order are wont to entrench themselves. But he ought not to be studied simply for controversial purposes: any large-minded student, with sympathy for God’s truth wherever found, may derive great advantage from many parts of this good man’s writings. [Sidenote: ANGLICANS.--THORNDIKE.] In common with some other Divines of that day, he passed through a change of opinion, and that at an early period of life. He went to Cambridge with no strong theological bias of any kind, and entered Trinity College at a time when that College was accused neither of Puritan nor of Romanizing tendencies. But he thought less unfavourably of Calvinism at the commencement of his studies than he did during his subsequent career. At first he did not, without some qualification, condemn the doctrine of final perseverance; also he then opposed other parts of the system upon grounds which he afterwards abandoned, as not sufficiently distinct and fundamental. He was also far less severe when controverting the arguments of Nonconformists in the former than in the latter period of his life.[375] Patristic studies, to a large extent, most likely produced the change which he experienced; and his ejectment from his Fellowship at Trinity by the Presbyterians would naturally serve to increase his growing distaste for their distinguishing tenets. The book in which he unfolds his scheme of divinity was written before the Restoration, and bears the title of _An Epilogue to the Tragedy of the Church of England_ (1659): a title which provoked the criticisms of his friends, especially afterwards, when the book proved to be a prologue to that Church’s revival. The work contains _The Principles of Christian Truth_; _The Covenant of Grace_; and _The Laws of the Church_.