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GIFT OF

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MEMOm-S'

OF THE

LIFE AND MARTYRDOM

JOHN BRADFORD, M.A.

of ^emfcrofte Hall, (ffamtitttrge ;

EXAMINATIONS, LETTERS,

ARRANGED IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER.

TOGETHER WITH

& translation of

BISHOP GARDINER'S BOOK, " DE VERA OBEDIENTIA," AND BONNER'S
"PREFATORY LETTER;"

BOTH IN DEFENCE OF THE SUPREMACY AND OF THE DIVORCE OF HENRY VIII.

" Ea sunt vetustissima Ecclesiae martyria, quorum lectioue piorum animus ita afficitur, ut
nunquam satur inde recedat. Quod quidem ita esse, unusquisque pro suo et couscientiae modo
sentire potest. Ccrte ego nihil unquam in Historia Ecclesiastica vidi, a cujus lectione
commotior recedam, ut non amplius meus esse videar." Jos. SCALIGER.

BY WILLIAM STEVENS.

LONDON :

PRINTED FOR R. FENN, HOMER'S HEAD, CHARING CROSS ;
AND T. STEVENSON, CAMBRIDGE.

GIFT 0?
PROFESSOR C,A. KOFOIO

CROYDON : PRINTED BY WILLIAM ANNAN, HIGH STKLill.

" He was a man of great learning, elocution, sweetness of temper, and profound
devotion towards God." Strype Eccl, Mem. vol. iii. pt. i. 363.

" He was a most pious Christian, and is said to have done as much service to the
reformation by his letters from prison, as toy his preaching in the pulpit." Neale
Pur. i. 85.

" In these letters shine forth such a spirit of inflexible constancy in his principles ;
such a primitive and apostolic zeal for the propagation of truth; such a sincere
abhorrence of the gross, mercenary, and presumptuous delusions of the Church of
Rome ; that it is as little wonder they have been so carefully transmitted to us, by the
friends and favourers of the reformation, as that the enemies to it should cut off, as
soon as they could, the increase of them." Biog. Brit. vol. ii. 547.

TO THE RIGHT REVEREND,

THE LORD BISHOP OF LONDON.

MY LORD,

FROM the nature of some of the remarks
contained in the Notes and Appendix to the
following work, you will perhaps be sur-
prised that I should address it to a prelate of
the Church of England. I certainly had no
thoughts of doing so originally ; but happening
to be at Hampton on the day when you
consecrated the new church in that village,
I had the gratification to hear the sermon you
preached upon that occasion a sermon, my
Lord, well calculated to promote the interests
of your own Church, without attacking or
impugning the views of persons of other
denominations, if any such were there.

It was, moreover, a faithful Christian
appeal and exhortation, and was evidently
delivered by one who, himself above the fear
of man, felt alike the importance of his
message, and his own responsibility.

The entire absence of sectarianism how-
ever, my Lord, and that judicious propriety
which, whilst you carefully observed the rites
and ceremonies of your own communion;
abstained alike from unduly exalting that
communion, or holding up others to reproach
or contempt a practice so usual with mem-
bers of hierarchies has chiefly induced me
thus to address you.

But for what purpose ? Not, my Lord, as
as enemy to the Established Church, for lam
one of her unworthy sons ; but to draw your
attention to some particular considerations,
which have long weighed upon my mind, and
which are not the offspring of any of those
extraordinary movements, which characterize
the present sera.

Thirty years ago, my Lord, I wrote and
published, that the state of the National
Church was such, that she could not go
on much longer, unless effectual remedies
were applied to various abuses and practices,
which crushed her to the ground. Since that
period, she has, in many respects, assumed a
more decent and more respectable exterior
but have the abuses been rectified ?

Whether the reformation in England has
ever proceeded so far as the father of the

Vll

English Church, Archbishop Cranmer, origi-
nally intended ; or whether abuses have
arisen from the natural tendency to degene-
rate, which is innate to every thing human ;
or from the connection of the hierarchy with
the politics of the state ; it is manifest that
such abuses exist ; and he alone is a true
and sincere friend to the national hierarchy,
who will faithfully point out, and steadily
pursue every legitimate and proper means,
to relieve her from their weight and incubus.

I know well enough, my Lord, that those
who wrap themselves up in the delusive
security of quietism, will readily denounce
me as an enemy to the hierarchy ; but, my
Lord, such characters are her real, and if
not her only enemies, at least, those only
who are to be dreaded. What, my Lord, is
the kind friend or conscientious physician,
who is anxious to administer a wholesome
and sanatory medicine, in order to rebuke a
disease which is consuming the vitals, to be
repudiated and reproached ; whilst some base
and interested flatterer, who encourages the
dying but unconscious patient to refuse all
medicine, and thus allows the disease to be-
come incurable, to be hailed as the only re'al
friend ! Such, my Lord, are some, I nught

Vlll

say almost all, the public writers of the
present day; and I hesitate not to assert,
that there is no more pestilent doctrine afloat,
or one more calculated to overturn, and propel
all our institutions to their ruin, than that
one opinion.

There is, my Lord, one melancholy feature
in the present times one which has struck
me more forcibly, and with more painful
apprehensions, than almost all the rest; be-
cause inasmuch as one can hardly anticipate,
how it can be removed by any human means,
it almost leads to the conclusion described
by the epigrammatist, " Quos Deus vult
perdere, prius dementat."

The awful feature to which I allude is the
present state of partiesin this country ; that is,
that whilst there may be good reasons to fear
one great party in the state, which appears
anxious to redress public grievances, and
promote liberal and enlightened views of
policy, is not very anxious to promote the
cause of religious truth ; and whilst it is at
least equally clear that another great party
in the state, which makes an outward pro-
fession of being greatly alarmed, lest religion,
avt least what they mean by religion, viz.
the national hierarchy, should be injured,

opposes itself, totis viribus, to every attempt
for removing abuses either in church or
state ; yet that both these parties, as it were
by common consent, unite in despising,
reproaching, and vilifying a third party, in
which alone, any thing like true religion is
to be found. And I mean not, my Lord, by
that third party, any particular denomina-
tion, or fanciful creed or doctrine ; but gene-
rally all truly conscientious persons of all the
orthodox denominations, who, in their lives,
conduct, and conversation, shew plainly that
with them at least, the religion of our Divine
Saviour, is something more than a system,
something beyond a machine of state.

I do not think I need say more to your
Lordship. I feel assured that the preceding
remark is so obvious, as to require only to be
noticed to be most manifest.

Far indeed, my Lord, is it from my in-
tention, to go into particulars in this letter ;
but to shew that it does not necessarily
follow that any person who alleges there are
abuses in the hierarchy, and is anxious to
remedy them, must be either her open or
secret enemy ; and also to shew that I have
used no exaggeration, I will draw your Lord-
ship's attention to the remarks of one, than

whom the Church of England, never had a
more zealous friend, or more affectionate
son.*

<fc I will assure the reader, there is a great
deal of cant, in the world, beside that of
fanaticism and affected devotion. Impiety can
act the hypocrite upon occasion, and magnify
moral virtue., when it is S3t in opposition to
the Love of God" " Deists, infidels, and
moral philosophers, are glad to hear of a rule
of morality which will serve as a substitute for
the Christian life, and all the forms of church
devotion. Here also we find those Christians,
who live in the habitual neglect of the means
of grace. I have heard people who never were
at the altar, and perhaps never intended it,
comforting themselves with this consideration,
that they never did any harm to any body ;
when they should rather have asked them-
selves what good they ever did to themselves,
or to any body else, for the Love of God?
without which, all the virtues of man are
nothing ; and if he places any dependance upon
them, they are worse than nothing." " Simple
morality is not Christianity." " Great things
have been attributed of late times, to moral

* The late Rev. Win. Jones, of Nayland.

preaching ; but there is no such thing as telling
people what they are to do, without telling
them what they are to believe; because the
Christian morality is built upon the Christian
faith, and is totally different from the morality
of heathens" " To recommend moral duties,
on the ground of natural religion, is to preach
Deism from a pulpit ; and we should ask
ourselves, whether God, who upholds his
Church to declare salvation by Jesus Christ
aiorte, will preserve a Church when it has left
the Gospel, and holds forth the light of Deism
in the candlestick which was made, and is
supported in the world, only to hold forth the
light of Christianity?"'-" I would not, for the
whole world, and all the kingdoms of it, be
in doubt, whether I was translated or not,
into the kingdom of Jesus Christ." " To any
particular or national Church, all temporal
allowances are but momentary considerations,
which pass away with the fashion of this
world ; and the Church may be either with
them or without them, as it was in the first
ages" " If we look at our own Church, we
have but a melancholy prospect, and cannot
help observing, that it approaches too near

to the state of the Jewish Church before

its destruction. As they had corrupted the

Xll

doctrines of Moses and the prophets, and in
consequence of it were divided into sects, (for
as truth unites, error always disunites men) ; so
have we corrupted the doctrines of the Gospel,
and are miserably divided in consequence of
it." " The venality and avarice of the Jews
of our Saviour's time, were notorious, and
provoked his indignation. Their temple,
filled with buyers and sellers, was turned
into a den of thieves : and, God knows, there
is too much of a worldly traffick amongst us,
which is too far gone to be reformed, and too
bold to be censured. VENDUNTUR OMNIA."

Neither, my Lord, imagine that the pious
dissenters are inimical to the hierarchy.
Amongst their various bodies, there are, as
in all bodies, men of bad spirits and of
ambitious principles ; but riot so the great
mass of them ; let the Church of England
become what Archbishop Usher, and Bishop
Hall, would have had her, and Archbishop
Cranmer intended her, to be ; let her become
what she ought to be ; and all the truly pious
arid orthodox dissenters in the kingdom will
rejoice in her ; and acknowledge her, if not
as their venerable parent, at least, as their
elder sister ; and will gladly unite with and
support her in every good word and work.

Xlll

But we are afraid of popery and infidelity,
and not without reason. Shall we be best
able to oppose them when united or when
divided? I venture to request your Lordship
to peruse the address to the CHRISTIAN
INSTITUTE, appended to the following work.
That society I sometime since attempted to
establish, and which I still hope one day to
accomplish ; and I verily believe, if conducted
upon right principles, it would do more to
stem the torrent of error, of all sorts, in this
country, than any other measure. If in that
respect I err, I have the satisfaction to know
I err in the company of some of the best and
most excellent men that have ever lived ; and
perhaps an ample justification of every opinion,
I have suggested, would be found by bringing
the great majority of ecclesiastical prefer-
ments, during the last century, to the following
test of Bishop Ridley. For as Blackstone
has well expressed it, " the best way to
exhibit the irregularities of a crooked line, is
to place a straight one close by its side."

" Alas, Sir, this is a heavy hearing. When
papists were taught, there was nothing too
little* for the teachers. When the Bishop
gave his benefices unto idiots, unlearned,
ungodly, for kindred, for pleasure, for services,

* That is, there was always plenty for them.

XIV

and other worldly respects, all was then well
allowed. Now where a poor living is to be
given to an excellent clerk, a man known and
tried to have both discretion and also virtue,
and such a one, as before God, I do not know a
man yet unplaced and unprovided for, more
meet to set forth God's Word in all England,
when a poor living, I say, which is founded
for a preacher, is to be given unto such a man,
that then an ungodly person shall procure in
this sort letters to stop and let the same, alas,
M. Cheke, this seemeth unto me to be a right
heavy hearing. Is this the fruit of the Gospel ?
Speak M. Cheke, speak for God's sake, in God's
cause, unto whomsoever you think you may do
any good withal. And if you will not speak,
then I beseech you, let these my letters speak
unto M. Gates, to M. Wroth,* to M. Cecil,
whom I all do take for men that do fear God."f
I have the honour to remain,

MY LORD,
Your Lordship's faithful Servant,

Cfie Stfttor*

London, 1831.

* Most probably Lord Wriothesly, whom Bishop Burnet however, says
was the chief support of the Popish Party. Reform, ii. 27.

t See letter to Sir John Cheke, soliciting a prebend for Grindal,
afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury. Cov. 684.

PR EFACE.

THE publication of the following pages was occasioned
by the deep impression made upon the mind of the Editor,
some few years since, by the perusal of Coverdale's Letters
of the Martyrs, a book which he had till then never seen ;
and although he was generally acquainted with Fox's Acts
and Monuments, he had not read the letters in that work,
or, at least, having been read in earlier life, they had not
produced the same feelings.

Persuaded that a more general acquaintance with these
letters, exemplifying the doctrines and principles of the re-
formation in England, was calculated to promote the cause
of religious truth, he conceived the idea of republishing
Coverdale's work ; but finding upon examination, that there
were many letters in Fox, which were omitted by Coverdale,
and vice- versa, it appeared the most useful plan to publish
a new work embracing both, and to intersperse the letters
according to their dates, with Fox's 'Narrative.

But to pursue this plan as to the whole of the martyrs
at once, would have been too formidable an undertaking in

XVI

respect of paper and printing ; and therefore the Editor was
compelled to select the life and letters, of such one of the
venerable martyrs, as appeared to afford the most compre-
hensive view of the controversies of that day, and the greatest
probability of general usefulness.

Cranmer or Ridley would probably have been selected,
but the life of the latter having been lately re-published by
Dr. Wordsworth, and the whole works of Cranmer being in
a state of preparation for publication at Oxford; the choice
almost naturally fell upon Bradford, as best calculated to
answer the above expressed objects of the Editor; who can
truly say, that if the following pages shall afford to any of
his readers, as he has no doubt they will to many, the same
gratification, which the preparing of them for the press has
to himself, his purpose will be fully answered, although he
should lose by the publication.

The Editor has long thought that a more useful service
could not be performed to religion, than an attempt to rescue
from oblivion some of those important and excellent works,
which are now fast escaping from our grasp; and which,
unless some steps are taken to preserve them, will shortly be
altogether lost to posterity. If, therefore, the present volume
should prove acceptable to the public, the Editor may, if
his life be spared, follow it up with a series of lives and
letters, as well from our English, as from foreign martyrologies.

In the course of the researches which the Editor has made,
he has discovered one original letter, (No. 45,) and also the

XVli

verses which conclude the letters. The Editor imagines there
is another original letter in the possession of Mr. Dawson
Turner, of Yarmouth, who has been respectfully requested, but
in vain, to allow it to be included in the following collection.

The Editor cannot, satisfactorily to his own mind, con-
clude these remarks without expressing his grateful thanks
for the civility and accommodation he has uniformly received
from the librarians and assistants of the British Museum, who
have upon all occasions shewn a disposition to facilitate his
inquiries. A similar acknowledgement is due to thfc libra-
rians of Sion College, Redcross Street Library, the London
Institution, and Mr. Lemon, of the State Paper Office.

It was the Editor's intention to have inserted in the
appendix, a catalogue of the tracts upon the Popish Contro-
versy, chiefly of the reign of James II., contained in a series
of eighty volumes, octavo, which may be seen in the
library of Dr. Williams, in Redcross Street; and which
perhaps contain the most complete collection to be found
upon the subject; but as that catalogue would add several pages
to this volume, already extended far beyond the Editor's
original intention, it may be considered sufficient to have
informed the reader of the existence of such a collection.
There are also about fifty volumes of tracts upon the same
subject, in the library belonging to the French Protestant
or Refugee Church, in Threadneedle Street.

Since page Ixii of the appendix has been printed, the Editor
has seen another edition, of Wood's Translation of the book

XV111

De Vera Obedientia, at Mr. Thorp's in Bedford Street,
Covent Garden, who has obligingly permitted him to copy
the title page. Except what follows, and in describing Bon-
ner, as since instead of now Bishop of London, it is the
same as that inserted in page Ixiv. of the appendix..

" And now translated into English, and printed bi Michael
Wood : with the Preface and Conclusion of the Translator.
" From Roane, xxvi of Octobre, MDLIII. "
This edition is in rude types of the Roman letter,
whereas the edition in the Royal Library is in old English
text, very well cut, and the punctuation marked by short
oblique lines. From the insertion of the word since, we
apprehend that the copy in the Royal Library is the
original edition; and Roane is probably a town in the
Isle of Rhe, and not Rouen, in Normandy ; or it may be Roann
on the Loire.

The following is the most correct list of Bradford's works,
which the Editor has been able to collect, but he is by no
means satisfied that it is perfectly accurate.

1. A Meditation upon God's Providence and his Presence.

2. A Prayer that God would shorten the Persecution and
restore the Gospel.

3. Institutio Divina et Vere Consolatoria certa Viri
Mortis, Johanne Bradfordo, Anglo, Authore, ex vernacula
Lingua in totium Sermonem con versa.

4. The Hurt of the Mass.

XIX

5. Sermons on Repentance and the Lord's Supper. -Sion
Coll. Lib. 0. 13. 6.

6. Prioritise, or First Fruits. 1548.

7. A Godly Treatise on Prayer, translated from Me-
lancthon.

8. Complaint of Verity. 1559.

9. Meditation on the Lord's Prayer, Creed, and Ten
Commandments.

10. The Good Old Way, or a Treatise of Repentance.

11. Baptism of Children.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

No. Page.

1. Letter to Father Traves 3

2. to Sir Thomas Hall, and Father Traves .... 6

3 to Father Traves 9

4. to the same 14*

5. to the same 17

6. >to the same 18

7. to the same 21

8. to the same 22

9. to the same 24

10. to the same 30

11. to Lord Russel 31

12 to his Mother 34

13. to M.Warcup,Wife, Mrs.Wilkinson, & others 39

14,. to W. P 45

15. to Father Traves ib.

16. to G. and N 47

17. to Godly Persons 50

18. to the same 54

19. to Lord Russel 59

20. to the same 63

21. to the Pelagians 65

22. to certain Men, &c 68

23. to Trew and Abingdon 72

24. to the same 73

25. Old and New Man 74

26. to Cole and Sheterden* 78

27. to a Dear Friend 80

28. to Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer 89

29. Declaration as to Doctrine 93

30. - to Sir James Hales 100

31. to M. Humphrey Hales 104

32. to M. Humphrey Hales and Wife 107

33. to Lady Vane 109

34. - to the same 114

* This Letter is also in Cpv. 409.

No. Page.

35. Letter to Lady Vane 1 15

36. to the same 116

37. to M. Lawrence Saunders 118

38. to the same 120

39. to Sir William Fitz Williams 121

40. toMrs.M.H , 123

41. to the same 128

42. to the same 130

43. to a Faithful Woman 132

44. to Mrs. J. H 139

45. to a Pious Lady 143

46. Meditation on God's Providence and Presence .... 148

47. Letter to Queen Mary with Supplication 151

48. The Supplication 153

49. Declaration as to King Edward's Reformation 155

60. First Examination of Bradford 158

51. Second Examination 166

52. Third Examination 174

53. Letter to Mrs. Ann Warcup 186

54. to his Mother 188

65. Conference with Bonner 192

66. Letter to Lady Vane ib.

57. Conference with M. Willerton 195

58. Letter to Mrs. Ann Warcup 196

59. to Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer 198

60. to M. Geo. Eaton 199

61. to the same 203

62. to the Professors in London 204

63. to the Professors in Cambridge 210

64. to the Professors in Lancashire and Cheshire 216

65. to the Professors in Walden 223

66. to M. Shallcross and Wife 228

67. Conference with the Earl of Derby's Servant 233

68. with Percival Cresswell ib.

69. with Dr. Harding 234

70. with Archdeacon Harpsfield 235

71. Second Conference with ditto 241

72. Conference with Archbishop Heath and Bishop Day 246

73. with the Spanish Friars 254

74. Letter to a Woman as to going to Mattins 261

XX111

No. Pa S e -

75. First Conference \vith Dr. Weston 264

76. Reasons against Transubstantiation 266

77. Conference with Dr. Pendleton 268

78. Second Conference with Dr. Weston 271

79. Admonition to Professors 275

80. Letter to R. Cole 279

81. to Nathaniel 280

82. to Nathaniel and his Wife 28-1

83. to M. John Hall and Wife 288

84. toMrs.-Hall 291

85. Third Conference with Dr. Weston 293

86. Conference with a Gentlewoman's Servant 296

87. Letter to that Gentlewoman 299

88. to his Mother 303

89. Prayer 307

90. Letter to B. and C 315

91. to Erkenwalde Rawlins and Wife 318

92. to the same 323

93. . to Dr. Albert Hill 326

94. to R. and E. with their Wives and Families . . 331

95. to Mrs. Wilkinson 334

96. to the same 336

97. to Mrs. W. and Mrs. W ' 337

98. to John Careless 340

99. to the same 342

100. - to Richard Hopkins and Wife 343

101. to the same 853

102. to Mrs. Brown 357

103. to the same .358

104. to a Friend 359

105. to certain Godly Men 362

106. to Augustine Bernher 366

107. to the same .' 867

108. to M. Coker 868

109. to M. John Philpot 370

1 10. to certain Godly Men 371

111. to one who had administered comfort & relief 376

1 12. to a Friend on Rom. viii. 19 378

113. An Exhortation to Patience, in the Time of Persecution 389

CONTENTS OF THE APPENDIX.

Note. Page.

A. Restitution i.

B. Disparaging Expressions xii.

C. Ordination xiii.

D. The Habits xiv.

E. Ridley's Opinion of Bradford xv.

F. Tutor to Archbishop Whitgift xvi.

G. Error in Fox's Chronology xvii.

H. Bishop Farrar xviii.

I. Francis Spira xix.

K. Lord Russel xx.

L. Fox's Notes on Election, &c xxxiii.

M. Remarks on DrWordsworth, Bishop Ridley, &c xliv.

N. Martyrs decline Disputation Ivii

O. Further Remarks on Bishop Ridley Iviii.

P. Sir James Hales , . lix.

Q. Lady Vane Ix.

R. Bishop Gardiner's Vera Obedientia Ixi.

S. Heroic Conduct of early Martyrs cxxxviii.

T., Quotation from St , Bernard verified cxxxix.

U. Process against Bradford cxli.

V. Final Process against Bradford cxlii.

W. Bishop Ridley's Approbation of Bradford's

Examinations cxlv.

X. Remarks on Bishop Gardiner's Death cxlvii.

Y. Another Letter of Bishop Ridley to Bradford cli.

Z. Remarks on Bradford's Fortitude cliii.

AA. Remarks on the University of Cambridge . . ib.

BB. See W. and Y.

CC. Idolatry of Papists established cliv.

DD. Character of Dean Weston clvi.

EE. Edward VI. 's Remarks on Popery clvii.

FF. Note as to Mrs. M. Honeywood clviii.

GG. Testimony of Persons and others to Bradford's

Worth clviii.

HH. Extracts from Sampson's Preface clix.

XXV

Note. Page.
1 1. Letter from the Martyr Careless to Bradford clx.
KK. Inherent Blasphemy of the Doctrine of theMass clxiii.
LL. The Danger and Sin of Protestants, attending
the Celebration of the Mass, Mattins, Ves-
pers, &c clxvi.

MM. Note as to Sheriff Hopkins clxix.

NN. as to Augustine Bernher ib.

Index of Tracts in the Fasciculus Rerum . . . clxxi.

THE materials of the early life of Holy
John Bradford, as he was usually designated,*
which have come down to us are exceedingly
scanty, and there is scarcely any thing to be
gleaned respecting him beyond what is related
by Fox, the venerable martyrologist ; with the
exception of those additional letters, which
are included in the Compilation of the Let-
ters of the Martyrs, collected and published
by Miles Coverdale, in the year 1564.

Bradford was born at Manchester, but in //,//;<. <-<
what year we are uninformed ; and we hear f /' Ac ' J

* Not only Fox so stiles him, but Dr. Francis Godwin, successively
Bishop of Llandaff and Hereford, the author of the Commentarius de
Prsesulibus, calls him "that godly.and learned man, John Bradford."
Annals of Queen Mary, p. 186. So also Strype, " from him, (Abp.
Grindal,) Fox had the history of the Holy John Bradford, and the let-
ters written by him in prison." Annals, vol. i. p. i. 375.

no more of his parents, than that they brought
him up in learning from his infancy, of
which he made so good a use that he attained
sufficient skill in writing and in the Latin
language to become a servant, or probably a
secretary, to Sir John Harrington, who was
treasurer of the royal camps and buildings at
Calais, and in the Bullonois, during the
reign of Henry VIII, and part of the reign of
Edward VI.

Fox alleges that Sir John found our mar-
tyr so expert and faithful, that he not only
employed him in public affairs, but entrusted
his private concerns to his management in
preference to his other dependants.

How long he remained in this employ we
do not exactly know; but the same author
informs us that Bradford quitted his patron,
after a "just account given to him of all his
doings.*"

It appears at one time to have been his
intention to follow the profession of the law,
for we find that he was entered a student
of the Inner Temple, on the 8th of April,
1547 ,f where he is described as of Exton, in
the County of Rutland.

* See Note (A.) t 1 Edward VI.

J$tea<'

t**jQ

It is from the Temple that the earliest of
Bradford's Letters which have been preserved,
are dated : and we propose to introduce them
into the narrative in the order in which they
were written. They will thus afford the best
evidence of the progressive state of the au-
thor's mind; and how it became gradually
matured, as by the Spirit of the Lord, to pre-
pare him for that noble and conspicuous
testimony which God, in the mysterious dis-
pensations of his providence, had appointed
our illustrious martyr to bear to the truth of
the Gospel of our Lord JESUS CHRIST.

There are only six letters which we can
positively ascribe to this period, and which
are the following :

No. 1.

TO FATHER TRAVES.*

GRATIA, misericordia, et pax, a Deo Patre nostro, et Domino Jesu
Christo, Domino nostro.

* Fox iii. 357. This name is spelt by Fox sometimes Traves and sometimes Travers, but
who he was there is no particular mention ; except that it appears from the letters them-
selves, that he was some friend of the family, and from the superscription to one of them,
that he was the minister of Blackly, near Manchester, in which place, or near to which,
Biadford's mother must then have resided. Strype says he was a learned and pious Gentle-
man, his patron, and counsellor. Mem. Eccl. vol. iii. p. i. 364.

If mine heart were n^t altogether adamantine, your kind letters
to me unkind miser, would cause me, from the hottom of the same,
to confess my ingratitude towards you upon your behalf, concerning*
me so much deserved : but as I am to do, so shew I myself to write,
and as I am unable in the one, so am I foolish in the other; in
all those unkindnesses, rudeness, &c. whereof you accuse yourself.

I am enforced to acknowledge myself most justly condemned, not
so feignedly by me confessed, as most truly by you experienced. In
your letters, as in a glass I may learn by you, in detecting yourself,
to espy my nakedness, which heretofore I thought clothed duplici
vestitu, now only but with fig leaves hypocritically gilded, of which
detection, wrought in you by the Holy Ghost, be not proud ; for what
have you that you have not received ? But be thankful to the Lord,
not only therefore, but also for those surges which you feel, now
through the cares accompanying marriage, now through education and
bringing up of your children and family, now through that cross of
the common accustomed trade of living; for through many tribulations
ice must enter into the kingdom of Heaven : yea, they be the cog-
nizances of God's election, the letter THAU, the instruments which
work suspitia aeternae vitae, and therefore to be embraced.

Believe me it is the most excellent gift of God, a man to detect and
humble himself, and to feel the crosses of Christ as crosses. But I,
a most hypocritical wretch, not worthy that this earth should bear
me, am ever going to bed with Jezebel, and such as commit fornica-
tion with her, which is afflictio maxima. O Lord help me and
deliver me for Jesu's sake, anoint mine eyes with ointment that I
may see. Oh give me not over unto a lewd mind and reprobate
sense, but awake my sleeping soul that Christ may shine in me.

You know the cross, the fatherly cross, the loving Lord hath laid
upon me; but 1 am little or nothing moved therewith ; I work therein,
yet not I, but God's spirit; not of a repentant faithful mind, but, I
cannot tell how, of a slothful, blind, wretchless intent. O Lord for-
give me for saying so, it is thy gift; forgive me my unthankfulness
for Jesu's sake, and as herein I blasphemed and dishonouredf thy

'Anempst. + Dishoncsted.

holy name, so do thou by thy Holy Spirit glorify by me* the same.
So be it, so be it.

Sincef my coming- to London I was with Mr. Latimer, whose
counsel is as you shall hear, which I purpose by God's grace to obey,
(if it be thy will, O Lord fiat) ; he willed me, as I have done, to write to
my master, who is in the country, and to shew him that if within a cer-
tain time, which I appointed, fourteen days, he do not go about to make
restitution, that I will submit myself to my Lord Protector, and the
King's Majesty's Council, to confess the fraud and ask pardon. Thislite
is uncertain and frail, and when time is, it must not be deferred. And
what should it profit me to win the whole world, and to lose my own
soul? If, as I justly have deserved, I be put to death for it, God's
will be done ; at the least, slander, reproach, rebuke, loss of worldly
friends, loss of living, &c. shall ensue. What then? Lord thy will
be done, thine I am; if death come, welcome be it; if slander, &c.
even as thou wilt Lord, so be it. Only grant me a penitent, loving,
obedient heart, and of mere love to go forwards herein and not to
shrink, to stand and not to fall, that thy name only be praised herein.
Amen. Pray, pray for me, cry for me, and when you shall hear
any thing, comfort my mother, to whom, for that the bearer of this*
hath not given me an hour's warning of his departure, I have not
only written nothing, but also have thus prattled to you, who, as
no man else would, I think will bear with me. For as God knoweth,
to whose grace I commit you and your bed-fellow, with all your chil-
dren and family, the shortness of time, and the bearer's importu-
nity,! i s tne on ty l et - I neither send your spectacles, the price of the
Paraphrases, nor thanks for your cheese ; as by the next, that cometh
I will, God willing, send the premises to you, and a godly Tes-
tament for Sir Thomas Hall, which is at the binding: but be not
acknown that I have now written to you, for so I have prayed this
bringer. God be with us, pray for me, and abhor not my rude scrib-
bling, which if it were as well written as it is meant, would deserve

* Perhaps when Bradford wrote this he little anticipated how literally his pr.iyer would

be answered.

t Sithence. { This brin-er.

This said hringer's importance.

pardon. Thus make I an end, imputing to the hastiness of this
bringer all blame which you may l;y unto me.

From the temple, this Sunday, immediately after Mr. Lalimer's
famous sermon, which this bringer, as he saith did hear.

By your poorest friend,

JOHN BRADFORD.

It shall not be long, God willing, but you shall both have and
hear from me. Keep with you Melancthon's Common Places, for I
have another.

No. 2.*

To SIR THOMAS HALL and FATHER TRAVERS
OF BLACKLY.

The grace of God, our most merciful Father, keep your mind
and soul in Christ Jesus, who alone is our full sufficient Saviour, for
in him we be complete; being made, through his death, and one only
oblation made and offered by himself upon the cross, the children
of God, and fellow heirs with him of the celestial kingdom which is
the free gift of God ; and cometh not of merits, but of the mere grace
of God, given to none that putteth any manner of hope or trust in any
other thing visible or invisible, than in that oblation of sweet savour
which Christ himself did offer upon Good Friday, (as we call it); which
oblation is always recent and new in the sight of God the Father, and
maketh intercession for us ; us I mean, who think the loving sacrifice
then offered to he sufficient, as it is, hath been, and ever shall be, for
all the faithful ; by the which sacrifice, if we believe, we have free
pardon of all our sins. To him, therefore, who was both the offerer
and offering, be all honour and praise, with the Father and the Holy
Ghost, blessed for ever. Amt-n.

* Fox, iii. 3.56.

Sir Thomas, the occasion of this my long silence, my old friend
John Travers shall declare unto you, upon the knowledge whereof [
doubt not of your pardon. I have sent unto you an English and Latin
Testament, both in one print and volume, the which though it be not
so beautiful without as I could have sent you, yet no less beautiful
within, and more I think for your profit and better for your eyes, your
eyes I mean of the body; for undoubtedly it giveth light unto the
soul if she be not dead; whereof take this for an argument and a true
proof. If your soul be not delighted in it, if your soul do not hunger
for it, I mean not the book, but the doctrine in the book, surely your
jsoul is sore sick, for as the body abhorring meat is not well, even so
must the soul be, for other meat hath she none; Christ, whom you
must believe before all men, affirms this to be true ; not only in bread,
but in every word of God the soul doth live.

Mark well, he saith not one or two words, or an epistle, or a gospel,
but he saith, every word. Take heed, believe Christ better than any
man, be he ever so holy; for he that is of God, knoweth the Word of
God. Will you have a more plain badge whether you are the elect
child of God or no, than this text; Christ saith, he that is of God,
heareth the Word of God; but other Word of God have we none,
than in the Canon of the Bible; and all things written therein, are
written for our learning, saith St. Paul, whereof he proves, seeing
that it is a learning, yea our learning, that we must learn it.

Therefore, woe be to all them who either persuade men that either
there is other doctrine of like authority, or that dissuade them from
embracing this Word, this Word of God; or that think this Word, es-
pecially the New Testament, is not above all other to be loved, to be
read, to be chewed. This is the precious stone which, in the Gos-
pel, Christ says, when a man has found, he selieth all that ever he
hath, and buyeth it.

Mark now, how necessary and precious Christ makes that which
great learned men, nay the devils, but no men, think not necessary;
God help them. Christ bad his disciples sell their coats, and buy a
sword; which is no other thing than the Word of God ; for so St.
Paul calls it, the sword of the Spirit.

This I say, Sir Thomas, to the intent that no ungodly hypocrite
should persuade or dissuade you from reading the Holy Word of God,

the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Follow you St. Paul's lesson, attend
reading 1 , and let the Word of God dwell in you, how much ? Plentifully,
saith he; and to what end? To feed the flock of Christ ; even as
much as in you is, saith Peter, not once a year, nor once a quarter,
as a strawberry, but so much as in you is.

This Word of God tries all doctrine ; for we ought to have our
consciences charged with nothing as touching religion, except the
Word of God, in the Canon of the Bible, set it out; I mean not only in
allegories, but even in plain words ; for no other foundation can any
man lay, besides that which is laid. St. Paul says, the groundwork
is laid already; even so saith he to the Ephesians, we be his work-
manship to do good works, which God hath created that we should
walk in them; he saith they were not to be made, but they are made
already. What shall we think then of such works as man's wit hath
formed, which yet seem most holy? Let God's word be judge. Read
the same diligently and reverently with prayer, I mean not Latin
service, not understood, but with true hearty prayer, and mark what
the law requires, even that which we cannot give, the whole heart, and
more if it were possible. But to this end, that we seeing our abomi-
nable uncleanness and inability, might despair in ourselves, trembling
at the justice of God, and his anger which we continually procure,
and so embrace* Christ, in whom God the Father is well pleased ;
which Christ, is the end of the law to justify all that believe, and
continue not in their popish ignorance, justifying themselves, and
treading Christ's blood under their feet, denying the Lord that
bought them.

All such, he they never so well learned, never so holy, are nothing
but hypocrites, and plain antichrists, which may not abide the sword
of God's mouth, for the trumpets of the army, I mean still God'sWord,
when they blow, the high walls of Jericho, the figure of hypocrisy,
fall down. Embrace, therefore, God's Holy Word, and be not only a
hearer but a doer; for your calling requires you to be apt to teach such
proud , hypocritical, arrogant babblers as I am now, which, if I may use
this term, defile God's Word, God forgive me, and pray you for me,
and give God thanks for me, that spares me thus, Lucifer like, not of

* Amplect.

a true zeal, but of a foolish bragging, which prate of God's Holy
Word, I wot not what I do to confess it, so it is. I have sent you other
books which I pray you read, I have written your name in them.
The Holy Ghost keep you, with your brother George, his wife, and
children, and with your brother James, &c., Sir Lawrance, &c.,

this 20th of March, .

A very painted Hypocrite,*

JOHN BRADFORD,
Your's in Christ for ever.

Pray for me, pray for me, give God thanks for me, and take
John Traves's help to read this letter written in haste. If any thing
but good be chanced to John Traves, which God forbid, I pray you
burn my letters out of hand.

No. 3.t

TO FATHER TRAVES.

Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father, through our Lord
Jesus Christ, with increase of all manner of godly knowledge and
living, be with you and all your household, now and ever. Amen.

To excuse this, my long silence, within five or six days after my
like foolish letters written to you by John Mosse, it pleased God to
send my master hither to London; whom as 1 lately toforehad adver-
tised by letters, I moved, you know wherein, and prayed him to
discharge the same, or else I would submit myself, &c. Whereunto
he answered, that if the books should declare it, he would satisfy, &c.
The books I shewed, whereupon he promised as much as I could ask.

But being herein something more moved than he had cause, God
be praised therefore, which of his mere good pleasure wrought it; at

* See Note(B). f Fox iii. 358.

times, as I could, I desired to know ho\v, and in what time, he would
discharge us both. He thinking me to be over curious herein, was
not therewith contented; and hearing me to allege the uncertainty
of time and the fear of God's justice, which, O gracious Lord, grant
me to feel indeed as much as thou knowest good for me, he answered
me to be scrupulous and of a superstitious conscience, for anhnalis
homo non percipit ea quse sunt Dei; and plainly said further, that
I should not know, nor by these words have his head so under
my girdle. And when I shewed him that God witnessed with me I
went about no such thing, he said that there was no godly conscience,
seeing he promised afore the face of God to discharge me and to pay
the thing, but it ought so to be quieted. And thus at divers and sun-
dry times, moving eftsoons* to know of him the way and time of dis-
charging the debt, and having none other answers than tofore, I
doubting wordly wisdom, which useth delays, to reign in him with
this mammon, the which, O merciful God, eradicate out of his heart,
mind, and all others, I was sometime more sharp and told him, non
ego tamen, sed gratia tua Domine, I would obey God more than man;
the which he lightly regarding as seemed, I departed and went to M.
Latimer, to have had him to have brought me to my Lord Protector,
whose Grace then was purposed shortly to take his journey to visit the
Ports; M. Latimer, I say, willed me to stay until his return, which will
not be long before Easter.

In this mean time I had my bedfellow, my master's son, whom
my master had used as his instrument to move me carnally ; for my
master had discharged him of his exhibition, telling him that he
could not be able to keep either home or child, for I purposed to undo
both him and all his, untruly thou knowest, good Lord ; and bade
him to take that as a warning, that both he and his brethren should
provide for themselves as they could. I bade, I say, my said bed-
fellow to shew my master, as of himself, my further purpose, which
thing when he knew, so moved and feared him, that he began
something to relent, and then made fair promises; that look what I
should devise, that would he do. 1 devised, but my devices pleased him
not.

* Often.

And thus, but not vainly 1 trust, as I now do with you, but I
know your gentleness, which ever hath borne with me, I spent the
time in which 1 have been silent to write, nay babble to you, and he
departing 1 out of London before I knew, did send me word by another
of his said sons, not so given to the gospel and a good life as my bed-
fellow, and therefore more to be suspected, for though pietas non est
suspidosa, as I should think myself rather impius, yet Christ bade us
to be prudentes sicut serpentes, this other brother, I say, told me that
my master would do all things, only his fame and ability preserved,
et quid prodest totum munduin lucrari, animee vero jacturam facere?

And with the said brother my master sent me a little billet also,
wherein he confessed that he was contented within twelve months to
deliver to my hands the whole money, which bill I thinking not so good
as it might have been, have devised another, and have sent it down to
him in the country, with request that he will seal and sign it, for thus
Mr. Latimer thinketh sufficient, but as yet I hear not of it; doubting
worldly wisdom, which was the whore that overcame Sampson, that
moved David to slay Urias, that brought wise Solomon to idolatry,
that crucified Christ, the which moved me to perpertate hoc facinus,
the which worketh in my master's heart, having higher place there
than timor Domini.

What say I, there, yea, yea, with me it sitteth in the holy place,
the Lord deliver us, doubting, I say, worldly wisdom, I remain in that
same state now for this matter, though in worse for my soul, which is
more to be lamented ; pray therefore, I beseech you, pray with me and
for me, that I may do so earnestly, than I was in at my last writing
unto you. And as I then was purposed, so I doubt not, grant it Lord,
but that I shall persevere, if in the mean season I shall not hear from
my master accordingly.

Thus 1 have, like myself, foolishly but truly, declared unto you
in many babbling words, which wit, if I had it, would have shortly
and briefly comprehended; arrogant, nay God's working unthankful
wretch, my working in this matter, which is and was the only cause,
as I now do, I troubled you not afore, to the intent I might advertise
you some certainty in this thing. And though silence had been much
better than this foolish prating, yet your fatherly kindness ever towards
me, in expecting from you a correction, as I have herein given cause,

may, though not to yon, yet to me be profitable. In hope whereof I
proceed in requiring you to continue your remembrance of me, a most
unkind wretch to God and you, in your prayers with the Almighty
Merciful Lord, that I may more regard his will and pleasure herein,
than all honour or shame in this life.

But I must confess unto you that my \vorkingin this matter is not
of love, as I should do, nor of fear of God's justice; mine unthank-
fulness, mine unthankfulness, if nothing else were, hath not only
deserved it, but doth deserve more than everlasting damnation ; O Lord
be merciful to me, I do not so repent it as I should do. Why say I
so? as though this so were any thing? Oh hypocritical wretch that
I am. Alas, Father Traves, let me so call upon you, I am hardhearted,
there was never any so obstinate, so unkind, against so loving, so
merciful, so gracious, so good, so bountiful a Lord, yea a Father, as
I wretch and most miserable sinner am. This I speak; but not of
humility, but of hypocrisy, yet I speak truly. I pray thee, good father,
for Christ's sake, 1 may think it truly, as 1 write it even of arrogaucy,
so it is. Therefore pray and cry for me.

Here be such goodly, godly, and learned sermons, which these
uncircumcised ears of mine hear at the least three a week, which were
able, the great loving mercy of God offered to me in them, I mean, to
burst any man's heart, to relent, to repent, to believe, to love, and to
fear that omnipotent gracious Lord. But my adamantine, obstinate,
most unkind, ingrate, unthankful heart, hearing my Lord, which is
the Lord over all Lords, so graciously, so lovingly, vouchsafe by so
many of his instruments to speak, to call, to cry unto me, now by his
law, now by his threats, now by his Gospel, now by his promises, now
by all his creatures, to come, to come even to himself.

I hide me with Adam in the garden, I play not only Samuel
running to Eli, but I play Jonas running to the sea, and there I sleep
upon the hatches, tumbling in Jezebel's bed, quod est afm'ctio max-
ima, until it please God to anoint mine eyes collyrio, until it please
him to raise up a tempest, to turn and look upon me as Luke saith
he did on Peter. For,O Lord, it is thy gift, and cometh of thee and
of thy mere grace, it cometh not of man, it cometh not of works,
to repent, to believe, to fear, and to love. Work thou therefore in me,
for Jesus Christ's sake, which am thy creature and most unthankful

hypocritical servant, not when I will, nor as I will, but when thou wilt,
even that which may be most to the glory of thy name. Amen.

What should I write ? Nay, why do 1 not pluck these same words
and paper in pieces, for I write altogether of hypocrisy and arrogant pre-
sumption, I will confess it, thou wicked spirit, the Lord judge thee, I
will confess it, it is most true, John Traves, I but only write it, for it is
not 1, it is hypocrisy. Scientia, if 1 had it, inflaret. Oh Lord grant
me thy grace, and leave me not to my own judgment and reason. Hy-
pocrisy, arrogancy, and obstinate security environ me, yet I feel them
not, the Lord deliver me Pray for me, give God thanks for me.
O Lord, even tua fiat voluntas : unlock this mine heart, thou which
hast the key of David, which openest only, that 1 may desire to have
the desire of the glory of thy name, of repentance, faith, &c.
Pray for me, and be thankful for me, O Father Traves, and write to
me. Your letters I desire more to see, than any man's living.
Let me have them, therefore, as you may, but your prayer at all times,
that God would open my heart to feed and taste of these comfortable
places of scripture, which to me are locked, memento Jesum Christum
resurrexisse ex mortuis. This text as a text of most comfort, as it is
indeed, and when God will, I shall feed on it, did Paul send to
Timothy to be his comfort in all places. For our salvation, this day
of resurrection, is nearer now than when we believed. Wherefore, qui
perseveraverit salvus erit. For consummabitur preevaricatior, saith
Daniel ; finem accipiet peccatum, delebitur iniquitas, et adducetur
justitia sempiterna. Deus ipse veniet et salvabit nos. Veniens,
veniet, et non tardabit, et quandocumque manifestatus fuerit vita
nostra Christus, tune et nos manifestabimur cum illo in gloria. Semel
enim oblatus est utmultorum peccatatolleret,rursus absque peccato con-
spicietur iis qui ilium expectant in salutem. Sic semper cum Domino
erimus ; proinde consolemini vos invicem mutuo sermonibus hiis.

O Lord open mine eyes which see nothing of the great comforts in
these thy most rich words ; open mine eyes, good Lord, ne nunquam
obdormiam in morte. Pray for me, and commend me to your good
bedfellow, et omnibus in Christo fratribus osculo sancto.

Thus I make an end, for it is time you may say, and I pray you
still water Sir Thomas Hall, unto whom I have sent a fair Testament,
both in English and Latin, if thisbringer shall carry it. And I have

herewith sent you a letter, which first peruse and read, and when you
have so done, abhor not me, but nay wickedness, and pray for me.
And, as you can see a meet time, seal it and deliver it to Sir Nicholas
Wolstoncros, by such policy asyou can think, by God's grace, through
prayer.

I confess unto you, God is my witness, to my knowledge, I never
in my being in the country this winter at any time called it
to remembrance, the Lord forgive me. I would by some occasion,
if any could be had afore the delivery* of the Letter, by some story or
communication, that he did know that abomination to be sin, for I tear
he thinketh it to be no sin. The Lord open our eyes, and forgive
us. Amen. The peace of God be with you. Amen. From the
Temple, this 22d of March, 1547.

Yours in Christ most bounden,

JOHN BRADFORD.

I have sent you three pair of good spectacles 1 trow, and other such
books as have your name written in them, which take in good worth,
and pray for me, and give thanks for me.

No. 4.t

TO FATHER TRAVES.

Gratia, Misericordia, et Pax, &c.

My chance is not by this bringer to have any warning in manner of
his farewell, so that I am constrained, timecoarcting me, to write not
so much of things which I will ornit, as my desire was. Concerning the
great matter you know of, it hath pleased God to bring it to this end,
that I have a bill of my master's hand, wherein he is bound to pay
the sum afore Candlemas next coming. This thinks Master Latimer

* Delivcris. j Fox iii. 359.

to be sufficient; therefore 1 pray you to give that gracious Lord thanks,
and thanks, and thanks upon it, for me a most wretched ingrate sinner,
which have also in other things no less cause to praise God's name.
As for that I have, and sustain my master's sore displeasure, the
which hath brought me, God I should say, through it, unto a more
contempt of worldly things, through the sequestration of such his
business, as tofore I had ado withal, I call it a contempt, well, take
the word even as it is hypocritically and vaingloriously spoken ; for
the which fault, amongst many others innumerable, I trust you re-
member in your prayers, whereof 1 have made, I would 1 knew how
much, need,

There is yet another thing whereof I will advertise you, even to
this end, that you might pray, if it be God's will, that as I trust shortly
to begin, so he may vouchsafe shortly to confirm that he hath begun;
as, if I be not deceived, I believe it is his working. If the thing seem
by God's spirit in you that I presume, then for the Lord's sake adver-
tise me; for I am much given to that disease, the Lord deliver me. I
have moved my master therein already by letters, to see if I shall have
any living of him as hitherto I have had; but 1 have thereof no
answer, nor, as our natural speech is, any likelihood of any grant.
Yet that I have already, I trust will suffice me for three years; you
look what my purpose meaneth, I am so long afore I come to it.
Therefore I do it, because my long babbling should be less tedious.
Now shall you have it. If God's will be, whereunto pray I may be
obedient, I am minded afore Midsummer to leave London and go to
my books at Cambridge, and, if God shall give me grace, to be a
minister of his Word. Thus you have of a fly an elephant. Well,
take it in good part, though you see my etiam non, and not etiam,
etiam.

A tumbling block gathereth no moss; so therefore pray for me.
Perchance I do foolishly to forsake so good a living as I have. I will
say no more hereof, but pray for me. I trust, as I said, for three years'
study I have sufficient, if my master take all from me ; and when this
is spent God will send more. I do not write this that you should think
me to be in need of worldly help, and therefore, as friars were wont,
secretly to beg. No, in the Lord's name I require you not to take it
so; for I had rather never send a letter, afore I should be herein a

cross to you, for sufF.cit siur diei afflictio, we are more set by than
many sparrows.

But if my mother or Sir Thomas Hall murmur at it, or be offended
with me, as you can, remedy it with your counsel. Howbeit, as yet I
will not write to them of it, until such time as I be going. I am
something fickle-minded and inconstant, therefore pray for me, that
my hand being put to the plough, presumptuously spoken, I look not
back. You may gather by my words in this letter the heroical heart
which lieth in me.

ITiave sent you a book of Bucer against Winchester,* in English,
lately translated, which 1 never read, therefore I cannot praise it.
And, as I call to remembrance, I did send you with the other books
moref than you received, at the least one of them I remember which
is called, " The Common Places, or the Declaration of the Faith, by
Urbanus Rhegius," ask for it, or send me word in whom the default
is, you have it not. Hereafter, and that shortly, by God's grace, 1
will send you "Primitiae Laborum meorum," a work or two which I
have translated into English, so soon as they be printed, which will
be afore Whitsuntide.

Pray for me good Father Traves, and God send you health of soul
and body, as I would mine own or any man's living. But yet to warn
you of that you know not, in writing your letters to me, you hit me
home, and give me that I look for. You are deceived, and so is all
that know me; I never came to any point of mortification, therefore a
little tickling sets me afloat, God help me, and give God thanks for
me, as all men be most bounden. Thus when I once begin to write
to you, I run as the priest saith mattins, for I think I may be bold on
you. The Holy Ghost preserve you, your wife, and family, and per-
severe his grace in you unto the end. I pray you pray for me, a most,
what should I call me, miserable and blasphemous sinner. The Peace
of God be with us. From the Temple, this 12th of May, 1548.

Sir Thomas Hall hath deceived me, but himself most. I. desire to
speak with him, as this winter it may chance, if I discharge not my-
self of mine office, to see him. Pray .for him and for me.

A very hypocrite,

JOHN BRADFORD.

* Dr. Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of thit See. t Moe.

No. 5.*

TO FATHER TRAVES.

The perseverance of God's grace, with the knowledge of his good-
will, increase with you unto the end. To declare myself, as I am a
carnal man, which understandeth not the things that be of the spirit.
These my letters, though I counterfeit and meddle amongst them
the spiritual words, as the devil did in his temptations to Christ, will
declare no less. For I begin with carnal things in effect, and no
marvel if I so end ; for how can a man gather figs of briers ? These
words as they seem, so they are spoken for a cloak to make you think
otherwise; but Father Traves you cannot think so evil of me as
I am ; but to the matter.

This present day by God's grace I take my journey towards
Cambridge, where I pray God, and so earnestly I pray you to pray
for me, that I may circumspectly redeem this time which God hath
appointed to me unknown, to lend me; for alas, I have spent most
wickedly the time past, for the which I must account even for every
hair breadth as they say; for God hath not given here time to sin.

But if I considered this, as I do nothing less, custom of sin and
pleasing myself hath so hardened my heart, I should then come to
the feeling of myself, then should I hate sin which I now love, then
should I fear God's wrath, which I now contemn, then should I cry
out and weep, and continually pray, whereas now I am dry as a
stone, as dumb as a nail, as far from praying, as he that never knew
any taste of it. Which thing once I felt, thanks to the Lord,
but now for mine unthankfulness I am almost, but most worthily,
despised.

I fear me God will take his grace from me, I am so unthankful.
Alas, why do I lie in saying I fear me? Nay, God grant I may do
so, for then should 1 pray and pray ; but seeing I cannot, speak yon
for me, pray you for me, that the Lord would remember his old
compassions towards me, for his mercies' sake draw me, yea compel
me to serve, to fear, and to love him. Thus may you see how I

* Fox, iii. 360.

presume ; for my intent was to have been a minister of God's word,
to have been his instrument to have called from as I have called to
sin, but you see how that God punisheth my arrogancy.

Alas, what shall I do? I am an unprofitable and an idle member,
1 thought I should have been therein profitable, but Medice cura
teipsum. How should I, or what should I do? I cannot labour
with my hands. Well, I trust God will give me grace and know-
ledge to translate ; nothing I fear me, yea, I distrust me, that I shall
never be minister of God's word ; yea, if arrogancy were not in me,
how should I, of all wretches the greatest, think me to look to the
highest room and vocation that is upon earth. * Therefore eftsoones
I desire you to pray for me, that God's will may be done in me whether
I live or die, so that his name be honoured.

My master which was, hath denied me all his beneficence, but
I have for this life more than enough, thanks be to God ; as this
winter I intend by God's favour to declare more unto you. This
book which I have sent, take it in good part, it is the first, I trust
it shall not be the last, God hath appointed me to translate. The
print is very false, I am sorry for it. I pray you be not offended at
my babbling in the prologues, &c.

JOHN BRADFORD.

I will lye, God willing, this summer, at Katherine's Hall in
Cambridge ; write to me.

No. 6.t

TO FATHER TRAVES.

The loving kindness and abundant mercy of God the Father,
poured plentifully upon all the faithful, in the blood of that meek

* Rom. xi. 13. 2 Cor. v. 20. f Fox, iii. 361.

Lamb, Jesus Christ, our only satisfaction and mediator, through the
working 1 of the most holy Spirit, be increased and perceived in you
daily more and more, to the glory of God, &c.

Because I stand both in doubt of the reading and delivery of
such letters as 1 write and send unto you, dearly beloved Father
Traves, I am constrained to leave off such griefs, and spiritual wants,
as thanks unto the Lord I unwillingly feel ; for the flesh, as you
know, loveth nothing so much as security, of all enemies most
perilous, and not a little familiar with nie ; from the which, with vain
glory, hypocrisy, &c. and worldliness, the Lord deliver me.

I had not thought to have written thus much, but these I cannot
keep, but commit them to your prayers. And to the intent I would
you should not think any ingratitude in m , as also that I might give
you occasion to write to me again, as heretofore I have done, even
so do 1 interturb and trouble you with my babbling, but yet having
this commodity, that 1 babble not so much as I wont to do. The
cause I have declared, which had almost been the cause I had not
written at all. I did write unto you from London when 1 came
hither; send me word what letters you have received, for from you
I have received but two, and both by John Moss, and in the latter
I perceived that the Lord had visited you with sickness, his fatherly
rod, whereby he declareth his love upon you, and that he careth for
you, ut in tempore supremo exultes nunc ad breve tempus afflictus,
quod exploratio fidei multo pretiosior auro quod perit, et tamen
probatur, &c. Siquidem in hoc vocatus es, ut cum Christo patiaris, nam
et cum illo glorificaberis. Certus enirn sermo est, si sufterimus et
conregnabirnus. You know that Christ, etsi filius Dei erat, tamen
ex his quae passus est didicit obedientiam. Patientia opus perfectum
habeat ut sitis perfect! et integri, nullaque in parte diminuti ; and
doth not patientia come of probatio, the one then you had, so that
you were going a school to learn the other ; which learned, what
want you ?

The end of all God's proving, is as Paul saith, ut impertiat nobis
sanctimoniam ; igitur gratias age Deo Patri qui idoneum te fecit ad
participationem sortis sanctorum in lumine, &c. Nam qui parumper
afflixit, idem instauret te, fulciat, roboret, stabiliat. And that the
Lord knoweth how eripere pios e tribulatione, and that in tempore

opportune, even shortly; forhaud tardat qui promisit; nam modicum
tempus, et videbis me ; veniens enim veniet, et non tardabit. Itaque
qui consortes estis Crucis Christi, gaudete, saith Peter, ut in reve-
latione quoque glorise ejus gaudeatis exultantes.

Oh ho\v doth my will overrun my wit. Why Bradford, whom
writest you unto? Thou shewest thyself. Thus Father Traves,
you may see my rashness to rabble out the scripture without
purpose, time, or reason. I will not blot it out as I thought to have
done; for that hereby you shall see my need of your prayer.

Well, I look for a watch word from you, write for God's sake,
and pray for me that I may be in something profitable to the Lord's
congregation, that I may be no stumbling block, ut confundantur in
me qui ilium expectant. Send me such counsel as the Lord's spirit
shall move you how to study, my desire is in something to be profit-
able, if it were the Lord's will, for to be minister verbi, alas I am
unmeet, and my time, my time, yea the Lord's time, I have hitherto
evil, yea most wickedly mispent it, &c. Thus will I end ; the Lord
be with you, and your bedfellow, to whom have me heartily com-
mended, and to all your children and family, the which I beseech
the Lord to lighten his countenance over, and grant you his peace;
pray for me. I long for winter to speak with you. Rescribe oro.
Pray for me. This Assumption Day in Katherine's Hall in
Cambridge.

Your's with all I have and can,

JOHN BRADFORD.

THE supreme disposer of all events had
however a far more important work for this
distinguished servant of Christ to perform,
than the intricate mazes and the benumbing
practice of human jurisprudence. Although
the preceding letters intimate an intention of
removing to Cambridge, we are not informed

what particular circumstances induced him
to quit the study of the law. It is highly
probable that his associations with the vener-
able Latimer, to which these letters allude,
had a considerable share in leading Bradford
to that determination, which was so soon to
place on his head the crown of Martyrdom.

Accordingly we find him a student at
Catherine Hall, Cambridge, in the year 1548,
and within a year after that event he had
made such proficiency in his studies, that
the University conferred upon him the degree
of Master of Arts, a circumstance to which
he alludes in the following letter :
No. 7.*

TO FATHER TRAVES.

The plentiful grace of God the Father, through our only Master
and Lord Jesus Christ, increase in us daily to the glory of his name.
Amen.

Forasmuch as I have often written to you, good Father Traves,
and yet have not once heard from you since Pentecost, I cannot now
be so bold either in writing much or often as 1 would have been :
hovvbeit this I say, that I much marvel that I hear not from you :
but not so, for I am so wretched a sinner, that the Lord's Spirit 1 am
certain doth not move you to write to me, yet for God's sake pray
for me, and in the Lord's name I desire you to give thanks to God
for me. And when it may please God to move you, write to me,
though it be but two words, and counsel me how to study the word
of life, the ministry whereof I desire, if it be the Lord's pleasure,

* Fox, iii. 361.

to profess, and that I may do it both in living- and learning, pray
for me.

Herus metis omnibus rebus suis me abdicavit, et quae prius
concesserat, jam solvere renuit, et mihi prorsus factus est inimicus.
I know not when I shall see you in body, therefore let me hear from
you. I write not this that you should think me in egestate aut
angustiis esse. No, Father, the Lord giveth meomnia aftatim, and
will do. I trust I shall shortly here have a fellowship, I am so
promised, and therefore 1 have taken the degree of Master of Art,
which else I could not have attained. If I get a fellowship, 1 shall
not need de crastino sollicitus esse, as hereafter I shall more write to
you by God's grace. 1 pray you write again, and often pray for me.
In haste as appeareth, the 22d of October. Ne sciat mater mea quod
herus meus adeo duriter mecum egit, &c.

Miserrimus Peccator,

J. BRADFORD.

Very soon afterwards he was spontaneous-
ly elected a Fellow of Pembroke College, on
the invitation of his friend, Bishop Ridley,*
from whence we have the two following
letters :

No. at

TO FATHER TRAVES.

The peace and plenteous mercy of God our heavenly Father, in
his Christ our only Lord and Saviour, be ever increased in you by the
holy spirit, qui efficit omnia in omnibus, Amen.

* This Prelate was then Bishop of Gloucester, and also Master of
Pembroke College. Biog. Brit. ii. 542.
t Fox, iii. 361.

Father Traves, though I might think myself more happy, if you
would often write unto me, yet because I ought to have respect to
your pains, which now that old man cannot so well sustain as it
might, I had rather lose my happiness in that behalf, than will your
grief; for as much as it can be no happiness unto me which turneth
to your pain : yet because pain is not painful when it is joined with
gain, 1 therefore desire you for God's sake to pray often for me : for
if I shall not be worthy of your prayer, as the Lord who knoweth all
things doth right well see it, and so rny conscience witnesseth, yet
your good prayer shall retuin into your own bosom.

And know this, that whoso converteth a sinner, whether it be
by prayer, preaching, or writing letters, &c. the same hath saved
a soul. Use therefore, for God's sake I ask it, that pains where-
unto is joined profit, I mean prayer to God for me, a miserable
and most wretched sinner: and as for the gainless pain in writing
to me, use it yet as you may, and surely God for whose sake you do
it, in that he will reward a cup of cold water, will in something
requite you.

And I know certainly, that if you did see what spiritual profit
I receive by your letters, I am certain you would not think all your
labour lost. For Christ's sake therefore begin again to write unto
me, and reprove me sharply for my horrible unthankfulness to God.
You know how that God hath exonerated my laden* conscience of
the great weighty burthen, for so I did wrile to you, yea the Lord
hath in a manner unburdened me of the lesser burthen also: for
I have an assurance of the payment of the same by Candlemas.
Lo! thus you see what a good God the Lord is unto me. O Father
Traves, give thanks for me, and pray God to forgive me my un-
thankfulness. But what should I rehearse the benefits of God
towards me ? Alas, I cannot, I am too little for all his mercies, yea, I
am not only unthankful, but I am too far contumelious against God.
For where you know the sun, the moon, and the seven stars did
forsake me, and would not shine upon me, you know what 1 mean
per herum et heriles amicos, yet the Lord hath given me here in
the University as good a living as I would have wished. For I am
now a Fellow of Pembroke Hall: for the which neither I nor any

* Loden.

other forme did ever make any suit:* yea, there was a contention
between the master of Catherine Hall, and the Bishop of Rochester,
who is master of Pembroke Hall, whether should have me, sit hoc
tibi dictum.

Thus you may see the Lord's carefulness for me. My fellowship
here is worth seven pounds a year; for I have allowed me eighteen-
pence a week, and as good as thirty-three shillings and fourpence,
and fourpence a year in money, besides my chamber, launder, barber,
&c. and I am bound to nothing but once or twice a year to keep a
problem. Thus you see what a good Lord God is unto me. But I
pray you what do I now to God for all this? I will not speak of the
great mercies he shevveth upon my soul. Surely, Father Traves, I
have clean forgotten God, I am all secure, idle, proud, hard-hearted,
utterly void of brotherly love; I am envious, and disdain others; I
am a very stark hypocrite, not only in my words and works, but
even in my letters to you. I am all sensual without the true fear of
God, another manner of man than I have been since my call.
Alas, Father Traves, I write this to put myself in remembrance, but
1 am without all sense, I do but only write it. For God's sake pray
for me, which am only in name a Christian, in very deed a very world-
ling, and to say to you the very truth, the most worldling of all
other. 1 pray you exhort my mother now and then, with my sister
Margaret, to fear the Lord ; and if my mother had not sold the fox
fur which was in my father's Gown, I would she would send it me.
She must have your counsel in a piece of cloth.

Your's for ever,

JOHN BRADFORD.

No. 9t.

TO FATHER TRAVERS, MINISTER OF
BLACKLEY.

The abundant grace and rich mercy of God in Christ, our only
Saviour and High Bishop, be increased in your heart through the

* Sute. t Fox, Hi. 355.

lively worker of all goodness, the Holy Spirit, until the Day of the
Lord, &c.

I have received your two letters (good Father Travers) since I
did write unto you, whereof though honesty willeth make an excuse,
yet troth biddeth me otherwise, and saith, it is better with shame to
confess the fault, (for therein is, as a man might say, half a deserving
of pardon), than without shame to lie. I might have written unto
you twice, notwithstanding indeed some business wherein I have
something been occupied, but yet 1 have not. Now the case is,
because I would not. And why would I not ? but because 1 could
not, I mean, because my careing is taken away by sin, for my sins do
forbid goodness unto me. Indeed if my sinning were of infirmity,
there were good hope of mercy of that which I have lost: but seeing,
both willing and knowing I have too much yielded, and yet do
yield to my infirmities, justly I do deserve, that because I have cast
away, and rejected the word of the Lord behind my back, the Lord
should reject me. And because I would not have blessing, 1 am
worthy, as David saith, that it be taken away from me.

I have now at length experience, that to bring a man forth of
God's favour, is sooner seen when a man hath received all things
abundantly, than when need or the cross pincheth. Afore it pleased
God to work the restitution, you know what I mean, and afore it
pleased God to provide for me as he hath done, so that I can say in
nothing where any want is, as pertaining to my body : I was another
manner of man, than now I am, and yet God's deserts have otherwise
bounden me: but the scripture is true, I have advanced my children,
and nourished them, but they have contemned me, I have fed them
that they were fat and gross, and they spurned against me. Per-
chance you will ask me wherein ? Oh, Father Travers, I warrant
you, this is my stile, in carnal and not in spiritual writing, doth
something shew unto you; but as for it, in comparison of other things
is nothing. For where the life of man is such, that either it paineth
or amendeth, as Paul saith, the outward man is corrupted day by day,
and therefore except the inward man be renewed, the shoe goeth
awry, every building in Christ doth grow to a holy temple, as the
wicked on the contrary part shall proceed to worser.

1 have made a change far otherwise in going back, than I think

by letters I can persuade you: Wherein will you say? For the
first, second, and third, and to be brief, in all thing's. As for an
example, God's true fear is flown away from me, love to my brethren
is exiled from me, faith is utterly taken away. Instead whereof is
distrust and doubtfulness bearing rule, contempt of God's honour,
and of my brethren reigning; and instead of true fear, an imagined
fear, according to my brain holding the principality. For I ex-
tenuate sin, and I do not consider that is sin, which a Christian
ought to consider; that sin being not forgiven, is such a thing for the
which God casteth his creature away, as examples not only of Saul,
of Judas, of the Israelites, (which were beloved indeed, and yet for
sin are rejected), but also of others, on whom lately for my warning
God hath shewed the same, do admonish me.

But it is but my pen which writes this: for the wicked, saith
Solomon, when they come into the depth of their sins, then they
grow in security. I am I cannot tell what: I fear, but it is but
blindly, or else would I awake otherwise than I do, I fear me I say
that I am entangled of the devil, after his desire. Pray for me that
the Lord would give me repentance, that I may escape out of his
snares. Alas, the spirit of prayer, which before I have felt plenti-
fully, is taken clean away from me. The Lord be merciful unto me.
I am sold under sin, I am the bond slave of sin ; for whom I obey,
his servant I am. I am ashamed to speak oft, no I shame not at all ;
for I have forgot to blush, I have given over to weep. And truly
I obey, I obey 1 say my own concupiscences, namely in eating, in
drinking, in jangling and idleness, I will not speak of vain glory,
envy, disdain, hypocrisy, desire of estimation, self love, and who can
tell all?

Is this the reward thou renderest to God, O Bradford? It is
true, yea too true, thou knowest it, O Lord, for thy mercy's sake
pardon me. In your letters you touch me home, how that there is
no man's heart, but that considering the ingratitude of this world,
this belly-chear, wherein you even take me by the nose, &c. his eyes
would tumble out great gushes of tears. The Lord be praised which
worketh so in you, for it is with me as with them of whom you com-
plain. Indeed it may be so again, but oh it is very unlikely; for
mine enemies are become old, and are made by custom more than

familiar, for they are as it were converted into nature in me. Yet
I am not g'rieved therefore, although I cannot persuade myself that
God will help me. O Lord be merciful unto me for thy Christ's
sake. This day I received the Lord's Supper, but how 1 have
welcomed him, this night, which I have spent in lasciviousness, in
wantonness, and in prodigality, obeying my flesh and belly, doth so
declare, that what to say, or write any more, I know not ; sleep doth
aggravate mine eyes, and to pray 1 am altogether unapt. All this is
come through the occasion of making this bringer a supper in my
chamber; the Lord pardon me, I trust no more to be so far overseen.
But this I write, not that the anger of God, which I have deserved,
so feareth me, thou knowest it O Lord ; but of this perchance too
much.

For God's sake pray for me, good Father Travers, and write unto
me as you may by your weakness, your letters do me good. By this
which I have now written you may consider more, touch me therefore
home in your letters, and the Lord, I trust, shall and will reward
you. Jf God lend me life, of which I am most unworthy, I will more
trouble you with my letters, than I have done, but bear with me,
I do it not out of any evil will, the Lord 1 take to judge, there is
none whose company and talk I more desire than your's, 1 speak it
before God.

Prove my mother's mind how she can bear it, if when I shall
come down I shall shew myself another man outwardly, but alas
feignedly, than before 1 have done. Marry when my coming will be
I know not. Indeed two things move me sore, the one for my
mother's cause, concerning her better instruction, if the Lord would
thereto use me his instrument ; the other is to talk with you, and
eftsoons to trouble you, as I have hitherto ever done, but always to
my profit. For God's sake pray for me, for I had never so much
need. This Sunday at night, following St. Andrew's Day, at Pem-
broke Hall.

The most miserable, hard hearted, unthankful sinner,

JOHN BRADFORD.

The learned Martin Bucer, who had been
invited by Archbishop Cranmer to come to
England, was then professor of divinity at
Cambridge; and became so exceedingly
partial to Bradford, and so highly es-
teemed his piety, that he urged him to
employ his talents in preaching. To all such
solicitations, though often repeated, Bradford
modestly replied that he was unable to un-
dertake that office, through want of learning;
but Bucer endeavoured to remove that objec-
tion by telling him, that if he ,had not fine
manchet bread to bestow, he should at least
give the poor people barley bread, or whatever
else the Lord had committed to him. (<*/

Dr. Ridley had formed so high an opinion
of Bradford, that very soon after that prelate
was translated to the See of London, he sent for
him to come and take deacon's orders. Upon
that occasion, Bradford considered that some
of the ceremonies then practised in ordination
were abuses, and refused to submit to them ;
but Ridley perceiving that Bradford was
inclined to enter into the ministry, and well
aware of his intrinsic worth; was of too
expanded and comprehensive a mind to insist
upon his compliance with such non-essentials ;

and therefore not only ordained* him without
insisting upon the objectionable practice ;f
but obtained for him a license to preach ; and
gave him a prebend's stall in his own cathe-
dral church of St. Paul. And so great was the
confidence of this judicious prelate in our
martyr, that he made him his own domestic
chaplain.J

Our reformer performed his duty of a
preacher in an exemplary manner for the
space of three years, teaching faithfully and
labouring diligently, in many parts of
England, but probably more generally at
St. Paul's. He exposed and reproved sin
with severity ; preached Christ crucified
sweetly ; forcibly attacked the prevailing
errors and heresies, and earnestly exhorted
his hearers to holiness of life. /A/

The following letters also must necessarily
have been written before Bradford went into
confinement :

* See App. Note (C.) t See App. Note (D.) J See App. Note (E.)

" He was at Catherine first, and afterwards elected of Pembroke,
and he was an earnest preacher there, exciting his auditors to walk
worthy of the gospel, and threatening them with terrible judgments, if
they rejected the means they then-enjoyed." Strype Eccl. Mem. vol.
Hi. pt. 1. 365. See App. Note (F )

No. 10.*

TO M. TRAVES,

Begging his Prayers, and lamenting his own sinful Condition.

GRACE and mercy from God the Father through our Lord Christ,
govern our minds, ne dominetur in nobis peccatum. Amen.

Yesterday a little before supper, I was desired by a neighbour,
my mother's friend, ayenst this day to dinner: unto whom, for that
a refusal would have been imputed disdainful stateliness, I unwil-
lingly, (God to witness) but not unadvisedly yet foolishly, granted
to the same : which I advertise you, as mine excuse of not coming
this day. And for mine absence yesterday, my vain liking for you
to have come with your nearest neighbour, (the rather for that I hear
him commit to you the survey of his will), hath with some repentance
deceived me, though to my hurt and loss, yet to your profit, which
else, by my coming and troubling jou, should have been contrary.
If you come not to morrow hither, send me word by this bringer and
if there be no sermon, I will come to you, to have your counsel ; in
such things as by letters I will not now write.

In the mean season, in your communication with God, 1 pray
you have me, of all sinners, a most negligent, unthankful, and
wretched, (Oh ! that from the bottom of my heart I confessed the
same unfeignedly,) in remembrance : that at length I might truly
convert, and return from these greasy flesh-pots of Egypt, to feed with
his manna, patiently and assuredly expecting his mercy, joyfully
sighing for, and bearing the badge of his disciples and servants, the
cross: I mean to crucify this luciferous and gluttonous heart, more
than most, worthy of the rich Epulo, his unquenchable thirst, and
gnawing worms of Herod. This paper, pen, and ink, yea, the marble
stone, weepeth, to see my slothful security, and unthankful hardness,

* Strype Eccl. Mem. vol. iii. pt. 2. 283.

to so merciful and long-suffering a Lord. I confess it, 1 confess it,
though not tremblingly, humbly or penitently, yet I confess it, Oh!
hypocritically I confess it.

Therefore pray, pray for me, ut resipiscam, et ut Deum convertar,
non contemnens iram ejus, et mortem filii sui Jesu Christi, sed ut spiritu
incedam,et spiritu vivam: evermore to bewail my carnal security,
and this philautiam : that 1 may be made a new creature through
grace, made meet to receive the new wine of the gospel into a new
vessel, purified by faith, wrought by the spirit of consolation. Which
may vouchsafe to lead us in all truth and godly living ; ut in ipso
cognoscamus Deum patrem, solum verum Deum, et quern misit Jesum
Chri-^um. To which most blessed Trinity be all honour and glory
for ever. Amen. From Manchester in haste, this Thursday in the
morning'.

Yours as his own,

JOHN BRADFORD.
To my very loving friend John Traves,
in Blakely.

No. 1L*

To some Person of Quality unknown ; excusing his not coming ;
being desired; and debasing himself.-^

GRACE and virtue from God the Father, through our Lord Jesus
Christ, govern our minds, that sin have not the upper hand of virtue
in our souls. Amen.

Whereas your mastership hath desired me to have been with you
this present day, which was never in your company, I being also a
refuse, an abject, a hireling of this naughty and wretched world ;

* Idem p. 284.

t There is little doubt but that this was addressed to the Lord Russel, to whom we shafl
afterwards find two other letters.

yea, a worse than so, one of the most wretched sinners living : these
things considered on the one side, and your humane gentleness on
the other, seeing, I say, that I have disoheyed your most gentle
request and desire, I am worthy, if ye should entreat with me accord-
ing to my deserving, not only to go without, or want all such ghostly
edifying and profit, which I might have had of your mastership, hut
also to have you from now forth ever to be heavy master to me. But
all this notwithstanding, I will comfort myself with your gentleness,
trusting ye will not take me at the worst. And thus comforting
myself with your gentle humanity, 1 humbly beseech your mastership
that ye will be content this next week, or the Easter week, or any
other time at your pleasure. And surely, if ye will appoint no time,
I will come afore I be called. I thank you for your book.

After the death of King Edward VI.
Bradford still continued diligent in preaching,
until he was unjustly deprived both of his
office and liberty by Queen Mary and her
Council; and that for an act in itself highly
praiseworthy, and which especially merited
gratitude and kindness at the hands of those
w'ho thenceforward became his inveterate and
unrelenting persecutors.

The circumstances were as follow. On
Sunday, the 13th of April, 1553, Gilbert
Bourn, who had been appointed by Bonner,
then Bishop of London, a Canon of St.
Paul's,* delivered an inflammatory discourse
at Paul's Cross in praise of Bonner, against

* He was afterwards made Bishop of Bath and Wells, in the room of
Win. Barlow, \vlio had fled on the accession of Mary.

the late monarch, and in favour of popery,
which so excited the populace that they were
ready to drag him out of the pulpit.

Neither respect for the place, the presence
of Bonner, nor regard for the civil authority
of the Lord Mayor, who remonstrated with
them, could restrain their rage ; at length a
dagger having been thrown at Bourn by one of
the mob, his brother entreated Bradford, who
stood in the pulpit behind him, to come forward
and address the people. Our martyr cheer-
fully complied with this request, and exhorted
them to submission and obedience to so good
effect, that the multitude, after hailing him
with affectionate expression, dispersed qui-
etly.

As soon as Bourn thought he might safely
venture out of the pulpit, and, notwithstand-
ing the civil authorities were at hand to
protect him, he besought Bradford not to quit
him till he was in a situation of safety; and
whilst the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs preceded
Bourn to the Grammar School House, Brad-
ford and Rogers (another martyr) kept close to
him behind, concealing him with their gowns,
and thus conducted him safe through the
mob.# In the afternoon of the same day,

* Upon that occasion some of the people warned him of his own im-
pending danger, by exclaiming, " Ah, Master Bradford, you are saving
him who will one day help to burn you."

Bradford, who had not yet been silenced,
preached at Bow Church, and shortly re-
proved the people for their tumultuous and
seditious behaviour in the morning.

Within three days afterwards, however,
he was sent for to the Tower of London to
appear before the Queen and her Council;
where he was charged with his conduct on
the preceding Sunday, as seditious ; his ac-
cusers choosing to assume, that as he could so
easily disperse the mob, he must have had some
hand in exciting it.* They also objected
against him for preaching; and finally com-
mitted him to the Tower ; during his confine-
ment in which, it would seem that he wrote
the following letters:

No. 12.t

To his Mother, a godly Matron, dwelling in Manchester, and
to his Brethren and Sisters, and other of his Friends there.

OUR dear and sweet Saviour Jesus Christ, whose prisoner at this
present (praised be his name therefore 1 am,) preserve and keep you

* See Bradford's own account of this transaction in his examination
January 31, 1555, from which it appears, that he endangered his own
life, in order to save that of Bourn.

t Fox, iii. 308. Cov. 290. The general title to the letters of Bradford, in this col-
lection is as follows : letters of Maister John Bradforde, a faythful minister and a synguler
pyller of Christes churche : by whom great travailes and diligence in preaching and
planting the syncerity of the gospel, by whose most godly and innocent lyfe, and by
whose long and payneful imprisonments for the maintenance of the truth, the kingdom
of God was not a little advanced ; who also at last most valiantly and cheerfully gave
Lis blood for the same. The 4 Day of July, in the year of our Lord, 1553.

jy good mother, with my brothers and sisters, my Father John
Travers, Thomas Sorrocalde, Lawrence and James Bradshaw, with
their wives and families, &c. now and for ever. Amen.

I am at this present in prison sure enough for starting, to confirm
that I have preached unto you: as I am ready, I thank God, with my
life and blood to seal the same, if God vouch me worthy of that
honour. For good mother and brethren, it is a most special benefit
of God to suffer for his name's sake and gospel, as now I do : I
heartily thank him for it, and am sure that with him I shall be partaker
of his glory, as Paul saith ; if we suffer with him we shall reign with
him. Therefore be not faint hearted, but rather rejoice, at the least
for my sake, which now am in the right and high way to heaven ;
for by many afflictions we must enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Now will God make known his children ; when the wind doth
not blow, then cannot a man know the wheat from the chaff: but
when the blast cometh, then flieth away the chaff, but the wheat
remaineth and is so far from being hurt, that by the wind it is more
cleansed from the chaff and known to be wheat. Gold when it is
cast into the fire, is the more precious : so are God's children by the
cross of affliction. Always God beginneth his judgment at his
house. Christ and his apostles were in most misery in the land of
Jewry, but yet the whole land smarted for it after: so now God's
children are first chastised in this world, that they should not be
damned with the world ; for surely great plagues of God hang over
this realm.

Ye all know, there was never more knowledge of God, and less
godly living and true serving of God.* It was counted a foolish
thing to serve God truly, and earnest prayer was not past upon.
Preaching was but a pastime. The communion was counted too
common. Fasting to subdue the flesh, was far out of use. Alms
was almost nothing. Malice, covetousness and uncleanness, were
common every where, with swearing, drunkenness and idleness.
God therefore now is come, as you have heard me preach, and
because he will not damnf us with the world, he beginneth to punish
us: as me for my carnal living. For as for my preaching, I am most

* Reader: Is not this still more the case in our day? t Dampne.

certain it is and was God's truth, and 1 trust to give my life for it
by God's grace, but because I lived not the gospel truly but out-
wardly, therefore doth he thus punish me ; nay, rather in punishing,
bless me. And indeed I thank him more of this prison, than of any
parlour, yea than of any pleasure that ever I had ; for in it I find God,
my most sweet good God always. The flesh is punished, first to
admonish us now heartily to live as we profess, secondly to certify the
wicked of their just damnation, if they repent not.

Perchance you are infirmed and weakened of that which I have
preached, because God doth not defend it, as you thiuk, but sufiereth
the old popish doctrine to come again and prevail ; but you must
know, good mother, that God by this doth prove and try his children
and people ; whether they will unfeignedly and simply hang on him
and his word. So did he with the Israelites, bringing them into a
desert, after their coming out of Egypt, where, I mean the wilder-
ness, was want of all things in comparison of that which they had in
Egypt.

Christ, when he came into this world, brought no worldly wealth
nor quietness with him, but rather war; the world, sailh he, shall
rejoice, but ye shall mourn and weep, but your weeping shall be
turned into joy; and therefore, happy are they that mourn and weep,
for they shall be comforted. They are marked then with God's mark
in their foreheads, and not with the beast's mark, I mean the Pope's
shaven crown, who now with his shavelings rejoice; but woe unto
them, for they shall be cast down, they shall weep and mourn. The
rich glutton had here his joy, and Lazarus sorrow, but afterwards
the time was changed. The end of carnal joy is sorrow. Now let
the whoremonger joy, with the drunkard, swearer, covetous, mali-
cious, and blind buzzard Sir John : for the mass will not bite them,
neither make them blush as preaching would. Now may they do
what they will, come devils to the church and go devils home, for no
man must find fault. And they are glad of this: now have they their
hearts' desire, as the Sodomites had when Lot was gone, but what
followed ? Forsooth when they cried, peace ! all shall be well ; then
came Go(J's vengeance, fire and brimstone from heaven, and burned
up every mother's child: even so, dear mother, will it do to our
papists.

Wherefore fear God ; stick to his word, though all the world should*
swerve from it. Die you must once, and when or how you cannot tell.
Die therefore with Christ, suffer for serving him truly and after his
word : for sure may we be, that of all deaths it is most to be desired
to die for God's sake. This is the most safe kind of dying : we
cannot doubt but that we shall go to heaven if we die for his name's
sake. And that you shall die for his name's sake, God's word will
warrant you, if you stick to that which God by me hath taught you.
You shall see that I speak as I think; for by God's grace I will drink
before you of this cup if 1 be put to it.

I doubt not but God will give me his grace, and strengthen me
thereunto: pray that he would, and that I refuse it not. I am at
a point, even when my Lord God will, to come to him. Death nor life,
prison nor pleasure, I trust in God, shall be able to separate me, from
my Lord God and his Gospel. In peace, when no persecution was,
then were you content and glad to hear me; then did you believe
me ; and will you not do so now, seeing I speak that which I trust by
God's grace if need be, to verify with my life ? Good mother I write
before God, to you, as I have preached before him.

It is God's truth I have taught ; it is that same infallible word where-
of he hath said, heaven and earth shall pass, but my word shall not pass.
The mass and such baggage as the false worshippers of God and ene-
mies of Christ's Cross, the papists I say, have brought in again to
poison the church of God withal, displeaseth God highly and is abomi-
nable in his sight. Happy may he be, which of conscience suffereth
loss of life or goods in disallowing it. Come not at it. If God be
God, follow him; if the mass be God, let them that will see it,
hear or be present at it, go to the devil with it.

What is there as God ordained ? His supper was ordained to
be received of us in the memorial of his death, for the confirmation
of our faith that his body was broken for us, and his blood shed for
pardon of our sins ; but in the mass there is no receiving, but the
priest keepeth all to himself alone. Christ saith, take, eat; no saith
the priest, gape, peep. There is a sacrificing, yea killing of Christ
again as much as they may. There is idolatry in worshipping the

* Would. *

outward sign of breau and wine; there is all in Latin, you cannot
tell what he saith. To conclude, there is nothing as God ordained;
wherefore my good mother come not at it.

Oh! will some say, it will hinder you if you refuse to come to
mass, and to do as other do. But God will further you, be you
assured, as you shall one day find; whohatli promised to them that
suffer hindrance or loss of any thing in this world, his great blessing
here, and in the world to come, life everlasting. You shall be counted
an heretic, but not of others than of heretics, whose praise is a
dispraise.

You are not able to reason against the priests; but God will, that
all they shall not be able to withstand you. Nobody will do so but
you only. Indeed no matter, for few enter into the narrow gate which
bringeth to salvation. Howbeit, you shall have with you, I doubt not,
Father Traves and others, my brothers and sisters to go with you there-
in; but if they will not, I your son in GOD, I trust, shall not leave you
an inch, but go before you ; pray that I may, and give thanks for me.
Rejoice in my suffering, for it is for your sakes to confirm the truth
I have taught.

Howsoever you do, beware this letter come not abroad but into
Father Traves his hands; for if it should be known that I have pen
and ink in the prison, then would it be worse with me.* Therefore to
yourselves keep this letter, commending me to God and his mercy in
Christ Jesus, who make me worthy for his name's sake, to give my
life for his gospel and church sake. Out of the Tower of London,
the 6th day of October, 1553.

My name I write not for causes, you know it well enough ; like
the letter never the worse. Commend me to all our good brethren
and sisters in the Lord. Howsoever you do be obedient to the higher
powers; that is in no point, either in hand or tongue, rebel; but
rather, if they command that, which with good conscience you cannot
obey, lay your head on the block, and suffer ichatsoever they shall
do or say. By patience possess your souls.

* For all this caution, jet this letter came to the Earl of Derby's knowledge. Fox, iiL
284. 309.

No. 13*.

To M. Warcuppe and his WifeJ Mrs. Wilkinson, and other of
his godly Friends, with their Families,

THE same peace our Saviour Christ left with his people, which
is not without war with the world, Almighty God work plentifully
in your hearts now and for ever. Amen.

The time I perceive is come wherein the Lord's ground will be
known, I mean it will now shortly appear, who have received God's
gospel into their hearts indeed, to the taking of good root therein,
for such will not for a little heat or sun burning, wither, but stiffly
will stand and grow on, maugre the malice of all burning showers
and tempests; and for as much as, my beloved in the Lord, I am
persuaded of you, that ye be indeed the children of God, God's good
ground, which groweth and will grow on, by God's grace, bringing
forth fruit to God's glory after your vocations, as occasion shall be
offered, burn the sun never so hot: 3: therefore I cannot but so signify
unto you, and heartily pray you and every one of you, accordingly
to go on forwards after your master Christ, not sticking at the foul
way and stormy weather which you are come into and are like so to
do; of this being most certain, that the end of your journey shall be
pleasant and joyful, in such a perpetual rest and blissfulness, as can-
not but swallow up the showers that ye now feel and are soused in,
if ye often set it before your eyes, after Paul's counsel in the latter
end of the fourth and beginning of the fifth of the second Epistle to

* Fox iii. 322. Cov. 280.

t After Mrs. Warcup became a widow, among her other good deeds, she was instru-
mental in saving the life of Bp. Jewell, who afterwards proved a great light to the
English Church. For when in the beginning of Queen Mary's reign, fleeing away from
Oxford, being on foot, he was so tired and spent, that he laid himself down upon the
ground, half dead ; Augustin Bernher,that good man, by mere chance, or rather by great
providence, met with him in that forlorn condition, and setting him upon a horse,
brought him to this lady, who refreshed and entertained him, and after conveyed him
safe to London, whither he was going, in order to his flight beyond sea. Strype, Ecc)
Mem. vol. iii. p. 1. 227.

J Whote.

the Corinthians. Read it I pray you and remember it often, as a
restorative to refresh you, least ye faint in the way.

And besides this, set before you also, that though the weather
be foul and storms grow a pace, yet ye go not alone, but other your
brothers and sisters pad the same path, as St. Peter telleth us, and
therefore company should cause you to be the more courageous and
cheerful. But if ye had no company at all to go presently with you,
I pray you tell me if even from the beginning, the best of God's
friends have found any fairer weather and way to the place whither
ye are going, I mean heaven, than ye now find and are like to do ;
except ye will with the worldlings, which have their portion in this
life, tarry still by the way till the storms be over past, and then, either
night will so approach that ye cannot travel, or the doors will be
shut* before ye come, and so you shall lodge without, in wonderful
evil lodgings, read Apocalypse xxii. Begin at Abel and come from
him to Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, the Patriarchs, Moses,
David, Daniel, and all the saints in the old Testament, and tell me
whether any of them found any fairer way than ye now find.

If the old Testament will not serve, I pray you come to the new,
and begin with Mary and Joseph, and come from them to Zacharias,
Elizabeth, John Baptist, and every one of the apostles and evange-
lists, and search whether they all found any other way into the city
we travel towards, than by many tribulations.

Besides these, if ye should call to remembrance the primitive
church, ye should see so many to have given cheerfully their
bodies to most grievous torments, rather than they would be
stopped in their journey, that there is no day in the year, but, I dare
say, a thousand was the fewest that with great joy lost their homes
here ; but in the city they went unto, have found other manner of
homes than man's mind is able to conceive. But if none of all these
were, if ye had no company now to go with you as ye have me your
poor brother and bondrnan of the Lord, with many other, I trust in
God : if ye had none other of the fathers, patriarchs, good kings,
prophets, apostles, evangelists, martyrs and other holy saints and
children of God, that in their journey to heavenward found as ye
now find and are like to find, if ye go on forward as 1 trust ye will;

-* Sparred.

yet ye have your master and your captain Jesus Christ, the dear,
darling, and only begotten and beloved Son of God, in whom was
all the Father's pleasure, joy, and delectation ; ye have him to go
before you, no fairer way but much fouler, into this our city of Jeru-
salem. I need not, I trust, to rehearse what manner of way he found.
Begin at his birth, and till ye come to his burial, ye shall find that
every foot and stride of his journey, was no better but much worse
than your's is now.

Wherefore, my dearly beloved in the Lord, be not so dainty as to
look for that at God's hands, your dear father, which the fathers,
patriarchs, prophets, apostles, evangelists, martyrs, saints, and his
own son Jesus Christ, did not find. Hitherto we have had fair
way, I trow, and fair weather also : now because we have loitered by
the way, and not made the speed we should have done, our loving
Lord and sweet father, hath overcast the weather and stirred up
storms and tempests, that we might with more haste run out our race
before night come, and the doors be shut. The devil standeth now
at every inn door in his city and country of this world, crying unto
us to tarry and lodge in this or that place, till the storms be overpast :
not that he would not have us wet to the skin, but that the time
might overpass us to our utter destruction. Therefore beware of his
enticements ; cast not your eyes on things that be present, how this
man doth and how that man doth; but cast your eyes on the gleve
ye run at, or else ye will lose the game. Ye know that he which
runneth at the gleve, doth not look on other that stand by and go
this way or that way, but altogether he looketh on the gleve, and
on them that run with him, that those which be behind overtake
him not, and that he may overtake them which be before: even so
should we do, leave off looking on those which will not run the race
to heaven's bliss, by the path of persecution with us; and cast our eyes
on the end of our race and on them that go before us, that we may
overtake them, and on them which come after us, that we may pro-
voke them to come the faster after.

He that shooteth will not cast his eyes in his shooting, on them
that stand by or ride by the ways, I trow, but rather on the mark he
shooteth at, for else he were like to win the wrong way. Even so

my dearly beloved, let your eyes be set on the mark ye shoot at, even
Christ Jesus, who for the journey he set before him, did joyfully
carry his cross, contemning the shame, and therefore he now sitteth
on the right hand of the throne of God. Let us follow him, for this
did he that we should not be faint hearted. For we may be most
assured, that if we suffer with him, we shall undoubtedly reign with
him ; but if we deny him, surely he will deny us ; for he that is
ashamed of me, saith Christ, and of my gospel in this faithless gene-
ration, I will be ashamed of him before the angels of God in heaven.
Oh, how heavy a sentence is this to all such as know the mass to be
an abominable idol, full of idolatry, blasphemy and sacrilege against
God and his Christ, as undoubtedly it is, and yet for fear of men, for
loss of life or goods, yea some for advantage and gain, will honest it
with their presence, dissembling both with God and man, as their
own hearts and consciences do accuse them. Better it were that such
had never known the truth, than thus wittingly, and for the fear or
favour of man, whose breath is in his nostrils,* to dissemble it or
rather, as indeed it is, to deny it. The end of such is like to be
worse than their beginning. Such had need to take heed of the two
terrible places to the Hebrews,f lest by so doing they fall therein.
Let them beware they play no wily beguile with themselves, as some
do 1 fear me which go to mass, and because they worship not, nor
kneel not, nor knock not as others do, but sit still in their pews,J
therefore they think they rather do good to others than hurt.

But, alas, if these men would look into their own consciences,
there should they see that they are very dissemblers, and in seeking
to deceive others, for by this means the magistrates think them of
their sort, they deceive themselves. They think at the elevation time,
all mens eyes are set upon them to mark how they do. They think
others hearing of such men going to mass, do see or enquire of thSr
behaviour there. Oh if there were in those men that are so present
at the mass, either love to God, or to their brethren, then would they
for the one or both, openly take God's part, and admonish the people
of their idolatry. They fear man more than him which hath power

* Nosethrelles. t Chap. vi. x. J Pues.

to cast both soul and body into hell fire, they halt on both knees,
they serve two masters. God have mercy upon such, and open their
eyes with his eye salve that they may see, that they which take not
part with God, are against God, and that they which gather not with
Christ, do scatter abroad. Oh that they would read what St. John
saith will be done to the fearful. The counsel given to the Church
of Laodicea is good counsel to such.

But to return to you again, dearly beloved, be not ye ashamed of
God's gospel. It is the power of God to salvation, to all those that
do believe it. Be therefore partakers of the afflictions, as God shall
make you able, knowing for certain, that he will never tempt you
further than he will make you able to bear; and think it no small
grace of God to suffer persecution for God's truth, for the spirit of
God resteth upon you, and ye are happy, as one day ye shall see.
Read 2 Thess. 1. and Hebrews 12. As the fire hurteth not gold but
maketh it finer, so shall ye be more pure by suffering with Christ.
1 Peter 1. The flail and wind hurt not the wheat, but cleanse it
from the chaff. And ye, dearly beloved, are God's wheat, fear not
therefore the flail, fear not the fanning wind, fear not the millstone,
fear not the oven, for all these make you more meet for the Lord's
own tooth. Soap, though it be black, soileth not the cloth, but
rather at the length maketh it more clean ; so doth the black cross
help us to more whiteness, if God strike with his battledore. Because
ye are God's sheep, prepare yourselves to the slaughter, always
knowing that in the sight of the Lord, our death shall be precious.
The souls under the altar, look for us to fill up their number ; happy
are we if God have so appointed us. Howsoever it be, dearly beloved,
cast yourselves wholly upon the Lord, with whom all the hairs of
your head are numbered, so that not one of them shall perish. Will
we, nill we, we must drink God's cup if he have appointed it for us.
Drink it willingly then, and at the first when it is full, lest perad ven-
ture if we linger, we shall drink at the length of the dregs with the
wicked, if at the beginning we drink not with his children ; for with
them his judgment beginneth, and when he hath wrought his will
on Mount Sion, then will he visit the nations round about.
" Submit yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of the Lord.

No man shall touch yor without his knowledge. When they touch
you therefore, know it is to your weal ; God thereby will work to
make you like unto Christ here, that ye may be also like unto him
elsewhere. Acknowledge your unthankfulness and sin, and bless
God that correcteth you in the world, because ye shall not be damned
with the world. Otherwise might he correct us, than in making us
to suffer for righteousness sake; but this he doth because we are not
of the world. Call upon his name through Christ for his help, as
he commandeth us. Believe that he is merciful to you, heareth you,
and keepeth you ; I am with him in trouble, and will deliver him saith
he. Know that God hath appointed bounds over the which the
devil, and all the world shall not pass. If all things seem to be
against you, yet say with Job, if he kill me I will hope in him.
Read the 91st Psalm, and pray for me your poor brother and fellow
sufferer for God's gospel's sake, his name therefore be praised, and
of his mercy may he make me and you, worthy to suffer with good
conscience for his name's sake. Die once we must, and when we
know not ; happy are they whom God giveth to pay nature's debt ;
I mean to die for his sake.

Here is not our home, therefore let us accordingly consider
things, always having before our eyes the heavenly Jerusalem, Heb.
12. Apoc. 21. 22., the way thither to be by persecutions. The dear
friends of God, how they have gone it after the example of our
Saviour Jesus Christ, whose footsteps let us follow even to the very
gallows, if God so will, not doubting but that as he within three days
rose again immortal, even so we shall do in our time ; that is when
the trumpet shall blow, and the angel shall shoot, and the son of man
shall appear in the clouds with innumerable saints and angels in
majesty and great glory; then shall the dead arise, and some shall be
caught up into the clouds to meet the Lord, and so be always with
him. Comfort yourselves with these words and pray for me for
God's sake. E. Carcere, 19 Novemb. 1553.

JOHN BRADFORD.

No. 14*.

TO HIS BELOVED IN THE LORD, W. P.

GRACE and peace from God the Father through our Lord Jesus
Christ. Amen.

Dear brother, God most justly- hath cast me now into a dungeon
much better than I deserve ; wherein 1 see no man but my keeper,
nor can I see any except they come to me. Something in the earth
my lodging is; which is an example and memorial of my earthly
affections, which God I trust will mortify, and of my sepulchre,
whereunto I trust my Lord God will bring me in peace in his good
time. In the mean season he gives me patience, lively hope, and his
good spirit. I pray you pray for me, for the prayer of the godly,
if it be effectual, worketh much with God.

I thank God, my common disease f doth less trouble me now,
than when I was abroad, which doth teach me the merciful provi-
dence of God towards me. Commend me to Mrs. Wilkinson, whom
we pray God to strengthen in his truth and grace to the end. Use
true and hearty prayer and you shall perceive God at length will
declare himself to see, where now many think he sleepeth.
Out of the Tower, by the Lord's prisoner.

JOHN BRADFORD.

No. 15.$
TO FATHER TRAVES.

THE self same mercy, grace, and peace, which heretofore I have
felt plenteously, though now through mine unthankfulness and wilful

* Fox, iii. 329. Cov. 305.

+ This disease was a rheum with a feebleness of stomach, wherewith he was much

troubled whilst he was at liberty. Cov.

j Fox, iii. 362.

obedience to the pleasure of this outward man, I neither feel, neither
can be persuaded that I possess, yea if I shall truly write, I in manner
pass not upon the same, so far am I fallen, the Lord help me, the
same mercy, &c. I say, I wish unto you as I can, with all increase
of godliness, hypocritically with my pen and mouth, beseeching you
in your earnest prayers to God, to be an earnest suitor unto God for
the which am fallen into such a security, and even an hardness of
heart, that neither I sorrow my state, neither with any grief or fear
of God's objection do write this; before the Lord which knoweth the
hearts of all men I lie not.

Consider for Christ's sake therefore, good Father Traves, my
necessity though 1 myself do it not, and pray for me, that God cast
me not off, as I deserve most justly. For where J ought to have well
proceeded in God's school, by reason of the time, I confess it to my
shame, I am so far gone back, as alas, if shame were in me I might
be ashamed to write it, but much more to write it, and think it not,
such is the reward of unthankfulness. For where God wrought the
restitution of the great thing you know of, the which benefit should
bind me to all obedience; alas Father Traves I am too unthankful,
I find no will in my heart, though by my writing it will be hard to
persuade you, either to be thankful, either to begin a new life in all
things to mortify this outward man, and heartily to be well content
to serve the Lord in spirit and verity, and withstand mine affections ;
and especially my beastly sensuality in meat and drink, wherewith
I was troubled at my being with you, but now through my licentious
obeying that affect, I am fallen so, that a whole legion of spirituum
malorum, possesseth me.

The Lord, whom I only with my mouth, my heart still abiding
both in hardness and wilfulness, call upon, deliver me and keep me.
And for God's sake give you hearty thanks for the great benefit of
restitution, pray to the Lord that at the length I may once return to
tke obedience of bis good will. Amen.

I thank you for your cheese, and so doth Father Latimer as
unknown ; for 1 did give it him, and be saith he did never eat better
cheese, and so I dare say he did not. I thank him I am as familiar
with him, as with you; yea, God so moveth him towards me, that
his desire is to have me come and dwell with him whensoever I will,

and welcome. This do I write yet once more to occasion you to be
thankful for me to the Lord, which by all means sheweth nothing
but most high love to me'; and I again a very obstinate rebel. Pray
therefore for me, in haste.

The sinful,

JOHN BRADFORD.

No. 16.*

To his godly Friends, G. and N., encouraging them to prepare
themselves to the Cross, and patiently to endure afflictions
for God's Cause and his Holy Gospel.

THE God of all mercies and the father of all consolation, shew
unto you more and more the riches of his mercies in Christ Jesus
our Lord, and grant you a lively faith to apprehend and pull unto
yourselves the same, to your everlasting comfort. Amen.

Because my mind will not let me rest to think upon, and as it
were to see some storms like to fall more fully than any yet we have
felt, 1 should rather say ye have felt, and are like to feel, if ye
continue to confess Christianity, as ye have begun ; I thought it my
\iuty to admonish you, that therefore ye should not be dismayed and
think it any strange thing.

For undoubtedly, you confessing Christ according to the truth
taught you, yea received of you, though trouble come, the same shall
be so far from hurting you, that it shall profit you exceedingly;
making you thereby like to him which for your sakes, suffered much
greater sorrow than all men can sustain ; as well that your sorrows
and afflictions, whatsoever they be that shall come unto you, should
be sanctified in his cross, and that which he suffered ; as also that

* Cov. 363,

in him ye might have both example how to order yourselves in the
cross, and how soon, shortly, and gloriously the end of your cross
will be. Therefore, I say, be not dismayed in that the cross cannot
but conform and make us like unto Christ, not simply of itself, but
by God's spirit, which maketh it his chief mean thereto; first in
putting us in mind of our corruption received of Adam, the cause of
all care ; then by occasioning us to remember as well our privy hid
sins, as also our more manifest evils ; that we therethrough might be
provoked to repentance and asking of mercy, the which undoubtedly
God will give us for his Christ's sake, and thereto also his holy
spirit to sanctify us, if we ask the same.

Now this spirit will not cease, more and more both to mortify the
old man with his desires, and also to renew and repair the new man
daily, with augmentation and increase; so that at length we shall be
made so like to Christ that we cannot but be coupled unto him ; I
mean not by faith as now we be, but even in deed, leaving here
behind us, with Elias, our cloak the flesh, which God one day will
call and quicken again, to be like unto the glorious and immortal body
of his son JesusChrist our Lord, after that it hath suffered and slept as
his hath done, the afflictions and time which God hath already
appointed.

My dear brethren and sisters, this is most certain that the afflic-
tions and crosses which ye shall suffer, God hath already appointed
for you, so that they are not in the power, choice, and will of your
and his enemies. If ye would fly them ye cannot, but will ye, nill
ye, needs must ye have them. If ye will not carry them in the love
of God, ye shall carry them in his displeasure. Therefore cast your
care on him who careth for you, and hath counted all the hairs of
your heads, so that one shall not perish, if that ye commit yourselves
to his ordering; wherelse your heads and bodies, yea souls too shall
perish, if that ye withdraw yourselves as unwilling to take his cup
and to drink of it.

Not that I would have yon to thrust yourselves, headlong and
rashly, to take or pull unto you trouble; or that 1 would not have you
to use such honest and lawful means, as ye may in the fear of God
and with good conscience, to avoid the cross and give place to evil;
but that I would have you xvilling to put forth your band to take it,

when God offereth it, in such sort as with good conscience ye cannot
escape. Then take it, kiss it, and thank God for it ; for it is even
a very sacrament that God loveth you, as he saith, whom I love, them
do I chastise. And if ye he not partakers of correction, surely ye
are no children; but if he once chastise you, if that ye kiss the rod,
verily he will cast the rod into the fire, and call you and kiss you as
the mother doth her child, when she perceiveth the child, to take in
good part the correction. But why do I compare God your Father's
love, to a mother, in that it far passeth it. For saith he, though it
he possible that a natural mother should forget the child of her womb,
yet will not I forget thee, saith the Lord, our good God and Father,
through Christ. Though he seem angry towards evening, yet in the
morning we shall find him well pleased, if in Christ we come to him,
and cry, Abba ! dear Father ! help us, and as thou hast promised,
tempt us not further than thou wilt make us able to bear.

Therefore, my dear hearts in the Lord, be of good comfort, be of
good comfort in the Lord. Confess him and his truth and fear not
prison, loss of goods or life. Fear rather that prison, out of the
which there is no deliverance; fear rather the loss of those goods
which last for ever; fear rather the loss of the life which is eternal,
whereunto ye are called, and the way by which God will bring you
to it, in that ye certainly know not whether it will be by prison, fire,
halter, &c. whensoever these come, as I said before, let them not
dismay you, nor seem strange to you. For no small number of God's
children are gone that way, and we are a good company here
together, which are ready to follow the same way through God's
grace, if God so will.

I beseech you make you ready, and go with us ; or rather be
ready that when we come, we may go with you. The journey is but
short, though it be unpleasant to the flesh. Perchance if we should
die in our beds on a corporal malady, it would be much longer and
also more painful ; at the least in God's sight it cannot be so precious
and gainful, as I know this kind of death is; whereto I exhort you
to prepare yourselves, mine own dear hearts in the bowels and blood
of our Saviour Jesus Christ, to whose tuition, grace, governance, and
protection, I heartily commend you all, and beseech you that ye

would do the like unto me in your hearty prayers. Out of the Tower
of London, 1554.

By your own, to live in the Lord for ever,

JOHN BRADFORD.

No. 17.*

TO CERTAIN GODLY PERSONS TO THE
SAME EFFECT.t

Gracious God, and most merciful father, for Jesus Christ's sake,
thy dearly beloved son, grant us thy mercy, grace, wisdom, and
holy spirit, to counsel, comfort, and guide us in all our cogitations,
words, and works, to thy glory, and our everlasting joy and peace,
for ever. Amen.

In my last letter, ye might perceive my conjecturing to be no less
towards you, than now 1 have partly learned. But my dearly be-
loved, I have learned none other thing than before I have told you
would come to pass, if ye cast not away that which I am sure ye have
learned. I appeal to both your consciences, whether herein I speak
truth, as well of my telling, though not so often as I might and
should, God forgive me, as also of your learning.

Now God will try you, to make others to learn by you that which
ye have learned by others, and by them which suffered this day,J
ye might learn, if already ye had not learned, that life and honour is
not to be set by, more than God's commandment. They in no point,
for all that ever their ghostly fathers could do, having Dr. Death to
take their part, would consent or seem to consent to the popish mass

* Fox iii. 334. Cov. 366. t Most probably to the same individuals as the last.

$ The Lady Jane Grey, and her husband the Lord Guildford, were beheaded that day,

viz. Feb. 12, 1554. Cov. 367. Burnett vol. u. 424.

and papistical God, otherwise than in the days of our late king,*
they had received ; and this their faith they confessed with their deaths,
to their great glory and all our comforts, if we follow them; but to
our confusion, if we start back from the same.

Wherefore I beseech you both to consider it, as well to praise God
for them, as to go the same way with them if God so will. Consider
not the things of this life, which is a very prison to all God's chil-
dren; but the things of everlasting life, which is our very home.
But to the beholding of this gear ye must open the eyes of your mind,
of faith I should have said as Moses did, which set more by trouble
with God's people, than by the riches of Egypt and Pharaoh's court.
Your house, home, and goods, yea life and all that ever ye have,
God hath given to you as love tokens, to admonish you of his love,
and to win your love to him again. Now will he try your love,
whether ye set more by him than by his tokens or no. If ye for his
tokens' sake, that is, for your home, house, goods, yea life, will go
with the world lest ye should lose them; then be assured, your love,
as he cannot but espy it to be a strumpet's love, so will he cast it away
with the world. Remember that he which will save his life, shall lose
it, if Christ be true; but he which adventureth, yea loseth his life for
the gospel's sake, the same shall be sure to find it eternally. Do not
ye both know that the way to salvation is not the broad way which
many run in, but the strait way which few now walk in?

Before persecution came, men might partly have stood in doubt,
by the outward state of the world with us, although by God's word it
was plain, whether was the high way, for there were as many pre-
tended the gospel as popery; but now the sun is risen, and the wind
bloweth, so that the corn which hath not taken fast root cannot nor
will not abide ; and therefore easily ye may see the strait way by the
small number that passeth through it. Who will now adventure their
goods and life for Christ's sake, who yet gave his life for our sakes?
We now are Gergesites, that would rather lose Christ than our porkets.
A faithful wife is never tried so to be, but when she rejecteth and
withstandeth wooers. A faithful Christian is then found so to be, when
his faith is assaulted.

* Edward VI.

If we be not able, I mean if we will not forsake tbis world for
God's glory and gosp( !'s sake, trow ye that God will make us able
or give us a will to forsake it for nature's sake? Die ye must once,
and leave all ye have, God knoweth how soon and when, will ye or
will ye not. And seeing- perforce ye must do this, will ye not wil-
lingly now do it for God's sake ?

If ye go to mass and do as the most part doth, then may ye live at
rest and quietly ; but if ye deny to go to it, then shall ye go to prison,
lose your goods, leave your children comfortless, yea lose your life
also. But my dearly beloved, open the eyes of your faith, and see
how short a thing this life is, even a very shadow and smoke. Again,
see how intolerable the punishment of hell fire is, and that endless.
Last of all look on the joys incomprehensible, which God hath pre-
pared for all them, world without end, -which love either lands or
goods for his name's sake. And then do ye reason thus ; if we go to
mass the greatest enemy that Christ hath, though for a little time we
shall live in quiet, and leave to our children that they may live here-
after; yet shall we displease God, fall into his hands, which is horrible
to hypocrites, and be in wonderful hazard of falling down from
eternal joy into eternal misery, first of soul and then of body, with
the devil and all idolaters.

Again, we shall want peace of conscience, which surmounteth all
the riches of the world, and for our children, who knoweth whether
God will visit our idolatry on them in this life; yea our home and
goods are in danger of losing, as our lives be, through many casual-
ties, and when God is angry with us, lie can send always when he
will, one mean or another to take all from us for our sins, and to cast
us into care for our own sakes, which will not come into some little
trouble for his sake.

On this sort reason with yourselves, and then doubtless God will
work otherwise with you and in you, than ye are aware of. Where
now ye think yourselves unable to abide persecution, be most assured,
if so be ye purpose not to forsake God, that God will make you able
to bear his cross, that therein ye shall rejoice. Faithful is God, saith
Paul, who will not tempt you' further than he will make you able to
bear, yea he will give you an outscape in the cross, which shall be to
your comfort. Think how great a benefit it is, if God will vouch you

worthy this honour to suffer loss of any thing* for his sake. He might
justly cast most grievous plagues upon you, and now he will correct
you with that rod whereby you shall be made like to his Christ, that
for ever ye may reign with him.

Suffer yourselves therefore now to be made like to Christ, for else
ye shall never be made like unto him. The devil would gladly
have you now to overthrow, that which godly ye have of long pro-
fessed. Oh how would he triumph if he could win his purpose?
Oh how would the papists triumph against God's gospel in you?
Oh how would you confirm them in their wicked popery ? Oh how
would the poor children of God be discomforted, if now ye should go
to mass and other idolatrous service, and do as the world doth ?

Hath God delivered you from the sweat to serve him so ? Hath
God miraculously restored yon to health from your grievous agues
for such a purpose? Hath God given you such blessings in this
world and good things all the days of your life hitherto; and now of
equity will ye not receive at his hands and for his sake some evil?
God forbid, 1 hope better of you. Use prayer, and cast your care
upon God ; commit your children into his hands; give to God your
goods, bodies and lives, as he hath given them, or rather lent them
unto you. Say with Job, God hath given and God hath taken away,
his name be praised for ever. Cast your care upon him, I say, for he
is careful for you ; and take it amongst the greatest blessings of God
to suffer for his sake. I trust he hath kept you hitherto to that end.

And I beseech thee, O merciful Father, for Jesus Christ's sake,
that thou vvouldest be merciful unto us, comfort us with thy grace,
and strengthen us in thy truth, that in heart we may believe, and
in tongue boldly confess thy gospel, to thy glory and our eternal
salvation. Amen. Pray for me, and I by God's grace will do the
same for you.

JOHN BRADFORD.

No. 18.*

TO THE SAME PERSONS.

GOD'S mercy in Christ I wish yon to feel, my dear brother, with
my faithful sister yonr wife now and for ever. Amen.

Having tins occasion, I could not hut write something, as well
to put myself in remembrance of my duty to god wards for you both,
in thankfulness and prayer, as to put you in remembrance of me and
your duty towards God for me, in praying for me ; I dare not say in
thankfulness for me; not that I would have you to give no thanks to
God for his wonderful great and sweet mercies towards me and upon
me in Christ his Son ; but because I have not deserved it at either of
your hands. For ye both know right well, at least my conscience
doth accuse me, how that 1 have not only not exhorted and tanght
you, as both my vocation and your deserts required, to walk worthy
of that vocation which God hath made you worthy of; and with
trembling and fear to work out your salvation, that is in the fear of
God to give yourselves to great vigilance in prayer for the increase
of faith, and to a wary circumspection in all your conversation, not
only in works and words, but also, in thoughts ; because God is a
searcher of the heart, and out of the heart it cometh that defileth as
in God's sight. I have, I say, not only not done this, but also have
given you example of negligence in prayer, watching, fasting,
telling and doing, so that woe to me for <. iving you such offence.

Partly for this cause, dear brother and sister, God hath cast me
and keepeth me sure, that I might repent me and turn to him, and
that ye might also by this correction upon me, be more diligent to
redress these things and others, if they in your conscience do accuse
you.

My dearly beloved, heavy is God's anger fallen upon us all;
doleful is the day. Now hath Anti-Christ all his power again, now
is Christ's gospel trod under foot, now is God's people a derision and

Cov. 370.

at prey for the wicked. Now is the greatest plague of all plagues
fallen, the want of God's word ; and all these we have, yea I alone,
have justly deserved. Oh that as I write, 1 alone, 1 could with
David, and with Jonas, in heart say so. But 1 do not, I do not, I see
not how grievously I have sinned, and how great a misery is fallen
for mine unthankfulness for God's word, for mine hypocrisy in pro-
fessing, preaching, hearing, and speaking of God's word, for my not
praying to God for the continuance of it, for my not living of it
thoroughly as it requireth, &c.

I will speak nothing of my manifest evils, for they are known to
you well enough. Dear brother and sister, with me say ye the like,
for your own parts; and with me join your hearts, and let us go to
our heavenly Father, and for his Christ's sake beseech him to be
merciful unto us and to pardon us. Oh, good Father, it is'we that
have deserved the taking away of thy word, it is we that have
deserved these thy just plagues fallen upon us, we have done amiss,
we have dealt unjustly with thy gospel, we have procured thy wrath,
and therefore just art thou in punishing us, just art thou in plaguing
us, for we are very miserable.

But good Lord and dear Father of mercy, whose justice is such
that you will not punish the poor souls of this realm, which yet have
not thus sinned against thee as we have done, for many yet never
heard thy word, for our trespasses; and whose mercy is so great that
thou wilt put our iniquities out of thy remembrance for thy Christ's
sake, if we repent and believe ; grant us we beseech thee true repen-
tance and faith, that we having obtained pardon for our sins, may
through thy Christ, get deliverance from the tyranny of Anti-Christ
now oppressing us.

Oh, good Father, which hast said that the sceptre of the wicked
should not long He upon and over the just, lest they put forth their
hands to iniquity also; make us just, we pray thee in Christ's name,
and cut asunder the cords of them that hate Sion ; let not the wicked
people say where is there God? Thou, our God, art in heaven;
and doest whatsoever it pleaseth thee upon earth. Oh, that thoa
wouldest, in the mean whiles, before thou do deliver us, that, I say,
thou wouldest open our eyes to see all these plagues to come from
thee, and all other that shall come whatsoever they be, publick or

private, that they com< not by chance nor by fortune, but that they
come even from thy hand, and that justly and mercifully ; justly
because we have and do deserve them, not only by our birth poison,
still sticking and working in us, but also by our former evil life past,
which by this punishment and all other punishments, thoa wouldest
have us to call to our remembrance and to set before us, that tliou
mightest put them from before thee ; whereas they stand, so long as
they are not in our remembrance, to put them away by repentance.

Mercifully, O Lord God, dost thou punish, in that thou dost not
correct to kill, but to amend, that we might repent our sins, ask
mercy, obtain it freely in Christ, and to begin to suffer for righteous-
ness' sake; to be part of thy house, whereat thy judgment beginneth;
to be partakers of the afflictions of thy Church and thy Christ, that
we might be partakers of the glory of the same. To weep here,
that we might rejoice elsewhere; to be judged in this world that we
might with thy saints judge hereafter the world ; to suffer with
Christ, that we might reign with him ; to be like to Christ in shame,
that we might be like to him in glory; to receive our evils here, that
we might with poor Lazarus find rest elsewhere ; rest, I say, and
such a rest as the eye hath not seen, the ear hath not heard, nor the
heart of man is able to conceive.

Oh, that our eyes were open to see this ; that the cross cometh
from thee to declare thy justice and thy mercy, and hereto that we
might see how short a time the time of suffering is ; how long a time
the time of rejoicing is to them that suffer here; but to them that
will not, how long and miserable a time is appointed and prepared ;
a time without time in eternal woe and perdition, too horrible to be
thought upon. From the which keep us dear Father, and give more
sight in soul to see this gear, and how that all thy dearest children
have carried the cross of grievous afflictions in this life, in whose
company do thou place us, and such a cross lay upon us as thou wilt
make us able to bear, to thy glory and our salvation in Christ, for
whose sake we pray thee to shorten the days of this our great
misery fallen upon us most justly, and in the mean season give us
patience, repentance, faith, and thy eternal consolation. Amen,
Amen, Amen.

And thus dear hearts, I have talked, methinks, a little while with

you, or rather we have all talked with God. Oh that God would
give us his spirit of grace and prayer. My dearly beloved, pray for
it, as for yourselves so for me, and that God would vouchsafe to
make me worthy to suffer with a good conscience for his name's
sake. Pray for me, and I shall do the like for you. This 20 of
December, from him whom by this bringer ye shall learn. I pray
you give my commendations to all that love me in the Lord. Be
merry in Christ, for one day in heaven we shall meet and rejoice
together for evermore. Amen.

JOHN BRADFORD.

THIS persecuted martyr remained in the
Tower till the following Easter Eve, when
he was sent to the King's Bench Prison, in
Southwark.* With the keeper of this prison
he was in such good credit that he was per-
mitted to go into London in the evenings, in
order to visit a sick person in the Steel-yard f 1
whenever he pleased, and that without a
keeper, upon his own promise to return before
the hour appointed. And once during the
summer time the same keeper gave him per-
mission to ride into Oxfordshire, in order to
visit a merchant of his acquaintance who
resided there ; and a horse and other pre-
parations, and a companion for the journey
were provided, but he was prevented from
going by illness.

* See Appendix, Note (G). t In Thames Street.

By the kindness of the same individual,
another privilege, which in their circum-
stances must have been invaluable, was
granted to Bradford, and the martyr Lawrence
Saunders, who was at the same time confined
in the Marshalsea. The backs of the two
prisons joined together, where they were
permitted to meet and confer at their own
pleasure, and might have easily made their
escape if they had been inclined ; but as to
which, Bradford was so indifferent, that when
one of his old friends and acquaintance came
and asked him what he would do, and where
he would go if he petitioned for his liberty ; he
replied, that it was a matter of little anxiety
to him whether he went out or not ; but that
if he did he would marry, and remain still in
England, and spend his time in teaching the
people as opportunities might offer.

Farrar,* Bishop of St. Davids, who had
been a prisoner in the King's Bench, being
strongly urged by the papists about the end
of Lent, to consent to receive the sacrament
at the ensuing Easter in one kind only, after
much persuasion had yielded to their solicita-
tions. It was so ordered by divine providence,
that on Easter Even, the day before the bishop

* See Appendix, Note (H).

was to have made this sacrifice of principle,
Bradford was brought into the prison, when
he was made the instrument of rescuing the
prelate from his threatened disgrace; who
immediately revoked his promise, and ever
afterwards steadily refused to contaminate
himself with any of the errors of the Church
of Rome. So effectually did it please God to
work by this holy martyr ; and such an in-
strument was he in the Church of Christ,
that few knew him who did not esteem him as
a precious jewel, and a true minister of the
gospel.

The following letters appear to have been
written at this period:

No. 19.*

TO THE HONOURABLE LORD RUSSELL,

Now Earl of Bedford, being then in Trouble for the Verity of
God's Gospel.

THE everlasting and most gracious God and Father of our
Saviour Jesu Christ, bless your good lordship, with all manner of
heavenly blessings, in the same Christ our only comfort and hope.
Amen.

Praised be God our father which hath vouched you worthy, as
of faith in his Christ, so of his cross for the same. Magnified be his

* Fox iii. 321. Cov. 275. and se No. 11.

holy name, who as he hath delivered you from one cross, so he hath
made you willing 1 , I trust, and ready to bear another, when he shall
see his time to lay it upon you. For these are the most singular
gifts of God, given as to few, so to none else but to those few, which
are most dear in his sight.

Faith is reckoned, and worthily, among the greatest gifts of God,
yea it is the greatest itself that we enjoy, for by it, as we be justified
and made God's children, so are we temples and possessors of the
holy spirit, yea of Christ also, Ephes. iv. and of the father himself,
John xiv. By faith we drive the devil away, 1 Pet. v. 9. we over-
come the world, 1 John, v. 4. and are already citizens of heaven and
fellows with God's dear saints.

But who is able to reckon the riches that this faith bringeth with
her unto the soul she sitteth upon? No man, nor angel. And
therefore, as I said, of all God's gifts, she may be set in the top, and
have the uppermost seat. The which thing if then considered, in
that she cometh alonely from God's own mercy seat, by the hearing,
not of mass or mattins, diriges, or such draffe ; but of the word of
God, in such a tongue as we can and do understand, as they would
be diligent and take great heed for doing or seeing any thing which
might cast her down, for then they fall also ; so would they with
no less care, read and hear Gci's holy word, joining thereto most
earnest and often prayer, as well for the more and better under-
standing, as for the loving, living, and confessing of the same,
maugre the head of the devii, the world, our flesh, reason, goods,
possessions, carnal friends, wife, children, and very life here, if they
should pull us back to hearken to their voice and counsel, for more
quiet, sure, and longer use of them.

Now, notwithstanding this excellency of faith, in that we read
the apostle to match therewith, yea, as it were, to prefer suffering
persecution for Christ's sake, Phil, i., I trow no man will be so fond
as to think otherwise, but that I and all God's children have cause
to glorify and praise God, who hath vouchsafed you worthy so great
a blessing. For though the reason or wisdom of the world, think of
the cross according to their reach, and according to their present
sense, and therefore fly from it as from a most great ignominy and
shame ; yet God's scholars have learned otherwise to think of the

cross, that it is the frame house, in the which God frameth his
children like to his son Christ; the furnace that lineth God's gold;
the high way to heaven ; the suit and livery that God's servants are
served withal; and the earnest beginning of all consolation and glory.

For they, I mean God's scholars, as your lordship is I trust, do
enter into God's sanctuary, lest their feet slip. They look not, as
beasts do, on things present only, but on things to come, and so have
they as present to faith, the judgment and glorious coming of Christ ;
like as the wicked have now their worldly wealth wherein they
wallow, and will wallow, till they tumble headlong into hell ; where
are torments too terrible and endless. Now they follow the fiend
as the bear doth the train of honey, and the sow the swillings, till
they be brought into the slaughter-house, and then they know that
their prosperity hath brought them to perdition. Then cry they,
Woe, Woe, we went the wrong way ; we counted these men, I mean
such as you be, that suffer for God's sake, loss of goods, friends and
life, whom they shall see endued with rich robes of righteousness,
crowns of most pure precious gold, and palms of conquest in the goodly
glorious palace of the lamb, where is eternal joy, felicity, &c., we
counted, will they then say, these men but fools and mad men; we
took their conditions to be but curiosity &c. But then will it be too
late, then the time will be turned, laughing shall be turned into
weeping, and weeping into rejoicing. Read Wisdom ii. iii. iv. v.

Therefore, as before I have said, great cause have I to thank God
which hath vouched you worthy of this most bountiful blessing;
much more then you have cause, my good lord, so to be, I mean
thankful. For look upon your vocation, 1 pray you, and tell me
how many noblemen, earl's sons, lords, knights, and men of estima-
tion, hath God in this realm of England dealt thus withal ? I dare
say you think not that you have deserved this. Only God's mercy
in his Christ hath wrought this on you, as he did in Jeremiah's time
on Abimelech, in Ahab's time on Obadiah, in Christ's time on
Joseph of Arimathea, in the apostles time on Sergius Paulus, and
the Queen of Ethiopia's chamberlain.

Only now be thankful and continue, continue, continue, my
good lord, continue to confess Christ. Be not ashamed of him before
men, for then will not he be ashamed of you. Now will he try you;

stick fast nnto him and he will stick fast by you ; he will be with
yon in trouble and deliver you. But then must you cry unto him,
for so it proceedeth ; he cried unto me and I heard ; I was with him
in trouble &c.

Remember Lot's wife which looked back ; remember Francis
Spira ;* remember that none is crowned, but he that striveth law-
fully. Remember that all you have is at Christ's commandment.
Remember he lost more for you than you can lose for him. Remem-
ber you love not that which is lost for his sake, for you shall find
much more here and elsewhere. Remember you shall die, and
when, where, and how, you cannot tell. Remember the death of
sinners is most terrible. Remember the death of God's saints is
precious in his sight. Remember the multitude goeth the wide way,
which windeth to woe. Remember that the strait gate, which
leadeth to glory, hath but few travellers. Remember Christ biddeth
you strive to enter in thereat. Remember he that trusteth in the
Lord, shall receive strength to stand against all the assaults of his
enemies.

Be certain all the hairs of your head are numbered. Be certain
your good father hath appointed bounds, over the which the devil
dare not look. Commit yourself to him ; he is, hath been, and will
be your keeper ; cast your care on him and he will care for you. Let
Christ be your scope and mark to prick at ; let him be your pattern
to walk by; let him be your example to follow; give him as your
heart so your hand ; as your mind so your tongue ; as your faith so
your feet ; and let his word be your candle to go before you, in all
matters of religion.

Blessed is he that walketh not to these popish prayers, nor
standeth at them, nor sitteth at them ; glorify God in both soul and
body. He that gathereth not with Christ scattereth abroad. Use
prayer, look for God's help, which is at hand to them that ask and
hope thereafter assuredly, [n which prayer I heartily desire your
lordship to remember us, who as we are going with you right gladly,
God therefore be praised, so we look to go before you, hoping that
you will follow, if God so will, according to your daily prayer ; thy

* See Appendix, Note (L)

will be done on earth, &c. The good spirit of God always guide
your lordship unto the end. Amen.

Your lordship's own for ever,

JOHN BRADFORD.

No. 20*.
TO THE LORD RUSSELL.

THE eternal mercies of God in his dear son, our saviour Jesus
Christ, be more and more felt, and heartily perceived of you, my
good lord, to your endless joy and comfort. Amen.

Because your lordship looketh not for thanks of me, for God's
benefits ministered by you ; and in few words I cannot duly declare
that I would do, I will omit the same; praying God, our dear father,
in the day of his retribution, to remember it ; and in the mean
season to assist, counsel, and comfort you, as his child for ever in all
things.

I doubt not but that you have that childlike opinion, yea persua-
sion of his goodness in Christ towards you; than which blessing, my
good lord, none is greater given to man upon earth. For assuredly
he that hath it, is the very child of God, elect before all time in
Christ Jesu our Lord, and therefore shall enjoy everlasting felicity,
although he be here afflicted and tossed in trouble and temptation to
his trial, that when he is found faithful he may receive the crown of
glory.

The only thing that discerneth the child of God from the wicked,
is this faith, trust, and hope, in God's goodness, through Christ ;
the which I trust you have ; God increase it in you and make you
thankful. Certainly such as enjoy, it be happy ; if they be happy,
and that happiness is not where any thing is to be desired, they

* Cov. 278.

cannot but for ever be most assured of perseverance to salvation, for
if they fall, the Lord putteth under his hand that they shall not
perish; they are beloved of Christ which loveth them to the very
end.

God for his mercy sake in Christ, open more and more your eyes
to see this his sweetness in Christ, to make you secure in him, and
awake the flesh from her security ; to be vigilant and heedful how
you may most behave yourself, in thankful obedience to God, and
careful help and service to his people ; that all your whole life may
tend to this, how by example and otherwise you may do good to
otheis, and still confirm his true service and religion by your con-
stancy. Wherein if you continue to the end, you shall receive an
incorruptible crown of immortal and unspeakable glory; but if for
because of God's tarrying, which is only to prove you, you relent,
which God forbid, thinking it enough in heart to serve God, and
in body to do as may make most to your commodity temporally, as
many do ; then undoubtedly your standing hitherto, wherefore God's
holy name be praised, shall make much more for the papistical
kingdom and glory thereof, than if you had never done as you have
done.

Whereof, my good Lord, be not weary nor unthankful, for with
the godly, and in the Church of God, you are and shall be had, as a
worthy member of Christ; worthy of double honour, because God of
his goodness hath vouched you worthy without your deserts. In the
one, that is for lands and possessions, you have companions many ;
but in the other, my good Lord, you are, A per se Jl, with us to our
comfort and joy unspeakable, so long as you continue, as I trust you
will do to the end; and to our most heavy sorrow, which God
forbid, if you should relent in any point.

Therefore, I beseech your Lordship, in the bowels and blood of
our Saviour Jesus Christ, to persevere and continue to the end. He
that hath not tempted you hitherto above your strength, will con-
tinue so to the end. If for a time he hide his face from you, yet he
doth it but for a moment, to make you the more heartily to cry to
him, and surely he will hear you ; not only when you are in crying,
but also whilst you are in thinking how to cry ; he is with you in
trouble and will indeed deliver you. The longer he tarrieth, the

more pleasantly and comfortably will he appear. Only believe and
look for his help and you shall have peace, such peace as the world
knoweth not, nor can know ; the which God give us a true feeling
of, and then we shall not be grieved with afflictions, but rather
rejoice in them, because they are but exercisos and trials of faith, to
the increase of faith and patience, with many godly virtues, &c.

As concerning the number and charges of us here, which this
day I heard your lordship desired to understand, this is, so much as
I know, that we are four in number together, whose names this
bearer shall tell you ; the charges of the least is seven shillings a
week. There are fire others, whose charges be not so great, but as
they will themselves ; I mean they pay daily as they take, and that
to the uttermost; these were never ministers. I trust there is no
urgent need in any of us all, and, I think, least in myself, through
God, my father's, providence, the which 1 have and do daily won-
derfully feel, his name therefore be praised.

Other things I would write, but because they may be more safely
told by this bringer, I have omitted the same for that purpose. God
of his goodness ever be with you and keep your lordship to the very
end, as his dear child. Amen, Amen.*

Your humble to command,

JOHN BRADFORD.

No. 21.t

To certain Men, who maintained the heresy of the Pelagians and
Papists concerning men's free will ; which, upon occasions,
were then prisoners with him in the King's Bench.

The good spirit of God, which is the spirit of truth, and guide
to God's children, be with us all, and lead us into all truth. Amen.

* See Appendix, Note (K.) f Cov. 650.

Hitherto 1 have oftentimes resorted unto yon, my friends as I
thought, and by all means sought to do you good, even to mine own
charges and hindrance. But now 1 see it happeneth otherwise ; and
therefore I am purposed, till I may know more than I do, to absent
mytelf from you, but not my help ; and by these letters to supply
that, which by mouth patiently you cannot abide to hear.

You report me to my face that I am a great slander to the church
of God; which may be two ways understood, that is, by living and
doctrine. But as for living, you yourselves, I thank God therefore,
gave testimony with me. In doctrine therefore you mean it.

Now, in that there be may parts of the doctrine of Christ, I trow
you mean not generally, but particularly ; for you in generality have
divers times given your commendations on my behalf, both to my
face and behind my back ; for the which I humbly praise my God,
through Christ. In particularity therefore, you mean that I am a
slander ; -which, as far as I know, is only in this to youwards, thai
I believe and affirm the salvation of God's children to be so certain,
that they shall assuredly enjoy the same.

You say it hangeth partly upon our perseverance to the end ; and
I say it hangeth only and altogether upon God's grace in Christ, and
not upon our perseverance in any point; for then were grace no
grace. You will and do in words deny our perseverance to be any
cause, but yet in deed you do otherwise. For if perseverance be not
a cause, but only God's grace in Christ, the whole and only cause of
salvation ; then the cause, that is to say, grace remaining, the thing,
that is to say, salvation, cannot but remain also.

Of which thing, if with the scriptures you would make per-
severance an effect or fruit, then could you not be offended at the
truth ; but say as it saith, that the salvation of God's children is so
certain, that they shall never finally perish, the Lord putting his
hand under them, that if they fall, yet they shall not lie still. For
whom he loveth he leaveth not, but loveth them unto the end. So
that perseverance is proper to them, and doth discern them from
hypocrites, and such as seem to other, and to themselves also some-
times, that they be God's children.

Which if they once were in deed, then as St. John saith, they
should not sin the sin to death ; neither should they go out of God's

church, but as Paul saith, should persevere to the end. Now to be
God's child, is no less, in all points above the power of man ; than
to be man's child, is above our own power; but so much it passeth
our ability in all points to be God's child, by how much this dignity
is greater.

Again, once God's child indeed, and God's child for ever; that is,
finally shall not he that is so, perish eternally, if that, God our father
be both of good will infinite, and also of power accordingly; and
that the seed of God which remaineth in his children, can keep
them from sinning, I mean to death, for otherwise they sin ; and
therefore pray daily, forgive us our debts, &c.

Moreover, God's children be under grace, and not under the law,
and therefore sin shall not damn them. For where no law is, there
is no transgression, transgression I say to final damnation, for the
new covenant of God is, never to remember their sins, but to give
them such hearts and minds, that, as they naturally lust and labour
to do that is evil ; so their inward man renewed striveth to the con-
trary, and at the length shall prevail ; because HE is stronger that
is in them, than he that is in the world. And St. Paul saith, who
shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect, in that God absolveth
them for Christ's sake, of whom they are kept ? So that it is not
possible for them to perish, in respect of their pastor, who is faithful
over God's people.

This certainty and assurance, whoso feeleth in himself, by the
testimony of God's spirit, indeed and of truth, the same is happy for
ever, and cannot but, as he hopeth he shall be like to Christ in his
coming, so desire it, and purifying himself in all purity, so far
will he be from carnal liberty; and as the elect of God, he will
endue and apparel himself daily with the apparel of the elect,
using prayer night and day, which is another property of God's
children.

To this certainty, all the creatures of God call us, concerning
their creation and use. This assurance, God's first commandment
requireth, under pain of damnation ; the gospel of God and all his
promises ; the sacraments and the substance of them, which is Christ
Jesus, our Saviour, do above all things, require it of every one that
is baptised, and brought into God's church. Nothing* else doth

GOD so require of us, us thus to be persuaded of him, for out of it
floweth all godliness to God and man.

So that it cannot be but they take Satan's part; which go about
to let or hinder this certainty, in themselves and in others. The
which thing, in that you do indeed, howsoever you mean; I cannot
but as I have done often before, admonish you of it eftsoons, that
your bloods may be on your own heads, if you persevere in your
obstinacy, and that you do it obstinately and not ignorantly. From
the which I beseech Almighty God to deliver you. Amen.

1 January. JOHN BRADFORD.

No. 22.*

TO CERTAIN MEN,

Not rightly persuaded in the most true, comfortable, and necessary
Doctrine of God's Holy Election and Predestination.

GRACE, mercy, and peace, with increase of all godly knowledge
and living, from God the eternal father of all consolation, through
the bloody death of our alone and full redeemer Jesus Christ, by the
mighty and lively working and power of the holy spirit the com-
forter, I wish unto you now and for ever. Amen.

Although I look hourly for officers to come and have me to
execution, yet can I not but attempt to write something unto you,
my dearly beloved, as always you have been howsoever you have
taken me, to occasion you the more to weigh the things wherein
some controversy hath been amongst us, especially the article and
doctrine of predestination, whereof I have written a little treatise ;
therein, as briefly shewing my faith, so answering the enormities

Cov. 471.

gathered of some, to slander the same necessary and comfortable
doctrine. That little piece of work I commend unto you, as a thing
whereof I doubt not to answer to my comfort, before the tribunal
seat of Jesus Christ ; and therefore I heartily pray you and every of
you, for the tender mercies of God in Christ, that you would not be
rash to condemn things unknown, lest God's woe should fall upon
you, for calling good evil and evil good.

For the great love of God in Christ, cavil not at things that be
well spoken, nor construe not things to the evil part, when ye have
occasion otherwise. Do not suppose that any man, by affirming
predestination, as in that book I have truly set it forth according to
God's word, and the consent of Christ's church, either to seek
carnality, or to set forth matter of desperation. Only by the doctrine
of it, I have taught, as to myself, so to others, a certainty of salva-
tion; a setting up of Christ only; an exaltation of God's grace,
mercy, righteousness, truth, wisdom, power and glory, and a casting
down of man and all his power, that he that glorieth may glory only
and altogether, and continually in the Lord.

Man consisteth of* two parts, the soul and the body, and every
man of God hath, as a man would say, two men, an outward or old
man, and an inward or new man. The devil's drift is, to bring the
one into a carnality, and the other into a doubt ; and so to despair,
and hatred of God ; but God for remedy hereof, hath ordained his
word ; which is divided into two parts ; the one is a doctrine which
demandeth of us our duty, but giveth no power thereto; the other
is a doctrine which not so much demandeth as giveth. The former
is called the law, which hath his promises, conditionals, and com-
minations or threats, accordingly ; the other is called the gospel, or
rather the free promises hanging not on conditions on our behalf,
but simply on God's verity and mercy, although they require con-
ditions, but not as hanging thereon ; of which promises the gospel
may well be called a publication.

The former, that is, the law with her promises and commi na-
tions, tells man what he is, and shews him what he can do ; the latter,
that is, the gospel and free promises, tell and set forth Christ, and

On.

what mercy at God's hand through Christ, we have offered and given
unto us. The former part serveth to keep the old man from car-
nality and security, and to stir him up to diligence and solicitude; the
latter part serveth how to keep the ne\v and inward man from
doubting and despair, and to bring us : into an assured certainty and
quietness with God, through Christ.

The old man* and the field he resteth in, may not be sown
with any other seed than is agreeable to the former doctrine ; the
new man and the field he resteth in, may not be sown with any
other, than is agreeing to the latter doctrine. By this means man
shall be kept from carnality, and from desperation also, and brought
into diligence and godly peace of conscience. It is forbidden in the
old lav/, to sow two kinds of seeds in one field, to wear linsey wolsey
petticoats, or to eat beasts that did not cleave the hoofs. God grant us
to be wise husbandmen, to sow according as I hare said ; God grant
us to be wise tailors, to cut our coats for two men of one whole cloth,
as is declared. God grant us to be clean beasts, to cleave the hoofs
accordingly, that is, to give the old man meat, meet for the mowers,
that is, the law with the appurtenances, conditionals, promises, and
commi nations; and to give to the new man the gospel, and sweet
free promises, as appertaineth ; and then doubtless we shall walk in
the right high way unto eternal life, that is in Christ Jesu, the end
of the law and the fulfilling of the promises, in whom they be yea
and, Amen.

If this my poor advice be observed, my dear brethren in the
Lord, 1 doubt not but all controversies, for predestination, original
sin, free will, &c. shall so cease, that there shall be no breach of love,
nor suspicion amongst f us; which God grant for his mercy's sake.
I am persuaded of you, that you fear the Lord, and therefore 1 love
you, and have loved you in him, my dear hearts, though otherwise
you have taken it without cause on my part given, so far as 1 know.
For hitherto I have not suffered any copy of the treatise above
specified to go abroad, because I would suppress all occasions so far
as might be.

* See this subject pursued and more fully illustrated in No. 25.
t Emonges.

Now am I going before you to my God and your God, to my
father and your father, to my Christ and your Christ, to my home
and your home. I go before, but you shall come after, sooner or
later. Howbeit I could not but before I go, signify thus much unto
you, as I have done, that you might see my love, and thereby be
occasioned to increase in love, and learn rather to bear than break.

My poor and most dear sister to me that ever I had, with whom
1 leave this letter, I commend unto you all and to every of you,
beseeching you and heartily praying you in the bowels and blood
of Jesus Christ, to care for her, as for one which is dear in God's
sight, and one which loveth you all in God, and hath done, as I can
and do bear her witness ; although in the point of predestination,
it hath pleased God by my ministry, to open unto her his truth.
Wherein as she is settled, and I trust in God, confirmed ; so if you
cannot think with her therein as she doth, I heartily pray you, and
as I can, in God's behalf charge you, that you molest her not, nor
disquiet her, but let love abound, and therein contend who can go
most before. I commend also unto you my good sister, M. C.,
making for her the like suit unto you all.

All, dear hearts, be not faint hearted for these evil days, which
are come to try us and purify us, that we may the more be partners
of God's holiness; as to ourselves so to the world, we shall be better
known. Continue to walk in the fear of the Lord, as ye have well
begun. Keep yourselves pure, as I hope you do, from this rotten
Romish, yea Anti-Christian religion. Reverently read God's word,
thereto joining prayer; that as you hear, in reading, God speak unto
you; so in praying, you may speak unto him. Labour after your
callings to help other. As you have done, do still, and I pray God
give you grace to continue, as I doubt not but he will, for his good-
ness sake. At the length we shall meet together in Christ's kingdom,
and there never part asunder, but praise the name of our good God
and father, with the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, angels, arch-
angels, and all the saints of God.

Oh, joyful place, Oh, place of all places desired. My brethren,
I think myself more happy than you, by how much I am now more
near unto it. Elijah's chariot I hourly look for, to come and catch me
up, My cloak, that is, my carcase, I shall leave behind me in ashes.

which 1 doubt not my Lord will raise np and restore to me again in
the last day, glorified even like unto his own most glorious body.

The portion of the good spirit which my father hath lent me, I
wish, yea double and treble, unto you all. God the father of mercy,
in the blood of his Christ, give to every of you, my dear hearts, in
him, his blessing, and pour plentifully upon you his holy spirit,
that you may increase in all godly knowledge and godliness, to your
own comfort and the edification of many others. Amen.

Yet once more I commend unto you my aforesaid most dear and
beloved sister in the Lord ; who always be unto her a most loving
father, spouse, and pastor. Amen, Amen. Out of prison, the 16th
of Feb. 1554.

Your own heart,

JOHN BRADFORD.

No. 23.*

TO TREWE AND ABYNGTON,

With other of their Company., Teachers and Maintainers of the
error of man's free-will.

YET once more.f beloved in the Lord, before pen and ink be
utterly taken from me, as I look it to be this afternoon, I thought
good to write unto you. because I stand in a doubt, whether at any
time hereafter, I shall see or speak with you ; for within this seven-
night my Lord Chancellor bad look for judgment. God knoweth I
lie not, 1 never did bear you malice, nor sought the hindrance of any
one of you, but your good both in soul and body, as when we shall

* Cov. 474.
t It seems probable that this letter was addressed to the same individuals as the last.

all appear together before God, I am certain you shall then know,*
though now you doubt it, and that causeless, I am right well assured.
For mine own conscience can and doth bear witness with me, that
I never defrauded you or any of you, of the value of one penny or
pennyworth of any thing ; but have sought, with that which hath
been given, not only in common, but also unto me and to mine own
use, discretion, and distribution ; to do you good.

Therefore disdain not the good will of your lover in God ; and in
hope that you will not, I have eftsones even now sent unto you thir-
teen shillings and fourpence; if you need as much more, you shall
have it, or any thing else I have, or can do for you.

Though in some things f we agree riot, yet let love bear the bell
away, and let us pray one for another, and be careful one for another;
for I hope we be all Christ's. As you hope yourselves to pertain to
him, so think of me ; and as you be his, so am I your's.J

JOHN BRADFORD.

No. 244
TO THE SAME.

HE that seeketh not to hinder himself temporally, that he may
further his brother in more need, the same wanteth true love. I have
done, do, and will, except you refuse it, hinder myself this way that

* Read 1 Cor. xiii. and compare these spirits with the spirit of humbleness, unity,
and love, which here you see in this man of God, doing good even to his adversaries,
and then judge of them and their doctrines. Cov. 475.

t He meaneth concerning free will, original sin, predestination, &c. wherein they
are plain pelagians and papists. Cov. 475.

J At this letter, these men were so sore offended, because he said he had hindered
himself to further them, as though he had thereby upbraided them ; that in displeasure
they sent it to him again. Whereupon he wrote unto them that which follows.
Cov. 475.

Cov. 475.

I may further you, and indeed myself also that way, wherein I desire
to be furthered. If I would seek mine own gains temporally, then
could I have taken and used many portions of money, which have
been given to me for mine own use.* I never minded to upbraid
you; but that which I did write of my own hindrance, was that you
might see I loved you, and sought your weale, as I doe, and will be
glad to do it continually. The Lord, of mercy hath forgiven us all,
wherefore henceforth let us rather bear than break.

Your's in the Lord,

JOHN BRADFORD.

No. 25.*

TO CERTAIN OF HIS FAITHFUL FRIENDS,

Worthy of all Christians to be read, wherein is described a
lively comparison between the old man and the new : also
between the law and the gospel, containing much fruitful
matter of divinity, necessary for Christian consciences to
read and understand.

A MAN that is regenerate and born of GOD, the which thing that
every one of us be, our baptism, the sacrament of regeneration, doth
require under pain of damnation, and therefore let every one of us,
with the Virgin Mary, say; Be it unto me, O Lord, according to thy
word, according to the sacrament of baptism, wherein thou hast
declared our adoption; and let us lament the doubting hereof in us,
striving against it, as we shall be made able of the Lord ; a man,

* Though he distributed to them, amongst other prisoners there, not only that
which was given in common, but also to his own use ; yet they suspected him of evil
dealing. Thus do not they, in whom the love of God dwelleth. Cov. 476.
t Fox 349.

I say, that is regenerate, consisteth of two men, as a man may say,
namely of the old man, and of the new man. The old man is like
to a mighty giant, such a one as was Goliah, for his truth is now
perfect But the new man is like unto a little child, such a one as
was David, for his birth is not perfect until the day of his general
resurrection.

The old man therefore is more strong, lusty, and stirring than is
the new man, because the birth of the new man is begun now, and
the old man is perfectly born. And as the old man is more stirring,
lusty, and stronger than the new man ; so is the nature of him clean
contrary to the nature of the new man, as being earthy and corrupt
with satan's seed ; the nature of the new man being heavenly, and
blessed with the celestial seed of God. So that one man, inasmuch
as he is corrupt with the seed of the serpent, is an old man ; and
inasmuch as he is blessed with the seed of God from above, he is a
new man. And inasmuch as he is an old man, he is a sinner and an
enemy to God ; so inasmuch as lie is regenerate, he is righteous and
holy, and a friend to God, the seed of God preserving him from sin,
so that he cannot sin; as the seed of the serpent, wherewith he is
corrupt even from his conception, inclineth him, yea enforceth him
to sin, and nothing else but to sin ; so that the best part in man
before regeneration, in God's sight, is not only an enemy, but enmity
itself.

One man therefore which is regenerate, well may be called
always just, and always sinful; just in respect of God's seed, and his
regeneration; sinful in respect of satan's seed and his first birth.
Betwixt these two men therefore there is continual conflict, and war
most deadly. The flesh and old man, by reason of his birth that is
perfect, doth often for a time prevail against the new man, being but
a child in comparison, and that in such sort, as not only other, but
even the children of God themselves, think that they be nothing else
but old, and that the spirit and seed of God is lost and gone away ;
where yet notwithstanding the truth is otherwise, the spirit and the
seed of God at the length appearing again, and dispelling away the
clouds which cover the sun of God's seed from shining, as the clouds
in the air do the corporal sun ; so that sometimes a man cannot tell
by any sense, that there is any sun, the clouds and winds so hiding-

it from our sight; even so our csecity or blindness, and corrupt affec-
tions do often shadow ttie light of God's seed in tjod's children, as
though they were plain reprobates.

Whereof it cometh, that they, praying according to their sense,
but not according to the truth, desire of God to give them again his
spirit, as though they had lost it, and he had taken it away. Which
thing God never dolh indeed, although he makes us to think so fora
time ; for always he holdeth his hand under his children in their fall,
that they lie not still as other do, which are not regenerate. And
this is the difference betwixt God's children which are regenerate
and elect before all times in Christ, and the wicked castaways; that
the elect lie not still continually in their sin, as do the wicked ; but
at the length do return again by reason of God's seed, which is in
them hid as a sparkle of fire in the ashes ; as we may see in Peter,
David, Paul, Mary Magdalen, and others. For these, I mean God's
children, God hath made all things in Christ Jesus, to whom he
hath given this dignity, that they should be his inheritance and
spouses.

This our inheritour Christ Jesus, God with God, light of light,
coeternal and consubstantial with the father and with the Holy Ghost,
to the end that he might become our husband, because the husband
and the wife must be one body and one flesh, hath taken our nature
upon him, communicating with it and by it in his own person, to us
all his children, his divine majesty, as Peter saith, and so is become
flesh of our flesh, and bone of our bones, substantially ; as we are
become flesh of his flesh, and bone of his bones spiritually, all that
ever we have pertaining to him, yea even our sins ; as all that ever
he hath, pertaineth unto us, even his whole glory. So that if satan
should summon us to answer for our debts or sins, in that the wife
is no sueable person, but the husband; we may well bid him enter
his action against our husband Christ, and he will make him a
sufficient answer.

For this end, I mean that we might be coupled and married thus
to Christ, and so be certain of salvation, and at godly peace with
God in our conscience; God hath given his holy word, which hath
two parts, as now the children of God do consist of two men ; one
part of God s word being proper to the old man, and the other part of

God's word being proper to the new man. The part properly per-
taining to the old man, is the law; the part properly pertaining to
the new man, is the gospel.

The law is a doctrine which commandeth and forbiddeth,
requiring doing and avoiding. Under it therefore are contained
all precepts, threatenings, promises upon conditions of our doing and
avoiding, &c. The gospel is a doctrine which always offereth and
giveth, requiring faith on our behalf, not as of worthiness, or as a
cause, but as a certificate unto us, and therefore under it are con-
tained all the free and sweet promises of God ; as, I am the Lord,
thy God, &c.

In those that be of years of discretion, it requireth faith, not as
a cause, but as an instrument, whereby we ourselves may be certain
of our good husband Christ and of his glory ; and therefore when the
conscience feeleth itself disquieted for fear of God's judgment against
sin, she may in no wise look upon the doctrine pertaining to the old
man, but on the doctrine only that pertaineth to the new man, in it
nofc looking for that which it requireth, that is faith, because we
never believe as we should ; but only on it which it offereth, and
which it giveth, that is, on God's grace and eternal mercy and peace
in Christ.

So shall she be in quiet, when she looketh for it altogether out of
herself, in God's mercy in Christ Jesus, in whose lap, if she lay her
head with St. John, then is she happy, and shall find quietness
indeed. When she feeleth herself quiet, then, in God's name, let
her look on the law, and upon such things as it requireth, thereby
to bridle and keep down the old Adam, to slay that Goliath ; from
whom she must needs keep the sweet promises, being the bed wherein
her spouse and she meet and lie together. For as the wife will keep
her bed only for her husband, although in other things she is con-
tented to have fellowship with others, as to speak, sit, eat, drink,
go, &c. ; so our consciences, which are Christ's wives, must needs
keep the bed, that is, God's sweet promises alonely for our selves and
our husband, there to meet together, to embrace and laugh together,
and to be joyful together. If sin, the law, the devil, or any thing,
would creep into the bed, and lie there, then complain to thy

husband Christ, and forthwith thou shalt see him play Phineas*
part. Thus, ray dearly beloved, I have given you in fe\v words,*
a sum of all the divinity which a Christian conscience can not
want.

No. 26.t

TO CERTAIN OF HIS FRIENDS, N. S. & R. C.

At that time, not thoroughly instructed in the Doctrine of
God's Election.

I WISH to you, my good brethren, the same grace of God in
Christ, which I wish and pray the father of mercies to give me for
his holy name's sake. Amen.

Your letter though I have not read myself, because I would not
alienate my mind from conceived things to write to others, yet I
have heard the sura of it, that is of God's election ; wherein I will
briefly write to you my faith, and how I think it good and meet for
a Christian man to wade in it. I believe, that man, made after the
image of God, did fall from that blessed state, to the condemnation
of himself, and all his posterity. I believe that Christ, for man
being thus fallen, did oppose himself to the justice of God, a media-
tor, paying the ransom and price of redemption for Adam and his
whole posterity, that refuse it not finally. I believe that all that
believe in Christ, I speak of such as be of years of discretion, are
partakers of Christ and all his merits. I believe that faith, and to
believe in Christ, I speak not now of faith that men have by reason
of miracles, John ii. 11. Acts viii. or by reason of earthly commodity,
Matthew xiii., custom and authority of men, which is commonly
seen, the hearts of them that so believe being not right and simple

That is do without. t Fox iii. 352.

before God ; but I speak of that faith which indeed is the true faith,
the justifying and regenerating faith, 1 believe, I say, that this faith
and belief in Christ, is the work and gift of God, that is, to those
whom God the father, before the beginning of the world, hath pre-
destinated in Christ unto eternal life.

Thus do I wade in predestination, in such sort as God hath
patefied and opened it. Though in God it be the first, yet to us it is
last opened, and therefore I begin with creation, from whence I come
to redemption, so to justification, and so to election. On this sort
I am sure, that warily and wisely a man may walk in it easily by
the light of God's spirit, in and by his word, seeing this faith is not
to be given to all men, 2 Thess. iii., but to such as are born of God,
predestinated hefore the world was made, after the purpose and good
will of God; which will we may not call into disputation, but in
trembling and fears submit ourselves to it, as to that which can will
none otherwise, than that which is holy, right, and good ; how far
soever otherwise it seem to the judgment of reason, which must needs
be beaten down to be more careful for God's glory, than for man's
salvation, which dependeth only thereon, as all God's children full
well see; for they seek not the glory which cometh of men, but
the glory which cometh of God, Jeremiah ix. John v. They know
God to be a God which doth on earth, not only mercy, but also
judgment; which is his justice, and most justice, although our foolish
reason cannot see it, and in this knowledge they glory and rejoice;
though others, through vain curiosity, grudge and murmur there
against.

Thus briefly I have sent you my mind and meaning concerning
this matter, Hereafter you shall have, I think, your letter particu-
larly answered by M. Philpot, as also if 1 have time, and so you
require it, I will do.*

JOHN BRADFORD.

* See Appendix, Note, (L.)

80
No. 27.*

TO A DEAR FRIEND,

Wherein he treateth, as briefly, so most perfectly , godly, soundly,
and pithily, of God's Holy Election, Free Grace, and Mercy
in Jesus Christ.

FAITH of God's election, I mean to believe that we be in very
deed the children of God through Christ, and shall be for ever
inheritors of everlasting life, through the only grace of God our father
in the same Christ, is of all things which God requireth of us, not
only most principal, but also the whole sum; so that without this
faith, there is nothing we do that can please God. And therefore
as God first required it in saying, I am the Lord thy God, &c. that is,
I remit thee thy sins and give thee my holy spirit, and for ever will
I keep thee ; so our Saviour would have us to be persuaded when we
come to pray, and therefore teacheth, yea he commandeth us, to call
God our father; whose power were not infinite, as we profess in the
first article of our belief, where we call him expressly our Almighty
Father, if we shall doubt of his final favour.

And therefore 1 cannot but much marvel at some men which
seem godly, and yet are in this behalf too malicious both to God
and man. For what is more seeming to God than mercy, which is
most magnified of the elect children of God ? And what is more
seeming to man than humility, the which is not nor cannot be indeed
but in the elect of God, for they alone attribute nothing at all to
themselves continually but damnation, that in God only and for ever,
may be their whole glory?

But this notwithstanding, there is that have gone about together,
yea to set abroad enormities, out of the doctrine of God's most holy
and comfortable election and predestination ; while the same doctrine
hath more commodities than all the whole world can be able to

* Cov. 391.

conceive, much less to express. For what destroys enormities so
much as it doth? It overthroweth the most pestilent papistical
poison of doubting of God's favour, which is the very dungeon of
despair and of the contempt of God. It destroys the Ethnick opinion
of fortune ; it comforteth most comfortably in the cross, and casteth
down all cogitations that would else cover us with sorrow and dolour,
in telling that all things shall turn to the best.

It niaketh us modest and putteth away pride in prosperity, by
pulling from men meriting or deserving. It enforceth men to love
and carefully to travail for their brethren, utterly impugning the con-
tempt of any. It provoketh to piety, and is the greatest enemy to
ungodliness that can be, by teaching us of what dignity we be, of
what price even our bodies be, temples of the Holy Ghost, and mem-
bers of Christ. It engendereth a true desire of our home in heaven,
and so to despise this world, and the things that this world hath in
estimation.

It maketh man wholly and continually to grieve over himself, to
be careful not for himself, but for others, and for those things that
make to God's glory. It helpeth very much to the true understand-
ing of the scriptures, and preserveth from errors, by knowing what
is to be attributed to the law, to the gospel, to the ministry, to the
vocal word, to the old testament, to the new testament, to the sacraments,
to faith, to works, to prayer, to penance, to God, to man, &c. For by
the spirit of election we see and know Christ, in whom dwelleth all
the riches and treasures of knowledge. It setteth up Christ's kingdom,
and utterly overthroweth the wisdom, power, choice, and ableness of
man, that all glory may be given only unto God.

But what go I about to reckon the commodities coming out of
the doctrine of God's election, in that they be innumerable ? This
is a sum, that where a Christian man's life hath respect to God, to man
and to himself, to live godly, justly, and soberly ; all is grounded
in predestination in Christ. For who liveth godly, but he that
believeth? and who believeth but such as are ordained to eternal
life? Who liveth justly, but such as love their neighbours? and
whence springeth this love, but of God's election before the begin-
ning of the world, that we might be blameless by love? Who
liveth soberly but such as be holy? and who are those, but only they

that be endued with the spirit of sanctitication, which is the seal of
our election, who by election do believe ?

Wherefore, my dearly beloved in the Lord, I have taken in hand
at this present, something to write to you, and for your sake in this
matter, which herewithal I have sent unto you ; as well to be a help
to you herein, as also to be a pledge of my careful love and hearty
desire I have for your continuance in the truth, wherein I trust you
stand perfectly, when I am dead and burned ; as I look for none
other, so soon as God shall give leave to his enemies for my weal and
endless joy in Christ; to whom as to a most faithful pastor, from the
bottom of my heart, I do commend and bequeath you, beseeching
him to watch over you night and day as over one of his poor lambs,
to keep you out of the claws of the lion and mouth of the wolves, to
his glory and your eternal joy and comfort in him. Amen.

There is neither virtue nor vice to be considered according to any
outward action, nor according to the will and wisdom of man, but
according to the will of God. Whatsoever is conformable thereto,
the same is virtue, and the action that springeth thereof is laudable
and good, howsoever it appear otherwise to the eyes and reason of
man ; as was the lifting up of Abraham's hand to have slain his son.
Whatsoever is not conformable to the will of God, that same is vice;
and the actions springing thereof is to be disallowed and taken for
evil ; and that so much the more and greater evil, by how much it is
not consonant and agreeing to God's will, although it seem far
otherwise to man's wisdom ; as was Peter's wish of making three
tabernacles, and the request of some, who would have had fire to
come down from heaven, upon a zeal to God, &c.

Now, the will of God is not so known as in his word; therefore
according to it must vice and virtue, good and evil be judged ; and
not according to the judgment, wisdom, reason, and collection of any
man or of all the whole world, if all the angels in heaven should
take their part.

But this word of God, which is written in the canonical books of
the bible, doth plainly set forth unto us , that God hath of his own
mercy and good will, and to the praise of his grace and glory, in
Christ elected some and not all, whom he hath predestinated unto
everlasting life in the same Christ, and in his time called them,

justified them, and glorified them, so that they shall never perish
and err to damnation finally.

Therefore to affirm, teach, and preach this doctrine, hath in it
no hurt, no vice, no evil ; much less then hath it any enormities, as
some do affirm, to the eyes and spirit of them which are guided, and
will be, hy the word of God.

That God, the eternal father of mercies before the beginning of
the world, hath of his own mercy and good will, and to the praise
of his grace and glory, elected in Christ some and not all of the
posterity of Adam ; whom he hath predestinated unto eternal life,
and calleth them in his time, justifieth them, and glorifieth them,
so that they shall never perish or err to damnation, finally ; that this
proposition is true and according to God's plain and manifest word,
by the help of his Holy Spirit, which in the name of Jesus Christ,
v I humbly beseech him of his mercy, plenteously to give to me at this
present and for ever, to the sanctification of his holy name 5 by the
help, I say, of his Holy Spirit, I trust so evidently to declare, that no
man of God shall be able by the word of God, ever to impugn it,
much less to confute it.

In the first chapter of the epistle to the Ephesians, the apostle
saith thus; Blessed be God, the father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
which hath blessed us with all manner of blessings in heavenly
things by Christ, according as be hath elected or chosen us in him
before the foundation of the world was laid, that we should he holy
and without blame before him through love ; and hath predestinated
us, or ordained us, through Jesus Christ, to be heirs unto himseif,
according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory
of his grace, wherewith he hath made us accepted in the beloved,
by whom we have received redemption through his blood, and the
forgiveness of our sins, according to the riches of his grace, which
grace he hath shed on us abundantly in all wisdom and under-
standing; and hath opened unto us the mystery of his will according
to his good pleasure, which he purposed in himself, to have it
declared when the time was full come, that he might gather together
all things by, or in, Christ, as well the things that be in heaven, as
the things that be in earth, even in, or by, him ; by, or in, whom we
are made heirs, being thereto predestinated according to the purpose

of him which worketh all things according to the decree, or counsel,
of his own will, that we which hoped before, (you) in Christ, should
be unto the praise of his glory; in whom ye also hoped, after that
ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, wherein
ye also believing, were sealed with the holy spirit of promise, which
is the earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption, or full fruition,
of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

These be the words of Paul, which 1 have faithfully translated
according to the very text in the Greek, as by the judgment of all
that be learned I desire herein to be tried. Out of the which words
of Paul, we may well perceive every thing affirmed in my proposition,
as I will give occasion plainly to them that will, to see it.

First, that the cause of God's election is of his good will, the
apostle sheweth in saying that it is through his love, whereby we are
holy and without blame; also, according to the good pleasure of his
will ; according to his good pleasure purposed in himself; according
to his purpose, which worketh all things after the counsel of his own
will.

Secondly, that election was before the beginning of the world,
the apostle plainly sheweth in saying, that we were chosen before the
foundation of the world was laid; and afterwards, in calling it the
mystery of his will, purposed with himself, in time to be declared.

Thirdly, that election is in Christ, the apostle doth so flatly and
plainly set it forth, that I need not here to repeat it. We, saith he,
are chosen in him; we are heirs by him ; we are accepted by him;
we are gathered together in him, &c.

Fourthly, that election is of some of Adam's posterity and not
of all, we may plainly see it, if we consider that he maketh the
true demonstration of it, believing, hoping, and having the earnest of
the spirit. In whom ye hoped, saith he, after ye heard the word,
&c. in whom ye believed, were sealed up, &c. Again, in attributing
to the elect, forgiveness of sins, holiness, blameless living, being in
Christ, &c. That we should be holy, saith he, &c. We have received
forgiveness of sins, &c. Who seeth not that these are not common to
all men? All men have not faith, saith Paul elsewhere. None
believed, saith Luke, but such as were ordained to eternal life. None
believe but such as be born of God. None believe truly but such as

have good hearts, and keep God's seed to bring forth fruit by
patience. So that it is plain, faith being a demonstration of God's
election to them that be of years of discretion, that all men are not
elect; because all men believe not. For he that believeth in the
Lord, shall be as MOUNT SIGN, that is, he shall never be removed ;
for if he be removed, that is finally perish, surely he never truly
believed. But what go I about to light a candle in the clear sun
light, when our Saviour plainly saith that all be not chosen, but few?
Many be called, saith he, but few be chosen. And in the second
chapter to the Ephesians, the apostle plainly saith, that the great riches
of God's mercy, through his exceeding great love, hath saved them
before their parents and many other gentiles, which were excluded
from Christ, and strangers from the promise, hopeless, godless, &c.
where-through we may be occasioned to cry ; Oh, the depth of the
judgments of God, who is just in all his doings, and holy in all his
works, extending his mercy after his good pleasure and will, above
all his works.

Fifthly, that God hath predestinated those, thus elect, unto ever-
lasting life in Christ, the apostle doth also in the words before
written declare, in saying ; And hath predestinated us through Jesus
Christ to be heirs unto himself. Again, By him, saith he, ye are
made heirs and predestinated to the praise of his glory. So saith the
apostle elsewhere ; whom he hath predestinated, them hath he pre-
destinated to be like fashioned unto the shape of his son. And
therefore Christ saith, Rejoice in this, that your names are written
in heaven.

Sixthly, that the end of election is to the praise of God's glory
and grace, the apostle sheweth here, in saying ; We are predestinated
to be holy, and without blame before God, &c. in saying we are pre-
destinated,to the glory of his grace ; and in saying also, unto the praise
of his glory; so that nothing can be more manifest.

Seventhly, that predestination is not without vocation in God's
time, and justification, the apostle here doth teach, in bringing us to
the consideration of hearing the word of truth, believing, receiving
the holy spirit, remission of sins, &c. In whom, saith he, ye have
hoped, after that ye heard the word of truth, &c. Again, by whom
ye have redemption, that is, remission of sins through the shedding

of his blood, &c. Alsc, he hath in his full time declared the mystery
of his will, &c. Unto the Romans the apostle sheweth it most
manifestly in saying; Whom he hath predestinated, them he calleth;
whom he calleth, them he justifieth. Whereby we may see that
predestination or election is not universal of all, for all be not
justified.

Eighthly, and last of all, that election is so certain, that the elect
and predestinated to eternal life shall never perish or err to damna-
tion finally, the apostle doth hereby also very plainly shew, in
saying; that they are predestinated to the praise of God's Grace.
He saith not, to the praise of his justice, to the praise of his wisdom,
to the praise of his power, although he might most truly say so ; but
he saith, to the praise of his grace; which were not grace if there were
any respect at all of works on our behalf, for then were grace not
grace. If there should be any condemnation, of the elect and pre-
destinate to eternal life, it must needs be because of their sins; but
where were the praise of God's grace then, which is the end of God's
election? Shall we not by this means make God's election without
an end, and so without a head ; and so no election at all, as some
would have, further than they elect themselves ? Let such fear they
shall not find the benefit of God's election, because they seek it as
the Israelites did, and not as the elect, who not only find it, but
also obtain it. The other are blinded, as it is written ; God hath
given them the spirit of unbelief, eyes that they should not see,
and ears that they should not hear, even to this day, &c. Secondly,
he sheweth the certainty of salvation to them that be elected,
in saying that they be accepted in the beloved. Once accepted
and beloved in Christ, and ever beloved; for whom he loveth,
he loveth to the end; and God's gifts are such that he cannot
repent him of them. And therefore, saith Christ, 1 know whom I
have chosen, attributing to election the cause of final perseverance.
Bj which thing Judas was seen not to be elected to eternal life,
although he was elected to the office of an apostle, as Saul was elected
to the office of a king. Which kind of election is to be discerned in
reading the scriptures, from this kind of election, the which I speak
of now, that is, from election to eternal life in Christ. Thirdly,
te sheweth the certainty of salvation of the elect, by calling

them heirs; for if we be heirs of God, then are we fellow
heirs with Christ, to be afflicted and glorified with Christ; and
therefore, saith he, according to the decree of his own will. Lo! he
calleth it a decree or counsel which shall stand, as Isaiah saith^ the
counsel of the Lord shall stand. Fourthly, he showed this
certainty, by saying that they are elect and predestinate to
the praise of God's glory, which we shbuld more care for,
than for the salvation of all the world. This glory of the
Lord is set forth as well in them that perish and are reprobates, as
in the elect; and therefore St. John, bringing in the place of Isaiah
speaking of the reprobate, saith that Isaiah spake that when he saw
the glory of the Lord. This glory of the Lord to be set forth by us,
is a great mercy and benefit of God. I am assured that if the very
devils and reprobates did not repine hereat, but were thankful that
they might be ministers in any point to set forth God's glory; I am
assured, I say, that they should find no hell nor torments. Theit
hell and torments come of the love they have to themselves, and of
the malice, envy, and hatred they have against God and his glory.
Let them tremble and fear, that may not away with the glory of the
Lord in election and reprobation. Let not their eyes be evil because
God is good, and doth good, to whom it pleaseth him; wrong he
doth to no man, nor can do, for then he were not righteous, and so
no God. He cannot condemn the just, for then were he untrue,
because his word is contrary. He cannot condemn the penitent and
believer, for that were against his promise. Let us therefore labour,
study, cry, and pray for repentance and faith, and then cannot we
be damned ; because we are the blessed of the father before all worlds,
and therefore we believe, therefore we repent.

And forasmuch as it pertaineth to us which be within, to see and
to speak of those things which are given unto us of God in Christ; let
s labour hereabouts, and leave them that be without to the Lord,
which will judge them in Itis time. The apostle prayeth for the
Ephesians, for none other wisdom and revelation from God, than
whereby they might know God, and have their minds illumined, to
see what they should hope for by their vocation, and how rich the
glory of his inheritance is upon his saints.

Further than this, I think is unseemly for us to search, until we

have sought out, how vich God's goodness is and will be to n his
children. The which we can never do, but the more we go there-
abouts, and the more we taste his goodness, the more we shall love
him and lothe all things that displease him. This, I say, let us do,
and not be too busy bodies in searching the majesty and glory of
God ; or in nourishing in any wise the doubting of our salvation,
whereto we are ready enough, and the devil goeth about nothing
so much as that ; for by it we are dull to do good to others, we are
so careful of ourselves. By it we are more dull to do good to our-
selves, because we stand in doubt whether it profiteth us or no. By
it we dishonour God, either in making him as though he were not
true, or else as though our salvation came not only and altogether
from him, but hanged partly on ourselves. By it the devil will bring
men at length to despair and hatred of God. Doubt once of thy sal-
vation, and continue therein, and surely he will then ask no more.
It was the first thing wherewith he tempted Christ; If thou be the
Son of God, &c. It is the first and most principal dart he casteth at
God's elect.

But as he prevailed not against Christ, no more shall he do against
any of his members, for they have the shield of faith which quencheth
his fiery darts. They praise God night and day, how then should
they perish ? The angels of the Lord pitch their tents round about
them, how then should satan prevail ? They are borne in the hands
of the angels, least they should hurt their feet at any stone. God hath
given commandment to his angels over them. The angels are
ministers unto them. Their names are written in the book of life, and
therefore Christ bad them rejoice; as Paul doth the Phillipians, for
nothing shall separate them from the love wherewith God loveth them
in Christ Jesu, who saith that it is impossible for them to err finally
to damnation; for he is their light to illumine their darkness.

They are given to him to keep, and he is faithful over all God's
children; he saith he will keep them so that they shall never perish.
After they believe, they are entered already into everlasting life ;
Christ hath set them there already; he hath committed them into his
father's hands by prayer, which we know is sure, and therefore
death, hell, devils, nor all power, sins, nor mischief, shall never pull
us out of our Head's hands; whose members we are, and therefore

receiving- of his spirit as we do, we cannot but bring forth the
fruits thereof, though now and then the flesh fail us.

But the Lord, even our Lord be praised, which is more strong in
us than he which is in the world; he always putteth under his
hand that we lie not still, nor shall do, as the reprobate; whose piety
is as the morning dew, soon come and soon gone, and therefore
they cannot continue to the end. Cannot? no, they will not if they
could, because they hate God and his glory, and therefore all them
that seek it, or set it forth; whereas the elect love all men, and seek
to do all men good in God ; suspending their judgments of others,
that they may stand or fall to the Lord, and not to them.

Hitherto out of this one place of Paul to the Ephesians, if the
matter of election and predestination be so fully set forth to God's
glory, and to the comfort of his Church ; how may we suppose is
this matter set forth, in the whole body and books of the canonical
scripture ? Whereto I had rather send you with this candlelight
which I have now given you, than in a matter so manifest to make
more a do than needeth.

JOHN BRADFORD.

No. 28.*

TO HIS DEAR FATHERS DR. CRANMER,
DR. RIDLEY, AND DR. LATIMER,

Prisoners in Oxford, for the Testimony of the Lord Jesus, and
his Holy Gospel.

Almighty God our heavenly Father, more and more kindle our
hearts and affections with his love ; that our greatest cross may be to
be absent from him, and strangers from our home, and that we may
gladly contend more and more to please him, Amen.

* Cov. 357.

As always I have had great cause to praise our dear Father
through Christ, so methinks I have more and more, in seeing
more likely the end of my life, which is due for my sin, to he
through the exceeding grace of Christ, a testimony of God's truth.
Thus the Lord dealeth not with every body, not that every body hath
not more deserved at God's hands than I, who have deserved more
vengeance than any other, I know, of my time and stale ; but that
by me, I hope, the Lord will make the riches of his grace, to his glory,
to be seen more excellent.

With me, therefore, I humbly beseech you all, my most dear fathers
in God, to give thanks for me, and as you do still, to pray for me ;
that the Lord, as for his love's sake in Christ he hath begun his good
work in me, even so of and for the same, his love's sake in Christ,
he would make it perfect, and make me to continue to the end, as
I hope he will, for his mercy and truth endureth for ever.

As for your parts, in that it is commonly thought your staff
standeth next to the door; ye have the more cause to rejoice and
be glad, as they which shall come to your fellows under the altar*,
to the which society God, with you bring me also in his mercy, when
it shall be his good pleasure.

I have received many good things from you my good lord,
master, and dear father, N. Ridley, fruits I mean of your godly
labours ; all which I send unto you again by this bringer ; one thing
excepted, which he can tell, 1 do keep upon your further pleasure to
be known therein. And herewithall I send unto you a little treatise
which 1 have made, that you might peruse the same, and not only
you, but also ye my other most dear and reverend fathers in the Lord
for ever, to give to it your approbation as ye may think good. All
the prisoners hereabouts, in manner, have seen it, and read it, and as
therein they agree with me, nay, rather with the truth; so they are
ready, and will be, to signify it as they shall see you give them
example.

The matter may be thought not so necessary as I seem to make
it ; but yet if ye knew the great evil, that is like hereafter to come to

Rev. vi. 9.

posterity by these men, as partly this bringer can signify unto you ;
surely then could ye not but be most willing to put hereto your
helping hands. The which thing that I might more occasion you to
perceive, I have sent you here a writing of Harry Hart's* own hand,
whereby ye may see how Christ's glory and grace is like to lose
much light, if that your sheep quondam be not something holpen by
them which love God, and are able to prove that all good is to be
attributed, only and wholly to God's grace and mercy in Christ,
without other respect of worthiness than Christ's merits.

The effects of salvation they so mingle and confound with the
cause, that if it be not seen to, more hurt will come by them, than
ever came by the Papists ; inasmuch as their lives commend them to
the world more than the Papists. God is my witness, that I write
not this, but because 1 would God's glory and the good of his people.
In free will they are plain Papists, yea Pelagians; and ye know that
modicum fermenli totam massam corrumpit. They utterly contemn
learning;! but hereof shall this bringer shew you more.

As to the chief captains, therefore, of Christ's Church here, I
complain of it unto you ; as truly I must do of you even unto
GOD in the last day, if ye will not as ye can, help something j ut
veritas Doctrine mancat apud posteros in this behalf, as ye have
done on the behalf of matters expugned by the Papists. God for his
mercy in Christ, guide you, my most dearly beloved fathers, with
his Holy Spirit here and in all other things ; as most may make to
his glory and the commodity of his Church. Amen.

All here, God therefore be praised, prepare themselves willingly
to pledge our Captain Christ, even when he will and how he will.
By your good prayers we shall all fare the better, and therefore we
all pray you to continue to cry to God for us, as we, God willing, do

* This was the chiefest maintainer of man's free will, and enemy to God's free grace.

Cov.

+ This is well known to all those which have had to do with them in disputations
or otherwise ; for the writings and authority of the learned they have utterly rejected
and despised. Cov. 359.

j Upon this occasion, M. Ridley wrote a learned and godly treatise of God's
election and predestination. Cov. 359. Whereof he afterwards wrote a godly and
comfortable treatise, remaining yet in the hands of some, and hereafter shall come to
light, if God so will. Cov. 65.

and will remember you. My brethren here with me, have thought it their
duty to signify this need to be no less than J make it, to prevent the
plantations which may take root by these men.*
Your's in the Lord,

ROBERT FERRAR.

ROWLAND TAYLOR.

JOHN BRADFORD.

JOHN PHILPOT.

IN the month of May, 1554, it was given
out that a solemn disputation was to be held
at Cambridge between Bradford, Saunders,
Rogers, and others of that side ; and the
Doctors of both the Universities on the other
side ; as had already taken place at Oxford.

The godly preachers who were in prison,
having heard thereof, although destitute of
their books, and by no means ignorant of the
purpose of their adversaries, and how the
case had been prejudiced before, as also
how the disputations had been confusedly
handled at Oxford ; thought nevertheless they
ought not to refuse the offer of a disputation,
so that they might be justly and impartially
heard. They therefore, by mutual consent,
issued a declaration of their minds in writing,
stating that although they knew they should

* See Appenrti*. Note (M.)

do no good, all things having been predeter-
mined, yet nevertheless they would not refuse
to dispute ; so that the disputation might be
either before the Queen, the Council, or the
Parliament Houses, or else in writing.

For otherwise, if the matter were brought
to the Doctors' handling, in their own schools,
they had sufficient proof from the experience
of Oxford, what little good would be done at
Cambridge ; and so consequently declaring
the doctrine of their religion, and exhorting
the people to submit themselves with all
patience and humility, either to the will or
punishment of the higher powers, they appealed
in the end fromthemtobe their judges in this
behalf, and so ended their protestation, the
copy and contents whereof follow.

No. 29.*

A copy of a certain declaration, drawn and sent out of prison
by Master Bradford, Master Saunders, and divers other
godly preachers, concerning their disputation, and doctrine
of their religion, asfolloweth.

Because we hear that it is determined of the magistrates, and
such as be in authority, especially of the clergy, to send us speedily
out of the prisons of the King's Bench, the Fleet, the Marshalsea,
and Newgate, where at this present we are, and of long time some
of us have been ; not as rebels, traitors, seditious persons, thieves, or
transgressors of any laws of this realm, inhibitions, proclamations,
or commandments of the Queen's Highness, or of any of the councils,

* Fox iii. loo.

God's name be praised therefore; but alonely for the conscience we
have to God, and his most holy word and truth, upon most certain
knowledge: because we say, we hear that it is determined, we shall
be sent to one of the Universities of Cambridge or Oxford, there to
dispute with such as are appointed in that behalf: in that we
purpose not to dispute otherwise than by writing, except it may be
before the Queen's Highness and her council, or before the parliament
houses; and therefore perchance it will be bruited abroad, that we
are not able to maintain by the truth of God's woid, and the consent
of the true and Catholic Church of Christ, the doctrine we have
generally and severally taught, and some of us have written and set
forth ; wherethrough the godly and simple may be offended, and
somewhat weakened : we have thought it our bounden duty now
whilst we may, by writing, to publish and notify the causes, why
we will not dispute otherwise than is above said, to prevent the
offences which might come thereby.

First, because it is evidently known unto the whole world, that
the determinations of both the Universities in matters of religion,
especially wherein we should dispute, are directly against God's
word, yea, against their own determinations in the time of our late
Sovereign Lord and most godly Prince, King Edward: and further
it is known they be our open enemies, and have already condemned
our causes, before any disputations had of the same.

Secondly, because the prelates, and clergy do not seek either us
or the verity, but our destruction and their glory. For if they had
sought us, as charity requireth, then would they have called us forth
hereabouts before their laws were so made, that frankly and without
peril, we might have spoken our consciences. Again, if they had
sought for the verity, they would not have concluded of controversies
before they had been disputed; so that it easily appeareth, that they
seek their own glory and our destruction, and not us and the verity :
and, therefore, we have good cause to refuse disputation, as a thing
which shall not further prevail, than to the setting forth of their
glory, and the suppression of the verity.

Thirdly, because the censors and judges, as we hear who they
be, are manifest enemies to the truth, and that which worse is,
obstinate enemies, before whom pearls are not to be cast, by the
commandment of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and by his own example.

That they be such, their designs of late at Oxford, and in the
convocation house* in October last past, do most evidently declare.

Fourthly, because some of us have been in prison these eight or
nine months, where we have had no books, no paper, no pen, no ink,
or convenient place for study; we think we should do evil, thus
suddenly to descend into disputation with them, who may alledge,
as they list, the fathers and their testimonies, because our memories
have not that which we have read, so readily, as to reprove, when
they shall report and wrest the authors to their purpose ; or to bring-
forth that we may have there, for our advantage.

Fifthly, because in disputations we shall not be permitted to
prosecute our arguments, but be stopped when we should speak ; one
saying this, another that, the third his mind, &c. as was done to the
godly learned fathers, especially Dr. Ridley at Oxford,f who could
not be permitted to declare his mind and meaning of the propositions,
and had oftentimes half a dozen at once speaking against him,
always letting him to prosecute his argument, and to answer
accordingly: we will not speak of the hissing, scoffing, and taunting
which wonderfully then was used. If on this sort, and much worse
they handled these fathers, much more will they be shameless bold
with us, if we should enter into disputation with them.

Sixthly, because the notaries that shall receive and write the dispu-
tations, shall be of their appointment, and such as either do not or
dare not favour the truth, and therefore must write either to please
them, or else they themselves, the censors and judges we mean, at
their pleasure will put to and take from that which is written by the
notaries; who cannot, or must not have in their custody that which

* See the account of the proceedings upon that occasion, at length, in Fox iii. 1929.
t Se a full account of this extracted from Fox, and a variety of explanatory notes
by Dr. Wordsworth, vol. iii. 123. et sequent. Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer were
appointed a day each in their cause to answer all opponents ; which each of them per-
formed, and that so, that notwithstanding they were annoyed with rude clamours, and
distracted with variety of opponents, all urging and craving answer at the same time ;
although they were scoffed at, reviled, and overborne with multitude, yet did they
force their adversaries to admire them. Cranmer did learnedly, and according to the
dignity wherein he so many years flourished, gravely. Ridley, acutely and readily.
And Latimer, with a pleasant tartness, and more solidly than could be expected of- a
man so near the age of fourscore. Up. Godwin's Annals. Queen Mary,

they write, longer than the disputation endureth, as their doings at
Oxford declare. No copy, nor scroll could any man have by their
good will; for the censors and judges will have all delivered into
their hands. Yea, if any man was seen there to write, as the report
is, the same man was sent for and his writings taken from him ; so
must the disputation serve only for the glory, not of God, but of the
enemies of his truth.

For these causes we all think it so necessary, not to dispute with
them, as if we did dispute we should do that which they desire and
purposely seek, to promote the kingdom of antichrist, and to
suppress, as much as may be, the truth. We will not speak of the
offence that might come to the godly, when they should hear, by the
report of our enemies, our answers and arguments framed, you may
be sure, for their fantasies, to the slandering of the verity.

Therefore we publish, and by this writing notify unto the whole
congregration and Church of England, that for these aforesaid
causes we will not dispute with them, otherwise than with the pen ;
unless it be before the Queen's Highness and her Council, or before
the Houses of the Parliament, as is above said. If they will write,
we will answer, and by writing confirm and prove out of the infal-
lible verity, even the very word of God, and by the testimony of
the good and most ancient fathers in Christ's Church, this our
faith and every piece thereof ; which hereafter we in a sum do write
and send abroad purposely, that our good brethren and sisters in the
Lord may know it: and to seal up the same, we are ready, through
God's help and grace, to give our lives to the halter or fire, or other-
wise, as God shall appoint: humbly requiring, and in the bowels of
our Saviour Jesus Christ, beseeching all that fear God, to behave
themselves as obedient subjects to the Queens Highness and the
superior powers, which are ordained of God under her ; rather after
our example to give their heads to the block, than in any point to rebel,
or once to mutter against the Lord's anointed ; we mean our
Sovereign Lady Queen Mary, into whose heart we beseech the Lord
of mercy, plentifully to pour the wisdom and grace of his Holy
Spirit, now and for ever. Amen.

First, we confess and believe all the canonical books of the Old
Testament, and all the books of the New Testament, to be the very
true word of God, and to be written by the inspiration of the Holy

Ghost, and are therefore to be heard accordingly, as the judge in
all controversies and matters of religion.

Secondly, we confess and believe, that the catholic church which
is the spouse of Christ, as a most obedient and loving wife, doth
embrace and follow the doctrine of these books in all matters of
religion, and therefore is she to be heard accordingly : so that those,
who will not hear this church, thus following and obeying the
word of her husband, we account as heretics and schismaticks,
according to this saying, If he will not hear the church, let him
be unto thee as a heathen.

Thirdly, we believe and confess all the articles of faith and
doctrine set forth in the symbols of the apostles, which we commonly
call the creed, and in the symbols of the councils of Nice, held A. D.
324; of Constantinople, A. D. 384; of Ephesus, A.D. 432; of
Chalcedon, A. D. 454; of Toletum* the first and fourth; also in the
symbols of Athanasius, Irenseus, Tertullian, and of Damasus, which
was about the year of our Lord 3/6 ; we confess and believe, we say,
the doctrine of the symbols generally and particularly; so that
whosoever doth otherwise, we hold the same to err from the truth.

Fourthly, we believe and confess concerning justification, that
as it cometh only from God's mercy, through Christ, so it is
perceived and had of none, which be of years of discretion, other-
wise than by faith only; which faith is not an opinion, but a certain
persuasion, wrought by the Holy Ghost in the rnind and heart of man,
wherethrough as the mind is illumined, so the heart is suppled to
submit itself to the will of God unfeignedly; and so sheweth forth an
inherent righteousness, which is to be discerned in the article of jus-
tification, from the righteousness which God indueth us, withall
justifying us, although inseparably they go together. And this we
do not for curiosity or contention sake, but for conscience sake, that
it might be quiet; which it can never be if we confound, without
distinction, forgiveness of sins, and Christ's justice imputed to
us, with regeneration and inherent righteousness. By this we
disallow the papistical doctrine of free will, of works of supereroga-
tion, of merits, of the necessity of" auricular confession, and satisfac-
tion to Godward.

Fifthly, we confess and believe concerning the exterior service of

* Toledo, in Spain.

God, that it ought to be according to the word of God ; and therefore
in the congregation, all things public ought to be done in such a
tongue, as may be most to edify, and not in Latin, where the people
understand not the same.

Sixthly, we confess and believe that God only by Christ Jesus is
to be prayed unto, and called upon ; and therefore we disallow invo-
cation or prayer to Saints, departed this life.

Seventhly, we confess and believe, that as a man departeth this
life, so shall he be judged in the last day generally ; and in the mean
season is entered either into the state of the blessed for ever, or
damned for ever; and therefore is either past all help, or else needs
no help of any in this life. By reason whereof we affirm purgatory,
masses of Scala Cceli, Trentals,* and such suffrages as the Popish
Church doth obtrude as necessary, to be the doctrine of antichrist.

Eighthly, we confess and believe the sacraments of Christ, which
be baptism and the Lord's Supper, that they ought to be ministered
according to the institution of Christ, concerning the substantial
parts of them: and that they be no longer sacraments, than they be
had in use, and used to the end for the which they were
instituted.

And here we plainly confess, that the mutilation of the Lord's
Supper, and the subtraction of the one kind for the lay people, is
antichristian.

And so is the doctrine of transubstantiation of the sacramental
bread and wine, after the words of consecration, as they be called.

Item, the adoration of the sacrament, with honour due unto
God ; the reservation and carrying about of the same.

Item, the mass to be a propitiatory sacrifice for the quick and
dead, or a work that pleaseth God.

All these we confess and believe to be antichrist's doctrine : as is
the inhibition of marriage, as unlawful, to any state. And we
doubt not by God's grace, but we shall be able to prove all our con-
fessions here, to be most true by the verity of God's word, and consent
of the catholic church, which followeth and hath followed the govern-
ment of God's spirit, and the judgment of his word.

And this through the Lord's help we will do, either in disputation
by word before the Queen's Highness and her Council, either before

Romish Offices so called.

the Parliament Houses, of whom we doubt not bat to be indifferently
heard, or else with our pens, whensoever we shall be thereto, by
them that have authority, required and commanded.

In the mean season, as obedient subjects, we shall behave our-
selves towards all that be in authority, and not cease to pray to God
for them, that he would govern them all, generally and particularly,
with the spirit of wisdom and grace. And so we heartily desire,
and humbly pray all men to do, in no point consenting to any kind
of rebellion or sedition, against our Sovereign Lady the Queen's
Highness : but where they cannot obey, least they must disobey God,
there to submit themselves, with all patience and humility, to suffer
as the will and pleasures of the higher powers shall adjudge: as we
are ready, through the goodness of the Lord, to suffer whatsoever they
shall adjudge us unto, rather than we will consent to any doctrine
contrary to this which we here confess, unless we shall be justly con-
vinced thereof, either by writing or by word, before such judges as
the Queen's Highness and her council, or the parliament houses, shall
appoint. For the Universities and clergy have condemned our
causes already, by the bigger but not by the better part, without all dis-
putation of the same: and therefore most justly we may, and do
appeal from them to be our judges in this behalf, except it may be
in writing, that to all men the matter may appear. The Lord of
mercy endue us all with the spirit of his truth and grace of perse-
verance therein unto the end, Amen. The 8th day of May, A. D. 1554.
ROBERT FERRAR, EDWARD CROME.

MENEVENSIS. JOHN ROGERS.

ROWLAND TAYLOR. LAURENCE SAUNDERS.

JOHN PHILPOT. EDWARD LAURENCE.

JOHN BRADFORD. I. P.

JOHN HOOPER, GLOUCESTR T. M.
ET W1GORN.

To these things above said, do 1, Miles Coverdale, late of Exon,
consent and agree, with these mine afflicted brethren being prisoners,
mine own hand.*

* See Appendix Note (N.)

100

No. 30.*

TO SIR JAMES HALES, KNIGHT,

Then prisoner in the Compter, in Bread-street.

The God of mercy, and father of all comfort, plentifully pour
out upon you, and in you, his mercy ; and with his consolations
comfort and strengthen you to the end, for his and our Christ's sake.
Amen.

Although, right worshipful Sir, many causes might move me to
be content, with crying for you to your God and my God, that he
would give you grace to persevere well, as he hath right notably
begun to the great glory of his name, and comfort of all such as fear
him; as lack of learning, of familiarity, yea, acquaintance, for 1 think
I am unknown to you both by face and name, and other such
like things ; yet I cannot content myself, but presume something to
scribble unto you, not that I think my scribbling can do you good,
but that I might hereby declare my sympathy and com-
passion, love, and affection I bear towards your mastership; which is
contented, yea desirous with us poor misers, to confess Christ's
gospel in these perilous times and days of trial. Oh, Lord God, how
good art thou, which doeth thus glean out grapes, 1 mean children
for thyself, and brethren for Christ.

Look, goodM. Hales, on your vocation ; not many judges, not
many knights, not many landed men, not many rich men and
wealthy to live, as you are, hath God chosen to suffer for his sake, as
hehathno\v done you. Certainly 1 dare say, you think not so of your-
self, as though God were bound to prefer you, or had need of you;
but rather attribute this, as all good things, unto his free mercy in
Christ. Again, 1 daresay that, you being a wise man, judge of things

* Fox iii. 324. Cov. 286.

101

wisely, that is, concerning this your cross, you judge of it not after
the world and people, which is magnus erroris magister, not after
the judgment of reason and worldly wisdom, which is foolishness
to faith, nor after the present sense, to the which non videtur gaudii,
sed molestitf, as Paul writeth: but after the word of God, which
teacheth your cross to he, in respect of yourself between God and
you, Cod's chastising and your father's correction, nurture, school,
trial, pathway to heaven, glory, and felicity, and the furnace to con-
sume the dross, and mortify the relics of old Adam which yet remain ;
yea, even the frame house to fashion you like to the dearest Saints of
God here, yea to Christ the Son of God, that elsewhere you might
be like unto him.

Now concerning your cross in respect of the world between the
world and you, God's word teacheth it to be a testimonial of God's
truth, of his providence, of his power, of his justice, of his wisdom,
of his anger against sin, of his goodness, of his judgment, of your
faith and religion : so that by it you are to the world a witness of
God, one of his testes, that he is true, he ruleth all things, he is just,-
wise, and at the length will judge the world, and cast the wicked
into perdition, but the godly he will take and receive into his eternal
habitation.

I know you judge of things after faith's fetch, and the effects or
ends of things, and so you see cslernum pondus glorias^ which this
cross shall bring unto you, dum non spectas ca qu& videntur, sedea
qua non videntur. Let the worldlings weigh things, and look upon
the affairs of men with their worldly and corporal eyes, as did many
in subscription of the King's last will, and therefore they did that for
the which they beshrewed themselves : but let us look on things with
other manner of eyes, as God be praised you did, in not doing that
which you were desired, and driven at to have done.* You then
beheld things not as a man, but as a man of God, and so you do now
in religion, at the least hitherto you have done, and that you might
do so still, I humbly beseech and pray you, say with David ; De~
feccrunt oculi mei in eloquiumtuum^quando consolaberisme? Though

* Sec Appendix, Note (O;.

102

jew be as uter infumo^ for I hear you want health, yet ne olliviscaris
justificationes Dei: but "cry out, quot sunt dies servi tuif quando
fades de persequentibus inejudiciumf And be certain, quod Dominus
veniens veniet, et non tartiabit. Si moram fecerit, expecta ilium, . for
he is but ad momentum in ira sua, et vita in voluntate ejus. Ad
Vesperam demorabitur fletus, et ad matutinum Letitia. Follow
therefore Isaiah's counsel ; abscendere ad modicum, ad momentum*
donee pertranseat indignatio ejus, which is not indignaiio indeed,
but to our sense, and therefore in the twenty- seventh chapter of that
prophet, God saith of his Church and People, that as he keepeth
night and day, so non est indignatio niihi, saith he.

The mother sometime beateth the child, but yet her heart
Hrelteth upon it even in the very beating, and therefore she casteth
the rod into the fire, and calleth the child, giyeth it an apple, and
dandleth it most motherly. And to say the truth, the love of mothers
to their children, is but a trace to train us to behold the love of God
towards us, aiid therefore saith he; can a mother forget the child of
her womb ? As who should say, no : but if she should do so, yet will
not I forget thee, saith the Lord of Hosts. Ah, comfortable saying ;
1 will not forget thee saith the Lord.

Indeed the children of God think oftentimes, that God hath for-
gotten them, and therefore they cry; ne abscondas faciem tuama me
Sfc. Ne derelinquas meDomine, $c. whereas in very truth it is not so,
but to their present sense, and therefore David said ; Ego dixi in
excessu meo projtectus sum a facie tua. But was it so? Nay, verily,
Read his psalms and you shall see. So writeth he also in other
places very often, especially in the person of Christ ; as when he saith,
Deus meus, Deus meus ut quid dereliquisti me f he saith not ut quid
derelinquis, or derelinquas me, but ut quid dereliquisti me ? Where
indeed God had not left him, but that it was so to his sense, and that
this psahn telleth full well ; which psalm I pray you now and then-
read, it is the 22d, and thereto join the 30th, and 116th, with
divers others.

The same we read in the prophet Isaiah, in his 40th chapter,
where he reproveth Israel for saying God had forgotten them. Nun-
quid nescis, saith he ? An non audivisti? &c. Qui sperant in Domino
liiutabunt fortitudinem. And in his 54th chapter : Noli timere, &c.

103

Ad panctum enim in modico dereliqui te, at in miserationibus
magnis congregabo te. In momento indignationis abscondi facieni
meam parumper a te, etin misericordia sempiterna misertus sum tui,
dixit Redemptor tuus Dominus. Nam istud erit mihi sicut aquae
Noe. Ut enira juravi ne porro aquae Noe pertransirent terram, sic
juravi ut non irascar tibi et non increpem te. Montes enim com-
movebuntur et colles contremiscent, misericordia autem mea non
recedet a te, et foedus pacis meae non movebitur, dicit miserator tuus
Dominus.

But the scriptures are full of such sweet places, to them that will
portare iram Domini et expectare salutem et auxilium ejus. As of
all temptations this is the greatest ; that God hath forgotten or will
not help us through the pykes, as they say : so of all services of God,
this liketh him the best, to hope assuredly on him, and for his help
always, who is adjutor in tribulationibus, and doth more gloriously
shew his power by such as be weak, and feel themselves so. For, quo
infirmiores sumus, eo sumus in illo robustiores. Sic oculi Domini be on
them that tremble and fear. Voluntatem eorum faciet : he is with
them in their trouble, he will deliver them: antequam clamaverint
exaudit eos, as all the scriptures teach us: to the reading whereof
and hearty prayer, I heartily commend you, beseeching Almighty
God, that of his eternal mercies he would make perfect the good he
hath begun in you, and strengthen you to the end, that you might
have no less hope, but much more of his help to your comfort now
against your enemies, than already he hath given you against N.* for
not subscribing to the king's will.

Be certain, be certain, good Master Hales, that all the haii-s .of
your head, your dear father hath numbered, so that one of them
shall not perish ; your name is written in the book of life. Therefore
upon God cast all your care, who will comfort you with his eternal
consolation, and make you able to go through the fire, if need be,
which is nothing to_ be compared to the fire, wherein our enemies
shall fall and lie for ever. From the which the Lord deliver us,
though it be through temporal fire, which must be construed according
to the end and profit that cometh after it; so shall it then, not much

* John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland.

104

fear us to suffer it, for our Master Christ's cause, the which the Lord
grant for his mercy's sake. Amen. From the King's Bench.*
Your humble,

JOHN BRADFORD.

No. 31.t

TO MY GOOD FRIEND IN GOD, MASTER
HUMPHREY HALES.$

As to my dear friend, I wish unto you, gentle Master Hales,
health of soul and body to God's glory, and your everlasting com-
fort. Amen.

Although it be commonly spoken, and as commonly verified,
that seldom seen is soon forgotten ; yet it is not so commonly seen
or experienced amongst them, whose friendship is in God the Father
through Christ, as ours is, but in those whose friendship is begun in
respect of some earthly commodity; and therefore, lest I should incur
this suspicion at your hands, who have so many ways deserved
the contrary, I thought it my duty to refresh, if it need refreshing,
the amity in God begun betwixt us, which I doubt not shall continue
so long as we live, or else I would be sorry.

In consideration whereof, both mindful of my promise made
unto you, and careful for your safety, I have caused a place to be
provided for your wife's deliverance ; where she may so quietly and
safely remain, that for the avoiding of the perils and dangers of
these days, I see none more convenient ; I mean it in Hadley, at Dr.
Taylor's house, where I trust there is no peril to youwaroV, nor to
any that feareth or regardeth any peril that thereby may happen.
And herein of very love and good will, I am the more familiar
and bold to admonish you, not as distrusting you, God forbid, for I

* See Appendix Note (P.)

t Cov. 310.

J He was the son of the preceding Sir Jas. Hales, as this and the following Letter

show.

105

think of you as a very child of God, but as one careful for you, lest
you should at length, through the common infirmity of our frail flesh,
and the manifold offences given of the world, do exteriorly as the
world doth, to save your sleeve and maim your arm for ever ; as those
do, who for the saving of their goods, jeopard goods of body and
soul, in the peril of eternal damnation.

If I suspected any such thing in you, gentle Master Hales, I then
would go about to tell you what this life is; a smoke, a shadow, a
vapour, &c. ; what the glory of this life is ; grass, hay ; yea, how full
of misery it is, and hath more aloes than honey, Job. ix. If I
suspected any thing your conscience, I would then set before you,
on the one part, the judgment of Christ, which shall be most
assuredly, the terrible sentence to them who are ashamed to confess
his gospel ; the eternal woe and misery which they shall be cast into,
that will not obey his gospel here ; and on the other part, the most
pleasant shout of the angel, to summon all men to come before our
Captain and Brother Christ, the collection and catching of us up in.
the clouds to meet our master, the eternal j jy and felicity which we
shall receive that here confess him, here suffer with him, here lose any
thing for his sake.

If I did in any point so much as think, that you would defile your
body in theantichristian service now used, then would I go about to set
forth these things, briefly spoken, more at large. But as I said before,
1 say again, because I am as well persuaded of you, my dearly beloved
brother, as of any in your profession and state ; I cannot but pray
God to make perfect, the good which he hath begun in you, and desire
you, as you have begun in God, so to go forward.

As your example hath done good to many, so cast not all down
with a type. Terrible is that woe which Christ threateneth, to them by
whom offences do come. You know that the way of salvation is
straiter than men make it. You know the soul is to be considered
above all things. Happy is the loss of that bodily life, liberty, and
goods, by the which a spiritual life, freedom, and felicity is purchased.
What should it profit a man to win the whole world and to lose his
own soul? Who would desire a two years merry life for an eternal
sorrow ? as these mass gospellers do, who yet are uncertain of two

106

years life, and God knoweth what wounds their consciences have.
Hard is it to recover health to the conscience ; and because I am
careful for it to youwards, as to mine own brother, and dear friend,
therefore 1 write thus. We are in God's power, and not in the power
of our enemies; he it is that hath all our hairs numbered; before he
say Amen, no man shall onc touch you. Into his hands commit
yourself; cast your care on him, have a care to please him, and then
he will care to keep you. You know the oath the Athenians did
make; pugnabo pro sacris, et solus, et cum aliis ; which saying- of
the heathen will be to your condemnation, if for his holy word and
gospel's sake, we dare not adventure the loss of that he hath sent us,
keepeth for us, and can when he will take away from us, or us from it.

If worldly men dare jeopard a joint with God, rather than they
would lose worldly things, as experienc teacheth ; certainly it should
be much to our shame, who in baptism have vowed and solemnly
sworn to forsake the world, if we dare not jeopard a joint with man,
rather than we would lose a good conscience, and spiritual treasures.
He that will not have God's blessing, it shall be taken from him,
saith David.

Therefore, my dearly beloved, beware ; you are now, the temple
of the Holy Ghost; defile it not for the Lord's sake, but keep it pure,
not only from all uncleanness of the spirit, but also of the flesh, (2
Cor. vii.) as I trust you will ; and cry unto your father for his strength
and aid, which I beseech him of his mercy, always to give unto you,
my own good friend, even as I desire to myself. If in any thing I
could help you, you may be assured thereof as of your brother. My
prayer to God, night and day, you shall have, that for his holy name-
sake he would bless you in all things and keep you, with my good
sister your wife, unto the very end, as his dear elect children. Amen,
Amen. From my lodging, you know where, this fifth of August.
By your own to use in the Lord for ever,

JOHN BRADFORD.

107

No. 32.*
To MASTER HUMPHREY HALES and his WIFE

The everlasting and merciful God, our dear Father through
Christ, be with you both, my most dearly and entirely beloved in the
Lord, now and for ever.

I cannot forbear but signify unto you both, that my heart is
careful and heavy for the cross which is come upon you, by the heavy
and fearful judgment of God fallen upon your father; justly for his
denying of God for fear of men and love of these things, which he
hath left behind him unto you and others. God grant his fact be so
imprinted in the hearts of all men, especially of you both, that his
fall may be unto you, I will not say a rising, for yet 1 trust ye are not
fallen, but an establishing in the verity of God, whereof whoso is
ashamed, shall at length feel such shame as I beseech God keep us
all from. Happy are they that mark the judgments of God upon
others, to come and increase in repentance Luke xiii. to fear God's
wrath and judgments, which is always like himself, if we follow the
steps of them, on whom he taketh punishment.

I need not tell you the cause of this that hath happened unto your
father, if it be as 1 with sorrow have heard. For you know well
enough, that till he forsook God, gave ear to the serpent's counsel,
began to mamber of the truth, and to frame himself outwardly to
do that which his conscience reproved inwardly for that which be
mingled with the love of God, I mean the love of the world, cannot
be in any man without the expulsion of God's love till then, I say,
God did not depart and leave him to himself, to the example of you
and me, and all others ; that we should fear even ourselves and our
own hands, more than man and all the powers of the world, if we
therefore should do any thing, "which should wound our conscience.

The conscience, I tell you, is soon wounded, yea sooner than we
be aware of. The devil useth all kind of deceit to blind us from seeing
that which might wound it: but when the stripe is given, then either

* Cov. 312.

108

shutteth he still up our eyes with contempt to our hardening-, or else
openeth them to bring us to utter despairing. In your father, as ye
may see the latter, so in many worldly gospellers you may, if you will,
see the other. God might deal with all such, as he hath done now
with your father; but because the time of his judgment is not yet
come, his wisdom hath thought good to set your father forth as an
example to all men ; as lie did in the first world, Cain ; in the
second world, Cham ; in the third age, Korah, &c. ; in Christ's time,
Judas ; in the Apostles' time, Ananias, &c. ; although none will
heartily consider it, but such as be God's children indeed.

But here, in comparing your father thus, my dearly and
unfeignedly beloved in the Lord, I must pray you not to be offended,
or think that I do determinately judge, to God I leave all judgment,
but because the fruit to us declared no less, to the admonishment of us
all, I trust ye will accordingly consider my collation. For your parts
as 1 think godly of you both, that indeed ye are both the children of
God ; so I pray you comfort yourselves as David did, though his son
Absalom perished so desperately, and though his father-in-law,
Achitophel, father to Bathsheba, as the Hebrews write, perished so
miserably. Ye know Jonathan was not the worse, because his father
slew himself; nor Bathsheba, because of her father, Achitophel ; they
both were the children of God, and so I am assured, as man can be,
that ye are. As they used God's judgments upon their parents, so
do ye, to fear God and love God the more, and to fly from those
things, which in your father, ye did see displeased God.

Oh, that I were with you but one half hour, not only with you to
lament, but also as God should lend me his grace, to comfort you,
who by this judgment doth tempt your patience and faith, to the
comfort of you both, as you shall find, 1 am assured. My dear
hearts in the Lord, if 1 could by any means comfort you, certainly
if my life lay on .it, I think you should forthwith perceive it ; but
because 1 can do no more than I can, therefore as I can, I do, that is,
as to write, so to send this messenger, my good friend and brother
with the same ; to learn certainly of the truth herein, and the condi-
tion of your estate. My other letter was made before knew of
this matter. I pray God this which by report I understand, be other-
wise, but God's good will be done, who gives us patience and comfort
in him.

109

To whom I commend you both, even as heartily as any friends I
have in this life, of your estate. From my lodging- you know
whore, this eight of August, Anno Domini, 1554.

By your own, to use in the Lord for ever,

JOHN BRADFORD.

No. 33.*

TO THE WORSHIPFUL, AND IN GOD MY MOST
DEAR FRIEND, THE LADY VANE.t

The good spirit of God our Father be more and more plentifully
perceived of your good Ladyship, through the mediation and merits
of our dear Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

Although your benefits towards me have deserved at my hands the
service I can do for you, yet, right worshipful and dearly beloved in
the Lord, the true fear of God and the love of his truth, which I per-
ceive to be in you, especially and above all other things, doth bind me
hereunto.

This bearer hath told me, that your desire is, to have something
sent to you concerning the usurped authority of the supremacy of the
Bishop of Rome, which is undoubtedly the great antichrist, of whom
the apostles do so much admonish us ; that you may have as well
something the more to stay you on, as also wherewith to answer the
adversaries, because you may perchance therein be something aposed.
To satisfy this your desire, I will briefly go about, and so that I will,
by God's grace, fully set forth the same; to ensure you to withstand
the assaults of the papists herein, if you mark well and read over
again, that which I now write.

The papists do place in pre-eminence over the whole church, the
Pope, thereby unplacing Christ who is the head of the church, that
giveth life to the whole body ; and by his spirit doth make lively every

* Fox iii. 339. Cov. 403. t See Appendix, Note (Q.)

110

member of the same. This they do without all scriptures ; for where
they bring in this spoken to Peter, " feed my sheep," I would gladly
know whether this was not commanded unto others also? As for that
which perchance they will urge, that he spoke to Peter by name, if
they had any learning, they would easily perceive how thai it was not
for any such cause as they pretend, but rather, by a threefold com-
mandment, to restore to him the honour of an apostle, which he had
iost by his threefold denial.

And how dare they interpret these words, my sheep, my lambs, to
be the universal ehurch of Christ? I trow a man might easily
by the like reason, prove that Peter himself had resigned that which
Christ had given to him, in exhorting his fellow-pastors to feed the flock
of Christ. Is not this pretty stuff? Because Christ saith to Peter,
feed my sheep, therefore he ought to rule the universal and whole
Church of Christ. If Peter do truly write unto others that they
should do the like, that is, feed Christ's flock, either he translateth his
right and authority committed to him upon them, or else he doth par-
ticipate and communicate it with them. So that foolishly they go
about to establish that which hath no ground.

Peter, indeed, was a shepherd of the sheep, but such a one as
bestowed his labour on them, so far as he could stretch out himself
by his ministry. But the papists prate that he had full power over
all churches ; wherein they may see Paul to improve them, for else he
had done unjustly in denying him the superior place. Howbeit,
whoever yet read that Peter did take any thiag upon him, over
churches committed unto other men? Was not he sent of the church,
and sent as one not having rule over the rest? I grant that he was
an excellent instrument of God, and for the excellency of his gifts,
whensoever they met together, place therefore was commonly given
unto him. But what is this to the purpose, to make him ruler and
head over all the whole church, because he was so over a small
congregation?

But be it so, that Peter had as much given to him ! as they do
affirm; who yet will grant that Peter had a patrimony given for his
heirs? He hath left, say the papists, to his successors, the self same
right which he received. Oh, Lord God, then must his successor be
a satan ; for be received that title of Christ himself. I would gladly

Ill

have the papists to shew me one place of succession, mentioned in the
scriptures. I am sure that when Paul purposely painteth out the
whole administration of the church, he neither maketh one head, nor
any inheritable primacy, and yet he is altogether in commendation
of unity. After he hath made mention of one God the Father, of one
Christ, and of one Baptism, then he describeth the mean and manner
how unity is to be kept; namely, because unto every pastor is grace
given, after the measure wherewith Christ hath endowed them.
Where, I pray you, is now any title of plenitud'mis potestatis, of
fulness of power? when he calleth home every one unto a certain
measure, why did he not forthwith say, one pope? Which thing-
he could not have forgotten, if the thing had been as the papists
make it.

But let us grant that perpetuity of the primacy in the church, was
established in Peter, I would gladly know why the seat of the pri-
macy should be rather at Rome, than elsewhere. Marry, say they,
because Peter's chair was at Rome. This is even like to this, that
because Moses the greatest prophet, and Aaron the first priest,
exercised their offices unto their death in the desert; therefore the
most principal place of th Jewish Church, should be in the
wilderness.

But grant them their reason, that it is good. What should
Antioch claim? For Peter's chair was there also; wherein Paul
gave him a check, which was unfeelingly and unmannerly done of
Paul, that would not give place to his President and better. No, say
the papists, Rome must have this authority, because Peter died there.
But what, and if a man should by probable conjectures shew, that it
is but a fable, which is feigned of Peter's Bishopric at Rome ? Read
how Paul doth salute very many private persons, when he writeth to
the Romans. Three years after his epistle made, he was brought to
Rome prisoner. Luke telleth, that he was received of the brethren,
and yet in all these, no mention at all of Peter, who then by their
stories was at Rome. Belike he was proud, as the Pope and Prelates
be, or else he would have visited Paul. Paul being in prison in
Rome, did write divers epistles, in which he expresseth the names of
many who were in comparison of Peter, but rascal personages, but
of Peter he speaketh never a word. Surely if Peter had been there,

112

this silence respecting him had been suspicious. In the second
epistle to Timothy, Paul complaineth, that no man was with him
in his defence, but all had left him. If Peter had been then at
Rome, as they write, then either Paul had belied him, or Peter had
played his Peter's part. Luke xxiii.

In another place how doth he blame all that were with him, only
Timothy excepted ? Therefore we may well doubt whether Peter was
at Rome, Bishop, as they prate; for all this time and long- before, they
say that Peter was bishop there.

But I will not stir up Coals in this matter. If Rome be the chief
seat, because Peter died there, why should not Antioch be the second ?
Why should not James and John, who were taken with Peter to be as
pillars, why, I say, should not their seats have honour next to Peter's
seat ? Is not this gear preposterous, that Alexandria where Mark, who
was but one of the Disciples, was Bishop, should be preferred before
Ephesus, where John the Evangelist taught and was Bishop, and before
Jerusalem, where not only James taught and died Bishop, but also
Christ Jesus our Lord and High Priest for ever ; by whom being
master, I hope, honour should be given to his chair, more than to the
chair of his chaplains.

I need to speak nothing, how that Paul telleth Peter's apostleship,
to concern rather circumcision or the Jews, and therefore properly
pertaineth not to us. Neither do I need to bring in Gregory the sixth*
Bishop of Rome, which was about the year of our Lord 600; who
plainly in his works doth write, that this title of primacy, and to be
head over all churches, under Christ, is a title meet and agreeing only
to antichrist, and therefore he calleth it a prophane, a mischievous,
and a horrible title.f Who should we believe now, if we will neither
believe Apostle, nor Pope?

If I should go about to tell how this name was first gotten by
Phocas, I should be too long. I purpose, God willing, to set it forth
at large in a work which I have begun of antichrist, if God for his

* Not Gregory VI. but Gregory I., who was the sixth bishop of Rome, and is usually

called Gregory the Great the author of the famous Pastoral Letters.

t This declaration of Gregory's is to be found in Dupin's Ecclesiastical History, vol. T.

in. Contre la Qualite de Patriarche t*iversel.

113

hiercy's sake, give the life to finish it. For this present therefore I
shall desire your Ladyship to take this in good part. If they will
needs have the Bishop of Rome to be acknowledged for the head of
the churchy then will I urge them that they shall give us a Bishop.
But they obtrude unto us a butcher rather, or a bitesheep, than a
bishop.

They brag of Peter's succession, of Christ's Vicar, this is always,
in their mouth ; but alas, how can we call him Christ's Vicar that
resisteth Christ, oppugneth his verity, persecuteth his people, and,
like a prelate, preferreth himself before God and man? How, or
wherein, do the Pope and Christ agree ? How supplieth he Peter's
ministry that boasteth of his succession ? Therefore to begin withal,
which I will use presently for a conclusion, if the papists will have the
Bishop of Rome supreme head of the church of Christ in earth, they
must afore they attain this, give us a Bishop in deed, and not in name.
For whosoever he be that wrll make this the bond of unity,
whatsoever the Bishop of Rome be ; surely this must needs follow,
that they do nothing else but teach a most wicked defection and
departing from Christ. But of this, if God lend me life, I purpose to
speak more at large hereafter.

Now, will 1 betake your Ladyship, unto the tuition of God our
Father, and Christ our only head, pastor, and keeper, to whom see
that you cleave by true faith, which dependeth only upon the word
of God ; which if you do follow as a lantern to your feet, and a light
to your steps, you shall then avoid darkness, and the dangerous deeps,
whereinto the papists are fallen by the just judgment of God, and seek
to bring us into the same danger with them, that the blind following
the blind, they both may fall into the ditch. Out of the which God
deliver them according to his good will, and preserve us for his
name sake, that we being in his light may continue therein, and walk
in it whilst it is day ; so shall the night never oppress us, we going
from light to light, from virtue to virtue, from faith to faith, from
glory to glory, by the governance of God's good spirit, which God
our Father give unto us all, for ever and ever, Amen.
From the King's Bench,
Your Brother in bonds, for the testimony of Jesus Christ,

JOHN BRADFORDE.
Q

TO HIS GOOD LADY VANE.

The true sense and sweet feeling of God's eternal mercies in
Christ Jesus, be ever more and more lively wrought in your heart by
the Holy Ghost, Amen.

I most heartily thank you, good Madam, for your comfortable
letters, and whereas you would be advertised what were best to be
done on your behalf, concerning your three questions : the truth is,
that the questions are never well seen nor answered, until the thing
whereof they enquire, be well considered : I mean until it be seen
how great an evil the thing is.

If it be once indeed in your heart perceived, upon probable and
pithy places gathered out of God's book, that there was never thing
upon the earth, so great and so much an adversary to God's true ser-
vice, to Christ's death, passion, priesthood, sacrifice, and kingdom, to
the ministry of God's word and sacraments, to the church of God,
to repentance, faith, and all true godliness of life, as that is whereof
the questionsf arise, as most assuredly it is indeed; then cannot a
Christian heart but so much the more abhor it, and all things that in
any point might seem to allow it, or any thing pertaining to the same,
by how much it hath the name of God's service.

Again, your Ladyship doth know, that as all is to be discom-
mended and avoided, which is followed or fled from in respect of
ourselves, in respect of avoiding Christ's Cross; so the end of all our
doings should be to godwards, to his glory, to our neighbours, to
edification and good example, whereof none can be given, in allowing
any of the three questions by you propounded. But because this
which 1 write now, is brief, and needeth the more consideration or
example ; as I doubt not of the one in you, so from me by God's
grace you shall receive the other shortly.} For I have already written
a little book of it which I will send unto you, in the which you shall

* Fox iii. 331. Cov. 334.

t These qaestions were concerning the mass, wherein she desired his judgment. Cov. 83.
j See an admonition and several letters upon this subject, post.

115

have your questions fully answered and satisfied, and therefore I omit
to write any more hereabouts presently ; beseeching God our Father
to guide you, as his dear child, with his spirit of wisdom, power, and
comfort, unto eternal life, that you may be strong and rejoice in him
and with his church, to carry Christ's Cross if he shall so think it
need. 1. Peter i. which is a thing to be desired, wished, and
embraced, if we looked on things after the judgment of God's word,
and tried them by that touchstone.

If you be accustomed to think on the brevity, vanity, and misery
of this life, and on the eternity, truth, and felicity, of everlasting
life ; if you look on things after their ends, and not after their
present appearance only ; if you use yourself to set God's presence,
power, and mercy, always before our eyes, to see them as God, by
every creature, would you should ; I doubt not but you shall find such
strength and comfort in the Lord, as you shall not be shaken with all
the power of satan. God's mercy in Christ be with you, and his good
spirit guide you for ever, Amen.

No. 35.*
TO THE LADY VANE.

As to mine own soul, 1 wish to your Ladyship grace and mercy,
from God our dear Father in Christ our Lord and Saviour.

I thank God that something he hath eased you, and mitigated his
fatherly correction in us both ; I would to God he had done so much,
in the behalf of the grief of the body to you, as he hath done to me.
For as for the soul, 1 trust you feel that which I pray God increase in
you, I mean his fatherly love, and grant that I may with you feel the
same in such degree as may please him ; I will not say as you feel,
least I should seem to ask too much at one time.

God doth often much more plentifully visit with the sense of his

* Fox iii. 3W. Cev. 335.

116

mercy, them that humble themselves under his mighty hand, and are
sore exercised, as you long have been ; than others, who to the face
of the world, have more shew and appearance. Therefore I wish as
I do, and that not only for mine own commodity, but also that I might
occasion you to the consideration of the goodness of God, which I
by your letters do well espy, which is indeed the high way whereby,
as God encreaseth his gifts, so sheweth he more lively his salvation.
Ps. L. Cvii.

1 have received God's blessing from you, the which I have partly
distributed unto my three fellow-prisoners, Master Ferrar, Master
Taylor, Master Philpot ; and the residue I will bestow upon four poor
souls, who are imprisoned in the common jail for religion also. As
for mine own part, if I had had need, I would have served my turn
also. But because I had not, nor, I thank God, have not, I have
been and will be your almoner, in such sort as I have already
advertised you. God reward you, and give you to find it spiritually
and corporally.

Because otherwise I cannot talk with you, therefore on this sort,
as occasion and opportunity will serve, I am ready to show my good
will and desire of your help and furtherance in the Lord to everlasting
life, whereunto God bring us shortly for his mercy's sake, Amen.

Good Madam, be thankful to God, as I hope you be, be earnest
in prayer, continue in reading and hearipg God's word ; and if God's
further cross come, as therein God doth serve his providence, for else
it shall not come unto you, so be certain the same shall turn to your
eternal joy and comfort, Amen.

JOHN BRADFORD.

No. 36.*
TO THE LADY VANE.

The everlasting and most merciful God, which is the Father of
our Saviour Jesus Christ, encrease in your Ladyship the knowledge

* Cov. 336.

: and love of his truth, with the gift of perseverance to continue
therein to the end, Amen.

Albeit at this present, I have no convenient leisure to write as
should be seeming 1 to send to your personage, yet considering your
gentle good will for God's cause towards me, I thought I might* be
the more bold to write something, although not in such sort as I
would, and perchance on your behalf might be looked for.

I doubt not but that your Ladyship considereth often with
yourself, that you are the child of God, and a citizen of heaven
by Christ, in whom God the Father, before the world was made, hath
chosen you of his own mere mercy, and not of your deserts done or
to be done. That you should with thankfulness call this to mind
often, thereby to excite and stir up yourself to the love of God in his
sight, and to all holiness of life in the sight of man, many things should
move and occasion you justly; as that you were born of Christian
parents, that the name of God was called upon you in baptism, which
is a sacrament of regeneration and adoption into the children of God,
with all other benefits which hitherto you have received.

Amongst which surely, your Ladyship should not think the
least, even the cross that God hath hitherto exercised you withal ; as
the loss of your good husband, lands, and other worldly commodi-
ties, &c. But above all, next to Christ crucified, this is most thank-
fully to be considered, that God, as he hath given you patience, I
trust, in your trouble ; so in these dangerous days he hath given you a
desire to know him, and to help them who for his sake be in trouble ;
for this I gather and evidently see by your twice sending to me, who
am not otherwise known to you but by name. I pray God I may be
heartily thankful to him for you, and so dispose your benefits as )*ou
desire. My best 1 will do by God's grace, but enough of this.

My desire is, good Madam, although I have no doubt, as I said,
but that you be diligent herein; that you would often call to mind
your state before God, I mean how that you be his child through
Christ; and this I would you did for divers causes. First, that you
might be quiet in conscience before him in this troublesome world,
as we never can be until this be something settled. Secondly, that

* Mought.

118

you might be careful to appear in his sight, and in the sight of mao,
as one of God's children. Thirdly, that you might in all troubles
boldly by prayer through Christ, go to him and call him by the name
of Father, with hope of his help always to your comfort. Fourthly,
that you might not be dismayed if trouble come unto you, as it cannot
be but more or less it must needs come ; for the world loveth none
but such as be his ; the devil can never suffer the children of God to
be quiet.

1 will not speak of our mortal and familiar enemy the flesh, which
ceaseth not to fight against the spirit. But God your father being
heartily called upon, in and through Christ j as be will with his holy
spirit help you, so will he give you the victory at the length to your
singular comfort; which 1 pray God you may daily more and more
feel, Amen. From the King's Bench in haste as appeareth.
Your Ladyship's own in Christ to command,

JOHN BRADFORD.

No. 37.*

TO HIS O\VN DEAR BROTHER, MASTER
LAWRENCE SAUNDERS,

Prisoner in the Marshalsea.

God's sweet peace in Christ be with you, my good Brother in the
Lord Jesus, and with all your concaptives, Amen.

I was letted this morning from musing on that, which I was pur-
posed to have thought on} by reason uf you, against whom 1 saw
myself guilty of negligence even in this point, that I would not
write, I should say, that 1 had not written unto you as yet. There-
fore out of hand in manner I prepared myself to purge myself

* Fox iii. 320. Cov. 310.

119

hereof; not that I will go about to excuse my fault, for that were
more to load me, but by asking 1 both God and you pardon, to get it
no more laid to my charge. Now, then, as I was thus purposing, and
partly doing, cometh there one with a letter from you, for the which
as I have cause to thank God and you, howbeit not so that you
should think I give not the whole to God, so I see myself more
blameworthy, for thus long holding my peace.

Howbeit good brother, in this I have given a demonstration to
you, to behold my negligence in all other things, and especially
in praying for you and for the Church of God ; who for my sins
and hypocrisy, hypocrisy indeed even in this writing, God deliver
me from it, have deserved to be punished.

Just is God, for we have deserved all kinds of plagues at his
hands : but yet merciful is he that will on this wise chastise us with
this world, ne cum mundo condemnemur. He might otherwise
have punished us, I mean, he might have for other causes cast us
into prison, me especially, than for his gospel and word's sake ;
praised therefore be his name, which voucheth us worthy this honour.
Ah, good God, forgive us our sins, and work by this thy fatherly
correction on us, on me especially, effectually to love thee and thy
Christ; and with joyfulness unto the end, to carry thy cross through
thick and thin. Always set before our eyes, not this gallows on earth
if we will stick to thee, but the gallows in hell if we deny thee, or
swerve from that we have professed.

Ah, good brother, if I could always have God, his majesty, mercy,
heaven, hell, &c. before mine eyes, then should I obdurare as Paul
writeth of Moses. Heb.xi. Obduravit, inquit, perinde quasi vidisset
um qui est invisibilis. Pray for me, as I know you do, and give
thanks also; for, in Domino spero non mutabo. Si ambulavero per
vallem umbrae mortis, non timebo quia tu Domine mecum es, Amen.
I think we shall be shortly called forth ; for now legern habent,
et secundum legem, &c. otherwise will they not reason with us ; and
I think their sheet anchor will be to have us to subscribe ; the which
thing, if we do, though with this condition, so far as the thing sub"
scribed to repugneth not against God's word, yet, this will be
offensive. Therefore let us vadere plane, and so saws ; I mean, let us
all confess that we are no changelings, but reipsa are the same

120

we were in religion, and therefore cannot subscribe, except we will
dissemble both with God, ourselves, and the world.

Hsectibi scribo, frater mi charissime in Domino, lam legam tuani
epistolam. Ah, brother, that I had practicam tecum scientiam in
vite ilia quam ping-is; roga Dominum ut ita vere sentiam, Amen.
God make me thankful for you. Salutant te omnes concaptivi, et gra-
tias Domino pro te agunt; idem tu facias pro nobis, et ores ut, &c.
Your Brother, in the Lord Jesus, to live and die with you,

JOHN BRADFORD.

No. 38.*
TO MASTER LAWRENCE SAUNDERS.

My g'ood brother, I beseech our good God and gracious Father,
always to continue his gracious favour and Iqve towards us, and by
us, as by instruments of his grace, to work his glory, and confusion
of his adversaries. Ex ore infantium et lactentium, fundet laudem
ad destruendurn inimicum, See. Amen.

I have perused your letters to myself and have read them to
others. For answer whereof, if I should write what Dr. Taylor and
Master Philpot do think, then must 1 say, that they think the salt
sent unto us by your friend* is unseasonable. And indeed I think
they both will declare it heartily, if they should crme before them.

As for me, if you would know what I think, my good and most
dear brother Laurence, because I am so sinful and so polluted, f the
Lord knoweth I lie not, with many grievous sins, which yet I hope
are washed away sanguine Christi nostri, I neither can nor would be
consulted withal, but as a cipher in agrime. Howbeit to tell you how
and what I mind, take this for a sum ; I pray God in no case I may
seek myself. And, indeed, I thank God therefore, I purpose it

* Fox iii. 320. Cov. 321. f Conspurcate.

j This friend moved him to subscribe to the papists' articles with this condition,
so far as they were not against God's word, being indeed clean contrary to it; and yet
shortly after he valiantly suffered death, for refusing the same. Cov. 321. Fox 320.

121

not. Quod reliquum est Domino Deo meo committo, et spero iri
ilium, quod ipse faciet juxta hoc: jacta in Dominum curam, &c.
Omnis cura vestra conjecta sit in ilium, &c. Revela Domino viam
tuam, et spera, &c. Sperantem in Domino misericordia circumdabit.

I did not, nor do not know, but by your letters, quod eras, we
shall come, coram nobis. Mine own heart, stick still to dabitur vobis :
fidelis enim est Dominus, dabit in tentatione eventum quo possumus"
sufferre. Novit Dominus pios e tentatione eripere, &c. O utinam pius
ego essem. Novit Dominus in die tribulationis sperantes in se, &c. "
Nahum i.

I cannot think that they will offer any kind of indifferent, or mean
conditions; for if we will not adorare bestiam, we never shall be
delivered, but against their will, think I. God our Father and gracious
Lord, make perfect the good he hath begun in us. Faciet mi frater,
charissime frater, quern in intimis visceribus habeo ad convivendurri
et commoriendum. () si tecum essem. Pray for me mine own heart-
root in the Lord.

For ever your own,

JOHN BRADFORD.

No. 39.*

TO THE WORSHIPFUL SIR WILLIAM FITZ-
WILLIAMS 5 t

Then being Knight Marshal of the King's Bench.

The peace of God proper to his people, the Holy Ghost work
daily and deeply in your heart, through Jesus Christ our Lord,
Amen.

I thank my Lord and God, through his Son our Mediator and
Saviour, for his mercies and graces given to your mastership, the

* Cov. 386.

t He was a good maii, and a lover of the gospel. Strype, Eccl. Mem. vol. iii. pt. 1. 224'.

which I beseech his goodness to increase in you continually, to your
everlasting comfort in him. By his mercies towards you, I mean not
in your lands, possessions, offices, natural wisdom, rights, health, form,
&c. which indeed be gifts of God given to you of his mercy without
your deserts, and therefore should HE be daily of you praised for the
same, as I doubt not but he is; for else your ingratitude would pro-
voke him to punish you in them and by them, if he love you. But
I mean his mercies towards you, in the knowledge and love of his
truth in religion.

The which benefit in that you, amongst the not many of your
estate and condition, as St. Paul witnesseth, have received as a very
testimonial of your election in Christ, I would be sorry that you
should need any such as I am, to move you to thankfulness; for I am
not in a mammering whether you be thankful to God for this great
mercy, which is much more to be esteemed than all that ever you
have; I humbly beseech God in his Christ, to increase the same in
you to the very end. And that by me he might do the same in some
part, I thought it good and also my bounden duty, deeply deserved
on your behalf towards me, for the which I beseech the Lord to
reward you, to send to you this treatise* of the doings of Master
Ridley at Oxford, concerning his disputation about the sacrament. I
know that there have gone divers copies abroad, but none of them
were, as I know this is; for I have translated it out of that copy in
Latin which was corrected with his own hand, which came unto me
not without his own consent, and therefore dare I be bold to say, that
this hath not before been seen on this sort.

In reading whereof you shall well see this I speak to be most
true; and also that which causeth me to suppress commendations of
the thing, the excellency and worthiness thereof I mean, because I
think I cannot speak any thing so worthily, as undoubtedly these his
doings do deserve. Unto your Mastership I send them as a token of
my duty towards you, thereby to declare, that as you deserve much of
me, so I would shew myself willing to recompense the same if I
could ; but in that I cannot, and also your doing it simply in respect
of GOD and his cause, I will according to your expectation leave the

* This treatise is given by Fox at full length, vol. iii. 61.

123

recompense unto him, in the mean season praying him that of his
goodness he would, as encrease the knowledge and love of his truth
in you, so strengthen you after your vocation, both purely to walk
and manfully to confess his gospel, if he shall think it needful to call
you to that honour, for surely of all honours it is the greatest to suffer
any thing for Christ's sake

Most happy may that man think himself that hath any thing for
his cause to lose. As he shall be sure to find for his own part eternal
felicity and honour endless ; so shall his posterity, even temporally,
prove this to be most true. For God's sake therefore, right worshipful
Mir, consider well this gear, and weigh it not as the world and your
mother-wit will move you to do, but as the word of God doth teach you ;
there shall you see this I speak of, to be matter of much mirth, joy, and
glory, though to the world it seem clean contrary. God's good spirit
always guide you tohis glory, and give you the spirit of prayer, con-
tinually to pray that God never further tempt you, than he will make
you able to bear, Amen.

In that this copy is not so fair written as 1 wish and would have
had it, I shall desire you to consider where I am, and how I cannot
have things so done as I would, and therefore you have it as may be,
when it may not be as I would it were and should be. From the
King's Bench.

Your humble,

JOHN BRADFORDE.

No. 40.*

TO MRS. M. H.

A godly gentlewoman, comforting her in that common heaviness
and godly sorrow, which the feeling and sense of sin worketh
in God's children.

I humbly and heartily pray the everliving good God and father
of mercy, to bless and keep your heart and mind in the knowledge

* Fox iii. 327. Cov. 296.

124

and love of his truth, and of his Christ, through the inspiration and
working of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Although I have no doubt, but that you prosper and go forwards
daily in the way of godliness, more and more drawing towards per-
fection, and have no need of any thing that I can write, yet because
my desire is, that you might be more fervent and persevere to the end ;
I could not but write something unto you, beseeching you both often
and diligently, to call unto your mind as a mean to stir you hereunto,
yea, as a thing which God most straitly requireth you to believe, that
you are beloved of God, and that he is your dear father in, through,
and for Christ and his death's sake. This love and tender kindness
of God towards us in Christ is abundantly herein declared, in that he
hath to the godly work of creation of this world, made us after his
image, redeemed us being lost, called us into his church, sealed us
with his mark and sign manual of baptism, kept and conserved us
all the days of our life ; fed, nourished, defended, and most fatherly
chastised us ; and now hath kindled in our hearts the sparkles of his
fear, faith, love, and knowledge of his Christ and truth ; and therefore
we lament, because we lament no more our unthankfulness, our
failings, our diffidence, and wavering, in things wherein we should be
most certain.

All these things we should use, as means to confirm our faith of
this, that God is our God and Father, and to assure us that he loveth
us as our father in Christ ; to this end, t say, we should use the things
before touched, especially in that of all things God requireth this
faith and persuasion of his fatherly goodness, as his chiefest service.
For before he ask any thing of us, he saith ; I am the Lord thy God,
giving himself, and then all he hath to us, to be our own. And this
he doth in respect of himself, of his own mercy and truth, and not
in respect of us, for then were grace no grace. In consideration
whereof, when he saith, Thou shall have none other Gods but me,
thou shalt love me with all thy heart, Sec. ; though of duty we are
bound to accomplish all that he requireth, and are culpable and guilty
if we do not the same ; yet he rrquireth not these things further of
us, than to make us more in love, and more certain of this his cove-
nant, that he is our Lord and God. In certainty whereof, as he hath
given this whole world to serve to our need and commodity, so hath

125

he given his Son Christ Jesus, and in Christ, himself to be a pledge
and gage, whereof the Holy Ghost doth no\v and then, give us some
taste and sweet smell to our eternal joy.

Therefore, as I said, because God is your Father in Christ, and
requireth of you straitly to believe it, give yourself to obedience,
although you do it not with such feeling as you desire. First, must
faith go before, and then feeling will follow. If our imperfection,
frailty, and many evils, should be occasions whereby satan would
have us to doubt, as much as we can Jet us abhor that suggestion, as
of all others most pernicious ; for so indeed it is. For when we stand
in a doubt whether God be our Father, we cannot be thankful to God,
we cannot heartily pray, or think any thing we do acceptable to
God ; we cannot love our neighbours, and give over ourselves to care
for them, and do for them as we should do; and therefore satan is
most subtle hereabouts, knowing full well that if we doubt of God's
fatherly eternal mercies towards us through Christ, we cannot please
God, or do any thing as we should do to man. Continually casteth
he into our memories our imperfection, frailty, falls, and offences, that
we should doubt of God's mercy and favour towards us.

Therefore, my good Sister, we must not be sluggish herein, but
as satan laboureth to loosen our faith, so must we labour to fasten it,
by thinking on the promises and covenant of God in Christ's Blood,
namely, that God is our God with all that even he hath ; which cove-
nant dependeth and hangeth upon God's own goodness, mercy, and
truth only; and not on our obedience or worthiness in any point, for
then should we never be certain. Indeed God requireth of us
obedience and worthiness, but not that thereby we might be his
children and he our father ; but because he is our father and we his
children, through his own goodness in Christ, therefore requireth he
faith and obedience. Now if we want this obedience and worthiness
which he requireth, should we doubt whether he be our father ? Nay,
that were to make our obedience and worthiness the cause, and so to
put Christ out of place, for whose sake God is our Father. But rather
because he4s our Father, and we feel ourselves to want such things as
he requireth, we should be stirred up to a shamefacedness and
blushing, because we are not as we should be ; and thereupon should
we take occasion to go to our Father in prayer on this manner.

126

4 Dear Father, thou of thine own mercy in Christ, hast chosen me
to be thy child, and therefore thou wouldest I should be brought
into thy church, and faithful company of thy children, wherein thou
hast kept rne hitherto, thy name therefore be praised. Now I see
myself to want faith, hope, love, &c. which thy children have, and
thou requires! of me, wherethrough the devil would have me to
doubt, yea utterly to despair of thy fatherly goodness, favour, and
mercy. Therefore I come to thee as to my merciful father through
thy dear Son Jesus Christ, and pray thee to help me good Lord, help
me and give me faith, hope, love, &c. and grant that thy Holy Spirit
may be with me for ever, and more and more to assure me that thou
art my father ; that this merciful covenant thou madest with me in
respect of thy grace, in Christ and for Christ, and not in respect of
any my worthiness, is always true to me, &c.'

On this sort, I say, you must pray and use your cogitations, when
satan would have you to doubt of salvation. He doth all he can to
prevail herein; do you all you can, to prevail herein against him.
Though you feel not as you would, yet doubt not, but hope beyond
all hope, as Abraham did. Faith, always, as I said, goeth before
feeling. As certain as God is Almighty, as certain as God is merciful,
as certain as God is true, as certain as Christ was crucified, is risen,
and sitteth on the right hand of the Fatl>er; ascertain as this is
God's commandment, I am the Lord thy God; so certain ought you to
be that God is your Father. As you are bound to have none other
Gods but him, so are you no less bound to believe that God is yonr
God. What profit should it be to you to believe this to be true ; 1 am
the Lord thy God, to others, if you should not believe that this is
true lo yourself? The devil believeth on this sort. And whatsoever
it be that would move you to doubt of this, whether God be your God
through Christ, that same cometh undoubtedly of the devil. Where-
fore did God make you, but because he loved you ? Might not he have
made you blind, dumb, deaf, lame, frantic, &c.? Might not he have
made you a Jew, a Turk, a Papist, &c. ? And why hath he not done
so? Verily, because he loved you. And why did he love you?
What was there in you to make him to love you? Surely nothing
moved him to love you, and therefore to make you, and so hitherto to
keep you, but his own goodness in Christ. Now then in that his

127

goodness in Christ still remaineth as much as it was; that is, even as
great as himself, for it cannot be lessened, how should it be but that
he is your God and Father? Believe this, believe this, my good Sister,
for God is no changeling, them whom he loveth he loveth to the end.

Cast, therefore yourself wholly upon him, and think without all
wavering that you are God's child, that you are a citizen of heaven,
that you are the daughter of God, the temple of the Holy Ghost, &c.
If hereof you be assured, as you ought to be, then shall your con-
science be quieted, then shall you lament more and more, that you
want many things which God loveth ; then shall you labour to be holy
in soul and body, then shall you go about that God's glory may shine
in all your words and works ; then shall you not be afraid what
man can do unto you, then shall you have such wisdom to answer
your adversaries, as shall serve to their shame and your comfort ; then
shall you be certain that no man can touch one hair of your head,
further than shall please your good Father to your everlasting joy;
then shall you be most certain that God as your good Father, will be
more careful for your children, and make better provision for them, if
all you have were gone, than you can ; then shall you, being assured,
I say, of God's favour towards you, give over yourself wholly to help
and care for others that be in need ; then shall you contemn this life,
and desire to be at home with your good and sweet Father; then
shall you labour to mortify all things that would spot either soul or
body. All these things spring out of this certain persuasion and
faith, that God is our Father, and we are his children by Christ
Jesus. All things should help our faith herein ; but satan goeth
about in all things to hinder us.

Therefore let us use earnest and hearty prayer; let us often
remember this covenant, I am the Lord thy God ; let us look upon
Christ and his precious blood, shed for the obsignation and confirma-
tion of his covenant. Lei us remember all the free promises of the
gospel: let us set before us God's benefits generally in making this
world, in ruling it, in governing it, in teaching and keeping his
church, 8cc. Let us set before us God's benefits particularly, how he
hath made us creatures after his image; how he hath made us of
perfect limbs, form, beauty, memory, &c. ; how he hath made us
Christians, and given us a right judgment in his religion ; how he

128

hath ever since we \ve e born, blessed, kept, nourished, and defended
us; how he hath often beaten, chastised, and fatherly corrected us;
how he hath spared us, and doth now spare us, giving us time, space,
place, grace. This if you do, and use earnest prayer, and so fly from
all things which might wound your conscience, giving yourself to
diligence in your vocation ; you shall find at the length that, which
God grant to me with you, a sure certainty of salvation, without all
such doubt as may trouble the peace of conscience, to your eternal
joy and comfort, Amen, Amen.

Your's to use in Christ,

JOHN BRADFORD.

No. 41.*

TO THE SAME PERSON, FULL OF GODLY
COMFORT.

The good spirit of God which guideth his children, be with you,
my good Sister in the Lord for ever, Amen.

Although, as I to you, so you unto me in person are unknown,
yet to him whom we desire to please, we are not only in persons, but
also in hearts known and thoroughly seen. And therefore, as for
his sake, you would by that you sent, of me be perceived how that in
God you bear to me a good will ; so, that I to you might be seen in
God, to bear you the like, 1 send to you these few words in writing,
wishing that in all your doings and speech, yea even in your very
thoughts, you would labour to feel that they are all present and open
before the sight of God* be they good or bad. This cogitation often
had in mind, and prayer made to God for the working of his spirit,
thereby as a mean, you shall at the length feel more comfort and
commodity, than any man can know but such as be exercised
therein. Howbeit this is to be added, that in thinking yourself and
all that you have, and do, to be in the sight of God: this, I say, is

* Fox iii. 329. Cov. 303.

129

to be added that you think his sight is the sight, not only of a
Lord, but rather of a father, who tendereth more your infirmities,
than you can tender the infirmities of any your children. Yea, when
in yourself, you see a motherly affection to your little one that is
weak ; let the same be unto you a trace, to train you to see the
unspeakable kind affection, of God your Father towards you.

And therefore upon the consideration of your infirmities and
natural evils, which continually cleave unto us, take occasion to go to
God as your Father, through Christ, and before his merciful heart lay
open your infirmities and evils, with desire of pardon and help after
his good will and pleasure, but in his time and not when you will,
and by what means he will, not by that way you would ; in the
mean season hang on hope of his fatherly goodness, and surely you
shall never be ashamed. For if a woman that is natural cannot
finally forget the child of her womb, be sure God, who is a father
supernatural, cannot, nor will not forget you. Yea, if a woman could
be so forgetful, yet God himself saith, he will not be so.

This opinion, yea rather certain persuasion of God your Father
through Christ, see that you cherish ; and by all means, as well of
diligent consideration of his benefits, as of his loving corrections,
whether they be inward or outward, see that you nourish ; knowing
for certain that as the devil goeth about nothing so much, as to bring
you in a doubt, whether you be God's child or no; so whatsoever
shall move you to admit that dubitation, be assured the same to come
from the devil. If you feel in yourself not only the want of good
things, but also plenty of evil, do not therefore doubt whether you be
God's child in Christ or no.

For if for your goodness, or illness sake, which you feel or feel
not, you should believe or doubt, then should you make Christ Jesus,
for whose sake only God is your Father, either nothing, or else but a
half Christ.

But rather take occasion of your wants in good, and of your
plenty in evil, to go to God as to your Father, and to pray him
that inasmuch as he commandeth you to believe that he is your
God and Father, so he would give you his good spirit, that you might
feel the same, and live as his child to his glory. And cease not upon

130

such prayers, to look for comfort in GocTs good time, still hoping the
best, and rejecting all dubitation, and so all evil works, words, and
cogitations, as the Lord shall enable you by his good spirit and grace;
which I beseech him to give unto you my good Sister for ever.

And further 1 pray you, that as he hath made you to be a helper
unto your husband, so you would endeavour yourself therein to
shew the same as well in soul as body: and beg grace of God, that
your endeavours may be effectual to both your comforts in Christ.
Amen.

JOHN BRADFORDE.

No. 42.*
TO HIS GOOD SISTER, M. H.

The peace of God, with increase of faith, and feeling of his
mercy to your comfort in Christ, the Holy Ghost wake in your heart,
now and for ever, Amen.

As it is much to my comfort that God hath given you such a
love and zeal to his truth ; so I exhort you, my good Sister, diligently
to labour, as by continual reading and meditation of God's holy
word, so by earnest prayer and other godly exercises, to maintain and
encrease the same; that by the feeling of God's gracious spirit
working in you such good fruits as witnesses of your faith, you may
grow in strength thereof, and certainty of God's favour, and good will
towards you.

For above all things, of this I would have you to be most assured,
that you are beloved of God ; that you are his dear child, and shall
be for evermore through Christ, in whom you are by faith, and he in
you. Out of this certainty, the cause whereof is God's own good-
ness, grace, and truth, springeth true love, and loving fear, and

Cov. 426.

131

obedience to God continually, and in all thing's. Where it is, I mean
this faith, certainty, and persuasion of God's eternal goodness to you
in Christ, there no sins are imputed to you, or laid to your charge to
condemnation, nor shall be: though for correction sake, now and
then, your heavenly father visit them fatherly, or rather you for them.
Where it is not, there is nothing 1 , be it never so well done, that
pleaselh God.

Labour therefore for this certainty of faith, through Christ.
Whensoever you doubt, you heap sin upon sin. If satan, your con-
science, or God's law, do accuse you, confess your fault, and hide it
not before the Lord. But when they would infer, that because of
your sin, you are condemned, you are cast away; then answer them
that it is but their office to accuse and witness, not to give
sentence and judge; it only appertaineih to God to give judg-
ment. Paul saith, it is God that absolveth, who then shall
condemn us?

God himself promiseth, before he demand any thing of us, that
he is our Lord and our God ; and are not they happy who have the
Lord for their God ? Is he God to any whose sins he remitteth not ?
Through Christ he is our Father, and therefore we are commanded so
to call him ; and can there want any fatherly kind ness in him towards
us, who be his children ? No, verily. Therefore, be sure, and waver
not of God's love and favour towards you in Christ. The cause of
his love is his own goodness and mercy; this lasting for ever, his
love lastcth for ever. How can you then but be quiet and happy ?
Use this gear to comfort the weak conscience, and not to unbridle the
mighty affections of the flesh, or old Adam, which must have other
meat.

Your own in the Lord,

JOHN BRADFORD.

132

No. 43.*

TO A FAITHFUL WOMAN

In her heaviness and trouble; most comfortable for all those that
are afflicted and broken hearted, for their sins.

Ah, my dearly beloved, and most dearly beloved in the Lord,
how pensive is my heart presently for you by reason of the fearful
judgment of our God, xvhich even now 1 heard for truth by Richard
Proude. God, our good Father, for his great mercies' sake in
Christ, have mercy upon us ; and with his eternal consolation so com-
fort you, my dear heart, as I desire, in my most need, so to be
comforted of him. Yea, he will comfort you (my dear Sister) only
cast your care upon him, and he never can nor will forsake you,
Amen.

The cause why since the receipt of your letter, 1 have not
sent unto you, this bringer can tell you; yea if 1 had not heard for
truth of this heavy chance, as yet you had not thus soon heard from
me. For I began of late a piece of work for your comfort, whereof I
send you now but a part, because my heart is heavy for your sake, and
I cannot be quiet till I hear how you do in this cross, wherein, my
dear Sister, I beseech you to be of good comfort, and to be no more
discouraged than was David at Absalom's death ; the good Jonathan
at his father Saul's fearful end; Adam at that of Cain; Noah of
Cham: Jacob of Reuben, and the godly Bathsheba, at the terrible
end of her father, oral least her grandfather, Achitophel.

Not that I utterly condemn and judge your Father,f for I leave it
to God, but because the fact, of itself, declaretli God's secret and fear-
ful judgment and justice, towards him and all men, and his great
mercy towards us. admonishing all the world how that he is to be
dreaded and feared, and satan not to sleep; and as his children,
especially, how weak and miserable we be of ourselves, and how happy
we are in him, who have him to be our father, protector, and keeper
and shall live for evermore, so that no evil shall touch us, further than
shall make to our father's glory, and to our everlasting commodity.

* Fox iii. 329. Cov. 322.
f This was most probably written to a daughter of Sir James Hales.

133

And therefore let this judgment of God, be an occasion to stir us
up, more carefully to walk before God, and unfeignedly to cast our
whole care upon our dear Father, who never can nor will leave us,
for his calling- and gifts be such, that he can never repent him of them.
Rom. xi. Whom lie loveth, he loveth to the end ; none of his chosen
can perish ; of which number 1 know you are, my dearly beloved
Sister. God increase the faith thereof daily more and more in you;
may he give unto you to hang 1 wholly on him, and on his providence
and protection : for whoso dwelleth under that secret thing 1 , and
help of the Lord, he shall be cocksure for evermore. He that dwelleth,
I say ; for if we be flitters and not dwellers, as was 'Lot a flitter from
Segor,* where God promised him protection, if he had dwelled there
still; we shall remove to our loss, as he did into the mountains.
Gen. xix.

Dwell therefore, that is, trust, and that finally unto the end, in the
Lord, (my dear Sister) and you shall be as Mount Sion. As moun-
tains compass Jerusalem, so doth the Lord all his people. How then
can he forget you, which are as the apple of his eye, for his dear
Son's sake ? Ah, dear heart, that I were now but one half hour with
you, to he a Simon to help to carry your cross with you ; God send
you some good Simon, to be with you and help you. I will be a
Simon absent to carry, as 1 can bear, your cross, which you have pro-
mised not to hide from me ; Oh, that God would heartily touch your
husband's heart, so that he would get him beyond the seas, although
by that means I should never more corporally see you, as indeed I
fear it, I fear it, but God's good will be done. I have written to him,
God for his mercy's sake turn it to your and his good, Amen.

But to come again to that whence 1 have digressed, whereunto you
occasion me also by your letters, complaining to me of the blindness
of your mind, and of the troubles you feel through talk with some.

My dearly beloved, God make you thankful for that which
God hath given unto you ; may he open your eyes to see what
and how great benefits you have received, that you may be less
covetous or rather impatient, for so (1 fear me) it should be called,
and more thankful. Have you not received at his hands sight to see
your blindness, and thereto a desirous and seeking heart to see where
he lieth in the mid-day, as his dear spouse speaketh of herself in the

* The City Zoar is so written in the Vulgate.

134

Canticles? Oh, Joyce, my good Joyce, what a gift is this? Many
have some sight, but none this sobbing- and sighing-, none this
seeking 1 which you have, 1 know, bt such as he hath married unto-
him in his mercies. You are not content to kiss his feet with the
Magdalen, but you would be kissed even with the kiss of his month,
Canticles \. You would see his face with Moses, forgetting how he
biddeth us seek his face. Psalm xxvii. Yea, and that tor ever.
Psalm cv. Which signifieth BO such sight as you desire, to be in this
pre>ent life, which would see God now face to face; whereas he
cannot be seen, but covered under something, yea, sometime in that
which is (as you would say) clean contrary to God; as to see his
mercy in his auger. In bringing us to hell, faith seeth him to bring
us to heaven; in darkness it beholdeth brightness; in hiding Ins
face from us, it beholdeth his merry countenance. How did Job see
God, but (as you would say) under satac's cloak? For, who cast the
fire from heaven upon his goods ? who overthrew his house, am}
stirred up men to take away his cattle, but satan? and yet Job pierced
through all these, and saw God's work, saying, The Lord hath
given, the Lord hath taken away, ;c.

In reading of the psalms how often do you see that David, in the
shadow of death, saw God's sweet love? And so, my dearly
beloved, I see that you in your darkness anil dimness, by faith do see
clarity and brightness. By faith, I say, because faith is of things
absent, of things hoped for, of things which I appeal to your con-
science, whether you desire or not. And can you desire any thing
which you know not ? And is there of heavenly things any other
true knowledge than by faith?

Therefore (my dear heart) be thankful, for (before God I write it)
you have great cause. Ah, my Joyce, how happy is the state
therein you are? Verily you are even in the blessed state of God's
children; for they mourn, and do r.ot you so? And that not for the
worldly weal, but for spiritual riches, faith, hope, charity, &c. Do you
not huuger and thirst for righteousness? And 1 pray you, saith not
Christ who cannot lie, tlvat happy are such? How should God wipe
away the tears from your eyes in heaven, if now on earth ye shed no
tear>? How could heaven bo a place of re^t, if on earth ye find it ?
How could ye desire to be at home, if in yoar joiuney you found no

135

grief? How could you so often call upon God, and talk with him, as
I know you do, if your enemy should sleep ail tlie day long? How
should you elsewhere be made like unto Christ, I mean in joy, if in
sorrow you sobbed not with him? If you will have joy and felicity,
you must first needs feel sorrow and misery. If you will go to heaven,
you must sail by hell. If you would embrace Christ in his robes,
you must not think scorn of him in his rags. If you would sit at
Christ's table in his kingdom, you must first abide with him in his
temptations. If you will drink of his cup of glory, forsake not his
cup of ignominy.

Can the head corner stone be rejected, and the other more base
stones in God's building be in this world set by? You are one of his
lively stones; be content therefore to be hewn and snagged at, th;t
you might be made more meet to be joined to your fellows, which
suffer with you satan's snatches, the world's wounds, contempt of
conscience, and threats of the flesh, wherethrough they are enforced
to cry, Oh wretches that we are, who shall deliver us ? You are of
<jod'scorn, fear not therefore the flail, the fan, millstone, nor oven.
You are one of Christ's lambs, look therefore to be fleeced, haled at,
and even slain.

If you were a market-sheep, you should go in more fat and
grassy pasture. If you were for the fair, you should be stall-fed,
and want no weal. But because you are of God's own occupying,
therefore you must pasture on the bare common, abiding the storms
and tempests that will fall. Happy, and twice happy are you (my
dear Sister) that God haleth you whither you would not, that you
might come whither you would. Suffer a little and be still. Let satan
rage against you, let the world cry out, let your conscience accuse
you, let the law load you and press you down, yet shall they not
prevail, for Christ is Emanuel, that is, God with us. If' God
be with *, who can be against" us f The Lord is with you;
your Father cannot forget you; your spouse loveth you. If the
waves and surges arise, cry with Peter, Lord, I perish; and he will
put out his hand and help you. Cast out your anchor of hope, and
it will not cease for all the stormy surgc-s, till it take hold on the rock
of God's truth and mercy.

136

Think not that he who hath given you so many thing's corporally,
as inductions of spiritual and heavenly mercies, and that without your
deserts or desire, can deny you any spiritual comfort, desiring 1 it. For
if he give to desire, he will give you to have and enjoy the thing-
desired. The desire to have, and the going about to ask, ought to
certify your conscience, that they he his earnest of the thing which,
you asking, he will give you ; yea, before you ask, and whilst you are
about to ask, he will grant the same, as Isaiah saith, to his glory and
your eternal consolation. He that spared not his own Son for you,
will not, nor cannot think any thing too good for you, my heartily
beloved.

If he had not chosen you (as most certainly he hath) he would
not have so called you ; he would never have justified you ; he would
never have so glorified you with his gracious gifts, which I know,
praised be his name therefore ; he would never have so exercised
your faith with temptations, as he hath done and doth ; if (I say) he
had not chosen you. If he hath chosen you (as doubtless dear heart,
he hath done in Christ, for in you I have seen his earnest, and before
me and to me you could not deny it, I know both where and when)
if, I say, he hath chosen you, then neither can you nor ever shall you
perish: for if you fall, he putteth under his hand. You shall not lie
still ; so careful is Christ your keeper over you. Never was mother
so mindful over her child, as he is over you, and hath not he always
been so?

Speak, woman, when did he finally forget you? And will he
now, trow you, in your most need do otherwise, you calling upon him,
and desiring to please him? Ah (my Joyce) think you God to be
mutable? Is he a changeling? Doth not he love to the end them
whom he loveth ? Are not his gifts and calling such, that he cannot
repent him of them? For else were he no God. If you should
perish, then wanted he power; for I am certain his will towards you
is not to be doubted of. Hath not the spirit, which is the spirit of
truth told you so ? And will you now hearken with Eve to the lying
spirit, which would have you, not to despair (no, he goeth more craftily
to work, howbeit to that end, if you should give ear unto it, which
God forbid) but to doubt and stand in a mammering, and so should

137

you never truly love God, but serve him of a servile fear, lest he
should cast you off for your unworthiness and unthankfulness ; as
though your thankfulness or worthiness were any cause with God,
why he hath chosen you or will finally keep you.

Ah, mine own dear heart, Christ only, Christ only, and his mercy
and truth. In him is the cause of your election. This Christ, this
mercy, this truth of God remaineth for ever, is certain for ever; I
say, for ever. If an angel from heaven should tell you the contrary,
accursed be he. Your thankfulness and worthiness are fruits and
effects of your election ; they are no causes. These fruits and effects
shall be so much more fruitful and effectual, by how much you waver
not.

Therefore (my dearly beloved) arise, and remember from whence
you are fallen. You have a shepherd who never slumbereth nor
sleepeth; no man nor devil can pull you out of his hands. Night
and day he commandethhis angels to keep you. Have you forgotten
what I read to you out of the psalms, the Lord is my shepherd, I can
want nothing. Do you not know that God sparred* Noah in the ark on
the outside, so that he could not get out? So hath he done to you
(my good Sister), so hath he done to you. Ten thousand shall fall
on your right hand and twenty thousand on your left, yet no evil shall
touch you. Say boldly therefore, many a time from my youth up
have they fought against me, but they have not prevailed ; no, nor
never shall prevail, for the Lord is round about his people. And who
are the people of God but such as hope in him ? Happy are they that
hope in the Lord, and you are one of those, my dear heart, for I am
assured you have hoped in the Lord ; I have your words to shew most
manifestly, and 1 know they were written unfeignedly. I need not
to say, that even before God you have simply confessed to me, and
that oftentimes, no less. And if once you had this hope, as you doubt-
less had it, though now you feel ft not, yet shall you feel it again ;
for the anger of the Lord lasteth but a moment, but his mercy
lasteth for ever. Tell me (my clear heart) who hath so weakened
you ? Surely not a persuasion which came from him who called
you. For why should you waver and be so heavy hearted ? Whom
look you on ? On yourself? On your worthiness? On your thank-

* Shut-up. Sax.

138

fulness ? On that which God requireth of you ; as faith, hope, love,
fear, joy, &c. ? Then can you not but waver indeed : for what have
you as God requireth ? Believe you, hope you, love you, &c. as much
as you should do ? No, no, nor ever can in this life. Ah, my dearly
beloved, have you so soon forgotten that which ever should be had
in memory? Namely, that when you would and should be certain
and quiet in conscience, then should your faith burst throughout all
things; not only that you have in you, or else are in heaven, earth, or
hell, until it come to Christ crucified, and the eternal sweet mercies
and goodness of God in Christ? Here, here is the resting place:
here is your spouse's bed ; creep into it, and in your arms of faith
embrace him. Bewail your weakness, your unworthiness, your diffi-
dence, &c. and you shall see he will turn to you. What said I, you shall
see? Nay, 1 should have said, you shall feel he will turn to you.
You know that Moses, when he went into the mount to talk with God,
entered into a dark cloud; and Elijah had his face covered wlien
God passed by. Both these dear friends of God heard God, but
they saw him not; but you would be preferred before them. See
now (my dear heart) how covetous you are. Ah ! be thankful, be
thankful. But God be praised your covetousness is Moses' covetous-
ness. Well, with him you shall be satisfied: But when? Forsooth
when he shall appear. Here is not the time of seeing, but as it were,
in a glass. Isaac was deceived, because he was not content with hearing
.only.

Therefore to make an end of these many words, wherewith I fear
me I do but trouble you from better exercises; inasmuch as you are
indeed the child of God, elect in Christ before the beginning of all
times; inasmuch as you are given to the custody of Christ, as one of
God's most precious jewels; inasmuch as Christ is faithful, and
thereto hath all power, so that you shall never perish; no, one hair
of your head shall not be lost : I beseech you, I pray you, I desire
you, I crave at your hands with all my very heart ; I ask of you with
hand, pen, tongue and mind, in Christ, through Christ, for Christ,
for his name, blood, mercies, power, and truth's sake (my most
entirely beloved Sister) that you admit no doubting of God's final
mercies towards you, howsoever you feel yourself; but complain
to God, and crave of him, as of your tender and dear Father, all
things; and in that time which shall be most opportune, you shall

139

find and feel, far above that your heart, or the heart of any creature
can conceive, to your eternal joy. Amen, Amen, Amen.

The good Spirit of God always keep us as his dear children ;
may he comfort you, as I desire to be comforted, rny dearly beloved,
for evermore. Amen. The good spirit of God always keep us as
his dear children, he comfort you, as I desire to be comforted, my
dearly beloved, for evermore. Amen. I break up thus abruptly,
because our common prayer time calleth me. The peate of Christ
dwell in both our hearts for ever. Amen.

As for the report of W. P , if it be as you hear, you must prepare
to bear it. It is written on heaven's door, Do zw//, and hear evil.
Be content therefore to hear whatsoever the enemy shall imagine to
blot you withal. God's Holy Spirit always comfort and keep you,
Amen, Amen. This eight of August, by him that in the Lord
desireth to you, as well and as much felicity, as to his own heart.

JOHN BRADFORD.

No. 44.*

TO MRS. J. H.

A faithful woman, and fearing God, whom he txhorteth to be
patient under the cross, and not to fear death.

My dearly beloved, I beseech our merciful Father to comfort your
heavy and pensive heart, with his own consolations in Christ; as I
am assured he will in his own good time; which with patience look
for, good Sister, after the example of Job, Klias, Abraham, and all
the dear saints of God, who are set forth unto us for patterns^ of
patience. God grant us well to cut our cloth after them, for God is
the same God now, and the end will shew that he is a merciful Lord,
and full of compassion. My dear Sister, you shall unfeignedly feel
it at the length, though presently it seemeth otherwise unto your

* COT. 306. Evidently to the same person as the last,
t Patron* ,

140

sense; you shall, after you be a little exercised herein, find a quiet
fruit of righteousness, the God of grace which hath called you unlo
his eternal glory, confirming and strengthening you, being some deal
afflicted with your Brethren and Sisters that be in the world, for
alone you suffer not as I trust you know.

It comforted me to read in your letters, that no displeasure of
father, mother, husband, children, &c. doth move you to be ruled
after the counsel of the world, and therefore you will me not to be afraid
for you. Oh, my beloved, what thanks should I give to our God
and dear Father, for this his exceeding kindness towards you ? His
name be magnified for you for ever ; his mercy be more and more
multiplied unto you, in you, and upon you, for ever and ever, Amen.
God make me thankful herefore. But you add that the fear of death,
doth now and then move you a little, howbeit you say, that as 1 have
counselled you, you will strive thereagainst. My good Joyce, I take
you at your word, keep promise, I pray you ; that is, strive against it,
and I promise you in the name of the Lord, that you shall have the
victory, which I would wish you to set before your eyes also, and so
shall the terror of death trouble you the less.

Soldiers going to war, set not before their eyes simply the strife,
but rather the victory ; and my good Sister, will not you herein follow
them? In your travail with child doth not the hope of the babe to
be delivered, mitigate the malady? Doth not the sick, in taking
bitter and loathsome physic, set before him the commodity that will
ensue? And, my dear Sister, will not you by these be something
informed ? Consider what this life is ; consider what death is ; con-
sider what is prepared for you after death. Concerning this life,
you know that it is full of misery, vanity, and woe: it is a plain
exile, and hath nothing in it permanent.

It is therefore compared to a vapour, to a smoke, to a shadow, yea,
to a warfare, a wilderness, a vale of wretchedness, wherein we are
compassed on every side with most fierce and fearful enemies; and
should we desire to dwell here? should we lust to live in this loath-
some and laborious life ? should we wish to tarry in this wretched-
ness? should we have pleasure to remain in this perilous state?
Faniel's den is not so dreadful, as is this dungeon we dwell in.

Concerning death to them that be, as I know you are, God's dear

141

children, my tenderly beloved Sister, what other thing- is it than the
dispatcher of all displeasure, the end of all travail, the door of
desires the gate of gladness, the port of paradise, the haven of
heaven, the rail of rest and quietness, the entrance to felicity, the
blessing of all blissfulness ? It is the very bed of down, and there-
fore well compared to a sleep, for the doleful bodies of God's people
to rest in, out of the which they shall rise and awake, most fresh and
lusty to life everlasting.

It is a passage to the Father, a chariot to heaven, the Lord's
messenger, a leader unto Christ, a going- to our home, a deliverance
from bondage and prison, a dismission from war, a security from all
sorrows, and a manumission from all misery. So that the very heathen
did in some places cause the day of their death to be celebrated with
mirth, melody, and minstrelsy, and should we be dismayed at it?
should we be afraid of it? should we tremble to hear of it? should
such a friend as it is, be unwelcome ? should the foulness of his face
fear us from his good conditions ? should the hardness of his husk
hinder us from his sweet kernel? should the roughness of the tide
tie us to the hank and shore, there to be drowned, rather than the
desire of our home drive us to go abroad ? should the hardness of
the saddle set us on our feet to perish by the way, rather than to
leap up and endure the same a little, and so to be where we would be ?

Concerning- that which is prepared for you after death, if I should
go about to express it, the more I should so do, the further I should
be from it. For the eye hath not seen, neither the ear hath heard,
nor the heart of man is able to conceive in any point, the joy, mirth,
melody, pleasure, power, wealth, riches, honour, beauty, fellowship,
dainties, odours, glory, wisdom, knowledge, treasures, security,
peace, quietness, and eternal felicity, which you shall have and enjoy
world without end, with God the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Ghost; with the angels, archangels; with the patriarchs and
prophets; with the apostles and evang-elists ; with the martyrs and
confessors; and with all the saints of God, in the palace of the Lord,
in heaven, the kingdom of God, the glory of the Father.

Oh woe to the blindness of our eyes that see not this ! woe to the
hardness of our hearts that feel not this ! woe to the deafness of our
ears that hear not this in such sort as we should do ; wherethrough

142

we might be so far from fearing death, that rather we should wish
it, crying with Simeon; Now let thy servant depart in peace : with
Paul, [ desire to be dissolved* and to be with Christ ; with David,
When shall I come and appear before thee? and again, Oh woe is me
that my habitation is thus prolonged, &c. But, alas, dear Sister,
great is our unbelief, Full faint is our faith, or else i>ight and day
tears should be our bread and drink, whilst it is said unto us, where
is your GOD ?

It is a token of little love to God, to be loth to go unto him when
he calleth. If my dearest friend, of a special favour and tender
good will, should send a horse for me to come untolum, should I be
displeased thereat? Yea, should I not be willing and glad to come
unto him? And, alas, yet if death, the Lord's palfrey, the Lord's
messenger should come, I think 1 should not be so ready, but be
fearful as you foresee yourself to be.

Wherethrough, I doubt not, but you take occasion to lament the
weakness of your faith, and seeing your need, to prepare for remedy
against the time of need, and to beg of GOD his aid, strength, and
comfort, against that pinch, which undoubtedly you shall have, and
find his promise true, that in an acceptable time, he heard your prayer,
Such as I am, have no such foresight of death, and therefore are
less presently dismayed, which will turn to our greater grief in the
plunge ; save that for my part, 1 hope he will never tempt me, further
than he will make me able to bear. Into his hands I offer myself,
beseeching him for his Christ's sake, to keep me soul and body, to his
kingdom and glory ; and to lead me, order me, and dispose of me, as
he will, in all things, in all places, and forever ; that at the length I
may come whither I will, that is, unto his own blessed presence and
fruition of immortality, with you and his saints, Amen.

Thus much I thought good to write unto you for this present, to
occasion you the less to fear death, which either needeth not or boteth
not ; and therefore even reasonable men, much more spiritual men,
labour to strive against the fear of that which they can by no means
avoid. But of this hereafter, I trust, mouth to mouth to speak with you.
Now as to my soul, I pray and wish unto you, my most dear Sister in

Dissoulved.

143

the Lord, whose grace guide you, and his mercy embrace you, on
every side for ever, Amen.

Your's,

JOHN BRADFORD.

No. 45.*
TO A PIOUS LADY,

Jesus is God with us. 1554.

The grace of God the Father, and the wisdom of our Saviour
Jesu Christ through the Holy Ghost, confirm you in the love of the
truth to the end. Amen.

I have much rejoiced, perceiving your ladyship's earnest zeal
towards the gospel of Christ, especially in these troublesome days, in
the which the verity is deadly persecuted. Blessed be God that hath
given you so bold a spirit that you are not ashamed of his gospel,
which is a plain token that you be the very elect child of God; if
you hold fast to the end this godly confession. But this you cannot
do unless you be content to suffer such persecutions as commonly do
follow the same; for as St. Peter teacheth us, it is not only given us
to believe, but also to suffer for the same. Christ and the cross do go
together, and joy doth follow affliction, the which our Saviour in the
gospel hath signified unto us, saying that we must, through many
troubles, enter into the kingdom of heaven. The dear disciples of
Christ would fain have overskipped the same, and been placed
at his right hand and at his left, but it would not be granted,
before they had tasted of the cup which they should drink of. We
are very far inferiors unto them in all good things; but if we be
like unto them in suffering, we shall assuredly be partakers of
their glory.

* Harl. MS. Brit. Mus. No. 416. Fo. 35.

144

There is no outward thing in the world that doth more assure us
of the favour of God and of everlasting life, than persecution for the
righteousness uf God's word; and therefore St. Paul to the Galatians
saith in his troubles, that he carried the mark of our Saviour Jesus
Christ in his body. O how desirable a thing is it for the servant to
be like to his master! O how glorious a thing is the cross that pur-
chaseth eternal bliss! Verily we are not worthy to carry the cross of
Christ ; the Lord for his mercy sake make us worthy, that we may
esteem it as the chiefest handfast of our joy. If we consider what is
prepared for us in the same, there is nothing in the world that we
should rather desire; for as St. Paul icitnesseth. the momentary
lightness of afflictions doth bring forth an eternal weight of g'ory.
Why then should we shrink? Why now should we be afraid, since
by the cross which is offered us, the kingdom of God approacheth
nigher unto us ? Now, as Christ said, The kingdom of heaven suf-
fercth violence, and such as be violent do take the same. The Lord
loveth no coward in his cause, for such as be faint-hearted in the
Lord, are excluded the kingdom of heaven in the Apocalypse. An-
tichrist, which now by the will of God doth rage for the trial of our
faith, doth nothing else but procure us a ready horse to bring us unto
heavejj; but you perhaps do think this horse to be too hot for your
riding, and that you are not able to set him, he is so terrible and so
fiery: yet, good madam, if you ride him with the snaffle of patience,
and in your hand hold forth the buckler of faith, you shall be able
to abide at his outrageous courses and flaming flying. Moses saw
God in a fiery bush; Elias, the prophet, was carried to heaven in a
fiery chariot; God maketh his angels a flame of tire, yea, God himself
is a consuming fire. Wherefore, then, shall we be afraid to pass unto
God through tire, since it is his angel sent unto us, to bring us to
our eternal inheritance, in the which we are made approved gold for
the Lord's household?

The fire to us that be faithful is nothing so terrible as it is to the
unfaithful, for we know that it shall have no further force in us, than
is the good pleasure of God that we shall be able to bear; for he hath
promised a good success unto us in the very midst of our troubles, so
that Ave shall not be further tempted than our God will be assistant
with us, let us not mistrust the help of God to be present with us in our

145

necessities, since that he hath promised, by the mouth of the prophet
David, to be present with us in our trouble, and that he will speedily
deliver us out of the same, and glorify us ; let us cast our care upon
God, and he will comfort us, we are his creatures and we must be
content to set forth his glory by such ways as he doth appoint us,
and not after our wills; he is our Lord, and we ought humbly to sub-
mit our neck to that yoke which he hath appointed us to bear, we may
not appoint God our end, but we must be content with that end as he
doth now offer us ; to the which if we be obedient, we shall receive
the inheritance of his obedient children; but if we murmur, grudge,
or be afraid of his prescribed ways, we shall exclude ourselves from
everlasting life; like as the Children of Israel did, when God had
delivered them out of the miserable servitude of Egypt, and appointed
to have brought them into the land of promise; who contrary to the
Lord's calling, being afraid of the terrible giants which they heard
to be dwelling in the same land, murmured against God, and would
have turned back again for fear into Egypt, whereby they were forty
years afflicted in the wilderness, and entered not into that land of
behest, but perished through their murmuring infidelity.

Let us beware that we lose not our heavenly inheritance by like
transgression, if we do not willingly take up that cross which God now
hath prepared for us ; let us not go about to chuse what kind of cross
we list, but being content with that which is offered by the will of
God, be it never so terrible or cruel, let us pray that we may have
patience and strength, to shew ourselves faithful in the same; rejoicing
that God giveth us any occasion to glorify his holy name, and to
declare our faithful service we owe unto him. He were to be counted
no faithful subject, who of his sovereign being appointed to serve
one way, would indent to serve another way; neither were he
worthy to be taken for a true servant, who having his manner of
service appointed by his master, doth withdraw himself from doing
the same, and doth otherwise serve at his own pleasure.

If we cannot but think this, an evident disobedient frowardness of
man to man, worthy great punishment; what shall we think of man's
wilful declining, murmuring, and grudging- from the holy precepts
and faithful prescribed service, of our everlasting king and mighty
lord, master, defender, and nourisher. O what unthankful creatures

146

are we, so little to regard our creator! O faithless hearts that do
fear man more than God, that be content to serve man above God !
O blindness of eyes that do more readily behold the earth than
heaven ; may they look for heaven, that be more willing to serve the
world than God? That which men do seek they shall find, and
according to that which they follow, the reward will be ; every
body shall receive after the work of his own hands. If we now labour
with Christ, we shall be rewarded with Christ; if we serve him
faithfully after the talents of our vocation, according to his gospel,
we shall enter into the joy of our lord and master; now at noon day
the good husbandman calleth us to work in his vineyard, to the
which calling, if we be obedient, and be content to suffer the heat and
fervent burning of the day, we shall have the penny of eternal life;
the which, otherwise forsaking this calling, we are like to lose.

If I should, all the days of my life, devise a ready way for you
to go unto heaven, I am certain there is none so ready and so certain
as this is, to take up your cross and to follow Christ. This is a hard
word to the Capernite and to such as be worldly affected; but that
which is impossible to the flesh and to man, is possible unto God; for
it is the spirit of God which doth help our infirmities, by whom we
are able to mortify the affections of the body, and are made strong,
against all the fiery darts of the devil and of the world. The mean
to attain this spirit, is to follow the counsel of David, saying, Forget
then the people and the house of thy father, and the king shall be
desirous of thy beauty. Therefore, dearly beloved, walk in the
spirit, and transform not yourself to the fashion of the world, neither
do after the concupiscence of the flesh, for he that will be a friend
of the world, is become an enemy to God.

We are bound to offer our bodies a lively, holy, and acceptable
sacrifice unto God, now have we good opportunity so to do; the Lord
make us willing and glad priests, to offer this our reasonable service
which we owe unto God; for this cause are we all called of St. Peter
both priests and kings ; priests, to the end we should sacrifice our
bodies to God; kings, because we should subdue our affections and
rule our bodies; to this point we can be content, for man's pleasure,
or for a small reward, to venture our life ; the which being once lost
no man can restore again, neither redeem by any price ; and cannot

14T

be content to do the like at God's holy will, who, though we he dead,
can give us life, and reward us with eternal felicity. What is he that
being- in the cross doth not leap for joy, knowing that he shall pass
from death to life, from misery to bliss, from temporal delights to
eternal joys, from shame to glory, from wordly commodities to
everlasting possessions in heaven?

If he doubt the note of God's promise, x>r say in his heart
there is no God, as the wicked do ; the Lord's spirit doth fly
away from all feigned things, as it is written in the first of
the Book of Wisdom ; and therefore our Saviour commandeth
all true believers, in the Gospel of St. John, to worship God
in spirit and verity; so that in no wise we may worship God in
the papistical synagogue, under falsity and idolatry. The Lord grant
you faith, as effectual as the grain of mustard seed ; so that ye may
grow, through the sincere moisture of good works, unto a great tree in
the Lord, that the birds of the air may build their nests in your
branches ; that is, such as be weak, unstable, and wavering in the
faith, may, seeing your constant faith and godly conversation, be won
unto the faith. So mustour light shin*, tlit it may be seen of all men,
for God hath not kindled the light of his gospel in us, that we should
hide it under a bushel ; but that we should set the same upon a candle-
stick, that it might give Kght to as many as list to behold it. Therefore
Solomon compareth a good person's life, unto a bright light which '
groweth unto the perfectness of the day: still the scripture exhorteth
us to grow in faith and to be perfect ; that is, with St. Paul to go
forward and to forget those things which we have, through knowledge,
cast behind us, and never to take them again; for as Christ saith in
the gospel, how none that hath put his hand to the plough, and
looketh backward, is meet for the kingdom of God. The Lord
grant that we may never look back again, for, if we do, our last fall
will be worse than the first.

It is good for you in these evil days, to have continually before your
eyes the philosophy of a Christian man; which is, to acknowledge God
as merciful, wise, just, and omnipotent; that he is merciful, he giveth
us freely by faith the remission of our sins ; by his wisdom, God trieth
our faith through adversities, that apparent faith may be known, as
well to ourselves as to the world, to his glory; that God is just, we

148

are assured, according to his promise, he will not suffer us to be
tempted above that we shall be able to bear; and in that God is
omnipotent, we may be certain that he will turn our evil which we
suffer, to good, our shame to glory, our sorrow to joy, our death to
life. These things, Madam, if, with fervent prayer and continual
reading of the scriptures, you do well weigh, you shall fear neither
faggot, neither fire, nor sword, nor halter; but, in the midst of them,
rejoice that you are Christ's disciple, who doth exercise our faith by
this same. God deliver you out of all temptations, that you never be
overthrown of any.

Written by a captive in Christ in the King's Bench.

The following admirable meditation on
God's providence and presence, bears date
also during this year.

No. 40.*

THIS ought to be unto us most certain, that nothing is come

without thy providence, O Lord ; that is, that nothing is done, good or

bad, sweet or sour, but by thy knowledge ; that is, by thy will,

wisdom, and ordinance : for all these, knowledge doth comprehend

in it; as by thy word we are taught, in many places, that even the

loss of a sparrow is not without thy will : nor any liberty or power

upon a poor porket, have all the devils in hell, but by thine own

appointment and will. And we must always believe it most assuredly,

to be all just and good, howi-oever it seem otherwise unto us; for thou

art marvellous (and not comprehensible) in thy ways, and holy in all

thy works. But hereunto it is necessary for us to know, no less

certainly, that, although all things be done by thy providence, yet

the same thy providence, to have many and divers means to work by:

which being contemned, thy providence is contemned. As for an

example : meat is a mean to serve thy providence, for the preservation

of health and life here, so that he that contemneth to eat, because thy

J* Strype Eccl. Mem. vol. iii. pt. 2. 279.

149

providencce is certain and in fallible, that same contenineth thy provi-
dence indeed. I f it were so, that meat could not be had, then should \ve
not tie thy providence unto this mean, but make free as thou art free ;
that is, that without meat thou must help to health and life. For it is
not of any need, that thou usest any mean to serve thy providence. Thy
wisdom and power is infinite, and therefore should we hang on thy
providence, even when all is clean contrary against us. But for our
erudition and infirmities' sake, it hath pleased theeto work by means,
and deal with us here, to exercise us in obedience.

And because we cannot (so great is our corruption) sustain thy
naked providence and presence, grant me therefore, dear Father, I
humbly beseech thee for Christ's sake, that as I something now know
these things, so I may use this knowledge to my comfort and
commodity. That is, grant that in what state soever I be, I doubt
not but the same to come to me by thy most just ordinance, yea, by
thy merciful ordinance also. For as thou art just, so art thou.
merciful; yea, thy mercy is above all thy works. And by this
knowledge, grant that I may humble myself to obey thee; and
expect for myself, in time convenient, not only when I have means by
which thou mayest work, and art so accustomed to do ; but also when
I have no means, but am destitute; yea, when all things and means
are clean contrary against me ; grant, I say, that I may still hang
upon thee and thy providence, not doubting of a fatherly end in good
time.

Again, lest I should contemn thy providence, or presuming on it,
by uncoupling those^ things which thou hast coupled together;
preserve me from neglecting- thine ordinance and lawful means in all
my need, (if so be I may have them, and with good conscience use
them) although I know thy providence be not tied to them, further
than it pleaseth thee ; but grant that I may with diligence, reverence,
and thankfulness use them; and thereto add my wisdom and industry,
in all things lawful for me, to serve thereby thy providence, if so
please thee. That I hang in no part on the means, or in my diligence,
wisdom, or industry, but only on thy providence; which more and
more persuade me, to be altogether fatherly and good, how far soever
it appear or seem, yea, is felt of me. By this I being preserved from

150

negligence on roy behalf, ami despairing* or murmuring towards thee r
shall become diligent through thy mean, and alone grace; which give
me and increase in me, to praise thy holy name for ever, through
Christ oar Lord and Saviour. Amen.

There is nothing that maketh more to the true godliness of life
than this, the persuasion of thy presence, dear Father, and that
nothing is hid from thee; but all to thee is open and naked, even the
very thoughts, which one day thou wilt reveal and open, either to our
praise or punishment in this life; as thou didst David's faults, which
he did secretly, 2 Kings xii. or in the life to come, Matt. xxv. for
nothing is so hid, that shall not be revealed; therefore doth the
prophet say, Woe to them that keep secret their thoughts, to hide
their counsel from the Lord, and do their works in darkness, saying,
Who seelh us ?

Grant to me, therefore, that I may find mercy and pardon for all
my sins, especially my hid and close sins. Enter not into judgment
with me, I humbly beseech thee; give me to believe truly in thy
Christ, so that I naay never come into judgment for them ; that with
David I might so reveal them, and confess them unto thee, that thou
wouldest cover them. And grant further, that I always think myself
continually conversant before thee so that if I do well, I pass not of
the publishing of it, as hypocrites do; if I do or think any evil, I
may forthwith know, that the same shall not always be hid irom
men. Grant that always I may have in mind that day, wherein the
hid works of darkness shall be illumined, and the sentence of thy
Son, Nothing is so secret, that shall not be revealed. So in trouble
and wrong I shall find comfort, and otherwise be kept through thy
grace from doing evil. Which do thou work, 1 humbly beseech
thee, for Christ's sake. Jlnien. Soli Deo honor ft gloria. 1554.

JOHN BRADFORD.

151

No. 47.*

A Letter which the Martyr, Bradford, set as a preface before
a Supplication sent to Queen Mary, her Council, and
the whole Parliament.

IN most humble wise complaineth unto your Majesty and
Honours, a poor subject persecuted for the confession of Christ's
verity; tbe which verity deserveth at your hands to be maintained
and defended, as the thing 1 by the which you reign, and have your
honours and authorities.

Although we that be professors, and through the grace of God,
the constant confessors of the same, are, as it were, the out-sweepings
of the world ; yet, I say, the verity itself is a thing not unworthy for
your ears to hear, for your eyes to see, and for your hands to handle,
help, and succour; according to that the Lord hath made you able,
and placed you where you are, for the same purpose. Your Highness
and Honours ought to know, that there is no innocency in words or
deeds, where it is enough and sufficeth, only to accuse. It behoveth.
kings, queens, and all that be in authority, to know, that in the
administration of their kingdoms, they are God's ministers. It
behoveth them to know, that they are no kings, but plain tyrants,
who reign not to this end, that they may serve and set forth God's
glory, after true knowledge. And therefore it is required of them,
that they should be wise, and surfer themselves to be taught ; to
submit themselves to the Lord's discipline, and to kiss their
sovereign, lest they perish.

As all these potentates with their principalities and dominions,
cannot long prosper but peiish indeed, if they and their kingdoms be
not ruled with the sceptre of God, that is with his word ; which
\vhoso honoureth not, honoureth not God ; and they that honour not

* Fox lii. 351. Cov. 476.

152

the Lord, the Lord will not honour them, but bring them into
contempt; and at the length take his own cause, which he hath most
chiefly committed unto them to care for, into his own hands, and so
overthrow them, and set up his truth gloriously: the people also
perishing with the princes, where the word of prophecy is wanting,
much more where it is suppressed, as it is now in this realm of
England ; over which the eyes of the Lord are set to destroy it,
your Highness, and all your honours, if in time you look not better
to your office and duties herein, and not suffer yourselves to be slaves
and hangmen to antichrist* and his prelates ; who have brought your
Highness and Honours already, to let Barabbas loose, and to hang
up Christ. As by the grace and help of God, I shall make apparent,
if first it would please your excellent Majesty, and all your honours, to
take to heart God's doctrine, which rather through the malice of the
pharisees, I mean the bishops and prelates, than your consciences,
is oppressed ; and not for our contemptible and execrable state in the
sight of the world, to pass the less of it.

For it, the doctrine I mean, is higher and of more honour and
majesty than all the whole world. It standeth invincible above all
power, being not our doctrine, but the doctrine of the everliving
GOD, and of his Christ, whom the father hath ordained king, to have
dominion from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the
world. And truly so doth he, and will he reign, that he will shake
all the whole earth, with his iron and brazen power, with his
golden and silvery brightness, only by the rod of his mouth ; to shi-
vers, in such sort, as though they were pots of clay, according to that
which the prophets do write, of the magnificence of his kingdom.
And thus much for the thing, I mean the doctrine, and your duties
to hearken, to propagate, and defend the same.

But now will our adversaries mainly cry out against us, because
no man may be admitted once to whist against them ; that we
pretend falsely the doctrine and word of God, calling us the most

* Nothing can be more evident, than that the man who could thus faithfully and
intrepidly address those, who had the power of life and death in their hands ; and as to
the exercise of which it had already appeared, they were not likely to be very abste-
mious had not taken counsel with flesh and blood, and was fully prepared to set his
own life upon the cast.

153

wicked contemners of it, and heretics, schismatics, traitors, &c. All
which their sayings, how malicious and false they are, though I
might make report to that, which is written by those men whose
works they have condemned, and all that retain any of them,
publicly by proclamation; yet here will I occasion your Majesty and
Honours, by this my writing, to see that it is far otherwise than they
report of us. God our Father, for his holy name's sake, direct my
pen to be his instrument to put into your eyes, ears, and hearts, that
which most may make to his glory, to the safeguard of your souls
and bodies, and preservation of the whole realm. Amen.

JOHN BRADFORD.

No. 48/

Unto the King and Queen's most excellent Majesties, and to
their most honourable and High Court of Parliament.

IN most humble and lamentable wise complain unto your Majes-
ties, and to your High Court of Parliament, your poor desolate and
obedient subjects, H., F., T., B., P. R., S., &c. That whereas your
said subjects, living under the laws of God, and of this realm, in the
days of the late most noble King Edward the Sixth, did in all things
shew themselves true, faithful, and diligent subjects, according to
their vocation, as well in the sincere ministering of God's most holy
word, as in due obedience to the higher powers, and in the daily
practice of such virtues and good demeanour, as the laws of God at
all times, and the statutes of the realm did then allow.

Your said subjects nevertheless, contrary to all laws of justice,
equity, and right, are in very extreme manner, not only cast into
prison, where they have remained now these fifteen or sixteen months ;
but their livings also, their houses and possessions, their goods and
books taken from them, and they slandered to be most heinous

* The supplication of the persecuted preachers to the King and Queen, sent with the
preceding letter. Fox iii. 118.

154

heretics, their enemies themselves being both witnesses, accusers,
and judges; belying-, slandering, and misreporting your said
subjects at their pleasure, whereas your said subjects, being straitly
kept in prison, cannot yet be suffered to come forth, and make answer
accordingly.

In consideration whereof, may it please your most excellent
Majesties, and this your High Court of Parliament, graciously to
tender the present calamity of your said poor subjects, and to call
them before your presence, granting them liberty, either by mouth or
writing in the plain English tongue, to answer before you, or before
indifferent arbiters, to be appointed by your Majesties, unto such
articles of controversy in religion, as their said adversaries have
already condemned them of, as of heinous heresies. Provided, that
all things may be done with such moderation and quiet behaviour, as
become subjects and children of peace; and that your said subjects
may have the free use of all their own books, and conference together
among themselves.

Which thing being granted, your said subjects doubt not but
it shall plainly appear, that your said subjects are true and
faithful Christians, and neither heretics, nor teachers of heresy, nor
cut off from the true catholic universal Church of Christ; yea, that
rather their adversaries themselves be unto your Majesties, as were
the charmers of Egypt to Pharoah, Zedekiah and his adherents unto
the King of Israel, and Bar Jesu to the Proconsul, Sergius Paulus.
And if your said subjects be not able by the testimony of Christ, his
prophets, apostles, and godly fathers of his church, to prove that the
doctrine of the church, homilies, and service, taught and set forth in
the time of our late most godly prince and king, Edward VI., is
the true doctrine of Christ's catholic church, and most agreeable to
the articles of the Christian faith ; your said subjects offer themselves
then to the most heavy punishment, that it shall please your Majesties
to appoint.

Wherefore, for the tender mercy of God in Christ, which you look
for at the day of judgment, your said poor subjects in bonds, most
humbly beseech your excellent Majesties, and this your High Court
of Parliament, benignly and graciously to hear and grant this their
petition, tending so greatly to the glory of God, to the edifying of his

155

church, to the honour of your Majesties, and to the commendation
and maintenance of justice, right, and equity, both before God and
man. And your said subjects, according to their bounden duty, shall
not cease to pray unto Almighty God, for the gracious preservation
of your most excellent Majesties, long to endure.

No. 49.*

The Prisoners for the Gospel, their Declaration concerning
King Edward, his Reformation.

To the King and Queen's most excellent Majesties, with their
most honourable High Court of Parliament.

We, poor prisoners for Christ's religion, require your honours,
in our dear Saviour Christ's Name, earnestly now to repent; for that
you have consented of late to the unplacing of so many godly laws,
set forth touching the true religion of Christ before, by two most
noble kings, being father and brother to the Queen's Highness, and
agreed upon by all your consents ; not without your great and many
deliberations, free and open disputations, costs and pains-taking in
that behalf; neither without great consultations and conclusions, had
by the greatest learned men in the realm, at Windsor, Cambridge,
and Oxford ; neither without the most willing consent and allowing
of the same, by the whole realm thoroughly. So that there was not
one parish, in all England, that ever desired again to have the Romish
superstitions and vain service, which is now by the popish, proud,
covetous clergy placed again, in contempt not only of God, all heaven,
and all the Holy Ghost's lessons in the blessed bible ; but also against
the honours of the said two most noble kings; against your own

* Strype, Cranmer, ii. 959. " By whom this memorable declaration was drawn
up, unless by John Bradford, I know not. This now is the second time a public chal-
lenge was made to justify King Edward's reformation ; the former in the last year by
Cranmer, the latter now by divers of the learned men in prison. Strype, Cranmer,
i. 506.

156

country, fore agreements, and against all the godly consciences
within this realm of England, and elsewhere.

By reason whereof God's great plagues must need follow, and
great unquietness of consciences ; besides all other persecutions and
vexations of bodies and goods, must needs ensue. Moreover, we
certify your honours, that since your said unplacing of Christ's true
religion, and true service, and placing in the room thereof antichrist's
Romish superstition, heresy, and idolatry ; all the true preachers have
been removed and punished, and that with such open robbery and
cruelty, as in Turkey was never used, either to their own country-
men, or to their mortal enemies.

This therefore our humble suit is now to your honourable estates,
to desire the same, for all the mercies sake of our dear and only
Saviour Jesus Christ, and for the duty you owe to your native country,
and to your own souls, earnestly to consider from what light to what
darkness this realm is now brought; and that in the weightiest, chief
and principal matter of salvation, of all our souls and bodies everlasting,
and for evermore. And even so we desire you at this our appealing,
to seek some effectual reformation for the above written, most horrible
Deformation in this Church of England.

And touching yourselves, we desire you in like manner, that we
may be called before your honours ; and if we be not able to prove
and approve, by the catholic and canonical rites of Christ's true
religion, the church homilies, and service set forth in the most inno-
cent King Edward's days; and also to disallow and reprove, by the
same authorities, the service now set forth since his departing; then
tee offer our bodies, either to be immediately burned > or else to
suffer whatsoever other painful and shameful death, that it shall please
the King and Queen's Majesties to appoint. And we think this trial
and probation may be now best, either in the plain English tongue
by writing, or otherwise by disputation in the same tongue. Our
Lord, for his great mercy's sake, grant unto you all the continual
assistance of his good and holy spirit. Amen.

157

ON the 22d of January, 1555,* Bradford
was brought from the King's Bench Prison,
by the Under Marshal, before the Com-
missioners or Council,t assembled most
probably at the Church of St. Mary Overies,
in Southwark.t

, When Bradford was brought into the
presence of the Council, who were sitting at
a table, he kneeled down on his knee;
but Gardiner, who was then Lord Chancellor,
directed him to stand up ; and earnestly
looked upon him, to have, belike, overfaced
him ; but Bradford gave no place ; that is, he
ceased not, in like manner, to look on the
Lord Chancellor still continually; save that
once he cast up his eyes to heavenward,
sighing for God's grace, and so overfaced
him ; at which Gardiner being as it were

* There must be some error in Fox's dates ; for he states that Brad-
ford was called in after the Commissioners had finished their talk with
Bishop Ferrar ; but from his account of that martyr, it would seem he
had not been examined till the 4th of May following. Probably it
should have been, after they had finished with Rogers, for he had been
examined on the same day.

+ We do not know why they were called Commissioners, as we have
not been able to discover any Commission connected with the subject,
except that given by Bp. Burnet, vol. ii. pt. 2. No. 32., and noticed by
Collier, ii. 404.; in which Gardiner's name is not included.

| The same as St. Saviour's. See the process, Post, App.

158

amazed and something troubled ; the exami
nation proceeded as follows:

No. 50.*

THE FIRST EXAMINATION OF BRADFORD,

Gard. You have for a long time been imprisoned justly, for your
seditious behavioural Paul's Cross, the thirteenth of August* 1553;
for your false preaching and arrogancy, taking- upon you to preach
without authority. But now, the time of mercy is come, and therefore
the Queen's Highness, minding to offer unto you mercy, hath by us
sent for you, to declare and give the same, if so be ye will, with us,
return: and if you will do as we have done, you shall find as we have
found, I warrant you.

Brad. (After reverent obeisance made) My Lord, and Lords of
all, I confess that I have been long imprisoned, and, with humble
reverence be it spoken, unjustly ; for that I did nothing seditiously,
falsely, or arrogantly, in word or fact, by speaking or otherwise ; but
rather sought truth, peace, and all godly quietness, as an obedient
and faithful subject, both in going about to save the present Bishop
of Bath, tlien.M' Bourne, the preacher at the Cross, and in preaching
for quietness accordingly.

Gard. (W*ith considerable impatience, and interrupting the
Martyr) That is a loud lie, for the fact was seditious, as you, my
Lord of London, can bear witness.

Banner. You say true, my Lord, I saw him with mine own eyes,
when he took upon him to rule and lead the people malapertly;
thereby declaring that he was the author of the sedition.

Brad. My Lords, notwithstanding my Lord Bishop's seeing
and saying, yet the truth 1 have told, as one day my Lord GOD
ALMIGHTY shall reveal to all the world, when we shall all come and
appear before him. In the mean season, because I cannot be believed

' Fox iii. 283.

159

of you, I must and am ready to suffer, as now your sayings be,
whatsoever God shall license you to do unto me.

Gard. I know thou hast a glorious tongue, and goodly shews thou
makest, but all is lies thou speakest. And again, I have not forgot
how stubborn thou wast before us in the Tower, whereupon thou
wast committed to prison concerning religion. I have not forgotten
thy behaviour and talk, wherethrough worthily thou hast been kept
in prison, as one that would kave done more hurt than I will
speak of.

Brad. My Lord, as I said, I say again, that I stand, as before
you, so before God, and one day we shall all stand before him ;
the truth then will be the truth, though now ye will not so take it.
Yea, my Lord, I dare say, that my Lord of Bath, Master Bourne, will
witness with me, that I sought his safeguard, with the peril of mine
own life,* 1 thank God therefore.

Bonner. That is not true; for 1 myself did see thee take upon
thee too much.

Brad. No, I took nothing upon me undesired, and that of
Master Bourne himself, as if he wore here present, I dare say he would
affirm ;f for he desired me both to help him to pacify the people, and
also not to leave him till he was in safety. And as for my behaviour
in the Tower, and talk before your Honours, if I did or said any
thing that did not beseem me, if your Lordships would tell me
wherein it was, I should and would shortly make you answer.

Gard. Well, to leave this matter, how sayest thou ? Wilt thou
return again, and do as we have done, and thou shalt receive the
Queen's mercy and pardon ?

Brad. My Lord, 1 desire mercy with God's mercy, but mercy
ivith God's wrath, God keep me from; although, I thank God
therefore, my conscience doth not accuse me, that I did speak any
thing, wherefore 1 had need to receive the Queen's mercy or pardon.
For all that ever I did or spake, was both agreeable to God's laws,
and to the laws of the realm, at that present, and did make much to
quietness.

* See the third examination, Post.

t To the credit of Bourne, it appears that he did interest himself to save Bradford's
life. See the conference with Weston. Post.

160

Gard. Well, if tliou make this babbling 1 , rolling in thy eloquent
tongue, and yet being altogether ignorant and vain-glorious, and
wilt not receive mercy offered to thee; know for truth, that the
Queen is minded to make a purgation* of all such as thou art.

Brad. The Lord before whom I stand, as well as before you,
knoweth what vain-glory I have sought, and seek in this behalf; his
mercy I desire, and also would be glad of the Queen's favour, to live
as a subject without a clog of conscience. But otherwise the Lord's
mercy is better to me than life. And I know to whom I have
committed my life, even into his hands who will keep it, so that no
man may take it away before it be his pleasure. There are twelve
hours in the day, and as long as they last, so long shall no man have
power thereon. Therefore, his good will be done; life in his dis-
pleasure is worse than death, and death in his true favour, is true
life.

Gard. I know well enough that we shall have glorious talk of
thee : be sure therefore that as thou hast deceived the people with false
and devilish doctrines, so shalt thou receive.

Brad. I have not deceived the people, nor taught any other
doctrine, than by God's grace I am, and hope shall be ready, to
confirm with my life. And as for the devilishness and falseness in
the doctrine, I would be sorry you could so prove it.

TonstaJ. Why, tell me, what say you by the ministration of the
communion, as now you know it is?

Brad. My Lord, here I must desire of your Lordship, and of all
your honours a question, before I dare make you an answer to any
interrogatory or question, wherewith you now begin. I have been
six times sworn that I shall in no wise consent to the practising of
any jurisdiction, or any authority, on the Bishop of Rome's behalf,
within this Realm of England. Now, before God, I humbly pray
your Honours to tell me, whether you ask me this question by his
authority, or no? If you do, I dare not, nor may, answer you any
thing in his authority which you shall demand of me, except 1 would
be forsworn, the which God forbid.

That is the worst you and your Pope can do, and the best argument you have.'
Fox iii. 283.

161

Bourne.* Hast thou been sworn six times? What office hast
thou borne ?

Brad. Forsooth I was thrice sworn in Cambridge ; when I was
admitted Master of Arts, when I was admitted Fellow of Pembroke
Hall, and when 1 was there, the visitors came thither, and sware the
University. Again, I was sworn when I entered into the ministry,
when I had a prebend given me, and when I was sworn to serve the
King, a little before his death.

Gard. Tush, Herod's oaths a man should make no conscience
at.

Brad. But, my Lord, these were no Herod's oaths, no unlawful
oaths, but oaths according to God's word, as you yourself have well
affirmed in your book De Vera Obedientia.-^

Griffin.* My Lords, I never knew wherefore this man was in
prison, before now; but 1 see well, that it had not been good that this
man had been abroad. What the cause was, that he was put in prison,
I know not ; but I now well know, that not without a cause, he was
and is to be kept in prison.

Bourne. Yea, it was reported this parliament time, by the Earl
of Derby, that he hath done more hurt by letters, and exhorting
those that have come to him, in religion, than ever he did when he
was abroad by preaching. In his letters he curseth all that teach any
false doctrine, for so he calleth that which is not according to that he
taught; and most heartily exhorteth them to whom he writeth, to
continue still in that they have received by him, and such like as he
is. All which words divers of the Council having affirmed, Bourne
added, How say you, Sir, have you not thus seditiously written, and
exhorted the people.

Brad. I have not written nor spoken any thing seditiously ;
neither, I thank God therefore, have I admitted any seditious
cogitation, nor, I trust, ever shall do.

Bourne. Yea, but thou hast written letters.

* Secretary to the Council, brother of the Bishop of Bath, whose life Bradford

had saved.

t See Appendix, Note (R.) { Bp. of Rochester.

The letter here referred to was that to his mother, No. 12. Fox iii. 284. 309.

162

Gard. Why speakest thou not? Hast thou not written as lie
saith ?

Brad. That I have written, I have written.

Southwell.* Lord God, what an arrogant and stubborn boy is
this, that thus stoutly and dallyingly behaveth himself before the
Queen's Council !

Brad. My Lords and Masters, the Lord God who is, and will be,
judge to us all ; that as I am certain I stand now before his majesty,
so with reverence in his sight I stand before you, and unto you
accordingly, in words and gesture, I desire to behave myself. If you
otherwise take it, I doubt not but God in his good time will reveal
it. In the mean season, I shall suffer with all due obedience, your
sayings and doings too, I hope.

Gard. These be gay glorious words of reverence; but as in all
other things, so herein also thou dost nothing but lie.

Brad. Well, I would God, the author of truth and abhorrer of
lies, would pull my tongue out of my head before you all, aud show
a terrible judgment on me here present; if I have purposed, or do
purpose, to lie before you, whatever you shall ask me.

Gard. Why then dost thou not answer? Hast thou written such
letters as here is objected against thee ?

Brad. As I said, my Lord, that I have written, I have written.
I stand now before you, who either can lay my letters to my charge or
no; if you lay any thing to my charge that I have written, if 1 deny
it, I am then a liar.

Gard. We shall never have done with thee, I perceive; now, be
short, be short ; wilt thou have mercy ?

Brad. 1 pray God give me his mercy, and if therewith you will
extend yours, I will not refuse it, but otherwise I will none.

Here now was much ado, one speaking this, and another that,

of his arrogancy, in refusing the Queen's pardon, which she so

lovingly did offer unto him; whereto,

Brad. My Lords, if I may live as a quiet subject, without clog
of conscience, I shall heartily thank you for your pardon ; if otherwise
I behave myself, then I am in danger of the law ; in the mean season,

* Sir Richard Southwell, one of the Queen's Privy Council.

163

I ask no more, but the benefit of a subject, till 1 be convinced of

transgression,, If I cannot have this, as hitherto I have not had,

God's good will be done.

After a long 1 process of the false doctrine, wherewith tjie
people were deceived in the days of King 1 Edward
Gard. How sayest thou?
Brad. My Lord, the doctrine taught in King 1 Edward's days was

God's pure religion, the which as I then believed, so do 1 now more

believe it than ever I did ; and therein 1 am more confirmed, and

ready to declare it, by God's grace, even as he will, to the world, than

I was when I first came into prison.

Tonstal. What religion mean you in King Edward's days?

What year of his reign?

Brad. Forsooth, even the same year, my Lord, that the King

died, and I was a preacher.*

Here wrote Secretary Bourne I wote not what; and after a
little pausing, Gardiner began again to declare, that the doctrine,
taught in King Edward's days, was heresy ; using probation and
demonstration thereof, not scripture, nor reason, but this; that it
ended with treason and rebellion ; that the very end were enough
to prove that doctrine to be naught.
Brad. Ah, my Lord, that you could enter into God's sanctuary,

and mark the end of this present doctrine, that you now so magnify !
Gard, What meanest thou by that ? I ween we shall have a

snatch of rebellion even now.

Brad. My Lord, I mean no such end as you would gather ; I

mean an end which no man seeth, but such as enter into God's

sanctuary.f If a man look on present things, he will soon deceive

himself.

Here now did Gardiner again offer mercy, and Bradford answered,
as before ; Mercy with God's mercy shall be welcome, but other-
wise he would none. Whereupon Gardiner did ring a little bell ;
upon which the Under Marshal came in.
Gard. Ye shall take this man to you, and keep him close without

conference with any man, but by your knowledge ; and suffer him not

* Here. t Rev. xix. 20.

164

to write any letters, 8rc. for he is of another manner of charge unto

you now, than he was before.

And so they departed, Bradford looking as cheerfully as any
man could do; declaring thereby even a desire to give his life for
confirmation of that he had taught and written.*

No. 51.t

THE SECOND EXAMINATION OF BRADFORD,

In St. Mary Overie's Churchy before Gardiner and divers other
Bishops, the IQth of January, 1555.

Gard. Wherebefore, on the 22d of January, you was called
before us, and we offered unto you the Queen's pardon ; although
you had contemned the same, and further said, that you would stiffly
and frontly maintain the erroneous doctrine taught in the days of
King Edward VI.; yet, in consideration that the Queen's Highness
is wonderfully merciful, we think good eftsoons to offer the same
mercy again, before it be too late. Therefore advise you well;
there is yet space and grace, before we so proceed, that you be
committed to the secular power ; as we must do, and will do, if you
will not follow the example of M. Barlow, and M. Cardmaker.

Whom he here commended, adding oratoricallyl amplifications,

in order to move Bradford to yield to the religion lately

set forth.

Brad. My Lord, and my Lords all, as now I stand in your
sight before you, so I humbly beseech your honours to consider, that
you sit in the seat of the Lord, who, as David doth witness, is in the
congregation of judges, and sitteth in the midst of them judging;
and as you would your place to be now of us taken as God's place,

* See Appendix, Note (S.) t Fox iii. 284.

j-Oratoriouoly. Presently.

165

so demonstrate yourselves to follow him in your sitting 1 ; that is, seek
no guiltless blood,* nor hunt not by questions, to bring into the
snare them which are out of the same. At this present I stand
before you guilty or guiltless; then proceed and give sentence
accordingly; if guiltless, then give me the benefit of a subject, which
hitherto I could not have.

Gard. You began with a true sentence, Deus stetit in synagoga,
etc.; but this and all thy gesture declareth but hypocrisy and vain-
glory.

He then made much ado to purge himself, that he sought not
guiltless blood, and so began a long process, how that Bradford's
fact at Paul's Cross was presumptuous, arrogant, and declared a
taking upon him to lead the people ; which could not but turn to
much disquietness, in that he was so prefract and stout in religion
at that present.

For the which as thou wast then committed to prison, so hitherto
thou hast been kept in prison, where thou hast written letters to no
little hurt, to the Queen's people ; as by report of the Earl of Derby
in the Parliament House, was credibly declared. And you stubbornly
behaved yourself the last time you was before us ; and therefore not
for any other thing, now I demand of thee, but of or for thy doctrine
or religion.

Brad. My Lord, where you accuse me of hypocrisy and vain-
glory, I must and will leav.e it to the Lord's declaration, which one
day will open yours and my truth, and hearty meanings. In the
mean season, I will content myself with the testimony of mine own
conscience ; which if it yield to hypocrisy, could not but have God to
be my foe also, and so both God and man were against me. And as
for my fact at Paul's Cross, and behaviour before you at the Tower ;
I doubt not but God will reveal it to my comfort. For if ever I
did thing which God used to public benefit, I think that my deed
was one, and yet for it 1 have been and am kept of long time in
prison. And as for letters and religion, I answer as I did the last
time I was before you.

* Si ilium objurges vitae qui auxilium tulit; quid facies illi qui dederit damuum aut
malum 1 Fox.

166

Gard. There didst thou say, stubbornly and malapertly, that
thou wouldest manfully maintain the erroneous doctrine in King-
Edward's day.

Brad. My Lord, I said the last time I was before you, that I
had six times taken an oath, that I should never consent to the
practising of any jurisdiction, on the Bishop of Rome's behalf; and
therefore durst I not answer to any thing that should be demanded
so, lest I should be forsworn, which God forbid. Howbeit, saving
mine oath, I said that I was more confirmed in the doctrine, set
forth publicly in the days of King Edward, than ever I was before
1 was put in prison; and so I thought I should be, and think yet
still I shall be found more ready to give my life as God will, for the
confirmation of the same

Gard. I remember well that thou madest much ado about
needless matter, as though the oath against the Bishop of Rome
were so great a matter. So others have done before thee, but yet
not in such sort as thou hast done ; for thou pretendest a conscience
in it, which is nothing else but mere hypocrisy.

Brad. My conscience is known to the Lord : and whether I deal
herein hypocritically, or no, he knoweth. As I said therefore then,
my Lord, so say I again now, that for fear lest I should be perjured,
I dare not make answer to any thing you shall demand of me, if my
answering should consent to the confirming or practising of any
jurisdiction, for the Bishop of Rome, here in England.

Gard. Why didst thou begin to tell that we are Dii, and sit in
God's place, and now wilt thou not make us an answer?

Brad. My Lord, I said, you would have your place taken of us
now as God's place; and therefore I brought forth that piece of
scripture, that ye might the more be admonished to follow God and
his ways at this present, who.seeth us all, and well perceiveth whether
of conscience I pretend this matter of the oath, or no,

Gard. No, all men may well see thine hypocrisy; for if, for
thine oath's sake, thou didst not answer, then wouldest thou not
have spoken as thou didst, and have answered me at the first. But
now men well perceive, that this is but a starting hole to hide thyself
in ; because thou darest not answer, and so wouldest escape, blinding
the simple people's eyes, as though of conscience you did all you do.

167

Brad. That which I spake at the first, was not a replication, or
an answer to that you spake to me ; and therefore I needed not to lay
for me mine oath. For I thought you would have more weighed
what I did speak, than you did. But when I perceived you did not
consider it, but came to ask matter, whereto by answering 1 should
consent to the practising of jurisdiction, on the Bishop of Rome's
behalf here in England, and so be forsworn; then of conscience and
simplicity, I spake as I do yet again speak, that I dare not for
conscience answer you. And therefore I seek no starting holes, nor
go about to blind the people, as God knoweth. For if you, of your
honours, shall tell me, that you do not ask me any thing, whereby
mine answering should consent to the practising of the Bishop of
Rome's jurisdiction, ask me wherein you will, and you shall hear
that I will tell you as flatly, as any ever did that came before you.
I am not afraid of death, I thank God ; for 1 look and have looked
for nothing else at your hands, of long time ; but 1 am afraid, when
death cometh, I should have matter to trouble my conscience by the
guiltiness of perjury, and therefore do I answer as I do.

Gard. These be gay glorious words, full of hypocrisy and vain-
glory; and yet dost thou not know that I sit here as Bishop of
Winchester in mine own diocese, and therefore may do this which I
do, and more too.

Brad. My Lord, give me leave to ask you this question, that
my conscience may be out of doubt in this matter: Tell me here,
before God, all this audience being witness, that you demand of me
nothing, whereby mine answering should consent to and confirm
the practice of jurisdiction, for the Bishop of Rome here in England ;
and your Honour shall hear me give you as flat and as plain answers
briefly, to whatsoever you shall demand me, as ever any did.

Here Gardiner was wonderfully offended, and spake much how
that the Bishop of Rome's authority needed no confirmation of
Bradford's answers, no, nor such as he was; and turned his talk
to the people, how that Bradford followed crafty covetous
merchants, who because they would lend no money to their
neighbours when they were in need, would say that they had
sworn oft, that they would never lend any more money, because
their debtors had so oft deceived them.

168

Gard. Even so them doest at this present, to cast a mist in the
people's eyes, to blear them with an heresy, which is greater and
more hurtful to the commonwealth than the other is, pretend thine
oath, whereby the people might make a conscience, whereas they
should not. Why speakest thou not ?

Brad. My Lord, as 1 said, 1 say again ; I dare not answer you
for fear of perjury, from which God defend me; or else 1 could tell
you, that there is a difference between oaths. Some be according to
faith and charity, as the oath against the Bishop of Rome; some be
against faith and charity, as this, to deny by oath my help to my
brother in his need.

Here Gardiner again was much offended, still saying that

Bradford durst not answer, and further made much ado, to prove

that the oath against the Bishop of Rome was against charity.

Brad. Howsoever your Honour takes me, yet I am assured of
my meaning, that no fear, but the fear of perjury, makes me
unwilling to answer. For as for my death, my Lord, as I know
there are twelve hours in the day, so with the Lord my time is
appointed. And when it shall be his good time, then shall I depart
hence; but in the mean season, I am safe enough, though all the
people had sworn my death. Into his hands I have committed it,
and do, his good will be done. And, saving mine oath, I will
answer you in this behalf, that the oath against the Bishop of Rome
was not, nor is not, against charity.

Gard. How prove you that ?

Brad. Forsooth, 1 prove it thus.

Nothing is against charity, which is with God's word, and not

against it.

The oath against the Bishop of Rome's authority in England,

is with God's word, and is not against it.

Ergo, the oath against the Bishop of Rome's authority in

England, is not against charity.

Gard. Is it against God's word, that a man should take a king
to he supreme head of the church in his realm?

Brad. No, saving still mine oath, it is not against God's word,
but with it, being taken in such sense, as it may be well taken ; that is,
attributing to the King's power, the sovereignty in all his dominions.

169

Gard. I pray you where find you that ?

Brad. I find it in many places, but especially in the thirteenth to
the Romans, where St. Paul writeth, Every soul to be subject to the
superior power; but what power? Quae gladium gestat, the power
verily which beareth the sword ; which is not the spiritual, but the
temporal power. As Chrysostom full well noteth upon the same
place, which your Honour knoweth better than I. He, Chrysostom
I mean, there plainly sheweth that bishops, prophets, and apostles,
are obedient to the temporal magistrates.

Here yet more Gardiner was stirred, and said, how that

Bradford went about to deny all obedience to the Queen, for his

oath ; and so, quoth he, this man would make God's word a

warrant of disobedience; for he will answer the Queen on this

sort, that when she saith, now swear to the Bishop of Rome, or

obey his authority ; no, will he say, for I should be forsworn, and

so he makes the Queen no Queen.

Brad. No, I go not about to deny all obedience to the Queen's
Highness, but denying obedience in this part, if she should demand
it. For I was sworn to King Edward, not simply, that is, not only
concerning his own person, but also concerning his successors; and
therefore, in denying to do the Queen's request herein, 1 deny not
her authority, nor become disobedient.

Gard. Yes that thou doest ;

And so he began to tell a long tale, how if a man should make

an oath to pay to me 100. by such a day, and the man to whom

it was due would forget the debt, the debtor would say, No, you

cannot do it; for I am forsworn then.

Brad. Do not trifle, my Lord, I wonder your Honour will make
solemn oaths made to God, trifles in that sort; and make so great a
matter concerning vows, as they call it, made to the Bishop for
marriage of priests.

Gard. (Much offended) I did not trifle; but thou goest about
to deny obedience to the Queen, who now requireth obedience to the
Bishop of Rome.

Brad. No, my Lord, I do not deny obedience to the Queen, if
you would discern between genus and species. Because 1 may not
obey in this, ergo, I may not obey in the other, is no good reason.

170

As if a man let or sell a piece of his inheritance, yet this notwith-
standing 1 , all his inheritance is not let or sold; and so in this case,
all obedience I deny not, because I deny obedience in this branch.

Gard. I will none of these similitudes.

Brad. I would not use them, if that you went not about to
persuade the people, that I meant that which I never meant ; for
I myself not only mean obedience, but will give example of all most
humble obedience to the Queen's Highness, so long as she requireth
not obedience against God.

Gard. No, no, all men may see your meaning well enough.
There is no man, though he be sworn to the King, that doth therefore
break his oath, if he be afterwards sworn to the French King and to
the Emperor.

Brad. It is true, my Lord, but the cases be not like. For here
is an exception ; thou shall not swear to the Bishop of Rome, at any
time. If we in like manner were sworn; thou shalt not serve the
Emperor, &c., you see there were some alteration, and more doubt.
And I beseech your Honour remember, what ye yourself have
written, answering the objections here-against in your book, De Vera
Obcdientia; Vincat modo divini verbi veritas; let God's word and
the reason thereof bear the bell away.

Here G ardiner was thoroughly moved, and said still, how that

Bradford had written seditious letters, and perverted the people

thereby, and did stoutly stand, as though he would defend the

erroneous doctrine in King Edward's time, against all men; and

now, he saith, he dare not answer.

Brad. \ have written no seditious letters. 1 have not perverted
the people; but that which I have written and spoken, that will I
never deny by God's grace. And where your Lordship saith, that I
dare not answer you; that all men may know that I am not afraid,
saving mine oath, ask me what you will, and I will plainly make you
answer by God's grace, although I now see my life lieth thereon.
But, O LORD, into thy hands 1 commit it, come what come will ;
only sanctify thy name in me, as in an instrument of thy grace,
Amen. Now ask me what you will, and you shall see I am not
afraid by God's grace, flatly to answer.

Gard. tt'ell then, how say you to the blessed sacrament? Do

171

you not believe there Christ to be present, concerning 1 his natural
body ?

Brad. My Lord, I do not believe that Christ is corporally
present, at and in the due administration of the sacrament. By this
word, c orporally, I mean that Christ is there present corporally unto
faith.

Gard. Unto faith? We must have many more words to make it
plain.

Brad. You shall so; but first give me leave to speak two
words.

Gard. Speak on.

Brad. I have been now a year and almost three quarters in
prison, and of all this time you never questioned with me hereabout,
when I might have spoken my conscience frankly without peril; but
now you have a law to hang up and put to death, if a man answer
freely, and not to your appetite, and so now you come to demand this
question. Ah, my Lord, Christ used not this way to bring men to
faith. No more did the prophets or apostles. Remember what
Bernard writeth to Eugenius the Pope; I read that the apostles
stood to be judged; but I read not that they sat to judge. This
shall be, that was, &c.*

Gard. Somewhat appalled, said gently that HE used not this
means. It is not my doing, although some there be that think this
to be the best way. For I, for my part, have been challenged for
being too gentle oftentimes.

Which thing the Bishop of London confirmed, and so did

almost all the audience, that he had been ever too mild and too

gentle.

Brad. My Lord, I pray you stretch out your gentleness, that I
may feel it, for hitherto 1 never felt it.

Gard. With all my heart, not only I, but the Queen's Highness,
will stretch out mercy, if with us you will return.

Brad. Return, my Lord ? God save me from that going back ;
I mean it not so, but I mean, that I was three quarters of a year in
the Tower ; you forbade me paper, pen, and ink ; and never in ail

* See Appendix, Note (T.)

172

that time, nor since, did I feel any gentleness from you. I have
rather hitherto found, as I looked for, extremity. And I thank dod,
that I perceive now ye have kept me in prison thus long 1 , not
for any matter ye had, but for matter ye would have, God's good will
be done.

Gardiner, being informed that dinner was
ready, rose up and left Bradford speaking ;
who was conveyed into the Vestry ; and
whilst there, M. Thomas Hussey, a gentle-
man of Lincolnshire, who had been an officer
in the Duke of Norfolk's household, came in,
and recognized Bradford ; and told him that
he would commune and speak with him the
next morning for old acquaintance. Bradford
was kept in the Vestry till night, and then
conveyed again to prison.*

The next moning, about seven o'clock,
M. Hussey came into Bradford's chamber,
and began a long oration, how that of love
and old acquaintance he came unto him to
speak that which he would further utter.
You did, said he, so wonderfully behave
yourself before the Lord Chancellor, and
other Bishops yesterday, that even the veriest
enemies you have, did see that they have no
matter against you ; and therefore advise you,
speaking as though it came of his own good

* See Appendix, Note (U-)

173

will, without making any other man privy,
or any other procuring him, as he said, this
day, for anon you shall be called before them
again, to desire a time and men to confer
withal ; so shall all men think a wonderful
wisdom, gravity, and godliness in you ; and
by this means you shall escape present
danger, which else is nearer than you be
aware of.

To this truly deceptive advice, Bradford
firmly replied, I neither can nor will make
such request, ; for then shall I give occasion
to the people and to all others, to think that I
doubt of the doctrine which I confess ; the
which thing I do not ; for thereof I am most
assured, and therefore I will give no such
offence.

As they were thus talking, the chamber
door was unlocked, and Dr. Seton* came in,
who, when he saw Hussey, said, What, Sir,
are you come before me ?

O Lord, said Bradford in his heart to God,
goeth the matter thus ? This man told me,
no man knew of his coming ; Lord, give me
grace to remember thy lesson, Beware of
those men, &c. Cast not your pearls before

* Chaplain to Gardiner.

174

dogs : for I see that these men are come to
hunt for matter, that the one may bear witness
with the other.

After some by-talk respecting Brad ford's age, country, and such
like; Seton began a gay and long discourse concerning my Lord
of Canterbury, (Cranmer), M. Latimer, and M. Ridley, and how
they at Oxford had not been able to answer any thing at all ; and
that therefore Cranmer had desired to confer with the Bishop of
Durham and others ; all which tended to this end, that Bradford
should make the like suit, being in nothing to be compared to
my Lord of Canterbury.

To this Bradford briefly answered, as he had done before to

M. Hussey ; with which neither Hussey nor Seton being satisfied,

the latter after many persuasions proceeded.

Seton. I have heard much good talk of you, and even yesternight

a gentleman made report of you at the Lord Chancellor's table, that

ye were able to persuade as much as any that he knew. And I,

though I never heard you preach, and to my knowledge never saw

you before yesterday, yet, methought your modesty was such, your

behaviour and talk so without malice and impatience, that I should

be sorry you should do worse than myself. And 1 tell you further,

I do perceive my Lord Chancellor hath a fancy towards you;

wherefore be not so obstinate, but desire respite, and some learned

man to confer withal, &c.

Brad. I cannot nor I will not so offend the people. I doubt not,
but I am most certain of the doctrine I have taught.

Here Seton waxed hot, and called Bradford arrogant, proud,
vain-glorious, and spake like a prelate; to which
Brad. Beware of judging, lest you condemn yourself.

But still Seton urged him, shewing him how merciful Gardiner
was, and how charitably they entertained him.
Brad. I never saw any justice, much less love, 1 speak for my
part, in my Lord Chancellor. Long have I been unjustly impri-
soned, and handled in the same uncharitably; and now my Lord
h:ith no such matter against me.

175

This talk served not the Doctor's purpose, wherefore he went
from matter to matter, from this point to that point. Bradford
still gave him the hearing and answered not; for he perceived that
they had both come only to fish for something, which might
make a show that my Lord Chancellor had justly kept him in
prison. When all this talk took no such effect as they had
looked for ;

Hussey. Will ye not admit conference, if my Lord Chancellor
should offer it publicly?

Brad, Conference, if it had been offered before the law had been
made, or if it were offered so that I might be at liberty to confer, and
as safe as he with whom I should confer, then it were something;
but else I see not to what other purpose conference should be
oftered, bat to defer that which will come at the length, and the
liigerinof may give more offence than do good. Howbeit, if my Lord
siall make such an offer of his own motion, I will not refuse to
lonfer with whomsoever he shall appoint.

Upon hearing this, Seton called Bradford arrogant, proud,
and made use of other reproachful expressions; when Bradford
perceiving that he should be shortly called for, besought them
both to give him leave to talk with God; and to beg wisdom and
grace of him; alleging that otherwise he was helpless; upon
which, after much ado, they departed.

Then Bradford went to God, and made
his prayers, which the Lord, of his goodness,
graciously accepted in his need ; praised
therefore be his holy name.

176

No. 52.*

THE THIRD AND LAST EXAMINATION OF
BRADFORD,

In the Church of St. Mary Overies, on the 30th of January,

1553.

SOON after Seton and Hussey had left Bradford, he was
conducted to St. Mary's, and kept waiting till e'even o'clock ;
when he was brought before Gardiner and the other bishops:
upon which the former said, that if Bradford would answer with
modesty and humility, and conform himself to the catholic church
with them, he yet might find mercy, because thev would be loith
to use extremity ; concluding with an exhortation, that Bradford
would recant his doctrine.

Brad. As yesterday 1 besought your Honours, to set in you-
sight the majesty and presence of God, to follow him, who seeketl
not to subvert the simple by subtle questions: so I humbly beseech
every one of you to do this day; for that you know well enough,
that guiltless blood will cry for vengeance. And this I pray not
your Lordships to do, as one that taketh upon me to condemn
you utterly herein ; but that ye might be more admonished, to do
that which none doth so much as he should do. For our nature
is so much corrupt, that we are very oblivious and forgetful of God.
Again, as yesterday I pretended mine oath, and oaths, against the
Bishop of Rome, that I should never consent to the practising of any
jurisdiction for him, or on his behalf, in the Realm of England ; so
do I again this day, lest I should be perjured. And last of all,
as yesterday the answers I made were by protestation, and, saving
mine oath, so I would your Honours should know that my answers
shall be this day ; and this I do, that when death, which 1 look for
at your hands, shall come, I may not be troubled with the guiltiness
of perjury.

* Fox iii. 288.

* a

;

177

Gard. (In wrath) We had given you respite to deliberate till
this day, whether you would recant your errors of the blessed
sacrament, which yesterday before us you uttered,

Brad. My Lord, you gave me no time of any such deliberation,
neither did I speak any thing of the sacrament which you did
disallow. For when I had declared a presence of Christ to be there
to faith, you went from that matter to purge yourself that you were
not cruel, and so went to dinner.

Gard. What? I perceive we must begin all again with thee.
Did not I yesterday tell thee thou madest a conscience where none
should be ? Did not I make it plain that the oath against the Bishop
of Rome was an unlawful oath ?

Brad. No, indeed, My Lord ; you said so, but you proved it
not yet, nor ever can do.

Gard. O Lord God, what a fellow art thou ! Thou wouldest go
about to bring into the people's heads, that we, all the Lords of the
Parliament House, the Knights and Burgesses, and all the whole
realm be perjured. O what an heretic is this! Here, good people,
you may see what a senseless heretic this fellow is.* If I should
make an oath, I would never help my brother, nor lend him money
in his need,-\ were this a good answer to tell my neighbour, desiring
my help, that I had made an oath to the contrary ; or that I could
not do it ?

Brad. O my Lord, discern betwixt oaths that be against
charity and faith, and oaths that be according to faith and charity,
as this is against the Bishop of Rome.

Here Gardiner made much ado, and a long time was spent

about oaths, which were good, and which were evil, he often

captiously asking of Bradford a direct answer concerning oaths,

which Bradford would not give simply, but with a distinction.

Whereat Gardiner was much offended; but Bradford still kept

* How closely tyrants and persecutors in all ages imitate each other. "There he
saw the judge sitting on the trial of the Christians, and trangressing the bounds of
decency, and of moderation." Lord Hailes, iii. 26. So Jeffries, in the trial of Baxter.

t We have heard of persons, calling themselves pious, making such oaths or
resolutions as these let them hear the enormity of their crime, even from such a very
wretch as Gardiner was ! Deut. xv. 9. Matt. v. 42.

2 A

178

him at bay, that tire oath against the Bishop of Rome was a
lawful oath, using thereto Gardiner's own book, De Vera
Obediently for confirmation.

At length they came to this issue, who should be judge of the
lawfulness of the oath ; and Bradford said the Word of God,
according to Christ's Word, John xii., My word shall judge, and
according to the testimony of Isaiah and Micah, That God's word
coming out of Jerusalem, shall give sentence among the Gentiles.
By this word Bradford offered to prove the oath against the
Bishop of Rome's authority to be a good, a godly, and a lawful
oath. So that Gardiner left his hold, and as the other day he
pretended a denial of the Queen's authority, and obedience to her
Highness, so did he now.

But Bradford, as the day before, proved that obedience in this
point, to the Queen's Highness, if she should demand an oath to
the Bishop of Rome, being denied, was not a general denial of
her authority and of obedience to her; no more than the sale,
gift, or lease of a piece of a man's inheritance, proveth it a sale,
gift, or lease, of the whole inheritance.

And thus much ado was made about this matter; Gardiner
talking much and using many examples of debt, of going out of
the town to-morrow by oath, and yet tarrying till Friday, and
such like. Which trifling talk Bradford did touch, saying, that
it was a wonder his Honour weighed conscience no more in this,
and would be so earnest in vows of priests's marriages made to
bishops, and be careless for solemn oaths made to God, and to
princes. Summa, this was the end ; Gardiner said the Queen
might dispense with it, and did so to all the whole realm ; but
Bradford said, that the Queen's Highness could do no more
but remit her right; as for the oath made to God, she could
never remit, forasmuch, as it was made unto God. At which
Gardiner chafed wonderfully.

Gard. In plain sense, you slander the realm of perjury; and
therefore, addressing the people, you see how this fellow taketh upon
him, to have more knowledge and conscience, than all the wise men
of England, and yet he hath no conscience at all.

Brad. Well, my Lord, let all the standers by see who hath

179

conscience. I have been a year and a half in prison; now before afl
these people, declare wherefore I was imprisoned, or what cause you
had to punish me. You said the other day in your own house, my
Lord of London witnessing with you, that I took upon me to speak
to the people undesired. There he sitteth by you, 1 mean my Lord
of Bath,* who desired me himself for the passion of Christ, I would
speak to the people. Uporn these words, I coming 1 into the pulpit,
had like to have been slain with a dagger, which was hurled at him,
I think, for it touched my sleeves. He then prayed me, I would not
leave him, and I promised him, as long as I lived, I would take hurt
before him that day; and so went out of the pulpit, and intreated
with the peopk, and at length brought him myself into an house.
Besides this, in the afternoon, I preached in Bow Church, and there
going up into the pulpit, one willed me not to reprove the people;
for, quoth he, you shall never come down alive, if you do it. And
yet notwithstanding, I did in that sermon reprove their fact, and
called it sedition at the least twenty times. For all which my doing,
I have received this recompense, prison for a year and a half and
more, and death, now which you go about. Let all men be judges
where conscience is.

In speaking of these words, there was endeavour to have letted

it ; but Bradford still spake on, and gave no place, till he had

made an end, speak what they would ; O then, Gardiner said, that

for all that fair tale, his fact at the Cross was naught.

Brad. No, my fact was good, as you yourself did bear witness

with me ; for when I was at the first before you in the Tower, you

yourself did say, that my fact was good, but that my mind was evil.

Well, quoth 1 then, my Lord, in that you allow the fact, and

condemn my mind, for so much as otherwise I cannot declare my

mind to man, but by saying and doing, God one day I trust will

open it to my comfort, what my mind was, and yours is.

Gard. I never said so. 1 had not so little wit, I trow, as not to
discern betwixt meaning and doing.

* This was Bourue,fwhose life he had saved, and who was now sitting as one of his
judges; but although he did not openly interfere in Bradford's favour, he appears tw
have made some exertions to save him. See p. 159, and Post.

180

He then brought forth, little to the purpose, many examples to

prove that men construe things, by the meaning of men, and not

by their doings. But when this would not serve, then cometh be

to another matter, and said that Bradford was put in prison at the
first, because he would not yield, nor be conformable to the Queen's

religion.*

Brad. Why, my Lord, your Honour knoweth that you would not
then reason with me in religion, but said a time should afterwards be
found out,f when I should be talked withal. But if it were as your
Lordship saith, that I was put in prison for religion, in that my
religion was then authorized by public laws of the realm, could
conscience punish me, or cast me in prison therefore? Wherefore,
let all men be judges, in whom conscience wanteth.

Chamberlaine.+ This Bradford has been a serving man, and
was with M. Harrington.

Gard. True, and did deceive his master of seven score pounds ;
and because of this, he went to be a gospeller, and a preacher, good
people, and yet you see how he pretendeth conscience.

Brad. My Lord, I set my foot by this, whosoever he be, that can
come forth and justly vouch to my face, that ever I deceived my
master. And as you are Chief Justice, by office, in England, I desire
justice upon them that so slander me, because they cannot prove it.

Gard. We heard it, but we have another manner of matter than
this against you ; for you are an heretic.

Banner . Yea, he did write letters to M. Pendleton, who knoweth
his hand as well as his own ; your Honour did see the letters.

Brad. That is not true : I never did write to Pendleton since I
came to prison, and therefore I am not justly spoken of.

Banner. Yea, but you indited it.

* Here we have the fact acknowledged, that these persecutions were on account of
religion ; and not, as the popish writers would insinuate, for rebellion and sedition.

t See the subtlety and iniquity of these fiends : they would not discuss the question
of religion upon its own merits, but waited till they had made a law to entrap their
victims; and by which they must either involve themselves in the consequences,
confess to error against conscience, or consent to appear, as if incapable of justifying
their own opinions.

} Of Woodstock.

181

Brad. I did not, nor know what you mean, and this I offer
to prove.

Here Allen, one of the Clerks of the Council, put Gardiner in

remembrance of letters written into Lancashire.

Gard. You say true, for we have his hand to shew.

Brad. I deny that you have my hand to shew of letters sent into
Lancashire, otherwise than before you all I will stand to, and prove
them to be good and lawful.

Gard. Sir, in my house the other day you did most con-
temptuously contemn the Queen's mercy, and further said, that you
would maintain the erroneous doctrine in Kins' Edward's days,
against all men, and this you did most stoutly.

Brad. Well, I am glad that all men see now, you have had no
matter to imprison me afore that day, justly. Now say I, that I did
not contemptuously contemn the Queen's mercy, but would have
had it, though if justice might take place, I need it not, so that I
might have had it with God's mercy, that is, without doing or saying
any thing against God and his truth. And as for maintenance
of doctrine, because I cannot tell how you will stretch this word
maintenance, 1 will repeat again that which I spake. I said I was
more confirmed in the religion, set forth in King Edward's days,
than ever I was ; and if God so would, I trust I should declare it, by
giving my life, for the confirmation and testification thereof. So I
said then, and so I say now. As for otherwise to maintain it, than
pertaining to a private person by confession, I thought not, nor
think not.

Gard. Well, yesterday thou didst maintain false heresy, con-
cerning the blessed sacrament, and therefore we gave thee respite till
this day to deliberate.

Brad. My Lord, as I said at the first, I spake nothing of the
sacrament, but that which you allowed, and therefore refused it not,
nor gave me any thing to deliberate.

Gard. Why? Didst thou not deny Christ's presence in the
sacrament ?

Brad. No, I never denied nor taught, but that to faith whole
Christ, body and blood, was as present as the bread and wine, to the
due receiver.

182

Gard. Yea, but dost thou not believe that Christ's body
naturally and really is there, under the form of bread and wine?

Brad. My Lord, I believe Christ is present there to the faith
of the due receiver; as for transubstantiation, I plainly and flatly
tell you 1 believe it not.

Here was Bradford called diabolus, a slanderer.

Gard. We ask no question of transubstantiation, but of Christ's
presence.

Brad. I deny not his presence to the faith of the receiver, but
deny that he is included in the bread, or that the bread is transub-
stantiate.

Heath.* If he be not included, how is he then present ?

Brad. Forsooth, though my faith can tell how, yet my tongue
cannot express it ; nor you otherwise than by faith hear it, or under-
stand it.

Here was much ado, now one doctor standing up and speaking

this, and others speaking- that, and the Lord Chancellor talking

much of Luther, Zuinglius, and CEcolampadius ; bat still Bradford

kept him at this point, that Christ is present to faith ; and that

there is no transubstantiation, nor including of Christ in the

bread ; but all this would not serve them.

Therefore another bishop asketl this question, Whether the

wicked man received Christ's very body or not? And Bradford

answered plainly, No.

Gard. It cannot be that Chris* is present, except that the evil
man receives it.

Brad. Grace is at this present offered to your Lordship, although
you receive it not; so that the receiving maketh not the presence, as
your Lordship would infer; but God's grace, truth, and power is the
cause of the presence, which grace the wicked that lack faith cannot
receive. I pray yon, my Lord, not to divorce that which God hath
coupled together. He hath coupled all these together. Take eat,
this is my body. He saith not, see, keep, this is my body; but take
eat. So that it approveth this as a promise, depending upon condition,
if we take and cat.

* Up. of Worcester.

183

Here Gardiner and other Bishops said that Bradford had found
out a toy, that no man else ever did, of the condition; and
Gardiner made many words to the people thereabout.
Brad. My Lord, are not these words, take and eat, a command-
ment? And are not these words, this is my body, a promise? If
you will challenge the promise, and doubt the commandment, may
you not deceive yourself?

Here Gardiner denied Christ to have commanded the sacrament,
and the use of it.

Brad. Why, my Lord, I pray you tell the people what mood,
accipite, manducate, is ; is it not plain to children, that Christ in so
saying commandeth?

At these words Gardiner ma4e a great toying and trifling at
the imperative mood, and fell to parsing or examining, as he
would teach a child ; and so concluded that it was no command-
ment, but such a phrase as this; I pray you give me drink,
which, quoth he, is no commandment, I trow.
Brad. I entreat you, my Lord, to leave toying and trifling ; if it
be not a commandment of Christ, to take and eat the sacrament,
%vhy dare any take upon them, to command and make that of
necessity, which God leaveth free; as you do in making it a necessary
commandment, once a year for all that be of discretion, to receive
the sacrament ?

Card. You are a caviller. Let a man prove himself, and so eat
of the bread, (yea, quoth Bradford) and drink of the cup ; this is no
commandment, for if it were, then should it bind all men, in all
places, and at all times.

Brad. O, my Lord, discern between commandments ; some be
so general, as the ten commandments, that they bind always, in all
places, and all persons; some be not so general, as this is of the
Supper, the sacrament of baptism; of the thrice appearing before the
Lord yearly at Jerusalem; of Abraham offering of Isaac, &c.

Gard. The cup is not commanded of Christ, for then we should
have eleven commandments.

Brad. Indeed I believe you think as you speak, for else would
you not take the cup from the people, in that Christ saith, Drink ye
all of it. But how say you, rny Lords? Christ saith to you Bishops

184

especially, Go and preach the Gospel: feed Christ's flock, &c. Is
this a commandment or no?*

TonstaL When does Christ begin to be present in the sacrament?
Before the receiver receives it or no ?

Brad' The question is curious, and not necessary. As the cup
is the New Testament, so the bread is Christ's body to him that re-
ceived it duly, but yet so that the bread is bread. For in all the
Scripture ye shall not find this proposition, there is no bread. And so
saith Chrysostom, Si in corpore essemus. Horn. 83. in Matt.

Much ado was hereabouts, they calling Bradford heretic, and

he desiring them to proceed on in God's name, he looked for that

which God had appointed for them to do.

Gard. This fellow is now in another heresy of fatal necessity, as
though all things were so tied together, that of mere necessity, all
must come to pass.

Brad. I pray your Lordship to take things as they be spoken,
and not wrest them into a contrary sense. You discern betwixt God
and man. Things are never by fortune to God at any time, though
to man they seem so sometimes. I speak but as the apostles said ;
Lord see how Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Prelates, are
gathered together against thy Christ, to do that which thy hand and
council, hath before ordained for them to do.

Here Gardiner read the excommunication ;f and when he came

to the word laicus :

Gard. Why, art thou no priest?

Brad. No, nor ever was, either priest, either beneficed, either mar-
ried, either any preacher, afore public authority had established
religion ; or preacher, after public authority had altered religion ; and
yet I am thus handled at your hand; but God I doubt not will give
his blessing, where you curse.}:

* Here Gardiner was in a great chafe, and said as pleased him, Fox ad locum.
None of their Lordships chose to notice this direct attack upon them ; so Latimer,
when he wishes to censure the popish Bishops most severely, designates them as " the
no-preaching prelates" And yet in our own day we have heard it used as a mark of
reproach against one Bishop, though but one, " that he was too fond of preaching."

t See Appendix, Note (V.) t See Appendix, Note (W.)

185

And so he fell down on his knees, and heartily thanked God,
that he counted him worthy* to suffer for his name's sake ; and so
praying God to give him repentance, and a good mind, after the
excommunication was read, he was delivered to the custody of the
Sheriffs of London. ,

IMMEDIATELY after the last examination,
Bradford was conveyed to the Clink ;f where
he remained two or three days, and was thence
removed to the Compter in the Poultry ;j it
being originally intended by his murderers, as
Fox justly calls them, to deliver him to the
Earl of Derby, in order to be conveyed to
Manchester,!! where he was born, and where it
was intended he should be burned. At this
period we find the following letters.

* " Blessed therefore and honourable, are all martyrdoms, endured according to the
will of God ; for it becometh us, who profess to be devout above all others, to ascribe
whatever befalleth to the will of God." Lord Hailed Rem. C. A. vol. i. 2.

+ A comman jail in Long Southwark, at the west end, on the bank
side of the Thames, near where the stews formerly stood. Biog. Brit,
ii. 551.

J In Grocers' Hall Court ; very lately taken down ; and a chapel
erected upon its site, where the Rev. John Clayton, Jun. officiates.
How would our holy martyr have rejoiced, could he have forseen that
the genuine Gospel of his Saviour and Redeemer, and the same truths
for which he was about to lay down his life at the stake ; would be
preached with such acceptance, power, and effect, on the very spot
where his frail body was so cruelly incarcerated !

Acts and Mon. iii. 291. See Appendix, Note (X.)
11 See Appendix, Note (Y.)

186

No. 53.*

To HIS DEARLY BELOVED SISTER, MRS. A. W.

THE everlasting peace of Christ be more and more lively felt in
our hearts, by the operation of the Holy Ghost, now and for ever,
Amen.

Although I know it to be more than needeth, to write any thing
unto you, good Sister, being, as I doubt not you be, diligently
exercised in reading of the Scriptures, meditating 1 the same, and
hearty prayer to God for the help of his Holy Spirit, to have the sense
and feeling especially of the comforts you read in God's sweet book ;
yet having such opportunity, and knowing not whether hereafter
I shall have the like, as this bringer can declare, I thought good in
few words to take my farewell in writing, because otherwise I
cannot.

And now methinks, I have done it; for what else can I, or
should I, say unto you, my dearly beloved in the Lord, but farewell ?
Farewell, dear Sister, farewell ; howbeit in the Lord, our Lord, I say,
farewell ; in him shall you fare well, and so much the better, by how
much in yourself you fare evil, and shall fare evil.

When I speak of yourself, I mean also this world, this life, and
all things properly pertaining to this life. In them as you look not
for your welfare, so be not dismayed, when accordingly you shall feel
it. To the Lord our God, to the Lamb our Christ, who hath borne
our sins on his back, and is our mediator for ever, do I send you.
In him look for welfare, and that without all wavering, because of
his own goodness and truth, which our evilness and untruth cannot
take away.

Not that therefore I would have you to flatter yourself in any
evil or unbelief, but that I would comfort you, that they should not

* Fox iii. 319. Cov. 457.

1ST

dismay you. Yours is our Christ wholly ; yours, I say, he is, with
all that ever he hath. Is not this welfare, trow you ? Mountains
shall move and the earth shall fall, before you find it otherwise ; say
the liar satan what he list. Therefore, good Sister, farewell, and be
merry in the Lord ; be merry, I say, for you have good cause.

If your welfare, joy, and salvation hanged upon any other thing,
than only God's mercy and truth, then might you well be sad,
heavy, and stand in a doubt. But in that it hangeth only upon these
two, tell satan he lieth, when he would have you to stand in a
mammering, by causing you to cast your eyes, which only in this
case should be set on Christ, your sweet Saviour, on yourself in
some part.

Indeed, look on yourself, on your faith, on your love, obedience,
&c., to awake you up from security, to stir you to diligence, in
doing the things appertaining to your vocation; but when you
would be at peace with God, and have true consolation in your
conscience, altogether look upon the goodness of God in Christ.
Think on this commandment, which precedeth all others, that you
must have no other Gods, but the LORD JEHOVAH, which is your
Lord and God ; the which he could not he, if that he did not pardon
your sins in very deed. Remember that Christ commandeth you to
call him Father, for the same intent.

And hereto call to mind all the benefits of God, hitherto showered
upon you ; and so shall you feel in very deed, that which I wish
unto you now, and pray you to wish unto me, farewell or well fare
in the LORD JESUS ; which may he grant us shortly to meet, as his
children, for his name and mercy's sake, to our eternal welfare.
Amen. ,

Your own in the Lord,

JOHN BRADFORD.

188
No. 54.*

TO HIS MOTHER,

As a farewell, who thought he should have suffered shortly

after.

THE Lord of Life and Saviour of the World, Jesus Christ, bless
you and comfort you, my good and dear Mother, with his heavenly
comfort, consolation, grace, and spirit, now and for ever. Amen.

If I thought that daily, yea almost hourly, you did not cry upon
God the Father, through Jesus Christ, that he would give me his
blessing, even the blessing of his children ; then would I write more
hereabouts. But forasmuch as herein I am certain you are diligent,
and so I beseech you, good Mother, to continue; 1 think it good to
write something, whereby this your crying might be furthered.
Furthered it will be, if those things which hinder it be taken away.
Among the which, in that I think my imprisonment is the greatest
and chiefest, 1 will thereabout spend this letter, and that briefly, lest
it might increase the let, as my good brother, this bringer, can
tell you.f

You shall know therefore, good Mother, that for my body,
though it be in an house, out of the which I cannot come when I
will, yet in that I have conformed my will to God's will, I find herein
liberty enough, I thank God. And for my lodging, bedding, meat,
drink, godly and learned company, books, and all other necessaries,
for mine ease, comfort, and commodity, I am in much better case,
than I could wish, and God's merciful providence here is far above
my worthiness. Worthiness, quoth I ? Alas, I am worthy of nothing
but damnation.

* Fox iii. 350. Cov. 451.

t He meaneth the danger of more strait imprisonment, that might hereby follow.
Cov. 451.

189

But besides all this, for my soul I find much more commodity ;
for God is my father, I now perceive, through Christ; therefore in
imprisoning me for his Gospel, he maketh me like to the image of his
Son Jesus Christ here, that when he cometh to judgment, I might
then be like unto him, as my trust and hope is I shall be. Now
maketh he me like to his friends, the prophets, apostles, the holy
martyrs, and confessors. Which of them did not suffer, at the least,
imprisonment or banishment for his Gospel and word ?

Now, Mother, how far am I unmeet to be .compared unto them ?
[, I say, who always have been, and am, so vile an hypocrite, and
grievous a sinner; God might have caused me, long before this
time, to have been cast into prison, as a thief, a blasphemer, an
unclean liver, and an heinous offender of the laws of the realm ; but,
dear Mother, his mercy is so great upon both you and me, and all
that love me, that I should be cast into prison as none of these, or for
any such vices ; but only for his Christ's sake, for his Gospel's sake,
for his Church's sake ; that hereby, as I might learn to lament, to
bewail my ingratitude and sins ; so I might rejoice in his mercy, be
thankful, look for eternal joy with Christ, for whose sake, praised be his
name for it, I now suffer, and therefore should be merry and glad.

And indeed, good Mother, so I am as ever I was, yea, never so
merry and glad was f , as I now should be, if I could get you to be
merry with me, to thank God for me, and to pray on this sort. Ah,
good Father, who dost vouchsafe that my son, being a grievous sinner
in thy sight, should find this favour with thee, to be one of thy Son's
captains, and men of war to fight and suffer for his Gospel's sake.
I thank thee and pray thee, in Christ's name, that thou wouldest
forgive him his sins and unthankfulness, and make perfect in him
that good, which thou hast began; yea, Lord, I pray thee make him
worthy to suffer not only imprisonment, but even very death, for the
truth, religion, and Gospel's sake. As Hannah did apply, and
give her first child, Samuel, unto thee; so do I, dear Father,
beseeching thee, for Christ's sake, to accept this my gift, and give
my son John Bradford grace, always truly to serve thee and thy
people, as Samuel did, Amen, Amen.

If on this sort, Mother, from your heart, you would pray, as 1

190

should be the merriest* man that ever was, so am I certain the lets
of your prayer for my imprisonment, would be taken away. Mark
therefore, good Mother, what I have written, and learn this prayer
by heart, to say it daily, and then I shall be merry, and you shall
rejoice; if that you continue as I trust you do, in God's true
religion, even the same I have taught you; and my Father Traves, I
trust, will put you in remembrance of; my brother Roger also, I
trust, doth so daily. Go to therefore, and learn apace. Although the
devil cast divers lets in the way, God, in whom you trust, will cast
them away for his Christ's sake, if you will call upon him, and never
will he suffer you to be tempted, above that he will make you able to
bear. But how you should do herein, the other letter 1 have written
herewith,f shall teach you, which I would none should read, till my
Father Traves have read it, and he will give you, by God's grace,
some instructions.

Now therefore will I make an end, praying you, good Mother,
to look for no more letters ; for if it were- known that I have pen and
ink and did write, then should I want all the foresaid commodities I
have spoken of concerning my body, and be cast into some dungeon
in fetters of iron, which thing I know would grieve you, and
therefore, for God's sake, see that these be burned, when this little
prayer in it is copied out by my brother Roger ; for perchance your
house may be searched for such gear, when you think little of it; and
look for no more, sweet Mother, till either God shall deliver me and
send me out, either you and I shall meet together in heaven, where
we shall never part asunder, Amen.

I require you, Elizabeth and Margaret, my sisters, that you will
fear God, use prayer, love your husbands, be obedient unto them, as
God willeth you ; bring up your children in God's fear; and be
good housewives. God bless you both, with both my good brethren
your husbands, whom to do good, because I now cannot, I will pray

* See Appendix, Note (S.) How delightful it is to see the power of religion thus
' exemplified in the view of death, and how our minds are thus led to retrace the history
of the early Christians.

t This letter cometh not to our hands. Cov. 453. Fox iii. 351.

191

for them and you. Commend me to my sister Anne, Mother Pike,
T. Sorrocold and his wife, R. Shalcrosse and his wife, R. Bolton,
J. Wilde, M. Vicar, the Parson of Mottrom, Sir Lawrence Hall,
with all that love, and, I trust, live the Gospel; and God turn Sir
Thomas's heart, Amen. I will daily pray for him. I need not to
set my name, you know it well enough.

Because you should give my letters to Father Traves to be
burned, I have written here a prayer for you to learn to pray for me,
good Mother, and another for all your house, in your evening prayer,
to pray with my brother. These prayers are written with mine own
hand ; keep them still, but the letters give to Father Traves to burn,
and give Father Traves a copy of the latter prayer.

WHILST Bradford was in the Compter,
numerous attempts were made to induce
him to change his opinions ; and various
instruments were set to work, and manoeuvres
practised, in order to accomplish that object.*

On the fourth of February, the same day
upon which the martyr Rogers was burned,
Bonner came to the Counter to degrade Dr.
Taylor, another of the martyrs ; and sending
for Bradford, as soon as he saw him, he put
off his cap and gave him his hand.

* See Appendix, Note (Z.)

192

No. 55.*

CONFERENCE WITH BONNER.

Banner. Because I perceive that ye are desirous to confer with
some learned men, therefore I have brought Master Archdeacon
Harpsfield to you ; and I tell you do like a wise man ; but I pray you
go roundly to work for the time is but short.

Brad. My Lord, as roundly as I can, I will go to work with you;
I never desired to confer with any man, nor yet do; howbeit if ye will
have one to talk with me, I am ready.

Banner. What, did you not tell me that this man desired con-
ference ?

Keeper. No, my Lord, I told you that he would not refuse to
confer with any; but I did not say that it is his desire.

Banner. Well, M. Bradford, you are well -beloved ; I pray you,
consider yourself, and refuse not charity when it is offered.

Brad. Indeed, my Lord, this is small charity, to condemn a man
as you have condemned me, who never broke your laws. In Turkey
a man may have charity, but in England I could not yet find it. I
was condemned for my faith, so soon as I uttered it at your requests,
before I had committed any thing against the laws. And as for
conference, I am not afraid to talk with whom ye will ; but to say
that I desire to confer, that do I not.

No. 56.t
TO THE LADY VANE.

OUR dear and most meek Father, always be with us for his
Christ's sake, and as his children, guide us for ever. Amen.

Your comfortable and necessary letters last sent me, right

Fox iii. 291. f Cov. 467.

193

worshipful and dearly beloved, do deserve at my hands, as other your
benefits have done, that which I cannot give. The Lord my God
recompense you, as he can and undoubtedly will. Now am I going
to my good Father and your Father; now am I going to my Christ
and your Christ; now am I going to my home and your home.
I go before, but you shall follow ; howbeit when or which way, I
know not ; the Lord knoweth. Unto his providence and will,
commend yourself; for as it cannot but come to pass, so is there
nothing so good to us as it is. Happy were we that ever we were
born, that God might set forth his glory by us, howsoever he do it.

Though I am led, as to Peter was said, whither I would not, yet
with me and for me give thanks, that it pleaseth my Father thus to
lead me. I have deserved, yea even since I came into this prison,
many a shameful death ; such and so great is my ingratitude and
sins. But lo, the tender kindness of my Father, doth correct me as
a child and son, making the remedy for my sins an occasion of his
glory, a witness of his verity, a confirmation of his true religion,
heretofore set forth and preached by me ; wherein, good Madam,
persist, and you shall be safe. JBe not now ashamed of it, for though
it seem to be overcome, YET BY SUFFERING IT OVERCOMETH ; that
God's wisdom, which is foolishness to the world ; God's power, which
is weakness to the reason of man ; may triumph and confound that,
which with the world, is wise and mighty.

Now do I begin to be Christ's disciple; now I begin to be
fashioned like to my Master in suffering, that so I may be in
reigning; now do I for ever take my farewell of you for this life;
now commend I myself into the hands of my Father, by whose
providence I came into this world, by whose providence I have
been kept in this world, and by whose providence I do depart hence.
And as his providence is towards, me, so doubt you nothing less it
is towards you ; though not in such sort exteriorly, yet in such
love, solicitude, and carefulness for you interiorly.

God, our God, and Father of Mercy, for the blood of his Christ,
wash away all our sins, comfort his Church, strengthen the weak,
convert or confound, as may make most to his glory, his enemies,
and be with us KMANUEL for ever. Amen, Amen.

In haste, out of prison, the 5 of February, 1555.

JOHN BRADFORDB.
2c

194

ON a subsequent day in the same month,
M. Willerton, chaplain to Bonner, came
to confer with Bradford, but when he per-
ceived that the martyr wished for his
departure, said, Well, M. Bradford, I pray
you let us confer a little, perchance you may
do me good, if I can do you none. Bradford
having acquiesced, Willerton argued from
the doctors, and fathers, and of the bread in
Johnvi. labouring to prove transubstantiation,
and alleging that wicked men do receive
Christ. But Bradford, on the contrary,
improved his authorities, so that they came
to this issue, that Willerton should draw out
his reasons from the Scriptures and the
Doctors, and Bradford should peruse them ;
and if he could not answer them, then he
would give place. Likewise Bradford was
to draw out his reasons, from the Scriptures
and Doctors, to which Willerton should
answer if he could ; and so they sepa-
rated.

The next morning, Willerton sent half a
sheet of paper written on both sides, con-
taining no reasons how he gathered his
doctrine ; but only bare sentences, The bread
which I will give is my flesh ; and the
places in Matt, xxvi., Mark xiv., Luke
xxii., and 1 Cor. x. xi., with some sentences

195

of the Doctors, all which made as much
against him as for him.

In the afternoon he came himself, when
they had a long conference to little effect :
and at length Willerton alleged that Bradford
swerved from the Church.

No. 57.*
CONFERENCE WITH M. WILLERTON.

Brad. No, that 1 do not, but ye do, for the Church is Christ's
spouse, and Christ's obedient spouse, which your Church, which robs
the people of the Lord's cup, and of service in the English Tongue,
is not.

Wilier. Why ? it is not profitable to have the service in English ;
for it is written, The lips of the priest should keep the law, and out of
his mouth man must look for knowledge.

Brad. Should not the people then have the Scriptures?
Wherefore serveth this saying of Christ, Search the Scriptures?

Wilier. This was not spoken to the people, but to the scribes
and learned men.

Brad. Then the people must not have the Scriptures ?

Wilier. No, for it is written, They shall be all taught of God.

Brad. And must we all learn of the priests ?

Witter. Yea.

Brad. Then I see you would bring the people to hang up
Christ, and let Barabbas go, as the priests did then persuade the
people.

* Fox iii. 291.

196

In the end Bradford gave his reasons, which he had gathered
against transubstantiation, and prayed him to frame his into the
form of reasons, and that then he would answer them.
IViller. Well, 1 will do so ; hut first I will answer yours.*

No. 58.t

ANOTHER LETTER to MRS. ANNE WARCUP.

ALMIGHTY God, our heavenly Father, for his Christ's sake,
increase in us faith, by which we may more and more see what glory
and honour is reposed, and safely kept in heaven, for all them that
believe with the heart, and confess Christ and his truth with the
mouth, Amen.

My dearly beloved, I remember that once heretofore:*: I wrote unto
you a Vale, or a farewell upon conjecture; but now I write my
farewell to you in this life indeed, upon certain knowledge. My staff
standeth at the door, I continually look for the Sheriff to come for
me, and, I thank God, I am ready for him. Now go 1 to practice that
which I have preached. Now am I climbing up the hill : it will
cause me to puff and blow before I come to the cliff. The hill is
steep and high ; my breath is short, and my strength is feeble ; pray
therefore to the Lord for me, that as I have now through his goodness,
even almost come to the top, I may, by his grace, be strengthened,
not to rest till I come where I should be.

Oh, loving Lord, put out thy hand and draw me unto thee ; for
no man cometh, but he whom the Father draweth. See, my dearly
beloved, God's loving mercy ; he knoweth my short breath and great
weakness. As he sent for Elijah a fiery chariot, so sendeth he for
me ; for by fire my dross must be purified, that I may be fine gold in
his sight. O unthankful wretch that I am ; Lord, do thou forgive

* Which however he never did. Fox iii. 292.
t Fox iii. 3. Cov. 438. } See No. 53.

197

me mine unthankfulness. Indeed I confess, right dear to me in the
Lord, that my sins have deserved hell fire ; much more than this fire.
But lo! so loving is my Lord, that he converteth the remedy for my
sins, the punishment for my transgressions, into a testimonial of his
truth, and a testification of his verity, which the prelates do persecute
in me, and not my sins ; therefore they persecute not me, but Christ
in me, who I doubt not will take my part unto the very end. Amen.

Oh, that I had so open an heart, as could so receive as I should do,
this great benefit and unspeakable dignity, which God my Father
offereth to me. Now pray for me, my dearly beloved, pray for me,
that I never shrink. 1 shall never shrink, I hope; I trust in the
Lord, I shall never shrink ^ for he that always hath taken my part, I
am assured will not leave me when 1 have most need, for his truth
and mercy's sake. Oh, Lord, help me ; into thy hands I commend
me wholly. In the Lord is my trust, I care not what man can do
unto me, Amen.

My dearly beloved, say you Amen, also, and come after if God so
call you. Be not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, but keep company
with him still. He will never leave you; but in the midst of tempta-
tion will give you an outscape, to make you able to bear the brunt.
Use hearty prayer; reverently read and hear God's Word; put it in
practice ; look for the cross ; lift up your heads, for your redemption
draweth nigh. Know that the death of God's saints is precious in
his sight ; be merry in the Lord ; pray for the mitigation of God's
heavy displeasure upon our country ; God keep us for ever ; God
bless us with his spirtual blessings in Christ.

And thus I bid you farewell for ever in this present life ; pray for
me, pray for me, for God's sake, pray for me. God make perfect his
good work begun in me, Amen. Out of prison this 7 of February.

Yours in the Lord,

JOHN BRADFORD.

198

No. 59,*

TO HIS DEAR FATHERS, DR. CRANMER,
DR. RIDLEY, AND DR. LATIMER.

JESUS IMMANUEL. My dear Fathers in the Lord, I beseech God
our sweet Father, through Christ, to make perfect the good he hath
begun in us all, Amen.

I had thought that every of yonr staves had stood next the door;
but now it is otherwise perceived. Our dear brother Rogers hath
broken the ice valiantly, and as this day, I think, or to-morrow at
the uttermost, hearty Hooper, sincere Saunders, and trusty Taylor,
end their course and receive their crown.

The next am I, who hourly look for the porter, to open me the
gates after them, to enter into the desired rest. God forgive me mine
unlhankfulness, for this exceeding great mercy; that amongst so
many thousands, it pleased his mercy to choose me, to be, one in
whom be will suffer. For although is be west true, that juste patror,
for I have been a great hypocrite, and a grievous sinner, the Lord
pardon me, yea, he hath done it, he hath done it, indeed, yet, Hie
autem quid mali fecit? Christ whom the prelates persecute, his
verity which they hate in me, hath done no evil, nor deserveth death.

Therefore ought I most heartily to rejoice of this dignation, and
tender kindness of the Lord, towards me, which useth the remedy
&r my sin, as a testimonial! of his Testament, to his glory, to your
everlasting comfort, to the edifying of his Church, and to the
overthrowing of antichrist and his kingdom. O what am I, Lord,
that thou shouldest thus magnify me, so vile a man and miser as
always I have been ? Is this thy wont to send for such a wretch and
hypocrite as I have been, in a fiery chariot, as thou didst for Elijah ?

* Fox iii. 321. Cov. 466.

t It is a singular mercy of God to bave death, which is a due punishment for sin,
turned into a demonstration and justification of the Lord's truth. Cov. 466.

199

Oh, dear Fathers, be thankful for me, and pray for me, that 1 still may
be found worthy, in whom the Lord would magnify his holy name.

And for your part, make you ready, for we are but your gentlemen
ushers. Nuptias agni parati sunt, venite ad nuptias. I now go to
.leave my flesh there, where I received it. I shall be conveyed
thither,* as Ignatius was to Rome, Leopardis; by whose evil I hope
to be made better. God grant, if it be his will that I ask, it may
make them better by me, Amen.

For my farewell therefore, I write and send this unto you,
trusting shortly to see you, where we shall never be separated. In
the mean season I will not cease, as I have done, to commend you to
our Father in heaven. And that ye would do so by me, I most
heartily pray every one of you ; you know now I have most need.
But fidelis Deus, qui nunquam sinet nos tentari, supra id quod
possumus. He never did it hitherto, nor now, and I am assured, he
will never, Amen.

A dextris cst mini, non movebor. Propter hoc laetabitur cor
meum, quia non derelinquet animam meam in inferno, nee dabit me,
sanctum suum per gratiam in Christo, videre corruptionem. E
carcere raptim, expectans omni momento carnificem. The 8 of
February, Anno 1555.

JOHN BRADFORD,

No. 60.t

TO HIS DEAR FRIEND, AND BROTHER IN
THE LORD, M. GEORGE EATON.

ALMIGHTY God, our dear Father, give to you daily more and
more, the knowledge of his truth, and a love and life to the same for
ever in all things, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, Amen.

* He meaueth that he should be conveyed by the Queen's guards into Lancashire
to be burnt, as the adversaries had once determined ; like as Ignatius was by a
company of soldiers, conveyed to Rome, and cast to the leopards. Cov. 467.

t Cov. 446.

200

I should begin with thanksgiving to God, and to you as his
steward, for the great benefits I have oftentimes received from you,
and especially in this time of my most need, far above my expectation ;
but because thankfulness lieth not in words or letters, and because
you look not to hear of your well-doing of man, I am purposed to pass
it over with silence, and to give myself presently to that which is
more profitable unto you ; that is, as God shall lend me his grace,
briefly to labour, or at least, to shew my good will, to help you in
God's gift to me, as you by your doing the like in God's gift unto
you, have, as already done, so occasioned me greatly hereto.

I would gladly have done it heretofore, but I have been
discouraged to write unto you, lest hurt thereby might come unto
you ; which is the only cause 1 have not hitherto written, nor now
would not have done, but that I stand in a doubt, whether ever
hereafter I shall have liberty to write unto you. And therefore, whilst
I something may, I thought good to do thus much, to declare unto
you, how that, as I think myself much bound to God for you, so I
desire to gratify the same, as God should enable me.

The days are come, and more and more do approach, in the
which trial will be of such, as have unfeignedly read and heard the
Gospel; for all others will abide no trial, but as the world will. But
of you because I have better hope, I cannot but, as pray to God, in
him to confirm you; so to beseech you of the same. I know it will
be a dangerous thing indeed to declare that which in word you have
confessed, and in heart have believed, especially concerning the
papistical mass; but, notwithstanding, we must not for dangers
depart from the truth, except we will depart from God ; for inasmuch
as God is the truth, and the truth is God, he that departeth from the
one, departeth from the other.

Now what a thing it is to depart from God, I need not to tell you,
because you know it is no less than a departing from all that is good,
and not only so, but also a coupling of yourself to all that is evil ;
for there is no mean, either we depart from God and stick to the
devil, or depart from the devil and stick to God.

Some men there be, who for fear of danger and loss of that they
must leave, when, where, and to whom, they know not ; do deceive
themselves after the just judgment of God, to believe the devil,

201

because they have no lust to believe God, in hearkening to satan's
counsel of parting stake with God; as to be persuaded that it is not
evil, or else no great evil, inwardly in heart to conceal the truth, and
outwardly in fact to betray it.

And therefore, though they know the mass to be abomination,
yet they make it but a straw, in going to it as the world doth ; in
which thing the Lord knoweth they deceive themselves to damnation,
dream they as they lust. For surely the body departing from the
verity, and so from God, will draw and drown, in damnation, the
soul also. For we shall receive according to that we do in the
body, good or bad ; and therefore the matter is more to be considered,
than men make of it ; the more it is to be lamented.

But I trust, my right dearly beloved, you will consider this with
yourself, and call your conscience to account, as God's word maketh
the charge. Beware of false auditors, who making a false charge,
can get no quietness of the conscience, after God's word. Therefore
cast your charge, and there you shall see, that no belief of the
heart justifieth, which hath not confession of the mouth to declare
the same. No man can serve two masters ; he that gathereth not
with Christ, as no mass seer unreproving it doth, scattereth abroad.
God's chosen are such as not only have good hearts, but also kiss
not their hands, nor bow their knee to Baal. Christ's disciples are
none but such as deny themselves, and take up their cross and
follow him. He that is ashamed of Christ and his truth in this
generation, must look that Christ will be ashamed of him in the day
of judgment. He that denieth Christ before men, shall be denied
before God. Now, two kinds of denial there be, yea three kinds ;
one in heart, another in word, and the third in deed. In the which
kinds, all mass gospellers be so bitten, that all the surgeons in the
world can lay no healing plaster thereto, till repentance appear and
draw out the matter of using the evil, and resorting to the mass.
For free should we be from all spots, not only of the flesh, but also
of the spirit ; and our duty is to depart, not only from evil, that is,
from the mass, but also, from the appearance of evil, that is, from
conniving at it.

Woe unto them that give offence to the children of God, that is,
who occasion, by any means, any to tarry in the church at mass

202

time, much more then, they who occasion any to come thereto ;
most of all they who enforce any thereto. Assuredly a most heavy
vengeance of God hangeth upon such. Such as decline to their
crookedness, God will lead on with wicked workers ; whose portion
shall be snares, fire, brimstone and stormy tempests ; whose palace
and house shall be hell fire and darkness; whose cheer shall be
weeping 1 and gnashing of teeth; whose song shall be woe, woe,
woe, from the which the Lord of mercy deliver us.

My dearly beloved, I write not this, as one that thinketh not
well of you, but as one that would you did well, and therefore to
help you thereto, 1 write as I write ; beseeching God to open your
, eyes, to see the dangers men be in, who dissemble with .God and
man, to the end you do not the like ; and also to open your eyes to
see the high service you do to God, in adventuring yourself and that
you have, for his sake.

Oh, that we considered that it is happiness to suffer any thing
for Christ's sake, who have deserved to suffer so much for our sins
and iniquities, Oh, that our eyes were opened to see the great
reward they shall have in heaven, who suffer the loss of any thing
for God's sake. If we know the cross to be as a purgation most
profitable to the soul, as a purifying fire to burn the dross away, of
our dirtiness and sins; as an oven to bake us in, to be the Lord's
bread ; as soap to make us white, as a stream to mundify and cleanse
us, as God's frame-house to make us like to Christ here in suffering,
that we may be so in reigning ; then should we not so much care
for this little short sorrow, which the flesh suffereth in it; but rather
in consideration of the exceeding endless joy and comfort which
will ensue, we should run forwards in our race, after the example of
our captain Christ, who comforts us all in our distress, and gives us
the spirit of prayer, therein to watch and pray, that we be not led
into temptation; which God grant to us for ever, Amen.

And thus much 1 thought good to write to you, at this present ;
to declare my carefulness for the well-doing of you, and all your
family, whom I commend with you, into the hands and tuition of
God our Father, so be it.

Your own in the Lord,
JOHN BRADFORD.

203
No. 61.*

TO M. GEORGE EATON.

ALMIGHTY God, our heavenly Father, recompense abundantly
into your hosom, my dearly beloved, here and eternally, the good
which from him by you I have continually received, since my coming
into prison. Otherwise can I never be able to requite your loving
kindness here, than by praying for you, and after this life, by wit-
nessing your faith declared to me by your fruits ; when we shall
come and appear together, before the throne of our Saviour Jesus
Christ; whither, I thank God, I am even now a going, ever looking
when the officers will come and satisfy the precept of the prelates;
whereof, though I cannot complain, because I have justly deserved
an hundred thousand deaths at God's hands, by reason of my sins ;
yet I may and must rejoice, because the prelates do not persecute in
me mine iniquities, but Christ Jesus and his verity ; so that they
persecute not me, they hate not me, but they persecute Christ, they
hate Christ.

And because they can do him no hurt, for he sitteth in heaven and
laugheth them and their devices to scorn, as one day they shall feel ;
therefore they turn their rage upon his poor sheep, as Herod their
father did upon the infants, Matt. ii. Great cause therefore have I
to rejoice, that my dear Saviour Christ, will vouchsafe among many,
to choose me to be a vessel of grace to suffer in me, who 4 have
deserved so often and justly to suffer for my sins, that I might be
most assured, I shall be a vessel of honour, in whom he will be
glorified.

Therefore, my right dear brother in the Lord, rejoice with me,
give thanks for me, and cease not to pray, that God for his mercy's
sake, would make perfect the good he hath begun in me. And as
for the doctrine which I have professed and preached, I do confess
unto you in writing, as to the whole world I shortly shall by God's
grace in suffering, that it is the very true doctrine of Jesus Christ, of

* Fox iii. 344. Cov. 449.

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his Church* of his prophets, apostles, and all good men ; so that if
an angel should come from heaven, and preach otherwise, the same
were accursed.

Therefore waver not, dear heart in the Lord, but he confirmed
in it, and as your vocation requireth, when God so will, confess it,
though it be perilous so to do. The end shall evidently shew
another manner of pleasure for so doing, than tongue can tell. Be
diligent in prayer,and watch therein; use reverent reading of God's
Word. Set the shortness of this time before your eyes, and let not
the eternity that is to come, depart out of your memory. Practise in
doing, that you learn by reading and hearing; decline from evil, and
pursue good. Remember them that be in bonds, especially for the
Lord's cause, as members of your body, and fellow heirs of grace.
Forget not the affliction of Sion, and the oppression of Jerusalem ;
and God our Father shall give you his continual blessing, through
Christ our Lord, who guide us as his dear children for ever, Amen.

And thus I take my Vale and farewell with you, dear brother, for
ever in this present life, till we shall meet in eternal bliss; whither
our good God and Father bring us shortly, Amen. God bless your
babes for ever, Amen. Out of prison this eighth of February.

Your afflicted brother, for the Lord's cause,

JOHN BRADFORD.

No. 62.*

To all that profess the Gospel and true doctrine of our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ, in the City of London, John
Bradford, a most unworthy Servant of the Lord, now not
only in Prison, but also excommunicated and condemned to
be burned for the same true doctrine ; wisheth mercy, grace,
and peace, with increase of all godly knowledge, from God

* Fox iii. 309. Cov. 251.

205

the Father of Mercy, through the merits of our alone and
omnisufficient Redeemer Jesus Christ, by the operation of
his Holy Spirit for ever. Amen.

MY dearly beloved brethren in our Saviour Christ, although
the time 1 have to live is very little, for hourly I look \vhen I should
be had hence, to be conveyed into Lancashire there to be burned,
and to render my life by the providence of God, where I first received
it by the same providence ; and although the charge is great, to keep
me from all things, whereby I might signify any thing to the world
of my state ; yet having as now I have, pen and ink, through God's
working, mauger the head of satan, and his soldiers, I thought good
to write a short confession of my faith, and thereto join a little ex-
hortation unto you all, to live according to your profession.

First for my faith,* I do confess and pray all the whole congre-
gation of Christ to bear witness with me of the same, that I do
believe constantly, through the gift and goodness of God, for faith
is God's only gift, all the twelve articles of the symbol or creed,
commonly attributed to the collection of the apostles, not because of
the creed itself, but because of the word of God, the which teacheth
and confirmeth every article accordingly.

This Word of God, written by the prophets and apostles, left and
contained in the canonical books of the HOLY BIBLE, I do believe
to contain plentifully all things necessary to salvation; so that
nothing, as necessary to salvation, ought to be added thereto, and
therefore the Church of Christ, nor none of his congregation, ought
to be burdened with any other doctrine than which hereout hath her
foundation and ground. In testimony of which faith, I render and
give my life, being condemned as well for not acknowledging the
antichrist of Rome, to be Christ's vicar-general, and supreme head
of his Catholic and Universal Church, here and elsewhere, upon

* This my faith I would gladly particularly declare and expound, to the confirma-
tion and comfort of the simple ; but alas, by starts and stealth, I write in manner that
that I write, and therefore I shall desire you all to take this brevity in good part.
Cov.

206

earth; as for denying the horrible and idolatrous doctrine of tran-
substantiation, and Christ's real, corporal, and carnal presence in
his Supper, under the forms and accidents of bread and wine.

To believe Christ our Saviour to be the Head of his Church,
and kings in their realms to be the supreme powers, to whom every
soul oweth obedience, and to believe that in the Supper of Christ,
which the sacrament of the altar, as the papists call it and use it,
doth utterly overthrow, is a true and a very presence of whole
Christ, God and man, to the faith of the receiver, but not to the
stander by and looker upon, as it is a true and a very presence
of bread and wine, to the senses of men; to believe this, I say, will
not serve, and therefore, as an heretic, I am condemned and shall
be burned ; whereof I ask God heartily mercy, that I do no more
rejoice than I do, having so great cause as to be an instrument,
wherein it may please my dear Lord and Saviour to suffer.

For albeit my manifold sins, even since I came into prison, have
deserved at the hands of God, not only this temporal, but also
eternal fire in hell, much more than my former sinful life, which
the Lord pardon for his Christ's sake; as I know he of his mercy
hath done, and never will lay my iniquities to my charge to
condemnation, so great is his goodness, praised therefore be his hoiy
name. Although, I say, my manifold and grievous late sins have
deserved most justly, all the tyranny that man or devil can do unto
me, and therefore I confess that the Lord is just, and that his
judgments be true and deserved on my behalf; yet the bishops and
prelates do not persecute them in me, but Christ himself, his word,
his truth, and religion. And therefore I have great cause, yea
most great cause, to rejoice that ever I was born and hitherto kept
of the Lord; that by my death, which is deserved for my sins, it
pleaseth the heavenly Father to glorify his name, to testify his
truth, to confirm his verity, to oppugn his adversaries. Oh, good
God, and merciful Father, forgive me my great untlmnkfulness,
especially herein.

And you, my dearly beloved, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, I
humbly and heartily in his bowels and blood, do now, for my last
Vale and farewell in this present life, beseech you and every of you,
that you will consider this work of the Lord accordingly. First by

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me to be admonished, to beware of hypocrisy and carnal security.
Profess not the Gospel with tongue and lips only, but in heart and
verity; frame and fashion your lives accordingly. Beware God's
name be not evil spoken of, and the Gospel less respected by your
conversation. God forgive me that I have not so heartily professed
it, as I should have done, but have sought much myself therein.

The Gospel is a new doctrine to the old man; it is new wine,
and therefore cannot be put in old bottles, without greater hurt
than good to the bottles. If we will talk with the Lord, we must
put off our shoes and carnal affections; if we will hear the voice of
the Lord, we must wash our garments and be holy; if we will be
Christ's disciples, we must deny 'ourselves, take up our cross and
follow Christ. We cannot serve two masters; if we seek Christ's
kingdom, we must also seek for the righteousness thereof. To the
petition of, Let thy kingdom come, we must join, Thy will be
done, done on earth as it is in heaven. If we will not be doers
of the word, but hearers of it, we sore deceive ourselves. If we
hear the Gospel and love it not, we declare ourselves to be but fools,
and builders upon the sand. The Lord's spirit hateth feigning;
deceitfulness the Lord abhorreth. If we come to him, we must
beware we come not with a double heart, for then it may chance
that God will answer us according to the block which is in our
heart, and so we shall deceive ourselves and others. To faith see
that we couple a good conscience, lest we make a shipwreck. To
the Lord we must come with fear and reverence. If we will be
gospellers, we must be Christ's ; if we be Christ's, we must crucify
our flesh, with the lusts and concupiscences thereof. If we will be
under grace, sin must not bear rule in us. We may not come to the
Lord, and draw nigh to him with our lips, and leave our hearts
elsewhere ; lest the Lord's wrath wax hot, and he take from us the
good remaining ; in no case can the kingdom of Christ approach to
them who repent not.

Therefore, my dearly beloved, let us repent and be heartily
sorry, that we have so carnally, so hypocritically, so covetously, so
vain- gloriously, professed the Gospel. For all these I confess
myself, to the glory of God and mine own confusion here, that he
may cover mine offences in the day of judgment. Let the anger

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and plagues of God, most justly fallen upon us, he applied to every
one of our deserts, that from the bottom of our hearts, every of us
may say ; It is /, Lord, that have sinned against thee, it is mine
hypocrisy, my vain-glory, my covetousness, uncleanness, carnality,
security, idleness, unthankfulness, self-love, and such like, which
have deserved the taking away of our good king, of thy word and
true religion, of thy good ministers, by exile, imprisonment, and
death ; it is wickedness, that causeth success and increase of
authority and peace to thine enemies. Oh, be merciful, be merciful,
unto us; turn to us again, oh, Lord of Hosts, and turn us unto thee.
Correct us, but not in thy fury, lest we be consumed. In thy
wrathful displeasure reprove us not, but in the midst of thine anger,
remember thy mercy ; for if thou wilt mark what is done amiss,
who shall be able to abide? But with thee is mercifulness, that
thou might be worshipped ; oh, then be merciful unto us, that we
may truly worship thee. Help us, for the glory of thy name, be
merciful unto our sins, for they are great; oh, heal us and help us for
thine honour, let not the wicked people say, Where is their God, &c.

On this sort, my right dearly beloved, let us heartily bewail our
sins, repent us of our former evil life, heartily and earnestly purpose
to amend our lives in all things, continually watch in prayer,
diligently and reverently attend, hear, and read the Holy Scriptures,
and labour after our vocation, to amend our brethren. Let us
reprove the works of darkness ; let us fly from all idolatry ; let us
abhor the antichristian, and rotten Romish service, detest the popish
mass, forsake their Romish God, prepare ourselves to the cross, be
obedient to all that be in authority, in all things that be not against
God and his word ; for then answer with the apostles, It is more
meet to obey God than man.

Howbeit, never for any thing resist, or rise against the magis-
trates ; avenge not yourselves, but commit your care to the Lord, to
whom vengeance pertaineth, and he in his time will reward it. If
ye feel in yourselves an hope and trust in God, that he will never
tempt you above that he will make you able to bear, be assured the
Lord will be true to you, and ye shall be able to bear all brunts.
But if ye want this hope, fly and get you hence, rather than by
your tarrying, God's name should be dishonoured.

209

In summa, cast your care upon the Lord, knowing for most
certain that he is careful for you ; with him are all the hairs of your
head numbered, so that not one of them shall perish without his
good pleasure and will ; much more then, nothing shall happen to
your bodies which shall not be profitable, howsoever for a time it
seemeth other to your senses. Hang on the providence of God,
not only when you have means to help you, but also when you
have no means, yea, when all means be against you. Give him
this honour, which of all other things, he most chiefly requireth at
your hands, namely, believe that ye are his children, through
Christ; that he is your Father and God through him; that he
loveth you, pardoneth you all your offences ; that he is with you in
trouble, and will be with you for ever. When ye fall, he will put
under his hand, ye shall not lie still. Before ye call upon him, lie
heareth you ; out of evil he will finally bring you, and deliver you
to his eternal kingdom. Doubt not, my dearly beloved, hereof,
doubt not, I say; this will God your Father do for you in respect,
not of yourselves, but in respect of Christ your captain, your pastor,
your keeper, out of whose hands, none shall be able to catch you.
In him be quiet, and often consider your dignity; namely, how
that ye be God's children, the saints of God, citizens of heaven,
temples of the Holy Ghost, the thrones of God, members of Christ,
and lords over all.

Therefore be ashamed to think, speak, or do any thing, that
should be unseemly for God's children, God's saints, Christ's
members, &c. Marvel not, though the devil and the world hate
you ; though ye be persecuted here, for the servant is not above his
master. Covet not earthly riches, fear not the power of man, love
not this world, nor things that be in this world; but long for the
Lord Jesus his coming, at which time your bodies shall be made
like unto his glorious body. When he appeareth, ye shall be
like unto him ; when your life thus shall be revealed, then shall
ye appear with him in glory; in the mean season live in hope
thereof.

Let the life you lead be in the faith of the Son of God, for the
just doth live by faith ; which faith flieth from allevil, and foiloweth
the word of God, as a lantern to her feet, and a light to her steps.

2E,

210

Her eyes be above where Christ is, sbe beboldetb not the tilings
present, but rather thing's to come; she glorieth in afflictions, she
knoweth that the afflictions of this life, are not to be compared to
the glory which God will reveal to us and in us. Of this glory God
grant us here a lively taste ; then shall we run after the scent it send-
eth forth. It will make us valiant men, to take to us the kingdom
of God; whither the Lord of mercy bring us, in his good time,
through Christ our Lord; to whom with the Father, and the Holy
Ghost, three persons and one God, be all honour and glory, world
without end, Amen.

My dearly beloved, I would gladly have given here my body, to
have been burned for the confirmation of the true doctrine, 1 have
taught here unto you, but that my country must have ; therefore I
pray you, take in good part, this signification of my good will,
towards every of you. Impute the want herein, to time and trouble.
Pardon me mine offensive and negligent behaviour, when I was
amongst you. With me repent, and labour to amend ; continue in
the truth, which I have truly taught unto you, by preaching in all
places where I have come, God's name therefore be praised; confess
Christ when ye are called, whatsoever cometb thereof, and the God
of peace be with us all, Amen.

Your brother in bonds for the Lord's sake.

JOHN BRADFORD.

No. 63.<

To all that love the Lord Jesus, and his true doctrine, being in
the University and Town of Cambridge, JOHN BRADFORD,
a most unworthy Servant of the Lord; now not only im-
prisoned, but also condemned for the same true doctrine ;
wisheth grace, peace, and mercy, with increase of all

* Fox iii. 311. Cov. 257.

211

godliness, from God the Father of all mercy, through the
bloody passion of our alonely Saviour Jesus Christ, by the
lively working of the Holy Spirit, for ever, Amen.

ALTHOUGH I look hourly, when I should be had to the stake, my
right dearly beloved in the Lord, and although the charge over me
is great and strait ; yet having by the providence of God secretly pen
arid ink, I could not but something signify unto you, my solicitude
which I have for you and every of you in the Lord, though not as
I would, yet as I may.

Ye have often, and openly heard the truth, especially in this
matter wherein I am condemned, disputed and preached, that it is
needless to do any more, but only to put you in remembrance of the
same; but hitherto ye have not heard it confirmed, and, as it were,
sealed up, as now ye do, and shall do here by me, that is, by my
death and burning. For albeit through my uncleanness, hypocrisy,
avarice, vain-glory, idleness, unthankful ness, and carnality, whereof
I accuse myself to my confusion before the world, that before God
through Christ I might, as my assured hope is I shall, find mercy,
1 have deserved eternal death and hell-tire ; much more then this
affliction and fire prepared for me ; yet my dearly beloved it is not
these, or any of these things, wherefore the prelates do persecute
me, but God's verity and truth.

Yea, even Christ himself, is the only cause and thing, wherefore
I am now condemned, and shall be burned as an heretic, because 1
will not grant the antichrist of Rome, to be Christ's vicar general,
and supreme head of his Church here, and every where upon earth,
by God's ordinance; and because I will not grant such corporal, real,
and carnal presence of Christ's body and blood in the sacrament, as
doth transubstantiate the substance of bread and wine, and is re-
ceived of the wicked, yea, of dogs and mice.

Also 1 am excommunicated, and counted as a dead member of
Christ's Church, as a rotten branch, and therefore shall be cast into
the fire. Therefore ye ought heartily to rejoice with me, and to give
thanks for me, that God, the eternal Father, hath vouchsafed our
mother to bring up any child, in whom it would please him to mag-

nify his holy name, as he doth, and I hope for his mercy and truth's
sake, will do in me and by me. Oh what such benefit upon earth
can there be, as that I, who deserved death by reason of my sins,
should be diverted to a demonstration, a testification, and confirma-
tion of God's verity arid truth.

Thou, my Mother, the university, hast not only had the truth
of God's word, plainly manifested unto thee by reading, disputing,
and preaching-, publicly and privately; but now, to make thee
altogether excuseless, and as it were almost to sin against the Holy
Ghost, if thou put to thy helping hand, with the Romish rout, to
suppress the verity, and set out the contrary ; thou hast my life and
blood as a seal to confirm thee, if thou wilt be confirmed, or else to
confound thee and bear witness against thee, if thou wilt take part
with the prelates and clergy, \ v lo now fill up the measure of their
fathers, who slew the prophets and apostles ; that all the righteous
blood from Abel to Bradford, shed upon the earth, may be required
at their hands.

Of this therefore I thought good, before my death, as time and
liberty would suffer me, for the love and duty J bear unto thee; to
admonish thee, good Mother, and my sister the town, that ye
would call to mind from whence ye are fallen, and study to do the
first works. Ye know, if you will, these matters of the Romish
supremacy, and the an tichristian transubstantiation, whereby Christ's
Supper is overthrown, his priesthood evacuate, his sacrifice frustrate,
the ministry of his word unplaced, repentance repelled, faith tainted,
godliness extinguished, the mass maintained, idolatry supported,
and all impiety cherished ; you know, I say, if you will, that these
opinions are not only besides God's word, but even directly against
it ; and therefore to take part with them, is to take part against God,
against whom you cannot prevail.

Therefore for the tender mercy of Christ, in his bowels and
blood I beseech you, to take Christ's collyrium and eye-salve, to
anoint your eyes ; that ye may see what ye may do and have done,
in admitting, as I hear ye have admitted, yea alas authorized, and
by consent confirmed, the Romish rotten rags, which once ye utterly
expelled. Oh, be not canis reversus ad vomitum, be not sus lota,
reversa ad volutabrum coeni. Beware lest old satan enter in, with

213

seven other spirits, and so the last shall he worse than the first. It
had been hettcr ye had never known the truth, than, after knowledge,
to run from it. Ah, woe to this world, and the things therein,
which hath now so wrought with you. Oh, that ever this dirt of
the devil, should daub up the eye of the realm. If thou he light
and give shine, all the body shall fare the better; but if, thou, the
light, be darkness, alas, how great will the darkness be ? What
is man, whose breath is in his nostrils, that thou shouldest thus be
afraid of him;

Oh, what is honour and life here, but plain bubbles? What is glory
in this world, but shame? Why art thou afraid to carry Christ's
cross? Wilt thou come into his kingdom, and not drink of his cup?
Dost thou not know Rome to be Babylon r Dost thou not know
that as the Old Babylon, had the children of Judah in captivity;
so hath this Rome, the true Judah, that is the confessors of Christ ?
Dost thou not know, that as destruction happened unto it, so shall it
do unto this? And trowest thou that God will not deliver his
people now, when the time is come, as he did then ? Hath not God
commanded his people, to come out from her, and wilt thou give
example to the whole realm to run into her? Hast thou forgotten
the woe that Christ threateneth to offence-givers ? Wilt thou not
remember, that it were better a millstone were hanged about thy
neck, and thou thrown into the sea, than that thou shouldest offend
the little ones ? And alas, how hast thou offended ; yea, how dost
thou still offend? Wilt thou consider things according to the
outward shew ? Was not the synagogue more seemly and like to
the true Church, than the simple flock of Christ's disciples? Hath
not the whore of Babylon more costly array and rich apparel,
externally to set forth hereof, than the homely housewife of Christ ?
Where is the beauty of the king's daughter, the Church of Christ,
without or within ? Doth not David say, within ? Oh, remember,
that as they are happy, who are not offended at Christ ; so are they
happy, who are not offended at his poor Church.

Can the Pope and his prelates mean honestly, who make so much
of the wife, and so little of the husband ? The Church they magnify,
but Christ they contemn. If this Church were an honest woman,
that is Christ's wife, except they would make much of her husband

214

Christ, and his word, she would not be made much o of them.
When Christ and his apostles were upon earth, who was more like
to be the true Church $ they,, or the prelates, bishops, and synagogue?
If a man should hare followed custom, unity, antiquity, or the more
part; should not Christ and his company have been cast out of
doors ? Therefore bade Christ, Search the Scriptures. And, good
Mother, shall the servant be above his master ? Shall we look for
other entertainment, at the hands of the world, than Christ and his
dear disciples found ?

\Vho was taken in Noah's time for the Church ; poor Noah and
his family T or others? Who was taken for God'sChnreh in Sodom;
Lot or others ? And doth not Christ say; As it went then, so shall
it go now, towards the coming of the Son of Man ? What meaneth
Christ, when he saith, Iniquity shall have the upper hand ; doth he
not tell that charity shall wax cold ? And who seeth not a wonderful
great lack of charity, in those, who would now be taken for Christ's
Church ? All that fear God in this realm truly, can tell more of this,
than I can write.

Therefore, dear Mother, receive some admonition of one of thy
poor children, now going to be burned for the testimony of Jesus.
Come again to God's truth; come out of Babylon; confess Christ
and his true doctrine ; repent that which is past ; and make amends
by declaring thy repentance by the fruits. Remember the readings
and preachings of God's prophet, and true preacher, Martin Bucer.
Call to mind the threatening of God, now something seen by
thy children Leaver, and others. Let the exile of Leaver, Pilkinton,
Grindal, Haddon, Home, Scory, Ponet, &c., something awake thee.
Let the imprisonment of thy dear sons, Cranmer, Ridley, and
Latimer, move thee. Consider the martyrdom of thy chickens,
Rogers, Saunders, and Taylor. And now cast not away the poor
admonition of me, going to be burned also, and to receive the like
crown of glory with my fellows. Take to heart God's calling by us.
Be not as Pharoah was, for then will it happen unto thee, as it did
unto him; what is that? Hardness of heart; and what then?
Destruction eternally both of body and soul.

Ah, therefore, good Mother, awake, awake, repent, repent,
bustle thyself, and make haste to turn to th Lord ; for else it shall

215

be more easy for Sodom and Gomorrah, in the day of judgment,
than for thee. Oh, harden not your hearts ; oh, stop not your ears
to-day, in bearing God's voice, though it be by me a most unworthy
messenger. Oh, fear the Lord, for his anger is begun to kindle;
ven now the axe is laid to the root of the tree. Ye know I
prophesied truly to you before the sweat came, what would come if
ye repented not your carnal gospelling; and now I tell you, before I
depart hence, that the ears of men will tingle to hear of the ven-
geance of God, that will fall upon you all, both town and university,
if ye repent not, if ye leave not your idolatry, if ye turn not speedily
to the Lord, if ye still be ashamed of Christ's truth, which ye know.

Oh, Perne, repent; Oh, Thomson, repent; Oh, ye doctors,
bachelors, and masters, repent ; Oh, mayor, aldermen, and town-
dwellers, repent, repent, repent ; that ye may escape the near ven-
geance of the Lord. Rend your hearts, and come apace, calling on
the Lord. Let us all say, peccavimus, we have sinned, we have done
wickedly, we have not hearkened to thy voice, O Lord. Deal not
with us, after our deserts, but be merciful to our iniquities, for they
are great. Oh, pardon us our offences ; in thine anger, remember
thy mercy. Turn us unto thee, O Lord God of Hosts, for the glory
of thy name's sake ; spare us, and be merciful unto us. Let not the
wicked people say ; Where is now their God ? Oh, for thine own
sake, for thy name's sake, deal mercifully with us. Turn thyself
unto us, and us unto thee ; and we shall praise thy name for ever.

If in this sort my dearly beloved, in heart and mouth, we come
unto our Father, and prostrate ourselves before the throne of his
grace, then surely, surely, we shall find mercy; then shall the Lord
look merrily upon us, for his mercy's sake in Christ; then shall we
hear him speak peace unto his people, for he is gracious and merciful,
of great pity and compassion ; he cannot be chiding for ever, his
anger cannot last long to the penitent. Though we weep in the
morning, yet at night we shall have our sorrow to cease ; for he is
exorable, and hath no pleasure in the death of a sinner, he rather
would our conversion and turning.

Oh, turn you now, and convert, yet once again I humbly beseech
you, and then the kingdom of heaven shall draw nigh. The eye
hath not seen, the ear hath not heard, nor is the heart of man able

216

to conceive the joys prepared for us if we repent, amend our lives,
and heartily turn to the Lord. But if ye repent not, but be as ye
were, and go on forwards with the wicked, following 1 the fashion of
the world ; the Lord will lead you on with wicked doers, ye shall
perish in your wickedness, your blopd will be upon your own heads ;
your part shall be with hypocrites, where shall be weeping- and
gnashing of teeth, ye shall be cast from the face of the Lord for
ever and ever ; eternal shame, sorrow, woe, and misery, shall be both
in body and soul to you, world without end.

Oh, therefore, right dear to me in the Lord, turn you, turn you ;
repent you, repent you ; amend, amend your lives, depart from evil,
do good, follow peace and pursue it. Come out from Babylon, cast
off the works of darkness, put on Christ, confess his truth, be not
ashamed of his gospel, prepare yourselves to the cross, drink of God's
cup before it come to the dregs ; and then shall I with and for you,
rejoice in the day of judgment, which is at hand, and therefore pre-
pare yourselves thereto, I heartily beseech you.

And thus I take my Vale in seternum with you in this present
life, mine own dear hearts in the Lord. The Lord of mercy be with
.us all, and give us a joyful, and sure meeting in his kingdom.
Amen, Amen. Out of prison, the 11 of February, anno, 1555.*

Your own in the Lord for ever,

JOHN BRADFORD.

No. 64.t

To all those that profess the name and true ' religion of our
Saviour Jesus Christ, in Lancashire and Cheshire, and
especially abiding in Manchester and thereabouts; JOHN
BRADFORD, a most unworthy Servant of the Lord, now
not only in Bonds, but also condemned in the same true
religion, wisheth mercy and grace, peace, and increase of
godliness, from God the Father of all piety, through the

* See Appendix, Note (AA.) t Fox iii. 313. Cov. 263.

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deserts of our Lord Jesus Christ, by the working of the
most mighty and lively Spirit the Comforter, for ever.
Amen.

1 HEAR it reported credibly, my dearly beloved in the Lord, that
my heavenly Father hath thought it good to provide, that as I have
preached his true Gospel and doctrine amongst you by word, so I
shall testify and confirm the same by deed ; that is, I shall with you
leave my life, which by his providence I first received there, for in
Manchester was I born, for a seal to the doctrine I have taught with
you and amongst you ; so that if from henceforth, you waver in the
same, you have no excuse at all.

I know the enemies of Christ, who exercise this cruelty upon
me, I speak it in respect of mine offence, which is none to them
wards, think by killing of me amongst you, to affray you and
others, lest they should attempt to teach Christ truly, or believe his
doctrine hereafter; but I doubt not, but that my heavenly Father
will, by my death, more confirm you in his truth for ever.

And therefore I greatly rejoice, to see satan and his soldiers
supplanted in their own sapience, which is plain foolishness amongst
the wise indeed; that is, amongst such as have heard God's word,
and do follow it; for they only are accounted wise of the wisdom of
God our Saviour.

Indeed, if I should simply consider my life, with that which it
ought to have been ; and as God in his law requireth, then could I
not but cry as I do; Righteous art thou, O Lord, and all thy
judgments are true ; for I have much grieved thee, and transgressed
thy holy precepts, not only before my professing the Gospel, but
since also ; yea even since my coming into prison. I do not excuse,
but accuse myself before God, and all his Church, that I have
grievously offended my Lord God ; I have not lived his Gospel as I
should have done, I have sought myself, and not simply and only
his glory, and my brethren's commodity; I have been too un-
thankful, secure, carnal, hypocritical, vain-glorious, &c. All which
my evils, the Lord of mercy pardon me for his Christ's sake, as I

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hope, and certainly believe he hath done, for his great mercy in
Christ our Redeemer.

But when I consider the cause of my condemnation, I cannot
but lament that I do no more rejoice than 1 do, for it is God's verity
and truth ; Bradford is nothing else but an instrument, in whom
Christ and his doctrine are condemned, And therefore, my dearly
beloved, rejoice, rejoice, and give thanks, with me and for me; that
ever God did vouchsafe so great a benefit to our country, as to
choose the most unworthy, I mean myself, to be one, in whom
it would please him to suffer any kind of affliction, much more this
violent kind of death, which I perceive is prepared for me, amongst
you for his sake. All glory and praise be given unto God our
Father, for his exceeding great mercy towards me, through Jesus
Christ our Lord.

But perchance ye will say unto me, What is the cause for the
which you are condemned ? We hear say you deny all presence of
Christ in his holy Supper, and so make it a bare sign and common
bread, and nothing else. My dearly beloved, what is said of me,
and will be, I cannot tell. It is told me that M. Pendleton is gone
down to preach with you, not as he once recanted ; for ye all know
how he hath preached contrary to that he was wont to preach, afore
I came amongst you, but to recant that which he hath recanted.
How he will speak of me, and report before I come, when I am
come, and when 1 am burned, I much pass not; for he that is so
uncertain, and will speak so often against himself, I cannot think he
will speak well of me, except it make for his purpose and profit ; but
of this enough.

Indeed the chief thing which I am condemned for, as an heretic,
is, because I deny the sacrament of the altar, which is not Christ's
Supper, but a plain perverting of it; being used as the papists now
use it, to be a real, natural, and corporal presence of Christ's body
and blood, under the forms and accidents of bread and wine; that is,
because I deny transubstantiation, which is the darling of the devil,
and daughter and heir to antichrist's religion ; whereby the mass is
maintained, Christ's Supper perverted, his sacrifice and cross
imperfected, his priesthood destroyed, the ministry taken away,
repentance repelled, and all true godliness abandoned.

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In the Supper of our Lord, or Sacrament of Christ's body and
blood, I confess and believe, that there is a true and very presence
to whole Christ, God and man, to the faith of the receiver; but not
to the stander by or looker on ; as there is a very true presence of
bread and wine, to the senses of him that is partaker thereof. This
faith, this doctrine, which consenteth with the Word of God, and
with the true testimony of Christ's Church, which the Popish Church
doth persecute, will I not forsake; and therefore am I condemned
as an heretic, and shall be burned. >

But, my dearly beloved, this truth, which I have taught, and ye
have received,! believed, and do believe, and therein give my life, I
hope in God, shall never be burned, bound, nor overcome; but shall
triumph, have victory, and be at liberty, maugre the head of all God's
adversaries. For there is no counsel against the Lord, nor no
device of man can be able to defeat the verity in any other, than in
such as be children of unbelief; who have no love to the truth, and
therefore are given up to believe lies. From which plague, the
Lord of mercies deliver you and all this realm, my dear hearts in
the Lord, I humbly beseech his mercy, Amen.

And to the end ye might be delivered, right dear to me in the
Lord, I shall, for my farewell with you for ever in the present life>
heartily desire you all, in the bowels and blood, of our most merciful
Saviour Jesus Christ, to attend unto those things, which now I shall
shortly write unto you, out of the Holy Scriptures of the Lord. Ye
know an heavy plague, or rather plagues, of God is fallen upon us,
in taking away our good king, God's true religion, God's true pro-
phets and ministers, &c. and setting over us such as seek not the
Lord after knowledge, whose endeavours God prospereth wonder-
fully, to the trial of many ; that his people may both better know
themselves, and be known.

Now the cause hereof is our iniquities, and grievous sins. We
did not know the time of our visitation: we were unthankful unto
God, we contemned the gospel, and carnally abused it, to serve our
hypocrisy, our vain-glory, our viciousness, avarice, idleness, security,
&c. Long did the Lord linger and tarry to have shewn mercy upon
us, but we were ever the longer, the worse. Therefore most justly
hath God dealt with us, and dealeth with us. Yea, yet we may see,

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that his justice is tempered with much mercy; whereto let us
attribute, that we are not utterly consumed ; for if the Lord should
deal with us after our deserts, alas, how could we abide it ? In his
anger therefore, seeing he doth remember his mercy undeserved,
yea, undesired on our behalf; let us take occasion the more speedily,
to go out to meet him, not with force and arms, for we are not so
able to withstand him, much less to prevail against him; but to
beseech him to be merciful unto us, and according to his wonted
mercy to deal with us. Let us arise with David, and say, Enter not
into judgment, O Lord, with thy servant, for in thy sight no flesh
living shall be justified. Let us send ambassadors, with the cen-
turion, and say, Lord, we are not worthy to.come ourselves unto thee,
speak the word, and we shall have peace. Let us penitently, with
the publican, look down on the earth, knock our hard hearts to
burst them, and cry out, Oh, God, be merciful unto us wretched
sinners. Let us, with the lost son, return and say, O, Father, we
have sinned against heaven and earth, and beiore thee, we are
unworthy to be called thy children. Let us, I say, do on this sort,
that is, heartily repent us of our former evil life, and unthankful
gospelling past, convert and turn to God, with our whole hearts,
hoping in his great mercy through Christ, and heartily calling upon
his holy name; and then undoubtedly we shall find and feel
otherwise, than yet we feel, both inwardly and outwardly. Inwardly
we shall feel peace of conscience, between God and us, which peace
passeth all understanding ; and outwardly, we shall feel much
mitigation of these miseries, if not an outward taking of them away.
Therefore, my dearly beloved in the Lord, I, your poorest
brother now departing to the Lord ; for my Vale in aeternum, for
this present life, pray you, beseech you, and even from the very
bottom of my heart, for all the mercies of God in Christ shewed
unto you, most earnestly beg and crave of you out of prison ; as
often out of your pulpits I have done, that ye will repent you, leave
your wicked and evil life, be sorry for your offences, and turn to the
Lord, whose arms are wide open to receive and embrace you;
whose stretched out hand to strike to death, stayeth that he might
shew mercy upon you. For he is the Lord of mercy, and God of all
comfort, he will not the death of a sinner, but rather that he should

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return, convert, and amend ; lie hath no pleasure in the destruction
of men, his long 1 suffering draweth to repentance, before the time of
vengeance, and day'of wrath, which is at hand, doth come.

Now is the axe laid to the root of the tree, utterly to destroy the
impenitent. Now is the fire gone out before the face of the Lord,
and who is able to quench it ? Oh, therefore, repent you, repent you.
It is enough to have lived as we have done ; it is enough to have
played the wanton gospellers, the proud protestants, hypocritical
and false Christians, as, alas, we have done. Now the Lord unto us
is mercy and grace; oh, turn before he speak in wrath. Yet is
there mercy with the Lord and plenteous redemption ; yet hath he
not forgotten to shew mercy to them that call upon him ! Oh, then
call upon him while he may be found, for he is rich in mercy, and
plentiful to all them that call upon him, so that he that calleth upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. If your sins be as red as
scarlet, the Lord saith he will make them as white as snow. He
hath sworn, and never will repent him thereof, that he will never
remember our iniquities, but as he is good, faithful, and true, so will
he be our God, and we shall be his people. His law will he write
in our hearts, and ingraft it in our minds, and never will he have in
rnind our unrighteousness.

Therefore, my dear hearts in the Lord, turn you, turn you to
the Lord your Father, to the Lord your Saviour, to the Lord your
comforter. Oh, why do you stop your ears, and harden your hearts
to-day, when you hear his voice, by me, your poorest brother? Oh,
forget not how that the Lord hath shewed himself true, and me his
true preacher, by bringing to pass these plagues, which at my mouth
and by my preaching, ye often heard before they came; especially
when I treated of Noah's flood, and when I preached from the 23d
chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel, on St. Stephen's day, the last time
that [ was with you.

And now by me, the same Lord sendeth you word, dear coun-
trymen, that if ye will go on forwards in your impenitency, carna-
lity, hypocrisy, idolatry, covetousness, swearing, gluttony, drunken-
ness, whoredom, &c. wherewith, alas, alas, our country flovveth;
if, I say, ye will not turn and leave off, seeing me now burned
amongst you, to assure you on all sides how God seeketh you, and

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Is sorry to do you hurt, to plague you, to destroy you, to take
vengeance upon you ; Oh, your blood will be upon your own

heads.
i

Ye have been warned and warned again by me in preaching, by
me in burning ; as I said therefore, I say again, my dear hearts and
darlings in the Lord, turn you, turn you, repent you, turn you, cease
from doing evil, study to do well, away with idolatry, fly the Romish
God and service, leave off from swearing, cut off carnality, abandon
avarice, drive away darkness, fly from fornication and flattery, from
murder and malice, destroy deceitfulness, and cast away all the works
of darkness. Put on piety and godliness, serve God after his word,
and not after custom, use your tongues to glorify God by prayer,
thanksgiving, and confession of his truth, &c.

Be spiritual, and by the spirit mortify carnal affections ; be sober,
holy, true, loving, gentle, merciful, and then shall the Lord's wrath
tease, not for this your doings' sake, but his mercy's sake. Go to,
therefore, good contrymen, take this counsel of the Lord, by me now
sent unto you, take it as the Lord's counsel, I say, and not as mine,
that in the day of judgment, I may rejoice in you and for you ; the
which thing I heartily desire, and not to be a witness against jou.
My blood will cry for vengeance, as against the papists, God's
enemies, whom 1 beseech God, if it he his good will, heartily to
forgive ; yea, even them who put me to death, and are the causes
thereof,, for they know not what they do; so will my blood cry for
vengeance against you, ray dearly beloved in the Lord, if ye repent
not, amend not, and turn not unto the Lord.

Turn unto the Lord, yet once more I heartily beseech thee, thou
Manchester, thou Bolton, Bury, Wigan, Liverpool, Ashton-under-
Line, Mottrine, Stepport, Wimley, Eccles, Prestwich, Middleton,
Radcliefe, and thou City of West Chester, where 1 have truly taught,
and preached the word of God. Turn, 1 say unto you ail, and to
all the inhabitants thereabouts, unto the Lord our God, and he will
turn unto you. He will say unto his angel, it is enough, put up
thy sword. The which thing that he will do, I humbly beseech his
goodness, for the precious blood's sake of his dear Son, our Saviour
Jesus Christ. Ah, good Brethren, take in good part these my last
words unto every one of you. Pardon me mine offences and

2*23

negligence in behaviour amongst you. The Lord of mercy, pardon
us all our offences, for our Saviour, Jesus Christ's sake, Amen.
Out of prison, ready to come to you; the 11 of February, anno
1555.*

JOHN BRADFORD.

No. 65.t

To the faithful, and such as profess the true doctrine of our
Saviour Jesus Christ, dwelling at Walden and thereabouts ;
JOHN BRADFORD, a most unworthy Servant of the Lord,
now in Bonds, and condemned for the same true doctrine,
wisheth grace, mercy, and peace ; with the increase of all
godliness, in knowledge and living, from God the Father of
comfort, through the deserts of our alone and free Redeemer
Jesus Christ, by the mighty working of the most holy spirit,
the Comforter for ever, Amen.

WHEN I remember, how that by the providence and grace of
God, I have been a man by whom it hath pleased him, through
my ministry to call you to repentance and amendment of life,
something effectually, as it seemed, and to sow amongst you,
his true doctrine and religion; but that by my affliction, and the
storms now risen to try the faithful, and to conform them like to the
- image of the Son of God, into whose company we are called, ye
might be faint hearted; I could not but out of prison, secretly, for
my keepers may not know that I have pen and ink, to write unto
you a signification of the desire I have, that you should not only be
more confirmed in the doctrine I have taught amongst you, which I
take on my death as I shall answer at the day of doom, I am
persuaded to be God's assured, infallible, and plain truth ; but also
should after your vocation, avouch the same by confession, pro-
fession, and living.

* See Appendix, Note, (BB.) ' t Fox iii. Cov. 269.

224

I have not taught you, my dearly beloved in the Lord, fables,
tales, or untruth ; but I have taught you the verity, as now by my
blood gladly, praised therefore be God, I shall seal up the same.
Indeed, to confess the truth unto you and to all the Church of
Christ, I do not think of myself but that I have most justly deserved,
not only this kind, but also all kinds of death, and that eternally, for
mine hypocrisy, vain-glory, uncleanness, self-love, covetousness,
idleness, unthankfulness, and carnal professing of God's holy
Gospel; living thereby not so purely, lovingly, and painfully, as I
should have done ; the Lord of mercy, for the blood of Christ, pardon
me, as I hope, yea 1 certainly believe, he hath done, for his holy
name's sake through Christ.

But, my dearly beloved, ye and all the whole world may see
and easily perceive, that the prelates persecute in me, another thing
than my iniquities ; even Christ himself, Christ's verity and truth,
because I cannot, dare not, nor will not confess transubstantiation ;
and how that wicked men, yea mice and dogs, eating the sacrament,
which they term of the altar, thereby overthrowing Christ's holy
Supper utterly, do eat Christ's natural and real body, born of the
Virgin Mary.

To believe and confess, as God's word teacheth, the primitive
Church believed, and all the catholic and good holy fathers taught,
for five hundred years at the least after Christ ; that in the Supper
of the Lord, which the mass overthroweth, as it doth Christ's
priesthood, sacrifice, death and passion, the ministry of his word,
true faith, repentance, and all godliness, whole Christ, God and man,
is present by grace to the faith of the receivers, but not of the
standers by and lookers on, as bread and wine is to their senses, will
not serve ; and therefore I am condemned, and shall be burned out
of hand, as an heretic. Wherefore I thank my Lord God heartily,
that will and doth vouch me worthy to be an instrument, in whom
he himself would suffer. For ye see my affliction and death is not,
simply because I have deserved no less, but much more at his hands
and justice; but rather because I confess his verity and truth, and
am not afraid, through his gift, so to do, that ye also might be
confirmed in his truth.

Therefore, my dearly beloved, I heartily do pray you, and so

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many as unfeignedly love me in God, to give with me and for me
most hearty thanks to our heavenly Father, through our Saviour
Jesus Christ, for this his exceeding great mercy towards me and you
also; that your faith should not waver from the doctrine I have
taught, and ye have received. For what can ye desire more to
assure your consciences, of the verity taught by your preachers, than
their own lives? Go to, therefore, my dear hearts in the Lord,
waver not in Christ's religion, truly taught you and set forth in
King Edward's days. Never shall the enemies be able to burn it,
to imprison it, and keep it in bonds. Us they may imprison, they
may bind, and burn, as they do and will do, so long as shall please
the Lord ; but our cause, religion, and doctrine, which we confess,
they shall never be able to vanquish and put away.

Then idolatry and popish religion, shall never be built in the
consciences of men that love the truth. As for those that love
not God's truth, that have no pleasure to walk in the ways of the
Lord ; in those, I say, the devil shall prevail, for God will give them
strong illusion, to helieve lies. Therefore, dear brethren and sisters
in the Lord, I humbly beseech you and pray you, in the bowels and
blood of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, now going to the
death, for the testimony of Jesus, as oftentimes I have done before
this present out of the pulpit, that ye would love the Lord's truth ;
love it, I say, to live it, and frame your lives thereafter.

Alas, ye know the cause of all these plagues fallen upon us,
and of the success which God's adversaries have daily, is for our not
living God's word. Ye know how that we are gospellers in lips and
not in life ; we are carnal, full of concupiscence, idle, unthankful,
unclean, covetous, arrogant, tipplers, crafty, subtle, malicious,
false, backbiters, &c. ; and even glutted with God's tvord, yea we
loathed it, as did the Israelites the manna in the wilderness ; and
therefore, as to them, the Lord's wrath waxed hot, so doth it unto
us. So that there is no remedy, for it is better late to turn than
never to turn, but that we confess our faults, even from the bottom of
our hearts, and with hearty repentance, which God work in us all,
for his mercy's sake, we run unto the Lord our God ; who is
exorable, merciful, and sorry for the evil poured out upon us ; and
cry out unto him, with Daniel, We have sinned, we have sinned

226

grievously, Oh Lord God, against thy majesty; we have heaped
iniquity upon iniquity, the measure of our transgressions floweth
over, so that justly is thy wrath and vengeance fallen upon us; for
we are very miserable, we have contemned thy long suffering, we
have not hearkened to thy voice ; when thou hast called us by thy
preachers, we hardened our hearts, and therefore now deserve that
thou sendest thy curse hereupon to harden our hearts also ; that we
should henceforth have eyes and see not, ears and hear not, hearts
and understand not, lest we should be converted and saved.

Oh, be merciful unto us, spare us, good Lord, and all thy people,
whom thou hast dearly bought. Let not thine enemies triumph
altogether and always against thee, for then will they be puffed up.
Look down and behold the pitiful complaints of the poor, let the
sorrowful sighings of the simple come in thy sight, and be not
angry with us for ever. Turn us, O Lord God of Hosts, unto thee,
and turn thee unto us, that thou mayest be justified in thy sweet
sentences, and overcome when thou art judged, as now thou art of
our adversaries ; for they say, Where is their God ? Can God deliver
them now? Can their Gospel serve them? Oh, Lord, how long?
For the glory of thy name, and for thy honour's sake, in the bowels
and blood of Jesus Christ, we humbly beseech thee, come and help
us, for we are very miserable.

On this sort, I say, dearly beloved, let us publicly and privately
bewail our sins; but so that hereto we join ceasing from wilfulness
and sin of purpose, for else the Lord heareth not our prayers, as
David saith ; and in St. John it is written, The impenitent sinners
God heareth not. Now impenitent are they who purpose not to
amend their lives ; as for example, not only those who follow still
their pleasures, in covetousness, uncleanness, carnality ; but those
also who, for fear or favour of man, do against their conscience,
consent to the Romish rags, and resort to the rotten religion,
communicating in service and ceremonies with the papists; thereby
declaring themselves to love the world more than God, to fear man
more than Christ, to dread the loss of temporal things more than
of eternal ; in whom it is evident, the love of God abideth not ; for
he that loveth the world, hath not God's love abiding in him, saith
the Evangelist.

227

Therefore, my dear hearts, and dear again in the Lord, remember
what ye have professed, Christ's religion and name, and the
renouncing- of the devil, sin, and the world. Remember that before
ye learned A. B. C., your lesson was Christ's cross. . Forget not
that Christ will have no disciples, but such as will promise to deny
themselves, and take up their cross, mark, they must take it up, and
follow him ; and not the multitude, custom, and use.

Consider, for God's sake, that if we gather not with Christ, we
scatter abroad. What should it profit a man to win the whole world,
and lose his own soul? We must not forget that this life is a
wilderness, and not a paradise ; here is not our home, we are now
in warfare ; we must needs fight, or else be taken prisoners. Of all
things we have in this life, we shall carry nothing with us. If
Christ be our captain, we must follow him as good soldiers. If we
keep company with him in affliction, we shall be sure of his society
in glory. If we forsake not him, he will never forsake us. If we
confess him, he will confess us ; but if we deny him, he will deny
us. If we be ashamed of him, he will be ashamed of us. Wherefore,
as he forsook Father, heaven, and all things, to come to us ; so let
us forsake all things, to come to him, being sure and most certain,
that we shall not lose thereby. Your children shall find, and feel
it double, yea treble, whatsoever ye lose for the Lord's sake ; and ye
shall find and feel peace of conscience and friendship with God,
which is more worth than all the goods of the world.

My dearly beloved, therefore, for the Lord's sake, consider these
things, which I now write unto you of love, for my Vale and last
farewell for ever, in this present life. Turn to the Lord, repent ye
your evil and unthankful life, declare repentance by the fruits, take
time whilst you have it, come to the Lord whilst he calleth you, run
into his lap whilst his arms are open tp embrace you, seek him whilst
he may be found, call upon him whilst time is convenient ; forsake
and fly from all evil, both in religion, and in the rest of your life
and conversation ; let your lights so shine before men, that they may
see your good works, and praise God in the day of his visitation.

Oh, come again, come again, ye stray children, and I will
receive you, saith the Lord. Convert and turn to me, and I will
turn unto you; why will ye needs perish? As sure as I live,

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sweareth the Lord, I will not your death, turn therefore unto me.
Can a woman forget the child of her womb? If she should, yet
will not I forget you, saith the Lord your God. I am he, I am he,
who putteth away your sins, for mine own sake. Oh then, dear
friends, turn, I say, unto your dearest Father; cast not these his
sweet and loving words to the ground, and at your tail, for the Lord
watcheth on his word to perform it, which is in two sorts ; to them
that lay it up in their hearts and believe it, will he pay all and
eternal joy and comfort ; but to them that cast it at their backs, and
wilfully forget it; to them, 1 say, will he pour out indignation and
eternal shame.

Wherefore, I heartily yet once more beseech and pray you and
every of you, not to contemn this poor and simple exhortation, which
now out of prison, I make unto you, or rather the Lord by me. Loth
would I be, to be a witness against you in the last day, as of truth I
must be if ye repent not, if ye love not God's gospel, yea, if ye live
it not. Therefore, to conclude, repent, love God's gospel, live it in
all your conversation; so shall God's name be praised, his plagues
mitigated, his people comforted, and his enemies ashamed. Grant
all this thou gracious Lord God, to every of us, for thy dear Son's
sake, our Saviour Jesus Christ ; to whom with thee and the Holy
Ghost, be eternal glory, for ever and ever, Amen. The 12 of Feb-
ruary, 1555.

By the bondman of the Lord, your afflicted poor brother.

JOHN BRADFORD.

No. 66.*

To MASTER SHALLCROSS AND HIS WIFE,

Dwelling in Lancashire.

THE peace of conscience in Christ, and through faith in his blood,
which as it passeth, and is far better than any worldly riches or joy ;

* Cov. 359.

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so is it to be redeemed with the loss of the dearest treasures we have,
rather than we should lose it; this peace I wish unto you good
M. Shallcross, and unto your good yoke-fellow, my good sister in
the Lord, now and for ever, Amen.

Hitherto, although I could not write unto you, yet as I trust you
pray for me, so I have not been forgetful of you, in my poor prayers
to Almighty God, my dear Father through Christ; to whom I
give humble praises that he hath given you grace as yet, for so I
hear, to keep yourself undented in his service, which far differeth
from the Romish rags revived of late, and justly for our sins and
unthankful using his true religion and holy ceremonies, once again
in peace and use amongst us,

In token whereof, J mean that I have not been forgetful of you,
I thought good now when I may write, to signify the same, as well
to renew our mutual love in God, and care for one another by hearty
prayer; as to excite and provoke you both to thankfulness for God's
graces hitherto, especially in the point before spoken of, and to be
diligent and wary that you unto the end continue in the same; for
you know that perseverance in godliness and purity, is required of
us, and that none other shall be crowned but such as fight lawfully.

Go to, therefore, and tight on a good fight stoutly and manfully ;
that is, as you know God is not to be worshipped and served, but
after his word written, and not after unwritten verities, or the
device, fancy, and pleasures of men or women, in what state soever
they be; accordingly behave yourself, as inwardly in God's sight,
so outwardly before your brethren. Seem not to approve by your
outward man, that which the inward man detesteth. It is not
enough to believe with the heart, except the mouth and fact confess
the same. Nor it is not enough with the mouth to acknowledge a
verity, and by our fact and deed to destroy the same.

Paul speaketh sometimes of deniers of God, not only with their
lips and tongue, but also with their deed and life. Let not the
world, or the more part of men, be an example to you to follow
them, or do as they do, in the service of God. Christ saith,
Follow me, speaking of himself, who is the pattern and sampler we
should set before us ; and not the world or more part, which windeth
the wide and broad way, whose end doth lead to perdition and

230

everlasting woe; but rather let the example of such as walk in the
narrow and strait way, which bringeth to life endless, encourage
you to walk with them, although the number of them be but few ;
and the personages of them be utterly contemned with the world,
and in the world, which world cannot love, no, nor know indeed,
the children of God, because it canr.ot receive the spirit of God.
And therefore, as the ape her young ones, so it, the world 1 mean,
doth think her own birds the fairest, contemning, with deadly hate,
all others that will not follow her judgment.

But what saith Christ? Be of good cheer ; although the world
will persecute you, yet I have overcome the world. Oh, comfortable
sentence, I have overcome the world. This undoubtedly hemeaneth
for you and me and all other his children, that he hath overcome the
world for us. But by what means? Surely by suffering contempt,
wrong, false reports, and even very shameful and most bitter death.

If he went this way, and won the victory this way, as I trust we
know; let us as his servants, whose state ought not to be above our
master's, not be dismayed of contempt, of wrong, of loss of goods or
life itself; but rather joyfully suffer the same as men, knowing we
have better portions in heaven, and that this is the sure way to
victory most victorious ; for by many tribulations must we enter into
the kingdom of heaven; if we would come thither, except for
tribulation's sake, we shall with ease, and worldly quietness, go to
hell.

You know what Paul saith, AH that will live godly in Christ
Jesu, must suffer persecution ; wherefore in that you are in Christ
Jesu, I dare say you will continue, though persecution come to you,
being assured that it cannot come, except God have so decreed ; and
if he have so decreed, then cannot you but receive it, or else a cross
which will be much worse. Willingly therefore take what cross the
Lord shall offer, and then the Lord will make you able to bear it,
and never tempt you further than he will make you strong enough.
Yea, all the hairs of your head he will number and keep, so that
one of them shall not perish ; but if you should refuse God's cross,
especially in suffering the loss of any thing for his sake, who giveth
you all the good that ever you have and keepeth it ; if, I say, you
refuse ; be certain the plagues of God will be poured down, first on

231

your soul and conscience in hardening your heart, and blinding
your mind, either by bringing you into despair, or into a contempt
and carnal security; whereafter will ensue loss of the dearest things
you have, if God love you, or else he will conserve the same, to
your eternal destruction.

I write not this, as distrusting your constancy in God's cause,
God forbid, for methinks I am assured of your godly zeal ; but I do
it as I said, that you may be the more heedy, wary, diligent, and
earnestly given to call upon the name of God, for his help and grace
of perseverance, who is more ready to give than we to ask.

I know this kind of writing is madness to the world, foolishness
to reason, and sour to the flesh ; but to you who are a man of God,
and by profession in baptism h?ve forsaken the world, and do con-
sider things after the reach of faith, and have tasted of the good
spirit of God, and of the life to come: unto such a one I say, as I
trust you be, this kind of writing is otherwise esteemed. For here
you are but a pilgrim, your home is in heaven, your treasures are
there hoarded,* where thieves cannot come to steal them ; there is
your heart, and therefore you can and will say, as the philosopher
said when he was robbed of all he had, omnia mea mecum porto,
I carry all with me. If he t an heathen, took his riches to be the
world's rather than his, how much more should we do so?

Therefore, my dear brother, accordingly prepare yourself, as you
have done and do 1 hope. Read the second of Ecclesiasticus, how
he counselleth them that will serve God, to prepare themselves to
temptation. Often set before your eyes the judgment of Christ, his
coming in the clouds, and the resurrection, which is now our com-
fort, especially in afflictions. I write to you none otherwise than f
am persuaded, I thank God, and purpose to go before you. I know
there is an eternal life, and I hope to be partaker of it through
Christ. I know this is the way thither, I mean by suffering. I
know that if we suffer with him, we shall reign with him. I know
that by the cross he maketh us like to Christ here, that we might be
like to him elsewhere ; therefore I write to you not words only.

And hereupon I am the more earnest, as to admonish, so to pray

* Hurded.

you, to cleave still to the Lord, and his true religion, which you
have received, and I for my part am sure that I have preached unto
you. For the confirmation whereof, as I am in bonds, so I trust in
the goodness of God and his power, to give my life in and for the
same; that you and others might be certain and follow as God
shall call you, and vouch you worthy. Remember that die you
must, but when, as you know not, so where and how, it is uncertain
to you. Again, all that you have you must leave behind you, for
nothing shall go with you, but a good or an evil conscience. More-
over, to whom you shall leave your goods it is hid from you ; for you
may purpose, but God will dispose.

Therefore if God will have you to die, or to leave your goods for
his cause, how much are you bound then to bless God? Sure you
may be, that then you cannot perish, for of all ways to heaven it is
the most sure way. Your goods God will preserve, so that your
children shall find them, although the wicked spoil every piece of
them ; for the righteous man's seed, I have not seen, saith David, beg
their bread, but God will bless them unto a thousand generations;
the which thing I pray God to remember, towards your children,
for his name's sake, Amen.

Thus will I betake you to God, and to his holy word ; which is
able, as to teach you which way to serve God, so to save you, if you
believe and love it. If I thought it might do you any good, 1 would
send you a book, which James Bradshaw already hath, to teach you
how you should behave yourselves, especially concerning the mass;
I wrote it since ray trouble. Commend me to T. Riddleston, although
I fear me, he has defiled himself in this false service. That book 1
wish he would read ; as you shall advertise me, I will do in sending
to him. I shall pray God to illuminate his eyes with his grace.
Commend me to Sir W. Charelton, who I trust hath kept himself
pure from idolatry; God grant him so continue. Written in haste, as
it appeareth, from the Compter in the Poultry. By your's in Christ.

JOHN BRADFORD.

233

No. 67.*

CONFERENCE WITH THE EARL OF DERBY'S
SERVANT.

On the 12 of February there came to Bradford one of the Earl

of Derby's servants.

Serv. JVIy Lord hath sent me to you, he willeth you to tender
yourself, and he would be a good lord unto you.

Brad. I thank his Lordship for his good will towards me; but
in this cause I cannot tender myself, more than God's honour.

Serv. Ah, M. Bradford, consider your mother, sisters, friends,
kinsfolk, and country; what a great discomfort it will be unto them,
to see you die as an heretic.

Brad. I have learned to forsake father, mother, brother, sister,
friend, and all that ever I have; yea, even mine own self, for else I
cannot be Christ's disciple.

Serv. If my Lord should obtain for you, that ye might depart
the realm ; would ye not be content to be at the Queen's appoint-
ment, where she would appoint you beyond the sea?

Brad. No, I had rather be burned in England, than be burned
beyond the seas; for I know that if she should send me to Paris,
Louvaine, or some such place, forthwith they would burn me.

No. 68. t
CONFERENCE withPERCIVAL CRESSWELL.

ON the 14 of February, Percival Cresswell, an old acquain-
tance of Bradford's, came to him bringing with him a kinsman of
M. Fecknam's.

* Fox iii. 292. t Fox iii. 292.

2 H

-234

Cress. I pray you let me make labour for you ?

Brad. You may do what ye will.

Cress. But tell me what suit I should make for you ?

Brad. Forsooth that ye will do, do it not at my request, for I
desire nothing at yo ,r hands. If the Queen will give me life, I will
thank her. If she will banish me, I will thank her. If she will
burn me, I will thank her. If she will condemn me to perpetual
imprisonment, I will thank her.

Hereupon Cresswell went away, and about eleven of the clock

he and the other man came again ; and brought a book of

More's* making, desiring Bradford to read it over.

Brad. Good Percival, 1 am settled for being moved in this
article.

Cress. Oh, if ye loved me, do one thing for me.

Brad. What is it?

Cress. Desire and name what learned man or men, ye will have
to come unto you, my Lord of York, my Lord of Lincoln, my Lord
of Bath, and others will gladly come unto you.

Brad. No, never will I desire them, or any other, to come to
confer with me ; for I am as certain of my doctrine, as I am of any
thing. But for your pleasure, and also that all men may know
I am not ashamed to have my faith sifted and tried, bring whom ye
will, and 1 will talk with them.

No. 69.t
CONFERENCE WITH DR. HARDING.

ABOUT three o'clock in the afternoon Dr. Harding* came to
Bradford, and after a great and solemn protestation, shewing how
that he had prayed to God before he came, to turn his talk to

* Most probably his book against Luther. t Fox iii. 292.

J Chaplain to the Bishop of Lincoln, and the same to whom Bishop JowelTs admir-
able defence was addressed in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.

235

Bradford's good; he began to tell of the good opinion he had of
Bradford, and spent the time in such tattling, so that their talk
was to little purpose; save that Bradford prayed him to consider
from whence he was fallen, and not to follow the world, nor to
love it; for the love of God is not where the world is.

Harding counted Bradford in a damnable estate, as one being
out of the church ; and therefore willed him to take heed of his
soul, and not to die in such an opinion.
Brad. What M. Harding! I have heard you with these ears,

maintain that which I stand in.

Hard. I grant that I have taught that the doctrine of transub-

stantiation was a subtle doctrine, but otherwise I never taught it

And so he inveighing against marriages of priests, and namely
against Peter Martyr, Martin Bucer, Luther, and such, who for
breaking their vows were justly given up unto heresies, as he
said ; and Bradford seeing him altogether given up to popery,
after admonishment thereof, bad him farewell.

No. 70.*

BRADFORD'S FIRST CONFERENCE WITH
ARCHDEACON HARPSFIELD.

ON the 15 of February, Percival Cresswell came with M.
Harpsfield, Archdeacon of London; and after formal salutations,
made a long oration ; that all men even Infidels, Turks, Jews,
Anabaptists, and Libertines, desire felicity as well as the
Christians, and that every one thinketh they shall attain to it by
their religion. To which Bradford answered briefly, that he
spake not far amiss.

Harps. But the way thither is not all alike; for the Infidels
by Jupiter and Juno, the Turk by his Alcoran, the Jew by his

* Fox iii. 292

236

Talmud, do believe to come to heaven. For so may I speak of
such as believe the immortality of the soul.

Brad. You speak truly.

Harps. Well then, here is the matter, to know the way to this
heaven.

Brad. We may not invent any manner of ways. There is but
one way, and that is Jesus Christ, as he himself doth witness; I am
the way.

Harps. It is true that you say, and false also. I suppose that
you mean by Christ, believing 1 in Christ?

Brad. I have learned to discern betwixt faith and Christ; albeit
I confess, that whoso believeth in Christ, the same shall be saved.

Harps. No, not all who believe in Christ; for some shall say;
Lord, Lord, have not we cast out devils, &c.? But Christ will answer
in the day of judgment to these, Depart from me, 1 know you not.

Brad. You must make difference betwixt believing and saying 1 ,
I believe; as for example, if one should say and swear he loveth
you, for all his saying ye will not believe him, when you see he
goeth about to utter and do all the evil against you he can ?

Harps. Well, this is not much material; there is but one way,
Christ. How come we to know him ? Where shall we seek to find
him?

Brad. Forsooth, we must seek him by his word, and in his
word, and after his word.

Harps. Very good ; but tell me now how first we came into
the company of them that could tell us, but by baptism?

Brad. Baptism is the sacrament, by the which outwardly we
are engrafted into Christ; 1 say outwardly, because I dare not
exclude from Christ all that die without baptism. I will not tie
God, where he is not bound. Some infants die, whose parents
desire baptism for them ; and cannot have it.

Harps. To these we may think perchance, that God will shew
mercy ?

Brad. Yea, the children whose parents do contemn baptism,
will not I condemn, because the child shall not bear the father's
offence.

Harps. Well, we agree, that by baptism then we are brought,

237

and, as a man would say, begotten to Christ. For Christ is our
father, and the Church his spouse is our mother. As all men
naturally have Adam for their father, and Eve for their mother; so
all spiritual men have Christ for their father, and the Church for
their mother; and as Eve was taken out of Adam's side, so was the
Church taken out of Christ's side, whereout flowed blood for the
satisfaction and purgation of our sins.

Brad. All this is truly spoken.

Harps. Now then tell me whether this Church of Christ hath
not been, always ?

Brad. Yea, since the creation of man, and shall be for ever.

Harps. Very good ; but yet tell me whether this Church is a
visible Church or no?

Brad. It is no otherwise visible, than Christ was here on earth ;
that is, by no exterior pomp or shew, that setteth her forth
commonly; and therefore to see, we must put on such eyes as good
men put on to see and know Christ, when he walked here on earth.
For as Eve was of the same substance that Adam was of, so was the
Church of the same substance that Christ was of, flesh of his flesh,
and bone of his bones, as Paul saith.* Look therefore how Christ
was visibly known to be Christ, when he was on earth, that is, by
considering him after the word of God, so is the Church known.

Harps. I do not come to reason at this present, and therefore I
will go on forward. Is not this Church a multitude ?

Brad. Yes, that it is; howbeit, latet anguis in herba, as the
proverb is ; for in your question is a subtlety. What visible mul-
titude was there in Elias's time, or when Moses was on the mount,
and Aaron and all Israel worshipping the calf?

Harps. Ye divert from the matter.

Brad. No, nothing at all ; for I do prevent you, knowing well
whereabout you go ; and therefore fewer words might well serve, if
that you so would.

Harps. Well, [ perceive you have knowledge, and by a little
perceive I the more. Tell me yet more, whether this multitude have
not the ministry, or preaching of God's word ?

* Ephes. v.

238

Brad. Sir, ye go about the bush. If ye understand preaching
for confessing of the Gospel, I will go with you ; for else if you will,
you may know that persecution often letteth preaching.

Harps. Well, I mean it so. Tell me yet more; hath it not the
sacraments administered?

Brad. It hath the sacraments, howbeit the administration of
them is often letted. But I will put you from your purpose, because
I see whereabout you go. If heretics have baptism, and do baptize,
as they did in St. Cyprian's time; you know this baptism is baptism,
and not to be reiterate.

This Bradford did speak, that the slanders by might see, that

though the Papist's Church have baptism, which we have received

of them; yet therefore it is not the true Church, neither need

we to be baptized again.

Harps* You go far from the matter, and 1 perceive you have
more errors than one.

Brad. So you say, but that is not enough till you prove them.

Harps. Well, this Church is a multitude. Hath it not the
preaching of the Gospel, and the ministration of the sacraments ?
And yet more, hath it not the power of jurisdiction ?

Brad. What jurisdiction is exercised in persecution and
affliction ?

Harps. I mean by jurisdiction, admonishing one another, and
so forth.

Brad. Well, go to ; what then?

Harps. It hath also succession of bishops.

And here he made much ado to prove that this was an

essential point.

Brad. You say as you would have it; for if this part fail you,
all the Church that you go about to set up, will fall down. You
shall not find in all the Scripture, this your essential part of
succession of bishops.* In Christ's Church antichrist will sit. And
Peter telleth us, as it went in the Old Church, afore Christ's

' Succession of Bishops is no essential part of the Church ; but rather accidens
which, being interrupted, yet the Church may stand; as it did both
before Christ's coming and after at the coming of antichrist." Fox, in Loco.

239

coming; so will it be in the New Church, since Christ's coming-;
that is, as there were false prophets, and such as have rule were
adversaries to the true prophets; so shall there be, saith he,* false
teachers, even of such as arc bishops, and bear rule amongst the
people.

Harps. You go always out of the matter; but I will prove
further the succession of bishops.

Brad. Do so.

Harps. Tell me, were not the apostles bishops ?

Brad.' No, except you will make a new definition of a bishop;
that is, give him no certain place.

Harps. Indeed, the apostle's office was not the bishop's office;
for it was universal ; but yet Christ instituted bishops in his Church,
as Paul saith, He hath given pastors, prophets, &c.; so that, I trow,
it be proved by the Scriptures, that the succession of bishops, is an
essential point.

Brad. The ministry of God's word and ministers, is an
essential point; but to translate this to the bishops, and their
succession, is a plain subtlety ; and therefore that it may be plain,
I will ask you a question. Tell me, whether that the Scripture
knew any difference between bishops and ministers, which ye called
priests f

Harps. No !

Brad. Well, then go on forwards, and let us see what ye shall
get now by the succession of bishops; that is, of ministers; which
cannot be understood of such bishops as minister not, but lord it.

Harps. I perceive that you are far out of the way. By your
doctrine, you can never shew in your Church, a multitude which
ministereth God's word and his sacraments, which hath jurisdiction
and succession of bishops, which hath, from time to time, believed
as you believe, beginning now and so going upwards, as I 1 will do
of our doctrine ; and therefore are ye out of the Church, and so
cannot be saved. Perchance you will bring me downwards, a shew
to clear people's eyes ; but to go upwards, that you can never do,
and this is the true triah

* 2 Peter ii.

240

Brad. Ye must and will, I am assured, give me leave to follow
the scriptures and examples of good men.
Harps. Yea.

Brad. Well then, Stephen was accused and condemned as I
am, that he had taught new and false doctrine, before the Fathers of
the Church then, as they were taken. Stephen, for his purgation,
improveth their accusation. But how? Doth he it hy going up-
wards? No, but by coming downwards, beginning at Abraham'
and continuing still till Isaiah's time, and the people's captivity.
From whence he maketh a great leap, until the time he was in,
which was, I think, upon four hundred years, and called them by
their right names, hell-hounds, rather than heaven-hounds. On this
sort will I prove my faith, and that can you never do yours.

Harps. Yea, Sir, if we did know that you had the Holy Ghost,
then could we believe you.

Here Bradford would have answered, that Stephen's enemies
would not believe he had the Holy Ghost, and therefore they did
as they did. But as he was speaking 1 , M. Harpsfield rose up,
and the keeper and others who stood by, began to talk gently,
praying Bradford to take heed to what JYJ. Archdeacon spake,
who still said that Bradford was out of the Church.
Brad. Sir, I am most certain that I am in Christ's Church, and
I can shew a demonstration of my religion, from time to time con-
tinually.

God our Father, for the name and blood of his Christ,
be merciful unto us, and unto all his people; and deliver
them from false teachers, and blind guides,' through whom,
alas, I fear me, much hurt will come to this Realm of
England. God, our Father, bless us, and keep us in his
truth, and poor Church for ever. Jimen.
Then the Archdeacon departed, saying that he would come
again the next morning.

241

No. 71.*

BRADFORD'S SECOND CONFERENCE WITH
HARPSFIELD.

On the 16 February in the morning 1 , the Archdeacon, and the
other two with him, came again ; and after a few by-words spoken,
sat down. M. Archdeacon began a very long* oration, first re-
specting what they had said, and how far they had gone over-
night. ' And therewith did begin to prove upwards, succession of
Bishops here in England for eight hundred years ; in France, at
Lyons, for one thousand two hundred years ; in Spain, at His-
palen, for eight hundred years; in Italy, at Milan, for one thou-
sand two hundred years ; labouring by this to prove his Church.
He used all succession of bishops in the East Church, for the
more confirmation of his words ; and so concluded with an exhor-
tation, and an interrogation. The exhortation, that Bradford
would obey this church ; the interrogation, whether Bradford
could shew any such succession, for the demonstration of his
Church, for so he called it, which followed.
Brad. My memory is evil, so that I cannot answer particularly
your oration. Wherefore I will generally do it, thinking because
your oration is rather to persuade than to prove, that a smaller answer
shall serve. If Christ or his apostles, being here on earth, had been
required by the prelates of the Church then, to have made a demon-
stration of that Church, by succession of such high priests, as had
approved the doctrine which he taught, 1 think that Christ would
have done as I do. That is, he would have alleged that which up-
holdeth the Church, even the verity, the AVord of God taught and
believed ; not by the high priests, who of long time had persecuted
it, but by the prophets and other gdod simple men, who perchance
xvere counted for heretics of the Church ; which Church was not
tied to succession, but to the Word of God. And this to think, St.
Peter giveth me occasion, when he saith, that as it went in the
Church before Christ's coming, so shall it go in the Church after his

* Fox ill. 24.

242

coming ; but then the pillars of the Church, were persecutors of the
Church; therefore the like we must look for now.

Harps. I can gather and prove succession in Jerusalem, of the
High Priests from Aaron's time.

Brad. I grant, but not such succession as allowed the truth.

Harps. Why, did they not allow Moses' law?

Brad. Yea, and keep it, as touching the books thereof, as you
do the Bible; and Holy Scriptures. But the true interpretation and
meaning of it, they did corrupt, as you have done, and do; and
therefore the persecution which they stirred up against the Prophets
and Christ, was not for the law, but for the interpretation of it. For
they taught as you do now, that we must fetch the interpretation of
the Scriptures at your hands. But to make an end, death 1 look
daily for, yea hourly, and I think my time is but very short;
therefore I had need spend as much time with God as I can,
whilst I have it, for his help and comfort; and therefore I pray you
bear with me, that I do not now particularly, and in more words,
answer your long talk. If I saw death not so near me as it is, I
would then weigh every piece of your oration, if you would give me
the sum of it, and I would answer accordingly; but because I dare
not, nor i will not leave off looking and preparing for that which is
at hand, I shall desire you to hold me excused, though I do as I do,
and heartily thank you for your gentle good will. I shall heartily
pray God, our Father, to give you the same light and life, I do wish
to myself.

And so Bradford began to rise up, hut then began M. Arch-
deacon to tell him, that he was in a very perilous case ; and that

he was sorry to see him so settled.

Harps. As for death, whether it be nigh or far off 1 know not,
neither forceth it, so that you did die well.

Brad. 1 doubt not in this case, but that I shall die well; for as I
hope and am certain, my death shall please the Lord, t>o I trust I
shall die cheerfully, to the comfort of his children.

Harp*. But what if you be deceived ?

Brad. What if you should say the sun did not shine now. 3 *

* The sun did shiae through the window where they sat. Fox.

243

Harps. Well, 1 am sorry to see you so secure and careless.

Brad. Indeed I am more carnally secure and careless than I
should be, God make me more vigilant; but in this case I cannot be
so secure, for I am most assured I am in the truth.

Harps. That are ye not ; for you are out of the catholic church.

Brad. No, though you have excommunicated me out of your
Church, yet am I in the Catholic Church of Christ; and am, and by
God's grace shall be a child, and an obedient child of it for ever. I
hope Christ will have no less care for me, than he had for the blind
man excommunicated of the synagogue. And further I am sure that
the necessary articles of the faith, I mean the twelve articles of the
creed, 1 confess and believe with that which you call the holy
Church ; so that even your Church hath taken too much upon her to
excommunicate me for that, which by the testimony of my Lord of
Durham, in the Book of the Sacrament lately put forth, was free
many an hundred year after Christ, to believe or not believe.

Harps. What is that?

Brad. Transubstantiation.

Harps. Why ? Ye are not condemned therefore only.

Brad. For that, and because I deny that wicked men do receive
Christ's body.

Harps. You agree not with us in the presence, nor in any thing
else.

Brad. How you believe, you know ; for my part I confess a
presence of whole Christ, God and man, to the faith of the receiver.

Harps. Nay, you must believe a real presence in the sacrament.

Brad. In the sacrament? Nay, I will not shut him in, nor tie
him to it, otherwis'e than faith seeth and perceiveth. If I should
include Christ really present in the sacrament, or tie him to it other-
wise than to the faith of the receiver ; then the wicked men should
receive him, which I do not, nor will, by God's grace, believe.

Harps. More pity, but a man may easily perceive, you make no
presence at all, and therefore you agree not therein with us.

Brad. I confess a presence, and a true presence, but to the faith
of the receiver.

What, saith one that stood by, of Christ's very body which

died for us ?

244

Brad. Yea, even of whole Christ, God and man, to feed the
faith of him that receiveth it.

Harps. Why. this is nothing else but to exclude the omnipo-
tency of God, and all kind of miracle in the sacrament?

Brad, I do not exclude his omnipotency, but you do it rather;
for I believe that Christ can accomplish his promise, the substance
of bread and wine being there, as well as the accidents, which you
believe not. When we come to the sacrament, we come not to feed
our bodies, and therefore we have but a little piece of bread; but we
come to feed our souls with Christ by faith, which the wicked do
want, and therefore they receive nothing butpanem Domini, as Judas
did, and not panem Dominum, as the other apostles did.

Harps. The wicked do receive the very body of Christ, but not
the grace of his l>ody.

Brad. They receive not the body, for Christ's body is no dead
carcase; he that receiveth it, receiveth the spirit, which is not with-
out grace I trow.

Harps. Well, you have many errors ; you count the mass for
abomination, and yet St. Ambrose said mass.

And so he read out of a written book, a sentence of St. Am-
brose to prove it.

Brad. Why Sir, the mass as it is now, was nothing so in St.
Ambrose's time. Was not the most part of the canon made since by
Gregory and Scholasticus ?

Harps. Indeed a great piece of it was made, as ye say, by Gre-
gory; but Scholasticus* was before St. Ambrose's time.

Brad. 1 ween not ; howbeit 1 will not contend. St. Gregory
saith, that the apostles said mass without the canon, only with the
Lord's prayer.

Harps. You say true ; for the canon is not the greatest part of
the mass; the greatest part is the sacrifice, elevation, transubstanti-
ation, and adoration.

* It appears to be uncertain who is here referred to. St. Gregory mentions him.
Lib. vii. Ind. 2. Epist. 63.Petrie i. 151. Preservative against Popery, vol. ii.
Tit. vi. ch. 2. p. 75. Fabricius, in his Bibliotheca Graeca, refers to two persons who
bore the above cognomen, viz. John of Antioch, vol. x. 158. and who is probably the in-
dividual alluded to; and John Climacu?, vol. viii. 615. who was Abbot of Mount Sinai.

245

Brad. I can away with none of those.

Harps. No, I think the same ; but yet, hocfacite, telleth plainly
the sacrifice of the church.

Brad. You confound sacrifices, not discerning betwixt the sa-
crifice of the church, and for the church. The sacrifice of the church,
is no propitiatory sacrifice, but a gratulatory sacrifice, and as for, hoc
facite, is not referred to any sacrificing 1 , but to the whole action of
taking', eating, &c.

Harps. You speak not learnedly now; for Christ made his
supper orfly to the twelve apostles, not admitting his mother, or any
of the seventy disciples to it. Now the apostles do signify the priests.

Brad. I think that you speak, as you would men should under-
stand it ; for else you would not keep the cup away from the laity.
We have great cause to thank you, that you will give us of your
bread ; for I perceive you order the matter so, as though Christ had
not commanded it to his whole church.

Then Harpsfield would have proved elevation by a place of Basil.

Brad. I have read the place, which seemeth to make nothing
for elevation ; but be it as it is, this is no time for me to scan the
doubtful places of the doctors with you. I have been in prison long
without books, and all necessaries for study : and now death draweth
nigh, and I by your leave, must now leave off, to prepare for him.

Harps. If I could do you good, I would be right glad ; either
in soul or body, for you are in a perilous case both ways.

Brad. Sir, I thank you for your good will, my case is as it is. I
thank God it was never so well with me ; for death to me shall be life.

Cress. It were best for you to desire M. Archdeacon that he
would make suit for you, that you might have a time to confer.

Harps. I will do the best I can, for I pity his case,

Brad. Sir, I will not desire any body to sue for time for me. I
am not wavering, neither would I that any body should think I were
so. But if you have the charity and love you pretend towards me,
and thereto do think I am in an error, I think the same should move
you to do as you would be done to. As ye think of me, so do I of
you, that you are far out of the way; and I do not only think it,
but also am thereof most assured.

And in this, and such like gentle talk, they departed.

246
No. 72.*

CONFERENCE WITH THE ARCHBISHOP

OF YORKt AND THE BISHOP OF

CHICHESTER.J

ON the 23 February, the Archbishop of York, and the Bishop
of Chichester, came to the Compter to speak with Bradford.
When he was come before them, they both, and especially the
Archbishop of York, used him very gently; they would have
him to sit down, and because he would not, they also would not
sit. So they all stood ; and whether he would or not, they would
needs he should put on, not only his nightcap, but his upper cap
also, saying to him, that obedience was better than sacrifice.

Now thus standing together, my Lord of York began to tell
Bradford how that they were not sent to him, but of love and
eharity they came to him: and he, for that acquaintance also
which he had with Bradford, more than the Bishop of Chichester
had. Then after commending Bradford's godly life, he con-
cluded with this question, How he was certain of salvation, and
of his religion ?

After thanks for their good will,

Brad. By the word of God, even by the Scriptures, 1 am certain
of salvation and religion.

Heath. Very well said ; but how do ye know the word of God
and the Scriptures, but by the Church ?

Brad, Indeed, my Lord, the Church was and is a mean, to
tring a man more speedily to know the Scriptures and the word of
God ; as was the woman of Samaria, a mean that the Samaritans
knew Christ. But, as when they had heard him speak, they said,
Now we know that he is Christ, not because of thy words, but
because we ourselves have heard him; so after we come to the
hearing and reading of the Scriptures, shewed unto us, and discerned

* Fox iii. 295. f Heath. j Day.

247

by the Church, we do believe them, and know them as Christ's
sheep; not because the Church saith they are the Scriptures, but
because they be so, being thereof assured by the s ame Spirit, who
wrote and spake them.

Heath. You know, in the apostles' time at the first, the word
was not written.

Brad. True, if you mean it for some books of the New
Testament; but else for the Old Testament, Peter telleth us,
Firmiorem sermonem propheticum habemus ; We have a more sure
word of prophecy ; not that it is simply so, but in respect of the
apostles, who being alive and encompassed with infirmity, attributed
to the word written more firmity, as wherewith no fault could be
found; whereas, for the infirmity of their persons, men perchance
might have found some fault at their preaching ; albeit in very deed,
no less obedience and faith ought to have been given to the one,
than to the other; for all proceedeth forth of one spirit of truth.

Heath. That place of Peter is not so to be understood of the
word written.

Brad. Yea, Sir, that it is, and of none other,

Day. Yea, indeed, M. Bradford doth tell you truly in that point.

Heath. Well, you know that Irenaeus and others do magnify
much, and allege the Church against the heretics, and not the
Scriptures.

Brad. True, for they had to do with such heretics as did deny
the Scriptures, and yet did magnify the apostles; so that they were
enforced to use the authority of those churches, wherein the apostles
had taught, and which had still retained the same doctrine.

Day. You speak the very truth; for the heretics did refuse alt
Scriptures, except it were a piece of Luke's Gospel.

Brad. Then the alleging of the Church cannot be principally
used against me, who am so far from denying of the Scriptures, that
I appeal unto them utterly, as to the only judge.

Heath. A pretty matter, that you will take upon you to judge
the Church. 1 pray you, where hath your Church been hitherto?
For the Church of Christ is catholic and visible hitherto.

Brad, My Lord, I do not judge the Church, when I discern it

248

from that congregation, and those which be not of the Church ; and
I never denied the Church to be catholic and visible, although it he
more visible at some times than at others.

Day. I pray you tell me where the Church which allowed your
doctrine, was these four hundred years?

Brad. I will tell you, my Lord, or rather you shall tell yourself,
if you will tell me this one thing, where the Church was in Elijah's
time, when Eljah said that he was left alone?

Day. That is no answer.

Brad. I am sorry that you say so; but this will I tell your
Lordship, that if you had the same eyes, wherewith a man might
have espied the Church then ; you would not say it were no
answer. The fault why the Church is not seen of you, is not
because the Church is not visible, but because your eyes are not
clear enough to see it.

Day. You are much deceived, in making this collation betwixt
the Church then and now.

Heath. Very well spoken, my Lord ; for Christ said, Edificabo
Ecclesiam, I will build my Church ; and not I do, or have built it,
but I will build it.

Brad. My Lords, Peter teacheth me to make this collation,
saying ; As in the people there were false prophets, who were most
in estimation afore Christ's coming ; so shall there be false teachers
amongst the people after Christ's coming; and very many shall
follow them. And as for your future tense, I hope your Grace will
not thereby conclude Christ's Church not to have been before, but
rather that there is no building in the Church, but by Christ's
work only ; for Paul and A polios be but waterers.

Day. In good faith, I am sorry to see you so light in judging
the Church.

Heath. He taketh upon him, as they all do, to judge the
Church. A man shall never come to certainty that doth as they do.

Brad. My Lords, I speak simply what I think, and desire
reason to answer my objections. Your affections and sorrow cannot
be my rules. If that you consider the order and cause of my con-
demnation, I cannot think but that it should something move your

249

Honours. You know it well enough, for you heard it, no matter
was laid against me, but what was gathered upon mine own
confession. Because I did deny transubstantiation, and the wicked
to receive Christ's body in the sacrament, therefore I was condemned
and excommunicated; but not of the Church, although the pillars of
the Church, as they be taken, did it.

Day. No, I heard say the cause of your imprisonment was, for
that you exhorted the people to take the sword in the one hand, and
the mattock in the other.

Brad. ' My Lord, I never meant any such thing, nor spake any
thing in that sort.

Heath. Yea, and you behaved yourself before the Council so
stoutly at the first, that you would defend the religion then ; and
therefore worthily were you imprisoned.

Brad. Your Grace did hear me answer my Lord Chancellor to
that point. But put case I had been so stout, as they and your
Grace make it; were not the laws of the realm on my side then?
Wherefore unjustly was I imprisoned; only that which my Lord
Chancellor propounded, was my confession of Christ's truth against
transubstantiation, and of that which the wicked do receive, as 1
said.

Heath. You deny the presence.

Brad. I do not, to the faith of the worthy receivers.

Heath. Why? What is that to say other, than that Christ
lieth not on the altar ?.

Brad. My Lord, I believe no such presence.

Day. It seemeth that you have not read Chrysostom; for he
proveth it.

Brad. Hitherto I have been kept well enough without books ;
howbeit this I do remember of Chrysostom, that he saith that Christ
lieth upon the altar, as the seraphims, with their tongues, touch our
lips with the coals of the altar in heaven ; which is an hyperbolical
locution, of which you know Chrysostom is full.

Heath. It is evident that you are too far gone ; but let us come
then to the Church, out of the which ye are excommunicate.

Brad. \ am not excommunicate out of Christ's Church, my
Lord, although they who seem to be in the Church, and of the

250

Church, have excommunicated me ; as the poor blind man was,
John ix. I am sure Christ receiveth me.

Heath. You do deceive yourself.

Brad. Assuredly, as I think you did well to depart from the
Romish Church, so I think you have done wickedly to couple
yourselves to it again; for you can never prove that, which you call
the Mother Church, to he Christ's Church.

Day. Ah, M. Bradford, you were but a child when this matter
began. I was a young man, and then coming from the University,
I went with the world ; but I tell you it was always against my
conscience.

Brad. I was but a child then, howbeit as I told you, I think
you have done evil. For ye are come, and have brought others to
that wicked man, who sitteth in the Temple of God, that is, in the
Church; for it cannot be understood of Mahomet, or any out of the
Church, but of such as bear rule in the Church.

Heath. See how you build your faith upon such places of
Scripture as are most obscure, to deceive yourself; as though ye
were in the Church, where you are not.

Brad. Well, my Lord, though I might by fruits judge of you
and others; yet will I not utterly exclude you out of the Church.
And if I were in your case, I would not condemn him utterly that
is of my faith in the sacrament; knowing as you know, that at the
least eight hundred years after Christ, as my Lord of Durham
writeth, it was free to believe or not to believe transubstantiatiori.

Heath. This is a toy that you have found out of your own
brain; as though a man not believing as the Church doth, that is,
transubstantiation, were of the Church.

Day. He is an heretic, and so none of the Church, that doth
hold any doctrine against the definition of the Church ; as a man to
hold against transubstantiation. Cyprian was no heretic, though
he believed rebaptizing of them who were baptized of heretics,
because he held it before the Church had denned it; whereas if he
had holden it after, then had he been an heretic.

Brad. Oh, my Lord, will ye condemn to the devil any man
that believeth truly the twelve articles of the faith, wherein I take
the unity of Christ's Church to consist, although in some points he

251

believe not the definition of that, which ye call the Church? I
doubt not but that he holdeth firmly the articles of our belief, though
in other things he dissent from your definition, yet he shall be saved.

Heath. 1

j^ ai > Yea, this is your divinity.

Brad. No, it is Paul's, who saith, that if they hold the founda-
tion Christ, though they build upon him straw and stubble, yet they
shall be saved.

Heath. Lord God, how you delight to lean to the hard and dark
places of the scriptures.

Day. I will shew you how that Luther did excommunicate
Zuinglius for this matter.

And so he read a piece of Luther making for his purpose.

Brad. IVly Lord, what Luther writeth, as you much pass not,
no more do I in this case. My faith is not builded on Luther, Zu-
inglius, or (Ecolampadius in this point; and indeed to tell you
truly, 1 never read any of their works in this matter. As for them,
I do think assuredly that they were and are God's children, and
saints with him.

Heath. Well, you are out of the communion of the Church.

Brad. I am not, for it consisteth, and is in faith.

Heath. Lo, how you make your Church invisible; for you
would have the communion of it to consist in faith.

Brad. For to have communion with the Church needeth no
visibleness of it; for communion consisteth as I said, in faith,
and not in exterior ceremonies, as appeareth both by Paul, who
would have one faith; and by Irenseus to Victor, for the observation
of Easter, saying that, disagreeing of fasting, should not break the
agreeing of faith.

Day. The same place hath often even wounded my conscience,
because we dissevered ourselves from the See of Rome.

Brad. Well, God forgive you ; for you have done evil to bring
England thither again.

Here my Lord of York took a book of paper of common

places, and read a piece of St. Augustin, contra epistolam funda-

menti ; how that there were many things that did hold St. Austin

in the bosom of the Church ; consent of people and nations,

252

authority confirmed with miracles, nourished with hope, increased

with charity, established with antiquity. Besides this, there

holdeth me in the Church, said St. Augustin, the succession of

priests from St. Peter's seat until this present bishop. Last of all

the very name of catholic doth hold ine, &c.

Heath. Lo, how say you to this of St. Augustine? Paint me
out your Church thus.

Brad. My Lord, these words of St. Austin make as much for
me as for you; although I might answer, that all this, if they had
been so firm as you make them, might have been alleged against
Christ and his apostles. For there was the law and the ceremonies,
consented to by the whole people, confirmed with miracles, anti-
quity, and continual succession of bishops, from Aaron's time until
that present.

Day. In good faith, M. Bradford, you make too much of the
state of the Church, before Christ's coming.

Brad. Therein I do but as Peter teacheth, 2 Pet. ii. and Paul
very often. You would gladly have your Church here very glorious,
and as a most pleasant lady. But as Christ said, Beatus est quicun-
que nonfueru offemiis per me, so may his Church say, Blessed are
they that are not offended at me.

Heath. Yea, you think that none is of the Church, but such as
suffer persecution.

Brad. What I think, God knoweth; I pray your Grace judge
me by my words and speaking, and mark what Paul saith, Ail that
will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution. Sometimes
Christ's Church hath rest here; but commonly it is not so, and espe-
cially towards the end her form will be more unseemly.

Heath. But what say you to St. Austin? Where is your Church
that hath the consent of people and nations?

Brad. Even all people and nations that be God's people, have
consented with me, and I with them in the doctrine of faith.
Heath. Lo, ye go about to shift off all things.
Brad. No, my Lord ; I mean simply, and so speak, God
knoweth.

Heath. St. Augustine doth here talk of succession, even from
Peter'* seat.

253

Brad. Yea, that seat then was nothing so much corrupt as it is
now.

Heath. Well, you always judge the Church.

Brad. No, my Lord, Christ's sheep discern Christ's voice, but
they judge it not; so they discern the Church, but judge her not.

Heath. Yes, that they do.

Brad. No, and it like your Grace; and yet full well may one
not only doubt, but judge also of the Romish Church; for she
obeyeth not Christ's voice, as Christ's true Church doth.

Heath. Wherein?

Brad. In Latin service, and robbing the laity of Christ's cup in
the sacrament; and in many other things, in which it committeth
most horrible sacrilege.

Day. Why? Latin service was in England, when the Pope
was gone.

Brad. True; the time was in England when the Pope was
away, but not all popery; as in King Henry's days.

Heath. Latin service was appointed to be sung and had in the
choir, where only were clerici, that is, such as understood Latin ; the
people sitting in the body of the church, praying their own private
prayers; and this may yet well be seen by making of the chancel
and choir, so as the people could not co'me in, or hear them.

Brad. Yea, but in Chrysostom's time, and also in the Latin
Church in St. Jerome's time, all the Church, saith he, reboat^ Amen ;
that is, answereth again mightily, Amen. Whereby we may see,
that the prayers were made so, that both the people heard them and
understood them.

Day. Ye are to blame to say that the Church robbeth the peo-
ple of the cup.

Brad. Well, my Lord, term it as it please you ; all men know
that the laity hath none of it.

Day. Indeed I would wish the church would define again, that
they might have it, for my part.

Brad. If God make it free, who can define to make it bound?

Heath. Well, M. Bradford, we lose our labour; for ye seek to
put away all things which are told you to your good ; your Church
no man can know.

254

Brad. Yes, that ye may well.
Heath. I pray you whereby?

Brad. Forsooth Chrysostom saith, Tantummodo per scriptures,
only by the scriptures ; and this speaketh he very oftentimes, as ye
well know.

Heath. \ ndeed that is of Chrysostom in opere imperfecto, which
may be doubted of. The thing whereby the Church may be known
best, is succession of Bishops.

Brad. No, my Lord, Lyra* full well writeth upon Matthew,
The Church consisteth not in men, by reason either of secular or
temporal power; but in men indued with true knowledge, and con.
fession of faith, and of verity. And in Hilary's time, you know he
writeth to Aurentius, that the Church was hidden rather in caves
and holes, than did glisten and shine in thrones of preeminence.

Then came one of the servants and told them that my Lord
of Durham tarried for them at M. York's house; and this was
after they had tarried three hours with Bradford. And after
their man was come, they put up their written books of com-
mon places, and said that they lamented his case. They willed
him to read over a book which did Dr. Croome good ; and so
wishing him good in words, they went their way, and poor Brad-
ford to his prison.

No. 73.t
CONFERENCE with TWO SPANISH FRIARS.

ON the 25 February, about eight o'clock in the morning, two
Spanish Friars came to the Compter, to talk with Bradford, sent,
as they said, by the Earl of Derby ; of whom the one was the

* Nicholas of Lyra, a converted Jew, so called from the place of hits birth, near
Evrenx in Normandy. His Commentaries on the Bible, and other controversial
works against the Jews, are deservedly in high repute.

t Fox iii. 299.

255

Icing's confessor, and the other was Alphonsus, who had before

written a popish book against heresies.

When Bradford was called, the confessor asked him in Latin,

for their talk was in that language, whether he had not seen nor

heard of one Alphonsns,* that had written a book against

heresies.

Brad. I do not know him.

Con. Well, this man, pointing to Alphonsus, is he. We are
corne to you of love and charity, by the means of the Earl of Derby,
because you desired to confer with us.

Brad. I never desired your coming, nor to confer with you, or
any other. But seeing you are come of charity, as you say, I cannot
but thank you; and as touching conference, though I desire it not,
yet I will not refuse to talk with you, if you will.

' Alpk. It were requisite that you did pray unto God, that ye
might follow the direction of God's spirit, that he would inspire
you, so that ye be not addicted to your self, will, or wit.

Whereupon Bradford made a prayer, and besought God to

direct all their wills, words, and works, as the wills, words, and

works of his children for ever.

Alph. Yea, you must pray with your heart. For if you speak
but with tongue only, God will not give you his grace.

Brad. Sir, do not judge, lest ye be judged. You have heard
my words, now charity would have you leave the judgment of the
heart to God.

Alpk. You must be, as it were, a neuter, and not wedded to
yourself, but as one standing in doubt; pray and be ready to receive
what God shall inspire; for in vain lboureth our tongue to speak
else.

Brad. Sir, my sentence, if you mean it for religion, must not
be in a doubting or uncertain, as 1 thank God I am certain in that

* Alphonsus a Castro, a Franciscan Friar, confessor to King Philip, and famous
for his treatHJfr De Hceresibus. In a sermon preached before his master, he declaimed
at large against taking away people's lives for religion ; inveighed against the English
bishops for doing so ; and said that they had not learned it in Scripture, which taught
bishops in the spirit of meekness to instruct those that opposed them ; and not to
burn them for their consciences. Burnet's Hist. Reform, vol. ii. pt. i. 477.

256

for which I am condemned; 1 have no cause to doubt of it, but
rather to be most certain of it; and therefore I pray God to confirm
me more in it. For it is his truth, and because it is so certain and
true that it may abide the light, I dare be bold to have it looked on,
and confer it with you, or any man ; in respect whereof I am both
glad of your coming-, and thank you for it.

Alph. What is the matter whereof you were condemned ? We
know not.

Brad. Sir, L have been in prison almost two years, I never
transgressed any of their laws, wherefore I might justly be im-
prisoned, and now am I condemned only because I frankly confessed,
whereof I repent not, my faith concerning the sacrament, when I
was demanded in these two points ; one, that there is no transub-
stantiation ; the other, that the wicked do not receive Christ's body.
Alph. Let us look a little on the first. Do you not believe
that Christ is present really and corporally in the form of bread ?

Brad. No, I do believe that Christ is present to the faith of
the worthy receiver, as there is present bread and wine to the senses
and outward man. As for any such presence of including and
placing Christ, I believe not, nor dare believe.

Alph. I am sure you believe Christ's natural body is circum-
scriptible.

And here he made much ado of the two natures of Christ,
how that the one is every where, and the other is in his proper
place ; demanding such questions as no wise man would have
spent any time about. At length because the friar had forgotten
to conclude, Bradford put him in mind of it, and thus then at
length he concluded ; how that because Christ's body was circum-
scriptible, concerning the human nature in heaven, therefore it
was so in the bread.

Brad. How hangeth this together ? Even as if you should
say; because you are here, ergo, it must needs follow that you are
at Rome; or thus you reason, because Christ's body is in heaven,
ergo, it is in the sacrament, under the form of bread ; which no wise
man will grant.

Alph. Why? Will you believe nothing but that which is
expressly spoken in the Scriptures?

257

Brad. Yes, Sir, I will believe whatsoever you shall, by demon-
stration out of the Scriptures, declare unto me.

Alph. He is obstinate. Is not God able to do it ?

Brad. Yes, and I deny not but that it is so, to the faith of the
worthy receiver.

Alph. To the faith? How is that?

Brad. Forsooth, Sir, as I have no tongue to express ijt, so I
know ye have no ears to hear and understand it ; for faith is more
than man can utter.

Alph. But I can tell all that I believe.

Brad. You believe not much then. For if you believe the
joys of heaven, and believe no more thereof than you can tell, you
will not yet desire to come thither. For as the mind is more
capable and receiveable than the mouth ; so it conceiveth more than
tongue can express.

Alph. Christ saith, it is his body.

Brad. And so say I, after a certain manner.

Alph. After a certain manner ? That is, after another manner
than it is in heaven?

Brad. St. Augustine telleth it more plainly, that it is Christ's
body after the same manner, as circumcision was the covenant of
God, and the sacrament of faith is faith ; or to make it more plain,
as baptism, and the water of baptism, is regeneration.

Alph- Very well said, baptism, and the water thereof, is a
sacrament of God's grace and spirit in the water, cleansing the
baptized.

Brad, No, Sir, away with your enclosing ; but this I grant,
that after the same sort Christ's body is in the bread, on which sort
the grace and spirit of God is in the water.

Alph. In water is God's grace by signification.

Brad. So is the body in the bread in the sacrament.*

Alph. You are much deceived, in that you make no difference
between the sacraments that be standers, and the sacraments that

* As grace is in the water of baptism, so is the body in the sacrament. But
grace is in the water by signification ; ergo, so is the body in the sacrament. Fox,
in Loco.

258

are transitory and passers by. As for example, the sacrament of

orders, which you deny, though St. Augustine affirm it, it is a

stander, although the ceremony be past; but in baptism, so soon

as the body is washed, the water ceaseth to be a sacrament.

Brad. Very good, and so- it is in the Supper of the Lord ; no

longer than it is in use, is it Christ's sacrament.

Here was the friar in a wonderful rage, and spake so high, as
often he had done before, that the whole house rang again,
chafing with om and cho. He hath a great name of learning,
but surely he hath little patience. For if Bradford had been
any thing hot, one house could not have held them. At the
length he cometh to this point, that Bradford could not find in
the Scripture, baptism and the Lord's Supper, to bear any
similitude together. And here he triumphed before the conquest,
saying, that those men would receive nothing but Scripture, and
yet were able to prove nothing by the Scripture.
Brad. Be patient, and you shall see that by the Scripture, I

will find baptism and the Lord's Supper coupled together.

Alph. No, that canst thou never do ; let me see a text of it.
Brad. Paul saith ;* that as we are baptized into one body ; so

have we drunk of one spirit, meaning of the cup in the Lord's

Supper.

Alph. Paul hath no such words.

Brad. Yes, that he hath.

Con. I trow he hath not.

Brad. Give me a Testament, and I will shew you.

So a priest that sat by them gave him his Testament, and he
shewed them the plain text. Then they looked one upon
another. In fine the friars found this simple shift, that Paul
spake not of the sacrament.
Brad. Well, the text is plain enough, and there are of the

fathers, who do so understand the place; for Chrysostom doth

expound it so.

Alphonsus, who had the Testament in his hand, desirous to
suppress this foil, turned the leaves of the book from leaf to leaf,

* 1 Cor. xii. 13.

259

till he came to 1 Cor. xi, 29, where he read, how that he was

guilty, who made no difference of the Lord's body.

Brad. Yea, but therewith he saith, 1 Cor. xi. 28, He that
eateth of the bread, calling it bread still, and that after consecration,
as ye call it, as in 1 Cor. x. 16 ; The bread which we break, &c.

Alph. Oh, how ignorant are ye, who know not that things
after their conversion, do retain the same names which they had
before, as Moses's rod.

Brad. Sir, there is mention made of the conversion, as well as
that the same appeared to the sense ; but here ye cannot find it so.
Shew me one word how the bread is converted ; and I will then
say, ye bring some matter that maketh for you.

Alph. You hang on your own sense.

Brad. No, that I do not ; for I will bring you forth the fathers
of the Church, eight hundred years after Christ, to confirm this
which I speak.

Alph. No, you have the Church against you.

Brad. I have not Christ's Church against me.

Alph. Yes, that you have. What is the Church ?

Brad. Christ's wife, the chair and seat of verity ?

Alph. Is she visible ?

Brad. Yea, that she is, to them that will put on the spectacles
of God's word to look on her.

Alph. This Church hath defined the contrary, and that I will
prove by all the good fathers from Christ's ascension, even for eight
hundred years at the least, continually.

Brad. What will you so prove, transubstantiation ?

Alph. Yea, that the bread is turned into Christ's body.

Brad. You speak more than you can do.

Alph. That I do not.

Brad. Then will I give place.

Alph. Will you believe?

Brad. Belief is God's gift; therefore cannot I promise; but I
tell you that I will give place ; and I hope I shall believe his truth
always, so good is he to me in Christ, my Saviour.

In all the disputations at this time, it is evident the Vulgate was chiefly referred
to by both side*.

260

Here the Friar found a great fault with Bradford, that he made
no difference betwixt habitus zndactus; as though actus, which
he called credulity, had been in our power. But this he let pass,
and came again, asking Bradford if he could prove it as he said,
whether he would give place ?

Brad. Yea, that I will. Then calling for paper, pen and ink ;
what and if I prove by the testimony of the fathers, that continually for
eight hundred years after Christ, at the least, they did believe that the
substance of bread doth remain in the sacrament ? What will ye do ?
Alph. I will give place.

Brad. Then write you here that you will give place, if I so
prove; and I will write that I will give place, if you so prove ; because
ye are the antient, ye shall have the preeminence.

Here the Friar fumed marvellously, and said, I came not to
learn at thee: Are not here witnesses? meaning the priests, Be
not they sufficient? But the man was so chafed, that if Brad-
ford had not passed over this matter of writing, the Friar would
have fallen to plain scolding.

At the length the King's Confessor asked Bradford, what the
second question was.

Brad. That wicked men receive not Christ's body in the sacra-
ment, as St. Augustin speaketh of Judas, that he received panem
Domini, but not panem Dominum.
Alph. St. Augustin saith not so.
Brad. Yes that doth he.

So they arose and talked no more of the matter; but went
away, without bidding Bradford farewell.

After they were gone, one of the priests came, and willed
Bradford not to be so obstinate.

Brad. Sir, be not you so wavering ; in all the scriptures cannot
you find me, Non est panis.

Priest. Yes, that I can in five places.
Brad. Then I will eat your book.

So the book was opened, but no place found ; and he went his
way smiling. God help us.

261

No. 74.*

To a Woman who desired to know his mind, whether she,
refraining from the Mass, might be present at the Popish
Mattins or no.

I BESEECH Almighty God, our heavenly Father, to be merciful
unto us, and to increase in you, my good sister, the knowledge and
love of his truth; and at this present give me grace so to write to
you something of the same, as may make to his glory, and our own
comfort and confirmation in him, through Christ our Lord, Amen.

Whether you may come with safe conscience to the Church now,
that is, to the service used commonly, in part, as at mattins or at
evensong or no. is your desire to have me to write something, for
your further stay. My dearly beloved, although your benefits
towards me, might perchance make you to think, that in respect
thereof 1 would bear with that, which else were not to be born
withal ; yet by God's grace I am purposed simply, and without all
such respect in this matter, to speak to you the truth according to
my conscience, as I may be able to stand unto, when I shall come
before the Lord.

First therefore, go about to learn perfectly, the first lesson to be
learned of all that profess Christ, that is to deny yourself, and in
nothing to seek yourself. Secondly, learn after this, to begin at the
next lesson to it, which is to seek God in all things you do and
leave undone. Thirdly, know that then you seek God, when in
his service you follow his word and not man's fancies, custom,
multitude, &c. and when, with your brother, you follow the rule of
charity, that is, to do as you would be done by.

In these is a sum of all the council I can give you; if that
hereto I admonish you, of the service now used, which is not
according to God's word, but rather against God's word, directly
and in manner wholly. So that your going to the service is a
declaration that you have not learned the first lesson, nor never can

* Fo* iii. 338. Cov. 401.

262

learn it so long- as you go thither; therefore the second lesson yois
shall utterly lose, if you cease not the seeking of yourself, that is, if for
company, custom, father, or friend, life or goods, you seem to allow
that which God disalloweth. And this that you the better may
perceive, I purpose by God's grace, briefly to shew.

First, the mattins and evensong is in a tongue, forbidden publicly
to be used in the congregation, that perceiveth not the tongue. Read
how Paul affirmeth it, to pray in an unknown tongue, to be against
God's Commandment. This one, I trow, were enough, if nothing
else were; for how can God's glory be sought, where his word and
commandment is wilfully broken ? How can charity to man stand,
when charity to God, which is obedience to his word, is overthrown ?
Again, both in mattins and in evensong, is idolatry maintained for
God's service; for there is invocation and prayer made to saints,
departed this life, which robbeth God of that glory which he will
give to none other.

Moreover, this service and the setters forth of it, condemneth
the English service as heresy ; thereby falling: into God's curse, which
is threatened to all such as call good evil, and evil good ; whereof
they shall be partakers, that do communicate with them. Besides
this, this latin service is a plain mark of antichrist's catholic syna-
gogue ; so that the communicants and approvers of it, thereby declare
themselves to he members of the same synagogue, and so cut off
from Christ and his Church ; whose exterior mark is the true admi-
nistration of God's word and sacraments.

Furthermore, the example of your going thither to allow the
religion of antichrist, as doubtless .you do in deed, howsoever in
heart you think ; occasioneth the obstinate, to be utterly intractable,
the weaker papists to be more obstinate, the strong gospellers to be
sore weakened, and the weaker gospellers to be utterly overthrown ;
which things, how great offence they be, no pen is able to utter by
letters.

All these evils you shall be guilty of, that company with those
in religion exteriorly, from whom you are admonished to fly. If
Christ be Christ, follow him; gather with him, least you scatter
abroad : serve God, not only in spirit, but also in body. Make not
your body, now a member of Christ, a member of antichrist, Coine

out from amongst them, saith the Lord, and touch no unclean
thing 1 . Confess Christ and his truth, not only in heart, but also in
tongue, yea in very deed, which few gospellers do.

Indeed they deny him, and therefore had need to tremble, lest
that Christ will deny them in the last day ; the which day, if it were
set before our eyes often, then would the pleasures and treasures of
this world be but trifles.

Therefore, good Sister, often have it before your eyes, daily set
yourself and your doings, as before the judgment seat of Christ now,
that hereafter you be not called into judgment. Think that it will
little profit you to win the whole world, and to lose your own soul.
Mark Christ's lessons well ; he that will save his life shall lose it.
The Father from heaven commandeth you, to hear Christ, and he
saith, follow me ; this can you not do and follow idolatry or idola-
ters.* Fly from such, saith the Scripture. This God grant to you,
to me, and to all God's children, Amen. Thus in haste I have
accomplished your request, God grant that as you have done me
much good bodily, so this may be a little mean to do you some good
spiritually, Amen. If time would serve, I would have written more
.at large. The 2 of March, anno, 1555.

On the 21st of March one of the Earl of
Derby's men came to the Compter with one
M. Collier, formerly Warden of Manchester,
who informed Bradford that Dr. Weston,f
would be with him in the afternoon.

At dinner time, when M. Collier discommended King Edward,
and went about to set forth the authority of the Pope, Bradford
withstood him, defending the king's faith, that it was catholic,
and that the authority of the Bishop of Rome's supremacy was
usurped; bringing forth the testimony of Gregory, which af-
firmeth the name of Supreme Head, to be a title of the former to
antichrist.

See Appendix, Note (CC.) t See Appendix, Note (DD.)

264

Bradford then went to his prison chamber to beg of God grace,
and help therein ; continuing" there until he was called down to
speak with M. Weston.

No. 75.*
FIRST CONFERENCE WITH DR. WESTON.

As soon as Bradford entered the hall Dr. Weston very gently

took him by the hand, and told him that he had often been

minded to come to him, being thereto desired of the Earl of

Derby.

Weston. After that I perceived by this man, that you could be
contented rather to speak with me, than any others; I could not but
come to do you good, if I can; for hurt you be sure I will not.

Brad. Sir, when I perceived by the report of my Lord's servant,
that you did bear me good will; more as he said, than any other of
vour sort ; I told him that, therefore I could be better content and
more willing to talk with you, if you should come unto me. This
did I say, otherwise I desired not your coming.

JVeston. Well, now I am come to talk with you ; but before
we shall enter into any talk, certain principles we must agree upon,
which shall be this day's work. First, I shall desire you to put away
all vain-glory, and not hold any thing for the praise of the world.

Brad. Sir, St Augustine maketh that indeed apiece of the defi-
nition of a heretic; which if I cannot put away clean, for I think
there will a spice of it remain in us, as long as this flesh liveth,yet I
promise you by the grace of God, that I purpose not to yield to it.
God, I hope, will never suffer it to bear rule in them that strive
there-against, and desire all the dregs of it utterly to be driven out
of us.

* Fox iii. 301.

265

Weston. I am glad to hear you say so, although indeed I think
you do not so much esteem it as others do. Secondly, I would
desire you, that you will put away singularity in your judgment and
opinions.

Brad. Sir, God forbid that I should stick to my singularity or
private judgment, in God's religion. Hitherto I have not desired it,
neither do, nor mind at any time to hold any other doctrine than
is public and catholic, understanding catholic as good men do; ac-
cording to God's word.

Weston. Very well, this is a good day's work, I hope to do you
good ; and therefore now, thirdly, I shall pray you to write me Capita
of those things, whereupon you stand in the sacrament, and to send
it to me betu-ixt this and Wednesday next ; until which time, yea,
until I come to you again, be assured that you are without all peril
of death. Of my fidelity, I warrant you ; therefore away with all
dubitations, &c.

Brad. Sir, I will write to you the grounds I lean to in this
matter. As for death, if it come, welcome be it; this which you
require of me, shall be no great let to me therein.

Weston. You know that St. Augustine was a Manichean, yet
was he converted at the length ; so have I good hope of you.

Brad. Sir, because I will not flatter you, I would you should
flatly know, that I am even settled in the religion, wherefore I am
condemned.

Weston. Yea, but if it be not the truth, and you see evident
matter to the contrary, will you not then give place ?

Brad. God forbid, but that I should always give place to the truth.

Weston. I would have you to pray so.

Brad. So I do, and that he will more and more confirm me in
it, as I thank God he hath done and doth.

Weston. Yea, but pray with a condition, if you be in it.

Brad. No Sir, I cannot pray so; because 1 am settled and as-
sured of his truth.

Weston. Well, as the learned bishop answered St. Austin's
mother, that though he was obstinate, yet the tears of such a mother
could not but win her son; so I hope your prayers* cannot but be

* Bradford's eyes here shewed that he had wept in prayer. Fox in Loro.

266

heard of God, though not as you would, yet as best shall please

God. Do ye not remember the history thereof ?
Brad. Yea, Sir, I think it be of St. Ambrose.
Weston. No, that it is not. As you are overseen herein, so are

you in other things.*

Brad. Well, Sir, I will not contend you for the riame ; this I

remember St. Augustine writeth in his confessions.

After this Weston began to tell M. Bradford, how the people
were by him procured to withstand the Queen. Whereupon
Bradford bad him hang him up as a traitor and a thief, if ever he
encouraged any to rebellion ; which thing his keeper, and others
that were there of the priests, affirmed on his behalf. Dr. Weston
declared that he had saved men, going in the cart to be hanged.
The end was this, that Bradford should send unto him, CAPITA
DOCTRINE, of the Supper ; and that after Wednesday, Weston
would come to him again, and so departed, after he had drank to
him in beer and wine.

I omit here the talk concerning Oxford, of books of German
writers, the fear of death, and other matters to no purpose.

According to his promise Bradford wrote
out his reasons and arguments against transub-
stantiation, and sent them to Dr. Weston, as
follow:

No. 76.t

CERTAIN REASONS AGAINST TRANSUB-
STANTIATION,

Gathered by John Bradford, and given to Dr. Weston and
Others.

First. That which is former (saith Tertullian) is true; that
which is later is false. But the doctrine of transubstantiation is a

* Unfortunately however for the argument of the Prolocutor, our martyr was not
overseen, and proved himself to be better read than his opponent. Du Pin, torn. iii.
p. 159 Dr. Adam Clarke on Rom. xiii. 14.

t Fox iii. 303.

267

late doctrine, for it was not defined generally afore the Council of
Lateran, about one thousand two hundred and fifteen years after
Christ's coming-, under Pope Innocent III.* For before that time
it was free for all men to believe it or not believe it, as the Bishop
of Durham doth witness, in his book of the Presence of Christ
in his Supper, lately put forth, ergo, the doctrine of transubstan-
tiation is false.

Second. That the words of Christ's Supper be figurative, the
circumstances of the Scripture, the analogy or proportion of the
sacraments, and the sentences of all the holy fathers, which were and
did write for the space of one thousand years after Christ's ascension,
do teach. Whereupon it followeth that there is no transubstantiation.

Third. That the Lord gave to his disciples bread, and called
it his body, the Scriptures do witness. For he gave that and called
it his body, which he took in his hands, whereon he gave thanks,
which also he brake, and gave to his disciples, that is to say, BREAD ;
as the fathers Irenaeus, Tertullian, Origen, Cyprian, Epiphanius,
Augustine, and all the residue which are of antiquity do affirm: but
inasmuch as the substance of bread and wine is another thing than
the substance of the body and blood of Christ, it plainly appears that
there is no transubstantiation.

Fourth. The bread is no more transubstantiate than the wine;
but that the wine is not transubstantiate, Saint Matthew and Saint
Mark do teach us ; for they witness that Christ said, That he would
drink no more of the fruit of the vine, which was not blood but wine;
and therefore it followeth that there is no transubstantiation. Chry-
sostom upon Matthew, and Saint Cyprian do affirm this reason.

Fifth. As the bread in the Lord's Supper is Christ's natural
body, so it is his mystical body; for the same spirit that spake of it,
This is my body, did say also, For we many are one bread, one
body,&c.; but now it is not the mystical body by transubstantiation,
and therefore it is not his natural body by transubstantiation.

Sixth. The words spoken over the cup in Saint Luke and Paul,
are not so mighty and effectual as to transubstantiate it. For then
it, or that which is in it, should be transubstantiate into the New

* See Gilly's second visit to the Vaudois of Piedmont, p. 41.

268

Testament; therefore the words spoken over the bread, are not so
mighty as to make transubstantiation.

Seventh. All that doctrine which agreeth with those Churches
which be apostolic, mother Churches, or original Churches, is to be
counted for truth ; in that it holdeth that which these Churches
received of the apostles, the apostles of Christ;, Christ of God. But
it is manifest that the doctrine, taught at this present of the Church
of Rome, concerning transubstantiation, doth not agree with the
apostolic and mother Churches in Greece, of Corinthus, of Philippos,
Colossia, Thessalonica, Ephesus, which never taught transubstanti-
ation; yea, it agreeth not with the doctrine of the Church of Rome,
taught in times past. For Gelasius, the Pope, setting forth the doc-
trine which that See did then hold ; doth manifestly confute the error
of transubstantiation, and reproveth them of sacrilege which divide
the mystery, and keep from the laity the cup; therefore the doctrine
of transubstantiation agreeth not with the truth.

About the 28th of March, Dr. Pendleton
came to Bradford, together wjih the same M.
Collier, and Stephen Bech.

No. 77*
CONFERENCE WITH DR. PENDLETON.

Pend. (After expressing sorrow for Bradford's trouble.) After
that I did know you could be content to talk with me, I made the
more speed, being as ready to do you good, and pleasure you what
I can, as ye would wish.

Brad. Sir, the manner how I was content to speak with you,
was on this sort. M. Bech was often .in hand with me whom he
should bring unto me, and named you among others; and I said that
I had rather speak with you than with any of all the others. Now
the cause why I so would, 1 will briefly tell you. I remember that

Fox iii. 302.

269

once you were, as far as a man might judge, of the religion that I
am of at this present, and 1 remember that you have set forth the
same earnestly. Gladly therefore would I learn of you, what thing
it was, that moved your conscience to alter; and gladly would I see
what thing it is that you have seen since, which you saw not before.
Pend. M. Bradford, I do not know wherefore you are con-
demned ?

Brad. Tran substantiation is the cause wherefore L am con-
demned, and because I deny that wicked men do receive Christ's
body ; wherein I would desire you to shew me what reasons, which
before you knew not, did move your conscience now to alter ; for
once, as I said, you were as I am in religion.

Pend. I never fully denied transubstantiatiori, although I said
that the word was not in Scripture; I will gather to you the places
which moved me, and send you them.

Here he desired that he might have a copy of that which Brad-
ford had sent to Dr. Weston ; and which Bradford promised to
send him.

Some reasoning also they had, whether evil men did receive
Christ's body, Bradford denying, and Pendleton affirming.
Bradford said that they received not the spirit; ergo, not the body;
for it is no dead carcase. Hereto Bradford brought also St.
Augustine, how Judas received panem Domini, and not panem
Dominum ; and how that he must be in Christ's body, who must
receive the body of Christ. But Pendleton went about to put it
away with idem, and not ad idem, and how that in corpore Christi,
was to be understood of all that be in the visible Church, with
God's elect. Bradford denied this to be St. Augustine's mean-
ing, and said also that the allegation of idem and not ad idem,
could not make for that purpose.

Pendleton having brought forth Cyprian ; Panis natura mu-
tatur, etc., Bradford said, that in that place, natura, did not
signify substance. As the nature of an herb is not the substance
of it; so the bread changed in nature is not to be taken for
changed in substance; for now it is ordained, not for the food
of the body simply, but rather for the soul. Here also Bradford
alleged the sentence of Gelasius ; whereupon Pendleton said that

270

he was a Pope. Yea, said Bradford, but his faith is my faith in
the sacrament, if ye would receive it.

They reasoned also, whether acridcntia were res or no. If
they be properly, res, said Bradford, then are they substances;
and if they be substances, they are earthly; and then are there
earthly substances in the sacrament, as Irenaeus saith, which
must needs be bread. But Pendleton said that the colour was
the earthly thing 1 , and called it an accidental substance.

I omit the talk they had of my Lord of Canterbury, of Peter
Martyr's book, of Pendleton's letter,* laid to Bradford's charge
when he was condemned ; also whether Die Ecc/esitB was spoken
of the Universal Church, or of a particular, which Pendleton at
length granted to be spoken of a particular Church, also of vain-
glory, which he willed Bradford to beware of, and such like.

A little before his departure, Bradford said thus ; M. Doctor,
as I said to M. Weston the last day, so say I unto you again ;
that I am the same man in religion against transubstantiation
still, which I was when I came into prison ; for hitherto I have
seen nothing in any point to infirm me.

At these words, Pendleton said that it was no catholic doctrine.
Yes, said Bradford, and that will 1 prove, even by the testimony
of the catholic fathers, until the Council of Lateran, or there-
abouts. Thus Pendleton went his way, saying that he would
come oftener to Bradford.

God, our Father, be with us all, and give us the spirit of his
truth for ever, Amen.

In the afternoon of the same day, Dr. Wes-
ton came again to Bradford ; and after desiring
they should be left alone ; pulled out of his
bosom the same writing (No. 76.) which Brad-
ford had sent to him. Before he hegan to read
it he showed Bradford, that since their last

* He was parson of St. Stephen's Walbrook, a great professor of religion in the
reiga of Edward VI., but recanted in that of Mary. Strype EccL Mem. iii. 2. 18.
It is more than probable that he betrayed Bradford. See pp. 180. 218.

271

conference, he had inquired concerning his
manner of conversation whilst at Cambridge.

No. 78.*

THE SECOND CONFERENCE WITH DR,
WESTON.

Westou. M. Bradford, because you are a man, not given to the
glory of the world, I will speak it before your face, your life I have
learned was such there always, as all men, even the greatest enemies
you have, cannot but praise it; and therefore I love you much
better than ever I did ; but now I will read over your arguments,
and so we will confer them. Such they are* that a man may well
perceive you stand on conscience, and therefore I am the more ready
and glad to pity you. As to the first; though the word transub-
stantiation began but lately, yet the thing always was, and hath
been since Christ's institution.

Brad. I do not contend or hang upon the word only, but upon
the thing, which is as new as the word.

JVeston. As to the second, St. Augustine asserts that if an evil
man, going to the devil, makes his will, his son and heir would not
say his father did lie in it, or speak tropically; much more Christ,
going to God, did never lie or use any figurative speech in his last
will and testament. Do you not remember this place of St.
Augustine?

Brad. Yea, Sir, but I remember not that St. Augustine hath
those words, tropical or figurative, as you rehearse them; for any
man may speak a thing figuratively, and not lie ; and so Christ did
in his last Supper.

Weston. The passage in Cyprian shews that the nature of

* Fox iii. 303.

272

bread is turned into flesh. Here my Lord of Canterbury expounded!
nature for quality, by Gelasius. The which interpretation serveth
for the answer of your argument, that Christ called bread his body ;
that is, the quality, form, and appearance of bread. And further,
the Scripture is wont to call things by the same names which they
had before, as Simon the leper;* he was not so presently, but
because he had been so.

Brad. Cyprian wrote before Gelasius ; therefore Cyprian must
not expound Gelasius, but Gelasius Cyprian; and so they both
teach, that bread remaineth still. As for things having still the
names they had, is no answer, except you could shew that this now
were not bread, as easily as a man might have then known and seen
Simon to have been healed, and clear from his leprosy.

After this, Weston went to the fourth, concerning the cup,
the which he did not fully read ; but digressed into a long talk
of Cyprian's Epistle de Aquatiis; also of St. Augustine,
expounding the breaking of bread by Christ, to his two disciples
going to Emmaus, to be the sacrament, with such other talk to
no certain purpose; and therefore Bradford prayed him, that
inasmuch as he had written the reasons that stablished his faith
against transubstantiation, so he would likewise do to him, that
is, answer him by writing, and shew him more reasons in writing
to confirm transubstantiation. Which Dr. Weston promised to
do, and said that he would send or bring it to M. Bradford again,
within three days.

Thus when he had read over the arguments, and here and
there spoken little to the purpose for the avoiding of them, and
Bradford had praved him to give him in writing his answers ;
then he began to tell Bradford how and what he had done for
Grimoald, and how that Bradford needed not to fear any
reproach or slander he should suffer, meaning belike to have
Bradford secretly to come to them, as Grimoaldf did ; for he
subscribed.

* Simon, though he were called the leper, yet he was seen to be no leper. Bat
bread is seen still to be bread ; and therefore hath his name not of that it was, but of
that it is. Fox in Loco.

t See Appendix, page xlix.

273

Brad. M. Dean, I would not 'gladly that you should conceive
of me, that I pass of shame of men simply in this matter ; I rather
would have you to think of me, as the very truth is, that hitherto as
I have not seen, nor heard any thing 1 , to weaken* iny faith against
transubstantiation, so I am no less settled in it, than I was at my
first coming hither. I love to be plain with you, and to tell you at
the first, as you shall find at the last.

Weston. In good faith, M- Bradford, I love you the better
for your plainness ; and do not think otherwise of me, but that you
shall find me plain in all my talk with you.

Here Weston began to ask Bradford of his imprisonment and
condemnation ; and so Bradford told him altogether, how he had
been handled. Whereat Weston seemed to wonder, yea in plain
words he said, that Bradford had been handled otherwise than
he had given cause, and so shewed Bradford how that my Lord
of Bathf reported, that he had deserved a benefit at the Queen's
hand, and that of all the Council.

In this kind of talk they spent an hour almost, and so, as one
weary, Bradford rose up, and Weston called to the keeper ; and
before him he bade Bradford be of good comfort, and said that
he was out of all peril of death.

Keeper. Sir, but it is in every man's mouth that he shall die
to-morrow.

Weston. (Apparently half amazed.) I will go say evensong
before the Queen, and speak to her in his behalf.

But it is to be thought, that the Queen had already supped at
that present ; for it was past six of the clock.

Before the keeper, Bradford told Weston again, that he still
was one man, and even as he was at the first ; and till he should
see matter to teach his conscience the contrary, he said he must
needs so continue. The keeper desired Bradford to hearken to
M. Doctor's counsel, and prayed M. Doctor to be good unto
him ; and so after they had drunk together, M. Doctor, with
most gentle words, took his leave for three days.

Now when he was gone, the keeper told Bradford, that

* Infirm. t Bourne, whose life he had saved. See p. 179.

274

M. Doctor spake openly, how that he saw no cause, why they
should burn him. Which sentence, for the ambiguity of the
meaning, made him somewhat sorry, lest he had hehaved himself
in any thing, wherein Weston had gathered any conformableness
to them in their doctrine, which God knbweth, saith Bradford, I
never as yet did. God, our Father, bless us, as his children,
and keep us from all evil, for ever, Amen.

It is worthy of admiration, how this truly
excellent person kept himself constantly occu-
pied in his master's service. Daily and almost
hourly assailed by open enemies, or misguided,
if not pretended,* friends ; harassed and teased,
although not perplexed, by their wily argu-
ments and crafty suggestions ; the certainty of
a painful and lingering death constantly in his
view ; and what was worse than death itself, the
suspense in which his fiend-like tormentors kept
him ; for it would seem that he never went to
rest, but under the probable apprehension, that
his slumbers would be broken, by the jailor
summoning him to the stake. Yet amidst
all this, and much more perhaps that has
not come down to us ; we find this holy
martyr, occupying the intermediate moments
in writing letters in every direction, where he
thought his advice or example might be useful.
And so calm and collected was his mind, that

* Matth. xxiii. 15.

275

no impatience, or hardly an angry or railing
expression escapes him, throughout the whole
correspondence. Well might his grand perse-
cutor Gardiner say, that < Bradford had writ-
ten letters whilst in prison, to no little hurt
of the Queen's people. '* Amongst others writ-
ten at this time were the following :

No. 79.t

An admonition to certain professors and lovers of the Gospel,
to beware they fall not from it, in consenting to the Romish
religion, by the example of the shrinking, halting, and
double-faced gospellers.

THE peace of Christ, which is the true effect of God's Gospei
believed, my dearly beloved, be more and more plentifully perceived
of you, through the grace of our dear Father, by the mighty working
of the Holy Spirit, our Comforter, Amen.

Though 1 have many lets presently, to hinder me from writing
unto you ; yet being desired, I could not but something signify my
ready good will in this behalf, so much as I may, when I cannot so
much as I would. You hear and see how satan bestirreth him,
raging as a roaring lion to devour us. You see and feel partly what
storms he hath raised up, to drown the poor boat of Christ, I mean
his Church. You see how terribly he traineth his soldiers to give a
fierce onset on the vanguard* of God's battle. You see how he hath
received power of God, to molest God's children, and to begin at his
house.

By reason whereof consider two things ; one, the cause on our
behalf; the other, what will be the sequel on strangers. For the
first, if we be not blind, we cannot but well see, that our sins are the

* See page 165. f Fox iii. 335. Cov. 379. J Voward.

276

cause of all this misery ; our sins, I say, which I would that every
one of us would apply to ourselves, after the example of Jonas and
David; turning over the wallet, that other men's offences might lie
behind, and our own before.

Not that I would excuse other men, who exteriorly have walked
much more grossly than many of you have done ; but that I would
provoke you all as myself, to more hearty repentance and prayer.
Let us more and more increase, to know and lament our doubting of
God, of his presence, power, anger, mercy, &c. Let us better feel
and hate our self-love, security, negligence, unthankfulness, unbelief,
impatience, &c. and then doubtless the cross shall be less fearful, yea
it shall be comfortable, and Christ most dear and pleasant. Death
then shall be desired, as the dispatcher of us out of all misery, and
entrance into eternal felicity and joy unspeakable; the which is so
much the more longed for, by how much we feel indeed the serpent's
bites, wherewith he woundeth our heels, that is, our outward Adam
and senses.

If we had, I say, a lively and true feeling of his poison, we could
not but, as rejoice over our Captain that hath bruised his head, so be
desirous to follow his example, that is, to give our lives with him
and for him; and so to fill up his passion, that he might conquer and
overcome in us and by us, to his glory, and comfort of his children.

Now the second, I mean the sequel, or that which will follow,
on the strangers, my dearly beloved ; let us well look upon. For if
so be, that God justly do thus give to satan and his seed, to vex and
molest Christ and his penitent people ; oh, what and how justly may
he and will he give to satan, to entreat the reckless and impenitent
sinners ? If judgment begin thus at God's house, what will follow
on them that be without, if they repent not ? Certainly for them is
reserved the dross of God's cup, that is, brimstone, fire, and tempest
intolerable. Now are they unwilling to drink of God's cup of
affliction, which lie offereth common with his Son Christ our Lord,
lest they should lose their pigs, with the Girgesites. They are
unwilling to come into the way that bringeth to heaven, even
afflictions ; they in their hearts cry, let us cast his yoke from us|;
they walk two ways, that is, they seek to serve God and mammon,
which is impossible.

277

They -will not come nigh the strait way that bringeth to life;
they open their eyes to behold present things only; they judge of
religion after reason, and not after God's word; they follow the
more part, and not the better ; they profess God with their mouths,
but in their hearts they deny him, or else they would sanctify him,
by serving him more than men. They part stake with God, who
would have all, giving part to the world, to the Romish rout, and
antichristian idolatry, now set abroad amongst us publicly. They
will have Christ, but none of his cross, which will not be ; they will
be counted to live godly in Christ, but yet they will suffer no
persecution ; they love this world, wherethrough the love of God is
driven forth of them ; they savour of those things that be of men, and
not that be of God. Surnma, they love God in their lips, but in
their hearts, yea and in their deeds, deny him ; as well by not
repenting their evils past, as by continuing in evil still; by doing
as the world, the flesh, and the devil willeth, and yet still perchance
they vvill pray, or rather prate, Thy will be done in earth, which is
generally, that every one should take up his cross, and follow Christ.

But this is a hard saying, Who is able to abide it ? Therefore
Christ must be prayed to depart, lest all their pigs be drowned.
The devil shall have his dwelling again in themselves, rather than
in their pigs; and therefore to the devil shall they go, and dwell
with him in eternal perdition and damnation, even in hell fire, and
torment endless, and above all cogitations incomprehensible, if they
repent not.

Wherefore, by them, my dearly beloved, be admonished to
remember your profession, how that in baptism you made a solemn
vow to renounce the devil, the world, &c. You promised to fight
under Christ's standard. You learned Christ's cross, afore you
began with A. B. C. Go to then, pay your vow to the Lord ; fight
like men and valiant men under Christ's standard; take up your
cross and follow your Master, as your brethren, M. Hooper, Rogers,
Taylor, and Saunders have done; and as now your brethren,
M. Cranmer, Latimer, Ridley, Farrar, Bradford, Hawkes, &c. be
ready to do.

The ice is broken before you, therefore be not afraid, but be
content to die for the Lord. You have no cause to waver or doubt

278

of the doctrine, thus declared by the blood of the pastors. Remember
that Christ saith, He that will save his life shall lose it. And what
should it profit you to win the whole world, much less a little
quietness, &c., your goods, &<X, and to lose your own souls? Render
to the Lord that he hath lent you, by such means as he would have
you render it, and not as you would. Forget not, Christ's disciples
must deny themselves, as well concerning their will, as concerning
their wisdom. Have in mind, that as it is no small mercy to
believe in the Lord, so it is no small kindness of God towards you,
to suffer any thing, much more death, for the Lord. If they be
blessed that die in the Lord, how shall they be that die for the
Lord.

Oh, what a blessing is it to have death due for our sins, diverted
into a demonstration and testification of the Lord's truth. Oh, that
we had a little of Moses' faith, to look upon the end of the cross, to
look upon the reward, to see continually with Christ and his people,
greater riches than the riches of Egypt. Oh, let us pray that God
would open our eyes to see his hidden manna, the heavenly Jerusa-
lem, the congregation of the first-born, the melody of the saints, the
tabernacle of God dwelling with men; then should we run and
become violent men, and so take the kingdom of heaven, as it were,
by force. God, our Father, give us for his Christ's sake, to see
a little what and how great joy he hath prepared for us, he hath
called us unto, and most assuredly giveth us, for his own goodness
and truth's sake, Amen.

My dearly beloved, repent, be sober, and watch in prayer ; be
obedient, and, after your vocations, shew your obedience to the
higher powers, in all things that are not against God's word,
therein acknowledge the sovereign power of the Lord ; howbeit so
that ye be no rebels, or rebellers, for no cause ; but because with
good conscience you cannot obey, be patient sufferers, and the
glory and good spirit of God shall dwell upon us. I pray you
remember us, your afflicted brethren, being in the Lord's bonds
for the testimony of Christ, and abiding the gracious hour of our
dear and most merciful father. The Lord for Christ's sake, give us
merry hearts, to drink lustily of his sweet cup, which daily we groan
and sigh for, lamenting that the time is thus prolonged. The Lord

279

Jesus give us grace to be thankful, and to abide patiently the pro-
vident hour of his most gracious good will, Amen, Amen.
From the compter in the Poultry,

Your's in Christ,

JOHN BRADFORD.

No. 80.*
TO HIS GOOD BROTHER, R. COLE.

MINB own good brother, our good and most merciful Father,
more and more embrace us, in the arms of his mercy, as his loving
and own natural children; and give us, one to embrace another, in
the arms of love as true brethren ; that with one heart and mind, we
may praise his holy name, in Christ our Saviour ; and through the
grace of his spirit, may mightily, every one, fight against sin, and
all that is against the kingdom of Christ. Whereto, my beloved, we
are called effectually to our everlasting felicity, 1 doubt not, praised
be the name of our good God therefore, for ever and ever, Amen.

Mine own heart in the Lord, desire our brethren, that every one
would bend himself to bow; let us never break. Love stuTereth long,
and seeketh not herself. We have all one father, we are all brethren,
God keep us from dissention. If we cannot agree in all points,
either the points perchance be not so necessary, or else by love we
shaL hereafter be brought to see that which yet is hid. If love may
appear in all our doings, and that we seek one another with a simple
and a single eye in God's sight, doubtless all prejudice whereby we
are letted to see manifest things, will be had away, and we shall take
things spoken and done in the best part; and so doubtless the name
of our father shall be sanctified in us and by us, as by instruments of
grace, and God's kingdom shall increase apace in us and by us also,
which thing may he grant, for his mercy's sake, Amen.

* Cov.4ll.

280

Commend me heartily, I pray you, to both those good women.
Good I call them, because I am persuaded that God will deliver them,
especially my good Mary. I will not cease, but even as for myself,
to pray to God for them, and for you, my right dear brother in the
Lord. If you were acquainted with M. Robert Harrington, you
should find a plain Nathaniel, you should see the worst at the first;
I dare say for him, his only desire is to please God, and he is afraid
to offend. Pray for him, and for my good sister J. H. as I know she
doth for you. The peace of God be with you mine own in the Lord.

JOHN BRADFORD.

No. 81.*

To a Faithful Friend of his, whom for his godly simplicity and
singleness of heart in the ways of the Lord, he called
Nathaniel;^ and to his Wife.

THE merciful God, and Father of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who
loveth us as a most dear father, and hath put upon him towards us,
the affections of a most tender mother towards her children ; so that
he can no less think upon us, although of ourselves we are most un-
worthy, and deserve nothing less, than she can think on her only
begotten child in his distress ; yea, if she should forget her child,
as some unnatural mothers will do, yet will he never forget us,
although for a time he seem to sleep, that we might be occa-
sioned to call loud and awake him. This good God keep you,
my dear brother Nathaniel, | and your good yoke-fellow, my
heartily beloved sister in the Lord, in all things now and for ever,
to his glory and your eternal comfort ; and also of his goodness

* Fox iii. 346. Cov. 414. t M. Robert Harrington, see the last letter.

J Note that Nathaniel was not his proper name, but he was so called from his
unfeigned simplicity and truth. Fox.

lie grant you both the feeling of that hope, which undoubtedly he
hath laid up in store for you both, far passing the store and provision,
not only which you have made, but all the world is able to make, as
I trust already he hath wrought it in you; but I beseech him to
encrease it more and more, and kindle in you a hearty longing for
the enjoying of the same. The which once felt and had indeed,
then the means by the which we come thereto, cannot be so greatly
dreaded, as most men do dread them ; because either they want this
feeling, I mean it, of altogether, or else because the sense of this
present time and things therein, are as a mist to the hiding of those
things from our sight, lest we should run and embrace them by
hearty prayer; the spirit whereof God grant us, and indeed we
should attain enough in this behalf, if we continued therein.

As for auricular confession, wherein you desire my advice for
your good yoke-fellow and family, my most dear brother, I am as
ready to give it as you to desire it ; yea more glad, forasmuch as half
a suspicion was in me, at the least touching my dear sister your
wife, of a loathing of my advice, that too much had been given ;
where indeed I should lament my too little feeding you spiritually,
as both you out of prison, and in prison, have fed me corporally.
But as 1 always thought of her, so I yet think, that she is the child
of God, whom God dearly loveth, and will in his good time, to her
eternal comfort, give her her heart's desire in sure feeling, and
sensible believing of this, which I would she had often in her
mind ; namely, that he is her God and Father, through Christ Jesus,
our dear Lord and Saviour.

A greater service to God, she cannot give than to believe this.
If satan say she believeth not, to answer, not him but the Lord, and
to say, Yea, Lord, help my unbelief, and increase my poor faith,
which satan saith is no faith ; make him a liar, Lord, as always he
hath been, is, and shall be. Undoubtedly, sooner or later, God will
graciously hear her groans, and keep all her tears in his bottle, yea
write them in his counting books ; for he is a righteous God, and
hath no pleasure in the death of his creature. He loveth mercy, he
will return and shew her his mercy ; he will cast all her sins and
iniquities unto the bottom of the sea ; and the longer that he tarrieth,

282

as lie doth it but *o prove her, so the more liberally will he
recompense her long looking 1 , which no less pleased him, than it
grieveth now her outward Adam. For the mortification whereof,
God useth this cross, and therefore if she desire to bear the same,
doubtless God will make her able to bear it; and in presumption of
his goodness and strength, let her cast herself wholly upon him; for
he is faithful, and will assuredly confirm and bring to a happy end,
that good which graciously he hath begun in her. The which thing
I desire him to do for his own glory, and name's sake, Amen, Amen.

And now to the matter, confession auricular, as it was first used
and instituted, which was by the way of a counsel-asking; I take to
be amongst those traditions which are indifferent, that is, neither
unlawful, nor necessarily binding us, except the offence of the weak
could not be avoided. But to consider it, as it is now used, I write
to you but as I think, and what my mind is; the which follow no
further than good men, by God's word, do allow it; to consider it, I
say, as it is now used, methinks it is plainly unlawful and wicked,
and that for these causes.

First, because they make it a service of God, arid a thing which
pleaseth God of itself, I will not say meritorious. This bringer my
brother, can tell you at large, how great an evil this is.

Secondly, because they make it of necessity, so that he or she
that useth it not, is not taken for a good Christian.

Tliirdly, because it requireth of itself an impossibility, that is,
the numbering and telling of all our sins, which no man perceiveth,
much less can utter.

Fourthly, because it establisheth and confirmeth, at the least
alloweth, praying to saints ; prccor sanctam Mariam, you must say,
or the priest for you.

Fifthly, because it is very injurious to the liberty of the Gospel,
the which to affirm in example and fact, I take to be a good work,
and dear in God's sight.

Sixthly, because, as it is used, it is a note, yea, a very sinew of
the Popish Church ; and therefore we should be so far from allowing
the same, that we should think ourselves happy to lose any thing, in
bearing witness thereagainst.

283

Seventhly, because instead of counsel, thereat you should receive
poison, or if you refuse it under Sir John's benedicite, you should
no less there be wound in the briars.

Eighthly, because the end and purpose why we go thither, is for
the avoiding of the cross, that is, for our own cause ; and not for
Christ's cause, or for our brethren's commodity.

For in that they make it so necessary a thing, and a worshipping
of God, it cannot but be against Christ, and the freedom of his
Gospel; and the same thing teacheth us, that it is against the
commodity of our brethren, which either be weak, either be strong,
either be ignorant, either be obstinate. If they be weak, by your
resorting to it, they be made more weak ; if they be strong, you do
what you can to weaken their strength ; if they be ignorant, therein
you help to keep them by your fact; if they be obstinate, your
resorting to it, cannot but rock them asleep in their obstinate error,
of the necessity of this rite and ceremony.

These causes recited do shew you what I think in this ; but
my thinking must no further bind you than a man's thought should
do, except the same be grounded upon God's word, which bindeth
indeed, as I think they do. I doubt not but you, weighing these
causes, and especially two of the first and the last ; if you pray to God
for his spirit to direct you, and thereto ask the advice of this my
good brother, and other godly learned men ; I doubt not, I say, but
you should be guided fo do that which is best in God's sight ;
although in the sight of the world, perhaps, you should be counted
foolish and precise.

But be at a point with yourselves, as the disciples of Christ, who
had forsaken themselves, to follow not your will, but God's will, as
you daily pray in the Lord's Prayer. The cross of Christ be willing
to carry, lest you carry the cross of the world, the flesh, or the
devil. One of these four crosses you must carry, three of them
bring to hell, and therefore the more part goeth that way, which is
the broad way. Only the fourth bringeth to heaven, but few go that
way, as well because the way is strait, as also because few walk in
it. Howbeit, though it be strait, it is but short, and the few are
many, if you consider the godly, as the patriarchs, prophets,
apostles, martyrs, confessors, and Christ Jesus, with all his guard

284:

and train. Think not scorn to come after them, who are gone
before you; and after them who now go before you; in whose
number, I trust, I am appointed to be one, and I beseech you pray
for me, that God would vouch me worthy that honour.

Our sins deserve plagues, prison, and the loss of all that ever we
have; therefore if God remove our sins out of sight, and send us
prison, or loss of goods and living, for his name's sake, oh, how
happy are -we ! My dear hearts in the Lord, consider this gear, and
be assured that he who loseth any thing for Christ's sake, the same
in his posterity shall find it here, and in heaven elsewhere.

As for unableness to answer for your faith ; it shall be enough
to desire them to dispute -with your teachers. Faith standeth not in
disputing: I think few, if it came to disputing, could defend the
Godhead of Christ, and many other articles ; I speak it for the
simple sort. Pray for me. Lack of paper maketh this end.
Commend me to my good brother, Richard Bleacher, and my good
sister, his wife ; I pray them to pray for me. I trust by this bearer
to hear how you do.

JOHN BRADFORD.

No. 82.*

ANOTHER LETTER TO N. AND HIS WIFE.

GOD'S mercy in Christ I wish you to feel, my dear brother,
with my faithful sister your wife, now and for ever, Amen.

Having this occasion, I could not but write something, as well
to put myself in remembrance of my duty to God wards for you both,
in thankfulness and prayer, as to put you in remembrance of me
and your duty towards God for me, in praying for me ; for I dare

* Fox iii. 347.

285

not say in thankfulness for me. Not that I would have you to give
no thanks to God, for his wonderful great and sweet mercies towards
me, and upon me in Christ his Son; but because I have not deserved
it, at either of your hands. For ye both know right well, at least
my conscience doth accuse me, how that I have not only not ex-
horted and taught you, as both my vocation and your deserts re-
quired to walk worthy of that vocation which God hath made you
worthy of, and with trembling and fear to work out your salvation ;
that is in the fear of God to give yourselves to great vigilance in
prayer, for the increase of faith, and to a wary circumspection in all
your conversation, not only in works and words, but also in thoughts ;
because God is a searcher of the heart, and out of the heart that
cometh which defileth us in God's sight; I have, 1 say, not only
not done this, but also have given you example of negligence in
prayer, watching, fasting, talking and doing; so that woe to me for
giving such offence.

Partly for this cause, dear brother and sister, God hath cast me
here that I might repent me and turn to him ; and that ye might
also by his correction upon me, be more diligent to redress these
things and others, if they in your conscience do accuse you.

My dearly beloved, heavy is God's anger fallen upon us all ;
doleful is this day. Now hath antichrist all his power again. Now
is Christ's gospel trodden under foot. Now is God's people a derision
and prey for the wicked. Now is the greatest plague of all plagues
fallen; the want of God's word; and all these we have, yea, I alone
have, justly deserved. Oh that as I write, I alone, I could with
David, 1 Chron. xxi. and with Jonah, in heart say so. But I do
not, I do not, I see not how grievously I have sinned, and how great
a misery is fallen, for mine unthaukfulness for God's word, for mine
hypocrisy in professing, preaching, hearing, and speaking of God's
word; for my not praying to God for the continuance of it, for my
not loving of it thoroughly, as it requireth, &c. I will speak nothing
of my manifest evils, for they are known to you well enough.

Dear brother and sister ; with me say ye the like for your own
parts, and with me join your hearts, and let us go to our heavenly
Father, and for his Christ's sake beseech him to be merciful unto
us, and to pardon us. Oh, good Father, it is we that have deserved

286

these thy just plagues fallen upon us, we have done amis!-!, we have
dealt unjustly with thy gospel, we have procured thy wrath, and
therefore just art thou in punishing 1 us, just art thou in plaguing us,
for we are very miserable. But good Lord, and dear Father of
mercy, whose justice is such that thou wilt not punish the poor souls
of this realm, who yet have not thus sinned against thee, as we have
done, for many never yet heard thy word, for our trepasses ; and
whose mercy is so great, that thou wilt put our iniquities out of thy
remembrance for thy Christ's sake, if we repent and believe; grant
us, we beseech thee, true repentance, and faith, that we having ob-
tained pardon for our sins, may, through thy Christ, get deliverance
from the tyranny of antichrist, now oppressing us.

Oh, good Father, who hast said, that the sceptre of the wicked
should not long lie upon and over the just ; lest they put forth their
hands to iniquity also; make us just, we pray thee in Christ's name,
and cut asunder the cords of them that hate Sion ; let not the wicked
people say, Where is their God ? Thou, our God, art in heaven; and
doest whatsoever it pleaseth thee upon earth.

Oh, that thou wouldest, in the mean whiles, before thou do
deliver us; that, I say, thou wouldest open our eyes to see all these
plagues to come from thee, and all other that shall come, whatso-
ever they be, public or private, that they come not by chance nor by
fortune, but that they come even from thy hand, and that justly and
necessarily. Justly, because we have and do deserve them; not only
by our birth poison, still sticking and working in us; but also by
our former evil life past, which by this punishment and all other
punishments, thou wouldest have us to call to our remembrance, and
to set before us, that thou mightest put them from before thee;
whereas they stand, so long as they are not in our remembrance, to
put them away by repentance.

Mercifully, O Lord God, dost thou punish, in that thou dost
not correct to kill, but to amend; that we might repent our sins, ask
mercy, obtain it freely in Christ, and begin to suffer for righteousness
sake; to be part of thy house, whereat thy judgment beginneth ; to be
partakers of the afflictions of thy Church, and thy Christ, that we
might be partakers of the glory of the same; to weep here, that we
might rejoice elsewhere ; to be judged in this world, that we might

287

with thy saints judge hereafter the world ; to suffer with Christ, that wo
might reign with him; to be like to Christ in shame, that we might
be like to him in glory; to receive our evils here, that we might,
with poor Lazarus, find rest elsewhere; rest, I say, and such a rest
as the eye hath not seen, the ear hath not heard, nor the heart of
man is able to conceive.

Oh, that our eyes were open to see this, that the cross cometh
from thee to declare thy justice, and thy mercy; and hereto, that we
might see how short a time the time of suffering is; how long a time
the time of rejoicing is, to them that suffer here; but to them that
will not, how long and miserable a time is appointed and prepared;
a time without time, in eternal woe and perdition, too horrible to be
thought upon.

From the which, keep us dear Father, and give more sight in
soul to see this gear, and how that all thy dearest children have
carried the cross of grievous affliction in this life; in whose company
do thou place us, and such a cross lay upon us, as thou wilt make
us able to bear, to thy glory and our salvation in Christ; for whose
sake, we pray thee to shorten the days of this our great misery, fallen
upon us most justly, and in the mean season, give us patience,
repentance, faith, and thy eternal consolation, Amen, Amen,
Amen,

And thus, dear hearts, I have talked, rnethinks, a little while with
you, or rather, we have all talked with God. Oh, that God would give
us his spirit of grace and prayer. My dearly beloved, pray for it, as
for yourselves, so for me; and that God would vouchsafe, to make
me worthy to suffer with a good conscience for his name's sake.
Pray for me, and I shall do the like for you. This 20 of December,
by him whom by this bringer, ye shall learn. I pray you give my
commendations, to all that love me in the Lord. Be merry in Christ,
for one day in heaven, we shall meet and rejoice together for ever-
more, Amen.

288
No. 83.*

TO M. JOHN HALL, AND HIS WIFE,

Prisoners in Newgate, for the testimony of the Gospel.

^ALMIGHTY God, our heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, he
with you both, my dearly beloved, as with his dear children for ever:
and may he so bless you with his holy spirit, that you may in this
your cross, for his cause doubtless, rejoice, and gladly take it up to
bear it so long as he shall think good.

I have heard, my good brother and sister, how that God hath
brought you both into his school-house, whereas you were both
purposed, by his leave, to have played the truant,f that thereby you
might see his carefulness and love towards you. For if it be a token
of a loving and careful father for his children, to prevent the purpose
and disappoint the intent of his children, purposing to depart
awhile from the school, for fear of beating; which thing they would
not do, if they did as much consider the commodity of learning,
which there they might get ; how should you take this work of the
Lord, preventing your purpose, but as an evident sign of love and
fatherly carefulness, that he beareth towards you?

If he should have winked at your wills, then would you have
escaped beating, I mean the cross ; but then should you have lost
the commodity of learning, which your father will now have you to
bear and feel, and therefore hath he sent to you his cross. HE, I
say, hath brought you where you be ; and though your reason and
wit will tell you, it is by chance or fortune, or otherwise ; yet, my
dearly beloved, know for certain, that whatsoever was the mean,
God your Father was the worker hereof, and that for your welfare,
although otherwise your old Adam doth tell you, and you feel ; yet,
I say, of truth, that your duty is, to think of this cross, that as it is
of God's sending, and cometh from him ; so although your deserts
be otherwise, it is of love and fatherly affection for your weal, and
commodity's sake.

* Fox iii. 336. Cov. 374. t Trewands.

289

What commodity is hereby, you will perchance object? You
are now kept in close prison, you will say ; your family and children
be without good overseers ; your substance diminisheth by those
means; poverty will approach, and perchance more perils also, as
loss of life, &c. These are no commodities, but discommodities,
and that no small ones ; so that justly you would be glad to know
what commodity can come to you by this cross, whereby cometh so
great discommodities.

To these things I answer, that indeed it is true you say of
your bodies, families, children, substance, poverty, life, &c. ; which
things, if you would consider awhile with inward eyes, as you
behold them with outward, then perhaps you should find more ease.
Do not you now, by the inward sense, perceive that you must part
from all these, and all other commodities in the world ? Tell me
then, Have not you this commodity by your cross, to learn to loath
and leave the world, and to long for and desire another world,
where is perpetuity 1

You ought of your own head, and free will, to have, according
to your profession in baptism, forsaken the world and all earthly
things; using the world as though you used it not, your heart only
set upon your hoard in heaven, or else you could never be Christ's
true disciples, that is, be saved and be where he is. And trow you,
my good hearts in the Lord, trow you, I say, that it is no commodity,
by this cross to be compelled hereto, that you might assuredly enjoy
with the Lord, endless glory? How now doth God, as it were,
fatherly pull you by the ears, to remember your former offences
concerning these things, and all other things, that repentance and
remission might ensue? How doth God now compel you to call
upon him, and to be earnest in prayer? Are these no commodities?
Doth not the Scripture say, that God doth correct ns in the world,
because we shall not be damned with the world? That God
chasteneth every one whom he loveth ? That the end of this
correction shall be joy and holiness? Doth not the Scripture say,
that they are happy that suffer for righteousness' sake, as you now
do? That the glory and spirit of God is upon them ? That as you
are now made like unto Christ in suffering, so you shall be made
like to him in reigning? Doth not the Scripture say that you are

290

now going the high and right way to heaven ? That your suffering-
is Christ's suffering ? My dearly beloved, what greater commodities
than these can a godly heart desire ?

Therefore ye are commanded to rejoice and be glad when ye
suffer, as now ye do ; for through the goodness of God, great shall
be your reward. Where ? Forsooth on earth, first for your
children ; for now they are in God's mere and immediate protection.
Never was father so careful for his children, as God is for yours
presently. God's blessing, which is more worth than all the world,
you leave indeed to your children. Though all your providence for
them should be pulled away, yet God is not poor; he hath promised
to provide for them most fatherly. Cast thy burthen upon me, saith
he, and I will bear it. Do you therefore cast them and commend
them unto God your Father, and doubt not that he will die in your
debt. He never yet was found unfaithful, and he will not now begin
with you. The good man's seed shall not go a begging his bread ;
for he will shew mercy upon thousands, of the posterity of them
that fear him.

Therefore, as I said, God's reward first upon earth shall be felt
by your children, even corporally, and so also upon you, if God see
it more for your commodity ; at the least inwardly you shall feel it
by quietness and comfort of conscience ; and secondly after this life,
you shall find it so plentifully, as the eye hath not seen, the ear
hath not heard, the heart cannot conceive, how great and glorious
God's reward will be, upon your bodies, much more upon your
souls.

God open our eyes to see and feel this indeed ; then shall we think
the cross, which is a mean hereto, to be commodious. Then shall we
thank God that he would chastise us. Then shall we say with David,
Happy am I that thou hast punished me, for before I went astray,
but now 1 keep thy laws. This that we may do indeed, my dearly
beloved, let us first know that our cross cometh from God. Secondly,
that it cometh from God as a Father, that is, to our weal and g-ood.
Therefore let us, thirdly, call to mind our sins, and ask pardon.
Whereto let us, fourthly, look for help certainly at God's hand in
his good time ; help, I say, such as shall make most to God's glory,
and to the comfort and commodity of our souls and bodies eternally.

291

This, if we certainly conceive, then will there issue out of us hearty
thanksgiving 1 , which God requireth as a most precious sacrifice.
That we may all, through Christ, offer this, let us use earnest prayer
to our God and dear Father, who hless us, keep us, and comfort us,
under his sweet cross for ever, Amen, Amen.*

My dear hearts, if I could any way comfort you, you should he
sure thereof, though my life lay thereon, but now I must do as I
may, because I cannot as 1 would. Oh, that it would please our
dear Father, shortly to bring us where we should never depart; but
enjoy continually the blessed fruition of his heavenly presence ;
pray, pray, that it may speedily come to pass, pray. To-morrow 1
will send unto you to know your estate, send me word what are the
chiefest things they charge you withal. From the Compter.

By your brother in the Lord,

JOHN BRADFORD.

No. S4.t

TO MRS. HALL,

Prisoner in Newgate, and ready to make answer before her
adversaries.

OUR most merciful God and Father, through Christ Jesus, our
Lord and Saviour, be merciful untd us, and make perfect the good
he hath begun in us unto the end, Amen.

My dear sister, rejoice in the Lord, rejoice, be glad, I say, be
merry and thankful ; not only because Christ so commandeth us,
but also because our state, wherein we are presently, requireth no
less, for we are the Lord's witnesses. God the Father hath vouch-
safed to choose us, amongst many, to witness and testify, that Christ
his Son is King, and that his word is true.

* See an admirable sermon on this subject, from Deut. xxxii. 10. 11. 12. by the

Rev. Chs. Bradley, of Glasbury, vol. i. 196.

t Fox iii. 337. COT. 37T.

292

Christ, our Saviour, for bis love's sake towards us, will have us
to bear record, that he is no usurper, nor deceiver of the people, but
Gud's ambassador, prophet, and Messiah ; so that of all dignities
upon earth, this is the highest. Greater honour had not his prophets,
apostles, nor dearest friends ; than to bear witness with Christ, as
we now do. The world following the counsel of their sire, satan,
would gladly condemn Christ, and his verity ; but lo, the Lord hath
chosen us to be his champions to let this.

As stout soldiers therefore, let us stand to our Master, who is
with us, and standeth on our right hand, that we shall not be much
moved, if we hope and hang on his -mercy ; he is so faithful and
true, that he will never tempt us, further than he will make usable to
bear. Therefore, be not careful, for i hear say this day you shall be
called forth, what you shall answer. The Lord, who is true, and
cannot lie, hath promised, and will never fail, nor forget it; that you
shall have both what and how to answer, so as shall make his
shameless adversaries ashamed. Hang therefore on this promise of
God, who is a helper at a pinch, and a most present remedy to them
that hope in him. Never was it heard of, nor shall be, that any
hoping in the Lord, was put to foil.

Therefore as I said, I say again, dear sister, be not only not
careful for your answering, but also be joyful for your cause. Confess
Christ and be not ashamed, and he will confess you, and never be
ashamed of you. Though loss of goods and life be like here to
ensue; yet if Christ be true, as he is most true, it is otherwise
in deed ; for lie that loseth his life, saith he, winneth it ; but he that
saveth it, loseth it. Our sins have deserved many deaths. Now if
God deal so with us, that he will make our deserved death a
demonstration of his grace, a testimonial of his verity, a confirmation
of his people, and an overthrow of his adversaries ; what great cause
have we to be thankful ?

Be thankful, therefore, good sister, be thankful, rejoice and be
merry in the Lord; be stout in his cause and quarrel; be not faint
hearted, but run out your race, and set your Captain Christ before
your eyes. Behold, how great your reward is ; see the great glory,
and the eternity of felicity, prepared for you. Strive, and fight
lawfully, that you may get the crown. Run to get the race, you are

293

almost at your journey's end. I doubt not, but our Father will with
us, send to you also, as he did to Elijah, a fiery chariot, to convey
us into his kingdom. Let us therefore not be dismayed to leave our
cloak behind us, that is, our bodies to ashes. God will one day
restore them to us, like to the body of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ, whose coming is now at hand. Let us look for it, and lift
up our heads, for our redemption draweth nigh, Amen, Amen. The
Lord of mercy grant us his mercy, Amen.

I pray you, pray for me, and so desire my brethren, who be with
you. God's peace be with us all, Amen. Blessed be the dead that
die in the Lord ; then how much more they who die for the Lord.
Your brother in bonds,

JOHN BRADFORD.

No. 85.*
THIRD CONFERENCE WITH DR. WESTON.

ON the 5th of April, Dr. Weston came to the Compter again,
and excused himself for his long absence, partly through
sickness, partly because Dr. Pendleton had told him that he
would come unto him ; and partly because he had withstood
certain monks, who would have come again into Westminster.
He also informed him that the Pope was dead, and declared to
him, how he had spoken to the Queen in his behalf, and that
death was not near to him. Last of all he excused himself for
not answering his arguments against transubstantiation, alleging
that his visit was more by fortune, than of purpose.
Brad. I would gladly, M. Doctor, if it please you, see your
answers to my arguments.

* Fox iii. 304.

294

Weston. Why ? You have remembered something that I spake
to you, when I was last with you ?

Brad. No, Sir, I never called them in manner to mind, since
that time; as well because I hoped you would have written them;
as also for that they seemed not to be so material.

West on. In good faith, I cannot see any other or better way
for you, than to submit yourself to the judgment of the Church.

Brad. Marry, so will 1, Sir, if so be by the Church, you under-
stand Christ's Church.

Weston. Lo, you take upon you to judge the Church.

Brad. No, Sir, that do I not; in taking upon me to discern I
do not judge the Church.

Weston* Yes, that you do, and make it invisible.

Brad. I do neither.

Weston. Why, who can see your Church ?

Brad. Those, Sir, who have spiritual eyes, wherewith they
might have discerned Christ's visible conversation, here upon
earth.

Weston. Nay, Christ's Church hath three tokens, that all men
may look well upon ; viz. unity, antiquity, and consent.

Brad. These three may be as well in evil as in good, as well in
sin as in virtue, as well in the devil's church as in God's Church.
As for example, idolatry among the Israelites had all those three.
Chrysostom telleth plainly, as you well know, that the Church is well
known, only by the Scriptures.

Weston. In good faith, you make your Church invisible, when
you will have it known only by the Scriptures.

Brad. No, Sir, the Scriptures do plainly set forth to us the
Church, that all men may well enough thereby know her, if they list
to look.

Weston. The Church is like a tower or town upon a bill, that
all men may see.

Brad. True, Sir, all men that be not blind. Visible enough is
the Church, but men's blindness is great. Impute not therefore to
the Church, that which is to be imputed to blindness.

Weston. Where was your Church forty years ago? or, Where
i* it now, except in a corner of Germany?

295

Brad. Forsooth, Sir, the Church of Christ is dispersed, and not
tied to this or that place, but to the Word of God; so that where it
is, there is God's Church if it be truly taught.

Weston. Lo, is not this to make the Church invisible? Point
me out a realm a hundred years past, which maintained your doc-
trine.

Brad. Sir, if you will, or would, well mark the state of the
Church before Christ's coming 1 , with it now, as St. Paul and St.
Peter willeth us; I think you would not look for such shews of the
Church to be made, as to point it out by realms. You know that in,
Elijah's time, both in Israel and elsewhere, God's Church was not
pointable ;* and therefore cried he out that he was left alone.

Weston. No, marry, did not God say that there were seven
thousand, who had not bowed their knees to Baal? Lo then seven
thousand ! Shew me seven thousand, a hundred years ago, of your
religion.

Brad. Sir, these seven thousand were not known to men; for
then Elijah would not have said, that he had been left alone. And
it is plain enough by that which the text hath, namely that God
saith, I have reserved to me seven thousand. Mark that it saith, God
hath reserved to himself, to his own knowledge, as I doubt not but a
hundred years ago, God had his seven thousand in his proper places,
though men knew not thereof.

Weston. Well, M. Bradford, I will not make your cause worse,
than for transubstantiation ; although 1 know that we agree not in
other matters. And I pray you make you it yourself not worse. If
I can do you good, I will ; hurt you I will not. I am no prince,
and therefore I cannot promise you life, except you will submit
yourself to the definition of the Church.

Brad. Sir, so that you will define me your Church, that under
it you bring not in a false Church, you shall not see but that we shall
soon be at a point.

Weston. In good faith, M. Bradford, I see no good will be
done ; and therefore I will wish you as much good as I can, and here-
after I will perchance come or send to you again.

See Appendix, Note (EE).

296

And so he sent for M. Weale and departed. Now after his
departing came the keeper, M. Claydon, and Stephen Bech, and
were very hot with Bradford, and spake unto him in such sort,
that he should not look but to have them utter enemies unto him,
notwithstanding the friendship they both had hitherto pretended.
God be with us, and what matter is it who be against us?

No. 86.*

CONFERENCE WITH A GENTLEWOMAN'S
SERVANT.

AMONG divers who came to M. Bradford in prison, some to dis-
pute and confer, some to give counsel, some to take comfort, and
some to visit him; there was a certain gentlewoman's servant,
whose mistress had been cruelly afflicted, and miserably handled,
by her father and mother, and all her kindred, in her father's
house, for not coming to the mass; and like at length to have
been pursued to death, had not the Lord delivered her out of her
father's house, being put from all that ever she had.

This Gentlewoman's servant therefore, being sent to M. Brad-
ford with commendations, had this talk with him, which I
thought here not to overslip.
Serv. God be thanked for you, how do you?
Brad. Well, I thank God ; for as men in sailing, who be near

to the shore or haven, where they would be, would be nearer; even

so the nearer I am to God, the nearer 1 would be.

Serv. Sir, I have never seen you so strong and healthsome of

body, as raethink you be now, God be thanked for it.

Brad. Why, I have given over all care and study, and only do

I covet to be talking with him, whom I have always studied to be

withal.

Fox iii. 305.

291

Serv. Well, God hath done much for you since the time that I
first knew you; and hath wrought wondrously in you to his glory.

Brad. Truth it is, for he hath dealt favourably with me, in that
he hath not punished me according to my sins, but hath suffered me
to live, that I might seek repentance.

Serv. Truly, we hear say, there is a rod made so grievous, out
of the which I think no man shall pluck his head.

Brad. Well, let all that be of Christ's flock, arm themselves to
suffer; for I think verily, God will not have one of his to escape
untouched, if he love him, let them seek what means or ways they
can.

Serv. Well, Sir, there goeth a talk of a friar* that should
preach before the King, and should tell him, that he should be
guilty of the innocent blood that hath been shed of late.

Brad. Verily, I had a book, within these two days, of his
writing, wherein he saith, that it is not meet nor convenient that
the heretics should live ; and therefore I do marvel how that talk
should arise ; for I have heard of it also, and I have also talked
with this friar, he is named Friar Fonse, and with divers others, and
I praise God, they have confirmed me ; for they have nothing to say
but that which is most vain.

Serv. Sir, Father Cardmaker hath him commended unto you.

Brad. How doth he ?

Serv. > Well, God be thanked.

Brad. I am very glad thereof; for indeed my Lord Chancellor
did cast him in my teeth ;f but as David saith, God hath disappointed
him.

Serv. Forsooth, God's name be praised, he is very strong.

Brad. And, I trust, so are we. What else ? Our quarrel is
most j nst; therefore let us not be afraid.

Serv. My mistress hath her recommended unto you.

Brad. How doth she ?

Serv. Well, God be praised, but she hath been sorer afflicted
with her own father and mother, than ever you were with your
imprisonment ; and yet God hath preserved her, I trust, to his glory.

* See p. 255, Burnet Reform, ii. 477. t See p. 164.

298

Brad. I pray you tell her, I read this day a godly history,
written by Basilius Magnus, of a virtuous woman who was a widow,
and was named Juleddo. She had great lands and many children ;
and nigh her dwelled a cormorant, who for her virtuousness and
godly living, had great indignation at her, and of very malice he
took away her lands, so that she was constrained to go to law with
him; and in conclusion, the matter came to trial before the judge,
who demanded of this tyrant, Why he wrongfully withheld the
lands from the woman? He made answer and said, that he might
do so; for, saith he, this woman is disobedient to the King's
proceedings; for she will in no wise worship his gods, nor offer
sacrifice unto them. Then the judge, hearing that, said unto her ;
Woman, if this be true, thou art not only likely to lose thy land,
but also thy life, unless that thou worship our gods, and do
sacrifice unto them. This godly woman, hearing that, slept forth
to the judge, and said, Is there no remedy but either to worship
your false gods, or else to lose my lands and life? Then farewell
suit, farewell lands, farewell children, farewell friends, yea, and
farewell life too; and in respect of the true honour of the everliving
God, farewell all. And with that saying did the judge commit her
to prison, and afterward she suffered most cruel death : and being
brought to the place of execution, she exhorted all women to be
strong and constant; for, saith she, ye were redeemed with as dear
a price as men. For although ye were made of the rib of the man,
yet be you all of his flesh ; so that also, in the care and trial of your
faith towards God, ye ought to be as strong. And thus died she
constantly, not fearing death. I pray you tell your mistress of this
history.

Serv. That shall I, Sir, by God's grace ; for she told me that she
was with you and M. Saunders, and received your gentle counsel.

Brad. We never gave her other counsel but the truth, and in
witness thereof we have and will seal it with our bloods; for I
thought this night that I had been sent for, because at eleven of
the clock there was such rapping at the door.

Female Attendant. Why then, I perceive you were afraid.

Brad. Ye shall hear how fearful I was, for 1 considered that I
had not slept, and I thought to take a nap before I went ; and after

299

I was asleep, three men came into the next chamber, and sang", as it
was told me; and yet for all my Tearfulness, I heard them not;
therefore belike I was not afraid, that slept so fast.

Serv. Do you lack any thing- towards your necessity?

Brad. Nothing but your prayers, and I trust I have them, and
you mine.

Serv. I saw a priest come to you to-day in the morning.

Brad. Yea, he brought me a letter from a friar, and I am
writing an answer.

Serv. Then we let you, therefore the living God be with
you.

Brad. And with you also, and bless you.

Serv. Amen, said he, and gave him thanks, and departed.

After the servant was gone, Bradford reflec-
ting upon what had passed, and tendering the
woful case of the gentlewoman ; to the intent
partly to confirm her with counsel, and partly
to relieve her oppressed mind, with some com-
fort, directed to her the following letter :

No. 87.*

TO A CERTAIN GODLY GENTLEWOMAN.

Troubled and afflicted by her friends, for not coming to

mass.

I WISH unto you, right worshipful, and my dearly beloved sister
in the Lord, as to myself, the continual grace, and comfort of
Christ, and of his holy word ; through the operation of the Holy
Spirit; who strengthen your inward man with the strength of God,
that you may continue to the end, in the faithful obedience of God's
Gospel, whereto you are called, Amen.

* Fox iii. 345.

300

I perceived by yourself, the last day when you were with me,
how that you are in the school-house, and trial-parlour of the Lord ;
which to me is, at the least it should he, a great comfort to see the
number of God's elect by you increased, who are in that state,
whereof God hath not called many, as Paul saith. And as it is a
comfort to me, so should it be a confirmation unto me, that the
Lord, for his faithfulness' sake, will make perfect and finish the
good he hath begun in you, to the end.

If then your cross be to me a comfort, or token of your election,
and a confirmation of God's continual favour, my dearly beloved,
how much more ought it to be so unto you? Unto whom he hath
not only given to believe, but also to come into the trace of suffering
for his sake; and that not commonly of common enemies, but even
of your own father, mother, and all your friends, I mean kinsfolk, as
you told me.

By which I see Christ's words to be true ; how that he came, to
give his children such a peace with him, as the devil might not, nor
may abide ; and therefore stirreth up father and mother, sister and
brother, rather than it should continue.

But, my dear sister, if you cry with David to the Lord, and "
complain to him ; how that for conscience to him, your father and
mother have forsaken you, you shall hear him speak in your heart,
that he hath received you, and by this would have you to see, how
that he maketh you here like to Christ, that elsewhere in heaven
you might be like unto him ; whereof you ought to be most assured,
knowing that in time, even when Christ shall appear, you shall be
like unto him.

For lie will make your body, which now you defile not with
idolatrical service, in going to mass; like unto his own glorious and
immortal body, according to the power, whereby he is able to do all
things. He will confess you before his Father, who do not deny
his verity, in word nor deed, before your father ; he will make you
to reign with him, who now suffer for him and with him ; he will
not leave you comfortless, who seek no comfort but at his hand ;
though for a little time you be afflicted, yet therein will he comfort
and strengthen you, and at the length make you to be merry with
him, in such joy as is infinite and endless. He will wipe all the

301

tears from your eyes; lie will embrace you as your dear husband;
he will, after he hath proved you, crown you with a crown of glory
and immortality ; such as the heart of man shall never be able to
conceive, in such sort as the thing 1 is. He now beholdeth your
stedfastness, and striving to do his good will ; and shortly will he
shew you, how stedfast he is, and will be ready to do your will,
after that you have fully resigned it to his will.

Pledge him in his cup of the cross, and you shall pledge him in
the cup of his glory. Desire to drink it before it come to the dregs,
whereof the wicked shall drink, and all those who, for fear of the
cross, and pledging the Lord, do walk with the wicked, in betraying
in fact and deed, that which their heart embraceth for verity. The
which thing if you should do, which God forbid, then, my dear
mistress and sister in the Lord, you should not only lose all that I
have before spoken, and much more infinitely of eternal joy and
glory ; but also be a cast-away and partaker of God's most heavy
displeasure, in hell fire eternally ; and so for a little ease, which
you cannot tell how long it will last^ lose for ever and ever all
ease and comfort. For he that gathereth not with me, saith Christ,
as no mass gospeller doth, scattereth abroad.

According to that we do in this body, we shall receive, be it good
or bad. If of our words we shall be judged, to condemnation or
salvation; much more then of our facts and deeds. You cannot be
partaker of God's religion and antichrist's service, whereof the mass
is most principal. You cannot be a member of Christ's Church, and
a member of the Pope's Church. You must glorify God, not only
in soul and heart, but also in body and deed. You may not think
that God requireth less of you, his wife now, than your husband did
of you. If both heart and body your husband would have, shall
Christ have less, trow you, who hath so bitterly and dearly bought
it ? If your husband could not admit an excuse, how your heart was
his only, if he had taken your body in bed with another; do you
think that Christ will allow your body at mass, although your heart
consent not to it?

God esteemeth his children, not only of their hearts, but of their
pure hands and works; and therefore in Elijah's time he counted
none to be his servants and people, but such as had not bowed their

302

knees to Baal; as ,iow he doth not in England account any to
be his dearlings, who know the truth in heart, and deny it in their
deeds, as do our mass gospellers.

We ought to desire, above all things, the sanctifying of God's
holy name, and the coming of his kingdom; and shall we then see
his name blasphemed so horribly as it is at mass, by making it a
sacrifice propitiatory, and setting forth a false Christ, of the priests'
and bakers making, to be worshipped as God, and say nothing?
The Jews rent their clothes asunder, on seeing or hearing anything
blasphemously done or spoken against God, and shall we yet come
to church where mass is, and be mute? Paul and Barnabas rent
their clothes, to see the people of Lycaonia offer sacrifice to them, and
shall we see sacrifice and God's service done to an inanimate
creature, and be mute?

What thing helpeth more, or so much, antichrist's kingdom as
doth the mass ? And what destroyeth preaching, and the kingdom
of Christ upon earth, more than it doth ? And how can we then say,
Let thy kingdom come, and go to mass? How can we pray before
God, Thy will be done on earth, when we will do our own will, and
the will of our father, or friends? How pray we, Deliver us from
evil, who knowing the mass to be evil, do come unto it ?

But why go I about to light a candle in the noon day, that is, to
tell you that we may not go to mass, or to the congregation where
it is, except it be to reprove it; in that all men, in so doing, do but
dissemble both with God and man ? And is dissembling now to be
allowed? How long will men yet halt on both knees, saith God?
Halting, saith Paul, bringeth out of the way, that is to say, out of
Christ, who is the way. So that he who is not in him, shall wither
away, and be cast into hell fire. For Christ will be ashamed of them
before his Father, who be now ashamed of his truth, before this
wicked generation.

Therefore, my good mistress, take good heed; for it had been
better for you never to have known the truth, and therethrough to
have escaped papistical uncleanness, than now to return to it; making
eftsoons your members, being members of righteousness, members
of unrighteousness, as you do, if you do but go to the church, where
mass is. Be pure therefore, and keep yourself from all filth of the

303

spirit, and of the flesh, abstain not only from all evil, but from all
appearance of evil.

And so the God of peace shall be with you, the glory of God
shall govern you, the spirit of God shall sanctify you, and be with
you for ever; to keep you from all evil, and to comfort you in all
your distress and trouble. Which is but short, if you consider the
eternity you shall enjoy in glory and felicity in the Lord; which
undoubtedly you shall not fail but inherit for ever, if so be you, as
the elect child of God, put your trust in his mercy, call upon his
name unfeignedly, and yield not ever to the wicked world, but stick
still against it unto the end.

God, for his holy name's sake, who is properly the God of the
widows, be your good and dear Father for ever; and help you
always, as I myself would be holpen at his hands, in all things, and
especially in this his own cause. Amen, Amen.

JOHN BRADFORD.

No. 88.*

ANOTHER LETTER TO HIS MOTHER,

As his last Farewell unto her in this World, a little before he
was burned.

GOD'S mercy and peace in Christ, be more and more perceived
of us, Amen,

My most dear mother, in the bowels of Christ, 1 heartily pray and
beseech you, to be thankful for me unto God ; who thus now taketh
me unto himself. 1 die not, my good mother, as a thief, a murderer,
an adulterer, &c. ; but I die as a witness of Christ, his Gospel and
verity, which hitherto I have confessed, I thank God, as well by
preaching, as by imprisonment; and now, even presently, I shall most
willingly confirm the same by fire.

* Fox iii. 351. Cov. 454.

304

I acknowledge that God most justly might take me hence,
simply for my sins, which are many, great, and grievous ; but the
Lord, for his mercy in Christ, hath pardoned them all, I hope. But
now, dear mother, he taketh me hence by this death, as a confessor
and witness, that the religion taught by Christ Jesu, the prophets,
and apostles, is God's truth. The prelates do persecute in me,
Christ whom they hate, and his truth, which they may not abide;
because their works are evil, and may not abide the truth and light,
lest men should see their darkness.

Therefore, my good and most dear mother, give thanks for me
to God, that he hath made the fruit of your womb to be a witness of
his glory ; and attend to the truth, which, I thank God for it, I have
truly taught out of the pulpit of Manchester. Use often and
continual prayer to God the Father, through Christ. Hearken, as
you may, to the Scriptures ; serve God after his word, and not after
custom. Beware of the Romish religion in England, defile not
yourself with it ; carry Christ's cross, as he shall lay it upon your
back ; forgive them that kill me ; pray for them, for they know not
what they do ; commit my cause to God our Father ; be mindful of
both your daughters, to keep them as you can.

I send all my writings to you by my brother Roger; do with
them as you will, because I cannot as 1 would ; he can tell you more
of my mind. I have nothing to give you, or to leave behind me
for you; only I pray God, my Father, for his Christ's sake, to bless
you and keep you from evil. May HE give you patience, may HE
make you thankful, as for me so for yourself, who will take the fruit
of your womb to witness his verity; wherein I confess to the whole
world I die; and depart this life, in hope of a much better ; which I
look for at the hands of God my Father, through the merits of his
dear Son, Jesus Christ.

Thus, my dear mother, I take my last farewell of you in this
life ; beseeching the almighty and eternal Father by Christ, to grant
us to meet in the life to come, where we shall give him continual
thanks and praise, for ever and ever, Amen. Out of prison, the 24
of June, 1555.

Your son, in the Lord,

JOHN BRADFORD.

305

On the Friday night previous to his execu-
tion, Bradford dreamed that the chain prepared
for his burning was brought to the Compter
gate; than which in such circumstances no-
thing could be more natural, although it might
in his case be a preternatural intimation.
Somewhat troubled with this dream he awoke
about three o'clock, and spent the remainder of
the night in prayer. He eat his dinner on the
Saturday with his usual cheerfulness, although
he conversed frequently with a companion who
spent the day with him, of death, of the king-
dom of heaven, and the prevalence* of sin at
that period.

In the afternoon, whilst they were walking
together in the keeper's chamber, his wife came
up suddenly, exclaiming, " Oh, M. Bradford,
I come to bring you heavy news, you are to be
burned to-morrow, they are now bringing
your chain, and you must soon goto Newgate."
Bradford immediately pulled off his cap, and
lifting up his eyes to heaven, said; I thank
God for it ; I have looked for the same a long
time, and therefore it does not now come upon
me suddenly, but as a matter expected by me
every day and hour, the Lord make me worthy

* Ripeness.

306

thereof; and so thanking her for her gentleness,
departed into his chamber and went alone by
himself, and prayed a long time in private.
After which he returned to his friend, and de-
livered him divers writings and papers, and
informed him what he would have done relating
to them ; and after they had spent the after-
noon in sundry such matters, half-a-dozen more
of his friends came in, with whom he spent all
the evening in prayer, and other pious exer-
cises.

A little before he went out of the Compter,
Bradford made a remarkable farewell prayer,
with such a flow of tears, and so exceedingly
spiritual, that it deeply affected the minds of
the hearers. Whilst putting on a clean shirt,
which had been made for his burning, by the
wife of one Mr. Walter Marl#rs, and who was
a very good nurse and kind friend to him ; he
made another prayer on the wedding garment,
which excited so much admiration in some of
those who were present, that their eyes were
as thoroughly occupied in looking on him, as
their ears listened to his prayer.

307

No. 89.*

BRADFORD'S PRAYER,

That God would shorten the Persecution, and restore the true
Religion.

As David, seeing- the angel with the sword ready drawn to plague
Jerusalem, cried unto the Lord, and said, It is /, Lord, that have
sinned, and even I that have done wickedly; thy hand be upon me,
and not upon thy poor sheep: wherethrough thou wast moved to
mercy, and badest thy angel to put up his sword into the sheath, for
thou hadst taken punishment enough : even so we, O most gracious
God, .seeing thy fearful sword of vengeance ready drawn, and pre-
sently striking against this commonwealth, and thy Church in the
same ; we, I say, are occasioned every one of us to cast off our eyes
from beholding, and narrowly espying of other men's faults, and do
set our own only in sight, that with the same David thy servant, and
with Jonas in the ship, we may cry, and say unto thee, that it is we,
O Lord, that have Binned and procured thy grievous wrath upon us.
And thus, we presently gathered, do acknowledge ourselves guilty of
most horrible ingratitude for our good king, for thy gospel and pure
religion, and for the peace of the Church, and quietness of the com-
monwealth, besides our negligences, and many other grievous sins;
wherethrough we deserved not only these, but much more grievous
plagues and punishments, if that thou didst not presently, as thou
art wont, extend thy mercy upon us; that thou in thine anger dost
remember thy mercy, before we seek or sue for it. We take bold-
ness, O gracious Lord, and as thou hast commanded us to do in our
trouble, we come and call upon thee to be merciful unto us; and of
jhy goodness in Christ, we most humbly pray thee to hold thy hand,
and to cease thy wrath ; or at the least so mitigate it, that this realm
may be quietly governed, and the same eftsoonesto be a harbour for

Strype Eccl. Mem. vol. iii. pt. 2. 281. We have not been able to discover the
prayer, actually used upon this occasion but have substituted the above.

308

thy Church and true religion : and which may it please thee to
restore again to us, for thy great mercy's sake ; and we shall praise
thy name everlastingly, through Jesus Christ our only Saviour,
mediator, and advocate. Amen.

On departing out of the chamber, he likewjse
made a prayer, and gave money to every ser-
vant and officer of the house, with exhortations
to them to fear and serve God continually, la-
bouring to eschew all manner of evil. He then
turned himself to the wall, and prayed earnestly
that his words might not be spoken in vain, but
that the Lord would work the same in them
effectually, for Christ's sake. When he arrived
in the court all the prisoners cried out to him
to bid him farewell, as the rest of the house
had done before, shedding many tears.

Bradford was carried to Newgate about
eleven or twelve o'clock at night, when it
was thought none would be stirring abroad ;
but contrary to expectation, there was in
Cheapside and other places, between the
Compter and Newgate, a great multitude of
people who came to see him, and most
gently bade him farewell, praying for him
with lamentable and pitiful tears ; and he
again as gently bade them farewell, praying
most heartily for them and their welfare.

309

A rumour having been circulated over-
night that Bradford would be burned the
next day, in Smithfield, by four o'clock in
the morning ; an immense multitude of men
and women collected before that hour, but
it was jmie o'clock before he was brought
into Smithfield. In going through New-
gate thitherward, he perceived a friend
standing near the keeper's house, to whom
he reached his hand over the people, and
gave him his velvet night cap, and his hand-
kerchief, with some other things. Roger
Beswick, his brother-in-law, having taken
Bradford by the hand, Woodroffe, one of
the Sheriffs of London, struck Beswick with
his staff, and made his head bleed profusely ;
a sight which greatly afflicted our martyr,
who immediately took an affectionate fare-
well of his relative.

Bradford was then led forth to Smithfield,
conducted by a more considerable body of
armed men, than had been seen at any similar
execution ; for some were stationed in every
corner of Smithfield, besides those who stood
near the stake. Bradford suffered joyfully
and constantly, in company with John Leafe,
a youth of nineteen years of age, apprentice to
a tallow chandler; and who seems to have

310

possessed not only great courage and con-
stancy, but a depth of theological knowledge
far beyond his years. When they came to
Smithfield, M. Bradford lying prostrate on one
side of the stake, and Leafe on the other, they
lay flat on their faces, praying to themselves
for t!i? space of a minute.

Then one of the Sheriffs said to Bradford,
Arise and make an end, for the press* of the
people is great. Whereupon they both stood
up on their feet, and M. Bradford took a fag-
got in his hand and kissed it, and so likewise
he did the stake, and then desired the Sheriffs
that lus servant might have his raiment; say-
ing, I have nothing else to give him. M.
Bradford then put off his cloaths to his shirt
and went to the stake, and holding up his
hands and casting his countenance to heaven,

he said, Icnglanfc, Icnglanfc, repent tfiee of
*tn$t repent tftee of il)i) sins ; fiecause of
fatoare of false antichrists, tafee
t!)at tjjey 60 not fceceibe you. As he was

speak in or these words, Woodroffe, the Sheriff,
bad them tie his hands, if he would not be
quiet. O master Sheriff, said Bradford, I am
quiet, God forgive you this master Sheriff.
One of the officers who made the fire,

Ste Appendix, Note (PF.),

Oil

hearing Master Bradford speaking thus to
the Sheriff, said ; If you have no better learn-
ing than that, you are but a fool and had best
hold your peace ; to which M. Bradford made
no answer, but asked all the world forgive-
ness, and forgave all the world, and entreated
the people to pray for him, and turning his
head towards the young man who suffered
with him, said ; Be of good comfort, brother,
for we shall have a joyful supper with the
Lord this night; and so embracing the reeds,
said,* Strait is the way and narrow is the
gate, that leadeth unto eternal salvation, and
few there be that find it. And thus they both
ended their mortal lives, like two lambs,
without any alteration of countenance, being
void of all fear, hoping to obtain the price of
the goal they had long ruaat; to the which
(adds the martyrologist) I beseech Almighty
God happily to conduct us, through the
merits of Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour,
Amen.t

Having noticed the brutal conduct of the
Sheriff Woodroffe, it appears but just to men-
tion the contrary behaviour of his colleague
in office, Sir William Chester; who acted
towards Bradford and the other martyrs,

* 1 Neale, 85. t Fox iii. 307.

-312

who suffered during his Shrievalty, with as
much kindness, humanity, and respect, as
Woodroffe discovered levity of conduct,
cruelty, and hardened barbarity.

In person, Bradford was somewhat tall and
slender, spare of body, of a faint sanguine
colour, with an auburn beard. He usually
slept only four hours in the night, and till
sleep overpowered him he continued reading.
His chief recreation was in pious society and
religious conversation, in which he spent a
short time at table after dinner, and then to
prayer and study again. He considered that
hour ill spent in which he did not some
good action, either with his pen, in his study,
or in exhorting others. He was no niggard
of his purse,* but would liberally participate
what he had with his fellow prisoners ; and
usually once a-week he visited the thieves,
pickpockets, and such others as were on the
other side of the prison, whom he would
affectionately exhort, to learn from their
troubles how to amend their lives ; and would
afterwards distribute among them, some por-
tion of money for their relief and comfort.

* " He was very charitable, In so much, that in a hard time, he sold
his chains, rings, and jewels, to relieve those who were in want."
S. Clarke's Martyrology, vol.i. 230.

313

Both whilst in the King's Bench and the
Poultry Compter, he preached twice a-day
regularly, unless sickness hindered him; and
frequently administered the sacrament ; and
the keepers were so indulgent to him, that so
many pious persons attended his sermons, and
partook of that sacred ordinance, that his
chamber was usually nearly full. Preaching,
reading, and praying, constituted his whole
life, and he always studied upon his knees. In
the midst of a scanty dinner, which was his
only meal, he used often to muse with him-
self, drawing his hat over his eyes, while the
tears streamed downward upon his trencher.

He was of a gentle and amiable disposi-
tion, and held in such great reverence and
admiration by all good men, that great num-
bers who knew him only by fame, greatly la-
mented at his death ; and even many of the
papists themselves wished heartily for his
life.* He seldom went to bed without shed-
ding tears ; and there was never any prisoner
with him who did not profit greatly by his
society; as all those with whom he associ-
ated were ready to testify, and confessed no
less to the glory of God.f

1 See Appendix, Note (GG.) t See Appendix, Note (HH.)

314

IN MORTEM JOHANNIS BRADFORDI,

Constantissimi Martyris.

Discipulo nulli supra licet esse magistrum:
Quique Deo servit, tristia multa feret.

Corripit omnipotens natum quem diligit omnem :
Ad ccelum stricta est difficilisque via. -

Has Bradforde tuo dum condis pectore voces,
Non hominum rigidas terribilesque minas,

Sed nee blanditias, non vim, nee vincula curas,
Tradis et accensce membra cremanda pyrae.

Besides the letters we have already intro-
duced, this holy martyr wrote several others ;
with which, not being able from their con-
tents or otherwise, to ascribe them to any
particular period, we conclude this interest-
ing and instructive compendium, of the faith
and practice of one of the most pious, learned,
and faithful of the ENGLISH REFORMERS ;
and as we imagine, of the principles upon
which the REFORMATION in ENGLAND pro-
ceeded.

315

No. 90.*

To his loving Brethren, B. and C., with their Wives and
whole Families.

I BESEECH the overliving 1 God to give to you all, my good
brethren and sisters, the comfort of his Holy Spirit, and the continual
feeling of his mercy in Christ our Lord, now and for ever, Amen.

The world, my brethren, at this present, seemeth to have the
upper hand, iniquity overfloweth, the truth and verity seem to be
suppressed, and they who take part therewith are unjustly entreated.
The cause of all this is God's anger, because we have grievously
sinned against him ; his mercy, because he here punisheth us, and
as a father nurtureth us.

We have been unthankful for his word, we have contemned his
kindness, we have been negligent in prayer; we have been too
carnal, covetous, licentious, &c. ; we have not hastened to heaven-
ward, but rather to hellward ; we were fallen almost into an open
contempt of God, and all his good ordinances. So that, of his
justice he could not long forbear, but make us to feel his anger, as
now he hath done in taking his word and true service from us, and
permitting satan to serve us with antichristian religion ; and that in
such sort, that if we will not yield to him, and seem to allow it in
deed and outward fact ; our bodies are like to be laid in prison, and
our goods given we cannot tell to whom.

This should we look upon, as a sign of God's anger, procured
by our sins ; which, my good brethren, every one of us should
now call to our memories oftentimes, as particularly as we can ; that
we might heartily lament them, repent them, hate them, ask
earnestly mercy for them, and submit ourselves to bear in this life
any kind of punishment, which God will lay upon us for them.
Thus should we do, in consideration of God's anger in this time.

Now his mercy in this time of wrath is seen, and should be seen

* Fox iii. 317. COT. 330.

316

of us, my dearly beloved, in this, that God doth vouchsafe to punish
us in this present life. If he should not have punished us, do not ye
think, that we would have continued in the evils \ve were in? Yea,
verily, we would have been worse, and have gone forwards, in
hardening- our hearts by impenitence and negligence towards God
and true godliness: and then if death had come, should not we
have perished, both soul and body, in eternal fire and perdition?

Alas, what misery should we have fallen into, if God should have
suffered us to have gone forward in our evils ? There is no greater
sign of damnation, than to live in evil and sin, unpunished of God ;
as now the papists, my dearly beloved, are cast into Jezebel's bed of
security, which of all plagues is the most grievous plague that can
be. They are bustards and not sons, for they are not under God's
rod of correction. A great mercy it is therefore that God doth
punish us; for if he loved us not, he would not punish us.

Now doth he chastise us, that we should not be damned with the
world. Now doth he nurture us, because he favoureth us. Now may
we think ourselves to be God's household and children, because he
beginneth his chastening at us. Now calleth he us to remember
our sins past, Wherefore? That we might repent and ask mercy.
And why? That he might forgive us, pardon us, justify us, and
make us his children, and so begin to make us here like unto Christ,
that we might be like unto him elsewhere, even in heaven, where
already we are set by faith with Christ; and at his coming, in very
deed, shall enjoy his presence, when our sinful and vile bodies shall
be made like to Christ's glorious body, according to the power,
whereby he is able to make all things subject to himself.

Therefore, my brethren, let us in respect hereof, not lament, but
laud God ; not be sorry, but be merry ; not weep, but rejoice, and
be glad that God doth vouchsafe to offer us his cross, thereby to
come to him, to endless joys and comforts. For if we suffer, we
shall reign ; if we confess him before men, he will confess us before
his Father in heaven ; if we be not ashamed of his Gospel now, he
will not be ashamed of us in the last day, but will be glorified in
us; crowning us with crowns of joy and endless felicity. For
blessed are they that suffer persecution for righteousness 7 sake, for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

317

Be glad, saitli Peter, for the Spirit of God resteth upon you.
After that ye are a little while afflicted, God will comfort, strengthen,
and confirm you. And therefore, my good brethren, be not dis-
couraged for cross, for prison, or loss of goods, for the confession of
Christ's Gospel and truth ; which ye have believed, and lively was
taught amongst you, in the days of our late good and most holy
prince, King Edward.

This is most certain, if ye lose any thing for Christ's sake, and
for contemning the antichristian service set up again among us; as
you for your parts, even in prison, shall find God's great and rich
mercy, far passing all worldly wealth; so shall your wives and
children, in this present life, find and feel God's providence more
plentifully than tongue can tell ; for he will shew merciful kindness
on thousands of them that love him. The good man's seed shall not
go begging his bread ; ye are good men, so many as suffer for
Christ's sake.

I trust ye all, my dearly beloved, will consider this gear with
yourselves, and in the cross for God's mercy, which is more sweet,
and more to be set by than life itself; much more then, than any
muck or pelf of this world. This mercy of God should make you
merry and cheerful, for the afflictions of this life, are not to be
compared to the joys of the life prepared for you. Ye know the way
to heaven is not the wide way of the world, which windeth to the
devil ; but is a strait way, which few walk in, for few live godly in
Christ Jesu, few regard the life to come, few remember the day of
judgment, few remember how Christ will deny them before his
Father, that deny him here. Few consider that Christ will be
ashamed of them in the last day, who are ashamed now of his truth
and true service ; few cast their accounts, what will be laid to their
charge in the day of vengeance; few regard the condemnation of
their own consciences, in doing that which inwardly they disallow ;
few love God better than their goods. But, I trust yet, ye are of
these few, my dearly beloved ; I trust ye be of the little flock, which
shall inherit the kingdom of heaven ; I trust ye are of the mourners
and lamenters, who shall be comforted with God's comforts which
never shall be taken from you, if ye now repent your former evils, if
now ye strive against the evils that are in you; if now ye continue to

318

call upon God, if now ye defile not your bodies with any idolatrous
service, used in the antichristian churches; if ye molest not the good
Spirit of God, which is given you as a pledge of eternal redemption ;
a counsellor and master to lead you into all truth. Which good
Spirit, I beseech the Father of mercy to give us all, for his dear
Son's sake, Jesus Christ our Lord ; to whom I commend you all,
and to the word of his grace, which is able to help you all and save
you, ail-that believe it, follow it, and serve God thereafter.

And of this I would ye were all certain, that all the hairs of your
heads are numbered ; so that not one of them shall perish, neither
shall any man or devil be able to attempt any thing, much less to
do any thing to you, or any of you, before your heavenly Father,
who loveth you most tenderly, shall give them leave ; and when he
hath given them leave, they shall go no further than he will; nor
keep you in trouble any longer than he will.

Therefore cast on him all your care, for he is careful for you ;
only study to please him, and to keep your consciences clear, and
your bodies pure from the idolatrous service, which now everywhere
is used ; and God will marvellously and mercifully defend and
comfort you; which thing may he do for his name's sake, in Christ
our Lord ; Amen.

JOHN BRADFORD.

No. 91.*

To his dearly beloved and faithful Friends in God, ERKEN-
WALDE RAWLINS and WIFE, exhorting them to be joyful
under the Cross, as a Token of God's singular Favour
towards them.

GOD, our dear and most merciful Father, through Christ, be with
yon, my good brother and sister, as with his children for ever; and in

* Fox iii. 318. Cov. 314.

319

all things so guide you with his Holy Spirit, the leader of his people,
as may be to his glory, and your own everlasting joy and comfort in
him. Amen.

Because I have oftentimes received from either of you comfort
corporally, for the which I beseech the Lord, as to make me thank-
ful, so to recompense you, both now and eternally; I cannot but go
about, Lord help me hereto for thy mercy's sake, to write something
for your comfort spiritually. My dearly beloved, look not upon these
days, and the afflictions of the same here with us, simply as they seem
unto you; that is, as dismal days, and days of God's vengeance, but
rather as lively days, and days of God's fatherly kindness towards
you, and such as ye be, that is, towards such as repent their sins and
evil life past, and earnestly purpose to amend; walking not after the
will of the world, as the most part of men do for the preservation of
their pelf, which, will they, nill they, they shall leave sooner or later,
and to whom, or how it shall be used, they know not.

Indeed, to such as walk in their wickedness, and wind on with
the world, this time is a time of wrath and vengeance, and their
beginning of sorrow is but now; because they contemn the physic of
their father, who by these purging times and cleansing days, would
work their weal, which they will not. And because they will not
have God's blessing, which both ways he hath offered unto them,
by prosperity and adversity, therefore it shall be kept far enough
from them; as when the sick man will have no kind of physic, at
the hands of the physician, he is left alone, and so the malady
increaseth, and destroyeth him, at the length. To such men indeed,
these days are and should be doleful days, days of woe and weeping,
because their damnation draweth nigh. But unto such as be
penitent, and are desirous to live after the Lord's will, among whom
I do not only count you, but as far as man may judge, I know ye
are ; unto such, I say, this time is and should be comfortable.

For, first now, your Father chastised you and me for our sins; for
the which, if he would have destroyed us, then would he have let us
alone, and left us to ourselves, in nothing to take to heart his fatherly
visitation, which here it pleaseth him to work presently; because
elsewhere he will not remember our transgressions, as Paul writeth,
He chastiseth us in the world, lest with the world we should perish.

320

Therefore, iny dear hearts, call to miud your sins, to lament them,
and to ask mercy for them in his sight; and withal, undoubtedly
believe to obtain pardon and assured forgiveness of the same, for
twice the Lord punisheth not for one thing. So that, I say, first,
we have cause to rejoice for these days, because our Father suffereth
us not to lie in Jezebel's bed, sleeping in our sins and security, but
as mindful of us, doth correct us as his children ; whereby we may
be certain that we are not bastards, but children, for he chastiseth
every child whom he receiveth. So that they who are not partakers
of his chastising, or who contemn it, declare themselves to be
bastards, and not children, as J know ye are, who, as ye are
chastised, so do ye take it to heart acc6rdingly. And therefore be
glad, my dear hearts, as folks knowing certainly, even by this visita-
tion of the Lord, that ye are his dear elect children ; whose faults your
Father doth visit with the rod of correction, but his mercy will he
never take away from you, Amen.

Secondly, ye have cause to rejoice for these days, because they
are days of trial, wherein not only ye yourselves shall better know
yourselves; but also the world shall know, that ye be none of its,
but the Lord's dearlings. Before these days came, Lord God, how
many thought of themselves, they had been in God's bosom, and so
were taken, and would be taken of the world ? But now we see whose
they are, for to whom we obey, his servants we are. If we obey the
world, which God forbid, and hitherto ye have not done it, then are
we the world's; but if we obey God, then are we God's; which
thing, I mean that ye are God's, these days have declared, both to
you, to me, and to all other that know you, better than ever we
knew it.

Therefore ye have no cause to sorrow, but rather to sing, in
seeing yourselves to be God's babes, and in seeing that all God's
children do so count you. What though the world repine thereat ?
What though it kick? What though it seek to trouble and molest
you? My dear hearts, it doth but its kind. He cannot love the
Lord, who lives not in the Lord ; he cannot brook the child, who
hateth the father; he cannot mind the servant, who careth not for
the master. If ye were of the world, the world would love you, ye
should dwell quietly, there would be no grief, no molestation. If

3-21

the devil dwelt in you, which the Lord forbid, he would not stir up
his knights to besiege your home, to snatch at your goods, or suffer
his fiends to enter into your hogs. But because Christ dwelleth in
you, as he doth by faith, therefore satan stirreth up his first begotten
son, the world, to seek how to disquiet you, to rob you, to spoil you,
to destroy you.

And perchance, your dear Father, to try and to make known unto
you, and to the world, that ye are destinate to another dwelling
than here on earth, to another city than man's eyes have seen at any
time; hath given, or will give power to satan, and to the world, to
take from you the things which he hath lent you; and by taking
them away, to try your fidelity, obedience, and love towards him ;
for ye may not love them above him, as by giving that ye have, and
keeping it, he hath declared his love towards you.

Satan, perchance, telleth God, as he did of Job, that ye love God
for your good's sake. What now then, if the Lord, to try you with
Job, shall give him power over your goods, and body accordingly,
should ye be dismayed ? Should ye despair ? Should ye be faint-
hearted ? Should ye not rather rejoice, as did the apostles, that they
were counted worthy to suffer any thing for the Lord's sake ? Oh,
forget not the end that happened to Job ; for as it happened to him,
so shall it happen unto you ; for God is the same God, and cannot
long forget to shew mercy to them, that look and long for it, as I
know ye do; and I pray you do so still, for the Lord loveth you, and
never can nor will forget, to shew and pour out his mercy upon
you.

After a little while that he hath afflicted and tried you, saith
Peter, he will visit, comfort, and confirm you. As to Jacob,
wrestling with the angel, at the length morning came, and the sun
arose ; so, dear hearts, doubtless it will happen unto you. Howbeit,
do ye as Job and Jacob did, that is, order and dispose your things
that God hath lent you as you may, and whilst you have time.
Who knoweth whether God hath given you power thus long, even
to that end.

Go to therefore, dispose your goods, prepare yourselves to trial,
that either ye may stand to it like God's champions ; or if ye feel
such infirmity in yourselves, that ye be not able, give place to

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violence, and go where you may, with free and safe conscience, serve
the Lord. Think not this counsel to come by chance or fortune,
hut to come from the Lord ; other oracles we may not look for now.
As God told Joseph in a dream, by an angel, that he should fly ;
so if ye feel such infirmity in yourselves, as should turn to God's
dishonour, and your own destruction withal ; know that at this
present, I am as God's angel, to admonish you to take time whilst
ye have it; and to see that in no case, God's name by you may
be dishonoured. Joseph might have objected the omission of his
vocation, as perchance ye will do ; but, dear hearts, let vocations and
all things else, give place to God's name, and the sanctifying
thereof.

This I speak, not as though 1 would not have you rather to
tarry, and to stand to it, but I speak it in respect of your infirmity,
which, if you feel to be so great in you, that you are not certain of
this hope, that God will never tempt you above your ability ; fly and
get you hence, and know that thereby God will have you tried, to
yourselves and to others. For by this you shall know, how to take
this world, and your home here as no home ; but that ye look for
another, and so give occasion to others, less to love this world ; and
perchance to some to doubt of their religion, wherein, though they
be earnest, yet would not they lose so much as ye do for your
religion, which ye confirm to me and others, by your giving place
to violence.

Last of all, ye have cause to rejoice over these days, because they
be days of conformation ; in the which, and by the which, God our
Father maketh us like to Christ's image here, that we may be like
to him elsewhere. For if we suffer with him, we shall reign with
him ; if we be buried with him, we shall rise with him ; if we
company with him in afflictions, we shall rejoice with him in glory;
if we sow with him in tears, we shall reap with him in gladness; if
we confess him before men, he will confess us before his Father in
heaven. If we take his part, he will take ours ; if we lose aught foi
his name's sake, he will give us all things for his truth's sake;
so that we ought to rejoice and be glad, for it is not given to every-
one to suffer loss of country, life, goods, home, &c. for the Lord't
sake.

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What can God the Father do more unto us, than to call us into the
camp with his Son ? What may Christ, our Saviour, do more for us,
than to make us his warriors ? What can the Holy Ghost do to us
above this, to mark us with the cognizance of the Lord of Hosts ?
This cognizance of the Lord, standeth not in forked caps, tippets,
shaven crowns, or such other baggage, and antichristian pelf, but in
suffering for the Lord's sake. The world shall hate you, saith
Christ. Lo, there is the cognizance and badge of God's children,
the world shall hate you.

Rejoice, therefore, rny dearly beloved, rejoice that God doth thus
vouchsafe to begin to conform you, and make you like to Christ.
By the trial of these days, ye are occasioned more to repent, more
to pray, more to contemn this world, more to desire life everlasting,
more to be holy ; for holy is the end wherefore God doth afflict us,
and so come to God's company. Which thing, because, we cannot
do, as long as this body is as it is, therefore, by the door of death,
we must enter with Christ, into eternal life, and immortality of soul
and body; which God of his mercy send shortly, for our Saviour,
Jesus Christ's sake, Amen.

JOHN BRADFORD.

No. 92.*

TO HIS GOOD FRIENDS, IN THE LORD,
M. R. AND HIS WIFE.t

MY dearly beloved, I heartily commend me unto you in our
common Christ, whom I so call, not that I would make him as
common things be, that is, nothing set by, but because by him we
are brought into a communion ; and that as with him, so with his
Father, and as with his Father, so with all God's people, if we be
his people, as I trust we are ; and therefore write 1 unto you, as one

* Cov. 383. t Most probably the same persons as the last.

324

careful, but not so much as I should be, for you, as for them whose
well-doing comforteth me and is profitable to me, and whose evil-
doing maketh me heavy, and woundeth me.

The days are come, in the which we cannot but declare what
we be, if we be indeed as we should be, as I trust we are, that is,
if we be Christ's disciples. I mean we cannot now do as the world
doth, or say as it saith ; but as God's Church doth and saith. The
world seeketh itself, and speaketh thereafter. The Church of God
seeketh Christ's glory, and speaketh accordingly. The worldlings
follow the world ; the Church-children follow their Captain Christ,
and therefore, as of the world they are not known to be as they be,
so are they hated, and if God permit it, are persecuted and slain ;
the which persecution is the true touchstone, which trieth the true
Church-children from hypocrites, as the wind doth the wheat from
the chaff.

And of this gear, this our time and age setteth very many forth
for example, doctrine, and fear, who once were hearty and very
zealous; and now are so cold, that they smell nothing of the spirit;
for they are not only afraid to seem to speak with a Church-child,
but also ashamed ; and not only ashamed of them, and so of that
which they profess, but also frame and fashion themselves, in all
outward behaviour, as in coming to church and hearing mass, so as
no man can accuse them for not allowing it, or not honouring it, as
well as the papists. Whereas in their hearts they disallow it, and
know the same to be naught, at the least, they have known it ; but
halting out of the way, may perchance have brought them so far,
that now they cannot see the way, they are so far and so long gone
astray; for the further and longer a man goeth wide, the harder shall
it be to recover and see the way ; and therefore the apostle giveth
warning thereof, Heb. xii. as doth Moses, Deut. xxix., speaking of
men who bless themselves, inwardly cursing themselves; read both
the chapters, I pray you.

And mark the example of M. Hales,* who after that he consented
to seem to allow in outward fact, that which he knew once was evil,
was fearfully left of GOD, to our admonition. For albeit God hath

* See Appendix, Note (P.)

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not done thus to all, who have indeed done that which M. Hales
purposed to do ; yet in this example, God teacheth us how fearful
a thing it is, to wound our consciences, and do any thing there-
against, to the offence of the godly, and comfort of the ob-
stinate.

I write not this, as thereof to accuse you or either of you, for as
I cannot lightly be persuaded of any such thing of you, so 1 am
assured you hitherto would not do any such thing ; for I ween there
be yet no great penalty, to punish you for not so doing, if thereof
you should have been accused. For he that will do a thing unforced,
I cannot hope any thing of the same, but that he will run apace
when he is forced. But of this enough to you, who are to be
comforted and exhorted, to continue in that pureness of religion,
which you have, as I think, hitherto received, and by your open
conversation protested.

Howbeit, considering how you have heard and read, as much as
in manner can be spoken herein, for the Scriptures, which of them-
selves are most perfect herein, you have read and read again ; I
think it good to exhort you, to use earnest and hearty prayer, as I
trust you do, and then doubtless God will so write that you have
read, in your hearts, as shall W both comfortable and profitable,
unto you and others plentifully. .

You shall rejoice in the strait way, which few find, and fewer
walk in, but most few continue therein to the end. You shall suffer
with joy, the direption of your goods, because the best part of your
substance is in heaven. You will set before you (he example of
Christ, the beginner and ender of your faith, who suffered much
more than we can suffer, that we should not be faint hearted. You
will rejoice, and greatly, because great is your reward in heaven.
You will be glad that God accounteth you worthy to suffer any
thing, for his sake. You will set before you the end of this your
short cross, and the great glory which will ensue the same. You
will know, that it is no small benefit of God, to suffer for his sake.
You will know, that your sorrowing shall be turned to joying. You
will know, that as God doth make you now like to Christ in
suffering, so shall you be in reigning; and if you be partakers
of affliction, you shall be also of glory, &c. Suinma, you will know

326

that this is the surest and safest way to heaven, which is called the
kingdom of patience, Rev. i.

But because I have written a little treatise hereof, and of the harm
of halting with the world, in coming to mass, I send them both unto
you to peruse and read them, and then at your leisure, to redeliver
them to this bringer ; or my man, whom I shall send to you for the
same. In the mean season, I shall as heartily as I can, pray to God
for you both, my most dear members in the Lord. What said 1, as
heartily as I can ? God forgive me, for I do nothing so well as I
might, in that 1 flatter myself too much; may God not lay it to my
charge.

Indeed I have most cause to pray night and day, and to give
thanks night and day, for you both. The Lord of mercy in Christ
bless you both, keep you both, and send you both, as well to do, as
I wish to my dearest and best beloved friends and brethren in the
Lord. I pray you continue to pray for me, as I doubt not you do,
and so give thanks to God for me, for he is good, and his mercy
endureth for ever. The day will come, when we shall meet together,
and never depart. God send it shortly, Amen.

JOHN BRADFORD.

No. 93.*

TO HIS VERY GOOD FRIEND IN THE LORD,
DR. ALBERT HILL, PHYSICIAN.

THE God of mercy, and Father of all comfort, at this present and
for ever, engraft in your heart the sense of his mercy in Christ, and
the continuance of his consolation, which cannot but enable you to
carry with joy, whatsoever cross he shall lay upon you, Amen.

Hitherto I could have no such liberty as to write unto you, as I
think you know; but now in that, through God's providence, I have

* Fox iii. 320. Cov. 21)4.

327

no such restraint, I cannot but something write, as well to purge me
of the suspicion of unthankfulness towards you, as also to signify my
carefulness for you in these perilous days; lest you should wax cold
in God's cause, which God forbid ; or suffer the light of the Lord,
once kindled in your heart, to be quenched, and so become as you
were before ; after the example of the world, and of many others, who
would have been accounted otherwise in our days, and yet still be-
guile themselves, still would be so accounted, although by their
outward life, they declare the contrary ; in that they think it enough
to keep the heart pure, notwithstanding that the outward man doth
curry favour.

In which doings, as they deny God to be jealous, and therefore
requireth he the whole man, as well body as soul, being both create,
as to immortality and society with him, so redeemed by the blood of
Jesus Christ, and now sanctified by the Holy Spirit to be the tern-
pleof God, and member of his Son ; as I say, by their parting stake,
to give God the heart, and the world their body, they deny God to
be jealous ; for else they would give him both, as the wife will do to
her husband, whether he be jealous or no, if she be honest, so they
play the dissemblers with the Church of God by their fact, offending
the godly, whom either they provoke to fall with them, or make
more careless and conscienceless, if they be fallen ; and occasioning
the wicked and obstinate to triumph against God, and the more
vehemently to prosecute their malice against such, as will not
defile themselves in body or soul with the Romish rags, now revived
amongst us.

Because of this, I mean lest you, my dear master and brother in
the Lord, should do as many of our gospellers, or rather gospel
spillers do, for fear of man, whose breath is in his nostrils, and hath
power but of the body, not fearing the Lord, who hath power both
of soul and body; and that not only temporally, but also eternally;
I could not but write something unto you, as well because duty
deserveth it, for many benefits I have received of God by your hands,
for the which may he reward you, for I cannot, as also because cha-
rity and love compellcth me. Not that I think you have any need,
for as I may rather learn of you, so I doubt not but you have hitjierto
kept yourself upright from halting, but that I might both quiet my

328

conscience, calling- upon me hereabout, and signify unto yon by
something, my carefulness for your soul, as painfully and often, you
have done for my body.

Therefore, I pray you, call to mind, that there be but t\vo
masters, two kinds of people, two ways, and two mansion places
The masters be Christ, and satan ; the people be servitors to either
of these; the ways be strait and wide; the mansions be heaven, and
hell. Again, consider that this world is the place of trial of God's
people, and the devil's servants ; for as the one will follow his
master, whatsoever cometh of it, so will the other. For a time, it is
hard to discern who pertaineth to God, and who to the devil; as in
the calm and peace, who is a good shipman and warrior, and who
is not. But as when the storm ariseth, the expert mariner is
known ; as in war the good soldier is seen ; so in affliction and the
cross, easily God's children are known, from satan's servants. For
then, as the good servant will follow his master, so will the godly
follow their captain, come what, come will ; whereas the wicked and
hypocrites will bid adieu, and desire less of Christ's acquaintance.

For which cause, the cross is called a probation and a trial,
because it trieth who will go with God, and who will forsake him ;
as now in England we see how small a company Christ hath,
in comparison of satan's soldiers. Let no man deceive himself, for
he that gathereth not with Christ, scattereth abroad. No man can
serve two masters; the Lord abhorreth double hearts; the luke-
warm, that is, such as are both hot and cold, he spitteth out of his
mouth. None that halt on both knees, doth God take for his
servants. The way of Christ is the strait way, and so strait, that as
few find it, and few walk in it, so no man can halt in it, but needs
must go upright ; for as the straitness will suffer no reeling to this
side or that side, so if any man halt, lie is like to fall off the bridge,
into the pit of eternal perdition.

Strive therefore, good Master Doctor, now you have found it, to
enter into it ; and if you should be called or pulled back, look not on
this side, or that side, or behind you as Lot's wife did; but straight-
forwardson the end, which is set before you, though it be to come, as
even now present ; like as you do, and will your patients to do, in pur-
gations and other your ministrations, to consider the effect that will

329

ensue ; wherethrough the bitterness and loathsomeness of the purga-
tion is so overcome, and the painfulness, in abiding the working of
what is ministered, is so eased, that it maketh the patient willingly
and joyfully to receive what is to be received, although it be never so
unpleasant; so, I say, set before you the end of this strait way, and
then doubtless, as Paul saith, ^Eternum pondus glorise pariet, whilst
you look not on the thing seen, for that is temporal, but on the thing
which is not seen, which is eternal.

So doth the husbandman, in ploughing and tilling, set before him
the harvest time; so doth the fisher consider the draught of his net,
rather than the casting in; so doth the merchant, the return of his
merchandise ; and so should we, in these stormy days, set before us,
not the loss of our goods, liberty, and very life; but the reaping
time, the coming of our Saviour Christ to judgment, the fire that
shall burn the wicked and disobedient to God's gospel, the blast of
the trump, the exceeding glory prepared for us in heaven eternally;
such as the eye hath not seen, the ear hath not heard, nor the heart
of man can conceive.

The more we lose here, the greater joy shall we have there; the
more we suffer, the greater triumph: for corruptible dross, we shall
find incorruptible treasures; for gold, glory; for silver, solace with-
out end ; for riches, robes royal; for earthly homes, eternal palaces,
mirth without measure, pleasure without pain, felicity endless: Sum-
ma, we shall have God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

Oh, happy place ! oh, that this day would come, then shall the
end of the wicked be lamentable, then shall they receive the just
reward of God's vengeance; then shall they say, woe, woe, that ever
they did as they have done. Read Wisd. ii.iii. iv. v. Matt. xxv.
1 Cor. xv. 2 Cor. v. and by faith, which God increase in us, con-
sider the things there set forth. And for your comfort, read Heb.
xi. to see what faith hath done; always considering the way to
heaven to be by many tribulations, and that all they who will live
godly in Christ Jesu, must suffer persecution.

You know that this is our alphabet ; he that will be my disciple,
saith Christ, must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow
me; not this bishop, nor that doctor; not this emperor, nor that
king, but ME, saith Christ; for he that loveth father, mother, wife,

children, or very life, better than me, is not worthy of me. Remem-
ber that the same Lord saith, He that will save his life, shall lose it.
Comfort yourself with this, that as the devils had no power over the
porkets, or over Job's goods, without God's leave, so shall they have
none over you. Remember also, that all the hairs of your head are
numbered with God. The devil may make one believe he will drown .
him, as the sea in its surges threateneth the land ; but as the Lord
hath appointed bounds for the one, over the which it cannot pass, so
hath he done for the other.

On God therefore cast your care, love him, serve him after his
word, fear him, trust in him, hope at his hand for all help, and always
pray, looking for the cross; and whensoever it cometh, be assured
the Lord, as he is faithful, so will he never tempt you further, than
he will make you able to bear ; but in the midst of the temptation,
will make such an evasion, as shall be most to his glory, and your
eternal comfort.

God, for his mercy in Christ, with his Holy Spirit endue you,
comfort you, under the wings of his mercy shadow you, and as his
dear child guide you for evermore. To whose merciful tuition, as I
do with my hearty prayer commit you ; so I doubt not but you pray
forme also, and so I beseech you to do still. My brother P.* telleth
me, you would have the last part of St. Jerome's works, to have the
use thereof for a fortnight. I cannot for these three days well for-
bear it, but yet on Thursday next I will send it you, if God let me
not ; and use me, and that I have, as your own. The Lord for his
mercy in Christ, direct our ways to his glory, Amen.
Out of prison by yours to command,

JOHN BRADFORD.

* Most probably the martyr Philpot.

331

No. 94.*

TO HIS DEAR FRIENDS AND BRETHREN,
R. AND E., WITH THEIR WIVES AND FAMILIES.

THE comfort of Christ, felt commonly of his children, in their
cross for his sake, the everliving God work in both your hearts, my
good brethren, and in the hearts of both your yoke-fellows, especi-
ally of good Mary, my good sister in the Lord, Amen.

If I had not something heard of the hazard which you are in for
the gospel's sake, if you continue the profession and confession
thereof, as I trust you do and will do, and that unto the end, God
enabling you ; as he will doubtless, for his mercy's sake, if you hope
in him, for this bindeth him, as David in Christ's person witnesseth,
Our fathers hoped in thee and thou deliveredst them, &c. Ps. xxii. ;
yet by conjectures I could not but suppose, though not so certainly,
the time of your suffering and probation to be at hand. For now is the
power of darkness fully come upon this realm, most justly for our
sins, and abusing the light lent us of the Lord, to the setting forth
of ourselves, more than of God's glory ; that as well we might be
brought into the better knowledge of our evils, and so heartily re-
pent, which God grant us to do; as also we might have more feeling
and sense of our sweet Saviour Jesus Christ, by the humbling and
dejecting of us, thereby to make us, as more desirous of him, so him
more sweet and pleasant unto us ; the which thing the good Spirit of
God work sensibly in all our hearts, for God's holy name's sake.

For this cause I thought it my duty, being now where I have
some liberty to write, the Lord be praised, and hearing of you as I
hear ; to do that which I should have done if I had heard nothing
at all; that is, to desire you to be of good cheer and comfort in the
Lord, although in the world you see cause rather to the contrary, and
to go on forwards in the way of God, whereinto you are entered ;
considering that the same cannot, but so much more and more wax

* Fox iii. 332. Cov. 338.

332

strait to the outward man, by how much you draw nearer the end of
it. Even as in the travail of a woman, the nearer she draweth to her
delivery, the more her pains increase ; so it goeth with us in the
Lord's way, the nearer we draw to our deliverance by death, to
eternal felicity.

Example whereof we have, I will not say in the holy prophets and
apostles of God, who when they were young girded themselves and
went in manner whither they would, but when they waxed old, they
went girded of others whither they would not, concerning the out-
ward man; but rather and most lively in our Saviour Jesus Christ
whose life and way was much more painful to him towards the end,
than it was at the beginning. And no marvel, for satan can some-
thing abide a man to begin well and set forwards, but rather than he
should go on to the end, he will vomit his gorge, and cast floods to
overflow him, before he will suffer that to come to pass.

Therefore, as we should not be dismayed now at this world, as
though some strange thing had happened unto us, in that it is but
as it was wont to be to the godly, in that the devil declareth himself
after his old wont; in that we have professed no less but to forsake
the world and the devil, as God's very enemy; in that we learned no
less at the first, when we came to God's school, than to deny ourselves,
and to take up our cross, and follow our master, who leadeth us none
other way, than he himself hath gone before us. As, I say, we
should not be dismayed, so we should with patience and joy go
forwards, if we set before us as present, the time to come, like as the
wife in her travail, doth the deliverance of her child, and as the saints
of God did, but especially our Saviour and pattern Jesus Christ; for
the apostle saith, He set before him the joy and glory to come, and
therefore contemned the shame and sorrow of the cross ; so if we
did, we should find at the length as they found.

For whom would it grieve, who had a long journey to go, to go
through a piece of foul way, if he knew that after that, the way
should be most pleasant, yea the journey should be ended, and he
at his resting place most happy? Who will be afraid or loth to
leave a little pelf for a little time, if he knew he should shortly after
receive most plentiful riches ? Who will be unwilling for a little
while to forsake his wife, children, br friends, &c. when he knows

333

he shall shortly after be associated unto them inseparably, even after
his own heart's desire ? Who will be sorry to forsake this life, who
cannot but be most certain of eternal life ? Who loveth the shadow
better than the body? Who can love this life, but they who regard
not the life to come ? Who can desire the dross of this world, but
such as be ignorant of the treasures of the everlasting joy in
heaven ? I mean, Who is afraid to die, but such as hope not to live
eternally ?

Christ hath promised pleasures, riches, joy, felicity, and all good
things, to them who for his sake lose any thing, or suffer any sorrow.
And is he not true? How can he but be true, for guile was never
found in his mouth ? Alas, then why are we so slack and slow, yea
hard of heart to believe his promising us, thus plentifully, eternal
blissfulness ; and are so ready to believe the world, promising us
many things, and paying us nothing ? If we will curry favour now,
and halt on both knees ; if so, then it promiseth us peace, quietness,
and many things else. But how doth it pay this gear ? Or if it
pay it, with what quietness of conscience ? Or if so, how long,
I pray you ? Do not we see before our eyes men to die shamefully,
I mean, as rebels and other malefactors, who refuse to die for God's
cause? What way is so sure a way to heaven, as to suffer in Christ's
cause? If there be any way on horseback to heaven, surely this is
the way. By many troubles, saith the apostle, we must enter into
heaven. All that will live godly in Christ Jesu, must suffer
persecution. For the world cannot love them that are of God ; the
devil cannot love his enemies; the world will love none but his
own ; but you are Christs, therefore look for no love here. Should
we look for tire to quench our thirst? And as soon shall God's true
servants, find peace and favour in antichrist's regiment.

Therefore, my dearly beloved, be stout in the Lord, and in the
power of his might. Put on you his armour ; stand in the liberty
of Christ which you have learned ; rejoice that you may be counted
worthy to suffer any thing for God's cause ; to all men this is not
given. Your reward is great in heaven, though in earth you find
nothing. The journey is almost past, you are almost in the haven,
take on apace, I beseech you, and merrily hoist up your sails.
Cast yourself on Christ, who careth for you. Keep company witli

334

him now s.till to the end ; he is faithful and will never leave you,
nor tempt you, further than he will make you able to bear; yea in
the midst of the temptation, he will make an outscape.

Now pray unto him heartily, be thankful of his dignation,
rejoice in hope of the health you shall receive, and be mindful of us
who are in the vaward,* and by God's grace trust in Christ to
be made able to break the ice before you, that you following, may
find the way more easy. God grant it may be so, Amen, Amen.
Out of prison, by your brother in Christ,

JOHN BRADFORD.

No. 95.t

TO MRS. WILKINSON.^

ALMIGHTY God, our most loving Father, increase in your heart,
my good mother and dear mistress in the Lord, his true knowledge
and love in Christ, to the encouraging and comforting of your faith
in these stormy days ; as necessary unto us, so profitable if we
persist unto the end, which thing God grant unto us, Amen.

My right dearly beloved, I know not what other thing to write
unto you, than to desire you to be thankful unto the Lord, in that
amongst the not many of your calling and state, it pleaseth him to
give you his rare blessing ; I mean, to keep you from all the filth,
wherewith our country is horribly defiled. This blessing assuredly
is rare as you see. But now if he shall bless you with another
blessing which is more rare, 1 mean, to call you forth as a martyr,
and as a witness against this filth, I hope you will become doubly
thankful.

For a greater token commonly we have not, to judge of our
election and salvation, next to Christ and faith in him, than the

* Vanguard. Bailey. t Fox iii. 333. Cov. 3f2.

j A pious woman who relieved the wants of the reformers. Cranmer advised her
to fly. Strype Eccl. Mem. iii. pt. i. 226.

cross, especially when it is so glorious, as on this sort to suffer any
thing, but chiefly loss of this life, which indeed is never found till it
be so lost ; except the grain of wheat fall and be dead, it remaineth
fruitless.

You know how that he who was rapt into the third heaven, and
did know what he wrote, doth say, that as the corn liveth not
except it be dead and cast into the earth, so truly our bodies. And
therefore the cross should so little alarm us, that even death itself
should altogether be desired of us ; as the tailor who putteth off our
rags, and arrayeth us with the royal robes of immortality, incor-
ruption, and glory. Great shame it should be for us, that all the
whole creatures of God should desire, yea, groan in their kind for
our liberty, and we ourselves to lothe it ; as doubtless we do, if for
the cross, yea, for death itself, we with joy swallow not up all sorrow,
that might let us from following the Lord's calling, and obeying
the Lord's providence; whereby doubtless all crosses, and death
itself, doth come, and not by hap or chance.

In consideration whereof, right dear mother, in that this pro-
vidence stretcheth itself so unto us and for us, that even the hairs of
our heads are numbered with God, not one of them to fall to
our hurt; surely we declare ourselves very faint in faith, if we
receive not such comfort, that we can willingly offer ourselves to the
Lord, and cast our whole care upon his back ; honouring him with
this honour, that he is and ever will be careful for us, and all
we have, as for his dear children. Be therefore of good cheer, even
in the midst of these miseries, be thankful to the Lord, and prepare
yourself for a further trial ; which if God send you, as I hope, so
do you believe, that God therein will help and comfort you, and
make you able to bear whatsoever shall happen.

And thus much, having this opportunity, I thought good to
write, praying God our Father to recompense into your bosom, all
the good that ever you have done, to me especially, and to many
others, both in this time of trouble, and always heretofore.

Your own in the Lord,

JOHN BRADFORD.

336

No. 96.*

TO MRS. WILKINSON.

THE Lord of mercy, in Christ his Son, our Saviour and only
comforter, be with you all, now and for ever, Amen.

Although presently I have little time, by reason of this bringer's
short departing, and less occasion of necessary matter, to write unto
you ; yet in that it hath pleased God to offer me more liberty to
write than before I had, as this bearer can report, I thought good to
signify unto you the same, with the acknowledging of the receipt of
your tokens ; for the which I neither can nor will go about to flatter
you with thanks, in that I know you look for none at mine hands,
God being the cause, and his word the end, wherefore you did so.
To him I know you would have me thankful, and I beseech you
pray that L may so be ; and not only thankful for myself and his
benefits towards me, but also thankful for you, to whom God hath
given to fear his name and love his truth. The which gifts far pass
the riches of the world, for they shall perish, and be left we know
not unto whom ; but the gifts of God, as they last for ever, so they
make happy the possessors of the same.

Go to therefore, and pray God to increase them of his goodness ;
as of his mercy he hath begun them in you, and indeed so he will.
For to whom he giveth the earnest of willing, to the same he will
give the grace of continuing, if we reject not the same ; as we do
when we be double-hearted, and part our fear and love ; as did the
Samaritans, who feared God, and their Adrammelech ;f loved God's
religion, and their old country customs, &c.

If this doubleness come on us, that we fear more the world, and
couple it with the fear of God ; if we love the muck of this world,
and couple it with the love of God's religion ; then part we stake,
then mar we the market, then the spirit of God will depart, then
play we as Ananias and Sapphira did, and so sooner or later shall
fall to perdition with them.

* Cov. 343. t 2 Kings, xvii. 31.

337

But, as I said, I think no such thing of you ; I think of you as
of God's dear children, whose hearts are whole with the Lord.
And therefore I write not this as though you were such, but because
it is God's goodness you be not such ; because satan would have you
such, and because many that were as you now be, are such. There-
fore to make you, as thankful, so careful to continue, but yet so that
your care be cast all on the Lord, is the only cause I write this,
and would write more, but that the bringer cannot tarry. And
therefore hastily and abruptly I make an end, beseeching Almighty
God, in our Redeemer Jesus Christ, to be with you, and with his
Holy Spirit comfort you all, and help my good sister Mrs. W.,* to be
a happy and a good mother of the child, of which as yet I hear God
hath not delivered her. By your own to use in the Lord for
ever.

JOHN BRADFORD.

No. 97.t

TO HIS DEARLY BELOVED IN THE LORD,
MRS. W. AND MRS. W.$

ALMIGHTY God, our dear and most merciful Father, be always
with you both, my entirely beloved mother and sister in the Lord ;
and as his babes, may he for ever keep you unto his eternal king-
dom, through Christ our Saviour, Amen.

I purpose not to go about, to render thanks to you for God's
great goodness towards me by you, because 1 cannot. Either of
you hath so heaped upon me benefits, that it were hard for me
to reckon the tithes. He for whose sake you have done it, and all
the good you do, one day recompense you after your heart's desire
in him. In the mean season, I beseech him to reveal unto you, more

* No doubt Mrs. Warcup. See Nos. 53 and 58. t Cov. 423.

J Most probably Mrs. Wilkinson and Mrs. Warcup.

338

and more, the riches of his grace, and love in Christ, by whom ye
are beloved and were, before the world was, and shall be doubtless
world without end.

According to the revelation, and your sense or faith herein, so
will you contend to all piety and godliness, as St. John saith ; He
that hath this hope will purify himself as Christ is pure. For how
should it otherwise be, but if we be certainly persuaded that heaven
is ours, and we citizens thereof, but, I say, we should desire the
dissolution of our bodies, and death to dispatch us, and to do his
office upon us? If we did certainly believe we were members of
Christ, and God's temples, how should we but fly from all impurity
and corruption of the world, which cometh by concupiscence? If
we did certainly believe that God indeed, of his mercy in Christ, is
become our Father, in that his good will is infinite, and his power
according thereto, how could we be afraid of man or devil? How
could we doubt of salvation, or any good thing which might make
to God's glory, and our own weal ?

Now that we should be certain and sure of this, that we are
God's children in Christ, mark whether all things teach us not?
Behold the creation of this world, and the government* of the same;
do not these teach us that God loveth us ? And is God's love out
of Christ the beloved? Is not his love, as he is, unchangeable?
Doth not St. John say, that he loveth to the end whom he loveth ?
Therefore, I say, the very creatures of God, concerning both their
creation and conservation, tell us that God loveth us; that is, that
we in Christ be his children and dearlings, although in ourselves,
and of ourselves, we be otherwise; viz. children of wrath.

Again, look upon the law of God, and tell me whether it doth
not require this certainty of you, viz. that you be God's dear
children in Christ ? Doth not God plainly affirm and say, I am the
Lord thy God ? Doth he not charge you to have none other Gods
but him? How then can you perish, if God be your God? Doth
not that make God no God? Doth not David say, that those
people be happy, who have the Lord for their God ?

Besides this, look on your belief; do you not profess that you

* Gubernation.

339

believe in God your Father Almighty, who wanteth no power to
keep you, as he wanted no good will in Christ to choose you ? Do
you not say that you do believe remission of sins, resurrection of the
body, life everlasting, fellowship with the saints, &,c. But how do
you say you believe this gear, and be not certain thereof? Is not
faith a certainty ? Is not doubting against faith, as St. James saith ?
Pray in faith and doubt not, for he that doubteth obtaineth nothing.
When Peter began to doubt, he had like to have been drowned ;
beware of it therefore.

Moreover, for to certify your consciences, that you be God's
children, and shall never finally perish, through God's goodness in
Christ; behold your Head, your Captain, I mean, Christ Jesus.
Wherefore came he into this world, but to redeem you ? to marry
you unto himself? to destroy the works of satan? to save and seek
that which was lost? Wherefore suffered he so great and bitter
passions ? was it not to take away your sins ? Wherefore did he
rise from death? was it not to justify you? Wherefore did he
ascend into heaven ? was it not to take possession there for you ?
to lead your captivity captive ? to prepare and make ready all things
for you? to appear before the Father, always praying for you? If
these be true, as they be most true, why then stand you in a doubt ?
Do you not thereby deny Christ? Wherefore were you born of
Christian parents and in God's Church, but because you were God's
children by Christ, before you were born? For this cause you
were baptized, and hitherto the Lord hath thus dealt with you,
sparing you, correcting you, and blessing you. But why? Verily
because you be his children, and shall be for ever, through Christ.

Tell me, why hath God kept you till this time, but that he will
for his sake have you even here made like unto Christ, that elsewhere
you may so be ? Why hath he opened your eyes from popery, but
because you be his children indeed ? When you pray, do you not
call him Father ? Why do you doubt of it then ? Why will you
believe the devil more than God your Father, the Son, and the
Holy Ghost? more than the holy word of God, both in the law and
in the Gospel? more than all the blessings and castigations of
God? Do not all these preach to you and tell you, that you are
God's babes through Christ? Therefore, my dearly beloved, believe

840

it, and give not place to the devil, but withstand him strong in
faith. Say with the poor man ; I believe, Lord, help my unbelief.
Say with the apostles ; Lord, increase our faith.

This, mine own hearts in the Lord, I write not that you should
live more securely and carnally, doing as the spiders do, who gather
poison where bees gather honey ; but that, as the elect of God, you
might live in all purity, godliness, and peace ; which God increase
in us all for his Christ's sake, Amen,

I pray you heartily, pray for us, that to the very end we may, as
I hope we shall, go lustily and cheerfully whithersoever our hea-
venly Father shall bring and lead us. His will, which is always
good, be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Amen.

Your brother in bonds, for the testimony of Jesus Christ,

JOHN BRADFORD.

No. 98.*

TO HIS GOOD BROTHER, JOHN CARELESS,t

Prisoner in the King's Bench.

THE Father of mercy, and God of all comfort, visit us with his
eternal consolation, according to his great mercies in Jesus Christ,
our Saviour, Amen.

My very dear brother, if 1 shall report the truth unto you, I
cannot but signify that since I came into prison, I never received so
much consolation as I did by your last letter, the name of God be
most heartily praised therefore. But if I shall report the truth unto
you, and as I have began, speak still the verity ; I must confess that
for mine unthankfulness to youwards and to God especially, I have

Fox iii. 336. Cov. 373.

t Another of that illustrious band of Christian heroes, whose lives were sacrificed for
the truths of the Gospel. Acts and Mon. vol. iii. pp. 713. 732.

341

more need of God's merciful tidings, than I ever had heretofore.
Oh, that satan envieth us so greatly. Oh, that our Lord would
tread his head under our feet shortly. Oh, that 1 might for ever,
both myself beware, and be a godly example to you and others,
to beware of unthankfulness.

Good brother Careless, we had more need to take heed after a
lightning, of a foil than before. God therefore is to be praised, even
when he hideth, and that of long, a cheerful countenance from us ;
lest we being not expert how to use it as we should do, do hurt more
ourselves thereby; so great is our ignorance and corruption. This
my good brother, and right dear to my very heart, I write unto you as
to one whom in the Lord I embrace, and I thank God that you do
me in like manner. God our Father more and more give us both
his good Spirit, that as by faith we may feel ourselves united unto
him in Christ, so by love we may feel ourselves linked in the same
Christ one to another, I to you, and you to me, we to all the children
of God, and all the children of God to us, Amen, Amen.

Commend me unto your good brother Skelthrop, for whom I
heartily praise my God, who hath given him to see his truth at the
length, and to give place to it. 1 doubt not but that he will be so
needy in all his conversation, that his old acquaintance may even
thereby think themselves astray. Woe and woe again should be unto
us, if we by our example should make men to stumble at the truth.
Forget not salutations in Christ, as you shall think good, to Trew,
and his fellows. The Lord hath his time, I hope, for them also,
although we perchance think otherwise.* A drop maketh a stone
hollow, not with once but with often dropping ; so if with hearty
prayer for them and good example, you still and drop upon them as
you can, you shall see God's work at the length. I beseech God to
make perfect all the good he hath begun in us all, Amen. I desire
you all to pray for me, the most unworthy prisoner of the Lord.

Your brother,

JOHN BRADFORD.

* We have here another evidence of the kind and anxious feeling, our martyr
entertained for those, who differed from him upon points which he considered of great
importance. Sue Appendix, Note (M.)

342

No. 99.*

TO THE SAME,

ALMIGHTY Cod, our dear Father, through and for the merits of
his dearly beloved Son Jesus Christ, be merciful unto us, pardon us
our offences, and under the wings of his mercy, protect us from all
evil, from henceforth and for ever, Amen.

Dear brother Careless, I heartily pray you, to pray to God for
me, for the pardon of my manifold sins, and most grievous offences,
which need none other demonstration unto you than this, viz. that
I have behaved myself so negligently in answering your godly triple
letters, which are three witnesses against me. God lay not them,
nor any other thing to my charge, to condemnation ; though to
correction, not my will, but his will be done.

Concerning your request of absolution, my dearest brother, what
shall I say, but even as truth is, that the Lord of all mercy, and
Father of all comfort; through the merits and mediation of his dear
Son, thy only Lord and Saviour, hath clearly remitted and par-
doned all thy offences, whatsoever they be, that ever hitherto thou
hast committed against HIS majesty ; and therefore he hath given
to thee, as to his child, dear brother John Careless, in token that
thy sins are pardoned ; HE, I say, hath given unto thee, a penitent
and believing heart, that is, a heart which desireth to repent and
believe ; for such a one is taken of him, he accepting the will for
the deed, for a penitent and believing heart indeed.

Wherefore, my good brother, be merry, glad, and of good
cheer, for the Lord hath taken away thy sins ; thou shalt not die.
Go thy ways; the Lord hath put away thy sins. The east is not so
far from the west, as the Lord hath now put thy sins from thee.
Look how high the heavens be in comparison of the earth, so
far hath his mercy prevailed towards thee his dear child, John
Careless, through Christ the beloved. Say therefore with David,
Praise the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me praise his holy

* Fox iii. 718.

343

name; for he hath forgiven thec all thy sins; as truly he hath.
And hereof I desire to be a witness. God make me worthy to hear
from you the like true message for myself.

Mine own dearly beloved, you have great cause to thank God
most heartily, that he hath given you such repentance and faith ;
the Lord increase the same in you and me, a most miserable wretch,
whose heart is harder than the adamant stone, or else I could not
thus long have stayed from writing unto you. If I live and may, I
purpose and promise you to make amends. Pray for me, my most
dear brother, I heartily beseech you, and forgive me my long
silence. God our Father, be with us for ever, Amen.*

Yours in the Lord,

JOHN BRADFORD.

No. lOO.t

To his dear Brother in the Lord, M. RICHARD HOPKINS, and

his Wife, dwelling in Coventry, and other his faithful
Brethren and Sisters, Professors of God's Holy Gospel,
there and thereabouts. +

THE peace which Christ left to his Church, and to every true
member of the same, the Holy Spirit, the guide of God's children; so
engraft in your heart, and in the heart of your good wife, and of all
my good brethren and sisters about you ; that unfeignedly ye may
in respect thereof, contemn all worldly peace, which is contrary to
that peace that I speak of; and driveth it utterly out of the hearts
of all those, who would patch them both together. For we cannot
serve two masters; no man can serve God and mammon; Christ's
peace cannot be kept with this world's peace. God therefore of his
mercy do I beseech, to give unto you his peace, which passeth all

* See Appendix, Note (I. I.) t Cov. 345.

j This is the same letter, which Dr. Gilbert Ironside published as an original, at the
end of Bishop Ridley's disputation, &c.

844

understanding; and so keep your hearts and minds, that they may be
pure habitations and mansions for the Holy Spirit, yea for the
blessed Trinity, who hath promised to come and dwell in all them
that love Christ, and keep his sayings.

My dearly beloved, the time is now come wherein trial is made
of men that have professed to love Christ, and would have been
counted keepers of his testimonies. But weal away, the tenth
person persevereth not; the more part do part stakes with the
papists and protestants, so that they are become mangy mongrels,
to the infecting of all who company with them, and to their no
small peril. For they pretend outwardly popery, going to mass
with the papists, and tarrying with them personally at their anti-
christian and idolatrous service,* but with their hearts, say they, and
with their spirits they serve the Lord. And by this means, as they
save their pigs, I mean their worldly pelf; so they would please the
protestants, and be counted with them for gospellers, yea marry
would they.

But, mine own beloved in the Lord, flee from such persons, as
from men most perilous and pernicious, both before God and man ;

* Could it have been believed that British statesmen would ever be found, who
would cashier and persecute to ruin, exemplary British officers, for conscientiously
refusing to defile themselves with this autichristian idolatry? No wonder that a go-
vernment adopting such conduct has been overturned with disgrace ; and may all the
abettors of such principles share their justly merited fate. No better indeed could
be expected from those, who during the whole of the Peninsular war, without scru-
ple attended mass themselves ; but how was it that not a single protestant bishop,
not a single protestant peer, even of those who were so justly and meritoriously
opposed to that inefficient, inexpedient, delusive and ruinous measure, the in-
famous Relief Bill, as it has been falsely called. Nay not even Lord Eldon, though a
member of the cabinet at the time, did not attempt to throw a shield over those
persecuted and meritorious officers ! We scarcely need add we allude to the case
of Capt. Atcheson.f And yet these are the men who, after having overthrown the
palladium of the Constitution, by conceding political power to the papists ; in order
to defeat a great public question, or more correctly to repossess themselves of their
places, and reinstate their friends in the hereditary monopoly of places and pensions ;
now dare to cry out, the Church, the Church, the Protestant Church is in danger !
and these are the men too, with whom certain other individuals, who ought to know
better, think it right to tamper and enter into a most unhallowed association.

t See Atcheson's Petition to the late King, and Correspondence with the Duke of
Wellington. London, 1829.

345

for they are false to both, and true to neither. To the magistrates
they are false, pretending- one thing and meaning- clean contrary.
To God they are most untrue, giving him but a piece, who should
have the whole. I would they would tell me, who made their
bodies ? Did not God, as well as their spirits and souls ? And who
keepeth both ? Doth not he still ? And alas, shall not he have the
service of the body, but it must be given to serve the new-found
God, of antichrist's invention ? Did not Christ buy both our souls,
and bodies ? And wherewith ? With any less price than with his
precious blood ? Ah, wretches then that we be, if we will defile
either part, wkh the rose-coloured whore of Babylon's filthy mass
abomination. It had been better for us never to have been washed,
than so to wallow ourselves in the filthy puddle of popery. It had
been better never to have known the truth, than thus to betray it.
Surely, surely, let such men fear that their latter end be not worse
than the beginning. Their own consciences now accuse them
before God, if so be they have any conscience, that they are but
dissemblers and hypocrites to God and man. For all the cloaks
they make, they cannot avoid this, but that their going to church
and to mass, is of self-love ; that is, they go thither because they
would avoid the cross. They go thither because they would be out
of trouble. They seek neither the Queen's Highness, nor her laws,
which in this point cannot bind the conscience to obey, because they
are contrary to God's laws, which often bid us to flee idolatry, and
worshipping him after men's devices. They seek neither, I say, the
laws, if there were any, neither their brethren's commodity; for none
cometh thereby, neither godliness or good example, for there can be
none found in going to mass, &c., but horrible offences and woe to
them that give them; but they seek their own selves, their own
ease, their escaping the cross, &c. When they have made all the
excuses they can, their own consciences will accuse them of this,
that their going to church is only because they seek themselves.
For if there would no trouble ensue for tarrying away, I appeal to
their consciences, would they come thither ? Never, I dare say.

Therefore, as I said, they seek themselves, they would not carry
the cross. And hereof their own consciences, if they have any
do accuse them. Now if their consciences accuse them at this pre-

346

sent, what will they do before the judgment seat of Christ? Who
will then excuse it, when Christ shall appear in judgment, and
shall begin to be ashamed of them there, who now are ashamed
of him here? Who then, I say, will excuse these mass gospel-
lers' consciences ? Will the Queen's Highness? She shall then
have more to do for herself, than without hearty and speedy
repentance, she can ever be able to answer; though Peter, Paul,
Mary, James, John the Pope, and all his prelates take her part,
with all the singing Sir Johns that ever were, are, or shall be.
Will the Lord Chancellor, and prelates of the realm, excuse them
there ? Nay, nay, they are like then to smart for it so sore, as I
would not be in their places for all the whole world. Will the laws
of the realm, the nobility, gentlemen, justices of peace, &c. excuse
our gospel massmongers' consciences then ? Nay, God knoweth they
can do little there but quake and fear for the heavy vengeance of God,
like to fall upon them. Will their goods, lands, and possessions,
the which they, by their dissembling have saved, will these serve to
excuse them ? No, no, God is no merchant, as our mass priests be.
Will masses, or trentals, or such trash serve ? No, verily, the haunters
of this gear shall then be horribly ashamed. Will the Catholic Church
excuse them ? Nay, it will most of all accuse them, as will all the
good fathers, patriarchs, apostles, prophets, martyrs, confessors, and
saints, with all the good doctors, and good general councils.

All these already condemn the mass, and all who ever use it as it
is now, being of all idols that ever was, the most abominable, and
blasphemous to Christ and his priesthood, manhood, and sacrifice ;f
for it maketh the priest that saith mass, God's fellow and better than
Christ, for the offerer is always better or equivalent to the thing
offered. If therefore the priest take upon him there to offer up
Christ, as they boldly affirm they do, then must he needs be better,
or equal with Christ. Oh that they would shew but one iota of the
Scripture of God calling them to this dignity, or of their authority
to offer up Christ for the quick and dead, and to apply the benefit
and virtue of his death and passion to whom they will.

'Popery was the masterpiece of satan. I believe him utterly incapable of such
another contrivance." Cecil's Remains, 175.

347

Surely if this were true, as it is most false and blasphemous, prate
they at their pleasure to the contrary ; then it made no matter at all,
whether Christ were our friend or no, if so he the mass priest were
our friend ; for he can apply Christ's merits to us by his mass if he will,
and when he will, and therefore we need little to care for Christ's
friendship. They can make him* when they will, and where they
will. Lo, here he is! there he is! say they! but believe them not
saith Christ, believe them not, believe them not saith HE. For in his
human nature and body, which was made of the Virgin's body, and
not of bread ; in this body^I say, HE IS, and sitteth on the right hand
of God, the Father Almighty in heaven, from where and not from
the pix, shall he come to judge both the quick and dead.

In the mean season, heaven, saith St. Peter, must receive him;
and as Paul saith, He prayeth for us, and now is not seen elsewhere,
or otherwise seen, than by faith there; until he shall be seen as he is,
to the salvation of them that look for his coming, which I trust is
not far off. For if the day of the Lord drew near, in the apostles'
time, which is now above fifteen hundred years past, it cannot be, I
trust, long hence now ; I trust our redeemer's coming is at hand.f
Then these mass sayers and seers, shall shake and cry to the hills,
Hide us from the fierce wrath of the Lamb, if they repent not in
time.

Then will neither gold, nor goods; friendship nor fellowship; lord-
ship nor authority, power nor pleasure, unity nor antiquity, custom
nor council, doctors, devils, nor any man's device serve. The word
which the Lord hath spoken, in that day shall judge; the word, I
say, of God in that day shall judge.

* See Appendix, Note (KK.)

t And it follows that the great event, is now three hundred years nearer tortseon-
snmmation. Yet as the apostles foretold, so in these latter times we find infidels and
scoffers, who tauntingly exclaim, "Where is the promise of his coming? For since
the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the
creation." But as the apostle adds, " such are willingly ignorant that by the word
of God, the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water, and in the
water. Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished.
But the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store,
reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. IPet.
iii. 4. T.

348

And what saith it of idolatry and idolaters ? saith it not, flee
from it? and further, that they shall be damned? Oh terrible sen-
tence to all mass-mongers, and worshippers of things, made with the
hands of bakers, carpenters, &c.* This Word of God knoweth no
more oblations or sacrifices for sin, but one only, which Christ him-
self offered, never more to be re-offered; but in remembrance thereof
his supper to be eaten sacramentally and spiritually, according to
Christ's institution ; which is so perverted now that there is nothing
in it, simply according to the judge, 1 mean the Word of God. It
were good for men to agree with their adversary, the Word of God,
now whilst they be in the way with it ; lest if they linger, it will
deliver them to the judge Christ, who will commit them to the jailor,
and so they shall be cast into prison, and never come out thence till
they have paid the uttermost farthing, that is never.

My dearly beloved, therefore mark the word, hearken to the
word ; it alloweth no massing, no such sacrificing nor worshipping
of Christ with tapers, candles, copes, canopies, &c. It alloweth no
Latin service, no images in the temples, no praying to dead saints,
no praying for the dead. It alloweth no such dissimulation, as a
great many use now outwardly. If any withdraw himself, My soul,
saith the Holy Ghost, shall have no pleasure in him.

It alloweth not the love of this world, which maketh men many
times, to act against their consciences ; for in them that love the
world, the love of God abideth not. It alloweth not gatherers else-
where than with Christ, but saith they scatter abroad. It alloweth
no lukewarm gentlemen, but if JEHOVAH be GOD, then follow him ;
if Baal, and a piece of bread^ be GOD, then follow it,

It alloweth not faith in the heart, that hath not confession in the
mouth. It alloweth no disciples who will not deny themselves,
and who will not take up their cross, and follow Christ. It alloweth
not the seeking of ourselves, or of our own ease and commodity. It
ulloweth not the more part but the better part. It alloweth not unity\

* See Appendix, Note (CC.)

+ See the vaunting claim of the See of Rome to be the CENTRE of UNITY tho-
roughly repudiated and exposed in Bishop Hall's Peace of Rome. London, 1609.
A most valuable tract, unaccountably omitted by M. Pratt, in his edition of that ex-
cellent prelate's works.

349

except it be in verity. It alloweth no obedience to any, wbicli can-
not be done without disobedience to God. It alloweth no Church
that is not the spouse of Christ, and hearkeueth not to his voice
only. It alloweth no doctor that speaketh against it. It alloweth
no general council that followeth not in all things.

Summa,it alloweth no angel, much more then any such, as would
teach any other thing than Moses, the prophets, Christ Jesus, and
his apostles have taught and left us to look upon, in the written Word
of God, the holy books of the Bible; but curseth all that teach, not
only contrary, but also any other doctrine. It saith they are fools,
unwise, and proud, who will not consent to the sound word and
doctrine of Christ, and his apostles ; and biddeth and commandeth
us to flee from such.

Therefore obey this commandment, company not with them,
especially in their church service, but flee from them; for in
what thing consent they to Christ's doctrine? HE biddeth us
pray in a tongue to edify; they command contrary. HE biddeth
us call upon his Father, in his name, when we pray; they
bid us run to Mary, Peter, &c. HE biddeth us to use his sup-
per in the remembrance of his death and passion, preaching it out
till it come, whereby he doth us to wit, that corporally he is not there,
in the form of bread; therefore, saith Paul, till he come. HE willeth
us to eat of the bread, calling it bread after consecration; and drink
of that cup all,* making no exception, so that we do it worthily;
that is, take it as the sacrament of his body and blood, broken and
shed for our sins, and not as the body itself, and blood itself, without
bread, without wine ; but as the sacrament of his body and blood,
whereby he doth represent, and to our faith give and obsign unto
us, himself wholly, with all the merits and glory of his body and
blood. But they utterly forbid the use of the supper, to all but to
their shavelings, except it be once in the year, and then also the cup
they take from us ; they never preach forth the Lord's death but in
mockery and moes. They take away all the sacrament by their
transubstantiation, for they take away the element, and so the sacra-

* Bibite ex hoc OMNES! Vuly. Matt. xxvi. 27.

350

rnent. To be short, they most horribly abuse this holy ordinance of
the Lord, by adoration, reservation, oblation, ostentation, &c.

In nothing are they contented with the simplicity of God's
word. They add to and take from it at their pleasure, and therefore
the plagues of God will fall upon them at the length, and upon all
that will take their part. They seek not Christ, nor his glory, for
you see they have utterly cast away his word ; and therefore, as the
prophet saith, there is no wisdom in them. They follow the strnm-
pet Church, and ba\vdy spouse of Christ, which they call the
Catholic Church ; whose foundation and pillars, is the devil, and his
daughter, the mass, with his children, the Pope and his prelates.
Their laws are craft and cruelty; their weapons are lying and
murder ; their end and study i* their own glory, fame, wealth, rest,
and possessions,

For if a man speak nor do nothing against these, though he be
a Sodomite, an adulterer, an usurer, &c., it forceth not, he shall be
quiet enough, no man shall trouble him. But if any one speak any
thing to God's glory, which cannot stand without the overthrow of
man's glory; then shall he be disquieted, imprisoned, and troubled,
except he will play mum, and put his finger upon his mouth,
although the same be a most quiet and godly man. So that easily
a man may see, how that they be antichrist's Church, and sworn
soldiers to the Pope and his spouse, and not to Christ and his
Church; for then would they not cast away God's word, then would
they be no more adversaries to his glory, which chiefly consisteth in
obedience to his word.

Therefore, my dear hearts in the Lord, seem not to allow this,
or any part of the pelf of this Romish Church, and synagogue of
satan. Halt not on both knees, for halting will bring you out of the
way ; but like valiant champions of the Lord, confess, confess I say,
with your mouth, as occasion serveth, and as your vocation requireth,
tshe hope and faith you have and feel in your heart.

But you will say, that so to do is perilous, you shall by that
janeans lose your liberty, your lands, your goods, your friends, your
name, your life, &c., and so shall your children be left in miserable
state, &c. To this I answer, my good brethren, that you have

351

professed in baptism, to fight under the standard of your Captain
Christ, and will you now, for peril's sake, leave your Lord ? You
made a solemn vow, that you would forsake the world, and will you
be forsworn, and run to embrace it now? You swore and promised
to leave all and follow Christ, and will you now leave him for your
father, your mother, your children, your lands, your life, &c? He
that hateth not these, saith Christ, is not worthy of me. He that
forsaketh not these and himself also, and withall taketh not up his
cross and followeth him, the same shall be none of his disciples.

Therefore, either bid Christ adieu, be forsworn, and run to the
devil quick, or else say, as a Christian should say, that wife, children,
goods, life, &c. are not to be dear unto you in respect of Christ, who
is your portion and inheritance. Let the worldlings, who have no
hope of eternal life, fear perils of loss of lands, goods, life, &c.
Here is not our home, we are here but pilgrims and strangers ; this
life is but the desert and wilderness to the land of rest. We look
for a city, whose \vorkman is God himself. We are now dwellers in
the tents of Kedar. We are now in warfare, in travail and labour,
whereto we were born, as the bird to fly. We sorrow and sigh,
desiring the dissolution of our bodies, and the putting off of cor-
ruption, that we might put on incorruption.

The way we walk in is strait and narrow, and therefore not easy
to our enemy, the corrupt flesh ; but yet we must walk on, for if we
hearken to our enemy, we shall be served not friendly. Let them
walk the wide way, who are ruled by their enemies ; let us be ruled
by our friends, and walk the strait way, whose end is weal, as the
other is woe. The time of our suffering is but short, as the time of
their ease is not long; but'the time of our rejoicing shall be endless,
as the time of their torments shall be ever, and intolerable. Our
breakfast is sharp, but our supper is sweet. The afflictions of this
life may not be compared in any part, to the glory that shall be
revealed unto us. This is certain, if we suffer with Christ, we shall
reign with him ; if we confess him, he will confess us, and that
before his Father in heaven, and all his angels and saints, saying,
Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom prepared for
you from the beginning. There shall be joy, mirth, pleasure, solace,
melody, and all kind of beatitude and felicity ; such as the eye hath

352

not seen, the ear hath not heard, nor the heart of man is able in any
point to conceive it, as it is.

In respect of this, and of the joy set before us, should not we
run our race, though it be something- rough ? Did not Moses so,
the prophets so, Christ so, the apostles so, the martyrs so, and the
confessors so? They were drunk with the sweetness of this gear,
and therefore they contemned all that man or devil could do to
them. Their souls thirsted after the Lord and his tabernacles, and
therefore their lives and goods were not too dear to them. Read
the eleventh chapter to the Hebrews, and 2 Maccabees vii., and let
us go the same way, that is, by many tribulations. Let us labour to
enter into the kingdom of heaven ; for all who will live godly in
Christ Jesu, must suffer persecution.

Think therefore the cross, if it come for confession of Christ, no
strange thing to God's children; but rather take it as the Lord's
medicine, by the which he helpeth our infirmities, and setteth forth
his glory. Our sins have deserved cross upon cross ; now if God
give us his cross to suffer for his truth and confessing him, as he
doth by it bury our sins; so doth he glorify us, making us like to
Christ here, that we may be like unto him elsewhere. For if we be
partakers of the affliction, we shall be partakers of the consolation ;
if we be like in ignominy, we shall be like in glory. Great cause
we have to give thanks to God, for lending us liberty, lands,
goods, wife, children, life, &c. thus long ; so that we shall be guilty
of ingratitude, if he now shall come and take the same away, except
we be cheerful and content.

God hath given, and God hath taken away, saith Job, as it
pleaseth the Lord, so be it done. And should not we do this,
especially when the Lord taketh these away of love to try us, and
prove us, whether we be faithful loves or strumpets, that is, whether
we love him better than his gifts, or otherwise ? This is a truth of
all truths to be laid up in our hearts, that that is not lost, which
seemeth so to be for the confession of Christ. In this life your
children shall find God's plentiful blessing upon them, when you are
gone, and all your goods taken away. God is so good, that he
helpeth the young ravens, before they can fly, and feedeth them
when their dams have most unkindly left them. And trow ye, that

353

God who is the God of the widows, and fatherless children, will not
especially have a care for the babes of his dear saints, who die, or
lose any thing 1 for conscience to him ?

Oh, my dearly beloved, look up therefore with the eyes of faith.
Consider not things present, but rather things to come. Be content
now to go, whither God shall gird and lead us. Let us now cast
ourselves wholly into his hands, with our wives, children, and all
that ever we have. Let us be sure, the hairs of our head are
numbered, so that one hair shall not perish, without the good will
of our dear Father, who hath commanded his angels to pitch their
tents about us ; and in their hands, to take and hold us up, that we
shall not hurt, so much as our foot, against a stone.

Let us use earnest prayer; let us heartily repent; let us hearken
diligently to God's word ; let us keep ourselves pure from all unclean-
ness, both of spirit and body; let us flee from all evil, and all
appearance of evil; let us be diligent in our vocation, and in doing
good to all men, especially to them who be of the household of
faith; let us live in peace with all men, as much as is in us. And
the Lord of peace give us his peace, and that for evermore, Amen.
I pray you remember me, your poor afflicted brother, in your hearty
prayers to God. This second of September.

JOHN BRADFORD.*

No. lOl.t

TO M. RICHARD HOPKINS^

Then Sheriff of Coventry, and Prisoner in the Fleet, for the
faithful and constant confessing of God's Holy Gospel.

DEARLY beloved in the Lord, I wish unto you, as unto mine own
brother, yea, as to mine own heart-root, God's mercy, and the feeling

* See Appendix, Note (LL.)
t Fox iii. 340. Cov. 354. J See Appendix, Note (MM.)

354

of the same, plentifully in Christ, our sweet Saviour; who gave
himself a ransom for our sins, and price for our redemption, praised
therefore be his holy name, for ever and ever, Amen.

I will not go about to excuse myself, for not sending unto you
hitherto, suffering for the Lord's sake as you do, to the comfort of
me, and of all that love you in the truth : but rather accuse myself,
both before God and you, desiring of you forgiveness, and with me
to pray to God, for pardon of this my unkind forgetting you; and
all other my sins, which I beseech the Lord in his mercy to do
away, for his Christ's sake, Amen.

Now to make amends to you ward, I would be glad if 1 could, but
because I cannot, I shall heartily desire you to accept the will, and
this which I shall now write unto you, thereafter; 1 mean, after my
will, and not after the deed, to accept and take it. At this present,
my dear heart in the Lord, you are in a blessed state, although it
seem otherwise to you, or rather unto your old Adam ; the which I
dare now be so bold as to discern from you, because you would have
him not only discerned, but also utterly destroyed. For if God be
true, then is his word true. Now his word pronounceth of your
state, that it is happy, therefore it must needs be so.

To prove this, 1 think it need not; for you know that the Holy
Ghost saith, that they are happy who suffer for righteousness' sake,
and that God's glory and Spirit, rest on them who suffer for conscience
to God. Now this you cannot but know, that this your suffering is
for righteousness' sake, and for conscience to God wards; for else
you might be out of trouble, even out of hand. I know in very
deed, that you have and feel your unthankfulness to God and other
sins, to witness to you, that you have deserved this imprisonment,
and lack of liberty betwixt God and yourself ; and I would you so
would confess unto God in your prayers, with petition for pardon,
and thanksgiving for his correcting you here. But you know that
the magistrates do not persecute in you your sins, your unthankful-
ness, &c.; but they persecute in you Christ himself, his righteousness,
his verity, and therefore happy be you, who have found such favour
with God your Father, as to account you worthy to suffer for his
sake, in the sight of man. Surely you shall rejoice therefore one
day, with a joy unspeakable, in the sight of man also.

355

You may think yourself born in a blessed time, who have found
this grace with God, to be a vessel of honour to suffer with his saints,
yea, with his Son. My beloved, God hath not done so with many.
The apostle saith, Not many noble, not many rich, not many wise
in the world, hath the Lord God chosen. Oh then, what cause have
you to rejoice, that amongst the not many, he hath chosen you to be
one. For this cause hath God placed you in your office, that there-
fore you might the more see, his special dig-nation and love towards
you. It had not been so great a thing, for M. Hopkins to have
suffered, as M. Hopkins ; as it is for M. Hopkins also to suffer, as
M. Sheriff. Oh, happy day that you were made Sheriff, by the
which, as God in this world would promote you to a more honourable
degree ; so by suffering in this room* he hath exalted you in heaven,
and in the sight of his Church, and children, to a much more
excellent glory.

When was it read that a Sheriff of a city hath suffered for the
Lord's sake ? Where read we of any Sheriff, who hath been cast into
prison for conscience to God wards? How could God have dealt
more lovingly with you, than herein he hath done? To the end of
the world it shall be written for a memorial to your praise, that
RICHARD HOPKINS, SHERIFF OF COVENTRY, FOR CONSCIENCE TO
DO HIS OFFICE BEFORE GoD, WAS CAST INTO THE FLEET, AND
THERE KEPT A PRISONER A LONG TIME.

Happy, and twice happy are you, if herefore you may give your
life. Never could you have attained to this promotion, on this sort,
out of that office. How do you preach now, not only to all men, but
especially to magistrates in this realm? Who would ever have
thought, that you should have been the first magistrate, who for
Christ's sake should have lost any thing ? As I said before therefore,
I say again, that your state is happy. Good brother, before God I
write the truth unto you, my conscience bearing me witness, that
you are in a most happy state with the Lord, and before his
sight.

Be thankful therefore, rejoice in your trouble, pray for patience,
persevere to the end, let patience have her perfect work. If you

* Fox. Roume. Cov.

356

want this wisdom and power, ask it of God, who will give it to you
in his good time. Hope still in him, yea, if he should slay you, yet
trust in him withJJob, and you shall perceive that the end will be,
to find him merciful and full of compassion ; for he will not break
promise with you, who hitherto did never so with any.

He is with you in trouble, he heareth you calling upon him ;
yea, before you call, your desires are not only known, but accepted
through Christ. If now and then he hide his face from you, it is
but to provoke your appetite, to make you the more to long for
him. This is most true, he is coming and will come, he will not
be long. But if for a time he seem to tarry, yet stand you still, and
you shall see the wonderful works of the Lord.

Oh, my beloved, wherefore should you be heavy ? Is not Christ,
Immanuel, God with us? Shall you not find that as he is true in
saying, In the world you shall have trouble; so is he in saying, In
me you shall have comfort ? He doth not swear only that trouble
will come, but withal lie sweareth that comfort shall ensue. And
what comfort ? Such a comfort as the eye hath not seen, the ear
hath not heard, nor the heart of man can conceive. Oh, great
comfort; who shall have this? Forsooth, they that suffer for the
Lord. And are not you one of them? Yea, verily are you. Then,
as 1 said, happy, happy, and happy again are you, my dearly
beloved in the Lord. You now suffer with the Lord, surely you
shall be glorified with him. Call upon God therefore now in your
trouble, and he will hear you ; yea, deliver you in such sort, as most
shall make both to his and your glory also. And in this calling, 1
heartily pray you to pray for me, your fellow in affliction. Now we
be both going in the high way to heaven, for by many afflictions
must we enter in thither; whither God bring us for his mercy's
sake, Amen. Amen.

JOHN BRADFORD.

357

No.

TO HIS GOOD SISTER, MRS. ELIZABETH
BROWN.

GOOD sister, God our Father make perfect the good he hath
begun in you, unto the end.

I am afraid to write unto you, because you so overcharge yourself
at all times, even whensoever 1 do but send to you commendations.
I would be more bold on you, than on many others ; and therefore
you might suspend so great tokens, till I should write unto you of
my need ; which thing doubtless I would do, if it urged me.

Dear sister, I see your unfeigned love to mewards in God, and
have done of long time; the which I do recompense with the like,
and will do by God's grace, so long as 1 live ; and therefore I hope
not to forget you, but in my poor prayers to have you in remem-
brance, as 1 hope you have me. Otherwise I can do you no service,
except it be now and then by my writing, to let you from better
exercise; where yet the end of my writing is to excite and stir up
your heart more earnestly, to go on forwards in your well-begun
enterprise.

For you know none shall be crowned, but such as strive lawfully;
and none receive the gleve, but those who run to the appointed
mark. None shall be saved, but such as persist and continue to the
very end ! Wherefore, dear sister, remember that we have need of
patience, that when we have done the good will of God, we may
receive the promise. Patience and perseverance be the proper notes,
\vhereby God's children are known from counterfeits. They that
persevere not, were always but hypocrites. Many make godly
beginnings, yea, their progress seemeth marvellous, but yet, after
the end, they fail. These were never of us, saith St. John, for if
they had been of us, they would have continued to the very end.

Go to therefore, mine own beloved in the Lord; as you have
well begun, and well gone forward, so well persist and happily end,

* Fox iii. 341. Cov. 412.

358

and then all is yours Though this be sharp and sour, yet it is not
tedious or long 1 . Do all that ever you do, simply for God, and as to
God ; so shall never unkindness, nor any other thing, make you to
leave off from well doing, so long as you may do well.

Accustom yourself now, to see God continually, that he may be
all in all unto you. In good things, behold his mercy, and apply it
unto yourself. In evil things and plagues, behold his judgments ;
wherethrough learn to fear him. Beware of sin, as the serpent of
the soul, which spoileth us of all our ornature and seemly apparel,
in God's sight. Let Christ cruci6ed be your book to study on, and
that both night and day. Mark your vocation, and be diligent in
the works thereof; use hearty and earnest prayer, and that in spirit.
In all things give thanks to God, our Father, through Christ.
Labour to have here, life everlasting begun in you ; for else it will
not be elsewhere enjoyed. Set God's judgment often before your
eyes, that now examining yourself, you may make diligent suit, and
obtain never to come into judgment.

Uncover your evils to God, that he may cover them. Beware of
this antichristian trash, defile not yourself in soul or body therewith ;
but accomplish holiness in the fear of God, and bear no yoke with
unbelievers. Look for the coming of the Lord, which is at hand ;
by earnest prayer, and godly life, hasten it. God, our Father,
accomplish his good work in you. Amen.

Commend me to my good mother Mrs. Wilkinson, and to my
very dear sister Mrs. Warcup. 1 shall daily commend you all to
God, and I pray you to do the like to me.

JOHN BRADFORD.

No. 103.*
TO THE SAME.

GOOD Sister, I beseecli God to make perfect the good winch he
hath begun in you, unto the very end, Amen.

* Cov. 413.

359

This life more and more waxeth unto us, as it should be, that is
a miserable life, a weeping life, a woful life; and therefore let us
long for our happy life, our laughing life, our joyful life ; which we
shall enjoy, and then have in very deed, when we depart by death
out of this dangerous state wherein we now are, by reason of this
sinful flesh, which we carry about us. Therefore let us prepare our-
selves accordingly, and in misery and sorrow, be glad through hope.

Now we are dispersed, but we shall be gathered together again
there, where we shall never part, but always be together in joy
eternal. In hope hereof, let us bear with better will, our bitter bur-
dens which we feel, and shall feel in this miserable world. We have
cause to thank God, that maketh this world unto us a wilderness. If
so be therein we be patient, kiss God's rod, and humble ourselves
before God ; assuredly we shall come into the most pleasant land of
rest.

Wherefore, good sister, as I said, I say again, be merry with
sorrow, rejoice in hope, be patient in trouble, pray in affliction ; and
amongst others, I pray you heartily pray for me, that God would
forgive me my unthankful ness, not only against you, which is great
indeed ; but also against all his people, and especially against his
own Majesty. As I can, I shall commend you, unto the tuition of
our shepherd Christ, who always keep us as his lambs, for his holy
name's sake, Amen.

Your afflicted brother,

JOHN BRADFORD.

No. 104*

TO A FRIEND,

Instructing him, how he should answer his Adversaries.

MY good brother, our merciful God and dear Father through
Christ, open your eyes effectually to see, and your heart ardently to

* Fox iii. 342. Cov. 389.

desire the everlasting joy, which he has prepared for his slaughter
sheep, that is, for such as shrink not from his truth for any such
storm's sake, Amen.

When you shall come before the magistrates, to give an answer
of the hope which is in you, do it with all reverence and simplicity.
And because you may be something afraid, by the power of the
magistrates, and cruelty which they will threaten against you; I
would have you set before you the good father Moses, to follow his
example ; for he set the invincible God before his eyes of faith, and
with them looked upon God, and his glorious majesty and power;
as with his corporal eyes, he saw Pharaoh and all his fearful terrors.
So do you, my dearly beloved, let your inward eyes give such light
unto you, that as you know you are before the magistrates, so and
much more, you and they al?o are present before the face of God;
who will give such wisdom to you, fearing him and seeking his
praise, as the enemies shall wonder at ; and further he will so order
their hearts and doings, that they shall, will they, nill they, serve
God's providence towards you; which you cannot avoid though you
would, as shall be most to his glory and your everlasting comfort.

Therefore, my good brother, let your whole study be, only to
please God, put him always before your eyes, for he is on your right
hand, lest you should be moved ; he is faithful and never will suffer
you to be tempted, above that he will make you able to bear. Yea,
every hair of your head he hath numbered, so that one of them shall
not perish without his good will ; which cannot be but good unto
you, in that he has become your father through Christ, and therefore
as he hath given you to believe in him, (God increase his belief in
us all,) so now doth he graciously give unto you to suffer for his
name's sake ; the whicli you ought with all thankfulness to receive,
in that you are made worthy to drink of the self-same cup, which
not only the very Son of God has drank of before you, but even the
very natural Son of God himself, hath brought you good luck. Oh,
may he of his mercy, make us thankful to pledge him again. Amen.

Because the chiefest matter they will trouble you, and go about
to deceive you withal, is the sacrament ; not of Christ's body and
blood, but of the altar as they call it, thereby destroying the sacra-
ment whicli Christ instituted; I would have you note these two

361

things. First, that the sacrament of the altar, which the priest
offereth in the mass, and eateth privately with himself, is not the
sacrament of Christ's body and blood, instituted by him; as Christ's
institution, plainly written and set forth in the Scriptures, being com-
pared with their using of it, doth plainly declare.

Again, if they talk with you of Christ's sacrament instituted by
him, whether it be Christ's body or no, answer them ; that as to the
eyes of your reason, to your taste, and corporal senses, it is bread
and wine, and therefore the Scripture calleth it so, after the conse-
cration,' even so to the eyes, taste, and senses of your faith, which
ascendeth to the right hand of God in heaven, where Christ sitteth,
it is in very deed, Christ's body and blood; which spiritually your
soul feedeth upon to everlasting life, in faith, and by faith, even as
your body presently feedeth, on the sacramental bread and sacra-
mental wine.

By this means, as you shall not allow transubstantiation, nor none
of their popish opinions; so shall you declare the sacrament to be a
matter of faith, and not of reason, as the papists make it. For they
deny God's omnipresence, in that they say, Christ is not there, if
bread be there; but faith looketh on the omnipotence of God, joined
with his promise, and doubteth not, but that Christ is able to give
that which he promiseth us spiritually by faith, the bread still
remaining in substance, as well as if the substance of bread were
taken away; for Christ saith not in any place, This is no bread.

But of this gear, God shall instruct you, if you hang on his
promise, and pray for the power and wisdom of his Spirit ; which
undoubtedly as you are bound to look for, praying for it, so he hath
bound himself by his promise to give it ; the which thing may he
grant unto us both, and to all his people, for his name's sake, through
Christ, our Lord, Amen.

JOHN BRADFORD.

862

No. 105.*

TO CERTAIN GODLY MEN,

Whom Bradford exhorteth to be patient under the cross, and
constant in the true doctrine, which they had professed.

MY dearly beloved in the Lord, as in him I wish you well to fare ;
so I pray God I and you may continue in his true service, that per-
petually we may enjoy the same welfare, as here in hope, so in hea-
ven indeed, and eternally.

You know this world is not your home, but a pilgrimage and
place, wherein God trieth his children ; and therefore as it knoweth
you not, nor can know you; so I trust you know not it; that is, you
allow it not, nor in any point will seem so to do, although by many,
you may be occasioned thereto. For this hot sun, which now shineth,
burneth so sore, that the corn which is sown upon sand and stony
ground, beginneth to wither ; that is, many who beforetimes we
took for hearty gospellers, begin now, for the fear of affliction, to
relent; yea, to turn to their vomit again, thereby declaring, that
though they go from amongst us, yet were they never of us ; for
else they would have still tarried with us, and neither for gain nor
loss, have left us either in word or deed.

As for their heart, which undoubtedly is double, and therefore
in danger to God's curse, we have as much with us, as the papists
have with them, and more too, by their own judgment. For they,
playing wily, beguile themselves, thinking it enough inwardly to fa-
vour the truth, though outwardly they curry favour. What though
with my body, say they, I do this or that, God knoweth my heart is
whole with him. Ah brother, if thy heart be whole with God, why
dost thou not confess and declare thyself accordingly, by word and
fact? Either that which thou sayest thou believest in thy heart, is
good or no. If it be good, why art thou ashamed of it ? If it be evil,

* Fox iii. 343. Cov. 419.

363

why dost thou keep it in thy heart ? Is not God able to defend thce,
adventuring thyself for his cause? Or will not he defend his wor-
shippers? Doth not the Scripture say that the eyes of the Lord are
on them that fear him, and trust in his mercy? And whereto?
Forsooth, to deliver their souls from death, and to feed them in the
time of hunger.

If this be true, as it is most true, why are we afraid of death, as
though God, contrary to his promise, could not or would not comfort
or deliver us? Why are we afraid of the loss of our goods, as though
God would have them who fear him, destitute of all good things, and
so do against his most ample promises? Ah, faith, faith, how few feel
thee now-a-days? Full truly, said Christ, that he should scarcely
find faith when he came on earth. For if men believed these pro-
mises, they would never do any thing outwardly, which inwardly
they disallow. No example of men, how many soever they be, or
how learned soever they be, can prevail in this behalf; for the pat-
tern which we must follow is Christ himself, and not the more com-
pany, or custom.* His WORD is the lantern to lighten our steps,
and not learned men. Company and custom are to be considered
according to the thing they allow. Learned men are to be listened
to, and followed according to God's love and law, for else the more
part goeth to the devil. As custom causeth error and blindness^ so
learning^ if it be not according to the light of God's word, is poison,
and learned men most pernicious. The devil is called demon for his
cunning, and the children of this world are much wiser than the
children of light, in their generation ; and I know the devil and his
dearlingshave always, for the most part, more helps in this life, than
Christ's Church and her children.

They, the devil and his synagogue I mean, have custom, multi-
tude, unity, antiquity, learning, power, riches, honour, dignity, and
promotions plenty ; as they always have had, and shall have com-
monly, and for the most part, until Christ's coming; much more
then the true Church hath presently, heretofore hath had, or here-
after shall have. For her glory, riches, and honour are not here; her
trial, cross, and warfare are here. And therefore, my dear hearts in

* See Appendix, Note (EE.)

364

the Lord, consider these things accordingly. Consider what you
be, not worldlings, but God's children. Consider where you be, not
at home, but in a strange country. Consider among whom you are
conversant, even in the midst of your enemies, and of a wicked gene-
ration ; and then, I trust, you will not much muse at affliction, which
you cannot be without, being as you be, God's children, in a strange
country, and in the midst of your enemies ; except you would leave
your Captain, CHRIST, and follow satan^ for the muck of this mould,
rest and quietness, which he may promise you ; and you indeed think
you shall receive it, by doing as he would have you to do, but my
sweet hearts, he is not able to pay what he promiseth.

Peace and war come from God, riches, and poverty, wealth and
woe. The devil hath no power but by God's permission. If then God
permit him a little on your goods, body, or life, 1 pray you tell me,
what can much hurt you, as Peter saith, you being followers of god-
liness? Think you that God will not remember you in his time, as
most shall be to your comfort? Can a woman forget the child of her
womb? And if she should, yet will notl forget thee, saith the Lord.
Look upon Abraham in his exile and misery, look upon Jacob, Jo-
seph, Moses, David, the prophets, apostles, and all the godly from the
beginning ; and my good brethren, is not God the same God ? Is he a
changeling ? You have heard of the patience of God, saith St, James,
and you have seen the end, how that God is merciful, patient, and
long suffering ; even so say I unto you, that you shall find accordingly,
if so be you be patient, that is, if so be you fear him, set his word be-
fore you, serve him thereafter, and if when he lay his cross on you, you
bear it with patience ; the which you shall do, when you consider it
not according to the present sense, but according to the end.*

Therefore I heartily beseech you, and out of my bonds, which I
suffer for your sake, pray you, mine own sweet hearts in the Lord ;
that you would cleave in heart and humble obedience to the doctrine
taught you by me, and many others of my brethren. For we have
taught you no fables nor tales of men, or our own fantasies ; but
the very word of God, which we are ready with our lives, God so
enabling! us, as we trust he will, to confirm ; and by the shedding

* Heb. xii. 2 Cor. iv. + Enhabling.

365

of our bloods, in all patience and humble obedience to the superior
powers, to testify and seal up; as well that you might be more cer-
tain of the doctrine, as that you might be ready to confess the same
before this wicked world ; knowing that if we confess Christ, and his
truth before men, he will confess us before his Father in heaven. If
so be we be ashamed hereof, for loss of life, friends, or goods, he will
be ashamed of us before his Father, and his holy angels in heaven.

Therefore, take heed, for the Lord's sake, take heed, take heed,
and deh'le not your bodies or souls with this Romish and antichris-
tian religion, set up amongst us again ; but come away, come away,
as the angel crieth, from amongst them, in their idolatrous service,
lest you be partakers of their iniquity.

Hearken to your preachers, as the Thessalonians did to Paul;
that is, compare* their sayings with the Scriptures; and if they sound
not thereafter, the morning light shall not shine upon them. Use
much and hearty prayer for the spirit of wisdom, knowledge, hum-
bleness, meekness, sobriety, and repentance ; which we have great
need of, because our sins have thus provoked the Lord's anger
against us. But let us bear his anger, and acknowledge our faults
with bitter tears, and sorrowful sighs; and doubtless he will be mer-
ciful to us, after his wonted mercy. The which thing may he
vouchsafe to do, for his holy name's sake, in Christ Jesu our Lord ;
to whom, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be all honour, glory,
praise, and everlasting thanks, from this time forth, for evermore,
Amen.

Out of prison, by yours in the Lord, to command,

JOHN BRADFORD.

Confer.

366

No. 106.*

TO HIS GOOD BROTHER, AUGUSTINE
BERNHER.t

MINE own good Augustine, the Lord of mercy bless you, my
dear brother, for ever. I have good hope that if you come late at
night, I shall speak with you, but come as secretly as you can.
Howbeit, in the mean season, if you can, and as you can, learn
what M. G.j hath spoken to Dr. Story and others. The cause of all
this trouble, both to my keeper and me, is thought to come by him .

It is said that I shall be burned in Smithfield, and that shortly.
Domini voluntas fiat. Ecce ego, Domine> mitte me. Ah, mine own
sweet friend, I am now alone, lest I should make you and others
worse. If I should live, I would more warily use the company of
God's children, than ever I have done. Irani Domini portabo,
quoniam peccavi ei. Commend me to my most dear sister, for
whom my heart bleeds, the Lord comfort her and strengthen her
unto the end. I think I have taken my leave of her for ever in this
life, but in eternal life we shall most surely meet, and praise the
Lord continually.

I have now taken a more certain answer of death, than ever I
did ; and yet not so certain as I think I should do. 1 am now as a
sheep appointed to the slaughter. Ah, my God, the hour is come,
glorify thy most unworthy child. I have glorified thee, saith this
my sweet Father, and I will glorify thee, Amen. Ah, mine own
bowels, praise God for me, and pray for me; for I am his, I hope;
I hope he will never forsake me, though I have, above all others,
most deserved it. I am the most singular example of his mercy;
praised be his name therefore for ever.

* Fox iii. 348. Cov. 468.

t See Appendix, Note (NN.)

Grimbold or Grimoald. See Appendix, p. xlix.

367

Cause Mrs. Pierpoint to learn of the Sheriff, M . Chester, what
they purpose to do with me, and know if you can, whether there be
any writ forth for me. Factus sum xicut Nycticorax in domicilio^
et passer solitarius in lecto. Ah, my Augustine, how long- shall
God's enemies thus triumph? I have sent you this, of the baptism
of children, to write out; when this is done, you shall have other
things. Pray, pray, mine own dear heart, on whom I am bold.
The keeper telleth me, that it is death for any to speak with me,
but yet I trust that I shall speak with yon.

JOHN BRADFORD.

No. 107.*
TO HIS OWN GOOD AUGUSTINE.

DEAR brother Augustine, I cannot but be bold of you in my
need, and therefore I write as I do. Come hither betimes, I pray
you, in the morning, and use so to do; for then, I think, you shall
speak with me. Also use to come late in the evening, and let me
know, whether in the day time I may send for you. Pray Walsh to
steal you in, as I hope he will do. If he do bring you in, then shall
this which followeth, not need ; but doubting the worst, this do
I write.

First, will my man William, to make all things, ready for me,
for I am persuaded 1 shall into Lancashire, there to be burned;
howbeit, first they say, I must to the Fleet. Then, will him to
hearken early in the morning, whether I be not conveyed away,
before men be aware. Also, 1 pray you, will Robert Harrington,
who I hope will go with me, to look for that journey. Visit often
my dear sister, and although I cannot now write unto her, as
I would, for all things are more strange here, and cases more and
more perilous, yet tell her that I am careful for her ; desire her to
have good comfort ; God shall give us to meet in his kingdom. In

* Cov. 470.

368

the mean season, I will pray for her, as my dearest sister. Of truth,
] never did love her half so well as I now do, and yet 1 love her not
half so well as I would do ; she is the very daughter of Abraham.

I pray thee heartily, be merry, my good brother, and desire all
my friends so to be; for, I thank God, I feel a greater benefit than
all the bishops in England can take from me. Praise God, and
pray for me, mine own dear heart in the Lord, whom I hope I shall
never forget.

Your poor brother in the Lord,

JOHN BRADFORD.

No. 108.*

TO HIS GOOD BROTHER, M. COKER,

At Maldon, in Essex.

ALTHOUGH I have at present, both little time, and less opportunity
otherwise, to write as I would ; yet as I may, I thought better to
write something than utterly to be silent For if I should not so do,
having so convenient a messenger ; as I might, towards you incur
the suspicion of ingratitude, and forgetfulness ; so might I not
satisfy the desire of this my poor brother and friend, John Search-
field, who cometh unto you for help and comfort, in this troublesome
time.

This dare I say, that the man feareth God ; and for God's sake,
and conscience towards him, sustaineth both loss and labour. For
our common Father's sake therefore, in Christ, help him to some
hole, to hide himself in, for a little time, if conveniently you may ;
and remember that he that receiveth one of Christ's little ones,
receiveth Christ, as he himself, in the last day, will acknowledge.
Which last day, let us often look on and set before us, as the thing
which most maketh to our comfort.

Cov. 388.

369

Now we sorrow and sigh, to see the sea swell and rage on this
sort, as it doth. And to confess the truth, we have double cause ;
as well because we have deserved this sour sauce, by reason of our
unthankfulness and many sins, which the Lord pardon, as because
God's glory is trodden under foot. But this comfort we have, that
as God, our good Father, will not the death of a sinner, so will he
order this gear, most to his glory, and our joy and comfort, if we
repent now, and heartily lament our evils, use earnest, humble, and
often, yea, continual prayer ; and cast ourselves wholly on him, and
his goodness ; still labouring to lothe this life, and longing for the
life to come. For the which, we should account this, as it is, a very
vale of misery, much to be mourned in, because the time of our
habitation herein, and exile, is prolonged. May God grant us his
Holy Spirit, to strengthen us in his truth professed, that we may
persevere to the end, in the joyful and courageous confessing of
his Christ, Amen. I pray you continue, as, 1 trust, you do, to keep
both soul and body pure in God's service. Strive to enter in at the
narrow gate, though you leave your lands and goods behind you.
It is not lost, which for Christ's sake we leave, but lent to a great
usury. Remember that this time is come but to try us. God make
us faithful to the end ; God keep us always as his children, Amen.
I pray you commend me to M. Osburne, and to all our good
brethren in the Lord. The peace of Christ be with us all, Amen,
Amen.

Yours in Christ,

JOHN BRADFORD.

370

No. 109.*

TO HIS OWN GOOD BROTHER, M. JOHN
PHILPOT 5 t

Prisoner in the King's Bench.

MY dear brother, God our Father be praised for the good he
doth work in you and by you. Even now I have received your
loving- letters, wherein 1 see cause to bless God for the wisdom, love,
and efficacy, he hath and doth work, in you, and by you. Go on for
God's sake to seek unity in Christ. If any will go to work dissem-
blingly, refuse it not ; either it shall increase his damnation, or occa-
sion him the sooner to conversion. The dissembling of Judas turned
to the hurt of himself only. If once we come into an unity and love,
then shall we not suspect one another, neither take things in the
worse part.

Nothing hindereth themj more, than for that now they hear all
that ever we speak, cum prejudicio, where, if an unity be had, this
prejudicium will be taken away, and so then shall they see the
truth, the sooner. Therefore, mine own dearest brother, go on and
bring it to a good end. God, our Father, be with thee for ever,
Amen.

Pray, my good brother, and desire mine own fellow and beloved
brother, J. Careless, to do the like. I shall pray for you, both in
ray prayers with others, and with myself alonely, as for my most
dear brother upon earth. I will not forget, by God's grace, to
write in the behalf of our brethren in necessity. Jesus Christ, our
sweet Saviour, be with us all, Emanuel for ever, Amen.

Your own in the Lord,

JOHN BRADFORD.

* Cov. 408.

f Another of the Martyrs. Fox iii. 538610. He was son of Sir Peter Philpot,
educated at Winchester School, and afterwards Archdeacon of Winchester; and
boldly maintained the Reformation, in the Convocation held in Queen Mary's Reign.
Strype Eccl. Mem. iii. 1. 436. 438.

J He meaneth here certain free-will men. Cov. $ See Nos. 98. 99.

371

No. 110.*

TO CERTAIN GODLY MEN,

Relievers and Helpers of Bradford and others, in their
imprisonment.

THE peace of Christ, which passeth all pleasure and worldly
felicity, be daily more and more felt in your hearts, my right dearly
beloved in the Lord, by the inward working 1 of the Holy Spirit, the
earnest of our inheritance, and guider of God's elect; with the
which, may God, our dear Father, more and more endue us all unto
the end, for his beloved Son's sake, our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

Praised be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is a
Father of mercy, and a God of all consolation; who hath blessed you
with the knowledge and love of his truth, not only to your own
comforts; but also the great ease and comfort of many, who without
the help of God, by you hitherto, had been in much more misery.
By your relieving the Lord's prisoners, 1 am brought to see the root
whereof the work doth spring, even the knowledge and love of
God's truth, wherefore we are in bonds. The which knowledge and
love, in that it is a blessing of all blessings the greatest, for it is
even eternal life, John xvii. ; I cannot but praise God for you on this
behalf, that it hath pleased him to vouch you, worthy so excellent
and singular a benefit; which is more to be esteemed, desired, and
cared for, than any thing else.

The world, for all that ever it hath, cannot attain by any means
to this blessing, which God, our Father, hath given you freely of
his own good will through Christ, even before ye were purposed to
desire it. Therefore 1 beseech you all to be thankful with me, and
to rejoice in the Lord. For if he have given us such a gift unasked,
undesired, yea, unthought upon ; how can it be that he will deny
us any good thing now, which may be necessary for us ? Will he,
trow ye, sow his seed in the ground of your hearts, and not keep

* Cov. 460.

372

away the fowls from picking it up ? Would he so bestow his seed in
you as he hath, if that he would not hedge in your hearts, his field,
from common paths, and from breaking in of beasts to destroy it ?
Will he be more careless than a good husbandman to weed out the
weeds which are in us, lest they should overgrow the corn of his
word ? Will not he bestow muck and marl upon us, that we may
bring forth more fruit? If in a good husbandman this be not
lacking, alas, how should we think then, but that the Lord God, a
good husbandman, and nothing but good, and only good ; how, I
say, should it be, but that he is most careful to keep his seed, already
sown in your hearts, by the ministry of us and other his preachers;
and that to the bringing forth of just and full fruits ? He that hath
begun with you, will happily make an end with you. He hath be-
gan to sow his seed in you, as I dare say you feel it. Be sure
then that all this will follow; first, he will have scarecrows in
your hearts ; I mean, such sparkles of his fear will he drop, yea,
already he hath dropped into you, that the birds of the air, vain
and evil cogitations, shall not be cherished of you, but expelled, by
crying to the Lord for his help. Secondly, he will make such
hedges, as shall keep you, as well from by-paths of all evil customs
and usages; as also preserve you from the power of evil and dominion
of sin, which would have the upper hand of you. Thirdly, he will
doubtless pour such showers upon you, to supply you, so weed you,
so muck and marl you by temptation and other exercises, that the
sunshine of persecution shall make more to the ripening of his seed
in you, than to the withering of it away.

These things, my dearly beloved, the Lord God, who hath begun
them in you and for you, will continue with you ; that in the end
you may be brought into his barn, there to rest with him in eternal
felicity. For God's sake, therefore, wait and look for no less than I
have told you at his hands ; a greater service can you not give him.
If God keep not the order I have told you, but perchance begin to
muck and marl you, to pour his showers upon you ; to nip you with
his weeding tongs, &c.; rejoice and be glad, that God will do that in
you and with you at once, which a long time he hath been working
in and for others. Now undoubtedly great showers are fallen, to
supply our hearts, that [God's word might enter therein and take

373

root. Now the Lord goeth a weeding, to weed out of us our carnality,
security, covetousness, self-love, forgetfulness of God, and love of this
world. Now the Lord doth muck and marl us, loading 1 us with heaps
and burdens of crosses, that our hearts might be made good ground,
to bring forth fruit to God's glory by patience; as well in suffering
inward temptations and griefs, whereof we must complain to the
Lord, for his scarecrows to drive them forth of us, as also in suffering
outward assaults ; for the which we must cry to our master, for his
hedges and defence, which hath avo parts; the one concerning us,
to help and deliver us ; and the other concerning our, or rather his,
obstinate adversaries, to take vengeance upon them, which he will
do in his time.

Therefore let us by patience possess our souls, knowing that they
who persevere to the end, shall be saved. Let us not be weary of
well-doing, for in our time we shall reap the fruits thereof. But
rather, while we have time, let us redeem it in doing well to all men,
but especially to the household ot faith ; which thing hereto you have
done, the Lord therefore be praised, and in the days of his coming
may he recompence you ; and in the rest I hope well ; 1 mean that you
have declared no less, in confessing the truth planted in your hearts,
by your words and works, after your vocation, to the glory of God.

1 hope you have godly behaved yourselves, not being as too many
be now-a-days, even mongrels, giving half to God, and half to the
world ; halting on both knees, going two ways ; 1 mean it of the
mass-gospellers, who are worse than any papists. In this point I
hope well of you, rny dearly beloved, that you have not contaminated
yourselves ; that you have both confessed the truth as oft as need
hath required, and also have refrained from coming to church now,
where is nothing but idolatrous service. I hope you have glorified
God, both in soul and body. I hope you have gathered with Christ,
and not scattered abroad. I hope you have drawn no yoke with
unbelievers, nor communicated with other men's sins, but have ab-
stained from all appearance of evil ; confessing in heart, confessing
in tongue, confessing indeed and act, the true knowledge of God,
which he hath of his great mercy given unto you; not to be as a
candle under a bushel, but upon the candlestick, to give light that
men may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in

374

heaven. All this I hope of you, my beloved, and also of all purity
of life and godly conversation ; not doubting, but in this behalf also,
you have declared God's verity in your heart, and for the Lord's
sake do so still, in all points ; that is, in your vocations be diligent
and righteous, towards yourselves be sober and pure, towards your
neighbours be charitable and just, towards God be faithful and
thankful, loving and obedient.

Use earnest and often hearty prayer. Meditate much upon,
and often hearken to, the Word of God. If you be called, give
with modesty an account of the hope which is in you. Be
not ashamed of God's true service, allow not that with your
presence, which is contrary to God's will. Make not the mem-
bers of Christ's Church, that is yourselves, members of antichrist's
church. Be not ashamed of the gospel, or of such as be bound
therefore, but rather be partakers thereof; first inwardly, by com-
passion, prayer, &c. ; then outwardly, by giving, according to that
the Lord hath lent you to that end; and last of all, by suffering
with us if God so will, and if it be needful for yon. For, my
dearly beloved, be certain that no man can touch you, or lay hands
upon you, but by the will of God, who is all good towards you ;
even as the will of a most dear father, who cannot always be angry,
or otherwise use his rod, than only to chastise and correct, not to
destroy his children.

Again, be certain that no cross shall come unto you before you
need it. For God is our physician, and when he seeth our souls in
peril, he preventeth the peril by purgation, and ministering physic,
which is the cross. As therefore for the body, we follow the advice
of physicians for the health thereof, thankfully using their counsel
and following their precepts ; so for God's sake, let us for our souls,
being sick, thankfully receive the heavenly physician's physic and
diet; so shall we wax strong men in God, and in his Christ; which
thing I beseech thee, O Holy Spirit, to work in us all, Amen.

My dearly beloved, this have I briefly written unto you, not as
one that seeketh any gifts, as Paul saith ; but as one that seeketh
abundant fruits on your behalf, and to your commodity. For it is
better to give than to receive, saith Christ, by his apostle St. Paul ;
who testifieth, That according to that we sow, so shall we reap. He

375

that sovveth little, shall reap little; he that soweth much, shall reap
much. Never should we forget, how that the Lord Jesus, being rich,
for our sakes became poor, that we might be made rich by him.
Again, never should we forget that we are dead to sin and alive to
righteousness. Therefore should we live wholly unto God and for
God, and not for ourselves. In all things, therefore, we must avoid
the seeking of ourselves, as well in doing, as in leaving things un-
done. If the cross come upon us, therefore, then are we happy, for
the Spirit of God, and glory of God, resteth upon us. Therefore
rejoice, saith Christ, for your reward is great in heaven. In this
we are made like to Christ here ; therefore, we shall be so elsewhere,
even in eternal joy and endless glory.

The highway to heaven, you know, is affliction ; so that all that
will live godly in Christ Jesus, must suffer persecution. If we were
of the world, the world would love us; but we are not of the world,
but bear witness against the world, and therefore the world doth hate
us. But let us rejoice, our Lord hath overcome the world. He suf-
icred out of the city, bearing our rebuke, saith the apostle. Let us
then go out of our tents, and bear his rebuke; that is, let us deny
ourselves, take up our cross, which is his also, and follow him. Let
us know and esteem this more riches than all the treasures of the
world, as Moses did. Let us know, that he that saveth his life shall
lose it. Let us know, that the way to salvation is a straight way,
and a way wherein we cannot carry our bags and chests with us.
Let us know, that no excuse of wife, farm, house, or child, will ex-
cuse us. Let us know, that in this case we must be so far from
loving father, mother, wife, and children, that we must hate them,
and our own selves also.

Though this be a hard saying, yet we must not leave our
loads-man for a little foul way. Yea, rather we should know
indeed, that it is but hard to the flesh, which, if she be handled
daintily, will be imperious; under must she be kept, that the
spirit, which is a precious thing in God's sight, may have her
commodities. If we should follow the fancy of the flesh, w~ could
not please God. Against it we have made a solemn profession,
as also against the devil and the world in our baptism. And
shall we now look for easy things of our enemies ? Shall we

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not look rather to be hardly entreated of them ? O that we
considered often and indeed, what we have professetl in baptism:
then the cross and we should be well acquainted together. For we
are baptized into Christ's death; that is, as to be partakers of the
benefit of his death, which is remission of sins; so to be made like
thereunto continually, by dying to sin. O that we considered what
we be ; where we be ; whither we are going ; who calleth us ; how
he calleth us ; to what felicity he calleth us; whereby he calleth us;
then, my dear hearts in the Lord, we should say to all worldly
persuasions and persuaders ; follow me, satan, thou savourest not
those things that be of God, but the things that be of men. Shall
we not drink the cup which our heavenly Father hath appointed for
us ? O Lord God, open thou our eyes, that we may see the hope
whereunto thou hast called us. Give us eyes of seeing, ears of
hearing, and hearts of understanding. In the favour thou bearest
to thy people, remember us ; visit us with thy saving health, that
we may see the good things thou hast prepared for thy elect
children ; that we may have some sight of thy heavenly Jerusalem,
and have some taste of the sweetness of thy house. O, dear Father,
kindle in us an earnest desire to be with thee in soul and body, to
praise thy name for ever, with all thy saints, in thy eternal glory,
Amen,

JOHN BRADFORD.

No. lll.t

To one, by whom Bradford had received much comfort and
relief, in his trouble and imprisonment.

THE mercy of God in Christ, peculiar to his children, be ever
more felt of you, my dearly beloved in the Lord, Amen. When I
consider with myself, the benefits which God hath shewed unto me
by your means, if I had so good and thankful a heart as 1 would I

* Fox iii. 346. Cov. 456.

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had, I could not with dry eyes give him thanks; for certainly they
are very many and great. And now being yet still the Lord's
prisoner, J receive from him more benefits by you. For the which
I think myself so much bound to you, my good brother, although
you were but the instrument, by whom God wrought and blessed
me, that I look not to come out of your debt, by any pleasure or
service that I shall ever be able to do you in this life. 1 shall heartily
pray unto God therefore, to requite you the good you have done to
me for his sake; for I know that which you have done, you have
done it simply in respect of God and his word. May he therefore
give you daily more and more to be confirmed in his truth and word,
and so plentifully pour upon you the riches of his Holy Spirit, and
heavenly treasures laid up in store for you; that your corporal and
earthly riches, may be used of you as sacraments and significations
thereof: the more to desire the one, that is the heavenly, and the
less to esteem the other, that is the earthly.

For satan's solicitation is, to set before you the earthly, that
therein and thereby you should not have access to the consideration
of the heavenly ; but as one bewitched, should utterly forget them,
and altogether become a lover and worshipper of the earthly
mammon ; and so fall to covetousness and a desire to be rich,
by that means to bring you into many noisome and hurtful lusts.
As now-a-days I hear of many, who have utterly forsaken God
and all his heavenly riches, for antichrist's pleasures and the
preserving of their worldly pelf, which they imagine to leave to
their posterity ; whereof they are uncertain, as they may be most
certain they leave to them God's wrath and vengeance, in his
time to be sent by visitation ; if they, in time, heartily repent
not, and prevent not the same by earnest prayer. Wherein, my
good brother, if you be diligent, hearty, and persevere, I am sure
God will preserve you from evil, and from yielding yourself to
do as the world now doth; by allowing in bodily fact, in the
Romish service, that which the inward cogitation and mind doth
disallow. But if you be cold in prayer, and come into considera-
tion of earthly and present things simply, then shall you fall into
faithless follies, and wounding of your conscience; from which God
evermore preserve you, with your good wife and your babe, Leonard,

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and all your family : to the which I wish the blessing of God now
and for ever, through Christ our Lord, Amen.

I pray you give thanks for me to your old bedfellow, for his
great friendship, for yoar sake shewed to me, when I was in the
Tower.

JOHN BRADFORD.

No. 112.*

TO A FAITHFUL AND DEAR FRIEND,

Treating of Rom. viii. 19.

GRACE and peace, with increase of all godliness in Christ, I wish
unto you, my dearly beloved.

Because this morning I had some knowledge, more than before
I had, how that my life stood in great danger; and that even this
week, so far as men might, both by the doings and sayings of such
as be in authority, attempted and spoken concerning me, judge and
perceive ; I thought good, my right dearly beloved in the Lord, to
go about something which might be on my behalf, as it were,
cygnea cantio, a swan's song;f and towards you, both a monument
of the kind of my love, and also a help, or at the least, an occasion
for you to profit in that, which, I bear you record, you most desire ;
I mean, everlasting life and the state thereof. And this will I
attempt, upon the last talk we had betwixt us, when you were here
with me. I know you have not forgotten, that we talked together
of the place of St. Paul to the Romans, chap, viii., concerning the
groanings of the Creature, and his desire of the revelation of the
children of God. You demand whether this word creature was to
be understood of man, or no ; and [ told you, that though some did
take creature there for man, because there is no kind of creature

* Cov. 478.

t That is, which might be a special comfort to him, being then ready to be burned ;
as the swan's song is sweetest, a little before his death. Cov.

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which may not be acknowledged in man; yet, said I, the text itself,
considered with that which the apostle writeth of Christ, Eph. i.
Col. i. the Restorer and Reformer of all things that be both in
heaven and m earth; and with the argument, which Saint Paul
presently hath in hand there, doth enforce a godly mind to take
every creature there, as also St. Chrysostom and St. Ambrose do,
for the whole world, and every creature, both heavenly and earthly.
All things, I told you, were made for man, and according to man's
state so are they. When man was without sin, and in God's favour,
there was no malediction, curse, or corruption. But when man, by
sin, was cast out of favour, then was the earth cursed. For the
wickedness of the inhabitants, fruitful hinds are turned into salt
ground; as for their piety, barren countries are made fruitful,
Ps. cvii. The angels themselves do rejoice over one sinner that
repenteth ; thereby giving us notice, that in their kind they lament
over the impenitent. In reading the prophets, you may see how
all things do depend of man. When they prophesy any great
blessing or plague to come to God's people, they do communicate
the same both to heaven and earth, and to every thing else. As for
example, when the prophets do foreshew the overthrows of realms
and peoples, how do they say the whole shape of the world shall
be moved thereat? Look upon Isaiah, how he, when he prophe-
sieth the fall of Babylon, doth say, that the stars shall not shine
from heaven ; the sun shall he darkened in his rising; the moon
shall not give her light. And afterwards he saith, I will shake the
heavens, and the earth shall be moved out of his place, Isaiah
xiii. But the histories do witness, that there are wonderful changes
of all creatures, both heavenly and earthly, in the overthrows and
destructions of realms and people.

Again, when Isaiah doth prophesy of the kingdom of Christ, he
doth promise new heavens and a new earth, and that so excellent and
new, that he sheweth the former heavens and earth to be utterly
forgotten, Isaiah Ixiii. ; whereto the apostle agreeth, making Christ
the repairer of all things in heaven and in earth, Eph. i. Col. i.
How did both heaven and earth give their service to the Israelites
coming forth of Egypt, as well in preserving them, as in destroying
their enemies? How did the sun shine longer than it was wont to

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do, for Joshua to overcome his enemies? How did the very angels
fight for Hezekiah, ag-ainst the Assyrians? Read the 30th chapter
of Isaiah. And behold the history of Christ; how the angels were
ministers unto him in the wilderness; how the devils confessed
him. In his death, how did all the whole world shew compassion ?
The sun was darkened; the earth did quake; the rocks clave
asunder; the veil of the Temple rent asunder. When he arose,
both heaven (for the angels with great heavenly brightness appeared)
and earth, which was moved, did rejoice: the angels were preachers
of it. In his ascension also, did not a bright cloud receive him and
take him up ? Did not the angels testify of his return ? When he
sent the Holy Ghost, and made his new covenant of grace, did not all
the whole world serve thereto, by thunder, smoke, fire, and earthquake ?
Now how wonderfully they will do their service to Christ coming
to judgment, is more plain than I need to rehearse. And inasmuch
as we are the members of Christ, he being our Head, we may soon
see how that all things have a certain compassion with man, and do
after their kind, as the apostle writeth, look for a deliverance from
vanity, which they shall obtain in their restoration.

I therefore told you, how that I do take the apostle to mean, by
every creature simply, even all the whole shape and creatures in the
world. He doth attribute unto them, how that they look for the
perfection of our salvation; how that they are subject to vanity; how
that they are subject in hope; how that they groan and travail; at-
tributing these things unto the senseless creature, by translation from
man, to signify the society, cognation, and consent, which all and
every creature hath with man; that as every and all things were
made for man ; so by the man Christ, all and every thing both earthly
and heavenly shall be restored.

These things you know in effect, I spake unto you, to stir
up both myself and you, to a deeper consideration of our blessed
state, which ROW we enjoy in hope, which will never deceive
us; the more to occasion us to desire the full fruition of the same.
But I do remember that you were something troubled, about some
doubtfulness hereabout. Therefore I purpose now to write of this
matter more at large, thereby to occasion us both to see better, through
the help of God's Spirit, that which we desire; and I pray God grant

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unto us both, for his mercy's sake; I mean the felicity of his children,
and the happy state which, one day in very deed, my dear heart, we
shall fully possess, and both together praise the Lord with all his
saints, world without end. Amen, Amen.

This was your doubt ; if so be that St. Paul did mean- by all
creatures simply, as I have spoken, that they shall be delivered from
corruption, into such a state as shall adorn the freedom of God's
children; whether that plants, beasts, and other things having life,
shall be restored. If yea, then yon would know whether all things
that have been shall be restored also. And after this, you will per-
chance ask in what place they shall be, what they shall do, and so
forth. As I think upon this matter, and as 1 am accustomed to
answer such questions coming to me, I will here write for an answer
unto you also; not doubting but that therewith you will be satisfied,
because I know your heart is satisfied, with godly and sufficient
answers. Thus I think; all and every creature groaneth and tra-
vaileth as yet hoping and looking for my restoration, for they be
subject to corruption for my sins' sake; but they all shall be delivered
by my Christ from the bondage of corruption, then when he shall
restore us his members. This will I muse on and weigh with my-
self, that I may duly know, both in me and in all other things, the
atrocity and bitterness of sin which dwelleth in me; and so may the
more heartily give over myself wholly to the Lord Christ, my
Saviour; that he may, with what cross soever shall please him, slay sin
in me, and bring me after his own will and way, to newness of life.
Whereunto, that I for my part, may faithfully and with all my whole
heart do my diligence in mortifying the desires of my flesh, and in
labouring to obey the desires of the spirit, to live a life acceptable to
him, I beseech him of his grace. And that I may do this chearfully,
and continue in this purpose and diligence, I will fasten my mind,
as much as the Lord shall enable me, to consider this my so great
happiness, whereunto I shall be restored in the resurrection; the
which resurrection, doubtless shall be adorned by the whole shape
of the world, delivered from corruption. These things will I think
on, these things will I pause on; herein will I, as it were, drown
myself, being careless of this ; I mean, what parts of the world the
Lord Christ will restore with me, or how he will do it, or what state
or condition he will give it.

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It is enough and enough for me, that I, and all the whole
world with me, shall be much more happy than now I can hy any
means conceive. By reason hereof 1 will praise and glorify my
Lord, and by his grace I will study to please him with all my heart,
with all my soul, with all my strength, singing unto him, that he
both doth well, and hath done and made all things well; to him be
eternal glory for ever. This is my cogitation in this matter, and not
mine only, but the cogitation of one who* was my father in the
Lord ; and now, 1 am assured, with the Lord at home, where we yet
are from home, by reason of this our corruptible habitacles,f wherein
we abide the Lord'* leisure.

If you would know the reason that moveth me, to answer as I
have done to the aforesaid doubts or questions, it is this. You see
that the apostle in this place to the Romans, speaketh of the deliver-
ance of every creature from the bondage of corruption, and that to
the beautifying of the glory of God's children. This is so manifest,
that no man can well deny it. It is but a simple shift to say that the
apostle doth mean in this place by every creature, man only. He is
not wont to speak on that sort. Neither dare I say that the apostle
speaketh here hyperbolically or excessively, although some think so.
But as I said, I say again, that the apostle doth here simply affirm,
that there shall be a renovation and a deliverance from corruption,
not only of man, but also of all and of every part of the whole world ;
of every part, 1 say, meaning parts in deed, and not such as be rather
vices, and added for plagues, than for parts. For by reason of sin,
many spots and corruptions are come into the world, as is all that is
hurtful and filthy in the creatures. Also, all that cometh of corrup-
tion, as perchance fleas, vermin, and such like.

This renovation of all things, the prophets do seem to promise,
when they promise new heavens and new earth ; for a new earth
seemeth to require no less renovation of earthly things, than new
heavens do of heavenly things. But these things the apostle doth
plainly affirm, that Christ will restore, even whatsoever be in heaven
and in earth, Col. i. Therefore methinks it is the duty of a godly
mind, simply to acknowledge, and thereof to brag in the Lord, that

* He meaneth that most godly, and learned father, M. Martin Buccr. Cm.
+ Dwelling place?.

in our resurrection, all things shall be so repaired to eternity, as
for our sins they were made subject to corruption.

The ancient writers, out of Peter, have, as it were, agreed to
this sentence ; that the shape of this world shall pass away through
the burning of earthly fire, as it was drowned with the flowing of
earthly waters. These be St. Augustine's words.* Whereto I will
add these which he there writeth ; The qualities (saith he) of the
corruptible elements, which agreed with our corruptible bodies,
shall utterly be burned, with that same worldly conflagration and
burning as I said ; but the substance itself shall have those qualities,
which do agree by a marvellous change to our bodies, that the world
changing into the better, may openly be made meet to man, returned
even in the flesh into the better. These be his words, whereby it is
plain, that this good man did believe that the elements should be
renewed ; but of other things he meddleth not, except it be of the
sea, by the occasion of that which is in the Apocalypse; howbeit,so
he speaketh, that he cannot well tell whether it also shall be changed
into the better, adding these words; But we read that there shall be
a new heaven and a new earth. For he did understand the place
of Isaiah, concerning the new heaven and new earth simply; of
other things he expresseth nothing.

But Thomas Aquinas entreateth this question more exactly, or
rather curiously, affirming the celestial bodies, the elements, and
mankind to be renewed; but in no wise, beasts, plants, &c. to be so ;
and this is his principal reason. The renovation of the world
shall be for man ; therefore such shall be the renovation, as shall be
conformable to the renovation of man. But the renovation of man
shall be from corruption to incorruption ; from moving to rest ; the
things therefore that shall be renewed with man, must be brought
also to incorruption. Now, the celestial bodies and the elements
were made to incorruption ; the one wholly and in every part, the
other, that is the elements, though in part they are corruptible, yet
concerning the whole, they are incorruptible, as man is incorruptible
concerning part, that is, the soul. But beasts, plants, &c. are cor-
ruptible, both wholly and in every part; therefore they were not

* De civit. Dei.

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made to incorruption, and so are they not conformable to the
renewing, that is, they are not receivable of incorruption, and there-
fore they shall not be restored.

This reason is true in this part, that it affirmeth things shall be
restored with man, and with him shall be brought to perpetuity,
and as the apostle saith, to be delivered from the bondage of
corruption. Again, his reason is true herein also, that man's reason
may sooner be persuaded, that things now partly incorruptible, shall
be restored altogether to incorruption. But now to say, that by no
reason, those things may be brought to perpetuity, which now both
wholly and partly be temporal and momentary, how can he prove
it? in that the nature and being of all things dependeth on the
omnipotency of God, who, after his own pleasure, doth give to
things which he hath made, their being ; and all is one to him, to
make a thing temporal, and to make it eternal. For he made all
things of nothing ; and therefore heaven and the celestial bodies
have no more of themselves that they be perpetual, than have those
things that last but a day ; wherefore, this reason which Thomas
maketh is not firm, in that it wholly leaneth to that which now
seemeth and appeareth in things. Indeed, as I said, it hath some
shew or probability, that these things shall be renewed to eternity
for the glory of God's children, which are now something partakers
of the same. But now, seeing that both it which they now have,
and also shall have, dependeth upon the beck and pleasure of God,
whom hath God made of counsel with him, concerning the renovation
of the world and of all things, that he can tell what parts of things,
and what kinds of things he will renew ? Yea, even Aristotle did
acknowledge that physics or natural knowledge, because it bringeth
its reasons from the disposition and nature of things, hath not full
necessity of its reasons. For nature is nothing else, than the ordi-
nary and wonted will of God; as a miracle, portent, or monster, is the
rare and unwonted will of God. We say that the nature of stone,
and all heavy things, is to sink downward; which is nothing else
but the pleasure of God, so depelling them and putting them down;
for else of themselves nothing is either heavy or light, all is alike to
be carried downwards or upwards. Who may make God subject to
his work? Can not he that made all things of nothing, give here-

385

after to the things that he hath made, that whereof now in them-
selves they have no capacity?

These things I do therefore rehearse, to the end I might declare;
that when we dispute what God will do concerning his works, how
that it is not seemly for us to conclude, according to that which
seemeth and appeareth to us in things, but rather as godliness
requireth, to refer all things to the will of God. This will, if it be
expressed in Holy Scripture, then may we simply determine, that
which we read expressed there. But if it be not so, then ought we
freely to confess our ignorance, and not prescribe to God, what he
ought to do of his works, by that which already he hath done. God
is of power infinite, and of nothing did he not only make all things,
but also will do what pleaseth him, both in heaven and in earth,
saith David.

The aforesaid Thomas bringeth forth also other reasons ; but
which he himself counteth not for invincible. One is: if beasts
and plants shall be restored, either all or some shall be restored. If
all shall be restored, then must the resurrection be communicate
unto them, that the same in number be restored, which is not
convenient. If some shall be restored, there appeareth no reason
why these should be restored more than other ; therefore, saith he,
they shall not be restored. But here what would he answer, if one
should ask him, how he knotveth it is not convenient; that either all
in number be restored, as man shall arise, either only some, in that this
thing wholly resteth, in the hand and will of God ? Another reason
he maketh out of Aristotle, and out of a ground which is uncertain.
Aristotle affirmeth the perpetuity of things, to hang on the continual
moving of heaven. Thomas now hereto gathereth thus; But the
moving of heaven shall cease ; therefore he concludeth that in these
inferior things, no perpetuity may be looked for. But here, what
answer will he make, if a man shall say that all things hang at the
beck and pleasure of God ; who now, for the conservation of his
creatures, which now arise and spring, and now die and fall <fown ;
useth the moving of heaven, and can afterwards not use it for this
purpose ? This is a truth, that all things of themselves are nothing ;
much more then can they not do any thing. Now, men may
conjecture that the moving of heaven shall cease; but yet, by the

386

certain Word of God, they cannot prove it. In like manner is his
last reason, which he maketh of the end of beasts and plants; but
which end he knoweth not. Beasts and plants, saith he, were made
for the sustentation of the mutual life of man ; but this life shall
cease, therefore shall they also. But here hath he no answer, if a
man should demand, Who knoweth whether God have made them,
to no other end or use ?

Seeing, therefore, these things be as you see, I suppose it not to
pertain to a godly man, to deny the beasts and plants to be
restored; in that the apostle doth here expressly say, that every
creature which is now subject to vanity, shall be delivered from the
bondage of corruption, into the glorious liberty of the children of
God. In that the Holy Ghost doth affirm this of every creature,
by what reason dare a godly mind, exempt any part from this
deliverance to come ? Howbeit, neither will the godly mind contend,
whether every creature shall be renewed. For the Holy Ghost
spake of the creature generally, and not particularly ; and therefore
we may not otherwise affirm, because we must not speak, but God's
word. Therefore it is the part of a godly man, and of one that
hangeth in all things upon the word of God, to learn out of this
place ; that whatsoever corruption, death, or grief, he seeth in any
thing, wheresoever it be, that, I say, he ascribe it wholly unto his sins,
and thereby provoke himself to true repentance. Now as soon as that
repentance compelleth him to go to Christ, let him think thus; but
this my Saviour, and my Head Jesus Christ, did for my sins; and
therewith, as he took away death, so hath he taken away all the
corruption and labour of all things ; and will restore them in his
time, whithersoever they be, in heaven or in earth. Now every
creature travaileth and groaneth with us; but we being restored,
they also shall be restored. There shall be new heavens, new earth,
and all things new.

Thus I wish that our minds might stay, in this generality of the
renovation of the world ; and not curiously to search what parts of
the world shall be restored, and what shall not; or how all things
shall be restored ; much more then I would not have us curious, nor
inquisitive of their place, where they shall be ; of their action, what
they shall do ; or of their properties, and such like. For if, to have

387

foreknown these thing's, would have made much to godliness,
surely the Holy Ghost would most plainly have told them. For
according to Christ's promise, he bringeth us into all truth; all
truth, 1 say, such as the knowledge of would profit us.

All the Scripture is given to us for this purpose, that the man
of God might be made perfect, and instructed to all good works;
and truly that can be no good work, which we do, except God teach
us the same. He hath prepared the good works wherein we walk,
Eph. ii. But the certain and bottomless fountain of these good
works is, in all things to hang on the beck and pleasure of God ;
and through our Lord Jesus Christ, to look for, with remission of
sins, life everlasting, and the glory of the resurrection. To the end,
therefore, that we may more fully know our sins, and more make of
our redemption from them by Christ ; let us set before our eyes, death,
the hire of sin ; and that not only in ourselves, but also in every crea-
ture of the world. Howbeit, this let us do, with a hope of so am-
ple a restoration, and never enough to be marvelled at ; which shall
be even in all things for our renovation, by the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Renewer of all things whatsoever be, in heaven or in earth.

He that with true faith weigheth and considereth these things,
will be, as it were, swallowed up in the admiration of so exceeding
great benevolence and love of God, our heavenly Father; that he
can never admit to yield to this curiosity, of searching what kinds
of things shall be renewed, and how they shall be renewed; or
what state or condition they shall be in, when they are renewed.

These be things of the life to come, whereof this foreknowledge
is sufficient ; that all these things shall be more perfect and happy,
than the reach of reason is able to look upon the glory of them.
For the eye hath not seen, nor the ear heard, nor it cannot ascend
into man's heart, that God hath prepared for them that love him.
For concerning our resurrection, what other thing do we know
beforehand, but that we shall be most happy ? Even so, therefore,
let us not doubt, but that there shall be a deliverance of the creature
from the servitude of corruption. And let us consider these things
so, that we may wholly bend ourselves, to put away all the oldness
of our flesh, whence indeed corruption and death do come ; and that
we may provoke ourselves, to the newness of the spirit, and the life

388

of Christ, wherein is all incorruption, and the true taste of the
resurrection ; for to this end the Holy Ghost did write this by the
apostle. That therefore this spirit might lead us hereunto, let
us pray; and then we shall understand this place of Paul with
profit.

If perchance it will move you, that the apostle speaketh not of this
deliverance of the creature from corruption, in any other place but
here, neither any other holy writer ; I would you would think, that
the misery of the restoration of Israel, also of antichrist, is not ex-
pounded but in the apostle's writings, and that but in one place; yea,
the manner of our resurrection is not written but in two places.
\Ve ought to know, that they are the words of the Lord, whatsoever
the apostle hath left to us written. Again the simplicity of this place,
Rom. viii. 19, is plain.

And thus, my dearly beloved, I have written to you so much as
1 think is sufficient about this matter ; and therefore need not to
tarry here any longer, or to spend any more time, about the answer-
ing of that which is but curiosity.

God our Father give us now his Holy Spirit, to lead us into this
and all other necessary truth, in such sort, that we may have a lively
feeling of eternal life begun in us; that we may become first new,
and so look for a new heaven and a new earth, wherein righteousness
dwelleth; which God impute to us, and begin in us, for his Christ's
sake. Amen, Amen.

Your own for ever in the Lord,

JOHN BRADFORD.

389
No. 113.*

An Exhortation, to the patient suffering of trouble and
afflictions for Christ's cause, written by Bradford, to all
the unfeigned Professors of the Gospel, throughout the
Realm of England, at the beginning of his imprisonment,
and here placed as it were to our hands.

THE Holy Spirit of God, which is the earnest and pledge of God,
given to his people for their comfort and consolation ; be poured
into our hearts, by the mighty power and merits of our alone
Saviour, Jesus Christ, now and for ever, Amen.

Because I perceive plainly, that to the evils fallen upon us, who
profess Christ's Gospel, greater are most like to ensue ; and after
them greater, till the measure of iniquity be up-heaped, except we
shrink, and having put our hands to the plough, do look back, and
so with Lot's wife and the Israelites, desiring to return into Egypt,
fall into God's heavy displeasure incurably, all which God forbid ;
and because 1 am persuaded of you, my dearly beloved brethren
and sisters, throughout the Realm of England, who have professed
unfeignedly the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, for
unto such do I write this epistle ; that as ye have began to take
part with God's Gospel and truth, so, through his grace, ye will
persevere and go on forwards, notwithstanding the storms risen
and to arise ; I cannot but write something unto you, heartily to go
on forwards in the way of the Lord, and not to become faint-hearted
or fearful, whose place Saint John appointeth with the unbelievers,
murderers, and idolaters, in eternal perdition; but cheerfully to
take the Lord's cup, and drink of it, afore it draw towards the
dregs and bottom, whereof at the length they shall drink, with
the wicked, to eternal destruction, who will not receive it at the
first with God's children; with whom God beginneth his judgment,
that as the wicked world rejoiceth when they lament, so they may

* Cov. 427.

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rejoice when the wicked world shall mourn, and without end find
woe intolerable.

First therefore, my dearly beloved in the world, I beseech you
to consider, that though ye be in the world, yet ye are not of the
world. Ye are not of them, who look for their portion in this life,
whose captain is the god of this world, even satan ; who now ruffleth
it apace, as he were wood, because his time on earth is not long.

But ye are of them, that look for a city of God's own blessing.
Ye are of them, that know yourselves to be here hut pilgrims and
strangers; for here ye have no dwelling place. Ye are of them,
whose portion is the Lord, and who have their hope in heaven ;
whose Captain is Christ Jesus, the Son of God, and Governor of
heaven and earth. Unto him is given all power, yea, he is God
Almighty, with the Father, and the Holy Ghost, praiseworthy for
ever.

Ye are not of them, who receive the beast's mark, who here
rejoice, laugh, and have their hearts' ease, joy, paradise, and
pleasure ; but ye are of them, who have received the angel's mark,
yea, God's mark; who here lament, mourn, sigh, sob, weep, and
have your wilderness to wander in, your purgatory, and even hell,
to purge and burn up your sins. Ye are not of them, who cry, Let
us eat and drink, for to-morrow we shall die. Ye are not of that
number, who say, They have made a covenant with death and hell,
for hurting of them. Ye are not of them, who take it for a vain
thing to serve the Lord. Ye are not of them, who are lulled and
rocked asleep in Jezebel's bed, a bed of security. Ye are not of the
number of them, who say, Tush, God is in heaven, and seeth us not,
nor much passeth what we do. Ye are not of the number of them,
who will fall down, for the muck of this world, to worship the
fiend ; or for displeasing of men, to worship the golden image.
Finally, ye are not of the number of them, who set more by your
pigs than by Christ; who, for ease and rest in this life, will say and
do, as ANTIOCHUS biddeth you do or say ; and will follow the
multitude to do evil, with Zedekiah, and the three hundred false
prophets, yea, Ahab, Jezebel, and the whole court and country.

But ye are of the number of them, who are dead already, or at
least, be dying daily to yourselves and to this world. Ye are of

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them, who have made a covenant with God, to forsake yourselves in
this world and satan also. Ye are of them, who say, Nay, the
Lord hath all things written in his memorial book, for such as fear
him and remember his name. Ye are of them, who have their
loins girded about, and their lig-hts burning- in their hands, like
unto men that wait for their Lord's coming. Ye are of the number
of them who say, The Lord looketh down from heaven, and
beholdeth the children of men ; from the habitation of his dwelling,
he considereth all them that dwell upon the earth.

Ye are of the number of them, who will worship the only Lord
God, and will not worship the works of man's hands, though the
oven burn never so hot. Ye are of the number of them, to whom
Christ is precious and dear, who cry out, rather because your
habitation is prolonged here, as David did. Ye are of them, who
follow Mattathias and the godly Jews ; who know the way to life
to be a strait way, and few to go through it ; who will not flock
to follow poor Micaiah, although he be racked and cast into prison,
having the sun, moon, seven stars, and all against him.

Thus therefore, dearly beloved, remember first, that, as I said, ye
are not of this world ; that satan is not your captain; your joy and
paradise is not here ; your companions are not the multitude of
worldlings, and such as seek to please men, and live here at ease in
the service of satan. But ye are of another world ; Christ is your
Captain ; your joy is in heaven, where your conversation is; your
companions are the fathers, patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs,
virgins, confessors, and the dear saints of God ; who follow the
lamb whithersoever he goeth, dipping their garments in his blood,
knowing this life and world to be full of evil; a warfare, a smoke, a
shadow, a vapour ; and as replenished, so environed with all kind
of miseries. This is the first thing, which I would have you often
and diligently with yourselves to consider, and to muse well upon ;
namely, what ye be, and where ye be.

Now, secondly, forget not to call to mind, that ye ought not to
think it any strange thing, if misery, trouble, adversity, persecution,
and displeasure, come upon you. For how can it otherwise be, but
that trouble and persecution must come upon you ? Can the world
love you, who are none of his? Can worldly men regard you,

392

who are your chief enemy's soldiers ? Can satan suffer you to
be in rest, who will do no homage unto him ? Can this way be
chosen of any, that make it so narrow and straight as they do?
Will ye look to travel, and to have no foul way or rain ? Will
shipmen shrink, or sailors on the sea give over, if storms arise? Do
they not look for such ? And, dearly beloved, did we not enter into
God's ship and ark of baptism at the first? Will ye then count it
strange, if perils come or tempests blow ? Are not ye travelling to
your heavenly City of Jerusalem, where all is joy and felicity; and
will ye now tarry by the way for storms or showers ? The mart and
fair will then be past; the night will so come upon you, that ye
cannot travel ; the door will be sparred, and the bride will be at
supper. Therefore, away with dainty niceness. Do ye think the
Father of Heaven will deal more gently with you in this age,
than he hath done with others, his dearest friends, in other ages?
What way, yea, what storms and tempests, what troubles and
disquietness found Abel, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and good
Joseph ? Which of these had so fair a life and restful times as
we have had? Moses, Aaron, Samuel, David the King, and all
the good kings, priests, and prophets, in the Old Testament, at one
time or other, (if not throughout their lives) did feel a thousand
parts more misery than we have felt hitherto.

As for the New Testament, Lord God, how great was the
affliction of Mary, of Joseph, of Zachariah, of Elizabeth, of John
Baptist, of all the apostles and evangelists, yea, of Jesus Christ our
Lord, the dear Son and Darling of God ? And since the time of the
apostles, how many and great are the number of martyrs, confessors,
and such as have suffered the shedding of their blood in this life,
rather than they would be stayed in their journey, or lodge in
any of satan's inns ; lest the stones or winds which fell in their
travellings, might have touched them ? And, dearly beloved, let
us think what we are, and how far unmeet to be matched with
these, with whom yet we look to be placed in heaven.

But with what face can we look for this, who are so fearful,
unwilling, and backward to leave that which, will we, nill we, we
must leave ; and that so shortly, as we know not the time when ?
Where is our abrenouncing and forsaking of the world, and the

393

flesh, which we solemnly took upon us in baptism ? Ah, shameless
cowards that we he, who will not follow the trace of so many fathers,
patriarchs, kings, priests, prophets, apostles, evangelists, and saints
of God, yea, even of the very Son of God.

How many now go with you lustily, as I and all your brethren
in bonds and exile for the Gospel. Pray for us, for, God willing,
we will not leave you now; we will go before you. Ye shall see in
us, by God's grace, that we preached no lies nor tales of tubs, but
even the very true word of God ; for the confirmation whereof, we,
by God's grace and the help of your prayers, will willingly and
joyfully give our blood to be shed, as already we have given our
livings, goods, friends, and natural country ; for now are we certain*
that we be in the highway to heaven's bliss; as Saint Paul saith,
By many tribulations and persecutions, we must enter into God's
kingdom. And because we would go thither ourselves, and bring you
thither also, therefore the devil stirreth up the coals. And for-
asmuch as we all loitered in the way, he hath therefore received
power of God to overcast the weather, and to stir up storms; that
we, God's children, might more speedily go on forwards, and make
more haste; as the counterfeits and hypocrites will tarry and linger
till the storm be past, and so when they come, the market will be
done, and the doors sparred, as it is to be feared.

Read Matthew xxv. This wind will blow God's children for*
wards, and the devil's darlings backward. Therefore, like God's
children, let us go on forward apace ; the wind is on our backs ;
hoist up the sails ; lift up your hearts and hands to God in prayer,
and keep your anchor of faith, to cast out ifi time of trouble, on the
rock of God's word and mercy in Christ, by the cable of God's verity,
and I warrant you. And thus much for you, secondly, to consider;
that affliction, persecution, and trouble, is no strange thing to
God's children, and therefore it should not dismay, discourage, or
discomfort us; for it is none other thing, than all God's dear friends
have tasted, in their journey to heavenwards.

As I would, in this troublesome time, that ye would consider
what ye be, by the goodness of God in Christ, even citizens of heaven ;
though ye be presently in the flesh, even in a strange region, on
every side full of fierce enemies; and what weather and way, the

3 E

394

dearest friends of God have found; even so would I have you,
thirdly, to consider for your further comfort, that if ye shrink not,
but go on forwards, pressing to the mark appointed, all the power
of your enemies shall not overcome you, nor in any point hurt you.

But this must not you consider, according to the judgment of
reason, and the sense of old Adam; but according to the judgment
of God's word, and the experience of faith and the new man, for
else you mar all. For to reason, and to the experience of our sense,
or of the outward man, we poor souls who stick to God's word,
to serve him as he requireth only ; are counted to be vanquished
and to be overcome, in that we are cast into prison, lose our livings,
friends, goods, country, and life also at the length, concerning this
world.

But, dearly beloved, God's word teacheth otherwise, and faith
feeleth accordingly. Is it not written, Who shall >separate us from
the love of God? Shall tribulation, or anguish, or persecution,
either hunger, either nakedness, either peril, either sword? As it is
written, For thy sake are we killed all the day long, and are counted
as sheep for the slaughter, appointed to be slain. Nevertheless, in
all these things we overcome, through him that loved us. For I am
sure, that neither death, neither life, neither angels nor rule; neither
power, neither things present, neither things to come, neither
high nor low, neither any creature ; shall be able to part us from
that love, wherewith God loved us in Christ Jesus our Lord. Thus
spake one who was in affliction, as 1 am, for the Lord's Gospel's
sake, his holy name be praised therefore ; and may he grant me grace
with the same, to continue in like suffering unto the end. This, I
say, one spake, who was in affliction for the Gospel ; but yet so far
from being overcome, that he rejoiced rather of the victory which
the Gospel had. For though he was bound, yet the Gospel was not
bound. And therefore giveth he thanks unto God, who always
giveth the victory in Christ ; and openeth the savour of his know-
ledge by us, and such as suffer for his truth ; although they shut us
up never so much, and drive us never so far out of our own natural
country in every place.

The world, for a time, may deceive itself, thinking it hath the
victory; but yet the end will try the contrary. Did not Cain think

395

he had the victory, when Abel was slain ? But how say you now ?
Is it not found otherwise? Thought not the old world, and men
then living, that they were wise and well, and Noah a fool, who
would creep into an ark, leaving his house, lands, and posses-
sions? for I think he was in an honest state for the world ; but, 1
pray you, who was wise when the flood came? Abraham, 1 trow,
was counted a fool to leave his own country and friends, kyth and
kin, because of God's word; but, dearly beloved, we know it
proved otherwise.

I will leave all the patriarchs, and come to Moses, and the
Children of Israel. Tell me, were not they thought to be overcome
and stark mad, when for fear of Pharaoh, at God's word, they
ran into the Red Sea ? Did not Pharaoh and the Egyptians,
think themselves sure of the victory? But, I trow, it proved
clean contrary. Saul was thought well, and David in an evil case
and most miserable, because he had no hole to hide him in ; but
yet, at the length, Saul's misery was seen, and David's felicity
began to appear.

The prophet Micaiah being cast into prison, for telling A hah the
truth, was thought to be overcome of Zedekiah and the other false
prophets : but, my good brethren and sisters, the holy history telleth
otherwise. Who did not think the prophets unhappy in their time?
For they were slain, imprisoned, laughed to scorn, and jested at of
every man. And so were all the apostles, yea, the dearly beloved
friend of God ; than whom, among the children of women, none
arose greater; I mean John Baptist, who was beheaded, and that
in prison, even for a dancing damsel's desire. As all these to the
judgment of reason, were then counted heretics, runagates, un-
learned, fools, fishers, publicans, &c. ; so now unhappy and overcome
indeed, if God's Word and Faith did not shew the contrary.

But what speak I of these ? Look upon Jesus Christ, to whom
we must be like fashioned here, if we will be like him elsewhere.
How say ye, was not he taken for a most fool, a seditious person, a
new fellow, an heretic, and one overcome of every body? Yea,
even forsaken both of God and men. But the end told them and
telleth us another tale ; for now is he in majesty and glory unspeak-
able. When he was led to Pilate, or Herod, or when he was in

396

prison in Caiaphas's house, did not there reason think that he was
overcome? When he was beaten, buffeted, scourged, crowned with
thorns, hanged upon the cross, and utterly left of all his disciples ;
taunted of the high priests and holy fathers, cursed of the commons,
railed on of the magistrates, and laughed to scorn of the lewd hea-
then ; would not a man then have thought, that he had been out of
the way, and his disciples fools, to follow him and believe him?

Think ye that whilst he did lie in his grave, men did not point
with their fingers, when they saw any that had followed and loved
him, or believed in him and his doctrine, saying: Where is their
master and teacher now? What, is he gone? Forsooth, if they had
not been fools, they might well have known, that this learning he
taught, could not long continue. Our doctors and Pharisees are no
fools, now they may see. On this sort either men spake, or might
have spoken, against all such as loved Christ or his doctrine ; but
yet at the length, they and all such were proved fools and wicked
wretches. For our Saviour arose, maugre their beards, and published
his Gospel plentifully, spite of their heads, and the heads of all the
wicked world, with the great powers of the same ; always overcoming,
and then most of all, when he and his doctrine were thought to have
the greatest fall. As now, dearly beloved, the wicked world
rejoiceth ; the papists are puffed up against poor Christ and his peo-
ple, after their old kind ; now cry they out, Where are these new
found preachers ? Are they not in the Tower, Marshalsea, Fleet,
and beyond the seas ? Who would have thought that our old bishops,
doctors, and deans were fools, as they would have made us to believe ;
and indeed have persuaded some already, who are not of the wisest,
especially if they come not home again, to the Holy Church ?

These and such like words they have, to cast in our teeth, as
triumphers and conquerors. But, dearly beloved, short is their joy,
they beguile themselves.

This is but a lightning before their death. As God after hp had
given the Jews a time to repent, visited them by Vespasian and
Titus, most horribly to their utter subversion, delivering first all his
people from among them ; even so, my dear brethren, will he do
with this age. When he hath tried his children from amongst them,
as now he beginneth, and by suffering hath made us look to his

397

Christ; and by being overcome, to overcome indeed to our eternal
comfort; then will he, if not otherwise, come himself in the clouds,
I mean our dear Lord whom we confess, preach, and believe on : he
will come, I say, with the blast of a trump and shout of an archangel'
and so shall we be caught up in the clouds to meet him in the air;
the angels gathering together the wicked wretches, who now wel-
ter and wallow as the world and wind blow, to be tied in bundles
and cast into the fire, which burneth for ever most painfully. There
and then shall they see who hath the victory, they, or we, when they
shall see us afar oft" in Abraham's bosom; then will they say, 'Oh,
we thought these folks fools, and had them in derision ; we thought
their life madness, and their end to be without honour ; but look how
they are counted among the children of God, and their portion is
with the saints. Oh, we have gone amiss, and would not hearken.'
Such words as these shall the wicked say one day in hell ; whereas
now they triumph as conquerors. And thus much for you, thirdly,
to look often upon ; namely, that whatsoever is done unto you, yea,
even very death itself, shall not dash or hurt you no more than it
did Abel, David, Daniel, John Baptist, Jesus Christ our Lord,
with other the dear saints of God, who suffered for his name's sake.

Let not reason, therefore, be judge in this matter, nor present
sense, but faith and God's Word, as I have shewed. In the which,
if we set before our eyes the shortness of this present time wherein
we suffer, and consider the eternity to come ; as our enemies and per-
secutors shall be in intolerable pains helpless, and we, if we persevere
to the end, in such felicity and joys dangerless, as the very heart of
man, in no point is able to conceive ; if we consider this, I say, we
cannot but even contemn, and set nothing by, the sorrows and
griefs of the cross, and lustily go through thick and thin with good
courage.

Thus have I declared unto you three things, necessary to be^mused
on of every one, who will abide by Christ and his gospel in this
troublesome time, as 1 trust you all will ; namely, first to consider
that we are not of this world, nor of the number of the worldlings or
retainers to satan ; that we are not at home in our own country ; but
of another world, of the congregation of the saints, and retainers to
Christ; although in a region replete and full of untractable enemies.

398

Secondly, that we may not think it a strange tiling to be persecuted
for God's Gospel, from the which the dearest friends of God were in
no age free; as indeed it is impossible that they should any long
time be, their eneniies being always about them, to destroy them if
they could. And, thirdly, that the assaults of our enemies, be they
never so many and fierce, in no point shall be able to prevail against
our faith, albeit to reason it seerneth otherwise. Wherethrough we
ought to conceive a good courage and comfort; for who will be
afraid, when he knoweth the enemies cannot prevail?

Now will I for the more encouraging you to the cross, give you
a further memorandum; namely, of the commodities and profits
which come by the trouble and afflictions, now risen and to arise to
us, who be God's children elect, through Jesus Christ. But here
look not to have a rehearsal of all the commodities which come by
the cross, to such as are exercised well therein, for that were more
than 1 can do. I will only speak of a few, thereby to occasion you
to gather, and at the length to feel and perceive more.

First, in that there is no cross which cometh upon any of us, with-
out the counsel of our heavenly Father ; for as for the fancy of for-
tune it is wicked, as many places of the Scripture do teach, we must
needs, to the commendation of God's justice, for in all his doings he is
just, acknowledge in ourselves that we have deserved at the hands
of our heavenly Father, this his cross or rod fallen upon us. We
have deserved it, if not by our unthankfulness, slothfulness, negli-
gence, intemperance, uncleanness, and other sins committed often by
us, whereof our consciences can and will accuse us, if we call them
to counsel, with the examination of our former life, yet at least by
our original and birth sin; as by doubting of the greatness of God's
anger and mercy, by self love, concupiscence, and such like sins ;
which as we brought them with us into this world, so do the same
alway abide in us, and even as a spring, do always bring something
forth in act with us, notwithstanding the continual fight of God's
Spirit in us against it.

The first commodity, therefore, that the cross bringeth, is know-
ledge, and that double, of God and of ourselves. Of God, that he is
just, pure, and hateth sin. Of ourselves, that we are born in sin,
aud are, from top to toe, defiled with concupiscence and corruption,

399

out of the which have sprung, all the evils that ever at any time we
have spoken and done. The greatest and most special whereof, by
the cross, we are occasioned to call to mind; as did the brethren of
Joseph their evil fact against him, when the cross once came upon
them. And so by it we come to the first step to get health for our
souls, that is, we are driven to know our sins original and actual,
by God's justice, declared in the cross.

Secondly, the end whereof God declareth his judgment against
our sin, original and actual; and would, by his cross, have us to con-
sider the same, and to call to mind our former evil deeds; the end
hereof, I say, is this ; that we might lament, be sorry, sigh, and
pray for pardon 5 that so doing, we might obtain the same, by the
means of faith, in the merits of Jesus Christ his dear Son. And
further, we being humbled because of the evil that dwelleth in us,
might become thankful for God's goodness and love, in continual
watching and wariness to suppress the evil which lieth in us, that it
bring not forth fruits to death at any time. This second commodity
of the cross, therefore, must we not count to be a simple knowledge
only, but a great gain of God's mercy; with wonderful rich and
precious virtues of faith, repentance, remission of sins, humility,
thankfulness, mortification, and diligence in doing good. Not that
properly the cross worketh these things of itself, but because the
cross is the mean and way, by the which God worketh the knowledge
and feeling of these things in his children; as many, both testi-
monies and examples in Scripture, are easily found of them, who
diligently weigh what therein they read.

To these two commodities of the cross, join the third, of God's
singular wisdom, that it may be coupled with his justice and mercy.
On this sort therefore, let us conceive, when we see the Gospel of
God and his Church persecuted and troubled, as now with us it is ;
that because the great, learned, and wise men of the world use not
their wisdom to love and serve God ; as to natural wisdom and
reason, he openeth himself manifestly by his visible creatures ;
therefore doth God justly infatuate and make them foolish, giving
them up to unsensibleness, especially herein. For on this manner
reason they, concerning the affliction which cometh for the Gospel ;
If, say they, this were God's word, if these people were God's

400

children, surely God would then bless and prosper them and their
doctrine. But now, in that there is no doctrine so much hated, no
people so much persecuted as they he, therefore it cannot be of God.
Rather this is of God, which our Queen and old Bishops have
professed. For how hath God preserved them and kept them ?
What a notable victory hath God given unto her, where it was
impossible that things should so have come to pass, as they have
done? And did not the great captain* confess his fault, that he was
out of the way, and not of the faith which these gospellers profess?
How many are come again, from that which they professed to be God's
Word? The most part of this realm, notwithstanding the diligence
of preachers to persuade them concerning this new learning, which
now is persecuted, never consented to it in heart, as experience
teacheth. And what plagues have come upon this realm since
this Gospel, as they call it, came in amongst us? Afore we had
plenty, but now there is nothing like as it was. Moreover all the
houses of the Parliament, have overthrown the laws made for the
establishing of this Gospel and religion, and new laws are erected
for the continuance of the contrary.

How miraculously doth God confound their doctrine and confirm
ours? For how was Wyat overthrown? How prosperously came
in our King? How hath God blessed our Queen with fruit of the
womb? How is the Pope's Holiness restored again to his right?
All these do teach plainly, that this their doctrine is not God's
word.

Thus reason the worldly wise, who see not God's wisdom.
For else, if they considered that there was with us, unthankfulness
for the Gospel, no amendment of life; but that all kind of contempt
of God, all kind of shameless sinning- ensued the preaching of the
Gospel ; they must needs see that God could not but chastise and
correct ; and as he let satan loose, after he had bound him a certain
time, for unthankfulness of men, so he has let these champions of satan
run abroad, by them to plague us for our unthankfulness. Great
was God's anger against Ahab, because he saved Benhadad, King-
of Syria, after he had given him into his hands; and afterward it

* Northumberland, who recanted.

401

turned to his own destruction. God would that double sorrow
should have been repaid to them, by cause of the sorrow they did to
the saints of God. Read the eighteenth of the Revelations.

As for the victory given to the Queen's Highness, if men had
only godly wit, they might see many things in it. First, God hath
done it to win her heart to the Gospel. Again, he hath done it, as
well because they that went against her, put their trust in horses
and power of men, and not in God ; as because in their doing, they
sought not the propagation of God's Gospel; which thing is now
plainly seen. Therefore, no marvel why God fought against them;
would they were hypocrites, and under the cloak of the Gospel,
would have debarred the Queen's Highness of her right, but God
would not so cloak them.

Now, for the relenting, returning, and recanting of some, from
that which they once professed or preached; alas, Who would
wonder at it? for they never came to the Gospel, but for commodity
and gain's sake, and now for gain, they leave it. The multitude is
no good argument, to move a wise man. For who knoweth not
more to love this world, better than heaven ? themselves, better than
their neighbours? Wide is the gate, saith Christ, and broad is the
way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be that go in thereat;
but strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto
life ; and few there be that find it. All the whole multitude cry
out upon Jesus, crucify him, truss him up; but, I trow, not because
they were the bigger part, therefore, they were to be believed. AH
Chaldea followed still their false gods ; only Abraham followed the
true God. And where they say the greater plagues are fallen upon
the realm, in poverty and such other things, than before, is no argu-
ment to move others, than such as love their swine, better than
Christ. For the devil chiefly desireth his seat to be in religion.
If it be there, then he will meddle with nothing we have ; all shall
be quiet enough. But if he be raised thence, then will he beg leave
to have at our pigs. Read Matthew viii., of the Gergesites. As
long as with us he had the ruling of religion, which now he hath
gotten again, then was he Robin good-fellow; he would do no hurt.
But wVien he was tumbled out of his throne, by preaching of the
Gospel, then ranged he about as he hath done, but secretly.

3 P

402

Finally, effectual he hath not been, hut in the children of
unbelief. Them indeed hath he stirred up to be covetous oppressors,
blasphemers, usurers, whoremongers, thieves, murderers, tyrants;
and yet, perchance, he suffered them to profess the Gospel, the more
thereby to hinder it, and cause it to be slandered.

How many now do appear to have been true gospellers? As
for the Parliament, and statutes thereof, no ma'n of wisdom can think
otherwise, but that (look what the rulers will) the same must there
be enacted. For it goeth not in those houses by the better part,
but by the bigger part. And it is a common saying, and no less
true ; major pars vincit meliorem, the greater part overcometh the
better. So they did in condemning Christ, not regarding the
counsel of Nicodemus. So they did also in many general councils.
But all wise men know the Acts of Parliament are not for God's
law in respect of God's law, but in respect of the people. Now
what we are, God knoweth, and all the world seeth ; more meet a
great deal, to have the devil's decrees, than God's religion ; so great
is our contempt of it; and therefore, justly for our sins, as Job
saitb, God hath set hypocrites to reign over us, who can no more
abide God's true religion, than the owl the light, or bleared eyes
the bright sun ; for it will have them, to do their duties, and walk
in diligent doing, of the works of their vocation. If God's word, 1
mean, had place, bishops could not play chancellors and idle
prelates, as they do. Priests should be otherwise known, than by
their shaven crowns and tippets. But enough of this.

As for miracles of success against Wyat and others, of the King's
coming in, &c.; I would to God men would consider two kinds of
miracles; one, to prepare and confirm men in the doctrine, which
they have received ; and another, to prove and try men, how they
have received it, and how they will stick unto it. Of the former
these miracles be not, but of the second. Now, by this success given
to the Queen, God trieth whether we will stick to his truth, simply
for his truth*s sake, or no. This is a mighty elusion, which God
sendeth to prove his people, and to deceive the hypocrites; who
receive not God's truth simply, but in respect of gain, praise,
estimation. Read how Ahab was deceived. 2 Thess. ii. Deut. xiii.

But I will now return to the third commodity, coming by the

403

cross. Here let us see the wisdom of God, in making the wisdom
of the world foolish, which knoweth little of man's corruption, how
foul it is in the sight of God. and displeaseth him ; which knoweth
little the portion of God's people to be in another world ; which
knoweth little the patron of Christians, Christ Jesus ; which knoweth
little the general judgment of God ; the great malice of satan to
God's people; the price and estimation of the Gospel; and therefore
in the cross, seeth not as God's wisdom would we should see,
namely, that God in punishing them who sin least, would have
his anger against sin seen most, and to be better considered and
feared.

In punishing his people here, he kindleth their desire towards
their restful home. In punishing his servants in this life, he doth
conform and make them like to Christ ; that as they be like in suf-
fering, so shall they be in reigning. In punishing liis Church in
the world, he doth give a demonstration of his judgment which
shall come on all men, when the godly shall there find rest, though
now they be afflicted ; and the wicked, now wallowing in wealth,
shall be wrapped in woe and smart. In punishing the professors of
his Gospel on earth, he setteth forth the malice of satan against the
Gospel and his people ; for the more confirming of their faith, and
the Gospel to be God's word indeed, and they to be God's people : for
else the devil would let them alone. -

In punishing the lovers of his truth, more than others who care
not for it; he putteth them in mind, how they have not had in price
as they should have had, the fuel of his word and Gospel. Before
such trial and experience came, perchance they thought they had
believed and had had faith, which now they see was but a lip faith,
a mock faith, or an opinion. All which things we see are occasions
for us to take better heed, by mean of the cross. Therefore thirdly,
let us consider the cross to be commodious for us, to learn God's
wisdom, and what is man's foolishness ; God's displeasure at sin ; a
desire to be with God ; the conformity with Christ ; the general
judgment; the malice of satan ; hatred of sin; the Gospel to be
God's Word, and how it is to be esteemed, &c. Thus much for this.
Now 1 will, fourthly, briefly shew you the cross or trouble, to be
profitable for us to learn and behold better the providence, presence,

404

and power of God. that all these may be coupled together, as in a
chain, to hang- ahout our necks; 1 mean God's justice, mercy, wis-
dom, po\ver, presence, and providence. When all things be in rest,
and men be not in trouble, then they are forgetful of God commonly;
and attribute too much to their own wisdom, policies, providence, and
diligence ; as though they were the procurers of their own fortune,
and workers of their own weal. But when the cross cometh, and
that in such sort as their wits, policies, and friends cannot help ;
though the wicked despair, run from God to saints, and such other
unlawful means; yet do the godly therein behold the presence, the
providence, and power of God. For the Scripture teacheth all
things to come from God, weal and woe ; and that the same should
be looked upon as God's work, although satan,the devil, be often an
instrument, by whom God worketh justly and mercifully. Justly to
the wicked, and mercifully to the godly: as by the examples of
wicked Saul and godly Job, easily we may see God's work by satan,
his instrument in them both.

The children of God, therefore, who before forgot God in
prosperity; now in adversity are awakened to see God in his work,
and no more to hang on their own forecasts, power, friends, wisdom,
riches, &c.; but learn to cast themselves on God's providence and
power, whereby they are so preserved and governed, and very often
miraculously delivered; that the very wicked cannot but see God's
providence, presence, and power, in the cross and affliction of his
children; as they (his children I mean), to their joy do feel it,
thereby learning to know God, to be the governor of all things.

HE IT IS THAT GIVETH PEACE; HE IT IS THAT SENDETH WAR ; HE
GIVETH PLENTY AND POVERTY; HE SETTETH UP AND CASTETH
DOWN; HE BRINGETB DEATH AND AFTER GIVETH LIFE; HIS PRE-
SENCE is EVERY WHERE; HIS PROVIDENCE is WITHIN AND WITHOUT ;

HIS POWER IS THE PILLAR, WHEREBY THE GODLY STAND, AND TO IT
THEY LEAN, AS TO TfiE THING NO LESS ABLE TO SET UP, THAN TO

CAST DOWN; which thing full well the apostle saw in his afflictions,
and therefore greatly rejoiced in them, that eminentia virtutis Dei,
God's power, might singularly be seen therein.

Concerning this thing, I might bring forth innumerable examples
of the affliction of God's children, both in the Old and New Testa-

405

ment; wherein we may seeho\v they felt God's presence, providence,
and power plentifully. But I will omit examples, because every one
of us that have been or be in trouble cannot but, by the same, remem-
ber God's presence, which we feel by his hand upon us; his provi-
dence which leaveth us not unprovided for, without any of our own
provision ; and his power which both preserveth us from many other
evils, which else would come upon us, and also maketh us able to bear
more, than we thought we could have done. So very often doth he
deliver us by such means, as have been thought most foolish, and
little to have been regarded ; and therefore we shake off our sleep of
security, and forgetting of God our trust and shift in our own
policies; our hanging on men, or on our own power. So that the
cross you see, is commodious, fourthly, for to see God's presence,
providence, and power, and our own negligence, forgetfulness of
God, security, self-love, trust, and confidence in ourselves; and
things in this life to be cast oft', as the other are to be taken hold on.
And this shall suffice for the commodities which come by the cross,
wherethrough we may be in love with it for the commodities sake ;
which at length we shall find, though presently in sense we feel
them not. No castigation or punishment is sweet for the present
instant, saith the apostle, but afterwards the end and work of the
thing is otherwise. As we see in medicines, the more wholesome
that they be, the more unpleasant is the taste thereof; as in pills,
potions, and such like bitter stuff"; yet we will, on the physician's
word, drink them gladly for the profit which cometh of them. And,
dearly beloved, although to lose life and goods, or friends for God's
Gospel sake, it seem a bitter and sour thing; yet in that our physi-
cian who cannot lie, Jesus Christ 1 mean, doth tell us that it is
very wholesome, howsoever it be lothsotne, let us, with good cheer,
take the cup at his hand and drink it merrily. If the cup seem
unpleasant, and the drink too bitter, let us put some sugar therein,
even a piece of that, which Moses cast into the bitter water, and
made the same pleasant; I mean an ounce, yea a dram, of Christ's
afflictions and cross, which he suffered for us. If we call this to
mind, and cast them into our cup, (considering what he was, what he
suffered, of whom, for whom, to what end, and what came thereof),
surely we cannot loth our medicine, but wink and drink it lustily.

406

Lustily therefore drink the cup which Christ giveth, and will
give unto you, my good brethren and sisters; I mean prepare your-
selves to softer, whatsoever God will lay upon you, for the confessing
of his holy name. If not because of these three things, that ye are
not of the world ; ye suffer not alone, your trouble shall not hurt
you; yet for the commodities which come of the cross, I beseech
you heartily to embrace it. The fight is but short, the joy is
exceeding great. Oportet semper orare, we must pray alway. Then
shall we, undoubtedly, be directed in all things by God's Holy Spirit,
which Christ hath promised to be our doctor, teacher, and comfor-
ter, and therefore we need not to fear, what man or devil can do unto
us, either by false teaching or cruel persecution; for our pastor is
such a one, that none can take his sheep out of his hands.

Thus much, my dear brethren and sisters in our dear Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ, I thought good to write unto you for your
comfort. From the which, if ye for fear of man, loss of goods,
fiiends, or life, do swerve or depart, then ye depart and swerve from
Christ; and so snarl* yourselves in satan's S9phistry, to your utter
subversion. Therefore, as Saint Peter saith, watch and be sober,
for as a roaring lion, he seeketh to devour you. Be strong in faith,
that is, marnmer not, nor waver not in God's promises, but believe
certainly, that they pertain to you ; that God is with you in trouble;
that he will deliver you, and glorify you. But yet see that ye call
upon him, specially, that ye enter not into temptation, as he taught
his disciples, even at such time as he saw satan desire to sift them,
as now he hath done to sift us. O, dear Saviour, prevent him now,
as thou didst then, 'with thy prayer, J beseech thee; and grant that
our faith faint not; but strengthen us to confirm the weak, that
they deny not thee and thy Gospel ; that they return not to their
vomit, stumbling on those sins from the which there is no recovery;
causing thee to deny them before thy Father ; making their latter
end worse than the beginning ; as it chanced to Lot's wife, Judas
Iscariot, Francis Spira, and to many others. But rather strengthen
them and us all in thy grace, and in those things which thy word
teacheth, that we may here hazard our life for thy sake, and so shall

* InUngle. Bailey.

407

we be sure to save it; as if we seek to save it, we cannot but lose it ;
and that being 1 lost, what profit can we have, if we win the whole
world ? Oh, set thou always before our eyes, not as reason doth,
this life, the pleasure of the same, death of the body, and imprison-
ment, &c. ; but everlasting 1 life, and those unspeakable joys which
undonbtedly they shall have, who take up the cross and follow
thee ; and eternal hell fire and destruction of soul and body for
evermore, which they must needs at length fall into; who are
afraid for the hoar frost of adversity, that rnan or the devil stirreth
up, to stop or hinder us for going forward in our journey to heaven's
bliss, to the which do thou bring us, for thy name's sake, Amen.
Your own in the Lord,

JOHN BRADFORD.

THE following eulogium upon King Edward
VI., for whom all the reformers deservedly
entertained the most affectionate regard, is,
perhaps, not inferior to any of Bradford's
other productions. " You all know, he was
but a child in years ; defiled he was not
with notorious offences ; defiled, quoth he !
nay, rather adorned, with so many goodly
gifts, and wonderful qualities, as never prince
was, from the beginning of the world ; should
I speak of his wisdom, of his ripeness in
judgment, of his learning, of his godly zeal,
heroical heart, fatherly care for his commons,
nurse-like solicitude for religion, &c.*"

* This is well evidenced by that monarch's dying prayer, as taken
from his lips almost in extremis," Lord God, deliver me out of this
wretched and miserable life, and take me among thy chosen. Howbeit,

408

Nay, so many things are to be spoken, in
the commendation of God's exceeding graces
in this child, that, as Sallust writeth of
Carthage, I -had rather speak nothing, than
too little, in that too much is too little. This
gift God gave unto us Englishmen, before all
nations, under the sun ; and that of his
exceeding love towards us. But alas and
wellaway, for our unthankfulness' sake, for
our carnality, and profane living ; God's
anger hath touched, not only the body, but
also the mind of our King, by a long sickness,
and at length hath taken him away, by death,
death, cruel death, fearful death.'**

The whole may be properly concluded by
the following lines, by an unknown author,
from an original MS. never before published.

not my will, but thine be done. Lord, I commit my spirit to thee. O
Lord, thou knowest how happy it were for me to be with thee ; yet for
thy chosen's sake, send me life and health that I may truly serve thee.
Oh, my Lord God, bless my people, and save their inheritance. O
Lord God, save thy chosen people of England. O Lord God, defend
this realm from liaptStfg, and maintain thy true religion, that I and my
people may praise thy holy name, for Jesus Christ his sake." Prayer
apud finem King Edward VI.'s own arguments. (London 1682.) See
also the remains of this ever-to-be-lamented monarch; and the learned
Cardan's encomium upon him, in Burnet's Hist. Reform, vol. ii. pt. i. 3.
and pt. ii. 124.

* Bradford's epistle, prefixed to his sermon on repentance, preached
six days after Edward's decease.

409
IN OBITU BRADFORDI.*

Plangite Bradfordum, lachrymis nee parcite vestris,

Quo magis in toto vixerat orbe plus :
Namque sacri verus cognoscitur ille minister

Verbi, religio vera quousque fuit.^
Dogmata quse docuit vivendo prsestitit ipse,

Vitaque cum verbo iuncta fuere simul.
Permansit constans mortem constanter ad usque,

Nee potuit mundi gaza movere virum.
Non valet a recto Bradfordum, quern tulit, ignis

Flectere, sed verum qusesiit usque Deum.
Captum sollicitant rectum contemnere iniqui,

******* Viro quas habet orbis opes.
Noluit ille tamen verum contemnere numen,

Sperans fcelicem post sua fata diem.
Horrida pro Christo patiens tormenta ferebat,

Ejus despiciens quicquid amore grave est.
Ingemit heu populus, Smithfelda jam moriendum

Fama ce/er vati, cum tulit, esse suo.
Quod verum est docuit, gessit se fronte benigna,

Qua cunctos placidus torsit amore pios.
Nullus eum Justus, cupiunt extinguere soli,

Qui leges torquent ad sua vota, mali.
O male crudeles ! quis, dicite, viderit unquam,

Tot, flammae poenas morte dedisse, pios ?
Die mihi quis ferret vestrum papista tyraimus

Flammam, sed potius Protheus usque foret ?

* MS. Harl. Mus. Brit. No. 416. Fol. 38.

t Dummodo vera fuit.

% Promittuntque. The words here erased are not intelligible.
Velox.

410

Dicendi veniam suprema morte negastis,

Ast vulgus signis credidit omne datis.
Voce vianij tendens plus ad sua fata, replevit,

Hoc rogat, ut populi possit habere preces.
Cum loca contigerit vitam* linqueret ille,

Sponte tenens flammam, lux mea dixit, ave.
Cum sene Bradfordo, rectum quod spernere nollet,^

Est quidam, indomito qui fuit igne comes.
Sed populi gemitus imo de pectore ducunt,

Cum mala tarn justos tanta tulisse vident.

* Queis.

t luvenis cognoraine Lefus. This refers to a pious apprentice of
the name of John Leafe, who was burned at the same time with Brad-
ford. Acts and Mon. iii. 306.

APPENDIX.

NOTE (A.) P. 2.

THIS statement seems hardly consistent with the
following- account from Strype : " Whilst in his service
once he took up some money, and that it seems in his
master's name, which he was not able presently to repay.
But interest and application were made by friends on his
behalf, and at length, in May, 1548, his master was pre-
vailed with to pay the debt for him, and he to become debtor
to his master ; and so Sir John bound himself, under his hand,
to pay the sum before Candlemas next ensuing. But while
this thing depended, which he called in his letters his great
thing, the conscience of his fault did exceedingly affect
him. He confessed his fault to his master, owned his debt,
offered all the satisfaction he could; and because, beside con-
fession and repentance, restitution was required, which he
was not yet able enough in purse to do, he intended to offer
himself to be a bondman to his creditor, according as he
read in the Jewish law. Concerning this intention of his,
he writ to a faithful friend, Father Traves, I suppose,
desiring him to resort to Latimer, who was privy to this

matter, and advise with him concerning- this selling- of his
body to make restitution. When he came to the Reverend
Father, he was busy in preparing- a sermon to be preached
the next Sunday before the King, but in short, signified his
dislike of so rigorous and unusual a course, and said that he
would not have him go so far ; and that better counsel, or
more, he could not give him, than he had before done, viz.
that he should wait, and commit the whole to God. He
consulted also with his aforesaid friend, and poured out his
trouble into his bosom, fearing much lest he should die
before he had made his restitution. But soon after, going
to study in Cambridge, means was made that the debt
was paid, and his heart set at rest. Strype's Eccl. Mem.
vol. iii. pt. I. 366.

But Fox must have known the merits of the case much
better than Strype, and as it is clear from the correspondence
with Traves that Fox was aware of the transaction, he could
never have made the statement in the text if it had borrie the
character of delinquency towards Bradford's master. From
the expressions in his letters to Traves the culpable act
seems clearly to have been one of connivance, rather than
of participation, for otherwise how could he possibly inveigh
against Sir John Harrington so loudly for not making resti-
tution ? There is not a sing-je expression which points to his
own guilt beyond that of connivance at the fraudulent act of
Sir John, whose conscience he condemns for not making
restitution, and whom he threatens with disclosure in
case he neglects to do so. Strype gives no evidence that
Bradford became bound to Sir John Harrington for repay-
ment of the money, nor does the following letter from Traves
to Bradford, and to which Strype refers as explaining the
transaction, allude to such a circumstance. This letter we
g-ive at length.

Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father, and our
Lord Jesus Christ. Ye shal understood, that after the re-
ceipt of your letters, I declared to Mr. Latymer the sum that
ye writ to me concerning- your matter with your maister.
When I came to that place, that you offered yourself to be a
bondman, he misliked it, and said, though by Goddis word
appeareth, that to make restitution we ought to sel ourselves ;
yet wold I not, sayed he, that he should go so far with his
maister. I asked, him what counsil he wold gyve you ; he
said, better counsil, or more than I have gyven him, I cannot.
Let him tary, and, commytting the whole to God, work by
leysure. More cowld I not get of him ; nor durst 1 not treble
hym, for by cause he was studiously occupy ed in preparing a
sermon to be preached, if God wil, before the kyng this next
Sonday. He knowith not certaynly whether he shal thereto
be called, but as yet judgith. What his counsel is, ye have
herd.

Ye procede and ask my counsel. Alas ! You know that
I am but a very block, yea, more dumb than a dumb idol ;
as lytel help in me as in the block of Walsingham.* Ear-
nestly I protest, that I know not what nor how to counsil

* This alludes to an image of the Virgin Mary in the famous Priory
of Walsingham, commonly called in the age of idolatry and supersti-
tion, our Lady of Walsingham. Walsingham Priory was situated in
Norfolk, not far from Fakenham.

The chapel was founded there in honour of the Virgin in 1061. The
Priory Church was a grand edifice, but the greatest beauty and glory of
this Priory was the chapel of the blessed Virgin, founded in honour of
the Annuntiatiqn. Erasmus describes it as a small chapel, all of wood,
on each side of which is a little narrow door, where those are admitted
who came with their offerings and paid their devotions, and had no light
but from the wax candles, the odour of which was delightful ; and
glittered with jewels, gold and silver, insomuch that it seemed to be the
seat of the Gods. At the allar here was a canon resident who received
and took care of the offerings.

you : but pray, pray, and commyt yourself wholly to God.
Wish an encreas of that desire that ye have to make resti-
tution. And whether that God wil so enrich you, that ye

So great was the fame of this idol or image of the Lady of Wal-
singham that foreigners of all nations, came on a pilgrimage to her,
insomuch that the number of her devotees and worshippers seemed to
equal those of the Lady of Loretto in Italy, and the town of Walsing-
ham Parva owed its chief support and maintenance thereto. Amongst
the other royal and noble dupes of idolatrous imposture, King Henry
VII. mentions in his will, that he had ordered an image of silver and
gilt to be made and offered up, and set before the Lady of Walsingham.
Isabel, Countess of Warwick, in 1439 bequeathed her tablet with the
image of our Lady, to the Church of Walsingham, which had a glass
over it ; also to the Lady there, her gown of alyz cloth of gold, with
wide sleeves, and a tabernacle of silver, like in the timbre to that of our
Lady of Caversham.

So superstitious, so weak and credulous were the commonality, that
they believed the galaxy or milky way was appointed by providence to
point out the particular place and residence of the Virgin, and was on
that account generally in that age called Walsingham Way.

This image, or block of wood, was brought through London to
Chelsea in the 30th of Henry VIII., and there publicly burnt. Bloom-
field's Norfolk, vol. v. 835, 840.

Besides this idol at Walsingham, there were several other gross im-
positions, and amongst others, the Rood of Grace at Bexley, in Kent,
where a Duck's Blood was exhibited, as that of the Saviour and Dar-
vel Gadern, which was brought up from Wales, and burned, and turned
out to be the statue of an old bishop. Herbert's Henry VIII. 496.

But the affected liberality of the present day will perhaps inquire
why repeat and attempt to perpetuate these antiquated mummeries? the
answer is ready, because they are still practised wherever Papists think
they can do so without exposing themselves to ridicule. When once
such fooleries and iniquities are renounced and anathematized by Papal
authority, but not till then, Protestants will merit censure for repeating
and exhibiting them. What will Papists say to the Veronica or sacred
handkerchief? and to the blasphemous pictures of the Marriage of the
Divine Saviour with Catharine, a nun of Sienna, with which the whole
Papal continent abounds ! ' It is common in these temples (viz. the

Vll

shal be able to pay it, or that he wil move your maister, so
that he wii and shal pay it, commit it to God with ernest
desire and faithful prayer, that at length, yet when his mer-
cyful ey shal se most meet, he wil unburden you of your
check ; and look for his help in peace. I mean no such beastly
security as is in me ; but with pacyent suffering-, without
wry thing, wrasting, ordoubtyngof his promis, without des-
perate voices, thoughts, gronyngs, or woes. For the Lord
knowith whan and how to delyver them that trust in him,
for their best avayle ; yea, mawgre the berdis of al hard
harts, God wil at length, man, delyver thee. In the mean
tyme, be neyther stock nor stone, but labour for your part
towardis the ending- of it, as opportunyty shal serve; whether

Pantheon &c. at Rome,) to find the shrine of some antient hero, filled by
the meaner statue of some modern saint: while in other instances, they
have not even given themselves the trouble to make this change ; but have
been content to take up with the old image just as they found it, after bap-
tizing or consecrating it anew by the imposition of a Christian name ;
as in the Church of St. Agnes the antique statue of a young Bacchus,
with a little change of drapery, was afterwards worshipped under the
title of that female saint. The famous statue of St. Peter in his Cathe-
dral at Rome is seated in a chair, and he holds a key in his hand the
well known position of Jupiter ; who however held a thunderbolt. The
history of this statue is rather curious : there were formerly two statues
of Jupiter Capitolinus, one of stone, the other of bronze. When Chris-
tianity succeeded to Heathenism, they put Peter's head on the body of
the stone statue, and gave him a pair of new hands, in one of which they
placed a key ; they then melted the bronze of the other statue of Jupiter,
and re-cast it, after the fashion of the stone one, as altered ; and so the
worship went on quite as well to the modern apostle, as it had done to
the antient thunderer. In either case, the true God was neglected and
forgotten, and an image was set up in his place, *' which had eyes and
saw not, and which had ears and heard not, neither was their any breath
in its nostrils." Letters on the Paganism of Popery, by Ignotus, p. 34.
See also Ventess' Letter of Congratulation, Notes, E. F. Rome in the
xix Century, vol. i. 58. vol. in. 136.

Till

in moving him agayn, (as I would surely wish to do,) or
labouring to gather of your own for the payment therof.
Do it freely, but do al in the name of the Lord, in al thyngs
gyving thanks to God the Father, thorow Jesus Christ. Arid
the most mighty God move the hart of your maister to enrich
you to your unburdenyng, even whan his wil shal be.

Despair not, thowgh al in hast it be not repayed, as
though ye were a man forlore, for that the payment is not
made ; but rather gyve thanks to God even hartily, for that
he hath opened the fault unto you, and hath gyven you a
conscience in it. For he might have gyven you up into a
lewd mynd, which shuld, nothyng regardyng it, have cryed
peace, peace, untyl sudden destruction had cummen. But
God of his mercy hath opened it to you ; not that ye shuld
delight in it, (as, Oh ! forgive me, that I do, in com-
memoration of my iniquity, much more delight, than
sorrow,) but that it shuld be a schole, a cross, a vexation,
and perturbation of mynd unto you. Ita tamen, that ye must
be void from that desperate solicitude, and with this, that
God hath gyven you an ernest desire to recompence : which
is a great comfort, a signifying, that thowgh ye be a wretch
and a synner, yet God is with you and in you. Who can
then harm you ?

But how shal I do, if 1 dy, say you, this being unpayd ?
I say, God hath gyven you a desyre to pay it, but not a
power. Is God so cruel, trow ye, that he wil exact of you
to do that that is impossible for you to do ? Are ye able to
pay it ? Then pay it. Are ye not able ? Have a contynual
desire, which is to be begged of God, to pay, and, in the
name of God, work so long as ye live, as God shal lead you
towards the payment of it. And yf ye dy before the satis-
faction, yet 1 thynk ye shal go without peryl. For 1 beleve
the synn is forgyven alredy, for Christis sake.

There remayneth then by the doctor's mynd but restitu-
tion ; and I believe that you have animum restituendi, and
ernestly labourith and followith, upon Goddis preparation,
toward the restitution ; the same hath made a g-ood restitu-
tion, if ye dy before a ful restitution.

But indede that substance that ye have at that tyme
gathered tog-ether, must go fully towards it. But what talk
ye of death ? God is able to make you to make restitution,
even tomorrow. Pray contynually for his help, and ease to
unburden that way, which he knowith to be best for you.
And I dare say, that for Jesus's sake, he wil both hear
and help you. But pray not, appointing- God ony tyme ;
sed expecta Dominum, donee misereatur tui, with ful sub-
mission, even in a pacient, faithful mynd to his wil. O how
arrogantly take I upon me to babble. But as 1 scribble, so
do I but partly ; follow not me, Bradford, follow not me,
for I am a very impenitent beast. I tell you of restitution ?
Oh ! Lord, spare me ; gyve me not up altogether to a lewd
impenitent hart, in which I procure heaps of wrath. Lord,
help, for Christis sake, help me. Al that I do, I do it in syn
and vain glory. Yet shal not the devil let me to wryte.
For out of the wyld fig tree some profit may cum. But no
thank to the tree, but to the Creator.

Now foolishly further wil 1 go. 1 wold not offer myself
into bondage to that erthly maister. Ye know not what
bondage meanith. Be it that I speak but carnally, I speak
as I am. I wold not but thynk assuredly, that as God hath
gyven me that grace to knowledg my debt, being free, that
same Lord of his mercy wil, and is able at ease, to work in
my freedom the discharge of my debt. *

Dr. Kippis, or whoever was the author of the article,

* Strype Eccl. Mem. vol. in. p. 2. 285. Catalogue, No. xxxiii.

Bradford, in the Biographia Britannica, seems to adopt the
view taken by Strype, and gives the following- extract from
Sampson's Life of Bradford, prefixed to two of this reformer's
sermons.

" He was much helped by a continual meditation and
practice of repentance and faith in Christ ; in which he was
kept, by God's grace, notably exercised all the days of his
life; and that, even in this mean time (of those obstruc-
tions) he heard a sermon,* which that notable preacher,
Master Latimer made before King- Edward VI. in which he
did earnestly speak of restitution to be made of things
falsely gotten ; which did so strike Bradford to the heart,
for one dash of a pen which he had made, without the
knowledge of his master, as full often I have heard him
confess, with plenty of tears ; being- clerk to the treasurer
of the king's camp beyond the seas, and was to the deceiv-
ing of the king", that he could never be quiet, till, by the
advice of the same M. Latimer, a restitution was made:
which thing to bring to pass, he did willingly forbear and
forego all the private and certain patrimony which he had
on earth. Let all bribers, and purloining- officers, which
get to themselves great revenues on earth, by such slippery
shifts, follow his example, lest taking- a contrary course, they
take a con rary way, and never come where Bradford now
is." Biog. Brit. vol. ii. 541.

It must be acknowledged this is strong evidence of in-
dividual and exclusive delinquency; but the complaints

* The sermon which produced this effect was most probably that on
covetousness. Latimer's Sermons, vol. i. 270. London, 1788. And in
which there is a passage which is generally supposed to allude to this
very transaction, but which, as it is inserted in the Biog. Brit. vol. ii.
542. Nota, and more lately by Mr. Soames, Hist. Reform, vol. iv. 421.
it would be improper now to repeat.

and reproaches which are contained in Bradford's letters to
Traves, seem perfectly irreconcileable with the above ac-
count given by Sampson.

Still less recortcileable with such delinquency is Brad-
ford's own declaration, when under his last examination,
and when the stake and faggot were plainly before him
for when Gardiner charged him with having deceived his
master of seven score pounds, Bradford indignantly replied,
" my Lord, I set my foot by his, whosoever he be, that can
come forth and justly vouch to my face that ever I deceived
my master, and as you are Chief Justice by office in Eng-
land, I desire justice upon them that so slander me, because
they cannot prove it." Fox iii. 289.

Mr. Soames, in his very useful history of the Reformation,
(vol. iv. 420), seems to take it for granted that Bradford was
the exclusive delinquent; but the following are the remarks
of M. Chalmers. " His exchanging so profitable a situation
for the clerical profession is rather obscurely accounted for
by his biographers, some attributing it to his having imbibed
the principles of the reformers, and being encouraged to
join their number; others to certain abuses in Sir John
Harrington's office, in which, he either participated, or at
which he connived, and the iniquity of which first struck
him, on hearing a sermon of Bishop Latimer upon the sub-
ject of restitution. There is much reason, however, to doubt
whether this sermon was not subsequent to the restitution
he made of about .500, which he apprehended the king
had lost, by some error in his and Sir John Harrington's
accounts."

" The fact seems to have been that Bradford was a man
of great tenderness of conscience, and where he imagines
he had done an injury, was restless until he had made
restitution ; and lamented his crime on this occasion with

Xll

more bitterness than will be thought necessary, by many
persons, who have been intrusted with much larger public
accounts." Chalmers' Biography, Voce Bradford.

NOTE (B.) P. 9.

IT is not to be collected from expressions similar to this,
which are to be found in the following letters, as well as
in the writings of the most eminent Christians, in those
periods of the church, when the life and spirit of religion
have been most conspicuous ; that the writer was really the
infamous character, before men, which such expressions
would import. Thus in the writings of that eminent re-
former Luther, many passages are to be found, whence the
papists lay to his charge enormous crimes which he never
committed. Men of the world, and those who are unac-
quainted with Christian experience, and the conflict which
frequently, not always, takes place in the souls of the chil-
dren of God, are unable to comprehend that depth of humility
and excess of self abasement, which some of the most
eminent,, and generally such are the most eminent chris-
tians, undergo whilst under the teaching and correction of
the Holy Spirit. St. Paul declared he was the chief of
sinners* and so most probably he was in his own estima-
tion, in respect of his persecution of the disciples of Jesus
Christ, and his utter unworthiness in the sight of God ; but
does any one believe that the holy apostle was really a
vicious or immoral character ?

* 1 Tim, i. 15.

Xlll

NOTE (C.) P. 29.

His ordination took place at Fulham, August 10, 1550,
Strype Eccl. Mem. vol. ii. pt. 1. 403. ; and in the previous
month of July, he had visited Peter Martyr, at Oxford, in
company with his friend Bucer. Ibid. 383. It is not a
little curious that whilst protestant episcopalians lay so
much stress upon episcopal ordination, their episcopal bre-
thren of the popish hierarchy, altogether deny the validity
of the orders of the church of England ; and thus to the
last they stiled Bradford only laicus, thereby implying that
Ridley had no power to confer orders. " One thing I observe
in it (Bradford's degradation) that Bradford is stiled laicus,
and so he is all along styled in the process, as though they
disowned the ordination he received from the hands of
Ridley, Bishop of London/' Strype Eccl. Mem. vol. iii.
pt. 1. 366. How strange that men of sense and piety can
be so blinded by a system as to adopt, misstate, and per-
petuate, the very errors and follies they profess to condemn.
The irregularity complained against did not arise out of the
famous Nag's Head controversy, which originated in the
consecration of Archbishop Parker, &c. in the reign of Queen
Elizabeth ; but in respect of the Bishops, after the renuntia-
tion of the supremacy of the Pope, being appointed by Act
of Parliament, and taking out letters patent and commissions
from the sovereign. Thus Ridley, who had been made a
Bishop in the first year of the reign of Edward VI., held his
office under such a commission. See the whole subject
explained in Collier ii.219. and Burnett JRefor. vol. i. 412.
ii. 8.

The Bishops from Jure Divino

Thus brought, (what cannot Kings and Queens do?)

XIV

Are now become no other thing-,
Than simple vassals to the King ;
And as such, he from Sees ejects,
As often, as he finds defects
That he's not willing- to endure :
And all this does by Pope-like power.

Ward's England's Refor. Canto i. 68.

NOTE (D.) P. 29.

BRADFORD was not the only divine of that day who
thought that the habits, as they were called, were neither
more nor less than relics of popery, and at all events should
be treated as matters of choice and not of imposition. Thus
Rogers, Philpot, Tims, Latimer, Farrar, Taylor, and Hooper,
openly declared themselves against them: and even Cran-
mer and Ridley, who had exercised great severity against
Hooper and others, lived to see their mistakes and repent
of their conduct. Cranmer being clothed in the habits of
his degradation, said all this needeth not, I had myself done
with this years ago. Ridley when he refused to put on
the surplice at his degradation, and they put it on by
force, vehemently inveighed against it, calling it foolish and
abominable, and too fond for a vice in a play. Fox iii. 500.
And during his confinement in prison he wrote to Hooper,
saying, that he was entirely knit to him, though in some
circumstances of religion they had formerly varied a little ;
wherein it was Hooper's wisdom, and his (Ridley's) own
simplicity, which had made the difference. Brook's Puri-
tans vol. i. 12. Cov. 44. 45. ; and both Cranmer and Ridley

avowed their intention of procuring- an act to abolish them.
Bishop Jewel at a later period calls them " the habits of the
stag-e and the relics of the Amorites/' and even Parker says
he was not fond of the cap, the surplice, &c. and would
have been pleased with a toleration. Strype's Parker,
App. 41. Neale's Puritans, i. 158. Pierce's Vind. i. 44.
Nor was the matter of the habits the only point in which
Archbishop Cranmer meditated a more perfect reformation,
and more vital separation from the practices of the Romish
Church. Bennett's Mem. of the Reform. 53. These
authorities stand sadly in the way of those referred to by
Dr. Wordsworth, Eccl.Biog. vol. ii. 441. Vita Bishop
Hooper, Note, and vol. iii. 274, Note. There is no doubt
the matter in dispute was unimportant, but who was the
party to blame, those who conscientiously refused matters
that were not important, because they thought they ap-
proximated too closely to the errors of the papists, and by
consequence the pag-ans ; or those who attempted forcibly
to impose such unimportant matters upon their more con-
scientious brethren ; and who did not hesitate upon every
occasion to persecute them for their nonconformity ? The
chief objection has always been, not in the things themselves,
but in the imposition of them, as prerequisites to the exercise
of the Christian ministry, and can any thing- be so excessively
absurd and ridiculous, not to say wicked ?

NOTE (E.) P. 29.

UPON a former occasion (in 1552), when it was in
contemplation to remove Edmund Grindal from a prebendal
stall to the bench, Ridley being- desirous to bestow the

XVI

vacancy apon a worthy person, writes thus to Sir William
Cecil and others of the council. " If they desired to know
unto whom he would that dignity of the church called the
chantership should be given, he told them, unto any one of
the following persons ; M. Bradford, whom in niy consci-
ence said he, I judge more worthy to be a bishop, than many
of us that be bishops already, to be parish priests."-
Strype's Grind al, p. 11. citing MSS. Cecilian. British
Mu#. Lansd. Coll. No. 2, 104. So again, speaking of
Latimer, Bradford, Knox, and Lever: Ridley says, "that
they ripped so deeply in the galled backs of the great men
of the court, to have purged them of the filthy matter that
was festered in their hearts, of insatiable covetousness,
filthy carnality and voluptuousness, intolerable ambition
and pride, and ungodly loathsomeness to hear poor men's
causes and God's word, that they of all other they could
never abide." Strype's Parker, i. 421. " He was a man,
by whom, as 1 am assuredly informed, God hath and doth
work wonders, in setting forth his word." Ridley, Strype
Ecd. Mem. vol. iii. pt. 1. 365. Cov. 683.

NOTE (F.) P. 29.

" HE laboured so vehemently in the University at his
studies, that the first year of his coming thither, he was
made Master of Arts, and was soon after chosen Fellow of
Pembroke Hall, where he so profited by the heavenly
dexterity of his wit, that he was had in estimation of all
good men." Griffith's Life. After a year and some few
months spent in the University, he attained his degree of
Master of Arts, whereunto others are hardly admitted after
long examination, and seven years study. But such was
his carriage, diligence, and proficiency, that this favour,

XV11

though extraordinary, was thought well bestowed upon
him, by the whole University ; and lest any man may think
it was rather differenced to his years, than his abilities, he
was immediately hereafter, without any interposal of time,
chosen Fellow of Pembroke Hall. Abel Redivivus, 181.
Whilst in this College he had an opportunity of serving
Archbishop Whitgift, who afterwards became so great a
persecutor of the Puritans. " But not easy at Queen's Col-
lege, and observing probably more profession and preaching
of the gospel in Pembroke Hall, the Master of that College
being Bishop Ridley, and Bradford and Grindal, Fellows,
he (Whitgift) was transplanted thither; where Bradford,
that holy man, and Martyr, was his tutor, by whose recom-
mendation and that of Grindal, he was made a Scholar and
Bible Clerk by Ridley." Strype's Whitgift, i. 8.

NOTE (G.) P. 57.

Fox says that Bradford remained in the Tower from the
month of August 1553, till the 22d of January, 1555.
vol. iii. 282. And in another place, that after his last ex-
amination on the 3 1st of January 1555, he was committed to
the Clink and thence to the Counter, whence he did not go
out till he was sent to Newgate vol. iii. 291. But in this
there must be some mistake, as it would leave no interval
for his confinement in the King's Bench, which could not be
a very short time. The authors of the Biog. Brit. vol. ii. 547.
attempt to correct Fox, by stating that the first examination
of Bradford was on January 22, 1554, but neither can this
be accurate ; for it is evident that Bradford was first com-
mitted to the Tower in August 1553, and was never after-

XV111

wards let out of confinement ; and from the period of his
first public examination in January, till his martyrdom in
July, 1555, we have a regular account of his life almost day
by day ; besides which Fox expressly says, vol. iii. 283. and
which is adopted by the above authors, that he remained in
custody from August till his first public examination, a year
and a half, which must necessarily have been January,
1555, and not 1554. At what period however he was
removed from the Tower to the King's Bench, appears only
in the incidental allusion to his effectual remonstrance with
Bishop Farrar ; and where Fox, vol.iii 282, alleges that Brad-
ford was brought to the King's Bench, where Farrar then
was,on Easter Even ; it follows, therefore, that Bradford was
confined in the King's Bench prison from Easter 1554, till
January 30, 1555, when his last examination was finished,
and he was committed first to the Clink, and then and finally
to the Poultry Counter.

NOTE (H.) P. 58.

THIS excellent person was Bishop of St. David's in the
reign of Edward VI. where his zeal procured him so many
enemies, among the papists and their adherents, that he
was persecuted even during that reign. In that of Mary,
he was apprehended and confined with Hooper, Bradford,
and others ; and was in an especial manner insulted and
persecuted by the profligate Gardiner. He was sent to his
diocese to be tried by his successor Morgan, who soon
condemned and degraded him, and handed him over to the
secular power to be burned; the church never imbruing
its holy hands in blood!

XIX

Upon a young gentleman's lamenting to him the severity and
painfulness of this kind of death, which he was to undergo, the
holy prelate immediately answered, " If you see me once to stir,
while I suffer the pains of burning, then give no credit to the truth
of those doctrines for which I die. Undoubtedly says Fox,* so
patiently he stood, that he never moved ; but even as he stood
holding up his stumps, so still he continued, till one Richard
Gravell, with a staff, dashed him upon the head, and so struck
him down.

He was burned on the south side of the Market Cross, at
Carmarthen, on the 30th of March, 1555. Middletoris
Biog. Evan. i. 346.

NOTE (i.) P. 62.

FRANCIS SPIRA, a Venetian lawyer of eminence in the
sixteenth century. Being accused before the Papal Nuncio of
favouring the tenets of the reformation, he was compelled to
make a publick recantation of his opinions to save his life; and
this had such an effect upon his spirits, that he was seized with
a dreadful malady, which baffled all the aid of medicine, and
carried him to his grave, under the most poignant agonies of
mind, 1548. Lempriere, Voce Spira. Scot's Cont. of
Milner, vol. i. 454. Sleidan, 475. Seckend. Comm. de
Luth. 601. add. g., who calls him SPIERA. M'Crie's
Hist, of the Reform, in Italy, 227. 228., from whence
it appears that a life of this unhappy man was published in
1550, with a preface by Calvin,

* Fox iii. 201. 217.

NOTE (K.) P. 65.

BESIDES these two letters there can be little doubt but that
No. 11 was also written to the same nobleman ; but who that
nobleman actually was is not so easy to determine. "Among
the rest now cast into prison, and there detained, for the pro-
fession of the gospel, I must not forget one who was noble, and
the more truly noble, in that he most sincerely adhered to the
true religion in the midst of these dangers. His name I can-
not certainly assign ; but I suspect him to have been the Lord
Russel ; who was now,* / am sure, a prisoner. Divers letters
were now wrote to him, to comfort and establish him : which
was the way used then by the preachers, when they had not the
liberty of free access. It had been my lord's desire, that letters
of this sort might be writ to him ; declaring in what good part
he took them. One of these letters, addressed to him by some
pious divine unknown, probably Lever, follows. Strype, Eccl.
Mem. vol. iii. pt. 1. 167.

A Consolatory LETTER to a NOBLEMAN, Imprisoned for
the PROFESSION of the GOSPEL.f

I HAVE hard, that your lordshippe doth both desyre that men
shuld write unto you, and that also you doo take in good part,
be it but simple, that ys writen. Wheruppon I dyd bolden my
self, at thys tyme, to writte unto you, though I be unknowen and
also unmete hereunto. And for successe of my writing, I wyll
committe that unto hym that ys able to fede without fode, and to
comfort wher no hope of comfort ys ; as out of myn unpleasant

* Anno. 1553.
t Strype, Eccl. Mem. vol. iii. pt. 2. -204.

XXI

and unsaverie wordes, you ar lyke to fynd no consolation at all.
But yet ys Godd's hande nor goodnes not shortened, but that
hereby he may worke both your comfort and hys owne glorie,
as semeth best to hys good wyll.

What greatt and continuall thanks ar all Godds children
bounde to give hym, for your lordshipes incredible stoutnes in
Chryst our master hys causse ? Well, it ys to be consydered,
that Godds woorde hath not altogether been taught and redde in
vayne unto the nobles, all ar not gyrers and mockers, all ar not
covetuose and ambitiouse, all ar not fleshlye and ryotuose. And
wold God, that a fewe more were of that ernest zeale and bold-
ness in Christ, whych you have declared your self to be : for then
shuld not our old blyndnes thys hedlonge be tombled in upon us
ageyne. The masse, wyth all the dreggs of Anti-Christ therein,
wold never soo easelye nor willinglye have been receyved as yt
ys. But what shall we saye, that even as a fewe be sincere and
harte, so yet the major part by farre ar but holow harted and
cold. And such, by causse they seke the light; but dyd not
walke thereafter: and had no delyte therin, are justly bereyved
of the same and like to be throwen into palpable darkness wyth
Pharao and the Egyptians, and that (as it doth appeyre, accord-
yng both to ther deserts and desyre. For God can not alwaye
souffre dissemblers to set forth hys name neither wyll he, that hys
wyll shuld, of the unwyllyng, be sayed to be mayntened. And
therefore, by takyng awaye the libertie of hys worde he myndeth
now to trye the true from the false, and shede out the gootes from
the shepe : whych is almost alredye come to pass. But it ys not
lyke to ende thus : for seynce that God dyd so plentifullie send
hys gospell and word unto us, gevyng us thereto hys sacramente*
so purely ministered ; and yet the receyvors notwithstanding, for
the most part, lyke unto the people that ys spoken of by the
prophet Ezechiel: what should be looked for, but that God
indede wyll laye hys hevye hand upon us ; and that not perhaps
so much corporallie, as by takyng away from us the spirituall

XX11

foode of our soules, vhych ys the ministerie of hys worde. The
lord be merciful unto us : and yet I can not saye, to take hys
plagues utterlye from us, (for that I thynke were not good for us)
but rather to give us of hys grace and spirite to bear his angre,
bycausse we have synned against him so soore. For if we shuld
have still as we have hitherto had, we wold be as we have
hitherto been, if we were not worse. Whereuppon that lesson,
whych in pleintie and bryghtnes we wold not lerne, it shall be
tryed how we wyll lerne it in scarcetie and darkness: and
bycausse we wold not serve God the right and true wave, we
shall prove how we can beare and away wyth the false, and
suffre idolatre before our eyes.

But your lordishippe must pardon me, for I have forgotten
myself, that I am about to write to hym that is in prison ; whych
knoweth and fealeth metelye well hereof alredye. For sure I am,
the punishments of God upon thys hys church, wyth your owne
synnes and infirmitees, besides other crosses and trialls, have
somethyng 1 broken your hart wyth ernest sorow and repentance :
so that you have more nede of Goddes promyses yn the gospell to
comfort you, then (as I go about) to encrease your dolor and
sorrowe, wyth puttyng you in mynd of such evells and miseries.
And yet perchaunce even thys kynde ys unto you pleasure, as
it was unto Jeremye, when he desired rivers full of teares, and
a cotage in a corner, to bewayle the synnes and sorowes of hys
people : and as he, in hys hoole book of lamentations, doth
nothvng but lament and cry out for the desolation of hys people
and citizens. In the whych yff he had a delyte, dovng of it for
the materiall citie and temple, that they were made desolate ; how
much more must teares and wepynge yssew from such, as now
beholde the suddein mine and destruction of our Church
of England? Wherein who doth not see a most miserable
change. For lyght, darkness; for truth, falsehed; for Godds
worde, mans inventions; for spiritual worshypping, corporal
idolatrye; for godlye laws to maynteyne the truth, contempt

XX111

thereof; wyth more that I wyll leave to your owne meditations
and prayers.

And thys waye to bewayle the private and common miseries
of our dayes, as yt hath with yt a present delectation ; so also ys
yt the onlye and sure waye to atteyne to the comfort whych the
promysses of Christ yn the gospell doo bringe. Even as Christ
doth tell us, when he sayeth, Come unto me all you that
labor and are looden, and I wyll refreshe you ; and in
an other place also, happie are thei u)hich mourne, for thei
shall fynde comfort. Accordyng hereunto, the prophet and
good kyng David affyrmeth lykewyse, that such as sowe in
teares shall reape in joye. Whereof your lordshippe in thys
grett shyne of Godds gospell have often both hard and redde, yea
and by experience practised it also ; but yet never so swetelye
(I dare well saye) as now, syns thys crosse hath been layde upon
you. For now you be in Godds propre scholehouse, wher as
you have not so many to trouble you, as when you went wander-
ing in the wyde wold, that ys so full of the devill's scales. Now
you have tyme to talke unto God in your often and most serious
prayers ; tyme also to give eare unto hym, talkyng and speakyng
unto you out of hys worde. So that yow tast of that in dede
now, of wych before you dyd but (as it were) here tell of. And
that you fynd verifyed upon yourself, that the good scholer of the
Lord, David, spekyth of hymself, in the long psalme of hys owne
experiences, saying, It is good for me, Lord, that I have
been in trouble, that I myght lerne thyne ordinances :
as though he shuld have sayed; before I came into affliction,
I hadd so many lettes and hynderaunces, that I could not entende
unto that wych thou (0 Lord) dydst putt to me to lerne : but
now, by these crosses, I am taught to avoyde suche inpediments,
and to withstande such affections as drawe me from the markyng
and kepyng of thye lawes and commandement.

And now therefore, I beseech you, (my good lord,) waye
wvth yourself, w ?i at a good master our heavenlye father ys unto

XXIV

you, that alone he 'doth make you so good a scholer, that you
can find yn your hart, in comparison of hym and hys worde, to
despyse all things els : as favor and fayre worde of men, honor
both present, and hereafter to folowe, riches aud pleasure, lands
and possessions, parents and frends, wyf and children, and what
shall I speke of more except it be lyf itself? Thus is the Lorde
working in you, to make you to thynke with Moses, to be in the
affliction and danger that the children of God bee in, rather than
to enjoye all the riches of the Egiptians. But such an one ys
Godd, and so ys he mynded, to wynne you with kyndnes for
ever, to bynd you unto hym in bonds of hys mercye, that never
shall be unloosed agayne. Give honor therefore unto hym alone,
wych hath alredye beganne and wyll continue, and make perfytt
hys power and myght in your imbecillittee and weaknes. That
hys name may be knowen, and hys chyldren confyrmed the
boldlyer to stycke unto hym. As I doo not doubt, but that
alredye yt ys come to passe in some, and how manye moe shall
it be wrought in, wych shall here and perceyve, that you shall
with patience and strength persevere to the ende. Be stronge
therefore, and stablishe your conscience upon the Lord's worde.
For what so ever ys pretended and brought in ageynst you, yet
knowe, that to consent and receyve the masse cannot be but
horrible, and grevouslye provoke the Lord unto angre. And to
persuade you herein, or rather to confirme you in that wych
alredye yow are out of doubt of, I wyll not make much a doo.
For doo but conferre thys masse of mans makyng wyth the supper
of Christ's institution and see what sembleablenes ys betwene
them ; and yow shall perseyve them as lyke one to the other, both
in substance and outward appearance, as an honeste matrone ys
lyke to the devill, deckt in an hoores atteyryng. And yet have
they noon other cloke or defense, save onlye to saye, that it is in
the Lord's supper : but a man with half an eye maye judge thys
matter easelye ynough. Howbeit, though we shuld graunt
(wych Godd forbydd) the masse, wyth the appurtenances to be

XXV

tollerable, yet wych way can they bring it in to the congregation
of idiotes and symple ? Unto whome all that in ther masse ys
spoken ys in a straunge language. Whereas St. Paull com-
mandeth noon to speke with tongues, onlesse he be interpreted.
Wher as also Amen must be answered to the thanks gevyng, not
as to a man's Q in a playe, but by one that preyeth, whereunto
he maketh hys answer. Turn away your eyes, therfor, from
the vanitie of their customes and conceiles, of ther tradicions and
good ententes, of ther doctors and divines ; of ther fathers and
fansyes, of scholemen and sophysters : for thes'ar for the doctors
and byshoppes to beate ther braynes about. You and thei also,
when thei have doon what they can, must be judged and quieted
by Godds worde and scripture, or els it ys but violence and
tyrannic. And the scripture we have hereof ys playne to hym
that meaneth and seketh playnnes, markyng the chief ende whye
the supper was ordeyned ; to put us in mynd, and so to confirme
us in the Lord's death, and the lyvelye and present remem-
braunce of the same : whereas they goo about nought els but the
contrarye ; as ther latin service, and taking awaye of Godd's
worde, doth most manifestlye declare. Be ware of them then; for
ther ende ys but darkenes and blyndyng of the people, and to gett
mens consciences to hang-e upon them. But such ys the sawce,
that our synfull lyves undre the gospell hath sawced our self,
and the hole church of Christ here among us wyth all.

But now what remedie? Noon, but to humble our selfs
under the mightie hands of the Lord. And in noo wyse wyth
hart or wyth hande, wyth worde or wyth dede, privelye or
openlye, to subscribe or consent to the defacyng of Christes
kyndome, the pullyng downe of hys worde, nor settyng up of
that wych ys disagreyng therto. For we ar hys temple both
bodye and soule, and must beleve wyth the hart, and confess
also with our mouth, yf we wyll be salved. As St. Paull doth
teach.

The Lord of all mercye, comfort, and strength geve your

XXVI

good Lordishipp, wyth other in the same case, thys faitli
and boldnes to confesse Christ and hys glorye unto the ende.
Amen.

It is remarkable that Strype, who found the above letter in
Fox's MSS. and with whose collection he is extremely familiar,
should not have noticed the letter No. 19, which is in the Acts and
Monuments : and indeed it seems quite as probable that even
this letter was written by Bradford as by Lever.

Strype, however, affords us no more information than the
above, except that the Earl of Bedford was buried in 1554, of
whose funeral he gives a minute account. Strype Eccl. Mem.
iii. pt. 1. 335. Most of the histories, biographies, and peerages,
allege that this nobleman died in 1558, one history alone con-
curring with Strype that he died in 1554.

The only individuals of this noble family to whom the letters
in question could have been written, are either John, Lord
Russel, the first Earl of Bedford; or Francis, Lord Russel, the
second Earl of Bedford : and from a comparison of dates and
the respective public employments of these two noblemen, in the
absence of all documentary evidence, or any tradition in the
Russel family, that either of those persons had been imprisoned
for religion, it would seem almost certain that they were written
to Francis, the second Earl. This idea would be confirmed by
the titles of Nos. 19 and 20 both in Fox and Coverdale, which
expressly state, that at the time of editing their respective works,
the individual in question was then Earl of Bedford, whereas
John, the first Ea?l, had been dead long before.

The same idea is further confirmed by the following remark
in Bishop Burnett ; " Francis, Earl of Bedford, had gone out of
England in Queen Mary's time, and stayed some time at Zurich;
he had expressed a true zeal for the reformation, and a particular
regard for the divines there ; of which a letter in the collection
gives a clear account : and upon that they wrote often to him,

XXV11

and pressed him vehemently to take care in the first beginning to
have all things settled upon sure and sound foundations.*

The letter referred to by the Bishop was written to Bullinger,
and is as follows :

A LETTER of the EARL of BEDFORD'S to BULLINGER,
from VENICE.f

Doctissimo Viro Domino Bullingero, Sacrce Theologiee

Professori eximio Tiguri.

Cum meus in te amor singularis, et perpetua observantia,
qua te semper religionis causa sum prosecutus, turn tua erga me
incredibilis humanitas, multis modis a me perspecta, cum Tiguri
nierim, (Bullingere Doctissime) fecerunt, ut hasce literas animi
erga te, mei pignus certissimum, et veluti tabulas obsignatus mei
in te perpetui amoris quas extare volui, huic adolescenti ad te
darem. In quibus ita tibi gratias ago, propter tuam humanitatem,
ut etiam me tibi relaturum pollicear, si qua in re tibi unquam
gratificari queam. Atque haec ita a me dicta velim accipias,
non sicut homines qui hodie verborum quandam speciem in-
ducunt, et officiosam formam, magis id adeo ut videantur, quam
quod esse velint id quod prse se ferant : sed potius, ut ab animo
sincere, et prorsus tibi devinctissimo profecta, certissimum tibi
persuadeas. Itaque, si quid tua causa unquam facere possim,
(quod quam exiguum sit non ignore) illud tamen, quantulum-
cunque erit tuum erit totum. Sed de hoc satis, et fortasse super-
que, prsesertim etiam cum adhuc mihi statutum sit, (si alia non
intervenerint, quse inceptum iter alio evadere possint) ut vos
obiter invisam in Angliam reversuro. Ubi id viva voce con-
firmare, quod hie nudis verbis solummodo declarare possum.
Juvenis, qui has literas perfert mihi, nunciavit de obitu Conradi

* Hist. Reform, vol. iii. pt. 1. 401. Lond. 1820.
t Ibid. pt. 2. 351.

XX VI 11

Pellicani, (quern honoris causa nomino) quod ut audivi, sane
quam pro eo ac debui, graviter molesteque tuli, non tarn sua,
quam ecclesiae universes causa. Is enim hujus vitae curriculum,
in curis, vigiliis, assiduis studiis, literatis hominibus promo vendis,
gloriosissime confecit, ac denique moriendo quemadmodum vive-
bat ad meliorem vitam in ccelum translatus est. At ilia multum
desiderabit plurimis nominibus, virum absolutissimum : Itaque
ut illius causa laetor, ita hujus vicem non possum non magno-
pere dolere. At hujus maestitiae causam tui (ut spero et opto)
praesentia facile mitigabit, quern ecclesiae, bonisque omnibus,
diu incolumem Deus Opt. Max. per suam misericordiam esse
velit. Venet. 6. calend. Maias.

Tui Nominis Studiosissimus,

F. BEDFORD.

Domino Gesnero, et Domino Gualthero, meis amicissimis
diligenter a me, quaeso, salutem dicito.

From the whole of the above documents the probability rises,
almost to a certainty, that Francis, the second Earl, must have been
the individual in question; and that probability is further in-
creased by a poem, inserted by Parke in his Heliconia,* on the
divine virtues of Francis, Earl of Bedford, from which we extract
the following :

His holy zeale he builded on God's word ;

In all his pompe the Pope he did deiie,

When Mary reign* d, and bishops ruPde the sword,

To cut him short, who all his acts did eye,

A godlye feare his loyall truth did trye ;

His service then, and large regard, therefore,

Doth papists teach their princes to adore :

Yet here I showe his service unconstrain'd

I need not showe how hardly he was us'd ;

A prisoner with the Lord Riche he remained

* Vol. ii.

XXIX

Till papists had his actions all perils' d,
Which faultless were : but he revenge refus'de ;
He layd his wrong not to his countries' charge,
But keaping truth, did shield her with his targe.

Abroade he did not, as our papists doe,
In practyse joyne their country to confounde ;
Although his queene were to God's word a foe,
He ne'er wrought that she should be uncrown'd :
No, no, his faith and honour both were sound,
Who oft' had read, and did regard it weele,
That tyrants were no warrants to rebell.

While fortune smil'd, he did not, like the world,
Bye, build, scratch, crave, and gape ere gain could fall.
Behinde his back these worldly joyes he whirl'd,
He fixt his eyes upon God's church in thrall,
Which he to free, set hand, heart, purse, and all :
His bordes were spred, his gates wyde open stood.

The idle droane, the forme that only had,
He thought unmeet to take a holy charge ;

This noble lord this groseness did perceive,

That simple men judge by the outward face :

And, therefore, did his benefices give

To such as had both learning, gift, and grace.

Would God the like were seen in ev'ry place ! *

* Whetstone, Mirror &c- of Francis Earl of Bedford. Printed in
Park's Heliconia, vol. ii. 2d tract: Longman, London, 1815. Whet-
stone was one of the Jury who acquitted Sir Nicholas Throgmorton,
for which offence he was committed to the Tower, April 25, 1554, and
discharged the 12th of December following, on payment of a fine of
,220. Fox, iii, 99. 105. 113.

XXX

Bohun enumerates Francis Russel, Earl of Bedford, as one of
those members of Queen Elizabeth's new council, who had with
great difficulty escaped the fury of the Marian persecution. It is
remarkable that though this author gives a short character of all
the other members of this council, he omits to do so as to this
nobleman.*

The improbability too that he could have been the first Earl,
is further heightened by the consideration, that that nobleman
held office to the day of his death under Queen Mary, evidently
died in the Romish faith, and was buried with the rites of that
church ; and that during that reign he frequently sat in council
when the reformers were examined, and appears to have spoken
with severity towards them.

Upon having recourse however to a MS.f in Dr. Williams's
library, in Red Cross Street, which is frequently referred to as
of high authority, we find the following notices of both these
noblemen in the same page, and Bradford's letters distinctly
ascribed to John the first Earl !

" John Russel, Earle of Bedford, though he found respect from
Queen Mary in the beginning of her reigne, and had a new
patent for the great office of Lord Privy Seale, bearing date the
3d of November, 1553 ; and was sent into Spain to attend King
Phillip in order to his nuptials with her ; yet after discerning he
favoured the reformers, and the purity of religion, he was in
great danger for it the next year after. Fautor Reformat :
for Mr. John Bradford, then a prisoner, and ready to be sacrificed
to the flames, taketh notice of this Erie's piety in the profession
of religion, and his danger of death thereby, and writeth a
consolitory letter to him in the close of 1554. Datum, he
dateth it in 1555, beginning the year Christmas. 3 Mart.
321. 322. Oration Parliam. He said peremptorily, laying his

* Character of Queen Elizabeth, p. 26.
i M.S. Chronology of eminent Persons, rol. ii. p. 373. (")

XXXI

hand upon his sword in Queen Mary's time, that he would never
part with abbey lands perficiend : De obitu. He died at his
house in the Strand on the 14th of March, 1554, and was buried
at Cheyneys in Buckinghamshire."

"Francis, Earle of Bedford, successor to his father, John, in
that honour, in the first of Elizabeth, was one of her privy
council, and in the second of that Queen sent ambassador into
France, and in the fourth of that Queen sent thither again to
condole the death of King 1 Francis the Second; and in the
sixth of Elizabeth made Governor of the Town and Castle
of Berwick-upon-Tweed. Sent afterwards by the Queen into
Scotland, and France once or oftener."

We have not been able to trace the date or compiler of this
M.S., but it certainly is not modern, and as no biographical
work which we have seen gives much account of either of these
noblemen, and their noble descendant the present Duke of
Bedford possesses no trace of the transaction ; which is the more
extraordinary, as upon the supposition that it was Earl Francis,
it is almost necessary that such a dissention must have existed
between the father and son, as would have been likely to have
perpetuated a remembrance of the transaction in the family, it
will probably never be ascertained.

It is most likely that Earl Francis was amongst those exiles
for religion, of whom Ruchat thus speaks:*

L'An 1555. les persecutions d'Angleterre, de France, et
de Flandres, attirerent quantite d'etrangers dans le canton de
Berne, mais surtout dans le pays Romand. Us y furent recueillis
par-tout avec beaucoup de charite, particulierement a Lausanne.
C'est pourquoi les seigneurs de Berne ecrivirent aux Lausannois,
le 15. Mars, pour les loue'r de leur charit envers leurs freres
persecutes, et les exhorterent a continuer.

* Ruchat's Hist, de la Reform, de la Suisse, torn. vi. 640.

XXX11

L'An 1557. vingt-cinq families Angloises s'etablirent a
Lausanne. La persecution de la Reine Marie contraignit nn
tres-grand nombre d' Anglois a se retirer dans les pays etrangers.
Plusieurs d'entreux se refugierent en Suisse, et se disperse"rent
dans les principales villes, a Zurich, a Berne, a Bale, a Geneve,
a Lausanne, et a Araw. Ils furent rec.us par-tout avec beau-
coup d'humanite. Les 25. families, dont je viens de parler,
voulurent d'abord s'etablir dans le Duch6 de Cleves pour ne
pas trop s'eloigner de leur patrie ; mais ils y furent mal recus
par les gens du pays, (qui etoient ardens Lutheriens,) a cause de
la difference de leurs sentimens, sur la presence du seigneur
dans la S. Cene. Ils allerent done a Berne, et ayant obtenu per-
mission de LL. EE. de s' habituer dans telle partie du canton,
qu'ils aimeroient le mieux, ils vinrent a Lausanne, ou ils furent
regus pour habitans perpetuels, moyennant 4 ecus par famille,
et sous di verses conditions raisonnables ; entr* autres qu'ils se
conformeroient a la reformation du pais.

We have in vain searched in all the public offices for any
trace of this transaction ; but it appears from Fox* that " the
Lord Russel was committed to the Sheriffs of London's custody
on the 30th of July, 1553 and that on the 20th of August
following, the Earl of Bedford, with Lord Rich, attended at
Paul's Cross as a guard when Watson preached, f Fox also
informs us that there was a general discharge of prisoners on
January 18, 1555, but he does not mention whether the Lord
Russel was included in the number, but most probably he
was.tf

The reader will probably think this note too prolix and
discursive ; but we can scarcely imagine any occupation more
interesting and instructive, especially to the descendants from
noble and illustrious ancestors, than to trace the actions of those

* Vol. iii. 93. t Ibid. 94, % Ibid. 117.

XXX111

ancestors through the pages of history, and observe how they con-
ducted themselves in the important and arduous stations which they
were destined to occupy. How many shoals and quicksands
might be avoided, and how many of the storms and tempests of
life might be rode out in safety, if such conduct universally
prevailed. And in particular how would the tried, the suffering,
or the tempted Christian, be supported and encouraged in his
various conflicts, by the recollection that such and such of his
progenitors had fought the same fight of faith, had been faithful
under the same trials, and had come off more than conquerors
through the great captain of their salvation. On the other hand, how
painful the reflection must be to be descended from pious ancestors,
whose souls are included amongst the one hundred and forty-four
thousand, (/?ev.vii.4.) but at the same time to feel the conscious
conviction of inheriting the name and title only, but not one
spark of that religion, which alone can conduct to the same state
of blessedness !

We cannot close this note without expressing thanks to his
Grace the Duke of Bedford for his kind condescension in aiding
our humble inquiries, and for the valuable suggestions of
Mr. Wiffen, the librarian of Woburn Abbey, whom his Grace
authorized to facilitate our researches.

NOTE (L.) P. 79.

UPON this letter Fox has the following notes, and which
although of considerable length, the editor thinks it right to
subjoin, as the Acts and Monuments will soon become very
scarce and are not likely to be reprinted ; and because it is of im-

XXXI V

portance to establish beyond controversy, what the faith of the
reformers of the Church of England actually was.

" For the certainty of this faith search your hearts. If you
have it, praise the Lord ; for you are happy, and therefore cannot
finally perish ; for then happiness were not happiness, if it could
be lost. When you fall, the Lord, the Lord will put under you
his hand, that you shall not lie still. But if ye feel not this
faith, then know that predestination is too high a matter for you
to be disputers of, until you have been better scholars in the
school-house of repentance and justification ; which is the gram-
mar school, wherein we must be conversant and learned ; before
we go to the university of God's most holy predestination and
providence.

As touching the doctrine of election three things must be
considered :

First, What God's election is, and what is the cause
thereof.

Secondly, How God's election proceedeth in working our
salvation.

Thirdly, To whom God's election pertaineth, and how a man
may be certain thereof.

Between predestination and election, this difference there is,
predestination is as well to the reprobate, as to the elect ; election
pertaineth only to them that be saved.

Predestination, in that it respecteth the reprobate, is called
reprobation ; in that it respecteth the saved, is called election,
and is thus defined.

Predestination is the eternal decreement of God, purposed
before in himself, what shall befall on all men, either to salva-
tion or damnation.

Election is the free mercy and grace of God in his own will,
through faith in Christ his son, choosing and preferring to life
such as pleased him.

XXXV

In this definition of election, first goeth before, the mercy
and grace of God, as the causes thereof; whereby are excluded
all works of the law, and merits of deserving, whether they go
before faith or come after. So was Jacob chosen and Esau
refused, before either of them began to work, &c.

Secondly, In that this mercy and grace of God in this defi-
nition is said to be free, thereby is to be noted the proceeding
and working of God not to be bounded to any ordinary place, or to
any succession of chair, nor to state and dignity of person, nor to
worthiness of blood, &c. ; but all goeth by the mere will of his
own purpose, as it is written, Spiritus ubi vult spirat, &c.
And thus was the outward race and stock of Abraham after the
flesh refused, which seemed to have the pre-eminence ; and
another seed after the spirit raised up to Abraham of the stones,
that is, of the gentiles. So was the outward temple of Jerusalem,
and the chair of Moses, which seemed to be of price, forsaken,
and God's chair advanced in other nations. So was tall Saul
refused, and little David accepted ; the rich, the proud, the wise
of this world rejected, and the word of salvation daily opened to
the poor and miserable abjects ; the high mountains cast under,
and the low vallies exalted, &c.

Thirdly, Where it is added, in his own will, by this falleth
down the free will and purpose of man, with all his actions,
counsels, and strength of nature ; according as it is written,
Non est volentis, neque currentis, sed miserentis Dei,
&c. that is, it is not in him that willeth, not in him that runneth,
but in God that showeth mercy. So we see how Israel ran long,
and yet got nothing. The Gentiles unneth* began to set out,
and yet got the game. So they which came at the first hour did
labour more, and yet they which came last were rewarded with the
first, Matt. xx. The working will of the pharisee seemed better, but
yet the Lord's will was rather to justify the publican, Luke xviii.
The elder son had a better will to tarry by his father, and so did

* Hardly, with difficulty Words, i. 26.

xxxvi

indeed ; and yet the fat calf was given to the younger son that
ran away, Luke xv. Whereby we have to understand, how the
matter goeth, not by the will of man, but by the will of God, as
it pleaseth him to accept, according as it it is written : Non ex
voluntate carnis, neque ex voluntate viri, sed ex Deo nati sunt,
etc. ; that is, which are borne, not of the will of the flesh, nor yet
of the will of man, but of God. Furthermore, as all then goeth
by the will of God only, and not by the will of man; so again
here is to be noted, that this will of God never goeth without
faith in Christ Jesus his son.

And therefore, fourthly, is this clause added in the definition,
through faith in Christ his son ; which faith iri Christ to us- ward,
maketh all together. For first, it certifieth us of God's election;
as this epistle (No. 26) of Master Bradford doth well express.
For whosoever will be certain of his election in God, let him
first begin with his faith in Christ ; which if he find in him to
stand firm, he may be sure, and nothing doubt, but that he is
one of the number of God's elect. Secondly, the said faith, and
nothing else, is the only condition and means whereupon God's
mercy, grace, election, vocation, and all God's promises to sal-
vation do stay, according to the words of St. Paul, If ye abide
in the faith. Coloss. i. Thirdly, this faith also is the immediate
and next cause of our justification simply, without any other
condition annexed. For as the mercy of God, his grace, election,
vocation, and other precedent causes, do save and justify us upon
condition, if we believe in Christ ; so this faith only in Christ,
and without condition, is the next and immediate cause, which,
by God's promise worketh our justification ; according as it is
written, Believe in the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved, thou
and thy whole house. Acts xvi.

And thus much touching the definition of election, with the
causes thereof declared, which you see now to be no merits, nor
works of man, whether they go before or come after faith, but
only the mere mercy of God through faith. For like as all they
that be born of Adam do taste of his malediction, though they

xxxvii

tasted not his apple; so all they that be born of Christ, which is
by faith, take part of the obedience of Christ, although they never
did that obedience themselves, which was in him. Rom, v.

Now, to the second consideration ; let us see likewise, how,
and in what order, this election of God proceedeth in choosing- and
electing them which he ordaineth to salvation; which order is
this. In them that be chosen to life, first God's mercy and free
grace bringeth forth election ; election worketh vocation or God's
holy calling ; which vocation, through hearing, bringeth know-
ledge and faith of Christ ; faith through promise obtaineth justi-
fication ; justification through hope waiteth for glorification.

Election is before time ; vocation and faith come in time ;
justification and glorification are without end.

Election, depending upon God's free grace and will, ex-
cludeth all man's will, blind fortune, chance, and all peradven-
tures.

Vocation, standing upon God's election, excludeth all man's
wisdom, cunning, learning, intention, power, and presumption.

Faith in Christ, proceeding by the gift of the Holy Ghost,
and freely justifying man, by God's promise, excludeth all other
merits of men, all condition of deserving, and all works of the
law, both God's law and man's law, with all other outward means
whatsoever.

Justification, coming freely by faith, standeth sure by
promise, without doubt, fear, or wavering in this life.

Glorification, pertaining only to the life to come, by hope is
looked for.

Grace and mercy prevent.

Election ordaineth.

Vocation prepareth and receiveth the word, whereby Cometh
faith.

Faith justifieth.

Justification bringeth glory.

Election is the immediate and next cause of vocation.

xxxvm

Vocation, which is the working of God's Spirit by the
Word, is the immediate and next cause of faith.

Faith is the immediate and next cause of justification.

And this order and connection of causes is diligently to be
observed, because of the papists, who have miserably con-
founded and inverted this doctrine, thus teaching, that Almighty
God, so far forth as he foreseeth man's merits before to come, so
doth he dispense his election. Dominus prout cvjusque
meritafore proevidet, ita dispensat electionis gratiam.
And again, nullis precedentibu ,v meritis Doininum repen-
dere electionis gratiam, futuris tamen concedere ; that is,
that the Lord recompenseth the grace of election, not to any
merits preceding; but yet granteth the same to the merits
which follow after ; as though we had our election by our holi-
ness that followeth after, and not rather have our holiness by
God's election going before.

But we, following the Scripture, say otherwise, that the only
cause of God's election, is his own free mercy ; and the only
cause of our justification is our faith in Christ, and nothing
else. As for example ; first concerning election, if the question
be asked, why was Abraham chosen, and not Nachor ? Why was
Jacob chosen and not Esau ? Why was Moses elected, and
Pharaoh hardened ? Why David accepted, and Saul refused ?
Why few be chosen, and the most forsaken? It cannot be
answered otherwise but thus ; because it was so the good will
of God.

In like manner touching vocation and also faith, if the
question be asked, why this vocation and gift of faith was given to
Cornelius the Gentile, and not to Tertullus the Jew ? Why to the
poor, to the babes, and little ones of this world, of whom Christ
speaketh, I thank thee father, who hast hid this from the wise,
&c. Matt. xi. Why to the unwise, the simple abjects, and
outcasts in this world ? of whom speaketh St. Paul, 1 Cor. i.
Ye see your calling brethren, how not many of you, &c. Why

XXXIX

to the sinners, and not to the just ? Why the beggars by the
high ways, were called, anu the bidden guests excluded ? We
can go to no other cause, but to God's purpose and election, and
say with Christ our Saviour : Yea, father, for so it seemeth good
in thy sight, Luke x.

And so for justification likewise, if the question be asked
why the Publican was justified, and not the Pharisee? Luke
xviii. Why Mary the sinner, and not Simon the inviter ? Luke
xi. Why harlots and publicans go before the scribes and
pharisees in the kingdom ? Matt. xxi. Why the son of the
free woman was received, and the bond woman's son, being his
elder, rejected ? Gen. xxi. Why Israel, which so long sought
for righteousness, found it not ; and the Gentiles, which sought
not for it, found it ? Rom. ix. We have no other cause
hereof to render, but to say with St. Paul, because they sought
for it by works of the law, and not by faith ; which faith, as it
cometh not by man's will, as the papist falsely pretendeth, but
only by the election and free gift of God ; so it only is the
immediate cause whereunto the promise of our salvation is
annexed, according as we read ; And therefore of faith is the
inheritance given, as after grace, that the promise might stand
sure to every seed. Rom. iv. Item, in the same chapter, faith,
believing in him which justifieth the wicked, is imputed to
righteousness.

And thus concerning the causes of our salvation, ye see how
faith in Christ, only and immediately, without any condition,
doth justify us ; being so linked with God's mercy and election,
that wheresoever election goeth before, there faith in Christ
must needs follow after. And again, whosoever believeth in
Christ Jesus, through the vocation of God, he must needs be
partaker of God's election.

Whereupon resulteth now the third note or consideration ;
which is, to consider whether a man in this life may be certain
of his election. To answer to which question, this first is to be

understood ; that although our election and vocation simply
indeed be known to God only in himself, a priori ; yet notwith-
standing it may be known to every particular faithful man, a
posteriori, that is, by means, which means are faith in Christ
Jesus crucified. For so much as by faith in Christ a man is
justified, and thereby made the child of salvation ; reason must
needs lead the same to be then the child of election, chosen of
God unto everlasting life. For how can a man be saved, but
by consequence it folio weth, that he must also be elected ?

And therefore of election it is truly said ; we must judge of
election by that which cometh after, that is, by our faith and
belief in Christ ; which faith, although in time it followeth after
election, yet this is the proper and immediate cause assigned by
the scripture, which not only justifieth us, but also certifieth us
of this election of God.

Whereunto likewise well agreeth this present letter of
Master Bradford, wherein he saith ; election, albeit in God it be
the first, yet to us it is the last opened. And therefore beginning
first, saith he, with creation, I come from thence to redemp-
tion and justification by faith, and so to election. Not that faith
is the cause efficient of election, being rather the effect thereof ;
but is to us the cause certificatory, or the cause of our certifica-
tion, whereby we are brought to the feeling and knowledge of
our election in Christ. For albeit that election first be certain
in the knowledge of God ; yet in our knowledge, faith only that
we have in Christ, is the thing that giveth to us our certificate
and comfort of this election.

Wherefore, whosoever desireth to be assured that he is one
of the elect number of God, let him not climb up to Heaven to
know ; but let him descend into himself, and there search his
faith in Christ the Son of God ; which if he find in him not
feigned, by the working of God's Holy Spirit accordingly ; there-
upon let him stay, and so wrap himself wholly, both body and
*oul, under God's general promise, and incumber his head with

xli

no further speculations ; knowing this, that whosoever believeth
in him, shall not perish John iii. shall not be confounded
Rom. ix. shall not see death John viii. shall not enter into
judgment John v. shall have everlasting 1 life John iii. vii.
shall be saved Matt, xxviii. Acts xvi. shall have remission of
all his sins Acts x. shall be justified Rom. iii. Gal. ii.
shall have floods flowing out of him of water of life John vii.
shall never die John xi. shall be raised in the last day John
vi. shall find rest to his soul, and shall be refreshed Matt. xi.

Now then, forasmuch as we see faith to be the ground,
whereupon dependeth the whole condition of our justifying, let us
discuss in like manner what is this faith, whereof the scripture so
much spcaketh, for the more plain understanding of the simple.
For many kinds there be of faith ; as a man may believe every
thing that is true, yet not every truth doth save, neither doth the
believing of every truth justify a man. He that believeth that God
created all things of nought, believeth truly. He that believeth that
God is a just God, that he is omnipotent, that he is merciful,
that he is true of promise, believeth well, and holdeth the truth.
So he that believeth that God hath his election from the be-
ginning, and that he also is one of the same elect and predestinate,
hath a good belief, and thinketh well ; but yet this belief alone,
except it be seasoned with another thing, will not serve to sal-
vation; as it availed not the old Jews, which so thought of
themselves, and yet think to this day, to be only God's elect
people.

Only the faith which availeth to salvation is that, whose
object is the body and passion of Jesus Christ crucified : so that
in the act of justifying, these two, faith and Christ, have a
mutual relation, and must always concur together ; faith as the
action which apprehendeth, Christ as the object which is appre-
hended.

For neither doth the passion of Christ save without faith,
neither doth faith help, except it be in Christ ; as we see the

xlii

body of man sustained by bread and drink, not except the same
be received and conveyed into the stomach ; and yet neither doth
the receiving of every thing sustain man's body, except it be
meat and drink, which have power to give nourishment. In like
sort it is with faith ; for neither doth the believing of every thing
save, but only faith in the blood of Christ ; neither again doth
the same blood of Christ profit us, except by faith it be received.
And as the sun being the cause of all light, shineth not but to
them only which have eyes to see ; nor yet to them neither, unless
they will open their eyes to receive the light ; so the passion of
Christ is the efficient cause of salvation ; but faith is the condition,
whereby the said passion is to us effectual.

And that is the cause why we say with the scripture, that
faith only justifieth us ; not excluding thereby all other external
causes that go before faith, as grace, mercy, election, vocation,
the death of Christ, &c. all which be external causes, working
our salvation through faith. But when we say that faith only
justifieth us, the meaning thereof is this ; that of all internal
actions, motions, or operations in man, given to him of God ; there
is none other that contenteth and pleaseth God, or standeth
before his judgment, or can help any thing to the justifying of
man before him, but only this one action of faith in Jesus
Christ the Son of God.

For although the action of praying, fasting, alms, patience,
charity, repentance, the fear and love of God, be high gifts in
man, and not of man, given of God to man, yet be none of all
these actions in man imputed of God to salvation ; but only this
one action of faith in man, upon Christ Jesus the Son of God.
Not that the action itself of believing, as it is a quality in man,
doth so deserve, but because it taketh that dignity of the
object. For as I said, the act of justifying faith, as it is an
action of man, is not to be considered alone, but must ever go
with his object, and taketh his virtue thereof. Like as the
looking up of the old Israelites, did not of itself procure any

xliii

health unto them, but the promise made in the object, which
was the brazen serpent, whereupon they looked, gave them
health by their looking up. Even so, after like sort, are we saved
by our faith and spiritual looking up to the body of Christ
crucified ; which faith to define is this.

To believe Jesus Christ to be the Son of the living God,
sent into this world, by his death to satisfy for our sins, and so
to receive the same.

And thus much touching election and faith, with the order
and explication of the causes necessary to be considered in our
salvation, whereby may appear, how far the pretended Catholics,
do swerve from the right mind of the scriptures. For where the
scriptures in declaring the causes of salvation, do send us only
to faith, as the only condition whereby these causes have their
working ; these catholics do quite leave out faith, and instead
thereof place in other conditions of doings, merits, will- works,
pardons, masses, and especially auricular confessions, with
penance and satisfaction for our sins, &c.

With reference to these doctrines, our own minds have often
been impressed with a peculiar view of them, which we have
never seen expressed by any writer till very lately. "Neverthe-
less, I wish we had a better word than necessity, which is com-
monly made use of in this dispute, for it conveys to the under-
standing an idea of restraint, which is totally contrary to the act
of choosing." LUTHER apud Milner's Ch. Hist. v. 280
Edit. 1810. Upon which Mr. John Scott, reasoning upon the
Common Places of Melancthon, remarks as follows. " For my
own part, I confess, I choose to suspend my judgment upon
points so far ' too high' for us ; where much, that seems to
be established by incontrovertible reasoning, and countenanced
by scriptural authority, appears also to us, with our limited
powers, to be incapable of being reconciled with what is alike
the dictate of nature and common sense, and the clear doctrine
of divine revelation. But as for those who revolt, with contempt

xliv

and indignation, at the mention of any such necessity as stated
above, it may be worth while to learn a lesson of humility, by
trying to disentangle themselves from the obnoxious doctrine,
as following, at one, simple, unavoidable step, from the divine
prescience alone, independently of any predestination.
Thus, after all that can be said, it can never be disproved,
that what is certainly foreseen must certainly come to pass : but
future events are so foreseen by Almighty God as both
prophecy and the direct testimony of scripture demonstrate :
therefore they are certain, or, in the sense explained,
necessary. I say again, I state not this as my own unhe-
sitating conclusion, I only here throw it out as an exercise for
those, who imagine their own scheme free from such
difficulties.'* Continuation of Milner, ii. 197, Nota.

NOTE (M.) p. 92.

In the letters from 21 to 28 inclusive, we have brought
together the principal observations of this holy martyr upon the
subject of predestination, the doctrines of free will, election, &c.
to which we have subjoined the opinion of the venerable martyr-
ologist, Fox, and that for the purpose of shewing, what the real
views of the English reformers were upon these important
questions. And we feel it necessary here to notice some remarks
of Dr. Wordsworth, where he seems to have travelled out of his
way, in order to cast a slur upon the memory of Bradford.

In a note upon the Life of Bishop Ridley,* Dr. W. quoting a
passage from one of the Bishop's letters, observes, " It is not
unlikely that Ridley offered this remark to Bradford's consider-
ation, by way of moderating his zeal respecting some disputes
on free will and predestination, which had arisen among the

* Eccl. Biog. vol. iii. 361.

xlv

Protestant prisoners, in consequence of Cole, Harry Hart, and a
few other obscure individuals, having- imbibed and propagated
Pelagian notions. Ridley could not sympathise with Bradford's
warmth on this subject (not because he did not think
Bradford's sentiments, upon the whole right and true,
and Cole's, 8?c. wrong and false,} but from thinking-
Bradford overrated the importance of the controversy, and
the influence of his adversaries, by which coldness, it is plain
that Bradford was a little piqued."

And in another note upon the same life* Dr. V. adds, " His
(Ridley's) words to Bradford, in reference to the predestinarian
controversy, cannot be too often inculcated, and deserve to be
written in letters of gold ; and then quotes in small capitals, the
words we have inserted in a corresponding type, in the first letter
subjoined, and remarking, It is greatly to be lamented, that the
notes which he (Ridley) had drawn up on this subject were not
printed."

Coverdale gives eight letters from Ridley to Bradford, of
which Dr. W. has published only four but taking the whole
together, it seems evident that nothing but the most cordial
sympathy and approbation existed between them. The following
are two of those omitted by Dr. W. and the remaining two we
shall most likely have occasion to insert in the sequel.

TO MASTER BRADFORD.t

Dearly beloved brother, blessed be God our Heavenly Father,
for his manifold and innumerable mercies towards us, and
blessed might he be that hath spared us thus long together, that
each one of us may bless his mercy and clemency in other unto
this day, above the expectation and hope of any worldly
appearance.

* Vol. iii. 372. t Cov. 63. N

xlvi

Whereas you write of the outrageous rule, that satan our
ghostly enemy beareth abroad in the world ; whereby he stirreth
and raiseth so pestilent and heinous heresies, as some to deny
the blessed Trinity, some the divinity of our Saviour Christ,
some the divinity of the Holy Ghost, some the baptism of infants,
some original sin, and to be infected with the errors of the
Pelagians, and to rebaptise those that have been baptised with
Christ's baptism already ; alas, Sir, this doth declare this time
and these days to be wicked indeed. But what can we look for
else of satan here and of his ministers, but to do the worst that
they can, so far forth as God shall or will suffer them.

And now methinks he is less to be marvelled at at this
time, if he bestir him by all manner of means, that the truth
indeed do take no place. For he seeth now, blessed be God, that
some go about in deed and in truth, not trifling, but with the
loss of all that they are able to lose in this world, goods, lands,
name, fame, and life also ; to set forth God's word and his truth,
and by God's grace shall do, and abide in the same unto the end;
now therefore it is time to bestir him I trow.

And as for the diversity of errors, what careth he though
one be never so contrary to another ? He reckoneth all, and so
he may, to be his, whosoever prevail, so that truth prevail not.
Nevertheless, good brother, I suppose that the universal plague
is most dangerous which at this day is, alas, fostered and master-
fully holden up by wit, worldly policy, multitude of people,
power, and all worldly means. As for other the Devil's gal-
troppes, that he casteth in our ways by some of his busy headed
yonkers, I trust they shall never be able to do the multitude
so great harm. For, blessed be God, these heresies before time
when satan by his servants hath been about to broach them, have
by God's servants already been so sharply and truly confounded,
that the multitude was never infected with them ; or else where
they have been infected, they are healed again, that now the peril
is not so great.

xlvii

And where you say that if your request had been heard,
things, you think, had been in better case than they be ;* know
you that concerning the matter you mean, I have in Latin drawn
out the places of the scriptures, and upon the same have noted
what I can for the time. SIR, IN THOSE MATTERS I AM so

FEARFUL, THAT 1 DARE NOT SPEAK FARTHER, YEA ALMOST
NONE OTHERWISE THAN THE VERY TEXT DOTH, AS IT WERE,
LEAD ME BY THE HAND.f

And where you exhort us to help, &c. ; Lord what is else
in this world that we now should list to do ? I bless my
Lord God I never, as methinketh, had more nor better leisure to
be occupied with my pen in such things as I can do to set forth,
when they may come to light, God's glory. And I bless my Lord
God through Jesus Christ, my heart and my work are therein
occupied, not so fully and perfectly as I would, but yet so as I
bless God for the same.

Farewell, dear brother, the messenger tarrieth and I may not
now be longer with you. The Lord, I trust Verily, shall bring us
thither, where we shall, each one with other in Christ our
Saviour, rejoice and be merry everlastingly.

Your Brother in Christ,

N. R.

TO MASTER BRADFORD.$

Gratiam et pacem, &c. Although I ween it is not yet three
days ago, since you heard from me, yet having such a messenger
and so diversely enforced, 1 cannot but say something to you.

* P. 70.

t He meaneth here the matter of God's election, whereof he after-
wards wrote a godly and comfortable treatise, remaining yet in the hands
of some, and hereafter shall come to light, if God so will. Co?. 65.
Cov.69.

xlviii

What ? shall I thank you for your golden token ? What mean
you man ? Do you not know that we have victum et amictum
e penario regio ? I was so moved with your token* iha' I
commanded it straightway to be had to Bocardo which is our
common jail. I am right glad of Austin's^ return, for I was, as
I told you, careful for him. Blessed be God that all is well. I
have seen what he brought from you, and shortly surveyed the
whole, but in such celerity, that other also might see the same
before Austin's return ; so that I noted nothing but a confused
sum of the matter, and as yet what the rest have done, I can '.ell
nothing at all, and it was at the writing hereof in their hands.
To your request, and Austin's earnest demand of the same, I have
answered himjl in a brief letter, and yet he halh replied again;
but he must go without any further answer of me for this time.
I have told Austin, that I for my part, as I can and may for my
tardity and dulness, will think of the matter. We are so now
ordered and straitly watched, that scarcely our servants dare
do any thing for us ; so much talk and so many tales, as is. said,
are told of us abroad. One of us cannot easily nor shortly be of
knowledge of another's mind, and you know I am youngest many
ways. Austin's persuasions may do more wiih me in that I may
do conveniently in this matter, armed with your earnest
and zealous letters,^ than any rhetorick either of Tully or
Demosthenes, I insure you thereof.

* This token vras a piece of gold, which Bradford had sent to Ridley,
but which the latter sent to relieve his brother Shipside, prisoner in
Bocardo. Cov. 69.

f Augustine Beraher.

J He meaneth here Harry Hart, a froward free-will man, who had
written a treatise against God's free election, which Bradford sent to
M.Ridley, Cranmer, and Latimer to peruse, desiring M- Ridley to
answer the same. Cov. 7U.

How must the shades of these excellent men, who thus honoured
and preferred each other to himself, look down with astonishment and

xlix

With us it is said, that M. Grymbold* was adjudged to be
hanged, drawn, and quartered ; of whom we hear now, that he
is at liberty. So we heard of late, that M. Hooper was hanged,
drawn, and quartered indeed, not for heresy but for treason, but
blessed be God, we hear now that all is true in like. False
tongues will not cease to lie, and mischievous hearts to imagine
the worst. Farewell in Christ, and token for token now I send
you not; but know this, that, as it is told me, I have two scarlet
gowns ih&t escaped, I cannot tell how, in the spoil, whereof you
$hall have your part. Commend me to all our brethren, and
your fellow prisoners in the Lord.

Your's in Christ,

N. R.

The venerable martyrologist has also recorded another
circumstance, which shews that Ridley neither claimed nor
possessed that superiority, in respect of prudence and discretion,
over Bradford ; which Dr. Wordsworth takes so much pains to
establish 'Master Ridley, late Bishop of London, being
prisoner in the Tower, had there given him the liberty of the
same, to prove belike whether he would go to Mass or no,
WHICH ONCE HE DID. And Master Bradford, being there
prisoner also the same time,f and hearing thereof, taketh his

disgust upon the puny biographer, who, 200 years after they both have
been in glory, thus exerts himself to exalt the character and notions of

either, at the expense of his venerated brother ?
i

* He was chaplain to Ridley. Strype's Cran. 492. but secretly
recanted, and acted as a spy on the imprisoned professors of the gos-
pel. Strype, Eccl. Mem. i. 229. Fox iii. 136- 139-

t The Tower being so full, our Archbishop Cranmer, Ridley, Lari-
mer, and Bradford were all thrust together into one chamber, which,
however inconvenient it were, yet they were very glad to be together ;
that they might have thi opportunity of conferring with one another,
and establishing one another together. There they read over the New
Testament together with great deliberation and study ; on purpose to

pen and ink, and writeth to him an effectual letter to persuade
him from the same, and sheweth the occasion that thereby
should ensue, which, God be honoured, did M. Ridley no
little good ; for he repented his fact therein, as he himself
maketh mention, writing again in the latter end of the book of
Marcus Antonius, which he sent to M. Bradford, and never
after that polluted himself with that filthy dress of anti-
christian service.' Fox, iii. 997.*

Notwithstanding all this Ridley was a giant, for there were
giants in those days, and we may imagine nothing could more
excite the indignation of the spirit of that holy martyr, if in
their blessed abodes they could be susceptible of such feelings,
than to see' his pigmy successors attempt to put a tinsel crown
upon his head, at the expense of his brother martyr, and
beloved friend for the gospel sake.

As to Ridley himself, every true Protestant claims an equal
interest in his character and credit, whether episcopalian or non
episcopalian ; and divested of that narrow sectarianism which
almost invariably characterises the genuine hierarehist,h>oks up
to him with admiration and gratitude willingly and gladly there-
see if there were any thing that might favour that popish doctrine of a
corporeal presence. But, after all, they could find no presence but a
spiritual one, northat the mass was any sacrifice for sin. But they found in
that holy book that the sacrifice of Christ upon the cross was perfect,
holy, and good ; and that God did require none other, nor that it should
be ever done again; as Latimer, one of the four, related in protestation
given to Watson. Strype's Cranmer, vol. i. 463.

* Dr. Wordsworth, iii. 322, and Mr. Todd in his Life of Cranmer,
vol. ii. 381, do not give credit to this statement but for no other
reason than that Fox, as they allege^ r elates precisely the same particulars
respecting Bradford and Bishop Ferrar. But that is not so, for the two
anecdotes, as related by the martyrologist, are essentially distinct in the
two important particulars of time and circumstances. Acts and Mon.
vol. iii. 280. 997. Besides which Fox refers to a document in which
Ridley had expressly acknowledged the fact.

fore we add the following. ' Master Ridley, was a man so-
reverenced for his learning and knowledge in the scripture*
that even his very enemies have reported him to have been an
excellent clerk, whose life, if it might have been redeemed
with the sum of 10,000 marks, yea, 1000, the Lord Dacre of
the North, being his kinsman, would have given it to Queen
Mary, rather than he should have been burned. And yet was
she so unmerciful, for all his gentleness in King Edward's days*
that it would not be granted for any suit that could be made*
Oh, that she had remembered his labour for her to King
Edward VI. with Cranmer, before mentioned,* in such sort that
even she had yielded but the reward of a publican Matt. v.
then had the earth not so been bereft of him as it was ; let the
Lord forgive us our sins which were the cause thereof, and
grant that we never so provoke his anger again, if it be
his blessed will Amen.' Fox iii. 996. Which Amen we
most heartily repeat!

As Dr. W. admits that Bishop Ridley thought Bradford's
sentiments, upon the whole, were right and true, and the
opposite opinions wrong and false ; we do not easily discover
the materiality of discussing which of them attached most
importance to the controversy in question. Assuming that Ridley
thought it of less importance than Bradford, it does not follow
that the former was right ; and the time might come when
Ridley, in the same manner as he had seen reason to prefer
Hooper's opinion to his own, in the matter of the habits, might
also see reason to prefer Bradford's opinion to his own, in respect
of the importance of the doctrine in question.

That Ridley actually did so seems very probable ; for from
the last of these letters (very remarkably omitted by
Dr. W.) it appears that he had himself written to Hart; and

* Fox ii. 788 iii, 16.

lii

from Coverdale's note upon the former of these letters, it is
evident that it was in compliance with Bradford's earnest re-
monstrance to take up the subject, he wrote the very notes or
treatise which Dr. W. wishes so much were extant. This looks
vastly more like yielding to the opinions of Bradford, than
having the intention to censure or restrain him. And how far,
in point of fact, Bradford was in the right, has since become but
too evident, from the state into which the clergy of the Church
of England fell soon afterwards, and continued for the
most part till the middle of the last century. Dr. W. and many
others are very fond of clothing themselves with the mantles of
Cranmer, Ridley, and their brethren but how is it they can
honestly do so, whilst admitting that the reformers believed in
the doctrines of predestination, election, &c. they themselves
not only fail in preaching the same doctrines, but seldom let
slip an opportunity of treating them with ridicule and contempt.
Alas, alas, how many bishops have we had since the period at
which these men fell, who have been worthy to wear their
mantles ! Upon this subject see Bishop Tomline's Refutation of
Calvinism, triumphantly refuted by the late Rev. Thos. Scott,
of Aston Sandford ; by the late Rev. Dr. Williams, of Rotherham ;
and more pointedly still by Mr. John Allen, of Madras House,
Hackney, in the Layman's Letter. London, 1812, Gale and
Curtis. See also the trimming and cautious spirit but too fre-
quently evinced upon this subject, by some who ought to know
and act better, exposed in Haeresis Mastix, London, 1824 ; in
which a certain Reverend Dean, received a tolerably severe
castigation from one of his own brethren, respecting the case
of Dr. Malan at Geneva.

With whatever caution Ridley might express himself
upon this subject, and we agree perfectly that no man can
adhere too closely to scriptural expressions, when treating of this
or any other Christian doctrine ; it does not seem probable that
any material difference existed between them, for Coverdale,

liii

who evidently approved of the sentiments of Bradford, as
appears by his notes on No. 27, and which was most probably the
very paper which Bradford mentions in No. 28 to have sent to
Ridley describes Ridley's works in terms of no less approba-
tion, viz : as a godly and comfortable treatise, p. 65. and as a
learned and godly treatise, p. 359 so that whilst we cordially
agree with Dr. W. that it is greatly to be lamented that the notes
which Ridley had drawn up on this subject were not printed
yet it is pretty evident what his opinions were, and what the
result will be if they should ever be discovered.

It is notorious that the catechism of Edward VI. was the
production of Cranmer, Ridley, and others, in which amongst
other matters is the following. " As many as are in this
faith steadfast, were forechosen, predestinated, and
appointed to everlasting life, before the world was
made Now as to this catechism Ridley thus expresses him-
self " I hear say that the catechism which was lately set forth
in the English tongue, is now in every pulpit condemned Oh
devilish malice ! Satan could not longer suffer, that so great
light should be spread abroad in the world." Layman's
Letter, p. 90.* And in the next reign we have the following
declaration from that great ornament and light of the English
Church, Bishop Jewell. " But as touching the freedom of will
and power of ourselves, we say with St. Augustin, O evil is free-
will without God man misusing his free will, spilt both him-
self, and his will ; what do men so much presume of the possi-

* The same author, p. 89. shews also, that Archbishop Cranmer
offered to justify these doctrines in this very Catechism, as indeed well
he might ; and yet Mr. Todd strives hard to deliver this holy primate
from the hydra of Calvinism. Vol. ii. 61. 300. It is truly melancholy
to see how prejudice and a desire to support a system, can warp the
judgment and extinguish a spirit of candour. How useful and highly
important a work might Mr. Todd have made his Life of Cranmer, at this
period, if he could have divested himself of a sectarian spirit.

liv

bility of nature ? It is wounded, it is mangled, it is troubled, it
is lost. It behoveth us rather truly to confess it, than falsely to
defend it. Free will, once made thrall, availeth now nothing
but to sin that we live well, that we understand right, we have
it of God. Of ourselves we have nothing 1 , but only sin, that is
within us. The better to clear this whole case, I thought it
good to use the more words. Thus may we learn to know
ourselves, and humbly to confess our imperfection, and to give the
whole glory to God." Defence of the Apology of the
Church of England, p. 15,

In confirmation of the views of Bradford the signatures of
Bishop Ferrar, Taylor, and Philpot, to No. 28, expressly
testify their approbation as well to the doctrine as to the
importance of enforcing it, and although we would not
positively assert of these doctrines, what Luther did of that of
justification by faith alone, that they are the criteria vel stantis
vel cadentis ecclesiae, we may venture to pronounce that just in
that proportion in which they are preached and felt, does a pro-
fessing church maintain its vital godliness and influential activity.

The learned and accurate Strype views the conduct of
Bradford in a very different light from Dr. W. In remarking
upon No. 28, he says, " They, the freewillers, were men of
strict and holy lives, but very hot in their opinions, and disputa-
tious, and unquiet. Divers of them were in the King's Bench,
where Bradford, and many other gospellers were ; many whereof
by their conferences, they gained to their own persuasion.
Bradford had much discourse with them. The name of their
chief man was Harry Hart ; who had writ something in defence
of his doctrine. Trew and Abingdon were teachers also among
them ; Kemp, Gybson f and Chamberlain, were others, They
ran their notions as high as Pelagians did, and valued no
learning ; and the writings and authority of the learned, they
utterly rejected and despised. Bradford was apprehensive that
might do great harm in the church, and therefore out of

prison wrote a letter to Cranmer, &c. (No. 28) and with him
joined Bishop Ferrar, Taylor, and Philpot, (as we have seen.)
He speaks of this letter as worthy to be read, and then remarks,
* Upon this occasion Ridley wrote a treatise of God's election
and predestination, and Bradford wrote another upon the same
subject ; and sent it to those three fathers in Oxford, for their
approbation; and theirs being obtained, the rest of the
eminent divines, in and about London, were ready to sign it
also." Strype's Cranmer, i. 502. The same author, after
quoting- some passages from that writer, says, " By Bradford's
pains and diligence he gained some from their errors; and
particularly one Skelthorp ; for whom in a letter to Careless,*
he thanked God, who gave this man to see the truth at the
length, and to give place to it ; hoping that he would be so
heedy in all his conversation, that his old acquaintance might,
thereby think themselves gone astray.' Strype's Cranmer,
vol. i. 503. This writer, who evidently had access to many MS.
treasures relating to the Marian sera, seems never to have
dreamed that Ridley thought Bradford wrong, in endeavouring
to root out the springing heresy ; or that it was probable any
difference would be found between the two treatises of these
venerable coadjutors, in the great work of the reformation. And
that any coldness or pique on the one hand, or disposition to
censure on the other, existed between these truly Christian
martyrs, is completely repudiated by the general contents and
expressions of the last of the above letters of Ridley, as well as
by the two others omitted by Dr. W. which we shall most
likely have occasion to insert in the sequel.

Every pious protestant claims the holy martyrs Cranmer,
Ridley, Latimer, Hooper, Bradford, and the rest as their com-
mon property. If Cranmer himself were now to revisit his
native country, and make a progress throughout our various

* Cov. 373.

Ivi

religions communities, what may it be supposed would his
principal inquiry be ? My friend do you wear the habits, the
square cap, or the surplice ? Do you kneel at the altar ? &c.
&c. No, surely, but would it not rather be Are you a
believer in the Lord Jesus Christ? Is he to you the chief
among ten thousand and the altogether lovely? Have you
embraced him as your only saviour and friend ? and are you
united to him by a lively faith ? Are you one of the living
stones fitly framed together, and built up unto him as your chief
head ? And who would these holy men acknowledge as their
brethren and kindred in Christ Jesus those only who had sub-
scribed to the act of uniformity, and were zealous defenders of
the national hierarchy, although peradventure wholly destitute of
the life and spirit of godliness ; or the humble and sincere followers
of the lamb, in whatever communion they might be found ?

It was well said by the late Dr. Buchanan, to some remark
about the different societies who had sent out missionaries to the
East, that a foreign mission was the best possible school to
cure bigotry for that placed in the middle of a moral wil-
derness, and surrounded by the prowling beasts of prey, of
pagan and popish idolatry, and mahomedan imposture; they
were glad enough to hail any pious missionary as a friend and a
brother, without stopping to enquire whether he belonged to this
church or to that chapel whether he worshipped with or without
a liturgy or whether he wore a gown or surplice, or preached
and prayed without either !

Never will the death blow be given to popery, infidelity, and
formalism in this country, till the truly pious of all the ortho-
dox denominations consent to wave their minor differences to
abstain from absurd, ridiculous, and sectarian recrimination
chiefly founded in ignorance* and cordially embrace each

* Few readers perhaps wi!l credit the writer when he asserts, that not
many years since, a distinguished and very amiable prelate now living, so

Ivii

other as friends of their common saviour and redeemer; travelling
together to those eternal abodes of blessedness, where all such
unscriptural differences will be done away for ever.

A conviction of the importance of this subject, induced the
editor some years since, to establish a society for that express
object, under the name of THE CHRISTIAN INSTITUTE and
the same conviction leads him to hope, that the republication of
the address, delivered at the formation of that society, at the end
of this volume, will be excused.

" And I purposely mention his moderation, and likewise
adventure to commend him for it; notwithstanding that this
VIRTUE, so much esteemed and magnified by wise men in all
ages, hath of late been declaimed against with so much zeal and
fierceness, and yet with that good grace and confidence, as if it
were not only no VIRTUE, but even the sum and abridgement of
all VICES. I say, notwithstanding all this, I am still of the old
opinion that moderation is a VIRTUE, and one of the peculiar
ornaments and advantages of the excellent constitution of our
church ; and must at last be the temper of her members,
especially the clergy, if ever we seriously intend the firm establish-
ment of this church, and do not industriously design by
cherishing heats and divisions among ourselves, to let in popery
at these breaches" Abp. Tillotson's preface to Bp. Wil-
kins's Sermons. London, 1682.

NOTE (N.) P. 99.

HOOPER, Ferrar, Taylor, Philpot, and Bradford consulted
amongst themselves whether they should go to dispute at Oxford,

far allowed his prejudices against dissenters to mislead his judgment, as
to apply, in the editor's hearing, the chapter in Grotius de Veritate,
entitled " De indifferentismo" which every tyro knows relates only to
indifference to religion and divine things in general, to a latitudinarian
feeling on the subject of church government !

hiii

and resolved to decline it, unless they might have indifferent
judges. And for this purpose Bradford sent a private and trusty
messenger to Oxford, to Ridley, to have his, and his two fellows,
their judgment concerning this matter. They were at this time
all separated from one another ; so though Ridley signified this
in a letter to Cranmer, yet he could only give his own sense.
Strype's Cranmer, vol. 1. 489. See Note (0).

NOTE (o.) P. 101.

FAR be it from us to attempt to drepreciate the merit or
worth of that distinguished luminary of the English Reforma-
tion, Bishop Ridley, whose mantle we would rather lament has
fallen upon so few of his successors ; but justice to the memory of
Bradford, and to the task we have undertaken, imposes upon us
the duty of shewing, that Dr. Wordsworth has no grounds for
endeavouring to draw a parallel between them, to the prejudice
of the latter.

We have seen Bradford frequently* enjoining absolute
obedience to Queen Mary ; and it appears clear that he took no
part in the rebellion in favour of Lady Jane Gray, and here he
expressly applauds Sir James Hales for refusing to subscribe
King Edward's will, made for the deprivation of his sister Mary.

From the document in Burnet,f it appears that Ridley
did not subscribe that will, but perhaps the only reason
was, because he was not a privy counsellor ; for imme-
diately after Lady Jane had been proclaimed Queen, we
find him in a sermon preached at Paul's Cross, declaring
there his mind to the people, as touching the Lady Mary, and
dissuading them, alleging there the incommodities and incon-

* PP. 38. 96. 99.
t Hist. Refor. vol. vi. p. 275.

lix

veniencies which might rise by receiving her to be their
Queen ; prophesying 1 , as it were before, that which after came to
pass, that she would bring in foreign power to reign over them ;
besides the subverting also of the Christian religion then
already established; shewing moreover that the same Mary
being in his diocese ; he, according to his duty, being then her
ordinary, had travailed much with her to reduce her to this
religion ; and notwithstanding in all other points of civility,
she shewed herself gentle and tractable ; yet in matters that
concerned true faith and doctrine, she shewed herself so stiff
and obstinate, that there was no other hope of her to be con-
ceived, but to disturb and overturn all that, which with so great
labours, had been confirmed and planted by her brother afore.
Shortly after this sermon Queen Mary was proclaimed ; where-
upon Ridley speedily repairing to Fremingham to salute her,
had such cold welcome there, that being despoiled of all his
dignity, he was- sent back upon a lame halting horse to the
Tower.' Fox iii. 16.

NOTE (P.) P. 104.

SIR James Hales was one of the Judges of the Court of
Common Pleas in the reigns of Henry VIII. and Edward VI. ;
and, on the accession of Mary, had refused to join in the
proceedings for raising Lady Jane Gray to the throne. But
having afterwards, in his judicial character, asserted that it was
unlawful to celebrate the mass, the queen not having as yet
reinstated it, he was had up before Gardiner, who behaved to him
most infamously, and finally committed him to prison. Whilst
there he was wrought upon by the artifices of the papists, and
in consequence, became so wretched in his mind that he
attempted to cut his throat, but was prevented by his own
servant. The letter, No. 30, was written to him whilst in Bread

Street Compter ; but whether before or after this rash attempt is
not very clear probably afterwards, and it is melancholy to
reflect how little good effect it produced ; for the papists inferring
they had made sure of him, set him at liberty ; soon after which
he drowned himself in very shallow water upon his own estate
at Tenterden, in Kent. Gardiner, and the papists generally,
charged this act of suicide upon the tendency of the doctrines of
grace, or the new religion as it was called, to desperation ; to repel
which, and to shew that they proceeded from remorse and the
tings of a wounded conscience at allowing himself to be seduced
by the papists, Bishop Hooper published a treatise which
has been preserved by Strype. Eccl. Mem. iii. pt. 1. 274.
pt.2. 258. No. xxiv. Words. iu.2Q6.Burnet, ii.l. 386.
Soames, iv. 132. Fox, iii. 19. 96. 185. who also has some
useful observations upon the subject. The whole of which
indeed, with Hooper's treatise, we should have inserted, but from
the fear of extending these notes to too great a length, as we
have yet some heavy matter to come which is still more scarce,
and much too curious to be omitted.

NOTE (Q.) P. 109.

THIS Lady Vane was a special nurse and great supporter, to
her power, of the godly saints, who were imprisoned in Queen
Mary's time ; to whom divers letters of Philpot, Careless, Tra-
herne, Rose, and others, as well as Bradford, were written ;
wherein they render unto her most grateful thanks for her ex-
ceeding goodness towards them, with their singular commenda-
tion and testimony; also of her Christian zeal towards God's
afflicted prisoners, and to the verity of his gospel. She died in
Oldbourne, in the year 1568, whose end was more like a sleep
than any death; so quietly and meekly she deceased and departed

Ixi

hence in the Lord. Fox, iii. 331. She seems to have been the
widow of Sir Ralph Vane, who was beheaded with the Duke of
Somerset, in the year 1552. Strype Eccl. Mem. iii. 226.

NOTE (R.) P. 161.

THE extract which Fox gives* of this very scarce and
extraordinary tract of Gardiner's, with its no less extraordinary
preface by Bonner, had often excited in our minds a great
desire to see the originals ; and that desire was considerably
increased by the frequent appeal to it by almost all the reformersf
upon their examinations ; and the evident chagrin and mortifi-
cation discovered by Gardiner, whenever it was alluded to.
And perhaps the reader, who will now have the opportunity of
perusing both these performances, will not be so much surprised,
that the papists should have exerted themselves to suppress and
destroy them and their consequent scarcity,^ as they will that
apologists of real learning and professed liberality, should be
found in the 19th century for men, who after publishing such
opinions as the tract and preface in question contain, could
practise so much cruelty and insolence towards their fellow
creatures, for professing and retaining the same opinions.

All exertions to discover a copy of this tract or preface
were fruitless, till having obtained a copy of a collection of

* Acts and Mon. ii. 338.

+ Taylor, Fox iii. 169. Saunders, Fox iii. 134. Mr. Todd well
remarks, " The books exposed his fellow tyrant and himself to just
ridicule and censure. The first reformed preachers that were brought
before him, scrupled not to remind him of that which, in the time of
Henry VIII., both he and Bonner had there taught with such consum-
mate impudence," Life of Cranmer ii. 418.

J Todd's Defence of Cranmer, Ii.

Ixii

curious tracts, relating to the popish controversy, almost equally
scarce,* we were agreeably surprised to find both of them
included, f That a translation existed we never imagined,
till on searching, at the British Museum, for any scarce matters
relating to the History of the Reformation, we discovered such
a translation, in the Royal Library, by M. Wood ; and the title
page distinctly says ROME. Now, that such a work should be
printed at Rome, in the year 1553, appears sufficiently im-
probable ; and we therefore suspect that both the translator's
name, and the place of publication were fictitious, a practice by
no means unfrequent. *

We give the title page of the original Latin, and of Wood's
translation and that translation at length.

* Fasciculus Rerum Expetendarum et Fugiendarum, by Orthuinus
Gratius, published at Cologne, in 1535, and republished at London by
the Rev. Edward Brown, Rector of Sundridge, in Kent, 1690.

t In the second volume, or appendix, pp. 800 820. As these
volumes are very scarce, and contain some extremely curious tracts, we
shall insert, at the end of this appendix, a list of the contents ; and which
those, who are engaged in the controversy with the papists, may find it
convenient to consult.

$ Mr. Todd (Defence of Cranmer, li. Life of Cranmer, vol. i. 324.)
says that this translation was printed at Rouen. Whereas Professor
Bliss, in his new edition of Wood's Athen. Oxon. (vol. i. pp. 295. 371.)
alleges there were two editions ; one at Roan, in 1553, and the other at
Rom. 1553; that the translator was Michael Wood, a printer; and
that both editions are in the Bodleian Library at Oxford.
Thus the Jesuit's Catechism, by the famous Etienne Pasquier,
professes to be published "A Ville Franche." 1602.

STEPHANI GARDINERI, EPISCOPI WINTON,

DE VERA OBEDIENTIA ORATIO;

UNA CUM PR^EFATIONE EDMUNDI BONNERI,

tac. Hetcwtt.

(POSTEA VERd EPISC. LONUINENS1S PINQUISSIMI ET SANGUINOLENTl)

Serenissinwe Regive Majestatis Anglice in Dania Legati,

CAPITA NOTABILIORA DICT.E ORAT1ONIS COMPLECTENTB.

In qua etiam ostenditur Causam Controversiae quae inter ipsam Sereniss. Reg. Maj. et

Episcopum R&manum existit, longe aliter ac diversius se habere quam hactenus

a vulgo putatum sit.

JUXTA EDITIONEM HAMBURG ENSEM, EX OFFICINA FRANCISCI
RHODI, MENSE JANUAR. MDXXXVI.

DE VERA OBEDIENTIA;

&n ration maU* in Eattne,

BY THE RIGHT REVERENDS FATHER IN GOD,

STEPHAN BISHOP OF WICHESTRE,

-HOW

LORDE CHAUNCELOUR OF ENGLANDE:

of IStrmcntre

THAN ARCHIDEACON OF LEICESTRE, AND THE KINGES MAIESTIES
EMBASSADOUR IN DENMARKE, AND NOW BISHOP OF LONDON:

TOUCHING TRUE OBEDIENCE.

PRINTED AT HAMBURGH, IN LATINE, IN OFFICINA FRANCISCI
RHODI, MENSE JANUARIS, 1536.

AND NOW TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISHE, AND PRINTED EFTSONES, IN

HOME, BEFORE THE CASTLE OF S. ANGEL, AT THE SIGNE OP

S. PETER, IN NOVEMBRE, ANNO DO. MDLIII.

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.

I HAVE heretofore, with no small admiration, read a certain
sermon, made in English, before our late Sovereign Lord
King Henry VIII., about fourteen years past, by Doctor
Tonstal, then Bishop of Durham, and set forth in print, belike
for his own glory or rather purgation, being suspected, and not
without cause, to be a favourer of the pretended authority and
antichristian power of the Bishop of Rome ; whereof he is bent
at this day, with other his accomplices, to shew himself, that
sermon notwithstanding, not only to be a friendly favourer,
but an open diligent proctor. And a certain oration also written
in Latin, by Doctor Samson, then Bishop of Chichester, and
now the double-faced epicureous Bite-sheep of Coventry and
Lichfield ; as well for the proof and assertion of the King's
supremacy, by the undoubted truth of God's unfailing word, as
of the just abrogation of the said Bishop of Rome's feigned
power out of England.

By which sermon and oration, I being indifferently instructed
in the truth for those days, in some points, cannot choose but
marvel somewhat, at this their so sudden alteration of mind and
proceedings, presently seen to all men's understanding. Howbeit
forasmuch as Tonstal, hath been long reputed a still dreaming
Saturn, always imagining mischief; and Samson an idle-bellied
carnal epicure, which for worldly honour and paltry pelf's sake,
hath everholden with the hare and ran with the hounds, as they

* So Anthony Wood, vol. i. 371. Bliss; but Mr- Todd calls it his
" Admonition." Life of Cranrner, vol. i. 324.

Ixvi

saj ; and if he were bidden, would say, Christ was an hangman,
and his Father a thief ; I counted not much upon them, nor
thought that their sermon and oration proceeded of any
persuasion of conscience, but to serve the time, as the common
practice of that foxy generation is.

But now of late I chanced to read an excellent, and a right
notable oration, entitled De Vera Obedientia, made in Latin
about twenty years past, by Dr. Stephen Gardiner, then Bishop
of Winchester, now Lord Chancellor and common cut throat of
England ; touching as well the King's supremacy and absolute
power (under God) of the Church of England, and the necessary
divorce (as he -calleth it) of the said King Henry VIII., from the
Queen's Mother that now is ; together with the lawful and chaste
marriage (for so he termeth the matter) had between the said
King and Queen Anne, to consist by the unfailing almighty
word of God. As also concerning the false feigned authority
and usurped power of the Bishop of Rome, and unlawful or
unadvised oaths and vows; joined with the preface of doughty
Doctor Bonner, then Archdeacon of Leicester, gaping to
be a Bishop, as he is now (by the way of usurpation) of London,
for the commendation and praise of the same oration.

And forasmuch as Winchester confesseth in the same, his
long advised deliberation, before he was persuaded (by the
truth) of the King's supremacy : and seeing he was the chief
procurer and labourer, at that time, of the King's said divorce
and second marriage : and now even he, with his blow-belly
butcherly brother Bonner, turning like weathercocks exsye versie
as the wind bloweth, do not go about traiterously to repell the
just and right supreme power and authority, incident by God's
own word and law, to the imperial crown of England ; abusing
and bewitching the Queen's grace's lenity, and scrupulous
perplexity, but also (like seditious and most antichristian angels
ofsatan) to set up their father, antichrist of Rome,, in this realm
again; I have thought it good to turn the same oration and

Ixvii

preface into our vulgar tongue, that every true English subject
may plainly behold, by these men's fruits, what they themselves
are; dissemblers with princes, to whom they owe their bounden
allegiance; deceivers of God's people, the Queen's subjects,
for whom Christ hath shed his precious blood; subverters of
good laws ; confounders of order ; murderers of men's souls ;
enemies of their native country; shameless liars ; bringersinof
idolatry and a superstitious false forged religion ; traitors to the
crown of England ; impudent maintainers of filthy whoredom ;
blasphemous haters of chaste marriage; covetous catchers;
double-faced piurours ; defacers of the nobility ; cut throats of
the commonalty ; suppressors of Christ's flock ; ravening wolves
in sheep's clothing; mockers of Christ's glorious gospel;
servers of time; and very imps of antichrist.

Now to give the certain notes, to behold that stout champion
Winchester's double perjury and traitorous villainy, the better
by ; thou shalt mark in reading this oration, that he affirmed, at
those days, that the Bishop of Rome's authority in England was
against God's word ; and now he juggleth to bring it in
again.

Then he said, the King was the supreme head of the Church
of England, next under Christ ; now he goeth about to impeach
the crown of that supremacy. Then he avouched, that the King
might not put away the supremacy from him, because it is
given him of God ; now his policy is, to deceive the Queen's
Highness thereof, as though it were not given of God.

Then he affirmed that all true subjects were debt bounden
to defend, maintain, and uphold the supreme authority of the
crown ; now he would have all English subjects to be forsworn
to the crown, and help in his Father of Rome again. Then he
said, that men's traditions were, for the most part, repugnant to
God's word; now he preferreth such false popish traditions,
garnishing them with the name of the church, as though folks

Ixviii

were bounden to credit and obey them, as much or more than
the Bible. Then he prated, that only in the Scriptures was the
truth to be sought for ; now the Scriptures must be cast out of
the doors, as though they were the chief teachers of untruth.
Then he confessed that the true light was hidden, as long as the
Bishop of Rome had to do here ; now he and his fellow shavelings
say, and caused Dudley, the wicked duke, to declare by his
learning and conscience, that the truth hath not been opened,
and that England hath been divided from the catholic faith and
church, since that power was abolished.

Then he affirmed, that the marriage of King Henry the
Eighth, with the Queen's Mother, was unlawful, and therefore
justly divorced, as of no effect; now he saith that the same
marriage was lawful by God's word. Then he affirmed, that the
marriage of the said King, with Queen Anne, was a chaste and
a lawful marriage by God's word; now his deeds declare his
judgment to be contrary. Then he confessed that the said
divorce and second marriage, were done by the undoubted word
of God, the censures of the most famous universities of the
world, the judgment of the Church of England, and by Act of
Parliament, whereof he himself was the procurer in the uni-
versities, and in all points a principal doer ; now he layeth all
the fault to the Archbishop of Canterbury, as though it had been
the Archbishop's only deed. Then he wrote advisedly of a
conscience, and to be highly regarded with the King; now he
is not ashamed to say nay and recant, to please and rule the
Queen. Then he broke the Queen's head, in procuring and
affirming her to be illegitimate ; now he giveth her a plaster,
with his recanting and saying she is legitimate.

Then he took him leisure, before he would be persuaded ;
now he runneth post haste in a contrary dissuasion. From
that time hitherto, he confesseth he hath done wrong in these
cases, scilicet, that he hath been a traitor above these twenty

Ixix

years, and now he would be taken for a true man, repenting
scarce twenty days, and that more for fear and ambitious flattery,
than for truth or conscience.

These tricks, and many such like, thou mayest easily espy in
this oration and preface, good reader, whereby thou mayest
beware of these incarnate devils, who could so advisedly say
yea then, and so impudently, so rashly, so perjuredly, and so
slyly, recant and say nay now. Wherefore, if these be the fruits
of holiness, truth, and constancy (as it cannot be denied) and
the special practices of these worthy pillars of the malignant
Madame, the Babylonical Holy Mother Church ; what may we
trust to or look for, in their litter of Romish whelps ? If gay
Gardiner, blow-belly Bonner, untrusty Tonstal, and slow-bellied
Samson, be no more nimble .in covering their practices; blame
not drunken Doctor Weston (for all his burned breech)
nor impudent Feckenham, with the rest of the saucy swarm of
shavelings, though their shameless lying, careless perjury, and
blasphemous iniquity, appear openly to all the world. Therefore,
like as a man may know, by their present blasphemous proceed-
ings, what traitorous hearts, they have covertly borne all this while,
to King Henry the Eighth and King Edward the Sixth heretofore,
so may the Queen's Grace, and all men beware, how they credit
or leave their conscience to them hereafter.

If these ruffling kabies, in their sermons and orations said
and wrote the truth then, why do they not abide by it and say
the same still ? If they erred then, why may not they and their
scholars err now ? If their works and writings were false then,
for all their advised deliberation ; why may not their sayings and
doings be as false now, using post haste, and all through ambition ?
If the fathers were false subtle shrews then, how may we trust
the children now ? Yea, Sir, ye make much ado with then and
now, be content. Then was then, and now is now ; down with
your bastard, and milk the cow.

Well answered, for it is not put of memory, since drunken

Ixx

burnt-tail Weston, was at the cost, in his sermons and lessons,
upon hope of preferment to the divinity lecture in Oxford, to
publish and affirm, sola fides justificat ; so that great malice and
contention arose between him and goggle-eyed Smyth, with
Doctor Cotes, about it in open reading and preaching: but
now his mastership is content to lose his plaint, and both sola
and fides may go play them. Yet how fain Smyth was at
length to recant his error, and to embrace and preach sola
fides justificat ; his solemn printed recantation is yet to see.

The same true doctrine was confirmed also by Dr. Ogle-
thorp, Ramriche, Draicot, Pole, Burnet, and almost by all the
rabble of them, that now have quite banished both solam and
fidem. It is not long since Doctor Chadsey subscribed to the
marriage of priests, and against transubstantiation ; with a great
sort more, who cry out now, come again to your mother church
and repent, you sacramentaries and votaries ; as though it were
never they. As for Doctor Inkpot, (that blinking coxcomb
Standish) who saith he married against his conscience, it is the
less launder, seeing he is more fit to make a riding foal of, than
a proctor of the convocation,

Tonstal in his written sermon, chafeth and fumeth against
Reginald Pole, reviling him and calling him the king's arch-
traitor ; but now I trust, he shall be welcome home, my Lord
Cardinal, with blessing godfather. As for Cardinal Pole, by
report Tonstal and Gardiner, neither the best of them, is not
worthy to wipe his shoes, neither for learning, judgment, nor
sobriety of life. But what should you speak of our two-faced
Janus Children ? Be not so hasty, Sir. Tempora mutantur,
mores deteriorantur. Et qui veritale dicit, caput
fractum habebit. Those be wise men, and love to sleep in a
whole skin, though they, both body and soul, go all to the devil.
They are so valiant soldiers, that these six years they have
given place, and came in league with the poor gospellers, almost
ell the pack of them; like gnats, with ait, aio, negat, nego.

Ixxi

And now when they have espied wickedness to have the upper
hand, they can kill the man, when he is knocked down to their
hands. Indeed the Holy Ghost revealed somewhat, of these hell-
hounds' hollow traiterous hearts to King Henry the Eighth, when
he left Winchester in no trust in his testament, nor allowed him
to be of counsel with his son, the virtuous King Edward. And
could the Queen's Highness provide her never a godly noble, or
worthy man in all England, to be chancellor, but him ; that in
his open disputation and writing, hath made her a bastard, her
virtuous mother an adulteress, and her most royal father an adul-
terer ? And now, in public proceedings, hath made her most
Christian brother, and all his court of parliament, as well nobles
as commons, no better than heretics.

O filthy traitor, and pernicious papist, the very poison
of England this day. Of a lean, lazy, and lecherous locust
of the bottomless pit, thou art become an outrageous lion;
and now thou roarest and ragest, as it were great
Cerberus of hell. If God be not merciful and cease his
plague over the land, thou art like to be an utter destruction
thereunto. Who hath seen such stoutness in a beggar's brat,
as is now in thee ? Well, when her Grace shall perceive that
God hath troubled her mind, and scourged her realm enough
with such double-faced, perjured, and impudent traitors as
this her chattering chancellor is, she may chance at length to
confess, that she hath made too much of a scabbed cuckoo's bird.
Is there none other way to get God's favour but by snatching
away God's Word, the Bread of Life, from God's people ? Is
there none other means to have a chaste England, but to
suppress chaste marriage, and to advance licentious whore-
mongers in England ? Was the matter well amended when
Doctor Cox was turned out, and whisking Weston thrust in ;
who, in carnal occupying, burnt a woman beggar, in his own
parish, without Bishop's Gate, the whole parish to witness. It
was sometime an use at the stews in Winchester Rents, that the

Ixxii

most filthy whores there did burn their occupiers : but now
have the hot holy prelates, of the Bishop of Rome's Clergy in
England; such as this Weston is, religiously taken it up, and
are become in that act more cunning than the whores were.
These hungry whore-hunters spare neither pie-wench nor
beggar by the way, but with their fiery soldering tools, they
seal them to the surgeon's hands.

O, abominable hypocrites, for their wilful contempt of
Christian marriage, God suffereth them to fall into most shameful
abuses. What face are we like to have within a while, of our
English Church, if such beastly Sodomites be thus advanced to
the chief deaneries of the realm, and thus ruffle it in their
scarlets ? A great sort of the Queen's true hearted subjects in
England, think it were more meet for wanton Weston, to be put
out for a stallion among a race of mares upon the mountains,
or to serve the stews, than to be allowed free access, with
smirking, and pretty simpering chit-chat, among honest ladies ;
and more meet to be coupled with his old packhorse,
Goodwife Hagfall in Oxford, at the tail of a cart, than to be
reputed and reverenced, as a maiden priest, in good Queen
Mary's court. The God of all mercies, open the eye of her heart,
to see these fine men's fruits in time, lest all England smart for it.

Were it not better to have God's most Holy Word published,
to all Englishmen's understanding and comfort, and his blessed
Sacraments ministered as he instituted them ; than to have a
popping popish priest, to patter he neither woteth what nor the
people that hear him; and to worship a little pretty white-coated
casket, instead of God, made by miracle ? O, Sir, what is it
that these holy hell-hounds cannot do by miracle ? It is a more
easy miracle for them to say, that the form of bread is very
natural flesh, and wine blood; than to set fire indeed under a
woman's coat, without coal or candle. Well, I beseech that for
Christ's precious death's sake, good reader, not to think that I
have pleasure in railing or in carping other men's faults ; but

Ixxiii

that I would not have the soul deceived, with these filtHy
hypocrites : and so I pray thee, repenting from the bottom of
thy heart, consider that this sudden lamentable alteration of
religion and states, cometh of the most just judgment of God, for
our impenitence and unthankfulness' sake, and for our sinful
abusing of God's most holy word and sacraments, to our own
horrible lusts and worldly respects ; so that where we would not
hear and do after the doctrines of God's servants, the prophets,
who warned us of these plagues, it is found true by experience
that the Holy Ghost saith ; For the sins of the people, God
maketh hypocrites (as these poll-shorn shavelings be) to reign
and bear the sway,

As for the nobility, they may remember and know by
experience, what this text (he hath put down the mighty from
their seat) meaneth ; if they will advisedly behold the order of
God's judgment in them, because they made a mock and a taunt
at the preachers in Lent last, whose words we find now most
true. Beforetime, the nobles say, they were fools to be in
awe of one man, the Duke of Northumberland ; now, whether
they befools or wise men, they are in as mucli awe or more to
one beast, Winchester. He was a gentleman, as very a tyrannous
traitor as he was ; this is, after the old proverb, Passus sub
pontio as cutted as an ape, if the father be a knave, how
can the son escape? He hath been a worthy soldier, and a
notable captain ; this hath been a famisher of the King's soldiers,
and always a very coward. He used the nobility after the form
of noblemen ; this frumpeth them, as if they were his slaves.
He repressed the rebels in Norfolk ; this stirreth by his deeds,
rebellion throughout England. He deserved thanks for that
service doing ; this, all England may curse unto the world's
end. He sought to take the crown traitorously from the Queen ;
this seeketh to pull away the authority of the crown, from the
Queen and her heirs for ever.

Ixxiv

In his days men were so covetous that they took some ; in
this beast's days they are so free-hearted, that they take all.
He died like a beast as he lived before; this, except he repent,
cannot choose but go after. Now mundus gaudebit, we shall
have a merry world, the matter is amended, the devil and all.

Marvel not, good reader, that God hath in this sudden
chop, taken away the liberty of his most pure plain word,
and the right administration of his blessed sacraments, from the
people of England ; seeing our impenitence and hardness of
hearts, and given them to another nation (Scotland) that will
bring forth the fruits of repentance. Seeing we will needs be
swine, God would no longer bestow his preachers upon us, but
give us leave to be fed with the draff of masing masses,
mumming matins, drowsy diriges, pick-purse purgatory, popes'
pardons, Latin service, beads, bells, and bagpipes ; praying to
dead saints, licking of relics, Lent shrift, benedicite godfather,
absolution behind the curtain, oil and cream, with other
superstitious baggage, the devil and all ; until, with unfeigned
penitent hearts, we say with the unthrifty son of the gospel,
Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee,
now I am not worthy to be called thy son, make me
like one of thy hired Servants. Unto the which hearty
repentance, if we will join unfeigned faith, pouring out our
continual earnest prayers, before the throne of the heavenly
grace, by Jesus Christ, we shall find mercy in time convenient ;
and though he scourge us with these uncircumcised soldiers of
satan for a time ; yet, as David saith, When he is angry, he will
remember mercy, and restore his blessed gospel to us again with
abundance of blessing, in case we will, like obedient children,
take his chastising in good part, and patiently abide his
leisure.

Now, to the intent thou mayest plainly behold and judge
rightly, of these honey-mouthed false feigning flatterers, and

Ixxv

ancient enemies of Christ's religion, the better and more readily ;
note Winchester and Bonner with an indifferent heart, in their
proceedings and doings at this day, and mark their sayings in
this oration following, and preface made at that time ; and thou
shalt soon see their sleighty shifts of, yea Sir, nay Sir, not as of
truth, but as time serveth. And if it like you to confer more of
these practitioners, buy Tonstal's English Sermon, and Samson's
Latin Oration.* Then if thy heart be not endurately locked, and
cast up from discerning the truth, thou wilt thrust them up all
four together in a Tunbridge sheath, and bless you henceforth
from their double-faced viperous generation. The Lord give
thee understanding in all things, good reader, and in the fear
and love of God, to live constantly in true obedience, patiently
abiding his merciful godly will, and always in him heartily well
to fare.

* The following is the title of Samson's work referred to by the
translator. " Richard! Samsonis, Regii Sacelli decani, Oratio, qua
docet, hortatur, admonet omnes, potissimum Anglos, regiae dignitati
cum primis ut obediant, quia verbum Dei prsecipit, Episcopo Romano
ne sint audientes, qui nullo Jure Divino, in eos quicquam potestatem
habet, postquam ita jubet Rex, ut illi non obediant. Qui contra
fecerint, eos perspicub docet, legem dmnam contemnere. Non est ergo
quod sibi timeant Angli, de humana quavis potestate Episcopi Rom.
qui aliam quam humanam, hoc est humano consensu, in Anglos non
habet, Obediant igitur Deo, non homini. Fascicul. vol. ii. 820.

EDMUND BONNER,

&tcl)t*accm of Sdcestet,

THE KING OF ENGLAND HIS MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY'S
AMBASSADOR IN DENMARK,

TO THE SINCERE AND GENTLE-HEARTED, AND GODLY
READER.

FORASMUCH as there be some, doubtless, even at this present,
as it hath always been the wont of men's judgments to be
variable and divers, who think the controversy, that is between
the King of England and of France, his most royal Majesty, and
the Bishop of Rome, consisteth in this point, because the King's
said Majesty hath taken the most excellent, and most noble
LADY ANNE, to his wife ; whereas, in very deed notwithstanding,
the matter is far otherwise, and nothing so. Wherefore, to the
intent, all that truly and heartily favour the Gospel of Christ,
which that most godly and virtuous prince doth with all diligent
endeavour, in every place advance, to the honour of Almighty
God, and to the profit and commodity of all Christian people ;
and that hate not, but love the truth, which every where justly
claimeth the upper hand, and to her all things, though they
struggle with her never so much in the beginning, yet obey and
give place at length, as meet it is they should, may the more
fully understand the chief point of that controversy ; and because
they shall not be ignorant, what the whole voice and resolute
determination of the best and greatest learned bishops, with all
the nobles and commoners of England is, not only in that cause
of matrimony, but also in the defending of the gospel's doctrine;

Ixxvii

this oration of the Bishop of Winchester, a man excellently
learned in all kinds of learning, entitled DE VERA OBEDIENTIA,
that is, concerning true obedience, which he made lately in
England, shall be published; but as touching this bishop's
worthy praises, there shall be nothing spoken of me at this time,
not only because they are infinite, but because they are far
better known to all Christendom, than becometh me here to
make rehearsal.

And as for the oration itself, which as it is most learned, so is
it most elegant, to what purpose should I make any words of it,
seeing it praiseth itself enough, and since good wine needeth no
tavern bush, to utter* it. But yet in this oration, whosoever thou
art, most gentle reader, thou shalt, beside other matters, see it
notably and learnedly handled, of what importance and how
invincible the power and excellency of God's truth is ; which as
it may now and then be pressed of enemies, so it cannot possibly
be oppressed after such sort, but it cometh again at length
behind the screen, more glorious and more welcome. Thou
shalt see also, touching obedience, that it is subject to truth,
and what is to be judged true obedience. Besides this, of men's
traditions, which, for the most part, are utterly repugnant
against the truth of God's law. And there, by the way, he
speaketh of the King's said Highness's marriage, which, by the
wise judgment, authority, and privilege of the most and principal
universities of the world, and therewith the consent of the whole
Church of England, he contracted with the most clearj* and most
noble LADY, QUEEN ANNE.

After that, touching the King's Majesty's title, as pertaining
to the supreme head of the Church of England.

Lastly of all, of the false pretended supremacy of the Bishop
of Rome, in the Realm of England, most justly abrogated ; and
how all other bishops, being fellow like to him in their function,

* To sell or vend. Bailey. t Famous, clarissima.

Ixxviii

yea, and in some points, above him within their own provinces,
were beforetime bound to him by their oath. But be thou most
surely persuaded of this, good reader, that the Bishop of
Rome, if there were no cause else but this marriage, will easily
content himself, especially when there is one morsel or other laid
to him to stosshe. But when he seeth so mighty a king, being
a right virtuous and a great learned prince, so sincerely and so
heartily favour the Gospel of Christ, and perceiveth the yearly
ravenous prey ; yea, so large a prey, that it came to as much
almost as all the King's revenues, snapped out of his hands, and
that he could no longer exercise his tyranny in the King's
Majesty's realm, alas ! it hath been too cruel and bitter all this
while !* nor make laws, as he hath done many to the contumely
and reproach of the majesty of God; which is evident that he
hath done in times past, under the title of the Catholic Church,
and the authority of the Apostles Peter and Paul; whereas,
notwithstanding, he was a very ravening wolf, dressed in sheep's
clothing, calling himself servant of servants, to the great damage
of the Christian commonwealth : a man may say, there began the
mischief; thereof arose these discords, these deadly malices, and
so great troublous bustling.

For if it were not thus, no man could believe that this
Jupiter of Olympus, who hath falsely taken upon him power,
wherein is more brag than hurt, would have done his best, that
this good, and godly, and gospel-like prince should be falsely
betrayed to all the rest of monarchs and princes. Neither let it
move thee, gentle reader, that the Bishop of Winchester did not
afore now apply to this opinion ; for he himself, in this oration,
sheweth the cause, why he did it not. And if he had said
never a word, yet thou knowest well what a witty part it is, for
a man to suspend his judgment, and not to be rash in giving
of sentence.

* Olim heu nimium truculentara et acerbara.

Ixxix

It is an old said saw ; Mary Magdalen profited us less in her
quick belief that Christ was risen, than Thomas that was longer
in doubt. A man may rightly call him Fabius, that, with his
advised taking of leisure, restored the matter. Albeit I speak
not this, as though Winchester had not bolted out this case secretly
with himself beforehand, for he bolted it even to the brann
long ago out of doubt ; but that running fair and softly, he would
first, with his painful study, pluck the matter out of the dark,
although of itself it was sound enough, but by reason of sundry
opinions, it was lapped up and made dark ; and then did he
debate it wittily to and fro, and so at last, after long and great
deliberation had in the matter, because there is no better
counsellor than leisure and time, he would resolutely, with his
learned and consummate judgment, confirm it. Thou shouldest,
gentle reader, esteem his censure and authority to be of the more
weighty credit, inasmuch as the matter was not rashly, and at
all adventures, but with judgment, as thou seest, and with
wisdom examined and discussed. And this is no new example,
to be against the Bishop of Rome, seeing that not only this man,
but many men many times, yea and right great learned men,
afore now, have done the same, even in writings, wherein they
both painted him out in his colours, and made his sleights,
falsehood, frauds, and deceitful wiles, openly known in the world.*
Therefore, if thou at any time heretofore hast doubted either of
true obedience, or of the King's Majesty's marriage, or title ;
either else of the Bishop of Rome's false pretended supremacy,
as if thou hast a good smelling nose, and a sound judgment,
I think thou didst not; yet having read over this oration, which,

* This is quite true it has pleased the providence of God, that there
never should be a period in which there was not some witness, for his
truth against the growing corruptions of popery. See them best col-
lected in Petrie's Hist. of< the Deform, and Reform, of the Catholic
Church, vol. i. 527. 555. Hague, MDCLXII.

Ixxx

if thou favour the truth, and hate the tyranny of the Bishop of
Rome, and his devilish fraudulent falsehood, shall doubtless won-
derfully content thee ; throw down thine error, and acknowledge
the truth now freely offered thee at length, considering with
thyself, that it is better late to do so, than never to repent.
Fare thou heartily well, most gentle reader, and not only love
this most valiant King of England and of France, who undoubt-
edly was, by the providence of God, born to defend the Gospel,
but also honour and serve him most obediently.

As for this Winchester, who was long ago without doubt

reputed amongst the greatest learned men, give him thy

good word with honourable commendations.*

THE CONTENTS

WINCHESTER'S BOOK.

THE King supreme Head of the Church.
The Bishop of Rome hath no Authority in England.
The King's Marriage with the Lady Anne, chaste and lawful.
The Divorce of the Lady Katherine done by God's Law, &e.
The Authority of God's Word only to be obeyed.
Men's Traditions repugn in most things to God's Truth.
The Word of Truth lay buried, when the Bishop of Rome ruled here.
The coming again of Light confessed.
Foolish and Unlawful Oaths and Vows not to be kept.
And other which these Incarnate Devils, impudently and traitorously
go about to subvert at this Day.

* Truly said of a double-faced traitor TKAKSL-

AN ORATION,

J&au* in Satin,

BY THE RIGHT REVEREND FATHER IN GOD,

STEPHEN, BISHOP OF WINCHESTER,

JVW Lord Chancellor of England,

TOUCHING TRUE OBEDIENCE, AND NOW TRANSLATED
INTO ENGLISH, &c.

As I considered and secretly weighed with myself, the
present state of orders in the church of England, wherein when
I saw that very many things, which, whether it were long
of men or of times, have been of long season confusedly jumbled
together ; some things blemished, and some things decayed,
and almost turned quite upside down; were by the perfect
line and plummet of God's Word, called again, laid anew, and
restored unto the ancient foundations of God's work: anon
came into my mind, even with a certain reverent admiration,
the invincible power and excellency of God's unfailing truth ;
which, albeit it seemeth now and then, unto man's persuasion,
to sustain by sore and long enduring overthrows,* yet it
remaineth ever whole, constant and certain. And though it be
darkened with men's sleighty jugglings, and counterfeit crafts,
as it were with certain mists for a while, yet at the time of God
appointed, it bursteth out again and sheweth itself clearly, like

* Ruinas per graves ac diuturnas perpessa videatur.

Ixxxii

the sun, when darkness is banished and chased away;- that
God may be found just in his sayings, and have the victory
when he is judged.

And I doubt not, but many45oth learned, grave, and right
good men were in the self-same, or not much unlike thought that
I was in ; and where they have been entangled with a certain
foolish and cankered vile superstition, and have wrestled against
the truth, of a long time, this advised consideration hath pulled
away all their scrupulous doubts, and by the working of God's
grace, hath conveyed and brought them into the light of the
true verity.

And to confess plainly of myself, where I was a very earnest
setter forth and defender of the law and of the letter, as I may so
say, and where I could do nothing with a worse will nor more
against my mind, than to shrink from any thing that I had
been before persuaded in, whatsoever it were ; the further that
my judgment swerved from the truth in that behalf, so much
the more vehemently and eagerly methought I was astonished,
when I knew the truth : even as a man's eyes being dulled with
darkness, are wont to be amazed at sudden brightness, when the
light breaketh out. For I had not the gift that Paul undoubt-
edly had, who, as soon as God had overthrown him, fell down,
and spoke the words of obedience, saying, Lord, what wilt thou
have me to do ? For that chosen vessel had so much plenty of
the grace of God, that he confessed by and by, it was the voice of
God that checked him, and railed him from his error, and so
committed himself wholly to the governance of God, and obeyed
him in all truth and did after him in all points without any
more ado. But as for me, albeit my judgment hath been
always, that the truth ought to be obeyed, which doubtless doth
come altogether of God, yet in the discussing and trial of the
truth, I did not so easily content myself. But 1 so framed
myself, that, as it had been in asking the judgment of all my
senses, unless I perceived that I first of all heard them with my

Ixxxiii

oars, smelled them at my nose, saw them with eyes, and felt v
them with my hands, I thought I had not seen enough; to
the intent I might submit and captivate the wit of my under-
standing to the truth, as though I had thoroughly perceived and
known it.

This my leisure taking, which some perchance reckon for
a too much obstinate rebelling, my mind is not to ascribe unto
my own wisdom or gravity, lest any man would think I were
fain, as they say, to praise myself, for lack of good neighbours :
but I do most constantly affirm and impute it, as right is, unto
the sundry working of God, in setting forth the truth, of whom
all men when they are taught, which be taught indeed, accord-
ing to this saying ; And ye shall be all taught of God ; as every
one shall feel himself affected in assenting unto the truth, so
may he talk and make plain mention. But as for the causes,
why this man embraceth the knowledge of the truth, when God
oflfereth it, more speedily; that man more slowly, and another
man never in all his life ; it is neither given to men always to per-
ceive, nor permitted to search out, further than is expressed in
the Scriptures.

So that my intent is not, presently to render the cause of
my slackness, or to claim that advised leisure taking, as a
proper inward gift of my own: which were not only a token of
foolishness with men, but also a very wickedness towards God :
but I would rather yield account to the world, what it was that
changed my opinion so much, and what caused me now at
length to dissent from myself, and from my own former words
and deeds.

And indeed, to tell you at a word, that compelled me, which
compels all men, when God seeth his time ; even the mighty
power of the truth, whereunto all things at length obey and do
thereafter.

Now I desire and heartily pray thee, gentle and sensible reader,
to bear friendly with me, in speaking of true obedience, and

Ixxxiv

such things, as for thy sake, the rules either of rhetoric or logic,
require of a writer ; that is, that I should, at the beginning,
give the occasion either to be lovingly bent, or fit to be instructed,
or else to be attentive, when as yet I have nothing done, yet give
them to me again, as if thou hadst received them, and forgive
me them, as though thou wert perfectly paid of them indeed.

For seeing I perceive that I have obeyed truth, in acknow-
ledging the truth, I cannot choose but set forth something
openly, touching true obedience ; and though I am not able to
speak of it, according to the worthiness of the thing, yet mine
endeavour shall be to speak of it openly, and open it plainly.

And to come speedily to my purpose : I think, that to obey
truly, is nothing else, but to obey unto the truth.

And God is the truth, as Scripture recordeth, wherein he
giveth his chief light unto us; so much, that whosoever seeketh
it in any other place, and goeth about to fetch it out of men's
puddles and quagmires, and not out of the most pure and clear
fountain itself; they draw and bring up now and then, I wot
not what, foul and miry gear, ineffectual and to no purpose, for
the quenching of men's thirsty desires, which pertaineth alto-
gether properly unto the truth itself. For it is only he that
giveth us the wholesome water of the truth, whereof he that
drinketh, in obeying the faith which Jesus Christ hath pub-
lished, he shall also bring forth the fruit of true obedience, so
that he shall never be thirsty.

For albeit God in the old law, when he had determined in
slain sacrifices and offerings, to shadow and signify his own
sincere and pure service and honour, which the true worshippers
should do now in spirit and truth ; and for that cause gave strait
commandment, that those sacrifices and oblations should be had
in high honour and devotion, to shew how much more dearly
he esteemed obedience; he hath manifestly declared in many
places of the Scriptures, that he setteth more by obedience than
by all oblations and sacrifices. For so speaketh Samuel out of

Ixxxv

the spirit of God, unto Saul ; Would the Lord have offering's and
sacrifices, saith he, and not rather that the Lord's word should
be obeyed ? Obedience is better than burnt offerings, and to
take heed, is more than to offer the fat of rams. Moses also in
Deuteronomy, commending- obedience unto the people, saith;
Lo, saith Moses, I set before your faces this day, blessing and
cursing. Blessing, if ye obey unto the commandments of the
Lord your God, which, I command this day; and cursing if ye
do not obey. Of this true obedience Saint Paul maketh mention,
in these words writing to the Romans, where he saith, he
received grace and apostleship, that faith might be obeyed
among all people, &c. for faith requireth obedience, that is,
that we acknowledge the will of God in Christ, which is the
word of the Father, and being made partakers of the grace of
God by his merit, should also, through the same Christ our
Lord, both believe in obeying, and obey in believing.

And whosoever putteth his perfect belief and hope in God,
looketh for reward at his only hands, and without God counteth
not upon his own works and deeds, but appointeth them their
limits; so that he rendereth them unto God, as though they
were done of God, from whom all good things proceed, and
acknowledged God to be the only beginning and finishing of all
goodness : that man is doubtless he, that may be said to obey
truly, that is to say, in following the truth, and for truth's sake
in contemning all things, that this deceivable world, is wont
both to make shew of, and to magnify.

And to the intent mankind should clearly and plainly, not
only with ears, but also with eyes, understand and see this truth
of obedience, that is to say, to the intent as many as are chil-
dren, should be drawn both outwardly and inwardly, of the
heavenly Father, to attain that truth : the word, Jesus Christ,
proceeded from the Father into the Virgin, and taking upon him
a very true and a mortal body, became flesh ; and the very same,
both God and man, dwelt among us, shewing his glory in signs

Ixxxvi

and power, as the glory of the only begotten Son of the Father ;
and told us plainly of God, whom no man hath seen at any time,
and went before, and shewed us the true ways of obedience ;
that like as by the disobedience of one man, many became
sinners, so by the obedience of one, many should be made
righteous ; and that death, which the sin of disobedience brought
in, being overcome, men should truly live indeed, in Christ, by
virtue of obedience.

For to believe surely in God, and to cleave constantly unto
him, which the Scriptures calleth a righteous man's life ; is
doubtless to obey him, and in exercising obedience, to chasten
the body, to bring the flesh into servitude, to subdue the king-
dom of sin as much as lieth in us ; to depend on God, to make
our members servants of righteousness, to set light by our own
commodity, and for God's sake to care for other men's ; to trust
that God himself will be our reward, and without God, or
besides God, to count nothing pleasant or delectable. This is
to love the Lord, with all our heart, who is a jealous God,
that cannot away with any man that serveth any other master ;
but he requireth to have the man whole to himself, and not to
be hewn in pieces, to serve divers masters' commandments ; but
he will be only worshipped, and he will be only served of
them that be his.

This secret will of God, being, by his unsearchable device,
hidden from the beginning, is now in the end of the world,
revealed unto us, by our Christ, the slain sacrifice and ransom
of mankind ; who in appeasing the most justly deserved
wrath of God, hath declared the wholesome doctrine of obe-
dience in his deeds; and hath suffered for us, leaving us
an example that we should follow his footsteps, which if we
will consider, we shall plainly find, that to be true obedience,
which, all other matters set apart, executeth and practiseth the
will of God, expressed to mankind in the word, which is Christ;
and being stirred up of God, ascribeth also the effect and end

Ixxxvii

imto God, who giveth the gift, both to will and to work,
according to his own good will. Therefore when Christ's
mother troubled him, as he was teaching in the temple, and
occupied in the office of true obedience, Dost thou not know,
saith he, that I must needs be about my father's business ? to
shew manifestly, that even the affection of nature, ought to obey
the will of God, and that nothing ought to be done, before the
commandment of God, by obedience. As the Father commanded
me, saith he, so I do ; and in another place, I am not sent, but
unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel : shewing thereby, that
nothing ought to be desired, that should blemish the office of
true obedience.

When the hour of Christ's passion drew near, and when he
had made that form of prayer, that should be most convenient
for our weak frailty, at the peril of death, Father, if it be pos-
sible, let this cup pass from me; he added straightways, to
declare the victory of obedience, more plainly, Not as I will,
but as thou wilt. Which his Father's commandments, God the
Son obeyed to the uttermost in the mystery of our redemption,
to shew us how we should obey ; and because, as the old said
saw is, we should not spoil the wine with pouring in water, and
lose all the fruit of obedience ; he hath also with his own most
true and most certain words, taught us in another place, and
prefaced the same also in his deeds, that he sought not his
own glory, through his obedience, but his Father's ; I, saith
he, seek not mine own glory, but my Father's ; If I, saith he,
glorify myself, my glory is nothing. And in another place, he
giveth us more plain meaning of this, saying, Let your light,
saith he, so shine before men that they may glorify your father,
who is in heaven. If we hope for commendation or vain-
glory at men's hands, we lose our reward, and shall appear one
day before the presence of Almighty God, with empty vessels,
like the foolish virgins, and shall suffer a most grievous repulse
of the spouse at his coming. Therefore, let not thy left hand

Ixxxviii

know what thy right hand doth ; left hand matter is ungain, and
wicked whatsoever proceedeth of the flesh. Do not therefore
defile nor mar God's matters with man's devices, but obey
secretly from the flesh, and God shall reward thee in secret.

And hereunto I suppose it may be applied, that St. Paul
writeth : Not he that is a Jew openly, is a Jew ; neither is the
circumcision of the flesh, that is done openly, circumcision;
but he that is a Jew secretly, is a right Jew ; and the circum-
cision of the heart, is the circumcision, that consisteth in the
spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but
of God.

Let the Lord therefore be both our part, and the whole sum
of our inheritance, who. only shall restore a sure inheritance
unto us ; that is to say, let us obey God for God's sake, which
only is true obedience; which returneth thither, whence it
came ; and where it proceedeth of truth, it goeth into truth,
and is contained of all one beginning and ending.

By this manner of order, it seemeth that St. Paul set forth
the rule of obedience, when he bade servants be obedient unto
their masters for God's sake ; declaring plainly, that God is the
author and rewarder of that just obedient service, that servants
do unto their bodily masters; so that whatsoever shall certainly
appear to be done in his name, we may not doubt, but he will
accept and take it in good part. And according thereto, it
appeareth to be written in the Gospel : Blessed shall you be,
when men hate you, and persecute you, &c., for the Son of
Man's sake ; rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in
heaven. For if we suffer buffeting justly for our faults, as
St. Peter saith, what gramercy is it to us ? For that is exhibited
unto the laws, and not unto God, even as that is not worthy of
any reward at God's hand, how godly soever it seem in outward
appearance, that hunteth after any earthly matter, glory, or
estimation of man, which is the practice of hypocrites, unto
whom the saying of God is mentioned : Thou hast received ihv

Ixxxix

reward. For so shall the nfen be cursed that obeyeth not God,
which happeneth two manner of ways, either when we put the
commandments of God in practice, in outward shew before men,
or else for ambition, vain-glory, or vauntage sake, whereof I
have spoken something already before. As for the final judgment
of this matter, God hath particularly reserved it unto himself,
to be pronounced at the day of his just judgment, most earnestly
inhibiting us, that we pronounce not rashly of any man's heart in
that behalf; yea, though they do not altogether as evil as we
have done in this kind of sin, as he hath not prohibited men to
talk of all things, or in that, that men are permitted to judge of,
when we cloke true obedience with counterfeit obedience, and
neglecting that that God commandeth, we provide us other
ware to keep us occupied withal, turning the deaf ear to that
most sore sentence of God's truth : In vain do you worship me,
in the commandments and doctrines of men, seeing you have-
broken my precepts, for your own tradition.

And to the intent we do not so, we ought first of all to take
heed, that we keep surely that mark, which is certain and is
signed with the finger of God, whereby we may make a
distinction between God's causes and man's, that they be not
shuffled together. First of all therefore reckon upon this for a
certainty, that the oracles of God, contained in the Holy Scrip-
tures, by the declaration of the Holy Ghost, do report unto us the
most certain true word of God, that we may thereby understand
and learn his will and the certainty of his commandments and
doctrine, to the intent, being instructed in that way of com-
mandments, we may go strait to the country everlasting.

Then, Sir, what is commanded in them ? Many things are
commanded in them surely; whereof some things in the Old
Testament were chiefly spoken, riot to justify the soul inwardly,
but for the keeping of the people in order, which in this new
people regenerate in Christ, are vanished away, even as it were
by the light of truth succeeding darkness, which it were

superfluous, and not to the purpose, to treat of at this present,
forasmuch as mine intent is to speak only of those precepts,
which God determined to signify, not unto one only sort of
people, but by one sort of people, unto all nations, whereof not
so much as one jot or one tittle could be pretermitted.

And these, of some men are called, moral precepts, which
forasmuch as they pertain also to holiness and chastity of life
and manners, they are deemed to abide still perfectly in their
full strength and virtue. And thereof we may be persuaded, as
well by many other places, as namely by this place of the
Gospel, where Christ teaching the people, pronounceth so plainly,
that we shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven, unless our
righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and
Pharisees. In which saying, albeit Christ did not altogether
allow the righteousness of the pharisees, because it was only a
human and a carnal righteousness, that is to say, it consisteth in
outward hypocrisy of deeds, and sprang not out of that fountain
of the spirit, whom the only grace of God, in the same Christ's
merits, causeth to spout water ; yet by this conference,* we take
it, that he shewed and admonished us the pure behaviour, which
the law required in the Scribes and Pharisees, and not to remit
nor to set it at liberty, by the doctrine of the gospel ; but by that
signification of words, to enlarge the limits of holiness and
chastity, and to require the encreasing and going forward thereof,
in this new law of the gospel.

For the liberty which is given unto us by the gospel, and
is thought to have abrogated Moses's law, pertaineth not to that
intent, that we may forget the moral precepts, and haunt a
light, dissolute, and filthy manner of life ; but that we should
be free from sin, and become the servants of righteousness;
and that, looking what the will of God teacheth us in the
Scriptures, to tend unto godliness, we should haunt that, and

* Collatione, Comparaison.

XG'l

embrace that, according to God's commandment, so as the
state of our obedience maybe constantly certain.* Of the which
moral preceots in the Old Law, to speak of some, for my purpose
is not to make present rehearsal particularly of them all, the
Levitical precepts, touching forbidden and incestuous marriages,
as far as they concern chaste and pure wedlock, wherein the
whole custom of man's life is contained, and the original fountain
of the increase of people consisteth ; are always reputed to be
of such sort, that being indeed given first to the Jews, because
they should be declared to advance the law of nature, they
should pertain to all manner of people in the whole world for
evermore. Wherein doubtless, both the voice of nature and the
commandment of God, have forbidden whatsoever is contrary to
the condition of them both.

And among these, seeing there is a commandment that a
man shall not marry his brother's wife, what ought or could the
King of England, his most excellent Majesty have done, other-
wise than by the whole consent of the people, and judgment
of his church he hath done ?f that is, that he should be divorced
from unlawful marriage, and use lawful and permitted copula-
tion: and obeying, as meet it was, conformably unto the
commandment, he should cast off her, whom neither law nor
right permitted him to retain, and take him to chaste and
lawful marriage. Wherein, forasmuch as the judgment of God's
word might have sufficed, whereunto all men ought to obey
without stopping or staying, yet the King's most royal Majesty
was content to have the assisting consents of men of notable
gravity, and the censures of the most famous universities of the
world. And all to the intent, that men should think, he did
that he both might do, and ought to do uprightly well, seeing

* Ut obedientise nostrse ratio queat constare.

t Then the Bishop of Canterbury was not all the doer, but the Church
and Parliament. WOOD.

XC11

the best learned and worthy good men, have subscribed unto it :
and that he shewed such obedience in so doing, as the truth of
God's Word,* seemeth to require of every godly and good man,
so as it might be said that he both obeyed God, and obeyed
truly ; of whom, forasmuch as I am purposed to speak, I could
not pass over with silence, that which occasion had commodi-
ously offered, upon this matter.

But let us return to the purpose, which chiefly standeth in this
point, that, we shew, that he obeyeth truly,f who walketh in
the law of the Lord, and blenchethj not out of the way of God's
commandments ; but with an humble and willing heart, com-
mitteth himself to God's will, never to refuse the authority of
God, and to obey both him and all them, whom God command-
eth him to obey for his sake. Indeed, God, according to his
exceeding great and unspeakable goodness toward mankind, to
increase abundance of glory in us, whereby he might establish
present matter for us, to exercise ourselves godly and thank-
worthily in ; substituted men, who being put in authority as his
vicegerents, should require obedience, which we must do unto
them with no less fruit, for God's sake, than we should do it, what
honour so ever it were, immediately unto God himself. And
in that place he hath set princes, whom, as representatives of his
image unto men, he would have to be reputed in the supreme,
and most high room, and to excel among all other human
creatures, as St. Peter writeth : and that the same princes reign
by his authority, as the holy Proverbs make report, By me,
saith God, kings reign, insomuch, that after Paul's saying,
Whosoever resisteth power, resisteth the ordinance of God.

* If it were so by God's word then, why do you say nay now? WOOD.

t Why doth D. Ridley lie in prison, if this Oration be true ? So
by your double sayings; you are a double traitor, and a very weather-
cock. WOOD.

$ Discedit.

XC111

Which Paul opening that plainly unto Titus, which he
speaketh here generally, commanded him to warn all men, to
obey their princes. And there be other rnen appointed also of
God, to require obedience, howbeit in an inferior order. For
the wife being in subjection to her husband, the servant to the
master, and to whomsoever any man is in subjection, they must
also obey their governors for God's sake. Whereof it chanceth
now and then that some men, not understanding the sense of
God's law rightly, stand in doubt, when two governors' com-
mandments given at all one self-same time, vary, and be con-
trary and manifestly repugnant one to the other; whether of
them ought first and most principally to be obeyed.

As for example, the master biddeth the servant do a thing,
and the king commandeth him to do a clean contrary thing, and
both at one time, and in one moment.

And forasmuch as they ought both to be obeyed for God's
sake, by the Word of God ; the very nature of things, cannot
admit both their commandments, to be applied in at all one self-
same time, and of all one self-same man. Here, in like as it might
perchance be doubted of some man, that hath not yet his wits
much exercised, whether of them the servant is bounden chiefly
and most principally to obey ; even so unto him that marketh
well other like causes, the solution of such a question shall anon
plainly appear ; that nature itself frameth the matter so, that the
inferiors must also serve and give place to the superiors.

Therefore in this propoundeth example, the servant must not
obey his master, but the king, as his superior master ; as him,
whom both the master and servant are bounden to obey.

And forasmuch as we acknowledge, that there is one above
both the servant, master, and king, even God ; who is the King of
Kings and Lord of Lords, of whom all things, by whom all things,
and in whom all things are ; his commandments all men ought
to obey, principally and afore all things, both servant, master,
and king : that they may appear to have obeyed all men for
God's sake ; but no man without God, nor against God.

XC1V

Therefore is the wife praised that obeyeth her husband, yea,
even unto death. For it is better to obey God than men.

Thus inasmuch as it is manifest, that order ought to be
kept in obedience, and that our duty is to obey every one chiefly,
after such sort, as he excelleth other in order and prerogative, by
the testimony of God's law : I think it requisite for me, seeing I
am speaking of the necessary degree of orders, to touch also in
this place, that cause which is commonly in use, and spoken of
at this day almost in all men's hands, and in all men's mouths :
whether the whole consent of Englishmen be grounded upon
God's law, in that they declare and honour the most victorious
and most noble prince Henry the Eighth, King of England and
of France, Defender of the Faith, and Lord of Ireland, to be in
earth the supreme head of the Church of England ; and is granted
unto him, by authority thereof, in the open court of parliament,
freely to use his right, and to call himself supreme head of the
Church of England, as well in name as in deed. Wherein
there is no newly invented matter wrought, only their will was,
to have the power pertaining to a prince, by God's law, to be
the more clearly expressed, with a more fit term to express it
by ; namely for this purpose, to withdraw that counterfeit vain
opinion out of the common people's minds, which the false pre-
tended power of the Bishop of Rome, had, for the space of cer-
tain years, blinded them withal, to the great impeachment of
the king's authority ; which all men are bounden to wish, and
to their uttermost power, see kept safe, restored, and defended
from wrongs.

Wherein surely I see no cause, why any man should be
offended, that the king is called the head of the Church of
England, rather than the head of the Realm of England. Here
now, I appeal unto thee, gentle reader, to set apart the terming of
term words in the mean season,* and to weigh the matter itself. For
I am not ignorant of the force of both the manner of speeches,

* Ut srnoUis interim appellationibus, rera ipsam consideres.

xcv

and that this word, Church, signifieth, not every congregation,
but with an adjection, as I hate the malignant church, but that
any multitude of people, which being united in the profession of
Christ, is grown into one body. For this came in by custom,
that this term, Church, which else is a common term, became,
notwithstanding, the proper name of a more excellent body. But
this word, Realm, is more plainly known, and comprehendeth all
subjects of the king's dominions, whosoever they may be, and
of what condition soever they be, whether they be Jews, Barba-
rians, Saracens, Turks, or Christians.

Then, seeing in this matter, which I have in hand, the mat-
ter that is meant by it, is of such sort, that it agreeth indiffe-
rently with both manner of speeches ; and seeing the Church of
England consisteth of the same sorts of people at this day, that
are comprised in this word, Realm, of whom the king is called the
head : shall he not, being called the Head of the Realm of
England, be also the head of the same men, when they are
named the Church of England ? Shall the terming of words,
inasmuch as they have none other use, but to signify things, be
of such force in this cause, as to turn the nature of the things
themselves upside down ? That one man should be taken in his
estate of being, and another in his estate, all one according to
the diversity of names. I know well enough, that by relation of
names, the offices are sometimes changed, and that the self-same
all one man, as he is called by this name or that name, must also
do the parts of office agreeing to that name. But if the king
be the head of the Realm, that is as much as a man would say, he
hath so many as are within the dominion of the Realm, united all
unto himself, as unto one body, that they may take him for their
supreme head ; can it be, by any possible means, through the
mutation of the name, for all one self-same man, to be in sub-
jection to this head, and not to be in subjection to this head, in
all one kind of subjection, that is to say, for God's sake ?

For there is no subjection against God. What a folly were
it then, for a man to confess, that all one man, if he had to call

XCV1

him John, dwelling in England, is in subjection to the king-, as
unto the head ; and if ye call him a Christian, of the same sort,
to say that he is not a subject ? For in that his abiding is in
England, he is of the Realm ; and in that he is a Christian,
dwelling in England, he is deemed to be of the Church of
England. The king, say they, is the Head of the Realm ; but
not of the Church; whereas, notwithstanding, the Church of
England is nothing else, but the congregation of men and women,
of the clergy, and of the laity, united in Christ's profession ;
that is to say, it is justly to be called the Church, because it
is a communion of Christian people ; and of the place, it is
to be named, the Church of England, as is the Church of
France, the Church of Spain, and the Church of Rome. So
that they, who confess the king to be the supreme Head of
the Realm, and yet grant him not to be the supreme Head
of the Church, on God's name, being one congregation in the
same Realm, which is either their own ignorance, or their own
malice, this is their plain meaning, that the king is the head of
the unfaithful, and not of the faithful : except the king himself
be an infidel, that either an infidel king doth bear rule over
a faithful or unfaithful people, or else the same king joining
himself to the Christian Church, giveth over, from thenceforth,
his authority and power. I wonder exceedingly, that any such
one is found, that can mean thus ; and yet I cannot find, what
the adversaries have to say for themselves, but thus ; as for any
other sure and grounded allegation, they bring none, but such as
hangeth together in no point, nor agreeth with itself. The king,
say they, is Head of the Realm, but not of the Church. O what
an absurd and foolish saying is that! As though, because the
people beginneth now to believe in God,* it were a just cause,
why they should be no more in subjection to the king, God's
lieutenant, but be exempt quite from his body.

* If they begin to believe but now, then their belief was no belief
before now. WOOD.

XCV11

But Paul taught not so, who said, that the authority of
masters over their servants should not be changed or diminished,
through professing of Christ, but warned them to keep it still in
perfect authority, bidding servants to be obedient unto their
bodily masters for God's sake. The converting of a wife unto
faith, withdraweth nothing from the authority of her husband ;
for he is the head of the wife still, and because she, after she had
professed the faith, should shew no token of misorder, whereby
she might pluck the minds of some from religion ; St. Peter's
mind was, that wives having professed the faith, should leave off
the office of preaching, which they executed by words ; and win,
without the word, their husbands, through their chaste conver-
sation.

Therefore, the authority of the master towards the servant,
and the right of the husband's superiority over the wife, is not
lost by the mean of religion : and shall it be lost to the king ?
Who, forasmuch as he, yea though he be an infidel, represent-
eth, as it were the image of God upon earth, so that he is called
the head and the guide of the people, shall his state be nipped
off because of the Christian profession ? And shall he be called
no more the head of the people, which is the Church, but the
nearer he draweth to God by faith, which is the only mean to
come to God, shall he so much the further go away from God's
image ? And shall he begin to be had in so much less reverence
with the people for that name's sake, that he ought most chiefly
to be honoured for ? Truly, if he be the head of the people,
and that by the ordinance of God, as no man sayeth nay ; yea,
even as well when the people as the prince, be as far as possible
dissevered from God through infidelity ; how much more now,
seeing they accord through the power of God in one profession
of faith, and by that means are a Church, ought he to retain the
name of supreme head ? And that he may worthily be taken
for the Head of the Church still, he represented the office that
he occupieth in God's stead, much more honourably now, than

xcvni

before-time, when ho wandered in the darkness of infidelity.
Paul without difference, biddeth them obey those princes that
bear the sword. St. Peter speaketh of king's by name, Christ
himself commandeth tribute to be paid unto Csesar, and checked
his disciples for striving who should be the greatest. Kings of
the nations, quoth he, bear rule over them, declaring plainly
in so great variety of degrees and orders, which God doth
garnish this world withal, that the dominion and authority
pertaineth to none but to princes.

But here some men will say to me : you travail about that,
that no man is in doubt of. For who ever denied, that the
prince ought to be obeyed ? It is most certain, that he that will
not obey the prince, is worthy to die for it : as it is compre-
hended in the old law, and also confirmed in the new law. But
we must see will he say, that the king do not pass the limits
appointed him, as though there must be an arbiter for the
ordering of his limits. For it is certain, that obedience is due,
but how far the limits of requiring obedience extend, that is the
whole question that can be demanded.

What manner of limits are those that you tell me of, seeing
the Scripture hath none such ? But generally speaking of
obedience, which the subject is bounden to do unto the prince,
the wife unto the husband, or the servant to the master, it hath
not added so much as one syllable of exception ; but only hath
preserved the obedience due to God, safe and whole, that we
should not hearken unto any man's word in all the world, against
God. Else the sentences, that command obedience, are indefinite,
or without exception, but are of indifferent force universally ; so
that it is but lost labour for you, to tell me of limits, which
cannot be proved by any testimony of Scripture.

We are commanded doubtless to obey. In that consisteth
our office, which if we mind to go about, with the favour of God
and man, we must needs shew humbleness of heart, in obeying
authority, how grievous soever it be, for God's sake; not

XC1X

questioning nor inquiring 1 , what the king-, what the master, or
what the husband ought, or may command other to do. And if
they will take upon them, either of their own head, or when it
is offered them, more than right and reason is, they have a Lord
unto whom they either stand or fall, and that shall one day sit
in judgment even of them. Yet for all this, some men will say :
Yea, but ye promised in the beginning, to speak of that, which
you are about now to avoid your hands of, having forgotten
your purpose, as it appeareth. No, Sir, say I, I avoid not my
hands of it, but 1 say, it is sufficiently confirmed, by these that
we have spoken of before, that princes ought to be obeyed, by
the commandment of God : yea and to be obeyed without excep-
tion, as a thing, whereof there is no mention in that law, which
if thou put any thing to, or take any thing from, thou art a
wicked* man : what would we have more ?

For if I must take in hand to interpret the general doctrine
of obedience, as it ought to be, and shall confer and compare
Scripture to Scripture, and search out the true and right meaning
of the Scripture, as the most godly and greatest learned men are
both wont and ought to do ; I see no cause indeed, why I should
do any less than they did. Therefore let us consider, what
those Scriptures say, which are alleged on the contrary part.
OBEY YOUR RULERS, saith Paul to Hebrews: which place, and
xiii. to the Romans, some expound of the Bishop of Rome's
authority, which they call, the ecclesiastical power. Also in
the Acts of the Apostles, Take heed to yourselves, and to the
whole flock, among whom the Holy Ghost hath set you to be
overseers, to govern the Church of God, whom he hath purchased
with his own blood. And lest we should pass over any thing,
although it is meant to another purpose, let us not omit that,
that Peter speaketh, concerning the royal priesthood. For this
text ; Whatsoever thou shalt bind in earth, &c., pertaineth to

* Then are you a devil. WOOD.

another matter ; and this, Feed my Sheep ; besides that, that
Christ spake with his own mouth, meaneth no more, but that I
have already shewed, was commanded, concerning the govern-
ment of the church. These sentences, and such like, though
they be understood, as those men would have them, that is, that
we should obey bishops and ministers of the Word of God in
the Church, are nothing against the king's authority, but that
he may be called the Head of the Church, no more, than the
obedience to the king is any thing nipped or diminished, in that,
that the wife is commanded to obey her husband, and the servant
his master, as it were with general speech of words.

For like as with the lawyers, as they themselves term it, there
be now and then sundry jurisdictions that proceed out of all
one thing, and yet they mar not one another ; but they consist
and concur by the mutual help of one to another ; even so in that
the government of the Church is committed to the apostles, and
to those that succeed in their rooms, may not be thought to
abrogate or diminish that that God hath committed unto princes,
in any condition.

The parson, vicar, or the parish priest's care of his
parishioners, is never the less, because the bishop ought also
to oversee ; neither may the bishop's jurisdiction be deemed of
none effect, because he must take the archbishop for his superior.
For the curate, the bishop, and the archbishop do govern the
Church, every one in their degree and order.

Then like as every one of them doing their office, seem not
to hinder one another, but to help one another ; even so, in that
we find, the government of the Church was committed to the
apostles, and to those that succeed in their room ; that which
beforehand is committed of God to princes, is in no wise taken
away. But forasmuch as government hath need of many things,
especially teaching and preeminence according to the sundry
distribution of gifts ; unto some God hath committed the office
of teaching, and the ministry of the sacraments in all one body,

and to some preeminence, not to be adversaries, but as divers
members agree in one body, so in government they should
accord together, and every one go about his own office with
charity. But here methinks, I hear some men startle, and as it
were, wondrous earnestly chide, because I had rather use a new
making of distribution, than the old accustomed distinction;
which as those men think, doth put a handsome difference
between the governments of a prince, and of the Church ; that
is, that the prince should govern in temporal matters, and the
Church in spiritual ; after the which distinction, the prince, as
the moon which is called the less light, should have charge of
such matters, as are of the night ; but the other, which be of the
spirit and of the day light, he must reserve to the sun alone, to
be discussed.

Forsooth, a blind distinction, and full of darkness. For if
thou leave unto a Christian prince the name of a king still, so
that his duty is, not only to be the chief over the people, in
God's stead, but also to govern them, and rule them ; first I ask,
what way shall a Christian prince take in government, to lead
Christian people by : the way of truth, which leadeth unto life,
or the way of lies, which hasteth to death ? for there is no
midway found. If he shall take the way of truth, what charge
of temporal matters, tell you me of, when the Scripture crieth ;
Seek first the kingdom of God, as for other things, they must
not be sought for, for God's liberality must give them ? Must
every man in his own private cause seek the kingdom of God,
and must a prince in his administration neglect it, or at least, not
care for it ? This is the matter surely, because the good men
were afraid, lest any king should wax too holy, and in this
behalf, lest he should fall into virtue too earnestly, they
invented a fine device,* thinking it a witty part, to appoint a

* They did not so wisely invent the device, but you as subtilly follow
the same steps.- WOOD.

Cll

king his office, so as he take no thought whether his people be
good or not, I mean, after the goodness that is meet for the
profession of Christian men, so that they be not notoriously cried
out upon for abominable impiety and wicked deeds, so as they
seem not to become, more like beasts than men. Therefore it
must be the king's charge, to see, that they steal not, nor
murder, and that the lay folk oppress not the good people.

But as for all manner of whoredoms, or worse than
whoredom, and whatsoever those men do, whose title and
raiment would make a man to think the contrary in them ;
though their behaviours be never so far out of order, the king
must let it alone, and pass not on it.

For those are spiritual matters, that is to say, spiritual men's
sins, which they bid the king, let them alone withal ; as though
it were enough for him to govern his people in temporal affairs,
and that it were not for him to know any further. This indeed
is the most special way to mar* all, and far contrary from his
office that occupieth God's room on earth.

Is this to feed the people ? Which word the Scripture useth
to kings ; nay, Saint Dunstan, who was a very holyf and a right
good man, sometime Archbishop of Canterbury, did a great deal
after another sort, with great rejoicing, interpret the charge of a
prince in correcting the manners of the church, being gladly well
assayed of the king's saying, when he told him, he would join
sword to sword, J to the intent the light dissolute manners of the

* Trusting of prelates overmuch marreth all. WOOD.
t Dunstan, a holy man, and my dog other. WOOD.

J Gardiner here alludes to the celebrated address to the dissolute
clergy of his day, ascribed to King Edgar, and which contains some
pointed remarks not wholly inapplicable to our own time. The ex-
pression referred to is, " Ego Constantini, vos Petri, gladium habetis
in manibus. Jungamus dexteras, gladium gladio copulemus: ut ejiciantur
extra castra leprosi, etc. Spelm. Concil. 477.

holy churchmen, might be framed into the right trade of life.
By the one sword, alluding to the saying of Paul, which the
ministers of the word, exercise in preaching and excommuni-
cating : by that other sword, shewing a supremacy appointed by
the law of God, whereunto, as many as are the king's subjects,
which is the congregation that we call the Church, are all
bounden thoroughly to obey. For the king is commanded, to
govern the people : and the prophet* warning princes of their
duty, saith to them : Now you kings get you understanding, and
be learned you that are judges of the land.

But if we admit these men's interpretation, then should
princes have no more understanding, nor be further learned, than
to be negligent almost in all things ; that is to say, they should
not meddle with the one half of the people, if they serve the Lord
in name and apparel : and as for the rest of the people, they should
correct them, not to refrain from all gross sins, but from some.

But the prophet's interpretation, is another manner of matter,
which he bringeth in afterward, saying : Serve the Lord in fear :
what this meaneth, we must understand and learn it of God's own
mouth, for God's mouth speaketh plainly in the Holy Scriptures
both of the Old Testament and New. Touching King Solomon's
administration, this doth Scripture report; King Solomon,
according to his father's appointment, ordained the offices of
the priests in their ministries, and Levites in their order ; that
they might give thanks, and minister before the priests after the
order of every day, and porters in their divisions gate by gate.
Here you do hear that King Solomon took care also of holy or
spiritual matters, not unadvisedly, but by the appointment of
David his father, of whom God, by the prophet protesteth, that
he had found a man after his own heart.

So that the same history of Solomon, speaketh of this sort
following : for so had the man of God commanded, neither did

* Princes ought to be learned in the Scripture. WOOD.

CIV

they omit any of the king's commandments, neither the priests,
nor Levites, of all that he had commanded.

Whereto should I here make rehearsal of King Jehoshaphat
his carefulness, that set up the high judgment seat of the.priests
and Levites' households in Jerusalem ? By what authority did
he so, but by his regal power ? taking it to be his office, rather
to take charge concerning divine matters than human. What
a bold deed had that been of King Hezekiah, even the very first
year and the first month of his reign, so to have busied himself
with the administration of divine matters; if the discipline of his
regal office, which he received of God, had not required it?
That is to say, that a king ordained of God, who is the eternal spirit,
should take charge of spiritual and eternal affairs, before and rather
than corporal matters, and things that shall perish in time ?
This very Hezekiah therefore, the Scripture commendeth so
highly, that there was none of all the Kings of Judah, which
observed all the Lord's precepts like unto him.

For his will was to seek the Lord with all his whole heart,
as he did indeed and prospered, as the Scripture testifieth in
2 Chron. xxix. What did this Hezekiah, I say? In the very
first year and first month of his reign, he did not only build up
the gates of the Lord's House again, but also gave diligence to
reform the priests themselves, and to repair the lively building,
that was decayed. For he not only admonished the priests, that
dwelt together on the East Street of the City, of their negli-
gence in their office, but also, like a man of authority, said :
Hearken, ye Levites and priests : be ye sanctified and make
clean the House of the Lord, the God of your fathers, and put
away all uncleanness from the sanctuary, &c. I pray you, what
could he speak more imperiously ? For he spake not, as one, that
exhorteth them, as inferiors, or those that be fellow-like, use to
take in themselves with all, to cause the communication of the
matter, to be the more easily taken. Which manner of talk is re-
quisite sometime, in a gentle godly heart, in another man's cause.

And if Hezokiah lusted to have spoken after that rate, he
would not have said, be ye sanctified, but let us be sanctified :
nor make you clean, but let us make clean : nor put ye away, but
let us put away: or if the matter had been such, that it would
not admit fellowship, if a private man should have wished or
declared those cases, it had become him neither to make himself
fellow-like with the matter to be required, to exhort them, nor
to require it by the way of commandment.

But the right good prince Hezekiah, being 1 taught of God,
what his regal office, charge, and administration was, used such
manner of talk unto the priests, as should declare the authority
and power of the speaker. Therefore he speaketh in the
imperative mood : Hearken, make clean, and put away. And
the priests themselves, as it appeareth in the same place, did, as
the King had justly bidden them, and obeyed his commandment.
Thus were those kings learned, that fully and entirely applied
their office, by God's authority among God's people.

And these things will God require at princes' hands, a great
deal more in these days : that they should hearken, how the
prophet exhorteth them, to lay hand upon this manner of
learning, to govern the people by, and to serve the Lord with
fear and trembling ; and to cause the people, not to be such as
they lust themselves to be, but a worthy and an acceptable
people unto the Lord, as much as in them were possible,* and
so to be found faithful stewards, in that day, when they shall
yield account of the administration which they took upon them.
Let them therefore hear what the wise man saith : Hear, ye
kings, and understand, mark with your ears, you that are rulers
of the multitude, for power is given unto you of the Lord, and
strength from the Highest, which shall enquire, what your works
be. Therefore princes must not pass the time in slothfulness,
negligence, and idleness, but continually serve the Lord. For

* How can that be if God's Book be taken from them? WOOD.

C 4 V1

their beauty is, to be so much the more careful in the office that
God hath given them (as one hath written) , as they see themselves
the more bounden, yielding account. For it is a great talent,
that God hath put princes in trust withal : that is, that they
should not only rule the people, but also rule them rightly, not
in any one part alone, but in all particularly ; and so to look unto
the Lord's vineyard, which men think they have taken in hand
to keep in good husbandry, that they not only pluck out such
things as are noisome, but also trim it and lay new dung to it,
and to leave no point of husbandry undone ; that the vineyard
may bring forth fruit more plenteously, which the good man of
the house shall require in his season.

For who is able to save princes harmless, or bear them out,
that when they have taken upon themselves, all the whole charge
to govern the people by God's authority ; they may compact
afterward, that the greater part shall have the charge of the
other, and they in the mean while, as though they had done their
office gaily well, take their ease and care for nothing ? And
where a word was once spoken, because of the reverence of their
present virtue, and not by the truth of their authority : shall
men, though it were spoken of a man so affected, usurp it for
that end to mock out the charge of God's authority ? I mean,
the saying of Constantine: I will not judge you, of whom I
myself ought to be judged.

God speaketh generally, he excepteth no man, he committeth
sometimes a naughty people, to a naughty prince. If sometimes
a good people to a good prince, then he putteth him so much the
more in trust, that men may surely think, he hath the supremacy
over all the people, according to the commandments of God, and
not over one part of the people, after the traditions of men.
Which people, being knit together in one belief of Christ, ^see-
ing it is a Church ; what absurdity is it that a prince, who is
called the Head of the People, should be called also the Head of
the Church, which that people maketh ? You will say perchance,

CV11

Christ only is the Head of the Church. We all confess it, or
else we could not properly constitute a Church, but the
Church of Malignants. Indeed we acknowledge that Christ is
the* Head of the Church, and that he reigneth with the Father
in heaven, who is our advocate, sitting on the Father's right
hand, and maketh intercession for us.

But as concerning that Christ, the mediator of God, and
men, both God and man, is the Head of the Church; that
Church hath none addition, forasmuch as the Church of England
is not the Church, alone, but also the Church of France, of
Spain, and of Rome, for the Church is not circumscript to any
place, but wheresoever it be in all the wide world, even among
the Turks, where God hath sealed up his own children unto
himself, who (as the Gospel saithf) draweth all, unto whom he
hath given power to become his children.

Therefore let this be out of controversy, about the which it
were wickedness to contend, I will not say dispute. And to avoid
this, that there remain no cause of evil report of it, there is to
this word Head, $ added in Earth ; and to this word Church, is
added of England. Of which Church of England, the supreme
Head in Earth, forasmuch as both scripture and reason do allow
it, as a thing in-existent unto the name of a prince and of a king ;
all English people, thought it meet, to have that matter expressed
in plain words ; both the commons, and the fathers, yea, and even
those, that were reputed to be from that jurisdiction, by prescrip-
tion of time, and not by prescription of truth. For, why should
they not consent to the truth ? Indeed the newness and unwont
novelty of the word neither could, nor ought make men any thing
afraid ; for, after it appeared, that the thing itself, which was

* Nota. t John i.

$ The King's supremacy by Parliament.

Prescription of time is not allowed, but prescription of truth,

CV111

expressed by name, was not only true, but also ancient ; it came
of advised judgment and not of temerity, that some notable name
should be set forth, to stir up the hollow hearts and feeble judg-
ments of some men, unto the consideration of the truth by and
to advertise the subjects by that name; that the prince is the
whole prince of all the people,* and not of part : and that the
same body of the people, growing into that condition, to be
called the Church, is not one-handed, nor cut off by the stumps,
but that it consisteth perfectly whole, the same prince being as
the head : whose office is, to take charge, not only of human
matters, but much more of divine matters, that is, to distribute
fitly unto every member of the body, their proper offices ;f that
he with his eyes, with his ears, and with his mouth according to
the care, whereby he hath the government, by the gift of God,
in ministering unto the body, and charging every one with their
duty, he may apply that manner of office, that God shall doubt-
less, one day, call for a reckoning of, at the hands of a Christian
prince, having the government of a Christian people. Thus
much touching the novelty of the name.

For else the matter itself, hath both many and right weighty
examples, not those only, which I have before rehearsed out of the
old law, but many other also ; not comparable indeed with them
(in that they are grounded upon God's Word) in gravity and
weighty importance ; howbeit, forasmuch as they are pertinent to
the cause, they are not to be omitted. Then sir, who did ever
disallow Justinian's fact, that made laws concerning the glorious
Trinity, and the catholic faith, of bishops, of men of the clergy,
of heretics, and others, such like ? Which laws he either made
in vain, or else he declared, that he had the charge of that part
of the people also, which ought to be of the greater purity and

* Wherefore Supreme Head is written in the King's style.
f The office of a prince is to take charge in divine matters.

C1X

of the more holiness, as he saith himself he had ; having- per-
tained in this behalf, unto the judgment of the truth, out of all
peradventure. How often do we read, that the causes of heresy
have been debated before emperors and princes, and discussed
by their trial ? If we will bolt out the ancient laws of Kings
of England in times past, how many shall we find, concerning
religion and the Church, made, proclaimed, and bidden to be
put in execution, by the commandment and authority of those
kings? Yea, say they, they made such statutes, as Defenders
of the Church, and not as authors and Heads of the Church.
Who was head then in the mean space ? Who had the govern-
ment? Who had the principal charge? I wot what their
answer will be ; marry sir, the Bishop of Rome. That will we
see hereafter. In the mean while, it must needs be granted, that
the King's dignity hath been always above the chiefest Bishops
in England ; and that, under the name of Defender of the Church,
(which title was given unto kings, even of them, that granted
least) they did and exercised those things, if not in every in-
stance, yet certainly in most things, that represent the dignity
and office of the Head in the Church.

For princes were Defenders of the Church, even as the
head maintaineth and defendeth the body. And as he may
see it chance almost in every place at this day, that some that
bo negligent in many things, covet the name for all that. And
contrary wise those princes, which have been such in deed and in
office, that they ought justly to have been called heads, have
refrained only to be called heads. For they have made statutes
by their authority and by their own laws, to inquire of heresy,
wherein consisteth the chief and principal point of office, which
is yet still, and hath always been observed even unto these days.
But now have they permitted many things unto the bishops and
clergy, and have granted them many immunities ;* the grant

* The authority and immunity of bishops given by Princes.

whereof ought to be a wondrous great argument, either that
princes have been hitherto desired in vain, to grant that that is
another man's, which ought to pertain nothing unto him, and
that they gave, that they had not themselves, which is a plain
absurdity; or else that they had power to exercise themselves,
that which they granted to others, and that therefore, they remitted
and departed in so doing, with part of their own right. Which
being even so, princes have been always Heads, indeed even
then when they were called only Defenders; if this be to be
the head unto the body, to bear rule over all the people, to
command, remit, and sometime to bear with all the members
thereof, as much as tendeth to the use of all the whole body ; and
so to order and moderate every thing, that the glory of God, and
the profession of the faith, may be advanced from day to day.

But these men will say ; princes have acknowledged the
Bishop of Rome, to be the head of the Universal Church : to him
they have given condign honour, as to the supreme head, to him
they have submitted themselves, his authority they have acknow-
ledged reverencing him as their father, and rejoicing that he
called them sons; so that if we should esteem the right by the
deeds, and if it be enough to teach deeds for the proof of the
right, so as, whatsoever is apparently done, we must confess it
to be done rightfully; then doubtless the Bishops of Rome's
cause shall be on the better hand.

I would not be reputed so vain or so impudent a man*
(which is the farmost end of my thought) as to cloak or to say
nay, to those things that have been done ; and yet when I shall
grant to such things as can not be denied, me thinketh, that like
as virtue when it is most thrown under foot, and soiled with vices,
yet it sheweth his efficacy, by one shift or other ; that we may
understand it to be presently oppressed, but not utterly extinct ;

* Winchester not impudent ! No full loth WOOD.

CXI

even so in the mean season, deeds, which seem to diminish the
right title, and authority of the prince, a certain light of the
truth hath always peeped out, as it were, out of the most deep
darkness ; whereby he that marks it more nearly and more surely,
might perceive, that these deeds were not whole nor perfect,
nor grounded upon just foundations, but had a greater appear-
ance of truth than true in deed, and tokens of honour rather
borrowed than paid.

For if that opinion had ever sunk into princes' hearts, that
the Bishop of Rome had been Christ's Vicar on Earth, that is,
the Head ordained of God to be over all, unto whom all things
should bow, all things should obey, without whom nothing
must be reckoned holy nor sacred; whose blessing should
always give prosperity, whose curse adversity, or if the Bishops
of Rome were persuaded, that it wore so ; the Bishops of Rome
would not have practised strange arts and carnal fetches,*
rather than strong testimony of God's truth, if they could
yet to this day have brought out any such, in the defence of
their authority. Neither durst the princes have been so bold,
every one in his time, as to nip alway that same authority
{which they seemed to grant in words and terms of speech) after
that fashion in their proceedings, and doings, not in corners but
openly in the face of the world. I speak of such princes, whose
excellent religious education, the world now after their deaths,
reverenceth and worshippeth ; and reckoneth them among the
number of saints.

Verily if our elders had believed, that God had committed
the charge of all the whole world, unto the Bishop of Rome ;
what wilful boldness caused them, to make so many statutes
against, and contrary to that charge and power advancing itself,
under that pretence ? And as they would have done many other

* If the Bishop of Rome were Christ's Vicar, he would not have practised
ing-gliges. WOOD.

CX11

things, yet they durst never have been so bold to do, that they
did, to have purposed to blindfold him, from looking about him,
and to stop his eyes, whom they esteemed for a watchman set of
God, in the higher place to see ?

I think it was meet, to mistake so great a diligence in God's
vicar, for that he being burthened with the cure and charge of
all churches, lest the people should want shepherds, made pro-
vision with three sorts of under-shepherds. Against the superior,
or against him, it is not lawful to make any law. For inferiors
prescribe not laws to the superiors, neither do they lawfully
make penalties against their government, how wicked or in-
tolerable soever it be.

Therefore our elders, and princes, that were before time, when
they assembled together to counsel upon matters of the common
weal ; taking deliberate advisement in their open councils, have
by statutes and laws, determinately thought it meet to put out that
quick sight in the Bishops of Rome's eyes, that it should not serve
them to look over, so far as unto us. Yea, those princes seem that
they knew their own right authority, and that they were not all
ignorant, of the original beginning and nature of the Bishop of
Rome's power ; and yet the Bishops of Rome* thought it good to
allow both their judgments and doings, in the behalf, so much, that
they have not only, not found fault with those princes, which both
made such statutes and kept them, but also dissembling the foil
that they had taken, commended those princes, for their fidelity
and obedience. Yea, marry Sir, the Bishops of Rome were
circumspect, and the more witty men in their generation,f fol-
lowing in this case the example of subtle merchants ; that of an
unthrifty bargain, when they have scant half, yet they hold them
content, reckoning it all one that they had, because of right they
could have claimed nothing. As for our elders when they per-

* Wily Foxes !
i You are a whelp of the same ear. WOOD.

CX111

ceived the Bishop of Rome's authority by his fruits, and judged
him not to be God's vicar ; they thought that pick-purse autho-
rity must be borne withal, and not clean cast out (for reason
permitted at the time) ; but their expressed deeds do most mani-
festly declare, that they were of the same judgment that we
are of.*

Nevertheless, as every man's heart serveth him, so doth he
either claim his own, and useth it like a stout-hearted man;
or else being content with the commodity that is offered him,
letteth the rest alone, and wotteth what he thinketh. And
seeing the matter standeth even so, there is no reason, why the
rest of their doings should trouble them, how contrary in outward
appearance soever they seem, by the which they could nip
away nothing from God's law, and diminish their power, through
temerity or by negligence. Let men call the Bishops of Rome,
fathers ; let them call them heads, let them advance them with
what names they list, yet the truth of things, is not impeached
by errors of things misdone.

The Church of Rome was in old time, either by reason of
outward holiness,f or by mighty power, not only of great fame,
but also of high authority ; what I speak of authority, I follow
Tully's meaning, who in the weighty importance of witness
bearing, attributeth authority unto such as be witty and wealthy
men, because of the common people's judgment though it be not
always a right, as he saith, yet because it is not easily altered.
For else the authority, that the Bishop of Rome should be thought
to have by God's law, is non-authority with us indeed, like as no
manner of foreign^, bishop also hath authority among us.

Neither let it, in this case, be prejudicial unto the truth, what

* The negligence and temerity of princes, putteth not away the authority

that God giveth them. WOOD.

t The Church of Rome godly in the old time. WOOD.
^ Remember this lesson yourself, else ye will be shent one day. WOOD.

CX IV

men have done heretofore in sundry councils, to flourish out the
matter withal ; that is to say, either serving their own turn, or
giving place to the time, or else blinded through ignorance. Let
the- truth of God's word have the victory now, which if it give
no more authority unto these Bishops of Rome, than to all other
Bishops, that is, to feed and bring up the people, within their
diocese committed to their spiritual charge, with the
ministration of the word of God, and of his sacraments : let not
time prescribe against God's truth,* neither let it be judged, that
the princesf or the people were blinded with ignorance, circum-
vented with subtlety, or greedy of gains, either induced through
any other respect, to do, that they neither ought nor could
possibly by any means have done.

Because men have used to ask the Bishop of Rome counsel
in governing the Church, is it not lawful therefore to do any
thing without his counsel ? And because princes have suffered
their subjects to ask his counsel, did they by that means
give over their own authority ; which, because it is committed
unto them by God, it is not lawful for them to put away ? Let
the matters, that have, in times past, been made a mingle-
mangle, be called again to the true square of God's word : let
the grounds of both their powers be weighed, and like as we
have by testimony of God's word shewed before, that a prince's
mighty power is not gotten by flattery, or by privilege of the
people, but given of God; let us also consider, whether the
self-same God have given any power to the Bishop of Rome,
that ought to hinder the supreme power of princes. And in this

* Time may not prescribe against God's truth.

t Princes may not put away their supremacy, because they have it

of God.

Let matters amiss be called home again to that line of God's word.
Examples that high priests were subject to princes.

cxv

matter, we need not make much ado in searching out the Scrip-
tures of the Old Testament, wherein we have as well touched
somewhat already, as also it is most manifest in many other
places, that the priests were in subjection to the high princes.
Did not Aaron take Moses for his sovereign lord,* which is the
manner of speech of him, that acknowledgeth superior autho-
rity ? Did not Achimelech,f the high priest use the same word
of subjection, when he spake to Saul, the King of Israel ? Did
not Solomon put Abiathar the high priest to death ?$ What
did King Alexander (as it appeareth in the Book of Macca-
bees) write to Jonathan, saying Now have we this day
ordained thee to be the high priest of thy people ? Do not
these sayings sufficiently declare, that the power of princes, was
above even the highest priests of all ? I speak nothing, that
Demetrius gave unto Simon the office of the high priest,|| and
so to others after him. I pass also over many other more. For
the multitudes of examples out of God's law doth not so strongly
confirm as shew the truth. For this is the difference between
God's law, and man's; God's law is constant,^ but man's law
is ever subject unto vanity, and so unto variety.

In God's Word therefore, it is always true, that is once
set out by example for truth ; as to prove the supreme power and
authority of princes, the example of Hezekiah alone, which is
registered in God's book, and commended unto us, might justly
have sufficed. It remaineth that the Bishop of Rome, must
either bring out the tables of the New Testament, or none. But
first, to speak universally of the new law, how can any syllable
in Christ's words, help his authority, seeing the self-same
Christ, doth so openly protest both in words and in deeds that he
sought not an earthly kingdom, nor would claim any such kind

* Excel, xxxii. t 1 Sam. xxii. $ 1 Kings ii.

1 Mace. x. || 1 Mace. xiv.

H God's law constant man's vain and variable.

CXV1

of kingdom ; but (the state of orders remaining'still) he set forth
and taught* the form of heavenly conversation, and the just
governance of the inward mind, through the grace of God ;
which he by his open doings most plainly declared, to consist,
not in high ruffling estate, nor in ruling the roast, but contrary-
wise in humility and contempt of worldly things, whilst he
suffered the most bitter and cruel kind of death for our sakes.
And the points of officef of him that is his vicar, if he do his
office faithfully, are not to bear rule, but to be in subjection ;
not to command princes, but to acknowlege himself to be under
their power and commandment, not only when they command
things indifferent, and easily to be done, but also when they
command things not indifferent, so they be not wicked; in
checks, in scourgings and beatings unto death, yea, even to the
death of the cross.

Indeed these are Christ's footsteps, and this is the majesty
of rule bearing in Christ : this, I say, is the true power of
Christ, unto us both wondrous and exceeding wholesome :
by the which also is power given to us, to become the children
of God. This he taught and expressed in his doings, touching
the kingdom of Israel. His dreaming disciples he always
rebuked: but he never hindered Caesar's tribute, nor any
man's authority, one iota by his deeds. And seeing it is
so, I ween, I have made it manifest, if we consider Christ's
deeds, which may not be altered nor doubtfully interpreted :
we shall find plainly, that all is clean contrary, that the Bishop
of Rome challengeth to himself as Christ's Vicar. This
therefore only remaineth, that he flee to the words of the
Evangelists, who (howsoever men have varied in the in-
terpretation) all men know well enough, how they stand in
the text. J But what looketh he for in them ? Marry Sir, this,

* Christ altered not the state of orders.

t The office of him occupieth Christ's room.

$ Christ's words and deeds agree.

CXV11

whether Christ, the way, the truth, and the life, spake ever
any thing 1 , wherein he should disagree from his own deeds?
That whereas he never sought authority among men, he gave
it notwithstanding to the Bishop of Rome, to use as his Vicar.
This indeed is the sum of the question, in words (as it is pro-
pounded) blasphemous, and wicked, but yet it pointeth out the
matter, that I have in hand. For whether in all other matters,
as the Evangelist reporteth, Jesus began to do and to teach,
and to teach that he did ; and in this one only matter, which
we now treat of, if he taught any whit of that, which the
Bishop of Rome claimeth at this day to himself, by Christ's
title, that is, to be above princes, by Christ's words ; we must
needs confess, that Christ taught in words, that whereof he not
only shewed no example in himself, but shewed clean contrary,
in all the whole course of his life before. Let this therefore
remain still in the cause, that Christ's deeds stand on our side,
which may not be wrested by any man's interpretation : only
the question is in Christ *s words, which now and then, man's in-
terpretation is so saucy as to blemish. Albeit he that shall stand
with the Bishop of Rome in this cause, might first of all stick
fast in this point : that there is not found in the holy Scriptures
so much as one syllable, of the Bishop of Rome ; so that what
interpretation of Christ's words soever he will stand to, he
might seem to lose his action, as they say.

For what is the consequence then ? Christ would have Peter
to be above princes, as it appeareth it was never his mind Ergo,
he would have the Bishop of Rome to be so too. Why ? Because
he is Peter's successor. I say no more, but 1 would he were. And
then, in that case, I doubt not, but he should be above all men,
though not in half estate of worldly power (as out of doubt he
hath none such) yet in admiration and reverence of inward
virtue ; and in that point, Christ would have those that be his,
to excel and be ringleaders even above emperors; as those
iinto whom, being his ambassadors, he* gave the keys of the

CXV111

kingdom of Heaven, and among them unto Peter, who in all
their names, had spoken so wholesome a confession, to acknow-
ledge Jesus to be the son of the living God.* Which confession,
like as flesh and blood had not revealed, even so was there no
prerogative given unto flesh and blood in Peter, whatsoever
was given, but to the chiefer part, which was the spirit ; to the
intent that being endued the more plenteously with the grace
of God, he should be the ringleader in virtue, and might of the
Word of God, and in the power of ruling affections. If we
should so interpret Christ's words, as if they meant some
external power in rule-bearing, which all other folks should
acknowledge themselves to be under, yea even princes too;
albeit the same self God have set them in the superior room, so
that nothing else could be alleged, how could that sentence of
Christ stand together ?f The disciple is not greater than his
master, namely, if the disciple would not be content to be in
subjection, as Christ was, but execute the supreme power
himself, which his Lord would never take upon him. In the
Scriptures, there is no mention made of Peter's supremacy,
and Eusebius in Ecclesiastica Historia reporteth, that Clemens,
in Sexto lib. Dispositionum, affirmed, that Peter and John and
James, after the ascension of our Saviour, although he had
set them almost above all the apostles ; + yet they took not the
glory of the supremacy upon them, but that James which is
called Justus, was ordained the Bishop of the Apostles.

Notwithstanding for the authorities sake of them, who
have not misliked the word of supremacy, I do not so much
refuse the word itself, but I flee to the interpretation of the
word, that it may agree with the right proper meaning of

* Peter spake one for them all.

t John xiii. J James Bishop of the Apostles.

Supremacy may be taken diversely.

r
cxix

the Gospel, expressed in Christ's deeds. Admit that Peter were
chief, admit he had the supremacy of Christ, what of that ?
Was a kingdom, lordship, or preeminence given him with the
supremacy ? Because he was bid to confirm his brethren in
faith, was it given him to bear rule over his brethren therefore ?
Christ's humble estate knew no such kind of speech, nor
matter. For though Christ (as touching his Godhead) was
equal unto the Father, with whom he was in the beginning, and
in all things which he created, spake, or did ; he was always,
together with the Holy Ghost, the indivisable worker (one
substance of three persons in divinity) although I say, according
to his majesty, he hath always had all power, to subdue all things
unto himself; he was alive, he is alive, and he shall live : he
hath reigned, he reigneth, and he shall reign God for evermore :
yet for his exceeding mercy towards mankind, he made himself
of no reputation, taking the form of a servant, being in apparel
found as man and a very outcast, as the prophet saith,* to
make it plain and open, that those things were highly
esteemed with men, as empires, dominions, and high autho-
rities, being, as it were, stops and impediments to the attaining
of eternal felicity ; or rather to be cast away and contemned,
than to be greatly sought for, and ambitiously coveted,f yea
they are not to be received though they offer themselves, but
under this condition, that we receive them as offered of God,
to travail in, for the exercise of godliness* sake, every one in
his vocation. Which, the greater it is, and the more things it
is tangled withal, the harder it will be to do it so well, as every
one would be glad and fain to do, that faithfully contendeth to
come to the country that ever shall endure.

So that we must understand, that Christ meant never a

* Phil. ii. A preacher should not receive lordship.

t Meddling in many offices marreth a preacher look to yourself

therefore.

cxx

word of any supremacy of worldly administration, but he
appointed his soldiers,* whom he furnished, to encounter as it
were in the vanward against the continual frauds, perpetual
battle and wars of the world, the flesh, and the devil, to be the
forwardest, and as it were the ensign bearers, in the very
foremost rank. Whom he knew to be of better courage in
faith, to break the more dangerous array of the enemies,
because they were not tangled nor letted with any charge of
worldly matters ; and might by their example of constancy,
encourage, alhire, and provoke other of the weaker sort, to
become soldiers of that band also.

In which kind of warfare, though Christ making choice
of his own, gave the uppermost standing to Peter among
the brethren, it was no marvel : seeing he had so armed
him, that he knew beforehand, though he would give back
from the enemy perhaps for a time, yet he would not give
it over so, but to it again stoutly, and fight like a tall fellow
for the defence of the truth. Ha, was Peter the chief
then? No man saith nay. For he confessed Christ to be
the very Son of the living God, first. And Peter was of as
constant and stedfast mind, in defending of the same truth, at
all times, as any man was. He was the first after Christ, that
taught the Jews; and in the assembly of the apostles when one
should needs speak in all their names, Peter, sometime as the
matter required, was chief in the tale telling. Therefore I will
not say nay to the argument, which they call argumentum a
conjugatis ; but that St. Peter, being by so many ways and
reasons, the first, might also be thought the chief among the
apostles. For like as the wise man has the wisdom, in that he
is a wise man, so hath the chief man, chief place or supremacy.
What then ? he is chief of all the physicians ? For why should he
not ? Among painters also, if there were any one in these days,

* What soldier preachers should be.

CXX1

as cunning as Apelles or Pharrhasius was, and were called
therefore the head painter, would we not say, that he had the
supremacy among painters ? Yea doubtless. In universities,
again, if it were agreed by all men's consents that Lutetia of
Paris; as being a university most plenteously furnished and
occupied with great learned men, should be called the head
university of the world ; might not the name of supremacy be
fit for it, being chief among other universities ? Yes doubtless.
But let us come nearer to the matter. If a man when he had
set ONE MAN to govern the whole household, wherein inasmuch
as he had a great sort of young men, whom he would fain have
taught and instructed in good arts, and would provide many
schoolmasters^ and among other, there were one man excellently
well learned above the rest, whom, as a notable man among
other, he would call the chief of all the schoolmasters that he
had gotten : and to whose instruction he would commit, those
that he setteth most by : hath not he, seeing he is chief school-
master, the supremacy ? Yes. For the chief person cannot
choose, but have chief rule in any matter. For these two words
primus which is first, principal, or chief; and primatus which
is chief rule, preeminence, and is here rightly englished,
supremacy, are conjugata, that is to say, linked together, the
one depending of the other, not only in speech, but also in
matter. Nevertheless this question may be asked : he of whom
I spake, the chief schoolmaster in this household, if there
should fall any controversy, touching manners or order, whether
of their authorities should be esteemed above the other, his,
unto whom the household was committed, or his, that is called
to instruct the youth ? He that is called the chief, as I said, and
therefore he hath the supremacy. Who doubteth, but his room
is the greater who hath charge of the household ? Why so ?
For it standeth most with reason, because order is sometime
changed by relation. And that which in one relation is
supreme and chief, in another or in a contrary relation, hath

CXX11

sometime an inferior place, and oftentimes the lowest place of
all. And so God the Son, is equal with the Father, after his
divinity ; but he is less than the Father, after his humanity.

Also God the Son, in that he is God, is in the beginning,
and is the beginning itself: but in that he is the Son of
God, he is the second person in number: albeit without all
consideration of time, he is without beginning as God the
Father is. But to seek examples out of inferior matters : do we not
see all one man to use divers offices at home, like arithmetical
figures ; now to occupy the first and chief room, then the
second, afterward the third, and sometime a lower room, as the
cause, wherein he is occupied, and place, where company
meeteth do require ; do we not see him, that sitteth highest
among judges, and for that cause, is called the Chief Judge ;
when he is required to be present in extraordinary judgments,
as it is often seen, placed after others in the third or fourth
room. But in divine offices, I pray you, how great a
supremacy as I may call it, hath the chaplain over his master,
as long as he is in divine ministration ? And yet when he is
out of the place and cast off his gear, he leaveth his supremacy
behind him. And it is no marvel. For in this case, the mas-
ter standeth so, that whoso mindeth to retain the name of the
chief person, and chief office still, must not swerve from the
thing whereunto the name was applied and set. Therefore to
return unto examples. Admit there were a famous chief phy-
sician, that is to say, were as cunning in physic as any man ;
and so because the matter so requireth it, he keepeth still his
preeminence, yea Sir, but while he meddleth with physic. But
forasmuch as there is another manner of office in the adminis-
tration of the common weal, let him be content also with his
second form, and strive not to bear rule over other, because he
is the chief physician, neither let him take authority upon him
to be a commander of the rest of the physicians, which is not
given him in his preeminence ; not because he could not give it

C XXI 11

him, who so preferred him, but because it was not his
pleasure to give it him, for it was no reason why he should ; or
else which is the sorest thing 1 to speak of all, why he did not ;
marry Sir, because he made him not absolutely chief, but he
called him the chief physician.

Admit also a curious cunning painter, to be chief painter,
let him strive also to continue still in his chief paintership,
lest another pass him in cunning, and so have the name of
chief painter from him, because he is more worthy than
he. Let the University of Paris rejoice not so much of the
honour of the name, as to study to make it good, that is
attributed by the name. Finally let this schoolmaster, who
is called to teach children, because the good man of the
house thought not the person of the man, but the virtue hidden
under the person, worthy the honour of chief schoolmaster ;
remember, and remember again, that he is not honoured but
burthened with the name. And let him study rather according
to the intent of the name, to shew himself chief in the office of
teaching, than to abuse the vain title of a name, and as though
he were chief, absolutely without condition ; yet neglecting his
office, and so losing his supremacy, to contend and strive about
the name and term of it with them, that as being set in
authority to govern the household, have the true and absolute
supremacy indeed: and to mingle God's matters and the
world's matters together, so that he may overcome, by right or
by wrong, and have it as him lusteth. As for his function and
office he taketh no more thought for, but is wholly bent in that ;*
as it appeareth now for a great while, that the Bishops of
Rome have done, who not regarding those things, that were
added unto Peter's supremacy ; and accomplishing the name of
supremacy being annexed unto some certain points of office,

* And as you do yet, except it be with the poison of popish heresies,
good men have not alway that rule.

CXX1V

as they accomplish all things ; they have propounded the bare
name unto the world, that they might be taken for chief, yea,
and chiefer than the chiefest; not remembering in the mean
time, how in all other matters, they are inferior to the lowest
that is.*

Here I do not compare the faults of the men, with the
condition of the cause, wherein I might have very large
matter to speak ; I know they are not always good men, that
bear the sway, and yet the naughtiness of the man doth not
hinder his authority. I know this also, that we have all sinned,
and need the grace of God. But as concerning that which is
annexed unto the cause, cannot be kept in silence, lest any
man cast this saying of Paul in my dish, that in the same I
preach to others, I myself be found to blame. For how great
lack I find in myself in mine own office doing, mine own con-
science knoweth. But who is it, that shall be found a faithful
steward, as Paul saith ? Who also in the same place speaketh
further : Judge not before the time come. Therefore will not
T wade in this matter, any broader nor further than cause
requireth: that is, as modestly as I can, with that truth, to
refelf him that calleth himself chief untruly ; and to wish him
this at least, if nothing else, that he may be chief in those titles
wherein he ought to be chief; and wherein Peter was, by whom
he claimeth the supremacy to himself, as by succession.

Wherefore let him now excel others, in confessing Christ,
and let him so far be worthily taken for chief among all men,
even by the law of God : which if Boniface had perceived, he
need not to have gotten that, by privilege of Phocas the Em-
peror, as it had been by begging ; which by the assistance of
God's grace, he might have won to himself, by himself. More-

* That is as true as the gospel, for you are as bad as needeth to be for

so you have amended the matter gaily, since that time.

t Refellam, Refel BAYLEY.

cxxv

over let the Bishop of Rome be chief, in teaching and preaching
Christ afore other, and so long let him have the supremacy of
that kind office. But what a folly were it, when many are run-
ning in a race, that some one should win by his ambitious
importunity much favor of the lookers on ; where he, being ap-
pointed indeed to run among others, when he is now either made
lame through his own fault, or otherwise unmeet to run ; yet shall
be reported, that he overrun them all, and came first of all to
the goal ; whereas saving that he came out in apparel made to
run withal, he sitteth him down among the lookers on. As
for any other consideration of his requests, he allegeth none,
but that he was born and bred of them (on God's name) who in
times past were the best runners, and were therefore called the
chief.

A goodly reason forsooth, and worthy of him, that is joyous
of name, and false titles, and contenteth himself, to be flattered
above measure. But like as a sure friend, if he had any, would
not only wish him better mind, but also would turn him if he
might, by right admonition, from that foolish desire of privilege ;
and tell him, what a very folly it is, for a man, to have a mind to
be named, and called that in words, which he is not in very deed.
Even so would I also wish unto the Bishops of Rome, whom it is
manifest, have been in like sort affected ; (I will not overshoot
my words) and yet still at this present (as I hear) surcease not
their old cankered mind ; that they were counselled of somebody
not to contend to be called supremes, as long as they are still
postreme : but if their delight were to be so called, they should
see, by what things that title was gotten, and by what things,
it was properly attributed.

For like as in a well-ordered city, those that are chief in
riches, are not therefore chief in authority ; even so in Christ's
Church, they are not put in authority above other, that exceed
other in pomp, lordly estate, and riches. And therefore if the
supremacy of the Church of Rome in times past, with great con-

CXXV1

sent of the world, stood in the office of preaching God's word;*
if in advancing 1 the cure and charge of Christ's name, if in prompt
valiantness of mind, to defend the truth, and to keep the faith
of Christ from heresies ; as it is most plain that in those days it
did, when the Bishops of Rome (yea almost none but they) at
the first beginning of the spring of the Church, were diligent
to heal the fury of tyrants, raging against Christian people ; I
ween there is never a Christian prince in the world, but if he
saw the Bishops of Rome contend about that supremacy faith-
fully, that they might godly and zealously pass all other bishops
(that the Church of Christ, wheresoever it is scattered hath)
in godliness, in faith, and religious devotion; and would
strive to go so far before, that in this case they might be
worthily called the first. If the princes, I say, might see this
in them, they would, with good will, call them by those true
names, that they saw with their eyes ; and him that they spied
to be first, they would call chief, in that match game : and in
that kind of supremacy, they would reverence him with, due
honour, according to his virtue.

And with this opinion, it seemeth our elders were induced,
(which opinion also endured unto our time) that they would give
the Bishops of Rome wages, for their pains, who called them-
selves the servants of God's servants, not only in name, as they
do now, but in truth and in deed in those days."j* Howbeit the
name of a servant, signifieth a service. For a servant commanded
not his labours to be set out, but he setteth them a-sale, as it were
in an open place, to provoke somebody to hire him. Wherein
notwithstanding, some make such a shew of their labours, in
commending their diligence and fidelity, and make them so
sale-keen ; that they cause many to be desirous of them, and

* Now he bringeth heresies, and so do you with your pestilent masses,

and other such,
f Look how hypocrisy can beguile men of simple wits.

CXXV11

bring them in that mind, that when their business might both
better and more speedily be dispatched at home ; yet they think
nothing can be comely or well done without their counsel.
And forasmuch as we see that daily chances in sundry kinds of
craftsmen, and in every trifling matter; it is no marvel, though
it be so in religion, wherein all men wish, that all things were
ordered, according to the most perfect example ; wherein for all
that, many men partly distrust their own wits, partly use
corrupt wits, in that they esteem strange ware more than
domestical stuff. No man ought, I say, to think it any marvel,
though the glorious name of the Church of Rome, being at that
time famous in excellent virtue, drawing and alluring almost all
the parts of the world, into admiration of it, for virtue's sake,
which is the most sure bond ; knit all men to it, and caused that
Church, whom all men might see notably virtuous; to be
reverenced, as the chief and principal Church among other.
And godly men beautified it also with those names, which
the Romish bishops make boast of to the world, as though
they were set forth by oracle from God, to the supremacy
withal ; not the supremacy of virtue, but the supremacy of
power, and that earthly, an external and fleshly power ; such a
one as Christ never exercised, nor committed it at any time to
any man to exercise, as far as we may gather out of the Holy
Scriptures.

Whereout notwithstanding, seeing some men have picked
out some things, wherewith they would confirm it, to be
commanded and ordained of Christ ; whereunto the people and
the princes, would even of their own voluntary will, because
of their great virtue, wherewith they were allured ; as it had
been men drawn up with a loadstone; would have granted
them, that is, that they would not only honour and reverence
that Church of Rome, and the Bishop thereof; but also advance
them with those titles, which godly affection is wont to devise
and utter, wherein good men do some time err : yet forasmuch as

CXXV111

because many men have set forth many books touching 1 this
matter, and by reason of mutual conflict of men reasoning with
it and against it, it is more than manifest, that those places of
Scripture are wrested from their true and proper meaning ; to
defend that authority, I thought it not meet, to do that is done
already, and in making rehearsal of them, to make men think,
I had given them a pig of another man's sow. Wherein
nevertheless, lest I should seem to cast away all men's writings,
I do not so much contend about the supremacy, so they rack
it out no further, than it appeareth to be meant from the
beginning.

But this I utterly deny, that God ordained the Bishop of
Rome to be the chief, as touching any absolute worldly power ;
of this is the question, in this point the whole cause consisteth.
In this matter, I \veen, 1 have made it plain enough, that
Christ's deeds stand on our side, and that the name of supremacy,
usurped of our elders, maketh nothing against us ; and that the
title, having a right interpretation joined unto the pow r er,
which the Bishop of Rome claimeth now to himself, maketh
nothing for his purpose ; and moreover that the prerogatives
which God gave unto Peter, crowning his own gifts in him,
help the Bishop of Rome's cause nothing at all ; which pre-
rogatives, we're not given unto flesh and blood, but to be a
testimony of that excellent profession of his faith.

And such would God (whose liberal goodness doth never
waste) give yet still, unto these Bishops of Rome, if they
followed the example of Peter's faith.*

But if the Bishops of Rome go about, to keep in state still,
and hold up the decays of their power (whose building was
naught, and therefore hath wried on the one side long ago)
with props and stays, devised by man's brain; rather than

* You are a good son, for teaching your father so good a lesson, as
neither of you taketh heed to.

CXX1X

let it shrink down to that state, that the truth were able well to
defend and bear but, I can imagine nothing more dangerous
for them.

Only let them consider,* that at length truth hath the
victory, and that the light of the Gospel is now come, in
place of darkness ; and that the light reproacheth the things
that are not allowable. All men see, what these words of
the Gospel mean. Thou art Peter, and upon this rock
I will build my Church.^ Men perceive the mysteries,
both of Christ's three times asking of Peter, of Peter's
thrice denying, and of the paying of tribute money for
him. It is understood at this present, what it is, to be the
chief of the apostles ; and what it is to feed the sheep, whom
God giveth charge of; this gear almost every body hath in
their mouths. % Yea, some cry out, that they have been juggled
withal and deceived. And (as their nature and disposition is)
some speak less, and more temperately than others ; and some
there be also, who, perceiving they have been so long, falsely
beguiled, as much as they can refrain, say never a word for
shame.

Well, all sorts of people are agreed upon this point, with
most stedfast consent, learned and unlearned, both men and
women, that no manner of person, born and brought up in
England, hath ought to do with Rome. All manner of people,
receiving and embracing the truth, do, with one whole consent,
acknowledge, honour, and reverence the king, for the supreme
Head of the Church upon earth. They bid the Bishop of Rome
farewell; whose labour, howsoever it hath been received in
times past, even so now as unprofitable and discommodious,

* It were best for you to take this counsel also.
t Matt. xvi.

% The light of the Gospel came in, when the Bishop of Rome was
driven out.

cxxx

they have no more devotion to it; as a thing, wherein a man
should have no devotion, but to turn such a chaplain, out of the
doors, will he, nill he ; as being 1 hired or prayed,* to minister
divine service, hath not shewed himself faithful and diligent, in
his office, unto them, that he should have looked to have
received his wages of, for his pains taken. For a man had
rather have a faithful servant to minister indeed, in whose
name, the true token of doing, which is the right use of calling,
may appear ; than instead of a servant to have one, that taketh
upon him, to be lord of lords, in his doings, though in the
mean space, he calleth himself servant of servants.

And yet all men, for Christian charity's sake, pray for him
and wish him well,f among whom, I am one especially : that Paul
that now is, may so excel his predecessors, in St. Paul's gifts ;
that, like as St. Paul hath comprehended all the mysteries of
our religion, in one only epistle to the Romans ; so this Paul
may now write from Rome, to them that be under his obedience,
such things as tend to the true glory of Christ, and concern the
advancement of faith; rather than such ware, as hath crept
into the world, these years past, from those high potentates and
store houses. To be short, God send him good life, and well
to fare in the Lord.

But I will return to my purpose : that is, that I may move
all men to obedience, which only in the commandments of God,
and for God's sake, maketh us happy and blessed. And the
. commandments of God, are clear, and lighten our eyes, that we
stumble not in darkness : they are righteous, they are honest,
they are also not only profitable always, to the life both of soul
and body, but also necessary, and not sore nor hard to be
observed; for they have a respect unto the yoke, that they

* Conductus aut rogatus.

+ The same we would pray for you, but that your obstinate wilfulness
maketh us afraid to pray for you.

CXXX1

detain and keep still in labour, yea but with a sweetness ; they
are a burthen, but yet a light one. For it cometh to pass, by the
grace of God, which is made by Jesus Christ, that things impossi-
ble unto the flesh, are accomplished by the spirit with cheerful-
ness ; by love that is poured in our hearts, by the Holy Ghost,
which is given us ; and seeing we are now renewed in the spirit of
our mind, and become spiritual, we may say with St. Paul, We.
are able to do all things in him that strengtheneth us,
that is to say, Christ.

There is no cause then to make us afraid, of the weighty
importance of the thing, which through the benefit of Christ,
by means of his most precious and most glorious death, is made
most easy to them ; who acknowledging their weakness of flesh,
commit themselves wholly to God's trust, through obedience,
with a sure confidence in God. Let us therefore make us
ready, to obey God in his precepts, which, as they be not
hard, so they are not many in number. He that loveth his
neighbour (saith Paul) hath fulfilled the law: what can be
spoken more briefly, or knit up in less room ? And because
this word (love) hath an interpretation, we must needs afore
all things, follow that interpretation, which is set forth in
the Scriptures, by him that made the law and published it.

Let us then follow the order, that God hath prescribed, and
not go about with our interpretation, to confound and pervert
the members of his body, the Church, which he hath set in
order and disposed in particulars accordingly ; that one in the
congregation should teach, and another have the preeminence,
which is appointed to princes ; and forsaking and neglecting
those things, which either men's wisdom or subtle brain hath
invented, let us follow the truth itself: let us obey it; let us
do after it, which only maketh true obedience.

And here I could have made an end of my tale, had not
some folks' foolish words* been, that had almost pulled me

* Look how good counsel that traitor giveth, and yet will neither
follow it himself nor suffer other.

cxxxn

down backward and enforced me to render account of myself;
what caused me to be so hardy, as to write one word concern-
ing any manner of obedience, viz. true obedience, seeing I
nevertheless, enterprising to teach obedience, disclose mine
own disobedience ; and give the onset against his power and
authority, for whose defence I was called once to be a patron,
and bound by mine oath to defend and maintain his authority,
to my possible power ? Where is the keeping of oaths become ?
say they. Where is fidelity ? What may a man believe now-
a-days ? Whom may a man trust ? For he was made a Bishop,
and by the privilege of the Bishop of Rome, admitted to the
Order of Bishops, and consecrated by his commandment; and
sworn upon the Holy Evangelists, to defend the rights of the
Church of Rome : all which things he willingly, and with all
his heart obeyed, and promised to perform. So, say they,
even the very self same man, to the most horrible example of
breach of his fidelity, and forgetting the solemn oath he made ;
or if not through forgetfulness, yet, (which is the worse of the
two) having contemned and defied his oath and fidelity, he
professeth himself an open enemy of the Church of Rome. And
to shoot his poisoned shafts, the more surely against it, he bor-
roweth a piece of artillery as it were of obedience, and thinketh
he lieth closely in covert, as though his sides were over-hilled ;
when for all that, he lieth open and naked, to all men's sights,
both like a fool and a naughty man.

Such men as will talk on this sort, I am afraid and in great
doubt how I shall satisfy them. For they will allege perhaps,
to amend the matter withal, a certain prejudice of soul, I wot
not what; wherewith their mind being blown full, they will
spew out that that I shall speak, even as it were a vessel being
top full of water, that receiveth no more liquor, when it is poured
upon. But they that shall hear these men's talk, and then on the
other side will indifferently read my saying, with an empty and
free mind, and not already brink full : I doubt not, but I shall

CXXX1U

shew unto them, and persuade them so, that their words as
weighty as men think them, (indeed they accuse me of perjury
and slander,) condemn them for false reporters, that speak
them ; and that they ought no more to move me, against whom
they be reported, than the blombling* sound of an old barrel,
as they say.

For in oaths or promises, the form ought not so much to
be respected, as the matter. But let a man say* swear or pro-
mise, as faithfully as he can, that thing that he ought not to do
nor perform, the promise shall not be above the nature of the
matter itself; neither shall that form in these cases, change the
condition of the matter, but the faithfully made oath, if it be
stark naught or not good, is better broken, than under pretence
of the oath, as though it were the bond of wickedness, it should
be performed and kept.f Unless we must be persuaded, that
constancy is commendable in naughty and preverse matters,
and that it is a greater fault to turn again in the midway, than
still to run always naught. And for the more clear demonstra-
tion of this matter, I take this to be the most fit example. A
certain married man, when he thought by most just likelihoods,
that his first wife had been undoubtedly dead : as a man that
had been free from marriage, by the authority of the Church,
took to wife another woman, who was a fair damsel, and thought
to be a maid, by consent of her parents. By whom, after they
had dwelt a few years together, and he had children by her ;
Lo, his former wife unlocked for, came again, as it were peep-
ing behind the post. Well, she requireth to have her husband
again, that had done evil, in marrying another woman. Then
the man being astonied at that, as a matter almost incredible,
was driven at the first to deny her to be his wife ; then to ask

* E dolio reddita tonitrua.

t Unlawful oaths not to b kept. How should foolish or unlawful vows
be bound to be kept, when such oaths are not ?

CXXX1V

her what tokens S!K could tell him, and last of all, because he
was wonderous loath to be divorced from her, that he had
married the later, to make as long delays as he could ; and at
length to call her to the law, and there to make all the shift
he could, to defend his second wife's cause. But when he was
cast, he gave place to the truth, and taketh his first wife to
him again, by the judgment of the Church.

In this case now, if the woman, that he married last, be
justly put from him ; or for sorrow and heaviness speaking
never a word, her parents or friends would cry : out upon men's
manners ! out upon it, what a world is this ? And after this sort
would make such a like wonderment, as these men seem to use
against me, thou hell-hound, thou wicked covenant-breaker,
doest thou forsake and cast off this woman now, unto whom thou
madest once so faithful a promise, in the open face of the Church,
when God himself was a present witness ? Hast thou forgot the
words which thou spakest in the temple, the minister of God re-
hearsing them unto thee, in the presence of so many people ; this
woman, that thou hast now shamefully cast off, being present,
making covenant and promise to thee, in like sort again ? And
didst not thou once desire us for her, and madest much entreaty
to have her to thy wife, and promisedest us upon thy oath,
that thou wouldest use her, as the good wife of thy house for
ever, and never to forsake her during thy life ? Art thou not
ashamed, seeing thou hast such children by her, to cast her off
now, as though she were a whore? And now when thou
leavest her to take her part, that caused thee to be divorced
from her ? Where is the keeping of oaths become ? Where
is fidelity ? What may a man believe now-a-days ? Whom
may a man trust ? The husband forsaketh the wife. Which
manner of communication, as it may be borne withal in the
woman's heaviness, both for the great grief of her present
calamity, and because she is the weaker vessel ; even so when
it is spoken of other men's mouths, which would have folks to

cxxxv

think, they speak pithily, it would make men think, they were
stark fools, and in open company, every body would laugh at
them, and in trial of law, no man could abide them.

But after a certain space, if a man would answer the woman
and say ; Woman, you do not well to accuse him, that you want
now to be your husband, and defender, for what fault find you
now in him? For as long- as the former wife held her away, he
loved you, he honoured you, he used you as his wife : yea so
much, that when the first wife came again, whom he thought
had been dead, he was not rash in giving credence unto her,
nor suddenly assented unto her : he could do no more for your
sake, than he did. If he had fallen to whores, and so forsaken
you, your quarrel had been somewhat. But now, what cast you
him in the teeth, with faith breaking, who to keep his faith,
departed from you, and kept him to that other wife, that he had
lawfully married before ? Why do you complain still ? The
woman, I ween, would give over : indeed she had no cause to
complain. If she had not been a maiden, as she was taken for,
but an evil disposed woman, and had occasioned this man's
wife, to be sent into some far lands, to have this man to her
husband in the mean time, and caused the first marriage to
be broken ; whether should be thought to be more in the
fault ? This man that married* (as he thought) rightly, were
in no fault ; and the subtle woman were in that greatest fault,
as one that delighteth to have another woman's husband. And
if a man would consider this gear, shall he not see, as it were
in a glass, the very image of that husband in me.

For indeed I, seeing I believed that no such truth of obedi-
ence, f had been, or if it had been sought for, I would never
have found it ; coupled myself in second covenant, and thereto
plighted my troth, with whom I thought 1 had lawfully dwelt,

* Say you true, do you love change of women as he did 1
t So methinketh you forget it now again.

cxxxvi

and kept lawful company withal. But when the truth came,
which is every man's first wife, married to him in baptism,
which will require the first promise at all men's hands ; to her
I applied, to her I cleaved : and from my second knot, as of
no effect by judgment of my church, I departed. And shall
any man think it indifferent that I shall be called a liar because
I obey the truth,* because I serve God, in obeying my prince,f
that I shall be reported to be a contemner of the sacraments, or
an oath breaker ? And that, that is fondly laid to the husband's
charge, after he is divorced, because he performed not his
promise, that he ought not to have made; shall that in this
cause, be grievously and earnestly trumped in my way, because
I am, by most grave judgment of the truth, divorced from the
Church of Rome, which it was not lawful for me to keep still ;
and am compelled to take my wife truth to me, when she
cometh again at length, peeping behind the screen, and to cleave
constantly unto her ?

If he could teach me, that she is not the truth, whom,
I have received for my wife, claiming again my first
promise (as he shall never do it) let him call me by what
names he will. But if he will let that pass, and make ado
about the other, it is to be feared, lest all men will begin to
abhor that subtlety, which is grounded in making of oaths
against the truth. Therefore take away the other from the
cause, for the other ought to be a servant of truth, and cannot
nor ought not to be prejudicial unto the truth. He that by his
oath promiseth unlawful things, doth not right ; but he that
maketh an unlawful oath, and goeth on still to put it in execu-
tion, thrusteth down himself deeper and deeper ; from whence

* I pray you lose it not, now it is found to your hand.

t And so do married priests go from their second knot and follow the
judgment of God's word, whereby his Church is governed, which saith,
*' To avoid fornication let every man have his own wife." Hearken to
your own reason, my Lord. Doctor Double-face.

CXXXV11

he can never escape, except he come out backward. Wherefore
it were too great an absurdity, that a man should be counted to
do a notorious crime, and to dishonour and shame himself in
that point, wherein he goeth about to do better.*

And according to this consideration, it is decreed by the
civil laws, that a man is by no means bounden to perform dis-
honest or unlawful promises ; lest it might be thought that these
laws, do rather commend perseverance in crimes than repent-
ance. And in the ecclesiastical decrees, it is also established,
that no man is bound to perform an unlawful oath, seeing an
oath cannot bind a man to wickedness.

This only remaineth, that when these men, who accuse
me of perjury, are driven back, that they can lay no more
perjury to my charge; they will go about to burthen me
with unadvised temerity, for promising by mine oath, that
was not lawful for me to perform.f Well Sir, but I thought
it had been lawful, and not I alone, but with the judg-
ment of many men. For the word of truth lying then buried
a long- season, was thought to be no let. But now when she is
come home again, and hath confirmed herself unto me by so
many proofs that it is even she, why should I not embrace my
own true wife, even dame truth herself; unto whom I plighted
my troth, and in the accomplishment of the same, there is none
offence, much less any notorious crime ? *

Well, there is no cause, why I should be afraid, of other
folks' evil reports, as long as I do my duty to her alone ; and

* They are less hurtful than you, for they only speak evil ; but you
both say evil and do worse.

t Methinketh you should be ashamed to speak against priest's
marriage, if this reason be true, as it is indeed, that ye make here.

J Then a man may make an unadvised vow, after twenty-one years,
being unlearned ; seeing you a mischievous well learned man, made an
unadvised oath of your age.

exxxvni

according to her mind, obey my prince, the supreme head on
earth of the Church of England ; and then do mine endeavour
to accomplish the other parts of true obedience, which belong
properly to a Christian man, so as when I have passed over the
pilgrimage of this life, in obedience and truth, I may obtain
eternal life ; the author and giver whereof, is Jesus Christ, who,
to draw all unto the Father, obeying the Father in all things,
suffered death for our salvation ; and both in word and deed
taught obedience, which forasmuch, as it is full of truth, shall
at length promote, all that faithfully stick unto it, to the very
truth self, which is God blessed for evermore. Amen.

A fair tale, a good tale, God quite you for your tale ;
very well said, well obeyed, as that is spoken in ale.

NOTE (s.) P. 164.

LET not the reader hastily conclude this and similar
expressions, to be exaggerations of the martyrologist : Many
instances of heroic fortitude, almost amounting to a culpable
ambition of martyrdom, are to be found in the records of the
Primitive Church thus Polycarp to the Roman Proconsul,
" Thou threatenest me with a fire which burneth for a season,
and will be speedily extinguished; but thou art ignorant of
that fire of a future judgment, and everlasting pains, reserved
for the wicked. But why linger est thou ? Bring forth
whatever to thee seemeth good." Lord Hailes, Rem.
Christ. Antiq. vol. i. 14. So also Justin Martyr " It was
our chief wish to endure tortures for the sake of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Whatsoever thou doest, do quickly ; for we are
Christians, and we sacrifice not unto idols."

" And when the eyes of all men were turned towards them,
they, not having been seized by any, with one accord ran

CXXX1X

forward to the bar, and professed themselves to be Christians.
Then were the governor and his counsellors afraid; so that
while they who were about to receive condemnation, appeared
dauntless, their judges trembled, and therefore men went forth
from the judgment hall, exulting in their testimony; and
through them God obtained a glorious triumph." And again,
when the proconsul read the sentence, "It is ordered, that
Cyprian be beheaded, the venerable bishop exclaimed, Thanks
be to God ! and all the brethren cried out with one voice, Let
us die with Cyprian. 1 ' Lord Hailes, vol. ii. 7. 21. 33.
" These young men, having first bound their hands, in token
of their eager desires after martyrdom, ran with all speed, and
presented themselves before Urbans the governor, just as he was
entering the Amphitheatre, and openly professed themselves to
be Christians. They shewed that they were purposed to endure
every thing dreadful, and that the being exposed to wild beasts
was no terror to those who worship THE GOD OVER ALL.-^-
Lord Hailes, vol. iii. 13.

NOTE (T.) P. 171.

This quotation shews that Bradford was well versed in the
appropriate literature of the day; and it would be well if
modern divines were better qualified than they are, for the
most part, to discuss subjects of theology with the Romish
priests, especially that the Latin Language was more vernacular
to them. Bradford refers in this place to the famous Abbot of
Clalrvaux's five books of Considerations, addressed to Pope Eu-
genius III., and the quotation is found in the following connec-
tion.

Non tarn episcopis, quam principibus judiciariam
potestalem compatere.

AUDI tamen apostolum, quid de hujusmodi sentiat. Sic

ex!

non est inter vo* sapiens, ait ille, qui judicet inter
fratrem et fratrem ? Et infert : Ad ignominiam vobis
dico : contemptibiliores qui sunt in Ecclesia, illos
constituite ad judicandum. Itaque secundum apostolum,
indigne tibi usurpas tu apostolicus officium vile, gradum con-
temptibilium. Unde et dicebat episcopus, episcopum instruens :
Nemo militans Deo implicat se negotiis sacularibus.
Ego autem parco tibi. Non enim fortia loquor, sed possibilia.
Putasne hasc tempora sustinerent, si hominibus litigantibus pro
terrena haereditate, et flagitantibus abs te judicium, voce
Domini tui responderes : O homines, quis me constituit judicem
super vos? In quale tu judicium mox venires? Quid dicit
homo rusticanus et imperitus, ignorans primatum suum, in-
honorans summam et praecelsam sed em, derogans apostolicae
dignitati ? Et tamen non monstrabunt, puto, qui hoc dicerent,
ubi aliquando quispiam apostolorum judex sederit hominum,
aut divisor terminorum, aut distributor terrarum. Stetisse
denique lego apostolos judicandos, sedisse judicantes non lego.
Erit illud, non fuit. Itane imminutor est dignitatis servus, si
non vultes se major domino suo : aut discipulus, si non vult esse
major eo qui se misit : aut films, si non transgreditur terminos,
quos posuerunt patres sui ? Quis me constituit judicem ?
ait ille Dominus et magister : et erit injuria servo discipuloque,
nisi judicet universos? Mihi tamen non videtur bonus
aestimator rerum, qui indignum putat apostolis seu apostolicis
viris non judicare de talibus, quibus datum est judicium in
majora. Quidni contemnant judicare de terrenis possessiunculis
hominum, qui in coelestibus et angelos judicabunt ? Ergo in
criminibus, non in possessionibus potestas vestra: quoniam
propter ilia, et non propter has, accepistis claves regni
ccelorum, prsevaricatores utique exclusuri, non possessores.
Ut sciatis, ait, quiafilius hominis habet potestatem in
terra dimittendi peccata, etc. Qusenam tibi major videtur

cxli

et dignitas, et potestas, dirnittendi peccata, an prsedia divi-
dendi ? Sed non est comparatio. Habent haec infima et
terrena judices suos, reges et principes terras. Quid fines
alienos invaditis? Quid falcem vestram in alienam messem
extenditis? Non quia indigni vos, sed quia indignum vobis
talibus insistere, quippe potioribus occupatis. Denique ubi
necessitas exigit, audi quid censeat apostolus: Si enim in
vobis judicabitur hie mundus, indigni estis, qui de
minimis judicetis. St. Bernard de Consid. lib. i. c. vi.
Works, vol. i. 412. Mabillon, Paris, 1690.

NOTE (U.) P. 172.*

29 Januarii, 1554, in Ecclesia Parochiali Sanctae Sal-
vatoris nuncupata Saynte Mary Overey, in Burgo de
Southwark.

iDo

stepha- EISDEM die, horse, et loco productus fuit coram Domino Jo-
copi n> hannes Bradford, laicus, etc. Cui post exhortationem per Do-
itord. ' minum factum,utse reconciliaret et adunitatem sanctae ecclesiae
et catholicse fidei rediret, dictus Dominus Episcopus quia videbat
eundem Bradford pertinaciter in sententia persistentem objecit
articulem sequentem, videlicet. Quod ipse Johannes Bradford,
tarn infra diocesim suam Wintoniae, quam aliis, quam plurimis
locishujus regni, asseruit, dixit, praedicavit, et publicavit, et de-
fendebat, sicque in praesenti asserit, dicit, credit et defendit;
Quod in Eucharistia, sive altaris sacramento, verum et naturale
Christi corpus, ac verus et naturalis Christi sanguis, sub speci-
ebus panis et vini vere non est. Et quod ibi est materialis panis
et materiale vinum tantum, absque veritate et praesentia corporis

* MS. Harl. Mus. Brit. No. 421. Fol. 42.

cxlii

et sanguinis Christi. Cui articulo ipse Bradford respondendo
dixit, That Christ is present in the sacrament when the sacra-
ment is duly ministered. And that Christ is present in the sa-
crament by faith, to faith, and in faith and none otherwise.
And saith that Christ is not in the sacrament by transubstantia-
tion. And saith that simply he believeth no transubstantiation.
Also that it is not the body of Christ but to him that receiveth it.
And that an evil man doth not receive it in forma panis. And
that after and before the receipt there is the substance of bread.
Cui dictis perversis assertionibus inherenti, Dominus assignavit
ad comparendum crastina die in hoc loco inter horas viii et x
ante meridiem, ad videndum ulteriorem processum fieri.

30 Januarii.
umDo- Eisdem die et loco comparuit personaliter dictus Johannes

contra

Ford. Bradford. Qui licet fuerit per Dominum Episcopum multis argu-
mentis et rationibus suasus et exhortatus ut se reconciliaret et
rediret ad Ecclesise Catholics? unitatem, Episcopus tamen per-
tinaci ac indurato animo persistat nee valuit ullis rationibus
flecti aut persuaderi. Et ideo Dominus Episcopus visa ejus
pertinaci induritia tulit etiam contra eum condemnationis sen-
tentiam definitivam pronuntiando eum obstinato haeretico et ex-
communicato. Et insequenter tradidit eum sseculari manui,
videlicet, dictis Vicecomitibus, etc. Praesentibus de quibus in
prioribus hujus diei actis habetur mentio.

NOTE (v.) P. 184.*

SENTENTIA CONTRA JOHANNEM BRADFORD.

IN DEI NOMINE, AMEN. Nos Stephanus, permissione
divina, Wintoniensis Episcopus, judicialiter et pro tribunali se-

* MS. Harl. Mus. Brit. No 421. Fol. 46. Lansdown MSS. Mus. Brit.
No. 980. p. 186.

cxliii

dentes. In quodam hereticse pravitatis negotio contra te Jo-
hannem Bradfordae, laicum, coram nobis in judicio personaliter
comparentem ; et nobis super hseretica pravitate detectum, de-
mmciatum, et delatum, ac in ea parte apud bonos et graves
notorie et publice diffamatum, rite et legitime procedentes.
Auditis, visis, intellectis, rimatis, et'matura deliberatione dis-
cussis et ponderatis dicti negotii meritis et circumstantiis.
Servatisque in omnibus, et per omnia in eodem negotio de jure
servandis ac quomodo libet requisitis Christi nomine invocato,
ac ipsum solum Deum prse oculis nostris habentes. Quia per
acta inactitata, deducta, probata, confessata, et per te saepius
coram nobis in eodem negotio recognita, asserta, et confinnata,
comperimus et invenimus te, turn per confessiones tuas varias,
turn per recognitions tuas judiciales, coram nobis judicialiter
factas, errores, hsereses, et falsas opiniones subscriptas juri
divino, ac catholice, universalis, et apostolicae ecclesiae determi-
nationi obviantes contrarias, et repugnantes tenuisse, credi-
disse, affirmasse, proedicasse, et dogmatizasse, videlicet. Quas
quidem errores, hsereses, et falsas opiniones juri divino, ac ca-
tholicae, universalis, et apostolicae ecclesia? determinationi obvi-
antes contrarias et repugnantes, coram nobis tarn in judicio
quam extra animo obstinate, pertinaci, et indurato, arroganter,
pertinaciter, scienter, et obstinate, asseruisti, tenuisti, aflirmasti,
dixisti, pariter et defendisti, atque te sic credere, asserere,
tenere, affirmare, et dicere velle paribus obstinatia, malitia, et
cordis csecitate, etiam prudens et sciens affirmasti. Idcirco nos
Stephanus, Wintoniensis Episcopus, ordinarius et diocesanus
antedictus, tarn de venerabilium confratrum nostrorum Episco-
porum prsesentium et nobis assidentium consensu et assensu ex-
pressis quam etiam de et cum consilio et judicio jurisperitorum
et sacrarum literarum professorum, cum quibus communica-
vimus in hac parte. TE Johannem Bradford de meritis, cul-
pis, obstinatis et contumaciis, per improbas et sceleratas tuas
obstinatias et pertinacias multipliciter contractis, incursis, et

CXllT

aggravatis in detesiabili horrendo et impio haereticae pravitatis
reatu et execrabili dogmate comprehensum fuisse et esse, atque
hujusmodi scelerata et impia dogmata coram nobis saepe dixisse,
asseruisse atque scienter voluntarie et pertinaciter defendisse, et
manutenuisse per varias tuas confessiones, assertiones et recog-
nitionestuas judieiales, sappe coram nobis repetitas ita asseruisse,
affirmasse, et credidisse, derlaramus et pronuntiamus, teque in
hac parte rite et leg-it ime confessum fuisse et esse deeernimus.
Ideoque te Johannem Bradford antedictum, hujusmodi tuos er-
rores, haereses, ac impias et damnatas opiniones, refutare, retrac-
tare, recantare, et abjurare, in forma ec desire approbata nolen-
tem, sed obstinate et pertinaciter, dictis tais sceleratis haeresibus,
et execratis opinionibus inherentem, et ad unitatem sacrosanctse
ecclesiae redire nolentem premissorum occasione causa, et pre-
textu htereticum obstinatum et pertinacem fnisse et esse cum
animi dolore et cordis amaritudine etiam dedaraniiis, pronun-
tiamus, et deeernimus. Teque tanquam hsereticuni, obstinatum,
et pertinacem exnunc judicio sive curise saeculari, ut membrum
putridum, a corpore sacrosanctae ecclesia? resecatum,ad omnem
juris efiectum exinde sequi valentero, reliaquendum, et traden-
dum fore deeernimus et declaramuj, atque de facto relinquirnus
et tradimus teque Johannem Bradford, haereticum, obstinatum
et pertinacem hujusmodi, majoris excommunicationis sententia
premissorum occasione, innodatum et involutum eaque ligatum
fuisse et esse sentential iter et diffinitive declaramus per hanc
nostram sententiam finalem quam in et contra te dolenter feri-
mus et promulgamus in hiis scriptis.

Lecta lata et promulgata fuit ha?c sententia in Ecclesia
parochiali Beatae Mariae Overy, alias nuncupata Sancti Sal-
vatoris in Burgo de Southwark, Wintoniae Diocesi, die
3Iercurii, tricesimo die Januarii, Anno Domini juxta cursum
Ecclesia? Anglorum, 1554, prasentibus testibus de quibus
in actis illius diei fit mentio.

cxlv

NOTE (W.) P. 184.

BRADFORD sent copies of his three examinations to Bishop
Ridley, at Oxford, who returned him his thanks, and opinion
of his conduct throughout, in the following- letter, which is one
of the remaining letters omitted by Dr. Wordsworth in his Life
of Ridley.

TO MASTER BRADFORD.*

DEARLY beloved Brother Bradford, I had thought of late
that I had writtenf unto you, by our dear brother Austin, your
last farewell, until we should have met in the kingdom of
heaven : and I sent it to meet you in Lancashire, whither, it
was said here, you were appointed to be sent to suffer. But
now, since they have changed their purpose, and prolonged
your death, I understand it is no other thing, than what once
happened to Peter and Paul. The which, although they were
of the first who were cast into prison, and as little shewed
peril as any other did ; yet God would not have them put to
death with the first, because he had more service to be done
by their ministry, which his gracious pleasure was they should
do ; so without doubt, dear Brother, I am persuaded, that the
same is the cause of the delay of your martyrdom.

Blessed be the Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Ghost, for your threefold confession. I have read all
three with great comfort and joy, and thanksgiving unto God,
for his manifold gifts of grace, wherewith it is manifest, to the
g-odly reader, that God did assist you mightily. And blessed
be God, again and again, who gave you so good a mind and
remembrance of your oath, once made against the Bishop of
Rome ; lest you should be partaker of the common perjury
which all men, almost, are now fallen into, in bringing in

* Cov. 65. t See Appendix, Note (Y )

cxlvi

again that wicked usurped power of his. Which oath was made
according to the prophet, in judgment, in righteousness, and in
truth, and therefore cannot without perjury be revoked ; let
satan roar and rage, and practise all the cruelty he can.

Oh, good Lord, that they are so busy with you about the
Church. It is no new thing, Brother, that is happened unto
you; for that was always the clamour of the wicked
bishops and priests against God's true prophets ; the
Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, the Temple
of the Lord ,* and they said the law shall not depart from the
priest, nor wisdom from the elder; and yet in them, whom
alone they esteemed for their priests and sages, there was
neither God's law, nor godly wisdom.

It is a marvellous thing to hear what vain communication
is spread abroad of you ; it is said here that you be pardoned
your life, and when you were appointed to be banished, and to
go I cannot tell whither, you should say that you had rather suffer
here, than go where you could not live after your conscience ;
and that this pardon was begged for you by Bourne, the Bishop
of Bath, for that you saved his life. Again, some say, and
amongst others, mine host reported, that you are highly pro-
moted, and are a great man with my Lord Chancellor. This I
could not believe, but did deny it as a false lie ; so surely was
I always persuaded of your constancy.

What God will do with us, he knoweth. In the mean
time, wonderful it is to behold how the wisdom of God hath
infatuated the policy of the world, and scattered the crafty
devices of the worldly-wise. For when the state of religion
was once altered, and persecution began to wax hot, no man

* Just so now there are who cry, " The Church is in danger !
The Church is in danger ! M whereas the real CHURCH OF CHRIST, is in
actual danger, from no quarter so much as from those who raise this
senseless cry.

cxlvii

doubted but Cranmer, Latimer, and Ridley, should have been
the first to have been called to the stake. But the subtle
policy of the world, setting us apart, first assaulted them, by
whose infirmity they thought to have more advantage; but
God disappointed their subtle purpose. For whom the world
esteemed weakest, praised be God, they have found most
strong, sound, and valiant in Christ's cause, unto the death;
to give such an overset, as I dare say all the angels in heaven
do no less rejoice to behold in them, than they did in the
victorious constancy of Peter, Paul, Isaiah, Elijah, or Jere-
miah ; for greater love no man hath, than to bestow his life, &c.
Good Brother, have me and us all continually in your
remembrance to God in your prayers, as, God willing, we shall
not be in our prayers forgetful of you.

Your own in Christ,

N. R.

NOTE (X.) P. 185.

WITHIN twelve months after passing sentence on Bradford,
viz. on the 13th of November, 1555, was Gardiner, the chief
murderer, summoned into the presence of that judge, who
searcheth the hearts and trieth the reins of men. " Nov. 13,
Dr. Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, and Lord Chancellor of
England, and one of Queen Mary's prime privy counsellors, died
in the morning between twelve and one of the clock, at the
King's palace called Whitehall, at Westminster. And by three
of the clock he was brought by water to his own place by St.
Mary Overy's ; and by five of the clock his bowels were taken
out, and burned before the high altar ; and at six the knell began
there, and a dirge and mass ; and all the bells continued ring-
ing till seven at night. On the 14th day they began the knell

cxlviii

again for him. There was then a hearse of four branches, with
gilt candlesticks, and two white branches, and three dozen of
staff-torches. All the choir hung with black and arms, and a
dirge sung ; and the morrow-mass of requiem sung by Bonner,
Bishop of London, the Bishops, Lords, Knights, and Gentle-
men present. And Dr. Whyte, the Bishop of Lincoln, did
preach at the same mass. After the ceremonies were over,
they all repaired to the place to dinner. The same day in the
afternoon, was dirge sung in every parish in London, and a
hearse, and ringing, and the morrow-mass of requiem. And
so he was prayed for after the old fashion." Strype Eccl.
Mem. iii. pt. 1. 362.

" Dr. Gardiner, the Lord Chancellor, in the midst of all his
splendour, secure in the favour of the Pope and his royal
mistress; and having in view a cardinal's hat and legatine
power from the one, and the throne of Canterbury from the
other, triumphed over the weakness of the two martyrs at
Oxford, for whose death he was impatient. His dignity and
employment would not permit him to be a spectator, and enjoy
the sight ; but what he could he did ; he dispatched messengers
on purpose to Oxford to be present at their execution, and to
speed back to give him the earliest intelligence when the fire
was set to them. And though the Duke of Norfolk was his
guest that day, he would not go to dinner till the return of the
messenger had given him the satisfaction he so hungered after.
At four o'clock the wretch was made happy, and went to
dinner; he was not disappointed of his lust, but while
the meat was yet in his mouth, the heavy wrath of God
came upon him. He was seized with a suppression of urine,
and though he went five days after to the Parliament, which
met October 21st, and again on the 23d, he could go out no
more. A foul leprosy and dropsy increased upon him, con-
tracted (as was reported) by drunkenness or whoredom, in both
which vices he had indulged much in his life, so that his body

cxlix

was greatly distended, his eyes distorted, and his breath too
offensive to be endured. He felt all the bitter remorse of
conscience, without being able to mingle with it that salutary
sorrow which can alone make it supportable. " I have erred,"
says he, "with Peter, but I have not wept with him." The
Bishop of Chichester visiting him, would have comforted him
with the assurance of justification through the blood of Christ ;
Gardiner acknowledged the truth in private, and thereby
assented to the reformers, but desired him politically to suppress
it, saying, " He might speak of that to him or others in his
condition, but if he opened that gap again, and preached that
to the people, then farewell altogether. He suffered this
protracted execution for four weeks. At that time he spake
little but blasphemy and filthiness, and gave up the ghost with
curses in his mouth, in terrible and inexpressible torments. He
was called to his account that very day month that Ridley and
Latimer suffered, at two o'clock in the morning, November 13.
Compare the lives of Ridley and Gardiner together, and
compare their deaths; whose character was most amiable,
whose conduct was most prudent, whose condition most eligi-
ble ? Let us cultivate those truths in our hearts and lives,
which had such supernatural power as to administer comfort, in
the midst of burning flames. What afflictions are there in
this world, that a practical belief in those truths will not enable
us to bear up under ? Let us not think that those errors can
be even politically useful, or in this present world prudent,
which can give no ease upon beds of down, amidst the pomp
of power and affluence of wealth. What a blessing did these
martyrs recover to their country, when they restored to it the
knowledge of these primitive truths ! What a glorious legacy
did they bequeath to it, when at their deaths, they lit up
such a candle in England-, as by God's grace shall
never be put out." Words. EccL Biog. vol. iii. 415.
Strype Eccl. Mem. vol. iii. pt. 1. 465

Amongst other women, Gardiner kept one Mrs. Godsalve.
His Church and College of Winchester were scandalous for
lechery. Ib. p. 173.

Gardiner's bodily sufferings, during his final struggle with
mortality, seem to have been intense ; but his mental anguish
was infinitely more severe. The spirit passing from a virtuous
life, spent amidst few temptations, may reasonably feel anxious
at the prospect of a speedy reckoning with infinite purity and
intelligence. Gardiner's earthly course had, however, abounded
with temptations, and he certainly had yielded to them with
a facility, far from satisfactory to a vigorous intellect, hovering
upon the verge of eternity. The well-founded indignation of
his protestant contemporaries has probably exaggerated his
moral obliquities ; but worldliness like Gardiner's is seldom
unsullied by private vices, and therefore in charging him with
licentiousness, it is likely that his political enemies have done
him no injustice. In public life he certainly trifled lamentably
with his responsibility as a Christian. Men who rise like him
from obscurity to splendour, not uncommonly have aided their
advancement by devices far from strictly conscientious. But
Gardiner was considerably versed in the questions which
agitated his time; he had examined the papal pretensions, to
which every thing Romish mainly looks for support, and he
had found them utterly untenable. He had also studied the
doctrines of the reformers sufficiently to know, that they rest
upon grounds far from easy to overthrow. That he should have
lent himself, therefore, to the sanguinary persecution which
raged during the last ten months of his life, could hardly fail of
strewing gall and wormwood along his passage to the tomb.
Those who marked the conflict of his soul endeavoured vainly,
as it almost seemed, to allay its bitterness by the healing balm
of religious consolation." Soames' Hist. Jteform. vol. iv.
477479.

cli

Here lye the bones of busy Gardiner dead,

That in five yeares spoiPd more good laws and lore,
Than two great kings, with all the witts they bred,

Could stablish sure in forty yeares before :
The Queen beguil'd, the Lords like lymehounds led,

The usurping rule of Rome he did restore ;
Burne, head, and hang", imprison, vex, and spoil e

The worthie sort of this declyning soile.

Sir John Harrington, apud Todd's Defence
of Cranmer. p. xciv.

If any one thing could paint the ferocious principles, by
which the papists of this sera were actuated, more than another,
it would be found in the fact related by Peter Heylin, a writer
notorious for his partiality to them ; who informs us that Mary
herself admitted of a consultation for burning the body of her
father, and cutting off the head of her sister. Eccles.
Rcstaur.p. 139. apud Nicolsoris English Hist. Library,
p. 98 Slrype, Eccl. Mem. ii. 65.

NOTE (Y.) P. 185.

WHEN Bishop Ridley, who was then in confinement at
Oxford, heard of Bradford's intended removal into Lancashire,
he wrote him the letter referred to in the note (w.), and
which is also given by Dr. Wordsworth, vol. iii. 368.

* Oh dear brother, seeing the time is now come wherein it
pleaseth the Heavenly Father for Christ our Saviour his sake,
to call upon you, and to bid you to come, happy are you that
ever you were born, thus to be found awake at the Lord's
calling. Well, good servant and faithful, because thou hast
been trusty in small matters, he shall set thee over great things,
and thou shalt enter into the joy of thy Lord.

* Oh dear brother, what meaneth this, that you are sent into
vour own native country ? The wisdom and policy of the world

clii

may mean what they will, but I trust God will so order the mat-
ter finally by his fatherly providence, that some great occasion
of God's gracious goodness shall be plentifully poured abroad
among his, our dear brethren in that country, by this your mar-
tyrdom. Where the martyrs, for Christ's sake, shed their blood
and lost their lives, Oh what wondrous things hath Christ
afterward wrought to his glory, and confirmation of their doc-
trine ? If it be not the place that sanctifieth the man, but the
holy man doth by Christ sanctify the place ; brother Bradford,
then happy and holy shall be that place wherein thou shalt
suffer, and shalt be with thy ashes, in Christ's cause, sprinkled
over withal. All thy country may rejoice of thee, that ever
it brought forth such a one, which would render his life again
in his cause, of whom he had received it.

'Brother Bradford, so long as I shall understand thou art in
thy journey, by God's grace I shall call upon our Heavenly
Father for Christ's sake, to set thee safely home; and then
good brother speak you, and pray for the remnant that are to
suffer for Christ's sake, according to that thou then shalt know
more clearly.

' We do look now every day, when we shall be called on,
blessed be God. I ween I am the weakest many ways of our
company : and yet I thank our Lord God, and Heavenly Father
by Christ, that since I heard of our dear brother Rogers' de-
parting, and stout confession of Christ and his truth, even unto
the death, my heart (blessed be God) so rejoiced of it, that since
that time (I say) I never felt any lumpish heaviness in my
heart, as I grant I have felt sometimes before. good brother,
blessed be God in thee, and blessed be the time that ever
I knew thee.

6 Farewell, farewell, your brother in Christ,

<N. R.
' Brother farewell.' *

* Cov. 68, and see Note (M.)

cliii

NOTE (Z.) P. 191.

" AFTER his condemnation he was baited and worried great
part of the time, by some or other of the bishops, and their
chaplains or priests, and others whom they set upon him ; in
hopes, all under the vizor of friendship and compassion, to worm
out some confessions or other, of such erroneous tenets, as might
give some colour to the world for their barbarity towards him.
But he was invincible to them all ; steady as a rock, repelling
the stormy waves that invade it, and exposing their insolidity*
by turning them into froth. His sagacity in discerning their
snares, and his readiness in repelling their arguments from the
Scriptures, the fathers, and themselves, were such, upon those
politic and rational topics, of the Pope's authority here, and
the real or carnal presence in the. Sacrament, for the denial
of which he was condemned ; that his most clamorous antago-
nists were struck with silence, and departed with admiration."
Biog. Brit. vol. ii. 551.

NOTE (AA.) P. 216.

"AFTER his condemnation, he wrote a very passionate,
(earnest) letter to the University of Cambridge, wherein he
upbraided them for their falling off so lamentably from the pro-
fession of the gospel, and bad them repent, and remember those
excellent men they had lately had amongst them. Such was
the then apostate condition of this University, once earnest re-
ceivers of the doctrine of the Gospel ; and these were some of
the compassionate solicitations and warnings of this man of
God."Strype Eccl. Mem. vol. iii. pt. 1. 366. And what,
it may be asked, would be his feelings, and those of the other
holy martyrs and confessors who laboured at Oxford and at
Cambridge; if they could now visit these seats of academical

cliv

learning ? Would they address the heads of houses, dignitaries,
and other churchmen in language less affecting ? Would they
have less or more reason to fear, that the judgments of God were
rapidly coming amongst them ? Whom do the vast majority of
those churchmen now resemble most the fattened and indolent
Romish hierarchists of that day, or the holy men of God who
came out from amongst them ? Most melancholy is it that our
bishops object to ordain any man who has not been nurtured
at one of these universities; whilst no truly pious parent, ever
sends a child within their unhallowed influence, without trem-
bling lest he should come home again a finished profligate.
See also, Epistola Cantabrigien&is cvjusdam anonymi
de misero Ecclesite statu : circa anno 1520. Fascicul.
Rer. vol. ii. 637.

NOTE (BB.) P. 223.

THE remarks intended to have been made here, have been
included in NOTES w. and Y.

NOTE (cc.) P. 263.

THE papists profess to be very indignant at being termed
idolaters, notwithstanding their repeated denial of the imputa-
tation ; and Mr. D. O'Connell in a late parliamentary speech*
was even pathetic upon the subject. Some of their protestant
friends too, think it highly unjustifiable that after such denials,
the charge should be repeated. All this is but affectation on
the one hand, and a morbid feeling on the other. No true
protestant takes any pleasure in vilifying the papist ; but would

* See the Times Journal of Aug. 31, 1831.

civ

rather mourn over his errors and deeply deplore the depth of his
delusion but we dare not cry, peace, peace, when there is no
peace. It is astonishing that the papists and their advocates,
do not see the fallacy of such complaints, or imagine that well
informed minds can be imposed upon by them. The protestant
charges the papist with being an idolater; and in order to
establish the charge, produces a series of well authenticated facts
and practices for centuries, down to the present moment. The
papist does not controvert any one of these facts, because he
knows he cannot ; but contenting himself with simply denying
the charge, affects to consider himself exceedingly ill treated, if
his opponent does not give him implicit credit, in the teeth of
the evidence of his own senses. Now, is this reasonable? Is it
a mode of proceeding that would be resorted to in any other
case? or, could men of talent be so hoodwinked upon any
other subject? Let the papists disprove the facts brought
against them, and then we will believe they are not idolaters ;
but whilst these facts remain, as they are at present, wholly
uncontradicted, they must submit to be esteemed as idolaters,
by all well informed and right judging persons. See Ven-
tess's Letter of Congratulation to the House of Lords.
Appendix, NOTES (c. D. E. T.) Dr. Fletcher, in his Ser-
mons, (vol. i. p. 146.) assumes, that " Innovation in faith is
impossible in the Catholic Church.'* Mr. Butler, in his For-
mularies, (p. 9. 11.) informs us, that every catholic who is
admitted into the Catholic Church, publicly reads and professes
his assent to the Symbol of Pius IV. which contains the fol-
lowing article : " I most firmly assert, that the images of
Christ, and the Mother of God, ever Virgin, and also of the
other Saints, are to be had and retained ; and that due honour
and veneration are to be given to them." We therefore pre-
sume we are at liberty to deem the above an article of faith
among papists. We presume also to believe that this was not
an article of faith, and that the practice itself was not permitted

clvi

during the three first centuries, (Bower, ii. 526. iii. 357.J ;
and therefore that Fletcher's assertion is incorrect. We also
take the liberty to believe, that the " due honour and vene-
ration*' which is actually bestowed upon images and pictures,
amounts to idolatry; and that such idolatry bears a strong
affinity to that practised by heathen nations. Ignotus, p.
30. 41.Milner's C. H. iii. p. 146. 188. Morning Ex-
ercises against Popery, p. 458. Salter's Hall Sermons,
vol. i. Dr. Hughes. The Latin word used by the Fathers of
the Council of Trent, (Sess. 25.) is veneremur, and is usually
translated by protestants as intending worship, but by modern
papists, veneration. The Fathers also connect it with oscule-
mur ; and we believe, whenever these words are united by
classical writers, divine worship is necessarily implied.
Canons and Decrees of Trent, 1564. Cic. in Verr. ix.
43. See also some excellent remarks upon this subject
in the Christian Observer, for August, 1831, p. 497.

NOTE (DD.) P. 263.

HUGH WESTON was successively Dean of Westminster and
of Windsor, and prolocutor of the Lower House of Convoca-
tion, which met on the accession of Queen Mary; and was
sent by them to Oxford, as moderator in the disputation with
Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer.

" Cranmer had trusted to him confidentially a letter to the
Lords of the Council, which he took charge of when he returned
to London ; but on his journey he was base enough to open
it ; and careless of shame, as he had been also in the dispu-
tation, returned it to the Archbishop." Todd's Life of
Cranmer, ii. 400. " He was deprived of his deanery on the
10th of December, 1557, by Cardinal Pole, on account of his

civil

scandalous life in adultery, and other enormities,'* with which
these pages may not be stained. Strype Eccl. Mem. i. 174.
ii. 22.

NOTE (EE.) P. 295.

" BUT the papists will then say, that if we condemn the
papacy, we shall condemn our forefathers, as heretics. I will
answer to that, as God answered Elijah, when he said to the
Lord, that the children of Israel had forsaken his covenant, and
were unjust and wicked, Yet I have left me seven thou-
sand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed to
Baal. Neither must we imagine, but that there have been many
Christians in the world, some of whom have spoken openly
against the papacy, and others who have kept their knowledge
and sentiments to themselves ; but the papists will not suffer us
to know more than our fathers. But I know very well, that our
religion consists not of old customs, or the usage of our
fathers, but in the Holy Scriptures, and Divine Word.
And THAT, if you think antiquity and custom makes a thing
good, is older than the world ; for God is the Word, who was
without beginning, and shall continue without end ; and if you
think truth ought to be followed and obeyed, ALL TRUTH is
contained in that book. Our religion ought not to be planned
or governed by our forefathers ; for Ezekiel saith, Walk ye
not in the statutes of your fathers, for they were pollu-
ted. Moreover, our God, and Saviour, and Redeemer, Jesus
Christ, said, / am the way, and the truth, and the life ;
he did not say, I AM THE OLD CUSTOM ! K. Edward VI.'s
own Arguments against the Pope's Supremacy, p. 65.
London, 1682.

clviii
NOTE (FF.) P. 310.

" AMONG the numerous throng of people who were spectators
at his execution, there was that memorable woman, Mrs. Mary
Honey wood, the wife of Robert Honey wood, Esq., of Charing 1 ,
in Kent, and daughter of Robert Waters, Esq., of Lenham, in
the same county. This lady, in the days of Queen Mary, was
wont to visit the prisons, and relieve the confessors there con-
fined. When Bradford was at the stake, she being desirous of
getting near it, that she might distinctly hear him, and see
the end of his sufferings ; was so crowded and pressed by the
multitude, that her shoes were trodden off, and she was forced
to go barefoot from Smith field to St. Martin's, before she
could furnish herself with a new pair. She lived a most pious
life ; and in a Christian manner died at Markeshall in Essex,
May 11, 1620, in the 93d year of her age, leaving behind her
at her decease, three hundred and sixty-seven persons, de-
scended from her and her husband; viz. sixteen children, one
hundred and fourteen grandchildren, two hundred and twenty-
eight great grandchildren, and nine great great grandchildren.
See the inscription on her monument in Markeshall Church.
Her mind being greatly perplexed with religious doubts,
she consulted both with our martyr, who wrote her the letters,
Nos. 40., 41., 42., and 43., and the venerable martyrologist,
Fox, after Bradford's decease." Biog. Brit. ii. 555.

NOTE (GG.) P. 313.

" IT is a demonstration to me that he was of a sweet temper,
because Persons, the Jesuit, who will hardly afford a good word
to a protestant, saith, That he seemed to be of a more soft and
mild nature, than many of his fellows. Indeed, continues

clix

Fuller, He was a most holy and mortified man ; who secretly in
his closet, would so weep for his sins, one would have thought
he would never have smiled again ; and then appearing in pub-
lic, he would be so harmlessly pleasant, one would think he had
never wept before." Fuller 1 s Worthies. " He was one of
whose worth the papists themselves were so sensible, that
they took more rmlns to bring him off from the profession of
religion, than any other." Strypc, Eccl. Mem. vol. iii.
pt. i. 364.

NOTE (HH.) P. 313.

" Whilst he was in prison he spent his time in preaching
twice every Sunday ; in writing many letters and discourses ;
praying, reading, conferring, disputing; sleeping but four
hours in the night." Strype, Eccl. Mem. vol. iii. pt. i. 364.

" He used to make unto himself an ephemeris, or journal,
in which he used to write all such notable things, as either he
did see, or hear, each day that passed. But whatsoever he did
hear or see, he did so pen it, that a man might see in that, the
signs of his smitten heart. For if he did see or hear any good
in any man, by that sight he found and noted the want thereof
in himself; and added a prayer craving mercy and grace to
amend. If he did hear or see any misery he noted it, as a
thing procured by his own sins ; and still added, Domine, mi-
serere mei : Lord have mercy upon me. He used in the same
book, to note such evil thoughts as did rise in him : as of envy-
ing the good of other men; thoughts of unthankfulness ; of not
considering God in his works; of hardness and unsensibleness
of heart when he did see others moved and afflicted. And thus
he made to himself, and of himself, a book of daily practices
of repentance." Sampson's Preface to Life and Ser-
mons, p. 11.

clx

NOTE (l.I.) P. 343.

IN what estimation Bradford was held by his brethren, may
be collected from the following letter of Careless to him, and
which was written in reply to No. 99.

TO MY GOOD BROTHER, M. JOHN BRADFORD.*

The peace of God in Jesus Christ, the eternal comfort of his
sweet Spirit, which hath surely sealed you unto eternal salva-
tion, be with you and strengthen you in your joyful journey,
towards the celestial Jerusalem, my dear friend and most faith-
ful Brother, M. Bradford, to the setting forth of God's glory,
and to your eternal joy in Christ. Amen.

Ever since that good M. Philpot shewed me your last
letter, my dear heart in the Lord, I have continued in great
heaviness and perplexity: not for any hurt or discommodity
that I can perceive coming towards you, unto whom, doubtless,
death is made life and great felicity ; but for the great loss that
God's Church here in England shall sustain, by the taking away
of so godly, worthy, and necessary an instrument, as the Lord
hath made you to be. Oh, that my life, and a thousand such
wretched lives more, might go for yours. Oh, why doth God
suffer me and such other caterpillars to live, that can do nothing
but consume the alms of the Church, and take away you, so
worthy a workman and labourer in the Lord's vineyard ? But
woe be to our sins and great unthankfulness, which is the
greatest cause of the taking away of such worthy instruments
of God, as should set forth his glory, and instruct his people.
If we had been thankful unto God for the good ministers of his
word, we had not been so soon deprived both of it and them.
The Lord forgive our great ingratitude and sins, and give us

* Fox Hi. 717. Cov.628.

clxi

true repentance and faith, and hold his hand of mercy over us,
for his dear Son Christ's sake. Take not away all thy true
preachers forth of this realm, O Lord, but leave us a seed, lest
England be made like unto Sodom and Gomorrah, when thy
true Lots be gone.

But what go I about to mingle your mirth with my mourn-
ing, and your just joy with my deserved sorrow ? If I loved you
indeed, as I have pretended, I should surely rejoice with you
most heartily, and praise God on your behalf from the very bot-
tom of my heart ; I should praise God day and night for your ex-
cellent election, in and through his great mercy, and should give
him most humble thanks for your vocation by his gospe!, and
your true knowledge in the same : I should earnestly praise him
for your sweet justification, whereof you are most certain by
God's Grace and Spirit, and should instantly pray unto him, for
your glorification which shall shortly ensue : I should rejoice
and be glad to see you so dignified by the crown of martyrdom,
and to be appointed to that honour, to testify his truth, and to
seal it with your blood : I should highly extol the Lord, who
hath given you a glorious victory over all your enemies visible
and invisible, and hath given you grace and strength, to finish
the tower that you have begun to build. Finally, if I loved
you, I should most heartily rejoice and be glad to see you
delivered from this body of sin, and vile prison of the flesh ; and
brought into that heavenly tabernacle, where you shall be safely
kept, and never offend him more. This and much more should
I do, if I had a good heart towards God, or you his dear child.
But, alas, I am an hypocrite, and do seek nothing but mine
own commodity. I would have God's everlasting providence
give place, to my peevish will and purpose, although it were to
the Iiinderance of his glory, and your sweet commodity.

God forgive me my horrible ingratitude, sins and offences
against him, and, good brother, do you forgive me my great
negligence and unthankfulness towards you ; and henceforth I

clxii

promise you, I will put my will to God's will, and pray I hat the
same may be fulfilled in you, so long as you be on this earth :
and when you are taken hence, I will most heartily praise the
Lord for you, so long as I have my being in this world.

Ah, my dear heart, now I must take my leave of you, and
as I think, my ultimum vale in this life ; but in the life to
come, I am right well assured we shall merrily meet together,
and that shortly I trust. And in taking my leave of ypu,
my dear heart in the Lord, I shall desire you faithfully to
remember, all the sweet messages that the Lord our good God,
and most dear loving Father, hath sent you by me his most
unworthy servant, which as they are most true, so shall they
be most truly accomplished upon you eternally ; and for the
more assurance and certificate thereof, to your godly conscience,
he hath commanded me to repeat the same unto you again, in
his own name and word.

Therefore now give ear and faithful credence. Hearken, ye
heavens, and thou earth give ear, and bear me witness at the
great day ; that I do here deliver faithfully and truly the Lord's
message, unto his dear servant, his singularly beloved and elect
child, John Bradford. JOHN BRADFORD, thou man so spe-
cially beloved of God, I pronounce and testify unto thee, in the
word and name of the Lord Jehovah, that all thy sins whatsoever
they be, be they never so many, so grievous, or so great, be
fully and freely pardoned, released and forgiven thee, by the
mercy of God in Jesus Christ, thine only Lord and sweet
Saviour, in whom thou dost undoubtedly believe. Christ hath
cleansed thee with his blood, and clothed thee with his righte-
ousness, and hath made thee in the sight of God his Father,
without spot or wrinkle, so that when the fire doth its appoint-
ed office, you shall be received, as a sweet burnt sacrifice, into
heaven ; where you shall joyfully remain in God's presence for
ever, as the true inheritor of his everlasting kingdom, unto the
which thou wast undoubtedly predestinate and ordained by the

clxiii

Lord's infallible purpose and decree, before the foundation of
the world was laid. And that this is most true that I have
said, I call the whole Trinity, the Almighty and eternal
Majesty of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost to my
record at this present ; whom I humbly beseech to confirm and
establish in thee the true and lively feeling of the same, Amen.
Selah. .

Now with a merry heart and a joyful spirit, something mixed
with lawfiil tears, I take my farewell of you, mine own dear
brother in the Lord ; who send us shortly a merry meeting in
his kingdom, that we may both sing praises together unto him
and his holy angels and blessed spirits for ever and ever.
Farewell, thou blessed of the Lord, farewell in Christ ; depart
unto thy rest in the Lord, and pray for me, for God's sake.

As I had made an end of this simple letter, I heard some
comfort both of good Master Philpott's servant and yours : but
alas, I do scarcely believe them. Well I will hope in God,
and pray all night that God will send me some comfort to-
morrow, and if the Lord give you sparing to-morrow, let me
hear words of comfort from you for God's sake.

The blessing of God be with you now and for ever, Amen.

Yours for ever in the Lord Jesus, JOHN CARELESS, living
in hope against hope, JOHN CARELESS.

NOTE (KK.) P. 347.

MAKE him ! Make whom ? JESUS CHRIST, that is, GOD !
The priest-ridden and ill-informed papist will cry out,
calumny! and the pious, over-liberal, and not much better
informed protestant, will hardly refrain from re-echoing the
charge and both will unite in declaring, either that the martyr
has here brought an unfounded charge against the papists of
that day, or that at all events, no modern disciple of the Vatican,

clxiv

holds any such horrible opinions. But Bradford and the
reformers of the sixteenth century were too conscientious to
make unfounded charges, and too well informed to be imposed
upon, by the specious and never-ending manoeuvres of their
antagonists. The books which contained their unblushing
abominations, were then in the hands of the reformers, who
having only just emancipated themselves from their thraldom,
were as well acquainted with them as the papists them-
selves ; and the works in question were then more accessible
than they now are, to ordinary readers.

But was the charge false or true? IT WAS TRUE. It
might be sufficient to allege, that the truth of the charge is
inevitably involved in the doctrine of the real presence- for do
not the papists believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ ? and do
they not maintain, that the very body and blood of Jesus Christ
exists in the sacrament, after consecration by the priest ? Si
quis negaverit, in sanctissimas eucharistice sacramento contineri
vere, realiter et substantialiter corpus et sanguinem una cum
anima et divinitate Domini nostri Jesu Christi, ac proinde
totum Christum ; sed dixerit tantummodo esse in eo ut in
signo, vel figura, aut virtute ; anathema sit. Condi. Trid.
Sess. xiii. cap. 8. can.i. As the real presence therefore takes
place only after consecration, it follows that the priest who con-
secrates, creates that which remains after consecration ; and if
that which was bread and wine before consecration, becomes the
body and blood of Christ, who is God, by the act of consecration,
then the priest creates God. In other words, the vile and sinful
creature, and God only knows how vile and sinful that creature
often is, creates the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords !

But still the artful or ignorant papist, and the horror-struck
protestant will exclaim Mortal man can never seriously intend
to assert such blasphemy as this. Let us read the following
canon, enjoining the celibacy of the priesthood, in which the
above idea is by no means indistinctly hinted at. " Decer-

clxv

nitniis etiam ut ii, qui in ordine stibdiaconatus, et supra, uxores
duxerint, aut concubinas habuerint, officio atque ecclesiastico,
beneficia caveant. Cum enim ipsi Templum Dei, vasa
Domini, sacrarium spiritus sancti debeat esse et did,
indignum est eos cubilibus et immunditiis deser-
vire." 2 Later an cvi. Labbe xxvii. 124. But what will
the opponents say, if we shew not only that the sentiment
has distinctly proceeded from, but that such sentiment has been
actually expressed and declared, in the most objectionable form
of words, by the boasted centre of unity itself ! " Nimis execra-
bile videri manus qua? in tantam eminentiam excreverint, ut,
quodnulli Angelorum concessum est,DEUM cuncta creantemsuo
ministerio creent, et eundem ipsum pro redemptione et salute
totius mundi summi Dei Patris obtutibus offerant, in hanc igno-
miniam detrudi,ut ancillse fiant earum manuum qua? die ac nocte
obsco3nis contagiis inquinantur rapinis ac injustae sanguinum
eflfusioni addictoe commaculantur." Urban ii. (nicknamed
Turbanus.) Eadmeri Opera, Histor. Novor. lib. ii. 55.,
appended to Gabriel Gerberon's Edition, of the Works
of St. Anselm. Paris, 1675.

Our martyr therefore made no false charge and we
would therefore solemnly and seriously appeal to every con-
scientious and well intentioned papist, whether this is not
blasphemy in the abstract ? And whether it does not per
se, justify the application to their own hierarchy, of all the
horrible denunciations in the Apocalypse? Solemnly, and
seriously, and affectionately, would we entreat him, to think
what must be the inevitable doom, of every one who identifies
himself with such horrible associations, and to listen to the
voice from heaven itself, in the words "of his own Bible ' Ex-
ite de ilia, populus meus; utne participes sitis delictorum ejus,
et de plagis ejus non accipiatis. Quoniam pervenerunt pec-
cata ejus usque ad coelum, et recordatus est dominus iniqui-
tatum ejus. Apocal. xviii. 4. 5. apud vulg.

clxvi
NOTE (LL.) P. 353.

ON this very important subject, becoming indeed every day
more and more important, in the times in which we live, the
Nos. 34. 74. 79. 87. and 100. may be read with advantage.

" Many now therefore, partly out of fear and terror, and
partly out of other considerations, resorted to the mass, though
they approved not of it ; and yet consorted likewise with the
gospellers ; holding it not unlawful so to do, viz. That their
bodies might be there, as long as their spirits did not consent.'
And those who used this practice, bore out themselves by
certain arguments, which they scattered abroad.

" This extraordinarily troubled the good divines, who were
then in prison for the cause of Christ, and particularly Brad-
ford, whose complaint upon this subject, we have seen in the
letters above referred to.

" He also counselled the true protestants not to consort
with these compliers, but to deal with them as a certain eminent
man, named Simeon, Archbishop of Seleucia, did with Usta-
zades, an ancient courtier to Sapones, King of Persia ; who by
his threatenings and persecutions, had prevailed with the
courtier, who had embraced Christianity, to bow his knee to
the sun. For which base compliance, Simeon, passing by
where this Ustazades was, formerly his great friend and ac-
quaintance, would not now look at him ; but seemed to contemn
and despise him. Which when the other perceived, it pierced
him so to the heart, that he began to pull asunder his clothes,
and to rend his garments, and with weeping eyes cried out,
Alas ! that ever he had so offended God in his body, to bow to
the sun; for, saith he, I have herein denied God, although I
did it against my will. And how sore is God displeased with
me, when mine old father and friend Simeon, his dear servant,
will not speak nor look towards me ? I may, by the servant's
countenance, perceive the Master's mind.

clxvii

" This lamentation came to the King's ear ; whereupon
Ustazades was sent for, and his sovereign demanded the cause
of his mourning. He out of hand told the cause to be his
willing bowing to the sun. By it, said he, I have denied God,
and therefore, because he will deny them who deny him, I have
no little cause to complain and to mourn. Woe unto me, for I
have played the traitor to Christ, and also dissembled with my
liege Lord. No death therefore is sufficient for the least of my
faults ; and I am worthy of two deaths.

When the King heard this, it went to his stomach; for he
loved Ustazades, who had been to him, and to his father, a
faithful servant and officer. Howbeit, the malice of satan
moved him to cause this man to be put to death. Yet in this
point he seemed to gratify him ; for Ustazades desired that the
cause of his death might be published. This I ask, said he, for
the guerdon of my time service to thee, and to thy father.
Which the King readily granted, thinking that when the
Christians should all know it, it would make them the more
afraid, and sooner to consent to him. But so soon as it was
published, and Ustazades put to death, it not only comforted
Simeon, who had been put into prison, but also all the
Christians!"

Bradford, having related this anecdote, improved it after
this tenour. This history, I wish, said he, were marked, as
well of us, as of all our popish gospellers, who have none
other things to excuse them,* than Ustazades had; for his
heart was with God, howsoever he framed his body. We
should behave ourselves straitly against such brethren, as
Simeon did ; and then they would so much the sooner play the
part of Ustazades. Which thing, no marvel, though they do
not, so long as we rock them asleep, by regarding them and
their companions, as daily we do ; and so we partake of their

* Many now-a-days have not half so much.

clxviii

evil ; and at the length shall feel of their smart and punish-
ment." Strype's Cran. vol. i. 521 523.

Few protestants, and probably no great number of papists
amongst the laity, are acquainted with the dreadful, but in-
evitable consequences of the doctrine of the mass; and therefore
are incapable of rightly appreciating the sin of attending its
celebration. The Holy Spirit hath said, " Quoniam non dere-
linques animam meam in inferno : nee dabit sanctum tuum
videre corruptionem." Ps. xv. 10. Acts ii. 27. xiii. 35.
But what says the infallible Church, " Docemus etiam ut
sacerdos semper habeat prseparatam (prout opus fuerit) eucha-
ristiam, et hanc in puritate custodiat, caveatque ne inveteres-
cat. Sin diutius reservata fuerit quam oportuit, et ut nauseam
pariat ; comburetur tune in puro igne, condanturque cineres sub
altari et noxse reus apud Deum componat." Can. of Edgar,
Spelm. i. 452. We know who it was that advised Balak, the
son of Zippor, to seduce the Israelites into idolatry, through
the medium of the Moabitish women,* and we know too what
was the fate of the adviser.f And the papists have made no
small accession to their own community, by following the
advice of the son of Beor. Through the medium of marriages
with papists, wretchedness, and sin, and misery, have been
introduced into many protestant families. Upon this subject
we earnestly recommend the perusal of Dr. Torriano's letters
to his son ; (London 1753J a work not more distinguished by
sound reasoning, than by classical and elegant diction; and
the Fourth Pastoral Letter of the incomparable Peter Jurieu,
or as the papists called him, the GOLIATH OF THE PROTESTANTS.
See also a most affecting account of the sufferings of a protestant
lady, Octavia Solara, from the same cause, in Gilly's Second
Visit to the Valleys, p. 349.

* Num. xxxi. 16. t Num. xxxi. 8. Josh. xiii. 22-

clxix

NOTE (MM.) P. 353.

THIS individual, as appears from this and the preceding
letter, had during his shrievalty been detected and accused b}
certain malignant adversaries of sending a New Testament to a
condemned thief.* For this he was sent for to London and
committed to the fleet, and there endured a sufficient time, not
without great peril of life. Although delivered out of prison,
following the counsel of Bradford, and minding to keep his
conscience clear from idolatry, he was driven with his wife and
eight young children, to avoid the realm ; and so leaving all
other worldly prospects, to his great loss and danger, went into
High Germany, where he continued in the city of Basil, till the
death of Queen Mary ; being like a good Tobias, to his power,
a friendly helper, and a comfortable reliever of other English
exiles there about him. God's holy blessing so working with
him therefore, that in those far countries, neither he fell into
any great decay, neither any one of all his household, during
all that time there miscarried; but as many as he brought out,
so many he carried home again, yea, and that with advantage,
and God's plenty withal upon him. Acts and Mon. iii. 340.

NOTE (NN.) P. 366.

AUGUSTINE BERNHER was a native of Switzerland, and a
servant of some description to Bishop Latimer, and a faithful
minister in the reign of Edward VI. He conveyed his master's
sermons to the press, and published them after his death with a
preface of his own. Biog. Brit. ii. 228.

* Strype Eccl. Mem. iii. 1. 227.

clxx

In Queen Mary's time he was excellently serviceable to the
poor prisoners and martyrs, travelling 1 continually from place
to place, and from one prison to another, with his life in his
hand, and standing upon no pain or danger to do good offices
for the poor professors especially in secretly conveying to
them the liberality of their pious benefactors, and letters from
them to their friends and congregations, for the comforting,
counselling, and strengthening of them.

And when Cranmer, Latimer, and Ridley, were prisoners at
Oxford, he took a journey thither to them with relief, letters,
and business. As for the wives and fatherless children of such
as died for religion, he was a kind of overseer to them.

Robert Glover, in his last letter to his wife and children,
before his martyrdom, advised them to fly, and to take Bern-
her's advice, l God send thee a good guide, and a good passage,
if it be his will, out of this idolatrous and bloody realm. As
Christ committed his mother to John, so I commit you in this
world to the angel of God, Augustine Bernher. His adver-
tisement, if you shall follow, I trust you shall not decline from
the fear of God.' Cov. 543.

It appears that durirtg the heat of the persecution, and all
through Mary's reign, he with four or five others, two of whom
afterwards became bishops, acted as pastors of a congregation,
and braved all dangers by meeting in London for religious
worship. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, he obtained a living
in the country, at a place called Sutton, where he died in
peace. Strype Eccl. Mem. iii. i. 228. ii. 132147. He
was chiefly instrumental in saving the life of Bishop Jewell.
Ib. i. 227.

ELENCHUS TRACTATUUM,

(JUI IN FASCICULO RERUM ETC., CONT1NENTUR.*

1. COMMENTARIORUM jEncee Sylvii Piccolominei Senensis, de
actis et gestis in Concilio Basileae celebrato, libri duo, in quibus sa-
crosanctam illam Synodum sic describit, sic quicquid illic actum,
bona fide refert, ut qui legerit, interesse et infulatos illos heroas dis-
putantes, colloquentes, conscionantesque coram videre se putet. Nee
solum jucunda est bistoria, verum etiam utilis. Vixque aliud con-
cilium extat, pari fide et diligentia conscriptum.

2. Ejusdem ^Eneae Sylvii ad Jobannem de Segovia TheoJogum
Epistola; in qua enarratur quam celebri pompa, apparatu, ac gloria
Foelix ipse Sabaudiae dux et eremita, spreto Eugenio IV. in summum
sit pontificem electus ac confirmatus.

3. Juliani Cardinalis sancti Angeli, viri praestantissimi et ad Ger-
maniam Legati, Epistolae duae in quibus inira libertate scripsit ad
Eugenium pontificem Ro. male conantem dissolvere Concilium Ba-
sileense, quum antea per Martiuum V. in Concilio Constantiensi in-
dictnm esset.

4. Universitatis Parisiensis ad futurum Concilium contra Leo-
nem X. Appellatio, in qua omnes ferme Ecclesiae Rom. abusus refe-
runtur, et Concilium Basileense sacrum fuisse probatur, etin Spiritu
Sancto legitime congregatum.

5. Orationes duae, quarum altera a Legato Leonis X. pro colli-
gendis decimis, altera a Germano quopiam, illas denegandis, coram
divo Maximiliano Imperatore in conventu Principum babitae.

6. Vita et gesta Hildebrandi. Qui Romanus Pontifex factus
Gregorius VII. est dictus. In qua quidem historia, admiranda ac
supra captum humanum obstupenda qusedam reperies.

7. Appendix de eodem Hildebrando, desumpta ex libris historia-
rum Reverendi in Cbristo patris Otbonis, Frisingensis Episcopi.

8. De Silvestro ejus nominis II. (cujus Benno Cardinalis men-
tionem facit) insigne factum,per Jobannem Stellam Venetum in suo
Pontificum Ro. catalogo commemoratur.

9. De Bonifacio VI II. ex Commentariis Petri Criniti de honesta
discipline, doctissime scribentis, insigne etiam facinus refertur.

10. Vita Henrici IV. Caesaris Augusti, Ducis Bavariee VII. in
qua admiranda quaedam lectuque digna ac rara admodum reperies.

11. Epistol&e IX. ejusdem Henrici IV. ad Pontificem Rom. ac
alios Principes, in quibus non contemnenda (mihi crede) similiter
offendes.

12. Leges ac Constitutiones Imperiales, a multis seepenumero
desideratae, sub AUREA BULLA Caroli IV. Horn. Imperatoris.

* See (p. Ixii.)

clxxii

13. Constantini Magni Donationis (ut fertur) privilegium, Bar-
tholomeo Picerno ad J -ilium II. Pont. Rom. interprete,

14. Ulrichi Hutteni, in Declamationem Laurentii Vallae, con-
tra praetactara Constantini Donationem, ad Leonem X. diserta
admodum et non indocta Praefatio.

15. Laurentii Vallensis, viri undecunque doctissimi, de falso
credita et conficta (ut multorum est opinio) Constantini Donatione,
Declamatio.

16. Nicolai de Cusa, Cardinalis; Antonini, Archiepiscopi Flo-
rentini ; Uaphaelis Volaterrani ; Hieronymi Cathalani, Juris utrius*
que Doctoris, Cubicularii Alexandri VI. de eadem Donatione anno-
tationes.

17- O. G. in Lau. Vallam conclusio epistolaris, post quam, au-
thore eodem, multiplices tamCanonistarum quam Legisperitorum pro
utraque parte in hoc campo decertantium, allegationes collocantur.

18. Item ex Pomponio Laeto, Socrate Graeco, Theodorico, Sozo-
meno, Baptista Egnatio, Sexto Aurelio \ r ictore, per eundem Orth.
G. receptee de eadem materiaadditiones sunt adjectae.

19. Professio fidei fratrum Waldensium Regi Uladislao ad
Hungarian! missa, quam ipsi falso satisfactoriam appellant.

20. Responsio excusatoria fratrum Waldensium, contra binas
literas R. P. Augustini, sacrae Theol. doctoris ad eundem Regem
datas.

21. Gulihelmi Wodfordi contra Johannem Wiclefum, sacrae
fidei pestem et hoeresiarcham, doctissimae ac plank catholicae decerta-
tiones, quibus miserum bunc hominem ita confutat, prosternit,
eviscerat ac in omnibus vincit, ut ex illis ipsis omnes ferme nostri
temporis baereticos mutos effeceris.

2.' Articuli Jobannis VViclefi damnati per Concilium Constan-
tiense, in quibus ilium humanam bestiam fuisse cognosces.

23. Rationes ac reprobationes articulorum Widen' et sectatoris
ejus Jobannis Huss, in Concilio Constantiensi damnatorum.

24. Doctrina JobannisWiclefi quonam modo in Bobemiam per-
venerit, et de Jobanne H uss, ac Hierony mo Pragensi, ex ^Enea Sylvio-

25. Sententia damnationis doctrinae Johannis Wiclefi et arti-
culorum XLA T . lata per sacrosanctam Synodum Constantiensem.

26. Sententia definitiva per praedictum Concilium contra Jo-
hannem Huss; In qua etiam per eundem fit mentio appellationis
ad Christum.

27. Tenor sententiae definitivae contra Hieronymum Pragensem,
quern velut palmitem putridum et aridum, non ferentem fructum,
Ecclesia condemnavit.

28. Poggii Florentini, de Hieronymi Pragensis obitu et sup-
plicio vera descriptio, in qua obstupenda quaedam videbis ac leges.

29. Leonard! Aretini Oratoris clarissimi ad versus hypocritas
libellus, cui Orth. G. Epistolam praejecit nou invenustam.

30. Quomodo Bohemi vocati sint ad Basileensem synodum
Oecumenicam, et quid illic egerint, cum oratione Juliani Cardinalis
ad illorum Legates.

31. Petitiones Bohemorum, propositae in Basileensi Concilio,
cum approbatis ac receptis ab Ecclesia responsionibus.

clxxiii

32. De Eugenii IV. practica, ut Concilium Basileense Rex
Francorum dissolveret, ex Nicolao a Clamengiis Arcbidiacono.

33. Friderici, Romanorum Regis, semper Augusti, ad Caro-
lum Franciae Reg-em Epistola, in qua is ac caeteri Ecclesiae proceres
admonentur ut Moguntiain veniant, ibidemque de rebus dubiis
consultent.

34. Synodus Aribonis Arcliiepiscopi Moguntini, in qua de
jejuniis ac aliis ceremoniis fit decisio, habita Anno Domini, MXXIII.

35. Paradoxa D. Joliannis Wesalien. concionatoris Worma-
ciensis per Inquisitoresordinis PraedicatoriilYIoguntiaecondemnata.

36. Exarnen sex dierum contra eundem, per eosdem Inqui-
sitores. Cui Dieter Comes Isenbergen, Arebiepiscopus Moguntiuus
interfuit.

37. Gravamina X. Germanicae nationis ac sacri imperil Rom.
cum remediis et praemonitionibus, ac multis aliis ad Caesaream
majestatem.

38. Epistola Ja. Regii ad divum Maximilianum, in qua non
pauca de llefbrmatione Ecclesiae tractantur, et abusus.

39. Divi Maximiliani querela contra abusus utque gravamina
Romanistarum, cum sua ad calcem appendice.

40. Epistola Adriani Papae VI. ad illustrissimos Germanias
Principes, qua eos ad concordiam observandam hortatur.

41. Instructio ejusdem ad D. Franciscum Cberegatum, in qua
continentur omnia quae cunctis Rom. Imperii Principibus propo-
nenda videbantar.

42. Responsio illustrissimorum ac reverendissimorum Prin-
cipum, necon et aliorum sacri Romani imperil Ordinum, pontiticio
Legato reddita, in qua contra abusus admiranda quaedam invenies.

43. Replicatio pontificii Oratoris ad Germ. Principes, in qua de
Annatis, de Concilio generalise concionatoribus, de clericis uxoratis
et rebus aliis, multa ac varia tractantur, quibus principes ipsi
respondere recusarurit.

44. Tabula centum Gravaminum, in qua summatim deprehendes
quomodo Germania et reliquae etiam nationes illis vexentur et exco-
rientur.

45. Enumeratio centum gravaminum Germanicae nationis, quae
ad versus sedem Romanam Oratori pontiticio, in comitiis Germano-
rum Principurn Norenbergae sunt exhibita,summomittendapontifici.

46. Apostoli per nationem Galiicanam dominis Cardinalibus
dati contra Annatas, et quod Vacantiae ac ininuta servitia nullo jure
sint debita, quodque censurae propter Annatas non solutas timendae
non sint, etc.

47. Disputatio Nicolai de Clamengiis archidiaconi, habita
per scriptutu, super materia Concilii generalis ad Scholasticum
Parisiensem.

48. Collatio ejusdem Clamengii super eadem materia largior ac
uberior, in qua declaratur, an generale Concilium in aliquo errare
possit, uhi etiam de bubone obstupenda quaedam referuntur, per
Orthuinum Gratium declarata.

49. De emendatione Ecclesiae libellus per reverendissimum
Dominum Petrum de Alliaco Cardinalem Cameracensem, patribus

clxxiv

olim oblatus in Concilio Constan. In quo sex ponuntur considera-
tiones, quas quum diligenter perlegeris, admiranda in illis reperies.

50. De Reformatione Ecclesiae, circa totum corpus universalis
Ecclesiae.

51. De reformatione capitis, status videlicet papalis et Romunae
curiae ac Cardinalium, ex eodem.

52. De Reformatione preelatorum, ex eodem.

53. De Reformatione religionum ac religiosorum, per eundem.

54. De lleformatione cseterorum Ecclesiasticorum, per eundem.

55. De Reformatione Laicorum et Principum, per eundem.

56. Singulis decenniis generale Concilium esse celebrandum,
require in epistola Orthuini Gratii.

57. Johannis Francisci Pici Mirandulae domini, etc. ad Leonem
decimum Pontificern maximum, de reformandis moribus, Oratio.

58. Duae pestes, quibus Concilia generalia, quo minus fiant ac
celebrentur, perperam impediuntur, in Epistola Orthuini Gratii.

59. Constitutiones ad removendos abusus et Ordinationes ad
vitam cleri reformandara per reverendissimum in Christo patrem
dorainum Laurentium Campegium Oardinalem, et ad Germaniam,
etc. de latere legatuin, nuper Ratisponse edit.

60. Oratio Antonii Cornelii Lynnicbani elegantissima,Colonise
coram frequenti Clero babita. Q ua ostendit cujusmodi Eccles.
Principes, Pontirices, primarii sacerdotes et pastores esse debeant.

61. Desiderii Erasmi Roterodami, summi Oratoris virique
doctissimi, liber de sarcienda Ecclesiae concordia, deque sedandis
opinionum dissidiis, cum aliis nonnullis lectu dignis.

62. PrecatioadDominum Jesumpro pacecommuni et Ecclesiae.

63. De tyrannide Principis Turcarum, et quanta Ottomannus
ac successores ejus in perniciem omnium nostrum patraverint, in
epistola Orthuini Gratii.

64. Epistola Johannis Fabri Doctoris, nunc Viennensis episcopi,
ad praesulem Tridentinum, ac Serenissimi Regis nostri Romanorum
Ferdinand! protocancellariuui, de bello Turcis inferendo.

65. Oratio de origine, potentia ac tyrannide Turcarum, ad
Serenissimum ac Potentissimum Henricum octavum Angliae Regem,
Londini, a R. episcopo Viennensi publice babita. In qua supra
omnem modum obstupenda quaadam inveniesitaetiam ut nunquam
te illam legisse poeniteat.

66. Epistola Orthuini Gratii Daventr. ad lectorem ac bonos
omnes, per modum perorationis, in qua non paucorum qure hoc libro
continentur, ratio assignatur, lit citra cujuscunque offensionein, ab
omnibus legi possint, etc.

ELENCHUS TRACTATUUM,

IN APPENDICE^ (SIVE TOMO SECUNDO,) COffTlNENTUR.

1. HILDEBERTI Cenomanensis Episcopi, deinde Archiepiscopi
Turonensis (qui floruit A. D. 1090) Epistola ad Comitem quendam
illustrera, contra Peregrinationis vanitatem.

2. Epistola alia ejusdern ad Comitissam quae Terrain Sanctam
invisere cupiebat.

3. Alia ad Honorium Papam contra Appellationes.

4. Ejusdem Sermo Synodicus ad Pastores super illud, S. Luc
xii, cui multum datum est, ab eo multum quaeretur.

5. Ejusdem descriptio Curiae Romanae.

6. Ejusdem Epitaphium in Berengarium, Magistrum suum.
ANTILOGIA PAP^E hoc est, de Corrupto Ecclesiae Statu,

Scripta aliquot veterum authorum, viz.:

7. Matthiae Parisiensis Praefatio in librum Scholse Parisiensis,
etc.

8. Scriptum Scholae Parisiensis de periculis Ecclesiae, compo-
si turn A. 1). 1339,

9. Articuli Scholasticorum Parisiensium contra Monachos.

10. Articuli Johannis XXII. Papse contra Monachos.

11. Sermones duo M. VVilhelmi de S. A more.

12. Tractatus Marfilii de Padua de translatione Imperii.

13. Aureum speculum Papae, ejus Curiae, Prelatorum et aliorum
Spiritualium, scriptum fere ante 300 annos.

14. Jacobus de Paradiso Carthusiensis de Septem statibus Ec-
clesiae in Apocalypsi descriptis; deque authoritate Ecclesiae et ejus
reform atione, A. D. 1449.

15. Gregorii Heymburgensis Appellatio prima pro parte Domini
Sigismundi Ducis Austriae.

16. Ejusdem Confutatio primatus Papae scripta ante 250 annos.
1J. Pii Secundi Papae Epistola qua Gregorius Heymbergensis

denunciatur excommunicatus.

18. Gregorii Heymburg. Appellatio Secunda, a Papa ad Con-
cilium.

19. Hermanni Ryd. de Reen tractatus de vita et honestate Cle-
ricorurn.

20. Homilia B. Volcuini Abbatis super Evangelium de semine
et zizanio.

21. Hulderici, Episcopi Augustani, Epistola ad versus constitu-
tionem de coelibatu Clericorum.

(Prodiit haec Antilogia Basil. A. D. 1555).

22. Tractatulus contra coelibatum Clericorum, ex MS. biblio-
thecae Collegii Corp. Christi in Cantabrig.

clxxvi

23. Epistola expostulatoria Guilielmi Crashaw ad Severinum
Binnium, de rejectione Opens Tripartiti, Kpistolae Leodiensium ad
Paschalem Papam et Consilii delectorum Cardinalium, e voluminibus
Concilioruni suae editionis.

24. Opusruium Tripartitum.

25. Epistola Leodiensium ad Paschalem Papam.

26. ( onsiliuni delectorum Cardinalium.

2/. Kpistola Adriani Papae ad Fridericum Imperatorem Bar-
barossam, et hujusad ilium.

28. Gravamina Kcclesiae Gallicanae.

Opnscula aliquot(hactenus inedita) Reverendi in Christo Patris
Roberii Grostest Episcupi Lincolniensis, ante annos 450, viz.

29. Sermo propositus coram Papa Innocentio quarto et C'ardi-
nalibus. Lugduni, A. D. 1250.

30. Ejusdem Merino ad Clerum, super Sapient, vi. 26. Rex sa-
piens stabilimentum est populi sui.

31. - Sermo all us ad Clerum, super S. Johan. x. 11.
Ego sum pastor bonus. Monitio et persuasio pastorum.

32. - ali us ad Clerum, contra pastures et praelatos nialos,
super Ezech. xxxiv. 2, 3, 4. Voe pastoribus Israel, qui pascebant
semetipsos, etc.

33. -- alius ad sacerdotes in Synodo; de hoc verbo,
Posuit Stellas in firmamento coeli. Gen. i. 1J.

34. -- aiius in celebratione ordinum, de hoc verbo, Sint
lumbi vestri praecincti. S. Luc xii. 35-

35. - alius de Bono Judice; super Psal- Ivii. 1. Kecte
judicate filii hominum.

36. Ejusdem Tractatus de prophetis verts et falsis.
3/- alius de gratia et justiticatione.

38. - alius de tide et ejus articulis.

39. - alius de Oratione.

40. - alii de superbia, detractione, et humilitafe, etc.

41. - Epistolae aliquot mine recens edits; quibus sub-
nectuutur literal Innocentii IV. Pont. Rom. depromovendo quodam
puero Italo in Canonicum Ecclesiae Lincolniensis, et responsio
Roberti G rosiest: una cum summa Coutroversiae hac de cau>a
inter utrumque ortae, ex Matth. Paris aliisque autiquis historicis

42. Gravamina Re^ni Angl. ex Matt. Paris.

43. Defensorium Venerabilis inceptoris Alri. Wilhemi Ockam
contra Joannem XXII. Papam.

44. Defensorium Curatorum, contra niendicantes, a Richardo
Archiep. Armachano. A. D. 1357.

45. Nic. Oremii Sermo corarn Papa super Isai Ivi. Juxta est
salus mea. A. D. 1363.

46. Johannis de Rupescissa Prophetiae, et ejusdem liber
inscriptus (vade mecum).

47. Recornmendatio Sacrae Scripturae a Dom. Petro de Alliaco
in Magisterio Theologiae et alia ejusdem Opuscula.

48. Determinatio Universitatis Parisiensis in causa Schismatis
A. D. 1395. cum binis epistolis memorab. et antiquis.

clxxvii

49. Nicolaus dc Clamengiis de Corrupto Ecclesiae Statn.

50. Poggii dialog-us contra hypocrisin.
Cum Mattb. de Cracovia.

51- Epistola 54 Nobilium Moraviae ad Concilium Constant*, in
vindicationem Johannis Huss.

52. Literae Capitaneorum Bohemias ad Reges, etc. contra
Papatum.

53. Processus contra Dominnm Henricum BeaufortCardinalem,
Episcop. Winton. pro legatione ejus contra consuetudines Regni
Angl. A. D. 1428.

54. Bullae papales adversus Bohemos et I nstructio data Magistro
Job. Bold per Henr. Chichele, Archiep. Cantuar. pro materia
Bohemorum.

55. Commissiones Henr. Chicbele missae Priori et Officiariis
Cantuar. eadem causa.

56. Instructiones datre per Henricum Cardinalem praedicatoribus
verbi Crucis contra Wicletistas, cum aliquot aliis id genus.

Cutn missa Cruciate.

57. Epistola Cantabrigiensis cujusdam anonymi de misero
Ecclesiae statu circa, A. D. 1520.

58- Consilium trium Episcoporum Bononiae congregatorum.

59- Gentiani Herveti oratio de Ecclesiasticorum disciplina
restauranda.

60. Guil. Damasi Lindani Ruremund. Episcopi Epistola ad
Principes et Praelatos Germanise de perditissimis Cleri rnoribus.
A.D. 1566,

61. Epistola dementis Septimi Pont, ad Carolum Quintum.
A. D. 1525.

62. Epi>tola Caroli Quinti ad Clementem Septimum. A- D.
1526.

63. Epistola ejusdem ad Collegium Cardinalium

64. Epistola ejusdem ad idem, ut negante seu differente Ponti-
fice Generalis Conciliiindictionem, ipsi indicant, e Conringio.

65. Protestatio Caroli Quinti adversus Concilium Tridento Bo-
noniam translatum. Ex eod.

66. Petitiones Oratorum Ferdinand! ("aesaris, legatis Pontificiis
in Concilio Tridentino exhibitae, de Reformatione. Ex eod.

67- Augustini Baumgartneri oratio, nomine Alberti Bavariae
Ducis, in Concilio Trident. Ex eod.

68. Georgii \Vicelii via Regia: sive de Controversis Religion? s
capitibus conciliandis sententia, jussu Ferdinandi primi, Caes, con-
scripta. Ex eod.

69. Ejusdem elencbus abusuum, corruptelarum, deforniitatum,
etc- in Ecclesia Romana, ad Imperatorem Romanum. Ex eod.

70. Ejusdem metbodus Concordiae Ecclesiasticae, etc. cum cata-
logo autliorum qui scripserunt contra squalores Ecclesi* Romans,
concinnato a Tho. James, Oxon.

71. Stephani Gardineri liber De Vera Obedientia, cum Prae-
fatione Boneri, omissa a Goldasto.

72. Ricbardi Sarnpsoni, Decani Sacelli Regii (Episc. Lichfield
et Coventr.) iibellus de obedientia Regi prsestanda.

clxxviii

73. Johannes Barnesii Catbolico. Romanus pacificus.

74. Franciscus Broecardus de dementis Octavi foedere inito
contra Protestantes.

75. Modus solennis et authenticus ad inquirendum, et inveni-
endum, et convincendum Lutheranos, valde necessarius, per Sylves.
trum Prieratem.

76. Excerpta quaedam e Bernardo, Job. Gersone, Job. Sarisbe-
riensi, Marsilio Patavino, Alvaro Pelagio, Theodorico de Niem,
Fascicule temporum, Abbate Urspergensi et Matt. Paris de corrup-
telis et avaritia Ecclesiae Roman?e.

77. Officium Ordalii vetusintegrum.

AN ADDRESS

DELIVERED AT THE FORMATION

OF THE

CHRISTIAN INSTITUTE,

On the 13th of May, 1826.

ALTHOUGH I am but little qualified for making a formal
address, and perhaps experience more difficulty in speaking to a
select number of persons in a private room than I should to even
a much more numerous and public auditory ; yet upon the present
occasion it will most probably be expected that I should make
a few remarks, in explanation of my object and purpose, in thus
convening you together.

It becomes me first to express my grateful acknowledgments
to you, collectively and individually, for having so far honored
me with your confidence, as to allow me to identify your names
with a plan, which, however highly I may contemplate its future
utility and I beg to say my expectations with relation to the
CHRISTIAN INSTITUTE are bounded in respect of space, by the
limits of the universe alone ; and in respect of time, by nothing
short of eternity ; and however highly I may appreciate its bene-
fits in after ages nevertheless exhibits, I admit, sufficient of
novelty and peculiarity, to justify some degree of hesitation, as to
its immediate and instantaneous reception. And I feel that mark
of respect the more powerfully, because I believe that, with almost
a single exception, you were all, in the first instance, entirely
ignorant with whom I proposed individually to associate you.

Under these circumstances, gentlemen, it is that we are met
this day this memorable day and I humbly trust, and fer-
vently pray, that the blessing of heaven may rest upon us ; and
that as our only object is to promote the cause of the Redeemer

and advance the standard of the Cross in all its genuine dignity
and simplicity He, who shed his most precious blood upon
that cross, in order to rescue a lost and ruined world from the
jaws of the devouring lion, will deign to look down upon us
to take us and our plans under his own immediate guidance and
to grant us the influence of his holy spirit, to superintend to
regulate and to control our every object our every purpose
our every movement.

Soon after it pleased God, in his dispensations of unbounded
mercy, to bring me within the circle of religious connections ; I
felt much disturbed, and indeed perplexed, to comprehend how
it was that pious characters of various denominations not only
stood aloof from, but too frequently indulged in violent, if not in
rancorous expressions against each other, and, at all events, sel-
dom refrained from the coarse invective or the unfriendly taunt.
It struck me forcibly that this should not be ; and more especially
as it was evident that the enemies of vital godliness made no
small advantage of such violations of Christian charity.

I could not comprehend, and I cannot comprehend, how per-
sons, who hesitate not to unite in the celebration of the most
solemn ordinances of the Christian faith, with individuals con-
cerning whose personal piety and acquaintance with saving faith,
they neither entertain nor profess to entertain any good hope ;
whom they do not, in the utmost extent of Christian charity,
expect or believe they shall meet in the mansions of bliss ; yet,
at the same time, shrink from a cordial and affectionate union
with thousands, of whose piety and decided Christianity they
neither can or pretend to doubt, and in conjunction with whom,
they will readily acknowledge they anticipate the realization of
a blissful eternity.

The establishment of the British and Foreign Bible Society in
some measure relieyed the dark shades of this melancholy pic-
ture. May God grant tha hemisphere may become more and
more enlightened by the rays of divine love and Christian cha-
rity, and that every cloud and spot, raised up by the subtle enemy
of all good, may be dispersed by the great Head of the Church.

Another Institution was founded upon the same basis, of
which I shall upon the present occasion say no more, than that
those who have attended the two last meetings of that society
cannot have failed to remark, that the individuals who were most
active in violating its fundamental principles, have pretty nearly
read their public recantation.

Neither of these Societies, however, exhibit that which it is
the object of the CHRISTIAN INSTITUTE to embrace and accom-
plish; and perhaps the only instance where its imperfect linea-
ments have ever been expressed was in a local clerical meeting
called " The Bedford Union."

It was my happiness to be intimately acquainted with several
of the Members of that Society, some of which are still living;
but many of its original promoters have rested from their labours.
. In that Society I have had the happiness, more than once, to
witness an exhibition of Christian love of cordial affection
and of sympathetic response that I do not recollect to have ever
experienced upon any other occasion or under any other circum-
stances. In the sequel I shall have occasion to recur again to
this subject.

Many years have since then passed over my head, and during
the last ten more especially my mind has, in a greater or less
degree, been occupied in planning and preparing that Society,
which I trust will this day receive its first formation which I
trust and firmly believe will, under the auspices of Heaven itself,
increase more and more, until it shall present probably long
after the head of him who has planned and cemented it shall be
laid low, and he shall have been summoned to render an ac-
count of his stewardship an invincible barrier, an impenetrable
phalanx, a front of adamant, against all the enemies of the
Christian Faith.

A more minute acquaintance with ecclesiastical history in
general, and especially with that portion of it which relates to
the United Kingdom, led me distinctly to discover two facts, viz.

1st. That ever since the dawn of the Reformation arose in the
benighted horizon of papal Christianity, the emissaries of the

papacy had bent their utmost exertions to foment and agitate
divisions and jealousies amongst Protestants, and to perpetuate
their disunion ; and

2ndly. That the most holy and pious Protestants have uni-
formly lamented those divisions, and have anxiously anticipated
the day when they should either cease, or be divested of all
hostility and unchristian rivalry.

It would occupy too much time to examine minutely the first
proposition, but still it would not be difficult to shew that a papal
bull was actually issued, authorising the Romish priests to origi-
nate different sects, and promulgate different opinions and doc-
trines, on purpose to distract and divide, to harrass and perplex
the early reformers.

And those who have paid any attention to these subjects will
recollect, that, amongst a host of other writers, there is the re-
spectable authority of Dr. Hammond on the one hand, and of
Dr. Calamy on the other, that manoeuvres of this description
have been practised, even in our own country, during some of the
most important periods of English history.

In the preface to the work from which a passage is quoted in
the printed Prospectus you have all received, and in a collection
of TractsjDublished many years ago by a dignified Clergyman of
the Church of England, viz. Dr. Michael Geddes, formerly Dean
of Salisbury, the same fact is at once distinctly asserted and
deeply lamented.

The importance of union in matters of Christian faith is ad-
mitted and contended for by our greatest opponents ; for is not
the great charge which Papists bring against Protestants our
multifarious divisions? Divisions, however, I have already
shewn, engendered and fomented by themselves. And the grand
object which they present in the front of all their attacks upon
Protestantism is, the necessity of union, and the actual existence
of that union in their own community.

But of what avail is the boasted centre of Papal unity ? It
was declared by the great St. Hilary, Bishop of Poictiers, centu-
ries before the Reformation took place, that there was no unity

or union at Rome that new creeds were propagated and invented
every day and that schisms and factions sprung up with such
rapidity, that it was impossible to know from one day to another
what was the creed of any given community.

This evil did not decrease in the subsequent interval, except
so far as fire and faggots restrained private opinion; and there-
fore, as some modern Spanish historians inform us, it was the
boast of the adherents of Popery in that unhappy country, that
fire and sword, or, to use the language of father La Chaise, con-
fessor to Lewis the XIV., " your dragoons" or " booted Apostles"
are the best cementers of the unity of the faith that can be
imagined !

The unfounded pretensions of the professors of Popery to
unity of faith are also conspicuously displayed by the venerable
Fox, in his " Rablement of Religious Orders," and by our excel-
lent Bishop Hall, in a tract called "The Peace of Rome," most
strangely omitted by Mr. Pratt in his edition of that prelate's works.

But many Protestants have been as anxious to promote and
to contend for the unity of the faith as the Papists. Whence
all our statutes of uniformity ? whence the directory for public
worship in 1 645, in the time of the long parliament, by the
presbyterian divines ?

Perhaps it will not be easy to exculpate any party, when
placed in the seat of power, from the charge of cruelty and op-
pression, in order to secure this object; so desirable has it al-
ways appeared in the sight of all men. But in all these efforts,
the authority of human laws and the power of the civil magis-
trate, were too often employed. Mens' consciences were there-
fore forced, the right of private judgment was violated, and, in
many instances, the utmost cruelty and injustice were put in
practice. The consequence, therefore, as might naturally be
expected, was, that all these various attempts failed ; and not
only did divisions multiply, but dissentions grew wider and
wider, and the enemy of God and man failed not to make use of
an occurrence so favorable to his diabolical machinations.

Another plan was once attempted. A puritan divine, of the

name of Dury, was so impressed with the importance of Chris-
tian union, that it is said he occupied thirty years of his life
in aiming to establish what ? No less than an entire uniformity
of faith, discipline, and worship, throughout the whole Christian
world ! Not merely an union between Protestants, but of Ro-
manists with Protestants. He travelled all over Europe, con-
sulted with the divines of all countries and of all denominations,
and was seconded and encouraged by some great and exemplary
characters, amongst whom are enumerated the names of Bishop
Hall, Bishop Bedell, Joseph Mede, the great Sir Robert Boyle,
and at one time even fmirabile dictu/J of Archbishop Laud
himself. But this plan also failed ; nor can we wonder at it, for
it was Utopian. It is not to be expected that all men should be
of one mind it is not necessary perhaps, even, it was never
the mind and will of Jehovah that they should be ; for it has been
well remarked, that the purity of the sacred text has been essen-
tially preserved and insured by the constant jealousy and vigilance
of the different sects of Christians over the integrity of the
divine sources of their common faith.

It is not necessary. Episcopalians will recollect, that the great
champion of the hierarchy, Bishop Tomline, has acknowledged
that " there is no precept in the New Testament which commands
that every church should be governed by Bishops, and that as it
has not pleased our Almighty Father to prescribe any particular
form of civil government for the security of temporal comforts
to his rational creatures, so neither has he prescribed any parti-
cular form of ecclesiastical polity as absolutely necessary to the
attainment of eternal happiness."

The Evangelical Clergy will recollect, that the pious and ju-
dicious Joseph Milner confesses that " he feels no surprise that
controversies should have been started in a matter where some-
thing may be said for Episcopacy something for Presbytery
and something for Independency ; and that to him it seemed an
unhappy prejudice to look on any one of the forms as of Divine
Right or of Scriptural Authority."

The late Mr. Cecil also remarks, that " the appointment of the

New (Gospel) Dispensation had not that character of unaccom-
modating inflexibility which marked the institutions of the Old
Dispensation. It has not limited Christianity to any one form
of Church polity, ordained and perfected in all its parts by Di-
vine Authority ; but Christians are left to act herein according
to circumstances, and to the exercise of sound discretion under
those circumstances." And the reasons by which the venerable
Hooker himself sustains his Ecclesiastical Polity, would make it
as imperative upon a Christian to be a Presbyterian or a Congre-
gationalist, where either of those forms of church government
were established by the civil magistrate, as to be an Episcopalian
where Episcopacy happens to possess that privilege.

Presbyterians will recollect, that Dr. George Campbell, a late
learned principal of Marischal College at Aberdeen, has declared
that " a church may subsist under different forms, as well as a
state ; that no form of church polity can plead such an exclusive
charter as the phrase of Jus Divinum implies ; that he had not
found one, of all the different Christian sects which he had ex-
amined, which could be said perfectly to coincide with the mo-
del of the Apostolic Church ; that we may say with freedom,
that if a particular form of polity had been essential to the
Church, it would have been laid down in another manner in the
sacred books ; that, for his own part, he acknowledged it to be
his opinion, that there is not a church now in the world which is
on the model of that formed by the Apostles ; and that under
whatever form of ecclesiastical polity a man lives, it will still
hold an infallible truth, that if he believe and obey the gospel of
our Lord Jesus Christ, he shall be saved."

Congregationalists will recollect, that their justly revered Dr.
John Owen has said, " that he knew no church government in
the world, already established, of the truth and necessity of
which he was, in all particulars, convinced ; and that it was his
conviction, all national disputes about church government would
prove fruitless tympanies."

The Wesleyan Methodist will recollect, that similar sentiments

have been expressed by a very eminent and highly talented
Minister in their own communion, who declares it as his opinion
that " a bigot for Independency or Presbyterianism, and a bigot
for diocesan Episcopacy and Apostolical succession, stand upon
nearly the same ground.*' And this able writer and Christian
Divine sums up the argument by the following judicious remarks :
" The array of so many wise and holy men on different sides of
the question of ecclesiastical polity, whilst they were under a
discussion to which nothing can now be added, ought by this
time to have neutralized all parties. In the different circum-
stances of churches, much may be said for most of the various
forms of government they have assumed ; for the fact seems to
be, that we have often mistaken what is a mere matter of pru-
dential regulation, for divine prescription. Of what is prudent
men judge variously ; and the different circumstances of churches
will often render a different constitution either necessary or
more fitting. As to the various modes of church discipline
among us in this country, * whate'er is best administered is best*
may be the true rule. The spirit of true Religion in churches is
the principal thing ; and as that prevails, it will regulate and
sanctify every form ; and, without altering it essentially, may
render it ' good to the use of edifying.' So long as we are at
liberty to adopt that which best comports with our own serious
views, there seems little reason for controversy, and none cer-
tainly for contention."

And all good men will recollect, that, had the rest of the
clergy followed the example and recommendation of those emi-
nently learned and pious prelates, Archbishop Usher and Bishop
Hall, it is more than probable, dissent would have been strangled
in its birth.

I have already alluded to the Bedford Union, and it will be
natural to inquire what became of that institution. Whether it
is now in operation I do not know ; I fear, at all events, it has
but a languid existence ; nor must that discourage us, for the
Bedford Union, excellent as it was, contained some inherent seeds

of mortality, and which were very likely to accelerate its own
dissolution.

The delicate question of preaching in the neighbouring vil-
lages formed one of its objects, and although care was taken to
avoid offence as much as possible, yet it was hardly possible to
avoid it ; so that when some of its more early founders men of
a choice spirit were called to their home, those who were left
became lukewarm and indifferent, and the event has been what
might have been anticipated.

All the rocks and shoals which have proved fatal to the plans
and prospects hitherto attempted, have, I hope and trust, been
avoided in the construction of the CHRISTIAN INSTITUTE ; and
if any rugged stone should still have been left, we must unite our
endeavours to remove it out of the way, or, if that is not prac-
ticable, to round and polish it, so that it may be rendered inca-
pable of inflicting a serious wound.

I have already adduced the opinions of some able Divines as
to the importance of the Union of Protestants.

In the sermon preached at the formation of the Bedford
Union, before alluded to, are the following passages :

" Such an union among real Christians as is consistent with
the freedom of private judgment and fulfilment of the dictates
of conscience, is warranted and required by the word of God."
" The first Christian churches were united. They corre-
sponded, sympathised, and co-operated together. Can we, till
we are united, expect to be clothed with vigour and beauty, and
animated by the Spirit of God ?" " What would be the con-
dition of our churches if the members of them were no more
united together than the churches themselves are to one another,
as members of the general body of Christ ? What might we not
hope for, as to mutual benefit and general usefulness, from a
spiritual, cordial, and active union of all real Christians ?"
" What are the points of difference between real Christians
'compared with the greatness of those objects in which we all
agree ?" " We aim at union, not uniformity ; we wish to ex-
cite your zeal, not to alter your opinions ; we long to promote

(

your love to all fellow Christians, not to lessen your attachment
to those with whom you are immediately connected." " How
are men of the world to believe in the divine mission of our
Saviour ? They believe it not : they blaspheme the name of
Jesus ; and they themselves assign, as a reason for their unbe-
lief, that Christians are divided and opposed amongst them-
selves." Alluding to the early ages of Christianity, the preacher
remarks, ' Whilst Christians had maintained a spiritual and
effectual union, the Gospel triumphed over all opposition from
the most powerful empire."

Referring to the sera of the reformation, " small differences of
judgment disunited the reformers, who agreed in doctrines of the
first magnitude, they split into sects and Rome rejoiced, they
persecuted one another and she triumphed."

Further, " let us make known to distant brethren, the concern
we feel for the universal union of the church of Christ, and the
measures we are taking towards its restoration amongst ourselves.
Many variously denominated, and remotely situated, are longing
for such an union ; thousands and myriads may in secret, be
sighing and praying for its accomplishment."

' There is no need to search for precedents ; an union of
Christians, as such, is grounded upon the nature of Christianity,
upon the authority of Jesus Christ, upon his atoning sacrifice
and renewing spirit, upon the example of his apostles and of
the primitive churches, upon the promises and the prophecies
of his word. It must take place on earth, it shall endure through-
out time, it will be perfected in everlasting glory."

" Can we be unaffected by the rapid spread of infidelity? Is
it a time for them, who know that the gospel is from God, to
slight and shun each other for small differences, when the com-
mon enemy is striking at the very root of Christianity ?"

" I consider the distance that is so assiduously promoted
between different parties of Christians, especially between the
pious people within, and those without the pale of the religious
establishment of this nation, as a master device of Satan. Let
us not pride ourselves therefore in distinctions, which shall soon

be removed, but think it our honor to constitute an union that
shall never be dissolved."

And when I state, that the sentiments which I have just read,
were those of the late eminent Samuel Greatheed : those, who
have any knowledge of that individual's character, will think
they are entitled to some weight ; even if it should be possible
for them not to be impressed by the intrinsic character of the
sentiments themselves.

But we have yet two other witnesses, in favor of our object,
who were anxiously alive to the importance of some such mea-
sure more than sixty years ago.

Hear the venerable John Wesley in a circular which he sent
to several pious ministers in the established church.

" Ought not those who are united to one common head, and
employed by him in one common work, to be united to each
other ? what union do we desire ? not an union in opinions, not
an union in expressions, not an union with regard to outward
order, but an agreement in these essentials,

I. Original Sin.

II. Justification by Faith.

III. Holiness of Heart and Life.

" But it will never be, it is utterly impossible ; certainly it
is with men, who imagines we can do this ? that it can be
effected by any human power ? all nature is against it, every in-
firmity, every wrong temper and passion, love of honor and
praise, of power, of pre-eminence ; or anger, resentment, pride,
long contracted habit and prejudice lurking in ten thousand forms,
the Devil and all his angels, are against it, for if this takes
place how shall his Kingdom stand ?"

" But, surely, with God all things are possible. Therefore,
all things are possible to him that believeth, and this union is
proposed only to them that believe, that shew their faith by their
works."

Hear the affectionate response of the Rev. Vincent Perronet,
one of the clergymen to whom the above circular was addressed.
" It has always been a leading principle with me (and I pray

God to confirm and strengthen it more and more) to love all those
labourers of Christ, who give proof, by their diligence, their holy
and heavenly behaviour, that they love our Lord Jesus Christ in
sincerity ; even though their sentiments, in many things, should
differ from mine. And, therefore, though it be absurd to expect
an entire union of sentiments in all things, yet, the endeavouring,
by every Christian method to keep the unity of the spirit in the
bond of peace is the indispensable duty of all Christians. Where
this spiritual peace and union are not, there faith working by love
is not. And where this divine faith is wanting, there Christ is
wanting ; there his spirit is wanting : and then, neither circum-
cision, nor uncircumcision will avail us any thing."

I have shewn that the division of Protestants has always been
the grand aim of Papists. Was there ever a period when more
was to be apprehended from their machinations than now ? I
know good men differ upon the political question, with which we
in the CHRISTIAN INSTITUTE have nothing to do. I know that
good men differ as to the most likely and most scriptural method
of pulling down the strong holds of this superstition, and of
abating its influence upon the mind of man : but I believe we are
all agreed, that her errors should be combated, by all scriptural
means, by fair reason, and legitimate appeals to sound argument,
and the scriptures of truth. I am persuaded we shall also agree,
that il is of the utmost importance that we should be united,
as far as possible, amongst ourselves, so that if a blow should
come, if an attack should be made upon our common Christianity
from that quarter, as some of us fully anticipate, as others perhaps
hardly or very remotely contemplate, we may, at all events, be
prepared to receive such an attack in the best possible attitude.

If a town were in a state of siege, some of the inhabitants might,
perhaps, anticipate a nightly attack ; whilst others, possessing
less information, or not having observed the motions of the
besiegers with equal attention, might be of opinion no such attack
was in contemplation. But, surely, no individual would be
found, if a faithful and loyal citizen, who would, for a moment,
hesitate to assist in making every possible preparation to guard

the posterns, to mount the ramparts, to plant the guns, and to see
that every centinel was at his proper post.

But, Sirs, our common Christianity has other enemies besides
the papists, enemies, who, if not more venomous and malicious,
are become more subtle and active than formerly, the apostles of
infidelity in general ; enemies, who, if not consciously actuat-
ed, equally with the papists, by a desire to spread disunion and
discord amongst protestants, are, nevertheless, under the guidance
of the grand enemy himself, and operate the same object, whilst
he wields them as his willing instruments, themselves being alike
the victims and seducers.

The character of this division of the host of Apollyon is so
powerfully delineated by Mr. Greatheed, that, largely as I have
already quoted from his sermon, I cannot avoid trespassing a few
minutes longer on your patience. " We have not, now, to
oppose a few speculative pretenders to philosophy. Infidelity
has assumed a popular address. It makes its appeal to the com-
mon feelings of mankind ; debased by ignorance, and oppressed
by want. No longer concealed from general notice by the flimsy
veil of scepticism, unbelief now displays its unbashful forehead,
and, in open day, accosts all who pass by. No more, as for-
merly, secluded in the recesses of literary profligates, nor limited
to the precincts of ambitious courts, infidelity now, like death,
bursts open the cottage door as well as the palace gate.

Pallida mors csquo pulsat pede pauperum tdbernas^
Regumque turres.

It spreads in the lower ranks,, and the more ignorant and im-
moral of our hearers, have now learned to deride the inspiration
of the Scriptures, and to stigmatize the Gospel as priestcraft."

There is yet another class of persons, viz. all those, by what-
ever shades or varieties distinguished, -who deny either the
Divinity of our Lord, or the Divinity and Personality of the
Holy Spirit.

Now all these classes are, more or less, actively assailing the
grand fortress of the Christian faith.

Notwithstanding the many causes there are for pleasing an-
ticipations, notwithstanding the certainty, which every well
grounded Christian feels in his own bosom, of the final result;
if we take reason for our guide, if we take observation for our
guide, if we take past experience for our guide, if we take the
Holy Scriptures for our guide, the certainty that a great battle is
to be fought is as clear as demonstration can make it.

All who hear me will agree, that, although the providence of
God watches alike over the good and the evil, yet, in point of fact,
God has nothing to do with the world, except so far as his Church
is concerned, and that, whenever the last vessel of mercy is
ripened for glory, in that very moment swift destruction will go
forth from the presence of the Lord, and sweep from the face of
the earth all that do wickedly and forget God, viz. all those that
are left.

The voice of prophecy, however cautiously expounded, assures
us that a great contest must and will take place, and the com-
plexion of the times, and every day's observation, not only con-
firm the prophetical declaration of Holy Writ, but pretty distinctly
indicate that contest is approaching with rapid strides.

The whole universe, therefore, never did and never can com-
prise more than two grand parties, those who love and fear the
Saviour, and those who reject his sceptre and despise his rod.

Now we are quite certain, that those who reject the sceptre of
the Redeemer will unite and support each other in their opposition
to his saints. Has it not always been so ? It may be that their
union is neither apparent to others or to themselves, for they may
be, and frequently are, abhorrent from each other. But we know
in whose hands all these are mere instruments. The Fiend of
darkness is the grand agent, the great master puppet. So that,
whether the squadrons of darkness advance, from the caves of
Elephanta, from the tomb of Mahomet, from the dungeons of the
Inquisition, or from the groves of Ferney ; each division of the
great antichristian army will aim at the same object, the invari-
able and unchangeable object of their fell conductor, the ever-
lasting ruin and misery of -the soul of man.

Well then, my friends, if such be the contest in which the
disciples of the Redeemer will have to engage, if such be the cer-
tainty of that contest, ought not their operations to be combined?
Should they not present to their formidable adversaries a firm aid
impenetrable phalanx ? Ought they not, conscious that truth is
on their side ; and that, although they may be called to fight this
great battle in separate divisions, distributed into squadrons and
companies of different arms suited to the various duties of the
field; arranged too, it may be, under bannars of different hues,
and bearing the armorial distinctions of various chieftains, they
still constitute but one grand army ; gladly to rally round one
and the same royal standard, and chearfully obey one and the
same great Captain of their Salvation ?

If then, my friends, you are sure that in the great struggle
which must sooner or later take place, the enemies of God, will
become more and more united, or rather, their great instigator will
form them into closer and more compact legions ; and that they
will continue to increase, until God disperses them to the winds by
the breath of his mouth; does not common sense suggest, that
the friends of the Saviour should join together heart and hand?

But are we not called to this union by a much higher sanction ?
Is not " the love of the brethren," declared by an apostle, to be
a decisive test of having ourselves passed from death unto life ?
And who I pray are the brethren ? Are they not all the members
of the church militant here below, and those who will be the
members of the church triumphant above ? viz. " All them that
love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity."

These remarks have extended themselves so much beyond whet
I anticipated, that I can say but little upon the plans and objects of
the CHRISTIAN INSTITUTE ; nor do I think it necessary : thty
are sufficiently explained in the printed prospectus.

The collection of an appropriate library of scarce and valualle
books, * of those especially which are escaping from our re-

* And here I must bring under your consideration a circumstance of
no trifling moment. The Papists have actually anticipated us j for siace
this Address was prepared, it has been announced in the public pr'nts

searches the re-publication of those which may be most valua-
ble the purchase and dispersion of new works which require
encouragement, and which do not fall within the scope and design
o l our Tract Societies the bestowment of useful works and
snail libraries upon pious ministers who are unable to purchase
them the support of religious truth wherever assailedthe dis-
persion of the doctrines of the Reformation, through the medium
cf a periodical Journal, and, in one word, the adoption of
whatever scriptural means of propagating the cause of the Re-
deemer the times and circumstances may render necessary.

It is our object that the CHRISTIAN INSTITUTE should be-
come the grand centre of religious truth for the whole world ;
where Christians of every name and denomination, holding the
fundamentals of the Gospel, may meet as friends and brothers.
Then may we hope to see realized the scene pourtrayed with
such inimitable beauty by the Psalmist :

How pleasant is the scene, how sweet,
When kindred souls in friendship join j

Whose joys and cares united meet
In bands of amity divine.

Not flow'ry Hermon e'er display 'd,

ImpearPd with dew, a fairer sight ;
Nor Sion's beauteous hills, array' d

In golden beams of morning light.

Then may the enemies of the Cross once more be constrained
to exclaim, " See how these Christians love one another."

Then too shall we be prepared to adopt the prayer of the
pious Bogatsky : " O Lord, unite us all in hearty fellowship
aid tender feelings for each other ; and stop all open and subtle
divisions, which are fermented by lofty spirits, who always boast
of mighty things, and to be wise above the rest. Suffer not a
self-conceited and a party spirit, which is the spirit of the world,
to influence the members of thy body ; but bless and grace them
all with true humility ; then we shall live in a solid union and
uninterrupted harmony."

that they are about to establish a library for the maintenance and diffu-
sion of their principles j thus demonstrating that they at least are mus-
teriog their forces, and arranging their plans against the day of conflict.

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