Afier Cole had left him; he fpent the remaining part of the evening in drawing up a repentant fpeech, together with a full confeffion of his apoflacy; refolving to take the first opportunity to fpeak, or publish it; which he fuppofed, indeed, the flake would first give him. But beyond his expectation a better was afforded, It was intended, that he fhould be carried immediately from prifon' to the flake; where a fermon was to be preached. But the morning of the appointed day being wet and formy, the ceremony was performed under cover.

About nine o'clock, Lord Williams of Thame, attended by the magiftrates of Oxford, received him at the prifon gate; and conveyed him to St. Mary's church; where he found a crowded audience waiting for him. He was conducted to an elevated place, in public view, oppofite to the pulpit. He had scarce time to reflect a moment on the dreadful fcene, which he faw preparing for him, when the Vice-chancellor, and heads of houses, with a numerous train of doctors and profeffors, entered the church. Amongst whom was Dr. Cole, who paying his refpects to the Vice-chancellor, afcended the pulpit,

After a proper preface, Cole fhewed the reasons why it was thought neceffary to put the unhappy perfon before them to death, notwithstanding his recantation. On this head he dwelt largely, and faid full as much, as fo bad a caufé could be fuppofed to bear. Then turning to his audience, he very pathetically exhorted them to fear God, and tremble; taking the example before their eyes, of the inftability of all human things; and of the great duty of holding faft their profeffion without wavering. This venerable man, faid he, once a peer, a privy counfellor, an archbishop, and the fecond perfon in the realm, renounced the faith, and is now fallen below the lowest.

He addreffed himself laft to the degraded primate himfelf. He condoled with him in his prefent calamitous circumstances, and exhorted him to fupport with, fortitude his laft worldly trial.

Cranmer's behaviour during this difcourfe cannot be better described, than in the words of a perfon prefent; who, though a Papift, feems to have been a very impartial-spectator.

"It is doleful, fays he, to defcribe his behaviour; his forrowful countenance, his heavy chear; his face bedewed with tears; fometimes lifting up his eyes to heaven in hope; fometimes cafting them down to the earth for fhame. To be brief, he was an image of forrow. The dolour of his heart burst out continually at his eyes in gufhes of tears: yet he retained ever a quiet, and grave behaviour; which increafed the pity in men's hearts, who unfeignedly loved him, hoping it had been his repentance for his tranfgreffion."

The preacher having concluded his fermon, turned round to the whole audience; and with an air of great dignity, defired all, who were prefent, to join with him in filent prayer for the unhappy man before them. A folemn ftilinefs enfued. Every eye, and

every hand were inftantly lifted up to heaven. Some minutes having been fpent in this affecting manner, the degraded primate who had alfo fallen on his knees, arofe in all the dignity of forrow; and thus addreffed his audience.

"I had myself intended to have defired your prayers. My defires have been anticipated; and I return you, all that a dying man can give, my fincereft thanks. To your prayers for me, let me add my own.' He then with great fervour of devotion, broke out into this pathetic exclamation.

"O Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft, have mercy on me, a miferable finner! I who have offended heaven more grievously than tongue can exprefs, whither fhall I fly for fuccour? On earth all refuge fails me. Towards heaven I am afhamed to lift my eyes. What fhall I then do? Shall I defpair?---God forbid! O good God, thou art merciful, and refuseft none that come to thee for fuccour. To thee therefore I fly. Before thee I humble myfelf. My fins are great; have mercy upon me! O bleffed Redeemer, accept a penitent heart, though ftained with the fouleft offences. Have mercy upon me, O God, whofe property is always to have mercy. My fins are great, but thy mercy is ftill greater. -O Lord, for Chrift's fake, hear me !-hear me, moft gracious God!"

While he thus prayed the people fpontaneously caught the fervour, and joined audibly with him. The whole fcene was highly folemn and affecting. Having concluded his prayer, he arose from his knees; and taking a paper from his bofom, continued his fpeech to this effect:

"It is now, my brethren, no time to diffemble; I ftand upon the verge of life!-A vaft Eternity is before me.-What my fears are, or what my hopes, it matters not here to unfold. For one action of my life at least, I am accountable to the world.-My late fhameful fubfcriptions to opinions, which are wholly oppofite to my real fentiments. Before this congregation I folemnly declare, that the fear of death alone induced me to that ignominious action; that it hath coft me many bitter tears ;---that in my heart I totally reject the Pope, and the doctrines of the Church of Rome--and that"

uproar.

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As he was continuing his fpeech, the whole affembly was in an Lord Williams gave the first impulfe to the tumult; Stop the audacious heretic!" On which feveral priests and friars, rufhing from different parts of the church, with great eagernefs feized him; pulled him from his feat; dragged him into the ftreet; and with much indecent precipitation, hurried him to the ftake, which was already prepared. Executioners were on the fpo, who fecuring him with a chain, piled the faggots in order round him.

As he stood thus, with all the horrid apparatus of death about him, amidst taunts, revilings, and execrations, he alone maintained a difpaffionate behaviour. Having now difcharged his confcience,

his mind grew lighter; and he feemed to feel even in those circumftances, an inward fatisfaction, to which he had long been a franger: His countenance was not fixed, as before, in abject forrow, on the ground; he looked round him with eyes full of fweetness and benignity, as if at peace with all the world.

A torch being put to the pile, he was prefently involved in a burft of fmoke, and crackling flame: but on the fide next the wind, he was diftinctly feen before the fire reached him, to thrust his right-hand into it, and to hold it there with aftonishing firmness, crying out" This hand hath offended! This hand hath offended!"

When we fee human nature ftruggling fo nobly with fuch uncommon fufferings, it is a pleafing reflection, that through the affiftance of God, the mind of man may be supported under such trials, as are far beyond its own ftrength.

His fufferings were foon over. The fire rifing intenfely around him, and a thick fmoke involving him, it was fuppofed he was prefently dead. His patience in his torment (fays the author that I have just before quoted) and his courage in dying, if it had been in teftimony of truth, as it was of falfehood, I fhould worthily have commended; and have matched it with the fame of any father of ancient time." This teftimony coming from fuch an enemy, gives us a noble idea of the end of this great man.

LONDON,

OCTOBER 13, 1795.

THE THREE PRINCIPLES.

P. D.

THE HE regenerated man, who is created anew after the image of God, that is, in the image of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, feels in himself three principles of activity: First, a principle of LIFE, which he hath in common with all other Animals: Second, a principle of INTELLIGENCE, which he hath in common with Devils: And Third, a principle of LOVE, which he hath in common with holy Angels. Thefe three principles replaced in their natural order, and purified by Grace, conflitute what the facred writers call the new Creature. The First, the most radical, the most central of the three Principles, from whence the other two proceeds, is particularly the Image of the FATHER: The Second, which flows from the Firft, is particularly the Image of the SON: And the Third, which proceeds from the other two, with which it harmonizes, though always perfectly diftinct, is particularly the Image of the HOLY GHOST, the Comforter, who is a Spirit of Love, of Peace, of Joy, and of Perfection, and who by his holy prefence, accomplishes the mystery of Piety in the fouls of thofe who are baptized with Fire, in the Name and Power of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Thefe three Principles refiding at once in a Soul, of which they compofe the Effence, one of them may operate with vigour, VOL. XIX. Jan. 1795.

C

when

when the other two remain inactive: As in those vifionary diftrac tions, which we call dreams, and when a pious perfon is ftruck with an apoplexy, his Intellect and his Will ceafe to act; or if feized with a burning fever, though his Intellects may be deranged, his Love appears always active: In his delirium he prays, he preaches, and endeavours the performance of good works. In a perfon compleatly renewed in the Image of Jefus Christ, these three principles are always in perfe& harmony; for true wisdom. and pure Love, ceafelefsly flow from what St. Paul calls the Life of God. Thus in God, the Word and the Holy Spirit are always in the Father, as the Father is always in each of the other two. If this union be confidered, it will be no way furprizing that, in the Holy Scriptures, the Father, the Word, and the Divine Spirit, are equally named GOD, as only making one and the fame JEHOVAH.

The mistery of the incarnation did not annihilate the divinity of the Word; we owe divine honours to the Son of Mary, because the Word united himself with his foul in a manner the most intimate, and because " it pleafed the ever bleffed God, that in Jefus Chrift fhould dwell all the fullness of the Godhead bodily:" in order that in the kingdom of Grace, a plenitude of Life, of Wisdom and of Love fhould refide in Chrift (Col. i. 19, and ii. 9.) as in the kingdom of nature, a plenitude of vivifying energy, of light and of heat, refides in the fun.

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But I do not fee, (fays a philofophier,) how the Word, who was from all eternity with the Father, could be at one and the fame time in heaven and on earth; in the bofom of the Father, and in the child Jefus."

There are many other things which you do not understand, which are neverthelefs true. You do not comprehend how your Father communicated to you life, and the power of thought and reafoning: You do not understard how the luftre of the fun, can be at one and the fame time in the whole atmosphere, and in your eyes. For my part, I cannot conceive in what manner my foul can make its will, (to speak fo, ) incarnate with my hand, so as to move it at pleasure; fince the fame union does not fubfift between my will and my ears: If I cannot fathom this little mistery of my Being, fhall I be furprized if there are depths in the Supreme Being, which I cannot fathom?

A favage, who hath no knowledge of pen, ink and paper, carries the will of his mafter fealed in a letter. This to him is an impenetrable miftery, which aftonifhes his reafon. We fhall ceafe to be furprized, when we emerge from the deep gulphs of our ignorance. There will come a time, perhaps, when the Savages of the moral world, fhall be fo far enlightened by the Gospel, as to comprehend how the Almighty could unite his eternal Word to the fpotlefs Soul of Mary's Son, as we can now understand how men can commit their thoughts to paper, and transmit them to future generations. "But

"But why did not God explain to us the whole miftery ?" Such a question is worthy of the Savage, who might demand, Why did not my mafter unfold to me all the miftery of the fealed paper, which contained his will? Here is an answer to fuch a queftion: God will not fatisfy our curiofity; first, because he requires of us the obedience of Faith, and not the impertinences of pride; and fecondly, because he wills man to make ufe of a method for his reftoration, oppofed to that which loft him his perfection and blifs. Is it not reasonable, that a Being who involved himself in ruin, through believing the Father of lies, fhould restore himfelf, by believing the GOD OF TRUTH? The firft man hazarded his felicity upon the declaration of the Tempter; and ought we not to hazard our mifery upon a hundred declarations of the Redeemer? Do we not daily fee, fick perfons put their life into the hands of a physician, who is almoft, yea, fometimes, altogether unknown to them?

"But I would not truft to a phyfician, of which you fpeak: he fhould not be a Quack." I anfwer, that if you do not fuffici ently feel your fins and miferies, fo as to impel you to run the rifk, you cannot believe in Jefus Chrift; because he came not to call the righteous but finners to repentance. He comforteth not those who are at eafe, but those who are weary and heavy laden. Nevertheless the time will come, when, if you harden not your heart, you shall feel your danger and disease: When you shall be as much charmed with fubmiffion to Jefus Chrift, as Naaman, the leprous General, was in fubmitting to the venerable Prophet; when you fhall feel, that in order to find health of foul and a foretafte of eternal life, you must know the only true God, and Jefus Chrift whom he hath fent, (John xvii. 3.) For regeneration, without which none can fee the kingdom of heaven, is nothing more than the re-establishing of the foul in that happy state, when impreffed with the image of God, the has not only the Life of the Father, as her principle of life, but alfo the Light of the Son, to illuminate her understanding, and the Love of the Holy Spirit, to regulate her will.

It is very evident, that LIFE flows emanantly from the FATHER, LIGHT from the Son, and DIVINE LOVE from the Holy Spirit, if we confult the three following quotations, John vi. 57, John i. 9, Rom. v. 5. To reject the Son and the Holy Spirit, when the Gospel is preached, is to left contented with a life altogether defective, a life not perfected by the living light of Grace, and the sweetness of love: fuch is the life of Devils, of infidels, and of proud pharifees.

[Tranflated from the French of Mr, Fletcher, by Mr. Martindale.]

The EXISTENCE and EMPLOYMENT of the holy ANGELS. HUT up in this world of matter, we might be apt to imagine, there are no creatures of a nature and condition different from

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