Bury in 1544; Ipswich in 1544; Tenterden in 1558; Oxford in 1558. Husbandmen, farmers, carpenters, wheelwrights, millers, turners, shoemakers, glovers, mercers, serving-men, painters, weavers, shearers, cutlers, skinners, glaziers, -all figure in the Gospel muster-roll which is found in the records of the ecclesiastical courts. The word was received everywhere and by all classes with gladness. There was a wide-spread, deep conviction, of the supreme value and importance of saving truth, which led unlettered men to step out of the requirements and habits of ordinary life, to become valiant champions for tenets of belief. The ignorance of many of these spiritual warriors of aught besides the one thing needful, is most affecting. One poor Suffolk peasant (Kerby, at Mendlesham) repeats at the stake all that he knows,-the "Te Deum," the Belief, and some prayers. Another, under similar awful circumstances, from his scanty mental stores sings the "Magnificat." What energy of life is there in evangelic truth, when such power resides even in its fragments! It has been said that the Reformation in this country was matter of statecraft or priestcraft. Let the assertor, by the aid of old John Foxe, visit the homes of English artisans and peasants, even before the occurrence of the glorious events connected with the Reformation in Germany, and he will find that long ere the Gospel became the subject of contention in courts and camps, it was the dear treasure of the commonalty of the land. The movement was characterized by the fixing of the heart on great ends, with a comparative disregard of all things intermediate. "Every solution of the conduct of the reformers must be nugatory, save one,—that they were men absorbed by the conviction that they were fighting the battle of God."* In contemplating the sad worldly condition of the majority of the children of God in the past ages of our history, it is consoling to reflect on the abundant compensation which true religion affords for the loss of all outward prosperity. There have been enthusiasts in science, in the pursuit of abstract truth, of learning or poetry, who, for the sake of intellectual pleasures, willingly forfeited all earthly advantages, and could be hardly torn away from their favourite studies; but these are all outdone by the rational enthusiasm of the Christian, whose discovery of the "pearl of great price" is an event far surpassing the surprises of philosophical research The enchanting sweetness of the interested contemplation of God's work of redeeming love, has been the solace of thousands of persons, whose forlorn condition on earth rendered them the objects only of pity or contempt to the bystanders. Faith in the Divine promises, in the work of our Lord Jesus Christ, is the elixir of spiritual life. Such persons are ever singing to themselves in the strain of one of the Romanist poets of the Elizabethan age— "Calvarie's Mount is my delight, the place I love soe well; Calvarie's Mount! O that I might deserve in thee to dwell! O that I might for pilgrimme goe that sacrede mounte to see! O that I might some service do where Christ died once for me! * Hallam, History of Lit., vol. i., pp. 292, 308. O that I had some hole to hyde my head on thee, to stay Let me still heere abyde and be, and never to remove- remove, To meditate with great remorse upon my Saviour's love!" Such persons, not only enjoy here, but actually carry away with them into the unseen world, durable riches and everlasting possessions of the utmost preciousness. The history of the Church is too often a record of the selfish struggles of ambitious men; but the history of vital religion is remarkably destitute of this element: its promoters have ever acted against their worldly interests, their thoughts have evidently not centred in themselves; the extension of the spiritual kingdom of their unseen Master, and the glory of His great name have been their springs of action. It needs such examples, to counteract the inference which the world draws from the general correspondence existing between the creed of the governors and that of the people. Too many of the high personages whom the historian delights to honour for deeds of fame, have shown, in this highest matter, subserviency to the powers that be; but when we resort to the cell of the student, or the lonesome dungeon, we find that individual religion is a genuine power, having a real existence, daring to be singular, and willing to do or die. "Blest prisoners they, whose spirits are at large !”* Besides the line of strict evangelical witnesses which from the first may be traced running down through society in England, there have never been wanting men of intelligence and force, who have assailed religious error from the stand-point of human reason, though they themselves have fallen short of the acknowledgment of the full truth. The cause of the Gospel has thus had allies in the ranks of the world; men who deemed themselves standardbearers of reason, have aided the partisans of revelation, fighting earnestly the battle of the church militant. It is not for us now to criticise the various phases of belief which scholars have held, but we may take delight in the retrospect of all those who, whatever their speculative opinions on other subjects, looked to the atonement made by our Lord Jesus Christ as the only ground of acceptance with God. In 1457, Bishop Pecock, who had been for twenty years, writing and acting against Lollardism, was himself charged with the taint, compelled to recant and burn his books publicly. The diffusion of short doctrinal tracts on the work of Christ, the way of access to God, and the requirements of true religion, has ever been characteristic of evangelical movement among the people. To the pithy MS. tractates of Wycliffe, succeeded the Confession of Thorpe, the Testament of Tracy, and similar productions, eagerly * Wordsworth. copied, and firmly though secretly held. Then followed the prohibited brief printed treatises of the early reformers; afterwards, importations from German theology; next Becon's admirable little books, succeeded by a host of others, issued by the newly-found mighty agency of the printing-press. The narratives of personal history in the pages of Foxe, show how eagerly all these means were used, and how they fed the lamps of individual piety that were burning in a thousand obscure places. The possession of the Scriptures, during all the future vicissitudes of the kingdom, gave to the followers of Christ the inestimable advantage of a perfect model for their conduct. The path of contumely, trial, and suffering had been well worn by the Saviour; His footsteps were visible in all its windings, and His example is vivified by the constant sense of His ever-living presence. The warriors felt themselves to be not only sustained and blest, but honoured too, by being made spectacles to angels and to men. They acted as though they saw beyond the stars, and lived in the radiant light which flows from the throne of God and of the Lamb. Faith is not, as some pretend, the lowest form of reason, but the highest; the humanity thus manifested is of the noblest style. "Into God's word, as in a palace fair, Thou leadest on and on, while still beyond Each chamber, touched by holy Wisdom's wand, And thou, in each, art kneeling down in prayer; |