75 LETTER XX. PREFATORY SKETCHES-continued. ADVANCEMENT OF THE REFORMATION UNDER EDWARD VI PROBABLE ORIGIN OF THE PRESBYTERIAN GOVERNMENT.DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. EARLY DIFFERENCES AMONGST THE REFORMERS, CONFINED TO HA BITS AND CEREMONIES. ABUSE OF THE DOCTRINE OF PREDESTINATION, MENTIONED BY BISHOP GROWING IRRITATION AND FINAL BREACH BETWEEN THE ESTABLISHMENT AND THE PURITANS. MY DEAR FRIEND, Ir gives me great pleasure to find that you are interested in my little sketches, and encourages me to pursue them without farther preface or apology, I will try, however, not to fatigue you with their length, and to confine them, strictly, to such points as bear upon the principle which I am anxious to establish. When the Reformers of our Church were emancipated from the control of Henry's capricious temper and arbitrary government, they proceeded with new energy, to finish the glorious work, of which, in his reign, they had only laid the foundations. With a single eye to the establishment of truth, and advancing (it appears,) as their own Scriptural light extended, they gradually removed every real abuse, while they cautiously avoided all unnecessary innovation and, regulating their faith, by the Bible, and their discipline, by the pattern of the primitive Church, they endeavoured to frame a scheme of national doctrine, so comprehensive, and yet so precise, as should exclude none, for minute discrepancies of opinion, who held the fundamental truths of Christianity, while it should strictly bar the entrance of the Church against all who perverted, or who denied those truths. ; of It appears that our Reformers did not symbolize, strictly, in doctrine with any the continental Churches, though they seem to have occasionally corresponded with all; and the changes in religion, being accomplished, not merely with the consent, but with the zealous co-operation of the civil government, our Church was happily spared the violent disruption of all ties of ecclesiastical discipline and subordination, which necessarily followed the Reformation, in those countries, whose governments continued attached to the interests of the Church of Rome. What was at first a measure of necessity, however, soon became a measure of choice, from prejudice or principle, with some of the reformed Churches; and a doubt of the lawfulness of episcopal government, succeeded to their resentment of its abuses. I think bishop Hall observés, that Calvin himself would have been an episcopalian, if the bishop of Geneva had adopted the protestant principles, and become the protector of the infant Church; and I cannot but believe that much of Knox's inveterate opposition to episcopacy in his own country, may be traced to the resistance made by the Scottish bishops, to the Reformation. In England, however, no difference of opinion upon this point, seems yet to have existed amongst the Reformers; and the established form of Church government, (with the simple exclusion of foreign interference,) appears to have been retained, not merely as expedient, but as consonant to primitive usage and apostolic institution.. In the compilation of our doctrinal Articles, two objects appear to have been held in view; comprehension, on the one side, and exclusion on the other; -the provision of an effectual security against popery, which was the object of universal detestation and alarm; and of an allowance for those minor discrepancies of opinion upon some abstract and speculative points, which might distinguish, without dividing, the members of a protestant Church. The very disputation upon the meaning of our Articles, is a proof of the skill with which this latter object was accomplished; and of the prudence and truly Christian humility of those excellent men, who, mutually sacrificing system to peace, and presuming not to be wise above what is written, ventured no farther on these mysterious questions, (as one of their number beautifully said,) than the Scripture did, as it were, lead them by the hand. But the great Christian principle of salvation by grace, and the renunciation of all personal or meritorious claim upon the divine justice or clemency, appears to have been equally held by all the Reformers, and is stated in our Articles, in strong and unequivocal language. The opinion, also, of the natural inappetency of the human will to every thing spiritually good, and of the necessity of preventing and regenerating grace, to enable man even to lay hold on the offered salvation, are expressly asserted; and the guards which are subsequently introduced, against the abuse of either of these doctrines, are proofs of the ample and un |