Selected quad for the lemma: love_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	love_v	neighbour_n	self_n	2,652	5	9.4322	5	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

be all honour and glory for ever and ever So be it A short Prayer which Mr. Gilby made for t●● faithful in those dayes O Lord God and most merciful Father we beseech thee for the honour of th● Holy Name to defend us from that Antichrist 〈◊〉 Rome and from all his detestable enormities manners laws garments and ceremonies Destroy tho● the counsel of all the Papists and Atheists enemi●● of thy Gospel and of this Realm of England D●●●close their mischiefs and subtile practises C●● found their devices Let them be taken in the● own wiliness And strengthen all those that mai●tain the Cause and Quarrel of thy Gospel with i●vincible force and power of the Holy Spirit so th● they fail not to proceed and go forward to that tr●● Godliness commanded in thy Holy Word with 〈◊〉 simplicity and sincerity to thy Honour and Glor● the comfort of thine Elect and the confusion 〈◊〉 thine enemies through Jesus Christ our Lord an● Saviour Amen Amen And say from the hear●● Amen Glee When the Friers told Madam La Glee that 〈◊〉 was in a damnable estate It seems so indeed sai●●sne being now in your hands but I have a 〈◊〉 that will never leave me nor forsake me for 〈◊〉 that Thou hast said they renounced the Faith It is true said she I have renounced your faith which I am able to shew is rejected and accurse● of God and therefore deserves not so much as 〈◊〉 be called Faith When news was brought her that she was co●●demned to be hang'd she fell down upon he● knees and blessed God for that it pleased him 〈◊〉 snew her so much mercy as to deliver her by such kind of death out of the troubles of this wretche● world and to honour her so far as to call her 〈◊〉 die for his Truth and to wear his Livery meaning the Haltar which the Hangman had put about her neck Then sitting down at Table to break her fast with the three other condemned Servants of Christ giving thanks to God she exhorted them to be of good courage and to trust unto the end in his free and onely mercy She then called for a clean linen Wastcoat making her self ready as if she had been going to a Wedding Mr. W●rd tells us that she put on her Bracelets for I go said she unto my Husband Being commanded as she was led to execution to take a Torch into her hand and to acknowledge she had offended God and the King Away away said she with it I have neither offended God nor the King according to your meaning nor in respect of the cause for which I suffer I am I confess a sinful woman but I need no such light for helping me to ask forgiveness of God for my sins past or present Life such things your selves who sit and walk in the darkness of ignorance and errour Then one of her Kinsfolks met her in the way and presented to her view her little children praying her to have compassion on them I must needs tell you said she that I love my children dearly but yet neither for the love I bear to them or any thing else in this world will I renounce the Truth or my God who is and will be a Father unto them to provide better for them then I should have done and therefore to his providence and protection I commend and leave them When she saw the three men about to die silent and not to call on God she ex●orted then thereto and gave them an example Glover Mr. Robert Glover in his Letter to his Wife ha● many memorable passages the chief I shall collec● I thank you heartily most loving Wife 〈◊〉 your Letters sent to me in my imprisonment read them with tears more then once or twic● with tears I say for joy and gladness that Go● hath wrought in you so merciful a work 1 〈◊〉 unfeigned repentance 2 An humble and heart reconciliaton 3 A willing submission and ob●●dience to the will of God in all things The●● your Letters and the hearing of your godly pr●●ceedings have much relieved and comforte● me c. and shall be a goodly Testimony for you at the great Day against many worldly and dain●● Dames which set more by their own pleasure an● praise in this world then by Gods Glory little re●garding as it appeareth the everlasting health 〈◊〉 their own souls or others So long as God shal● lend you continuance in this miserable world above all things give your self continually to Prayer lifting up pure hands without anger wrath o● doubting forgiving as Christ forgives And that w●● may be the better willing to forgive it is good ofte● to call to remembrance the multitude and greatness of our sins which Christ daily and hour●● pardoneth and forgiveth us And because God● Word teacheth us not onely the true manner ●● praying but also what we ought to do or not to 〈◊〉 in the whole course of our life what pleaseth 〈◊〉 displeaseth God and that as Christ saith The Wo●● of God that he hath spoken shall judge us Let you● Prayer be to this end especially that God of hi● great mercy would open and reveal more and mor● daily to your heart the true sense knowledge an● understanding of his most holy Word and gi●● you grace in your living to express the fruit thereof And forasmuch as Gods Word is as the Holy Ghost calleth it The Word of affliction i. e. it is seldome without hatred persecution peril danger of loss of goods and life c. Call upon God continually for his assistance casting your accounts what is like to cost you endeavouring your self through the help of the Holy Ghost by continuance of prayer to lay your foundation so sure that no storm or tempest shall be able to overthrow it remembering alwayes as Christ saith Lots wife i. e. to beware of looking back to that thing that displeaseth God and nothing more displeaseth God then Idolatry that is false worshiping of God otherwise then his Word commandeth They object they be the Church c. My answer was The Church of God knoweth and acknowledgeth no other head but Jesus Christ the Son of God whom ye have refused and chosen the man of sin the Son o● perdition enemy to Christ the Devils Deputy and Lieutenant the Pope Christs Church heareth teacheth and is ruled by his Word as he saith My Sheep hear my voice If you abide in me and my Word a●ide in you you be my Disciples Their Church repelleth Gods Word and forceth all men to follow their traditions Christs Church dares not adde nor diminish alter or change his blessed Testament but they be not afraid to take away all that Christ instituted and go a whoring as the Scripture saith with their own inventions c. The Church of Christ is hath been and shall be in all ages under the Cross persecuted molested and afflicted the world ever hating them

for preaching to the people the pure truth of God taking Heaven and Earth to witness the same with him Gratwick Mr. Stephen Gratwick seeing the Bishops that sate upon to laugh said unto them Why do ye laugh Are ye confederate together for my blood and therein triumph You have more cause to look weightily upon the matter for I stand here before you upon life and death But you declare your selves what you are You are lapped in Lambs apparel but you are bent to have my blood Seeing you will have my blood let me say a little more for my self On Sunday last you preached this Truth If any man think himself Religious and bridleth not his tongue the same mans Religion is vain And yet in the mean time you seduced your tongue to slander us poor Prisoners there present in Iron hands burdening us with the names of Arrians Herodians Anabaptists Sacramentarians Pelagians And when we stood up to purge our selves thereof you said You would cut out our tongues and cause us to be pulled out of the Church by violence But there you gave your self a shrewd blow c. Being asked by the Bishop of Winchester if he would recant he said My faith is grounded more stedfastly then to change in a moment It is no process of time can alter me unless my faith were as the waves of the Sea When he was condemned he desired God with a loud voice That he would not lay his blood to their charge if it were his good will Green Mr. Bartlet Green wrote in Mr. Bar●r●m Calthrops Book a little before his death thus Two things have very much troubled me whilst I was in the Temple Pride and Gluttony which under the colour of Glory and good Fellowship drew me almost from God Forsomuch as vain-glory is so subtile an adversary that almost it woundeth deadly ere ever a man can perceive himself to be smitten therefore we ought so much the rather by continual prayer to labour for humbleness of mind Gluttony beg●nneth under a charitable pretence of love and society and hath in it most uncharitableness Let us therefore watch and be sober for our adversary the Devil walketh about like a roaring Lion seek●ng whom he may devour Vale mi Bartrame mei memineris ut semper simillimi efficiamur Vale c. Farewell my Bartram and remember me that we may be alwayes like Farewell at Newgate I●n 20. A. 1556. In his Letter to Mr. Philpot. Being accused that I spake against the Real Presence and the Sacrifice of the Mass and that I affirmed that their Church was the Church of Antichrist I confessed it and that I would continue therein though not maintain it by learning my conscience being satisfied in the truth which is sufficient to my salvation I told Mr. Welch Forasmuch as it pleaseth you to use me so familiarly for he behaved himself towards me as though I had been his equal I shall open my mind freely to you I consider my youth lack of wit and learning which would God it were but a little under the opinion that some men have of me But God is not bound to time wit or knowledge but rather chooseth the weak things of the world to confound the mighty neither can men appoint bounds to Gods mercy For I will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy There is no respect of persons with God whether he be old or young rich or poor wise or foolish Fisher or Basket-maker God giveth knowledge of his truth through his free grace to whom he list Now I am brought hither before a great many Bishops and learned men to be made a fool and a laughing-stock but I weigh it not a rush for God knoweth that my whole study is to please him Besides that I care not for mans pleasure or displeasure As he was going to Newgate after he was condemned there met with him two Gentlemen that seeing him burst out into tears to whom Mr. Green said Ah my friends is this your comfort you are come to give me Must I who needed to have comfort ministred to me become now a comforter of you When he was going to and was at the Stake he repeated this Distich Christe Deus sine te spes est mihi nulla salutis Te duce vera sequir te duce falsa nego In English thus O Christ my God sure hope of health Besides thee I have none The truth I love and falshood hate By thee my guide alone These Verses he wrote in a Book of Mr. Hussey's of the Temple Behold thy self by me Such one was I as thou And thou in time shall ●e Even dust as I am now Bartlet Green In his Letter to his Friends of the Temple Very Friends are they which are knit together by the knot of Charity Charity doth not decay but increase in them that die faithfully If thy Friend be out of sight is thy friendship ended If he be carried into Heaven is Charity hindred thereby The Fathers of the Primitive Church gave thanks for their Friends that died in the Faith to prove that Charity died not with Death What saith Saint Paul We are members of his body of his flesh and of his blood we are members one of another Is the hand or Arm Foot or Leg a member when it is dissevered from the body What is it that couples us but love When all things shall fail love faileth never Hope hath his end when we get that we hoped for Faith is finished in Heaven Love endureth for ever Spiritual love I mean for carnal love when that which we love is lost doth perish with the flesh Neither was that ever but fleshly love which by distance of place or severing of bodies is parted as●nder If we keep Christs commandment in loving each other as he loved us then should our love be everlasting This friendship Paul felt when it moved him to say That neither length nor ●readth n●ither height nor depth should sever him from the love of Christ. Now you may say Why writeth thou this Truly to the end that if our friendship be stable you may accomplish this the last request of your Friend c. Mr. Fleetwood I beseech you remember Witt●ance and Cook two singular men among common Prisoners Mr. Fernham Mr. Fell and Mr. Hussey as I hope will dispatch Palmer and Richardson with his companions I pray you Mr. Palmer think on I. Grove an honest poor man Tra●ford and Rice Apprice his Accomplices My Cousin Thomas Witton a Scrivener in Lombard-str●et hath promised to further their delivery at the least he can instruct you which way to work I doubt not but that Mr. Bowyer will labour for Goodwife Cooper for she is worthy to be holpen and B●rard the Frenchman There be also divers others well-disposed men whose deliverance if you will not labour for yet I humbly beseech you to seek their relief For these and all other

entirely desiring your everlasting felicity to warn you and most heartily desire you to watch and pray On the high mountains doth not grow most plenty of grass neither are the highest trees farthest from danger but seldome sure and alwayes shaken of every wind that bloweth Such a deceitful thing saith our Saviour is honour and riches that without grace it choketh up the good seed sown c. It maketh a man think himself somewhat that is nothing at all for though for our honour we esteem our selves and stand in our own light yet when we shall stand before the living God there shall be no respect of persons for riches helpeth not in the day of vengeance nor can we make the Lord partial for money Though the world rage and blaspheme the Elect of God ye know that it did so unto Christ his Apostles and to all that were in the Primitive Church and shall be unto the worlds end I beseech you in the bowels of Christ my Lord Jesus stick fast unto the Truth let it never depart out of your hearts and conversations c. Yours in him that liveth for ever In his Letter to his Wife after his Condemnation I exhort you to love God with all your heart and soul and mind c. To lay sure hold on all his promises that in all your troubles you may run strait to the great mercy of God c. And be sure that neither Devil Flesh nor Hell shall be able to hurt you But if you will not keep his holy Precepts and call for Gods help to walk in the same but will leave them and do as the wicked world does then be sure to have your part with the wicked world in the burning lake Beware of Idolatry which most of all stinks in Gods Nostrils and hath been of all good men detested from the beginning of the world for the which what Kingdomes c. God hath punished with most terrible plagues c. to the utter subversion of them is manifestly to be seen through the whole Bible yea for this he draadfully plagued his own people c. But how he hath preserved those that abhorred superstition and idolatry c. is also to be seen from the beginning out of what great danger he hath delivered them yea when all hope of deliverance was past as touching their expectation c. I exhort you also in the bowels of Christ that you will exercise and be stedfast in Prayer the onely mean to obtain of God whatsoever we desire so it be askt in Faith O what notable things do we read in Scripture that have been obtained through fervent Prayer Whatsoever you desire of God in Prayer ask it for Jesus Christ's sake for whom and in whom God hath promised to give us all things necessary Though what we ask come not by and by continue still knocking and he will at length open his treasures of mercy c. Yet once again I warn you that ye continue fervent in Prayer c. In his Letter to Mr. Throgmorton Whereas the love of God hath moved you to require my Son to be brought up before your eyes and the self same love hath also moved me to leave him in your hands as a Father in my absence I shall require you in Gods behalf according to your promise that ye will see him brought up in the fear of the Lord and instructed in the knowledge of his holy Word that he may learn to leave the evil and know the good c. And this I require you to fulfill or cause to be fulfilled as ye before the Living God will make answer for the same Yours and all mens in Christ Iesus Hector Bartholomew Hector being condemned was threatned that if he spake any thing to the People his Tongue should be cut off yet he did not forbear He pray'd for the Judges That God would forgive them and open their eyes He refused a Pardon offered him at the Stake At his Death many wept saying Why doth this man die who speaketh of nothing but of God When he was called before Authority to be examined he would answer them to nothing before he had made his Prayer to God Whereupon falling down upan his knees he said Lord open my mouth and direct my Speech to utter that onely that may tend to thy honour and glory and the edification of thy Church When he was bound to the Stake Gunpowder and Brimstone was brought to be placed about him he lifting up his eyes to Heaven said Lord how sweet and welcome is this to me Hernaudes Mr. Iulian Hernaudes a Spanish Martyr came from the Wrack and the Tortures of the Inquisition inflicted on him for bringing with him and causing to be brought into Spain many Books of the Holy Scriptures in Spanish as from a Conquest saying to his Fellow-prisoners as he past by them These Hypocrites are gone away confounded no less then wolves that have been long hunted When he was brought forth to his Execution he said to the rest Courage my valiant and constant Brethren now is the hour come in which as the true Champions of Iesus Christ we must witness his Truth before men and for a short tryal for his sake we shall triumph with him for ever and ever Herwyn When Iohn Herwyn of Flanders was led to Prison the Bailiffe meeting certain Drunkards in the Street and saying They say we have many Gospellers in Houscot but it little appears by these disorders he replied Mr. Bailiffe is drunkenness a sin What of that said the Bailiffe Why then said Herwyn commit you not these fellows to Prison seeing it is your office to punish vice and to protect such as fear God After he was in Prison because he was not called forth before the Magistrates assoon as he desired and expected he grew heavy and sad asking Why they so delayed the matter for his heart was fired with an holy zeal to confess Christ before his Judges When he was brought forth he admonished his Judges to examine the Doctrine of the Roman Church by the true Touch-stone which is the holy Scripture that so they might discern how opposite and contrary the one is to the other Consider also said he what the words of St. Peter import where the affirms That we ought to obey God rather then man c. When he craved for Justice either one way or another they urged him to desist from his Opinion but he answered That his faith was not built on an Opinion but said he the Lord hath taught me to eschew evil and do good Seest thou not said they how these opinions have troubled the world and how many of the learneder sort do contradict them So far is it off said he that the Doctrine of the Gospel should be the cause of troubles debates and strifes which raign in the world These troubles indeed arise from the rage of men And as for your learned

was laid up for them In the Epistle it self I savour many things in God but I keep my self within bounds lest I perish by vain glory Now I am mostly to fear neither am I to mind those that would puffe me up They that praise me scourage me I do indeed love to suffer but that I am worthy I know not I beseech you not I but the love of Christ Jesus to make use onely of Christian Food and to abstain from Heresie a strange Herb. Temporaries embrace Christ but they are not of the Fathers planting If they were there would appear the Branches of the Cross and their fruit would be incorruptible In his Epistle to the Romans I Christ Jesus his bond-man hope I may salute you if it be his will that I may be judged worthy to reach the goal I have begun well if or O that I may have grace to take my lot without let I fear least your love hurt me I would not that you should please men but God even as you do Do you labour that I may be sacrificed unto God seeing the Altar is prepared that you in love making a Quire may sing to the Father in Christ Jesus that a Bishop of Syria hath been honoured thus to set in the West being called from the East It is good to fall from the World to God that I may rise in him Beg onely this for me that I may be supplyed with inward and outward strength that I may not onely say but will and not onely be called but be found a Christian. If I be found so I shall be called so even then when I shall not appear to be a Believer to the World Nothing visible is perpetual The things that are seen are temporary those which are not seen are eternal Christianity is a work not a work of perswasion but of greatness when it is hated by the World I write to the Churches and require of all that I may voluntarily die for God if that you forbid it not I beseech you bestow not upon me unseasonable love Suffer me to be the food for the wild Beasts by whom I shall enjoy God I am Gods Corn when the wild Beasts have ground me to powder with their teeth I shall be his White-bread Yea rather cunningly entice the wild Beasts to be my Sepulcher and to leave nothing of my body behind them lest when I am dead I be found troublesome to any Then shall I be a true Disciple of Christ indeed when the World shall not see even my body Pray unto God for me that by these instruments I may become a sacrifice unto God From Syria even till I came to Rome I fought with Beasts as well by Sea as by Land night and day being bound among the cruel Leopards I mean my Military Guard who the more benefits they received at my hands became so much the worse unto me but I being exercised and now well acquainted with their injuries am taught every day more and more to bear the Cross yet hereby am I not justified Would to God I might once enjoy the Beasts prepared for me which I wish also to fall upon me with all their violence whom also I will cunningly entice without delay to devour me and not to abstain from me as they have from others whom for fear they have left untouched and if they be unwilling to it I will even compell them to fall upon me Pardon me I know what is for my advantage Mr. Clark renders it I know well how much this will avail me Now do I begin to be a Disciple seeing I neither regard things visible nor invisible so I may gain Christ. Let Fire the Cross Skirmishings with wild Beasts Cuttings Butcherings or Rentings in pieces Breakin gs of my Bones asunder Manglings of my Members Bruisings of my whole Body and the Torments of the Devil all the Torments that man and the Devil can invent fall upon me so that I may enjoy Jesus The Ends and Kingdomes of this World will not help me It is better for me to die for Christ Jesus then to reign over the Ends of the Earth What will it profit a man to gain the whole World and lose his own soul I seek him who died for us and rose again Pardon me my Brethren be not an hindrance to me that I may not live be not unwilling that I should die Seeing I desire to be Gods do not gratifie the World Suffer me to enjoy pure light when I shall be there I shall be a man of God Permit me to emulate the sufferings of Christ my God Whosoever enjoyes him understands what I desire and will bear with me when he knows what constrains me The Prince of this World would hold me and corrupt my soul and will for God Let none of you help him but rather help me that is God Do not name Christ Jesus and love or covet the World Let not envy dwell in you Living but in love with dying I write unto you My love is crucified and there is not in me a fire of love towards any thing of an earthly matter but living water and he that speaks within me saith unto me Come unto the Father I rejoyce not in corruptible nourishment nor in the pleasures of this life I would have the bread of God heavenly bread the bread of Life which is the flesh of Christ the Son of God who in these last times is made of the seed of David and Abraham and for drink I would have his blood who is love incorruptible and life eternal Be mindful in your prayers of the Church in Syria which instead of me hath the Lord for their Pastor Jesus Christ alone will take care for it and your love to him But I am ashamed to be called one of that number Neither am I worthy seeing I am the last of them and an abortive but through the mercy of God I have obtained that I may be some one if I can enjoy God In his Letter to the Philadelphians Ye children of the Light flie the dividing of Truth and wicked Doctrines Follow as sheep your Pastor In your concord there is no place for the Wolves to get in If any one preach Judaism unto you do not hear him It is better to hear Christianity from one that is circumcised then Iudaism from one that is uncircumcised If both do not preach Christ Jesus they are to me Funeral Pillars and Monuments of the dead upon whom Names onely are inscribed Where division and anger is God dwells not In his Letter to the Smyrnaeans Jesus Christ is truly dead and truly risen He hath not suffered onely according to appearance as some Infidels teach If these things be done by Christ onely in opinion I am bound onely in opinion But why should I deliver up my self unto Death to the Fire to the Sword to Beasts but that he that is near the Sword is near unto

they labourel with Gods Word c. Wherefore until such time as our consciences are otherwise taught and instructed by Gods Word we cannot with safeguard of our consciences take it as many suppose at this time And we trust in God that the Queens Highness and her most Honourable Council will not in a matter of Faith use compulsion or violence because Faith is the gift of God and cometh not of man or of mans Laws nor at such time as men require it but at such time as God giveth it Being asked whether he would stand to what he had said I must need stand to it said he till I be perswaded by a further truth It being replied Nay you will not be perswaded but stand to your own Opinion Nay said he I stand not to mine own Opinion God I take to witness but onely to the Scriptures of G●d and I take God to witness that I do nothing of presumption but that that I do is onely my Conscience and if there be a further truth then I see except it appear a truth to me I cannot receive it as a truth And seeing Faith is the gift of God and cometh not of man for it is not you that can give me Faith nor no man else therefore I trust ye will bear the more with me seeing it must be wrought by God and when it shall please God to open a further truth to me I shall receive it with all my heart In his Confession of his Faith The Lord is the Protector of my life The just shall live by Faith and if he withdraw himself my soul shall have no pleasure in him Thus have I declared my Faith briefly which were no Faith if I were in doubt of it This Faith I desire God to increase in me Praise God for his gifts Nicaise Nicaise a Say-maker in Tournay for refusing to live according to the Customes of the Romish Church and to observe the traditions invented by her c. being condemned and having heard the sentence as he rose up he said Now praised be God As he was led to execution seeing a great multitude of people he lifted up his voice and said O ye men of Tournay open your eyes awake ye that sleep and stand up from the dead and Christ shall give ye light As he joyfully ascended up the Scaffold he said Lord they have hated me without a cause As he was fastning to the Stake he said Eternal Father have pity and compassion upon me according as thou hast promised to all that ask the same of thee in thy sons Name Noyes When Iohn Noyes was asked by his Brother in Law if he did fear death when the Bishop gave judgement against him he answered He thanked God he feared death no more at that time then himself or any other did being at liberty Being bound to the Stake he said Fear not them that can kill the body but fear him that can kill both body and soul and cast it into everlasting fire When he saw his Sister weeping and making moan for him he bade her Weep not for him but weep for her sins When a Fagot was set against him he took it and kissed it and said Blessed be the time that ever I was born to come to this He said also Good people bear witness that I do believe to be saved by the merits and passion of Jesus Christ and not by my own deeds When the fire was kindled and burned about him he said Lord have mercy upon me Christ have mercy upon me Son of David have mercy upon me In his Letter to his Wife out of Prison You desired me to send you some tokens to remember me I therefore send you these Scriptures even for a remembrance St. Peter saith Dearly beloved be not troubled with this heat that is now come among you to try you as though some strange thing had hapned unto you but rejoyce in as much as ye are partakers of Christs sufferings that when his glory appeareth ye may be merry and glad If ye be railed on for the Name of Christ happy are ye for the Spirit of glory and the Spirit of God restest on you See that none of you suffer as a Murtherer c. but if any suffer as a Christian let him not be ashamed but glorifie God in this behalf for the time is come that judgement must begin at the House of God If it first begin at us what shall the end of them be that believe not the Gospel of God Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to him in well doing St. Paul saith All that will live godly in Christ Iesus must suffer persecution St. Iohn saith See that ye love not the world nor the things of the world If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him for all that is in the world as the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world which vanisheth away and the lust thereof but he that fulfilleth the will of God abideth for ever St. Paul saith What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness what company hath light with darkness or what part hath the Believer with the Infidel c. Wherefore come out from among them and separate your selves now saith the Lord and touch no unclean thing so will I receive you and I will be a Father unto you and ye shall be my Sons and Daughters saith the Lord Almighty So farewell Wife and Children and leave worldly care and see that ye be diligent to pray Take no thought saith Christ saying what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink or wherewith shall we be clothed after all these things do the Geneiles seek for your heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of all these things but seek ye first the Kingdome of God and the righteousness there●f and all these things shall be ministred to you O. O●colampadius He fell sick in the year 1531. and of his age 49. about the same time that Zuinglius was unhappily slain His grief for his death much increased his sickness He foretold his own death was very desirous to enjoy the heavenly Light Sending for the Ministers of the Gospel to him he spake to them thus O my Brethren you see what is done The Lord is come he is he is now calling me away What shall I say unto you the Servants of the Lord whom the love of God your Master the same study and doctrine have most intimately united now that I am to take my leave of you Salvation hopes of Heaven Truth Light for our feet is procured by Christ for us It becomes us to cast away all sadness all fear of life and death c. My Brethren this onely remains That we who have for some time walked in the wayes of Christ continue constant

the Truth the bitter pangs of death c. To die in Christs Cause is an high honour to the which no man should aspire but to whom God vouchsafeth that priviledge for no man is allowed to presume to take to himself any office of honour but he which is thereunto called of God Iohn saith well speaking of them which have obtained the Victory by the blood of the Lamb and by the Word of his Testimony that they loved not their lives even unto death And our Saviour Christ saith He that shall lose his life for my Cause shall find it This manner of speech pertaineth not to one kind of Christians as the worldly do wickedly dream but to all that truly pertain to Christ for when Christ had called unto him the multitude together with his Disciples he said unto them Mark he said not this unto his Disciples or Apostles only but unto all Whosoever will follow me let him forsake or deny himself c. for whosoever will to save his life forsake me and my Truth shall lose it and whosoever shall lose c. Whosoever shall ●e ashamed of me and my words i. e. to confess me and my Gospel before this adulterous generation of him shall the Son of man be ashamed c. Know thou O man of God that all things are ordained for the furtherance of thee towards thy salvation All things saith Paul work with the good to goodness c. It is not as the wicked think That poverty adversity sickness tribulation yea painfull death of the godly be tokens that God doth not love them but even the clean contrary Now thou O man of God for the Lords sake let us not for the love of this life tarry here too long and be occasion of delay of that glorious consummation of all Christs Sufferers in hope and expectation whereof the former Martyrs have departed in the Lord and the which also the living indued with Gods Spirit ought so earnestly to desire c. crying out Come Lord Iesus come Then shall our weak body be transfigured and made like to Christs glorious body and then shall we see and have the unspeakable joy and fruition of the glorious Majesty of our Lord even as he is Who or what then shall let us to jeopard yea to spend this life which we have here in Christs Cause in our Lord God his Cause O therefore thou man of God that art loaden and so letted like unto a great bellied woman that thou canst not flie the plague yet if thou lust after such things as I have spoken of stand fast whatsoever shall befall thee in thy Masters Cause and take this thy letting to flie for a call from God to fight in thy Master Christs Cause Of this be thou certain they can do nothing unto thee which thy Father is not aware of or hath not foreseen before they can do no more then it shall please him to suffer them to do for the furtherance of his glory edifying of his Church and thine own salvation O be not afraid and remember the end What I have spoken for the comfort of the big-bellied woman I mean to be spoken likewise to the Captive and Prisoner in Gods Cause for such I count to be as it were already summoned and pressed to fight under the Banner of the Cross of Christ and as it were Souldiers allowed and taken up for the Lords Wars to do their Lord and Master good and honourable service and to stick to him even unto death c. To conclude I say unto all that love Christ Jesus our Redeemer and Saviour that love to follow the wayes of the holy Ghost who is our Comforter and Sanctifier that love Christs Spouse and Body c. yea that love life and their souls health Hearken my dear Brethren and Sisters c. to the Word of our Saviour Jesus Christ spoken to his Apostles and meant to all his in St. Matthew's Gospel Fear not them which kill the body for they cannot kill the soul but fear him c. The Lord grant us of his heavenly grace and strength that here we may so confess him in this world amongst this adulterous generation that he may confess us again at the last day before his Father c. In his Reasons why Images should not be placed and erected in Churches First the words of the Command Exod. 20. repeated more plainly Deut. 27. where observe those words Thou shalt not make to thy self mean to any use of Religion and those And setteth it in a secret place imply that no man durst then commit Idolatry openly The reason why God gave this general Prohibition is lest thou being deceived shouldst bow down to them and worship them This general Law is generally to be observed though some be not hurt by them Moses was not deceived or seduced by Iethro's Daughter nor Boaz by Ruth a woman of Moab yet the general Law was to be observed Thou shalt not joyn thy children in marriage with strangers least she seduce thy Son c. If by vertue of the second Commandment Images were not lawfull in the Temple of the Jews then by the second Command they are unlawfull in the Churches of Christians but c. in the Tabernacle and Temple of God no Images were appointed openly to beset nor by practice afterwards used or permitted so long as Religion was purely observed therefore c. For the second Command is moral and not ceremonial c. The Jews by no means would consent to Herod Pilate or Pe●ronius that Images should be placed in the Temple at Jerusalem but rather offered themselves unto death then to consent unto it Besides that Iosephus commends them for observing the meaning of the Law sure they would not have endangered themselves so far if they had thought Images had been indifferent in the Temple of God Ath●nasius tells us The invention of Images came of no good but of evil and whatsoever hath an evil beginning can never in any thing be judged good seeing it is wholly naught T●rtullian expounding those words Little Children beware of Images saith That the meaning is as if he had said Little Children keep your selves from the shape it self or form of them Images in the Church either serve to edify or to destroy If they edify then there is one kind of edification which the Scriptures neither teach nor command but alwayes disallow if they destroy they are not to be in the Church The Command of God is Thou shalt not lay a stumbling-block before the blind and cursed is he that maketh the blind wander in his way Images are snares and traps for the feet of the ignorant Images do not stir up the mind to Devotion but distract the mind from Prayer hearing of Gods Word c. Hence in the Council-chamber of the Lacedemonians no picture was suffered least in Consultation of the weighty matters of the