¶ An excellent comfort to all Christians, against all kind of calamities: Not less comfortable, then pleasant, pithy, and profitable: Compendiously compiled by john Perez, a faithful servant of god, a Spaniard (in Spanish) and now translated into English by john Daniel, of Clement's Inn, with divers additions by him collected and thereunto annexed.  ❧ MARK. XIII. 
¶ All men shall abhor you for my name's sake (saith Christ) but he that endureth to the end shallbe saved.  
Perused and allowed.  
AT LONDON. Printed by Thomas East, for William Norton: The ix day of August. An. Do. 1576.   

 blazon or coat of arms SCENTIA EIUS MUNDUS TRANSIT ET CONCUPI 
157●  
O thanks be given to God our Lord,  
that of his grace hath given:  
A key for us to ope the lock  
and let us into Heaven.    

TO THE RIGHT reverend Edmonde by the divine grace of the deity, Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of England, and Metropolitan of the same: Grace and peace from God the father, and from our Lord jesus etc.  
remembering myself (right Reverend) of the conjunction or knitting together of the members in one perfect body, and finding that by the health some health that is had in every of them, they have the greater joy together with their head, and so plunged in mule of the same, I called to mind the maimed & bruised body of jesus Christ (whereof we all are members) And when I had well considered the goodness of almighty God our purest and principallest Physician, & seen that he had ministered such medicine thereunto, as made such true health so flantingly to flourish in so many and such a number of the members thereof, I was moved to an exceeding delight: And as one delight oftentimes bringeth in an other, so did it hap unto me, because of the perfect health and soundness (which I assured my self of by faith) that I with all the rest should see in the end, to come and be upon every perfect limb, of the said spiritual body, from the head to the foot. But when I had perused and perfectly beheld, how our most merciful father was glorified, in that sodomitical country, so sinful a sink of sin, the country of Spain, by so faithful a fellow as was and is the Author of this my travail, in whom so valiantly the fountain of faith did flow, I was wholly ravished with joys: But as the foot helpeth the left hand, the left hand the right hand, and so all together do help their head: Even so I an inferior member, thought it good to participate parcel of these my joys unto your grace: whom I know to be a principal member in Christ's church for a certainty. I could declare wherein if Ars Adulandi, had not abhorred me, whom also I have been always at defiance with. But he needeth not here, for that it hath pleased the almighty jehovah that self said Physician so to increase your spiritual health, that such like fruit hath so corespondently proceeded, as by fame hath been manifested to many: and especially in that it hath pleased him the fountain of all goodness, so to blaze your faithfulness to the Queen's most excellent majesty, that her highness setting you in that self same seat, which your grace (under God and her excellency) now sitteth & possesseth most worthily, your perfectness is made manifest to all. I am sure that some amongst such a multitude as shall & will scan my doings herein, will account me fond, rude, and prodigally presumptuous, because that I (so simple) have taken upon me to present myself unto your grace, with this so worthy a work so rudely translated and penned: and so esteem the less thereof because it is done by me, who of late (whilst mine exhibition lasted) did study the common laws of England, & say by me as I have heard a number of them say by others the professors of true religion: Lo, behold I pray you, here is to be seen a seditious sower of errors in the church, he was of late a student at the la, a lusty youth, and now for lack of living he is become a clawebacke amongst the heretics & a prating protestant, (as though it were not possible for a youth, or a student at the la to be a true professor of christian religion) although that a great number of Lawyers be obstinate Papists (the more is the pity) yet thanks be to God, a many of them (to small) are very zealous of the true Religion (In Clement's Inn the most part are) But for an answer to all such as shall thus impudently defame me, I say as followeth. Am I fond do they say, because I have dedicated it to your grace, not surely: for why, I am well advised and do know that you will accept it in good part, for that I have seen and marked very well, ever sithence your G. coming to the Bishopric of London, how that all the enemies to idleness and vice (or as many as you knew) were advanced, and for the contrary the lovers thereof and abhorrors of virtuous exercise, were supressed. Your setting forth of virtue, and punishing of vice hath much moved me to look upon myself, and made me to forget that brain sick and that lewd rule of life which I have led in the company of some of those that will so play the gnatoes against me behind my back: and hath altogether moved me to this enterprise. I (though rude) have not done it upon any point of prodigal presumption, but most humbly have I done it, bending myself with all humility to a bide the gentle correction of your grace, if in any thing I have offended thereby (which my hope is I have not) And although I be poor, do lack the worlds goods to live with all, and therefore do now and then abide the bitterness of the cross of poverty, yet what then, it hath not made me a clawback of heretics. A clawback I abhor, and so I do an heretic also: the want of living, I thank God for, if it were his pleasure I should have it, he hath enough for me, I seek not for it by flattery, neither am I a flatterer. And again, I know that by so honest a quality, so godly an exercise as this is, there is very little to be gotten of the world, or of any of the ministers thereof: as of late I proved by dedicating of a small translation out of Spanish (as this was) to the Lord Maior, and magistrates of the City of London, it is entitled a general pardon for sin, it was well worthy to be received, and so it was of a certain of the chiefest of them, and I contented therewith: but yet there were some, that when I was so ready to deliver it, they were as slow to receive it, and had as little leysor as those which are spoken of by Christ in the xiv. Chapter of S. Luke: they were so busied with buying and assuring of land, of farms, of yokes of Oxen, with marrying of wives, & with usury, that they had no leisure to look upon my book, nor yet to give me God a mercy, and much less any part of their purse for my pains, but have rather hated me eversithens. The which hath not made me to think to gain any worldly living to enrich myself hereby, neither have I done it to please heretics with all, nor yet do I think that my profession herein is heresy: for why I am sure that heretics will be angry with me for it: And as for the book I will justify it with and against all Baalites, that will any way backbite me therefore) to be true and perfect religion (under your grace's correction) according to the truth & true meaning of Christ our head. And as for the name of a protestant (though not a prattling protestant) I am very glad to bear it at their hands: for in deed, I do protest & before god do utterly abandom & forsake the devil and all his works as I have professed in my baptism: and also I do protest, forsake, and (by the help of God) for ever do renounce Antichrist & all his members with all their devilish doctrine and delusions: in such sort that if (as S. Paul saith) my soul be not oversoon dissolved from my body, by the grace and favour of God I will compile and translate together greater volumes, notwithstanding that the despite of my backbiting enemies be never so great. And yet surely there be these and such like counterbuffeting of Satan, as are sufficient (if the strength of God's spirit were not) to discourage me, and one cause is amongst the rest, for that here in England, we are grown to be like unto the children of Israel, they did loathe & abhor Mamna, a most precious food sent them down from hea●en: and we do begin to loathe the divinity of the scriptures, as sweet a food for our souls sent us from the same place: so as the writers of divinity can scarce obtain to have their copies printed: for why, the printing of paganical histories & toys to mock Apes with all, are more profitable unto the printer towards his charges, then are the books of godly instruction, such is the vanity of us, the Lord for his mercies sake amend it, and grant your grace some politic device to redress it if it be possible. Amen.  
It may be, now that I have made this answer, to these and such like good fellows as I have before spoken off: that they will assault me a fresh and say, that I have spent this travail for an other purpose, and that is, because I would show my skill, and so find fault with me, for that I have used no more eloquence. But yet they are deceived, I have not done it to any such end, because I have it not. I want the eloquence of Tully, 
A God of the Poets feigning.  and the help of Mercury the God of that Art: And again we need none of them not their helps herein, for that a professor of divinity aught to speak properly & not eloquently. And also it is not skill but good will that bringeth men unto God. And therefore they that shall say, that I have done it for any of those causes do me great wrong. I have done it for three other causes, which is to say, for policy, love, & hope: for policy, because I have seen proved by experience, that he which is a weak Soldier, speedeth best under the enfeign or banner of the best, strongest, & valiantest Captain: I thought it good to play the like part, and so to shroud myself under the banner of your Grace's protection, thinking thereby to be sufficiently armed at proof, to defend myself from the worst that either Zoilus, Momus, or Baalit, 
Rom. 12.13. 1. Cor. 13. Ephe. 5. john. 15. 1. Pet. 2. 1. joh. 3.4.  with all their company can do to me. For love, because of the exhortations that the Apostles Paul, Peter, & john, have in divers places of their Epistles, incited me unto: S. john in the first Epistle and the third Chapter, after that he had strongly persuaded that we should love in verity, & not in words, said: that whosoever hath this worlds goods, and seeth his brother have need, & doth shut up his compassion from him, hath not (& is without) the love of God in him. I have none other riches, wherefore I thought it good to bestow and distribute this among my brethren, trusting they will take it in good part. For hope, because I am persuaded that your grace will so well like of the book, that my hope is I shall be greatly encouraged, so well to spend time hereafter, that in all godly doings I shall reap the commodity of so godly a patron. And that although my well doing be not so well as I wish, yet that your grace will say for me, in magnis et voluisse sat est. And thus because you should not say unto me, ne quid nimis, I will grow to an end: And though I have not nor can not so purely polish it as I would, yet what them, I do not doubt but that it will be uttered well enough, because vino vendibili suspensa hedera nihil opus, wherefore I do fully finish. Praying, you of your gracious pardon for my tedious rudeness, and that it may please God to grant you as much joy, and felicity as may be wished to any, the true teaching of the scriptures, the love and favour of God and our most gracious Queen, long life, prosperous success in all your grace's affairs. And after the change of this life the greatest happiness of all, which is life everlasting. Amen. The ix day of August.  
¶ Your grace's most humbly to serve obediently, john Danyell.  Egroto dum anima, spes est.  

❧ To the Reader.  
MY mazed mind (O friendly Reader) is so fearful that I am half afraid to let you see this my finished travail: not for that I have any doubt of your joyful receiving of the same, because I know the title thereof, will draw you to the perusing of it thorough out: the which done, I presume it will be the rather excepted and detained, in especially of such as be or have been afflicted with any kind of the crosses of Christ whatsoever. Because that any such a one, should find great profit thereby: for why, in deed it is an excellent comfort against any kind of calamity. But surely if it happen into the hands of some such as I know: it will be esteemed even as pearl among swine, & so to be compelled either to fry in the fire, or else to rot upon the donghell. This (gentle Reader) is the cause of my fear: for that in the translating of it, I did find so precious a jewel thereof as for a certainty, if I should by fortune see it so evilly entreated, it would bring me into an exceeding grief & colour for the same: the cause why, is for that I am in a marvelous love therewith, for the great profit I have had thereby. This time twelve month by the great goodness of God, I was visited with a grievous sickness, the which (as many a one can tell) did tie and compel me to keep my bed and chamber viii. or ix. weeks, I had read this book in Spanish divers times before, and had begun to translate a part thereof, the which, with the whole matter (dear friends) in the book contained, was no small pleasure for me to remember: Surely it was my exceeding comfort. I vowed then to finish the translation thereof, the which now I thank God is done & ended, with a general publication thereof among you: beseeching you and every of you to whose hands it shall come, to peruse it diligently over, that ye may perfectly have the same in mind, so that if need be, you may thereby receive consolation, & answer in my behalf against as many as shall reprove me in mine absence for my travail therein. I am sure that some will reprove me and say, quam quisque norit artem, in hac se exerceat, let every man exercise himself in the art or faculty which he knoweth, Sed stultus stulta loquitor, but a fool speaketh foolish things. And therefore as one that passeth not greatly what be said against me by any of them, I do banish all fear and wax sturdy, considering that Audaces fortuna juuat, fortune helpeth men of good courage, for Timidi nunquam Statuerunt ad tropheum, cowerdes never got victory. And therefore as one thus emboldened, I rest to abide the battery of any assalter whatsoever, trusting of your aid as necessity requireth, the which if I have, you make me yet more boulder to give a greater attempt.  
Thus far ye well. john Daniel.   

Faults escaped in the printing.  
Leaf line page fault. Correction. 7 9 1 joquitor joquitur 14. 16 2 not ourselves we ourselves, 15 20 2 satisfy satisfy, 16 24 2 know known, 18. 11 2 is mercy, his mercy, 36. 14 2 see him, see in him. eodem 27  unhappy happy, 40. 3 2 toss, toase, 50. 5 1 as us, 52. 9 1 dootst doest, 57 8 1 we deprived we be deprived, 87 6 2 captivity, captivate, 110 8 1 tried, tiered 112 6 2 so to be poped so all to be poped, 113. 6 1 masters, master 215. 25 1 were are 128 6 1 we die it die 132. 2 2 by their by the 134 10 2 deserneth, deserveth, 137 17 2 blasphemy blasphemors, 142 23 1 Hrophet, prophet, eodem 20 2 cares, cares from us 145 5 2 triant, tyrant, 148 22 2 perisheth, perished, 152 11 1 also, and also, 153 20 1 There is, (we be not ignorant of that) which is superfluous because it is printed twice. 154 9 1 doth he, he doth, 155 27 2 sudden, so disdain, 157 10 2 sheets, sheets, 158 3 1 because, because, 159 14 1 Membrothe, Nembrothe, eodem 5 2 much, is much, 160 2 1 to the israelites his israelites,   

The Argument of the Book.  
THe Author hereof was a Spaniard, and lived in Spain a country of great persecution, by the spirit of God he did rightly understand the scriptures, being greatly persecuted, he doth very divinely comfort himself, giving hereby the like unto others in any kind of calamity, exhorting therewith patience, and doth prove that patience bringeth experience, and that experience bringeth hope, and so love etc. with a conclusion that great blessedness is the end of all. Also he doth express by shadows, divers kinds of cruelties practised by divers Tyrants in parties beyond the Seas: with a plain declaration of the constancy of divers Martyrs, that have died by many kinds of death, truly testified by authority sufficient, so comfortable & delightful as is possible. etc.  In Mundo in coelis in perpetuisque tenebris est labour est requies et sunt sine fine dolores hunc far, ut hanc spears illos conamene vites. 
G. R.   

¶ Of the will of God, an entry into the comfort, with a persuasion to know the will of God perfectly.  

The first Chapter.  
THe grace and peace of God our father, and of our Lord jesus Christ, be with you all that trust in his mercy, and that call upon him with a pure heart, desire his coming, and the setting forth of his glory. By the which may it please him to comfort us all, and to give us strength by the virtue of his holy spirit, against all the common temptations, that we (which are partakers of his reconciliation) are afflicted with in this world. 
1. Peter ●. &. 1.9.10.  For that by them we might not be discouraged, but rather made constant till the end, in the grace that god hath given us to know his son jesus Christ for the author of our salvation: 
Hebr. 7. &. 25.  and everlasting advocate before his divine majesty, because we might have by his only righteousness, a firm & sure hope, to enjoy wholly the eternal inheritance, promised to all those which are sanctified by the word of truth. Amen.  

1. Cor. 10, &. 13,  God is so faithful that he will suffer nothing to touch us, without his express will, 
Math. 10. &, 29 30.31 Psal. 113, & 4.5,  whose potency & might, is without any determinate end, equal with his will, for that he may & can all that he will, & will nothing that doth not serve for his honour & glory, 
Rom. 8. & 17, 29,  & for the health of his chosen, which maketh that all things how adversse so ever they be, do serve us for our health, 
Collo. 1. &. 18, Ephes. 1. &, 22.  wealth, & prosperity. And for the god hath given us of his clemency jesus Christ his son to be our head, & made us all members of his holy body, it is not possible (so being) but that one of us should feel spiritually the pain & trouble of another, how far soever we be distant a sondre corporally, because the spirit of jesus Christ (by the which we his members do live) hath conjoined, knit & united us more nigher & closer together than is the soul to the body  
Forasmuch dearly beloved brethren, (according to my hope) that I am partaker of the mercy that we all shall receive, in the name & behalf of the lord that did give his life for ours, I have thought it good to comfort you in your afflictions, with the which you are troubled and oppressed in this world, 
2. Timo. ●. &. 11.12,  only because you would live faithfully in Christ jesus. For the quickened & strengthened by the word of truth, I am partaker of the joy of your consolation & comfort, & also of the firmness of your faith, for the I have hope in his goodness, 
Rom. 14. &. 8,  that he will make perfect his work in every one of us, 
Philip. 1. &. 20. 21.2●.  in such manner & sort that by all ways & means possible, he may be glorified, all be it we live or die, because that in life & death he is our gain & we his glory. The persecution that we suffer now at these days is cruel, very perilous & dangerous, for that they which persecute us, are no Turks nor Pagans' in their profession, but baptized as we are, and that say they have a zeal and love to god as we have, and in that they use and put in ure to afflict us with, they do it to serve god & to merit or deserve Heaven. (But greatly deceived no doubt) wherefore we aught to procure to be so much the more certain and sure of our vocation and calling, & of the good will that God had and hath unto us, and that we do not doubt by no way nor means of the immutability and firmness of his divine council, 
Ephes. 1. & 4.5 Collo. 2. &. 5.15. john. 17. &. 5.  with and by the which he did determine before the beginning of the world to save us in Christ jesus, in knowledge of whom doth concist all our wealth, comfort, and consolation.  
The want of knowledge & the doubt had hereof, is wont to, & doth engender great amazedness, dismayings, & troubles, in the minds of some of the faithful, it doth make them fearful, weak, full of cowardice, sad, discomforted, mistrustful, and doth put them into great forgetfulness of the benefits which they have received of God. From hence doth also arise, grow, & springe, those deep mornings, groanings, and sighings, with the which many seeing themselves afflicted for the truth, do repent them that they have used their ears, heard, and believed the voice of the Lord. Because that they seeing the adversities that do succeed & follow, by reason of professing and confessing the name of jesus Christ, they call it guile and deceit, and do return again to wallow in the dirty mire of their old errors, 
2. Pet. 2. &. 22.  and superstitions in which they were before their calling, & do become more enemies to God, and more cruel against the truth, 
Math. 12. &. 45. 2. Pet. 2. &. 20.  by means whereof their last ending is worse than their beginning. And for the contrary, to know the truth thereof aright, and well, and to have the same printed in the heart, it doth make the good christian the stronger against all kinds of adversities, and the more mighty to war and fight, magnanymousely & manfully, against all the might & force of hell, and never more to turn his shoulders to the enemy, but doth become from day to day the more enriched with heavenly gifts whereby he is made the more exceptable to god. All that is against jesus Christ in the world maketh war & contradiction against him, but yet he overcometh all victoriously, and most triumphantly, by the virtue and strength of his perfect knowledge thereof. And how much the more as it is printed in his heart, so much the more shallbe increased his comfort in the time of affliction & persecution, more strong firm & constant in adversity, 
Math. 7. &, 24  more burning in desire to be with god, greater in disdain of the world, 
Luke, 6, &. 48.  and of all the delights the reigneth therein, & know the better how to sanctify the name of the Lord, and to demand with more fervent zeal that his kingdom may quickly come, because his enemies might be destroyed wholly, and that he alone might be obeyed and reign in the consciences of all those which he hath redeemed with his most precious blood.   

What we were before our being reduced to God. Cap. two.  
IF we did understand how the sin which we did commit against God in the beginning did leave us, after it had once gotten power & empery over us, we should understand aswell how great the love & goodness of him was, that did redeem and take us out of the same, and deliver us from the condemnation, so justly due unto us for it. The devil by sin did break in and destroy all goodness that God had endued us with, by the which we were clearly known to be his own workmanship, he did blot out the Image of god which was graven in our souls so that the likeness of him by whom we were created, was taken quite from us, 
Genes. 3. & 2.3, 4. etc.  & we deprived of all kind of holiness & righteousness, & also made strangers to all truth & cleanness. He did leave us without the direction & liberty that we had to comfort ourselves with, in all things by the divine will of god. Finally we did remain void & emptied, of all those gifts & graces, with the which God had adorned, beautified, & enriched us, to be served by: Because we might have him evermore to be our god, and that we might be known to be his children, & by the effect of those his wicked works in the world, he did destroy in us all the good that god had given us: 
Fruits of the Image of the devil  so that we remained full of all evil, that is to be abhorred, and contrary to god. For that the devil in place of the perfect picture, Image, and likeness, of him that was in us, did put his own. And so we were full of all unrighteousness of life, hypocrisy, 
Rom. 8. & 29.30. etc.  fornication, malice, covetousness, envy, guile, hatred, wickedness, abominable abhorrours & haters of god and his truth, 
Titus. 3. & 2.3. etc.  proud, vain glorious, disobedient, unfaithful, without understanding, altogether blind and without mercy, made at the last a pestilent picture even like unto the devil, whose captives we were.  

Ephes. 2. &. 1 2.3. Collos. 2. &. 22.23.  In the Epistle to them of Ephesus, Saint Paul declareth, and in them to us, that such was our condition before God did call us. And you saith he were dead by your own delights of sin, in the which sometime ye walked according to the course of this world, after the prince and governor that ruleth in the Air, which is the spirit that now worketh in the children of unbelief, among the which we all in times past have been conversant, in desires of the flesh, and fulfilled the will and mind thereof, so that by nature we were the children of wrath. And thus he concludeth that in us there was not one spot of goodness, nor righteousness, but that we were in all subject to the devil, & that all our delights and pleasure, was in naughtiness and infidelity, so that all our works were of the flesh, corrupted and accursed. 
Rom. 8. &. 8  Because that if the flesh be an enemy to God, and not subject to his law, nor may nor can be. All the works that proceed thereof is so likewise, and plain demonstrations of the hatred of the truth, wherewith the heart should be possessed. And if that all humane thoughts (or thoughts of men) do from the beginning tend to evil, 
Genes. 6. &. 2.3.  all works done by them, be of the same quality, evil, condemned, lost, & provokers of gods great indignation and ire: so that all our evil cometh by nature. At the first we were the children of god, now by sin we are the children of his wrath, 
Ephes. 2. &. 1.  that is, wholly lost, banished, & disinherited of his riches & goodness, & moreover enemies to all that doth please him. 
Psal. 14. & 2 Psal. 53. &. 2.4.  All of us are corrupted & abominable (saith the Prophet) there is none that doth good, there is none, not not one. Then being by sin and the flesh all corrupted, what may spring & come thereof but cursed stick of such efficacy, the it corrupteth all goodness by the which it passeth. By reason whereof we are compared by the same prophet to an open sepulchre where there is nothing but bodies dead & rotten, 
Psalm. 5. &. 10.11.  & full of worms, 
Psal. 104. &. 3.  from whence may nor can come nothing, but such cruel stink as doth infect, corrupt and kill. The mouth of this sepulchre is our throat, as the said Prophet saith, 
Psalm. 10. &. 7.  & the we carry the venom of wasps under our tongues, because all the cometh out of the mouth is of such force that it killeth. Our mouths are full of cursing and bitterness: 
prover. 1. &, 16.  we have our feet swift to run to shed blood, 
Psalm. 14. &. 5, 6,  our ways & manners of living are mortal & deadly aswell for that they kill, as also for that there is nothing in them but calamities and griefs, misadventures and mischiefs, which are plain testimonies of our perdition. 
Rom. 3. & 16, 17, etc.,  For in that miserable servitude of sin, in the which we were tied & deceived, we did not know the way of peace, for that we did know nothing that might please god, whereby we might be reduced or brought again to his friendship, we were destitute of the fear and righteousness of God. We did run like unbridled horses, into all kind of wickedness, if it had not been for the vain fear of men, we had committed openly and publicly all kind of vice, which was hidden in our hearts.  
A man after that the soul is departed from the flesh, there resteth nothing but to bury the body, for that it is worms meat. Even so we, being dead in sin and sinful delight, and God separated from our souls, there remaineth nothing but to be buried in Hell, and to be made food for eternal Death which we have most justly deserved, in such wise, that if god would give sentence definitive against us, & shut us from the process of his goodness and mercy, we should be constrained, by our own proper consciences, to confess and yield ourselves, to be well and righteously condemned. Because our works, our thoughts, our desires, hearts and all that we have within us, hath condemned us and forced God unto it: who will not suffer so much unrighteousness, nor yet tolerate so great and monstrous slanderours of his truth, and beauty of his work, the which were not ourselves, before our fall into that estate so miserable, all that was in us, was matter and cause of just condemnation, and to stir up the wrath and judgement of God, by the which all shallbe destroyed and consumed, 
john. 1. & 5.6.7. etc.  because that all was darkness, malediction, sin, and the fruits of sin, deformed, and extreme contrary, to that which God doth require of us, in such manner that we had not nor could not, do any thing that was good: 
Math. 12. &. 33,  for that we were evil tréese corrupted & rotten, which cold not bring forth good fruit, by reason whereof we have been wholly subject to all the foresaid pains and punishments, curse & malediction that was due unto us, & there hath rested nothing but to be cut of from all the goodness of God, and put in the company of the devil and of his ministers all ready condemned.   

Of our blindness in times past. The third Chapter.  
THose works which we held for good, wherein we busied ourselves most earnestly, in those times passed when as we did think to do god good service thereby: they were of such condition and quality, that by them we did so offend him, that we brought ourselves more deeply into the lake of perdition. Then we fasted, 
Math. 15. &. 7.  we used disciplines of men's traditions, 
Esai. 2●. &. 1●.  we caused masses to be said, & often times we did hear them, we erected chapels & chantries we prayed with prime and hours, we were full of devotion for souls in purgatori, we did choose dead saints to be our advocates, to the deity, that we might escape from the wrath & condemnation thereof, by means of them. We did make unfaithful promises and unlawful vows, we took Bulls, we walked stations & pilgrimages, we sought for pope antichrists pardons, we were awriculerly confessed, & did receive the Sacrament the oftener, that we might be accounted the more holy, & merit salvation the rather. We had them that would lend or cell us merits or deservings, because that Death should not take us unprovided. But what had we hereby to present to god for to satisfy him for our sins, these and other the like things we did for to serve him with, & to obtain grace & glory at his hands. But with them all, although they were seen & allowed of men, yet it did not open the kingdom of heaven, but rather 'cause it to be shut up, & the gates of hell to be set wide open. Because, that all that is most high, sublimate, 
Luke, 16, &, 18,  & supreme, in estimation amongst men, is greatest abomination before God. Who doth neither allow nor yet is well pleased with any thing that he doth not command. 
Deut, 12. &, 8, 16,  
Esai. 1. & 14.  Neither doth any man do any thing at all according to his will without his spirit & nourishment. Those things which we do to serve him cannot please him, because he hath condemned them by his word already for sin. 
Rom. 14. & 1.2. etc.  For that they proceed of our own opinions, and the opinions of our fleshly teachers, & not of the knowledge and love of his holy william. For all that cometh not thereof is sin, as the holy Apostle doth testify. 
Math. 22. &. 37.  The sum of all that the law divine doth ask and require of us, 
Math. 23. &. 23,  is to love God with all our heart, and our neighbours as ourselves, to do right, to love mercy, and to have faith. The works that we do under that title & name of holiness, 
Hebre. 11. & 1.2. etc.  are not comprehended in the law, they proceed not of righteousness, mercy and faith, without the which it is impossible to please God, and therefore he doth throw them away as wicked and evil, and we ourselves for most wicked and evil with them. 
E●a●. 1. &. 11. jere. 6. &. 20.  And then if the worcks and sacrifices that he doth command in his law, be not done according to his commandment, he doth cast them out for evil and abominable, and saith that he is angry with them, & so angry at them that he can suffer them no longer. How much the more than may he be angry, & account for evil, those works which he doth not command, 
Math. 5. & 19 etc.  but by his word doth rather expressly forbid them. So that all our feigned holiness, is testimony or witness against us, of our greater blindness and condemnation, and will 'cause the wrath of God, to come the sooner to rest upon us. 
john. 9 & 18.19. etc.  Because it was all idolatry with the which we did our devotion. It was not to the true God, 
Gal●. 4. &. 8.  for that we know him not, but to those which were gods of our own imagination, feigned according to our own invention and false gods, yet did we bear the mark of the true God, which was his holy Baptism, in sign of faith and fidelity, & not to have none other gods, but one, (the true living god) nor to serve him by none other rule, than by that which his word teacheth, yet we were to him traitors, rebels, unfaithful idolaters, allied and confederate with his enemies, and given to all unrighteousness and wickedness. So that we might say with the Prophet, that if the only mercy of God were not, we had been for ever utterly consumed and perished together.   

Of the love of God, and of our calling, and the cause thereof. The four Chapter.  
But persisting and going forward in such estate as then was ours, 
Ephes. ●. &. 12.  which was without Christ, reputed as alients and strangers to the common wealth of Israel, and to the covenants contained in the testament and promise of reconciliation, void of hope, and without God in this world. 
Ephes. 2, &. 4, 5, 6,  It pleased him who is most rich in mercy, through his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead by sin. To quicken us again in Christ together with him, by whose grace we be saved, raised up & made to sit together in heavenly things through him, & notwithstanding (as I say) that we were dead by sin, 
We were called by the mercy of God.  and at the brim or brink of our condemnation, yet he called us to his knowledge that we might have life together in Christ jesus, and being so far from him, he called us nigher by the power & virtue of his most precious blood: 
Rom. 5. & 8.10.  And so saith Saint Paul in another place, that God did set out and confirm his love and charity in us, for that we as yet being sinners, enemies unto him, and so justly condemned, he did give his own son to most direful death, to reconcile us unto him thereby: and to make us partakers, of his righteousness and sanctification. So that the whole cause of our perdition, was in ourselves, because that by us, sin had his first beginning, for that we did throw ourselves, 
Gen. 3. &. ●  so voluntarily into his cursed hands, who did despoil and rob us of all goodness. Wherefore God so loving unto us, thought it most necessary for our salvation, to take all upon himself, for that we might thereby, obtain remission and forgiveness of all our transgression for ever. And that being at the first true, the condemnation that we had deserved, it might aswell be true, the health and salvation granted to deliver us from the same. So the holy Ghost doth testify unto us by the Prophet Osea, saying, 
Osea. 13, &. 9  from thee thyself O Israel, doth proceed thy perdition, and from me only doth come thy salvation.  
And by the holy Apostle saint Paul it is said: 
Titus. 3. &. 4.5,  that when the benign kindness and love of our Saviour God to man ward appeared, 
Ephes. 9 &. 2.  he saved us, 
22. Tim. ● &. 10  not by the works which we had done (and are unrighteous) but conformable to his mercy, by the washing of the regeneration or new birth, and renewing of the holy ghost, the which he hath shed abundantly upon us by jesus Christ our Saviour, 
From hence doth proceed our salvation.  for the justified by his grace, we should be made heirs through & according to our hope, of the life eternal. Whereby it appeareth that of the calling by the which God did by is mercy most pitifully call us unto him, doth proceed all our health and salvation. Because as at the beginning God did make us of himself (without receiving any help of our parts) and so gave us the being of men, 
Genes. 3. &, 7.  that we might be wholly his own pure work. Even so hath he now called us, and now that we be called, he hath reformed and sanctified us, without our help in any thing, that we might be his children. 
john. 11. &. 17, 39  If Lazarus were dead, four days buried and stinking in his grave, and could not free himself therefrom, but the God did raise him from death, & give him a new life. Much less may we free ourselves from death, for that we be captivated and buried so, by the help of sin that we are much more dead & stinking before God, then was the corporal body of Lazarous to the sight of men. But as by the might, strength, virtue, and power, of that voice, with the which jesus Christ did call him, he was set free from the prison & sting of death, purified of all corruption, & restored to a new life: even so we, by the voice of the same Lord, are raised again to a new life. 
Rom. 4. & 17, 19, 24.  Because god doth call those things which are not, as though they were. 
Ezech. 39 &. 21,  For by the efficacy and strength of the voice with which he doth call, he doth give a new being. For the evil being of a sinner, is as no being before god. But in calling himself to mind to call upon God, with a fervent, fearful, and loving heart unfeigned, his loving almightiful kindness will give him a divine essence, participated & joined with the same word, with the which he called him, when as he had no sufficiency at all, to do the works of life. We ourselves, in the estate which we were, could not by any means do any kind of thing, that might be pleasant or acceptable to God: 
Psalm. 55. &. 2.4. etc.  but did continue still sleeping, possessed of death, without any feeling of life. We did not call nor seek upon God, but were of the numbered of those which David hath spoken of before, which have not known God, because we called those dead which live, & did seek the things we knew not. And therefore it was said by the Prophet Esaye, 
Esai. 65. &. 1.2. Rom. 10. &. 20.22,  I am found of them that have not sought me, & have appeared manifestly to those which have not asked after me. For that we should understand that he only did seek us, did call us, and give himself to be known unto us. Yet we in the mean time were drunken with oblivion, 
john. 8. &. 1 ●. 3. etc.  buried in sin & in all kind of wickedness, & also were possessed with the devil, whom we did obey: in such sort, that we accounted his counsel and works, for the upholding and rule of our life.  
The cause why, that God did so call us, 
Osea. 2. & 23.  out of that dusky darkness in the which we were, to his admirable light, 
1. Peter. 2. &. 9, 10.  was only the love that he had to us in his son jesus Christ: by whom he did determine to save us. By Christ jesus saith S. Paul we are chosen, to the inheritance, 
Ephes. 1. &. 4.5.  predestinated according to the purpose of him, 
Colos. 1, & 26, 27,  which doth & will all things, conformable to the council of his divine will, so that we which do put our trust in him, should be in all things for the setting forth of his honour and glory.   

Of the cause of our calling and redemption. Cap. v.  
BY the purpose & counsel of GOD, which he did ordain before the beginning of the world, that we might be partakers of his health and salvation, is the cause why he suffered us to fall, that we might be made known unto his son: by whose merits we should be made acceptable unto him. 
2. Peter. 1. &, 2.20.  Saint Peter saith, that we have been elected and chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father in sanctification of the spirit, to obey him and to be cleansed & washed in the blood of his son jesus Christ. Saint Paul considering the goodness of god, for his benefits (so much undeserved of men) doth give thanks unto him for himself, 
Ephes. 1. &, 3 4.  and for all the faithful, that have been called to the participation thereof, and saith: 
2. Cor. 1. &. 3.4,  Blessed be God the Father of our Lord jesus Christ which hath blessed us with all manner of spiritual blessing in heavenly things by Christ according as he had chosen us in him before the foundation of the world was laid, 
1. Peter. 1. &, 3.4.  that we should be saints without blame and irreprehensible before him through love, and ordained us before through jesus Christ to be heirs unto himself, according to the pleasure of his good will to praise the glory of his grace, wherewith he hath made us acceptable in his beloved.  

Our calling is grounded upon the election of God.  So by the means that god hath elected and chosen us from the beginning in jesus Christ, is the foundation upon the which is grounded our vocation, by the which we were called in time, to enjoy a participation of that joy and those good things, 
Math. 26. & 1.2.3, etc.  for the which we were elected, whereby we may perceive that how firm soever the foundation of our blessedness is: even so firm and sure is our vocation & calling, so firm & true is also the justice, righteousness and holiness, of heaven, which by means of our calling is communicated unto us. We could give nothing to god for our election, because that he did elect us before our essential being, and when as we were not. All the whole cause of our election was only in Christ jesus, 
Christ is the only cause of our election.  there was nothing in us whereby we might be called, nor yet nothing whereby we might be justified. Because (as it is afore said) we were so fully possessed of the devil, and of sin: that even of justice we were allotted to an estate, so naked and miserable as might be thought. Wherefore of force we must needs conclude, that it is only the grace and good will of God, that hath called us by his Gospel, for although we be called, we may not come to Christ jesus if that the Father draw us not, give us ears to hear his voice and a heart to conceive and understand what is his will. 
john. 14. & 6, 21,  For that he himself saith, none can come to me if my Father draw him not, he doth draw us unto him because we should be pardoned by his righteousness, 
Colos. 2. &. 23.  & that the bond should be broken wherewith we were so surely bound to everlasting death. 
Ephe. 1 &. 7  For that (as the Apostle saith) by the blood of Christ jesus, we had our redemption, which is remission of sins, according to the riches of his grace, which he is most abundantly full of. 
1. Cor. 1. &. 30.  He was made to us by God, only wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption, for that he which never did sin, 
2. Cor. 5. &. 21  was made a sacrifice for our sins: because god would have us made righteous by him, so that he is our whole righteousness, and full satisfaction before the divine judgement of his Father. 
Esai. 51. & 6  Because (saith Esay) the everlasting God did put upon him all our sins, which by the potency, power, 
Rom. 4. &. 25  and might of his death, he did destroy, and did satisfy wholly to the divine judgement of God the Father, and so obtain full forgiveness and Remission of sins for us. 
Tne righteousness of Christ is more mighty than the malice of the devil.  Thus that by him we are made righteous and beloved of God, for that if the devil were so mighty to put us in such condemnation, against the which we had no remedy in ourselves, much more mighty without comparison, is the righteousness of jesus Christ, to give us true and perfect liberty and forgiveness, of all the wickedness with the which the devil had fraught and filled us. Because (as Saint Paul saith,) if for the delight, 
Rom. 5. & 10, 12.13. etc.  offence and transgression of one, death did rule and reign by one, much more they which receive the abundance of grace, & the gift of righteousness shall rule and reign in life by one, only by jesus christ. As by the offence and transgression of one man, condemnation did come upon all men: even so by the righteousness of one man, is come justification of life unto all men. And as the sin of Adam did condemn to eternal death, all that did descend from him: 
Rom. 8. &, 1.4.  even so the righteousness of Christ is cause by the which are justified, 
Gala. 4. &. 7.  all that believe in him, & are made heirs with him of his heavenly kingdom.   

Of our justification, by the righteousness of God. etc. The vi Chapter.  

By faith we do embrace christ  GOd did not only call us & give us his word, but also by mean of the operation and working of the holy ghost, he did engender faith in our hearts: the which is arms and hands, unto us, to embrace jesus Christ, with all his riches & blessings. And in this manner we are brought unto him, 
Gala. 3 &. 13,  the which doth confirm in us the saying of Saint Paul, Christ did redeem us from the curse of the law, & made himself a curse for us, because we should receive by faith, the promise of the holy Ghost, for that we had sinned all, and were naked of the glory of God, 
Rom. 3. & 24.26, etc.  we were graciously justified by his grace, & by the redemption gotten by Christ jesus, the which God did purpose for propitiation by faith in his blood, to the end that he would be found just, & a justifier of them that have faith in him. Of grace you have been saved by faith (saith Paul to them of Ephesus) and this doth not come of yourselves, for it is the gift of God, 
Ephes. ●. &. 8,  not by our works for that we should not boast, because we are his works created in Christ jesus. Whereby it doth and may appear that our justification is a new creation, and a work only of god, who, as at the beginning he did created us by the sound of his word: So now by the virtue, potency, and might of the same, he doth form and make us a new in his son. 
john. 1. &, 12. 1●.  He did give them saith S. john, power to be made the children of God, to as many as do receive him by faith, that is to say, to as many as do believe in his name. The which are not borne of blood, of the will of the flesh, nor of man's will, but by the will of god. Whereby we see that to be just and righteous, cometh not by nature, nor by humane industry, but by the free gift of our Lord God that of his own proper good will doth regenerate us by the word of truth. 
Rom. 5. & 15.  
jeam 1. & 18.  All of us (saith S. james) be the children of god, because we have believed in jesus Christ, and for that we do know that man is not, (nor cannot be) justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Christ jesus. 
Gala. 2. & 16,  And Saint Paul saith we have also believed to be justified by faith in him, and not by the works of the law, for no flesh shallbe justified by the works of the law. And so the Apostles do conclude, that the benediction of jesus Christ, which was promised to Abraham and his seed, should pertain only to them which do receive him by faith, believing in his divine promises and do apply unto him all that is contained in them. 
Gala. 3 &. 9  (Saint Paul to the Galatians saith again) all those that have faith, are blessed with faithful Abraham: because all that are of the works of the law are under the curse and malediction thereof. So that it remaineth manifest, that all those which do not receive jesus Christ, the remission of sins, and the reconciliation that is gotten for us by him, with the hands of faith, may not nor cannot receive him by means of any other work that they can do: but are evermore in their sins and subject to eternal malediction.  
We may not have peace with GOD by any other way or mean, then in that we are acceptable unto him, by faith: we are acceptable and admitted unto his favour and grace by faith in jesus Christ. He is by and by (& always) pleased with us, & we have righteousness before him? as the Apostle teacheth saying: we being justified by faith have peace with God by our Lord jesus Christ, 
Rom. 5. & 51  by whom we have a way through faith unto this grace, the which must be firm & surely fixed in us. Whereby it is declared that jesus Christ, is the only author of our righteousness, & that we be made partakers of his health, by the faith we have in him. By the which we be surely certified, that we be all ready reconciled to God, & that he is in peace with us, & by this reason we are assured that we possess life everlasting. The divine Scriptures do teach us the same, all the Prophets (saith saint Peter) bear testimony of jesus Christ, 
Acts. 10. &. 43.  and that through his name, all that believe in him shall receive remission of sins.  
Also S. Paul in the Acts of the Apostles, 
Acts. 13. &. 38, 39  (speaking of Christ) saith, by him is preached unto you remission of sins, and by him all that believe are justified in all things, from the which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses, wherefore all that believe in Christ jesus are justified by faith in him. So that it must needs be that remission of sins, and all other benefits promised of God, we receive them of him, by faith in his Gospel. David taught by the holy ghost, 
Psal. 142. &. 2.  did see that all that was in him, and that he might do, was cause of condemnation at the hands of God: being severely examined by the rigour and justice of his Law. He had his recourse to the Almighty God and did take him for his Patron in judgement, and did pray to him with great vehemency, beseeching him that he should not judge him according to his law: enter not into judgement (saith he,) with thy servant, because that no flesh is to be found righteous in thy sight. So that he confesseth that we are justified only by grace, and mercy, and by the pity and love that god beholdeth in his son jesus Christ for and towards us. For that by the love that he hath to us in him, he hath called us & put from before him quite away, all our sins, offences, & wickedness that ever we committed, and hath forgiven us all our disobedience and granted us true obedience and satisfaction neither more nor less than as if we had gotten it ourselves. For to take us out of all doubts, and to the end to deliver us from our old wicked lying errors, in the which until now we have lived, 
Esai. 43. & 1.25.  the Lord & mighty jehovah, saith, by the Prophet Esay, it is I, it is I myself (O my people) that have blotted out all thy misdéees and wickedness, for the love of myself, and for mine own sake, I have done it, & will never remember them again. So that it is he that delivereth us from our sins, and iniquities, without any merit or desert on our behalf, 
Ezech. 16. &. 60.61. jere. 3 &. 12 13.  that is any thing available at all. And of his own free will, love, and liberality doth use the same towards us.   

Of an excellent comfort by the love of God. Cap. seven.  
SO it resteth, that all that men can do, or may or can invent to work, by any kind of mean: by this scripture it is excluded & condemned for most horrible, wicked, & abominable. For why: there is but one jesus Christ who is the pardener of our sins by god the Father, there is no cause why without Christ, that we should be pardoned by god the father for them. By Christ only are we pardoned, we are the unrighteous, & he the only author of righteousness. In us there is no cause why, but that we should be most justly condemned, and in him only is there great cause why, we should by him be saved. S. Peter saith, 
Acts. 4. &. 1●  there is none other name under heaven given unto men whereby we should be saved but only the name of jesus Christ. In an other place. S. Peter saith again, 
Acts. ●. &. 10.  that neither we can not, nor our forefathers could not, bear the weighty yoke of the Law, yet we are in belief to be saved by our Faith in jesus Christ our Lord, & by his grace as well as they. For as by faith God did purify their hearts, 
john. 15. &. 3, 4. etc.  so likewise doth he purify ours. Christ said unto his disciples that by the word which they had heard and believed, they were made clean, and thereby had purified them of their sins, and made them friends with God. So that we have righteousness and divine holiness by faith that doth remain to us in the promises of god, and the hope that we have in his mercy and truth, with that which he doth promise' us to be our friendly Father and pitiful for the love of jesus Christ: From hence it is that the Prophet David doth acknowledge that there is but one righteousness, 
Psalm. 61, &. 16,  that is of any valour at all before god, and that may appear and come valiantly before him in his divine judgement. The Prophet saith, I will think and all ways have in remembrance thy only justice and righteousness. By which reason he doth reckon, hold, and account, all humane and carnal righteousness and holiness for most wicked and unrighteous. Because they are so filthy, 
Esai, 64, &, 6.  fowl, and spotty, that men may have no help of them, to satisfy in part nor in all, before the divine judgement of God. But of necessity they are to return again condemned eternally, because they join the clean works of the Law, with the unclean and filthy fowl spottid works of the flesh.  
Whereby we see dearly beloved brethren, that there is no more but one jesus Christ redeemer of the world, wherefore we can have no more righteousness but that which is his, by the which we are to be saved. Nor there is no other mean and way to obtain a pardon general for our sins, and reconciliation with God, than the faith and hope whereby we do believe his divine promises, and do assure ourselves of all that, which by those promises are declared unto us. Whereby we have free liberty given us to call and say, O our Father. etc. The holy ghost doth teach us in his Church, the doctrine of this true catholic. And therefore as taught and guided thereby, let us embrace & follow him, by whose word we have received this revelation & clearness. For this cause did jesus christ give thanks to god the father in the name of all his faithful, 
Math. 11. &. 25.  and therewith together did show the cause of so supreme a benefit. saying, 
Luke. 10. &. 22.  I give thee thanks O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou haste hidden these things from the wise & prudent of the world, and opened it unto babes, even so father, for so it pleased thee. The cause of this benefit and of all joined with it, cometh to us by the great good will of God, and the delight which he hath in his son. (As before it is said,) & forasmuch as we do know it is so, let us desire that we may be of that numbered of the little ones, that our Saviour Christ did give thanks unto his Father for, and not lean to any false & variable doctrine, 
Hebre. 13. &. 9  whose end is to bring them that do believe in the same from the unity of the true faith, which the prophets, Apostles, and jesus Christ himself hath taught us.  
Wherefore, being partakers of the fruit of redemption, that our saviour and Lord jesus Christ hath redeemed us with, and by faith that we have in the Gospel: let us concider well what we have to do: that to our best power, we may persever and increase, in that righteousness and holiness that he hath communicated unto us. Before we were called, and when we had not received pardon for our sins, we were such, and even the like as the children of perdition were.  
But now being reconciled to GOD by his son jesus Christ we are taken forth of the Empire, rule, and dominion of the devil, and received of GOD by the holy Ghost: 
Ephes. 1. &. 22.  and by the virtue of the same, joined with jesus Christ, & made one body with him. From whom as from our head there is derived into us members with life and spirit, by the which we aught to do the works of life, for that thereby is a plain testimony, that jesus Christ who did pardon us of our sins, and pay his most precious blood for a ransom for the same, doth live in us, and that he only is the foundation of our hope and affiance, and also that of him and by him we are beloved of god the father as his children. As teacheth saint Peter saying, 
1. Peter. 2 &, 4.5.9, 10,  that jesus Christ is the living Stone, refused of men, but elected, chosen, and precious with god, and saith further, you also as living stones, are built in one spiritual building, and one holy priesthood, for to offer a spiritual sacrifice acceptable to god by Christ jesus, and a little after that, you (that believe and trust in jesus Christ) which in times passed were no people, are now the people of God: but before now you had not obtained mercy, yet now you have, and are a chosen lineage, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, for that you preach and show the virtues of him that called you, from the darkness in which you were, to an admirable & most marvelous light. In this he doth give us to understand, how we aught to spend our whole life time: and that is in perpetual sacrifice of praise unto the Lord, for that he hath been so merciful and pitiful towards us, so that all our works aught to be with a cheerful voice singing and making proclamations, of his glory, & of his virtuous praise. 
Titus, 2, &, 12, 13,  For to do this (saith Saint Paul) we aught to renounce and deny, the ungodly & worldly desires of the flesh, and in this transitory life to live temperately, in righteousness and godliness, tarrying and looking for that blessed hope & glorious apearing of the mighty God our Saviour jesus Christ. So that we aught to put away all kind of superstition, false religion, all desires and concupiscences of the flesh, and the world, and to live a godly life according to the will of God: the which is declared unto us by his word. 
1. Peter. 1. &. 18.19,  But sith that we are bought with the inestimable price of the most precious blood of our Lord jesus Christ his son, & so made his servants, we aught not to serve him in any other manner, nor with any other things than those which he hath commanded by his word and law.  
The Lord did call and elect us for that we should be holy, and without reprehension, 
Ephes. 1. &, 1.2. etc.  but we be profane before him, and no such saints, if we serve him with any other thing then that which his law doth command, or by the rule of his commandments. For that we be called in jesus Christ, (as Saint Paul saith in the same Chapter) because we should do the good works that God did ordain for us, 
Note which are good works.  and that we should walk in them, for those only are good that he hath commanded by his word: we aught also to employ our whole studies in those works. 
Titus. 2. &. 14.  For the apostle doth teach us, that jesus Christ did give himself for us, to redeem us from all kind of wickedness, and to purify us that we might be a peculiar people unto him, and that we might be only dedicated to his service & fervently given to good works. All true believers saith the Prophet Esay are tréese of righteousness, and planted by the heavenly Father, 
Esai. 61. & ●  that he might be glorified in them.  
Wherefore we aught to address our whole minds, all our affections, and all our desires and thoughts, to glorify him: with all those things which we are sure and certain he doth and will allow. But sith he, even our God, hath opened our eyes for to see the light, it were not just nor reason that we should walk any more in darkness, (that is to say, 
Rom. 14. & 2.3.4 etc. ) thinking falsely that those things will content his goodness, which doth content us, or those things which are allowed of men, without the holy Ghost.   

Of the cause of Christ's coming, and of the fruits of christians. The viii Chapter.  

Math. 17. &. 18.  GOd hath given us jesus Christ to be our only master and teacher, 
Mar. 9 &. 29.  and doth command us to hear him, 
Luck. 9 & 21.22.23. etc.  because he is the only expositor & declarer of his will and most mighty power, and to direct us for the accomplishment of the same. So that they that do hear the word of god and keep it for a rule in their doings and works, do show themselves to be tréese of righteousness, planted & beloved of him: and that his spirit is resident and remaining in them. But of them that teach and do to the contrary, 
Mat. 15. &. 13.  (he saith by Saint Mathewe,) they are plants that his heavenly Father hath not planted, and although they flourish for a time and be seen, yet in th'end they willbe withered dry and rotten. Thus jesus Christ doth testify, that those which are governed and seek to serve him by the commandments of men, are none of his plants. We aught to abhor and hold for abominable, all such manner of services, for that we are instructed by the word of truth, that all they which do delight in them, are subject to the condemnation wherein they were first borne. The hatred of them with all the rest that god hath forbidden, and the obedience of his commandments divine, are those fruits which we aught always to account for his plants, with a daily study to be of that numbered which the Prophet David speaketh of, 
Psal●▪ ●. &. ●. ●.  that have all their affection & delight in the law and ordinance of the Lord, and do meditate and walk in the same both day and night, because we might fructify and bring forth good fruit in dew season. God did plant us in his son, giving him unto us, to be our redeemer, the footsteps of whom we should follow, and with whose righteousness our faults were covered. And therefore we aught to have a constant faith and belief, that he is such a one as we confess him to be in our creed or twelve Articles of our Faith, and rejoice that we have him to be our eternal high Pressed, King, and Saviour, 
Hebr. 7. & 2.21.25.  that liveth eternally to be an intercessor for us, and to fulfil for us all that God doth command or ask: 
Colos. 2. &. 3,  for that in him is hidden all science, treasure, and wisdom. This is the faith that must be in our hearts by the which we are joined to Christ jesus, and do know the sufficiency that we have in his riches by him, to whose goodness we must be appendent, but not as in the time of our blindness, 
Titus. 1. &. 16  when we confessed him with our mouths and denied him in our works. 
A lying lay and false religion.  We confessed that we did love and believe him but it was a lie, false, and nothing so. We said that we did believe he was our saviour, but it was not true: for why, we sought help and health in vain things, that he did, neither command nor yet allow, and also did live in the belief, and follow those vain vanities until now of late. We confessed him to be Christ, King of all Kings, and principal high Pressed, and yet we gave no place unto the fruit of his Gospel in our hearts, where it should have been, and he also have lived.  
We said he was a high Pressed, but yet we accounted better of Antichrist, and made him our high priest. Of him only did we seek pardon for our sins and sinful delights, we set a side jesus Christ our true remitter, whom by his most precious death and passion did make and fulfiill such satisfaction to our GOD his Father for our offences, as none but he could do the like.  
Yea, although the wrath and heavy displeasure of GOD, were never so fully satisfied, yet we did thinks, ourselves to make satisfaction by our own devised merits, and nothing esteemed the merits of jesus Christ which were of a most infinite and unspeakable valour for the health of his elected believers. Yet (now dearly beloved) let us accounted for vain, all our own deservings, and all men's merits so full of unrighteousness, & trust only to his mercy in his divine judgement, in which none may perfectly percist but only his own. He was given unto us for our only everlasting Advocate to God the Father: commanding us that we should ask any thing that we have need of at the hands of god the Father in his name. 
john. 14. &, 13, 16.  But making little price hereof, & less regarding him, we sought other mediators: as to this saint, and by the divillish help of that relic. etc.  
What was this, but to deny the faith by ours works which we confessed with our lips, because therein we would be accounted christians, & yet in our hearts we were condemned for ungodly. For why with our mouths we made confession to serve and honour Christ, when as in deed with all our works and studies we served cursed Antichrist and walked in errors, 
Hier. 2. & 28.  every man after his own way and according to our own inventions, as sayeth the Prophet Esay. 
Esa. 53. & ●   
But now sith it is so apparent, that by the great goodness and singular benefit of the almighty God, we do believe truly in jesus Christ his only son our saviour. Let us accordingly live in that godliness and truth, that he hath taught and showed unto us, by his word and spirit: he hath marked us for his own, with the same sign & seal, the which he hath marked his chosen? They which do persecute us, do not know us, but do both hold & account us for aliaunts and strangers unto themselves, they may nor can not suffer us in the world, no more than they might suffer our Lord jesus Christ who hath done such a benefit for all mankind, and of whom assuredly we are. 
The cause of the faith fools afflictions.  So that we aught to understand, and account for most certain and sure, that all the causes of our troubles wherewith we are so hated, afflicted, & persecuted in this world, 
2. Tim. 4. &. 3.  is as S. Paul saith, because we trust & believe in the living God, who is the saviour of all the faithful. Notwithstanding the false colors which they use in their quarrelsome war that they make with us, they cover themselves with a cloak, & say that we are heretics, & that they are holy, it is so in deed, but yet it is but a feigned holiness, the which God by his word hath condemned for abominable. Wherefore let us arm ourselves with a firm & sure hope, the God, yea, our God, will be our sure helper & defender against them in all our troubles, for that we be the work of his hands, he hath made us, redeemed us, and we be his own, the cause is his, and will suffer no harm nor evil to touch us. Let us not fall from, nor yet be weak in this truth which God hath revealed unto us, 
Ro. 1. &. 18.  but let us be fully assured that it is his might, power, & will, the delivereth us & saveth all believers. We are set sure thereby from all perils & dangers, and taken out of all afflictions. S. Simon in the gospel of S. Luke doth prophesy, 
Luke. 2. &. 34.  that jesus Christ was sent for the rising & falling of many people in Israel, & that by him are revealed the thoughts of many hearts, & that we should be saved from all that hate us. Even now in these days is this prophesy fulfilled. Assoon as the word of the Gospel was preached amongst us, and that it did reveal unto us & then our lord jesus, both they & we might have seen the effect of this prophesy, 
1. Pet. 1. &. 12.  (even so it may be still,) some of them he did please to condemn, for that they did resist furiously, & did persecute & condemn him: Others, which were then that did believe, were raised, edified, and saved by him, for whose sake they are hated, held, & accounted, for abominable in the world. And the thoughts of some that were holy hallowers & sanctifiers of men were, & are discovered and showed to be of such condition & quality, that they cannot suffer the holiness of our Lord & saviour jesus Christ, but do so rebel against him that they use their uttermost force with cruelty to throw him out of the world.   

Of a great cause of comfort, by reason of the crosses of Christ. etc. Cap. ix.  
But sith it hath pleased God, that our lot hath been so lucky & our hap so happy, as to make us of the number of them that do believe, and are builded in jesus Christ: let us not doubt the causes of our afflictions, for before that he did give us his light to believe in him and to know him, the devil did possess us in peace, so that we had a very perfect friendship with the world. 
Luke. 11. &. 53.54.  But he who is most strong, being come as he is, hath gotten the victory, and taken his spoil from him, for which cause that enemy doth so bray, bluster and roar out his wars against us: and to make a recovery of us, he doth arm all his army with so great cruelty as we see. So that the cause of our persecution is not as they profess which are the ministers thereof, 
Math. 13. & 37.38. etc.  it is but only for the word of the Gospel, as testifieth jesus Christ, in his own preaching to them that he hath called to himself. And for that we be most assured and certain of his truth, we may well sustain and bear, the extremity of the cross that is laid upon us by the hands of God: and never be dismayed nor faint, for although that we of ourselves be weak, we shall be strengthened by his force and magnifical might: with his wisdom shall be overcome our ignorance and foolishness, 
Psa. 52. & 7.  with his righteousness shall be blotted out our sins and wickedness, with his light shall be lightened our blind darkness, with his blessing shall be overcome and undone our curse & malediction, with his might shall be destroyed our infernal hell, with his holiness we shall be made holy, and finally by his merits, & with his benefits, we shall be made rich in such manner of wise that it is impossible of ourselves, to be such like as he will make us. And therefore let us not be hindered by any kind of cross, but the rather made more perfect and clearer with constancy in belief of the truth which he hath taught us.  
To this end doth the Apostle set out our estate in this manner & form. 
Ephe. 2. & 19 20. etc.  You be (saith he) Pilgrims & strangers (as we were in time of our ignorancy) & you are now saints and citizens with the household servants of god, builded upon the foundation of the Prophets & Apostles, that is jesus Christ: in whom you are builded together jointly to be the house & dwelling place of God in spirit. Whereby we may see that all the virtue that is in us, whither it be by good works which are the fruits of faith, or by suffering the griefs & afflictions of this world, the which we are subject unto: yet both the one and the other came from our foundation, which is Christ our head. Yea, & also they do, both the one and the other, serve to cleanse us from all the contaminate filthy foulness of the flesh, 
2. Cor. 7. & 1.2.3. etc.  & perfectionate & make perfect our minds & spirit with the fear of God, and the sanctification of his holy name, whereby we might be clean & clear from any kind of thing, that may offend the eyes of his divine majesty that dwelleth in us. So that we have the entry made plain unto us, 
Hebr. 3 & 1.2.3. etc.  to enter & treat with God familiarly, and ask of him all those things, 
Levit. 11. &. 44. Levit. 19 &. 2. 1. Pet. 1. &. 15  which be necessary for us to follow jesus Christ with, & to be wholly holy as he hath commanded us by his spirit, saying: be ye holy because that I the Lord your God am holy.  
God did know saith S. Paul and predestinate all his choose, to make them conformable & like to the image of his son, because they should be, 
Ro. 8. &. 29.  (Primogenitus) the first begotten among many brethren. So that in making us conform & like unto him, he did justify us, when he pardoned us of our sins, and did make us partakers of his redemption. Even than he did begin to reform in us the image of his son, which reformation is yet but begun: But yet it goeth forward from day to day, increasing by degrees until we be all together like unto him, yea even to be a very perfect pictor & lively like him. For the as by Christ the father is known, so by us should the son be known also: for we should be like unto him in all things as well spiritually as temporally, celestially as terrestrially, and as we did bear the Image of the earthly Adam: 
1. Cor. 15. & 49.  even so should we bear the image of the celestial Adam, which is jesus Christ that came down from heaven. All that God doth unto us is to the same end and purpose: and therefore Christ doth incite us, 
Math. 5. &. 48.  saying: be ye perfect as your father in heaven is perfect. It is notorious to see and wonderful to consider, how far of we be from this sanctitude, and perfection, to the which we have been called. Every man may see himself a great contradiction, in coming to the same: we may see also what great resistance the world and all the ministers thereof, doth make against us to keep us from it: for which cause God hath taken us in charge, to make his work perfect in us.  
What thing more amiable, may there be, or what more may be desired, then to have the image of the son of God, conformed and made perfect in us: there is nothing that can be more blessed and unhappy for us then this, that God doth love us so much, as to show and cast upon us such copious aboundancies of his heavenly pleasures and good will: if we love riches and honours those be the true ones: If we desire to be sure against all evils and temptations of the devil, the world, and the flesh, in this doth consist the surety thereof. How much the more that we are like unto God, so much the more mighty we are by him in our own defence, against all manner of temptations, afflictions and persecutions. If we will enjoy the riches that God hath prepared for his faithful, this is the way to come to the possession of them. And therefore we aught not to be fearful off: nor to refuse any thing that God doth chastise us with. And sith he hath given us Christ his son to be our head, it is a thing convenient that we which be his members be like unto him, and that we go together with him, treading in his own steps: Because the self same end that he had himself, his members must have also, and for that cause, & to the self same end, that we should pass both by one way, and have one end and inheritance, God did so unite & knit us in him. 
The purpose of god  Wherefore we aught to understand well the purpose of God, & to have always in remembrance the effect thereof, because we should not faint, wax weak, nor fear the troubles & afflictions, that the striving therewith, & mistaking thereof, doth bring us unto. The end whereof being well & rightly considered, with the knowledge of the same, we aught rather to embrace, than stiffly to stand against it.   

How that the estate of jesus Christ is common to the faithful, & doth exhort us to an excellent comfort. The x. Chapter.  
Our conditions, qualities, & estates in this world, is common and according to the same, which jesus Christ himself had when he was therein. For that the same causes that he did suffer for, even the like do we suffer for also. The cruel entreaty, that was used and done unto him in the world, was because that he was the son of God, faithful to his father that sent him, did seek in all things his glory, and teach unto men such holiness & righteousness as God his father did allow. 
john. 1. &. 12  For the same cause do we suffer also, 
Rom. 6. & 11.22.  for that by him made the sons of God, we do allow none other holiness and righteousness, then that which he doth incite us unto. So that according to the communion that we have with him, we do seek in all things his glory, do hate them that abhor it, and do condemn by his word all the which he holdeth condemned. 
Math. 5. &. 10. Luke. 6. &. 20.  This is the only cause that he commanded his disciples, & in them us to rejoice: saying, and assuring them with us, that theirs and ours is the kingdom of heaven. We aught to ponder this in our minds, and to think of it in our afflictions, that although they be never so great, our afflictors can not let us from the kingdom promised unto us, for the God is disposed & hath purposed that we shall inherit it by them.  
Christ jesus is the chiefest and the greatest amongst the children of God, which are his brethren: Even so he is the first, principallest, and greatest in all things. The afflictions, passions and persecutions that he did suffer were in the supreme & superlative degree, greatest of all: his dishonour greatest, his poverty most deepest, all kind of hatred was had against him in most bravest manner, his persecutions most violent and cruel, the wrath of God wherewith he was charged, did lie most heavily upon him, and so heavy a burden in deed, 
Luke. 21. &. 44.  as even the very toil and trouble in bearing thereof, did make him to sweat by extremity water and blood. 
Esai. 53. &. 12.  He was not only held and accounted for wicked with the wicked? 
Marc. 14. & 36.  but amongst them, he was thought to be most chief & principal, chieftain of sin, wickedness, and unrighteousness. Though he were the only wisdom of the deity: yet they entreated him as one most ignorant and devilish. 
Col. 2. &. 9  Yea, and although it was he only, that was, chief and principal pacifier and accomplisher of the law and maker of peace and amity with God his father for all mankind, 
Ephe. 2. & 15.16.  yet he was condemned for the chiefest breaker of the law, and greatest rebel to God. And also: though he were the first begotten son of God, his best beloved, 
Psal. 2. &. 2.4. Psal. 69. &. 7.  and the Lord of all: yet he was accounted for such a stranger and so unknown to the people, that he said of himself I am a shadow and no man, but am rather a mocking stock to men and cast out of my people. 
Psal. 22. & 7.17. Phi. 2. & 7.  And S. Paul sayeth of him, he did annihilate himself, taking upon him the form of a servant, and made himself a man amongst men, and humbled himself to be obedient unto death: yea, the death of the cross. He was brought so low, that he descended to the deepest of all evils, and did abide the extremity of all pain and punishment, that was due for our sins & offences. We did see him sayeth Esay, 
Esai. 53. &. 3.4.5. etc.  and he was disfigured, we did desire him, and he was the last, and the most simple amongst men, full of griefs and infirmities, there was nothing in him whereby he might be known. So that we did not know what he was, he was loaden with all our sins & offences, he was whipped & wounded for us, as though he had been the only offender, & that none had offended the majesty of God but he. Here we may see that he was the greatest passioned & persecuted that could be, whereby as by degrees he did ascend to god, to be also the greatest in glory, 
john. 1. &. 14.16.  the fullness whereof he doth participate to all believers.  
And therefore for that he hath been so passioned for our causes, sins and offences, it is just reason & necessary that we do not will nor desire to be of better estate than he was himself in the world, and sith he was injured and mocked it were not reason that we should be honoured and praised, sith he was so poor that he had not where on to say his head, 
Mat. 8. & 20 Luke. 9 & 85.  but was forced to wear a crown of thorn, it were not convenient that we should abound in riches that do perish, 
Mat. 27. & 28.29. etc.  nor yet that we should go appareled in delicate, royal & gorgeous raiment. He was reproved of many, in seeking the glory of his father, we aught not therefore to think to be allowed & praised of men in seeking of the same, let us be contented that God doth allow us & account it good to favour the righteousness of our cause. And also let us not pervert the ordinance of God, sith he doth give us a comforter in our passions, for that we should be imitators & followers of his son: because in allowing that which the world doth allow, we should forsake the imitation of him, & the effect of our doings therein, 
Math. 10. & 24. Luke. 6. & 40. john. 13. & 16. Luke. 9 & 23.  were none other but to leave our being his servants, and seek to be his superiors: or being but disciples, to show ourselves to be more favoured & greater than our master. We cannot have more honour nor more firm and certain security, than to tread the steps, & to pass the same way that he himself went. Although to our fleshly judgement, & to the judgement of the world that in the way which we have to pass after our Lord, and saviour jesus Christ, there be many stones, blocks, and briars to stumble at, and more ready to toss and tear us in pieces that are to pass by them, then to let and suffer us to attain to the end of our journey: yet in truth, there is none more certain sure and substantial passage than the same is, to bring us to that blessedest end and most glorious inheritance. And sith our sweet saviour hath gone and made the same so plain before us, 
john. 10. &. 4.27.  there is no cause at all that should make us to doubt of any danger therein. Let us consider that the cross and bitterness thereof is ended quickly, and in bearing, passing, and coming forth of the same with love and charity, we do presently enter into an inestimable glory as our most loving sweet saviour hath promised, & doth undoubtedly accomplish and fulfil the same daily from day to day, in all those that do suffer persecution and are slain for the profession of his holy and blessed name.  
It is greatly necessary that all the ordinances of god, 
The cross of Christ & of the faithful is ordained of God.  be fulfilled in and by us, as was by jesus Christ, all that god had determined in his divine council from the beginning, and before any thing happened unto him. It was said by the Prophets, that God did ordain jesus Christ to be glorified and lifted up above all creatures: So that it was convenient that he did suffer before he entered into his glory, or took possession of his kingdom. He himself did declare the same to his disciples, saying: 
Luke. 9 &. 22.  it is necessary that the son of man do suffer many things and that he be reproved of the elders and high priests, that he be slain, and do arise again the third day. 
Luke. 14. &. 26.  After that he said to them that went to Emaus: that it was convenient that he should suffer, and so enter into his glory. 
Acts. 4. &. 10,  All the church do witness the same by the holy ghost: when Christ was grievously afflicted he used this prayer and said? 
Act. 4. &. 24.  O Lord thou that art the God of heaven and earth, the sea and all that is therein, which didst say by the mouth of thy servant David, 
Psalm. 2. & 1.2.  why have the Gentiles fretted, and showed the people vain things, the kings of the earth have conspired, and the princes have gathered themselves together against the Lord and against his Christ.  
I pray you sweet fellow members, is not this truly come to pass: did not Herode, Poncius Pilate, with the Gentiles and people of Israel, conspire and gather themselves together to do all that God in his divine council had determined, against the holy anointed Christ jesus. For why: it was only by the determination & ordinance of God, that Christ did suffer, and also that all those which be his members should do the same, and so be like unto him in all that may be. And as he did suffer a many of persecutions, passions, and tribulations before that he could reign in his kingdom: even so must we suffer a great moultitude of persecutions, afflictions and troubles before that we be glorified and reign with him, because he did predestinate us to be like unto him in the same.  
For if we did not bear many crosses and tribulations, we should then in no point bear his true similitude and likeness: so that then there would be great dysconformitie between him our head and us his members. But suffering first with him, and so made like unto him by bearing of his cross, of necessity we are to reign with him in glory, 
2. Tim. 2. & 3, 10.11. etc.  because that those which do accompany him in suffering, may not be separated from his company in reigning, for that both the one and the other is the ordinance of God, the which he will not let to fulfil to the uttermost, as he himself hath said by the Prophet Esaye, 
Esai. 46. &. 11.  that his council shall be firm and sure, and all his will shallbe done, the Lord of Hosts did ordain it, and who can derogate his ordinance.   

Of the providence of God for them which are called. etc. The xi Chapter.  
THere is nothing more saludable or healthful for us then to submit ourselves wholly to the divine counsel of god, because he did determine by the same to make us partakers of his heavenly kingdom. And for that, that god did ordain for us, that we should pass by this way, we must needs believe that there is nothing in the world whereof he doth make so particular account, nor whereof he doth esteem so much, as of his believers. Of all living things that he created he hath a care: yet much more greater care without comparison, hath he of us which be called to his knowledge, and that do trust only in his mercy. So likewise doth the Lord declare to all his faithful (saying) that the celestial and heavenly Father hath such an inestimable care of them, that he hath numbered even the very heirs of their heads, 
Math. 10. & 29.30. etc.  so carefully that he will not one of them shall perrishe. 
Act. 21. & 34.  And saith further, if your father which is in heaven have so much care over little Sparrows, whereof two are sold for one farthing, and that he will not suffer one of them to fall from their nest or perch and perish without his will: much more greater care without comparison will he have of you, which are of much more value and estimation than many sparrows. If the diligence of the fawckners or fowlers do not prevail, except God do help them to their game, much less shall the persecutors of the Gospel prevail against us, if the ordinance of God be not to permit them accordingly: for his own glory, & for our health and salvation. In the general government of this world, nothing may be done if it be not first determined in the consistory of god & do pass by the consent of his own will: much less can or may any thing hurt or much them which he hath elected and called, unless that he will and command it. 
Sapi. 14. &. 3.  The book of wisdom doth declare, thy providence O Father doth govern all things. From the beginning, 
Sirac. 11. &. 14.  the Lord hath made all things and they do come to us by his will, both good and evil, life and death, poverty and riches, come from him. 
Esay. 45. &. 7.12.  I am the Lord (saith Esay the Prophet) and there is none but I, that formed the light and created the darkness, that did make peace and created the evil: I am the Lord that did all these things. And it is said further, behold: I am only, and alone, and there is none other gods but me: I will kill & make a live again, I will wound, & will make whole. Rejoice in thy riches in the time of prosperity (saith the wife man) and have thou patience in the days of adversity, 
Eccle. 7. &. 14.  because as god made the one, so did he make the other. The holy Ghost doth teach us, that all and every thing that doth happen unto us, aswell adversity as prosperity, the good as the evil doth pass and come, by the providence and will of God: and that without his ordinance nothing taketh effect. 
Colo. 1. &. 9  
Ephe. 1 & 4.5.7.  Because he doth all things in all, according to the counsel of his divine will & pleasure.  
And therefore sith it is so, that he is the author of all, and doth nothing without it be first ordained, & that his providence is so vigilant over us: it resteth then that all is saludable & healthful for us, that he of his good will doth make to take effect in us, and that we must take all in good part which doth succeed and happen unto us (not as of or from the hands of an enemy or tyrant) but as of and at the hands of a true loving father, which doth love us most tenderly. 
We must take all our afflictions from the hands of God.  When we do see ourselves oppressed with divers kinds of calamities & afflictions, let us surely think & be resolved that he himself doth afflict us, he doth imprison us, he doth make us poor, he doth deprive us of our worldly honours, he himself doth make us sick, & doth heal us again, he doth kill us, and revive us again, there is nothing that doth happen unto us, (how adversse or cruel so ever it be,) but is by him ordained, to that end that we might thereby be brought to great joy and felicity. Let us not deteigne nor withoulde ourselves from them that do execute unto us our afflictions, griefs and calamities. Let us not do so much as lower or look with an evil countenance therefore: because they are but instruments very necessary, that God doth use as scourges & ministers of his william. For that we may behold that he doth chasten us but as his children with them, for his uncurelesse care & thought is otherwise towards us, than our persecutors do think for: because all that God doth unto us is for our everlasting delight.  
That which they do unto us is nothing but evil. God doth chastise us because he loveth us, they do afflict & persecute us, because they horribly hate and abhor us, and to the end that they would utterly and wholly destroy us.  
Great were the losses, troubles, calamities and causes of calamity, 
job. 1. &. 15.16.19.  (to the sight of men in this world) that happened to that holy man job, 
job. 2. &. 8.10.  and divers were the afflictions and persecutions that he did suffer, the ministers whereof were the devil & his servants. But that faithful fellow of ours, did take it neither of him nor them, but at the hands of God, because that he knew that all did proceed from him. If we receive (saith he) the good things from the hands of the Lord, why should we not receive the bad also, yea how adversse so ever they be, the Lord giveth and also taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord, and so he did conclude with giving of thanks, aswell for the worst, as for the best. So likewise let us do, no less for our afflictions and troubles, then for our joys and prosperity, because all are the benefits of god, and given to one selfsame end, for them that be called and elected to his knowledge and grace.  
jesus Christ our redeemer and saviour, did acknowledge his father to be the only author of all the troubles, 
Math. 16. &. 23  crosses & passions that he did suffer, he did take them as from the hands of him, & not from the hands of his enemies. He said to S. Peter, when as he went about to resist against, and to let his adversaries, 
john. 18. &. 11.  and to make other lets that he should not suffer (as it were rebuking him, & being angry & offended) what Peter I say, wouldst thou let it: shall not I drink of the cup that my father hath given me. Surely with a hearty and singular good will did he drink it, for that it came from the hands of his Father. So that we may see, he looked for, nor desired nothing at all, but even as his father would, & that he ordained, that he himself should bear and suffer. 
1. Pet. 2. & 20.21.22.  He was not angry, he did not persecute again, he did not speak evil, nor used any kind of injury for any part of revenge to them that crucified and entreated him so cruelly and ungodly. 
Luc. 23. & 24.  But he was rather sorry for them and loved them, although they were wicked, 
Luke. 22. &. 41.  and with a great affection did pray to god the father for them, in taking the cup or challis from the hands of his Father, he neither did, nor said any thing contrary to his will, nor yet contrary to the health and salvation of them for whom he died, (see and behold my dearly beloved brethren & fellow members (what an example this is that he hath here showed unto us, (so divine) if we understand well what pains and passions he our head did suffer, we that are his members of force shall understand what we aught to do. His very footsteps must we follow, travail & pass by, if we willbe in conformity with him. We be now afflicted as evil doers, we are condemned for common barratours, and cursed & abhorred so horribly as may be. Shall we curse, abhor, & do the like to them, not, not, not for thought: god for bid we should. As they desire all the mischief that may be to us, shall we do the like unto them, no: in no manner wise. But rather sith that we be the sons of god, let us keep his commandments which are clean to the contrary.  

Math. 5. & 44. etc.  Love (saith the Lord) your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them which abhor you and do you harm, 
Luck. 6. & 26.27. etc.  pray for them which persecute you, for that you be sons and children to your Father which is in heaven, that maketh the Sun to shine upon the good and evil and doth sand his reign upon the just & unjust. Let us consider how lovingly our Lord & saviour Christ jesus, did answer to so and such cursed works, and to such obstinate and evil minds, and how truly he did love his evil doers. Although they were guilty & had greatly offended, he did excuse them before his father, saying, they know not what they do, 
Luke. 23. & 34.  O Father forgive them for thy name sake. O immensable charity of God, O celestial & heavenly example worthy to be followed. 
The vocation of god  If we do consider attentively, our vocation and calling with the which God hath called us to his knowledge, we shall find it in this like manner that he doth teach us.   

Of the property of persecutors with a persuasion to patience. etc. Cap. xii.  
GOd did call and unite us to his flock, 
john. 10. & 1.12.15.  & did put us in his fowlde which is his Church catholic, 
1. Peter. 3. &. 14.18.  for that we should be his sheep, & might have his son jesus Christ to be our shepherd. We were wolves before we were called, but now are we sheep, and the sheep cannot, nor doth not know how to do any kind of evil, but yet is subject to take & receive any evil that is offered. She hath no tongue to curse nor speak spitefully, no tooth to bite, no nails to scratch, no anger to be ireful, no hatred to abhor, and finally she hath nothing wherewith to do evil but hath many things wherewith to do good.  
Even so it aught to be with us, because we bear the name of christians, the which doth import in all points as much as I have spoken of. Men do persecute us like fierce Lions, they do afflict us with fury like ravening Wolves, they do tear us in pieces like Tigers, they search us by subtleties and wiles like fine fickle Foxes. They do leave neither art nor cruelty unused, nor unpractised against us. Is it meet or were it well that we should pay them with their own money, or with the like again. Not, God forbidden, for why we were not called to be like unto them, but for that we should be like unto himself. 
john. 1. & 21.27.  He did call us to be his children, 
john. 3. & 36.  so that we must be like unto his son jesus Christ, he is our head, God hath bidden and commanded us to be guided by him. 
Mar. 10. &. 29.30.  And because we should learn of (and follow) him, Christ (saith Saint Peter) did suffer for us, 
1. Peter. 3. &. 14.  giving us example to follow his footsteps. In what should we follow them: marry in suffering the evil which our enemies offer us, and in answering them again the best we can therefore: 
1. Peter. 4. &. ●  what with envy: not, none, but with charity, for that is our calling, 
Hebr. 12, &. 7.28.  and therein are we taught, both by the words and works of jesus Christ our sweet saviour, redeemer, pastor, and shéepeherde. Let not us take any regard at all of the evil and harm that our persecutors use towards us, but let us chiefly regard and look diligently to that which jesus Christ did amongst us, and command us unto. The imitation of him let us not abhor, condemn, nor speak evil of, but rather let us do the contrary. Let us love to imitate him, and let us do the works of love. The cause why that our enemies and afflictours do persecute us, is declared by our Saviour & Lord jesus Christ, who saith, 
1. john. 2. & 15.16.  they shall cast you out of their Sinnagogs', excomunicate you, 
john. 16. &. 3.3.  & persecute you unto death for my name sake, & shall think they do therein to God very great service, & they shall do these things because they have neither known me nor yet my Father.  
There is not nor can not be a greater mischief, then to be ignorant of (or not to know at all) our God and Father almighty, nor yet his son jesus Christ. 
What it is to know God.  The want of knowledge hereof maketh all them which lack the same, to be possessed of the devil, servants of sin, and heirs and inheritors of hell. And also doth make them to bear, carry, and maintain continually, a cursed & cruel capital war, against god, heaven, and all that is his. The which doth bring unto them their utter destruction & perdition for ever. Their hell, they do always carry with them, their own consciences do condemn them, because the worm thereof, ever dying and never dead, doth and will for ever accuse them. The judgement of GOD doth lie very heavy upon them, the Law hath cursed them, and the works and deeds which they do in persecuting the faithful, are evident tokens & testimony of their utter condemnation. Because that those whom they persecute, (with persecutions, slanders, condempnations, curses, clothed with saint Benits crosses, shut up in close prisons, and afterward burned,) are little or nothing touched thereby, 
jesus christ persecuted in his members.  but jesus Christ in them. It is he, it is he that beareth the spitefulness of their passions and Persecutions: as he himself did declare to Saint Paul before his conversion, for when that he had cruelly persecuted the Christians, (our saviour Christ said with a terrible voice) Saul Saul, 
Act. 9 &. 4.  why persecutest thou me. What greater evil may be thought then to persecute our sweet saviour and redeemer, how can the wrath of God be more evident unto to them, than when they may see that he careth not for them, but suffereth them to fall and run headlong into that loathsome lake of perdition, and yet in using the same, they think themselves in such security of salvation, that they solemnize their tyrannical dispositions, as if they did solemnly hallow some festival feast. And do think they do God good service. O lamentable case that they know not the truth in those their wicked doings. 
2. Thes. 2. &. 3.12. Esay. 5. & 20  Sin hath so captivated and blinded them that they esteem light for darkness, the truth of God for deceivable errors, and the righteousness of heaven for iniquity. And therefore with the bowels of pitiful compassion we aught to pray to God for them, beseeching him of his mercy, that he will take them out of that so mortal, deadly, and damnable estate. Now then sith it is God that is the author of our afflictions, 
Psal. 115. & 12.  calamities, and griefs, if we take them at his hands, they will be healthful for us, and make us to be true imitators and followers of Christ his son, so that we shall not at all disdain our enemies, nor shall in no wise use them evilly for evil, but rather desire that they may be brought into the bowels of his love, and so reduced into the way of health.  
With faintness are we filled with edible wrath & indignation against them, because we think that with their ireful hatred, their caluminate strifes, & slanderous reports, their false testimonies and burning desires to shed our blood, they do, or can do as much grief or harm. But if we do understand Gods divine counsel a right, & do not look a wry from his word, we shall and may know perfectly well, how impossible it is for them to do us any kind of damage, with all that ever they can do or imagine, whatsoever it be. If we do but hear the words that the holy Ghost speaketh by the Prophet David, we may well understand & see, that they can not prejudice us in any thing at all.   

An excellent comfort to the afflicted. Cap. xiii.  
HE that dwelleth (sayeth he) under the defence of the highest, 
Psal. 91. & 1.4.10.  shall be sure under the shadow of the almighty. 
The security of the faithful.  The defence wherein doth consist our surest security, is the firm trust and affiance that the Lords hath given us to have in him. By the which we are made partakers of his omnipotency, and as his omnipotency is in security from all kind of evil, even so are we thereby because he is only our hope, our foretresse, our strength, and God in whom we chief trust. And the chief ground of his promise is, that he will deliver us from all evils, and that his truth shall be unto us a buckler and shield. And also the Prophet saith in the same Psalm, Because thou haste put thyself under the guard and custody of the most highest, there shall no evil happen unto thee, neither shall any plague come near thy dwelling. Whereby it appeareth plainly, what vain travails our enemies take in hand, when they seek rather to afflict us, or fight so furiously as they do, against the truth. 
Mat. 16. &. 24.28.  For that as they can not prevail against the truth, so shall they not prevail against them that follow it, because the auctthor thereof is their mighty defender. Here the Lord doth promise and certify that no evil shall happen unto us, nor plague come to our dwelling or Tabernacle, if we know and fear him. So that it followeth the evils and mischiefs that our adversaries do seek towards us, 
The faithful members of Christ.  cannot hurt us if we be faithful. Because the elected whose tutor and governor is God, are not, neither riches, honour, dignity, high estate, bodily or corporal health, life, nor any thing else, whereof there is any virtue or power given to the wicked. But are the living members, of jesus Christ united and knit unto him most surely, and therefore invisible to the children of this world, as is the same Lord. And because the wicked should not see how to do them harm in that true being which they be, God did so favour them, that by him they were incorporated in jesus Christ, for that as he is firm sure, substantial, strong, and may not be thrown out of the throne of his majesty. So be those his members of such strength and force in him, that they may in no wise be separated from him.  
That which by tyranny of tyrants is to be taken from us, is but lent us in this world. But that which God hath given us for our own, I mean the celestial riches which we are heirs unto, to inherit for ever, they can not be taken away, although they do the worst they can. 
That is the riches of his kingdom.  That which is ours is given us for our own with a privilege, irrevocable, that we be his children, inheritors of his kingdom, and partakers of his glory. That we also be his inheritance, & a dwelling place for him to devil in for ever, with ourselves also in him. 
1, Pet. 1. &. 3.4.5.  S. Peter doth rejoice that we do live in him eternally, and do hold and accounted him for our God & father, and doth give thanks, saying: Blessed be God the father of our Lord jesus Christ, the which according to his abundant grace and mercy, hath regenerated us again to a lively hope, by the resurrection from death of our Lord jesus, to enjoy an inheritance immortal, not contaminate but incorruptible and undefiled, reserved in the heavens for those which are kept by the power of God through faith, to obtain salvation.  
So that being kept by the power of God which passeth strength of castles, or any thing else, what evil or harm can come or happen unto us.  
Thou dootst hide them in the secret of thine own presence privily, 
Psal 30. &. 22.  from provoking the pride of men (saith the Prophet David) also (further) thou dost hide them as in a tabernacle from the stout caluminate, 
Psal 27. &. 5●  strifes of evil tongues.  
So that the great bravery and boisterous brags that the wicked do brave with all, it cannot hurt us. For that their pride, their peevishness, their caluminates, their strifes, their subtleties, nor yet their general and wicked counsels cannot grieve us. Not more cannot the greedy grievous rawen, nor haughty hate of the devil, pierce nor penetrate the place where GOD doth hide us.  
That which did happen or fall out to jesus Christ, 
jesus christ is always a God almighty.  the same shall happen unto us. For as he was whipped, spoiled, spitted on, blood drawn from, nailed upon the cross, otherwise injured, and blasphemed, & did remain the son of God, and could not be taken away nor let from calling and acknowledging of his God & father, and continued the redeemer of the world. So likewise the faithful, the more they be dishonoured, 
The faithful are always the children of God.  despoiled, condemned, cursed, and iniurioustie handled, the more they remain always the children of God, and his spirit doth live the rather always in them, 
Rom. 8. & 15.  by the which they invocate, call, and acknowledge him for their father. So that it followeth that the world and all the greatness thereof (I mean the tyrannous tyranny of the persecuting wicked worldlings) with all the tyranny and cursed cruelty they can do, 
Gala. 4. & 5.6. Hebr. 3 &. 1.  can not hurt us.  
To confirm & make us more strong in our faith, the holy ghost by the prophet David doth declare unto us, that all which our adversaries do commit, thunder out, and threaten against us and the Gospel is in vain. (For he saith) the gentiles fret, rage, 
Psal. 2. & 1.2. etc.  and fume furiously, and the people invent vain things. The kings of the earth do conspire, and the princes and rulers of the Earth do gather themselves together, against the Lord and Christ his anointed. It is vain and shall take none effect at any time in us, nor yet nothing at all, that they can afflict us with, be it interior or exterior. 
john. 16. &. 14. Apoc. 17. &. 14.  Because the Lord our god hath overcome all our enemies, aswell those which are visible and seen, as those which are invisible & not seen. And hath overthowne them in such sort that they shall never more lift up their heads against us. And thereof it accrueth and groweth, that all is in vain that they do or can do against him, that hath overcome them. 
All that the wicked do against the faithful is in vain,  And moreover all is in vain that any fury can do against the faithful, so that their judgements and condempnations are all in vain. For that if the judgement of God can not prevail against them, because they (as the Apostle sayeth) are knit in jesus Christ. 
Rom. 5. & 2.3. etc.  How can any of the judgements of their enemies in any point prevail against them. Vain are their sentences and excommunications against them, for that God hath communicated them in Christ, and made them partakers of his riches. It is a common practice among them to confiscate, spoil, & rob the faithful of their perishing riches. But yet in vain, because that jesus Christ who is their true riches will not be rob from them. Their bodies are imprisoned, yet he reigneth in their liberties, to joy, rejoice, comfort, and recreate their hearts.  
Moreover, they are burned, and receive other kinds of death, to the imaginations of the persecutors, because they should not live: but they shall never die.  

Rom. 6. & 7.8.9. etc., Colos. 3. &. 3.  For Saint Paul saith, your lives are hidden with Christ in God.  
Finally, their instruments and other weapons the which they take up to use their cruelties with, 
Psal. 2. & 4.  it is but in vain against them (I mean against the faithful) for that he that sitteth and is resident in the heavens (sayeth the Prophet) shall deride and make a mock at their folly: the Lord will laugh them to scorn for their great foolishness. They do think themselves to be of the number of his chosen, and yet the more they do imprison and kill the very chosen in deed, so much the more soover they think to recover his heavenvly kingdom: a great mockery no doubt: and is no more but as it were an Emmet should fight with an Elephante, or a foolish flea with a foul Camel. Were it not also foolish phoprie for a man to fight with a shadow, thinking it to be a man of might. Surely they do none other, which persecute & fight against the faithful.  
Of whom the Prophet speaketh: saying, God hath put his faithful in safety, so that no harm can touch them, and where in no wise they may perish by the peevishness of any pelting persecuter. There is none that seeketh to hurt or harm them, but playeth the part of him that pusheth and fighteth with his own shadow. 
2, Cor. 7. &. 5.  Against the Gospel, the kings, princes, the wise, learned, and holy, in the world have discovered and showed openly, some of them their knowledge, subtleties & threats: othersome their valiency & might: and all of them do affirm & say, that they do nothing but upon a zeal of christianity. But that is such a zeal, as he the governeth the Globe and in the heavens dwelleth, doth deride, 
Psal. 2. & 4.  laugh and make a mock at. And doth threaten that in place and lieu of the same, he will speak to them in his ire, and vex them in his heavy displeasure. And also chastise them with an horrible and terrible chastisement, as he hath done from the beginning, and that hath been seen in our days. But sith it is so, and that all is vain that they do or can invent against us that do know and believe in jesus Christ, & that he doth deride & mock them in their doings. Let us not fear their foolishness and folly in their conspiracies which they use against us, to divide apart and separate us thereby from god's truth. But let us laugh at their folly with our good father who doth nothing but laugh at, and deride them for the same.   

Of god's exceeding love greatly to the comfort of his people. etc. The xiiii Chapter.  
ANd also, sith that those fond foolish fools cannot harm nor grieve us, and that we cannot be harmed nor grieved by any kind of calamity. For that we be in such security with God, and that we be not made by our natural weakness to follow their vanities, and so brought with them to be subject to the wrath and ire of God. Let us assure ourselves of the great love that god hath towards us, & consider the causes of our afflictions, and so give him thanks accordingly. And also let us love him as his true children, for the love of jesus Christ, with the same love that his father hath loved him. 
john. 17. &. 11.10. ●●. etc.  Of all those that were and should be his disciples he spoke to his father, the night before he should suffer, saying, O Father thou hast loved them with the same love that thou hast loved me. The love with the which God loved his son is perpetual and everlasting, and yet with the same love hath he loved us. As it is said by jeremy the prophet I have loved you saith the Lord with a love & charity everlasting. 
jere. 31. &. 3.  Though all things perish, vanish, consume, & vade away, yet this love neither perisheth nor vanisheth, but endureth for ever in one most mighty force & being, whether it be in prosperity or adversity, God doth love and except us as his own. The which is verified, experienced, and proved, by the Prophet David: 
Psal. 1. &. 7.  which being in the top and chief of his tribulations, GOD did know him and deliver him.  
So that he putting his trust in him, said, although my friends have forsaken me, 
Psal. 27. &. 2.3.4.  and my parents have cast me forth, yet the Lord my God will deliver me and take me up. jesus Christ was loaden with all the sins of mankind, and with pains and passions most bitter, intolerable, and cruel for the same: he was forsaken of his friends, overwhelmed with enemies, and extremely persecuted, 
Psal. 21. & 6.7.8.  yet GOD did love him most dearly, was always with him, and did not nor will not, never forsake him, but did hear him in all his agonies and troubles. Also he said to his Disciples, 
john, 16. & 32.  every one of you shallbe afraid of me and scattered away and I shallbe left alone, yet I am not alone because the Father is with me. 
Psal, 16. & 9  Also the Prophet saith: sith god is on my right hand, I will not faint nor fear what men do to me. Whereby it appeareth that God doth love them that be his, and willbe always on their right hand, when they be in greatest agonies, troubles and distresses. How jesus Christ doth love us he himself doth testify and say, 
john. 15. &. 9  as the father hath loved me, even so have I loved you. He loved me most dearly upon the cross, even so do I love you. He doth love us as himself, 
Ephe. 5. &. 30.  because we all which believe, be members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. There is no man that will forget and abhor his own flesh, for when any part or member of the body is wounded and most sick, then, yea even then, is his love the greater and greatest of all, & with greatest tenderness, doth show his might, & love without forgetfulness. So that in our greatest calamities & afflictions, we are of him best beloved, for that, he cannot nor will not forget us. 
Esay. 49. &. 15.  By the Prophet Esay he saith, can the mother by possibility forget herself of her own only son which she did bear in her belly, and bring up with milk even from her tender breast. Is it possible for her so to forget him, 
Esay. 49. &. 16.  that she should never more take pity upon him. If she do forget herself, yet will I never forget you. Because I have you written in my hands at my finger's ends. O worthy words spoken with such a majesty, let us not be mistrustful of them, for that God doth speak them himself: and to us he doth direct his speech. And therefore when we deprived of our wealth and worldly riches, most cruelly afflicted, and héeld and accounted for abominable. Let us think that God doth and will govern and help us, and will not forget but remember us, as a thing most dearly beloved of him. He saith, that he did writ us in his finger's ends and hands, because that as the hands & fingers ends be always in sight, and cannot be forgotten: So thereby doth be give us to understand, that he doth always look upon his elected and will never forget them. Because he doth love them with an affection more tender a great deal, then is that of the Mother towards her child. 
john. 13 & 33.34. etc.  The which he declared right well to his disciples, when he should departed from them by death, he made a great many of very loving & comfortable countenances unto them, and did promise' great consolation & comfort, in all their griefs and calamities, though they were never so great after his departure. And therefore as assured of this great love and charity that the Lord our God hath towards us perpetually. Let us not give place to any thing that is (contrary to us) against him, for that our firmness, constancy, and perseverance doth concist therein.  
The conformity which god doth pretend, that we which be his should have with Christ, by mean of the crosses and afflictions that we are to pass through: is a sure and manifest sign and token of this his great love with the which he loveth us. Because the effect thereof is so admirable, 
Colos. 1. & 28. 24.  that it cannot proceed but from so high principle, 
Ephes. 1. &. 4.18.  ground or beginning as is our election, & the vocation with the which God did call us, doth proceed from the love which he hath towards us in Christ. So that all the means & practices, that he doth use towards us, to bring us to the end of our election, which is to be glorified with him, of necessity must needs proceed from the same original. When he did open our eyes to see our perdition in the which we were, and did give us the power and virtue of his spirit to embrace and receive his saving health, it was a perfect sure sign that he did love us, & that we should not doubt thereof, because he had done so great a pleasure for us. And therefore let us now not fear that, which them we were put out of doubt of, because that all those afflictions & calamities, which now we suffer from our Lord god, are fruits & a confirmation of our calling. And because we are so called & beloved of him we are therefore so afflicted & hated of the world. Yet let us not faint nor fal● from the truth, because that which the holy ghost doth testify to all the members of the holy body of Christ in general, he doth testify & say the same to every one of them in particular. And therefore every one particularly aught to apply and assure himself to him, in none other manner nor form, then of him only it was said and spoken, by Saint Paul, 
1. Cor. 2. &. 21.  who saith, we have not received the spirit of this world, but the spirit which cometh of god, because we might know the things which are of him, that he doth give us, and not be ignorant therein, nor yet doubt thereof.   

Of Purgatory and the causes of calamity. etc. Cap. xv.  
Because we that are of the numbered of the faithful, are such a particular work of GOD, that of his goodness he will not that there be any thing in us which he loveth not, but that we be wholly clean: & also that with our holiness and cleanness of life and doctrine, we do declare ourselves to be his children: and therefore will destroy in us all the works of the devil, 
john. 3. & 16.19.20.  which are so repugnant unto him, as are the wicked inclinations of the flesh, and all whatsoever else that doth let our true obedience to his holy heavenly william. To end and consume it altogether: he doth say his crosses upon us, to be as it were a Purgatory in this world to purify us, 
No Purgatory but in this life.  and he will there with that we take it as a testimony of his love, and that we be his very familiars and friends. I, saith the Lord, 
Pro. 3. &. 11.12.  do reprehend and chastise those whom I love. And hereof it groweth, 
The causes of calamity to the faithful.  that the more he loveth us, so much the more he hateth & abhorreth the sin that is in us, and also so much the more he will correct and chastise us. And as there is none that he doth more love than those which he hath called and incorporated in jesus christ, so is there none that is more afflicted in this world.  
Even as a careful Father that hath many children, and one among them more beloved than the rest, whom he will make his heir, and the more he loveth him, so much the more vigilant he is, to keep all vice & danger from him, that might deprive him of his inheritance, & yet the son with doleful dolour & grief that he doth feel, doth bewail and think in feeling his fatherly correction, that it doth proceed of ire, and doth not consider his father's pure pretence, but rather taketh it for a sign of hatred, which for a most sure certainty, is a true testimony of love & good william. Even so it doth fall out, between god the celestial father and us, for that we do not understand the intent of him in his fatherly reprehensions and chastisements, the which of truth (dear fellow members) are because he doth love us most singularly, as children to dispose unto us, his most inestimable and blessed inheritance, and to destroy in us all the vices that should let or hinder us from the same. We do sorrow & grieve at his friendly & fatherly correction, we do not esteem it as we aught to do, nor as instruments the tend to so joyful an end. And therefore let us hear & follow the counsel of the holy ghost, spoken by & out of the mouth of the apostle S. Paul 
Hebr. 12. & 5.6.7. etc.  My son despise not the chastining of the lord, neither faint when thou art rebuked of him, 
Prou. ●. & 11.12.  for whom he loveth him he chasteneth and scourgeth every son that he receiveth. If we can endure his correction, he offereth himself unto us as unto his sons, for what son is that whom his father chastiseth not, & is beloved. He that is not under correction (whereof we all be partakers) is a bastard & not a son. Whereby it appeareth, & we may plainly see, that it is he the scourgeth us, because he loveth us, & doth certainly assure us that we are his children, for that by his crosses and calamities with the which he scourgeth us, he will distinguish us from those which are none of his, but are reprobates. So that if we should be free from his paternal or fatherly correction, we should also be set void & free from the inheritance of his blessed kingdom. And moreover it were then made manifest unto us, that we were bastterds illegitimate and not sons lawfully begotten of our loving father. But sith that by his singular & infinite mercy, he hath made us legitimate. Let us like lawful loving children put aside all pusilanimity, weakness, and cowardice, and withal earnestie and firm zeal, submit ourselves, to the ordinance & will of the eternal God our heavenly father, 
Rom. 8. & 15.16.17.  and let us understand further the saying of S. Paul. We have not received the spirit of bondage to fear any more, but we have received the spirit of adoption, by the which we cry & call Abba, father, the same spirit certifieth us that we are the sons of god, and thereby heirs with Christ, & therefore let us suffer with him that we may be also glorified together. And forasmuch as we do know the effect of the benefit of his amorous and lovely correction, let us suffer as sons and heirs, to the Imitation of his eldest son our head & eldest brother jesus Christ, which being best beloved did suffer most excessive pains & passions. And as the greatness of the same was a true testimony of the love with the which he loved (& was beloved of thee) father: Even so, how much the greater our afflictions, troubles & calamities are, so much the more testimony have we of his exceeding love & good will towards us. 
Sirach. 2. &. 2.6.12.  For it is written (by jesus the son of sirach) that the cross is mercy. So that the more greater that our crosses & calamities are, so much more the clearer demonstration have we, the god doth love us the more profoundly, hath the more pity of us, & maketh us live in disdain with the devil & all his works. From whence it springeth, that how much more we be oppressed with persecution or any kind of calamity, so much the nigher are we at an end of the consumption & destroy of all the evil & mischief that is in & towards us, against the which the Lord our God doth make battle, war, & fight for us. And for this cause, in the most extremity of all our troubles and calamities whatsoever. We aught to have greatest content, comfort, & joy, 
1. john. 3. &. 2.7,  because than our most frank, free, & full liberty, for the knowledge of God draweth near, whereby we shall see him face to face, & shall know him as he doth know us. Let us not then as young babes, blush, fear, stop or stay, from the feeling of those troubles & calamities, which are present in the world. But let us pass to the consideration that god doth pretend by them, 
Colo. 1. &. 5  which is to make us wholly righteous, 
Ephe. 5. &. 9  and that there remain not one spot of unrighteousness nor corruption in us, 
Hebr. 12. & 10.11.  but that we should be the irreprehensible sons of god, without spot or wrinkle. So that we might come to enjoy the most blessed fruit thereof, which is as a thing of inestimable value appendent and regardant or belonging to the excercisours of the same.   

A great comfort to the Christian, with a terrible threat to the ungodly and wicked. etc. Cap. xuj.  
ALso God would have us to understand thereby, how great & how vile a villainous evil, sin is. And how great without measure the reward thereof is, to those unfaithful ones that will not know him, for that thereby, of a surety they are set a far distance from god, and brought in hatred with him. For if god have loved us so much, that he hath all ready pardoned, 
Rom. 5. & 10.  and reconciled us to him by the death of his son, then for the rest of the sin that remaineth in us, he doth with the greater justice, treat and deal with us so severely, as to make us live and die in crosses and calamity. And therefore what a wonderful correction or punishment, may we think that he will use, to them that are so fully fraught with mischief, that they be even the servants of sin, and of the devil, & enemies to all kind of righteousness. But yet for all this god doth not punish us for sin, because that Christ hath been punished therefore already. But he doth punish the sin that doth always reign in us, not for the hatred he hath unto us, but for the malice that he hath unto sin.  
And if we being sons & children, be put in such a straight by our father, that for the sin that is in us we be judged of men to be stranges and foreigners to him, what shall be come of those, or them that believe not the gospel, but are rather enemies thereof. He will not only punish the sin that is in them, but also will of necessity consume them and their sins together to everlasting destruction, for that they cannot abide so rigorrous a judgement of God, (who most horribly hateth sin) as is due for the same.  

1. Peter. 4. &. 17.18.  The time is already come (saith S. Peter) that judgement must begin at the house of God. If it begin first with us, what end will then come of them, which have not nor do not believe his gospel, nor yet will be none of his household. If the righteous can scarcely be saved, what will then become of sinners, or where shall they appear. If amongst us (I say) which are his temple and holy habitation, he do begin to punish with such rigour: what will he then do when as his wrath and ire shallbe inflamed against all, both one and the other. That is to say, as well the household of god, as the household of the devil. When he beginneth to take vengeance of that house where the devil dwelleth, is obeyed, and all his will fulfilled, 
Psalm. 75. & 9.10.  he will take in his hand the cup of his wrath against sin, & all shall drink thereof, for all are sinners. But the children of God shall drink & taste of the first, best, & purest thereof, because they may understand what enmity they aught to have to sin. Sigh god doth abhor it so much that he will punish it first in us, it is a great signification, that the rest (I mean the reprobate) shall be also punished, taste of his wrath, and shall not escape, although they think themselves at liberty, and lose there from. And if we the sons of God be subject to sup the first and best thereof, it cannot be but that the other must needs drink and swallow up the dregs, last and worst. But for the children and sons of God (I mean the faithful) to drink of that cup in such manner of wise, and to that end that God hath determined: 
Psal. 115. & 12.13.  me thinketh it is more saludable and healthful to them, 
Psal. 116, &. 12.  for that the lord will use such moderation & so much allay the extreme bitter taste thereof: because he giveth it them to none other end, but to bring them to humility, that being humbled & brought low in mind, they might with more greater earnestie in christian affects, embrace the benefits of him already received, & open their eyes with such clearness, that they might the more sooner see and behold, how dearly & lovingly he loveth & favoureth them. So that thereby he hath made them more capable of his riches (as David saith) although the Lord do cast them down never so deep, 
Psal, 119. &. Esay. 23. &. 6. Luke. 1. & 5.52. Psal. 145. &. 14. Psal. 113. &. 6.  yet he leaveth them not therein but lifteth and exalteth them thereby into his great glory, because it is his condition and quality to exalt the humble and meek, & to raise the poor from the dunghill.  
Sigh the determination of the almighty jehovah, is so fatherly & friendly for us, let us drink with a good will of the cup that he doth give us, be they crosses or griefs, whatsoever, for that thereby he doth call us to his knowledge, which for our ingratitude & other vices were separated from him for a season, with deserving of most rigorous pain & punishment for the same. And therefore I say we aught that rather too take in good part the bitter taste of being tossed in the flood of any affliction. We have deserved to be chorlishly chained in perpetual prison world without end, yet god is so merciful & loving unto us, that without respect of any thing, he hath allotted us but a light penance, with suffering a few, of short sorrows & calamities. But we most stobbernly refuse them with all our strongist forces that we have. 
Math. 16. &. 22.23.  Yet for all that sith jesus Christ hath called us to the cross we aught not to grudge at the bearing thereof, 
Luke. 9 &. 55.56.  but accept it patiently, because of the condition with it, already performed. If we would look and see about us, we should see, find, & know, that it is not we ourselves that bear these crosses alone, 
Esay. 9 & ●  but he himself in us: for (the prophet Esay saith) that it is he, it is he himself, that doth carry his kingdom upon his shoulders. Whom shall we understand for his kingdom: but the persecuted, the imprisoned, the abhorred, and condemned, that are killed for his name sake. It is he himself that they persecute and punish in us his members, for the hate they have to his inheritance which he beareth on his shoulders. So the although he do give us to drink of his wrath, yet he doth minister with it, such moderation and gentleness as is possible: for in the end all cometh to rest upon his own shoulders, and so we by him are unleaden and discharged. And therefore let us love him and give him thanks, sith we have deserved to drink of the extreme bitterness of his wrath, and yet he giveth us the purest with the most lenity and gentleness that may be. But the dregs, which is all the rigour of his wrath, of his indignation, his fury, his condemnation, his curse eternal, & sentence irrevocable are kept for them to drink which have not believed the Gospel: but in steed of the worship, and due obedience to be done thereby, they did afflict and grieve with persecutions, him in his members. The which will take effect (as S. Paul sayeth, 
2. Thes. ●. &. 7.8. ) when our Lord jesus shall manifest and show himself from heaven, with his mighty holy Angels in flames of fire: then will he take vengeance of those that do not know him, nor obey not the Gospel of our Lord jesus Christ his son: and will give them punishment of eternal damnation from the presence of our Lord God, and from the glory of his potency, when he shall come to be glorified in his Saints, and be made admirable to all those which steadfastly believe.   

An invective against the wicked, with a marvelous comfort to the godly Christian, etc. Cap. xvij.  
ALthough that God for a time do stay, and doth not show his vengeance presently, that he hath prepared against them that condemn his righteousness: yet he doth not allow any thing which they say or do against him. His patience and long suffering, is no certain sign nor seal that may confirm them any sufficient acquittance from him, for condemning of them whom he doth best love in the world: nor yet for any other kind of their wickedness used. But he is merciful to all: yea even to them, although they despise and disdain him, his mercy and all that is in him: and do trust to their own penitenciary merits. They do think to have a prosperous success in all their doings, 
jere. 19 & 15  and why: marry, because sin is so settled in them, and hath such rule, Lordship, and power over them. But all their prosperity and good successes, 
Rom. 2. &. 2 3.4. etc.  is nothing but a heaping up, of the fullness of the measure of the lords wrath, till it be so full in deed, as upon the sudden when they look not for it, it must and will run over (or turn the bottom upward) upon them: and destroy and drive them to the deepest dungeon in hell: and they shall be suffered still to rise the higher, that their falls may be the greater. And therefore the holy ghost doth command the faithful, that they should not fly from the truth, although their adversities be never so great, nor though the prosperity of their adversaries be never so sublimate and high. By the Prophet David he sayeth: 
Psal. 37. & 1.2.3. etc.  Fret not thyself against the ungodly, neither be thou envious against the evil doers, for they shall suddenly be cut down like grass, and withered like the green herbs. 
Sirach. 2. in all.  Obey the Lord with patience, because the wicked shall be devoured and destroyed, and they that trust in the Lord shall inherit the earth.  
And therefore let us be firm in righteousness and fear, as the spirit of God doth command us. For scythe that we can not, nor may not, escape the afflictions and calamities in this world, much less shall our persecutors escape: but our temporal tribulations are nothing to be compared to their pains eternal. Temporal tribulations, are but momentary, to the eternal troubles, which are to touch the ungodly in time to come, for that they believe not the Gospel, and are persecutors of the righteous. (As S. Peter sayeth) be ye merry and glad to be persecuted, 
2. Pet. 4. & 12.13.  that you may be partakers of Christ's passions, and so be glorified in him: for by that mean shall we be strengthened to withstand the fear of any present evil. 
Esay. 30. &. 20. Esay. 30. & 29.  Silence and hope (sayeth the Prophet) shall be your foretresse and bulwark. How much the more we are silent & trustful in tolleratyng of trouble in our trials. So much the more are we strengthened and animated to drink of the clearness of the cup which the Lord shall give us. So that it shall be no detriment nor harm to us, more than is already spoken of by his word.  

1. Cor. 11. & 32.  The Apostle S. Paul in the Epistle that he doth write to them of Corinthe, sayeth: when that we be judged of the Lord, we are but chastised, because we should not be dampened with the world. In this the spirit of God doth testify unto us, that by the means of those tribulations which we do suffer, we be made free from the condemnation of the world, the which of necessity is to be condemned. So that the punishments & persecutions which we suffer, God doth not suffer us in them to lose us, or separate us from him and his truth, as our flesh and the world do judge or imagine: but to correct and consume in us, all those things which are lets and stumbling blocks, to put us from the similitude or likeness that we aught to have unto his son jesus Christ our Lord & redeemer. Because that how much the more we be afflicted and troubled, with so much the more affiance and trust in his mercy, we should deplore and bewail our sins and wickedness: like his children of mercy, and so be banished from the participation or part taking, of the condemnation of the world. 
john. 17. & 11, 20.23. etc.  And this is the effect of the supplication or prayer, that our Lord jesus Christ did make at his last supper, when he did pray to his father, for them only which did believe in him by his word, and he was heard. But sith he did not pray for the wicked which he calleth the world) we ought not to marvel at their perverseness, for that all the perversity which they do use, doth lead them with stealing steps, to the brink of their perdition and damnation.  
He did pray for us that we might be delivered from evil: and even now boholde how by afflictions, he doth deliver us from the condemnation, due for sin and wickedness, and doth reserve the same only for the children of unbelief. And therefore it is said by the Prophet, 
Psal. 94. & 12.  Blessed is the man that thou hast chastened (O Lord) and instructed in thy law: that thou mayest give him patience and rest in the time of adversity, until the pit be digged up for the ungodly.  
Herein are we surely certified of our blessedness, by the afflictions that we suffer, for that we are corrected of the Lord, that we should not be cast of but enjoy our portions of his saving health. And therefore the holy woman judith said: 
judit. 8. &. 27.  Let us believe that the Lord doth correct us but as his servants, not to our loss, but to our gain: not to spoil us, but to amend us. 
4. Esdr. 16. & 20.  And Esdrasse a man of God sayeth, the hunger, the plagues, the tribulations, and the vexation of mind, with the which the Lord doth scourge us: they are but to correct and purge us, of and for our sins. And therefore the Apostle Paul sayeth to the brethren of Thessalonia, 
1. Thes. 5. & 6.8. etc.  ye are the children of light, and of the day: and not of the night, nor of darkness. Wherefore let us not sleep as others do, but let us watch and be sober, armed with the breast plate of faith and love, and with the helmet of hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath and condemnation, but to obtain salvation, by the means of our Lord & saviour jesus Christ which died for us: the whither we wake or sleep we might live together with him. 
2. These, 1. & 4.5.6. etc.  Also the same Apostle sayeth to us: The persecutions and troubles which you suffer, are tokens of the righteous judgement of God, that ye may be counted worthy of his kingdom for the which you also suffer. It is (verily) a righteous thing with God, to recompense them with tribulations again, that trouble the faithful, and rest unto them so troubled, with his chosen at the last day, when the Lord shall come in the majesty of his glory to judge the world. Whereby it appeareth: that the persecutions which we suffer, are to us a sure and most firm zeal, of the salvation & health that we have by Christ, that we be free from final and everlasting damnation, 
1. Pet. 1. & 6.  and also, they are sure testimonies of the sweet rest, which is for us to have after this life in our Lord jesus. And therefore we aught to suffer them with a joyful mind, because it is a privilege not incident to all, but to us only which believe. For which cause the Apostle saith to them of Philippia, 
Phil. 1. & 29.  it is not only given to you, to believe in jesus Christ: but also that you suffer with him. Because as faith is not given (sayeth S. Paul) to all: 
2. Thes. 3. &. 20.  no more it is not given that all should suffer for him. 
The Privileges of them which suffer for the gospel.  Wherefore it is most manifest, the to suffer for Christ's sake, is a great and principal privilege, given to us by God, by means whereof all they which suffer are assured of their free liberty in Christ jesus. And for this cause it is granted unto them that are faithful to suffer in him, and to be so evil entreated and desolued of and from eternal damnation, before his divine just judgement. As every father doth give to his children that which he knoweth to be most best & profitable for them. So God doth give unto us that be his, pains, calamities, afflictions, and persecutions, because he by his divine wisdom doth know, that they be most best and commodious for us. Adversity and persecution is much better than prosperity: because affliction for the word of God is only particular and private to the righteous, but prosperity in worldly delights are public and common to all people wicked and sinful. What things may or can be more profitable & healthful to us, than those by the which we are certified & assured, of the great good will and love, which god hath towards us: and the we are free of and from, the condemnation due unto the world, what thing is there better, that we can desire here whilst we live in this vale of misery, then to pass our time in the company of jesus Christ, clothed with his livery, coat, & cognisance: which is faith and love, to suffer, in, for, & with him. What greater prosperity can be imagined or thought of, them to be saved with eternal salvation, and to have a deed (as the common lawyer of england saith) of confirmation, to assure us that we shall enter into a full possession of his holy heavenvly kingdom: purchased and fully bought of him for us, by the most precious blood of his son our saviour jesus Christ. God our blessed father, in sending us calamities, afflictions, & tribulations: & in suffering us to be persecuted for his name and gospel sake, doth it to none other end, but upon purpose, to confirm unto us all his promises, & to assure us that it is necessary for us to suffer as his son did. And therefore S. Peter doth admonish us to rejoice, 
1. Pet. 4. &. 13.  in as much as we are partakers of Christ's passions, that when his glory appeareth we may be merry and glad: if we be railed on in the name of Christ, we are happy: because the spirit of glory & the spirit of God resteth upon us. S. James, 
james. 1. & 1.2.  considering the great riches, that God doth communicate unto his people, in their afflictions, and griefs, saith my brethren: account it great joy when ye fall into divers temptations, because that you know, the trial of your faith bringeth patience. Let us rejoice (saith S. Paul) in the hope of the glory of God for that he hath made us, 
Rom. 5. & 2.3.4.5.  partakers of the grace & reconciliation of Christ, & that we believe in him. And not only this: but also that we rejoice in tribulation, because we know the tribulation bringeth patience: patience bringeth experience: experience bringeth hope: The which hope shall never be confounded.   

Of patience and an exhortation thereunto, etc. Cap. xviii.  
NOw (dearly beloved brethren & sweet fellow members) let us see and behold how God loveth us: in giving us such a benefit accompanied with so many riches. Surely there is nothing that we have so great a necessity of in this life, as of patience: that we might fructify and increase in the fruits of the Gospel, to the obedience whereof we are called. 
Mark. 4. &. 20. Luke. 8. & ●. etc.  There be many that do hear the word of God: yet for all that there is none that doth fructify thereby, but those which are armed with patience and do suffer the hand and chastisement of the Lord. Wherefore the Apostle sayeth: truly you had need of patience, 
Hebr. 10. & 36.  because that after you have done the will of God you may obtain the riches of his promise. Whereby appeareth that without patience we cannot obtain them: and also if we have not patience we can not do as we aught. But because we should have patience, God doth suffer us to be troubled, 
Tribulation doth engender patience.  for that by tribulation, is wonted to spring and grow patience in those that be his children: who knowing the good will and love of him wherewith they are beloved, do persuade themselves that from his hand can come nothing, how adverse so ever it be to the world, but of force it must be to a profitable end unto them, and serve greatly to the glory of God: and also as they do see themselves beloved: they do love him, and do accept all things in good and joyful part that he doth minister unto them, be it affliction, trouble, calamity, sorrow, persecution, or other passion whatsoever. For by his Gospel is revealed unto them and us, all his good will, if we do receive it: and the full certainty thereof to some more, to some less, even as it pleaseth him, and seeth convenient,  
Of this patience is begotten experience: the which is the touchstone from whence & whereby our faith is examined, 
Patience bringeth experience  proved, and tried: whither it be weight & measure, yea, or no. dearly beloved (saith S. Peter, 
1. Pet. 4. & 1●. 13. ) be ye not troubled, nor do ye not marvel when you do see yourselves tried by fire, as if there had happened any strange thing to you which were not comen to the faithful? For by the patience which God doth give us, is proved, experienced, & tried, whither our faith that we have of him, be true or feigned. Because we be the children of light he will not that we walk in ignorance and darkness, but that we have experience, to know wherefore we should love him, and he love us. For so did God prove Abraham, 
Gen. 15. &. 5.6.  & found him faithful. And he was so faithful in deed, as was possible: 
Rom. 4. &. 9.13.  whereby he understood that by the same faith which God had given him he was made righteous before his divine majesty, & that it was a true faith, and did use all his love, and procure all that he loved, and did delight in all things, to do and fulfil his holy commandments. In Matthew and Mark, 
Mat. 13. & 4.5.6. etc. Mark. 4. & 3.4.5. etc.  upon the Gospel of God which they did writ: it is said: that there be four kinds of people which did, (and do,) hear the word of God, & all of them said they believed: but when tribulation came upon them for the words sake, & that they were tried thereby, there was but one part of them found that had received the truth, and they were thoroughly tried by passing the pikes of persecution with patience, and did fructify abundantly, some thirty fold, some sixty fold, some more, some less. So that in such manner (I mean by persecution) the Lord doth try out & distinguish the true believers, from the false & feigned. As when by a blast of wind the wheat is discovered from the chaff, & so known to be perfect: Even so by puffs of persecution, care, & calamity, trouble, & other the scourges of God: a perfect & true Christian is certainly & surely tried and known. Wherefore it is written in jesus the son of Syrache, 
Sirach. 54. &. 10.  as followeth: what knoweth he that was never tempted, and he that was never tried nor experyenced. What can he understand: such a one is as a man that sleepeth, & doth not know nor esteem christianity without a trial or experience. 
Thus cometh experience  Before that we be experienced by patience in bearing the cross: will any of us, be so bold as Peter was, to resist against the enemies of our master, and the truth: till he see himself out of danger of imprisonment, peril, and persecution, by such like persecutors, no surely: it is much to be doubted. But yet when God hath sent upon us persecutions and troubles, and of his mercy hath given us patience and constancy, whereby we have confessed before our adversaries, the faith which by the gospel we have received: and when that to follow our Lord & master we have put in proof to adventure our lives, and so pass through all the evils and afflictions that can be offered to us: Even then (and not till then) we do remain, tried by the touchstone of truth, and do know by experience, that our faith is firm, true, and of great efficacy and valour before God. Because than we are by him so united in Christ, that neither Castles, prisons, torments, threatenings, dishonours, losses of substance, nor yet the same death that he himself died, can separate us from him. So that then have we such experience as Peter had, 
jere. 9 &. 24.  and then dare we to strike of Malchus (the high priest his servant) his right ear if need were. But yet the experience that Peter had, was not altogether by the persecution which he suffered himself, but rather by that which he had seen his pure good master to suffer, etc. So that this experience and firm knowledge that we have to know the good from the evil, and whereupon to ground our faith, that we might boast and rejoice in God for: it is engendered and begotten of that constant patience which by faith we have to tolerate and bear the tribulations that we are brought into for the profession of his name. Patience also bringeth unto us experience of the pure goodness & truth of our faith: & doth assure us that we are not deceived, nor live by the vain imaginations of men: but by the word of God. Whereby Christ is revealed unto us, & we do know our salvation. Also there is verified herein, that which is spoken by S. Peter: 
1. Pet. 1. & 6.7.  in the last time ye shall rejoice, though now for a season ye be in many temptations: yet your faith once tried, being much more precious than Gold that perisheth, (though it be tried with fire) you shall be found in land, glory, and honour, at the appearing of jesus Christ our saviour.   

How that good experience bringeth forth hope, & of a shadow of certain persecutions. Cap. xix.  
Experience gotten by patience, doth beget and bring forth hope, for having experience in the might and potency of God, we come and grow to have a sure hope in him, because that how much the more & greater our trial & experience is: so much the more firm, certain & sure is our hope: as David, Danyell, and many other holy men, which having proved, and being experienced by great & terrible tribulations, have passed through the pikes of them with great hope: for that they had a feeling of the power & presence of God in them, & thereby assured of the favour of him, that they were emboldened and brought into so sure a hope, that none enemy nor nothing, could overcome nor prevail against them. David being moved with the feeling of this favour, and full of firm hope in the goodness of the Lord, which did sustain him against his enemies, & bring him forth of all his troubles with victory, said: 
Psal. 18. & 1.2.  with all my heart have I called on thee O Lord, and I will love thee O my strength: O Lord thou art my strength, my Rock, my defence, my liberty, and my god. And I will put my whole hope and trust in thee my buckler and my shield, I will call upon thee, & so I shall be delivered from mine enemies. The troubles & sorrows of death have environed & compassed me round about, but I called upon the Lord, and he hath heard me from his holy Temple. In like manner it happeneth and falleth out to all the faithful: for after that our faith is proved, experienced, and found good, by the patience & sufferance that God hath given us: Even than our hope doth so increase, that we conceive a most firm security and certainty of our salvation. And so: by means thereof, we begin to feel and know without doubt that we can not be lost nor forsaken: but that for a more certainty, we shall obtain and come to the pure port of eternal health. And hereof S. james speaketh and sayeth. 
james. 1. & 12.  Blessed and happy is the man that suffereth temptations: for when he is tried he shall receive the crown of life, which God hath promised to them that love him. In variable and firm is this hope, because it is founded & grounded upon jesus Christ, of his words and promises. Whereof it is spoken in Matthew and Luke, 
Mat. 5. & 5. etc. Luk. 6. etc. 20. etc.  (in Christ's Gospel by them written) Blessed art thou that mournest, for thou shalt be comforted: Blessed art thou when men revile and abhor thee, persecute thee, and speak all manner evil sayings of thee, for my name sake: Blessed art thou the weepest, for thou shalt laugh: Blessed art thou when men hate thee, thrust thee out of their company, and rail & abhor thy name as an evil thing, for the son of man's sake. 
1. Pet. 2. & 4.5.6.  Rejoice you all then and be glad for behold your reward is great in heaven: For so persecuted they the Prophets.  
The foundation of our hope being grounded upon these promises and such like: The Apostle sayeth it shall never be confounded. For that if we believe and trust firmly in the fulfilling of them, we shall never be defrauded from the fruits of our hope, nor shall not be confounded before the children of this world: nor yet have shame of our hope and trust, in those divine promises. For that we shall be assured to obtain the fulfilling of them, and beside remain without fear of our worst enemies: for they shall not be able to say that our hope is had in vain, but shall with their own eyes, full surely see us saved thereby. 
Psal. 31. & 1. etc. Psal. 71. & 1. etc.  David doth declare and confirm this unto us by his own experience, saying, in the Lord have I trusted, & I shall never be confounded. 
Esay. 28. & 16.  And Esay sayeth, he that believeth in the Lord shall not be confounded. 
Rom. 8. & ●4.  And by S. Paul it is said, by hope we be already saved. Finally by the holy ghost it is pretended, to give us all to understand, that as many as trust in God, shall be saved & set free, from all tribulations both temporal and eternal by jesus Christ. So that being animated and emboldened by this hope, we may rejoice in them and say with Saint Paul, 
Rom. 8. & ●1. 32. etc.  if God be with us, who can be against us. He that spared not his own son, but gave him for us all: how is it possible that he should not give us all things in him. Who shall accuse or say any thing to the charge of the chosen: it is God that justifieth, who shall then condemn: it is Christ that is dead, yea rather risen again: which is also on the right hand of God, and maketh intercession for us.  
Who shall separate us from the love of him: shall tribulation, anguish, persecution, hunger, nakedness, peril, or the sword. Not: God forbid, 
Psal. 44. & 22.  for that it is written, for thy sake are we killed all the day long, & are accounted as sheep appointed to be slain. And yet in all these things we are victors, & victorious, by that good god our father who so loveth us. Thus if the foundation of our hope be by faith, we are then perfectly sure we shall never come to confusion: 
Rom. 8. & 35.39.  and that no creature can part nor separate us from the love and charity of God, which is in jesus Christ our Lord. Because of necessity by his righteousness, he is to fulfil in us all things, as the holy Ghost hath spoken. That is to say: 
●. Tim. 2. &. 7.10. etc. Rom. 8. & 11.12.17. etc.  if we suffer with Christ, we shall also reign with him, and if we be dead with him, we shall live together with him also.  
And therefore if we do communicate together in his passions, and do suffer and be killed with him, we may assure ourselves, that we shall also live with him for ever. So that the tribulations and persecutions which we suffer for his sake, with patience, is a free confirmation, and full assurance of our hope in his eternal kingdom, of the which he hath already taken possession, is glorified, and doth reign therein to his own use, and ours.  
So that we may see, that all that God doth, is to assure us, (& to make confirmation accordingly) of our salvation: the which he hath given us in Christ. And to confirm in us also, the rest of the effect of his divine counsel which was determined before the beginning of the world. And as this his counsel is mutable, so much the more is the fuming fury of his enemies and of the devil their captain, set against us: who as he is the principal minister of all the mischief and tribulations that we suffer. So he doth as much as in him is to obtain the victory of us, as well in administering temptations to us interiorly, as exteriorly: whereby he would by one mean or other, pluck and separate us from the right way. When he doth come to the combat to fight for victoorie: the villain is so nimble, diligent, and subtle as is possible: all his army of Soldiers and warriors are armed and set in array for the best advantage as he thinketh: And all to derive us from the firmness of our faith that we have in Christ. He doth show us the greatness of his estate, and of all his furniture, for that he would make us afraid, to faint, and be dismayed at the full fierceness of his force. And when as this is thus showed unto us, there is a certain number of us, that are troubled, and do think themselves as sheep among Wolves, & in the mouths of Wolves. When as they see themselves forsaken of their friends and familiars, abhorred & denied of their kinsfolks, forsaken and without help of them that were deepest in debt for their friendship. And that all the world doth rejoice to see them so afflicted, as when the sentences of their condempnors' thunder out so terribly against them, as though it were from the mouth of almighty God pronounced. Then great are the troubles & sorrows that they suffer in their minds: it seemeth then unto them, that both heaven & earth is beset with ire & wrath against them, 
O great Ire of the devil and his servants.  & that god & his creatures make mortal war even to destroy them. Then for another practice may they see the kings Princes & rulers (which aught to be their defenders in God's causes) to rise & stand up against them, & do say all with one voice together: kill them, kill them, as traitors & enemies to God & our kingdom. On the other side they see torments, tortures, and stout sturdy stomached tormentors, stand ready prepared for them, with shame, infamy, confusion, & reproach, to be received before their friends, familiars, & enemies, they do see the terrible & fearful face of direful death, & the slavish hangman or executioner ready to light the fire to burn them, & to stretch the rope to strangle them. In all these troubles, there is not one to comfort them, but in stead & place of comfort, they do use exortations to blaspheme (or speak blasphemy of the redemption obtained by) jesus Christ. These I say: these are wonderful anguishes, sorrows, & troubles in their thus troubled minds. And yet they do increase from degree to degree, for all this time, 
Psal. 43. &. 1.2.  they either think the God is a sleep, there is no God, or else that he hath forgotten them. And then the devil plieth him by all the means he may, to bring them to despair: he doth procure persuasions unto them that they would deny, abhor, & curse God: them he doth leave to entreat them in this manner, & will suffer no man to succour them. So that more grievous is this anguish to the mind of those members, them were present death to their bodies.   

A pure proof unto us, that we are beloved of God in our greatest griefs etc. The xx. Chapter.  
ANd yet all these mischievous things are but mystic clouds of darkness, cast out by the devil himself, by means of the miscreaunts his ministers: and can not be encountered to any advantage, but only by the light and presence of the promise of God. If we happen to fall into any of these clapses, or to come into such a straight: the first thing that we ought to do is, not to stop, impope ourselves with popery, nor to dazzle our eyes with any thing that we see, but to pass with expedition as much as may be, to those things which with corporal sight may not be seen. (Which is to a sure hope and trust in God,) and then no doubt of necessity we shall be succoured in the midst and extremity of all our sorrows and troubles, such like or whatsoever. God saith by the Prophet David, 
Psal. 91. & ●4. etc.  I am with the afflicted in all their troubles. I will deliver them and bring them to honour, and they shall glorify me. So that, them it is not God that seemeth to make this war against us, but assuredly he is with us and doth aid and assist us therein, giving us a secret power, virtue, and strength, which in the end doth deliver us. 
Luke. 12. & 32.  Christ said to his disciples, and in them to us: fear ye not my little flock, for it is your father's pleasure to give you a kingdom. So that all the mischiefs and evils, as many as we see or feel, whither it be interiorly or exteriorly: and all that Satan & his mischievous ministers do or can do, cannot let us, from entering thereinto. We shall never feel ourselves forsaken: but if we do lean to him and to his divine promises with a sure faith and hope we shall find and feel that God is always within us, and will never fail us. 
josu. 1. & 5.9. Hebr. 13. &. 5.  As it is written, I will not leave nor forsake thee saith the Lord. Let us hear that which he doth command us by the Prophet Esay: 
Esay. 26. &. 20.  in times of tribulations go my people, enter into thy chamber and shut thy door after thee, hide thee a little for a moment, until mine indignation be past. To withdraw ourselves into our chamber, is to flee unto the promises of God, in the which he hath promised us, that he will love and favour us perpetually. 
Mat. 6. & 6.7.  To shut the door is to renounce and forsake our corporal feeling & senses in time of affliction. And not to be overcome by any thing that then we feel interiorly or exteriorly, inwardly or outwardly. Nor doubt of god's truth, but surely be leave that he will fulfil & accomplish all his promises: for that we live eternally with jesus Christ by whom they were promised, when & in such times as we can see nothing but darkness, heaviness, sorrow, & the wrath of God, & we do judge that all of it is for & against us. But then, yea even then: he doth acknowledge us for his people, & doth command us that we shut the door a while that his anger may pass over. Wherefore doth our good God thus much for us: For our deservings, no truly: but even of mere love. So that it followeth, though he be angry yet he loveth us, and is not wrath with us, but with our adversaries & condempnors, of whom he will take vengeance for their unbelief sake, although for a time he suffer them to use their worst cruelties. 
Esay. 27. & 3.4.  By the Prophet Esay this is confirmed unto us, that the Lord hath no wrath nor indignation against us.  
But to the thorns and thistles he hath a furious displeasure, for that they are enemies both to him and us. 
2. Cor. 12. &. 7.  Saint Paul was greatly afflicted and buffeted with many counter buffets of Satan. But even then was he favoured & beloved in God. As he heard himself with his own ears, when the Lord said unto him, my grace is sufficient for thee. David feeling himself in the like favour of God said, 
Psal. 31. & 26. Esay. 27. & 3.4.  the Lord doth love all his saints, and doth keep all the faithful. And also doth recompense the proud abundantly for their pride. By our hope in his promises we do find this light and comfort in the midst of the darkness of our tribulations. But when in the understanding & following of his precepts, we do use and take our own reason, of necessity we must give a wrong judgement, for that if we feel not favour divine, we think presently that god is fallen a sleep, far distant from us, and hath forgotten us. 
Psal. 53. & 1.2.  And because we see not openly the liberty that we desire, we judge even then that he doth not see us. 
Psal. 31. & 1 ●. 14. etc.  As David did which being grievously troubled. He then presently according to the judgement of the flesh, said: that God had forsaken him. But presently by the word of God, he was showed the error and falsitude of his judgement. When I was in hast I said I am out of thy sight, but thou nevertheless hast hard the voice of my prayer: when I called upon thee. David held himself cast out and forsaken: but God did hear and deliver him, when he was in greatest trouble, and thought lest of help. So in our judgements (which are fleshly) we think that all our tribulations are long without measure, and that they will never have end. But the Lord hath said unto us, they shall endure but a while: for that in commanding us to shut the door a moment, he doth give us to understand that they are but momentary & shall end very quickly. 
Psal. 30. ●5.  As David saith also: his ire shall pass away in a moment or the twinkling of an eye. Our tribulation (sayeth S. Paul) endureth but a little, 
2. Cor. 4. & 17.18.  and is lightly passed over. And therefore we aught to suffer it constantly, not considering the things visible to be seen, and that perish: but the things invisible, and eternal. 
Gen. 15. & 6. Rom. 4. & 2.3.4. etc.  For that if we be the sons of Abraham, because we believed as he did, let us then appear in deeds as he did, or like unto him, for he was extremely tempted, but yet he: put his trust wholly in God, and did not doubt of his promise. And therefore was strengthened in his faith, & did give thanks to God. And was persuaded that although he saw nothing (that showed apparent cause) wherein to trust: yet he did consider the God which had promised, was of power almighty: and therefore of power sufficient to perform any thing promised. Even so we, when our tribulations seem most grievous, and that we do think there is lest possibility to get out of them: let us then think it but momentary, & the rather have hope with the greater firmness, and be assured that the potency of God is always ready to perform his promise, & let us not give any heed at all to our own reason, understanding, and judgement. And although we see not our liberty, yet let us be assured and make full account that we are free. 
God is not angry with us that are his.  Let it be that it seem that God do hate us, and that his creatures make war against us. Yet for our own parts, let us believe with faith (although our troubles be of never so great a show) that it is not against us: nor yet that he is angry with us: 
john. 3. & 15 16.17. etc.  because he cannot let be, nor leave bear, the fatherly affection that he hath towards us. Let us enter into the withdrawing place or chamber that he doth command us, and then although he seem never so disformed outwardly, yet we shall find him inwardly, such as he hath showed himself to be in Christ, that is to say, a father full of mercy, whose bowels do burn with love (for and) towards us. So that then we need not to despair, nor yet be dismayed in ourselves. Although the wars and contradictions of the wicked worldlings and the world be never so great against us, or the misformed and the ill-favoured face of death be never so grievous to our bodies which are mortal: yet our most loving father God almighty: will not leave, but be with us in the midst (and greatest) of all our temptations, troubles, vexations, calamities, and outrageous griefs: yea even to their utter confusion.  
To all the faithful that are vexed, troubled, & surcharged, or overloaden with the cross: the holy ghost doth give advice by Esay the Prophet in this manner. 
Esay. 37. & 4.  Say unto the weak and faint of heart, comfort yourselves and do not fear, behold the Lord your God that will take vengeance on your enemies, and give unto them payment according to their desert: the same God shall come in proper person and save you.  
This is as much as if he had said, I pray you hear me my dearly beloved friends, the troubles which you do suffer is because you are mine, and governed by my word: and for that you have cast away the yoke of impiety and false religion: and have received mine: look not in exterior things which are troubles unto your flesh only, but know for a certainty that as there is nothing that the world doth more abhor, (or that doth more suffer the rage and fury thereof) than you: So for the contrary, there is nothing in the world that I love better than you. 
john. 17. & 4.9.20.  And therefore my children, have you a sure trust in me, for I have already overcome, all those things that do torment you, and sith your enemies do not fear to molest & make war against you: do not you cease to receive comfort in the riches of my promises which are yours, and are for you. If they do account you for cursed and abominable, do you pray for them, I say pray and be not weary, let not your hands be loosed, but hold fast the sword of your defence, which is my word: be of good cheer, fear not, be stout and of a good courage, for why your enemies do fable and lie in all that they tell you, I am not absent from you as they say: but am always with you present, apt and ready to defend yond as I have promised. I do not abhor you, nor yet I have not forsaken you, but do love you, and am so nigh: that those which touch you, do touch even the very balls of my●● eyes. I even I saith the Lord: 
Zach. 2. & 5.9.  will take vengeance of them that trouble you. I myself in mine own person will deliver you: persever and go forward constantly in a sure faith and affiance in my love, for your adversaries have done what they can, and yet know not what they have done against you in me, let the eyes of your heart be settled in me. Although your senses be shut up with smoke, ashes, and flames of fire: yet do not think that I am fled or from you one inch, or any thing at all. For I will not leave you, but be always present with you, although you see me not, I myself am he that doth fight for you: although you feel it not, fear you not that your enemies shall overcome you, according to their determinations assure yourselves that I will give you the victory in the end, I have promised it: and I myself will fulfil it. These and such like are the loving words of our good God and saviour, unto us that be his choose, such loving & sweet amorous speeches doth he use unto us, notwithstanding that we be persecuted and afflicted with fire and other kind of crosses before we can come to him.   

A persuasion to trust only in God, and to avoid all vain trust, had in any human help. etc. The xx. Chapter.  
Sith therefore, that we see that our sweet God is so present with us, when we think him to be farthest of: that he doth love us dearly, when we think ourselves forsaken and abhorred: and that he doth not forget us, when we think ourselves far out of favour & remembrance. Let us put our whole trust and confidence only in him, for that he is altogether sufficient to (and will) stand with us for our defence in all our troubles and adversities.  
And also let us say with holy job, 
job. 13. & 15.  Although he give me unto death, I will not leave to trust in him. As our flesh is the greatest enemy that we have, so is it that, 
Rom. 8. & 1 3.5. etc.  which doth make the greatest war with us. Because it doth not only deny this favourable presence of God, but also doth not let, to fight against it: that is to say, against the promises of God: and do lean, and trust to things which are vain, thinking to be defended, and delivered by the help thereof, from all the harm, calamity, and grief that it doth feel.  
And so doth not only fall out to the contrary, but also is an occasion why, that greater griefs do follow: And therefore it behoveth us to be vigilant and to take heed that we do not tempt God, with putting any vain trust or hope in men, (whither they seem or show to be good or bad, faithful or unfaithful) for any thing touching salvation or damnation. For so the wicked by their wickedness, would devise and be of strength and efficacy sufficient, to blind and bring us into doubts, and like to despair by means of our doubtful and weak belief. Because that all of us are full of that monstrous mass of sin, ever falling, and in deed fully subject to fall, into all kind of misery. But let us give heed to that which the holy ghost doth command by the Prophet David, 
Psal. 146. &. 2.  do not trust in Princes nor in the sons of men, because there is no health nor help in them. Miserable are the successes of such as put their trust in men. For that (as the Prophet jeremy sayeth) cursed is he that putteth his trust in man. 
jere. 17. ●5.  Therefore let us put our trust only in God, and depend and put our trust only in his most faithful promises. And so shall we be sure that he will fight for (help and defend) us, against the world, the flesh, & all other the snares of the devil. As the Prophet Esay saith, 
Esay. 32. & 13.17. josuah. 1. & 5.6.7. etc. john. 5. & 4.  if we believe this word of the Gospel we have obtained victory already. Because as S. john sayeth, our faith is the victory that overcometh the world. 
Act. 6. & 11 13. etc. Act. 8. & 51.58.  Saint Steven, being armed with this faith, which was communicated unto him by the Gospel, did overcome his enemies furies so, that they could not resist the wisdom and spirit with the which he spoke. 
1. Sam. 17 & 32.33. etc.  David a very young man, of small age: what manner of weapon had he to fight against Golias that mighty captain of the Philistines: he sought no help of Saul, nor could not abide his Armour and weapons, nor yet did not favour any kind of humane council, nor his own force which was nothing in comparison, to the strength of that mighty Giant. But only armed with a sure faith, affiance, and hope, in God, he fought courageously, did overthrow him, cut of his head, and so set the chosen, (his fellow members) at liberty. In this is and shall be for ever, verified to all the faithful, that God will fulfil and perform his promises. And so he sayeth by the Prophet David: 
Psal. 91. & 1.2.3. etc.  he that trusteth in me, I will keep and deliver him for that he hath known my name.  

john. 4. & 2.3.  And therefore, sith he is greater that is in us, than he that is in the world, let us forsake all human counsel, strength, industry, prudency, and wisdom in the same, for that how much the less we esteem and depend upon them, so much the more is the efficacy, strength, & power of God in us: and our sight the clearer & perfecter, to see the great & admirable works, done in his elected by his most mighty potency, & might. Even than doth God discover to our weakness, the greatness of his most mighty power and strength, to our health and salvation. For when we think ourselves most strong, 
2. Cor. 12. & 7.20.  & depend most upon terene and earthly defence: even them are we most weakest, and our hope most frustrate. Because those things in the world, we account and hold most sure for our relief, in our greatest necessity falleth from us: and so we left at the worst, and in displeasure with God. For that we so vainly did forsake him, and slay to vanity (which are the things of this world) for our help and defence: & so are we left & forsaken, both of God & man. Because we made a God of those things, the which we trusted in, & therein did forsake the true God. Those which do put their trust in worldly things, do it because of the fair show thereof to their carnal or fleshly eyes: but so they make a division of that hope, which they aught to have in God, & put apart or piece thereof into those which are of the world: which is vanity, and of no value at all. Our filthy flesh is fond led to trust, and hung all hope on creatures, in place and stead of that hope which is due unto God the creator. surely it is such a subtle snare of the father of all subtleties & lies, that it often deceiveth many, and continually it deceiveth itself. For it hath always a custom to cover infidelity and hypocrisy, with some one crafty cloaked colour or other, that may not easily be known. So that when we be beguiled by the same, we do think ourselves in such security that we sleep therein, as though fortified with such human help, furniture, and favour, as none might be the like: when as in very deed by the end of experience, we may & shall, find our own weakness to be such, as is of no validity at all. Whereby is manifested that these carnal furnitures, weapons, & armour, in which we hope and trust to be succoured by, do not only serve us nothing at all for our help and defence, but also is and are extreme lets and hinderances, to keep us from the doing of that, which we aught and are bound to do, by the commandments of God. And therefore in this life, which is a time of trouble, tyranny, battle, and warfare: 
1. Sam. 17. & 32. 3●. etc.  let us be imitators and followers of David, who never did bear other arms nor weapons against his enemies, then only his sure trust in God, wherewith he always got the victory, and overthrew them all.  
How we ought to do and behave ourselves, to our enemies as well visible as in visible, corporal as spiritual: God doth teach us by his Apostles. All the wise, holy, and mighty of the world: All the riches, authority, dignity, excellency, greatness, humane strength, and policy, that was in the same: was against them, in such sort that it seemed invincible. There was very few (scarce none) neither Lords, Earls, Dukes, Princes, Kings, and Emperors, kingdoms, nor countries but were against them: with most cruel wars and persecutions. But yet they (I mean the children and disciples of God) armed with confidence and affiance in God, and patience by the only words of the Gospel, did convince and overthrow to the ground, all the power and potency of them all: 
john. 14. &. 1. Ephe. ● & 13.16.  aswell the principals as the rest. And by believing truly in the Gospel, they did fight with (and overthrow) all the sublimate and supreme highness, that did rise & repugn against them: & Christ their head in them. They did overcome captivity, & bring a great number to be ruled, by (preaching the pure evangely of truth in the Gospel: and to the obedience of faith therein. By force whereof: they made the world to tremble, and did work marvelous works most worthy of memory. The world was not so strong, nor Satan so mighty, nor yet his ministers so subtle, that they altogether with their strength, might, policy, and subtlety, could let or hinder the small grain of mustered seed, 
Mat. 13. & 32.  (the faith in the Gospel) but that it did increase, flourish, and grow, into a great and mighty tree, the branches whereof did extend into all parts of the world, so, that the birds of heaven might build their nests therein at his pleasure.  
The devil & all his vaseilles & bondslaves are beaten down daily & overcome, with that Armour & weapon wherewith God hath armed the faithful, & elected. If those, 
Apoc. 13. & 17.  which serve the prince of darkness, & that are marked with the mark of the beast, which S. john speaketh of, could make that the son did not arise and show itself so, that daily he did not or might not drive away the darksome nyghtie clouds, & so spread his beams into all parts of the world, whereby the force may be felt of the heat and light of the same: they might as well, let and hinder the shining son of the Gospel, that the splendent light thereof, 
Luke. 1. & 31.33.79.  should not shine and show his inestimable brightness, to give light unto the blind: that they might go and be guided thereby, in the right way of truth. 
Esay 9 & 2.3. etc. Esay. 60. & 1.2. etc.  And also let that the potency of God therein, should not take the captive out of captivity, open the prisons to the prisoners, and that the contrite of heart should not receive free liberty thereby.  
Let them go to heaven if they can, 
Psal. 52. &. 2. etc.  and throw the son down out her place usual, unto the earth: or let them let & hinder the shining of the Gospel of glory, 
2. Cor. 4. & 3.4.5. etc.  which doth manifest that God is the Lord, and that by his word he aught to be served and worshipped of all mankind: I say, let them do it if they can: but in despite of them I say again they cannot. For all that ever they do, is no more: but as if by spetling, they should prove or go about to pierce the heavens, and so spit upward accordingly, and then the same fall back again into their own faces: whereby they are filthily fouled to their own reproach. Wherefore let us not fear them in none of their brags, but let us put on the armour of the Apostles, and throw away all human affiance: Let us assure ourselves that by our afflictions and death, are destroyed and overthrown the enemies, contradytors, and geinsayors of us & the Gospel. For God doth deal with our enemies now in the same order, manner, and form, as he did with them in times past, which persecuted & spoke against the Prophets and Apostles: because that they taught the same gospel of life, which we now have and teach: by Christ we live, and for him we suffer persecution, even so did they: yet he hath always gotten the victory, as well for them, as for us. And therefore let us not tempt God, but let us trust wholly in him, his mercy, power, and strength: And also have in hatred all humane helps and favours whatsoever.  
What is the cause that so many do faint, fall, & become amazed in their minds so, that they can not persever in that truth which God hath commanded: And also that some other being wonderfully lighted with the clear and pure light of the Gospel, and seeing the works and wonders so admirable, that God doth show unto them by the same, are so sluggish and cold that they stand at a stay, and care not whither they go forwards yea or not: Surely and without doubt there is none other cause, but that only by the instigation of the devil, they are so deceived, that they rob. God of his honour, & put their trusts wholly one in an other, taking men for their staff to stay upon, to the end they might stand in all their troubles: regarding human favour so much, that they leave God, and fly thereunto for refuge, in all their adversities and calamities. Some do trust in their riches, others in their honours: some in the friendship of great men, other some in that they be Gentlemen and of the noble blood: and so forth in other the like prerogatives. What other thing is this, but as if one should trust in a shadow, or a smoke which vanisheth, almost so soon as it is seen. When that we consider the causes, for which we are afflicted, 
Esay. 36. & 5.6.7.  (whereof God is the author from whom we flee) and do put our trust in men, or in any thing that they can do for us: is as much in our aid as to trust unto Egypt or to the strength of the Egyptians, or as in a broken Reed which one holdeth to stay himself by, and it doth not only suffer him to fall, but also with the slyvers thereof, doth so prick and hurt his hands, as maketh him repent, that he had no more understanding in time, then to trust thereunto. It belongeth to one that is a Christian and faithful, to be builded and firmly founded, upon that firm Rock or stone which is Christ, and not to flee from the same, to any humane help or secure that perisheth: 
Math. 7. & 24.26.  for that against this true foundation, the winds of tribulations, tempests of torments, nor storms of mischiefs and wickedness, cannot prevail against it, or make it to remove or altar.  
And therefore having so sure a foundation as Christ, let us assure ourselves, that there is nothing in the world, that can remove us from it. As the holy Ghost doth testify, saying, 
Psal. 125. & ●. etc.  he that trusteth in the Lord, shall never be confounded, but shallbe always firm & sure as the holy hill of Zion.   

How we aught to be instructed in truth and verity, and to have no confidence in men's traditions. The xxij. Chapter.  
GOd will that we believe, trust, and be ruled by him and his word, only, and not in no manner of wise, by the authority of men, although they seem never so wise, holy, and faithful: if they teach and instruct not, by the prescript word of God, wherein is all truth. Because if our trust in God, be according to (& had by) their outward feigned holiness and goodness, it serveth for little or nothing, but to make us so weak and feeble, that we cannot taste the drink of the liquor of life: which is the fruit of the Gospel: with so stiff & stout a stomach as we ought: And also that the rather our weakness shall be made more weak, & our infirmity more infirm and sick. But if we believe only in jesus Christ, & trust steadfastly in him, we shall be necessarily instructed and strengthened: not to dismay us, but to be more firm and strong, against all kind of evil and wickedness. Yet for all that the ministers of God will only teach according to the word, that men should repose their trust wholly in Christ (as aforesaid,) and that he is the author of all truth and righteousness. Their intent is nothing but to be faithful to the Lord which sent them. And to prepare his way, teaching and showing unto men by the law the condemnation in which they were by sin, and how severe God is in his judgements to the unbelievers, and superstitious authors, 
Luk. 3. &. 4.  of guile and deceit, (and the followers thereof) contrary to true religion: they will reduce, and induce as many as they can, to jesus Christ their master by the gospel only, as to one in whom is always a remedy for any kind of mischief. For that from him the elected do receive all things, and do know by him that God is their father almighty: they do not, nor will not, sell nor give themselves for gods, nor yet maintain themselves for gods Viccars general upon earth: nor one of them doth not challenge more authority in binding and losing, blessing or cursing, nor in distributing the word of God than an other doth: they show themselves for men, subject to all humane infirmities, as well one as another of them. They do teach and preach that our faith must not come from men, from them, but from God: the word of truth doth teach them this doctrine and us also. And therefore let us not attribute any kind of thing unto any manner of man, neither faithful, holy, nor Saint, but unto God who giveth life to the dead, & some time converteth the hearts of (and calleth) our persecutors into the way of righteousness and truth.  
Although the men be weak, lacketh strength, & doth often stumble, to do any thing that is good, yet God's truth which they teach is not so: Although they be discouraged & afraid, because of the persecution which they see, yet the word of truth is almighty, & faileth not. 
Mat. 26. & 62.63. etc.  All the disciples themselves fainted and feared at the death of the redeemer of the world, 
Luke. 22. & 51.52. etc.  & yet he fainted nor feared not in his truth to show what he was: nor yet did his truth lose any part of the valour, for all the terrible trouble, and pagan passions, and persecutions that happened unto him. So true, so good, so just a justifier, so immutable, so almighty was he, as was none: & yet his own denied him, & were in such fear and doubts of his doings, as though they had never known him. So that the truth of God dependeth nothing upon men, although they be even his very disciples & ministers: but on himself only. Although they fainted, feared, and doubted of him, because of his passions & persecutions which he suffered: yet for all that did not he forget, put out of knowledge, abhor, nor deny them, but did most lovingly reduce them, and bring them again unto the truth & true knowledge thereof: And there where now he is, sitting on the right hand of his father, he hath not altered his condition, nor yet hidden his accustomed love from them that be his.  
Although they were weak, strayed out of the way, stumbled, & fell with the weight of the cross of cruel persecution, yet did he make them partakers of his mercy, with a free forgiveness or pardon general, and did give them strength and force a fresh, to overcome all their weakness. And therefore he being such a one as he is, that did love the weaklings so, that he would nor did not cast them away, for all their weakness & rebellion. 
Rom. 14. & 8.2. etc.  We also being like unto them, ought to love him & not to forget nor forsake him: but to hope and trust that he will do with us as he did with his first disciples, which had the first fruits of the spirit. Let us not be of the number of the enemies of God, nor of those which have any enmity unto him or his, which do take and use all his works so, that it is an occasion why they are set farther distant from him, do refuse to love him as he aught, and in the company of his adversaries do blaspheme his holy name: But rather as obedient and faithful children, let us understand the intent of our celestial father, and take and gather out of his works only, all such fruit as he doth pretend in them. Which is the better to know him, the more to submit ourselves to his good pleasure and will, and not to fly further from him as the wicked do, but to cleave more nigher unto him by faith, that by recovery of new force, we may persever in the way of truth.  
Now if there be any weakness in any of us, (as no doubt there is, contrary to our expectation,) that weakness cometh not of nor from the truth: but from ourselves & our filthy flesh. Let us not think it a strange thing, that there is such weakness in man, for that all of us in as much as we are men, and of the flesh, our delight is in nothing but in weakness & things of no validity nor force but of the flesh. Here we may all of us understand and see, what great necessity we have (as well those which stand upright, as they which bend and fall) of the help and power of Christ, without whom we can in no wise endure to do any part of our duties. And therefore let us be vigilant & look upon the weakness & falling one of another as in a glass: because thereby we might know our own weakness: & so humble ourselves before God as we aught, for of ourselves we are clean repugnant unto him & to all goodness whereof he is the author. And sith that we are all called to the cross of affliction and calamity, and to fight against the pride and presumption that is in us, and so to be occupied in contemplation therefore: Let none of us judge a wry or amiss of those which are fallen or do fall, but let him which is upright and on his feet, take heed he fall not also. Because that God is almighty, and will raise up and cast down whom him lifteth, & will not forsake, but raise up them that fall, will exalt the humble and meek, and knit & close their cracks and breakings most sure. The cause why, he doth not forsake them that are fallen, is for that they be his children, and that he will make his glorious works to illustrate and appear more brighter in them by the means thereof, 
Rom. 5. & 20.21.  because where as sin doth abound there doth grace superabound, and his mercy and goodness is shining the brighter.  
The wicked world cannot abide that any man should repugn or geinsay against his judgement: nor yet allow any thing that is condemned therein. But the children of God, 
1. Cor. 2. & 8.9. 1. joh. 5. & 4.5.  as they have a sense & feeling of Christ, so they do allow by Christ, all which God doth command. And so likewise by him do they reprove & condemn the judgement of the world for abominable and wicked. And therefore the world and his worldlings together do against them, all the mischief they can: to the end to banish from them this feeling of the truth, and so by consequent to despoil them from God whose they are. But in consideration thereof he will confound both the world, worldlings, and their judgements altogether.  
And if it happen that the children of God, do stumble and fall with the weight of the cross of cruel persecution, & give wrong judgement, disallowing the truth which they aught to allow, and do allow a lie, which they aught to reprove: yet their loving god and father will bring it so to pass, that it shall serve them for their best & greatest commodity, to bring them to be enriched with true humility: 
Psal. 33. & 20.11.  with their only trust in God, whose goodness is wont to rise, stir, and take out of greatest evils and wickedness, most great blessedness and happiness. For that those which love him, 
Rom. 8. & 9.11.13. etc.  he doth convert unto them all things for the best, yea even out of sin he doth take great riches to glorify them with. As he did to Noah, 
Gen. 9 & 21.  David, & to Peter: after their falls, he took such occasion thereby, as he turned many things to their great goodness, 
Psal. 51. & 1.2.3. etc. john. 21. & 7. ●. 2. Cor. 2. & 6.13. Gala. 6. & 14.  & commodity, & did make to shine in them great light out of the darkness the which they were in. By means hereof, we being forsaken of the world, and crucified therein. And also the world being forsaken of us, we shall come to great knowledge by experience, that neither honours, riches, nobleness of birth, human favour, wisdom, nor yet estimation had of men, is of no force nor valour in our spiritual battle. But only a sure faith and hope in God our Lord  
And so being made mighty, meek, and humble, in this manner, we remain united and surely knit with the vine, which is jesus Christ, 
john. 15. & 1.2.3. etc.  & more prompt and ready to receive his gifts then at the first. The cause why the father doth so pick, prime, purge, and make clean the branches (which are we his faithful) by the way and mean, is only that we might bear & bring forth, more copious, plenteous, & abundance of true fruit. 
joh. 15. & 2.  So that Christ is he by whom we gain, & Antichrist is he by whom those that follow him do lose. And Christ is he that gaineth, and Antichrist he that looseth. Because that where he thought & thinketh, that by his tyrannical means, he had and hath gotten, a number for his own, of those persecuted lambs out of the hands of God, he was and is deceived: for that jesus Christ doth possess them most mightifully, who will in no wise lose them. He doth unite and knit them with himself most straightly, in and with the chain or bond of most unfeigned love, for that he will not vary from the truth of his promise: with the which he sayeth, 
joh. 10. &. 5. A promise of great comfort.  that neither the force of hell, the devil, death, sin, Antichrist, and all that they can do, with the help of all their ministers, is not so much to prevail against them that be elected, 
joh. 8. & 12 23.31.32.51.  as is his strength to prevail in defence to keep them for the inheritance of life everlasting, which he hath already given them from the first day of their calling.  
The wisdom of God is such, that he knoweth perfectly that of or among all those which he hath called, there is none without sin: but are most subject and apt thereunto, and to all kind of wickedness.  

Rom. 14. &. 1.7.6.  And yet notwithstanding he doth accept them for his own: and knowing of their great feeble weakness, will not the loss of one of them. jesus Christ did know right well, that all his disciples would fear, faint, 
joh. 14. &. ●. 3. etc. joh. 15. & 7.8. joh. 16. & joh. 17. &. 1.2 4. etc.  forsake, and deny him, yet although he knew it, at his last supper with most firm love and favourable affection, he made them promises of performance of the whole sum of his goodness till the end: and in the end life everlasting. 
Hebr. 9 & 11.26.27. etc.  And did also declare unto them that his death and passion, should be to destroy sin in them, and their discendentes or successors, and that they with them thereby should receive eternal life. How be it for all that, afterwards they did all fall, fear, faint, & did have a doubt in him: But yet for that he had taken charge over them with promise of forgiveness, he did not deny & forsake them, but had regard unto them with such a love, that he would not suffer them to perish. 
Mat. 26. & 31.45. etc. Marc. 14. & 27.41. etc.  Although that wilfully with a wavering mind they had given themselves into the perdurable estate of perdition: yet he with a frank, free, and everlasting pardon, did restore them to strength from thenceforth, against all kind of weakness and infirmity.   

Upon what condition God receiveth us, with an excellent comfort to the Christian. etc. The twenty-three. Chapter.  
SO that now, although the overcome with weakness, we have fallen underneath the cross of froward & furious affliction and persecution: yet God will not forsake us, because he hath elected, accepted, and taken us for his own, 
joh. 15. & 7.8.  with promise of life everlasting. Those which he at any time of his mercy doth take charge of, he will not at no time suffer to perish, but will help them in all their necessities, and cure their wounds to the glorification of himself therein: & also give them life everlasting.  

joh. 6. & 35. etc.  Because that when he doth receive us, he doth it not with any such condition that we should do any good of ourselves, be faithful, or persever in any goodness for it: for that he knoweth our natures, to be to, to much corrupted, whereby of force it doth and will do, to to much to the contrary. 
2. Cor. 2. & 6. etc.  But he doth receive us with condition, that we should only trust in him that he willbe our life, remittour, pardoner, 
john. 10. &. 5.  and forgiver of our sins: our strength and perseverance, our Physician, 
Esay. 61. & 2.3.7.  and medicine, our master, our teacher, our salvation, and perpetual redeemer.  
It is a most grievous offence, to deny the truth of God, and to give ourselves unto lies and errors: It is most execrable before God to bereave him of all worship due unto him, and give the same unto a beast: 
Apoc. 13. &. 4.12.  it is a true testimony of our ingratitude, and that we have forsaken the lord, 
Unthankfulness.  by whose liberality we have received so great and mighty a multitude of benefits. 
jere. 2. &. 20.11  Go my people (saith the Lord by jeremy the Prophet) into the Ilelandes a far of, see and consider attentively, and behold? If the people there do like unto you, if any of them do change their own proper gods for others, which in deed are no gods: yet you have changed the glory of your god for an Idol.  
God did call us because we should account him for our father, that we should love and worship him as our father: he did take us out of the most dark and drowsy clouds of deceit and errors, and did discover unto us, that only jesus Christ is our most gracious salvation. 
Act. 14. & 15.16.17.  When that we went like children of perdition, 
Acts. 17. & 30.31.  worshipping of stocks and stones, he did reduce us into the right way: when we were possessed of the devil and of sin, he did deliver us from their mischievous tyranny: 
Deut. 4. & ● 20.  being a lost people he made us his people, treated and used us, as his own people, 
Psal, 14●. & 3.6.  giving us his word for our spiritual sustenance. He being our only Lord GOD and Father, we did deny him in an Idol: the glory which he had given us being his people, we changed for vainest vanity, taking in and allowing of false doctrine, and forsaking of the truth.  
We have left and forsaken our true and lawful spouse jesus Christ, with whom we did contract matrimony by faith in him (as saith the Prophet Oseah) and have committed fornication, 
Oseah. 2. & 5.6.  in seperatinge ourselves from and denying the faith that we did vow to have in him, when we received our Baptism.  
The Turckes, nor the Moors, do dot refuse their religion, no more do the Indians, nor the slavish subjects of Antichrist deny theirs, and yet is it false, abominable, and full of lies.  
But we having a religion, 
True religion.  so divine, and pure as is possible, and also such a benefit thereby, as is wholly holy and true, even come down from heaven: (the author whereof is the LORD GOD almighty, maker of all things,) do deny it most shamefully, for a vain fear of losing our lives, and yet our lives without gods true religion what are they better than lives of brute beasts, (surely nothing at all) what do we differ from all other nations under heaven, but only in that we do know jesus Christ the son, by the revelation of the father, 
Esay. 45. &. 24.  and that we have by him life everlasting. And where as they walk in the darkness of their mystical errors, we (if we be ruled by this true doctrine which he hath given us) do walk in the light of life by the word of truth. By virtue whereof, and to be conserved and kept thereby, 
2. Pater. 1. &, 12.13.  God created all things. If God had been our enemy at any time, if he had been a tyrant or had been cruel unto us, 
Esay. 8. & 14.20.  or if he had at any time deceived us, than had we had some reason to forsake him, to flee from him, and to leave him: to the end we might get out of his wily deceits and tyranny.  

Psal. 67. &. 1.2.3. etc.  But being always a God unto us, so loving as he hath been, a God that hath saved us, and bridled the devil, so that he cannot hurt us. 
God is our saviour.  He that hath commanded his creatures for our sustenance, (when we were his enemies) he that hath delivered us from so many great perils and dangers of death, and hath been always our tutor, governor and defender: and we without shame so to deny and forsake him, most grievous is our folly & fault therein: and so grievous that we have deserved thereby, that he should for ever forsake us and condemn us to be under the tyranny of the devil and antichrist eternally. To forget so many undeserved benefits, as he hath preferrid us unto, and to leave him for so small and light troubles and afflictions, as are those which we have suffered and are to suffer for the profession of his name: it is a thing worthy of most grievous punishment. If jesus Christ had not been first crucified himself, and made a curse for us, 
Math. 10. & 19.24.  and for our transgression and sin, & so called us to the cross of worldly tribulation, 
Luke. 12. &. 11. etc.  we might well have been deceived or thought ourselves so: 
Gala. 3 & &. 1.2. etc.  but that is most infallible and certain, for so he called us to the profession of the same, and therefore to crosses and tribulations, and not to worldly honours, riches, and delights of this life.  
What a grievous thing were it therefore to deny him: from whence may or can there arise, accrue, or grow, and proceed, such a mass of misery as that, and that we do not (nor have not) understand and known aright the end of our calling: which was especially and upon purpose to make us like unto himself by passions, persecutions and afflictions surely it is a most monstrous offence. For that to forsake the truth, thereby to eschew the cross: is none other but to forsake Christ our only Saviour, because there is no way to Christ jesus, without heavy crosses of affliction and persecution: nor yet no true cross of calamity and persecution, but is a way to pass by unto him.  
So that it resteth, and is most fit and convenient for us, to have a great and grievous grief in mind, with repentance, that ever we did forsake or deny him: 
Perpetual penance.  and to lead the residue of our life in a perfect and perpetual repentance for the same.  
And therefore let us be converted and torn unto him, and behold attentively that he (although offended with us) is not our enemy, nor doth not desire, nor procure our perdition: but is our good GOD and Father, which doth desire (and wyill perform) our perfect health and salvation.  
As truly as I do live (saith the Lord) I will not the death of a sinner, 
Ezech. 18. &. 21. ●2.  but rather that he torn from his wickedness and live. It is god our Father that we have denied in our doings and sore offended, we have most worthily stirred his wrath to be wreaked upon us, and yet he spareth us.  
He is always our Father, and loveth us as a most loving Father, and also doth greatly rejoice at our conversion from wickedness, he doth seek and use great means to induce, reduce, and bring us again unto his house and presence, after the wasting and quite consuming of that good portion, that he did give us for our perpetual patrimony. We do imitate the apostles altogether in fainting and fearing at the cross of Christ, and do flee from it, and deny him as they did, for the vain fear of death: let us also do as they did in converting again unto him, for as he did receive them, even so will he receive us, and will comfort and embrace us with no less love, than he did use & show unto them, for that he is aswell our master and redeemer now, as he was theirs then, he is our good God, a god almighty, and doth love us aswell sithence we fell, as he did before we did fall: for that the naturalness, and burning bowels of love that is in the father, is not nor willbe removed, by the infirmities and weakness of the children. The prodigal child after that he had consumed and wasted quite, 
Luke. 15. & 18.20. etc.  the goods and substantial riches of his father, (or that his father had given him,) did return again unto him, with a most humble submission and confession of himself with repentance, to be unworthy to be called his son. 
A token of true repentance.  But the father seeing him come a far of, did meet him on the way with such a fervent joy, that the son, had scarce opened his mouth to confess his sin and disobedience, when he fell upon his neck, embraced and kissed him with great joy, most zealously and gladly, and commanded him to be clothed with new and costly rich garments, making most marvelous feast with rejoicing, for his so penitent a conversion.  
Behold here the father was found no less loving to his son being penitent, at the last, than he was at the first, notwithstanding so great a disobedience and contemptuous offence. He was always a father unto him, aswell before his folly in falling and offending, as afterwards: he was not thereby removed nor altered one jot from his fatherly goodness, neither in love, quality, nor condition: he did not upbraid nor cast him in the teeth with his faults, although they were most grievously great in his sight, but did rather rejoice for his penitit conversion: so much that his joy would give no place to his son to confess his faults and offences. Because he had already (pardoned and) put them quite out of memory, 
Ezech. 18. &. 22.  and did will and command that he, with all the rest in his house should rejoice with him for the happy recovery of his son that was first dead and then alive. 
jere. 31. &. &. 34.    

An excellent kindly and comfortable persuasion of the faithful to rejoice in any calamity. etc. The xxiiii Chapter.  
TO us (my brethren and fellow members) that have played the part (upon this worldly stage) of the Prodigal child, in wasting, spoiling, and consuming of our portions of the riches, goods, and goodness of God our father, the holy ghost doth speak. Propounding this example, the which we aught to follow after our falling, because we might feel by experience, the love so ardent which he hath now towards us, I say now, when as we be wounded so full of shame and confusion, that we do abhor sin and convert.  
Therein he doth confirm and assure us, of our frank and free pardon and remission for all our sinful falling, how great so ever it be or have been, as a thing due unto all that are penitent. Because if our hearts he wounded with true grief, and repentance, and do with a heart unfeigned earnestly loathe and abhor the sins that we have committed, he doth presently pardon us for them with such a dexterity, that he is so ready to embrace, kiss, and otherwise to comfort us, with his pure peace, that we cannot so soon open our lips to confess our offences, as he is ready to perform the effect of his grace, & to give the guerdon thereof unto us. By the which he doth discover himself to be no less our father then, than he was before our falling. His joy is such for our salvation then, that the account which he hath of our offences, 
Ezech. 18 &. 28.  is as if we had never offended. Have we lost and spoiled our spiritual riches and substance that he hath given us for our patrimony? yea: it is even so, we have most recklessly done it, yet what then, in his heavenly house or habitation he hath much and many more riches, to help and enrich us with. And therefore let us remove our eyes from our own misery and nakedness, and leave the regard that we have thereunto, and let us firmly fix our sight & look wholly on him with heart, mind, and strength, for that he is our only life, health, remedy, redeemer and salvation, & none but he. For in us there is nothing that is any thing available thereunto.  
It is a bitter torment of mind & christian conscience, to consider how many are made afraid, discouraged and driven to doubt, by our denegation or denial of our Christ. (For although they were tender younglings in the knowledge of him at the first) now condemning (through us) the truth which before they did allow. This will wound our weak consciences wonderfully which do so revolt. And therefore (I mean, to the end we should do so) doth sathan make such continual war against us. But therein (to such like revolters) it happeneth as it did to the Apostles which did deny their master, and made many to faint, fear, and doubt (in and) of him. But although as weak & untrained soldiers to such like wars we be often put to silence and made to break array by our enemies. Yet it is very convenient & fit that we gather a new force unto us, and once again to confess the truth stoutly which we have staggered, fallen from, and denied: and with a courageous mind and constant faith, adventure our lives for the same, as the Apostles did.  
Although before they had denied it, yet they converted and did return again to réedifie by their dealings that which they had destroyed (in seeking mortal life) by denegation of their master. If with weakness we do commit this as they did, we have the like virtue, and as full power to repent, pray to God and convert as they had.  
And therefore the holy Ghost saith, (and doth command us by Saint Paul, 
Hebr. 5. & &. 1.2.3 ) we have not a high priest that can not take compassion of our infirmities, but we have such a one as was tempted in all things like unto us: and yet without sin.  
Let us go therefore boldly unto and before the throne of that good high Priest, 
Hebr. 4. & 16.  that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need.  

Math. 9 &. 12.  And Christ himself sayeth that the whole or healthful need not the Physician, but they that are sick.  
And therefore he doth call them unto him saying, 
Math. 11. &. 28.29.  Come unto me all you that labour and are loaden, and I will ease you, take my yoke upon you and learn of me, that am gentle & meek in heart, and you shall find rest (or refreshing) for your souls. So that when we are sick and oppressed in conscience, let us run unto him, that the rather we may come to our remedy, because we are those which are called of him, that he might unload and heal us.  
If they have taken away our honour, or spoiled us of our goods.  
If they have shut us up in prisons and strong Castles, or have condemned us for heresy (as they term it) yet for all that, it is no let at all, but that we may come unto him: and receive other goods, honours, and liberty, much greater without comparison, then are those which are visible.  
For although that of men we are condemned as enemies, yet God doth love and allow us as his children and friends. And therefore doth command us to come to be refreshed of his son. If he did not love us, he would not deal so diligently for our remedy, our sins cannot be so great, as is the health and help that he hath already provided for them: he hath destroyed and overcome sin, and will that we enjoy the benefit of his victory. If we think ourselves unworthy, yet our unworthiness shall not hinder us, for that his worthiness is sufficient. 
2. Cor. 1. & 20.21.22  Let us therefore shut our ears to the reasons of the world and the flesh, and let them be only opened to this amorous voice which doth call us so lovingly.  
And sith that only in God (who is the fountain of all goodness) there is mercy, let us not think to find it in any other but only in him, in those that have his spirit, 
The condition of the mercy of God.  and be members of Christ his son. It is the property of true mercy to deliver the miserable from their misery and evil, and in place thereof, to communicate unto them abundance of true riches and goodness. And also it is most certain, 
Prou. 11. & 17.  that how much the greater, the evils and miseries are, of the which he doth deliver his faithful of: So much the more brighter doth remain the show and setting forth of his glory in them, who is most worthy of the same.  
Then how can we call that mercy, that doth (all that may be) deprive us of so many benefits as is possible, and doth put us into a deep dungeon amongst a mighty multitude of massy miseries and evils.  
In good sooth, this can be none other, but a most strange and cursed cruelty, 
The mercy of men.  clothed but with a coat or cloak and name of mercy, the author whereof for a certainty, is the devil and his members. The persecutors of the gospel do account and call it merciful dealing to constrain the elect & chosen to deny both God and his word, to spoil them of the fruits of their redemption, and in place thereof to put them into the hands of the devil. Is this any thing else, may we think: them to deprive them of an innumerable number of benefits, and to put them into an infinite and unmeasurable many of mischiefs: for that in place and steed of enjoining and having the lives of their bodies, they do nothing but reap the benefit and fruit of vanity itself.  
Which endureth not a moment, but vanisheth away with themselves like a scrow in the fire, or as a vapour in the air: and so they with it, is consumed and cometh to nought for ever. How can there rest, remain, or be any mercy, in place where as the truth and righteousness of God is condemned: How can those be merciful that condemn the innocents, and do account it as a most cursed crime (worthy of the most spiteful death of the cross) to profess the name of jesus Christ, 
Colos. 1. & 14.15.16.  and to acknowledge and confess that he only is the redeemer, head, and quyckner of his church.  
Amongst such audiences and judgement places of mischievous merciful (nay rather merciless) men, there doth arise, spring, proceed, 
Ephe. 1 & 4.16. etc.  and grow, nothing but homicide, and sucking of blood from the beginning. And therefore there can be nothing in them but unrighteousness & cruelty, which shineth in them according to the doctrine which they teach. And how much the greater and more their tyranny is, & braveth against the faithful, & their doctrine which is a most pure truth: So much the more pure, celestial, divine, & comfortable is it to the author thereof, who is jesus Christ. 
joh. 8. & 44 Colos. 2. &. 4.  And therefore (my dearly beloved,) be no more deceived by reposing any trust or confidence at all, in their mercy so mischievous. For whereas they so mercifully (nay mercilessly) do suffer you to enjoy the lives of your bodies, they do therein despoil you of the lives of your souls, which is the true faith of the evangelical Gospel.   

The manner of part of the persecution in Spain, with a comfort against the like. etc. The xxv. Chapter.  
THe signs tokens and fruits that cometh, groweth, and are shown of them, is very like unto the mercy which is in them. They give for a livery Saint Bennets coat, which is in sign of penance, about a yard and a half of yellow cloth with a hole cut in the midst thereof, where through the recantantes do put their heads, so that the one half thereof is worn before on the breast, the other half behind on the shoulders, the which hath two read crosses, called by them S. Bennets crosses, the one before, the other behind, this they do appoint to be worn for certain years, within a certain precinct, upon pain of death. To signify that by them and the wearers thereof, the faith of Christ is denied, that they be wholly guided, by the devilish doctrine of Antichrist, and the devil his fellow, to whom they are faithful with a faith unfeigned, most unfaithful to God, 
Prou. 11. &. 19  that they have changed the joys eternal, for vain joys and vanity itself, 
Prou. 26. &. 11. 2. Pet. 2. & 22.  which perisheth, and have (according to the proverb) like a dog, turned again to their vomit: or like a sow well washed, turned again and wallowed in the mire. So that this sign or livery is a perfect show, sign and token, of the mischievous mind that is in them, and of their merciless mercy so unequal to the true mercy which GOD doth show unto his elected, persecuted by them, (being his enemies) wherefore we aught not to seek, nor trust to any other for mercy, but only to god, nor to change his mercy for any fear, flattery, or cruelty, whatsoever of men, nor the devil: although they do thunder it out with their dissembled sound or voice never so fiercely.  
Let us understand that the mercy which god doth show unto his people is very great: when that for his name sake our lives are taken from us, by such or those which aught to do their best to keep life in us, we may be bold to take it to be a substantial and most certain and sure sign that we are partakers of, (and do pertain to) the kingdom of God: when that for his love, or for the confession of his name, we be evil entreated, and condemned of men and the world, 
Mat. 5. & 11.12. Luke. 6. & 22.23.  let us not fear nor flee away so fast from death, that for to live eight days longer in this life, we will lose the life everlasting, which is the true life, a life perdurable which never will have end. What other thing is the life which they grant us by their mercy, (as they say) but a cruel continual death, full of sorrows & troubles, & of no continuance to true life, but many times taken away & dispatched by light occasions. 
Mat. 5. & 6 ●0. Luke. 6. & 21.22.  Wherefore, for that for so short a thing, a thing of so momentary a being, we adventure our human lives, for eternal blessedness, & a life that never shall have end, our lot or hap is the better, & more blessed in that we die with such dishonours, then is the lot of our persecutors, though they live with never so much peevish popish pomp. Our death here, 
john. 11. & 16.25. etc. 2. Thes. 5. &. 5.  is a true testimony of the life which we have in christ with eternal resurrection by him: and where as they cruelly kill, & craftily condemn us, it is an infallible sign, & testimony most true, that they be clean from Christ, & have no part with them. Blessed are they (saith S. john) the die in the lord. And the prophet David saith, 
Apoc. 14. & 13. Psal. 116. & 13.  the death of the Saints, are precious in the presence and sight of God. And therefore (our death) being a thing which the Lord doth love, & a testimony that we are blessed, we aught not to fear it in no manner of wise, being his children: 
john. 21. & 7.8.9. etc.  but rather to glorify him in the same, to the imitation of the Apostles.  
Let us give attentive ear to the words of our saviour Christ jesus, directed to them that will follow him. 
Mat. 10. & 37.38. ●9.  He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me: & he that will not take up his cross and follow me, is not worthy of me: 
Mar. 8. & 34.35. etc. Luke. 9 & 23.24.25.  For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, but he that will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. For what availeth or profiteth it a man to win the whole world, & then to lose his own soul, or what may a man give to redeem his soul from death. 
What it 〈◊〉 to be ash●●ed of Christ. Rom. 1. & 16.  And also he that shall be ashamed of me or of my word, before the men of this adulterous and sinful generation, the son of man shall be also ashamed of him, when he shall come before me in his glory, accompanied with holy Angels. So that the form and order of keeping & saving our lives according to the doctrine of jesus christ, is to lose them by affliction for his sake, & for the profession of his name. And thereby it is manifest, that we keepe and save our lives most sure, when as, and at such time as they do take them from us: for that by the means thereof we are put in the hands of God. Let us not be ashamed of jesus Christ nor of his word, although they dishonour us never so much therefore, but let us rather accounted their most dishonoured spite used towards us, for our most triumphant honour and victory: yea let us account even the very swords, axes, fleshookes, stranggeling strings, painted miters, liveries of mockery, faggots, fire, racks, boiling lead, pitch, rosin, and tar, tortures, and all other their instruments of torment, to be ensigns of honour unto us, & badges of the eternal kingdom, to the which we be brought by bearing and suffering of them. 
Esay. 61. & 1.2.3. etc. Psal. 72. & 6.7.8. etc.  jesus Christ was the son of God and king of all creatures, such a one as was promised by the Prophets. 
Psal. 45. & 2.3. etc. Esay. 35. & 9.10. Mat. 27. & 28.29. Marc. 15. & 16.17. etc.  But yet his crucifiers in most dispiteous or spiteful manner & sign of mockery did make him naked, despoiling him of his apparreile, & clothe him at their pleasures with purple, and put a reed in his hand and a crown of sharp thorns upon his bore tender head, they did wound & boffet his tender body with most cruel blows and stripes of fists and whips, they made as it were a may, game of him, a king in mockery, misconstruing the account which aught to have been had of him, and accounted him a man deceived in his opinion, a deceiver of the people, and not the son of God. 
Sap. 2. & 1.2.3. etc.  Of the same sort and in the like manner do they deal at this day with and to the faithful, the members of his blessed body our brethren: only because they call themselves the children of God, (as in truth they are) they do spoil & persecute them even unto the death. But they shame not to show themselves (if they be faithful in deed,) & therefore they be not appareled, nor do not were (nor yet delight in) the ornaments of honour, which are used in the world: because they be not thereof. They do only apparel themselves with the spiteful dishonours used unto Christ in them & nothing ashamed thereof, they are hidden thereby, covered & shadowed from the spite of wicked worldlings, as he himself was: they are clothed by their foes the enemies of God, with S. Bennets livery coat in signification that they are only allowed & known of god, though the world do the contrary, that he doth love them as children though the world do abhor them as fools full of folly, deceived in their opinions of the truth, & great deceyvors. Then are they tried with a certain kind of thing on their heads like unto a mitre, & that is painted full of devils, which doth signify the kingdom that Christ jesus gained for the elected, when as he did were the crown of thorn, & did suffer his passion & precious death so spiteful upon the cross: by the devils painted thereon we may understand, the sin, hell, death, & the devil are already overcome & killed: they have no more force against them, nor can do no more harm unto them, than those vain painted pictures. Because even as jesus Christ did live here upon earth, & did wear those (or such like) cognisances or badges of dishonour himself. So now he doth live & reign under those ornaments & apparels in them his own: so scorned, spited, & crucified for his love and professing of his name. Sigh he then is thus living in them, then by him in them, is destroyed all the works of the devil: Because (as S. john sayeth) Christ came into the world to the same end. 
1. john. 3. & ●. 1.5.  Whereby it is manifest, that those things by the which our persecutors do think to drive us from the knowledge of God, (for that they know him not themselves,) are sure signs and perfect tokens of our probation & trial, and of the certain inheritance of his blessed kingdom. Wherein after the end of a few hours (a moment or twinkling of an eye in effect) we are to enter, and shall reign most triumphantly in great glory for ever world without end.  
It is grievous unto us (the faithful) when in being persecuted with the perverse and crooked cruelty of men, if any of us do happen to faint, and for fear renounce to trust unto the mercy and aid of God, 
The mercy of God to the penitent is always ready.  yet by the gift of his holy spirit we do not only repent presently, and are greatly gréeved in deed, to think that so fond we followed the foolish fleshly folly of our enemies, and forsook the blessed banner of jesus Christ our careful captain. But also we are then fresh of force in faith and are little or nothing discomforted thereby, nor do not think that much is lost, (though we did stumble, stagger and fall by the cross as aforesaid, and so did doubt in the truth of Christ) not nor yet we do not look for our redirection from men nor momishe mamotes the pivish puppetly pelting patchery priests of Baal. 
Of the love of God.  It is altogether by the good will and love of God, that we do remember ourselves, how that we were not only without sin, but also subject greatly unto the same: and not only to the evils of us, had in experience, but also to all kind of wickedness by us unexperimented. And also by his like love we do remember, that God did make promise unto us, that his mercy should be everlasting to the humble and penitent, with a special pardon and forgiveness of sins, without any more remembrance of them. For as the father hath pity and compassion upon his children: 
Psal. 105. & 21.22. etc.  Even so hath the Lord almighty pity and compassion, upon all them that fear him.  
Because he doth know right well of what a mischievous massy mould or metal we are made off, and doth consider that we are but dust.  
And therefore sith that our jehovah, our most almighty God, as a most loving father hath always had mercy upon us, let us be most certainly assured that even so he will have now: and always for ever. Wherefore let us forsake and cast of that cursed and execrable mercy offered of our adversaries the condempnors of the Gospel, otherwise we are to forego our parts and portions of the true mercy of God, which is at as great enmytye and contrary (with and) to their mercy as can be.   

Of the true similitude of the true church. The xxvi. Chapter.  
FRom henceforth (neither) let us not fear nor doubt the truth of jesus Christ that is crucified, nor yet believe as the blind do: for amongst the christians at this day, the condition of Christ, and the true doctrine of the Gospel, is even as it was when he himself was conversant on earth amongst our predecessors. The righteousness & truth preached & taught unto us now, is so, & the very same, that it was then, & all one: Abhorred and evil spoken of by the world, now as then. Of those that be given to superstition & holiness, such as the world doth allow, he is condemned to be false & feigned: 
1. Cor. 1. & 26.27.28.  And of those that be fully freight with worldly affects & wisdom, he is condemned to be foolish & very full of folly, & all of them, both one & other do condemn him for an heretic & full of errors. And also, as at the first he was condemned by the said holy and wise of the world, the doctors of the law, the learned, the bishops, Provisors, Inquisitors, pharisees, & judges of religion. Even so now, are their others like unto them, so to be poped, that they condemn both him and his gospel together, 
Mat. 21. & 37.38.39. Mar. 12. & 6.7.8.  and as much as in them is, they use and set abroach to kill the heir (our principal menber) and to throw him out of the Viniarde. 
Psal. 118. & 13. 1. Pet. 2. & 4.5.  And such as go about to reedifye, and build again the Temple so long laid waste, they do reprove and seek to despoil them, of the chief and principal cornerstone of their bvilding. Also those which have already finished their building: & reedification, they do grievously gainsay & persecute: for why the gospel hath never been, yet is, nor never shall be till the end? without Annasses, Caiphasses, pilate's, Pontifices, high Priests, judasses, and pharisees: to kick and sporne against it. And therefore do the Discipls of jesus Christ, even now go on begging ●itting from place to place without any worldly abiding, and driven to hide themselves because they have professed and confessed the truth, of their master, the judasses do abhor them and their masters so much, that they do what they can to the uttermost of their power to betray them, and to make a great gain thereof. They do use their greatest cruelties, not only against them, but also even against the very walls of the secret houses where they have preached the Gospel, if they take them, they put them in prisons with great extremity, till they have done what in them is to overthrow them quite. And therein it is to be seen that the church of the faithful (which is the true church) is of and in the same estate and condition that it hath been from the beginning in the world, and therefore the Prophet Esay, 
Esay. 54. & 1.2.3. etc.  doth call it a poor afflicted and beaten battered church, with the tempestuous storms of persecution, without all comfort and consolation, even like unto the church which was of the Apostles sometimes in jerusalem.  
And therefore when it shall happen or fall out at any time to any of us the members of the same church, to be imprisoned and presented before the audyences and cursed congregations of cruel persecutors: Let us not look to find any other piety, nor pity amongst them, then jesus Christ did amongst his condempnors: when he was tied before them, and most cruelly passioned. But let us remember the words which our Lord jesus Christ spoke to his disciples, when as he commanded them to preach the Gospel of his word throughout the whole world. 
Math. 10. & 16.  Behold (said he) I do sand you forth as sheep among Wolves: It is the property of the Wolf to show very little mercy, favour, or courtesy to the sheep, if he do show any at all, it is but feigned to bring his mischievous minded purpose to pass, the sooner to make a spoil of his prey. Let us remember also that (as before repeated) we be called to be conformable and like unto jesus Christ. As he, after he was taken, and until he had aspired to the cross, he did find no hamanitie, no charity, no compassion, no pity, comfort, nor consolation amongst men, more than if they had been most wild, fierce, cruel, and brute beasts. Even so it shall happen unto us, if as we aught, we be followers of jesus Christ in all our persecutions and crosses.  
But contrariwise: if thieves, robb●rs, runagates, Sodomites, committers of Simony, homicides, murderers, committers of sacrilege, fornicators, adulterers, and such like, when they be taken and put in prison there is one or other found presently that prayeth for them: with works of charity, visiting them in prison, helping them in their business and travail, giving them comfort, counsel, & strength towards their discharge or setting at liberty. But if any of the children of God, hap to be had in their hands, they put them presently in prison, where they can neither see nor be seen of any man to help them: there is no man that doth or dareth help, aid, counsel, comfort, or strengthen them: there is none that may humainly help, speak, use any kind of friendship, pity, gentleness, or other good entreaty (as commonly is used among the worldlings one to another) to them. But contrariwise, they are shut up alone, one of them separated from an other, used and entreated with a kind of cruelty as if they were Turks, or among Turks. And for what cause, crime, or offence I pray you? Surely none at all, but only because they be righteous and just, and have their whole faith, hope, and confidence only in jesus Christ, and do trust to be saved by his mercy and merits in the blood which he shed for them.  
But then if they be brought and do appear before the judges, they find them furious, fierce, and marvelous wild: even like unto rampant Lions, full of subtlety like Foxes, with wiles to take them in trips by words and so to gather and get greater matter and cause against them, then before they were accused of: And do forbidden all, and command that none, shall visit them neither with words, works, nor merciful mean to help them any way, although that God so straightly have commanded it. If that any man (which is not altogether spoiled of all humanity) do speak friendly unto them, and so visit them with friendly communication: they are presently had in suspicion, and punished therefore. If there be any known to be so, or otherwise moved with compassion & do pray for them, they are taken for complisses, consorts, and confederates of the same crime, which is nothing but to confess the name of jesus Christ, and not to be ashamed of him being crucified in them. And even as Christ was covered with all kind of heaviness and trouble upon the cross, so were they made naked and uncovered of all human consolation and comfort, and as he having great thirst and dryness by the agony of death, had given him by them to drink vinegar and Gall, So all that those faithful afflicted ones, 
Math. 27. & 48.  receive of their persecutors, tormentors, & troublers in the time of their agony and thirst, is nothing but gall and bitterness, the more and rather to grieve them, for that they be as sheep of Christ's flock, among the Wolves of this world, who can give them none other thing, because of the enmity they have unto them, & their pastor or shepherd.  
Yet all that they do or can do against us though it be never so much, it is so registered and set down in Gods divine counsel that they cannot nor shall not, vary one jot, nor yet pass on whit beyond it. Wherefore with all humility let us run unto him, who will turn all their tryanny, and cruelty so pagan like used against us, to our comfort, health and profit, notwithstanding all our solitary shutting up never so separately and secretly alone.  
Let us imitate and follow the children of Israel, and do as they did when they were captives in Egypt: who being used and entreated with as much cruelty & tyranny as might be, without having on their behalf, either king, prince, lord, or other earthly magistrate, ungoverned of human help, and banished from all manner of fleshly favour, yet they had recourse unto god only: & with such sorrowful sighs and tears did confess & bewail their sins, wickedness, & offences, (& did desire help & aid for his promise sake so faithfully, 
Exo. 2.3.4 Chap. ) that all of their means together both of penitency and prayer, did ascend up to the throne of the most highest: and with those cries (I say) & heavenly hope that they had, did pierce the boiling bowels of his love and mercy: And did obtain the fruit of their faithful desires. So that when the cursed cruelty and tyranny of the Egyptians, was at the full, the highest, and the greatest, even than did God extend his mighty arm from heaven so: that they being without any human help or remedy at all, he did deliver them, only by his own mighty potency and power. There is no tyranny nor persecution that can continued long, for look how much the more it is malicious out of measure, so much the nigher is the end and destruction thereof. As did appear by Pharaoh: for when that the cruelty and tyranny of him & his ministers was most extréemest against God and his people, even than did it perish and end with most cruel destroy thereof, and the executioners together: for there is nothing that will more sooner destroy and consume the evil tyranny and cruelty of the tyrannical persecutors, than the patience and humility of the Saints, with submitting themselves, in heart and mind, to the only will and pleasure of God: asking of him succour and aid with faith in his promise. There is no such whetstone to blunt nor beat down the razor, sharp edges of the swords of the Tyrants, nor no such water to quench the burning flames of fire which they use for the faithful, as is a sure faith and hope in the Lord: because as all the enemies that do afflict and torment us be dead: Even so (although we see it not with our bodily eyes) he doth kill them still for us. And notwithstanding that they do seem to our carnal fight to be alive, yet for the hatred they have to the truth, they are dead in the presence of God. And how much the greater their frenzy fury is towards us: So much the surer is the sign that their utter destruction is at hand. 
Exo. 14. & 3.4, 5. etc.  The people of God were so occupied and driven up against the read Sea, & in such a straight thereby, that the weaklings amongst them fainted, feared, and began to yield themselves for dead men, by the hands of their enemies the men of war: who so fiercely followed them as was possible, making account of the same: they were armed in all points for the purpose, but God provided a present remedy for his people, to put their appointment clean to the contrary. He divided the hugy heaps and waves of waters, so that they stood still on each side like stone walls, till his people (the children of Israel) had passed through the midst thereof dry footed: And presently passing the same, (and looking back to behold the huge army of pharao's host their furious foes, that followed so fast for filthy thirst they had after blood,) they saw the waters again keeping their course in a most swift manner, and could see nothing else, but the overwhelmed and drowned bodies, of those furious fighting fellows who followed them so fiercely. Those fond furies were blinded so, that they could not see till they came to that destruction, the which then they would have fled from, but it was to late, they were mighty and most magnanimous and valiant till then. But being thus killed dead, destroyed, and overcome by him that mighty jehovah, he discovered the same to them his most loving people: because they should not fear nor faint at the like again, though it seemed never so mighty or terrible. 
Psal. 82. & 3.4. etc.  Even so, those (which persecute us at this present time so trimly, like as they would root & cast out the name of God from the earth, yea and out of heaven also, that he might never be neither known nor professed) are dead and killed by the same our most mighty and eternal God: though to our foolish flesh it seem to the contrary and to the sight thereof. And therefore (dearly beloved) there is no cause at all, that may make us, (by any just reason, that our enemies can use,) to faint, fear, or leave, the true professing of our faith in our master Christ, though they do threaten it out never so lustily: for that we being once passed the seas of sorrows in this world, by such crosses and calamities as it shall please God to use for a mean to pass us over the same. Shall have likewise discovered and showed unto us, that those which now seem unto us living, & do entreat us so evil without piety or pity, blaspheming the name of Christ and his holy Gospel, are not in truth but dead bodies which can nothing hurt us. If it should be great & foolish folly to fear the pictors painted (in parish churches) of images, or the puppetly Idols set up in popish temples, as though they might help us to good, or save us from evil. It were and should be ten times triple greater folly without comparison to leave and renounce the friendship and obedience of faith in him, which is an everlasting mansion for us in all joy and felicity. If there were any cause at all, to fear those dead bodies, which can do us neither good nor harm. The holy Ghost would not give such counsel clean to the contrary: 
1. Pet. 3. & 14.15.  Saying, fear you not any thing that they can do, nor be you not troubled, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. So that it is a plain consequent, that as (by sure faith and hope that the children of Israel had in almighty God, with their incessant and humble prayers and petitions which they used unto him,) he did destroy and overthrow the Egyptians, 
Exo. 14. & 27.28. Exo. 15. & 2.3.4. etc.  (pharao's host) and that they were so set at liberty, celebrating of Sacrifice with hymns and songs of praise and thanks giving unto him the only author thereof. Even so now in these present times, by the like faith & hope which they had, and that we ought to have in his mercy. And by the power and strength of the same God, shall perish all those that persecute us for the profession of his name and Gospel, for they are no less enemies and rebels to him and his people, them was Pharaoh and his vaseils or subjects. 
Hebr. 10. & 22.35.  Wherefore let us be firm and constant in the truth, and in no wise leave the communion or congregation of the true catholic church, but with a sure hope believe in Christ jesus: By whom we shall as well be defended and delivered from harms, as were the children of Israel. 
Psa. 7. & 14.16.17. Psal. 9 & 15.  And all those mischiefs which our persecutors do threaten and thunder against us, the most mighty God will confounded, and convert or turn them upon their own heads, as the holy Ghost hath promised by the Prophet David.   

Of Predestination and of glorification thereby. etc. The xxvij. Chapter.  
IF we consider the end, and what stop and stay we are brought unto by abiding so bitter crosses & persecutions: not doubt we shall find thereby great occasion to pass in suffering them with great joy. 
Rom. 8. & 50.  S. Paul doth declare unto us the effect of the end thereof and what it shall be: Those whom I justify (sayeth he) do I also glorify. So that the end thereof is to be glorified, as jesus Christ was when God the father did put him in his kingdom, and there made him Lord over all his enemies, by the afflictions and crosses which he had suffered & passed. And as the way which our redeemer Tetragramaton took to be glorified by, was crosses of persecution: whereby he passed and took possession of his heavenly kingdom. In like manner by those persecutions which now we suffer, is the most perfect way for us to be glorified by also. As we may be well assured, by jesus Christ our head who is already gone before us by the same way: whose footsteps of force we must follow. This way is so direct that whosoever passeth by it, it is not possible (so he do it with faith) that he should miss, but with all perfectness enter into his kingdom.  
Because as those that pass any other way, do walk till they lose themselves, so those that keep this way which is the true way, cannot but be glorified (in suffering) with Christ: for that they did persever in his truth and true religion till the end.  
And therefore all those which shall suffer & die for so just a cause, let them rejoice & be glad, assuring themselves of their glorification with Christ jesus for ever. For why: 
Math. 19 &. 6.  God's truth cannot altar nor change, nor yet any thing that is joined therewith, cannot be separated by man. The holy ghost saith by the apostle S. Paul, 
Rom. 8. & 29.30.  that all those which God did know and acknowledge, he did predestinate, because they should be conformable and like in shape unto the image of his son. And those which were predestinate he did call, those which he called, he also justified, & those which he justified, he did glorify. So that of necessity those which he did predestinate, he did also glorify, and the way and means to come to be glorified, is to be called and justified, by passions and crosses, to be conform and like unto his son. Wherefore those two things be so united and knit together, that the one is comprehended within the other, for that in suffering with Christ, and to be made like unto him, is comprehended the jointly being glorified with him. And therefore all them that suffer afflictions and calamities in this world, may assure themselves that in the end they shall be glorified in Christ, for whom they were afflicted.  
Beloved brethren we have been already called of God by the Gospel. And although that before our calling we were lost, yet now, we are washed, sanctified, and justified by the blood and name of our Lord jesus: and by the spirit of our God. This is a plain testimony, that we have all our secret election from one, and that is Christ, by whom we do certify ourselves thereof. Also the world, by the persecutions and sorrows that we suffer in it, 
1. Cor. 6. & 11.  and by the hatred that it useth towards us, doth manifestly show, that by the divine mercy of God we are called and justified. For why the world can not abide us, nor none but his own. Whilst we were of the world, he made us many delicate dainty delights, and trimly entreated us, as if we had been his own. But afterwards when God had given us the true light of his Gospel, and so separated us a sunder, that it was evident and apparent unto all, that we were the true members of Christ our head, and none of his. Then he blustered and blowed against us: he ruffled, roared, brayed, and railed at us, and did so extremely abhor us: that he did (nor will) not rest, to use all kind of cruelty that he can, to cast us out quite from him. And so our saviour Christ doth confirm unto us by Saint john, 
joh. 15. & 19.20.21.  saying, if the world do abhor and hate you, then remember how that first it hated me. If you were of the world, the world would love you as his own: But because you be not of the world, and that I have chosen you to myself, the world doth hate and abhor you.  
Remember the words which I have said unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord, if they have persecuted me they will also persecute you. Whereby it resteth manifest, that those which be persecuted, killed, and abhorred of the world, are already taken & called by God from the world to himself, and washed and purified with the blood of his son jesus Christ: So that we are to account ourselves glorified, if we be hated & do suffer in such manner. And therefore sith we be so certified, and showed by such signs and tokens so evident, that we be elected and chosen eternally in Christ jesus, and that we be partakers of his righteousness, let us also be assured of it, that we shall attain to the end of our election in despite of the world and all the ministers thereof, 
Our election and galling.  and of all their false and cursed religion.  
When that men without God and his Christ will (and do) burn us, or give us any other kind of death: let us understand that it is the checkmate and end of all our troubles and calamities, and that than is set open unto us the gates of the glory of God, that we might enter in & enjoy with him for ever, the inestimable riches of his eternal kingdom. When the enemies of God and his Gospel persecuted S. Steven to the death, even when he was in the most chiefest checks, 
He●. 7. & 5●  taunts & troubles, amongst them he saw the glory of God, & did see heaven open, & jesus Christ sitting on the right hand of the father, ready to receive him & to crown him as his martyr & faithful witness. So that in the strongest torments, and most cruel deaths, heaven is opened unto us. And therefore we aught not to be abashed, to faint nor to fear at any of their torments, but to stand strongly, and go forward with a good stomach and courage, and never to look behind us: that we might overtake, attain to, and apprehended (or comprehend) the resurrection of Christ jesus, 
Luke. 9 & 62. Phil. 3. & 11.12.  according as we be in him comprehended. Our enemies are unwilling herewith, but god willeth and hath ordained that there is nothing that may or can, be any let, hindrance, or impediment, to keep back that his election and eternal counsel, 
Rom. 6. & 5.  wherein he loved us, should not take effect accordingly: that we might be made conformable and like unto his son, as well in his death as also that we should be partakers of his glorious resurrection. All the evil that men do against the faithful, is to none other end, but to let and hinder (if they could) the predetermination of God. Thinking to make them believe that there is no other way to bring the same to pass, or that it passeth by none other mean or rule, than by those which they do allow, (and not by the truth which they condemn,) after their own fantasies & delights. Not, not, God, nor no point of his government and will, is not nor shall not be directed by them: neither he, his people, nor yet his doctrine, is, nor are not guided by any part, piece, or point, of their ways or teachings. As great distance are, 
Esay. 5●. & 9.10.  between my ways and yours (sayeth the Lord,) as is between the heaven and the earth. God will not have to deal with the wicked, lest it be to use them as the vessels of his wrath, 
Rom. 9 & 20.22.23.  for the health and wealth of his chosen. For whn, by their ways, institutions, and decrees, they go about to blot & raze us out of the memorial of God, that we might not attain to the land of the living. But in that mansion and most mighty monarchy God hath us in remembrance, and doth lift up, enrich, and glorify us, with his inestimable gifts and riches, 
Psal. 45. & 6.7.8. etc.  where our end will be to rest shining in great joy and glory, lightened by the light of truth in all heavenly felicity.  

Gen. 37. & 18.28.  The brethren of holy & blessed joseph, what did they leave undone and not put in practice, to punish, let, and hinder, the coming to pass of the counsel of God, whereby he had determined to lift on high & glorify his servant: they persecuted him, 
Gen. 45. & 8.  injured him, mocked him, stripped him, & sold him as a slave: he was carried into strange countries, & there used & entreated most extremely and hardly: 
Gen. 41. & 40.41.42. etc.  But when they thought no more to have hard of him, behold, he remained lifted up by the hands of God, and made a mighty magistrate in Egypt, and a superior Lord and ruler over his buyers & sellers. All that they did against him, was only and upon set purpose, a pretence to hinder him, that he should not attain to any part thereof (I mean that glory) but they could not in no one jot, 
Psal. 79. & 7.  let or hinder the good will of God, nor yet could use no impediment in his love towards joseph, nor in guiding him (as a sheep that had been among Wolves) from all his troublesome enemies and persecutors, till he had performed his great glorification in this world, and in the world to come inherited hyporsion, of those inestimable treasures prepared (by the love and good will of God) for the faithful from the beginning. Thus it appeareth, how he took his steps into all his troubles, and doings by degrees, as it were up a ladder or pair of stairs) till God had assumpted and lifted him up, into the top of all his glory, according to his determination before the foundation of the world. So that, as these carnal and worldly brethren did against joseph, even so at this day do the children of this world against the faithful: in beating down and persecuting them by all the means and ways which possibly they can: but therein God doth lift them up till they be glorified in Christ jesus.   

Of the mighty power and exceeding love of God. The xxviij. Chapter.  

joh. 11. & 47.50.57.  THe Hypocrites, scribes, pharisees, and other the enemies of God, were greatly against the glorification of jesus Christ: and to conclude him from the same, they persecuted him with so great and grievous fury, 
joh. 15. & 28. joh. 19 & 1.2.3. etc.  and also condemned him to death, beastly believing that after the same, there would nor could be no more noise of his name, that wholly he should perish for ever, and so be (most out of memory) altogether in oblivion: that they should hold his kingdom in peace, and have his people subject to their tyranny. But the divine meaning of God and his providence was clean to the contrary. By those means and ways which they wrought to overthrow him, he lifted him up in such manner that there is nothing in heaven nor earth more high, sublimate and supreme than he. Where they sought all the mischievous means they could, to darken and hinder his glory, it was to no purpose, God made it with majesty the more to shine, and did spread the beams thereof the farther throughout the universal world. 
Esay. 53. & 1.2.3.4.5. etc.  They did crucify him in most cruelest and most spytefullest manner, and killed him with the most vilest death, & such as was most infamous: because he might be the more hated, and the less accounted vail●able for the health and salvation of his chosen. But in this was fulfilled that which was spoken by Esay the Prophet, 
Esay. 53. & 11. Psal. 21. & 5.6.7. Psal. 22. & 7.8.9. Esay. 61. & 9.11. Hebr. 2. & 8.12. Psal. 46. & 7.8.9. etc.  the father shall draw unto him an innumerable number of disciples that neither shall nor will love nor seek after none other help, holiness, nor righteousness but his own. And also it is written, that God by his death upon the cross did cause that his son should have imperial, rule, and be the only Lord, over all his enemies. It was a thing which they could not conceive in their hard hearted hearts & minds: But in that they thought by their doings to deface and foredoe for ever, the name of our sweet saviour jesus Christ, it is fallen out quite to the contrary: and so altered and turned, that there is none other name in the world, where to, or to which, all creatures shall bow but only his. 
P●il. 2. & 9.10. etc. joh. 12. & 16.23.28. joh. 13. & 31.32. joh. 12. & 32.  So that where they did their best endeavour, to spoil all his honour and dignity, it is now so come to pass, that thereby he is most gloriously glorified, hath greatest supremisie, and a name above all names the greatest.  
As it is (of his own words) written by S. john? If I be lifted up from (or above) the earth, I shall and will draw unto me all things. Meaning that by his death he should gain and win the victory, and bring all things in subjection under him. As his enemies and rebellious adversaries, could not with all the force and power they had, prejudice or hinder his glorification: no more can those terrible tormentors, that seek to persecute & kill us, let nor prejudice ours. Because it is dependent upon him, and altogether his own: for that the glorification of the head, 
1. Cor. 12. & 12.26.  is also common to the members united and knit thereunto.  
Even as at those days the cross and passion of our Lord, did Annunciate, and declare his glory, potency, and might, to all believers? So the persecutions, calamities, and afflictions that we do suffer, & also those which an innumerable number of our fellow members and brethren, have suffered sithence, have been, be, & shall be for ever, publishers, proclaymors, and preachers of the same glory. The enemies of the gospel, advised & taught by the spirit of Satan, when they do lead us to the place of the execution of our death, they do tie our tongues (an act as devilish & pagan like as possible) because that we should neither speak, nor yet that they would hear, the laud and praise of jesus christ our master: but those tyings or strings wherewith our said tongues be restrained, shall be tongues to talk and speak against them, as against the greatest enemies to the glory of God: and use a new language, whereby shall be understood and known, the virtue and mighty power of the highest, unto them that he hath ordained to health and salvation. It is greatly necessary that all be fulfilled that the Lord hath spoken of, 
Luke. 19 &. 40.  to or against his enemies: he himself saith, I say unto you that if my disciples hold their peace in preaching, yet the very stones in the streets shall give their voices, and sound my glory. And now is the same in fulfilling among the faithful, for that, our adversaries, enemies, and persecutors, do what they can, and do use as many lets and impediments as may be, to defend us from speaking with our proper tongues, the commendation, praise, and glory, of our saviour and justifier jesus Christ. But he himself in place of one tongue which they tie, will lose, untie, and command, a number innumerable to speak, praise, and glorify him, world without end. The long beards of the persecuted over grown so greatly: their garments to unclean, rotten, and torn, with the filthy unclean filthiness of the prison: the biting bitter taunts their enemies bite them with, the cords halters, and strings, they tie them with, & the engines they use to strangle them with: they all, will God convert into tongues, which with one voice shall use so great a harmony as is most wonderful, to the superlative praises of our most benifitiall brother and head jesus Christ: And shall discover that he only is our Lord and redeemer: and we so persecuted, the faithful witnesses of his truth and righteousness. Those tyrannical tyrants and pestilent persecutors can not hear this heavenly harmony that so highly soundeth with so excellent an accord, because their own impiety hath so deadly be deafed them. Yet all those which are sanctified by jesus Christ shall hear it, and also some of them being waked by it, will desire to be consorts, complisses, and companions with us in our crosses, upon condition they might be made mates with us in so great delight, & witnesses of so beautiful a righteousness & divine sanctification, the which the Lord hath given us to possess.  

1. Pet. 2. & 21.  Our death shall be no more barren than was the death of jesus Christ whose footsteps we must follow. God will make that the very ashes of our bodies, shall fructify and be a cause, to make many faithful chosen children to show themselves. Because that many hearing and seeing our firmness in faith of the gospel, and understanding our constancy (at our death) wherewith we are strengthened from above: 
Act. 1. & 8.  will open their eyes for to see it, and so acknowledge him the author thereof for their father. And reduce themselves to his obedience, renouncing the service of Images & Idols, & leave altogether the false religion of Antichrist & his confederates. For that the words of our saviour Christ must needs be fulfilled (who saith) if a grain of wheat being cast into the earth do not die, 
joh. 12. & 24.  it remaineth alone whole & fructifieth not: but if we die, it bringeth forth much fruit (as to us is well experienced) likewise if it be in the garner, or sheaf in the barn, it abideth barren, & beareth no fruit. So that to die & suffer in the Lord, increase cometh thereof, as of a grain of wheat, that dieth in the earth: and more abundantly manifold. To the judgement of the world and of our flesh, by our death we are drawn into perdition: but it is very false and an untruth, for in very deed we die, to arise again, to bear and carry most copious & abundant plenty of fruit, to our glorification with God the father, and to the imitation of his son jesus Christ, who brought forth more abundancy and plenty of fruit by his death, than he did by his life.  
So that those which suffer do fulfil that which the holy ghost speaketh, of the faithful: they which have been called and justified (sayeth he,) it is convenient that they be also glorified, because that by their death they might fructify to the glory of God, 
joh. 21. & 19  and be joined together and glorified with him.  
God hath ordained to sublimate and exalt them that be his, So that not only their persons be living instruments of his and their glory, but also their passions serve to the same effect. And thus every one of them doth verify that which the Apostle S. Paul speaketh of himself, 
Colos. 1. & 24.  saying: I do suffer and fulfil the rest of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh, for his bodies fake which is his church or congregation. So that the passions that every one of us his members do suffer is to the filling up of the measure of conformity, that every member of the same body ought to have with the head. Wherefore every one that is persecuted and killed for the truth, endeth the filling up of his part of that measure, and remaineth wholly made conformable unto Christ: he hath destroyed the whole body of sin, 
Rom. 6. & 2.6. Rom. 7. & 4.  and left a confirmation to the rest (his fellow members) of his patience and constancy, because they are to pass by the same way after Christ, and so come together to be glorified with him, in his kingdom. It appeareth how our troubles, pains, and passions are dignified, by reason of the communion that is between the head and his members. 
Act. 9 & 4.  The holy Ghost doth call and term them the afflictions and passions of Christ. For as by the calamities which he did suffer in his own proper person, God was glorified & he himself lifted up on high: So that by those which we suffer being his faithful, shall we be glorified together in (and with) him. Because that as he did suffer being our head, we must also suffer that be his members.   

An excellent comfort against the fear of death, with a confutation of his power. etc. The xxix. Chapter.  
ANd therefore sith he hath thus honoured & exalted us, 
Act. 10. & 3 9.11.28.34. ●5. 41.42.  that he hath made us witnesses of his truth, and of the saving health that his son did bring into the world, and hath sublimate our passions in such sort, (as consecrating them in his own person) that he doth call them his own, 
Psal. 125.  & willbe glorified in them: And also for that our death is so precious before him, that he will take from the world so many living instruments (into his presence to his glory: there is no cause to the contrary, but that we should stiffly stand to the profession of his truth, & the giving of our lives joyfully for the same. There be some which for the vanities and things of this world, will ventour lives, goods, and all that they have, & yet it suddenly perisheth. The truth of God never perisheth, 
joh. 12. & 28.  no more can none the trust therein. Why do we then fly from being glorified with him, sith we are no less certain thereof, than we are of our passions, persecutions, troubles, & death. He loved us with so fervent an effect, 
Rom. 4. & 24.25.  and so served us, that he did not rest till time that he died with wounds of our love. And shall we be so ungrateful, as to save or keep our lives from him, & not to venture them with the like love, to honour him likewise with them, (if we could. 
Rom. 8. & 29. Colos. 1. & 5.20. ) Shall we so forget God, (that did remember and know us, before the beginning of all things visible, and did determine all these his blessings for us,) that we shall for ever be buried in oblivion, and refuse so small a thing as worldly affliction. 
Ephe. 1 & 4.5. jere. 2. & ●. 34.  I pray you dear friends & brethren, wherefore serveth our lives (if we will be saved) but to glorify him: did we not promise him to adventure all things to his glory and honour, wherefore then shall we reserve any thing to the detriment thereof. He himself went before us and did pass first, through the pikes of persecution and affliction in the world, he is our head, shall we then stagger, stop, or stay, 
Colos. 1. & ●4. 16. Hebr. 2. & 8.14.  in following him, being his members: whose is the wealth and riches that we have? whose is our life? or who did give us our honours: did not he give us all, because we should glorify him, as his chosen faithful and beloved, then for what cause should we let to glorify him in all that ever we can or have. Have we not said that with all (and in all) things jesus Christ did glorify his father, and that we were chosen to be conform and like unto him. And therefore sith we see it is our duties, let us do (and endeavour ourselves) all that possibly we may, to accomplish the same: at the lest a part that we might the sooner attain to the whole, in imitating, that we might be glorified alike with him. For when we serve him doubtfully, and follow him waveryngly, as if we thought all to no purpose, all that we do in such sort, is but in vain, of no validity nor effect, but rather falleth out clean to the contrary, for that in doubtful dealing, can no true service be done, nor yet he be glorified. So that all manner of doings or works which are not to his glory, are lost, of none effect, nor valour: but yet all that is done in true faith, is of much validity, and very effectual thereunto. The which he will never forget, because he doth so love us that he is very unwilling we should lose our labours in any thing, or spend our travails in vain. He accepteth all that possibly may agree with his justice, for the great desire and good will he hath to be our guarder, saviour, keeper, and defender. He asketh of his father for us, all things, as well honour, wealth, and riches, as health, life and salvation. There is nothing that he taketh into his hands for us, but it taketh effect in us, there is nothing in the hands of our persecutors that hath any effect at all or security. Why do the foolish phoppes infected with filthy incredulity and misbelief, lose their lives everlastingly, but only, because they trust not in God, & rather would save their lives to serve the world, then lightly to lose them, and to glorify God: and yet therein they lose for ever, both life and love of him. By the righteousness of faith, (sayeth Saint Paul) we are constituted and choose heirs of the world, 
Rom. 4. & 20.22.  even like unto our father Abraham. Then being heirs thereof, why do we fear to put into the hands of God, all that we have: Sigh we are sure to receive it again, bettered with so great advantage.  

Apoc. 21. &. 7.  He that shall overcome (sayeth the same Lord) shall possess all things, I will be his God, and he shall be my son: Thus if we die for his love, we do overcome, & in overcoming, we enter into the possession of all things, we have God for our God, 
Rom. 8. & 15.17.18. Gala. 4. & 6.7.  and we be his true children: if we be children, we be also heirs, both in heaven and earth. In what then should we doubt, sith to make so great and good an exchange, we give him nothing, yet we remain with him, and receive all things. We give nothing unto God, because we have nothing that is our own, all that we have is his, 
1. Cor. 4. &. 7.  so that in giving him all, we give him nothing. And therefore let us not be unwilling to yield all that we may unto him, sith he is so liberal & magnifical in giving unto us all things, yea even till he had given himself for us: but let us love him according to our calling, as jesus Christ our only saviour & redeemer, health, salvation, and reconciliation, and in any wise let us love his honour, and glory, more than any worldly thing.  
Have we not heard of many of the gentiles, that did offer themselves unto death and so desire it, that they killed themselves with their own proper hands, only upon desire to be delivered from the pains and travails of the world, & their lives in it. And upon some vain hope which they had, and thought to find by their immortality of the soul. This they did upon a certain opinion, which was foolish, & had amongst a number of them: yet they were not only free from worldly travails, by this immortality, but also by their desperate dealings to depart from their lives in such wise, they en●ered a new into ten times triple more torments, (yea a number infinite) everlastingly. God doth not command of us any such manner of death, but doth most earnestly forbidden it: yet being animated by true faith, (as thus,) if we believe that our life is his, and that he is our life, so that when our time shall come, and he shall call us, to tender our lives again to him of whom we hold them, (as tenants at his will) that then we do obey him, and yield them up, be it by fire, sword, halter, press, Rack, by wild horses, Tigers, Lions, wild beasts, or any kind of cross, we do but our duties, and no more than we are bound unto. And in so doing, we show the fruits of our faith & hope in him, proclaim, cry out, and preach unto the world, and show unto the brave ministers thereof, that we be none of theirs, but his own who hath bought and best paid for us. In this manner we shall also openly appear, to have more estimation of his glory, and rather to fulfil his heavenly holy will, then to seek the maintenance of our lives in this world, which perisheth together with the people thereof.  
He will not in any manner of wise, that we run into any kind of danger rashly to procure our death. Nor yet that we deny and so blaspheme him to eschew or escape the same. 
Luk. 12. & 32.35.36. etc. Luke. 22. & 14.  But rather that as tied on a string we should be prompt and ready like faithful servants to follow him, 
Mat. 24. & 22.34.  so soon as he plucketh or calleth us: we may certainly assure ourselves, that he hath counted and numbered our days, and hath made such a determination for us, as we may in no wise pass. He hath put and enclosed our souls in our bodies, as in a tabernacle to the end they should be well kept and preserved, until he himself which put them there shall return again to call and receive them. So then, in being called, we aught not to refuse our filthy lodgings in this world, for that we are to receive a far better in the world to come both in being and suffering. It is not lawful nor requisite to deprive ourselves of our lives, nor yet to desire death for any evil that happeneth whatsoever, for why, it pertaineth only unto God, to take and give life according to his good will and pleasure. He did make us, and can unmake us when it pleaseth him, he willeth and desireth nothing, but only that we be ready, and do give ourselves wholly, to his honour and glory, in such sort as he hath prescribed unto us by his word. Whither it be with loss of life (if need require) or worldly possessions. 
Luke. 14. & 26.27.  It maketh no matter, because that so is executed the office (indeed) of true and perfect disciples.  
What reason have we them to fear death, for a thing so holy and of such righteousness, if it were not for that we think that he with his ugly and loathsome looks would have signory over us, and take us into his rule or Lordship, when they so cruelly kill us. If we will give credit to the word of the Lord, we shall clear and plainly see, that then we die not & we can not die. 
joh. 5. & 24.  (These same are the words) verily verily I say unto you, he that heareth my word & believeth in him the sent me, shall have life everlasting and shall not come in condemnation. But hath already escaped from death to life. 
joh. 11. & 25.26.  He saith also I am the resurrection & the life, he that believeth in me although he were dead yet shall he live. And also, all that live & believe in me shall never (taste of,) see death, nor yet die.  
These are the true words of Gods own mouth, by the which we be fully assured, that there is no death at all, to them that believe in Christ jesus, and that in being his, he hath already died for us, and we shall die no more. For that by him death is already destroyed, and hath no more but as it were the name thereof, only to the faithful. 
Apoc. 14. & 13.  S. john in his revelation, calleth death to the faithful a rest from travails. And in deed to die or depart this life, is only to us, a rest most comfortable with God our Lord. The life which we live in this world, diserneth not the name of life, because it is so full of perils & dangers, but by death (as our enemies term it) we are upon a sudden taken forth of them and delivered from all, and so brought into rest and joy eternally. 
Phil. 1. & 20.21. 2. Cor. 5. & 1.2.3. etc.  And therefore S. Paul right well, did desire to be dissolved or loosed from his body, and to be with Christ, to joy of that full liberty already spoken of. jesus Christ did destroy death, and as death had no power over him, no more hath he in none of his members. He himself sayeth by the Prophet Osée, 
Osee. 13. & 14. 1. Cor. 15. & 54.55. etc.  death, I will be thy death, & S. Paul writeth, that death hath lost the victory and is swallowed up therein. And death where is thy sting, hell where is thy victory, 
1. joh. 5. &. ●  the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God that hath given us the victory by our Lord jesus Christ. So that death hath no power nor nought else wherewith to hurt the faithful, for sin is the weapon wherewith he woundeth, the which is destroyed by Christ, & so is death overcome, thus the life that is in us is eternal and we shall never die. And that which our adversaries offer unto us is but a representation of death, the which already we have overcome by our conseruator and head Christ jesus, by whom we possess the victory.   

Of the cause that Christ did fear death, and how constant divers martyrs have been sithence in their martyrdom etc. The thirty. Chapter.  
THe cause why that our saviour seemed to fear death, was only to show himself in his manhood, and that he had taken upon him the sins of all mankind, because he would win the victory of all his enemies, & so drive away the doubt that was in the amazed minds of the faithful.  
And also to show that because he died, death was killed thereby, and could have no more power over us. The true credit and belief hereof (dearly beloved) is very requisite and necessary for us.  
It hath been seen, that many servants of God animated by belief or faith in the truth of the same, have taken their crosses with great courage, joy, and contentment of mind, as if they had gone to feasts of great honour: or as if they led a triumphant Bride by the hand to set her in some beautiful throne with the bridegroom.  

Agatha.  That virtuous virgin Agatha, when she was carried to death out of prison where long she had been (with no great worldly delights I warrant you) for professing the truth in the Gospel which faithfully she believed, said: that even then, she went to feasts or a feast of great joy.  
Saint Vincent or that good holy confessor, 
Vincent.  being laid upon hot burning coals a broiling for the same truth, made a mock at his masking persecutors, and said: that the like cross and death to any Christian was great cause of joy to him, and all his companion members. The godly man Ignacius Bishop of Antyoche (in the persecution that the terrible Tyrant Traiano committed and used against the christians) being by him an Infidel, 
Ignatius.  and his fiddle confederates, condemned to be thrown unto wild beasts, to the end that most terribly he should be torn in pieces by their terrible teeth: He hearing the roaring of the Lions prepared amongst other their panyons, to execute the sentence given so against him, said: with great joy, I am the wheat of jesus Christ, which shall be ground by the teen & sharp teeth of those execrable beasts, to be made pure and clean unto the Lord. And by report of an english man my friend, (this translator,) there was in Essex where as he was borne (in England) divers faithful witnesses, as, Wats, hawks, Pigot, Cawson, Ardely, Sympson, with many others, (there: and as well in other countries with in the said Realm,) did most joyfully receive, (& valiantly stand to their trial by) the fire: and in the midst thereof, with great gladness of their forwardness in getting the victory did embrace the golden flames of the same, each of them saying, with great courage: O Lord receive my soul: and Lord into thy hands I commend my spirit, for thou hast redeemed me O Lord God of truth. Moreover, many of them in going thereunto, gladly, and in a most triumphant manner, like men going to most gladsome joys, would with great and mighty good will bid their friends farewell, and so in token thereof, and of the sure hope which they had in the meeting of God and his heavenly company, (as well those gone before as they that were to come after) would drink a cup of burned wine unto them, as well therefore, as also to moist a little their senses whereby they might be the more ayte to set forth wholly together, the glory of him for whom they suffered. But herein a number of Papists and devil Antichristes companions, found great occasion to use many false reports, saying (of such a one as did so) surely it is easy to be judged the faith of such Heretics, see I pray you, doth (or did) he not drink wine to be drunken and so to die desperately, (such blasphemy, my translator telleth me, he can find out an number: to many.) But truly, truly, 
Mat. 15. & 13.  such Trees such fruits, by the devil planted, and by him they bear & bring forth. What: marry abominable lies, whereof he, that filthy fiend and diabolical beast is the author and father. Likewise and the very like hath been, in most parts of the world, as well here with us in Spain, as in Italy, Germany, Portugal, France, Flaunders, Brabant, Zellond, Hollond, & other countries many more.  
This virtue and strength cometh unto them by jesus Christ, and by the faith they have in him & his Gospel, which will always continued amongst them that be his. What a number more have we seen with our own eyes consumed with the fire, what admirable works of God have they showed in the midst of their greatest passions, and how have they gone to their martyrdom.  
Surely many, as well men and women in old age, as younglings, and tender imps, both young men and maids, chaste bachelors, and damosel vyrgines. The men, as if they had gone to great Triumphs, the maidens, as if they had been led to be married unto the greatest Lords and Princes in the world.  
Yea, even in the midst of the fire, and torments, did they elevate their hands to the heavens with great joy, singing Psalms of thanks giving unto the Lord, for that he had made them worthy for to suffer for his name's sake.  
What is this but fruits of belief in the truth of the Gospel, 
Act. 5. & 29.41.  and also that both the one and the other of them were fully assured by the holy Ghost that they went to be glorified, and to joy of the whole fulfilling of the divine promises of God.  
Those had effectually, perfectly, and fully printed and graven in their hearts, that jesus Christ is the resurrection and the life, 
joh. 11. & 25.26.  and for that they have believed in him, they shall never die.  
Whereby we may see that the efficacy and force of God's word is of no less effect, nor doth work no less in them that receive it, at this day, than it was to those which received it in old time, for that it is the same now that it was then.  
So that there is no cause to fear death at all: 
Mat. 11. & 28.31.  and therefore Christ saith unto his disciples, that they should not fear them which kill the body, and have no power to touch the soul. The power of the Tyrants our adversaries is so weak, that it can not reach nor touch but our bodies only, which are mortal and must needs die by one mean or other. And yet not neither, till the time which God hath appointed, and the days which he hath numbered, be fully determined and ended. jesus Christ hath promised and assured us that they shall not kill our souls. Then what doth it avail or profit them though they kill our bodies, or what regard need we to have thereunto, considering that in so little a time being separate from the soul, it joineth therewith again to immortality, & to be no more subject to the travails and troubles of life in this miserable world. 
1. Cor. 15. & 38.52.53.  When we have a jewel of gold or silver, if it be old or broken, of a very good will we deliver it to the workman that made it, for him to put in his furnace and so to try it, and forge it again a new. So likewise our bodies whither they be old or young, yet so crooked and subject to sin, 
Math. 13. & 21.  and to fall on every side as is possible, wherefore should we doubt to give them unto God that made them, that they may be forged and framed a new, for the soul to receive again to immortality, to be incorruptible, 
Dan. 12. & 1.2.3.  void of all corruption, shining as clear as can be. The celestial and heavenly truth teacheth us, that our souls are in safety, so that they can in no wise perish and die, nor yet be hurt with all the tyranny that our tyrannical persecutors, 
joh. 6. &. 35. Rom. 6. & 8.11.23 Colos. 3. & 1.2.3. Gen. 4. & 8. Hebr. 11. & 4.  the Pope and his darlings do or can do. Because as God can not die nor be killed, no more can they kill our souls the members of his son our head, for that the life that we have, is by and of him. righteous Abel was killed in his body, by the cruelty of his cursed brother Cain, yet his soul did live by the faith and hope which he had in God. So at this present day, the seed and posterity of Abel, 
Rom. 8. & 6.7.8. etc. Apoc. 6. &. ● 10.  are killed and slain by the cruelty and tyranny of Cain's successors, but for all that, their souls do live by the faith and hope which they have always had in God, abiding the glorification of their bodies. And therefore sith our souls can not die nor be killed, why should we fear them which can but kill the body for a time. There is none but God only that did give us this life, why should not he then have it when and how it pleaseth him.  
Because that he only is both life and death for all, without his licence and good will, our enemies can not harm nor grieve us if they do the best and worst they can: for he hath so restrained them in such a bridle, that unless he lose and let flippe the reins thereof, they can do nothing. For the Lord hath said, 
Dan. 3. & 17. 22.2●.  I will kill, and I will give life: So that as we have our lives from him, even so cometh our death.  
Wherefore let us only fear him and not them, for that if they do their worst, yet they can not do that they would. The devil that mischievous malicious old Dragon, 
Apoc. 12. & 1.2.4.6. etc.  doth always desire wholly to destroy and overthrow quite the church or congregation of Christ: but God by his mighty potency doth so restrain the reigns of the bridle wherewith he hath bridled him, that he maketh him evermore to recoil and stand back, and in no wise will suffer him to have any part of his will: nor yet pass nothing that God hath appointed.   

Of the goodness of God in our defence against our persecutors. etc. The xxxj. Chapter.  
HOw often would the adversaries of jesus Christ have killed him: into how many counsels & consultations have they entered, to the same effect, but they could not bring any part of their purposes to pass, 
Luke. 22. & 53. Math. 26. &. 55.  until his hour was fully come, and that God the father had let loose the power of darkness. How many times, or how often (saith he himself) have I been with you in the Temple, teaching and talking with you, and ye have not taken me. I am sure they had such hatred to him and his Gospel, that there wanted no good will in them to have done it, but (they had no power to do it) their strength failed them. Dost thou not know said Pilate that I have power to lose and free thee, 
joh. 19 in all.  and also to crucify and kill thee. He answered and said, thou hadst not (if it were not given thee from above,) so much power as to touch me. Not more can those which now do seek to afflict the faithful, they can not so much as filloppe them with their finger, if God would to the contrary: for that he hath not so little regard unto their lives corporal, that he will deliver them over to their foes, until their full course be come, run out, and expired. From the time that jesus Christ did first manifest himself (by preaching) unto the world, they did abhor him till they had most cruelly condemned him, and delivered him unto death, yea, even the spiteful death of the cross. The will and mind they had to kill him, when he was crucified, had continued of old, but the execution thereof was then newly invented, but yet they could not attain unto it without the will of God.  
Even so ever sithence the first hour that the word of God, and the true light thereof, entered into jermany, England, France, and this our realm of Spain, and did begin to shine as the Sun, there were persecutors which did abhor it, and so do continue until this day, most mortally and cruelly: and did, and do, kill all Christians, which are quickened thereby with most extremity. They did always will & wish that which now they do most wickedly, they were evermore enemies and contrary both to him and us, but they could not at no time conclude their desires, till such time as God had let lose the power of darkness: 
1. Pet. 1. & 4.7.  because thereby we might be examined, purified, and tried, and then put into eternal glory, prepared for us from the beginning. And our persecutors, afflictors, and killers, in all their persecutions and tyranny, do no more but fill up the measure of impiety and sins of their fathers so full, 
Mat. 23. & 31.35. Luke. 13. & 24.34.35.  that they will make it run over and bring upon themselves, all the blood of the Saints which have been sithence the death of righteous & just Abel.  
And therefore sith that men can do nothing, and that man is no body nor nothing of himself, and also sith the power which they have is given them from God, only to execute his will, let us not fear them.  
Because that God hath commanded us not to fear men, for that they can but kill the body, we can not fear them without great offence.  
Wherefore let us give ear & hear that which the Lord sayeth by the prophet Esay, and assureth us of: 
Esay. 4. & 9.10.  thou shalt be my servant (sayeth he) I have chosen thee, fear not for I am with thee, do not decline from me, for that I am the Lord thy God, and will fortify and strengthen thee. Thus wé sé that there is no cause why, we should fear any humane power, he doth surely certify us that we are his servants, that he hath chosen us, and that he is our God: So that we do injure him greatly, and filthily offend him, when that in any point we do fear the ministers of death corporal.  
What other thing cometh by fearing of them, but in giving honour unto them, to dishonour God who doth defend and forbid it: But let us believe his promise and say with the prophet, 
Abac. 1 &. 12.  thou art our GOD, and we shall not die though our killers and persecutors do never so much against us. Let us bear this faith as a shield, 
Ephe. 6. & 13.14.15. etc.  & let us not decline from the right way, nor yet be dismayed neither for fear of death, nor yet of our persecutors. For that therein is fulfilled all which is spoken of by S. john: 
joh. 6. &. 2.3.20.  which is, that our heaviness shall be turned into joy. By death is ended all our heaviness and mourning, and there doth succeed such joy as no tongue can tell, the which can not be taken away. So that when the world doth make greatest account, that we are killed, lost, and for ever utterly destroyed, and hath raised up ensigns of our greatest dishonour and infamy. 
Esay. 25. &. 8. Apoc. 7. &. 12.  Even then (sayeth the holy Ghost by his Prophet) God will wipe the tears from the cheeks of us his chosen: and will take all our dishonours and cares.  
He will turn all dishonour to the dishonorers, & infamy to the infamors, and the abhorrors shall be possessed with their own hatred. The condemnation shall revert to the condempners, and their, curse, malediction, & death to the termygauntes their executioners. But the faithful delivered from all kind of calamities and adversities, 
1. joh. 3. & 14. Esay. 25. & 5.6.7.  and the covertures of their holiness and righteousness being destroyed, and they wholly taken out of the power of their enemies, shall be put where shall be no more death, no more plaints, cries, calamities, nor griefs: but where shall be the throne of God and of the Lamb, and where they shall serve him, see his face, and have his name in their foreheads.  
And the Lord God shall lighten them, 
Apoc. 2●. &. 3.4.5. etc.  and reign for ever with them, as it is written by Saint john.  
And sith it is so, what is there lost by leaving so tenebrous and dark a dungeon, as is the filthy prison of our bodies, so stinking as they are, and by leaving the world where all things are corruptible.  
Shall we fear those which seek to kill us for. Christ's cause, seeing they procure us thereby so blessed an exchange, that our corruption shall be turned into incorruption, our mortality into immortality, poverty into riches, dishonour into honour, imprisonment into liberty, confusion into glory, heaviness into joy, and our solitary being into the company of God and his saints for ever, and to be of the same number and equal with them in glory.  
Wherefore shall we refuse to go from this life so abominable, to go to that goodly mount Zion: to go to that beautiful City of God, the new and celestial jerusalem, 
Hebr. 12. & 22.23.  into and among that innumerable many and multitude of blessed Angels and archangels, the holy and true common wealth of the chosen: where as without contradiction is always done the good will of God.  
Shall we fear to come to this felicity, to the which we were borne and redeemed by the inestimable good will and love of God, whereas we shall be made perfectly like to him who did redeem us: Not, let us put away all those vain fears of the evils present in this world, 
Hebr. &. 3. Hebr. 12. &. 3.  & of the ministers thereof, and assure ourselves to be joined with jesus Christ which is ascended into heaven, where as he sitteth on the right hand of God in his majesty, with his right hand extended ready to take hold and receive us unto him.  
We hold it impossible, in our carnal sense of understanding to suffer the fire and the terror thereof that they use in persecuting the little flock of us at this day, for that in burning us, they do it by little and little, the more to increase our torments, for their revenge: only because we confess the truth of Christ our master whom they can not abide.  
How can it be (saith our blind fleshsences) but that such cruelty must needs overcome our patience.  
What other thing may this be called, but a blasphemy wherewith we deny, the mighty potential power of God, that which he is to use to all the trust in him: & a mean to separate us from his cross, to which he doth call us so amorously and lovingly, because we might be glorified with Christ.  
And therefore let us not hear, nor yet give credit to any such leasings and errors. Worldly men do easily suffer those things wherein they feel some grief for their gain. By these fiery torments, whereof we have such horror, there can be no kind of harm nor grief that is evil, but rather a great and mighty blessedness, much more to our gain: wherefore we aught not to believe nor think that our patience which God giveth, willbe overcome thereby.  
From six tribulations the Lord will deliver thee, and in the seventh no manner of evil shall touch thee, (saith the holy ghost by just job) the seventh is the very last instant hour or time of death. 
job. 5. & 19.26.  So that, when it seemeth to sight that all our evils are heaped upon us, and that our enemies, do use their greatest tyranny, and make account to have gotten the victory, and that we remain overcome & swallowed up with all manner of mischief: Even than the same holy Ghost doth assure us, that no manner of evil doth touch us.  
What occasion is there then for us to fly from that which hurteth nor toucheth us not, or to make account that humain persecution will or can overcome our patience, or th●● our patience is not able to abide 〈◊〉. 
Mar. 9 & 23.  All things are possible to them that believe (saith the Lord). So that unto such, it is also certainly possible to have patience to abide the extremity and fury of the fire, and to suffer the same with great constancy. It was patiently passed over by the Prophets in the old time: Even so it is now to them that be holy, faithful, and believe. Because that which the Apostle saith concerning the same, 
1. Cor. 16. &. 13.  must needs be true therein. God is faithful (sayeth he) and will suffer no man to be tempted, more than he will make him able to bear: but rather with our temptations he sendeth good success, because we may suffer. Whereby it is most manifest & plain, that christian patience doth not only overcome death executed by extremity of fire, but also all the most cruel kinds of deaths and torments, that any Triant and all the Tyrants in the world can use & devise. Because that with all the tyranny they can execute, God will not altar his purpose, from according to his word, nor leave to administer some one secret virtue or other, to them that be his, whereby they shall overcome death, tyranny, hell, sin, the devil, and all other kind of mischiefs.  

Hebr. 4. & 14.15.16. Hebr. 2. & 17.18.  So full of compassion & pity is our high priest jesus Christ, that as he overpassed temptations which happened to himself, so will he also, by his power and might aid & strengthen all those which are tempted.  
As the Apostle saith: if jesus Christ in whom we believe and for whom we suffer, do know by experience our griefs and troubles, and is not only most mighty, loving, and good to us in our help, but also doth suffer with us as the head with the members: shall he be so weak in us that he can not abide the fire, or (being strong as he is) will not he help us in the midst thereof, 
Act. 9 & 4.5.  being principal in persecution and suffering the same with us.  
Is it possible that God will forsake and leave us, (or that we should fear or doubt the same) when that for professing of his name we are by our enemies thrown into the midst of the fire, or that we should think God to be forgetful of his loving children, and that he loveth us in words and not in deeds, and truth: Surely in so doing we should much injure him, and give him great cause to be grievously offended with us for it.  
For us to think that his almightiness will forsake us in any necessity, it were an abominable action of us, if he have not (as in deed he hath not) forsaken but remembered us in the greatest matters, of a surety he will not forsake but remember help and deliver us in and from such trifles: it were abominable to think the contrary, much more worsser to believe it. Well, my dearly beloved brethren and sweet fellow members, I trust there is none of us, that doth either believe or think any such thing, but rather my hope is that we think and surely believe, to feel his goodness, 
Esay. 43. & 1.2.3. etc.  according to the saying of the holy Ghost, by Esay the Prophet: who sayeth, the Lord God thy creator sayeth, fear thou not, for I have redeemed thee, and called thee by thy name, thou art mine, and when thou passest by the water I will be with thee, the rivers shall not overwhelm thee, when thou passest by the fire thou shalt not be burned, nor the flames thereof shall not bend themselves against thee, for I am the Lord thy holy God of Israel, which keepeth thee God hath always in remembrance the benefit which he used, in calling and making us partakers of his redemption, and in adopting us his children never to leave us. 
Psal. 91. & 5.6.7. Psal. 33. & 12.17.  So that when it shall seem to the judgement of the world that he hath left us, (& that is when he suffereth us to pass into the midst of the fire or any other torment) even then is he most nighest unto us, and so nigh in deed, that he is closely joined with us, and temperating the fury of the fire, because it should do us no harm: and for that it might appear that he is both God and father to all his, and will keep and defend us from all evil in all times of torment and tribulation. 
Mat. 16. & 18.  If the gates of hell may not prevail against us, how can the fire which is visible and corporal prevail against us: if eternal and everlasting death have no part in us, how can any thing that is temporal and momentary harm us: will God deliver us from the greatest evils, and suffer us to perish in the little ones, no for a certainty, his everlasting promise is to the contrary.   

A marvelous comfort to those that are afflicted either by fire or otherwise. The xxxij. Chapter.  
THe fire and all things terrestrial are creatures of God, and serve for the health and wealth of his chosen, and also for the destruction of his enemies. (As it is written in the book of wisdom, 
Sap. 16. & 16.22.23. ) Because the just should be sustained and upholden, the fire doth lose his force & fury, (for that it being a creature, in serving him that is his creator and maker, doth use his furies and inflame himself to the destruction & torment of the unrighteous & wicked only.) And doth mitigate his mood, only because they trust in the Lord.  
Whereby it appeareth, that the poor afflicted children of God, are not burned with the fire, nor hurt with any kind of torment: no not scarce touched therewith, and therefore nothing grieved. (As saith our Lord God, his creatures every one of them are in such a consort, and so agreed together amongst themselves, that all of them with one common accord & consent, will be and are ministers for us of great health and comfort: 
Osee. 2. & 18.21.22.  and also will and do use themselves unto us with a gentleness most loving: because being faithful, we are so well beloved of god, that he bindeth all his creatures so, that of force they can not be, but for our benefit in all things according to his william. Gold burneth not in the fire, but is fined and purified thereby from all things that are of less value, and so itself made more precious and of greater value and substance, than before. Even so the good christian brought to the fire by persecution, burneth not, but is the rather purified from all that fowleth, blotteth, or burneth his christianity, and so remaineth more precious and beautiful in his substance than before. Whereby it seemeth that the children of God, when they suffer the force & heat of the fire, they feel it not, or else it hurteth them not, but rather harmeth the executioners thereof. The fire to the faithful is as it was in the bush, which Moses saw: it flamed and yet it burned not, 
Exod. 3. &. 2.  because that the Lord God was in it. The fire hath a force and virtue that burneth and consumeth utterly, but whom: marry, even the impious, unjust, & ungodly. And although they seem living (these which are the afflictors of the faithful) and without harm, yet for a certainty with the same fire, which they provide & make for others, they are (before God) burned and consumed themselves: Although they believe it not, 
Dan. 6. & 16.26.  yet it is so. The Prophet Daniel when he was thrown into the den among the Lions which were made extremely hungry upon purpose to have devoured him: because he was found faithful before God, he perisheth not, they touched him not, nor did him harm: but rather in their kind rejoiced and made great feasts and joy with him, for that God upon whom he did invocate & call, and in whom he trusted did deliver him (as in the vj. Chapter of the same Prophet, and the xuj. and xxiv. verse is well declared) but those which had been the executioners of all his trouble and torment, being thrown into the same place, even among the very same Lions: they could scarce fall among them so soon as they were torn and plucked in pieces and devoured utterly. The three young men of Babylon, 
Dan. 3. & 13.16.17. etc.  Sidrach, Misach, & Abdenago, servants of God, did not perish when they were put into a hot burning furnace, made seven times hotter than ever it was, because they would not worship wicked King Nabuchadonaser his Idol, which he had caused to be set up: they surely trusting in the living God, feared not his furious fury in all his threatenings nothing at all, but answered him saying, we are not careful to answer thee (O King) in any thing concerning this Idol, for let thy highness understand, that our God whom we serve, can deliver us from thy hot burning furnace, and from thy hands, but if he will not (the which we do not doubt off) yet (O King) hold thou for a certainty that we will not worship thy Gods, nor yet the Image of gold which thou hast caused to be set up, being for this cause put into the said furnace so hot, they were not only free from all kind of harm by fiery, flame, or smoke, but also they were refreshed from heaven by the hands of the son of the living God, who was himself among them, in the likeness of an Angel: Even in the midst of the most hottest flames, wherefore it hurt them nothing at all: but yet it burned and consumed quite the mischievous ministers the makers thereof. So that thereby was approved that the fire could not harm them in no point, no more can it not (nor nothing else that God hath created) do any thing hurtful against the children of God, for why all that can be done against them, be it with fire or any other kind of torture is for their comfort. Then wherefore should we faint fear, or flee, at or from the cross of the Lord: for that he will examine and purge us therewith, from all kind of causes of corruption: So that it may be consumed quite by the means thereof: that we might be enriched and remain glorified with God for ever.  
All that is written, 
Rom. 15. & 4.  is written for our learning, because that by patience and comfort in the scriptures we might have hope.  
And therefore let us understand that as in times passed it passed and happened to Danyell and the rest the servants of God, (and also to his enemies) Even the like cometh to pass at this day both with the one and other, for that nothing can hurt them that put their trust in the Lord: but all serveth them for the best. 
job. 5. & 17.19. etc. Osec. 2. & 18.21.22. Rom. 8. & 28.  And as for the wicked, all things are to the contrary, they provide nothing to punish the righteous with, but they perish therein themselves.  
Wherefore let us be imitators of the saints, as of Daniel, & of the three young men of Babylon, and others more a great many, which nothing esteemed torments, tyronous threats, killings nor commandments of any ungodly Tyrant: but constantly continued in confessing of God's true religion for ever, without any looking back. And as they did honour him in being faithful, so did he honour them in being by them in all their distressed dangers, to their aid, strength, consolation, continual comfort, and delivery most marvelous: in such sort that no part of their hope was frustrate in any thing. Even so will he do and deal for us if we be faithful. Let us not fear therefore the tyranny (that so potencially appeareth of princes; 
Mat. 11. & 12.28.29.  nor the cruelty of Kings, the tyranny of any kind of Tyrant, of inquisitors, of correctors, of judges, nor yet the torment of the executioner, the infamy of men, nor any other kind of cruelty that in our eyes is evil: lest that so we forsake and renounce our faith, and the true knowledge of our saviour jesus Christ the son of God. Let us only fear God, 
Mat. 10. & 19.26.28.  who can and will deliver us from all kind of torments, and from the hands of all Tyrants. And although that we do not see this liberty of delivery, with our corporal eyes, yet (for the love of our saviour jesus Christ) let us not consent unto them, nor follow their impiety and ungodliness: let no brave nor gallant show of or from them allure us unto them, 
Deut. 12. & 2.8.11. etc. Math. 15. & 9.13.  let us not worship the creatures, nor yet trust in any other than the creator: Let us not accept any other rule to serve him by, then that which he doth command and teach for a rule, by the holy ghost: Let us not fear the creatures, but the creator only. Let us not take heed nor make account of things that be visible, but of things which are invisible: Let us not marvel, be dismayed, nor afraid, 
2. Cor. 4. & 17.18.  of the cruelty of men: but let us behold, and be enamoured of the clemency and goodness of God our good and loving father. Because that he in all things is true, let us be lovers faithful and true unto him. 
Rom. 8. & 29.30.  He did not forget that he did know and elect us, to be made conformable and like unto his son, he doth always remember and will never forget that he called us, 
Rom. 3. & 1. 1. Cor. 6.11. Ephe. 2. & 14.16.  of his own singular mercy to us ward, and did let others alone in the same condemnation in the which we were: and being unrighteous as we were in deed, he did justify us & wash us by the blood of Christ, because we should be holy in his presence. Let us remember all this, & how he loved us in Christ, when we were his enemies and would not pardon him in his passions one jot. Yet he did pardon us, and give himself unto death, yea the most vile death on the cross to destroy sin, the which but for his mercy and love had destroyed us utterly: and all because we should have life in him.  

Rom. 5. & 1.8.9. Rom. 8. & 17.30.  Sith he loved us so, then being so horrible sinners, and his cruel enemies, it is most sure and certain that he loveth us now much better, for that he hath so rebuked and killed sin in us, that we are reconciled unto him: and hath also made us the children of his mercy. And therefore for that he doth so love us, with the burning bowels of his true love, he will also glorify us in Christ, for why all that he doth unto us is to the same end: wherefore he will that we suffer whilst we live in this world, 
Rom. ●● &. 5.  that we might be partakers of the cross and death of Christ, also of his resurrection and glorification. So that to be like unto him in suffering here, 
2. Tim. 2. & 3.9.10. Act. 14. & 12.  he gueth us to understand that we shall be with him, and like unto him in his kingdom: and therefore it is very necessary that we pass many tribulationes in entering thereinto.  
Wherefore with shutting our eyes to all the impediments of our glorification, 
Hebr. 12 &. 2.  and with giving no ear to the reasons of our flesh and the world, let us run with patience to the battle whereunto we are so lovingly pressed, looking to our chieftain jesus Christ, who having before him (as we have) such joy as is unspeakable, did willingly suffer his cross: nothing regarding the dishonour of his death, and is set on the right hand of God in his inestimable glory. Thus considering the contradiction that his enemies used to himself, whilst be was on earth amongst them, let not us be troubled nor faint in our minds at any kind of calamity: but with a great and stout courage let us go forward and not stay to rest, 
1. Cor. 9 & 24. etc. Mar. 13. & 13.  till that we have gotten that jewel which is his blessing, and set up for a prise or reward for all those which persever upright and in the true knowledge of his truth and obedience of the same till the end.   

An entry into the conclusion with many godly exortations. The xxxiii. Chapter.  
ANd therefore let us have always before our eyes, the admonition and counsel that our only saviour Christ did often exhort his disciples with: saying, 
Luk. 21. & 19  let your minds be possessed with patience and be ye prudent and wise as Serpents, 
Mat. 10. & 16.  and simple and innocents as Doves. Let us be therefore, so wise and prudent that we do use all things at all times to the glory of Christ our redeemer.  
Wherefore let not our wisdom be cautelous and subtle with malice against God, according to the world, 
Rom. 11. & 25.  but according to the knowledge that we have from God by his good will, so that we may be guided by the holy Ghost in all that we do or suffer.  
And let our innocencio be no otherwise, but in such manner as we may vouchsafe with good will to taste of the bitter gall, hatred, and enmity offered us by men, so that we be not ignorant of that we be not ignorant of that which belongeth to christianity, because that to be otherwise simple, were but rudeness and bestiallitie and no simplicity evangelical.  
Let us not be slow nor cold in the works of the Lord, 
Phil. 2. & 1.2. Ma●. 10. & 8.11. Mat. 7. & 6. Col. 4. & 6. Ephe. 4. & 25.29.31. 2. Tim. 2. & 16.23.24.  but with a fervent zeal to GOD with knowledge and Christian modesty: Let us follow our forefathers the Prophets and Apostles in our vexation & calling, that we may have all, one selfsame feeling in Christ jesus: Let us all and every one of us confess him in all places, and the rather that edification might come thereby, so that we cast not pearl among swine: Let our communication be seasoned with salt of knowledge, of faith, & with the word of god, so that it may be gracious & acceptable to the hearers: And let them not be to scorn, mock, and mumur at the ignorant, blind, & such as be always under the clouds of errors & cursed captives under the empery & government of the devil: 
1. Pet. 2. & 11.  but always let us speak with gravity & christian honesty in the fear of the Lord. Let us use our words with all honour & reverence, 
1. Cor. 6. & 20. 1. Pet. 4. & 11.  because we may stop the mouths of evil & cursed speakers, & constrain them to say & confess the God hath his dwilling in us. Behold what the Apostle Peter writeth & saith, the he that speaketh, let him speak the words of God, & let him not only pronounce with his mouth, but also let the same come from his heart. So that when we speak we should think bona fide from our hearts to be believed thereby, & not to be hard only: 
2. Cor. 4● &. 2.  because God is neither contented nor any thing pleased, that we should only have him dissemblingly in our mouths, & nothing in our hearts, wherefore doth he command us earnestly to engrave & print his picture, law, & gospel most deeply in our best book of remembrances, (which is our hearts) for that from thence it might come to our tongues, because it should not happen to us, as it doth to many, which for the there have him but in their tongues to talk of, if they chance to be examined by their enemies what Christ is, 
Mar. 4. & 17.18.19.  they do easily deny, forsake, fear, (& remain doubtful of) him, & are occasion by their inconstancy for others to do the like, because so shamefully & slenderly they let slip their faith, & do doubt of Gods most mighty power. But although the some of these weaklings do so, let us be firm in our faith, & not fail to show the same in profession of true religion, which assuredly came down from heaven.  
It is not the religion of men, which is contented with words only and outward shows, but it is of God which asketh first and principally the heart, 
Pro. 28. & 20. Gal. 6. & 7.  and secondly all that his word teacheth to belong unto it. Let us hear the words of the Apostle attentively, who sayeth, be you not deceived, for God will not be mocked as men are, if be have ordained that we shall profess jesus Christ openly and publicly, and that we shall suffer for his righteousness, let us do it in such order as it may appear the Gods good admonishion hath taken place in us.  

1. Pet. 4. & 15.16.  As Saint Peter exhorteth: saying, let us lead a life so holy, and worthy of the Lord which called us, that none of us be afflicted as an homicide or a thief, blasphemer, adulterer, or one that hath committed sacraledge, one full of strife, an evil doer, or a person that is covetous of the goods of other men, lest our harms happen to us by a just occasion: for if we suffer for any of these crimes, we do dishonour and use great injury to our father which is in heaven: because being his children we must needs dishonour him greatly, 
Mat. 6. & 9  where as otherwise we aught to honour and sanctify his holy name, according to our calling by him. Let us so rule ourselves that the wicked have none occasion to persecute us, but only because we do abhor vice & love virtue, do seek and desire the light, which they flee from, and because we flee from that filthy darkness which they desire to embrace.  
Let us so do, that they may have no other cause to abhor us, 
1. Pet. 4. & 3.4.  but because we will not be conversant with them in dissolution, in concupiscence, in surfeiting, in gluttony, in drunkenness, and abominable Idolatry: and that we do not run with them in that unbridled life so full of insolency and dissolute, that we be like to them in nothing, nor that we be not as they are which can not suffer the light of God's truth, 
joh. 3. & 19.20.21.  because it discovereth all their wickedness and vice, as the sunnne doth discover the drowsy darkness of the night. Also let us take heed that we be not like to many, that be so wise, and prudent, that they will suffer nothing for Christ's sake in his beloved church, and so being full of fleshly prudency, 
Psal. 94. & 3.4.7. 1. Cor. 3. etc. Mat. 25. & 18.24.25. Luke. 19 & 20.21. Rom. 8. & ●0.  they do account it christian & spiritual wisdom, as though God did not know how to find out the subtleties of those wise and subtle dissemblers, as if jesus Christ had allowed them place among the lovers of the gospel, or as if they might bury their talents which God had given them in the ground of forgetfulness, like unto the slothful and disobedient servant spoken of in the evangelical scriptures. Because by such kind of bestial blindness we may see a many of them, use the knowledge that God hath given them so perversely, that they think themselves satisfied in their own opinions, and so do yield themselves every day most beastly and blindly to bend their knees before blockish Baal: and sudden jesus Christ, being most shamefully ashamed both of him and his gospel. And not contented with this mischievous & monstrous doings in this dishonouring of him & his truth, they do the worst & best they can to drive by their divillish dealings (in that order) all those which are the simple ignorant & know little, into marvelous doubts. And moreover we may see them with great rage & rashness, judge and condemn the innocentes, only for their firmness in faith, and constancy (to maintain the same by jesus Christ) who yield their lives therefore most magnanimously. Therefore let us run away & flee most fervently from them, and let us not allow their counsels and prudency, nor yet follow none of their works. Because that all their pretence is nothing, 
Mat. 16. & 6.11.12.  but to pluck & appart us secretly from the cross of Christ, and from our glorification thereby. Let them alone in their way by wicked Antichrist: let us keep our way, by our saviour jesus Christ who hath called us to the same. Let not us use the grace & goodness of god wickedly, 
1. Pet. 2. & 1 ●●.  for a cloak to cover our vice and iniquity, 
Rom. 2. & 8.9.  and so make our concupiscences full of lycencialitie, which the spirit of God doth command us to refrain: 
Colos. 3. & 5.8.  But let us mortify our terrestrial and earthly members, and cast of our old corrupted Adam, 
Psal. 90. & ●. 2.3 etc.  so that in time of tribulation when we be tempted out of the way on the left hand, we may call upon God and desire of him strength to stand, that we fall not under the farthel of affliction, nor faint not in the work of the Lord. The which is not better for us to be thought upon and done, in the time of adverse necessity, then when we are in purest prosperity. Because it is much more difficult and hard, to continued in firm faith in times of prosperity, then in the cruel time of adversity. Amongst the people of Israel (which are as a mirror or glass for us to look in so, for the government & guiding of our humane lives) we have divers examples of the like, 
● King. ●. 〈◊〉 etc.  (one of David) which sufficiently and singularly showeth, the unloyall or desseall truth that he used to God in the times of his princely prosperity, many crimes of adultery, incestuous fornication, and homicide, did he most wickedly commit, whilst he forgot his loving Lord who had elected him to glory notwithstanding.   

Very godly exhortations for all men that are afflicted, and also for those which are in prosperity. The xxxiiij. Chapter.  
ANd therefore if it happen that we live in rest and quiet without any adversity or persecution, let us not forget the Lord, but follow his counsel devised and published by his divine wisdom: 
Eccle. 18. & 23.24. etc.  let us then remember also the dangerous days of dolor, trouble, and adversity, 
Deu. 16. &. 1.12.  that the children of Israel had in the land of Canaan: let their bondage and captivity in Egipte be had in remembrance of us: let us be vigilant, watch, and pray more than in the prosperity of ours, 
Mat. 26. &. 13.  then at any other time. Let us not live to ourselves in leasings, sleeping in the cradle of security, as some of the Israelites did, promising themselves rest fantastical: Let us be always as men on the Seas which are good & expert sailors, although it be calm & that no wind do blow, yet they have their hallyards, sheeets, sails, tacks, and bolins in a readiness, you're to strike, hoist, hall, and set, in any tempestuous time of tossing the troublesome Sea of tribulation most dangerous. Likewise let us watch & be in a readiness what (tempest of tribulation) so ever shall happen in these dangerous seas the world, 
Mat. 7. & 15.  wherein we do live and sail, let us set hope to the helm, let faith stand to let fly the sheet, let humility strike the sail, and let our f●re affiance and trust in God be our pilot to invocate and call for help to the tack and Bowlyne to strain and gripe thorough the tempest of troubles into the port & haven of health. Let us not let slip this provision, lest we be taken void and without those helping mates our mariners to stand by our tackling. 
1. Pet. 5. & 8.9.  Biiause our adversary the devil goeth rampant about like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour, whom we ought to resist by force of faith in christ jesus. Let us remember ourselves of the days of Noah, and of Lot's wife. 
Mat. 24. & 37. Luk. 17. & 32. 1. Thes. 5. &. 3.  And let us be afraid that when they say unto us peace and security, that even then death and destruction is at hand, will run upon us hastily, and kill us without repentance, like as a woman with child whom her travail taketh upon the sudden, and turneth her to sorrow, or as careless birds that fall in the Net unwares. Lest that when we think nothing of it, we be taken with some horrible tempest that may trouble and destroy all. Let us be as soldiers, wise, prudent, well exercised and trained up in war, that we run not out of array, but that we always be priest in order looking to our chieftain: & listen to the alarm, if it be stricken up by our enemies) that we be not taken upon the sudden, as no doubt they will if they can: when we think ourselves most surest. And also let us always say upon our shoulders our beards looking back to see when our Lord cometh: And moreover, in time of adversity when any thing happeneth unto us, whither it be oppression by poverty, misery, infamy, imprisonment, sickness, or any other exile, or any other kind of calamity, let us understand, that first we have deserved far greater griefs and troubles then (any whatsoever or) we are able to bear: Secondly, to consider that we aught to use for our remedy a sure trust in God, with repentance, confession to him, and contrition. Finally, let us accept them as gentle scourges, a fatherly chastisement, giving hearty thanks for them, that they tend to our joyful and comfortable end: and also let us be so firm and constant, (that whatsoever terror or trouble do show himself unto us,) that we do not faint in our true faith. What a number of enemies hath the Gospel had from the beginning, 
Psal. 9 & 5.6.  that God hath punished, caused them to be lost, to be consumed and perish with great misery, and little or none the memory that is had of them. But those which were in faith, and did persever constantly in the truth, 
Psal. 111.6.6.7.  and did not separate themselves from the Lord, do remain in eternal memory before him in his heavenly habitation. 
Gen. 4. & 13. 1. Paral. 10. & 1, 4.13. & ● 3. King. 22. & 34. 4. King. 15. & 5.3.21. & 1.16. etc. & 24. &. 9.15. etc. & 25. & 7.8. etc.  In old time, what become of Cain, Membroth, Saul, Senacherib: and also of many others that were the Emperors of Room. What was the end of Herode, Achaz, Antiochus, Achab, Zedechias, and many others of their tyrannical fellowship, that persecuted the faithful Prophets and children of the Lord: what was the end of all these furious fellows: Surely by the true scriptures it is made most manifest, that they were all utterly destroyed, by the same word of God, for whose truth they persecuted his people. Wherefore let us not dismay ourselves, be faint hearted, nor weaks in mind, how mighty & magnifical so ever they show themselves, that so persecute us: 
Sap. 6. &. 4.6.8. etc.  because that God who doth and will defend us, much more mighty than they are. And those mighty monsters will he make the vesseils of his wrath, and destroy most mightifully. Let us with all benign humility follow the example of jesus Christ, so that if we be persecuted even unto the death with most vilest persecutions, let us not be troubled at all, but be assured that the last day, 
1. Pet. 5. & 3.4.  we shall resuscitate & rise again in immortality, 
Rom. 8. & 11  & incorruption, with the prince of pastors jesus Christ our Lord: because that he himself is the resurrection, 
Psal. 93. & ●. 3.  he shall quicken our mortal bodies, by his spirit that dwelleth in us.  
Although that sometimes we be so evil entreated by our enemies, 
Eze. 7. etc. Psal. 102. &. 19  with many kinds of calamities, yet let us not think that God is a sleep, or hath in any point forgotten us: but be we all fully assured, that he will not close an eye nor wink on whit, but will watch always to keep, save, and deliver us to the Israelites. Although their halls or house of audience and judgement, (grounded upon unrighteousness) where they most grievously hear, condemn and judge the faithful for confessing and professing the truth (come down from Heaven) be never so fully fraught with cursed cruelties, 
Psal. 37. 8● 12.13 etc.  yet what then they are to no purpose at all: for that our father which is in heaven, hath such an auditory, as also far passeth theirs in all points as is possible, where as we may fully assure ourselves that he will sit in judgement, and confounded their devices, who will ease our griefs, and condemn our condempnors, allotting them their portions among the scribes and pharasies and hypocrites. 
Mat. 23. & 29. ●0. etc.  And whereas he our mighty god hath chosen his church, his faithful people, & appointed them to judge & condemn the impious and ungodly which now are their condempnors as it is writby S. Mat. Wherefore with patience let us bear and suffer our present condemnations, 
Mat. ●9. & 28.  because in time to come we may judge our condempnors, for by that truth which now they condemn in us, they remain for ever condemned.  

Psal. 3. & 1.2.3. etc.  Let not us marvel at the persecutors which at these days do trouble us, nor yet at the innumerable number that rise against us, neither let us faint nor fear to see that we are in number nothing to be compared against them: Let us content ourselves only (and thereby be encouraged) that we are acceptable to God, and that he hath looked upon us in Christ, for whose sake we are always in favour with him.  
By the same way that we do pass many saints have passed before us. All the faithful (saith holy judith) have been acceptable to God, 
jud. 8. & 22.23.24. etc.  and passed by many tribulations.  

Gen. 4. & 8. Gen. 9 & 22.25.  Righteous Abel was persecuted and killed by his brother Cain: Noah was mocked of his son Cham: Sem, how was he afflicted.  

Gen. 12. & 6. etc. Gen. 13. & 14.  What a number of troubles did Abraham suffer, who was faithful and the father of all believers: 
Gen. 19 & 4.5. etc. & 22. & 6. & ●  How was Loath, tormented and afflicted in Sodom? what sorrows suffered Isaac, when his father went about to sacrafise him? 
Gen. 22. in all. Psal. 28. & 5.7.8  what persecution did jacob suffer by his brother Esau? what an innumerable number of noisome troubles did Moses suffer, 
judge. 16. & 12, 21. etc.  because he was faithful to God? Did not the foolish Philistians afflict Samson so sore, that they put out both his eyes? 
job. 3.4. ●. in all the Chap.  That holy and just man job, was not he terribly tormented and troubled, both of friends and foes? 
3. King. 17. & 4. etc.  was not the Prophet Elias wonderfully vexed and persecuted by cursed Queen jesabel, 
3. King. 1●. & 2.3.4.  and wicked King Achab her ungodly husband? what troubles was there, that King David (so beloved of God) was not subject unto? how the Prophets were murdered, 
1. Sam. 19.20.21.22,  the Apostles persecuted and killed, all the scriptures do declare. How bravely did the devil, the world, and the flesh, bestir their stumps stobernly to strike and beat down jesus Christ, till they had taken away his life, yet for all that they remained unpossessed of his death, 
Osee. 13. & 4.5.  for that he himself triumphed always over that, & lo passed to his kingdom, where he reigneth in glory with all those his members, which have followed him, sithence the beginning, in crosses of passion and persecution: And therefore though we be but a little flock, let us be firm & constant till the end with patience, for that jesus Christ is our only victory and victor. So that although our adversaries be never so many in number, 
Rom. 8. & 31.38.39.  & of never so great a degree in the world, yet of necessity they must perish & pass after their forefathers which persecuted the Prophets, 
Mat. 13 & 29.30.31. etc.  Apostles, and the rest the faithful servants of God. They do not presently see any thing of all this, they do neither see our glorification, nor their own perdition, & yet the scripture doth discover the same both to us & them. Whereby we may be as sure both of the one and the other, as we be of their cruel persecutions which we suffer. Thereby do they pluck the just judgement of God with vengeance and ire upon their own heads, So, that they shall feel his heavy displeasure, and in the end shall see our blessedness now covered with mourning, & their own perdition & damnation now covered with pagain and popish pleasure. For proof whereof, let us peruse that which is written in the book of wisdom as followeth in the next Chapter.   

An end, with a true declaration what the being shallbe in the end, as well of the faithful as the reprobate. The xxxv. Chapter.  
THen (sayeth the wise man) shall the righteous appear with great constancy, 
Sap. 5. & 1.2.3.4, etc.  before those which did persecute them, and those wicked ones seeing the righteous, shall be tormented with great fear and horror, and shall be astonished to see them saved, & themselves without any hope thereof. Sore sighing for sorrow, and their minds full fraught with bitterness, saying behold, these are they which sometimes past, we mocked and scorned & against whom? we made songs and sonnets of great dishonour as we thought, and we, insenssed with errors accounted their lives and doctrine for fond foolishness, and procured their spoils with spite most spiteful. Yet we may see them here accounted among the children of God, and have their part with his Saints. But we have gone a stray far from the way of truth, the light of righteousness hath not lighted us, nor the son of understanding hath not shined upon us, we were wearied in the way of wickedness and walked in by paths, and did not know the way of the Lord: what hath pride profited us? or what wealth hath our worldly riches & arrogancy wrought us. All these things have passed away as a shadow, as a correo that runneth post, or as a ship that saileth on the Seas full before the wind, and no print or path are seen when she is once passed. So that we as soon as we were born, waxed weak, and now we can show no sign of virtue the which is according as a speiciall friend of this translator did writ in his absence, (as an old proverb) upon the first page of the copy hereof. As followeth.  
Who so believeth as he is borne in hand,  
Foroweth in the Sea, & soweth in the sand.  
It may be judged he meant this text (for that it is so with the wicked) but to the purpose, if doth not greatly degress from the meaning of the wise man who sayeth further, the wicked are consumed in their wickedness, 
Sapi. 5. &. 5 6.7 Psal. 1. &. 5.  and their hope is as the dust or chaff which the wind scattereth abroad, or as the remembrance that a well guested host hath of every guest that cometh to his house, which can not be possibly. But the righteous shall live for ever, their reward shall be in the world, & the highest shall have charge over them. Wherefore they shall receive a kingdom of honour, and a beautiful diadem at the hands of the Lord. For he will cover them with his right hand, & will defend them with his holy arm as with a shield.  
Here we may see that those which now persecute us for the truth, shallbe forced and driven to confess themselves incenssed with errors, & lost, allowing the cause, for which so cruelly they persecute us. And therefore sith they shall allow our righteousness and truth in such manner, & condemn themselves and their doings for wicked and unjust. And sith it is so manifest a testimony, that our cause is such now, as they shall confess to be true and just then: And that now we be such by Christ as they shall see us then. And also for that we shall be equal partners in common with the Saints already gone before us: Let us (dearly beloved) persever always in jesus Christ and his truth, without fainting or fearing till we have obtained his eternal kingdom: because the Saints our brethren are gone before us, 
〈◊〉 6. &  and do tarry till the time that we and the rest do come and fill up the number that God hath appointed, and that then we might together enjoy (and rejoice of) the riches and possession of the same, with jesus Christ who is there, already abiding to crown us with celestial glory for our victory. Very short are the pleasures and prosperities of our adversaries, as they shall their give testimony, (according to the saying of the book of Sapience) but much more shorter are our troubles and adversities, 
Sap. 5. & 7.8. etc. Esay. 54. & 7.10.  (as the holy Ghost giveth testimony by the Prophet, Esay,) he sayeth they are but momentary. And also, he sayeth further (to his people) I will leave thee a little, sayeth the Lord thy God.  
But with great mercifulness I will receive thee again, a little, (as it were a moment or the time of twinkling of an eye) in indignation I will hide my face from thee.  
Yet I have pitied thee with mercy sempiternal, sayeth the Lord thy Redeemer, for although the mountains should remove, & the valleys should tremble and fall down, yet shall not my loving kindness be removed, nor the bond of my peace shall not fall from thee. Here God doth confirm unto us, that all our tribulations endure but a moment, and that his mercy and peace with us is sempeternall. And although that all things in the world do perish, yet his blessed promises unto us shall never have end. Therefore let us not change the mercy and peace of God which is eternal, for the prosperities of the wicked world which are short, and so suddenly pass away. Let us content ourselves though they flourish never so all la flanta and gallantly, that are of of the world. Let them reign lustily, for that the more high they arise and climb against God, so much the greater will be their fall at length. The holy Ghost sayeth by the mouth of the Prophet David, 
Psal. 90. & 6.7.  the wicked shall flourish as the green grass, and so shall all the works of iniquity, but suddenly after shall they perish together for ever. The prosperity which they pass in, is but a slumber, in awaking out of the same, 
Esay. 29.2.  they shall see themselves perish, without the view of arms or hands to touch them. If we fortune to fall into any other kind of adversity, as by mischance to be maimed in our flesh, to be sick, oppressed with poverty, or banished into exile, yea, or otherwise punished for hate the world hath unto us. Let us consider that it is but the loving chastisement of the Lord our father, who doth and will scourge and correct every son that he receiveth, as before is said sufficiently.  
And sith all and every kind of calamity that happeneth or can come unto us is momentary, 
Psal. 75. & 9.10.12.  let us suffer the same with patience and thanksgiving, 
Esay. 54. & 10.  and put our sure hope and trust in god, who hath sworn will he never be so angry that he will take away his mercy from us, but at all times power it upon us abundantly.  
And therefore for that he is our father by Christ for ever, let us like loving children, be faithful unto him accordingly in all times and places. Because that after life lost for his love, and the conquest so overcome, we shall find life in him, whole, safe, and sound, free from all kind of dangers of calamity, and from all kinds of grief or annoy. And shall hear from his holy mouth, 
Ma●. 25. & 24.  the words wherewith he will receive all that be his: saying, to all and to every one of us, I am contented with thee mine own good servant, because thou haste continued faithful unto me over much. Enter into the joy of the Lord which hath been prepared for thee from the beginning. 
1. Pet. 5. & 10.  The God of all grace who hath called all his chosen by jesus Christ to his eternal glory after that they have suffered a little time of persecution and affliction, do make you all perfect, and do incorporate and establish you in himself. To whom be all Empery, rule, dominion, power, laud, praise, honour, and glory, for ever and ever, world without end. Amen.   
FINIS.   

 

  

   

❧ A TABLE OF all the Chapters in this Book.  

OF the will of God, an entry into the comfort, with a persuasion to know the will of God perfectly. Cap 1. Fo. 9  
What we were before our being reduced to God. Cap. 2. fo. 11.  
Of our blindness in times past. ca 3. fo. 15.  
Of the love of God, and of our calling, & the cause thereof. cap. 4. fo. 17.  
Of the cause of our calling and redemption. cap. 5. fo. 20.  
Of our justification by the righteousness of God. etc. cap. 6. fo. 22  
Of an excellent comfort by the love of god. cap. 7. fo. 25  
Of the cause of Christ's coming, and of the fruits of christians. ca 8. fo. 30  
Of a great cause of comfort, by reason of the crosses of Christ. ca 9 fo. 34  
How that the estate of jesus Christ is common to the faithful, and doth exhort us to an excellent comfort. ca 10. fo. 37  
Of the providence of God for them which are called. etc. cap. 11. fo. 42  
Of the property of persecutors, with a persuasion to patience. cap. 12. fo. 47  
An excellent comfort to the afflicted. cap. 13. fo. 50  
Of gods exceeding love, greatly to the comfort of his people. cap. 14. fo. 55  
Of Purgatory, and the causes thereof, etc. cap. 15. fo. 58  
A great comfort to the christian, with a terrible threat to the ungodly & wicked. cap. 16. fo. 61  
An invective against the wicked, with a marvelous comfort to the godly christian, etc. cap 17. fo. 65  
Of patience, and an exhortation thereunto, etc. cap. 18. fo 70  
How that good experience, bringeth forth hope, and of a shadow of certain persecution. cap. 19 fo. 75  
A pure proof unto us, that we are beloved of God in our greatest griefs, etc. cap. 20. fo. 78  
A persuasion to trust only in God, and to avoid all vain trust had in any human help. etc. cap. 21. fo. 83  
How we aught to be instructed in truth & verity & to have no confidence in men's traditions. cap. 22. fo. 90  
Upon what condition God receiveth us, with an excellent comfort to the christian, etc. cap. 23. fo. 96  
An excellent kindly and comfortable persuasion of the faithful to rejoice in any calamity, etc. cap. 24. fo. 101  
The manner of part of persecution in Spain. with a comfort against the like. Cap. 25. fo. 106  
A true similitude of the true church etc. cap. 26. fo. 112.  
Of predestination and of glorification thereby. etc. cap. 27. fo. 119.  
Of the mighty power, and exceeding love of god. cap. 28. fo. 124  
An excellent comfort against the fear of death, with a confutation of his power, etc. cap. 29. fo. 129  
Of the cause that Christ did fear death, & how constant divers Martyrs have been, sithence in their martyrdom. ca 30. fo. 135  
Of the goodness of God in our defence, against our persecutors, etc. ca 31. fo. 140  
A marvelous comfort to those that are afflicted, either by fire or otherwise. cap. 32. fo. 147  
An entry into the conclusion, with many godly exhortations. cap. 33. fo. 152  
Very godly exhortations for all men that are afflicted, and also for those which are in prosperity. cap. 34. fo. 157  
An end, with a true declaration what the being shall be in the end, as well of the faithful as the reprobate. cap. 35. fo. 162   
FINIS.