with the better and wiser part of those who, clinging to the tenets and
feelings of the first Reformers, and honouring Archbishop Grindal as
much as they dreaded his Arminian successors, were denominated Puritans!
They limited their censures to exclusive reading,--to reading as the
substitute for, and too often for the purpose of doing away with,
preaching.


Ib. lxv. 8. p.415.

Thus was the memory of that sign which they had in baptism a kind of
bar or prevention to keep them even from apostasy, whereinto the
frailty of flesh and blood, overmuch fearing to endure shame, might
peradventure the more easily otherwise have drawn them.

I begin to fear that Hooker is not suited to my nature. I cannot bear
round-abouts for the purpose of evading the short cut straight before my
eyes. 'Exempli gratia;' I find myself tempted in this place to ejaculate
Psha! somewhat abruptly, and ask, 'How many in twenty millions of
Christian men and women ever reverted to the make-believe impression of
the Cross on their forehead in unconscious infancy, by the wetted tip of
the clergyman's finger as a preservative against anger and resentment?
'The whole church of God!' Was it not the same church which, neglecting
and concealing the Scriptures of God, introduced the adoration of the
Cross, the worshipping of relics, holy water, and all the other
countless mummeries of Popery? Something might be pretended for the
material images of the Cross worn at the bosom or hung up in the
bed-chamber. These may, and doubtless often do, serve as silent
monitors; but this eye-falsehood or pretence of making a mark that is
not made, is a gratuitous superstition, that cannot be practised without