PREFACE. My first thought on seeing the present volume completed is one of praise and thanksgiving to the Father of mercies. There was a time when appearances were all against such an expectation; still my inward feeling was, that if He wished it, the needed time and health would be granted. Thus faith finds rest in the God of all grace, whichever way matters go. At the same time, we know that His first care is the divine glory and the blessing of His people; and when this is our object, we are in fellowship with Him. He knows where the materials lie which are required to build up our work, and faith will often trace His guidance both in their discovery and arrangement. I have also to acknowledge, with more gratitude than I can here express, my obligations to those authors whose works I have freely used in writing the following pages. The frequency with which they are noted must make the reader familiar with their names and their books. Some of my earliest and valued friends, such as Greenwood, Milman, and Craigie Robertson, conclude their histories about the fourteenth century; Waddington, D'Aubigné, and Scott, about the middle of the sixteenth; and Wylie closes his history of Protestantism with its establishment under the reign of William and Mary. Dr. McCrie's special histories and biographies are extremely valuable; and so is the history of Protestantism in France by Félice, the history of the Reformation in the Low Countries by Brandt, the brief history of the Middle ages and the Reformation by Hardwick, and also Cunningham's history of the Scotch church; but we know of no good general history from the carly part of the sixteenth to the present century. The above works, so far as they come down, are interestingly written and most reliable; they not only give the most ample information, but will afford much pleasure in reading them. In sending forth this concluding volume, I can only pray that the blessed Lord may use it for His own glory, and the blessing of His people. That He may thus graciously own it, is My most sincere And earnest prayer, London, October, 1878. A. M. CONTENTS. PROTESTANTISM.-The Epistle to the Church in Sardis.- The Lutheran Churches, A.D. 1526-1529.-The First Planting THE SACRAMENTARIAN CONTROVERSY. Zwingle's Early Views.-Carlstadt, Luther, and Zwingle.-Summons to Marburg. The Conference at Marburg.-A Proposal for THE COUNCIL OF BOLOGNA.-The Diet of Augsburg.—The Confession of Augsburg.-The Arrival of Charles at Augs- burg. The Chiefs of the Augsburg Diet.-The Opening of the Diet of Augsburg.-The Articles of Faith.-The Articles concerning Abuses.-The Perplexities of the Protestants.- ... ... ... THE POPISH REFUTATION.-A Copy of the Refutation Re- |