LIFE OF JOHN BRADFORD. I. EARLY LIFE-CONVERSION-ENTRY AT CAMBRIDGE. To A.D. 1548. 66 THERE is a remarkable expression in the first chapter of Ezekiel's prophecy, which recurs forcibly to the mind when commencing such a work as the present. The prophet, when describing a vision of the throne of God, says, The likeness of the firmament was as the colour of the TERRIBLE CRYSTAL." Which the commentators thus explain: "By the terrible crystal is meant such as dazzles the eyes with its lustre."—(Lowth.) "At once clear, splendid, and magnificent, and suited to impress the mind with solemn awe and terror" (Scott.) It may assist our understanding of this passage to remember a somewhat kindred event in the life of Moses. This servant of God was permitted, on one occasion, to dwell for forty days and forty nights near to "the terrible crystal ;" and when he descended to his people, "behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come nigh him!" It is with caution and hesitation that we venture to suggest any likeness between men of modern times and the prophets and saints of holy Scripture. But all who will at last meet around the throne will have one character, though they will differ in degree, as one star differeth B from another star in glory." In John Bradford we always seem to be viewing one who has been near to "the terrible crystal," and "the skin of whose face shines," so that we may well "fear to come nigh him." 66 But perhaps the casual observer will remark, that none ever expressed a stronger feeling of self-loathing than John Bradford, whose earliest letters are subscribed, a very painted hypocrite, J. B.," and whose latest designate him as "the most unworthy." But the fact, instead of conflicting with our belief of his singular holiness, is the strongest corroboration of it. The great majority of mankind, even within the pale of the visible Church, have no very clear perceptions, either of the character of God, or of their own. To such the language of St. Paul, of Job, and of Bradford, will necessarily appear "exaggerated." The reason of their obscure appreciation of divine things was explained in the lamentation of Legh Richmond not long before his death, “Brother, we are none of us more than half awake!” But when a man has uttered with his whole heart the prayer of Bartimeus, "Lord, that mine eyes may be opened!" -and has found his prayer heard and answered-then he is another man. Then he can say with Job, In times past "I have heard of thee with the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee: wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes!" With one who was << caught up into the third heavens, and heard unspeakable words," he can say, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief." He has been in that light of "the terrible crystal" which makes manifest the indwelling sin of his nature, and he cries out, "Woe is me! for I am a man of unclean lips; and mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts." JOHN BRADFORD, by the concurrent voice of a host of witnesses, "the holiest man" of all that noble army of martyrs by whose blood the Protestant Church of England was nurtured, was probably born about 1522–1525, in the town of Manchester. A recent biographer, Archdeacon Hone, inclines to say, from 1518-1522; but we can hardly place it farther back than the latest of these dates. In the martyr's first examination, January 22, 1555, we find Southwell exclaiming," What an arrogant and stubborn boy is this!"- -an epithet which would scarcely be applied to one of middle age. A month after this, Day, bishop of Chichester, conversing with him in prison, says, "O master Bradford, you were but a child when this matter began; I was a young man then, coming from the university, and went with the world, but it was always against my conscience." The bishop, in here speaking of his "going with the world," appears to refer to that formal abjuration of the Papal supremacy, which was first required of the clergy in 1535. If Bradford "was but a child then," we can scarcely suppose him to have been born much before the year 1525. 66 He was of "gentle birth," and was brought up in virtue and good learning, even from his very childhood." Educated at the Grammar School founded in Manchester by Bishop Oldham, he became a proficient in Latin, arithmetic, and in writing. He was thus qualified at an early age to enter the service of Sir John Harrington, knight, of Exton, in Rutland, who was "Treasurer of the King's Camps and Buildings." Foxe states, that Sir John "had such experience of Bradford's activity, expertness, and faithful trustiness," that not only in the king's affairs, but also in his private business, "above all others he used his faithful service." At the siege of Montreuil, in 1544, conducted by the Duke of Norfolk, Bradford discharged, under Sir John Harrington, the office of paymaster. Three years after this, on the 8th of April, 1547, Bradford entered the Inner Temple as a student of common law. We gather that he took this step with his patron's entire approval, from finding one of Sir John's sons residing with him as an inmate and pupil, the withdrawal of whose allowance was one mode in which Sir John, in their subsequent quarrel, showed his displeasure. The object of both Bradford and young Harrington, doubtless, was to fit themselves for that advancement in the public service, which the influence of the "Treasurer of the King's Camps and Buildings" would easily have procured for them. |