two distinct substances, viz. iron and fire, are united, so is the body of Christ joined with the bread in the eucharist. I mention this miserable comparison, to shew into what absurdities the towering pride of system will often betray men of deep sense and true genius."

Such is the account given of the LUTHERANS in a respectable work, and it appears to be founded in truth. I shall only remark, that, according to the above sketch, Luther differed considerably from Calvin respecting election and reprobation; and as to the principle, that Christians are accountable to God alone for their religious opinions, it is a sentiment worthy of a great and elevated mind. It is the corner-stone on which the Reformation has been raised. It is the only true foundation of religious improvement, and wherever it is sincerely embraced, will check every degree of uncharitableness and persecution, and forward the blessed reign of love and charity amongst the professors of Christianity*.

* In Swift's well known Tale of a Tub, he satirises three distinct classes of religious professors-the Church of Rome, under the appellation of Peter, whose keys for an admission into heaven are supposed to be in their possession-the Church of England, under the name of Martin, because its reformation originated with Martin Luther-and the Dissenters, under the name of Jack, on account of the principles of John Calvin being so prevalent amongst them. It is fraught with that dry sarcastic wit for which the writings of the dean of St. Patrick are distin guished,

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 Medicis. 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 into our language by the late Mr. Robinson of Cambridge, and the sixth by the late Dr. Hunter. 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 spirit 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 rewards 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 the Popish 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 of immortal memory. There are also two excellent volumes of Sermons against Popery, preached in the early part of last century, by various Dissenting ministers, at Salter's Hall. Burnet's History of the Reformation, and The History of his Own Times, published after his death by his son, are two works which throw light on the state of religion in the last and preceding centuries among Papists, Churchmen, and Dissenters. The merit of these publications, particularly the latter, is appreciated by Dr. Kippis, under the article Burnet, in the Biographia Britannica. To these may now be added a Defence of Protestantism, by Dr. Sturges, in his answer to Mr. Milner, (a Catholic priest) who, in his History of Winchester, takes every opportunity of reprobating the Protestant religion, and of erecting on its ruins his beloved edifice of Popery: Dr. S. shews the rise, progress, and tendency of the Romish religion; animadverts with

spirit on the calumnies by which his antagonist had endeavoured to blacken the characters of the Reformers; and, finally, he proves the Protestant religion, by its views of the Divine Being, and by its regard for the rights of mankind, to be the only true and primitive Christianity.

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 ET over, and ExoTTE to look, implying the care and dilgence 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