KING EDWARD dying, at the age of sixteen years, he was succeeded by his eldest Sister, the daughter of Catharine of Arragon, emphatically styled the bloody Mary, because, in a reign of no more than five years, she caused to be burned at the stake two hundred and seventy-seven Persons, among whom were fifty-five Women, and four Children; in a vain attempt to restore the Realm of England to the supremacy the Papal See.

of

In the year 1558, the fiery Zealot was succeeded by Queen Elizabeth, in whose long and prosperous reign the Church of England was too firmly established to be shaken by the secret or open catholicism of her Successors of the House of Stuart; though a Protestant Historian must no

tice with regret, that Elizabeth, instead of prosecuting the Reformation, after the example, and intentions, of her Royal Brother, conceived that the pious Edward had already gone too far, in stripping Religion of her ornaments; being herself disposed to retain the use of crucifixes, lighted tapers, and instrumental music, as well as the Sacerdotal vestments, which contribute to the pomp and splendour with which that aspiring Princess delighted to invest the throne—It is even suggested that the Virgin Queen would have forbidden the marriage of the Clergy, if her Secretary Cecil had not interposed in their behalf.

THE Zealous Professors who had escaped from the Marian Persecution, by

withdrawing

withdrawing into Foreign Countries; and who now returned in great numbers from Frankfort, Strasburg, Basil, Zurich, and Geneva, were naturally offended by the retrograde motions of the National Establishment (which have since converted Episcopal Jurisdiction into Political Influence) and after ineffectual attempts to promote the Reformation in the bosom of the Church, they finally separated themselves from her commu nion, for the liberty of discharging their Christian duty, according to their own ideas of Gospel order and religious obligation.

The Dissenting Congregations now suffered persecution from the National Church, which had succeeded to the power and wealth of the abrogated sys

tem.

tem. But it must not be forgotten that oppression and cruelty were the vices of the Age. Clerical Synods were not likely to shake off intolerance, whilst Courts of Justice at Paris as well as at London, accredited prosecutions for sorcery and witchcraft; and if the Theologians of Edinburgh and Geneva groped their way among the mazes of Election and Reprobation, contemporary Astrologers prognosticated events from the aspect of the heavens, and Alchemists perceived, in the combination of metals, the Phantom of the Philosopher's Stone.

Among the Dissenters of Great Britain, successively arose the Presbyterians, the Baptists, and the Quakers (scornfully so called in England, though better known in America by the character

istic epithet of Friends) each of whom endeavoured, in turn, to advance upon their Predecessors, in reducing the Christian Discipline and Worship to the perfect standard of Primitive Simplicity.

IN a New World, on the Western side of the Atlantic, the Antichristian Alliance between Church and State has been at length abolished. The Elective Government of the United States, unfettered by the shackles of prescription, disclaims all right of interference in matters of conscience. From New Hampshire to Georgia the various Professors of Christianity (whether Catholic or Protestant) have relinquished exclusive pretensions for mutual forbearance; and their various modifications, like the flowers of a parterre,

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