Congregationalism,

This zeal has always been in the world. Every land and time has produced its Pmitans. There were Puritans among the Hebrews. Elijah was one, Isaiah another, Ezra another, John the Baptist another. From the first century of Christian history until now, there have been men who have resisted the corruptions of their day, and hungered and thirsted after righteousness. The deeper the corruption, the hotter has been the desire to consume it. In the fourth and fifth centuries of our era the Christian Church fell into the hands of a company of Roman politicians who converted the simple gospel of our Lord into a cumbrous and mysterious thing which only ecclesiastical experts could imderstand. The faith once delivered to the saints was wrapped round with many so-called traditions and curious interpretations, the simple worship of early days was elaborated into a gorgeous ceremonial decked out with rites and features taken from the pagan temples; the simple government of the early churches was developed into a vast system along lines suggested by the structure of the Roman Empke, officials rising, one order above another, in a compact and mighty hierarchy, at whose top there sat the august bishop of Rome. Under the sway of this hierarchy the virtues and graces of the Christian life in many places drooped and died, clergymen in appalliig numbers became dissolute and idle, while the masses of the people floundered in ignorance and superstition. From the very first there were men who protested against the encroaching tyrannies and who endeavored to stem the devastating tide.
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)

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