madman to the
world."

[84] _Divinity and Philosophy Dissected_, pp. 39-40.

[85] _Divinity and Philosophy Dissected_, p. 17.

[86] _Ibid._ p. 62.

[87] _A Survey of the Spiritual Antichrist_, chap. xiv. p. 163.

[88] _Life and Light_, p. 3.

[89] _Ibid._ pp. 99 and 101 quoted freely.

[90] _Ibid._ p. 19. It should be noted that this use of "First-day"
for Sunday antedates the Quaker practice.

[91] _Ibid._ pp. 26-27.

[92] _Ibid._ p. 35.

[93] See _ibid._ p. 36.

[94] _Life and Light_, p. 11.

[95] _Ibid._ p. 38.

[96] _Ibid._ p. 34.

{266}

CHAPTER XIV

SPIRITUAL RELIGION IN HIGH PLACES--ROUS, VANE, AND STERRY

The spiritual struggles which culminated in the great upheaval of the
English Commonwealth were the normal fruit of the Reformation spirit,
when once it had penetrated the life of the English _people_ and kindled
the fire of personal conviction in their hearts. Beginning as it did
with the simple substitution of royal for papal authority in the
government of the Church, the English Reformation lacked at its inception
the inward depth, the prophetic vision, the creative power, the vigorous
articulation of newly awakened personal conscience, which formed such a
commanding feature of the Reformation movement on the Continent. It took
another hundred years in England to cultivate individual conscience, to
ripen religious experience, to produce the body of dynamic _ideas_, and
to create the necessary prophetic vision before an intense and popular
spirit of Reform could find its voice and marching power. The contact of
English exiles and chance visitors with the stream of thought in Germany,
in Switzerland, and in Holland, and the filtering in of literature from
the Continent, together with the occasional coming of living exponents,
sowed the seeds that slowly ripened into that strange and interesting
variety of religious thought and practice which forms the inner life of
the Commonwealth. The policy of the throne had always opposed this
steadily increasing tide of thought which refused to run in the well-worn
channels, but, as usual, the opposition and hindrances only served to
{267} deepen personal conviction, to sharpen the edge of conscience, to
nourish great and daring spirits, to formulate the battle-ideas and to
win popular support. The inner life and the varied tendencies of the
Commonwealth are too rich and complicated to be adequately treated
here.[1] The purpose of this