As Thorndike is more full and explicit in the statement of his views respecting the schism which he believed to be involved in Nonconformity, so also he goes beyond some other Anglicans in denouncing its principles, and censuring its professors. Perhaps certain writers of his class might think less unjustly, and more charitably, of Dissenters; yet none of them, consistently with their own Church notions, could regard Independent societies as Churches, whatever favourable opinion they might entertain of individual members. Anything like intercommunion with communities not Episcopalian, seems, in the estimation of such a man as Thorndike, utterly out of the question; and therefore by him, and by those who think with him, the Episcopal Church of England is placed in an entirely isolated position, in reference to the rest of Protestant Christendom, except where Bishops are retained; such instances being few and doubtful. [Sidenote: THE PRAYER BOOK.] Cosin, in his _Confession_, declares very strongly against sectaries and fanatics, amongst whom he ranks “not only the Separatists, the Anabaptists, and their followers, alas, too, too many, but also the New Independents and Presbyterians of our country, a kind of men hurried away with the spirit of malice, disobedience, and sedition, who by a disloyal attempt (the like whereof was never heard since the world began) have, of late, committed so many great and execrable crimes, to the contempt and despite of religion, and the Christian faith: which, how great they were, without horror cannot be spoken or mentioned.”[447]