, being ready
always as a faithful subject ever to obey them. And God is my witness,
that I have not done this for favour or fear of any person, but
willingly and of mine own conscience, as to the instruction of others."

"Let him that standeth take heed lest he fall!" said the apostle, and
here was a falling off indeed! The papists now triumphed in their turn:
they had acquired all they wanted short of his life. His recantation was
immediately printed and dispersed, that it might have its due effect
upon the astonished protestants; but God counter-worked all the designs
of the catholics by the extent to which they carried the implacable
persecution of their prey. Doubtless, the love of life induced Cranmer
to sign the above declaration; yet death may be said to have been
preferable to life to him who lay under the stings of a goaded
conscience and the contempt of every gospel christian; this principle he
strongly felt in all its force and anguish.

The queen's revenge was only to be satiated in Cranmer's blood, and
therefore she wrote an order to Dr. Cole, to prepare a sermon to be
preached March 21, directly before his martyrdom, at St. Mary's, Oxford;
Dr. Cole visited him the day previous, and was induced to believe that
he would publicly deliver his sentiments in confirmation of the articles
to which he had subscribed. About nine in the morning of the day of
sacrifice, the queen's commissioners, attended by the magistrates,
conducted the amiable unfortunate to St. Mary's church. His torn, dirty
garb, the same in which they habited him upon his degradation, excited
the commisseration of the people. In the church he found a low, mean
stage, erected opposite to the pulpit, on which being placed, he turned
his face, and fervently prayed to God. The church was crowded with
persons of both persuasions, expecting to hear the justification of the
late apostacy: the catholics rejoicing, and the protestants deeply
wounded in spirit at the deceit of the human heart. Dr. Cole, in his
sermon, represented Cranmer as having been guilty of the most atrocious
crimes; encouraged the deluded sufferer not to fear death, not to doubt
the support of God in his torments, nor that masses would be said in all
the churches of Oxford for the repose of his soul. The Doctor then
noticed his conversion, and which he ascribed to the evident working of
Almighty Power, and in order that the people might be convinced of its
reality, asked the priso