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YES: and he was one; and such an one as perhaps England had never seen before, has never seen since, and may never see again.

We say so, because there was about his preaching something very peculiar and singular; such ready wit, and yet such sincere piety-such earnest boldness, joined with childlike simplicity-such fear of God and such fearlessness of man, that England may never look upon his like again.

HUGH LATIMER was the son of a small farmer, or yeoman, as a farmer was then called, who lived at Thurcaston, a small village situate south-east of Charnwood Forest, in Leicestershire. There Hugh was born in 1470. The house is yet standing, and is now in the occupation of an old friend of ours, who loves that simple gospel which Latimer preached. The place is near to Bradgate Park, where then stood the ancient Hall of the Greys of Groby, now in ruins, from which happy retreat the pious but unfortunate LADY JANE was led by her ambitious relatives to a throne-and then in a few weeks by her enemies to the scaffold!

Hugh went to school until he was fourteen, and then was sent to Cambridge. At this time Latimer was a papist, but becoming acquainted with Bilney, he was led to see the errors and abominations of popery. This sorely vexed the papists, who persecuted him for many years. Henry VIII. was then King, doing what he pleased in spite of pope, or prelate, or priest, or noble. He seems to have liked Latimer for his honest bluntness, and made him a bishop, and was not offended when Latimer presented a New Testament to him, with the leaf turned down at that passage, "Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge."

But, when made a bishop, Latimer did not give up preaching; nay, he preached all the more. For he said there had been too many unpreaching prelates already. In one of his sermons he is said to have declared, that there were more unpreaching prelates in hell then than would fill up a gap as wide as from Calais to Dover! and that the busiest bishop in England was the devil!

We shall give you three specimens of this blunt bishop's style of preaching. He had to do battle against the wickedness of his times; and let it be remembered, that the English

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were only just emerging from the darkness of popery, and catching a first glance at the dawn of Bible truth.

What will our English ladies, with their crinolines standing out as wide as a hogshead, or looking as if they had got an umbrella stuck under their dresses, say to this? It seems there were such things in those days. But who of all our popular preachers dare tell their lady hearers such plain truths now?

THE DEVIL'S ROUNDABOUTS.

"I warrant you, there was many a jolly damsel at that time in Bethlehem, yet amongst them all there was no one found that would humble herself so much as once to go and see poor Mary in the stable, and to comfort her. No, no; they were too fine to take such pains. I warrant you they had their bracelets, and vardingals, and were trimmed with all manner of fine and costly raiment; like as there be many now-a-days amongst us, which study nothing else but how they may devise fine raiment; and in the mean season, they suffer poor Mary to lie in the stable: that is to say, the poor people of God they suffer to perish for lack of necessaries.

I think,

I

But what was her swaddling clothes wherein she laid the King of heaven and earth?-no doubt it was poor gear, peradventure it was her kercher which she took from her head, or such like gear, for I think Mary had not much fine linen, she was not trimmed up as our women be now-a-days. indeed, Mary had never a vardingal, for she used no such superfluities as our fine damsels do now-a-days: for in the old time women were content with honest and single garments. Now they have found out these roundabouts,-they were not invented then, the devil was not so cunning to make such gear, he found it out afterwards. Therefore Mary had it not. will say this, and yet not judge other folks' hearts, but only speak after daily experience and appearance, no doubt it is nothing but a token of pride to wear such vardingals, and therefore I think that every godly woman should set them aside. It was not for naught that Paul advertised all women to give a good example of soberness, and godliness, in setting aside all such wantonness and pride. And he speaketh of such manner of pride as was used in his time: Non tortis crinibus, not with laying out the hair artificially: Non plicatura capillorum, not with laying out the tussocks. I doubt not but

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if vardingals had been used in that time, Paul would have spoken against them too, like as he spake against other things which women used at that time to show their foolishness and wantonness. Therefore, as I said before, seeing that God abhorreth all pride, and vardingals are nothing else but an instrument of pride, I would wish that every woman would follow the counsel of Paul, and set aside such gorgeous apparel, and rather study to please God than to set their mind upon pride; or else, when they will not follow the counsel of Paul, let them scrape out those words wherewith he forbiddeth them their proudness, otherwise the words of Paul will condemn them at the last day. I say no more, wise folks will do wisely, the words of Paul are not written for nothing; if they will do after his mind, they must set aside their foolish vardingals; but if they will go forward in their foolishness and pride, the reward which they shall have at the end shall not be taken from them."

The next we shall call, in Latimer's own words

LEARNING OF THE DEVIL HOW TO FIGHT THE DEVIL.

"If we will take such weapons as the devil shall appoint us, we shall soon have an overthrow, as we have done in times past. For what a trust and confidence have we had in holy water, and holy bread? Also in ringing of holy bells, and such fooleries? But it was good sport for the devil, he could laugh and be merry at our foolishness; yea, and order the matter so, to keep us in the same error. For we read in stories, that at some time the devil went away from some men, because of the holy water, as though that holy water had such strength and power that he could not abide it. O crafty devil! he went away, not for fear of holy water, but because he would maintain men in error and foolishness. Ye know, too,

when there was a storm or a fearful weather, then we rang the holy bells, they were they that must make all things well, they must drive away the devil. But I tell you, if the holy bells would serve against the devil, or that he might be put away through their sound, no doubt we should soon banish him out of all England. For I think that if all the bells in England could be rung together at a certain hour, I think there would be almost no place but some bells might be heard there. And so the devil should have no abiding place in England, if ringing of bells would serve. But it is not that that will serve

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against the devil; yet we have believed such fooleries in times past, but it was but mocking, it was the teaching of the devil. And no doubt we were in a miserable case when we learned of the devil to fight against the devil. And how much we are bound to God, that he hath delivered us from these gross ignorances, and hath taught us how we should fight and prevail against his enemy. Yet it is a pitiful thing to see, that there be some amongst us which would fain have the old fooleries again; they are aweary of the word of God, they cannot away with it; they would rather have their crossings, and setting up of candles and such fooleries, than the word of God."

The next is one of his quaint tales, which we shall call—

SELLING SOULS FOR GOLDEN APPLES.

I do much

"This cometh from the devil's consistory.. marvel the ground gapes not and devours us. Oh, good Lord, in what a case are we! If the great men in Turkey should use in their religion of Mahomet to sell, as our patrons sell benefices here (the office of preaching, the office of salvation), it should be taken as an intolerable thing; the Turk would not suffer it in his commonwealth. Patrons be charged to see the office done, and not to seek a lucre and a gain by their patronship. There was a patron in England, when it was, that he had a benefice fallen into his hand; and a good brother of mine came unto him, and brought him thirty apples in a dish, and gave them his man to carry them to his master. It is like he gave one to his man for his labour, to make up the game, and so there was thirty-one. This man cometh to his master and presented him with the dish of apples; saying, Sir, such a man hath sent you a dish of fruit, and desireth you to be good unto him for such a benefice. Tush, tush, quoth he, this is no apple matter; I will have none of his apples, I have as good as these, or as he hath any, in mine own orchard. The man came to the priest again, and told him what his master said. Then, quoth the priest, desire him to get to prove one of them for my sake, he shall find them much better than they look for. He cut one of them, and found ten pieces of gold in it. Marry, quoth he, this is a good apple. The priest standing not far off, hearing what the gentleman said, cried out and answered, They are all one apple, I warrant you, Sir; they grew all on one tree, and have all one taste. Well, he is a good fellow, let him have it,' quoth the patron; get you a graft of

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this tree, and I warrant you it will stand you'in better stead than all Paul's learning.-Well, let patrons take heed, for they shall answer for all the souls that perish through their default."

When King Henry died, and his amiable son Edward came to the throne, Latimer was in his element, for he preached without ceasing; but when that poor wretched woman Mary became Queen, he was soon sent to prison and condemned to the stake. He went, dressed in a shroud, but was as lively and cheerful as ever. Turning to Ridley, a fellow sufferer, he said, "Be of good cheer, Master Ridley, and play the man; we shall this day, by God's grace, light such a candle in England, as, I trust, shall never be put out? And it never will,

"If England to herself shall be but true,"

never giving up the Bible, the Sabbath, and the Gospel, the three great bulwarks of our liberty, and never allowing popish priests in the disguise of Puseyites to draw her back into darkness by the display of the mountebank fooleries they are now exhibiting in some of our parish churches! For though it is 300 years since Latimer uttered these words, they may be used by us now-mark them! "Yet it is a pitiful thing to see, that there be some amongst us which would fain have the old fooleries again."

It is no wonder that, as soon as they could, the papists got rid of this fearless plain-speaking preacher. This they did by roasting him alive at Oxford, October 16, 1555, just as they had roasted WILLIAM TYNDALE for giving us the first printed New Testament, and thousands more in other places.

But English people will never forget this brave old bishop. They did not in Leicestershire on the three hundredth anniversary of his burning, October 16, 1855. Many of us went from Leicester and other places to the village, saw the old house where he was born, heard a sermon at the parish church by a pious Leicester clergyman, from, "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints," and attended a public meeting on the lawn of the vicarage in the evening, all feeling, I trust, as we came home again, thankful to God that he had raised up such a man from such a secluded little spot as Thurcaston to speak his truth before kings, and seal it with his blood! No: England will never forget her

PREACHING PRELATE!