before Christmas day, proved correct. His death took place 18th December, in the same year, 1542.

But in mentioning the views of Knox, respecting the gift of presentiments or predictions in others, we again open a new subject; for in the course of his writings, we find him repeatedly mentioning different servants of God, as persons by whom such a power was exercised; and appealing to his hearers as to the fact, both of their predicting, and of the fulfilment of their predictions. Thus, in his "Godly Letter to the Faithful in London," he speaks of

"those most godly and learned preachers, that this laste Lent, anno 1553, were apoynted to preach before the kynges majestie."

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Almost there was none," he says, "who dyd not prophesie and plainly spake the plagues that are begonne and assuredly shall end. Mayster Grindall plainlye spake the death of the Kynges Majesty."-He adds,

"That godly and fervent man Mayster Lever playnlye spake the desolacion of thys commonwealthe. And Mayster Bradforde, (whome God for Christes hys Sonne sacke comforte to the ende) spared not the proudest of them, but boldely declared, that Goddes vengeance shortlye should strycke those that then were in authoritie, because they lothed and abhorred the trew worde of the everlastinge God."

If it be delightful to discern the affection subsisting between such men as Knox and Bradford, it is not a little striking to view them alike employed, as messengers to warn the church of coming woes. The Lent when the preaching took place, 1553, preceded the death of Edward by a few months. The calamities, which the preachers in question prophesied, had already begun, by the

Q

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accession of Mary, when Knox published his 'Godly Letter," reminding reminding "the faithful in London" that the woes predicted in that preaching had now commenced. As to Grindal, it would be easy to find in his writings, as in those of the witnesses cited by Mr. Noel, detached expressions unfavourable to modern miracles. Thus, writing to Queen Elizabeth, he says,

"But now miracles ceasing, men must attain to the Hebrew, Greek, Latin Tongue, &c. by travil and study. God giveth the increase *."

But here we have again to learn, that one passage from a writer does not always determine his real sentiments. Just before he uses more qualified terms, saying, with respect to the "prediction of things to come,"-" which thing, or which gift, is not now ordinarily in the church of God †, which shews that he thought it might be occasionally. And, that it was so, he himself had previously seen and given sufficient evidence, towards the close of the reign of Edward VI.; when, as Knox informs us, or rather reminds cotemporary believers, almost there was none [of the appointed preachers] who did not prophesy and plainly speak the plagues that, when he wrote, were already begun and when " Mayster Grindall" himself plainly spake the death of the King's Majesty from which circumstance, by the bye, we are reminded, that if a preacher, in those days, foresaw, by particular revelation, the speedy demise of the crown, he might, in the performance of his sacred function, predict it openly, and

*Letter to Queen Elizabeth, p. 16.

† p. 16.

per

that in the presence of the exalted individual sonally most interested, without incurring by his faithfulness the pains and penalties of the law.

But, as to Grindal's having predicted the death of King Edward in the Lent preachings of 1553, this," some objector, profound in English history, may exclaim, "is after all not so very remarkable. The king had been seized, in the spring of the preceding year, with the measles and small pox; and though, at the time, he seemed to recover from both these attacks, yet, at the commencement of 1553, some weeks before the preachings, he had been attacked with a very bad cough, which ended at last in a consumption that carried him off on the sixth of July. What wonder, then, that Grindal should speak of his death, so short a time before it took place; and when he was already ill of the disease of which he died?"

I find a difficulty in getting at the exact circumstances of this case: but two things are evident.

First, Knox writes at the time when the events had but recently occurred (1554, the year after Edward's death); he writes to the people of England, to whom all the circumstances must have been well known, and fresh in remembrance; and he plainly writes, as of a fact that admitted of being ascertained at the time; intimating that Grindal, in speaking of the King's death, had uttered a true prediction. It is not likely that Knox would have thus expressed himself, had it been generally understood, at the time when Grindal preached, that there was no hope of the King's recovery; it would have been so easy to tell him this, and thus at once to silence his appeal by stating the fact. The supposition, then, that Grindal did not speak of the approaching demise

of the crown till it was known to be morally certain, cannot be entertained.

Secondly, The true state of the case appears to have been this: that, the. King having become seriously ill at the beginning of the year, and having died in July, the season of Lent, when Grindal preached and predicted his death, was a season of suspense, uncertainty, and hope. Rapin tell us, that

"all hopes of the King's recovery were not given over till the middle of May, when 'tis likely, the physicians told the Duke of Northumberland, his case was desperate * :" Afterwards, he carries us later :

"about the end of May, when there was no hope of the King's recovery †.'

"

But another publication, which professes to give dates with accuracy, goes still later into the year:

"June 21.—The settlement" (for setting aside Mary and Elizabeth, and giving the crown to Lady Jane Gray,) "was at last signed by all the council.

"Edward's disease grew worse, and all signs of recovery vanished, upon which the Earl of Northumberland advised the physicians to be discharged," &c. ‡

The inference is, therefore, that, at the season of Lent, when all hope was not yet passed, when the King was known to be dangerously ill, and when all true Protestants and loyal subjects were anxiously wishing and praying for his recoveryas, of course, they always must, when the life of a king, himself a true Protestant, is in danger—at

* Tindal's Translation.

† pp. 25, 26.

London, 1733. Vol. II. p. 25.

British Chronologist. London, 1775.

this time Grindal took upon him to speak decisively concerning an issue, of which others were ignorant, and to say, the King should die, and not live. This, I say, seems the only way of stating the case, so as to explain Knox's reference to it: and as, when the hostile army of the Chaldeans threatens Jerusalem, and while some are hoping that the city shall not be taken, the prophet tells them that it shall not escape, we of course regard him as prophesying; so, in the case before us, when the King is in danger, and, though many hope that he will live, Grindal declares that he will die, (which seems to be the correct account of the transaction,) we can but regard him, also, as meaning what he said for a prophecy or prediction. The event, we have seen, confirmed it, as well as in the case of Jeremiah.

But there is one Reformer mentioned by Knox, less known in our days than he deserves, and so endued with the gift of prediction, that the exercise of the talent, in him, merits a more detailed notice. I am aware that by here entering on this detail, I may seem to be deviating from the challenge, with which we now have to do, to produce Reformers" of eminence." The real eminence, however, of ancient worthies, is not to be measured by any modern estimate; much less by that of this superficial age, which, being little itself, has no measure by which it can discriminate between little and great, between eminence and mediocrity an age, whose scales are those of the scruple and the grain; whose standard is the inch; whose field of sight is that of the microscope; whose ideas are all diminutive; and to which