transubstantiation; chiefly by the perusal of a Treatise by Ratramus, or Bertram, written seven hundred years before, at the request of Charles the Bald. "This Bertram," he afterwards affirmed, "was the first that pulled me by the ear, and that brought me from the common error of the Romish Church, and caused me to search more diligently and exactly both the Scriptures and the old ecclesiastical fathers in this matter." On this topic he so well grounded himself, that he became the means of setting Cranmer right on this point. At the close of 1545, Ridley, by the influence of the archbishop, obtained a stall in Westminster Abbey.

At the beginning of the reign of Edward VI., Dr. Ridley being appointed to preach on Ash Wednesday in the Chapel Royal, expressed his determination to expose, as far as in him lay, the Papal usurpations, and the evil of indulgences. He then adverted to the danger of using images as instruments of devotion, and to the folly of supposing that evil spirits could be repelled by holy water. His sermon called forth a reply from Gardiner, who happened to be one of his hearers. Soon after, a general visitation of the kingdom was appointed, and Dr. Ridley was selected as preacher to the commissioners for the northern circuit. The object of this commission was to ascertain the actual condition of the church, to correct its abuses, and abolish all superstitious practices. Among other things it was thought expedient to inhibit all ministers from preaching, till the church could be furnished with more learned divines: and in order that the people might be instructed in the true faith, Cranmer, assisted by Ridley and Latimer, composed those twelve discourses that now stand in the former part of the book of Homilies.

It was now thought proper to reward the merits of Dr. Ridley with a higher station in the church, and accordingly he was nominated to the See of Rochester, vacant by the translation of Bishop Holbeach to Lincoln. On September 25, 1547, he was consecrated in the chapel of the dean of St. Paul's, by the Bishop of Lincoln, assisted by the suffragan Bishops of Bedford and Sidon, acting under the commission of the Archbishop of Canterbury. His advancement did not make him neglect the duties of the pulpit: he still continued to attract, by his preaching, most crowded auditories, and to convince his hearers, by his powerful reasoning and graceful elocution, of the uncatholicity of the prevailing errors of the Roman Church.

In the early part of the year 1550, Ridley was appointed to succeed Bonner in the See of London. No sooner bad he entered upon his new preferment, than he gave such proof of his good sense and Christian temper, as was to be expected from his exalted character. His conduct towards Bonner's family, as well as to himself, was most praiseworthy. One of his first acts, after entering on possession, was to assure the mother and sister of the extruded prelate Bonner, who had been inmates of his palace, that they should not lose the benefit of the Bishop of London's board. He never failed to send for them to dinner and supper, constantly placing Mrs. Bonner at the head of the table; nor was any difference made when the lords of the privy council came to share the feast, as they often did on such occasions. As if he succeeded to the love as well as to the office of her son, he would then tenderly take the old lady by the hand, and leading her before the magnates to the head of the board, say, "By your lordships' favour, this place, of right and custom, is for my mother Bonner." When, however, Bonner regained his former station, he made a base return for these acts of kindness.

In his ordinary habits, Bishop Ridley was strict, studious, and devout. At five in the morning he left his couch, and spent half an hour in private prayer. He then proceeded to his study, where he remained till ten o'clock, when he met his household in the chapel. After dinner he commonly spent an hour in conversation, or in playing at chess. His afternoons were usually devoted either to literature or business, and before supper his family again assembled in the chapel. The evening meal was also followed by an hour of relaxation, after which he again entered his study. At eleven he retired, having concluded the day as he began it. In 1552, the bishop paid a visit to the Princess Mary at Hunsdon, who was surrounded with Popish priests. After a courteous reception, he offered to preach before her the next Sunday. On hearing this, her countenance fell; and after a pause, she said, "As for that matter, I pray you, my lord, make answer to it

yourself." The bishop replied, that his office and his duty required it of him. "I can only repeat," added Mary, "your Lordship is able to resolve the question put to me. You surely know my mind thereon. If, however, some answer to your proposal must come from me, I can only say, that should you visit Hunsdon on Sunday next, the pulpit of the parish church will of course be at your service. There you may preach if you please; but I will not come to hear you, nor shall any of my servants." Madam," replied the bishop, "I trust you will not refuse God's Word." The princess rejoined, "I cannot tell what you call God's Word; that which passed as such in my father's time, and that which is now so termed, are different things." She was answered, "God's Word is the same at all times; but in some periods it has been understood and practised better than in others." On hearing this the princess angrily said, "You durst not for your ears have avouched, in my father's days, for God's Word, that which you now set forth as such." When at length her visiter took his leave, Mary said, "My lord, I thank you for your civility in coming to see me; but for your offer to preach before me, I thank you not a whit." The bishop then retired, when Sir Thomas Wharton offered him a glass of wine. This he had no sooner drunk, than he suddenly exclaimed, "Surely I have done amiss. I ought not to have taken any refreshment in a place where God's Word has been refused. Rather was it my duty to have departed instantly, and to have shaken off the dust from my feet, as a testimony against this house." Mary never forgave him.

And now, Edward, having finished his short but saintly course, changed his crown of gold for one of glory. He died at Greenwich on the sixth of July, 1553, after a reign of six years and a half. His last prayer was offered on behalf of his country-"O my Lord God, bless Thy people, and save Thine inheritance! O Lord God, save Thy chosen people of England! Defend this realm from papistry, and maintain Thy true religion." With his decease, a great change took place in the circumstances of Ridley. It was intended that he should be translated to the see of Durham: but this was not effected.

On the accession of Mary, the hearts of the Reformers might well sink within them, when they contemplated the gloomy prospects of their beloved church, now about to be purified in the fire, and purged by the blood of her martyrs, which has ever been the seed of the church. On the death of Edward, Ridley unfortunately joined the party of Lady Jane, and defended her claims to the crown in a sermon at Paul's Cross. He soon afterwards, however, regretted the course he had adopted, and to make reparation for it, he resolved to wait upon Mary to implore her pardon; but instead of being favourably received, he was immediately seized, and sent to the Tower on a lame horse. Here Ridley had for his companions, Cranmer, Latimer, and Bradford. When first committed, these holy men appear to have been allowed separate rooms, and to have been treated with reasonable indulgence. The prison, however, was soon crowded with other victims; and the three prelates, with Mr. Bradford, were, in consequence, all confined in a single room. From this inconvenience they resolved to extract a solid advantage. Expecting daily to be called in question for their faith, and knowing that transubstantiation is the palladium of Popery, they read over together the whole New Testament, for the purpose of detecting, if possible, any ground in it for the Romish eucharistic doctrines. The result of their study was a renewed conviction that the sacred penmen afford no reason for believing either the corporal presence, or the propitiatory character attributed to the mass.

In the month of March, 1554, the lieutenant of the Tower was directed to deliver to Sir John Williams the bodies of Dr. Cranmer, Dr. Ridley, and Mr. Latimer, to be conveyed to Oxford. Here they were consigned to a prison, called Bocardo; and on the fourteenth of April they were brought out together to St. Mary's Church, to meet a select body of Popish disputants. The questions submitted to them were as follows:-1. Whether the natural body of Christ was really in the sacrament? 2. Whether any other substance did remain, after the words of consecration, than the body of Christ? 3. Whether in the mass there was a sacrifice and propitiation for the sins of quick and dead? The dispute was fixed for Cranmer on the 16th, for Ridley on the 17th, and for Latimer on the

18th of the same month. On the appointed day, Ridley was brought forth to dispute. His principal opponents were Dr. Smith, Weston, Tresham, Oglethorp, Glin, Seaton, Cole, Watson, and Ward. The insults he experienced were precisely similar to those which had been heaped upon the archbishop. Finding himself assailed by a multitude of discordant voices, he exclaimed, "I cannot answer at once to you all." The deep research and learning of Ridley were exhibited to great advantage at this time, which perpetually confounded his opponents. His discussion with Dr. Glin claims some notice, from his having been on intimate terms with Ridley. The following intercourse took place between them :

"Glin. I see that you evade all Scriptures and fathers; I will go to work with you after another manner. Jesus Christ hath here His church known on earth, of which you were once a child, although now you speak contumeliously of the sacraments.

Ridley. This is a grievous reproach, that you call me a shifter away of the Scripture, and of the doctors: as touching the sacraments, I never yet spake contumeliously of them. I grant that Christ hath here His church on earth: but that church did ever receive and acknowledge the eucharist to be a sacrament of the body of Christ, yet not the body of Christ really, but the body of Christ by grace.

"Glin. Then I ask this question-Hath the Catholic church ever, or at any time, been idolatrous? Answer me this.

Ridley. The church is the pillar and stay of the truth, that never yet hath been idolatrous in respect of the whole but peradventure in respect of some part thereof, which sometimes may be seduced by evil pastors, and through ignorance. "Glin. That church ever hath worshipped the flesh of Christ in the eucharist, as the catholic church doth at present.

"Ridley. And I also worship Christ in the sacrament, but not because He is included in the sacrament; even as I worship Christ also in the Scriptures, not because He is really included in them. Notwithstanding, I say, that the body of Christ is present in the sacrament; but yet sacramentally and spiritually, according to His grace giving life; and in that respect really, that is, according to His benediction giving life. Furthermore, I acknowledge, gladly, the true body of Christ to be in the Lord's supper, in such sort as the church of Christ doth acknowledge the same. But the true church of Christ doth acknowledge a presence of Christ's body in the Lord's supper, to be communicated to the godly by grace, and spiritually, as I have often showed, and by a sacramental signification, but not by the corporal presence of His flesh."

The next day poor Latimer appeared, whose treatment was still more disgracefully brutal. The glory of this contest (as given by Fox) certainly rests with Ridley, rather than with Cranmer, who had probably less nerve-or with Latimer, who had less learning. He adheres to one line of argument-that of explaining all the authorities advanced against him, of the spiritual presence only; and this he does with a knowledge of his subject, as well as a readiness in applying it, such as argue an extent of reading, a tenacity of memory, and a presence of mind, truly astonishing. Be they passages from Scripture, from the fathers, or from the canons of councils, with which he is plied, they appear to be the last things which he had examined; so that a false reading, or a false gloss, never escapes him.

On the following Friday, April 20th, Ridley and Latimer again appeared before the commissioners, when Dr. Weston demanded of them, whether they would subscribe. They replied, that they would stand to what they had said. They were accordingly condemned as heretics. To this sentence Ridley answeredAlthough I be not of your company, yet doubt I not but my name is written in another place, whither this sentence will send me sooner than I should by the course of nature have gone."

From this time our Reformer was guarded with the greatest strictness, under the custody of Irish, mayor of Oxford, whose wife, a morose woman, deemed it meritorious to increase the severity of his confinement. While in prison he continued

to write in defence of his views; and when deprived of pens and ink, he cut the lead of his windows into pencils, and wrote on the margins of the books which were still left to him.

The destruction of Cranmer, Latimer, and Ridley was delayed, owing to the discovery, that the tribunal, before which they had been tried, was not competent to decide the case. It was not till September of the year 1555-a year memorable in the annals of English history, for the wide spread horror and bloodshed which prevailed in the land-that a fresh commission was issued by Pole, for the trial of Ridley and Latimer. The bishops of London, Gloucester, and Bristol, were appointed commissioners by the legate for the prosecution of the two Reformers, who were summoned to appear before them on the 30th of September. The bishop, however, continued firm to his principles; and after several examinations they proceeded to degrade him from the ecclesiastical order, and with Latimer he was consigned over to the secular power. The ceremony of degradation took place at the mayor's house. When they threatened to gag him, he declared that as long as he had breath he would speak against their abominable doings; and when they would have made him hold the chalice and the wafer cake, he said that he would not take them, but would let them fall.

The place appointed for the execution was the ditch on the north side of the town, over against Baliol College; and the Lord Williams of Thame was instructed, by the queen's letters, to marshal the householders, and to see that no tumult was made. Then came out Ridley in his black furred gown and velvet cap, walking between the mayor and an alderman. As he passed Bocardo he looked up, hoping to see Cranmer, but he, says Fox, was then engaged in dispute with one friar Soto; others, however, whom Heylyn and Burnet follow, assert, that he beheld the whole sorrowful spectacle from the roof of his prison, and upon his knees begged God to strengthen his companions in their agony, and to prepare him for his own. When Latimer came up (for the poor old man made what speed he could, but by reason of his years was slow), Ridley ran to him and kissed him, saying, "Be of good heart, brother; for God will either assuage the fury of the flame, or else strengthen us to abide it." Then they kneeled down both of them, and prayed very earnestly; and when they had risen and talked together awhile, Dr. Smith, one of those who had recanted in Edward's time, and was now, therefore, the more zealous, preached before them, having the feeling to choose for his text, "Though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing." After a while, being commanded to make ready, Ridley gave away his apparel, a new groat, some nutmegs, rases of ginger, a dial, and such other things as he had about him, the bystanders but too happy to get " any rag of him;" and Latimer, who had left it to his keeper to strip him, now stood in his shroud, no longer the withered and decrepid old man he seemed, but bolt upright, "as comely a father as one might lightly behold." Then did Ridley move the Lord Williams to intercede, that the leases which he had made as bishop of London might be confirmed; and when he had relieved his conscience of this his only worldly care, a kindled faggot was laid at his feet; Latimer, who was fastened to the same stake, exclaiming at the instant, in words that have become memorable, "Be of good comfort, master Ridley, and play the man; we shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out."

Latimer's sufferings were short; he received the flame as it were embracing it; and after he had stroked his face with his hands and bathed them a little in the fire, he soon died, as it appeared, without pain. Not so Ridley, the faggots were piled up about him, so that there was no vent for the flame, which, burning underneath, consumed all his lower extremities, he piteously desiring of the people, for Christ's sake, to let the fire come unto him. His brother-in-law, who meant it in mercy, heaped upon him still more fuel, till nothing could be seen of him, only he was perceived to be leaping up and down under the faggots, often crying out "I cannot burn." At last one of the spectators, pulling off the wood from above, made a way for the flame to escape, towards which Ridley leaned himself as towards a welcome executioner, when the gunpowder with which he was furnished exploded, and he fell down dead at Latimer's feet.

Such was the end of Nicholas Ridley, who, like the primitive martyrs, witnessed a good confession. By the ardour of his zeal, and the energy of his character, he justly deserves the respect and the admiration of posterity. As a Reformer, he was eminently fitted for the work which Providence assigned him. And surely no Englishman can take up his Bible, or join in the blessing of the church service, or feel the comfort and support of those checks upon his erring judgment which are provided in the Articles, can bear to hear the name of Ridley mentioned but with reverence and gratitude. Islington.

THE CHURCH'S INVITATION TO DISSENTERS.

BY DR. CHALMERS.

J. Y.

WOULD it not be beautiful and good, that the distinctions between sect and sect should be offered up, as a sacrifice, on the altar of our common faith, and for the well-being of our common and general humanity? We do not speak of the sin of schism in the abstract. There is much said on this subject by certain domineering churchmen, who arrogate a mystic superiority to themselves, while they would place all others beyond the pale of Christianity. With this exclusiveness we cannot in the least sympathize; nor is it on any pretension of this sort, that we would vindicate the establishment of the church either of Scotland or England. We do not feel it necessary to depress immeasurably beneath us, either the creed or the government of other denominations. We most willingly concede with respect to sectaries we could name, that they are at one with us in all that is vital, and differ from us only in certain minute and insignificant peculiarities. And yet the establishment of our existing churches in their respective countries, might (we think) be made to rest on a firmer and more rational basis than is alleged by those, who claim for their ministers the immaculate descent of a pure and apostolic ordination. We disclaim all aid from any such factitious argument; an argument which could have been of no avail against the Popery we rejected, and should be of as little avail against those denominations of Protestantism which have been left unendowed. We contend against Popery, as being unscriptural. We do not contend against all Protestant denominations except our own, as being unapostolical; but we contend against the endowment of more than one denomination for one country, as being incommodious, and not fitted to secure the great object for which an endowment is desirable—the general Christian education of the people. soning against Popery, the more erroneous, or the wider the difference from us, the more easily the case is disposed of; while in reasoning, not against Protestant sectaries, but against the endowment of any of them except one, the less erroneous, or the nearer they are to ourselves, the more easily their case is disposed of. There is no paradox here. It was on theological principles, that we stripped Popery of her endowments. It is on principles of a right economical arrangement, that while recognizing the substantial unity of some of the Protestant bodies, we endow only one of them, and leave out the rest. It has been said, “ When the difference between the church and the sectaries is so insignificant, why treat them so unequally?" Our reply is—" When the difference is so insignificant, why keep up that difference at all?" Why do sectaries keep aloof from the church, on considerations which are confessedly insignificant and paltry? We hear of their agreement with the church, on all vital and essential topics; and this agreement we (in opposition to the bigots within the Establishment) heartily accord to the great majority of Dissenters, in both parts of the island. But if they agree in all that is essential, what are the topics on which they differ? They can be no other than the non-essentials of Christianity; the caprices, or whimsical peculiarities, in which (through the very wantonness of freedom in this land of perfect toleration) men have chosen to disport themselves-each having a creed, or (rather) a costume and a designation of their own. The Government, after having done what was theologically right in rejecting Popery, would still be theologically right

In rea