same plan is pursued in the present publication; the involved construction of sentences, common in writers of that period, has also been removed. Those words which have become unintelligible or offensive, are exchanged for others, or are explained by notes when it is desirable that they should be retained. These variations, if they may be so called, were as necessary to render this work generally useful, as the adoption of modern orthography. The utmost care has been taken that the meaning of the author should be strictly preserved, and the various pieces. have been collated with the best and earliest editions, or with manuscript copies. This has been done, that the meaning of the author might be given as nearly as possible, not from the first editions being the most correct, as they often abound with errors, for which the hurried or careless manner in which they were for the most part passed through the press, will readily account. The present reprints, it is believed, will be found to present the most correct text of these writers that has hitherto appeared. More than half of the pieces included in this collection, have not been reprinted since the sixteenth century, and a considerable portion is now printed for the first time." The Volumes included under the title of THE BRITISH REFORMERS may be arranged in the following order: Volume 1. WICKLIFF TO BILNEY. 2. TINDAL, FRITH, AND BARNES. 3. EDWARD VI., Parr, Balnaves, &c. 4. LATIMER. 5. HOOPER. 6. BRADFORD. 7. RIDLEY AND PHILPOT. 8. CRANMER, Rogers, Careless, &c. 9. KNOX. 10. BECON. 11. JEWELL. 12. Fox, BALE AND COVERdale. By order of the Executive Committee. Wм. M. ENGLES, EDITOR. The Castle of Comfort, in which is evidently proved, that God alone absolveth and freely forgiveth the sins of so many as unfeignedly repent and turn unto him, The Fortress of the Faithful, against the cruel assaults of pov- The Christian Knight, teaching warriors of God not only how they may prevail against Satan and his wicked army in Specimen of "The Pomander of Prayer," . Selections from the Sick Man's Salve, wherein faithful Chris- tians may learn both how to behave themselves patiently and thankfully in time of sickness, and also virtuously to dispose their temporal goods, and finally to prepare them- selves gladly and godlily to die, Extracts from The diversity between God's word and Man's invention; wherein thou shalt see lively described and plainly set forth, what comfortable and heavenly benefits the word of God bringeth unto us; and contrariwise, what horrible plagues and most grievous pestilences men's tra- ditions bring unto such as receive and believe them, Sermons selected from A new Postill; containing most godly SOME PARTICULARS ог THE LIFE OF THOMAS BECON. THOMAS BECON, or Beacon, was one of the most active of the English Reformers; and by his writings he contributed much to the diffusion of the truth. He was born in Suffolk about A. D. 1510, and was educated at Cambridge, where he took his bachelor's degree in 1530. The preaching of Latimer appears to have been very useful to him, and he became a zealous teacher of the gospel. On this account Becon was persecuted by the Romish clergy, and was apprehended by Bonner in 1544, when he was compelled to make a public recantation at Paul's Cross, and to burn his little treatises, which had attracted considerable notice. Some of them had been printed under the name of Theodore Basil,* and were prohibited in the proclamation against heretical books, in July, 1546. Finding there was no safety for him in London or its vicinity, Becon travelled into Staffordshire and Derbyshire, where he remained in seclusion until the accession of Edward VI. During this interval "he educated children in good literature, and instilled into their minds the principles of christian doctrine." But the account of Becon's proceedings at that period is best given in his own words, as related in his tract, "The Jewel of Joy." "What gentleness I found for my godly labours at the hands of some men in these parts ye know right well. Therefore when neither by speaking, nor by writing, I could do good, I thought it best not rashly to throw myself into the ravening paws of those greedy wolves, but for a certain space to absent * Becon had two sons, whom he named Theodore and Basil, probably from his having assumed that appellation. |