When the persecutions of Queen Mary's reign drove so many of the English abroad, there were some of our countrymen who, first at Frankfort and afterwards at Geneva, were prepared to decry the English Reformation for not having proceeded far enough, and to embrace the foreign system of the Swiss sect.* By Calvin our Prayer Book was denounced as containing fooleries, only tolerable from the exigency of the times, and it was determined to supply its place by a ritual less accordant with the ancient form of worship, and more conformable to the Genevan model. Instead of coinciding with our English Catholic reformers in their deference to antiquity, they referred, when Scripture was ambiguous or doubtful, to the writings of Calvin, and regarded as heretical all who refused to receive his dogmas as truth.

And thus when the persecuted Protestants returned to England, on the accession of Elizabeth, the English Church was composed of three distinct parties, all animated by distinct principles: those who wished not to adopt any foreign system of theology, but merely to complete the Reformation of their ancient national Church, by doing what was absolutely necessary for the purpose, and nothing more; those who were enamoured of the Helvetic Reformation, and complained that our reformers had not gone far enough and those who, complaining that they had gone too far, were adverse to the Reformation altogether.

*Note D.

B

+ Note E.

Many and bitter were the disputes that arose, and it was not long before the bolder and more consistent of the followers of Calvin separated from the Church, which they regarded as semi-papistical, and formed independent conventicles. As persons assuming to be the supporters of a purer system of Reformation than that which had been adopted by our English Reformers, they were known by the designation of Puritans.* Their example was soon after followed by those of the opposite extreme, who were the advocates of the discarded corruptions. These persons entered clandestinely into a correspondence with the Pope of Rome, who sent some Spanish and Italian Priests to officiate among them; and adopting another foreign system, that established at the Council of Trent, they formed that schismatical sect from which the present English Romanists or Papists are descended. †

This is a short sketch of the origin of those three distinct classes of Christians, subject, of course, to a variety of subdivisions, which we find in this country. But although the bolder, more consistent, and perhaps more conscientious of the Puritans quitted the Church, a large party who embraced their principles still conformed, some from

* The name was probably given to them, in the first instance, as a nick-name, by their opponents, and they afterwards gloried in it, and so assumed it to themselves. In a puritan libel, A.D. 1574, "A Letter of Robert Johnson to Goodman, Dean of Westminster," he calls the Dean "a Papist, a Schismatic, and a PURITANE," printing the last word in capitals, as if it was a term of reproach, which he retorted.

+ Note F.

timidity, some from worldy considerations, and some because they thought that the Church of England, being only comparatively corrupt, i. e. less pure than some of the foreign sects, they were not obliged to secede, and might eventually cause their own principles to triumph in the Church itself. These persons, assisted by the Puritans from without, were continually urging our Rulers, spiritual and temporal, to greater measures of reform; and, complaining of the remnants and rags of Popery still preserved in our rites, ceremonies, and ecclesiastical habits, they "inveighed against the established discipline of the Church, and accounted every thing from Rome which was not from Geneva."*

A contest between parties disagreeing in principle is always a contest of life and death, a war of extermination,-for principles may be broken, but can never be bent-may be silenced but can never yield. And so was it with the Protestants of England. The contest was whether the country should adhere to the principles of the English or to those of the foreign Reformers, and the war was carried on unremittingly from the accession of Elizabeth to the fatal termination of the reign of Charles, who died a martyr for the principles of the English Reformation, or (which is the same thing) for the principles of the Catholic Church. During the great rebellion the advocates of the foreign system

* Note G.

triumphed, and the Church, with the Crown, was laid prostrate in the dust. But at that period a modification of their principle was introduced among those who, in opposing the system of English Reformation, had till then been united. Hitherto the question had been whether the Bible was to be received according to the interpretation of the ancient Church, or according to the interpretation of the Genevan Sect. But when the descendants of the original Puritans endeavoured to force their system upon the country as the one to be exclusively established, they in their turn were opposed by founders of new sects who regarded their own interpretations of Scripture to be as irrefragable as that of Calvin. It was then, and under such circumstances, that the real ultraprotestant principle, which has ever since prevailed, as contrasted with the principles of the Church of England, was brought to light;-that principle being not merely that the Bible and the Bible only ought to be our religion, but also that the Bible is to be understood by each person in that sense which he is persuaded by argument to regard as the true sense; and that he is then to unite himself with that society of Christians with whom the same or similar arguments have been productive of the same effect. This principle is, of course, subversive of union. For on these grounds the only difference between the coldest Socinian who acknowledges the truth of Scripture, and the highest supra-lapsarian Calvinist, is a

difference in their logic or their powers of biblical criticism, and while both parties may argue, neither may consistently censure. And thus the ultra-protestant party gradually split into various hostile factions, and their divisions led eventually to the restitution of the Church with the restoration of the Monarchy.

At the same time a change took place in the policy of the Dissenters from the Church. The attempt had been to supplant the Church and to supply her place by the establishment of the Genevan system. The experiment was made and it had failed. And the demand was now, for what they had themselves, in times past, vehemently protested against,-a civil toleration. They asked for themselves that toleration which, when dominant, they refused to extend to the Church, and a toleration was obtained;-a toleration which, just in itself, has been peculiarly advantageous to the Church; for it has enabled her to do what before she was unable to do without breach of charity to insist upon the observance of her principles, and to proclaim the most unwelcome truths; it has introduced that moral discipline among us which no external powers could enforce. In vain did our Reformers appeal to the strong arm of the law, to compel that conformity to the regulations of the Church, which is now rendered, according to the best of his understanding and ability, by every clergyman of common honesty

*Note H. + Note I.