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scene of glory to earth. We will follow out this thought in a few details.

1. A taste of the powers of the world to come will greatly lessen this world in its value. We shall esteem everything in it as comparatively of little consequence. The opinion of the world will appear to us the opinion only of a few misguided beings whose judgment is every day shown to be incorrect and false; we shall not, therefore, be much affected by the frowns and censures of the world, or elevated by its caresses; for wherein is man, whose breath is in his nostrils? Man, a mere worm of the earth, wherein is he to be accounted of? So the troubles and sorrows of the world will appear very light, While others are overwhelmed by them, we shall be calm and composed under them; for, in truth, it is but of little importance what we may suffer here, if we expect in a very short time to dwell in that place where sorrow and sighing shall flee away. In like manner, all the happiness of this world will appear of a fleeting, low, imperfect kind. We shall not, therefore, be immoderately exalted in prosperity nor depressed in adversity. We shall consider it as of comparatively little consequence whether we be rich or poor. We shall not, therefore, anxiously desire, either for ourselves or for our children, anything but what will tend to bring them nearer to God and to Heaven.

2. Further, when a man feels the influence of the world to come, it will give weight and importance to all things connected with the glory of God, and the salvation of his soul. The Bible will appear to him the most important and the most interesting book in the world. Prayer will be esteemed an invaluable privilege. Every religious ordinance will be highly prized, and will be attended with seriousness. When a man hears for eternity, he hears in earnest. The faithful servants of God, however low their state, he will highly value while they act as members of Christ, and heirs of the kingdom of heaven.

3. But, above all, the powers of the world to come will give us just views of our infinite obligation to that blessed Redeemer, who, to deliver us from eternal misery, and to procure for us such a glorious inheritance, came down from heaven, and died upon the Cross in our behalf. When we feel the powers of the world to come, when we reflect, what is the hope of our calling, -when we contemplate the glory and the duration of the world to come,—what sentiments of love, of gratitude, of adoration, shall we not feel towards that gracious Redeemer, to whom alone we are indebted for all this happiness! Nothing will tend to show us more effectually the insufficiency of our righteousness to procure for us such blessings, than the due knowledge of their value. Nothing will show us more clearly the natural unworthiness of man to possess such glory, than the contemplation of its fulness. We shall then see clearly that we must be indebted solely to God's mercy to give us any share or participation in such a blessing as eternal life and infinite happiness. We shall then see that such glory was only to be procured, for such sinners as we are, by a price of infinite value, even the blood of the Son of God. Hence in heaven all the glory is ascribed to Him only. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive all glory, and honour, and dominion, for ever and ever.

4. The impression of the world to come will make a man discharge all the duties of his station with fidelity and diligence. Many have imagined that the prospect of the eternal world would unfit us for the duties of this life ; but this, I apprehend, arises from a partial view of the subject. It supposes that we could not attend to the business of this world, as it would appear so low and degrading in comparison of the high and exalted employments above. But this is to suppose that the view of heaven would cherish in us pride and evil tempers. True religion teaches us that there is nothing mean and nothing dishonourable but sin. It is to the disgrace of man, not that he is employed in menial offices, but that he is a servant of sin, that he does not fulól the will of God. To fulfil the will of God voluntarily, is the very highest honour of which any creature is capable. And, therefore, when angels are commanded to wait as ministering spirits upon the heirs of salvation, they do not conceive themselves degraded by it. They are as ready to execute this will of their Lord, as they would be to stand round His throne, praising and adoring His perfections. Whenever the powers of the world to come are properly felt, there will be felt also a sense of the importance of fulfilling the will of God. And His will is, that we should each of us discharge, diligently and faithfully, the respective duties of those stations in which He has placed us. Angels have their duties, men theirs, masters theirs, servants theirs. All have parts assigned to them, and the great Creator is magni. fied when all these several parts in the great system are well filled up, and the harmony of the whole is thus preserved.

Thus he who has tasted the powers of the world to come should be a person of great and noble sentiments. He should rise above this transitory world, and all things in it. Heaven is his home; Eternity his inheritance; God his father; the Angels his companions ; Infinite purity his aim and object; Infinite happiness his eternal reward.

HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND.

(Continued from page 337.) Sketch of the Reformation in England. By the Rev. J. J.

Blunt, Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge. London:

John Murray, 1832. The Reformation of the Church of England. Its History, Principles, and Results. A.D. 1514--1547. By the Rev. John Henry Blunt, M.A., F.S.A., Vicar of Kennigton, Oxford. Rivingtons. 1868.

The first portion of our review of these works ended with a short notice of Mr. J. H. Blunt's version of the history of John Lambert.

We must now direct the attention of our readers to Mr. Blunt's account of another of the representatives of his “antichurch” party, viz., Ann Kyme, better known by her maiden name of Ann Askewe or Ayscough, the second daughter of Sir William Askewe of South Kelsey in Lincolnshire, and sister of Sir Francis Askewe, Sheriff of the same county in 1544.

By reason of her birth and education, her superior abilities, and her numerous and influential friends, and, above all, by reason of her heroic fortitude under a series of almost unprecedented trials and sufferings, the case of Ann Askewe has been transmitted by many historians to the admiration of all who have a heart which can be touched with sympathy for those who “ for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully.” For the full particulars of those trials and sufferings, and a circumstantial account of the patience and fortitude with which they were sustained, we must refer our readers first and chiefly to the touching narrative which Ann Askewe has herself left on record, and which was transcribed with annotations by Bishop Bale; then to the Reminiscences of Archdeacon Louthe, as edited for the Camden Society by Mr. J. G. Nichols; and, after these, to the pages of Foxe, of Burnet, of the late Mr. Christopher Anderson, in his “ Annals of the English Bible," and of Mr. James Anderson, in his “ Ladies of the Reformation.” Our immediate object in referring as fully as we propose to do to the case of Ann Askewe, is to expose a series of misrepresentations on the part of Mr. Blunt, of so flagrant a character, that we can suggest no possible apology for their author, but that of such gross carelessness, or such insuperable prejudice, as amounts to an absolute disqualification for the duties of an historian. We will notice some of these misrepresentations in the order in which they occur, distinguishing, here as elsewhere, by italics, the

statements to which we would direct the more special attention of our readers.

(1) Mr. Blunt asserts that, although always spoken of by her maiden name, she was, in reality, the wife of a country squire named Kyme, whom and her two children she deserted, and whose name she dropped.” (p. 538.)

Taking the first portion of this statement in connexion with one which we shall shortly have occasion to consider, viz., that Mr. Kyme had previously married Ann Askewe's sister, it appears to us that Mr. Blunt has pronounced a somewhat hasty opinion on a subject not altogether devoid of difficulty, viz., the validity of a marriage contracted, as he asserts, with a deceased wife's sister. With regard to the second portion of the statement—that of the desertion—we shalt content ourselves with simply quoting the following extract from “ The Latter Examination of Mistress Ann Askewe,” published by Bishop Bale in the year following her death. Having first borne witness to the becoming demeanour of Ann Askewe as a Christian wife, Bishop Bale writes thus:-“ In process of time, by oft reading the Sacred Bible, she fell clearly from all old superstitions of papistry to a perfect belief in Jesus Christ; whereby she so offended the priests, that he i.e. her husband), at their suggestion, violently drove her out of his house."*

We venture to predict that the majority of our readers will be of opinion that the testimony of Bishop Bale is entitled to & somewhat greater amount of credit than that of Robert Parsons, in his “Examination of J. Fox his Calendar-Saints," to whom Mr. Blunt appears to be indebted for his version of the story.

(2) Mr. Blunt asserts, that “her sister had previously been married to him (i.e. Mr. Kyme), so that the whole business was one of a disgraceful character, which no party apologies can make respectable.” (p. 538.) For any foundation for this statement, however slight, we have sought in vain. It is quite possible, however, that those whose acquaintance with the slanderous inventions of the Jesuit Parsons, and of similar authors, is more extensive than our own, may be able to come to the rescue of Mr. Blunt. Bishop Bale, to whose account of the examinations of Ann Askewe we have already referred, writes thus:-“ The said Sir William covenanted with old Master Kyme for lucre to have his eldest daughter married with his son and heir . . . . and as it was her chance to die afore the time of her marriage, to save the money he constrained this (i.e. Ann Askewe) to supply her room.”+ Whatever may be the

* Bp. Bale’s Works, p. 199, Parker Soc. Ed. ; see also “ Narratives of the days of the Reformation," p. 39, note c.

† Bp. Bale's Works, pp. 198, 199, Parker Soc. Ed.

esuit Parsonaintance wiis quite

credit of Bishop Bale as an historian, it is not too much to assume that most of our readers will regard this circumstantial statement, published the very year after Ann Askewe's death, as entitled to more consideration than Mr. Blunt's unsupported assertion to the contrary,

(3) Mr. Blunt states that Henry VIII. “ had her examined (some say with torture, but on no very good evidence) in the Tower,” p. 540; and he appeals, in his foot-note, to the summing up of the evidence in “ Nicholls' (sic) Narratives of the Reformation.” Few of our readers would surmise from these words, that the evidence of Ann Askewe's racking depends, not upon any conflicting testimony of later writers, but upon the full and circumstantial narrative which she herself composed during the short interval between her examination in the Tower and her martyrdom at the stake; that she mentions by name the persons chiefly concerned in it, viz., "My Lord Chancellor and Master Rich;" and that she adds these remarkable words, “I understand the Council is not a little displeased that it should be reported abroad that I was racked in the Tower.”* But if the astonishment of our readers be justly excited by the incredulity which Mr. Blunt shares with Dr. Lingard, but in which he is destitute of the support even of the Jesuit Parsonst as to the truth of Ann Askewe's simple narrative, how much greater will be their astonishment, and, we are constrained to add, their indignation, when they avail themselves of the reference, with which Mr. Blunt has himself provided them, to the valuable notes appended by Mr. J. G. Nichols to his “ Narratives of the Reformation." In pp. 303–307 of that Appendix, Mr. Nichols sums up with great care, and at considerable length, the evidence for and against the truth of Ann Askewe's account of the racking. He shows that the origin of the doubt thrown upon it was the misrepresentation by Mr. Jardine of a passage in Bp. Burnet's History of the Reformation, and that the incredulity of Dr. Lingard has no better foundation than the unsupported dictum of Mr. Jardine. His words are as follows:-"The general verdict may be anticipated to be that it (i.e. Ann Askewe's narrative) is too simple, natural, circumstantial, and consistent, to be a fabrication. And Dr. Lingard's suggestion appears the less probable, when we remember that it was published whilst the incidents were still recent, and their actors still surviving. Ann Askew suffered in 1546, and her narrative was edited by Bale in the very next year.” (p. 305.) We venture to anticipate that our readers

* Bp. Bale's Works, p. 228. said Anne Askewe putt to the racke."

+ “He caused her to be appre. (Parsons' “ Examen," quoted by Mr. hended and putt to the racke.” And Nichols, p. 308.) again, “And by that occasion was the

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