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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
world_n	great_a	hate_v	persecute_v	1,869	5	9.3649	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70635	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. ...	Mall, Thomas, b. 1629 or 30.; Mall, Thomas, b. 1629 or 30. Offer of farther help to suffering saints.; Ward, Samuel, 1577-1640.	1665 (1665)	Wing M330; Wing M332; ESTC R232057	171,145	273

her to d●e 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 Ward pag. 151. as if she had been going to a Wedding Mr. Ward tells us that s●e 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 Use 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 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 exhorted them thereto and gave them an example Glover Mr. Robert Glover in his Letter to his Wife hath many memorable passages Fox Vol. 3. pag. 422. the chief I shall collect I thank you heartily most loving Wife for your Letters sent to me in my imprisonment I read them with tears more than once or twice with tears I say for joy and gladness that God hath wrought in you so merciful a work 1 An unfeigned repentance 2 An humble and hearty reconciliation 3 A willing schm●ssion and obed●ence to the will of God in all things These your Letters and the hearing of your godly proceedings have much relieved and comforted me c. and shall be a goodly Testimony for you ar the great Day against many worldly and dainty D●mes which set more by their own pleasure and praise in this world than by Gods G●ory little regarding as it appeareth the everlasting health of their own souls or others So long as God shall lend you continuance in this miserable world above all things give your self continually to Prayer lifting up pure hands without anger wrath or doubting forgiving as Christ forgives And that we may be the better willing to forgive it is good often to call to remembrance the multitude greatness of our sins which Christ daily and hourly pardoneth and forgiveth us And because Gods Word teacheth us not onely the true manner of praying but also what we ought to do or not to do in the whole course of our life what pleaseth or displeaseth God Joh 12. and that as Christ saith The Word of God that he hath spoken shall judge us Let your Prayer be to this end especially that God of his great mercy would open and reveal more more daily to your heart the true sense knowledge and understanding of his mest holy Word and give 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 1 Cor. 1. 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 it 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 remembring alwayes as Christ saith Lots wife Luke 17. i. e. to beware of looking back to that thing that displeaseth God and nothing more displeaseth God than I dolatry that is false worshiping of God otherwise than 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 of perdition enemy to Christ Pa. 423. the Devils Deputy and Lieutenant the Pope Christs Church heareth teacheth and is ruled by his Word John 1 as he saith My Sheep hear my voice If you abide in me and my Word abide in you you be my Disciples Their Church repelleth Gods Word forceth all men to follow their traditions Christs Church dares not add nor diminish alter or change his blessed Testament Acts 7. 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 because they are not of the world but these persecute murther slay and kill such as profess the true doctrine of Christ be they in learning living conversation and other vertues never so excellent Christ and his Church referred the trial of their doctrine to the Word of God John 5. and gave the people leave to judge thereof by the same Word search the Scriptures But this Church taketh away the Word from the people and suffereth neither learned nor unlearned to examine or prove their doctrine by the Word of God The true Church of God laboureth by all means to resist and withstand the Iusts desires motions of the world the flesh the Devil these for the most part give themselves to all voluptuousness c. I likened them to Nimrod whom the Scripture calls a mighty Hunter telling them That that which they could not have by the Word they would have by the Sword and be the Church whether men will or no. Beware of such as shall advertise you something to bear with the world as they do for a season There is no dallying with Gods matters It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of God Remember the Prophet Elias 1 Chr. 18 Luke 9. Why halt ye on both sides Remember what Christ saith He that putteth his hand to the Plough and looketh back is not worthy of me And seeing God hath hitherto allowed you as a good Souldier in the foreward play not the Coward neither draw back to the rere-ward Saint John numbreth among them that shall dwell in the fiery Lake such as be fearful in Gods Cause Set before your eyes alwayes the examples of such as have

unto him But as Jerusalem stood in the way and was an impediment to the Wise men so doth the Synigogue of Antichrist that beareth the Name of Jerusalem i. e. the Vision of Peace and among the people now is called the Catholick Church standeth in the way that Pilgrims must go by through this world to Bethlem i. e. the house of bread or plentifulness is an impediment to all Christian Travellers yea and except the more grace of God be will keep the Pilgrim still in her that they shall not come where Christ is at all and to stay them indeed they take away the Star of Light which is Gods Word that it cannot be seen Ye may see what great dangers hapned unto these Wise men whilst they were learning of Lyars where Christ was 1 They were out of their way And 2 They lost their Guide and Conductor If we come into the Church of men and ask for Christ we go out of the way and lose also our Conductor and Guide that only leadeth us streight thither Sister take heed you shall in your journey towards Heaven meet with many a monstrous beast have salve therefore of Gods Word therefore ready you shall meet husbands children lovers and friends that shall if God be not with them be very le ts and impediments to your purpose You shall meet with slander and contempt of the world and be accounted ungracious and ungodly you shall hear and meet with cruel tyranny to do you all extremities you shall now and then see the troubles of your own conscience and feel your own weakness you shall hear that you be cursed by the sentence of the Catholik Church with such like terrours that pray to God and follow the Star of his Word and you shall arrive at the Port of Eternal Salvation by the merits onely of Jesus Christ Hudson When Thomas Hudson of Ailesham in Norfolk saw the Constable come to his house to apprenend him Fox Vol. 3 Pag. 869. he said Now mine hour is welcome friends welcome you be they that shall lead me to life in Christ I thank God therefore and the Lord enable me thereto for his mercies sake for his desire was and he ever prayed if it were the Lords will that he might suffer for the Gospel of Christ When Berry threatned him saying I will write to the Bishop my good Lord c. O Sir said he there is no Lord but God though there be many lords and many gods Wilt thou recant said Berry the Priest or no The Lord forbid said Hudson I had rather die many deaths then to do so When he came first to the Stake Pa. 870. he was very sad not for his death but for lack of feeling his Christ and therefore came from his Fellow-sufferers under the Chain and fell down upon his knees and prayed and at last he rose with great joy as a man new changed even from death to life and said Now I thank God I am strong and pass not what man can do unto me Hullier Mr. John Hullier Conduct in Kings Colledge at Cam●ridge suffered martyrdome at Cambridge April 2. A. 1556. In his Letter to the Christian Congregation Fox Vol. 3. pag. 696. It standeth now most in hand O dear Christians all them that look to be accounted of Christs flock at the great and terrible day when a separation shall be made c. faithfully in this time of great affliction to hear our Master Christs voice the onely of true Shepherd of our souls who saith Mat. 24. Whosoever shall endure to the end shall be saved In this time we must needs either shew that we be his saithful Souldiers Ephes 6. and continue in his battel to the end putting on the Armour of God the buckler of Faith the breast-plate of Love the helmet of Hope and Salvation and the Sword of his Holy Word with all instance of supplication prayer or else if we do not work and labour with these we are Apostates and false Souldiers shrinking most unthankfully from our Gracious and Sove●reign Lord and Captain Christ and leaning to Belial for he saith plainly Whosoever beareth not my Cross and followeth me cannot be my Disciple Luke 14. and No man can serve two Masters for either he must hate the one and love the other Mat. 6. or else he shall lean to the one and despise the other Elias also said unto the people Why halt ye between two opinions 1 Kin. 18. If the Lord be God follow him or if Baal be he follow him If Christ be that onely good and true Shepherd that gave his life for us then let us that bear his mark and have our consciences sprinkled with his blood follow altogether for our salvation his heavenly voice and calling according to our profession and first promise If we shall not certainly say what we can though we bear the Name of Christ John 10. we are none of his Sheep indeed for he saith manifestly My sheep hear my voice and follow me A stranger they will not follow but will flee from him for they know not the voice of a stranger The craft and wiliness of our subtile enemy is manifold and divers and full of close windings At this present day if he cannot induce one throughly as others do to savour his devillish Religion of good will and free heart to help to uphold the same yet he will inveigle him to resort to his wicked and whorish School-house to keep company with his Congregation there and to hold his peace and say nothing whatsoever he think c. by that subtile means flattering him that he shall both save his life and also his goods and live in quiet But if we look well on Christs holy Will Testament we shall perceive that he came not to make any such peace upon Earth nor that he gave any such peace to his Disciples I leave peace with you saith he my peact I give you John 14.15 16. not as the world giveth it give I unto you Let not your heart be troubled and fearful These things have I spoken unto you that in me ye should have peace in the world ye shall have affliction but be of good cheer I have overcome the world Luke 14. The Servant is not greater then his Lord and Master if they have persecuted me they shall also persecute you If any man come to me and hateth not his father and mother c. yea and moreover his own life it is not possible for him to be my Disciple Blessed be ye that now weep for ye shall laugh and woe be unto you that now laugh Pa. 697. for ye shall mourn and weep He that will find his life shall lose it Therefore the God of that true peace comfort preserve us that we never obey such a false Flatterer who at length will pay us home once for all bringing for temporal peace and

from the beginning said I though it bear no glorious shew before the world being ever for the most part under the Cross and affliction contemned despised and persecuted The Bishop contended on the other side that the● were the Church So cried all the Clergy agains● the Prophets of Jerusalem said I saying The Church the Church c. So much out of M● Glover's choice Letter After he was condemned Pa. 427. his heart was lumpish and desolate of all spiritual consolation whereupon fearing least the Lord had utterly withdraw● he made his moan to Mr. Austine Bernher his familiar friend telling him how he had prayed nig● and day to God and yet had no sense of comso● from him The Minister desired him to wait patiently the Lords leisure and howsoever his present seeling was yet seeing his cause was just he exhorted him constantly to stick to the same an● to play the man not doubting but the Lord in 〈◊〉 good time would visit him and satisfie his des●● with plenty of consolation whereof said M● Bernher he was right certain and sure and therefore desired him whenever any such feeling 〈◊〉 Gods heavenly mercies should begin to touch 〈◊〉 heart that then he should shew some significati●● thereof The next day as he was going to the place of his Martyrdome and was come within sight of the Stake although all the night before praying for strength and courage he could feel none suddenly he was so mightily replonished with Gods holy comfort and heavenly joys that he cried out clapping his hands to Austine and saying in these words Austine He is come he is come c. and that with such joy and alacrity as one seeming rather to be risen from some deadly danger to liberty of life than as one passing out of the world by any pains of death Godfrey When one called Godfrey de Hammele Heretick Ward pag. 157. he said No Heretick but an unprofitable Servant yet willing to die for his Lord and reckoning this death no death but a life Goodman Mr. Christopher Goodman See hit Sermon on Act. 4.19 Enlarged and Printed at Gena 1558. Pa. 216 c. an exiled Minister of Christ in Queen Mary's dayes declaring the cause of all the then misery in England and the onely way to remedy the same writes as followeth from Geneva If all in whom the People should look for comfort be altogether declined from God as in deed they appear to be at this present time in England without all fear of his Majesty or pity upon their Brethren Then assure your selves dear Brethren and Servants of God there can be no better counsel nor more comfortable or present remedy which you shall prove true if God grant you his Spirit and Grace to follow it then in continual and daily invocation of his Name to rest wholly and onely upon him make him your shield buckler and refuge who hath so promised to be to all them that are oppressed and depend upon him to do nothing commanded against God and your conscience prefering at all times the will of God to the will of men faying answering to all manner of persons This God hath commanded this we must do That God hath forbidden that we will not do If you will rob us spoil us for doing the Lords will to the Lord must you make answer and not to us for his goods they are and not ours If ye will imprison us behold you are oppressours if ye will hang us or burn us behold ye are murtherers of them which fear the Lord. And for our part if you take from us this vile and corruprible life we are sure the Lord will grant it us again with joy and immortality both of soul and body If God give you grace to make this or the like answer and strength to contemn their Tyranny you may be sure to find unspeakable comfort quietness of conscience in the midst of your danger and greatest rage of Satan And thus boldly confessing Christ your Saviour before men as by the examples of thousands of your Brethren before your faces God doth mercifully encourage you you may with all hope patience wait for the joyful confession of Christ again Pa. 218. before his Father and Angels in Heaven that you are his obedient and dearly beloved Servants being also assured of this that if it be the will of God to have you any longer to remain in this miserable world that then his Providence is so careful over you present with you that no man or power can take away your lise from you nor touch your body any farther than your Lord and God will permit them which neither shall be augmented for your plain confession nor yet diminished for keeping of silence for nothing cometh to the Servants of God by hap or chance whose hairs of their heads are numbred Whereof if ye be so assured at ye ought there can be nothing that should make you to shrink from the Lord. I they do cast you into Prison with Joseph the Lord will deliver you If they cast you to wild be●sts and Lions as they did Daniel you shall be preserved If into the Sea with Jonas P● 219. you shall not be drowned or into the dirty dungeon with Jeremy you shall be delivered or into the fiery Furnace with Shadrach Meshach and Abednego yet shall not be consumed Contrariwise if it be his good pleasure that you shall glorifie his holy Name by your death what great thing have you lost changing death for life misery for felicity continual vexation and trouble for perpetual rest and quietness churing rather to die with shame of the world being the Servants of God than to live among men in honour being the Servants of Satan and condemned of God Otherwise if you give place to the wickedness of men to escape their malice and bodily dangers you shew your selves therein to fear man more than the mighty and dreadful God him that hath but power of your body and that at Gods appointment then God himself who hath power after he hath destroyed the body to cast both soul and body into hell fire there to remain everlastingly in torments unspeakable And moreover Pa. 220. that which you look to obtain by these sinful shifts you shall be sure to lose with grief and trouble of conscience for this saying of your Master being true and certain that They which seek to save their life meaning by any worldly reason or policy shall lose it Mat. 16. What shall be their gains at length when by dissimulation and yielding to Popish Blasphemy they dishonour the Majesty of God to enjoy this short miserable and mortal life to be cast from the favour of God and company of his heavenly Angels to enjoy for a short time their goods and possessions among their fleshly and carnal Friends when as their conscience within shall be deeply wounded with hell-like torments when Gods curse and

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 unmo●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 pat●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

right Yet said Rolph take heed of him he is a blood-sucker c. I fear not said Alcock he shall do no more to me than God will give him leave and happy shall I be if God will call me to dye for his Truths sake In his first Letter to Hadley he writes thus O my Brethren of Hadley why are ye so soon turned from them which called you into the Grace of Christ to another Doctrine Though those should come unto you that have been your true Preachers and preach another way of salvation then by Jesus Christs death and passion hold them accursed yea if it were an Angel came from Heaven and would tell you that the sacrifice of Christs body upon the Cross once for all were not sufficient for all the sins of all those that shall be saved accursed be he Why cometh this plague upon us Cometh not this upon thee because thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God Thine own wickedness shall reprove thee and thy turning away shall condemn thee that thou mayest know how evil and hurtful a thing it is that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God Algerius Pomponius Algerius Fox Vol. 2. pag. 181. whilst he was a Prisoner at Venice before he was burnt at Rome writ thus in his comfortable Letter to the Christians departed out of Babylon into Mount Sion To mitigate your sorrow which you take for me I cannot but impart unto you some portion of my joyes which I feel to the intent you may rejoyce with me I shall utter that which scarce any will believe I have found a nest of honey an honey-comb in the entrails of a Lion In the deep dark Dungeon I have found a Paradise of pleasure In the place of sorrow and death tranquility of hope and life when others do weep I do rejoyce when others do shake and tremble there I have found plenty of strength and boldness in strait bands and cold irons I have had rest Behold he that was once far from me now is present with me whom once I could scarce feel I now see most apparently whom once I saw afar off now I behold near at hand whom once I hungred for the same now approacheth and reacheth his hand unto me he doth comfort me and heapeth me up with gladness he driveth away all bitterness he ministreth strength and courage c. O how easie and sweet is the Lords yoke Learn ye well-beloved how amiable the Lord is how meek and merciful who visiteth his servants in temptations neither disdaineth he to keep company with us in such vile and stinking Caves Will the blind and incredulous world think you believe this or rather will it not say thus No thou wilt never be able to abide long the burning heat the pinching hardness of that place c. The rebukes and frowning faces of great men how wilt thou suffer Dost not thou consider thy pleasant Countrey the Riches of the World thy Kinsfolk the delicate pleasures and Honours of this life Dost thou forget the solace of thy Sciences and fruit of all thy Labours Wilt thou thus lose all thy labours which thou hast hitherto sustained Finally fearest thou not death which hangeth over thee O what a fool art thou which for one words speaking mayest salve all this and wilt not But now to answer Let this blind world hearken to this again What heat can there be more burning then that fire which is prepared for thee hereafter What things more hard and sharp and crooked than this present life which we lead What thing more odious and hateful than this world here present And let these worldly men here answer me What Countrey can we have more sweet than the Heavenly Countrey above What treasures more rich or precious than everlasting life and who be our Kinsmen but they which hear the Word of God Where be greater riches or dignities more honourable than in Heaven And as touching the Sciences let this foolish world consider Be not they ordained to know God whom unless we do know all our labours our night-watchings our studies and all our enterprises here serve to no purpose all is but labour lost Furthermore let the miserable worldly men answer me What remedy or safe refuge can there be unto him who lacks God who is the life medicine of all men how can he be said to fly from death when he himself is already dead in sin If Christ be the way verity life how can there be any life without Christ The solely heat of the Prison to me is coldness the cold winter to me is a fresh spring in the Lord. He that feareth not to be burned in the fire how will he fear the heat of weather Or what careth he for the pinching frost which burneth for the love of the Lord The place is sharp and tedious to them that be guilty but to the innocent it is mellifluous Here droppeth the delectable dew here floweth the pleasant Nectar here runneth the sweet milk here is plenty of all good things In this world there is no mansion firm to me and therefore I will travel up to the New Jerusalem which is in Heaven and which offereth it self to me without paying any Fine or Income I have travelled hitherto laboured and sweat early and late watching day and night and now my travels begin to come to effect What man can now cavil that these our labours are lost which have followed and found out the Lord and Maker of the World and which have changed death with life If to dye in the Lord be not to dye but to live most joyfully where is this wretched worldly Rebel which blameth us of folly for giving away our lives unto death O how delectable is this death to me to taste of the Lords Cup. I am accused of foolishness for that I do not rid my self out of these troubles when with one word I may But doth not Christ say Fear not them which kill the body but him which killeth both body and soul and whosoever shall confess me before men him will I also confess before my Father which is in Heaven and he that denyeth me before men him will Falso deny before my Heavenly Father Seeing the words of the Lord be so plain how or by what authority will this wise Counsellor approve this his counsel which he doth give God forbid that I should relinquish the commandements of God and follow the counsels of men for it is written Blessed is the man that hath not gone in the way of sinners and hath not stood in the counsel of the ungodly c. Psal 1.1 God forbid I should deny Christ where I ought to confess him I will not set more by my life then by my soul neither will I exchange the life to come for this world here present This Letter he underwrit thus From the delectable Orchard of Leonine Prison 12 Calend. August An. 1555. Allen. Sir Edmond Tyrrel bidding Rose

Christ shall be on the same Augustine Boughs fall off trees said he and stones out of buildings Ward pa. 140. and why should it seem strange that mortal men dye Austine Austine a Barbar Fox Vol. 2. pag. 124. born about Hennegow in Germany as he was led to execution being desired by a Gentleman to have pity upon himself and if he would not favour his life yet that he would favour his own soul He answered What care I have of my soul you may see by this that I had rather give my body to be burned than to do that thing that were against my conscience B Babilas Babilas Bishop of Anti●ch St. Chrysost cont Gentiles being cast by Decius into a filthy stinking Prison for the name of Christ with as many irons as he could bear intreated his Friends that visited him that after his death they would bury with him the signs and tokens of his valour meaning his bolts and fetters Now said he will God wipe away all tears Ward pag. 141. and now I shall walk with God in the land of the living Bainham Mr. James Bainham Fox Vol 2. pag. 300. when he repented of his Recantation in Austin's Church in London He declared openly with weeping eyes that he had denyed God and prayed all the people to beware of his weakness and not to do as he did For said he If I should not return again unto the truth this Word of God he having a New Testament in his hand would damn me both body and soul at the Day of Judgement He perswaded them to die by and by rather than to do as he did for he would not feel such an hell again for all the worlds good When he was at the Stake in the midst of the flaming fire which had half consumed his Arms and Legs he spake these words O ye Papists Behold ye look for miracles and here now you may see a miracle for in this fire I feel no more pain than if I were in a Bed of Down it is to me as a Bed of Roses Barbevil John Barbevil said to the Friers that called him ignorant Ass Ward pag. 162. Well Admit I were so yet shall my bloud witness against such Balaams as you be Bale Mr. John Bale in his excellent Paraphrase in Apocalyps See the image of both Churches printed 1550. In his Preface He that will live godly in Christ Jesus and be a patient sufferer he that will stand in Gods fear and prepare himself to temptation he that will be strong when adversity shall come and avoid all assaults of Antichrist and the Devil let him give himself wholly to the study of this prophesie He that knoweth not this Book knoweth not what the Church is whereof he is a member It containeth the universal troubles persecutions and crosses that the Church suffered in the Primitive Spring what it suffereth now and what it shall suffer in the later Times by the subtilties of Antichrist and his Followers the cruel Members of Satan and it manifesteth what Promises what Crowns and what Glory the said Congregation shall have after this present Conflict with the Enemies that the promised Rewards might quicken the hearts of those that the Torments feareth Unto St. John were these Mysteries revealed when he was by the Emperor Domitianus exiled for his Preaching into the Isle of Patmos at the cruel Complaints of the Idolatrous Priests and Bishops and by him writ and sent out of the same exile into the Congregations The Contents of this Book are from no place more freely and clearly opened nor told forth more boldly than out of exile Flattery dwel●ing at home and sucking there still his Mothers breasts may never tell out the truth he seeth so many dangers on every side as displeasure of Friends decay of Name loss of Goods offence of Great men and jeopardy of Life c. The forsaken wretched sort hath the Lord provided alwayes to rebuke the world of sin hypocrisie blindness for nought is it therefore that he hath exiled a certain number of believing Brethren the Realms of England of the which afflicted Family my faith is that I am one Whereupon In have considered it is no less my bounden ●●uty under pain of damnation to admonish Christs flock by this present Revelation of their perils past and dangers to come for contempt of ●he Gospel which now reigneth there above all 〈◊〉 the Clergy Graciously hath the Lord cal●ed them especially now of late but his voice is ●othing regarded His Servants have they impri●ned tormented and slain having his Verity in much more contempt then before We looked for a time of peace saith the Prophet Jeremiah and we fare not the better at all we waited for a time of health and we find here nothing else but trouble And no marvel considering the Beasts head that was wounded is now healed up again so workmanly as Rev. 13. mentioneth The abominable hypocrisie idolatry pride and filthiness of those terrible termagaunts of Antichrists holy houshold those two-horned Whoremongers those Conjurers of Egypt and lecherous Locusts leaping out of the bottomless P●t which daily deceive the ignorant multitude with their Sorceries Charms must be shewed to the World to their utter shame and confusion To tell them freely of their wicked works by the Scriptures I have exiled my self for ever from mine own native Countrey Kindred Friends Acquaintance which are the great delights of this life and am well contented for the sake of Christ and for the comfort of my Brethren there to suffer poverty penury abjection reproof and all that shall come beside Here are we admonished before-hand of two most dangerous evils neither to agree with those Tyrants that wage war with the Lamb in his elect Members nor yet to obey those deceitful Bishops tha● in hypocrisie usurp the Churches Titles O those hath our heavenly Lord premonished us in this heavenly work of his and graciously called us away from their abominations lest we should be partakers of their sins and so receive of their plagues If we unthankfully neglect it the greate● is our danger Barlaam He holding his hand in the flame over the Altar Fox Vol. 1 pag. 118. Ward pag. 141. sung that of the Psalmist Thou teachest my hands to war and my fingers to fight I have been reported said Dr. Fox Vol. 2 pag. 527. Barnes at the Stake to be a Preacher of Sedition and disobedient to the Kings Majesty but here I say to you that you are all bound by the command of God to obey your Prince with all humility and with all your heart and that not onely for fear of the sword but also for conscience sake before God Yea I say further If the King should command you any thing against Gods Law if it be in your power to re●ist him yet may you not do it Basil When Valens the Emperour sent his Officers to him seeking to turn him from the

hangeth upon him that made thee who can as he please either twine it harder to last the longer or untwine it again to break the sooner Dost thou not then remember the saying of David Psa 104. When thou takest away thy Spirit O Lord from men they die and are turned again to their dust but when thou lettest thy breath go forth they shall be made and thou shalt renew the face of the earth Mat. 10. Remember the saying of Christ in his Gospel Whosoever seeketh to save his life shall lose it but whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it Again Whosoever loveth Father or Mother above me is not meet for me He that will follow me let him forsake himself and take up his Cross and follow me What Cross the Cross of infamy and shame of misery and poverty of affliction and persecution for his Names sake Let the oft falling of these Heavenly Showres pierce thy stony heart Let the two edged sword of Gods holy Word sheer asunder the sinews of worldly respects even to the marrow of the carnal heart that thou mayest once again forsake thy self and embrace Christ and like as good subjects will not refuse to hazard all in the defence of their earthly and temporal Governour so fly not like a white-liver'd Milk-sop from the standing wherein thy chief Captain Christ hath set thee in array of this life Psal 16. Fight manfully come life come death the Quarrel is Gods and undoubtedly the Victory is ours But thou wilt say I will not break unity what not the unity of Satan and his members not the unity of darkness not the agreement of Antichrist and his adherents Tully saith of Amity Amicitia non est nisi inter bonos But mark my Friends yea Friend if thou beest not Gods enemy there is no unity but where Christ knitteth the knot among such as he is The agreement of all men is not an unity but a conspiracy Thou hast heard some threatnings against those that love themselves above Christ and against those that deny him for love of life saith he not He that denies me before men Mat. 10. I will deny him before my Father in Heaven And to the same effect writeth Paul It is impossible that they which were once enlightened and have tasted of the Heavenly Gift and were partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted of the good Word of God if they fall away c. should be renewed again by repentance Heb. 10. And again If we shall willingly sin after we have received the knowledge of his Truth there is no oblation left for sin but the terrible expectation of judgement and fire which shall devour the adversaries Thus Paul writeth and this thou readest and dost thou not quake and tremble Well if these terrible thundring threatnings cannot stir thee to cleave unto Christ and forsake the world yet let the sweet consolation and promises of the Scriptures let the example of Christ and his Apostles holy Martyrs and Confessours incourage thee to take faster hold of Christ Hearken what he saith Mat. 5. Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you for my sake Rejoyce and be glad for great is your reward in Heaven For so persecuted they the Prophets that were before you Hear what Isaiah saith Fear not tho curse of men Isa 51. be not afraid of their blasphemies for worms and moths shall eat them up like cloath and wooll but my righteousness shall endure for ever and my saving health from generation to generation What art thou then saith he that fearest a mortal man the child of man which fadeth away like the flower and forgetteth the Lord that made thee that spread out the Heauens and laid the foundation of the earth I am the Lord thy God that maketh the sea to rage and be still whose Name is the Lord of Hosts I shall put my Word in thy mouth and defend thee with the turning of the hand Christ also saith unto his Disciples They shall accuse you Luke 12. Mat. 13. and bring you before Princes and Rulers for my Names sake and some of you they shall persecute and kill but fear you not and care you not what you shall say for it is the Spirit of your Father that speaketh within you even the hairs of your head are all numbred Pag. 35. Lay up treasures for your selves where no thief cometh nor moth corrupteth Fear not them that kill the body but are not able to kill the soul Mat. 10. John 15. but fear him that hath power to destroy both soul and body If ye were not of the world the world would love his own but because ye are not of the world but I have chosen you out of the world therefore the world hateth you Let these and such like consolations taken out of Scriptures strengthen you to God-ward Let not the examples of holy men women go out of your mind as Daniel and the rest of the Prophets of the three children c. Return return again into Christs war and as becometh a faithful warriour Eph. 6. put on that armour that St. Paul teacheth to be most necessary for a Christian man And above all things take unto you the shield of Faith and be you provoked by Christs own example to withstand the Devil to forsake the world to become a true and faithful member of his mystical Body who spared not his own Body for our sins Throw down your self with the fear of his threatned vengeance for this so great hainous offence of Apostacy and comfort your self on the other hand with the mercy blood and promise of him who is ready to turn unto you whensoever you turn unto him Disdain not to come again with the lost Son seeing you have so wandred with him Be not ashamed to turn again with him from the swill of Strangers to the delicate of your most benigne and loving Father acknowledging that you have sinned both against Heaven and against Earth Against Heaven by staining the glorious Name of God and causing his most sincere and pure Word to be evil spoken of through you Against Earth by offending so many of your weak Brethren to whom you have been a stumbling block through your sudden sl●ding Be not ashamed to weep bitterly with Peter to wash away the filth and mire of your offensive fall to say with the Publican Luke 18. Lord be merciful to me a sinner Remember the horrible History of Julian of old and the lamentable case of Spira of late whose case methinks should be so green in your remembrance that being a thing of our time you should fear the like inconvenience seeing you are fallen into the like offence Last of all let the lively remembrance of the last Day be alwayes before your eyes remembring the terrour that at that time shall befall the Runagates Fugitives from Christ who setting more by

leave the living God and his most holy commandment c. promising the world at will to all that will fall down and for a mess of pottage sell and set at naught the everlasting Kingdome of Heaven Therefore I am bold in bond as entirely desiring your everlasting selicity to warn you and most heartily desire you to watch and pray On the high mountains doth not grow most plenty of gra●s neither are the highest trees farthest from danger but feldome sure and alwayes shaken of every wind that bloweth Such a deceitful thing saith our Saviour is honour and riches that withour 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 Prov. 1. and blaspheme the Elect of God ye know that it did so unto Christ his Apostles and to all that were in the Prinitive Church and shall be unto the worlds end I beseech you in the bowels of Christ my Lord Jesus stick sast 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 Pa. 267. 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 derested 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 dreadfully 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. Pa. 268. 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 Jesus Hector Bartholomen Hector being condemned Fox Vol. 2 pag. 155. 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 Fox Vol. 3 cont pag. 5. he would answer them to nothing before he had made his Prayer to God Whereupon falling down upon 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. Julian Hernaudes Fox Vol. 3. cont p. 14. a Spanish Martyr came from the Wrack and the Tortures of the Inquisition inflicted on him for bringing with him and causing to 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 than 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 non is the hour come in which as the true Champions of Jesus 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 John Herwyn of Flanders Fox Vol. 3. Cont p. 17. was led to Prison the Ba●liffe 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 drankenness a sin What of that said the Ba●liffe 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 he art 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 he affirms That we ought to obey God rather that 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 Psal 14. 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 strife swhich reign in the world These troubles indeed arise from the rage of men And as for your learned men it is impossible for humane wisdom to comprehend the Doctrine of God for which cause Christ saith Father I thank thee that thou hast hid these secrets from the wise men of the world and hast revealed them unto Babes When those two Malefactors that were coupled with him brake Prison and fled he might have escaped but fearing his flight might be imputed to the godly Christians in the City he would not flye When he was advertised of his Sentence He thanked God for advancing him to so high an honour at to be counted worthy to suffer for his Name As he passed forth from the Court viewing the people who waited to see him he said See here how this wicked world rewards the poor Servants of Christ Whilest I gave my self to drunkenness c. I was never in danger of these bands lifting up his hands which were bound I was then counted a good fellow and at that time who but I But no sooner began I by conversion to ask after a godly life but the world made war upon me and became my enemy persecuting and imprisoning me and now last of all sending me to the place where I must pay my last debt Mat. 10.24 Joh. 15.20 But the Servant is no better than his Lord for seeing they persecuted him no question they will persecute us At the Stake he said Brethren I fight under the Standard and in the quarrel of my great Lord and Ca●tain Christ I am now going to be trucified follow you me when God of his goodness shall call you to it He was burnt Nov. 4. An. 1560. Hierome I find two of this Name 1. Fox Vol. 2 pag. 524. Mr. William Hierome Vicar of Stepney near London Being accused for preaching against Magistrates he affirmed as before he had preached That no Magistrate of himself could make any Law or Laws to bind the inferiour people unless it were by the power and authority of his or their Princes to him or them given but only the Prince Adding If the Prince make Laws consenting to Gods Laws we are bound to obey them and if he make Laws repugnant to the Laws of God c. yet we are bound not violently to resist or grudge against him At the Stake he gave the following Exhortation to the people Pa. 527. I say unto you good Brethren that God hath bought us all with no small price neither with gold nor silver nor other such things of small value but with his ●●st precious blood Be not unthankful therefore but do what you can to keep his Commandments Pa. 528. i. e. love your Brethren If God hath sent thee plenty help thy neighbour that hath need give him good counsel if he lack Bear your Cross with Christ Let all Christians put no trust nor confidence in their works but in the blood of Christ to whom I commit my soul beseeching you all to pray to God for me and for my Brethren here present with us c. 2. Mr. Hierome of Prague When he was brought Prisoner to Constance Fox Vol. 1. Pag. 832. several of the Bishops said unto him Hierome why didst thou fly and didst not appear when thou wast cited He answered Because I could not have any safe conduct c. and I would not my self be the occasion of my perils and danger but if I had known of this citation although I had been in Bohemis I would have returned again When certain cried out Let him be burned Pa. 833. let him be burned He answered If my death doth delight and please you in the Name of God let it be so When he was welcomed to Prison by a Friend of Mr. Hus saying to him Be constant and fear not death for the Truths sake of the which when you were at liberty you did preach so much goodness He answered Truly Brother I do not fear death and forasmuch as we know that we have spoken much thereof in times past let us now see what may be known or done in effect Vitus Asking him how he did He answered Truly Brother I do very well After a long sore imprisonment he was forced to recant and consent unto the death of Mr. John Hus that he was justly condemned and put to death but his hopes of freedome thereupon were disappointed Pa. 834. for they caused him to be carried back unto the same Prison but not so straitly chained and bound as before After his Recantation and Consent to the death of Mr. Hus he refused to answer to any Questions propounded to him in private except he might be brought before the Council They supposing he would confirm his former Recantation sent for him May 25. An. 1416. When he was brought before them Pa. 835. he began with Prayer to God beseeching him to give him Spirit ability and utterance which might most tend to the profit and salvation of his own soul Then he spake unto them thus I know that the●e have been many excellent men which have suffered much otherwise than they have deserved being oppressed with false witnesses and condemned with wrong judgement as Socrates Plato Anaxagoras Zeno Boetius Moses Joseph Isaiah Daniel and almost all the Prophets c. John Baptist Christ Stephen and all the Apostles who were condemned to death not as good men but as seditious stirrers up of the people contemners of the gods and evil doers This was the old manner of ancient and learned men and most holy Elders that in matters of Faith they did differ many times in Arguments not to destroy the Faith but to find out the Verity So did Augustine and Hierome dissent As for Mr. Hus he was a good just and holy man ●o his knowledge and much unworthy that death which he did suffer Pa. 836. At last he added That all the sins that ever he had committed did not so much gnaw and trouble his conscience as did that only sin which he had committed in that most pestiferous fact when as in his Recantation he had unjustly spoken against that good and holy man and his Doctrine and especially in consenting to his wicked condemnation Concluding that he did utterly revoke that wicked Recantation which he made in that cursed place and that he did it through weakness of heart and fear of death and that whatsoever he had spoken against that blessed man he had altogether lied upon him and that it did repent him with his whole heart that ever he did it Being again brought forth to have judgement given him and prest to recant what

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 no● 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

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 ●hat you offend not God The ease that cometh with his displeasure turneth at length to unspeaka●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 cru●● 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 prevai● against it nor Antichrist with all his Imps prove i● 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 o● 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