nature truly gentle and noble; the tokens of extraordinary attainments, great sweetness of disposition, and recognition of a true relationship to God. Death, which was the extinction of one of the brightest prospects ever afforded to humanity, was welcomed by him with a longing desire to be with the chosen ones of his Father in heaven.

In regard to the sorrowing people, the new-born faith of many, yet needed the strength which only trial can impart. The great future of religious life and liberty, was to be heralded by severe and protracted trouble. As a prelude, there was one gentle form of rare mould, which bowed before the first rush of the coming whirlwind.

The humble personal piety of Lady Jane Grey, is as unquestionable, as the facts of her great attainments in learning, and her tragic end. At the place of execution, after acknowledging the justice of her condemnation, for concurring in an act of treason against the queen, and absolving herself from all share in its contrivance, she said, "I pray you all, good Christian people, to bear me witness that I die a true Christian woman, and that I do look to be saved by no other mean but only by the mercy of God in the blood of His only Son, Jesus Christ; and I confess, that when I did know the word of God, I neglected the same, loved myself and the world, and therefore this plague and punishment is happily and worthily happened unto me for my sins; and yet I thank God of his goodness He hath given me a time and respite to repent." Equally is it stereotyped in the wellknown letter which she addressed to her sister on the eve of her suffering:

"I have sent you (good sister Katherine) a book which, although it be not outwardly trimmed with gold, yet inwardly is worth more than precious stones. It is the book, dear sister, of the law of the Lord; it is His testament and last will, which He bequeathed unto us wretched creatures, which shall lead you to the path of eternal joy; and if you with a good mind read it, and with an earnest mind do purpose to follow it, it shall bring you to an immortal and everlasting life; it shall teach you to live, and learn you to die; it shall obtain for you more than you should have gained by possession of your father's lands; for as if God had prospered him you should have inherited his lands, so if you apply yourself diligently to this book, seeking to direct your life after it, you shall be an inheritor of such riches as neither the covetous shall withdraw from you, nor the thief shall steal, nor yet the moths corrupt. Desire, with David, (good sister,) to understand the law of the Lord God. And trust not that the tenderness of your age is an assurance that you will live many years; for (if God call) the young goeth as soon as the old also endeavour to learn how to die. Defy the world, deny the devil, and despise the flesh, and delight yourself only in the Lord. Be penitent for your sins, and yet despair not; be strong in faith, and yet presume not: and desire, with St. Paul, to be dissolved, and to be with Christ, with whom even in death there is life. Be like the good servant, and even at midnight be waking, lest when death cometh and stealeth upon you, like a thief in the night, you be, like the evil servant, found sleeping; and lest, for want of oil,

you be found like the five foolish women, or like him that had not on the wedding garment, and then ye be cast out from the marriage. Rejoice in Christ, as I do. Follow the steps of your master, Christ, and take up your cross; lay your sins on Him, and always embrace Him. And, as concerning my death, rejoice as I do, (good sister,) that I shall be delivered of this corruption, and put on incorruption. For I am assured that I shall, when I lose a mortal life, win an immortal life; which I pray God to grant you, and send you of His grace, to live in His fear, and to die in the true Christian faith, from which (in God's name) I exhort you that you never swerve, neither for the hope of life nor the fear of death; for if you will deny His faith, thinking thereby to lengthen your life, God will deny you and shorten your days. And, if you will cleave unto Him, He will prolong your days to your comfort and His glory, to which glory may God bring me now, and you hereafter when it pleaseth Him to call you. Fare you well, sweet sister, and put your only trust in God, who alone can help you."

CHAPTER X.

The Reign of Queen Mary.

THE materials for our history become more abundant as persecution arose under the change of government. Circumstances develop character in society, just as in the mineral kingdom the intrusion of the molten rock aggregates the shining metal into conspicuous veins. The general views and experience of the Marian martyrs, may be well ascertained from an able manifesto, drawn up with great care by Bradford, Saunders, and their companions in prison, expressly to declare the grounds of their quarrel with the dominant power. They write as men appointed to die for an undying cause. Truth above circumstances is their motto; they appeal heroically to and for the "infallible verity" of God's Word. They write concerning justification a passage which will serve as a specimen of their convictions :- "Fourthly, we believe and confess concerning justification, that, as it cometh only from God's mercy through Christ, so it is perceived and had of none which be of years of discretion otherwise than by faith only, which faith is not an opinion, but a certain persua

sion wrought by the Holy Ghost in the mind and heart of man, through whom as the mind is illuminated, so the heart is suppled, to submit itself to the will of God unfeignedly."*

One of the brightest of the shining characters adorning this age is that of John Bradford. He was a native of Manchester, of active habits, and in good business as surveyor of crown lands. In the prime of life, he became a convert to true religion, went to Cambridge, was ordained as a preacher, and was made a prebend of St. Paul's. "In this preaching office," says Foxe, "for the space of three years, how faithfully Bradford walked, how diligently he laboured, many parts of England can testify. Sharply he opened and reproved sin, sweetly he preached Christ crucified, pithily he impugned heresies and errors, earnestly he persuaded to a godly life."

He lay in prison Nowhere have we

for two years before his martyrdom. on record such a narrative of intense religious action as his experience of these two years supplied. "From the Tower he came to the King's Bench in Southwark; and after his condemnation he was sent to the Compter in the Poultry, in London; in which two places, for the time he did remain a prisoner, he preached twice a day continually, unless sickness hindered him; when also the sacrament was often ministered, and through his means (the keepers so well did bear with him) such resort of good folks was daily to his lecture, and to the ministration of the sacrament, that commonly his chamber was well-nigh filled therewith. Preaching, reading, and

Foxe, vol. vi., P. 552.