centuries before had been screwed beneath its subjection. The
fabric of the reformation, first undertaken in England upon a
contracted basis, by a capricious and sanguinary tyrant, had been
successively overthrown and restored, renewed and altered, according
to the varying humors and principles of four successive monarchs.
To ascertain the precise point of division between the genuine
institutions of Christianity and the corruptions accumulated upon
them in the progress of fifteen centuries, was found a task of
extreme difficulty throughout the Christian world.

Men of the profoundest learning, of the sublimest genius, and of the
purest integrity, after devoting their lives to the research,
finally differed in their ideas upon many great points, both of
doctrine and discipline. The main question, it was admitted on all
hands, most intimately concerned the highest interests of man, both
temporal and eternal. Can we wonder that men who felt their
happiness here and their hopes of hereafter, their worldly welfare
and the kingdom of heaven at stake, should sometimes attach an
importance beyond their intrinsic weight to collateral points of
controversy, connected with the all-involving object of the
reformation? The changes in the forms and principles of religious
worship were introduced and regulated in England by the hand of
public authority. But that hand had not been uniform or steady in
its operations. During the persecutions inflicted in the interval
of Popish restoration under the reign of Mary, upon all who favored
the reformation, many of the most zealous reformers had been
compelled to fly their country. While residing on the continent of
Europe, they had adopted the principles of the most complete and
rigorous reformation, as taught and established by Calvin. On
returning afterwards to their native country, they were dissatisfied