The story of the following pages is one of the least known yet saddest
episodes in English history--the first persecution of Christians by
Christians in this land. When Boniface went forth from England to
evangelise Germany, he was received with welcome, and regarded as a
saint: when Gerhardt came from Germany to restore the pure Gospel to
England, he was cast out of the vineyard and slain.
The spirit of her who is drunk with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus is
the same now that it was then. She does not ask if a man agree with the
Word of God, but whether he agree with _her_. "When the Church has
spoken"--this has been said by exalted ecclesiastical lips quite
recently--"we cannot appeal to Scripture against her!"
But we Protestants can--we must--we will. The Church is not God, but
man. The Bible is not the word of man, but the Word of God (One
Thessalonians, two, verse 13; Ephesians, six, verse 17): therefore it
must be paramount and unerring. Let us hold fast this our profession,
not being moved away from the hope of the Gospel, nor entangled again
with the yoke of bondage, but stablished in the faith, grounded and
settled. "For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning
of our confidence stedfast unto the end."