church, and in the purest times of it, were, we know, not exact in all their opinions. Upon the whole, we have certainly great reason to break out in the phrase of the prophet, and say, "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth glad tidings!" This will be pronounced an high drawn character of the great reformer; but the reader is referred to Bower's Life of Luther recently published, a volume, on account of its research and impartiality, entitled to attention.

HUGONOTS.

THE appellation Hugonots was given to the French Protestants in 1561. The term is (by some) supposed to be derived from a gate in Tours, called Hugon, where they first assembled. According to others, the name is taken from the first words of their original protest, or confession of faith-Huc nos venimus, &c. During the reign of Charles the Ninth, and on the 24th of August, 1572, happened the massacre of Bartholomew, when 70,000 Protestants throughout France were butchered, with circumstances of aggravated cruelty. It began at Paris in the night of the festival of Bartholomew, by secret orders from Charles the Ninth, at the instigation of his mother, the Queen Dowager Catherine de Me

dicis. See Sully's Memoirs, and also a fine description of it in the second canto of Voltaire's Henriade.

In 1598, Henry the Fourth passed the famous Edict of Nantz, which secured to his old friends the Protestants the free exercise of their religion. This edict was cruelly revoked by Lewis the Fourteenth, Their churches were then razed to the ground; their persons insulted by the soldiery, and, after the loss of innumerable lives, 500,000 valuable members of society were driven into exile! In Holland they built several places of worship, and had amongst them some distinguished preachers. Among others were Superville, Dumont, Dubosc, and the eloquent Saurin. Five volumes of whose select sermons were translated iuto our language by the late Mr. Robinson of Cambridge, a sixth by the late Dr. Hunter, and a seventh by Mr. Sutcliff of Olney. In one of these sermons Saurin makes the following fine apostrophe to the tyrant, LEWIS the Fourteenth, by whom they were driven into exile; it breathes the noble spitit of Christianity:-" And thou, dreadful Prince, whom I once honoured as my king, and whom I yet respect as a scourge in the hand of Almighty God, thou also shalt have a part in my good wishes! These provinces, which thou threatenest, but which the arm of the Lord protects; this country, which thou fillest with refugees, but fugitives animated with love; these walls, which contain a thousand martyrs of thy making, but whom religion renders victorious, all

these yet resound benedictions in thy favour.

God

grant the fatal bandage that hides the truth from thy eyes may fall off May God forget the rivers of blood with which thou hast deluged the earth, and which thy reign hath caused to be shed! May God blot out of his book the injuries which thou hast done us, and while he reward the sufferers, may he pardon those who exposed us to suffer! O may God, who hath made thee to us, and to the whole church; a minister of his judgments, make thee a dispenser of his favours, and an administrator of his mercy!"

About the time of the Revolution, 1688, there were many controversies between the Protestant and Catholic divines. Tillotson and Burnet, two clergymen of the church of England, rendered Protestantism great service by their writings and were, on that account, elevated to the bench by King William. There are also two excellent volumes of Sermons against Popery, preached in the early part of last century, by Dissenting Ministers, at Salter's Hall. Dr. Chandler's Discourse on the Notes or marks of the Church of Rome, to be found in this collection, is deemed a masterly production. Burnet's History of the Reformation, and the History of his Own Times, published after his death by his son, throw light on the state of religion in the last and preceding centuries among Catholics, Churchmen, and Dissenters,, The merit of these publications, particularly the latter, is appreciated by Dr. Kippis, under the article Burnet,

H

in the Biographia Britannica. To these may be added a Defence of Protestantism, by the late Dr. Sturges, in his answer to Dr. Milner, (a Catholic bishop,) who, in his History of Winchester, takes every opportunity of reprobating Protestantism, and of erecting on its ruins the edifice of his own religion. Dr. S. animadverts with spirit on the calumnies by which his antagonist had endeavoured to blacken the characters of the Reformers; and proves the Protestant religion, by its honourable views of the Divine Being, and by its sacred regard for the rights of mankind, to be the only true and primitive Christianity. Dr. Milner replied at length and with ability to Dr. Sturges, who only noticed it in the preface to the subsequent edition of his own work, content to share the obloquy cast upon him in conjunction with some of the most learned, virtuous, and pious characters that ever adorned the Christian world.

EPISCOPALIANS;
OR,

CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

THE Episcopalians, in the modern acceptation of the term, belong more especially to the Church of England, and derive this title from Episcopus, the Latin word for bishop; or, if it be referred to its

Greek origin, from Er over, and Exorsw to look, implying the care and diligence with which bishops are expected to preside over those committed to their guidance and direction. They insist on the divine origin of their bishops, and other church officers, and on the alliance between church and state. Respecting these subjects, however, Warburton and Hoadley, together with others of the learned amongst them, have different opinions, as they have also on their thirty-nine articles, which were established in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. They are to be found in most Common Prayer-Books; and the Episcopal church in America has reduced their number to twenty. By some, these articles are made to speak the language of Calvinism, and by others have been interpreted in favour of Arminianism. Even lately the controversy was agitated-and the publications of Overton, Kipling, and Daubeny, together with the recent Charge of the Bishop of Lincoln, may be consulted on the subject. The doctrines and discipline of the Church of England are nearly connected with the reformation of Lather in Germany, and also with the state of ecclesiastical affairs for a considerable time before that reformation commenced.

Eusebius positively asserts, that Christianity was first introduced into South Britain by the apostles and their disciples; and it is supposed that the apostle Paul visited this country, whose zeal, dili