occur in which that right was of a somewhat doubtful character in the eyes of others. The doors of religious liberty were, however, thrown open, and out rushed the multitude, "all inquiring their way to Zion;" but, it is to be feared, not all "with their faces thither- ward." It was manifest that they did not all pursue the same track to that heavenly country: but ran different ways, as fancy or inclination led them. The carelessness, the lukewarmness-nay, the wickedness of many of the ancient established clergy, gave a pretext to men of reflection and observation to avoid them as much as possible; and, in avoiding them, to avoid also their church and doctrines. Extremes often approximate. The extreme of indifference to religion begat an extreme of zeal. The alleged impurity of many of the clergy engendered an affectation of purity in the rest; hence arose a sect of pious and zealous men, whose extraordinary strictness of religious worship and conduct procured for them, though at first in a sneer, the honourable appellation of Puritans, a name derived from the cathari or puritani of the third century. For a time these persons remained attached to the churches' forms and doctrines; but their superior piety gave their enemies great offence, and caused them endless disquietudes, till, by degrees, they withdrew themselves from their parishchurches, and began to form themselves into distinct communities, when the act of uniformity, in the year 1662, in one day confirmed the schism, by the addition of two thousand of the wisest, best, most learned, and honourable ministers of the church. These were driven from their livings into the ranks of dissent, by one of the most ill-judged measures ever acted upon in this country. Refusing to conform with the conditions of the act just alluded to, they were ejected, and were denominated non-conformists. Many of them embraced the Presbyterian form of church government; some became Baptists, and others Independents; but, in time, they collectively distinguished themselves as Protestant Dissenters of the three denominations.

Before we proceed to the minute details belonging to this portion of our work, it will be proper to give a general account of the rise and progress of Protestantism itself, which has been productive of so many sects and parties in the religious world. To Dr. Robinson and Mr. Adam we are indebted for most of the following statement:

The emperor, Charles V., called a diet at Spire, in 1529, to request aid from the German princes against the Turks, and to devise the most effectual means for allaying the religious disputes, which then raged in consequence of Luther's oppo

sition to the established religion. In this diet it was decreed by Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria, and other Catholic princes, that in the countries which had embraced the new religion, it should be lawful to continue in it till the meeting of a council: but that no Roman Catholic should be allowed to turn Lutheran, and that the reformers should deliver nothing in their sermons contrary to the received doctrine of the church. Against this decree six Lutheran princes, namely, John and George, the electors of Saxony and Brandenburg, Ernest and Francis, the two dukes of Lunenburg, the landgrave of Hesse, and the prince of Anhalt, with the deputies of thirteen imperial towns,—namely, Strasburg, Ulm, Nuremberg, Constance, Rottingen, Windsheim, Memmingen, Nortlingen, Lindaw, Kempten, Hailbron, Wissemburg, and St. Gall, formerly and solemnly protested and declared, that they appealed to a general council; and hence the name of Protestants, by which the followers of Luther have ever since been known. Nor was it confined to them, for it soon after included the Calvinists, and has now a long time been applied indiscriminately to all the sects, of whatever denomination, and in whatever country they may be found, which have separated from the see of Rome.

The active spirit of inquiry, natural to men who had just broken loose from religious despotism, operating differently on different intellects and dispositions, almost necessarily produced a variety of sects; and, in some cases, gave birth to extreme wildness and extravagance of doctrine and practice. One great source of contention respected church-government and ceremonies. Some Protestant churches, regarding with abhorrence whatever had been an appendage of the old religion, renounced, together with ancient rites, the institution of episcopacy. Others were of opinion, that it was more wise to preserve whatever was in itself innocent, and to be content with the removal of corruptions. Points of doctrine, too, caused divisions; and these controversies among the reformers, some of whom long retained a portion of the virulent spirit of popery, were too often conducted, even when they related to matters of secondary importance, with the violence and acrimony by which, in opposing the Roman Catholics, a good cause had been disgraced. They afforded no small matter of triumph to the adherents of the church of Rome, and impeded, in no small degree, the progress of the reformation. We are not to expect, then, that Protestants are unanimous in all points of doctrine, discipline, worship, or church-government; on the contrary, while they agree only in receiving the Scriptures as the supreme rule of their faith and practice, and in rejecting

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the distinguishing doctrines of the church of Rome, in many other respects they still differ not more widely from that church than they do from one another.

All Protestants, who are Trinitarians, receive the Apostles', Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds, or the substance of the doctrine contained in them, together with the first four general councils, namely, the first assembled at Nice, A. D. 325; the first of Constantinople, in 381; that of Ephesus, which met in 431; and that of Chalcedon, held in 451.

The Bible is the only sure foundation upon which all true Protestants build every article of the faith which they profess, and every point of doctrine which they teach; and all other foundations, whether they be the decisions of councils, the confessions of churches, the prescripts of popes, or the expositions of private men, are considered by them as sandy and unsafe, or as in no wise to be ultimately relied on.

All Protestants profess to abhor idolatry; yet the greater part of them worship the Trinity in unity, and use a Liturgy, or form of prayer. Some, however, use no form; and both the Arians and Unitarians confine their worship to God the Father. It may also be observed that two sects of Protestants, the Moravians and Swedenborgians, address all their prayers to Jesus Christ. With regard to church-government, however widely they may differ in other respects, all Protestants agree in rejecting an universal visible supreme head of the church, together with the infallibility of any church-governors or councils whatsoever, from the days of the apostles; and all their clergy are seculars. They all, likewise, agree in adopting the principle of the independency of every church in its national character, as subject to no spiritual head but Christ; as conceding no superiority, and claiming no pre-eminence or jurisdiction; as authorized to frame its own laws, and to regulate its own government.

On the continent of Europe, the Protestants are divided into two grand denominations: the Lutherans, who adhere to Luther's tenets; and the Reformed, who follow the doctrine and discipline of Geneva. Together with these, this last class comprehends the Hugonots, in France; the Refugees, in Holland; the members of the establishments, and the Protestant dissenters, of all descriptions, in Great Britain and Ireland; and a numerous body of Christians in North America, the West and East Indies, &c. Before the late revolution, the Protestants in France were supposed to amount to 2,000,000 or upwards, though they then had no legal toleration, and almost their only seminary was a private, and merely tolerated, one at Lausanne, in Switzerland. But, from some recent state

ments, it would appear, that Protestantism is now reviving in various parts of France. However, notwithstanding the toleration of Protestantism in the French dominions, and some other favourable signs of the times, considering the late great prevalence of infidelity, and the consequent diminution of true religion on the continent of Europe, it may be questioned whether the Protestant Churches there be in a flourishing state, or in circumstances of discouragement and distress. The first Protestant church in England was formed soon after Queen Mary's accession, and consisted of about 300 members. Their meetings were held alternately near Aldgate and Blackfriars, in Thames-street, and in ships upon the river. Sometimes they assembled in the villages about London, and especially at Islington, that they might the more easily elude the Bishop's officers and spies. To screen themselves from the notice of their persecutors, they often met in the night, and in secret places.

Their first minister was the learned and pious Bishop, Dr. Edmund Scambler, who died May 7th, 1597, in the 85th year of his age.*

THE PRESBYTERIANS.

The term Presbyterians comes from the Greek word which signifies senior or elder; and the Presbyterians are denominated from their maintaining that the government of the church appointed in the New Testament, was by Presbyteries, that is, by associations of ministers and ruling elders, all possessed of equal powers, without any superiority among them, either in office or in order.

Calvin may be said to be the founder of Presbyterianism, having first established that form at Geneva, about 1541, and Messrs. John Knox and Andrew Melvil, who soon after introduced it into Scotland; where, from the first dawn of the reformation to the revolution, there was a perpetual struggle of contending parties, whether their church should be modelled according to the Episcopal or the Presbyterian form of church government. These men, together with Beza and some others, were violent reformers, and seem to have laid it down as a principle, that in new-modelling their respective churches, they could not recede too far from the church of Rome.

See Mr. Wilson's admirable work on the "Antiquities of the Dissenting Churches of London," &c.

From Geneva, Presbyterianism was introduced among the reformed in France, into Holland, and also into England and Scotland, in which last country it became the established form of church-government at the revolution in 1688. The first Presbytery in England was set up at Wandsworth, in Surrey, in 1572, some years before a Presbytery was heard of in Scotland. This first establishment was called The Order of Wandsworth, by Field, their minister: and under Cromwell, who was alike averse to Episcopacy and Presbyterianism, though he found it expedient to shew favour to the latter, the church of England was delivered to the management of a set of commissioners, consisting partly of Presbyterians, and partly of Independents.

The established religion in Scotland is the Presbyterian; the two parties of Seceders, and the Society of Relief, are also strict Presbyterians; and in England one branch of the Protestant Dissenters are still called Presbyterians, though somewhat improperly. The Presbyterians have long been numerous in Ireland, especially in the north: and on the continent Presbyterianism still prevails, in Switzerland and in Holland. Presbyterians are also numerous in most parts of North America. Presbyterianism is the prevailing religion throughout Connecticut, where it is said to reign "in all its rigour, despotism, and intolerance." Though the letter of the law has established freedom of religious sentiments in Connecticut, yet such freedom is far from being known there. Its ministers, the zeal of its followers, and the appropriation of the places in the college of Presbyterians, exclusively afford very great advantages, to prevent it from being supplanted by any other form of religion. The Presbyterians are also the most numerous sect in North Carolina, especially in the western parts, which are inhabited by emigrants from Pennsylvania. 1788, there were in America about 618 Presbyterian congregations, and 226 ministers: and their general assembly usually meets at Philadelphia in the month of May.

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The appellation Presbyterian is, in England, says Dr. Doddridge, appropriated to a large denomination of Dissenters, who have no attachment to the Scotch mode of churchgovernment any more than to episcopacy; and therefore to this body of Christians, the term Presbyterian, in its original sense, is improperly applied. How this misapplication came to pass, cannot be easily determined; but it has occasioned many wrong notions, and should, therefore, be rectified. English Presbyterians, as they are called, adopt the same mode of church-government with the Independents, from whom they differ chiefly in that they are less attached to Calvinism, and onsequently admit a greater latitude of religious sentiment.