The form of recantation may be seen in Crosby and Ivimey.* Both say it took place in the Dutch church, Austin Friars. But the account of Somers is the more probable, and is, moreover, confirmed by Fuller. This partial success inspired the bishop and his Dutch colleagues with hope, and they renewed their efforts to win the remainder to their faith. For the fourth time they were called before the priestly tribunal. It was, says Von Byler, "On Whitsuntide morning we were chained two and two, and led before the lords. When we were brought before them, they presented the same four questions, urging us to subscribe to them; but we told them that we would abide by the word of the Lord. We were then remanded to prison, and fettered as before; the women were confined at Newgate, together with a young brother; but they were all released, and transported. The young man, however, was tied to a cart and scourged, and afterwards whipped out of town." The statement of Mr. Somers is rather fuller, and gives us an occasional glimpse of the tenderness with which episcopal hands dealt with their erring brethren. "In the course of a few days, the bishop perceiving that the rest would not apostatize from their faith, sentenced them all to death in the ecclesiastical court-room, St. Paul's church (as was customary with the papistic bishops during queen Mary's reign, who were wont to condemn the Christians to death), and deliver them into the hands of the civil judge; then they bound the women hand to hand, and conducted them to Newgate the prison for capital convicts-together with one of the men which was considered the youngest and most innocent among them; but the rest of the men were conducted to their old * Crosby, i., 69. Ivimey, i., 103, 104. † Church Hist., Cent. xvi., 164. episcopal prison, for which reason it was supposed that the women would be executed first, even as persons came daily to threaten them, and to present death to them unless they would apostatize. Hence they suffered great anguish and temptation for five or six days, supposing every day that they would be burnt; nay, on the very day that sentence of their banishment came from the court-for the bailiff came with his servant at ten o'clock in the evening, unto the prison, to take an inventory of all their property, informing them, in addition, that they should prepare for death the next day. This he did, in order to see whether any of them would apostatize through fear; but perceiving that they all remained stedfast, he informed them that it was the queen's pleasure to be gracious to them, and merely banish them from the country, and have the young men whipped behind a cart. Accordingly, in the course of five or six days, about fourteen women were conveyed from the prison, which is situated in the space between St. Martin's church and St. Catherine's, to the ship by the apparitors: but the young man was whipped behind a cart, which moved on before him. Thus they were all banished from the country, on pain of imprisonment, and reside for the present in Holland and Zealand. "A few days after, the five men that remained in the bishop's prison were likewise sentenced to death by the bishop, and conveyed to Newgate, where one of them died of wretchedness and a load of chains; and the rest were apprehensive that they would inflict extreme punishment upon them, because they had exercised so much severity upon the women. They were also informed that the queen and her whole council were so highly offended at them that no person would venture to present a petition for them, since an evil report arose, that they denied God and Christ, and rejected all government and all respect for the magistrate and civil power, as ungodly and unchristian." Efforts, nevertheless, were made to obtain their freedom. A petition and confession of their faith were presented to her majesty; but that cruel and haughty sovereign refused to listen to it, and indignantly reprimanded those through whose influence it had been laid before her. Failing in this, they laid them before the bishop, through a noble lord, he graciously condescended to tell them how distressed he was on their account; but there was no hope of favour unless they would sign the four articles, and abjure their here sy. Hypocrisy is hateful in any form, but it is most hideous when associated with the cant of religion as seen in this pretended successor of the apostles. The substance of this confession we have, doubtless, in a document prepared by the two martyrs, as a vindication of themselves. We select a few sentences from it, and our readers will see what it was his lordship of London condemned as heresy, and for the defence of which the writers were burnt at the stake. "We poor and despised strangers who are persecuted for the testimony of Jesus, desire that God may grant all mankind peace, so that they may live together in all godliness to the praise of the Lord, and to the advancement of their soul's salvation. Since so many, both by writing and verbal statement, do us great injustice, accusing and charging lies upon us, I am constrained to present our belief very summarily. They do not speak to us, and do not, in a mild manner, inquire of us what our religious views are, as the scriptures teach; but they speak all manner of evil of us, so that they increase our miseries and sufferings; and, besides, they have no compassion either on our distressed wives or helpless children." 'We seek no salvation in our works, as it is reported we do, but we hope to be saved alone through the merits of our Lord Christ. Nor do we boast that we are without sin, but we always confess ourselves sinners before God. But we have to refrain from voluntary sins if we would be saved; such as adultery, fornication, sorcery, sedition, bloodshed, cursing and swearing, lying and cheating, pride, drunkenness, hatred, envy; these are the sins that the scriptures declare, who do them shall not inherit the kingdom of God. "They also say, we refuse to hear the word of God because we do not go to hear the preachers of the church. To this charge we would say, that we do not hear the preachers is, because the word of God constrains to do so; because they are people not fit to attend to the sacred callings of a gospel preacher, for Paul teaches Timothy and says, 'The things thou hast heard of me, among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men,' &c. Now if the preachers were such as the apostle required, we would cheerfully hear them -we would be the first and last in church." "We are also accused of not being subject to the magistracy, because we do not baptize infants. To this we reply, we desire to submit to the magistracy in all things not contrary to the word of God. That we do not suffer our children to be baptized by the priests, is not done out of temerity, but we do it out of fear to God, because Christ commands believers to be baptized; for Christ's apostles did not baptize infants but adults only, and those on their faith and confessions of their sins. . . . If it had been the will of God that infants should be baptized, he would have commanded it to be done. Christ would have been baptized in his infancy, as well as circumcised; but as it is not the will of God, therefore did he teach them differently, and received baptism differ- death was at hand. Early in the morn ently himself." The German and French ministers having failed in their disputations to convince them of their errors, and the efforts of many, both German and English, amongst whom was the celebrated John Fox,t who addressed a letter to the queen on their behalf, proving abortive, preparation was made for executing the diabolical sentence. "Orders were issued," says Somers, “from the court to the sheriff or bailiff of London, to execute the two oldest, according to their sentence. One of whom, Jan Pieters, was a poor man, upwards of fifty years old, and had nine children. His first wife was previously burnt at Ghent in Flanders, on account of her religion, and he had married a second wife, whose first husband had likewise been burnt at Ghent for his religious principles. But these two had fled into England on account of persecution, on supposition that they could live there and enjoy liberty of conscience without being exposed to any danger; which circumstance he represented to the bishop, and desired the favour of removing from the country with his wife and children, but he could not obtain it. The other, called Henry Terwoort, was a handsome and respectable man, twenty-five or twenty-six years' old; a goldsmith by trade, and had been married eight or ten weeks before he was apprehended." On Tuesday, the 19th of July, the work of preparation for this auto-da-fé was commenced in Smithfield. The scenes which had been so familiar in the last reign, were about to be reacted. The massy stake soon rose in the midst, whilst the chain, heaps of faggots, and other materials, proclaimed to the passers-by that the horrid work of ing of Friday, the prisoners were visited by the officers of blood. The morning light had scarcely scattered the last remains of darkness, as they left their gloomy cell for ever. Pieters, as he was led in his manacles, said to those around him, "This is the way the prophets went, and Christ our Saviour, which was the case ever since the days of Abel."* It was scarcely six o'clock, when these noble confessors, being fastened to the stake, " were miserably burnt to ashes, without having been strangled, and without powder, according to the custom at Smithfield, where they used to burn the people who professed our religion."+ The unhappy fate of these good men had no unfavourable influence upon their companions still in prison. They continued firm and stedfast, with the daily expectation of submitting to the same punishment. "Luke and I endeavoured, if possible, to get them out of prison four days after the execution of the others; we even prevailed upon them, through much conversation, to sign the confession, in the hope that the bishop would be satisfied with it. Having read it he found it good throughout; but he will not receive them into favour unless they sign the first four articles without contradiction, and join the Dutch church; which they are determined not to do, even if they perfectly agree with us in doctrine; since thereby they would condemn those that had been executed, and all the rest of their comrades who died or still live in the same faith, and would confess that they had been seduced by the devil, the spirit of lies and error, to this damnable heresy, of which they declare that they are by no means convinced in their own consciences, but that they are much more assured of * Somers. + Vide Ivimey, vol. i. *Byler. + Ib. their salvation in Christ, the very God the pain of immediate imprisonment."* and very Man; they would, therefore, I will only add to this somewhat as they say, provoke God in the highest, lengthy detail, that one of the prisoners, if they should speak contrary to the Kemels, met his fate during his contestimony of their own consciences. finement in his damp and gloomy cell; "Hence we know of nothing else than but that happily the others, after a that they will have to suffer the same somewhat lengthy confinement, were punishment that was endured by their permitted to breathe the air of liberty. partners, the more especially as they An ample detail of these proceedings attempted to break out of prison, hav- will be found in the Dutch Martyrology, ing filed off an iron bar of the window, a copy of which, we hope, will speedily for which cause they are kept more be in the hands of most of our readers. closely in bonds than at any former time, It will be found to throw much light on and may consider themselves fortunate many points of our early history, and if an early and preferable death should should be read by all anxious to form a release them from the great distress and correct estimate of men, who have misery of the prison-for they lie sepa- nobly prepared the way for us. Excuse rate from each other, so that they can- this closing allusion. not afford each other any consolation, and no one dare converse with them, on Scarborough, Nov. 6. THE WANTS OF THE CHURCH FOR THE NEW YEAR. BY THE REV. CORNELIUS ELVEN. Ar the commencement of the new | We need not be apprehensive that the year it may not be unwise for the church ever-widening sphere of human literato take an inventory of its wants. The old divines were wont to deal in negatives and positives, and without imitating all their quaint formalities, albeit there were giants in those days, we may be permitted for once to follow in the well-beaten track, by attempting to show that there are three things which we do not want, and three which we do want. Not that these are all that might be adduced, but they are submitted as suggestive, leaving it to thoughtful readers to amplify for their own edification, and the advancement of the cause of Christ. the milky way— ture will intrench on the hallowed Exempt from the mutations which I. We do not want a new bible. pertain to mere human philosophy, the Many an old volume of human lore bible, stereotyped from heaven, remains has been rendered obsolete by the dis-alike the glory of all lands and of all coveries of a succeeding age. But all true science does homage to the bible. * Somers. times. Christians, be intreated, with the new year, to address yourselves with new and prayerful affection to that sacred volume which alone can make you wise unto salvation. "Most wondrous book! bright candle of the Lord! Star of eternity! the only star By which the bark of man could navigate Neither do we want a new ministry.— This, indeed, may be numbered among our perils. We deprecate the attempt to transform the pulpit into a chair of philosophy and to substitute the essay for the sermon. It is quite true that the Christian ministry should seek to keep abreast with the age, and that the preacher should set as high an estimate on knowledge as the lecturer. But we must not extol reason at the expence of revelation, nor amuse our hearers with the theories of science to the neglect of the truths of salvation; nor are we to be denounced as behind our age, if we sound an alarm against the would-be philosophical transcendentalism which is threatening by its mysticisms to envelop and obscure the "truth as it is in Jesus." May the Spirit of God preserve us from a ministerial apostacy which without avowedly abandoning the common salvation" would veil it in the drapery of human eloquence, or overlay its saving doctrines with the superincumbency of "science falsely so called." Nor, as congregationalists, do we need a new organization. Many of our churches within the last few years have been more or less assailed by "brethren," who have denounced what they designate our one man system," as opposed to the unity of the church. They grievously lament that there are so many sections in the Christian church, and modestly propose to remedy the evil by adding another! Now we have diligently in quired touching all the boasted advantages of their new organization, and the result is, that of their most vaunted excellencies, there is not one, if really good, but may be enjoyed by congregationalists. The sincere piety of many who have been seduced from our communion, we do not question; but it is for a lamentation, that under pretence of exalted spirituality and pre-eminent charity, Christians of this new way have become the most sectarian and exclusive of all denominations. We, therefore, humbly submit that we "hold fast that we have received," after the manner of "the saints which were at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons." And that not merely on account of the scripturalness of our order, but because the spirituality we need is so apart from all externalism, as to be no more essentially dependent on our church polity than on our church architecture. Both alike being considerations immeasurably beneath the higher matter of the life and power of godliness in the heart. Yet though we want neither a new bible, a new ministry, nor a new organization, there are wants of which it may be well for us to be reminded at this season. I. We want more of the unction of the Holy Spirit. We have evidence enough of the truth of revelation; for, as Pascal says, "There is light enough for those who sincerely wish to see, though there is obscurity enough to confound those who wish to oppose." We, therefore, have light enough; but we need more warmth. That is, as individual Christians we want, with the new year, such a new and large vouchsafement of divine influence as shall infuse new life into our private and public devotions. For what is prayer without unction? a solemn mockery. Continuing through the year this round of formal |