accordingly came to pass Being askt what he should do and whither he would go if he should have his liberty he said He cared not whether he want out or no but if he did he would marry and abide still in England secretly teaching the people as the time would suffer him When the Keepers Wife told him the sad News as she called it of the nearness of his death being to be burned the next day he put off his Cap and lifting up his eyes to Heaven said I thank God for it I have looked for the same a long time and therefore it cometh not now to me suddenly but as a thing waited for every day and hour the Lord make me worthy thereof Creswell offering to labour for him Pa. 292. and desiring to know what suit he should make for him What you will do said he do it not at my request for I desire nothing at your hands If the Queen will give me life I will thank her if she will banish me I will thank her if she will burn me I will thank her if she will condemn me to perpetual imprisonment I will thank her The Chancellor pressing him to do as they had done in hopes of the Queens mercy and pardon Pa. 283. My Lord said he I desire mercy with Gods mercy i. e. without doing or saying any thing against God and his Truth pag. 290. but mercy with Gods wrath God keep me from Gods mercy I desire and also would be glad of the Queens favour to live as a Subject without clog on Conscience but otherwise the Lords mercy is better to me than life Life in his displeasure is worse than death and death with his favour is true life He having refused again and again to answer to the Chancellors Quaeries Pa. 286. said That no fear but the fear of perjury made him unwilling to answer he having been six times sworn not to consent to the practising of any Jurisdiction or any Authority on the Bishop of Rome's behalf within the Realm of England I am not afraid of death I thank God I look and have looked for nothing else from your hands a long time but I am afraid when death cometh I should have matter to trouble my Conscience by the guilt of perjury As for my death as I know there are twelve hours in the day so with the Lord my time is appointed and when it shall be his good time then I shall depart hence but in the mean season I am safe enough though all the people had sworn my death into his hands have I committed it and do his good will be done The Earl of Derby lending one of his Servants to him Pa. 292. willing him to tender himself He told the Messenger that he thanked his Lordship for his good will towards him but in this case I cannot tender my self more than Gods honour The same Servant saying also Ah Mr. Bradford consider your Mother Sister Friends Kinsfolk Countrey what a great discomfort it will be to them to see you dye as an Heretick Mr. Bradford replyed I have learned to forsake Father Mother Brother Sister Friends and all that ever I have yea and my own self for else I cannot be Christs Disciple Being askt by a good Gentlewomans Servant Pa. 305. that was sent to him How de did he answered Well I thank God for as men in Sailing which be near to the Shore or Haven where they would be would be nearer even so the nearer I am to God the nearer I would be In a Letter to his Mother and Brethren Pa. 308. I am at this time in Prison sure enough from starting to confirm that I have preached unto you As I am ready I thank God with my life and blood to seal the same if God vouchsafe me worthy of that honour If we suffer with him we shall also reign with him Be not therefore faint-hearted but rather rejoyce at the least for my sake who now am in the right and high way to Heaven for by many afflictions we must enter into the Kingdom of God Now will God make known his Children When the wind doth not blow the Wheat cannot be known from the Chaffe but when the blast cometh then flyeth away the Chaffe but the Wheat remaineth and is so far from being hurt that by the wind it is more cleansed from the Chaffe Gold when it is cast into the fire is the more precious so are Gods Children by afflictions Indeed I thank God more for this Prison than for any Parlour yea than for any pleasure that ever I had for in it I find God my most sweet good God alwayes Of all deaths it is most to be desired to dye for Gods sake such are sure to go to Heaven Death nor Life nor Prison nor Pleasure I trust in God shall be able to separate me from my Lord God and his Gospel Rejoyce in my sufferings for it is for your sakes to confirm the truth I have taught Howsoever you do be obedient to the Higher Powers that is in no point either in hand or tongue Rebel but rather if they command that which with good conscience you cannot obey lay your head on the Block and suffer what they shall do or say By patience possess your souls In his Letter to the City of London Pa. 310. I ask God heartily mercy that I do no more rejoyce than I do having so great cause as to be an instrument wherein it may please my dear Lord and Saviour to suffer Although my sins be manifold and grievous yet the Bishops and Prelates do not persecute them in me but Christ himself his Word his Truth and Religion Let the anger and plagues of God most justly fallen upon us be applyed to every one of our deserts that from the bottom of our hearts every one of us may say It is I Lord that have sinned against thee It is my hypocrisie my vain-glory my covetousness uncleanness carnality security idleness unthankfulness self-love c. which have deserved the taking away of thy Word and true Religion of thy good Ministers by Exile Imprisonment Death c. Prepare your selves to the Cross be obedient to all that be in Authority in all things that be not against God his Word for then answer with the Apostle It is more meet to obey God than man Howbeit never for any thing resist or rise against the Magistrates A venge not your selves Commit your Cause to the Lord. If you feel in your selves an hope and trust in God that he will never tempt you above that he will make you able to bear be assured the Lord will be true to you and you shall be able to bear all brunts but if you want this Hope flee and get you hence rather than by your tarrying Gods Name should be dishonoured In his Letter to Cambridge Pa. 312. Thou my Mother the University hast not onely had the truth of Gods
before you heavenly Father which loveth you most tenderly shall give them leave they shall go no farther theâ— he will nor keep you any longer in trouble thâ—â— he will Therefore cast on him all your care foâ— he is careful for you Onely study to please him and to keep your consciences clean and your bodies pure from the idolatrous service which now every where is used and God will marvellously and mercifully defend and comfort you In his Letter to Erkinald Rawlins and his wife Pa. 318. First we have cause to rejoyce for these dayes because our Father suffereth us not to lye in Jezabel's bed steeping in our sins and security but as mindful of us doth correct us as his children Secondly because they are dayes of tryal wherein not onely ye your selves but also the world shall know that ye be none of his but the Lords Darlings whom we obey his servants we are Now it is seen whether we obey the world or God But the tryals of these dayes ye are occasioned more to repent more to pray more to contemn this world more to desire life everlasting more to be holy for holy is the end wherefore God doth afflict us and so to come to Gods company In his Letter to Mr. Laurence Saunders Pa. 320. A Friend having moved the Prisoners to subscribe to the Papists Articles with this condition so far as they are not against Gods word Dr. Taylor and Mr. Philpâ—t think the salt sent by our Friend is unseasonable for my own part I pray God in no case I may seek my self and indeed I thank God I purpose it not In another Letter This will be offensive Pa. 321. therefore let us Vadere plane and so sane I mean let us all confess we are no changlings but re ipsa are the same we were in Religion and therefore cannot subscribe except we will dissemble both with God with our selves and with the world In his Letter to Dr. Cranmer Dr. Ridley and Dr. Latimer Our dear brother Rogers hath broken the Ice valiantly this day I think or to morrow at the uttermost hearty Hooper sincere Saunders and trusty Tailor end their course and receive their Crown The next am I who hourly look for the Porter to open me the Gates after them to enter into the desired Rest God forgive me mine unthankfulness for this exceeding great mercy For though I justly suffer for I have been a great Hypocrite c. The Lord pardon me yea he hath done it he hath done it indeed yet what evil hath he done Christ whom the Prelates persecute his truth which they hate in me hath done no evil nor deserved death O what am I Lord that thoâ— shouldest thus magnifie me Is this thy wont to send for such a wretched Hypocrite in a fiery chariot as thou didst for Elias In his Letter to the Lord Russel Pa. 322. Faith is reckoned and worthily among the greatest gifts of God by it as we are justified and made Gods children so are we Temples and Possessors of the Holy Spirit yea of Christ also Eph. 4. And of the Father himself John 14. By faith we drive the Devil away 2 Pet. 5. We overcome the world 1 John 5. And are already Citizens of Heaven c. Yet the Apostle doth match even with faith yea as it were prefer suffering Persecution for Christs sake Phil. 1. Though the wisdom of the world think of the Cross according to sense and therefore flyeth from it as from a most great ignominy and shame yet Gods Scholars have learned to think otherwise of the Cross as the Frame-house wherein God frameth his Children like to his Son Christ the Furnace that fineth Gods gold the High-way to Heaven the Suit and Livery of Gods servants the earnest and beginning of all consolation and glory In his Meditation on the Commandements Pag. 93 94. As the first Command teacheth me as well that thou art my God as what God thou art therefore of equity I should have no other Gods but thee that is I should onely hang on thee trust in thee serve thee call on thee obey thee and be thankful to thee so because thou didst reveal thy self visibly that thou mightest visibly be worshipped The second Commandement is concerning thy Worship that in no point I should follow in worshipping thee the device or intent of any man Saint Angel or Spirit but should take all such as idolatry and image-service be it never so glorious And why forsooth because thou wouldst I should worship thee as thou hast appointed by thy Word for if service be acceptable it must be according to the Will of him to whom it is done and not of him who doth it c. So that the meaning of this Precept is that as in the first I should have none other Gods but thee so I should have no worship of thee Pa. 19â— but such as thou appointest And therefore utterly abandon mine own will and reason all the reasons and good intents of man and wholly give my self to serve thee after thy will and word Pag. 98 99. Thou bidst me not to take thy Name in vain as by temerarious or vain swearing c. So by denying thy truth and word or concealing it when occasion is offered to promote thy glory and confirm thy truth By reason whereof I may well see that thou wouldst have me to use my tongue in humble confessing thee and thy word Pa. 113 114. This was his Meditation in Q. Marie's time and truth after my Vocation c. Thy Ministers I pray not for thy Church I am not careful for no not now good Lord when wicked Doctrine most prevaileth Idolatry Superstition and Abomination abound the Sacraments c. blasphemously corrupted c. all which my wickedness brought in my profaning of the fourth Commandement and my not praying Thy Ministers are in Prison dispersed in other Countreys spoiled burnt murthered many fall for fear of goods life name c. from the truth they have received to most manifest idolatry false Preachers abound among the people thy people dearly bought even with thy blood are not fed with the bread of thy Word but with swillings and drink for swine Antichrist wholly prevaileth and yet for all this also I am too careless nothing lamenting my sins which have been the cause of all this Help thy Church cherish it Pa. 115 116. and give it harbour here and elsewhere for Christs sake Purge the Ministry from corruption and false Ministers Send out Preachers to feed thy people Destroy Antichrist and all his Kingdom Give to such as be fallen from thy truth repentance Keep others from falling and by their falling do thou the more confirm us Confirm thy Ministers and poor people in Prison and Exile Strengthen them in thy truth Deliver them if it be thy good will Give them that with conscience they may so answer their Adversaries that thy servants may rejoyce
of faith the passage of death shall be the more desired It is like a sailing over the sea to thy home and countrey it is like a medicine or purgation to the health of the soul and body It is the best Physician It is like a woman in travail for as the child â—eing delivered cometh into a more large place than the womb wherein it did lye before so the soul being delivered out of the body cometh into a much more large and fair place even into Heaven In his Prayer for the remission of sins Pa. 224 225. O gracious God who seekest all means possible how to bring thy children to the see ling and sure sense of thy mercy and therefore when prosperity will not serve then sendest thou adversity graciously correcting them here whom thou wilt shall with thee elsewhere live for ever We poor Misers give humble praises and thanks to thee Dear Father that thou hast vouchsafed us worthy of thy correction at this present hereby to work that which we in prosperity and liberty did neglect For the which neglecting and many other our grievous sins whereof we now accuse our selves before thee most merciful Lord thou mightest have most justly given us over and destroyed both souls and bodies But such is thy goodness towards us in Christ that thou seemest to forget all our offences and wilt that we should suffer this Cross now lay'd upon us for thy Truth and Gospels sake and so to be thy witnesses with the Prophets Apostles Martyrs and Confessors yea with thy dearly beloved Son Jesus Christ to whom thou dost now here begin to fashion us like Pa. 226. that in his glory we may be like him also O good God what are we on whom thou shouldest shew this great mercy O loving Lord forgive us our unthankfulness and sins O faithful Father give us thy holy Spirit now to cry in our hearts Abba dear Father to assure us of our eternal election in Christ to reveal more more thy Truth unto us to confirm strengthen and stablish us so in the same that we may live and dye in it as Vessels of thy mercy to thy glory and to the commodity of thy Church Indue us with the Spirit of thy wisdome that with good conscience we may alwayes so answer the enemies in thy cause as may turn to their conversion or confusion and our unspeakable consolation in Jesus Christ for whose sake we beseech thee henceforth to keep us to give us patience and to will none otherwise for deliverance or mitigation of our misery than may stand alwayes with thy good pleasure and merciful will towards us Grant this dear Father not onely to us in this place but also to all others elsewhere afflicted for thy Names sake through the death and merit of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen In his godly Meditations See the godly Meditations of Mr. John Bradford pag. 415. We are rather to be placed among the wicked than among thy children for that we are so shameless for our sin and careless for thy wrath which we may well say to be most grievous against us and evidently set forth in the taking away of our good King and the true Religion in the exile of thy Servants imprisonment of thy People misery of thy Children and death of thy Saints by placing over us in authority thine enemies by the success thou gavest them in all that they took in hand by the returning again into our Countrey of Antichrist the Pope What shall we do what shall we say who can give us penitent hearts who can open our lips that our mouths might make acceptable confession unto thee Pag. 6. O what now may we do Despair no for thou art God therefore good thou art merciful therefore thou forgivest sins with thee is mercy propitiation therefore thou art worshipped When Adam had sinned thou gavest him mercy before he desired it and wilt thou deny us mercy which now desire the same Pag. 7. Adam excused his fault and accused thee but we accuse our selves and excuse thee and shall we be sent empty away Abraham was pulled out of Idolatry when the world was drown'd therein and art thou his God onely Israel in captivity in Egypt was graciously visited and delivered and dear God that same good Lord shall we alwayes be forgotten How often in the wilderness didst thou defer and spare thy plagues at the request of Moses when the people themselves made no Petition to thee and seeing we do not only make our Petitions to thee but also have a Mediator for us now far above Moses even Jesus Christ shall we I say dear Lord depart ashamed Pag. 11. Take into thy custody and governance for ever our souls and bodies our lives and all that ever we have Tempt us never further than thou wilt make us able to bear and alwayes as thy children guide us so that our life may please thee our deaths praise thee through Jesus Christ our Lord for whose sake we heartily pray thee to grant these things c. not onely to us but c. especially for thy children that be in thraldom under their enemies in exile in prison poverty c. Pag. 12. Be merciful to all the whole Realm of England grant us all true repentance and mitigation of our misery And if it be thy good will that thy holy Word and Religion may continue amongst us Pardon our Enemies Persecutors and Slanderers and if it be thy pleasure turn their hearts Oh mighty King and most High Pag. 49. Almighty God who mercifully governest all things which thou hast made look down upon the faithful seed of Abraham c. consecrated to thee by the anointing of thy holy Spirit and appointed to thy Kingdom by thy eternal purpose free mercy and grace but yet as strangers wandring in this vile vale of misery brought forth daily by worldly Tyrants like Sheep to the flaughter Thou hast destroyed Pharaob with all his Horse and Chariots puffed up with pride against thy people leading forth safely by the hands of thy mercy thy beloved Israel through the high waves of the roaring waters Thou O God Pag. 50. the Lord of all Hosts and Armies didst first drive away from the Gates of thy people the blasphemous Senacherib slaying of his Army 85000 by the Angel in one night and after by his own Sons before his Idols didst kill the same blasphemous Idolater c. Thou didst transform and change proud Nebuchadnezzar the enemy of thy people into a bruit beast to eat grass and hay to the horrible terrour of all worldly Tyrants c. Thou didst preserve those thy three Servants in Babylon who with bold courage gave their bodies to the fire because they would not worship any dead Idol and when they were cast into the burning Furnace thou didst give them chearful hearts to rejoyce and sing Psalms Pag. 51. and savedst unhurt
of sin and in love with the wayes of holiness These Speeches here collected are called Swan-like Songs for their remarkableness A Cloud of Witnesses and The Sufferers Mirrour for their usefulness The Israelites found not onely comfort in the shadow of the Cloud in the Wilderness but a directive vertue therein they were led by it There is a double power in such instances both to Comfort and to assimulate Solamen miseris c. 1 Cor. 10.13 To see that others have suffered worse is no small comfort to Sufferers Jacob's Sheep conceived according to the colour of the Rods that lay in the Troughs Our conceptions will be like our visions like the examples that are set before our eyes Here as in a Glass even the best may see their spots and all especially Sufferers may learn how to dress themselves for death How can the best of us read these passages without shame for our low attainments for our little proficiency in the School of Christ How unlike are our faces to the faces in this Mirrour How self-denying were they How selfish are we How crucified to the world were they How much glued thereunto are we How easie was it for them to chuse the greatest Sufferings rather then the least Sin How hard is it for us not to chuse the greatest Sin rather then the least Suffering How willing were they to part with all for Christ How unwilling are we to part with littles for Christ What an honour did they esteem it to suffer for Christ to be chain'd to be whipt to be wrackt to be halter'd to be stak'd for Christ Have we such esteems of sufferings for Christ and of such sufferings Are not we ashamed of our glory How patient were they under the greatest tortures How impatient are we under very little troubles How hot was their love to Christ his truths ordinances People How cold is ours How zealous were they for the honour of God How luke-warm are we How magnanimous were they How cowardly and dastardly are we How humble were they How proud are we How broken-hearted were they How hard-hearted are we What sympathizing spirits had they How little fellow-feeling is there now among Christians How active were they for the glory of God and good of souls under their sufferings how slothful are we And how little do we for either under our sufferings How strong was their Faith How weak is ours How fearless were they of man who can only kill the body How fearful are we How many of these Worthies attained unto Assurance and had their Evidences for Heaven clear How are the most of us in the dark as to an interest in God and a right and title to Glory How willing and desirous were they to die even a violent death How loth are we to die even a natural death How did they without the least fear play on the hole of this Asp and with much courage put their hand into the Den of this Cockatrice But how doth the fear of this King of Terrors make us subject to bondage Thus they are useful to shame us They are also useful to prepare us to die especially a violent death Such examples chalk the way more plainly Longum iter per praecepta breve efficax per exempla Seneca then bare direction These encourage more heartily these perswade more powerfully these chide unbelief with more authority I beseech you all who are the Lords people said one lately not to scare at suffering for the interests of Christ because of any thing you may see fall out in these dayes as to the sufferings of his servants but be encouraged to do and suffer for I assure you in the Name of the Lord he will bear all your charges I do again assure you in his Name he will furnish all your expences and bear all your charges Mr. Rough learn'd the way to Martyrdome by seeing and hearing Austo at the Stake in Smithfield Coming from his burning and being askt where he had been he made answer there where I would not but have been for one of mine eys would you know where forsooth I have been to learn the way And soon after he followed him in the same place and the same kind of death Now if one president made him so good a Scholar what Dullards and Non-proficients are we if such a Cloud of Instances work not in us a chearful ability to expect and encounter the same adversary so often foiled before our eyes I shall detain thee no longer from seeing these rare signts but now invite thee in the words of Rev. 6.7 The good Lord adde his blessing that thine eye may affect thy heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Come and see and that these Remarkable passages may be thus usefull to all our souls and that the Cloud of Witnesses may not be a standing Witness against any of us Farewell To the Reader Reader THe life present is onely preparative to that to come as the hidden life in the womb to the more perfect and noble life in the world 1 Col. 12. Salvation is not instantaneous The Heirs of Glory make their gradual approaches to it and enter upon their Inheritance by degrees Rom. 13.11 And the neares they come to Heaven the more heavenly their Spirits are Could a man but hear the last breathings and whispers of dying Saints how would he melt and ravish Like the Sun they appear most great and glorious at setting God often leads them to the top of Pisgah whence they have a prospect of Canaan a little before they enter in to possess it But although God doth frequently indulge those that die in the Faith of Christ with rare and excellent visions of Christ yet ordinarily those that die for Christ as well as in Christ have a Benjamin's portion in comparison of their Brethren There is a joy proper to Martyrs which is bestowed upon them as an honorarium partly to reward their faithfulness in trials past and partly to encourage them to break through the difficulties which yet remain In these joys Heaven is let down to Earth glory antedated and a short salvation here obtained 1 Pet. 1.8 During the continuance of this glorious frame they are acted above the ordinary rate of man which makes the world stand at gize and all that behold them to admire at them Their aspect is rather angelical then humane Acts 6.15 and they seem no longer fit to be reckoned to the Tribe of mortals on Earth but rather ranked with the glorious Saints and Seraphims in Heaven they no longer wrap themselves up in their garment of flesh but the onely strife among them seems to be who shall first cast it off to put on the garments of glory prepared for them Reader wouldst thou see some of these Earthly Angels men that are a little too low for Heaven and much too high for Earth Wouldst thou see poor frail Creatures trampling the World under their feet and
and thy Adversaries be confounded Avenge thou thy own cause O thou God of Hosts Help all thy people and me especially Pa. 146 147. because I have most need Set my heart strait in case of Religion to acknowledge thee one God to worship none other God to reverence thy Name and keep thy Sabbaths Set my heart right in matters of humane conversation to honour my Parents to obey Rulers and reverence the Ministry of the Word to have hands clean from bloud true from theft a body free from Adultery and a tongue void of all offence but purge the heart first O Lord c. In his Meditation concerning the sober usage of the body and the pleasures of this life Pa. 184 185. O that I could consider often and heartily that this body God hath made to be the tabernacle and mansion of our soul for this life but by reason of sin dwelling in it is become now to the soul nothing else but a prison and that most strait vile stinking filthy c. Then should I not pamper up my body to obey it but bridle it that it may obey the soul then should I flye the pain it patteth my soul unto by reason of sin and provocation to all evil and continually desire the dissolution of it with Paul and the deliverance from it as much as ever did prisoner his deliverance out of prison for alonely by it the Devil hath a door to tempt and so to hurt me If it were dissolved and I out of it then could Satan no more hurt me then wouldst thou speak unto me face to face then the conflicting â—ime were at an end then sorrow would cease and â—oy would encrease and I should enter into inestiâ—able rest In his Meditation for exercise of true mortification Pa. 189 190. He that will be ready in weighty matâ—ers to deny his own will and to be obedient to the will of God the same had need to accustome himself to deny his desires in matters of less weight â—nd to exercise mortification of his will in trifles If we cannot watch with Christ one hour as he â—ith to Peter we undoubtedly can much less go to â—eath with him Wherefore that in great temptaâ—â—ons we may be ready to say with Christ Not my â—ill but thiâ—e be done c. Help me to accustome â—â—y self continually to mortifie my concupiscence 〈◊〉 pleasant things i. e. of wealth riches glory liberty favour of men meats drink apparel ease yea and life it self c. In his Meditation of Gods Providence Pa. 192.193 This ought to be unto us most certain that nothing is done without thy Providence O Lord i.e. without thy Knowledge i. e. without thy Will Wisdom and Ordinance for all these Knowledge doth comprehend in it c. This will we must believe most assuredly to be all just and good howsoever otherwise it seem so unto us But though all things be done by thy Providence yet Providence hath many and divers means to work by which means being contemned thy providence is contemned also Pa. 194. Indeed when means cannot be had then should we not tye thy Providence to means but make it free as thou art free for it is not of any need that thou usest any instrument or mean to serve thy Providence Thy Power and Wisdome is infinite and therefore should we hang on thy Providence even when all is clean against us Grant Dear Father that I may use this knowledge to my comfort and commodity in thee i. e. Grant that in what state soever I be Pa. 195. I may not doubt but the same doth come to me by thy most just Ordinance yea by thy merciful Ordinance for as thou art just and thou art merciful yea thy mercy is above all thy works Look for thy help in time convenient not onely when I have means by which thoâ— mayest work and art so accustomed to do but also when I have no means but am destiture yea when all means be directly and clean against me granâ— I say yet that I may still hang on thee and on thy Providence not doubting of a Fatherly end in thy good time And least I should contemn thy Providence or presuming upon it by uncoupling those things which thou hast coupled together preserve me from neglecting thy ordinary and lawful means in all my needs if so be I may have them Pa. 196. and with a good conscience use them although I know thy Providence be not tyed to them farther than pleaseth thee Howbeit so that I depend in no part on the means or on my diligence wisdom and industry but on thy Providence which more and more perswade me to be altogether fatherly and good how far soever otherwise it appear yea is felt of me In his Meditation of Gods presence Pa. 197 198. There is nothing that maketh more to true godliness of life than the perswasion of thy presence Dear Father and that nothing is hid from thee but all to thee is open and naked even the very thoughts which one day thou wilt reveal either to our praise or punishment in this life as thou didst David's faults 2 King 12. or in the life to come Mat. 25. Grant to me Dear God mercy for all my sins especially my hid and close sins c. and that henceforth I alwayes think my self conversant before thee so that if I do well I pass not the publishing of it as Hypocrites do if I do or think any evil I may know that the same shall not alwayes be hid from men Grant me that I may alwayes have in mind that day wherein all my works shall be revealed so in trouble and wrong I shall find comfort and otherwise be kept through thy grace from evil In his Meditation of God's power beauty Pa. 199. and goodness Because thou Lord wouldest have us to love thee not onely dost thou will entice allure and provoke us but also dost command us so to do promising thy self unto such as love thee and threatning us with damnation if we do otherwise whereby we may see both our great corruption and naughtiness and also thine exceeding great mercy towards us What a thing is it that power riches authority beauty goodness liberality truth justice which all thou art good Lord cannot move us to love thee whatsoever things we see fair good wise mighty are but even sparkles of thy power beauty goodness wisdome which thou art In his Meditation of death Pa. 202 203. c. O Dear Father That our hearts were perswaded that when we go out of the prison of the body and so taken into thy blessed company then Whatsoever good we can wish we shall have and whatsoever we loath shall be far from us c. Then should we live in longing for that which we now most loath Pa. 204. If we remember the good things that after this life shall ensue without wavering in the certainty
my friends get ye hence The presence of God to whose goodness I commend my soul is abundantly sufficiently for me Colver Sheep we are for the slaughter said Francis Colver to his two Sons Ward pa. 163. massacred together with himself this is no new thing let us follow millions of Martyrs through temporal death unto eternal life Coo. Roger Câ—â— being asked by the Bishop of Norwich Fox Vol. 3419. whether he would not obey the Kings Laws answered As far as they agree with the Word of God I will obey them Whether they agree with the Word of God or no we are bound to obey them said the Bishop though the King were an Infidel Coo replyed If Shadrach Meshach and Abednego had so done Nebuchadnezzar had never confessed the Living God Constantine Being carried with other Martyrs in a Dung-Cart to the place of Execution Ward pa. 154. he spake thus Well yet are we a precious odour and a sweet savour to God in Christ Cornford John Cornford one of the last five that suffered Martyrdome in Queen Mary's dayes when the Sentence should have been passed Fox Vol. 3. pag. 893. and they should have been executed by the Papists being moved in Spirit with a vehement zeal for God in the name of them all pronounced Sentence of Excommunication against the Papists in these words In the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of the most mighty God and by the power of the holy Spirit and the authority of his holy and Apostolick Church We do hereby give into the hands of Satan to be destroyed the bodies of those Blasphemers and Hereticks that do maintain any errour against his most holy Word or do condemn his most holy Truth for Heresie to the maintenance of any false Church or seigned Religion so that by this thy just judgment against thy Adversaries thy true Religion may be known to thy great glory and our comfort to the edifying of all our Nation Lord Jesus So be it It is observable that within six dayes after this Excommunication Quen Mary died and the tyranny of all English Papists with her Conlogue Brethren and Sisters said Peter Conlogue of Breda at the Stake be you alwayes obedient to the Word of God and fear not those that can kill the body Fox Vol. 3. pag. 50. for on the soul they can have no power as for me I am now going to meet my glorious Spouse the Lord Jesus Christ Cranmer When Dr. Thomas Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury was Excommunicated he said Fox Vol. 3. pag. 92. From this your Judgement and Sentence I appeal to the just Judgement of God Almighty trusting to be present with him in Heaven for whose presence in the Altar I am thus condemned In his Letter to Mr. Wilkinson Pa. 677. The true Comforter in all distresses is onely God through his Son Jesus Christ Whosoever hath him hath Comfort enough although he were in a Wilderness all alone He that hath twenty thousand in his company if God be absent is in a miserable Wilderness In him is all comfort and without him is none Wherefore I beseech you seek your dwelling there where you may truly and rightly serve God dwell in him have him ever dwelling in you After he had recanted and was brought to Saint Mary's Church in Oxford where Dr. Cole after he had preached bitterly against him shewing why he was to be executed notwithstanding his Recantation prest him to evidence to the people his conversion to Popery Dr. Cranmer entreated the people to pray with him and for him that God would pardon his sins especially his Recantation After he had prayed he told them Pa. 669. It is a sad thing to see so many so much dote upon the love of this false World and be so careful of it and so careless of Gods love or the World to come therefore this shall be my first exhortation that you set not your minds overmuch upon this glozing World but upon God and the World to come to learn to know what this Lesson meaneth which St. John teacheth That the Love of this World is hatred against God Let rich men consider and weigh three Scriptures Luke 18. It is hard for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of Heavin 1 John 3. He that hath the substance of this world and seeth his Brother in necessity and shutteth up his mercy from him how can he say that he loveth God James 5.1 2. Go to now ye rich men weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you your riches are corrupted Another exhortion is That next under God you obey your King and Queen willingly gladly without murmuring or grudging They are Gods Ministers Whosoever resisteth them resisteth the Ordinance of God And now I come said he to the great thing that so much troubleth my Conscience more than any thing that ever I did or said in my whole life and that is the setting abroad a Writing contrary to the Truth which now here I renounce and refuse as things written with my hand contrary to the Truth which I thought in my heart and written for fear of death and to save my life if it might be And forasmuch as my hand offended writing contrary to my heart my hand shall first be punished therefore for may I come to the fire it shall be first burned At the Stake when the fire began to burn near him he stretching out his arm put his right hand into the flame which he held so stedfast that all men might see his hand burned before his body was touched His eyes lifted up to Heaven he cried out even as long as he could speak O his unworthy hand His last words were the words of Stephen Lord Jesus receive my spirit Cromwel Thomas Lord Cromwel Earl of Essex Fox Vol. 2. pag. 529. the morning that he was executed having chearfully eaten his break-fast passing out of the Prison down the Hill in the Tower met the Lord Hungerford going to Execution for other matter and â—erceiving him to be heavy and doleful he willed him to be of good comfort for if you repent said he of what you have done there is mercy enough for you with the Lord who for Christs sake will forgive you and though the break-fast we are going to be sharp yet trusting in the mercy of the Lord we shall have a joyful dinner In his Prayer on the Seaffold O Lord Jesus Pa. 515. who art the onely health of all men living and the everlasting life of them which die in thee Being sure that the thing cannot perish which is committed to thy mercy willingly now I leave this frail and wicked flesh in sure hope that thou will in better wise restore it to me again at the last day in the resurrection of the Just I see and acknowledge there is in my self no hope of salvation but all my considence hope and trust is in
behaved themselves boldly in Gods Cause as Stephen Peter Paul Daniel the three Children the Widows Sons in your dayes Anne Askew Lawrence Sanders John Bradford c. Be afraid in nothing saith Saint Paul of the adversaries of Christs Doctrine Phil. 1. the which is to them a sign of perdition but to you of everlaesting salvation Christ commandeth the same saying Fear them not Let us not follow the example of him who asked time first to take leave of his Friends If we do so we shall find few of them that will encourage us to go forward in our business please it God never so much We read not that James and John Andrew and Simon when they were called put off the time till they had known their Fathers and Friends pleasure but the Scripture saith They forsook all Mat. 13. and by and by followed Christ Christ likened the Kingdom of God to a precious Pearl the which whosoever findeth selleth all that he hath to buy it Yea whosoever hath but a little taste or glimmering how precious a treasure the Kingdome of Heaven is will gladly forego both life and goods for the obtaining of it But the most part now adayes be like to Aesop's Cock which when he had found a precious stone wished rather to have found a barley corn so ignorant be they how precious a jewel the Word of God is that they choose rather the things of this world which being compared to it be less in valuê than a barley corn If I would have given place to worldly reasons these might have moved me the foregoing of you and my children the consideration of the state of my children being yet young apt and inclinable to vertue and learning and so having the more need of my assistance I was never called to be a Preacher or Minâ—ster and because of my fickness fear of death in Prison before I should come to my answer and so my death to be unprofitable But these and such like I thank my heavenly Father which of his infinite mercy inspired me with his Holy Ghost for his Sons sake my onely Saviour and Redeemer prevailed not in me But when I had by the wonderful permission of God fallen into their hands at the first sight of the Sheriffe nature a little abashed yet ere ever I came to the Prison by the working of God and through his goodness sear departed Little justice was shewed by Mr. Sheriffe but the less justice a man sindeth at their hands the more consolation in conscience shall he find from God for whosoever is of the world the world will love him After I came to Prison and had reposed my self there a while I wept for joy and gladness my belly full musing much of the great mercies of God as it were saying to my self after this sort O Lord who am I on whom thou shouldst bestow this thy great mercy to be numbred among the Saints that suffer for the Gospels sake And so beholding and considering on the one side my imperfection unableness sinsul misery and unworthiness and on the other side the greatness of Gods mercy to be called to so high promotion I was as it were amazed and overcome for a while with joy and gladness concluding thus O Lord thou shewest power in weakness wisdome in foolishness mercy in sinfulness Who shall let thee to choose where whom thou wilt As I have ever zealously loved the consession of thy Word Pa. 424. so ever thought I my self unworthy to be partaker of afflâ—ction for the same Some travelling with me to be dismissed upon bonds to them my answer was to my remembrance after this sort Forasmuch as the Masters have imprisoned me having nothing to burthen me withal if I should enter into bonds I should in so doing accuse my self â—eâ—ing they have no matter to lay to my charge they may as well let me pasâ— without bonds as with bonds Secondly if I shall enter into bonds covenant and promise to appear I shall do nothing but excuse colour and cloak their wickedness indanger my self nevertheless being bound by my promise to appear Afterward debating the matter with my self these considerations came into my head I have from time to time with good conscience God I take to record moved all such as I had conference with to be no dalliers in Gods matters but to shew themselves after so great a light knowledge hearty earnest constant and stable in so manifest a truth and not to give place one jot contrary to the same Now thought I if I shall withdraw my self and make any shifts to pull my own neck out of the Coller I shall give great offence to my weak Brethren in Christ and advantage to the enemies to slander Gods Word It will be said he hath been a great emboldner of others to be earnest and fervent to fear no worldly perils and dangers but he himself will give no such example Wherefore I thought it my bounden duty both to God and man being as it were by the great goodness of God called and appointed hereunto to setaside all fear perils and dangers all worldly respects and considerations and like as I had before according to the measure of my small gift within the compass of my vocation and calling from the bottom of my heart unseignedly moved exhorted and perswaded all that profess Gods Word manfully to persist in the defence of the same not with sword and violence but with suffering and loss of life rather than to defile themselves again with the whorish abominaon of the Romish Antichrist So the hour being come with my fact example to ratifie confirm and protest the same to the hearts of all true Believers and to this end by the mighty assistance of Gods holy Spirit I resolved my self with much peace of conscience willingly to sustain whatsoever the Romish Antichrist should do against me When Mr. Warren the Chancellor willed the chief Jaylor to carry me to the Bishop I laid to his charge the cruel seeking of my death and when he would have excused himself I told him he could not wipe his hands so He was as guilty of my blood before God as though he had murthered me with his own hands He departed from me saying I needed not to fear if I would be of his belief God open his eyes and give him grace to believe this which he and all of his inclination shall find I fear too true for their parts that all they which cruelly maliciously and spitefully persecute molest and afflict the Members of Christ for their Conscience sake and for the true testimony of Christs Word Cause them to be most unjustly slain and murthered without speedy repentance shall dwell with the Devil his Angels in the fiery lake everlastingly where they shall wish and desire cry and call but in vain as their right companion Epulo to be refreshed of them whom in this world they contemned despised
disdained as slaves misers and wretches The Bishop laid to my charge my not coming to Church Here I might have dallied with him and put him to his proofs Notwithstanding I answered him through Gods merciful help that I neither had nor would come at their Church as long as their Mass was used there to save if I had them five hundred lives The Bishop asking me who should judge the Word I told him Christ was content that the people should judge his Doctrine by searching the Scriptures and so was Paul Methinks ye should claim no farther priviledge nor preâ—eminence than they had The Bishop telling me He was my Bishop and therefore I must believe him If you say black is white said I must I also say as you say and believe the same because you say it is so Pa. 425. If you will be believed because you be a Bishop Why find you fault with the people that believed Mr. Latimer Mr. Ridley Mr. Hooper c. that were Bishops Because they were Hereticks said the Bishop And may not you erre quoth I as well as they I looked for learning at my Lords hand to perswade me and he oppressed me onely with his Authority He said I dissented from the Church and asked me where my Church was before King Edward's time I desired him to shew me where their Church was in Elias time and what outward shew it had in Christs time The tidings that I should be carried to Lichfield did at first somewhat discourage me fearing least I should by reason of my great sickness through extream handling which I looked for have died in the Prison before I should come to my answer But I rebuked immediately with Gods Word this infidelity in my self c. after this manner What make I of God Is not his power as great in Lichfield as Coventry Doth not his providence extend as well to Lichfield as Coventry Was he not with Habakkuk Daniel Meshach Jeremy in their most dangerous imprisonments He knows what things we have need of them He hath numbred all the hairs of our head The Sparrow falleth not to the ground without our heavenly Fathers will much more will he care for us if we be not faithless whom he hath made worthy to be witnesses of his truth So long as we put our trust in him we shall never be destitute of his help neither in prison nor in sickness nor in health nor in death nor before Kings nor before Bishops Not the Devil himself much less one of his Ministers shall be able to prevail against us With such like meditations I waxed chearful of good consolation and comfort So that hearing one say They could not provide Horses enough for us I said Let them carry us in a Dung-Cart for lack of Hoeses if they list I am well content for my part I told Jephcot the Chancellors Servant That they should have judgement without mercy that she weâ— no mercy and this mercy I found at his hand at Lichfield He put me into a Prison that same night where I continued till I was condemned in a place next to the Dungeon c. very cold with small light and there he allowed me a bundle of Straw instead of a Bed without Chair Form or any other thing to ease my self withall God of his mercy gave me great patience through prayer that night so that if it had been his pleasure I could have been contented to have ended my life In the time of my imprisonment I gave my self continually to prayer and meditation of the merciful promises of God made unto all without exception of persons that call upon the Name of his dear Son Jesus Christ I found in my self daily amendment of health of body increase of peace in conscience many consolations from God by the help of his holy Spirit sometime as it were a taste and glimmering of the life to come All for his onely Son Jesus Christs sake To him be all the praise for ever and ever The enemy cease not many times sundry wayes to assault me Oftentimes objecting to my conscience my own unworthiness of the greatness of the benefit to be accounted amongst those that suffer for Christ for his Gospels sake Against him I replied with the Word of God on this sort What were all those whom God had chosen from the beginning to be his Witnesses and to carry his Name before the world Were they not men Acts 24. Rom. 11. Rem 4. John 1. as well subject to sin and imperfections as other men be Who gave first unto him What hast thou that thou hast not received All have received of his fulness They were no bringers of any goodness to God but altogether receivers They chose not God first but God chose them They loved not God first but he loved them first Yea he both loved and chose them when they were his ene mies full of sin and corruption as well as void of all goodness He is and will be the same God as rich in mercy as mighty as able as ready as willing to forgive sins without respect of persons to the worlds end of all them that call upon him God is near he is at hand he is with all with all I say and refuseth â—one excepteth none that faithfully in true repentance call upon him in what hour what place or what time soever it be It is no arregancy 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 Psal 50. and I will hear thee and thou shalt praise me I answered â—he 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 â—ot worthy to profess it What bring I to pass in â—o doing but add sin to sin What is greater sin â—han to deny the truth of Christs Gospel He that 〈◊〉 ashamed of me or of my words saith Christ of him â—lso will I be ashamed before my Father and all his â—ngels I might also by the same reason forbear to â—o any of Gods Commancments When I am provoked to pray the enemy may say to me I am 〈◊〉 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 larely 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 the Church hath been
whether we fear more God or man It was an easie thing to hold with Christ whilst the Prince and world held with him but now the world hateth him it is the true trial who be his Wherefore in the Name and in the Vertue Strength and Power of his holy Spirit prepare your selves in any case to adversity and constancy Let us not run away when it is most time to fight Remember none shall be crowned but such as fight manfully and he that endureth to the end shall be saved Ye must now turn all your cogitations from the peril you see and mark the felicity that followeth the peril either victory in this world of your enemies or else a surrender of this life to inherit the everlasting Kingdome Beware of beholding too much the felicity or misery of this world for the consideration and too earnest or love fear of either of them draweth from God Wherefore think with your selves as touching the felicity of the world it is good but yet none otherwise than it standeth with the favor of God It is to be kept but yet so far forth as by keeping of it we lose not God It is good abiding and tarrying still among our friends here but yet so that we tarry noâ— therewithal in Gods displeasare and hereafter dwell with the Devils in fire everlasting There is nothing under God but may be kept so that God being above all things we have be not lost Of adversity judge the same Imprisonment is painful but yet liberty upon evil conditions is more painful The Prisons stink but yet not so much as sweet Houses where the fear and true honour of God is lacking I must be alone and solitary It is better to be so and have God with me then to be in company with the wicked Loss of Goods is great but loss of Gods grace and favour is greater I am a poor simple creature and cannot tell how to answer before such a great sort of noble learned and wise men It is better to make answer before the pomp and pride of wicked men than to stand naked in the fight of all Heaven and Earth before the just God at the later day I shall die then by the hands of the cruel man He is blessed that loseth his life full of miseries and findeth the life of eternal joyes It is pain and grief to depart from Goods and Friends but yet not so much as to depart from grace and heaven it self Pa. 157. Wherefore there is neither felicity nor adversity of this world that can appear to be great if it be weighed with the joyes or pains in the world to come I can do no more but pray for you do the same for me for Gods sake For my part I thank the heavenly Father I have made mine accounts and appointed my self unto the will of the heavenly Father as he will so I will by his grace I am a precious jewel now and daintily kept never so daintily for neither mine own man nor any of the Servants of the House may come to me but my Keeper alone Jan. 23. 1555. In another Letter Pa. 158. The grace mercy and Peace of God the Father through our Lord Jesus Christ be with you my dear Brethren and with all those that unfeignedly love and embrace his holy Gospel Amen We must give God thanks for the Truth he hath opened c. and pray unto him that we deny it not nor dishonour it with idolatry but that we may have strength and patience rather to die ten times over than to deny him once Blessed shall we be if ever God make us worthy of that honour to shed our blood for his Names sake and blessed then shall we think those Parents which brought us into this world that we should be carried from this mortality into immortality Col. 3. If we follow the command of Paul that saith If ye be risen with Christ seek these things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God we shall neither depart from the vain transitory goods of this world nor from this wretched and mortal life with so great pains as others do There is no better way to be used in this troublesome time for your consolation than many times to have Assemblies together of such men and women as be of your Religion in Christ and there to take and renew among your selves the truth of your Religion to see what ye be by the Word of God and to remember what ye were before ye came to the knowledge thereof to weigh and confer the dreams and false yes of the Preachers that now preach with the Word of God that retaineth all truth and by such talk and familiar resorting together ye shall the better find out all their lies that now go about to deceive you and also both know and love the Truth that God hath opened to us It is much requisite that the Members of Christ comfort one another make prayers together confer one with another so shall ye be stronger and Gods spirit shall not be absent from you but in the midst of you to teach you to comfort you to make you wise in all godly things patient in adversity and strong in persecution Ye see how the Congregation of the wicked by helping one another make their wicked Religion and themselves strong against Gods Truth and his people Ye may perceive by the life of our fore-fathers that Christs words In the world ye shall have trouble He that will live godly in Christ must suffer persecution be true for none of all his before our time escaped trouble then shall ye perceive that it is but a folly for one that professeth Christ truly to look for the love of the world Ye be no better than your fore-fathers Be glad that ye may be counted worthy Souldiers for this War and pray to God when ye come together that he will use and order you and your doings 1 That ye glorifie God 2 That ye edifie the Church and Congregation 3 That ye profit your own souls In all our doings beware ye be not deceived for although this time be not yet so bloody and tyrannous as the time of our fore-fathers that could not bear the Name of Christ without danger of life and goods yet is our time more perillous for soul and body Therefore of us Christ said Luke 18. Think ye when the Son of man cometh he shall find faith upon the earth He speaks not of being christened and in name a Christian but of saving Faith and doubtless the scarcity of Faith is now more and will I fear increase than it was in the time of the greatest Tyrants that ever were In Rev. 6. ye may perceive that at the opening of the fourth Seal came our a pale Horse and he that sate upon him was called Death and Hell followed him This Horse is the time when Hypocrites and Dissemblers entred into the Church under
a man that being vexed with adversaries and persecutions saw nothing but death and hell apprehending not only man but God angry with him yet he by Prayer humbly resorted unto God and put the hope of his salvation in him whom he felt his enemy In this command possess your lives by your patience God requires every one to be patient he saith not It is sufficient that other holy Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Evangelists and Martyrs continued their lives in patient suffering the troubles of this world but Christ saith it to every one of his people By your patience continue you your life not that man hath patience in himself but that he must have it for himself of God the only Giver of it if he purpose to be a godly man Besides as our Profession and Religion requireth patience outwardly without resistance and force so requireth it patience of the mind and not to be angry with God although he use us that be his own creatures as him listeth We may not murmure against God Pa. 162. but say alwayes his judgments be right and just and rejoice that it pleaseth him to use us as he used heretofore such as he most loved in this world Have a singular care to this command be glad and rejoice c. he sheweth great cause why because your reward is great in Heaven Mat. 5. Christ also takes from us all shame and rebuke as though it were not an honour to suffer for him because the wicked world doth curse and abhor such poor troubled Christians He placeth all his honourably saying Even so persecuted they the Prophets that were before you We may learn by things that nourish and maintain us both meat and drink what loathsomness and in a manner abhorring they come to before they work their perfection in us c. that whosoever saw the same would loath and abhor his own nourishment before it came to its perfection Is it then any marvel if such Christians as God delighteth in be so mangled and defaced in this world which is the Kitchin and Mill to boil and grind the flesh of Gods people in till they atchieve their perfection in the world to come Raw flesh is not meat wholesome for man and unmoâ—tified men and women be not creatures meet for God Christs people must be broken and all to torn in the Mill of this world and so shall they be most fine meant to their Heavenly Father We must therefore patâ—ently suffer and willingly attend upon Gods doings although they seem clean contrary after our judgement to our wealth and salvation as Abraham did when he was bid to offer his Son Isaac in whom God promised the Blessing and multiplying of his seed Joseph at the last came to that which God promised him although in the mean time after the judgement of the world he was never like to be as God said he should be Lord over his Brethren When Christ would make the blind man to see he put clay upon his eyes which after the judgement of man was a means rather to make his double blind than to give him his sight but he obeyed and knew that God could work his desire what means soever he used contrary to mans reasons To judge things indifferently the trouble be not yet generally as they were in our good Fathers time soon after the death and Resurrection of our Saviour Christ Mat. 24. Was there ever such trouble as Christ threatned upon Jerusalem Towards the end of the world we have nothing so much extremity as they had then but even as we be able to bear In another Letter I require you not to forget your duty towards God in these perillous days in the which the Lord will try us I trust you do increase by the reading of the Scriptures the knowledge you have of God and that you diligently apply your self to follow the same for the knowledge helpeth not except the life be according thereto I commend you to God and the guiding of his good Spirit to stablish and confirm you in all well doing and keep you blameless to the day of the Lord watch and pray for this day is at hand In his Letter to his charitable Friends in London For your liberality I most heartily thank you and praise God highly in you for you c. praying him to preserve you from all famine scarcity and lack of the truth of his Word which is the lively food of your souls as you preserve my body from hunger and other necessaries which would happen unto me were it not cared for by the charity of godly people Such as have spoiled me of all that I had have imprisoned me and appointed not one half-penny to feed or relieve me withall but I do forgive them and pray for them daily in my poor Prayer to God and from my heart I wish their salvation and quietly and patiently bear their injuries wishing no farther extremity to be used towards us yet if the contrary seem best to our heavenly Father I have made my reckoning and fully resolved to suffer the uttermost that they are able to do against me yea death it self by the aid of Christ Jesus who died the most vile death of the Cross for us wretched and miserable sinners But of this I am assured that the wicked world with all his force and power shall not touch one of the hairs of our heads without leave and license of our heavenly Father whose will be done in all things If he will life life be it if he will death death be it only we pray that our wills may be subject to his will If we be contented to obey Gods will and for his commands sake to surrender our goods and our lives to be at his pleasure it maketh no matter whether we keep goods and life or lose them Nothing can hurt us that is taken from us for Gods cause nor can any thing at length do us good that is preserved contrary to Gods command Let us wholly suffer God to use us and ours after his holy wisdome and beware we neither use nor govern our selves contrary to his will by our own wisdome for if we do our wisdome will at length prove foolishness It is kept to no good purpose that we keep contrary to his Commandments It can by no means be taken from us that he would should tarry with us He is no good Christian that ruleth himself and his as worldly means serve for he that so doth shall have as many changes as chances in the world To day with the world he shall live and praise the truth of God to morrow as the world will so will he like and praise the falshood of man to day with Christ to morrow with Antichrist Glorifie your heavenly Father both with your inward and outward man If ye think ye can inwardly in the heart serve him and yet outwardly serve with the world in external service the thing that is
not of God ye deceive your selves for both the body and soul must concur together in the honour of God 1 Cor. 6. for if an honest wife be bound to give both heart and body to faith and service in marriage and if in honest wives faith in the heart cannot stand with a who rish or defiled body much less can the true faith of a Christian in the service of Christianity stand with the bodily service of external idolatry for the mystery of Marriage is not so honourable between man and wife as it is between Christ and every Christian Therefore dear Brethren pray to the heavenly Father that as he spared not the soul nor the body of his dearly beloved Son but applied both of them with extream pain to work our salvation both of soul and body so he will give us all grace to apply our souls and bodies to be Servants to him Let us not deride our selves and say our souls serve him whatsoever bodies do to the contrary for civil order and policy But alas Pa. 164. I know by my self what troubleth you viz. the great danger of the world that will revenge ye think your service to God with sword and fire with loss of goods and lands but dear Brethren weigh on the other side that your enemies and Gods enemies shall not do as much as they would but as much as God shall suffer them who can trap them in their own counsels and destroy them in the midst of their furies Remember ye be the Work-men of the Lord and called into his Vineyard there to labour till Evening-Tide that you may receive your penny which is more worth then all the Kingdoms of the Earth but he that called us into his Vineyard hath not told us how fore and how fervently the San shall trouble us in our labour but hath bid us labour and commit the bitterness thereof to him who can and will so moderate all afflictions that no man shall have more laid upon him then in Christ he shall be able to bear unto whose merciful tuition and defence I commend both your souls and bodies Yours with my poor Prayer J. H. In a Letter to a Merchant of London I thank God and you for the great help and consolation I have received in time of adversity by your charity but most rejoyce that you be not alter'd from truth although falshood cruelly seeketh to disdain her Judge not my Brother truth by outward appearance for truth now worse appeareth and is more vilely rejected then falshood Leave the outward shew and see by the Word of God what is truth and accept truth and dislike her not though man call her falshood As it is now so it hath been heretofore truth hath been rejected and falshood received Such as have professed truth have smarted and the friends of falshood laughed them to scorn The one having the commendation of truth by man but the condemnation of falshood by God flourishing for a time with endless destruction the other afflicted a little season but ending with immortal joyes Wherefore dear Brother ask and demand of your Book the Testament of Jesus Christ in these woful and wretched dayes what you should think and what you should stay your selves upon for a certain truth and whatsoever you hear taught try it by your Book whether it be true or false The dayes be dangerous and full of peril not onely for the world and worldly things but for Heaven and neavenly things It is a trouble to lose the treasure of this life but yet a very pain if it be kept with the offence of God Cry call pray and in Christ daily require help succour mercy wisdome grace and defence that the wickedness of this world prevail not against us In his Letter to Mrs. Wilkinson I am very glad to hear of your health and do thank you for your loving tokens but I am a great deal more glad to hear how Christianly you avoid Idolatry and prepare your self to suffer the extremity of the world rather then to endanger your self to God You do as you ought to do in this behalf and in suffering of transitory pains you shal avoid permanent torments in the world to come Use your life and keep it with as much quietness as you can so â—hat you offend not God The ease that cometh with his displeasure turneth at length to unspeakaâ—le pains and the gains of the world with the loss of his favours is beggary and wretchedness In his Letter to Mr. Hall and his Wife The dayes be dangerous and full of peril but let us comfort ourselves in calling to remembrance the dayes of our Fore-fathers upon whom the Lord sent such troubles that many hundreds yea thousands died for the testimony of Jesus Christ both men and women suffering with patience and constancy as much cruelty as Tyrants could devise and so departed out of this miserable world to the bliss everlasting where now they remain for ever looking alwayes for the end of this sinful world when they shall receive their bodies again in immortality and see the number of the Elect associated with them in full and consummated joyes and as vertuous men suffering Martyrdom now rest in joyes everlasting their pains ending their sorrows and beginning their ease so did their constancy and stedfastness animate confirm all good people in the truth and gave them encouragement to suffer the like rather then to fall with the world to consent unto wickedness and idolatry Wherefore my dear Friends seeing God hath illuminated you in the same true faith wherein the Apostles and Evangelists and all Martyrs suffered most cruâ—â— death thank him for his grace in knowledge and pray to him for strength and perseverance that ye be not ashamed nor afraid to confess it Ye be in the truth and the gates of Hell shall never prevaiâ— against it nor Antichrist with all his Imps prove iâ— false they may persecute and kill but never overcome Be of good comfort and fear God more then man This life is short and miserable happy be they that can spend it to the glory oâ— God In his Letter to Mrs. Pa. 165. Warcop I did rejoyce to understand that you be fully resolved by Gods grace to suffer extremity rather then to go from the truth which you have professed As you be travelling this perillous journey take this Lesson with you practised by the Wise men Matth. 2. Such as travelled to find Christ followed onely the Star and as long as they saw it they were assured they were in the right way and had great mirth in their journey but when they entred into Jerusalem whereas the Star led them not thither but to Bethlem there asked the Citizens the thing that the Star shewed before they were not onely ignorant of Bethlem but lost the sight of the Star c. The Word is the onely Stat that sheweth us where Christ is and which way we may come
that you sin not and also the joy of eternal life whereunto you must endeavour Let the passions of our Saviour be never out of your minds that you may bear with him and for him gladly whatsoever shall be laid upon you for if you shall consider wel in your minds his Cross nothing shall be grievous unto you and patiently you shall give place to tribulations cursings rebukes stripes and imprisonment and shall not doubt to give your lives for his holy truth if need require Know ye Well Beloved that Antichrist being stirred up against you deviseth divers persecutions But I am in good hope Pa. 824. that through the mercy of our God and by your Prayers I shall persist strongly in the immutable verity of God unto the last breath I commend you to the merciful Lord Jesus Christ our true God and the Son of the immaculate Virgin Mary who hath redeemed us by his most bitter death without all our merits from eternal pains from the thraldome of the Devil and from sin From Constance A. 1415. In his Letter to his Benefactors I exhort you by the bowels of Jesus Christ that now ye setting aside the vanities of this present world will give your service to the eternal King Christ the Lord. Trust not in Princes nor in the Sons of men in whom there is no health for the Sons of men are dissemblers and deceitful To day they are to morrow they perish but God remaineth for ever He hath his Servants not for any need he hath of them but for their own profit unto whom he performeth that which he promiseth and fulfilleth that which he purposeth to give He casteth off no faithful Servant from him for he saith Where I am there also shall my Servant be yea the Lord maketh every Servant of his to be the Lord of all his possession giving himself unto him and with himself all things O happy is that Servant whom when the Lord shall come he shall find watching Happy is the Servant which shall receive that King of Glory with joy Wherefore well beloved Lords and Benefactors serve you that King in fear In his Letter to the Lord John de Clum The iniquity of the great Strumpet i.e. of the malignant Congregation whereof mention is made in the Apocalyps is detected and shall be more detected with the which Strumpet the Kings of the Earth do commit fornication fornicating spiritually from Christ and as is there said sliding back from the truth and consenting to the lies of Antichrist through his seduction and through fear or through hope of confederacy forgetting of worldly honour I rejoyced to perceive your mind now to give over the vanity and painful service of this present world and to serve the Lord Jesus Christ quietly at home whom to serve is to reign as Gregory saith whom he that serveth faithfully hath Jesus Christ himself in the Kingdome of Heaven to minister unto him as himself saith Blessed is that Servant whom when the Lord shall come he shall find waking and so doing Verily I say unto you that he rising shall gird himself and shall minister unto him This do not the Kings of the world to their Servants In another Letter As touching death God doth know why he doth defer it both to me and to my well beloved Brother Mr. Jerome who I trust will do holily and without blame and do know also that now he suffereth more valiantly then I my self a wretched sinner God hath given us a long time that we may call to mind our sins the better and repent for the same more fervently He hath granted us time that our long and great temptation should put away our grievous sins and bring the more consolation He hath given us time wherein we should remember the horrible rebukes of our merciful King and Lord Jesus and should ponder his cruel death and so more patiently may learn to bear our afflictions And moreover that we might keep in remembrance how the joyes of the liâ—e to come are not given after the joyes of this world immediately but through many tribulations the Saints have entred into the Kingdome of Heaven for some of them have been cut and chopt all to pieces some their eyes bored through some sod some roasted some slain alive some burned quick stoned crucified grinded between milstones drawn and haled hither and thither unto Execution drowned in waters strangled and hanged torn in pieces vexed with rebukes before death pined in prisons and afflicted in bonds and who is able to recite all the torments and sufferings of the holy Saints which they suffered under the Old and New Testament for the verity of God And it will be a marvel if any man now shall escape unpunished who dare boldly resist the wickedness and perversity especially of those Priests which can abide no correction In another Letter I desire Pa. 825. that if Audience be given me that the King will be there present himself c. And that you Right Noble and Gracious Lord John with the Lord Henry and the Lord Wencelaus c. if you may will be present and hear what the Lord Jesus Christ my Procurator and Advocate and most gracious Judge will put into my mouth to speak that whether I live or die you may be true and upright witnesses with me lest lying lips should say hereafter that I swerâ—ed from the truth which I have preached In another Letter My faithful and beloved in Christ be not afraid with their Sentence in condemning my Books they shall be scattered hither and thither abroad like light Butterflies and their Statutes shall endure as Spider-webs They were about to shake my constancy from the verity of Christ but they could not overcome the vertue of God in me They would not reason with the Scriptures against me c. And when I said I was desirous to be instructed if I did in any thing erre the chief Cardinal answered Because thou wouldst be informed there is no remedy but that thou must first revoke thy Doctrine according to the determination of fifty Batchelors appointed O high instruction These things I thought good to write unto you that you may know how they have overcome with no grounded Scripture nor with reason but onely did essay with terrours and deceits to perswade me to revoke and to abjure But our merciful God whose Law I have magnified was and is with me and I trust so will continue and will keep me in his grace unto death In another Letter Beloved I thought it needful to warn that you should not be discouraged because the Adversaries have decreed that my Books shall be burnt Remember how the Israelites burned the Preachings of the Prophet Jeremy and yet they could not avoid the things that were prophesied of in them Pa. 826. for after they were burnt the Lord commanded to write the same Prophesie again and that larger which was done It is also written in the Books of the