pery! Popery! couldst thou weep tears of blood, they would never wash away the record of thy relentless deeds!

While standing here, the ring of the spade and the hoe, tells me that persons are at work in the gardens that now occupy a part of the Park. The shrill whistle, too, and the panting breath of the rail-road carriages, proclaim the hurrying speed with which the seekers of pleasure and profit pursue their object. How little do they regard the horrid tragedies which have here been performed!

It is not often that I light on the subject of Popery, for I love to commend rather than condemn; let me however dwell upon it a little now. The curse that was pronounced, at least four times a year, against those who had sinned against Popery, was of so horrible a nature, that I hardly dare venture to write it down, and yet it ought to be had in remembrance. A part of it runs thus :-"We utterly curse and ban, commit and deliver to the devil of hell, him or her, whatsoever he or she may be. Excommunicated and accursed may they be, and given, body and soul, to the devil. Cursed be they in cities, in towns, in fields, in ways, in paths, in houses, out of houses, and in all other places; standing, lying or rising, walking, running, waking, sleeping,

eating, drinking, and whatsoever thing they do besides. We separate them from the threshold, and from all prayers of the church, from the holy mass, from all sacraments, chapels, and altars, from holy bread and holy water, from all the merits of God's priests and religious men, from all their pardons, privileges, grants, and immunities, which all the holy fathers, the popes of Rome, have gained; and we give them utterly over to the power of the fiend. And let us quench their souls, if they be dead, this night in the pains of hell-fire, as this candle is now quenched and put out;" (and then one of the candles was put out.) "And let us pray to God, that if they be alive, their eyes may be put out, as this candle is put out; " (another was then extinguished.) "And let us pray to God, and to our Lady, and to St. Peter, and all holy saints, that all the senses of their bodies may fail them, and that they may have no feeling, as now the light of this candle is gone; " (the third candle was then put out.) "Except they come openly now and confess their blasphemy, and by repentance, as in them shall be, make satisfaction unto God, our Lady, St. Peter, and the worshipful company of this cathedral church. And as this cross falleth down, so may they; except they repent, and show themselves;" (then

the cross was allowed to fall down with a loud noise, and the superstitious multitude shouted with fear.)

This fiend-like composition afflicts humanity, and harrows up the feelings of the heart. Why then do I recall it? To create a deeper abhorrence of bigotry and cruelty, and a livelier sense of thankfulness for the milder and more christian-like principles and practices of the Reformation. "By this," said the Redeemer, "shall all men know that ye are my disciples," not by fiery zeal and furious persecution, "if ye have love one to another," John xiii. 35.

Did you ever visit the trading city of Bristol, which at one time ranked next to London itself, in wealth, commerce, and population? or Salisbury, with its cathedral ornamented with the lofty spire? I have been at them both, and rambled around them; not forgetting that Ghest was burned to death at the one, and Sharp and Hall at the other. When Ghest was at the stake at Salisbury, they brought to him his wife and seven children to induce him to recant: but no his flaming chariot to conduct him to glory was ready, and he mounted it gladly for

the skies.

Perhaps you have been at Windsor? So have I; and walked in the park, and lingered in St.

George's chapel, and mounted up to the summit of the castle, and gazed on the fair prospect it commands. It was at Windsor that Filmer, and Testwood, and Pearson played the men in the fire. "Be merry," said Filmer at the stake; "Be merry, my brethren, and lift up your hands unto God; for, after this sharp breakfast, I trust we shall have a good dinner in the kingdom of Christ, our Lord and Redeemer.”

I have been at Canterbury, too, where on one occasion, as history records, a hundred thousand pilgrims assembled to visit the shrine of Thomas à Becket, and worshipped his image. Here Bland, Frankish, Sheterden, and Middleton perished in one fire. And I have also stood in front of Baliol College, Oxford, where Ridley cried out in the flames, "Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit." And where aged Latimer stood upright, "As comely a father as one would desire to behold," and gave utterance to these memorable words to his fellow sufferer: "Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man; we shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out." Oh, what children, what babes, what less than babes for the most part, we old men are in holy things, when we stand up and compare ourselves with these fathers in Israel!

I must not wander in my thoughts to every spot where the flame, kindled by popish hands, has greedily devoured the servants of the Lord; else might I talk till midnight, and even then, leave half my sorrowful tale untold. It was at Amersham, in Buckinghamshire, that Tylsworth suffered, his own daughter being compelled to light the fagots that consumed him. At Norwich, White was led to the stake; and there Bilney, who had thrust his finger into the flame of a candle to show what he could endure, was burned to ashes.

That must needs have been a Christian spirit set forth by Marsh, as he went to the stake at Chester, which called forth the remark from the bystanders, "This man goeth not to his death as a thief, or as one that deserveth to die." Chesham, Ely, Cambridge, and Derby, with Bury, Braintree, Malden, Ipswich, Lewes, Colchester, Ashford, Newbury, and Exeter, to say nothing of other cities and towns, are all memorable as places where martyrs have yielded up their lives in the flames. And, then, how often has the fagot-pile been lit in Smithfield, where Bainham bore the fire patiently as one on a bed of down or roses; where Lambert, when half consumed, and lifted up on the halberts of the guard, raised his flaming hand, and exclaimed he would