made by some person of influence amongst us ; and we shall soon approve ourselves worthy sons of those pious ancestors. I would hope there is not an indi- vidual amongst us, who would not gladly lend his aid, that " the word of the Lord may run and be glorified," not in this kingdom only, but, if possible, throughout all the earth.
But to return to the bishop's exhortation. " We have good hope that you have well weighed and pon- dered these things with yourselves long before this time ; and that you have clearly determined, by God's grace, to give yourselves wholly to this office, whereunto it hath pleased God to call you, so that, as much as lieth in you, you will apply yourselves wholly to this one thing, and draw all your cares and studies this way : and that you will continually pray to God the Father, by the mediation of our only Sa- viour Jesus Christ, for the heavenly assistance of the Holy Ghost ; that by daily reading and weighing of the Scriptures, ye may wax riper and stronger in your ministry, and that ye may so endeavour your- selves from time to time to sanctify the lives of you and yours, and to fashion them after the rule and doctrine of Christ, that ye may be wholesome and godly examples and patterns for the people to follow."
After this, the bishop, calling upon the candidates, in the name of God and of his Church, to give a plain and solemn answer to the questions which he shall propose to them, puts the substance of the exhor- tation into several distinct questions ; two of which only, for brevity sake, we will repeat : " Will you be diligent in prayers, and in reading of the Holy Scrip- tures, and in such studies as help to the knowledge of the same, laying aside the study of the world and the flesh ?" To which we answer ; " I will endeavour myself so to do, the Lord being my helper." Then he asks again ; " Will you be diligent to frame and fashion your own selves and your families according to the doctrine of Christ, and to make both yourselves and them, as much as in you lieth, wholesome ex- amples and patterns to the flock of Christ?" To