Page images
PDF
EPUB

time placing himself at the head of a true Evangelical Alliance. He wrote to Calvin, in in this same town of Geneva, from which I now address you, as follows:-"As nothing tends more injuriously to the separation of the churches than heresies and disputes respecting the doctrines of religion; so nothing tends more effectually to unite the churches of God, and more powerfully to defend the fold of Christ, than the pure teaching of the Gospel and harmony of doctrine. Wherefore, I have often wished, and still continue to do so, that learned and godly men, who are eminent for erudition and judgment, might meet together in some place of safety, where, by taking counsel together, and comparing their respective opinions, they might handle all the heads of ecclesiastical doctrine, and hand down to posterity, under the weight of their authority, some work not only upon the subjects themselves, but upon the forms of expressing them. Our adversaries are now holding their councils at Trent, for the establishment of their errors; and shall we neglect to call together a godly Synod for the refutation of error, and for restoring and propagating the truth?" (Cranmer's Letters, p. 432.)

necessary to have the assistance of learned men, who, having compared their opinions together with us, may do away with doctrinal controversies, and build up an entire system of true doctrine. We have, therefore, invited both yourself and some other learned men." (Cranmer's Letters, p. 422.) That man was not a "time server," but "building his house upon a rock."

God had put into the heart of your excellent metropolitan that law of unity of the people of God, the accomplishment of which our Lord in his sacerdotal prayer besought of his Father. You are not the first, dear and honoured brethren, who have addressed to ministers and Christians of the Continent the invitation to visit London, for the purpose of consulting about the interests of the kingdom of God. Cranmer did the same. It is true that the men whom he invited were far more illustrious, and that the business they had in hand was perhaps more weighty. But ought not that very circumstance mutually to encourage us, and does it not show that England, instead of lessening, should increase the number of those Christian ties that connect her with the Continent. Thomas of Canterbury was at that

time placing himself at the head of a true Evangelical Alliance. He wrote to Calvin, in in this same town of Geneva, from which I now address you, as follows:-"As nothing tends more injuriously to the separation of the churches than heresies and disputes respecting the doctrines of religion; so nothing tends more effectually to unite the churches of God, and more powerfully to defend the fold of Christ, than the pure teaching of the Gospel and harmony of doctrine. Wherefore, I have often wished, and still continue to do so, that learned and godly men, who are eminent for erudition and judgment, might meet together in some place of safety, where, by taking counsel together, and comparing their respective opinions, they might handle all the heads of ecclesiastical doctrine, and hand down to posterity, under the weight of their authority, some work not only upon the subjects themselves, but upon the forms of expressing them. Our adversaries are now holding their councils at Trent, for the establishment of their errors; and shall we neglect to call together a godly Synod for the refutation of error, and for restoring and propagating the truth?" (Cranmer's Letters, p. 432.)

God, does he turn,—to whom does he pour out the sadness of his heart? Still it is to one of his brethren of the reformed churches of the Continent. He, the lukewarm friend, had conjured the excellent Peter Martyr to quit England, wishing to save his life; but ready, he, the coward, to lay down his own; and had declared to him, "that he (Cranmer) must of necessity abide a trial, that no justice was to be expected from his adversaries, and that it was certain that he should never see him again." Do we not seem to hear Paul addressing the elders of Ephesus? But now, when Peter Martyr had escaped, when the solemn moment was approaching for Cranmer, he composes himself in the presence of his God, and traces in his frightful prison these admirable lines, addressed to that same Continental brother: "Yet I have not deemed it right to pass over this one thing, which I have learned by experience, namely, that God never shines forth more brightly, and pours out the beams of his mercy and consolation, or of strength and firmness of spirit, more clearly or impressively upon the minds of his people, than when they are under the most extreme pain and distress both of mind and body, that he may then more

tury, the sovereignty of England, that wise and glorious British liberty which, after God's blessing, is your force, would receive us again, us, men of the Continent, had we need of a meeting-place, of a shelter from the tempest. Yes, if persecution (which may God avert!) were again to desolate our countries, I should call to mind the words of the archbishop, and without fear knock at the gates of Lambeth.

You know how the men of the Continent replied to the Christian invitation of your primate. "Alas! wrote our Calvin, it is too true; the members of the church are torn asunder, and her mutilated body lies prostrate on the earth. I shall do all in my power to repair such an evil, and were it necessary to cross ten seas I would cross them!"

And when this good man, who had been so long at the head of the Church of England,— when the friend of all the men of God in Great Britain and on the Continent,-when Cranmer is thrown into a narrow prison, and becomes, like his Master, the object of the mockery of the wicked, when he foresees the violent death that awaits him; then, my lord, in the midst of his sorrow and his anguish, to whom, after

« PreviousContinue »