the preservation of their subjects.
Maxims of persecutions, of torture, and of death, they should leave to
those who have effected sovereignty by fraud or the sword; but where,
except among a few miscreant emperors of Rome, and the Roman pontiffs,
shall we find one whose memory is so "damned to everlasting fame" as
that of queen Mary? Nations bewail the hour which separates them forever
from a beloved governor, but, with respect to that of Mary, it was the
most blessed time of her whole reign. Heaven has ordained three great
scourges for national sins--plague, pestilence, and famine. It was the
will of God in Mary's reign to bring a fourth upon this kingdom, under
the form of Papistical Persecution. It was sharp, but glorious; the fire
which consumed the martyrs has undermined the Popedom; and the Catholic
states, at present the most bigoted and unenlightened, are those which
are sunk lowest in the scale of moral dignity and political consequence.
May they remain so, till the pure light of the gospel shall dissipate
the darkness of fanaticism and superstition! But to return.

Mrs. Prest for some time lived about Cornwall, where she had a husband
and children, whose bigotry compelled her to frequent the abominations
of the church of Rome. Resolving to act as her conscience dictated, she
quitted them, and made a living by spinning. After some time, returning
home, she was accused by her neighbours, and brought to Exeter, to be
examined before Dr. Troubleville, and his chancellor Blackston. As this
martyr was accounted of inferior intellects, we shall put her in
competition with the bishop, and let the reader judge which had the most
of that knowledge conducive to everlasting life. The bishop bringing the
question to issue, respecting the bread and wine being flesh and blood,
Mrs. Prest said, "I will demand of you whether you can deny your creed,
which says, that Christ doth perpetually sit at the right hand of his
Father, both body and soul, until he come again; or whether he be there
in heaven our Advocate, and to make prayer for us unto God his Father?
If he be so, he is not here on earth in a piece of bread. If he be not
here, and if he do not dwell in temples made with hands, but in heaven,
what! shall we seek him here? If he did not offer his body once for all,
why make you a new offering? If with one offering he made all perfect,
why do you with a false offering make all imperfect? If he be to be
worshipped in spiri