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

LIFE OF JOHN KNOX.
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church, and regarded it as a paragon and perfect pattern
to other churches. They were strangers to those extrava¬
gant and illiberal notions which were afterwards adopted
by the fond admirers of the hierarchy and liturgy. They
would have laughed at the man who would have seriously
asserted, that the ceremonies constituted any part of
“ the beauty of holiness,” or that the imposition of the
hands of a bishop was essential to the validity of ordina¬
tion ; they would not have owned that person as a Pro¬
testant who would have ventured to insinuate, that
where this was wanting, there was no Christian ministry,
no ordinances, no church, and perhaps—no salvation!
Many things which their successors have applauded,
they barely tolerated, and they would have been happy
if the circumstances of their time would have permitted
them to introduce alterations, which have since been
cried down as puritanical innovations. Strange as it
may appear to some, I am not afraid of exceeding the
truth when I say, that if the first English reformers,
including the Protestant bishops, had been left to their
own choice, if they had not been held back by the dead
weight of a large mass of popishly-affected clergy in the
reign of Edward, and restrained by the supreme civil
authority on the accession of Elisabeth, they would have
brought the government and worship of the Church of
England nearly to the pattern of the other reformed
churches.
Such, in particular, was the earnest wish of his Majesty
Edward YI. a prince who, besides his other rare quali¬
ties, had an unfeigned reverence for the word of God,
and a disposition to comply with its prescriptions in pre¬
ference to custom and established usages, who shewed
himself uniformly inclined to give relief to his conscien¬
tious subjects, and sincerely bent on promoting the union
of all the friends of the reformed religion at home and
abroad. Of his intentions on this head, there remain the
most unquestionable and satisfactory documents. Had
his life been spared, there is every reason to think that