questions, he put forth one, a very subtle and crafty one, and such a one indeed as I could not think so great danger in. And when I should make answer, I pray you, Master Latimer, saith he, speak out; I am very thick of hearing, and here be many that sit far off. I marvelled at this, that I was bidden to speak out, and began to misdeem, and gave an ear to the chimney. And, sir, there I heard a pen walking in the chimney behind the cloth. They had appointed one there to write all my answers, for they made sure work that I should not start from them, there was no starting from them. God was my good Lord, and gave me answer, I could never else have escaped it.‡ At the trial of Bishop Latimer in the 76th year of his age, the charge was read by the Bishop of Lincoln. "We object to thee, Hugh Latimer, first, that thou in this University of Oxford, in the year 1554, in April, May, June, July, or in some one or more of them, hast affirmed, and openly defended and maintained, and in many other times and places besides, That the true and natural body of Christ, after the consecration of the priest, is not really present in the sacrament of the altar." Whereupon Lincoln, with the other Bishops, exhorted Master Latimer again to recant and revoke his errors. But on his refusal the Bishop of Lincoln called aloud to Master Latimer, and bid him hearken to him; and then he pronounced on him the sentence, and delivered him over to the secular power. Serm. xii. vol. 1, p. 247, ed. 1758. 66 About eight of the clock Ridley and Latimer were conducted from the mayor's house to the place of execution, which was a spot of ground on the north side of the town over-against Baliol College. In their way thither Ridley outwent Latimer some way before; but he looking back espied Latimer coming after, and said to him, " O, be ye there?" “ Yea,” said Master Latimer,“ have after as fast as I can follow." Bishop Ridley first entered the lists, dressed in his episcopal habit; and soon after, Bishop Latimer, as usual, in his prison garb. Master Latimer now suffered the keeper to pull off his prison-garb, and then he appeared in a shroud. Being ready, he fervently recommended his soul to God, and then delivered himself to the executioner, saying to the Bishop of London these prophetical words: "We shall this day, my lord, light such a candle in England, as shall never be extinguished." SECTION III. DR. SOUTH. Who can tell all the windings and turnings, all the depths, all the hollownesses and dark corners of the mind of man? He who enters upon this scrutiny, enters into a labyrinth or a wilderness, where he has no guide but chance or industry to direct his enquiries or to put an end to his search. It is a wilderness, in which a man may wander more than forty years; a wilderness through which few have passed to the promised land. Sermon on Prov. xxviii. 26. 1. IN general. 2. In particular. PLEASURE. 1. Sensual compared with intellectual plea sure. 2. Pleasure of great place. 3. Pleasure of amusement compared with the pleasure of industry. 4. Pleasure of meditation. 5. Pleasure of religion. PLEASURE IN GENERAL. PLEASURE in general, is the apprehension of a suitable object, suitably applied to a rightly disposed faculty; and so must be conversant both about the faculties of the body and of the soul respectively.* SENSUAL COMPARED WITH INTELLECTUAL PLEASURE. THE difference of which two estates consists in this; that in the former the sensitive appetites rule and domineer; in the latter the supreme faculty of the soul, called reason, sways the sceptre and acts the whole man above the irregular demands of appetite and affection. There is no doubt, but a man while he resigns himself up to the brutish guidance of sense and appetite, has no relish at all for the spiritual refined delights of a soul clarified by grace and virtue. The pleasures of an angel can never be the pleasures of a hog. But this is the thing that we contend for, that a man having once advanced himself to a state of superiority over the control of his inferior appetites, finds an infinitely more solid and sublime pleasure in the delights proper to his reason, than the same person had ever conveyed to him by the bare ministry of his senses.† * Does not happiness consist in a due exercise of all our faculties? The harp in tune and properly played. Strange that a harp with many strings Should keep in tune so long. The pleasure and delight of knowledge and learning far surpasseth all other in nature for, shall the pleasures of the affections so exceed the senses, as much as the obtaining of desire or victory exceedeth a song or a dinner; and must not, of consequence, the pleasures of the intellect or under The change and passage from a state of nature, to a state of virtue, is laborious. The ascent up the standing exceed the pleasures of the affections? We see in all other pleasures there is satiety, and after they be used, their verdure departeth; which sheweth well they be but deceits of pleasure, and not pleasure; and that it was the novelty which pleased, and not the quality and therefore we see that voluptuous men turn friars, and ambitious princes turn melancholy. But of knowledge there is no satiety, but satisfaction and appetite are perpetually interchangeable. The poet that beautified the sect, that was otherwise inferior to the rest, saith yet excellently well: It is a pleasure to stand upon the shore, and to see ships tossed upon the sea: a pleasure to stand in the window of a castle, and to see a battle, and the adventures thereof below : but no pleasure is comparable to the standing upon the vantage ground of truth (a hill not to be commanded, and where the air is always clear and serene), and to see the errors, and wanderings, and mists, and tempests, in the vale below; so always that this prospect be with pity, and not with swelling or pride. Certainly, it is heaven upon earth, to have a man's mind move in charity, rest in providence, and turn upon the poles of truth. Nature never did betray The heart that loved her; 'tis her privilege, : From joy to joy for she can so inform With quietness and beauty, and so feed With lofty thoughts, that neither evil tongues, Shall e'er prevail against us, or disturb WORDSWORTH. Children and fools choose to please their senses rather than their reason, because they still dwell within the regions |