of the Reformation, are the _few_ not the _many_.

In England, the iron rule of Elizabeth in ecclesiastical matters, and in
particular her requirement of uniformity with respect to the "rags of
Rome," checked the real progress of the Reformation in the English
church, but by a reaction which in the ordering of Divine Wisdom, often
makes the wrath of man to praise him, it appears to have been the means
of raising up an increased antagonism to error, in the persons of men
willing to suffer and to die for the cause of truth. It will perhaps be
admitted that at many periods of the history of what is called the
English church, whilst its nominal members numbered a large proportion of
the whole population, the actual number of the genuine disciples of
Christ within its pale were in small compass. The revival in some
measure, of the spirit of its reformers, even in opposition to the letter
of many of its formularies, has, no doubt, in past times, done much to
increase its living influence and usefulness, but recent events have
shown how large a portion of its clergy instead of going forward in the
work of the Reformation, are rather desirous of retrograde movement, and
of approximating, if not of entirely returning to the errors of Rome.
Such, we ought ever to bear in mind, is the natural tendency of man, and
so prone is he, even when raised by the True Light to a perception of the
things which are most excellent, to sink again into the grovelling habits
of his own dark nature.

We come now to the threshold of our own religious history, and shall
endeavour to answer, in substance at least, the queries with which we
commenced the present inquiry. It was certainly an extraordinary period
of our national religious history, in which the Society of Friends
arose--a time in which old foundations were shaken, and an earnest
inquiry excited in many minds after the way of truth and of real peace to
the soul. We think that it is not assuming, to express our belief, that
a remarkable extension of spiritual light and energy was extended to the
people of England, in that day, when George Fox, and his early
associates, went forth through the length and breadth of the land, and
found so extraordinary a preparation for their service in the hearts of
their fellow-countrymen.

The first preachers knew a being made Christians themselves, before they
went forth to call others to Christ--what a deep sense of sin and of its
hatefulness in the