices of the independents on the subject of church government, even though maintaining very opposite tenets on doctrinal points. 13m still the independents, properly so called, form a distinct and flourishing society, and have well conducted academies, for the education of their young ministers, at Uomerton, Hoxton, and Wymondley-house, near flitchin.
In Scotland, about the year 1728, Mr. John Glass, a minister of the established church, formed a separate com munity, which bears his name, and holds the fundamental views of the independents. About the end of the 18th century, Robert Haldane, Esq. collected in the same coun try several congregations, which conform rather more closely to the English independents ; but, in consequence of his oun changes of sentitnent, and various other causes, the greater part of these societies were soon disunited and dispersed. A few of the more respectable teachers, who had concurred in the general views of ffaldane, have continued to follow the plan of the English independents, and at e attended by considerable congregations.