qualify himself for this, after receiving the rudiments of education at home, frequented the Reformed, (Calvinistic) universities of Herborn and Heidelberg. Having completed his academical course, he was appointed principal of the grammar school at Prezerow in Moravia, and in 1618 chosen minister of the congregation at Fulnek, the chief settlement of the Brethren in that country.

Six years after, when all Protestant ministers were banished, he retired for some time to the castle of a Bohemian baron, situated in the mountains, and paid occasional visits to his bereaved flock; but was obliged to quit this place of concealment in 1627, when all the Protestant nobility were expelled. Thus forced from his retreat, he emigrated, with part of his congregation, through Silesia into Poland. Having reached the summit of the mountains, which form the boundary, he cast one more sorrowful look on Bohemia and Moravia, and kneeling down with his fellow exiles, offered up a fervent prayer, imploring God not to suffer the light of his holy Word to be totally and for ever withdrawn from these countries; but to preserve there a seed which should serve him. The sequel of the history, especially as it relates to our own times, shews that this prayer was graciously heard and answered.

He and his company having arrived in Poland, he chose Lissa for his place of residence; and at a Synod held in this town in 1632, was consecrated bishop of the Bohemian and Moravian branch of the Brethren's Church, many members of which were dispersed in different countries. Here he published his introduction to the Latin tongue ; a classical work which was translated into twelve European and several Asiatic languages. The fame of his erudition, and distinguished talents for the instruction of youth was widely circulated. He received invitations to Sweden, Transylvania, and England, where he laboured with much success for the improvement of schools. In the interval of these journies, he mostly resided at Lissa, and was occupied with the compilation of an extensive work, designed to be an epitome of all the sciences. But during a fire, which destroyed part of Lissa in 1656, his manuscripts and most of his books were consumed. In consequence of this dis

aster, he went first to Frankfort on the Oder, from thence to Hornburg, and lastly to Amsterdam. Here he maintained himself by giving private tuition; and published his elementary works on education.

On his many journies into foreign countries he neglected no opportunity of soliciting the influence and patronage of persons in power, for the oppressed Church of the Brethren. But it is to be regretted that in his zeal to procure its liberty and promote its spiritual interests, he lent too ready an ear, to the many pretended prophecies, which were then afloat, concerning the speedy downfall of popery and the overthrow of the Austrian dominions. His credulity led him to receive these predictions as divine revelations, to recommend them as such to the study of others, and, contrary to the advice of his Brethren, to get them printed. In this instance his zeal was certainly not according to knowledge; for it was not only useless labour, and, under all the circumstances of the times, peculiarly dangerous in its tendency, but it really injured the cause it was designed to serve. While noticing this weakness of judgment in a man, otherwise so deservedly esteemed for his piety and learning, it is pleasing to reflect, that he lived long enough to see and lament his error, and as far as lay in his power to undo any mischief, which might have arisen to religion, by giving the sanction of his name and authority to these pretended prophecies. In his last work entitled, THE ONE THING NEEDFUL, published three years before his death, in the seventy seventh year of his age, he acknowledges and deeply deplores this error.

These pretended revelations, to which certain events, during the thirty years' war in Germany, might have given a colour of probability, confirmed his hopes of a speedy restoration of religious liberty. In the prospect of this, Comenius, during the continuance of the war, made repeated and earnest applications to all the Protestant princes, and particularly to the British Nation, to patronize the Brethren's Church. But when no provision was made for it in the treaty of peace concluded in Westphalia, in 1648, he relinquished all hopes of obtaining help from man.

How grievously this disappointment afflicted him is evident by the manner in which he speaks of it in a small treatise, containing an affecting description of the distress of his people; from which a few extracts are here inserted. "We ought indeed," says he, "patiently to bear the wrath of the Almighty; but will those be able to justify their conduct before God, whose duty it was to make common cause with all Protestants, but who, unmindful of former solemn compacts, have not come to the help of those who suffer oppression while promoting the common cause? Having procured peace for themselves, they never gave it a thought, that the Bohemians and Moravians, who were the first opponents of popery, and maintained the contest for centuries, deserved to be made partners in the privileges obtained, at least in so far as to prevent the extinction of gospel light in Bohemia, which they were the first to kindle and set on a candlestick. Yet this extinction has now actually taken place. This distressed people, therefore, which on account of its faithful adherence to the apostolic doctrine and the practice of the primitive Church, is now universally hated and persecuted, and even forsaken by its former associates, finding no mercy from man, has nothing left, but to implore the aid of the eternally merciful Lord God, and to exclaim, with his oppressed people of old: For these things I weep; mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water, because the Comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me. But thou, O Lord, remainest for ever; thy throne is from generation to generation. Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever; and forsake us for so long time? Bring us back unto Thee, O Lord, that we may return to the land of our nativity; renew our days as of old'."*

The hope, that by the providence of God, the Brethren's Church would, in some way or other, experience a renewal, consoled Comenius for the grief he felt on account of its depression and declension in his day. Animated by this hope he, in 1649, published'a History of the Brethren's Church, with

* Lament. i. 16, and chap. iv. 19-21. The latter part of the above quotation is a literal translation of Luther's version, and differs a little from the authorized English text, as may be seen by a reference to the passage.

an appendix, stating his views regarding its reformation and the improvement of its discipline. This work he dedicated to the Church of England, as his last will and testament, that by her it might be preserved for the use of the successors of the Brethren, whenever that Church should revive.* In his dedication he writes: "Should it please God, at a future period, to educe good from our present afflictions, and, according to his promise, make Christendom, after having received wholesome correction, instrumental in propagating the gospel among other nations; and do with us, as he did with the Jews, cause our fall to be the riches of the world, and our diminishing the riches of the Gentiles;† we, in that case, commend to you (the English church) our beloved mother, the Brethren's Church; that you may take care of her, whatever it may please God to do, whether to restore her in her native land, or, when deceased there, revive her elsewhere. Thus did God of old, for when he removed his ungrateful people from their country, and laid waste their city and temple, he did not suffer the basis of the altar to be destroyed, that, after the return of his people from captivity, their successors might re-build the temple on its former foundation. If then (as some wise and pious men have thought) there has been found in our Church any thing true, honest, just, pure and lovely, any thing of good report, any virtue and any praise; care ought by all means to be taken, that this may not perish with us, but, that the foundation, at least, may not be so entirely overthrown in the present ruin, as not to be discoverable by succeeding generations. Into your hands, therefore, we commit this precious deposit, and thus by your care, make provision for posterity.”

+

It is scarce possible to read these pious effusions, without beholding in them something almost prophetic.

Though separated from the people of his former charge, who had not accompanied him in his exile, but remained in Bohemia and Moravia, where they lived in retirement, deprived of the rites of the Church, he still endeavoured to promote their spiritual edification. In this view he compiled a Catechism, which * This work was translated from the Latin, and published in London in 1661.

+ Rom. xi. 12. + Ezra iii. 3.

was printed in Amsterdam, in 1661, and dedicated it to the scattered sheep of Christ, especially those in Fulnek and its vicinity. At the close of the dedication he says: "The God of all grace grant you to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man, that you may continue in prayer, be kept from sin, and endure in the hour of temptation and trial, to the praise of his name and your everlasting comfort in his kingdom." It is somewhat remarkable, that from all those towns and villages in Moravia, which are mentioned in this dedication, persons came to Herrnhut in the next century, and assisted in the revival of the Brethren's Church.

Still intent on doing all in his power to preserve the Brethren's Church from utter ruin, Comenius resolved on the election and ordination of a bishop, to prevent the total extinction of this order, which had been preserved to the Brethren, in regular succession, for upwards of two hundred years. The election fell on Nicolaus Gertichius and Paul Jablonsky, the former being appointed for the congregations in Poland, and the latter for the persecuted and dispersed members of the Church in Bohemia and Moravia. The consecration took place at Mielencin in Poland, in the year 1662. But Jablonsky dying before Comenius, whose daughter he had married, his son Daniel Ernestus Jablonsky, chaplain in ordinary at the court of Berlin, was appointed his successor in 1669. And through him episcopal ordination was afterwards transferred to the renewed Church of the Brethren.

On the 15th of October, 1672, Amos Comenius closed his laborious and useful life, at the advanced age of eighty years, of which he had spent nearly forty-four in banishment.

The following letter written by him during his exile, and sent to his beloved, but bereaved flock in Moravia, may with propriety be added to the preceding sketch of his life. This document is the more valuable, because it makes us acquainted with the spirit, which animated the ancient Brethren's Church, in its best days, and with those internal causes which, aided by external oppression, accelerated its declme. It is the work of one, who possessed competent knowledge of his subject, and it exhibits, in a very affecting manner, the good bishop's grief on account