Scotland/Scots > Life of John Knox ; and, The life of Alexander Henderson

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LIFE OF JOHN KNOX.
contrived, or artfully accommodated, to advance and sup ■
port some practical abuse ; to aggrandize the ecclesias¬
tical order,'secure to them immunity from civil juris¬
diction, sanctify their encroachments upon secular authori¬
ties, vindicate their usurpation upon the consciences of
men, cherish implicit obedience to the decisions of the
church, and extinguish free inquiry and liberal science.
It was a system not more repugnant to the religion of
the Bible, than incompatible with the legitimate rights
of princes, the independence, liberty, and prosperity
of kingdoms ; a system not more destructive to the souls
of men, than to social and domestic happiness, and the
principles of sound morality. Considerations from every
quarter combined in calling aloud for a radical and
complete reform. The exertions of all descriptions of
persons, of the man of letters, the patriot, the prince,
as well as the Christian, each acting in his own sphere
for his own interests, with a joint concurrence of all as
in a common cause, were urgently required for the ex¬
tirpation of abuses of which all had reason to complain,
and effectuating a revolution, in the advantages of which
all would participate. There was, however, no reason¬
able prospect of accomplishing this, without exposing,
in the first place, the falsehood of those notions which
have been called speculative. It was principally by
means of these that superstition had established its em¬
pire over the minds of men ; behind them the Romish
ecclesiasticshad entrenched themselves, and defended their
usurped prerogatives and possessions ; and had any prince
or legislature endeavoured to deprive them of these,
while the body of the people remained unenlightened,
they would soon have found reason to repent the hazard¬
ous attempt. To the revival of the primitive doctrines
and institutions of Christianity, by the preaching and
writings of the reformers, and to those controversies by
which the popish errors were confuted from scripture,
(for which many modem philosophers seem to have so
thorough a contempt,) we are chiefly indebted for the