VI. Australia..... VII. United States of America... Chap. VIII. Controversies of British Christians. Sect. I. Socinian Controversy II. Calvinistic Controversy III. Baptismal Regeneration Controversy 636 639 ..... 641 642 643 644 BRITISH ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. BOOK I. TO THE ARRIVAL OF THE SAXONS, A. D. 449. CHAP I, THE IMPORTANCE OF BRITISH ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY." The Bible an Ecclesiastical History-History of England important-Of Christianity more important-Increase of Education in England requires an appropriate Ecclesiastical History-Principles of Church History. ECCLESIASTICAL History is commended to the study of every man, by the infinite wisdom of God. This is the principal method in which the Holy Spirit has chosen to give permanent instruction to mankind. Divine revelation in the Bible consists chiefly of ecclesiastical records; for the inspired sages of the Hebrew nation, both under the Levitical and the Christian dispensation, were employed to make known the will of God, by successive details of church history. Treasures of eternal truth and grace are, in that manner, imparted to our race, strikingly evincing how God "hath abounded towards us in all wisdom and prudence," for the promotion of our salvation. Historical details are means of communicating knowledge which is most generally interesting to mankind; and through every age, some of the wisest and best of men have devoted their time and talents to this department of learning, labouring to benefit their countrymen, especially the rising generation, in forming them to the love of liberty, patriotism, and virtue. Minds the most cultivated have been engaged in compiling valuable works on the History of England; suited, not only to the learned, and those having leisure for profound investigations, but also as class-books for the young,-and B further simplified so as to be adapted to the capacities of those yet training in the nursery. Few, however, have employed their abilities in writing the Church History of England; and still fewer have exhibited that pre-eminent subject in an inviting form, accommodated to the plain reader, and suited to the capacities of the young. But if general history be a subject worthy of the noblest powers of the learned, why not records of the Church of God in Britain? Are the public less interested in this mode of representing the actions of their forefathers, than in the political, the commercial, the naval, and the military history of our country? Has "the noble army of martyrs" in Britain bled in vain? Are the present passing events of our nation of less moment religiously considered, than they are politically? Are the moral and Christian prospects of Great Britain unworthy of any person's contemplation? Surely no one who professes the name of Christ, believing the inspired predictions of the Word of God, will presume thus rashly to judge! Regarded in connection with the provisions of the gospel, .no view of the condition of our country, from the period of the conversion of our Druid forefathers down to our "glorious days," can possibly be so interesting as the present; and the “signs of the times," in reference to future ages, embracing the operations of our religious institutions, the condition of our immense colonies and foreign dependencies, and the influence of our commercial intercourse with all nations;· -no subject can be imagined more inviting to the study of the enlightened patriot, the benevolent philanthropist, and the devout Christian, with their rising youth, than, British Ecclesiastical History. Education is happily becoming universal. And besides the increasing academical establishments, and the multiplication of readers in the higher and middle classes of society, Sunday Schools are effecting an intellectual and moral transformation of the rising generation. For contemplating, inquisitive youth, peculiarly the hope of the Christian church in Britain, and especially that most useful body, the ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY THOUSAND gratuitous Sunday School teachers, the great benefactors of our age, with their ONE MILLION TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND inquiring pupils, every intelligent pious parent and pastor will perceive the importance of a British Ecclesiastical History, adapted to enlighten and direct the understanding in the avoidance of error and the embracing of truth. Entertaining a sacred reverence for those glorious doctrines of redemption by Christ, restored at the Reformation, and in defence of which Hamilton, Tindal, Hooper, Ridley, Latimer, and Cranmer, laid down their lives, the author's standard of faith is that which was theirs-the blessed Word of God; and he confesses with the great Chillingworth, that "the Bible, the Bible alone, is the religion of Protestants.” Pursuing the review of true Christianity in its progress through our country, he will endeavour to make the Holy Scriptures his rule of decision concerning principles, institutions, and men. According to his best judgment, that which he finds among all professing Christians in accordance with the Word of God, he will cordially recommend as having the Divine approbation; but all that may be discovered at variance with that infallible rule, will, with equal freedom, be censured or condemned as truly antichristian. Archbishop Secker, in his Lectures on the "Church Catechism," judiciously states-"The Catholic church is the universal church spread through the world; and the Catholic faith is the universal faith; that form of doctrine which the apostles delivered to the whole church, and it received. What that faith was we may learn from their writings, contained in the New Testament; and at so great a distance of time we can learn it with certainty nowhere else. Every church or society of Christians, that preserves this Catholic or universal faith, accompanied with true charity, is a part of the Catholic or universal church. And in this sense, churches that differ widely in several notions and customs, may, notwithstanding, each of them be truly Catholic churches." In perfect agreement with this judgment of the pious prelate, is the definition of a Christian church in the nineteenth Article of the Church of England: which says, "The visible church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men, in which the pure word of God is preached, and the sacraments duly administered according to Christ's ordinance, in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same." Upon the principles thus expressed, and which have his cordial approbation as divine, the author has compiled this BRITISH ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. CHAP. II. CONDITION OF BRITAIN BEFORE THE INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY. Obscurity of ancient British annals- Commerce of ancient Britain-Invasion by Julius Cæsar-Success of Cæsar-Coins of Cunobelinus-Learning of the Britons-Their ancient temples. BRITISH history, civil and ecclesiastical, previously to the invasion by Julius Cæsar, is involved in almost impenetrable obscurity. Still we are able to collect a few interesting particulars, which will assist us in our future inquiries concerning the origin of Christianity in our favoured country. Britain, though so far remote from Asia, Africa, and the east of Europe, was yet visited by the Phoenicians of Tyre*, a thousand years before the Christian era; and afterwards by the flourishing Carthaginians, whose merchants carried on a lucrative commerce with Cornwall, especially in the article of Tint. Notwithstanding their care to conceal the source of their profit, the Greeks discovered it: and entered into the trade about one hundred and sixty years before the invasion by Cæsar. From the Phoenicians and Carthaginians, whose horrid deity was Saturn, the Moloch of Scripture, it is believed that the ancient Britons derived a part at least of their shocking idolatry. The Gauls carried on a considerable trade with Britain; and as Julius Cæsar administered the government of the Roman provinces in Germany and Gaul, his ambition was fired to bring this island under his dominion: hence his celebrated invasion. Cæsar's first attempt was in the year B. C. 55, with an army of two legions, or more than 12,000 men; but though he made good his landing, such was the * See particularly Ezek. xxvii, 12. + Henry's History of Great Britain, book i, chap. vi. |