die. Looking earnestly at him as he spake these words, she answered with much emotion, impossible! I shall as surely be damned, as this glass will break and immediately dashed a Venice glass (which she was holding in her hand), with much force against the wall. The glass fell first on a chest, and then upon the ground; but was neither broken, nor so much as cracked *. The event proved, that Mr. Fox did not prophesy by the spirit of error. Mrs. Honeywood was then sixty years old; and lived in much comfort and felicity, until she was upwards of ninety, and could reckon above three hundred and sixty persons descended from herself. *Fuller, in his Worthies of England (Kent, p. 86), says, that though this circumstance was little short of miraculous, still Mrs. Honeywood took no comfort from it; but "continued a great time after, in her former disconsolate condition, without any amendment, until God, who findeth out the fittest minutes for his own mercies, suddenly shot comfort, like lightning into her soul; so that she led the remainder of her life in spiritual gladness. This she herself told to the reverend father, Thomas Morton, bishop of Durham, from whose mouth I have received this relation.- -In the days of queen Mary she used to visit the prisons, and to comfort and relieve the confessors therein. She was present at the burning of Mr. Bradford, in Smithfield, and resolved to see the end of his sufferings; though, so great was the press of people, that her shoes were trodden off, and she forced thereby to go barefoot from Smithfield to St. Martin's, before she could furnish herself with a new pair for her money. She died the eleventh of May, 1620; in the ninety-third year of her age, and in the forty-fourth year of her widowhood." 28 THE LIFE OF DR. JEWEL, BISHOP OF SALISBURY. WE learn from Dr. Fuller, that this great prelate was a native of Devonshire: "John Jewel, bearing the Christian name of his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, was born at Buden [or Bowden, of which estate his ancestors had then been near two hundred years in possession], in the parish of Berynarber, near Ilfracombe, in that county. His mother's surname was Bellamy; who, with her husband, happily lived fifty years in holy wedlock: and, at their deaths, left ten children behind them. "Concerning our bishop, it may be said, 'nomen, omen.' Jewel was his name, and precious were his virtues. So that, if the like ambition led us Englishmen as doth foreigners, specially to render our surnames in Greek or Latin, he may be termed Johannes Gemma, on better account than Gemma Frisius entitled himself thereunto." He was chiefly bred in the school of Barnstaple : where John Harding, afterwards his popish antagonist, was his school-fellow. At thirteen years old, he was admitted into Merton college, Oxford ; under the tuition of Dr. John Parkhurst, afterwards the ingenious and evangelical bishop of Norwich. Such was his sedulity (rising always at four in the *Fuller's Worthies, and his Ecclesiastical History-Clark's Lives. Biographia Britannica, &c. morning, and not going to rest until ten at night), that he was never punished for any one of his exercises, and but once for absence from chapel. Hence he was removed to Corpus Christi College, where he proved an excellent poet, linguist, and orator.Such was his memory, that he could repeat all Horace by heart; and gave many other surprising proofs of quickness and retention. 66 During his residence at the university, after the accession of king Edward VI. he was happy in the friendship of that holy and learned reformer, doctor Peter Martyr. Having touched at all human arts," says Fuller, "he landed at divinity; being much assisted by Peter Martyr, the king's professor therein. St. Jerom tells us, that so great was the intimacy between Pamphilius, that worthy priest and martyr, and Eusebius, the bishop of Cæsaræa; ut ab uno alter nomen acceperat, that they were mutually surnamed, the one from the other, Pamphilius Eusebii, and Eusebius Pamphilii. No less the unity of affections between these two; who accordingly might have been called, Martyr's Jewel, and Jewel's Martyr; as seldom in body, and never in mind asunder.' * Having been chosen Humanity-Lecturer, in preference to many of his seniors, he acquitted himself with such brightness and ability, that his tutor, Dr. Parkhurst, honoured him with the following complimentary epigram: Olim discipulus mihi, care Juelle, fuisti : Amidst all his attainments in learning, such were his fervour of devotion, sanctity of life, and affa Humanity, in college language, is a term that implies and comprehends the knowledge of the Greek and Latin tongues; together with rhetoric, poetry, grammar, and history, both ancient and modern. bility of behaviour, that he was admired, and almost loved, by the bitterest enemies of the protestant faith; insomuch that (in Henry VIIIth's reign) the dean of his college, who was a fierce and bigotted papist, would sometimes say to him, "I should love thee, Jewel, if thou was not a Zuinglian. In thy faith thou art an heretic; but, surely in thy life thou art an angel. Thou art very good and honest, but a Lutheran." Much the same with what the persecuting heathens would frequently say of believers in Christ; bonus homo, sed Christianus; i. e. such an one is a good man, but he is a Christian. A little before the death of Henry VIII. Mr. Jewel took his Master of Arts degree; and when good king Edward wore the crown, he became a most celebrated and shining ornament of the church of England. His principal fault was, that of being too hard a student. By this he greatly emaciated his body, and impaired his health. His diet was extremely simple and sparing; and his incessant fatigues of mind bade fair to sink him, much sooner to the grave, than in reality they did. The tolerably advanced age, to which he attained, is one proof among millions, that the same absolute providence which registers our hairs, has also determined the number of our days. Retiring once to Witney, on account of an epidemic sickness which raged at Oxford, our future bishop pursued his studies with such assiduity, that, neglecting to supply himself with necessary accommodations, he contracted so violent a cold, as fixed a lameness in one of his legs, from which he was never exempt to his dying day. Being presented to the rectory of Sunningwell, in Berkshire, he performed his own duty at that church, every other Lord's day, by preaching and catechising in person. On the alternate Sundays, he preached and expounded at Oxford, with much credit to himself, and much usefulness to others. Thus happily, and honourably, he went on, until king Edward VI. (of whom the world was not worthy) was transplanted to heaven, and Mary succeeded to the English throne. On that sad occasion, none had more reason to be apprehensive of danger than Mr. Jewel, whom God had made so zealous and so distinguished an instrument of diffusing the doctrines of grace, in opposition to the Arminian, (or as they were then called) the pelagian tenets of popery. His enemies immediately laid a snare for him, by choosing him to draw up a congratulatory letter to the new queen, in the name of the university; well knowing, that if he refused the task, he would expose himself to the imputation of disloyalty; and if he consented, he would give great offence to the protestants throughout England. Aware of the dilemma to which he was reduced, he extricated himself from this artful trap, by discreetly penning the letter in such general terms, as satisfied the court, and yet gave no umbrage to the favourers of the gospel. "Indeed," says Fuller, "all, as yet, were confident, that the queen would maintain the protestant religion, according to her solemn promise to the gentry of Norfolk and Suffolk; though (she being composed of courtship and popery) this her unperformed promise was the first court holy water, which she sprinkled among the people. And, because every one was counted a truant in popery who did not outrun the law; Dr. Tresham, an active papist, and a van-currier before authority, repaired the great bell at Christ-church, which he new named, and baptized Mary. While Mr. Jewel was reading the letter he had penned, to Dr. Tresham, for his approbation thereof; presently that bell tolled to mass, and Tresham, breaking off his attention to what was written, exclaimed, in a zealous ecstacy, * It is customary in the church of Rome, to baptize bells, and name them after some reputed saint. |