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. V 5. HOOPER. 6. BRADFORD. 7. RIDLEY AND PHILPOT. 8. CRANMER, Rogers, CareLESS, &c. V9. KNOX. ✓ 10. BECON. 11. JEWELL. 12. Fox, BALE and Coverdale. By order of the Executive Committee. Wм. M. ENGLES, EDITOR. CONTENTS. SOME Account of King Edward the Sixth Some Particulars of Sir John Cheke Some Account of Queen Catherine Parr Letter to Lady Wriothesley, comforting her for the loss of her Son Prayers or Meditations; wherein the mind is stirred patiently to suffer all afflictions here, to set at naught the vain prosperity of this world, and always to long for everlasting felicity. Collected out of certain holy works, by the most virtuous and The Lamentation or Complaint of a Sinner, made by the most vir- tuous and gracious lady, queen Catherine, (Parr,) bewailing the ignorance of her blind life led in superstition CHAP. I. Of an humble confession of sins to the glory of God II. A lamentation of a sinner, with a hearty repentance in faith, to obtain absolution and remission through the III. What true faith worketh in the soul of a sinner V. Of the glorious victories of Christ over all enemies VI. That we ought to submit ourselves to the school of the cross, and still look and learn in the book of the cross VII. A Christian bewailing the miserable ignorance and blind- VIII. Of the fruits and rules of true Christianity for men to IX. Of the fruits of infidelity, and offence of weaklings X. Of carnal gospellers, by whose evil living, God's truth is XI. Of the virtuous properties of God's children, of whom every one attendeth his vocation 234 The Confession of Faith, containing how the Troubled Man should seek refuge at his God, thereto led by faith; with the decla- ration of the article of Justification at length. The order of good works which are the fruits of faith; and how the faithful and justified man should walk and live in the per- fect and true Christian religion, according to his vocation. Compiled by M. Henry Balnaves, of Halhill, and one of the lords of session and council of Scotland, being a prisoner within the old palace of Roane. In the year of our Lord, 1548. Directed to his faithful brethren, being in like trouble or more. And to all true professors and favourers of the SOME ACCOUNT OF KING EDWARD VI. EDWARD THE SIXTH was the son of Henry VIII. by his third wife, Jane Seymour. He was born at Hampton-court, October 12th, 1537, where he was christened with much ceremony on the 15th of the same month. The birth of a prince had been long desired, but the joy with which the intelligence was received by the court and the nation, was abated by the death of the queen, his mother, on the 24th, twelve days after the birth of her son.* Henry was much afflicted, and showed that he was not insensible to the loss he had sustained; even the festivities of the ensuing Christmas were not allowed to put aside the outward tokens of respect to her memory. The care which Henry VIII. evinced for the welfare of his children, with his anxiety to place them under the charge of learned and pious instructors, are circumstances which prove the character of that monarch, with all his faults, to have been very different from the representations of those who cannot forgive the part he took in freeing this country from the iron bands of popery. At the early age of six years, prince Edward was committed to the charge of able preceptors, the principal of whom was Sir Anthony Cook, a sincere favourer of the gospel, whose own children manifested their father's suitableness for such a trust. Another of his early tutors was Dr. Richard Cox, moderator of the school of Eton, afterwards dean of Christ Church and chancellor of the university of Oxford, and lastly bishop of Ely. When Dr. Cox received an ecclesiastical appointment which often required him to be absent from his noble pupil, Sir John Cheke, then professor of Greek at Cambridge, where he had, with much difficulty, in * Some historians have by mistake stated October the 14th as the day of queen Jane's death; the error, probably at first unintentional, has been copied from one to another. By this the Romanists have strengthened their legend of Henry's desiring that the life of the child might be preserved by the death of his mother, which they still repeat. The falsehood of that statement is clearly proved by a book among the records of the Herald's college, (see Strype's Memorials,) which gives all the particulars relative to the queen's funeral, and the various ceremonies of attendance on the corpse, from her decease to the interment. An original letter from her physicians to the council is also in existence, dated the 24th, which describes her declining state, from an illness incident to her condition, and mentions her being supposed to be near death. There is also a letter extant from the queen herself, written after the birth of her son. (1) EDWARD VI. 2 |