'•Know then, sir, that when I >ay the religion of Prot- estants is in prudence to be preferred before yours, on the one side, I do not understand by your religion the doc- trine of Bellarmine, or Barunius, or any oilier private man among you, nor the doctrine of the Sorbonne, of the Jesuits, or of the Dominicans, or of any other particular company among you, |>ut thai wherein you all agree, or profess io agree, the doctrine of the Council of Trent ; so, accordingly, on the other side, by the religion of Protes- tants, I do not understand the doctrine of Luther, or Cal- vin, oi' Melancthon, nor the Confession of Augsburg, or Geneva, nor the < latechism ofHeidelberg, nor the \, i icles of the ( iiiirch of England— no, nor the harmony of Prot- estanl confessions; but thai in which they all agree, and
which lliev all subscribe with a '.'renter Ininnonv. a- a per- fect rnleoffnith audaction- that is, the Bible. The Bible,
I say the Ki 1)1. ly— is tin' religion of Protestants.
Whatsoever else they believe beside it. nnd tin- plain, ir- refragable, indubitable consequences of it, well may they hold it. as a mailer of opinion; but as n matter of faith and religion, neither can they with coherence to their own grounds believe II themselves, nor require belief of it of others, without most hi<,'h and most schismatical pre- sumption. I, for my part, after a Ion-, and, as i verily
lid hope. Impartial, search of the trui' way to eternal happiue— , do profess plainly that I cannot find any rest for the sole of mv foot but "upon this rock only. I see plainly, and with mj own eyes, thai there are popes against pop,-- and council's against councils : sonic fathers against other father-, the same fathers against them- selves; a consent of fathers of one age against a consent of fathers of another age; traditive interpretations of Scripture are pretended, but there are few or none to be found : no tradition bnt that ofScriptnre can derive itself from the fountain, but may be plainly proved either to
have been brought in in such an age after Christ, or that in SUCh an age it was not ill. In a word, there is no suffi- cient certainty but of Scripture only for any considering man to build npon. This, therefore, and this only, I have reason to believe. This I will profess; according to this I will live; and for this, if there be occasion, I will not only willingly, but even gladly, lo-e my life, though I should be sorry that Christians should take it from me. Propose me anything out of this book, and require wheth- er I believe or no, and, seem it never so incomprehensible to human reason, I will subscribe it with hand and heart, a- knowing no demonstration can be stronger than this — God hath said so, therefore it is true. In other things, I will take no man's liberty of judging from him; neither .-hall any man take mine from me."
The body of Protestant 9 consists, generally speaking, of Sweden, Denmark, and Norway — all Lutheran; the
larger half, of the population of the Netherlands; about half of the population of Switzerland, including the can- tons of Aargau. Zurich. Berne, most of Yaud— all Cal- vinistic; the English, Irish, and Scottish churches, with
their colonial and American daughters; the Scottish Presbyterians; the large bodies of Lutherans, Calvin- ists. Huguenots, in the other countries of Europe; the
English and Irish Nonconformists and their descendants in the United state- and the colonies.
Of the chief of these Protestant denominations we give here a brief narrative of the process of their separate formation, referring the reader for fuller in- formation to the separate articles under their respec- tive lilies. "The Lutherans took the name and ac- cepted the teachings of Luther, who, while maintaining the doctrine of justification by faith alone, and the authority and Sufficiency of the Scriptures, also main- tained, in a modified form, the doctrine of the real presence of Christ in the communion, and allowed the use of images and pictures in the churches. Zwingli, the Swiss reformer, denied that the Lord's Supper was anything more than a commemorative ordinance. Many of the Reformers in other coun- tries shared his views, and out of the controversy be- tween him and Luther sprang the Reformed churches of Germany and Holland. Meanwhile John Calvin had commenced his labors as the organizer of the Reforma- tion. The product of his literary labor was the Insti- tutes; of his executive labor, the Presbyterian form of government For both he found, eventually, a free field in Geneva, and his labors there not only gave to tie.- Reformed churches of Switzerland their final char' acter— a character which they bear to this day — but furnished the model of doctrine and government which the Presbyterian churches of Great Britain and the United States have since largely adopted. This, also, is substantially the form of government of the Reformed ( 'hiireh of France. Certain tenets peculiar to this form of theology were repudiated by oilier leader- among the Reformers. Arminius, in Holland, denied that the Scriptures taught the doctrine of predestination and others connected intimately, if not necessarily, with it. Prom him sprang the Arniiiiians, who. as a sect, are re- duced to an insignificant number, but whose doctrines