uated the doctrines, superstitions, intolerance, and cruelties of Popery. So that, while the nation gained much on the score of independence, the people of God gained but little on the score of Christian liberty, by the change from Pope to King as head of the Church. Up to the date of his quarrel with the Pope, Henry vigorously opposed the Reformation. But even after espousing it, for some time he sternly prohibited the reading and the circulation of the Scriptures, and such as were desirous of a thorough reformation, and attached to the doctrines of the Evangelical Reformers-were treated as heretics. Tyndal and others fled into foreign lands from persecution, and while in exile prepared a translation of the New Testament; and just at the juncture when Henry had changed his mind and for the first time given permission for the reading and circulation of the word of God, Tyndal had the New Testament all ready-corrected, translated, and printed. But it was circulated in the face of great difficulties. "The Bishops condemned it as full of errors-used severity against all who read it, and complained to the King against it in such terms as induced him to call it in. And over the subject of the right of the people to the Scriptures, parties were formed and the struggle commenced, which widened and drew into it all questions involved in the religious rights of the people of God, in after generations. The men who, under Henry VIII., took ground in favor of the free circulation of the word of God, and the unrestrained reading of it, and contended against the position of such as would deny the common people the word of God, on the ground that its general reading would "lay the foundation for innumerable heresies," were the men who had caught the spirit of Wickliffe, and embraced his evangelical views of the Gospel, and of the prevailing Popish errors and corruptions in religion, and were the men who led the party of thorough and Evangelical Reformers under Edward VI., and whose spirit descended and reappeared in the Puritans under Elizabeth. The men who labored and prayed and suffered, in order to bring about a thorough reformation of religion under the several reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth, were men of the same religious principles-the same faith, the same love of the pure word of God, the same views as to the proper

manner of worshiping God and of governing the Church. But the efforts made to withhold and suppress the word of God in Henry's day were special means under providence of bringing it into notice, and of causing the people to seek for it and eagerly read it, and bringing about a conflict between Scripture, truth, and Popish doctrines. "The people began to seriously inquire, Can men be saved by the use of holy water, absolution, extreme unction, and the eucharist, or must holy principles, deep repentance, and living faith, renew and transform the soul? And so earnest was the conflict that the King forbade all preaching, till he as head of the Church could set forth the scheme of doctrine in which all should agree." And he did set forth a scheme of doctrine for uniform faith, by mixing up, in the form of the Bishop's book, something of what both sides believed. He made the Scriptures and the ancient creeds the standards of faith, without the traditions of the Church and the decrees of the Pope. But the ceremonies, rites, and superstitions of worship were left almost untouched. It is said that "the alterations which he made in the rites of the Church were so slight that there was no need of reprinting the missal." He kept his strong hand upon the work of reformation within his dominions, and did not suffer it to proceed upon the principles of the right of private judgment and the sufficiency of the Scriptures as a rule of faith-but limited it to his own ideas and conceptions, and such as did not submit to his judgments he pursued as heretics-precisely the ground that Queen Elizabeth took, and the course she pursued in the exercise of her prerogative in matters spiritual. So much to the grievance of the Puritans of her day. But let it be marked that there were men, in even Henry's day, who did not consent to his high claims as head of the Church, and who did not submit their consciences to his judgments in spiritual things, and who did, earnestly and in the face of great difficulties, dangers, and sufferings, pray and labor to have a more thorough reformation of religion made in his dominions, being men of same character, same principles, same aims, and occupying relatively the same position towards the civil and spiritual powers of their times, as the Puritans in theirs.

When Edward VI. came to the throne, " much was done in

removing superstitions and ceremonies. The Service Book, or Liturgy, was put out, reforming the officers of the Church, which, Hall says, "was gotten up under the general aim of pleasing both Papists and Reformers, taking out of the Papish Liturgy only so much as the Papists would stand to have taken out; and putting in only so much of the Scriptures as was the least that would satisfy the Protestants. Out of the Romish missals of Sarum, York, Hereford, and Bangor (for popery had never required a uniform liturgy), they compiled the morning and the evening service almost in the same form as it stands at present." This was put out with a view to harmonize the sentiments and worship of the reforming clergy and the Papists, between whom a very serious and radical conflict sprang up as soon as Edward's liberal reign began. The reforming clergy assailed images, holy water, consecrated candles, justification by sacraments, masses, absolutions, and ceremonials, while the Papists defended them. Such acts were passed by Parliament as amounted to a total change of the established religion, but these were in advance of light among the people. The great body of the priests and people had not yet understood the truth, and were not ripe for these external changes. But the conflict of views between the reforming clergy and the Papists waxed warmer and warmer, and their debate of words began to reach the crisis of violence; and the King interposed and required these contentions to cease, and signified his intention of having one uniform order throughout the realm, and till that order could be set forth, all manner of persons were forbidden to preach save by special license. The King issued his Service Book, prescribing one uniform order, and by act of parliament all divine offices were required to be performed according to it under pain of severe penalties. The people were unwilling to give up their ancient rituals; a liturgy was therefore adopted that went in the direction of the Reformation only as far as the times allowed; and those who got it up as the best that the state of the times would permit, were not satisfied with their own work, but desired to have carried the work of reforming the service of the Church much further. But owing to the want of scripture knowledge among the masses of the people, and the very limited extent to which genuine

reformation had been carried among them, all that King Edward and his reforming clergy could do, was to "draw up their Liturgy from Popish originals," and leave the rituals and vestments retaining as much of the shape, fashion, and savor of Popery as would render them not idolatrous, with the hope of further amendments when the times would allow them.

Mary next came into power, and being a zealous Papist, she at once restored the papal religion, the Pope to the headship of the Church, and tried to undo all that had been done in reformation of religion under Henry and Edward, and put to death many leading Protestants; and to escape her fiery and bloody hands, many others fled to other lands. John Rogers had the distinguished honor of being the Lord's first martyr under her hands. Profoundly learned, enlightened in the true doctrine of the Gospel, and receiving meekly the truth as it is in Jesus, he was among the first under Henry to cast off the idolatry of Rome, and spend his energies in aiding the work of translating the word of God into the English language, and in preaching the Gospel in its simplicity and power. For these things, after suffering imprisonment and passing through three different trials before the zealous friends of popery, and always defending himself manfully, and while in his trials, many things "were put upon him to aggravate his sufferings, always preserving remarkable equanimity of mind, and finally yielding up his testimony with great joy." This is the man whose memory has always been precious to the hearts of God's people in all countries, and whose name, character, and piety the people of New England, a few years ago, took special care to honor. Forty years ago it was remarkable how uniformly the children throughout the United States first began to learn their A, B, C, in the New England Primer, presenting upon its front page John Rogers chained to a stake in the midst of flames of fire kept stirred up by Mary's executioners, his wife and children standing and weeping around him; and concluding with the Shorter Catechism of the Westminster Assembly.

Elizabeth succeeded to the throne, and was a Protestant. The exiles hastened home, and those Protestants who had hid themselves began to appear. But Elizabeth was not Protestant enough to risk the loss of her crown for the sake of giving

her people, at once, the Gospel in its purity. She used carnal policy in her manner of carrying on the Reformation. While she felt that it was important to uphold the Reformation, she also felt that it was important to conciliate her papal subjects, and consequently the public religion continued, for a time, in the same posture in which she found it; the popish priests kept their livings and went on celebrating mass; none of the Protestant clergy who had been ejected in the reign of Mary were restored; and orders were given against all innovations in religion without public authority. The acts of Henry and Edward were revived, restoring to the crown. supremacy in the Church. These acts had been passed by Parliament, investing the crown with all jurisdiction in church and state, and giving to the prince authority to make laws, ceremonies, and constitutions, and without him no such laws, ceremonies, etc., could be of force. In Henry's time, "the Parliament had given to the king the prerogatives of infallibility, and bound themselves and the kingdom to receive upon trust, without question or examination, whatever dogmas or ceremonies the king and his prelates should be pleased to establish; and it was left to the civil courts to interfere with the ecclesiastical whenever it became a question what ecclesiastical requisitions were contrary to the laws and statutes of the realm." The leading Protestants, who had returned from exile, before leaving the continent, had been "pressed by the Reformers there to act with zeal and courage, and take care in the first beginnings to have all things settled upon sure and sound foundations; and had come home under strong convictions that it was their duty to do so, and to make a bold stand for a thorough reformation." They immediately joined issue with these acts of Parliament and this supreme power of the crown in ecclesiastical matters. They objected to the absurdity of a lay person, and that, too, a woman, as in the present case, being the head of a spiritual body. The Queen explained that she did not, as head of the Church, pretend to be a spiritual person; nor intend to "exercise any ecclesiastical function in her own person; nor challenge authority to minister divine service in the Church; and that all that was intended in her claims to supremacy was that, under God, she had the sovereignty and rule over all persons born in her realms, either