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An historical sketch of the Protestant Church of France
An historical sketch of the Protestant Church of France Author:John Gordon Lorimer Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: times with the churches of Asia Minor; the vigour of their piety did not survive the death of the Apostles, and so it not unfrequently happens with the individua... more »l Christian. His first are his best days, and that so generally, that many good men have concluded in every life of faith there is necessarily a season of backsliding. What the more immediate causes of this may be, we are not here called upon to state; but one can scarcely fail to remark, that such cases strikingly show the amazing depravity of human nature even among good men; the necessity of the continued agency of the Holy Spirit to the spiritual prosperity of individuals and of churches; and the sovereignty of the Divine dispensations towards the Church of the Redeemer. PROTESTANTISM OF THE PROVINCES OF BEARN AND NAVARRE. While I have spoken of the Protestant Church of France as a whole, it may be proper to record a few things more particularly of the provinces of Bear n and Nevarre, constituting at that time a distinct kingdom. These provinces, stretching along the range of the Pyreneean mountains, had early received the light of the Reformed doctrine. Indeed, the Alpine fastnesses of the South of France, of which they may be said to form a part, seem to have been the asylum where God protected and nourished his suffering saints during the darkest and bloodiest reign of Antichrist. This was the wilderness into which the woman was driven for 1260 years. Marguerite, the sister of Francis I., became by marriage the Queen of Navarre, in 1527. She was, according to her light, a devoted Protestant; and published a book of piety, which was afterwards translated by Elizabeth, Queen of England, entitled, " A Godly Meditation of the Christian Soul." About the time of her ascending the throne, a fierce persecution broke o...« less