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them, to be careful over them, not to run hither and thither after their own pleasure, but to tarry by their benefices and feed their sheep with the food of God's word, and to keep hospitality, and so to feed them both soul and body. For I tell you, these poor unlearned shepherds shall condemn many a stout and great learned clerk; for these shepherds had but the care and charge over brute beasts, and yet were diligent to keep them, and to feed them, and the other have the cure over God's lambs which he bought with the death of his son, and yet they are so careless, so negligent, so slothful over them; yea, and the most part intendeth not to feed the sheep, but they long to be fed of the sheep; they seek only their own pastimes, they care for no more. But, what said Christ to Peter? What said he? Petre, amas me? (Peter, lovest thou me ?) Peter made answer, yes. Then feed my sheep. And so the third time he commanded Peter to feed his sheep. But our clergymen do declare plainly that they love not Christ, because they feed not his flock. If they had earnest love to Christ, no doubt they would show their love, they would feed his sheep. *

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'And the shepherds returned lauding and praising God, for all the things that they had heard and seen,' &c. They were not made religious men, but returned again to their business and to their occupation. Here we learn every man to follow his occupation and his vocation, and not to leave the same, except God call him from it to another, for God would have every man to live in that order that he hath ordained for him. And no doubt the man that plieth his occupation truly, without any fraud or deceit, the same is acceptable to God, and he shall have everlasting life.

We shall close our present remarks with a brief sketch of Bale, the celebrated Bishop of Ossory, in Ireland.

JOHN BALE was born at Cove, in Suffolk, 1495. His parents being in narrow circumstances, he was sent, when only twelve years of age to the monastery of Camelites in Norwich, and moved, a few years after, to Jesus College, Cambridge. His whole education, both in school and at college, was strictly in accordance with the doctrines and practices of the Romish church, but before he entered into orders he became a devoted Protestant. He informs us in reference to this change, that he was involved in the utmost ignorance and darkness of mind, both at Norwich and Cambridge, till the word of God shining forth, the churches began to return to the true fountains of divinity. That the instrument of his conversion was not a priest or a monk, but the most noble Earl of Wentworth.' His conversion, however, exposed him to the severest persecutions from the Romish clergy, and he would doubtless have felt the full force of their resentment had he not been protected by Lord Cromwell, one of Henry the Eighth's principal favorites. But after the death of that nobleman, Bale was obliged to take refuge in Holland, where he remained for six years. When Edward the Sixth ascended the throne, he was recalled by that youthful monarch to England, and on the 15th of August, 1552, nominated to the See of Ossory in Ireland. Upon his arrival in that country, he immediately began to introduce such reformations in his diocess as would have a tendency to correct the extensive abuses which there prevailed, particularly the vicious and irregular lives of the priests; but all his schemes were frustrated by the premature death of Edward, and the accession of Mary to the throne. The

priests of Ossory now resolved to retaliate upon their bishop; and while they were endeavoring to compass his death, he fled once more to Holland, and thence passed to Basil in Switzerland, where he remained until Mary's death. In the beginning of Elizabeth's reign, he returned from exile, but instead of resuming the duties of bishop of Ossory, he became prebend of Canterbury, and in this office remained until his death, which occurred in the month of November, 1563, and in the sixty-eighth year of his age.

Bale was the author of many severe and intemperate tracts against popery; but his most celebrated production is an Account, in Latin, of the Lives of Eminent Writers of Great Britain, extending from Japhet, one of the sons of Noah, to the year 1557. He left, also, many curious metrical productions in the English language, including several dramatic pieces on sacred subjects, which to a modern taste appear utterly burlesque. Among these are plays on John the Baptist's preaching; on The childhood, temptation, passion, and resurrection of Christ; on The Lord's Supper, The washing of the disciples' feet, and on God's promises-the performance of all of which formed a part of the exercises of the Sabbath, at Kilkenny, during Bale's residence in Ireland. In 1544, he published a Brefe Chronycle concernynge the Examinacyon and Death of Sir John Oldecastell the Lorde Cobham, from which we extract the account of Cobham's death. Cobham was executed in 1417, in the reign of Henry the Fifth, for supporting the doctrines of Wickliffe, and was the first martyr among the English nobility.

DEATH OF LORD COBHAM.

Upon the day appointed, he was brought out of the Tower with his arms bound behind him, having a very cheerful countenance. Then was he laid upon a hurdle, as though he had been a most heinous traitor to the crown, and so drawn forth into Saint Giles' Field, where as they had set up a new pair of gallows. As he was coming to the place of execution, and was taken from the hurdle, he fell down devoutly upon his knees, desiring Almighty God to forgive his enemies. Than stood he up, and beheld the multitude, exhorting them in most godly manner to follow the laws of God written in the Scriptures, and in any wise to beware of such teachers as they see contrary to Christ in their conversation and living, with many other special counsels. Then he was hanged up there by the middle in chains of iron, and so consumed alive in the fire, praising the name of God, so long as his life lasted. In the end he commended his soul into the hand of God, and so departed hence most Christenly, his body resolved into ashes.

Lecture the Sixth.

THE STATE OF THE POPULAR MIND-WILLIAM TYNDALE-MILES COVERDALE-JOHN FOX-JOHN LELAND-GEORGE CAVENDISH-LORD BERNERS-JOHN BELLENDENSIR JOHN CHEKE-THOMAS WILSON-ROGER ASCHAM.

NE of the most striking features of the popular mind of England during the reign of Henry the Eighth, was a disposition to throw off the oppressive yoke of the Romish Church; and the measures which were taken to effect this great object, were wonderfully facilitated by the insufferable pride and pomp of the prelates of that church, and the shameful debaucheries of the monks. The latter had become so notorious that even the advocates themselves of popery did not attempt to deny it; and, accordingly, when it was pressed upon the consciousness of Sir Thomas More, his only reply was, 'Our mater is not of the lyuynge but of the doctryne.' This, it was early perceived, could be done so effectually in no other way as by affording to the people the means of reading the Scriptures in their vernacular language. To the attainment of this great end, the life of Tyndale was therefore devoted.

WILLIAM TYNDALE, the son of John Tyndale, of baronial dignity, was born at Hunt's Court in Gloucestershire, in 1477. From childhood he was destined for the church, and at a very early age he, accordingly, became a diligent student in the university at Oxford. He continued at Oxford till his proficiency in the Greek and Latin languages enabled him to read the New Testament to his fellow-students in Magdalen Hall, and also to those of Magdalen College. In this manner he laid the foundation of that skill in the learned languages so essential to the successful accomplishment of the great enterprise upon which he was soon to enter. Having taken his degrees at Oxford, Tyndale, for some reason not now known, entered the university of Cambridge, where he also took a degree, immediately after which he was ordained, and on the eleventh of March, 1502, was set apart as priest to the nunnery of Lambley in the diocess of Carlisle. He took the vows and became a friar in the monastery of Greenwich, in 1508. For some years previous to taking the vows, he had not only read the Scriptures to

his fellow-students, but by presenting, in an English dress, various portions of the New Testament, evinced his early zeal for the noble enterprise which has perpetuated his name.

How long Tyndale remained with the Greenwich community is uncertain; but having returned to his native county, he exchanged the life of a friar for that of tutor and chaplain in the family of Sir John Welch, a knight of Gloucestershire, whose liberal table was certain to procure him the frequent visits of the neighboring prelates and clergy. Luther, at this time, having become, from his bold defiance of the Pope, the all-absorbing topic, the chaplain was often betrayed into disputes with his patron's guests on the new heresy. When mortified at the ignorance of his authorized guides, he would warmly urge upon them the study of the New Testament. This led them, in Fuller's witty phrase, 'to prefer resigning Squire Welch's good cheer, rather than to have the sour sauce of Master Tyndale's company.' At this display of Tyndale's independence and conscientious integrity, Sir John Welch's lady expressed strong disapprobation; but Tyndale took no other notice of her displeasure, than to translate and to dedicate to herself and Sir John Erasmus Enchiridion,' the attentive reading of which resulted in the happy conversion of both. He was now firmly seated anew in their regard; but the hostility of the beneficed clergy had been thoroughly aroused, and was not quieted until he was cited to appear before the ordinary. With a deep sense of his danger, it was his earnest prayer on the way, that God would strengthen him to contend firmly, at all hazards, for the truth of his word. His persecutors had assembled strong; but whether from the influence of his protecting knight, or the secret providence of God, their courage failed, and he escaped without accusation. The ordinary, however, 'rated him like a dog.'

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Tyndale now found it necessary, for better security, to leave the service of Sir John Welch, and he, therefore, made application to Tonstall, bishop of London, to become one of his chaplains; but while the fate of his application was pending, he happened to fall in company with a popish divine, with whom he argued the necessity of a vernacular translation of the Bible so conclusively, that the priest, unable to answer him, exclaimed, We had better be without God's law than the Pope's. This audacity so fired the spirit of Tyndale that he indignantly replied, 'I defy the Pope and all his laws; and if God give me life, ere many years the plow-boys shall know more of the Scriptures than you do'-a pledge which he afterward amply redeemed.

Having failed in his application for a chaplaincy under the protection of the bishop of London, Tyndale found an asylum in the house of Humphrey Munmouth, a wealthy alderman of London, with whom he continued to reside for about six months. The design of translating the New Testament into the English language, had now become the settled purpose of his life; and finding that his native country would no longer afford him even a

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