her particular faith and apprehension of God's mercy to her in Christ. So continuing unto the death a profession of the faith whereof she had been defender in her life; and findeth now the truth of his promise that said (Rev. iii. 10,) Be faithful unto the death, and I will give thee the crown of life. Thus did she end her days in the faith; and even in her that is taken away we have cause of rejoicing, when we consider how God took her away in his great mercy, ending her days in peace and in the faith of Christ."* XI. With this notice of the queen's last hours the curtain might fall upon the scenes exhibited from her reign. Some of them have been sufficiently repulsive, but as Elizabeth certified by proclamation that no portrait had ever done her justice, these may have failed to exhibit absolute truth. However, they are merely given as the view which clergymen put forward in their pulpits of things which fell under their observation, or reached their ears while recent or proceeding, and a review of the whole century by one who was hailing the accession of James in the Cambridge University pulpit, on the day after the sermon at Paul's Cross just quoted, shall conclude them. 66 Henry VIII. did cut off the head of the Roman serpent, but left the tail still among us—that is, the six articles, which did sting many saints of God to death; even as King Ahaz is said to have walked in the way of the kings of Israel, so did he. Though he drove out the pope, yet did he retain the old idolatries of popery; but his son, King Edward VI., succeeding him, as another Hezekias, took away both the head and the tail at one blow, whom Queen Mary as another Manasses, succeeded, a good woman (as they say) *God's Universal Right Proclaimed. A sermon preached at Paul's Cross the 27th of March, 1603, by I. H. [John Hayward.] but an ill prince, restored both again, and put her own and her people's neck under the Spanish yoke. Behold Queen Elizabeth, the love of God and man, who following her as another Josias, by the strength of Christ did overcome both these monsters with a virgin hand.........to the comfort of millions of souls, and, to the eternal honour of her name, restored and preserved these four-and-forty years and upward, without any toleration, God's holy and pure religion in her kingdom."* * Leonell Sharpe. Sermon at Cambridge, p. 9-11. THE Prelate is the more remarkable because in his Spiritual consolation, written to his sister during his imprisonment in the Tower, Christ is held up with a steadiness and force, as "wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption," which shows how deeply he felt the value of his atonement. A series of ejaculatory prayers which conclude the book, and which he recommends as antidotes to occasional coldness of heart, are a fair specimen of the spirit of the whole. "O Blessed Jesu, make me to love thee entirely! O Blessed Jesu, I would fain but without thy help I can not. O Blessed Jesu, let me deeply consider the greatness of thy love towards me. O Blessed Jesu, give unto me grace heartily to thank thee for thy benefits. O Blessed Jesu, give me good will to serve thee and to suffer. O Sweet Jesu, give me a natural remembrance of thy passion. O Sweet Jesu, possess my heart, hold and keep it only to thee." And not one petition is there to Saint or Virgin. |