Ed. K.W.H. Howard
This book sheds light on what happened in those years between the Puritans (1662) and the Methodists (1737), using as an example of God's blessing amidst hardship and suffering the story of Axminster Independent Church.
Some historians consider the time following the Puritans to be the finest spiritual period in our history. And yet few people are aware of this.
This has usually been portrayed as a time of spiritual stagnation and decline among Nonconformity as well as the Church of England. This is far from the case among Dissenters (except with the Presbyterians, and then only during the latter part of the period). Older historians and recent research testify to the real blessing during this time.
When the book was first published in 1874 it was introduced in the following way: "There are certain respects in which this Axminster Ecclesiastica is one of the most interesting, relating to the origin and history of the Free Churches in England that has ever been printed."