The settlement of New-England by a colony of Christians, may be remotely ascribed to the Reformation of Luther in Germany; or, to speak more exactly, to the rational and evangelical instructions of Wickliffe in England. While others were wrapt in papal darkness, he saw the true light. He was one of those uncommon men, one of an age, who appear in the world, as benefactors and instructors of the human race. He taught that the gospel of Christ was a perfect rule of life and manners; that St. Peter was not above the other apostles, nor the pontiff of Rome superior to the bishops.

A hundred and thirty years before Luther, Wickliffe rose, the morning star of the reformation. He was the first translator of the New-Testament into English, and wrote nearly two hundred volumes. These, with his bones, were burnt after by order of the council of Constance, forty one years his death. He taught, for substance, the same doctrines which Luther afterwards taught with so much greater success; the same doctrines which have since been professed by the Puritans, and which now constitute the creed of the great body of the New-England churches.

These new doctrinces of Wickliffe roused the resentment of the papal church. Though for more than a thousand years, christians had not armed themselves with any weapons of force to punish their erring brethren; though their only means of restraining those who wandered from the footsteps of the flock, had been prayers and tears, admonitions and excommunications; yet now, finding these insufficient, the council of Lateran, A.D. 1215, in imitation of the pagan emperors, and instigated by papal influence, gave orders that all heretics should be delivered Then blazed the over to the civil magistrate to be burned

first fire of persecution, kindled by professing christians; a fire which has sometimes carried misery and ruin through a whole nation; a fire, whose embers are now hardly extinguished on the altars of the church.

But the conflagration did not reach England till about two hundred years after its commencement; till near the close of the fourteenth century. In the reign of Richard II. and of Henry IV. and Henry V. laws were enacted, that heretics" might be burned to death before the peo ple." The consequences were terrible. If any of the laity refused any profits, or any token of respect, which were supposed to be due to the priests of Rome, they were immediately suspected and accused of heresy, imprisoned, and put to death. By a law of Henry V. not only the followers of Wickliffe, but whoever else they were, "who should read the scriptures in the mother tongue, should forfeit land, cattle and goods, from their heirs forever, and so be condemned for heretics to God, and most arrant traitors to the land." To this iniquitous law hundreds fell victims In such a state of things, Henry VIII. ascended the throne of England. This proud young monarch, during the first part of his reign, was a warm supporter of the papal power, and put to torture and to death multitudes of the bold confessors of the truth.

The effects of the Reformation by Luther, were now felt in England. The young king, possessing enough of scholastic learning to make him vain, and of zeal against the truth, to make him mad, engaged in a controversy with Luther, and published a book against him, which, "though it carried the king's name in the title," was actually written by another hand. "But whoever had the labor of the book,

the king had the thanks, and the reward."* The Pope conferred on him for this act, the title of "Defender of the Faith," which he had the weakness to value as "the brightest jewel in his crown." This event happened in the year 1521.

A few years after this, an occurrence took place, which proved nearly fatal to the cause of popery in England, and in a wonderful manner favored the advancement of the Reformation. The king, who had lived with his wife Katharine nearly twenty years, became weary of her; and being as unprincipled as he was licentious, he pretended great compunction of conscience, because he had lived with her so long; she having been his brother's widow. The truth was, he had fallen in love with Anne Boleyn. In the ardor of this passion, he consulted with the universities of Europe; he applied to the pope for a divorce; but the pope from political motives, not yielding to his desires, Henry adopted a short and violent course. He declared himself and his kingdom independent of Rome, and himself "sole and supreme head of the church of England." Under such malignant auspices the Reformation had its rise in the English nation. Though nothing could be more unscriptural or absurd, than for a vicious layman to assume the uncontrouled authority of reforming heresies, of establishing doc

* Fox's Martyrology.

His Jester, whom he kept at court, seeing the king overjoyed, asked the reason, and being told that it was occasioned by his new title, he said, "My good Harry, let thee and me defend each other, and let the faith alone to defend itself."

This sacred title, the proud monarch, afterward, got annexed to the crown, by an act of parliament: and, ineredible as it may seem, it is retained to this time.

Heylin.

trines, discipline, and modes of worship for the church of Christ; yet these daring measures have been followed with immense benefits to the cause of Christianity. So marvellously does God cause "the wrath of man to praise him." The wicked passions of Henry, though he meant not so, occasioned a light, which still shines to cheer millions of Christians scattered over the face of the earth; but for a season, it gleamed through much darkness. Henry himself became a persecutor. His Roman Catholic subjects he persecuted for their obedience to the Roman pontiff, The followers of Wickliffe he persecuted, because they were wiser and better than himself. The conceited tyrant felt entirely competent to direct the faith and worship of all his subjects. He was, in fact, the pope of England. One of the many evils, which grew out of this unwarrantable and wicked conduct of the king, was the prevalence of a variety of conflicting opinions. Soon it was an article of complaint to the court, that a diversity of doctrines were delivered from the pulpits. This was considered an insupportable evil. As an effectual remedy the king ordered all preaching to be suspended throughout the kingdom, from the 12th of July, 1536, to the 29th of September, that he might have time to adjust a system of orthodoxy, to guide the clergy in teaching their flocks.

In the summer of this year, (1536) the first reformed convocation in England assembled, over which lord Cromwell presided as the king's vicegerent in all spiritual matters. To this assembly, by order of the king, he declared, "That it was his majesty's pleasure, that the rites and ceremonies of the Church should be reformed by the RULES OF

Fuller's Church History.
B 2

SCRIPTURE, and that nothing should be maintained, which did not rest on that authority; for it was absurd, since the Scriptures were acknowledged to contain the laws of relig ion, that recourse should be had to glosses or the decrees of popes, rather than to them." Happy for the Church, for England and the world, had the king and the reformers adhered to the rules here prescribed. But the king did not stop here. He ordered his clergy to teach the people to believe not only the whole bible, but also the apostles, the Nicene and Athanasian creeds; that baptism was necessary to salvation; that contrition, faith and reformation were, necessary to eternal life; that confession to a priest was necessary, if one can be obtained; and that his absolution is the same, as if it were spoken by God himself; that the bread and wine of the sacrament are truly of the same body which was born of the virgin; that justification implies a renovation of nature, &c. The worship of images and prayers to the saints were required; purgatory he left doubtful. In this manner truth and error were miserably blended. Thus was the dawn of the reformation overcast with clouds of darkness. All the people were required by law, to swear that the king was supreme head of the church of England; a number of papists were executed for refusing the oath. Among these were John Fisher, bishop of Rochester, and Sir T. Moore, then late lord chancellor of England. For a time this struck the people with panic, but did not long prevent insurrections in different places. In Lincolnshire, twenty thousand people rose, headed by a priest, and directed by a mouk.

In 1538, a brighter light beamed on the church. The bible was printed in English; liberty was given to the people

Burnet's Hist, of the Reformation.