d had on this occasion
shown a tender care of her; and notwithstanding the punishment justly to
be inflicted on her, for her manifold trespasses, was determined to use
every expedient for saving her soul from that destruction with which it
was so nearly threatened: that she was now standing upon the brink of
eternity, and had no other means of escaping endless perdition, than by
repenting her former wickedness, by justifying the sentence pronounced
against her, by acknowledging the queen's favors, and by exerting a true
and lively faith in Christ Jesus: that the Scriptures were the only rule
of doctrine, the merits of Christ the only means of salvation; and if
she trusted in the inventions or devices of men, she must expect in an
instant to fall into utter darkness, into a place where shall be weeping
howling, and gnashing of teeth: that the and of death was upon her, the
axe was laid to the root of the tree, the throne of the great Judge
of heaven was erected, the book of her life was spread wide, and the
particular sentence and judgment was ready to be pronounced upon her:
and that it was now, during this important moment, in her choice, either
to rise to the resurrection of life, and hear that joyful salutation,
"Come, ye blessed of my Father," or to share the resurrection of
condemnation, replete with sorrow and anguish; and to suffer that
dreadful denunciation, "Go, ye cursed, into everlasting fire."[*]

During this discourse, Mary could not sometimes forbear betraying her
impatience, by interrupting the preacher; and the dean, finding that
he had profited nothing by his lecture, at last bade her change her
opinion, repent her of her former wickedness, and settle her faith upon
this ground, that only in Christ Jesus could she hope to be saved. She
answered, again and again, with great earnestness, "Trouble not yourself
any more about the matter; for I was born in this religion, I have lived
in this religion, and in this religion I am resolved to die." Even the
two earls perceived that it was fruitless to harass her any further
with theological disputes; and they ordered the dean to desist from his
unseasonable exhortations, and to pray for her conversion. During the
dean's prayer, she employed herself in private devotion from the office
of the Virgin; and after he had finished, she pronounced aloud some
petitions in English, for the afflicted church, for an end of her own
troubles, for her son, and for Queen Elizabe