WE cannot read the Bible, or study history, without tracing the love of God to His suffering people, and the displeasure He shows to all who touch them. This is very plainly seen in the end of the man who sentenced to death those, two noble and faithful men whose candle by God’s grace still burns in England.
On the day of the martyrdom of Ridley and Latimer, Gardiner waited with impatience for the account of their burning, having arranged that messengers should be dispatched to inform him as soon as the pile should be set on fire. He delayed sitting down to his dinner till he received the desired intelligence, which arrived about four o’clock. He now sat down to his dinner, and, as Fox remarks, “he was not disappointed of his lust, but while the meat was yet in his mouth, the heavy wrath of God came upon him.” While at table, he felt the first attacks of a mortal disease, the effect of vices in which he had long indulged; and though, for some days afterward, he was able to go out and attend the parliament, his illness rapidly increased, until, as was stated by one of his contemporaries, he became so offensive, “that is was scarcely possible to get any one to come near him.”
The sufferings of his mind were not less painful than those of his body. He frequently exclaimed, “I have sinned like Peter, but I have not wept like him.” He endured these protracted pains longer than Ridley or Latimer had suffered, lingering in this state till the 13th of November, during which time it is recorded that “he spake little but blasphemy and filthiness, and gave up the ghost with curses in his mouth, in terrible and inexpressible torments.” What were the sufferings of the martyrs compared with these? Verily there is a God who judgeth in the earth.