shes a complete answer to the absurd opinions
concerning the English Church, which it has been of late the object of a
few bigots, unconsciously acting as the tools of artful and ambitious
men, to propagate, and which would lead, by a direct and logical
process, to the complete overthrow of Protestant faith and worship.
Such, then, being the state of things "recognized on all hands, church
government was no light matter, but one which essentially involved in it
the government of the state; and the disputing the Queen's supremacy,
was equivalent to depriving her of one of the most important portions of
her sovereignty, and committing half of the government of the nation to
other hands."

At the accession of Henry VIII., the most profound tranquillity
prevailed over England. The last embers of those factions by which,
during his father's reign, the peace of the nation had been disturbed
rather than endangered, were quenched by the vigilance and severity of
that able monarch; during the wars of the Roses, the noblest blood in
England had been poured out on the field or on the scaffold, and the
wealth of the most opulent proprietors had been drained by confiscation.
The parties of York and Lancaster were no more--the Episcopal and
Puritan factions were not yet in being--every day diminished the
influence of the nobles--the strength of the Commons was in its
infancy--the Crown alone remained, strong in its own prerogative,
stronger still in the want of all competitors. Crime after crime was
committed by the savage tyrant who inherited it; he was
ostentatious--the treasures of the nation were lavished at his feet; he
was vindictive--the blood of the wise, the noble, and the beautiful, was
shed, like water, to gratify his resentment; he was rapacious--the
accumulations of ancient piety were surrendered to glut his avarice; he
was arbitrary--and his proclamations were made equivalent to acts of
Parliament; he was fickle--and the religion of the nation was changed to
gratify his lust. To all this the English people submitted, as to some
divine infliction, in silence and consternation--the purses, lives,
liberties, and consciences of his people were, for a time, at his
disposal. During the times of his son and his eldest daughter, the
general aspect of affairs was the same. But, though the hurricane of
royal caprice and bigotry swept over the land, seemingly without
resistance, the sublime truths which were the daily subject of