year if he would have conformed; but it did not tempt bim, He was remarkable for his unaffected piety, chearful temper, and engaging deportment. Mr. Lamb's Farewell Sermon, preached at Bere Regis, Aug. 17, 1662, is found in the London Collection. It is an excellent discourse, full of sentiment, making thirty. six quarto pages, on these words, John xiv. 23. If any man love me, he will keep my words; and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." Having largely insisted on the character described, and the promise delivered, he proceeds to exhort and direct his hearers to seek the blessing pro-. mised, and thus introduces his farewell address, If we would find God and Christ, we must seek all the days of our lives. They that will find what they seek, must seek till they find. Upon this work I must leave you for now I must tell you, that perhaps you may not see my face, or hear my voice, any more in this place; yet not. out of any peevish humour, or disaffection to the present authority of the kingdom (I call God and man to witness: this day, it being my own practice, and counsel to you all, to fear God and honour the king; but rather, a real dissatisfaction in some particulars imposed, to which (notwithstanding all endeavours to that purpose) my conscience cannot yet be espoused. Wherefore I hope in this, and in all my abode with you, I may say, without ostentation, with the apostle, 2 Cor. i. 12. Our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our consciences, that in simplicity, and godly sincerity, we have had our conversation in the world, especially to you-wards." And as he said, Acts xx. 26, &c. "I take you to record this day that I have endeavoured to be pure from the blood of all men; for I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God," both by my life and doctrine; because I knew this very well, that, as one says, Suadet loquentis vita, non oratio: that the preacher's life is the most persuasive preaching." He was author of, besides the above Farewell Sermon, 1. The Religious Family."-2. "A Funeral Sermon for Mr. Butler."-3." Another for Mrs. Sarah Lye."-4. "Another for John Gould, esq."--5. "A New Year's Gift; or Portraiture of a Natural Man, and a regenerate Person." LAMBERT, LAMBERT, JOHN. The true name of this admirable man was Nicholson; but, in order to avoid the dangers which threatened him in the latter part of his life on a religious account, he assumed the sirname of Lambert. It does not appear when he was born, though it may be presumed to have been about the close of the fifteenth century, as he suffered for the cause of truth in 1538. He was born, and brought up for the most part, in Norfolk ; he received his academical education at Cambridge, where he acquired the learned languages, and (what was better than them) his conversion to God from popish superstition and the love of this evil world. The instrument of this happy change was the memorable and blessed Bilney, who was likewise the instrument of converting many others to the knowledge of God and their own hearts. The fury of Henry VIII. against Lutheranism (or Protestantism, as it was afterwards more justly called) compelled poor Lambert, who began to be distinguished for his learning and piety, to seek a refuge upon the continent. Accordingly, he repaired to Antwerp, then the residence of Tindale and Frith, who appear to have been his chosen friends, and officiated as preacher and chaplain to the English factory in that city, (which at that time had great correspondence with England on account of the woollen manufactures,) for the greater part of two years. But the tenor of his preaching was of such a kind, as ren. dered it by no means surprizing, that he should procure himself enemies among the sons of Rome. One Barlow, glad, no doubt, of shewing his zeal, accused him to sir Thomas More, then lord chancellor of England, by whose means he was brought from Antwerp to London, as an innocent lamb to satiate the cruelty of the Romish wolves, who thirsted for his blood. This event occurred in 1532. He was first examined at Lambeth by Warham, then archbishop of Canterbury, and afterwards at the bishop's house at Oxford, before a multitude of his adversaries. He was questioned upon forty-five articles, to all of which he gave a very long, full, and learned answer, which does him and the cause he professed great honour. A more solid and comprehensive apology for Protestantism is rarely to be found; and we should be happy to lay it • Whose life see, vol. I. p. 246. before before our readers, did not its very great length exceed the limits of our plan*. Lambert continued in custody at Oxford till the next year, 1533, in which archbishop Warham died, and was succeeded by Cranmer, who was (at the time of Warham's death) in Germany, debating the affair of the king's divorce. The death of the archbishop, and the rise of queen Anne Boleyn, seem to have been the immediate causes of Lambert's release, which he had no sooner obtained than he repaired to London, and engaged himself in teaching the Greek and Latin tongues. He preferred this secular business to the priesthood, as times went; and as he meant to marry and settle, he purposed to take up the freedom of the city in the Grocer's company. But God, who appoints and disappoints the inclinations and purposes of men after his own will and wisdom, called this blessed man to a higher vocation, and to give up his life as a martyr for the testimony of Jesus. Some time in 1538, Lambert was present at a sermon, preached by a Dr. Taylor, who, it seems, was then rather a friend to the Gospel, and was afterwards made bishop of Lincoln in the reign of king Edward, and finally deprived by queen Mary. Lambert, whether he was dis satisfied with the sermon, or had a good opinion of the preacher, desired to have a friendly conference with him, and proposed, in the course of conversation, several theo logical points, on which he desired to be satisfied, the chief of which was the question concerning the corporal presence of Christ in the sacrament. Taylor, pressed perhaps too close, desired Lambert to excuse him for the present, on account of other business, and to write his mind upon the matter, which they would talk over again at their leisure. Lambert accordingly proposed ten arguments in writing for support of his opinion, which are mostly lost except the first, which was founded upon these words: This cup is the New Testament, &c. "Now, says he, if these words do neither change the cup nor the wine therein substantially into the New Testament, which nobody asserts; then, by parity of reason, the words, spoken of the bread, do not turn the bread corporally into the person of Christ." The other reasons are • The curious reader may see it at large in Fox's "Acts and Monuments," for the reign of Henry VIII. said to have been equally acute, and supported by the Scriptures and by testimonies from the primitive fathers. Taylor, out of a real wish to satisfy Lambert, and feeling himself unable to answer him, applied among others to Dr. Barnes, a good man, but as yet (like many good men at the dawning of the Reformation) not sufficiently clear in the matter of the sacrament. Barnes advised Taylor to lay the matter before Cranmer, the archbishop, who then was an advocate for transubstantiation; and Lambert was obliged to defend his doctrine in open court before him and some other bishops. This published Lambert and his opinions to the whole court and and city. Gardiner, bishop of Winchester, glad of every opportunity of insinuating himself into the king's good graces, suggested to his majesty, that now an opportunity occurred to shew to all the world, that though he had renounced the supreme authority of the bishop of Rome, he had not renounced the catholic faith (which the king had professed not to do), and that therefore he would prosecute and punish all heretics and others, who should presume to set forth doctrines contrary to it: that this Lambert might be made a proper example, and that by his punishment he might quiet the apprehensions of the people, with respect to further innovations. The king eagerly caught the bait, and immediately issued a general ordinance, commanding all the nobility and bishops of the realm forthwith to repair to London, in order to assist the king against heretics and heresies, as he purposed to sit personally in judgement upon them. Vast was the concoorse of people assembled to see this solemn business; and the apparatus for the trial was no less extraordinary. The king himself came as judge, with a great guard, and sat upon the throne prepared for him, arrayed in white on his right hand were the bishops, and be-. hind them the judges and crown lawyers, cloathed all in purple; and, on his left, the peers of the realm and other officers of the crown, according to precedency. Such an appearance, with the king's severe looks, words, and manner, would have sufficed to daunt any man, who could not rely upon the promise, that God's people should speak in his cause before kings, and not be ashamed. It would be long to enter upon the cruel and unfair proceedings of this memorable day. The imperious frowns and VOL. III.-No. 58. A a threats threats of the king, and the meek and humble deportment of Lambert, can only be paralleled by the history of Caiaphas the high priest, or Pontius Pilate, and Lambert's Saviour. Cranmer, it is to be regretted, opposed a cause on that day, for which Cranmer himself not many years afterwards suffered and bled. Lambert defended himself with the firmness of a man, the learning of a scholar, and the humility of a Christian. The issue was predetermined in the king's mind; and all the eloquence and truth in the world would have been of no avail. The king commanded Cromwell (the famous lord Cromwell, who so much supported the Reformation,) to read the doleful sentence of condemnation. It was Lambert's peculiar case, not only to be a martyr, but to suffer by those who, in their turn and for the same identical cause, were not long afterwards martyrs themselves. It appears, that, upon this judgement, he was confined to lord Cromwell's house, and that Cromwell besought his forgiveness for what he had been compelled to do (it is said, by Gardiner's particular management) against him. Upon the day of his death, he breakfasted with great chearfulness among Cromwell's gentlemen, saluted them with great ease and respect upon his departure, and was led out as a lamb for a burnt sacrifice. No man was used at the stake with more cruelty than this holy martyr. They burned him with a slow fire by inches; for if it kindled higher and stronger than they chose, they removed it away. When his legs were burned off, and his thighs were mere stumps in the fire, they pitched his poor body upon pikes, and lacerated his broiling flesh with their halberts. But God was with him in the midst of the flame, and supported him in all the anguish of nature. Just before he expired, he lifted up such hands as he had, all flaming with fire, and cried out to the people with his dying voice in these glorious words; None but Christ; none but Christ." Spoken in this manner, and at such a time, there was more energy in them than could have been expressed in a volume. He was at last beat dowu into the fire, and flew, in a chariot of flame, to heaven. During his confinement, he wrote a long treatise to the king, in which he apologized for his faith and doctrine ; a part of which treatise is preserved by Fox in his "Acts and Monuments." LARKHAM, |