Imatges de pàgina
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nor you, my apostles, that I mean to settle governors of the Church, greater than I, from whom you have your commission, and by whom you are constituted."

St. Augustine, in considering the circumstance of our Lord's washing the feet of his Apostles, observes, that in baptism a man is washed all over; but he afterwards soils his feet, by treading on the ground; that is, by intercourse with the world, which defiles the affections, those feet of the mind. Therefore, there is need that our Lord should wash our feet daily; and this he does, by his intercession for us. There is need, moreover, that we should daily wash our own feet; which we do, by ordering aright our spiritual steps, and praying for the pardon of our sins. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, to forgive them, and to cleanse us from all iniquity. See his Tractat. Iv. on St. John, xiii.

NOTE (9), page 30.

"Truth," says Tertullian, "is the philosopher's mistress, whom, by courting, he corrupts ; looking at nothing but his own glory: but Truth is the Christian's matron, whose directions he follows; because he looks for no glory but that which is to come."-Tertul. Apol., 46.

How noble is Bishop Ridley's declaration, . . made, too, when he was already in prison, and when he knew that his enemies were thirsting for his blood, and devising his death!.. "Though my body be captive, yet my tongue and my pen, as long as I may, shall freely set forth that, which I am undoubtedly persuaded to be the truth of God's word. And yet I will do it, under this protestation,.. call me Protestant who list, I do not pass

thereof:.. my protestation shall be this, that my mind is, and ever shall be, God willing, to set forth, sincerely, the true sense and meaning, to the best of mine understanding, of God's holy word, and not to decline from the same, either for fear of worldly danger, or else for hope of gain. I do protest, also, due obedience, and submission, of this my writing, and in all other mine affairs, unto those of Christ's church which be truly learned in God's holy word, gathered in Christ's name, and guided by his spirit." — Bp. Ridley against Transubstantiation.

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True to the last, when brought to the stake, this holy martyr declared: "So long as the breath is in my body, I will never deny my Lord Christ, and his known truth. God's will be done in me."-Wordsworth. Eccles. Biogr., vol. iii. p. 419.

"Whoever," says the Dean of Westminster, "has admired the faith, and heroic sufferings, of Ignatius, or Polycarp, must look with no less satisfaction, on those of Ridley, Latimer, Cranmer, and Hooper. And whoever will sit down to the serious perusal of their history, must, I think, rise up the better Christian; better prepared to meet the common evils of life with resignation, and to surrender life itself, with joyfulness, into the hands of God who gave it. It is impossible not to venerate their glowing piety, their profound humility, their patience under sufferings, their praises of God under distresses and privations of every kind, their prayers for their persecutors, their exemplary and triumphant death. And whoever has any feeling for learning, and the powers of reason, must be particularly affected, when he sees them exerted. under circumstances the most disastrous, the most calculated to depress

courage, and to crush the resources of genius; where books were withheld from the imprisoned saints; where the memory alone was to supply its stores, for the appointed debate; and where the removal to the place of disputation, was but the first and certain step to the expecting flames!

"It is true, that, in a certain sense, none of these evils were necessary: they might have been avoided, in the one case, by disavowing the name itself of Christian; and, in the other, by a base surrender of the vital doctrines of Christianity, to the demands of superstition armed with power. And thus, the profession of the Gospel is the immediate and only cause of its own sufferings. But, instead of affording an imputation against Christianity, as the timid or the worldly man is apt to reason, this adds to its lustre and credit. For what is it which prompts the professor of the faith to this intrepid encounter of danger and death, this cheerful submission to evils which appal all other men? What, but the strong testimony of conscience resting on the word of God; and more valuable itself, than all the goods of life? What, but the feeling of the divine support, which lifts the soul from the pains of the body? What, but the joyful anticipation of that happiness to which the martyr passes, through his brief, though sharp, torment, where faith discovers visions of approaching glory, and exclaims, from the scaffold and the stake, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man, who, through sufferings, went before, to prepare a place for his true followers, sitting at the right hand of God."" -Dean Ireland. Paganism and Christianity Compared, pp. 35.

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NOTE (10), page 33.

On the change of attitude in our blessed Lord, it is remarked by St. Augustine (Quæst. in Nov. Test., 88.), and by Gregory the Great (Homil. 29. in Evang.), that He who sits as a judge, is, at this time, seen standing at his Father's right hand, the Helper and Advocate of his protomartyr.

"When we speak of the Providence of God," says Dr. Hey, "we mean, that cause, in God, of effects which, in man, would be ascribed to foresight. In like manner, when we speak of sitting, we mean, that state of things which would produce sitting in a man; and so of standing. By Christ's sitting at the right hand of God, we mean, that state of dignity, authority, equality of rank, which, according to our customary notions, would occasion a man to sit at the right hand of a great personage. By Christ's standing (Acts, vii. 55.), that state of showing protecting care over a dying servant, which would cause the same person, if man, to stand. The postures, therefore, are only different circumstances; and the descriptions of them no more contradict one another, than a man contradicts himself by sometimes giving orders to his servant, and sometimes paying him his wages." -Lectures, vol. ii. p. 411.

NOTE (11), page 33.

"Touching my doctrine of the sacrament, and other my doctrine, of what kind soever it be, I protest it was never my mind to write, speak, or understand any thing

contrary to the most holy Word of God, or else against the holy catholic Church of Christ; but, purely and simply, to imitate and teach those things only, which I had learned from the sacred Scripture, and of the holy catholic Church of Christ, from the beginning, and also according to the exposition of the most holy and learned Fathers and martyrs of the Church.

"And if any thing hath, peradventure, chanced otherwise than I thought, I may err, but heretic I cannot be ; forasmuch as I am ready, in all things, to follow the judgment of the most sacred Word of God, and of the holy catholic Church; desiring none other thing, than meekly and quietly to be taught, if any where, (which God forbid!) I have swerved from the truth.

"And I protest, and openly confess, that, in all my doctrine and preaching, both of the sacrament, and other my doctrine, whatsoever it be, not only I mean and judge those things, as the catholic Church, and the most holy Fathers of old, with one accord, have meant and judged; but also, I would gladly use the same words that they used, and not use any other words, but to set my hand to all and singular their speeches, phrases, ways, and forms of speech, which they do use in their treatises upon the Sacrament, and keep still their interpretation. But in this thing I only am accused for an heretic, because I allow not the doctrine LATELY brought in of the sacrament, [the doctrine of transubstantiation] and because I consent not to words not accustomed in Scripture, and unknown to the ancient fathers, but newly invented and brought in by men, and belonging to the destruction of souls, overthrowing of pure and OLD religion."- Tenour of the Appeal of Archbishop Cranmer, from the Pope, to the next General Council.

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