converse with men of other times. We must think their thoughts; we must look at truth with them, and see it in other lights and colours than those which have rested always on our own path and this applies, with especial force at this time, to the subject of the eucharist. Discussion and division have been rife amongst us, and they have done their common work of evil; for as men contend, they strengthen their own views, and grow to look on others with a readier and more morbid exclusiveness. Each party sees strongly some portion of the truth; and, in their zeal for it, too commonly forget that partial truth is amongst the most pernicious forms of error. At such a time, the voice of the great and holy dead is of peculiar value. They are free from our contentions; and the harmony and grandeur which dwell on their passionless and even judgments remind us of the peacefulness with which their spirits now embrace truth and one another in Paradise; and their voice will be heard, as from the depth of an oracle, above the strife and din of our jarring tumults.

To converse, then, in these pages for a while with such, the reader is invited: not that it is always needful to go through a long course of preparation before partaking of the eucharist;

on the contrary, the Christian man should always be ready to approach it, nor ever turn away merely because he has no such peculiar opportunity of leisure; but that when he has opportunity and leisure, he may be aided in turning them to good account. And for those that can commard it, what time can be laid out to better purpose, or gather in a richer harvest? The gifts of God, indeed, are poured upon us freely; but, as His ordinary rule, it is those who seek that find. He that has truly watched and prayed, that has cleansed his soul with an unfeigned humiliation, and trimmed the fires of love, and zeal, and devotion, before he drew near to the holy table, may expect, of God's mercy, to find the greatest refreshment there, to enjoy the nearest communion with his Lord and Saviour, and to go away the most enriched with grace. For "to him that hath shall be given:" and though we can by prayer and labour earn nothing for ourselves, we must pray and labour, if we would receive any thing from Him. And those who do thus labour shall receive. They may not, indeed, at the time perceive their own inward profiting. It may be that God may try their faith, by suffering them for a while to lack the present refreshment of sensible joy; but not a whit the less certain is

their gain. We must not judge of the presence or the absence of God's most Holy Spirit by the ebb or flowing of our own ever-shifting tide of feeling. We must not strive to work up ourselves to that joy which we desire. This were indeed to "walk by sight;" and our new life is "to be hid with Christ in God." We have the sure words of Christ: let them sink into our hearts; let us believe, not wrangle about them: "Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed."

A BRIEF

NOTICE OF THE WRITERS

From whose works the following pages are extracted, may be useful to many readers, and is therefore here sub. joined, in their chronological order.

BORN 1466

Dr. JOHN COLET, dean of St. Paul's, and founder of St. Paul's School. A very learned man, and an eminent forerunner of the Reformation: for which, as Bishop Latimer tells us in his sermons, he was at one time in danger of being burned by King Henry VIII. He died in 1519, in his 53d year.

1489 Dr. THOMAS CRANMER, archbishop of Canterbury; and one of the great instruments in bringing about the happy reformation of religion in this land. He was burned, with Bishops Ridley and Latimer, by the Papists, on the 21st of March, 1556, aged 66.

1522

1553

JOHN JEWEL. A most learned man, and one of the earliest of those who were engaged in the reformation of religion in this land. He fled to Frankfort during the persecution under Mary, returned under Elizabeth, was made bishop of Salisbury 1560, and died September 1571.

RICHARD HOOKER, known by posterity as the "judicious Hooker," an eminently learned, wise,

and holy man, author of "the Ecclesiastical Polity." He was some time fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford; and died November 2, 1600, aged only 46.

BORN

Dr. LANCELOT ANDREWS, chaplain to Queen 1565 Elizabeth, and bishop of Winchester in the reigns of James I. and Charles I. One of the translators of the Bible. He was eminent for his talents, learning, and piety. His sermons, and "A Manual of Devotions," are his chief remaining works.

Dr. CHRISTOPHER SUTTON was a native of 1565 Hampshire, and came to Oxford in 1582. He was made prebendary of St. Peter's, Westminster, by King James I. in 1605, for his eloquence in preaching. He died in 1629. His chief works now remaining are, "Godly Meditations on the most holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper," "Disce Mori," and "Disce Vivere." In 1677 the first of these had reached thirteen editions.

Dr. WILLIAM LAUD, president of St. John's 1573 College, Oxford, and archoishop of Canterbury. Put to death at the beginning of the great rebellion, 1645.

Dr. JOSEPH HALL, appointed in 1627 bishop 1574 of Exeter, and in 1641 bishop of Norwich. His works, which are very valuable, have been reprinted of late in ten octavo volumes.

Dr. HENRY HAMMOND. A man of deep learn- 1605 ing and eminent piety; sometime canon of Christ Church, Oxford, and favourite chaplain of King Charles I. He followed his master, after his reverses, to Woburn, Caversham, Hampton Court,