Page:Three introductory lectures on the study of ecclesiastical history.djvu/25

I] Henry VIII.; or who would pourtray the English Church without recognising at every turn the likeness of the great Elizabeth. Or yet again, of all our brilliant English divines of the seventeenth century, there is not one who can be fairly said to have exercised as much influence over the popular theology of this nation, as has been undoubtedly exercised by a half-heretic, half-Puritan layman, the author of "Paradise Lost."

Such instances might be multiplied to any amount; but these indicate with sufficient precision the devious yet obvious path which, without losing sight of our wide horizon on the one hand, or without undue contraction on the other, gives us the true limits of Ecclesiastical History. "The kingdom of God is like unto leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened." Whatever explains the spread or the impediments of that leaven is in the province of the historian of the Church of Christ. He must know the general qualities of the materials which the fermenting element is to penetrate; he must specially be acquainted with the progress of the fermenting element itself If we may for a moment return to our former position, and imagine ourselves overlooking the broad expanse into which the stream bursts forth from the mountains of its earlier stages, our purpose henceforth will be not so much to describe the products of the forest or the buildings of the city which have grown up on the banks of