Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	daughter_n	king_n	queen_n	4,187	5	7.0732	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51699	A cloud of witnesses, or, The sufferers mirrour made up of the swanlike-songs, and other choice passages of several martyrs and confessors to the sixteenth century, in their treatises, speeches, letters, prayers, &c. in their prisons, or exiles, at the bar, or stake, &c. / collected out of the ecclesiastical histories of Eusebius, Fox, Fuller, Petrie, Scotland, and Mr. Samuel Ward's Life of faith in death, &c. and alphabetically disposed by T.M., M.A.; Cloud of witnesses. Part 1	Mall, Thomas, b. 1629 or 30.; Flavel, John, 1630?-1691.	1665 (1665)	Wing M329; ESTC R21709	379,698	602

poor Prisoners I make this my humble suit and prayer to you all my especial good Friends beseeching you by all the bonds of amity in the bowels of mercy to tender the cases of miserable Captives Help to cloath Christ visit the Afflicted comfort the Sorrowful and relieve the Needy The very God of peace guide your hearts to have mercy on the poor and love faithfully together Amen This present Monday when I look to die and to live for ever Yours for ever Bartlet Green In his Letter to Mrs. Elizabeth Clark I shall not cease with continual Prayer to labour for you desiring Almighty God to increase that which he hath long since begun in you of sober life and earnest zeal towards his Region She that is a true Widow and friendless putteth her trust in God continuing day and night in supplication and prayer but she that liveth in pleasure is dead even yet alive And verily she is a true widow that hath married Christ forsaking the vanities of the world and the lusts of the flesh For as the married woman careth how to love and serve and please her Husband so ought the Widow to give all her soul and heart thoughts and words studies and labours faithfully to love God vertuously to bring up her children and houshold and diligently to provide for the poor and oppressed Not to live in pleasure but to watch unto prayer stedfastly laying up all her trust in God Of Anna it is written That she never went out of the Temple but served God with fasting and prayer night and day to ●ring up her children and houshold godly in the nurture and information of the Lord. There are most manifest examples against Parents for the offences of Children Contrariwise how greatly might Hanna rejoyce over Samu●l her Son whom she had brought up in the House of the Lord But above all Widows thrice blessed was the happy Mother of the seven Sons that so had instructed them in the fear of the Lord that by no torments they would s●rink from the love of his Truth To be liberal to Strangers to wash the Saints feet and minister to them in their adversity Saint Paul as though they onely had been therefore meet appointed onely Widows to minister to the Saints and to gather for the poor Alas That Christ so hungreth and no man will feed him is so sore opprest with thirst and no man will give him drink destitute of all lodging and not relieved sick and not visitted imprisoned and not seen In times past men could bestow large sums of money on Copes Vestments and Ornaments of the Church why rather follow we not St. Ambrose his example who sold the same for the relief of the poor or Chrysostom's command who willed first to deck and garnish the living Temple of God But alas such is the wickedness of these our last dayes that nothing moves us neither the pure Doctrine the godliness of life nor good examples of the Ancient Fathers If in any thing they erred that will their charitable children embrace publish and maintain with sword faggot and fire but all in vain they strive against the stream for though in despite of the Truth by force of the ears of crafty perswasion they may bring themselves into the haven of Hell yet can they not make all men believe that the banks move while the ship saileth nor ever shall be able to turn the direct course of the stream of Gods Truth In another Letter Better is the day of death saith Solom●n then the day of birth Happy are the dead that die in the Lord. Man of woman is born in travel to live in misery man through Christ doth die in joy to live in felicity he is born to die and dieth to live Strait as he cometh into the world with cries he uttereth his miserable estate strait as he departeth with Songs he praiseth God for ever Scarce yet in his cradle three deadly enemies assault him after death no Adversary may annoy him whilst he is here he displeaseth God when he is dead he fulfilleth his will Here he dieth every hour there he liveth continually here is sin there is righteousness here is time there is eternity here is harted there is love here is pain there is pleasure here is misery there is felicity Seek therefore the things that are above c. Grey The Lady Iane Grey Daughter to the Duke of Suffolk whose Mother was Daughter to Mary King Henry the Second's Sister having personated a Queen for ten dayes and upon Queen M●ries Proclamation being imprisoned the Queen sent Mr. Fecknam to her two dayes before her death to commune with her and reduce her from the Doctrine of Christ to Queen Maries Religion The effect which communication here followeth Madam said Fecknam I lament your heavy Case c. You are welcome unto me Sir said the Lady Iane if you come to give me Christian Exhortation And as for my heavy Case I thank God I do so little lament it that rather I account the same for a more manifest Declaration of Gods favour towards me then ever he shewed me at any time before and therefore there is no cause why either you or other which bear me good will should lament or be grieved with this my Case being a thing so profitable for my souls health I am here come said he from the Queen and Council to instruct you in the true Doctrine of the right Faith c. I heartily thank the Queen said she who is not unmindful of her humble Subject and I hope no less that you will do your duty therein both truly and faithfully What is then said he requried of a Christian To believe said she in God the Father Son and holy Ghost three Persons and one God What said he is there nothing else required or looked for in a Christian but to believe in him Yes said she We must love him with all our heart with all our soul and with all our mind and our Neighbour as our self Why then said he faith justifies not and saveth not Yes verily said she Faith as Paul saith onely justifies Why said he St. Paul saith If I have all faith without love it is nothing True said she for how can I love him whom I trust not or how can I trust him whom I love not Faith and love go both together and yet love is comprehended in faith How must we love our Neighbour said he To love our Neighbour said she is to feed the hungry to cloath the naked and give drink to the thirsty and to do to him as we would do to our selves Why then said he it is necessary unto salvation to do good works also and it is not sufficient onely to believe It is meet said she that a Christian in token that he follows his Master Christ to do good works yet may we not say that they profit to our salvation for

It is no arrogancy nor presumption in any man to burden God as it were with his promise and of duty to claim and challenge his aid help and assistance in all our perils dangers and distress calling upon him not in the confidence of our own godliness but in the trust of his own promises made in Christ. His Word cannot lye Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will hear thee and thou shalt praise me I answered the enemy also on this manner I am a sinner and therefore unworthy to be a witness of this truth What then Must I deny his Word because I am not worthy to pro●ess it What bring I to pass in so doing but adde sin to sin What is greater sin then to deny the truth of Christs Gospel He that is ashamed of me or of my words saith Christ of him also will I be ashamed before my Father and all his Angels I might also by the same reason forbear to do any of Gods Commandments When I am provoked to pray the enemy may say to me I am not worthy to pray therefore I shall not pray c. When the Bishop came to Lichfield he perswaded me to be a Member of his Church which had continued so many years As for our Church as he called it it was not known he said but lately in King Edward's time I profess my self to be a Member of that Church said I that is builded upon the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Jesus Christ being the head corner-stone And this Church hath been from the beginning said I though it bear no glorious shew before the world being ever for the most part under the Cross and affliction contemned despised and persecuted The Bishop contended on the other side that they were the Church So cried all the Clergy against the Prophets of Ierusalem said I saying The Church the Church c. So much out of Mr. Glover's choice Letter After he was condemned his heart was lumpish and desolate of all spiritual consolation whereupon fearing least the Lord had utterly withdrawn he made his moan to Mr. Austine Bernher his familiar friend telling him how he had prayed night and day to God and yet had no sense of comfort from him The Minister desired him to wait patiently the Lords leisure and howsoever his present feeling was yet seeing his cause was just he exhorted him constantly to stick to the same and to play the man not doubting but the Lord in his good time would visit him and satisfie his desire with plenty of consolation whereof said Mr. Bernher he was right certain and sure and therefore desired him whenever any such feeling of Gods heavenly mercies should begin to touch his heart that then he should shew some signification thereof The next day as he was going to the place of his Martyrdome and was come within light of the Stake although all the night before praying for strength and courage he could feel none suddenly he was so mightily replenished with Gods holy comfort and heavenly joys that he cried out clapping his hands to Austine and saying in these words Austine He is come he is come c. and that with such joy and alacrity as one seeming rather to be risen from some deadly danger to liberty of life then as one passing out of the world by any pains of death Godfrey When one called Godfrey de H●mmele Heretick he said No Heretick but an unprofitable Servant yet willing to die for his Lord and reckoning this death no death but a life Goodman Mr. Christopher Goodman an exiled Minister of Christ in Queen Mary's dayes declaring the cause of all the then misery in England and the onely way to remedy the same writes as followeth from Geneva If all in whom the People should look for comfort be altogether declined from God as indeed they appear to be at this present time in England without all fear of his Majesty or pity upon their Brethren Then assure your selves dear Brethren and Servants of God there can be no better counsel nor more comfortable or present remedy which you shall prove true if God grant you his Spirit and Grace to follow it then in continual and daily invocation of his Name to rest wholly and onely upon him make him your shield buckler and refuge who hath so promised to be to all them that are oppressed and depend upon him to do nothing commanded against God and your conscience preferring at all times the will of God to the will of men saying and answering to all manner of persons This God hath commanded this we must do That God hath forbidden that we will not do If you will rob us and spoil us for doing the Lords will to the Lord must you make answer and not to us for his goods they are and not ours If ye will imprison us behold you are oppressours if ye will hang us or burn us behold ye are murtherers of them which fear the Lord. And for our part if you take from us this vile and corruptible life we are sure the Lord will grant it us again with joy and immortality both of soul and body If God give you grace to make this or the like answer and strength to contemn their Tyranny you may be sure to find unspeakable comfort and quietness of conscience in the midst of your danger and greatest rage of Satan And thus boldly confessing Christ your Saviour before men as by the examples of thousands of your Brethren before your faces God doth mercifully encourage you you may with all hope and patience wait for the joyful confession of Christ again before his Father and Angels in Heaven that you are his obedient and dearly beloved Servants being also assured of this that if it be the will of God to have you any longer to remain in this miserable world that then his Providence is so careful over you and present with you that no man or power can take away your life from you nor touch your body any farther then your Lord and God will permit them which neither shall be augmented for your plain confession nor yet diminished for keeping of silence for nothing cometh to the Servants of God by hap or chance whose hairs of their heads are numbred Whereof if ye be so assured as ye ought there can be nothing that should make you to shrink from the Lord. If they do cast you into Prison with Ioseph the Lord will deliver you If they cast you to wild beasts and Lions as they did D●niel you shall be preserved If into the Sea with Ionas you shall not be drowned or into the dirty dungeon with Ieremy you shall be delivered or into the fiery Furnace with Shadrach Meshach and A●ednego yet shall not be consumed Contrariwise if it be his good pleasure that you shall glorifie his holy Name by your death what great thing have you lost changing death for life

am called to this Place and Vocation I am throughly perswaded to tarry and to live and die with my sheep When he was imprisoned in the Fleet he writes thus I am so hardly used that I see no remedy saving Gods help but I shall be cast away in Prison before I come to Judgement But I commit my just cause to God whose will be done whether it be by life or death Winchester exhorting him to the unity of the Catholick Church and to acknowledge the Popes Holiness to be Head of the same Church promising him the Queens mercy he answered That forasmuch as the Pope taught Doctrine altogether contrary to the Doctrine of Christ he was not worthy to be accounted a Member of Christs Church much less to be Head thereof wherefore he would in no wise condescend to any such usurped Jurisdiction neither esteemed he the Church whereof they called him Head to be the Catholick Church of Christ for the Church of Christ onely heareth the voice of her Spouse Christ and flieth the strangers Howbeit said he if in any point to me unknown I have offended the Queens Majesty I shall humbly submit my self to her mercy if mercy may be had with safety of conscience and without the displeasure of God Come Brother said he to Mr. Rogers who was sent with him to the Counter in Southwark must we two take this matter first in hand and begin to fire these Fagots Yea Sir said Mr. Rogers by Gods grace Doubt not said Mr. Hooper but God will give strength The Sheriffe telling Mr. Hooper he wondred that he was so hasty and quick with the Lord Chancellor he answered Mr. Sheriffe I was nothing at all impatient although I was earnest in my Masters Cause and it standeth me so in hand for it goeth upon life and death not the life and death of this world onely but also of the world to come In his Letter for the stopping of certain false rumours spread abroad concerning his Recantation by the Bishops and their Servants The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with all them that unfeignedly look for the coming of our Saviour Christ. Amen Dear Brethren and Sisters in the Lord and my Fellow-Prisoners for the Cause of Gods Gospel I do much rejoyce and give thanks unto God for your constancy and perseverance in affliction unto whom I wish continuance to the end And as I do rejoyce in your faith and constancy in afflictions that be in Prison even so I do mourn and lament to hear of our dear Brethren that yet have not felt such dangers for Gods Truth as we have and do feel and be daily like to suffer more yea the very extream and vile death of the fire yet such is the report abroad as I am credibly informed that I Iohn Hooper a condemned man for the Cause of Christ should now after sentence of death being in Newgate Prisoner and looking daily for Execution recant and abju●e that which heretofore I have preached and this talk ariseth of this That the Bishop of London and his Chaplains resort unto me Doubtless if our Brethren were as Godly as I could wish them they would think that in case I did refuse to talk with them they might have just occasion to say that I were unlearned and durst not speak with learned men or else proud and disdained to speak with them But I fear not their Arguments neither is death terrible to me I am more confirmed in the truth which I have preached heretofore by their coming Therefore ye that may send to the weak Brethren pray them that they trouble me not with such reports of Recantations as they do for I have hitherto left all things of the world and suffered great pains and imprisonment and I thank God I am as ready to suffer death as a mortal man may be It were better for them to pray for us then to credit or report such rumours that be untrue We have enemies enough of such as know not God truly but yet the false report of weak Brethren is a double cross I wish your eternal salvation in Jesus Christ and also require your continual Prayers that he which hath begun in us may continue it to the end I have taught the truth with my tongue and with pen heretofore and hereafter shortly will confirm the same by Gods grace with my blood Newgate Feb. 2. 1554. Your Brother in Christ J. H. When the Keeper told him he should be sent to Glocester to be burned he rejoyced very much lifting up his eyes and hands to Heaven he praised God that he saw it good to send him among the people over whom he was Pastor there to confirm with his death the truth which he had before taught them not doubting but the Lord would give him strength to perform the same to his glory Sir Anthony Kingston formerly his Friend then a Commissioner to see Execution done upon him coming to him a little before his death bid him consider that life was sweet death was bitter c. It is true said Mr. Hooper I am come hither to end this life and to suffer death here because I will not gainsay the former truth which I have heretofore taught among you True it is that daath is bitter and life is sweet but alas consider that the death to come is more bitter and the life to come is more sweet therefore for the desire and love I have to the one and the terrour and fear of the other I do not so much regard this death nor esteem this life but have settled my self through the strength of Gods holy Spirit patiently to pass through the torments and extremities of the fire now prepared for me rather then to deny the truth of his Word desiring you and others in the mean time to commend me to Gods mercy in your Prayers I thank God said the Knight that ever I knew you for God did appoint you to call me being a lost child and by your good instructions where before I was both an Adulterer and Fornicator God hath brought me to the forsaking and detesting of the same If you had the grace so to do said the Bishop I do highly praise God for it and if you have not I pray God you may have and that you may continually live in his fear The Knight and the Bishop parting with tears the Bishop told the Knight that all the troubles he had sustained in Prison had not caused him to utter so much sorrow A Papist telling him he was sorry to see him in that case Be sorry for thy self man said he and lament thine own wickedness for I am well I thank God and death to me for Christs sake is welcome When he was committed to the Sheriffe of Gl●cester the Mayor and Aldermen at first saluted him and took him by the hand Mr. Mayor said Mr. Hooper I give most hearty thanks to you and to the rest of

your Brethren that you have vouchsafed to take me a Prisoner and condemned man by the hand whereby to my rejoycing it is somewhat apparent that your old love and friendship towards me is not altogether extinguished and I trust also that all the things I have taught you in times past are not utterly forgotten c. For the which most true and sincere Doctrine because I will not now account it falshood and Heresie as many other men do I am sent hither by the Queens command to die and am come where I taught it to confirm it with my blood And now Mr. Sheriffs My request to you is That there may be a quick Fire shortly to make an end and in the mean time I will be as obedient unto you as your selves would wish If you think I do amiss in any thing hold up your finger and I have done for I am not come hither as one inforced or compelled to die for it is well known I might have had my life with worldly gain but as one willing to offer and give my life for the truth rather then to consent to the wicked Papistical Religion of the Bishop of Rome c. When the Sheriffs fetcht him from his Chamber to the place of Execution with Bills Weapons c. Mr. Sheriffs said he I am no Traytor neither needed you to have made such a business to bring me to the place where I must suffer for if ye had willed me I would have gone alone to the Stake and have troubled none of you all When he saw the multitude of People that were assembled he said unto them that were about him Alas why be these People assembled and come together peradventure they think to hear something of me now as they have in times past but alas speech is prohibited me Notwithstanding the cause of my death is well known unto them when I was appointed here to be their Pastor I preached unto them true and sincere Doctrine and that out of the Word of God because I will not account the same to be Heresie and untruth this kind of death is prepared for me When he was come to the place where he was to suffer after he had begun to pray a Box was brought and laid before him upon a stool with his Pardon or at leastwise it was feigned so to be from the Queen if he would turn at the sight thereof he cried If you love my soul away with it if you love my soul away with it In his Prayer he was overheard to say Lord I am Hell but thou art Heaven I am swill and a sink of sin but thou art a gracious God and merciful Redeemer Thou art ascended into Heaven receive me Hell to be partaker of thy joyes where thou sittest in equal glory with thy Father for well knowest thou wherefore I am come hither to suffer and why the wicked do persecute this thy poor Servant not for my sins and transgressions against thee but because I will not allow their wicked doings to the contaminating of thy blood and to the denial of the knowledge of thy Truth wherewith it did please thee by thy holy Spirit to instruct me the which with as much diligence as a poor wretch might being thereto called I have set forth to thy glory And well seest thou my Lord and God what terrible pains and cruel torments be prepared for thy Creature such Lord as without thy strength none is able to bear or patiently to pass But all things that are impossible with man are possible with thee Therefore strengthen me of thy goodness that in the fire I break not the Rules of patience or else asswage the terrour of the pains as shall seem most to thy glory When he was at the Stake three irons made to bind him to the Stake were brought one for his Neck another for his Middle and the third for his Legs He refusing them said Ye have no need thus to trouble your selves for I doubt not but God will give strength sufficient to abide the extremity of the fire without bands notwithstanding suspecting the frailty and weakness of the flesh but having assured confidence in Gods strength I am content ye do as ye shall think good When he was first scorch'd with the fire he pray'd saying mildly and not very loud but as one without pains O Jesus the Son of David have mercy upon me and receive my soul. When the second fire was spent and onely burnt his lower parts he said for Gods love good people let me have more fire In the third fire he prayed with somewhat a loud voice Lord Jesus have mercy on me Lord Jesus have mercy on me Lord Jesus receive my Spirit The Reasons of Mr. Hooper's refusing the Episcopal Habits c. I find thus C. Why do not you my Lord use these innocent and harmless weeds H. I put my self upon the tryal of the Searcher of Hearts that no obstinacy but meer Conscience makes me refuse these Ornaments C. These Ornaments are indifferent of themselves and of ancient use in the Church H. They are useless being ridiculous and superstitious C. Nay my Lord being enjoyned by lawful Authority they become necessary not to salvation but to Church-unity H. Being left indifferent by God it is presumption in man to make them necessary C. By a moderate use of these Ceremonies we may gain Papists into the Church H. While you hope to gain Papists into the Church you lose many Protestants out of it C. You discredit other Bishops who have used this Habit. H. I had rather discredit them then destroy mine own conscience C. How think you being a private person to be indulged with to the disturbance of the publick Uniformity of the Church H. If it please your Grace but to read these Letters I hope you will be satisfied and then he produced the Letters from the Earl of Warwick an● King Edward C. These are to desire that in such reasonable things wherein my Lord Elect of Glocester craveth to be born withall at your hands you would vouchsafe your Graces favour the principal cause is that you would not charge him with any thing burdenous to his Conscience I. Warwick WE do understand you stay from Consecrating our well beloved Mr. J. Hooper because h● would have you omit and let p●ss c●rtain Rites and Ceremonies ●ffensive to his Conscience whereby you thi●● you shall fall in premunire of Laws We have though● good by advice of Our Council to discharge you 〈◊〉 manner of Dangers Penalties and Forfeitur● 〈◊〉 should run into by omitting any of the s●me and 〈◊〉 Our Letters shall be your sufficient Warrant and Dis●charge Edward Rex In his Letter writ in Answer to one sent hi● concerning certain taken in Bow Church-yard whilst they were praying I do rejoyce in th●● men can be so well occupied in this perillous time and flee for remedy to God by Prayer as well fo● their own lacks

Malefactour You have heard a Sentence of death pronounced against me by the Priests c. I stand in your presence whom God hath made Princes your Power is above their Tyranny before you do I expose my cause I cannot resist to suffer what you think just but least my lenity and patience should make you negligent in the defence of me in my just cause c. I dare not conceal That if you murder me which thing ye do if ye defend me not ye make your selves and this whole City guilty of my blood whereupon they freed him from the Sentence The same this Prophet did before Zedekiah This will more plainly appear in the fact of Saint Paul He appealed from all judgement of the Priests at Ierusalem to the Emperour It seems that his Cause was greatly to be suspected partly for that he refused the judgement of those that had most knowledge as all men supposed of Gods Will and Religion and partly because he appealed to the Emperour who then was at Rome far absent from Ierusalem a man ignorant of God and enemy to all vertue But the Apostle considering the nature of his enemies and what things they had intended against him did not fear to appeal from them c. grounding himself upon his innocency he neither regarded the displeasure of Festus nor the brunt of the ignorant multitude but appealed to Caesar c. What I think of mine own person God will reveal when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed c. But touching the Doctrine and Cause for which that adulterous and wicked generation of Antichrists Servants who will be called Bishops among you have condemned me I fear not neither do I shame to confess and avow before man and Angel to be the eternal truth of the eternal God and in that case I doubt not to compare my self with any member in whom the Truth hath been impugned since the beginning Seeing that my battel is against the proud and cruel hypocrites of this Age as that battel of those most excellent instruments was against the false Prophets and Malignant Church of their ages No man ought to think it strange that I compare my self with them with whom I sustain a common cause But lest that some doubt remain that I require more of you then you of conscience are bound to grant I purpose briefly but yet freely to speak what God by his Word doth assure me to be true 1 That in conscience you are bound to punish Malefactours and to defend Innocents imploring your help 2 That God requireth of you to provide that your Subjects be rightly instructed in his true Religion and that the same be by you reformed whensoever abuses do creep in by the malice of Satan and negligence of men 3 That you are bound to remove from Honour and to punish with Death if the Crime so require such as deceive the people or defraud them of that food of their souls I mean Gods lively Word After that M●ses had declared what was true Religion viz. To honour God as he commanded adding nothing to his Word neither diminishing any thing from it and after also he had vehemently exhorted them to observe the same Law he denounceth the punishment against the transgressours If thy Brother Son Daughter Wife or Neighbour whom thou lovest as thine own life sollicite thee secret saying Let us go serve other gods c. let not thine eye spare him c. Observe here 1 That such as sollicitate onely to idolatry ought to be punished to death without favour or respect of person c. 2 That the punishment of such crimes as are Idolatry Blasphemy and others that touch the Majesty of God doth not appertain to Kings onely but also to the whole body of the people and every member thereof according to his vocation c. God even streightly commandeth that a City declining to idolatry should fall by the edge of the Sword and that the whole spoil of the same should be burned no portion of it reserved that the Lord may turn from the fury of his wrath c. hinting that by the defection and idolatry of a few Gods wrath is kindled against the whole which is never quenched till such punishment be taken upon the Offenders that whosoever served them in their idolatry be brought to destruction because that it is execrable and accursed before God If any think that this is contrary to the practise of the Ap●stles who finding the Gentiles in idolatry did call them to repentance requiring no such punishment I answer That the Gentiles before the preaching of Christ were never avowed by God to be his people nor received into his houshold neither were his Laws given unto them to be kept in Religion nor Policy and therefore no corporal punishment was inflicted on them c. But after they repented of their idolatries and embraced and made one people with the believing Iews they were subject to the same Law as the Iews were and were liable to the same punis●ment if they returned to idolatry again In universal defections and a general revolt such as was in Israel after Ieroboam there is a diverse consideration for then because the whole people were conspired against God none could be found to execute the punishment God had appointed till God raised up Iehu whom he appointed for that purpose I know that your Bishops c. will cry A damned Heretick ought not to be heard But remember my Lords what I protested in the beginning upon which ground I continually stand I am no Heretick no deceivable Teacher but the Servant of Christ Jesus a Preacher of his infallible Verity innocent in all they can lay to my charge c. and therefore am unjustly condemned from which cruel Sentence I have appealed and do appeal as before in the mean time most humbly requiring your Honours to take me into your protection to be Auditors of my just defences granting unto me the same liberty which Ahab a wicked King and Israel at that time a blinded people granted to Elijah in the like case viz. that your Bishops and the whole rable of your Clergy may be called before you and before the people whom they have deceived that I be not condemned by multitude custome authority or law devised by man but that God himself may be judge betwixt me and my adversaries Let God I say speak by his Law Prophets Christ Jesus Apostles and so let him pronounce what Religion he approveth and then be my enemies never so many and appear they never so strong and learned no more do I fear victory then did Elijah being but one man against the multitude of Baal's Priests And if they think to have advantage by their Councils and Doctors this I farther offer to admit the one and the other as witnesses in all matters debatable three things which justly cannot

her life should be spared if she would recant Nay that will I not said she God forbid that I should lose the life eternal for this carnal and short life I will never turn from my heavenly Husband to my earthly Husband from the fellowship of Angels to mortal Children and if my Husband and Children be faithfull then am I theirs God is my Father God is my Mother God is my Sister my Brother my Kinsman God is my friend most faithfull After her Condemnation she refused to receive my money from well affected people saying I am going to a City where money beareth no mastery Whilst I am here God hath promised to feed me When she was brought to the Stake without the ●alls of Exeter in a place called So then hay in the ●roneth of November 1558. the Priests again as●●ulted her but she prayed them to have no more ●alk with her and cried still God be mercifull to 〈◊〉 a sinner God be mercifull to me a sinner This Agnes Priest or Prest was the sole Devonshire Martyr saith Dr. Fuller under the reign of Queen Mary Wherefore as those Parents which have but one Child may afford it the better attendance as more at leisure So seeing by Gods goodness we have but this single Native of this Countrey yea of this Diocess we will enlarge c. 1 Her Christian Name which Mr. Fox could not learn ●e have recovered from another excellent Author Mr. Vowell in Hollingshead pag. 1309. 2 I am informed by the Inhabitants thereabout that she lived at Northcot in the Parish of Boynton in the County of Cornwall c. 3 She was a simple woman to behold thick but liltle and short in sta●●re about Four and fifty years of age 4 She was endited on Munday the fourth week in Lent An. Phil. Mar. 2. and 3. before W. Stanford Iustice of the Assize So that we may observe more legal formality was used about the condemnation of this poor woman then any Martyr of far greater degree 5 Her own Husband and Children were her greatest Persecutors from whom she fled because they would force her to be present at Mass. 6 She was condemned by Bishop Troublefield Bishop of Exeter c. yea she was the onely person in whose persecution Bishop Troublefield did appear and it is justly conceived that Blackstone his Chancellour was more active then the Bishop in procuring her death Potten Agnes Potten of Ipswich in a night a little before her death being asleep in her bed saw a bright burning fire right up as a Pole and on the side thereof she thought there stood a number of Queen Mary's Friends looking on then being asleep she seemed to muse with her self whether her fire should burn so bright or no. And indeed her suffering was not far unlike her dream At the Stake she and Ioan Trunchfield who sufferred with her required the people to credit and to lay hold on the Word of God and not upon mans devices and inventions and to despise the Ordinances and Institutions of the Romish Antichrist with all his superstitious and rotten Religion Pusices Shut thine eyes but a while said Pusices to an old man trembling at Martyrdome and thou shalt see Gods Light R. Rabeck I●hn Rabeck a French Martyr being urged to pronounce Iesu Maria conjoyned in one Prayer boldly answered That if his Tongue should but offer to utter those words at their bidding he himself would bite it asunder with his Teeth Ramus The great crime that the Sorbonists objected against Peter Ramus and for which he suffered much was That by opposing Aristotle he enervated Divinity Whence we may see what a Divinity they were for who made Aristotle the great Master thereof who laughs at the Creation of the World Divine Providence and the Immortality of the Soul and slighting Life eternal placed the happiness of man in this mortal Life onely and left nothing for man after death then to have it said He was happy in a word who defined humane felicity from mans ability and not from divine grace In his adverse condition he would comfort himself with the following Verses 1. Committe vitam rem decus Dei unius arbitrio Animi tibi ex sententia Confecta reddet omnia Illustris aurorae ut jubar Tua faciet ul sit aquitas Ut luce virtus sit tua● Meridiana clarior In English thus Commit to God life wealth and name And what thou wilt shalt have the same Thy righteousness shall shine more clear Then the light of the morning 〈◊〉 2. Deus ●abit his quoque finem● Durate ut vos●●t rebus servate secundis These shall not want an end Bear up and wait till G●d doth better send That which he first disliked in Popery was their execrable idolatry in corrupting the second Commandment and the Sacrament of the Lords Supper When in the Possiac Synod he heard the Cardina● of Lorain acknowledge That the first of the fifteet● Centuries since Christ was a truly golden Age but the rest were so much the worse by how much they farther departed from the first Peter Ramus concluded That the Age of Christ and his Apostles was to be restored and chosen When the Civil Wars brake forth in France for Religion he went into Germany and at Heidelberg having made to Tremellius and the Church a Confession of his Faith he received the Sacrament of the Lords Supper in that Church After his conversion he daily did read the Old and New Testament and out of each Chapter collected an Index containing Rules and Examples relating to both the parts of Christian Doctrine viz. Faith and the Actions of Faith and so made his Commentaries and certainly he had made much greater progress in Divinity had he not been so soon not much above two years after his conversion taken away by a violent death When in that horrid Massacre at Paris begun Aug. 24. 1572. he was mortally wounded Aug. 26. in the seven and fiftieth year of his age he was heard to commend his soul to God in these words O Iehovah against thee onely have I sinned and done evil before thee Thy judgements are truth and righteousness Have mercy upon and pardon my Murtherers for they know not what they do Read Some of the Articles that were exhibited against Adam Read and other Scotch Confessors were these following 1 That Images are not to be had in the Kirk nor to be worshipped 4 That it is not lawfull to fight for the Faith nor to defend the Faith by the Sword if we be not driven to it by necessity which is above all Law 12 That the Pope is not the Successor of Peter but where he said Go behind me Satan 17 That the Pope exalts himself against God and above God 19 That the blessings of the Bishops of dumb Dogs they should have been stiled are of no value 20 That the excommunication of the Kirk is not to be feared if there be no

Commonwealth their minds by the sight of the outward Image might be withdrawn or wander from the matter To allow a most certain peril for an uncertain profit and the greatest danger for the smallest benefit in matters of Faith and Religion is a tempting of God and a grievous offence In the Primitive Church there were no Images in places of Assembly for Religion this the Heathens objected to the Christians for a crime as Origen and Arnobius testifie c. Lactantius saith It is not to be doubted that there is no Religion wheresoever is any Image Not onely by Varro's judgement but also by St. Augustine's approbation of Varro the most pure and chast observation of Religion and nearest the Truth is to be without Images By the judgement of this ancient Father Epiphanius to permit Images in Churches is against the Authority of Scripture meaning against the second Commandment c. Besides Epiphanius doth reject not onely graven and molten but painted Images Again he spared not the Image of Christ yea he did not onely remove it but with a vehemency of zeal cut in pieces and he is carefull that no such kind of painted Images be permitted in the Church It is manifest to them that read Histories that not onely Emperours but also divers and sundry Councils in the East Church have condemned and abolished Images both by Decrees and Examples But this notwithstanding experience hath declared That neither Councils nor Writings Preachings Decrees making of Laws prescribing of Punishments have holpen against Images to which Idolatry hath been committed nor against Idolatry whilst Images stood In his Letter to his Dear Brother and Reverend Fellow-Elder in Christ Iohn Hooper My dearly beloved Brother c. whom I reverence in the Lord c. Forasmuch as I understand by your works that we throughly agree and wholly consent together in those things which are the grounds and substantial points of our Religion against which the world so furiously rageth in our dayes howsoever in time past by certain by-matters and circumstances of Religion your wisdome and my simplicity I grant hath a little jarred each of us following the abundance of his own sense and judgement Now I say be you assured that even with my whole heart God is my witness in the bowels of Christ I love you in the Truth and for the Truths sake which abideth in us and as I am perswaded shall by the grace of God abide in us for evermore Because the world as I perceive Brother busily conspireth against Christ our Saviour with all possible force and power let us joyn hands together in Christ and if we cannot overthrow yet to our power and as much as in us lies let us shake those high Altitudes not with carnal but with spiritual weapons Let us also prepare our selves for death by which after our short afflictions here by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we shall triumph together with him in eternal glory I pray you Brother salute in my Name your Reverend Fellow-Prisoner and Venerable Father Dr. Cranmer by whom since the first day that I heard of his most godly and fatherly constancy in confessing the Truth of the Gospel I have conceived great consolation and joy in the Lord. It will also be to me great joy to hear of your constancy and fortitude in the Lords Quarrel I am earnestly moved to counsel you not to hasten the publishing of your Works especially under your own Name least your mouth should be stopped hereafter and all things taken away from the rest of the Prisoners whereby otherwise if it so please God may be able to do good to many Farewell in the Lord my most Dear Brother Once again and for ever in Christ my most Dear Brother farewell Rieux Dionysius de Rieux was one of them who was first burned at Melda or Meaux in France An. 1528. for saying That the Mass is a plain denial of the Death and Passion of Christ. He was alwayes wont to have in his mouth the Words of Christ He that denieth me before men him also will I deny before my Father Rogers Mr. Iohn Rogers preaching at Paul's Cross even after Queen Mary was come to the Tower of London confirmed the Truth of that Doctrine which he and others had there taught in King Edward's dayes exhorting the people constantly to remain in the same and to beware of all pestilent Popery Idolatry and Superstition For that Sermon he was called in Question In his Examination and Answer Ian. 22. 1555. I never granted King Henry the Eighth to have any Supremacy in spiritual things as are the forgiveness of sins giving of the holy Ghost authority to be a Judge above the Word of God The Chancellor asserting That the Parliament that abolished the Popes Supremacy was with most great cruelty constrained thereunto He answered With cruelty Why then I perceive that you take a wrong way with cruelty to perswade mens consciences for it should appear by your doings now that the cruelty then used hath not perswaded your consciences How would you then have your consciences perswaded with cruelty Sir Richard Southwell telling him That he would not burn in this year when it cometh to the Purpose he answered Sir I cannot tell but I trust to my Lord God yes lifting up his eyes to Heaven I desire the hearty and unfeigned help of the Prayers of all Christs true Members the true Imps of the true unfeigned Catholick Church that the Lord God of all consolation will now be my comfort aid strength buckler and shield as also of all my Brethren that are in the same case and distress that I and they all may despise all manner of threats and cruelty and even the bitter burning fire and the dreadfull dart of death and stick like true Souldiers to our dear and loving Captain Christ our onely Saviour and Redeemer and the onely true Head of the Church that doth all in us all which is the property of an Head and that we do not traiterously run out of his Tents or rather out of the plain field from him in the greatest jeopardy of the battel but that we may persevere in the fight if he will not otherwise deliver us till we be most cruelly slain of his enemies For this I most heartily and at this present with tears most instantly and earnestly desire and bes●ech you all to pray In his second Examination and Answer Ian. 28 29. 1555. Should said the Chancellor when the Parliament hath concluded a thing any private person have authority to discuss whether they had done right or wrong No that may not be I answered shortly That all the Laws of men might not neither could rule the Word of God but that they all must be discussed and judged thereby and obey thereto and neither my conscience nor any Christians could be satisfied with such Laws as disagreed from that Word Mr. Hooper and Mr. Cardmaker were