ther, Zuinglius, or any other, to interpret the scriptures, and form his own creed.

On this principle, the different sects split into a multitude of parties, following different heads, who every day coined new religions. Thus the body of Anabaptists alone became divided into at least thirty-two different sects. By these divisions the principal leaders found themselves frustrated in the attachment of their proselytes, who, upon every occasion, left them to follow new teachers.

Though this defection was no more than they themselves had given example of, in relinquishing the faith of their ancestors and the Catholic communion, they were, nevertheless, greatly mortified at it, and published their complaints. Such was even the case with Luther, the great author and patriarch of the Reformation; and he resented so much the freedom taken by Carlostadius, Occolampadius, and Zuinglius, in preaching a different doctrine from his own, that he reviled them, according to his custom, in the most virulent terms.

Some time after, when the reforming spirit had almost reached its full growth, thus wrote Dudithius, a learned Protestant divine, in his epistle to Beza. "What sort of people are our Protestants, straggling to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, sometimes to this side, sometimes to that? You, perhaps, may know what their sentiments in matters of religion are to-day; but you can ne ver certainly tell what they will be to-morrow. In what article of religion do these Churches

agree, which have cast off the bishop of Rome? Examine all, from top to bottom, and you will scarcely find one thing affirmed by one, which was not immediately condemned by another for wicked doctrine." The same confusion of

opinions was described by an English Protestant, the learned Dr. Watton, about the middle of the last century, in his preface to his Po lyglott, where he says, "Aristarchus-hereto, fore could scarcely find seven wise men in Greece; but with us, scarcely are to be found so many idiots. For all are doctors, all are divinely learned; there is not so much as the meanest fanatic or jack-pudding, who does not give you his own dreams as the word of God." But among the reformed nations, none drank more deeply of the cup of error, than England. This country had been, during many centuries, conspicuous in the Christian world for the or thodoxy of its belief, as also for the number of saints it had sent to heaven. But, by a misfortune never to be sufficiently lamented, and by an unfathomable judgment from above, its Church shared a fate which seemed the least to threaten it. The lust and avarice of one despotic sovereign threw down the fair edifice, and tore it off from the rock on which it had hitherto stood. Henry VIII. at first a valiant asserter of the Catholic faith against Luther, giving way to violent passions, which he had not resolution to curb, renounced the supreme jurisdiction which the Pope had always held in the Church; presumed to arrogate to himself that power in his own dominions, and thus

gave a deadly blow to religion. He then forced his subjects into the same fatal defection, and thus opened the way to his successors to pour in upon the kingdom the whole spirit of the Reformation. Once introduced, it soon overspread the land. Being, from its nature, limited by no fixed principle, but depending upon the arbitrary determination of every private man, it has since taken a hundred different shapes, in Protestants, Presbyterians, Anabaptists, Quakers, Arians, Moravians, Hutchinsonians, Methodists, and many more.Such was the swarm that eclipsed the face of religion, which had long shown so bright in that island.

In taking a general view of the infinite variety of new teachers that sprung up at this time, jarring among themselves, corrupting the genuine sources of faith and morals, and deluding their fellow-creatures with poisonous novelties, one cannot help observing with how great propriety they had been long before described by St. Jude, in the following manner: "These are clouds without water, which are carried about by winds; trees of the autumn, unfruitful, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own confusion; wandering stars," Ep. v. 12, 13. They are first compared to clouds without water, or that promise water, but are carried about by winds without giving any; that is, these new teachers promise genuine apostolical doctrine, which they call Reformation, but it is mere deceit. They are termed autumnal trees, un

fruitful, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; that is, they are become barren Christians, bringing forth no fruit, twice dead, by the want of faith and morality. Like dead trees plucked up from the earth, they are banished out of the Church, from which they ought to receive their spiritual life and nourishment. They are like the raging waves of the sea, foaming out their confusion; they are turbulent, proud, rebellious against their mother, the Church, which they furiously assault with slander, calumny and blasphemy. Lastly, like wandering stars, they wander about in mazes of imaginary knowledge, passing from one error to another, without knowing where to fix their steps. Having indeed an appearance of piety, but denying the power thereof. Always learning, and never attaining to the knowledge of the truth. Erring, and driving in error, 2 Tim. iii. 5, 7, 13.

Although Almighty God, in the unsearchable ways of his wisdom, allows the Protestant sects to have a certain degree of power, yet in his goodness he puts a bridle to this power, and prescribes to it determined limits, lest it should overrun too great a part of Christ's kingdom. Hitherto shalt thou come, and shalt go no further, and here thou shalt break thy swelling waves, Job C. xxxviii. 11. The Supreme Ruler of the universe had promised, that his Church should stand as visible as if seated on a mountain, Isai. C. ii. 2, and Dan. C. ii. 35; and that hell itself should not prevail against it, Matt. C. xvi. 18, These assurances are a 2 *

secure bulwark to it; and though the Sovereign Disposer has permitted the new generated poison of the present age to infect some part of his Church, the greater part is preserved sound and untainted, and shines forth with brighter lustre to the world. Many large countries rejected the Reformation, and steadfastly adhered to the ancient faith, and even in most of those kingdoms which adopted the innovation, there are still remaining, by the Providence of God, many that refuse to bow their knees to Baal, and stand as a testimony against the others, who ought to have maintained the same truth with them.

SECTION II.

Civil Wars in Germany, set on foot by the ReformersHuguenots in France-Murder of the Duke of Guise and the Cardinal of Lorrain-The Massacre at ParisThe Irish Massacre.

WHILE powerful princes and great armies undertook to propagate the Protestant religion, the Almighty thought fit to interpose, and gave to the Catholic powers sufficient strength to oppose the invasion, and has ever since supported them in such manner as to make them a match against their enemies.

In the first heat of the Reformation, such was the violence of the Protestants, that they breath