As related by John Fox, in his Acts and Monuments of the Christian Martyrs.

(Continued from page 79.)

When Frith had diligently heard all the matter concerning his delivery, he said to the gentleman, Oh, good lord,' with a smiling countenance, is this the effect of your secret consultation thus long between you twain? Surely, surely, you have lost a great deal more labour in times past, and so are you like to do this, for if you should both leave me here, and go to Croydon declaring to the bishops that you had lost Frith, I would surely follow as fast after as I

F

might, and bring them news that I had found and brought Frith again. Do you think,' quoth he, 'that I am afraid to declare my opinion unto the bishops of England in a manifest truth?'

'You are a fond man,' quoth the gentleman, 'thus to talk: as though your reasoning with them might do some good. But I do much marvel that you were so willing to fly the realm before you were taken, and now so unwilling to save yourself.”

There was and is a great diversity of escaping between the one and the other,' quoth Frith. Before I was indeed desirous to escape, because I was not attached, but at liberty, which liberty I would fain have enjoyed for the maintenance of my study beyond the sea, (where I was reader in the Greek tongue,) according to St. Paul's counsel. Howbeit, now being taken by the higher power, and, as it were by Almighty God's permission and providence, delivered into the hands of the bishops only for re ligion and doctrine's sake, namely, such as in conscience and under pain of damnation, I am bound to maintain and defend; if I should now start aside and run away, I should run from my God and from the testimony of his holy word, worthy then of a thousand hells. And therefore I most heartily thank you both, for your good wills towards me, beseeching you to bring me where I was appointed to be brought, for else I will go thither all alone.' And so with a cheerful and merry countenance he went with them spending the time with pleasant and godly communications, until they came to Croyden, where for that night he was well entertained in the porter's lodge. On the morrow he was called before certain bishops

and other learned men sitting in commission with my lord of Canterbury, to be examined, where he shewed himself passing ready and ripe in answering to all objections, as some then reported, incredible and contrary to all men's expectations.

This learned young man being thus thoroughly sifted at Croydon, to understand what he could say and do in his cause, there was no man willing to prefer him to answer in open disputation as poor Lambert was. But without regard of learning or good knowledge he was sent and detained unto the butcher's stall-I mean bishop Stokely's consistory, there to hear, not the opinion of saint Augustine and other ancient fathers of Christ's primitive church, of the said sacrament; but either to be instructed and to hear maimed and half cut away sacrament of Antichrist the bishop of Rome, with the gross and fleshly imagination thereof, or else to perish in the fire; as he most constantly did, after he had before the bishops of London, Winchester, and Chichester, in the consistory in Paul's church most plainly and sincerely confessed his doctrine and faith in this weighty matter.

Sentence being passed and read against him, the bishop of London directed his letter to the mayor and sheriffs of the city of London, for receiving of the aforesaid John Frith into their charge; who, being so delivered over unto them the fourth day of July, in the year 1533, was by them carried to Smithfield to be burned; and when he was tied unto the stake, there it sufficiently appeared with what constancy and courage he suffered death.-For when, as the fagots and fire were put unto him, he willingly embraced

the same; thereby declaring, with what uprightness of mind he suffered his death for Christ's sake, and the true doctrine, whereof that day he gave with his blood a perfect and firm testimony.

One Andrew Howet was burned at the same stake with him for holding the same opinions. When they

were at the stake, Doctor Cole, a parson in London, openly admonishod all the people, that they should in no wise pray for them, no more than they would do for a dog. At which words, Frith smiling, desired the Lord to forgive thein. These words did not a little move the people unto anger, and not without good cause. The wind made his death somewhat the longer, which bore away the flame from him unto his fellow that was burning with him; but he had established his mind with such patience, God giving him strength, that, even as though he had felt no pain in that long torment, he seemed rather to rejoice for his fellow, than to be careful for himself.

This, truly, is the power and strength of Christ, striving and vanquishing in his saints; who sanctify us together with them, and direct us in all things to the glory of his most holy name. Amen.

BROTHERLY LOVE.

"Let love be without dissimulation," Rom. xii. 9.

THE Apostle here refers to that virtue which gives to every other duty its excellence, just as the sun gives light and heat to every thing, and without which all we do or suffer for one another has no reality, no heart in it-love, or charity, which is "the very bond of perfectness," and without which whosoever liveth is counted dead before God.' When man fell this holy principle departed from his heart; and in his nature he became not only the enemy of God, but