MANIFOLD as are the blessings for which Englishmen are beholden to the institutions of their country, there is no part of those institutions from which they derive more important advantages than from its Church establishment; none by which the temporal condition of all ranks has been so materially improved. So many of our countrymen would not be ungrateful for these benefits, if they knew how numerous and how great they are, how dearly they were prized by our forefathers, and at how dear a price they were purchased for our inheritance; by what religious exertion, what heroic devotion, what precious lives consumed in pious labours, wasted away in dungeons, or offered up amid the flames. This is a knowledge which, if early inculcated, might arm the young heart against the pestilent errors of these distempered times. I offer, therefore, to those who regard with love and reverence the religion which they have received from their fathers, a brief but comprehensive record, diligently, faithfully, and conscientiously composed, which they may put into the hands of their children. Herein it will be seen from what heathenish delusions and inhuman rites, the inhabitants of this island have been delivered by the Christian faith; in what manner, the best interests of the country were advanced by the clergy even during the darkest ages of papal domination; the errors and crimes of the Romish Church; and how, when its corruptions were at the worst, the daybreak of the Reformation appeared among us; the progress of that Reformation through evil and through good; the establishment of a Church pure in its doctrines, irreproachable in its order, beautiful in its forms; and the conduct of that Church proved, both in adverse and in prosperous times, alike faithful to its principles when it adhered to the monarchy during a successful rebellion, and when it opposed the monarch who would have brought back the Romish superstition, and, together with the religion, would have overthrown the liberties of England." ---- Southey's Introduction to the Book of the Church. Feeling the force of the sentiments contained in the foregoing elegant passage from Dr. Southey, we have expressed our intention to furnish accounts of the lives of those eminent men who, at different periods, and especially at the Reformation, were mainly instrumental in establishing the religious blessings we so richly enjoy. The life of Cranmer will engage us at present: and there is surely none in which we can feel a stronger interest than in that of the "Apostle and Martyr of the English Reformation." He was one of those characters to whom illustrious ancestry, even had he possessed it, would have added nothing. His father was Thomas Cranmer, Esq. of Aslacton in Nottingham- | shire, whose family was coeval with the Conqueror, and long held a high distinction in the above-named county. It is recorded that Cranmer received his early education from the parish-clerk of the village in which he lived; a circumstance at which we need not wonder, if we reflect that in that comparatively rude age, the clerk would often be the only man, besides the parson, of any attainments in the whole parish. The singular meekness which adorned Cranmer's future character may be traced, in some measure, to the discipline he went through under his early preceptor, who was of a very crabbed and oppressive temper. His father seems to have been very enlightened on the subject of the early treatment of children, and to have decided that physical as well as moral training is necessary to complete the man; that exercise of the body is necessary to develop the energies of the mind: for he took pains to teach his son field-sports (which were the fashion of the day) and horsemanship. At his father's death, he was sent by his mother to Cambridge, where, at the age of fourteen, he was entered at Jesus College. Learning being then at a very low ebb in that University, he appears for eight years to have gained no beneficial knowledge; at length the writings of the well-known Erasmus, which then were beginning to find their way into England, excited and detained his interest in common with that of many others in the University. The truth which Erasmus asserted, was nothing less than that which formed the great basis-principle of the Reformation-that the Bible, and not tradition, is the standard of religious truth. Those who at that time maintained and acted upon this opinion were termed Scripturists; and among them Cranmer was eminent. He sifted every dogma of the Romish Church; was led on from the discovery of one error to the suspicion of another; and though he could not yet openly avow all that he held, he became henceforth a hearty ally of the Reformists. He became afterwards a fellow of his college, and prosecuted his studies with ardour and success; until a circumstance befel him, which, but for the over-ruling providence of God, whose power is uncontrolled, threatened to overcast his future life: he married the relation of the wife of a neighbouring inn-keeper, and thus sacrificed the whole of his fellowship, and some part of his reputation. The lectureship of Magdalen College, to which he was at this time appointed, afforded him the means of subsistence, and an opportunity of publishing to his academical hearers the grounds of that change which had taken place in his own opinions. By exposing the gross abuses of the Romish Church, and referring perpetually to the Scriptures as a conclusive authority, he stirred up his hearers to a careful study of them. Losing his wife a year after his marriage, he was reelected fellow of Jesus College-a special distinction, of which he shewed himself to be not insensible; for, receiving an offer from Cardinal Wolsey, who was at this time founding Christ Church, Oxford, to adjourn thither upon very advantageous terms, he declined, on account of the debt of affection he owed to the society who had re-admitted him: a fact not to be omitted in his history, as giving little countenance to the charge of ambition which his enemies have brought against him : and as proving, in its consequences, that generous gratitude is the safest, as well as the most honourable, line of conduct; for many of the newly appointed members of Christ Church were deposed from their situations, and severely dealt with. In 1526 he took the degree of doctor in divinity, and was made divinity reader in his own college, and theological examiner in the University; an office, which, as it invests him who holds it with the rank of an authoritative teacher, demands in him great sim plicity of heart, and soundness of attainment. Cranmer possessing these qualifications, exercised a valuable influence over the studies of the younger clergy, and those who were intended for the sacred office. His ability and zeal endeared him to those who were of his sentiments; while his mildness conciliated such as still held on to the tenets and traditions of the Romish Church. About this time a disease resembling the plague having broken out at Cambridge, he retired to the house of the father of two of his pupils, at Waltham Abbey, where circumstances occurred which showed that the hand of Providence was still upon him. Henry the Eighth, who had resolved to divorce Catharine of Arragon, on the plea of the discovered illegality of the union, having taken a journey through the southern counties, passed a night at Waltham, accompanied by Fox the king's almoner, and Gardiner the famous bishop of Winchester, his secretary. Cranmer was requested to give his opinion of this divorce: instead of replying directly to this question, he promised to collect the opinions of all the Universities of Europe on the question, " Whether it be lawful to marry a brother's wife or not?" The king foreseeing that this question, if decided on Scriptural authority, would clear the way for the divorce, exclaimed, with much delight, "This man has got the right sow by the ear." He then sent for him to court, made him one of his chaplains, and directed him to write in defence of the contemplated divorce; which being done, and the king's conscience pacified, he was anxious that all Europe should be equally persuaded with himself of the illegality of his marriage with Queen Catharine, and for that purpose sent Cranmer to Italy and Germany. The opinion of the Universities of the former country having been taken, Cranmer proceeded to Vienna; and though here, as at Rome, he challenged the learned members of the University, he met with no opponent, and departed triumphant. This visit to the continent made him acquainted with many of the most eminent reformers of the age; and as Germany was at this time the nurse of the reformed religion, he found there many kindred spirits, and a free scope for the discussion of the great points which then filled the minds of inquiring men in that country. Among the most distinguished of these was Osiander, a man of celebrated virtue and wisdom; whose opinion of Cranmer, expressed in his "Harmonia Evangelica," coming as it did from one who was intimately acquainted with him, should have much weight in forming a judgment of his character. 66 Many excellent qualities and endowments," said he, "he possessed in common with other men; but others were extraordinary and peculiar to himself. He had learning beyond the common degrees of it; was benign and liberal to all, especially to those that were studious and of good literature." He speaks also "of the more abstruse and heroical virtues of his mind, rare to be found in the age in which he lived: viz. his wisdom, prudence, fortitude, temperance, and justice; a singular love towards his country; the highest faith. fulness towards the king; a contempt of earthly things, a love of heavenly; a most burning study towards the evangelic truth, sincere religion, and Christ's glory." Cranmer was now recalled to England; and on the death of Warham, archbishop of Canterbury, was promoted to the vacant dignity; but not until after he had strongly remonstrated against the resolution of the king, that he should fill that exalted station. It is not uncommon to hear men speaking of the clergy, as if their single aim was to raise themselves to stations of high consequence and emolument. They who say such things prove how little they know of the holy elevation to which the principles of Christ's religion, duly received, can raise the human character; and of the multitude of instances contained in the history of the Church of God, of ministers, whose unselfish spirit has led them to decline, like Cranmer, the most tempting dignities, and to shrink from the responsibility which such conspicuous posts in the ministry impose. Cranmer, having thus really felt and expressed the "Nolo episcopari" (a form of refusal of the offer of a bishopric which it is commonly, but erroneously, supposed that prelates elect are required, before their appointment, to utter,) and having, in vain, applied for a smaller preferment, accepted the archbishopric; and after solemnly disowning the Pope's participation in this act of patronage, and declaring his resolution to speak freely in all matters relating to the reformation of religion, he was, in 1533, consecrated to the office. Soon after this, the king secretly married Anne Boleyn: but Cranmer did not perform the ceremony, as is usually asserted. In a letter of his to his friend Archdeacon Hawkins, he says, "It hath been reported throughout a great part of the realm, that I married her; which was plainly false. For I myself knew not thereof a fortnight after it was done. And many other things be reported of me, which be mere lies and tales." He publicly pronounced the marriage of Catharine with Henry to have been from the beginning contrary to the law of God, and utterly invalid. From the moment that this sentence was pronounced, England may be said to have broken asunder the bonds of papal thraldom. It is to be observed, that Cranmer's mind was, as yet, unchanged on the subject of the sacrament of the Lord's supper. He adhered to transubstantiation; for when Frith was about to go to the stake for his opinions respecting this mystery, Cranmer, who had in vain laboured to turn him, says of him, in a letter to Archdeacon Hawkins, "Now he is at a final end with all examinations; for my Lord of London hath given sentence, and delivered him to the secular powers, where he looketh every day to go unto the fire. And there is likewise condemned with him one Andrew, a tailor of London, for the said self-same opinion." We may judge how Romish tyranny had benumbed human sympathy, when the first minister of Christianity in the kingdom could thus refer to the act of butchery which was about to be perpetrated. It rather portrays the spirit of the age than casts any reflection upon the heart of Cranmer. About this time, various statutes were, by his influence, enacted against the pope-abolishing the surrender of the first year's income of bishoprics to the cardinals; forbidding appeals to Rome in matters ecclesiastical, under the penalties of a "præmunire;" and disallowing the clergy from executing any canons or constitutions without the assent of the king. "The act of supremacy" thus established, as it was the first, so was it one of the greatest achievements of this prelate; it may be considered as the dawn of liberty in this kingdom, and as opening the entrance-door of many of those privileges on which we exult and repose. The papal dominion in England was now at an ead. "The establishment of a secular supremacy," says an historian of the events of this period, "was to the Anglo-Romish Church what the introduction of the fatal engine into the heart of Troy was to the empire of Priam." The act for "settling the succession" followed that of the supremacy; its immediate effects were to damp the satisfaction which the late measure had created; for it involved the sacrifice of the lives of Bishop Fisher and Sir Thomas More. These men did not oppose the succession, as is generally stated; but refused to allow the nullity of the marriage with Catharine, and the validity of that with Anne Boleyn. For this, and not for the other, did they suffer. Cranmer in vain exerted himself to save these eminent men"the one nearly fourscore, venerable also for his crudition and his virtues; the other the most distinguished ornament of his age and country." The dissolution of the monasteries, which soon after took place, was the joint work of Cranmer and the king; but the motives which impelled each to this unpopular act were widely different. The extravagancies of Henry had made him poor: he must therefore replenish his coffers, from whatever source: Cranmer, on the other hand, saw that these institutions were hostile to the progress of the Reformation. The monasteries were the strongholds of the papacy, where "the doctrines of purgatory and image-worship, the propitiatory virtue of masses, and, in short, the whole apparatus of Romanism, were most formidably entrenched." All the monasteries possessing an annual revenue of 2001. were suppressed, and the proceeds placed at the disposal of the king; and thus 676 religious houses were dissolved at one moment. Had Cranmer's wishes been carried into action, the proceeds of these suppressed houses would have been converted to ends the most important and enduring. He wished to found more bishoprics, and, by limiting the compass of dioceses, to enable every bishop effectually to discharge the duties of his office. Prebendal stalls (the capricious bestowal of which by their patrons, or the abuse of them by their possessors, had made them fair game for the rapacity of secular men), he was anxious to reserve as the meed of theological attainment, or the reward of pastoral diligence. lle Fould have had every cathedral to be a seminary for "sound religion and useful learning," provided with readers in divinity, from which the bishops might stock their dioceses with able clergy. There can be little doubt that our cathedrals were originally established with such views-to be schools of the prophets, and citadels of theological strength: we hail the disposition manifest in the present day so to view them; and we would urge those who may have any influence in the future appointments to these dignities, to keep steadily in remembrance the conviction that wrought so powerfully in Cranmer's mind three hundred years ago; and which was then abortive, only because he had to do with a frivolous prince, to whom knights and men-at-arms were more congenial than the strongest staff of well-read divines. The year 1539 witnessed the accomplishment of an object which had long lain near Cranmer's heart-the translation of the Bible into English. The basis of this work seems to have been a translation that had been called, by a fictitious name, Matthews's Bible, but which was really performed by Tyndale and Coverdale. This translation, Cranmer, after vast labour, completed, and procured a royal mandate, that a copy of it in Latin and English should be "laid in the choir of every church, for every one to read at his pleasure." The Bibles which we often see chained in our old churches have their date from this time. His joy at its publication is thus described by one of his biographers: "To comprehend fully the happiness which Cranmer felt on this occasion is, perhaps, impossible; but, surely, if a foretaste of that bliss which is reserved for the souls of those made perfect can be felt in this world, he must have experienced it, when he contemplated the precious volume thus completed through his exertions. The general might behold the record which should transmit his victories to posterity, with exultation; and the philosopher the discoveries which should astonish the world, with pride; but Cranmer had a greater victory to perpetuate, a more important discovery to divulge-he was about to commit to his fellow-creatures the sacred deposit of God's mercy to sinful and suffering man-to present him a guide to direct his wandering feet from earth, and lead them up to heaven. 'Glory to God!' was the joyful ejaculation of his lips; 'peace and good-will to man,' the sensations that filled his breast." D. [To be continued in a future Number.] PASSING THOUGHTS. BY CHARLOTTE ELIZABETH. NO. 111. WHAT OUGHT I TO DO? A STRIKING anecdote was related at one of the May meetings, by a clergyman from the south of Ireland, in proof of the real profit derived by some of the poorest classes from a free perusal of the word of God. At the periodical assemblage of men, generally of a very humble rank, who are employed to read the Scriptures in Irish to their poor ignorant. countrymen, a series of questions are propounded by the clergymen who attend as examiners, in order to ascertain how far the minds of these teachers are imbued with the truths that they communicate to others. One query, addressed to a very simple, unlearned man, who manifested great love for the sacred book, was to this effect:-If you were threatened with persecution and suffering for retaining your Bible, would you give it up? A pause ensued; and the question was repeated, with a demand for some reply. "Please your reverence," said the poor fellow, "and with submission, I think that question is not rightly put." "How so? In what way would you have it expressed?" "Why, then, sir, and begging your reverence's pardon, I think you should ask me, if I was threatened with such things for keeping my Bible, OUGHT I to give it up? For, sir, how do I know what I WOULD do if I was tempted?" Such an instance of self-knowledge, and consequently of self-distrust, in one who had received no teaching but what the Holy Spirit had communicated to his soul, conveys an impressive lesson to many who live in the constant enjoyment of every help to divine study. From whence arise the frequent and harsh judgments that Christians are heard to pass upon their fellows, if not from a confident conceit on the part of the individual, that he, in similar circumstances, would have acted more consistently, more prudently, more decisively, or in some way more suitably, than his neighbour has done? The poor Irish peasant had evidently read his Bible with more profit to himself than such persons have done; and a little of his experimental knowledge of the traitor within, would often appear an acquisition worth bartering many of our higher attainments for. What would I do in such or such a case, is, in fact, a question beyond the power of any man to solve: and by flattering himself that he can solve it, he does but nourish the self-confidence of a deceived heart. What ought I to do, is a safe and profitable inquiry. It sends the man to his Bible and to his God. The former teaches him both his duty, and the moral incapacity under which he lies of fulfilling it, or any duty whatever, in his own strength; at the same, time it refers him to a power always to be acquired by believing prayer; it shews him his poverty, and opens at his feet a mine of wealth; it displays the feebleness of his naked hands, and gives him armour of proof-weapons wherewith he may pull down the strongholds of his enemy. I desire-because I greatly need it to have the poor peasant's distinction ever before me, with David's prayer: "Keep thy servant also from presumptuous sins ;" and, in reference to those around me, the Apostle's indignant expostulation, "Who art thou that judgest another man's servant?" The habit of censuring others goes hand in hand with that of applauding self; and it is no unprofitable exercise to watch the risings of the former inclination in our hearts, that by its guidance we may detect the latter. O, the preciousness of that Book which is able to make the basest and most despised of our ignorant fellow-creatures wise unto salvation through the faith which is in Christ Jesus! This poor man had been brought up in strict and bigoted adherence to a system which throws the sinner altogether upon his own will-worship and meritorious works, for acceptance before God. Yet the entrance of that word, in its single majesty and simple truth, gave him such light as dispersed every shadow from his darkened understanding, and, taking him off from all vain dependencies, threw him entirely upon the guidance of Him who worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure. ON JUSTIFICATION.* To know how we obtain our justification, it is expedient to consider, first, how naughty and sinful we are all, that be of Adam's kindred; and, contrariwise, what mercifulness is in God, which, to all patient and penitent sinners, pardoneth all their offences for Christ's sake. Of these two things, no man is lightly ignorant, that ever hath heard of the fall of Adam, which was to the infection of all his posterity, and, again, of the inexplicable mercy of our heavenly Father, which sent his only begotten Son to suffer his most grievous passion for us, and shed his most precious blood, the price of our redemption. But it is greatly to be wished and desired, that as all Christian men do know the same, so that every man might acknowledge and undoubtedly believe the same to be true, and verified even upon himself: so that both he may humble himself to God, and acknowledge himself a miserable sinner, not worthy to be called his son; and yet surely trust, that to him, being repentant, God's mercy is ready to forgive. And he that seeth not these two things verified in himself, can take no manner of emolument and profit by acknowledging and believing the said things to be verified in others. But we cannot satisfy our minds, and settle our conscience, that these things be true, saving that we do evidently see that God's word so teacheth us. The commandments of God lay our faults before our eyes, which putteth us in fear and dread, and maketh us see the wrath of God against our sins,-as St. Paul saith, "By the law is the knowledge of sin," and "the law worketh wrath," and naketh us sorry and repentant that ever we should come into the displeasure of God, and the captivity of the devil. The gracious and benign promises of God, by the mediation of Christ, shew us-and that to our great relief and comfort-whensoever we be repentant, and return fully to God in our hearts, that we have for giveness of our sins, be reconciled to God, and be only by his grace and mercy, which he doth grant and accepted, and reputed just and righteous in his sight, give unto us for his dearly beloved Son's sake, Jesus Christ; who paid a sufficient ransom for our sins; whose blood doth wash away the same; whose bitter that putteth away from us the wrath of God his and grievous passion is the only pacifying oblation Father; whose sanctified body, offered on the cross, is the "only sacrifice of sweet and pleasant savour,” as St. Paul saith, that is to say, of such sweetness and pleasantness to the Father, that for the same he accepteth, and reputeth of like sweetness, all them that the same offering doth serve for. These benefits of God, with innumerable others, whosoever well pondereth in his heart, and thereby conceiveth a firm trust and feeling of God's mercy, whereof springeth in his heart a warm love, and fervent heat of zeal towards God, it is not possible but that he shall fall to work, and be ready to the performance of all such works, as he knoweth to be * From Archbishop Cranmer's "Annotations on the King's Book." acceptable unto God. And these works only, which follow our justification, do please God, for so much as they proceed from an heart endued with pure faith and love to God. But the works, which we do before our justification, be not allowed and accepted before God, although they appear never so good and glorious in the sight of man. For after our justification only, begin we to work as the law of God requireth. Then we shall do all good works willingly, although not so exactly as the law requireth, by means of the infirmity of the flesh : nevertheless, by the merit and benefit of Christ, we being sorry that we cannot do all things more exquisitely and duly, all our works shall be accepted and taken of God as most exquisite, pure, and perfect. Now they that think they may come to justification by performance of the law, by their own deeds and merit, or by any other mean than is above rehearsed, they go from Christ, they renounce his grace. "Christ is become of none effect unto you (saith St. Paul), whosoever of you are justified by the law, ye are fallen from grace." They be not partakers of the justice that he hath procured, or the merciful benefits that be given by him. For St. Paul saith-a general rule for all them that will seek such by-paths to obtain justification-those (saith he) which will not acknowledge the justness or righteousness which cometh by God, but go about to advance their own righteousness, shall never come to that righteousness which we have by God; which is the righteousness of Christ, by whom only all the saints in heaven, and all others that have been saved, have been reputed righteous and justified. So that to Christ our only Saviour and Redeemer, of whose righteousness both their and our justification doth depend, is to be transcribed all the glory thereof. THE DEAD SEA.* THE Lake or Sea of Sodom, or the Dead Sea, has been celebrated not only by the sacred writers, but also by Josephus, and several profane authors. It was anciently called in the Scriptures the Sea of the Piara (Deut. iii. 17; iv. 49), being situated in a valley, with a plain lying to the south of it; the Salt Sea (Deut. iii. 17; Josh. xv. 5), from the extremely saline and bitter taste of its waters; the Salt Sea eastward (Numbers, xxxiv. 3); and the East Sea (Ezek. xlvii. 18; Joel, ii. 20), from its situation relatively to Judæa. By Josephus, and other writers, it is called the lake Asphaltites, from the abundance of bitumen found in it; and also the Dead Sea, from ancient traditions, erroneously though generally received, that no living creature can exist in its stagnant waters, which are in the highest degree salt, bitter, and nauseous, and of such a degree of specific gravity as will enable a man to float on their surface without motion. The acrid saltness of its waters is much greater than that of the sea; and the land, which surrounds this Jake, being equally impregnated with that saltness, refuses to produce plants. To this Moses alludes in Deut. xxix. 23. The air itself, which is by evaporation loaded with it, and which is impregnated with the sulphureous and bituminous vapours, is fatal to vegetation; hence arises the deadly aspect which reigns around the lake. Here formerly stood the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, which, with three other cities of the plain, were consumed by fire from heaven; to this destruction there are numerous allusions in the and suddenness of the Divine anger, which sooner or INTEMPERANCE. Pliny THE following is extracted from the second number of "the Temperance Penny Magazine," a monthly publication, which ought to be widely circulated throughout the country by those who are grieved and alarmed at the fearful devastation which the desire for strong drink is working on all classes of the community. Even those who do not think it expedient to enroll themselves among the members of the Temperance Society, cannot object to further in every way the extensive circulation of this little work, which is written in a lively style, and calculated to arrest the attention of the lower orders. "DRINK, AND BE HAPPY!" Such is the exclamation which is constantly bandied about in the convivial party and over the cheerful cup; such is the advice which is frequently given to the unhappy subjects of calamity and distress; such is the maxim which is received and obeyed by an immense proportion of the population of this country— "Drink, and be happy!" The happiness of drinking, then, is the subject of the ensuing observations. "DRINK, AND BE HAPPY!"- -the happiness of an empty pocket. Drink is a delectable master indeed, when rags are its livery, starvation its wages, crime its employment, and despair its end. Drink is the most expensive thing in the world; it exhausts the earnings of the operative, it destroys the property and the credit of the tradesman, it casts a deadly blight upon the prosperity of the merchant, and it has reduced many a man who has lived in the high places of the earth, to the workhouse, to beggary, and to the grave. A few months ago, an unhappy man, in a state of beastly intoxication, was picked out of the kennel of one of the greatest thoroughfares in the city of London; his body was so emaciated by want and disease, that it was found necessary to convey him to the hospital, where the "last enemy" speedily claimed him for his own. That man once rode in his carriage, revelled in luxury, owned his estates, associated with Scriptures, as displaying most signally the certainty nobility, excited general observation by the splendour of his appearance--became intemperate, became pro • Rev. T. Hartwell Horne's Introduction to the Scriptures. |