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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
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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

the Prayers of the Church with these words Take up the man whom ye accounted another god At the end of his Sermon he bemoaned the loss that the Church and State of Scotland received by the death of that man and said That as God in his mercy giveth good and wise Rulers so he taketh them away in his wrath and then added There is one in this Company that maketh the subject of his mirth this horrible murder whereat all good men have cause to be sorry I tell him he shall die where there shall be none to lament him The young Gentleman that writ the Note hearing this Comination went home and said to his Sister that Iohn Knox was raving to speak of he knew not whom His Sister replied with tears in her eyes telling him That none of Iohn Knox's threatnings fell to the ground without effect and so it fell out in this particular for this Mr. Thomas Metellan shortly after went beyond Sea to travel and died in Italy having no known man to assist him much less to lament him He told his People it was his desire to finish and close his preaching with preaching upon the History of Christs Passion In his last Sermon to his People at Edinburg which was preached at the Election of Mr. Iames Lawson to succeed him to whom he had writ thus Accelera mi frater alioqui sero venies Make haste Brother otherwise you will come too late meaning That if he made any stay he should find him dead and gone He called God to witness that he had walked in a good conscience among them not seeking to please men nor serving his own or other mens affections but in all sincerity and truth preached the Gospel of Christ most gravely and pithily exhorting them to stand fast in the faith which they had received In his sickness he said unto the Earl of Morton who came to visit him My Lord God hath given you wisdome honour high birth riches many good and great friends and is now to prefer you to the Government of the Realm In his Name I charge you that you will use these Blessings better in time to come then you have done in times past In all your actions seek first the glory of God the furtherance of his Gospel the maintenance of his Church and Ministry next be carefull of the King and the welfare of the Realm If you shall do this God will be with you and honour you if otherwise you do it not he will deprive you of all these benefits and your end shall be shame and ignominy These Speeches the Earl about nine years after at the time of his Execution called to mind saying That he had found them true and Mr. Knox therein a true Prophet A day or two before his death he sent for Mr. Lindsay Mr. Lawson and the Elders and Deacons of the Church and said unto them The time is approaching for which I have long thirsted wherein I shall be released from all my cares and be with my Saviour Christ for ever and now God is my Witness whom I have served with my Spirit in the Gospel of his Son that I have taught nothing but the true and sincere Word of God the true and solid Doctrine of the Gospel and that the end I proposed in all my Doctrine was to instruct the ignorant to confirm the weak to comfort the consciences of those who were humbled under the sense of their sins and born down with the threatnings of Gods judgements Such as were proud and rebellious I am not ignorant have blamed and do yet blame my too great rigour and severity but God knoweth that in my heart I never hated the persons of those against whom I thundred Gods judgements I did onely hate their sins and laboured according to my power to gain them to Christ. That I did forbear none of whatsoever condition I did it out of the fear of my God who hath placed me in the Ministry and I know will bring me to an account Now Brethren for your selves I have no more to say but to warn you to take heed to the Flock over which God hath placed you overseers which he hath redeemed with the blood of his onely begotten Son And now Mr. Lawson Fight a good fight do the work of the Lord with courage and with a willing mind and God from above bless you and the Church whereof you have charge against it so long as it continueth in the Doctrine of the Truth the gates of Hell shall not prevail This spoken and the Elders and Deacons dismissed he called the two Preachers to him and said There is one thing that grieveth me exceedingly You have sometimes seen the courage and constancy of the Laird of Grange in the Cause of God and that most unhappy man hath cast himself away I pray you two to take the pains to go to him and say from me That unless he forsake that wicked course wherein he is entred neither shall the rock in which he confideth defend him nor the carnal wisdome of that man whom he counteth half a god this was young Lethington yield him help but shamefully he shall be pulled out of that nest and his carkass hang before the Sun and so it fell out for the next year the Castle which he did keep against the Kings Authority was taken and he hanged before the Sun the Soul of that man is dear unto me and if it be possible I would fain have him saved They went but could not prevail yet at his death he did express serious repentance for his sins The next day he was much in Prayer crying Come Lord Jesus Sweet Jesus into thy hands I commend my Spirit Being asked by those about him if his pains were great he answered That he did not esteem that a pain which should be unto him the end of all troubles and beginning of eternal joyes Oftentimes after some deep Meditations he burst forth in these words O serve the Lord in fear and death shall not be troublesome unto you blessed is the death of those that have part in the death of Christ. In the Evening having slept some hours together but with great unquietness for he was heard to send forth many sighs and groans Being asked after he awaked How he did find himself and what it was that made him to mourn so heartily in his sleep He answered In my life time I have oft been assaulted with Satan many times he hath cast in my teeth my sins to bring me to despair yet God gave me strength to overcome all his temptations and now that subtile Serpent who never ceaseth to tempt hath taken another course and seeks to perswade me that all my labours in the Ministry and the fidelity that I have shewn in that Service hath merited Heaven and immortality but blessed be God that brought to my mind these Scriptures What hast thou that thou hast not received and not

all salvation and justification and that there is none other mean nor way no● holiness in which or by which any man can be saved in this World Burning in the fire he cried out three times●punc O the Son of God have mercy upon me O the Son of God receive my soul. Folks Elizabeth Folks being examined whether she believed the presence of Christs Body to be in the Sacrament substantially and really answered That she believed that that was a substantial and real l●e When Sentence of Condemnation was rea● against her she kneeled down lifting up her eye and hands to Heaven she praised God that ever she was born to see that most blessed and happy day that the Lord would count her worthy to suffer for the testimony of Christ and Lord if it be thy will forgive them that have done this against me for they know not what they do At the Stake she being hindred from giving her Petticoat to her Mother who kissed her and exhorted her to be strong in the Lord threw it away from her saying Farewel all the World farewel Faith and Hope and so taking the Stake in her hand said Welcome Love c. When she and the other five that suffered with her were nailed to the Stakes and the fire about them they clapped their hands together for joy in the fire Fox The day after Queen Mary's death Mr. Iohn Fox preaching at Basil to the English Exiles did with confidence tell them That now was the time come for their return into England and that he brought that News by command from God The Lady Anne Hennage being given up for dead He told her she had done well in fitting her self for death but that she should not die of that Sickness and being blamed by her Son in Law for disquieting her mind with hopes of life He answered that he had said no more then was commanded h●m for it seemed good to God that she should recover and so she did Mrs. Honywood having been sick of a Consumption almost twenty years was scarce able to speak when Mr. Fox came to her onely faintly she breathed forth a desire to end her dayes Mr. Fox after he had prayed with her told her That she should not onely grow well of that Consumption but also live to an exceeding great age As well might you have said quoth Mrs. Honywood that if I should throw this Glass against the Wall I might believe it would not break to pieces and holding a Glass in her hand out of which she had newly drunk she threw it forth but the Glass falling first on a Chest and then on the ground neither brake nor crackt Accordingly this eminent Christian Gentlewoman being then Sixty years of age recovered and lived till she was above Ninety and could reckon above three hundred and sixty of her Children and Childrens Children He also foresaw his own death and therefore sent away his sons that they might not be present Frith Mr. Iohn Frith with some others chosen into Christs Church Oxford whose Foundation was laid by Cardinal Wolsey conferring together upon the abuse of Religion then crept into the Church were therefo●e accu●ed of Heresie unto the Cardinal and cast into Prison within a deep Cave under the ground of the same Colledge where their salt Fish was laid Through the filthy stinch thereof they were all infected and some took their death but Mr. Frith was wonderfully preserved and was translated from that University after many miseries undergone both beyond Sea and in his own Land to another School namely to a more setled Discipline of affliction the Tower of London where as he remained a Patient in regard of the Persecution which he suffered so did he also the office of a Physician in prescribing to others Preparatives and Remedies in the like case To which end A.D. 1532. he employed his pen in writing those Treatises which now go under the name of Vox Pisces or the Book-Fish Concerning which the Author of the Preface thereunto observes that in some sort they ran the Fortune of the Author being held in captivity in the Sea and kept in Iohah's Prison the belly of a Fish being in danger there to be consumed as the Author was like to have perished in the Dungeon at Oxford by the noysome stinch of Fish The Wine therein offered saith the same Author is the purest juyce of a Grape of the Vine Christ Jesus trode in the Wine-press of Persecution about an hundred years since Which being put in a Paper Vessel and formerly miscarrying by wrack in the transporting is now beyond expectation in a strange Living Vessel brought back again to Land no doubt to the end that it might after long lying hid in store be anew broached and dispersed abroad for the refreshing of many thirsty souls to whom it is like to taste not the worse but the better for the long lying in so salt a Cellar as is the bottome of the Sea wherein by all probability it hath been buried for many years Mr. Frith did not light his Candle at the Lamp of Mr. Calvin which then was not extant nor of great Luther who was then but in the beginning of his growth And yet saith the same Author How judiciously is there shewn the use of the Cross among Christians to consist in the due preparation for it and constant patience under it How foundly are we taught that our Election and Justification are of Gods meer mercy and not for any thing foreseen in us That remission of sins is through Christ onely That no man can merit for others That true Believers do sin yet fall not away utterly from Christ. As the Work commends the Author so the Author much more the Work When he wrote of the Cross he fought valiantly under the Cross he turned his words of patience into the perfect work of patience He had the like happ●ness to that of St. Paul to bring forth children unto Christ in his bands Whilst he was kept close Prisoner in the Tower by his Letters and Treatises he gained many souls to Christ and among others which is most observable he converted one R●s●●l to the Truth who had formerly dipped his Pen in Gall and wrote most bitterly against the Truth of the Gospel and against the Writings of this Prisoner of Christ then ● bands for the Gospel Like a Swan he sang most sweetly before his death and foretold both particularly his own Martyrdome and the propagation of the Gospel through all England within twenty years after his death which accordingly came to pass in the Reign of King Edward He was as it were a Pr●mrose in the new Spring of the Gospel And though he wrote in the twilight between the night of Popery and the day of Reformation yet God so enlightned him that his Tre●●ise of the Sacraments was the Candle at which that great Torch Archbishop Cranmer was lighted as Mr. Fox reporteth That

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

said of them for their preaching sake but he exhorteth them to take patiently such persecution by his own example saying It becomes not the Servant to ●e above the Master c. Read also the fourteeth Chapter and there your Grace shall see that he promised to the true Preachers no worldly promotion or dignity but persecution and that they should be betrayed even by their own Brethren and Children In Iohn also he saith In the world you shall have oppression and the w●rld shall hate you but in me you shall have peace And elsewhere Lo I send you as Sheep among Wolves The true Preachers go like Sheep harmless and be persecuted and yet they revenge not their wrong but remit all to God So far is it off that they will persecute any other but with the Word of God onely which is their weapon This is the most evident token that Christ would that his Gospel and the Preachers of it should be known by that it should be despised among worldly wise men and be reputed foolishness by them and deceivable Doctrine and the true Preachers should be persecu●ed and driven from Town to Town and at last lose both Goods and Life and yet they that persecuted them should think they did well and a great pleasure to God Where the Word of God is truly preached there is persecution as well of the Hearers as of the Teachers He that will live godly in Christ Iesus must suffer persecution It is not onely given you to believe in the Lord but to suffer perse●ution for his sake Where is quietness and rest in worldly pleasure there is not the Truth for the world loveth all that are of the world and hateth all things that are contrary to it St. Paul calleth the Gospel The Word of the Cross. May it please your Grace to return to the golden Rule of your Saviour By their fruits you shall know them Where you see persecution there is the Gospel and there is the Truth and they that do persecute be without the Truth They whose works be naught dare not come to the Light but go about to hinder it letting as much as they may that the holy Scriptures should not be read in our Mother Tongue saying That it would cause Heresie and Insurrections and so perswade or fain would perswade your Grace to keep it back But here mark their shameless boldness which be not ashamed to gather Grapes of Thorns c. and to call Light Darkness c. and to say That that which teacheth all Obedience should cause Dissention and Strife Therefore good King seeing the right David our Saviour Christ hath sent his Servants his true Preachers and his Word to comfort our weak and sick souls let not worldly wise men make your Grace believe that they will cause Insurrections and Heresies and such Mischiefs as they imagine of their own mad brains lest that he be avenged upon you and upon your Realm as was David upon the Ammonites and as he hath ever been avenged upon them which have obstinately withstood and gainsaid his Word But peradventure they will say experience shews How that such men as call themselves Followers of the Gospel regard not your Graces Command neither set by your Proclamation as appears by those that were punished in London for keeping such Books as your Grace had prohibited by Proclamation and so like as they regarded not this so they will not regard other your Laws Statutes and Ordinances But this is but a crafty perswasion The very cause of your last Proclamation and the chief Councellors as men say and of likelyhood it should be were they whose evil living and cloked hypocrisie those Books uttered and disclosed And so it might be that these men did not take this Proclamation as yours but as theirs set forth in your Name as they have done many times more c. There is no man I hear say that can lay any word or deed to their charge that should sound to the breaking of your Graces Laws this onely excepted If it be yours and not theirs There be some that for fear of losing of their wordly honour will not leave off their opinion which rashly and that to please men withall by whom they had great promotion they took upon to desend by writing c. Let these men remember St. Paul and David Take heed of their worldly wisdome which is foolishness before God that you may do what God commandeth and not what seems good in your own sight without the Word that your Grace may be found acceptable in his sight and one of the Members of his Church and according to the Office he hath called your Grace unto you may be found a faithful Minister of his Gifts and not a Defender of his Faith for he will not have it defended by man or by mans power but by his Word onely by the which he hath evermore defended it and that by a way far above mans power or reason c. Wherefore Gracious King remember your self have pity upon your soul and think that the day is even at hand when you shall give an account of your Office and of the Blood that hath been shed with your Sword In the which day that your Grace may stand stedfastly and not be ashamed but be clear and ready in your reckoning and to have as they say your quietus est sealed with the blood of our Saviour Christ which only serveth at that day is my daily Prayer Decemb. 1. A. 1530. Observe in this Letter saith Mr. Fox the duty of a right Pastour to Truth that Kings are many times abused by Flatterers and wicked Councellors the subtile practises of Prelates in abusing the Name and Authority of Kings to set forth their own malignant proceedings and the great boldness and divine stoutness of this Servant of Christ who as yet being no Bishop so plainly and freely without fear of death adventuring his Life to discharge his Conscience durst so boldly to so mighty a Prince in such a dangerous case against the Kings Law and Proclamation set out in such a terrible time take upon him to write and to admonish that which no Councellor durst once speak to him in defence of Christs Gospel and yet though his wholsome counsel did not prevail God so wrought with his Servant in doing his duty that no danger no nor displeasure rose to him thereby It was not long after that the King made him Bishop of Worcester Touching the memorable acts and doings of this worthy man I cannot neglect the taking notice of one for therein he spoke notably though he said not a word viz. his bold enterprize in sending to King Henry a Present It was a custome that every year upon Ian. 1. every Bishop should send the King a New-years-gift Mr. Latimer being then Bishop of Worcester presented a New Testament for his New-years-gift with a Napkin having this Posy about it

my sweet Saviour Christ doth stir up the minds not onely of my familiar friends in times past but of sundry heretofore to me unknown to help me sending me not onely necessaries for this life but comfortable Letters encouraging me and exhorting me to continue grounded and stablished in the Faith c. I call daily upon God in whom is all my trust and without whom I can do nothing that he would perfect what he hath begun being assured he will so do forasmuch as he hath given me not onely to believe ●ut to suffer for his sake The Lord strengthen me with his Holy Spirit that I may be one of the number of those Blessed which enduring to the end shall be saved My trust in the Lord is that this my business shall happen to the furtherance of the Gospel God will to your consolation gloriously deliver by one means or other his Oppressed Onely tarry ye the Lords leisure and wait still for the Lord. He tarrieth not that will come look for him therefore and faint not and he will never fail you Marshall I was from eternity said Christopher Marshall of Antwerp a sheep destined to the slaughter and now I go the Shambles Gold must be tried in the fire Massey I must needs here mention an Infant without a Christian Name and not capable of speaking because its death still speaks aloud This Infant was the child of Perotine Massey the Wife of a Minister of Gods Word for fear fled out of the Island of Guernsey She with her Mother and Sister were burnt for absence from Church The Babe properly was never born but by the force of the flame burst out of his Mothers Belly alive and yet by the command of the Bailiffe supreme Officer in the then absence of the Governour cast again into the fire and therein consumed to ashes It seems this bloody Bailiffe was minded like the cruel Tyrant commanding Canis pessimi ne catulum esse relinquendum though this indeed was no dog but a Lamb and that of the first minute and therefore too young by the Levitical Law to be sacrificed Here was a spectacle without precedent a cruelty built three generations high that Grandmother Mother and Grandchild should all suffer in the same flame Maximinus We are ready said Maximinus and Iubentius to lay off the last garment the flesh Melancthon I tremble to think said Philip Melancthon with what blind devotion I went to Images whilst I was a Papist When Luther began to oppose the Pope he was sent for by Prince Frederick Duke of Saxony to Wittenberg to teach the Greek Tongue and yet then he was but two and twenty years old An. 1518. When he was first converted he thought it impossible for his Hearers to withstand the evidence of the Truth in the Ministry of the Gospel but after he had been a Preacher a while he complained That old Adam was too hard for young Melancthon In the year 1519. he went with Luther to Lipswich where he disputed with Eccius In this Disputation Eccius brought a very subtile Argument which he being not able suddenly to answer said I will answer you to morrow Eccius replying That is little for your credit if you cannot answer it presently Sir said he I seek dot mine own glory in this business but the Truth To morrow God willing you shall hear further In the year 1521. when the Divines of Paris had condemned Luther's Doctrine and Books he wrote an Apology for him against their furious Decree In his Epistle to the Reader See Christian Reader what Monsters in Divinity Europe hath bred The last year the Sophisters of Colen and Lorain condemned the Gospel by some naked Propositions confirmed neither by Scripture nor reason M●dder then they are they whoever they be who have at Paris condemned Luther There is no cause to wonder that they are no more favourable to Luther Alas they were not more favourable to their own great Gerson when the Schools at Paris were more wholesome It concerns us to consider what is decreed not who have decreed it The Apostle will not have us give place no not to Angels corrupting the Gospel Farewell to the Name of our Masters farewell to the Name of Parisians unless in their own Schools In the Christian Commonwealth nothing prevails but the Voice of Christ which whosoever hears not is not Christs They say that Luther ought rather to be overcome by fire then by reason They accuse Luther of Heresie not because he dissents from Universities Fathers Councils not because he dissents from the Scripture and the Opinions of Universities Fathers Councils they call the first Principles of Faith But it will be said Luther doth dissent from the Scripture because he dissents from the Expositions of Scripture which from Fathers Councils and Schools have hitherto been received This is as I perceive the Hinge of the Controversie Here I ask this Question of our Masters Whether the Scriptures be so delivered that their meaning cannot certainly be collected without the Exposition of Councils Fathers and Schools If you deny that the meaning of the Scripture cannot certainly be concluded without their glosses I cannot see why the Scriptures were delivered or why the Apostles invite us to the study of the Scriptures If you grant it certainly the Scripture ought to be preferred not onely before the Schools and Fathers but before Councils determining otherwise May not then Luther oppose unto Councils Fathers Schools the certain sense and meaning of Scripture But we will not yield so much that Luther opposeth the Fathers and Councils When the Wars for Religion brake out in Germany he foresaw in a Dream the Captivity of the E●ect●r of Saxony and the Lantgrave of Hess fifteen dayes before they were taken When the Plague broke out in Wittinberg and the University was removed he said He feared not that Plague but a far worse Plague which threatned the ruine of the Commonwealth In the year 1534. in his Letter to Camerarius he gives this reason why he refused King Henry's offers if he would come into England Perhaps saith he many things are reported amongst you concerning England that it lyeth open now for the Religion of the purer Doctrine but I have intelligence from a good hand that the King hath no great care of the Affairs of the Church onely this Good comes of his rejecting the Popes Authority that for the present no cruelty is used towards those that are desirous of better Doctrine When he went to Hagenaw to meet the Protestant Divines there foreseeing that he should fall into a mortal disease he made his Will and left it with Cruciger saying Viximus in Synodis jam moriemur in illis In English thus Imploy'd in Synods living oft was I Now in a Synod I am like to die He was often threatned with Banishment out of Germany of which he writes thus I have through Gods mercy been here

unto us and there is no perfect joy but in God In a fourth Letter to the same Lady Satan hath brought me out of the Kings Bench into the Bishop of London's Cole-house a dark and an ugly Prison as any is about London but my dark body of sin hath wel● deserved the same and the Lord hath now brought me into outward darkness that I might the more be enlightned by him who is most present with his Children in the midst of darkness where I cannot be suffered to have any candle-light neither ink nor Paper but by stealth Pray Dear Lady that my Faith faint not which at present I thank God is more lively with me then it hath been in times past I tast and feel the faithfulness of God in his promise who hath promised to be with his in their trouble and to deliver them I thank the Lord I am not alone but have six other faithfull Companions who in our darkness do cheerfully sing Hymns and Praises unto God for his great goodness We are so joyfull that I wish you part of my joy Let not my strait imprisonment any thing molest you for it hath added and daily doth unto my joy but rather be glad and thankfull unto God with me Cheerfull and holy Spirits under the Cross be acceptable Sacrifices in the sight of God In another Letter to the same Lady This is the day that the Lord hath made let us be glad and rejoyce in the same this is the way though it be narrow which is full of the peace of God and leadeth to eternal bliss O how my heart leapeth for joy that I am so near the apprehension thereof God forgive me mine unthankfulness and unworthiness of so great glory I have so much joy of the reward that is prepared for me most wretched sinner that though I be in place of darkness and mourning yet I cannot lament but both night and day am so joyfull as though I were under no cross at all yea in all the dayes of my life I was never so merry the Name of the Lord be praised therefore for ever and ever and he pardon mine unthankfulness Pray instantly that this joy be never taken from us for it passeth all the delights of this world it surmounteth all understanding I trust my Marriage-garment is ready In his Letter to a Friend in Prison that writ to him concerning Infant-baptisme The same night I received your Letter as I was musing on it I sell asleep and in the midst of my sweet rest I saw a great beautifull City all of the colour of Azure and White and four-square in a marvellous beautifull composition in the midst of the Sky The sight hereof so inwardly comforted me that I am not able to express the consolation I had yea the remembrance thereof causeth as yet my heart to leap for joy and as Charity is no Churl but would others to be partakers of his delight so methought I called to others and when we together had beheld the same by and by to my great grief it vanished This Dream I take to be of the working of Gods Spirit I interpret the City the Church and the appearance of it in the Sky the heavenly state thereof and that according to the Primitive Church which is now in Heaven men ought to measure and judge of the Church of Christ and on earth the marvellous Quadrature of the same the universal agreement in the same that all here in the Church Militant ought to consent to the Primitive Church throughout the four parts of the world the wonderfull joy I conceived the unspeakable joy which they have that be at Unity with Christs Primitive Church and my calling others to the fruition of this Vision my moving you and others to behold the Primitive Church in all your Opinions concerning Faith and to conform your self in all points to the same which is the Pillar of Truth Let the bitter Passion of Christ which he suffered for your sake and the horrible torments which the godly Martyrs of Christ have endured before us and also the inestimable reward of your life to come which is hidden yet a little while from you with Christ strengthen comfort and encourage you to the end of that glorious race which you are in Amen Pikes William Pikes some while before he was last taken he was in his Garden reading the Bible and about twelve a clock of the day his face being towards the South there fell down four drops of fresh blood upon his Book he not knowing from whence it came Calling his Wife to him he said What meaneth this will the Lord have four Sacrifices I see well enough the Lord will have blood His will be done and give me grace to abide the triall Wife let us pray the day draweth nigh Afterward he daily looked to be apprehended till the time came indeed Being at the point of death in Newgate so that no man looked he should live six hours he declared to them that stood by that he had been twice in persecution before and that now he desired the Lord if it were his will that he might glorifie his Name at the Stake Place Monsieur Pierre de la Place President of the Court of Requests in France when out of that entire love which his Wife bore him fell down at the feet of one of those bloody Instruments of that barbarous M●ssacre 1572. to intreat some favour for her Husband He rebuked her and told her That it is not the arm of flesh we must stoop unto but unto God onely Perceiving in his Sons Hat a White Cross which through infirmity he had placed there thinking thereby to save himself he sharply chid him and commanded him to pluck that mark of sedition thence telling him We must now submit to bear the true Cross of Christ. Pothnius Pothnius Bishop of Lions to the President asking him in the midst of his torments What that Christ was answered If thou wert worthy thou shouldst know Polycarp This famous Bishop of Smyrna St. Iohn's Disciple having been in Prayer three dayes before his apprehension in a Vision by night he saw the Bed set on fire under his head and suddenly to be consumed When he awoke he gave this exposition of the Vision to them that were present That in the fire he should lose his life for Christs Cause When the Pursuers were brought to the Inne where he was he might have escaped but would not saying The will of God be done As he was going to the place of Judgement there came a voice from Heaven heard by several of his Church saying Be of good cheer Polycarpus and play the man When the Proconsul bid him say Destroy these naughty men he looked up to Heaven saying Thou thou it is that wilt destroy these wicked naughty men The Proconsul bidding him defie Christ and he should be discharged he answered Fourscore and six years have I

been his Servant yet in all his time hath he not so much as once hurt me How then may I speak evil of my King and Sovereign Lord which hath thus preserved me The Proconsul still urging him to swear by Caesar's prosperity he replied If thou requirest this pretending that thou knowest not what I am Know then that I am a Christian and if thou desire to know the Doctrine of Christianity appoint a day and thou shalt hear I have thought it my duty thus to say unto you forsomuch as we are commanded to give unto the Governours and Powers ordained of God the hounour meet and due to them and not hurtfull unto us The Proconsul telling him he had wild Beasts to whom he would throw him unless he took a better way Polycarp said Let them come we have determined with our selves that we will not by repentance turn us from the better way to the worse but convenient it is that a man turn from things that be evil unto that which is good and just I will tame thee with fire replied the Proconsu● if thou set not by the wild Beasts nor yet repent Then said Polycarp you threaten me with fire which shall burn for the space of an hour and shall be within a little while after put out and extinguished but thou knowest not the fire of the judgement to come and of everlasting punishment which is reserved for the wicked and ungodly But why make you all these delayes Give me what death soever you list When they would have tyed him to the Stake with iron hoops he said Let me alone as I am For he that hath given me strength to come to the fire shall also give power that without this provision I shall abide and not stir in the midst of the fire When his hands were bound behind him he prayed thus O Father of thy welbeloved and blessed Son Iesus Christ by whom we have attained the knowledge of thee the God of Angels and Powers and of every creature and of all just men which live before thee I give thee thanks that thou hast vouchsafed to grant me this day that I may have my part among the Number of the Martyrs to drink of the Cup of Christ unto the resurrection of eternal Life both of body and soul through the operation of thy holy Spirit among whom I shall this day be received into thy sight for an acceptable sacrifice and as thou hast prepared and revealed the same before this time so thou hast accomplished the same O thou most true God which canst not lye Wherefore for all these things I praise thee I bless thee I glorifie thee by our everlasting Bishop Iesus Christ to whom be glory evermore Amen As soon as the fire was kindled some of his Church then present saw this marvellour thing The fire being like unto a Vault or Roof of an House and after the manner of a Shipmans Sail filled with wind compassed about the Martyr as with a certain Wall and he in the middle of the same not as Flesh that burned but as Gold and Silver when it is tried in the fire They smelt also a savour so sweet as if Myrrhe or some other precious Balm had given a scent When they saw that his body could not be consumed by fire one thrust him through with a Sword which being done so great a quantity of blood ran out of his body that the fire was quenched therewith Polycarp going with St. Iohn to a Bath at Ephesus and espying Cerinthus the Heretick in it said Eugiamus ocius c. Let us depart speedily for fear least the Bath wherein the Lords adversary is do fall upon us He so detested H●reticks then when Marcion of his former acquaintance met him at Rome and wondring that he took no notice of him said unto him Dost thou not know me Polyc●rp Yea said he I know thee well Thou art the eldest Son to the Devil His manner was to stop his ears if at any time he heard the wicked speeches of Heretieks and to ●●un those very places where such speeches had been uttered He suffered Martyrdome in the seventh year of ●●rus Anno Christi 170. and of his age 86. Praetorius Arias Praetorius the day before his death dream'd he saw a Coffin carried and asking whose it was he heard this answer That Christ was to be laid in his Sepulcher and that he should speedily follow him When he awaked he concluded his own death was not far off Whereupon he cried out He that followeth Christ walks well not in darkness Jesus be thou merciful to me a miserable sinner and draw me after thy self Prest Prest's Wife being asked by the Bishop of Exeter Whether she had not an Husband She answered That she had an Husband and Children and had them not So long as she was at liberty she refused neither Husband nor Children but now standing here as I do said she in the Cause of Christ and his Truth where I must forsake Christ or my Husband I am contented to stick onely to Christ my heavenly Spouse and renounce the other Here she making mention of the words of Christ He that leaveth not Father or Mother Sister or Brother or Husband c. The Bishop told her That Christ spake that of the holy Martyrs which died because they would not sacrifice to the false gods so said she I will rather die then I will do any worship to that foul Idol which with your Mass you make a god The Bishop telling her That if she had been an honest woman she would not have left her Husband and Children and run about the Countrey like a Fugitive She told him Sir I laboured for my living and as my Master Christ counselleth me When I was persecuted in one City I fled into another When I would have my Husband and Children to leave Idolatry and to worship God in Heaven he with his Children rebuked men and troubled me I fled not for whoredome nor for theft but because I would not be partaker with him and his of that foul Idol the Mass. During a Moneths liberty which was granted her by the Bishop she went into the Cathedral at Exeter and seeing a Dutchman making new Noses to certain fine Images which were disfigured in King Edwards time What a mad man art thou said she to make them new Noses which within a few dayes shall all lose their heads The Dutchman accused her and laid it hard to her charge and she said unto him Thou art accursed and so are thy Images He called her Whore Nay said she thy Images are Whores and thou art a Whore-hunter for doth not God say You go a whoring after strange gods figures of your own making When judgement was given against her she lifted up her voice and said I thank thee my Lord my God this day have I found that I long sought This favour they pretended after her Judgement That