ent volume, therefore with a few words
respecting the nature of the work of the Reformation we will pass on to
another prophetic vision.

The great secret of the early success of the reformers was their appeal
from the decisions of councils and regulations of men to the Word of
God. So long as the Word and Spirit of God were allowed their proper
place as the Governors of God's people, the work was a spiritual
blessing. But this happy state of affairs did not long continue. Within
a few years the followers of the reformers were divided into hostile
sects and began to oppose and persecute each other. Luther denounced
Zwingle as a heretic, and "the Calvinists would have no dealings with
the Lutherans." The first Protestant creed was the Augsburg Confession
(1530). This date marks an important epoch. From this time the people
began to lose sight of the Word and Spirit of God as their Governors and
to turn to the disciplines of their sects, which they upheld by every
means possible. Thus we find Calvin at Geneva consenting to the burning
of Servetus, because of a difference of religious views; and in England
the Anglican Protestants waged the most bitter, cruel, and relentless
war not only against Catholics, but against all Protestants who refused
to conform to the Established Church. The Protestants placed armies in
the field and fought for their creeds, as during the Thirty Years' War
in Germany and the long period of the Hugenot wars in France. The real
work of the Reformation, the promulgation of so much of the truth of the
Bible, was an inestimable blessing to the world; but the rise of
Protestantism (organized sectism) in 1530 introduced another period of
apostasy as distinct in many of its features as was that of Romanism
before it. The historian D'Aubigne recognizes an important change at
this period. He says:

"The first two books of this volume contain the most important epochs of
the Reformation--the Protest of Spires, and the Confession of
Augsburg.... I determined on bringing the reformation of Germany and
German Switzerland to the _decisive epochs of_ 1530 and 1531. The
history of the Reformation, properly so-called, is then in my opinion
almost complete in those countries. The work of faith has there attained
its apogee: that of conferences, of interims, of diplomacy begins....
The movement of the Sixteenth Century has there made its effort. I said
from the very first, It is the history of the Reformation and