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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	bishop_n	law_n	power_n	3,346	5	4.9385	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70635	A cloud of witnesses, or, The sufferers mirrour made up of the swanlike-songs, and other choice passages of several martyrs and confessors to the sixteenth century, in their treatises, speeches, letters, prayers, &c. in their prisons, or exiles, at the bar, or stake, &c. / collected out of the ecclesiastical histories of Eusebius, Fox, Fuller, Petrie, Scotland, and Mr. Samuel Ward's Life of faith in death, &c. and alphabetically disposed by T.M. ...	Mall, Thomas, b. 1629 or 30.; Mall, Thomas, b. 1629 or 30. Offer of farther help to suffering saints.; Ward, Samuel, 1577-1640.	1665 (1665)	Wing M330; Wing M332; ESTC R232057	171,145	273

Citi● require but of such Laws as men have ordaine● for the Church of Christ which should be now an● for ever governed by the word of God T●●● Law must-prevail We must obey God rather th●● man The example hereof we have in Dauiel 〈◊〉 the Three Children who chose rather to burn 〈◊〉 the fiery Furnace than to worship the Image th● Nebuchadnezzar had made So did the Apostle● Acts. 5. Cursed be those that make such Law● and cursed be those that with sophistry dese● them ch 5. The Authority of Gods word requireth me to pronounce this true Judgement in the case of Images that be not worshipped in the Church that their presence in the Church is against Gods Word as well as to say Sancta Maria 〈◊〉 pro nobis The old Testament saith Exod. 20. Deut. 6. Thou shalt make no Image The New saith that Christ came not to destroy the Law but to fulfil it Matth. 5. Christ therefore hath left the commandments of the old Law unto the Church in which he saith Thou shalt not make any Image Of late years Images were in the Temple and honoured with pater moster heart and mind leg and knee Now they be applied to another use to teach the people to be Lay-mens books as Damascene c. saith O blasphemous and devillish Doctrine The most perfect Churches of the Prophets Christ and his Apostles used no such mean and we ought to follow them and the Word of God writ by the Prophets and Apostles The words of Gregor ad Seren. Episcop Massil part 10. Ep. 4. should move no man though he say Quod legentibus Scriptura hoe ideotis pictura praftat cernentibus This is but Gregory's opinion Epiphanius was not of his mind He willed the occasion of ill to be taken out of the Church as Paul commandeth 1 Thes 5. This Doctor was as all men know of singular learning and vertue Again against the Authority of Gregory the Great I set the Authority of Athanasius the Great who denieth in express words the Images to be the Books of the Lay people Lactantius Firmianus crieth so out against Images that he saith there can be no true Religion where they be Tertullian judgeth the same Loved we God we would be content with the Scripture Shall not the Patriarks Prophets Christ and his Apostles suffice the Church of God What although many learned men have approved Images should their wisdome maintain any contrary to the Word of God Such as defend them have nothing but sophistical arguments to blind the people with The Scripture nor Apostles Church used none Had all Asia Africa and Europe and Gabriel the Archangel descended from Heaven approved the use of Images forasmuch as the Apostles never taught nor wrote any such thing their Authority should have no place the Word of God solely and only is to be prefer'd which forbiddeth Images ch 10. The Office of Christ to sanctifie us according to John 17. I sanctifie my self that they may be sanctified doth abrogate all other things that mans constitutions attribute any holiness unto as bewitched water c. for only Christ sanctifieth and all holiness we must attribute unto him Sactaments must be used holily yet not have this Office of Christ added to them ch 11. In the latter dayes when Christ as King was to be born the Angel decl●red the Power and Puissance of his Kingdome He shall reign over the house of Jacob and of his Kingdome there shall be no end Luke 1. Although the Commonwealth of the Church hath no certain place appointed where it shall remain as it was appointed in the old Law yet certain we be that this Kingdome of Christ remaineth upon the Earth and shall do till the Earth be burned Matth. 16.28 1 Cor. 15. Howbeit as Christ wan and obtained this Kingdome in the later dayes without shield or spear so doth he preserve it with his holy Spirit and not with carnal weapons My Kingdome is not of this world John 18. Meaning he would not reign in this world as a Prince of this world in pomp and pride but defend his people with his holy Spirit that the Devil and the World should not break their patience though many afflictions and sorrows should fight against them for the Truth 's sake Christ doth not deny to be King of the world but he meant not to reign worldlily to the hinderance and defacing of the Emperouts Dignity and Title as the Jews falsly accused him as Cyrillus l. 12. c. 10. in Johannem saith This Kingdome shall be ever perse●nted till the worlds end Isaiah the Prophet described the Church of this present life saying He will give you the bread of adversity and the water of afflictione but he will not remove thy teachers chap. 30.20 Thus the Church shall alwayes remain but in affliction I know such as favour not the Truth will interpret my words that I condemn all Princes and Kings as enemies of the Gospel because they peaceably enjoy their Kingdomes whereas I wish them alwayes so to do to the glory of God but of this one thing I will assure every Prince of the world The more sincere he is in the Cause of God the more shall be his Cross God indeed preserveth above humane reason his Ministers as he did Jacob from the hands of Esau David from Saul Daniel from the ●ons and Paul in the Ship when there was no humane hope of salvation Likewise he governeth his Church with his only Laws The only Law whereunto this Congregation is bound ist he Gosrel as Christ saith Joh. 4. The Holy Ghost shall teach you all things and brng to your remembrance all things which I have said unto you Here Christ bindeth the Apostles all the Church unto the things that he had taught them Such as teach the people to know the Commonwealth of the true Church by these signs the traditions of men and the succession of Bishops teach wrong Those two false opinions have given unto the succession of Bishops power to interpret the Scripture and power to make such Laws in the Church as it pleased them God hath given the Civil Magistrates power and authority to make such Laws for the Commonwealth as shall be agreeable with reason and not against Gods Law and likewise power to interpret the same Laws but this is not to be admitted in the Church unto whom God hath given the Gospel and interpreted the same by his only Son taught the meaning and contents thereof himself The adversaries of the Truth defend many an error under the name of the holy Church when the Church therefore is named diligently consider when the Articles they would defend were accepted of the Church by whom and who was the Author of them Leave not till the matter be brought unto the first original and most perfect Church of the Apostles If thou find by their writings that their Church used the thing that the Preacher would prove then accept it or

else not Be not amazed though they speak of never so many years nor name never so many Doctors If either the Authority of Bishops of the greater part should have power to interpret the Scripture the sentence of the Pharisees should have been prefer'd before the sentence of Zachary Simeon Elizabeth or the blessed Virgin Consider the true Church is many time but a small Congregation as Isaiah saith Unless God had left us a remnant we had been as Sodom Therefore the interpretation of the Scripture is not obligated to ordinary power nor the most part Beware of deceit when thou hearest the name of the Church The verity is then assaulted They call the Church of the Devil the holy Church many time Remember Christian Reader that the gift of interpreting the Scripture is the Light of the Holy Ghost given unto the humble and penitent person that seeketh onely to honour God and not unto those persons that claim it by title or place because be is a Bishop or followed by succession Peter o● Paul Remember therefore to examine all Doctrine by the Word of God for such as preach it aright have their infirmities and ignorance they may depart from the Truth or else build some superstition and false Doctrine upon the Gospel of Christ Superstition is to be avoided false Doctrine to be abhorred whosoever be the Author thereof Prince Magistrate or Bishop As the Apostles made answer Acts 5. We ought to obey God rather than man ch 13. The Law is necessary for a justified man to teach him with what works he should exercise his faith will and obedience unto God We may not chuse works of our own wisdome to serve him withal He would have us to be governed by his Word as David saith Thy Word is a light unto my feet And Christ In vain do they worship me by the commands of men In the second Declaration See his Declaration of the holy ten Com. of Almighty God Printed Anne 1548. pag. 8 9. Moses commandeth Deut. 4. that no man should decline from this Law neither to the right nor left hand i.e. That no man should add to or take any thing from it but simply to observe it as it is given or written to us From this right line and true rule of Gods Word man erreth divers wayes Sometimes by ignorance because he knoweth not or will not know that only the express Word of God sufficeth He holdeth with the most part and condemneth the better as it is to be seen at this present day This reason taketh place it is allowed of the most part and established by so many holy and learned Bishops therefore it is true c. Another way that leadeth from the Word of God is many times the power and authority of this world as we see by the Bishop of Rome and all his adherents who give more credit to one Charter and gift of Constantine than to the whole Bible Another erreth by mistaking of the time making his superstition far elder than it is c. One saith thus My Father believed and should I believe the contrary Pag. 11. Whereas no Law at all should be spoken of conscience but the only Word of God which never altered nor can be altered Mat. 5. Luk. 10. Psal 18.119 If Heavens and Earth made by word cannot be altered how much more the Word it self Unto which Law the conscience of man in matters of faith is bound only Pag. 13. Such as can interpret nothing will say I have an ill opinion of God in Heaven and of the superiour Powers on Earth because I damn the Disciples of the false Doctors with the Doctors and take from all Powers on Earth authority to prescribe unto their Subjects any Law touching Religion of the soul As concerning those that be seduced by false Teachers St. Luke c. 6. Ezekiel 3. and 13. judge as I do Both he that leadeth to damnation and he that is led Pag. 14. falleth into the pit Notwithstanding I believe that in the midst of darkness when all the world as far as man might judge had sworn unto the Bishop of Rome Christ had his Elect that never consented to his false Laws as it was in the time of Elias 1 Kings 19. where God saith He had preserved seven thousand that had not bowed the knee to Baal Pag. 15. As many as die before us seduced by false Teachers without repentance the Scripture condemneth As many as believed them not but trusted to the Scripture or else deceived yet repented before they died live eternally in joy and solace and are saved as John saith Rev. 13. in the blood of the Lamb. As touching the superiour Powers of the Earth it is not unknown to all men that have read and marked the Scripture that it pertaineth nothing to their Office to make any Law to govern the consciences of their Subjects in Religion but to reign over them in this case as the Word of God commandeth Pag. 16. Howbeit in their Realms they make what Laws they will and as many as they will command them to be kept as long it pleaseth them and change them at their pleasure as they shall see occasion for the wealth commodity of their Realms Unto the which superiour Powers we owe all obedience both of body and goods and likewise our daily prayer for them to Almighty God c. And as many divers Commonwealths as there be so many divers Laws there may be Howbeit all Christian Kings and Kingdomes with other Magistrates should reign by one Law and govern the Churches of their Realms solely by the Word of God Pag. 17. which is never to be changed Thus Christ commanded his Apostles to teach and their Audience to hear the things he commanded Matth. 28. Mark 16. Pag. 26. Moses prescribeth unto his Audience seven Rules wherewith he prepareth them to the receiving of the ten Commandements 1 A right perswasion of Gods word that God will undoubtedly give the good promised to the good and inflict the evil threatned against the evil Pag. 29. 2 To have a right opinion of the Magistrates and superiour Powers of the Earth to give them no more nor any less honour and reverence than the Word of God commandeth For lack of this preparative the world hath erred from the Truth this many years Men do not look what Gods Word saith but extol the authority of mans Laws preferring the decree of a general or provincial Council before the Word of God Pag. 30. 3 Another preparative is obedience both to God and man It were as good nere read the Law in case we mind not to be obedient Pag. 31. Pag. 32. Pag. 34. 4 To observe jus gentium 5 To esteem the Doctrine of the Commandments as it is worthy 6 A true and right understanding of the Law not to constrain the letter against the mind of the Text but behold alwayes the consent of the Scripture

and thy Adversaries be confounded Avenge thou thy own cause O thou God of Hosts Help all thy people and me especially Pa. 146 147. because I have most need Set my heart strait in case of Religion to acknowledge thee one God to worship none other God to reverence thy Name and keep thy Sabbaths Set my heart right in matters of humane conversation to honour my Parents to obey Rulers and reverence the Ministry of the Word to have hands clean from bloud true from theft a body free from Adultery and a tongue void of all offence but purge the heart first O Lord c. In his Meditation concerning the sober usage of the body and the pleasures of this life Pa. 184 185. O that I could consider often and heartily that this body God hath made to be the tabernacle and mansion of our soul for this life but by reason of sin dwelling in it is become now to the soul nothing else but a prison and that most strait vile stinking filthy c. Then should I not pamper up my body to obey it but bridle it that it may obey the soul then should I flye the pain it patteth my soul unto by reason of sin and provocation to all evil and continually desire the dissolution of it with Paul and the deliverance from it as much as ever did prisoner his deliverance out of prison for alonely by it the Devil hath a door to tempt and so to hurt me If it were dissolved and I out of it then could Satan no more hurt me then wouldst thou speak unto me face to face then the conflicting ●ime were at an end then sorrow would cease and ●oy would encrease and I should enter into inesti●able rest In his Meditation for exercise of true mortification Pa. 189 190. He that will be ready in weighty mat●ers to deny his own will and to be obedient to the will of God the same had need to accustome himself to deny his desires in matters of less weight ●nd to exercise mortification of his will in trifles If we cannot watch with Christ one hour as he ●ith to Peter we undoubtedly can much less go to ●eath with him Wherefore that in great tempta●●ons we may be ready to say with Christ Not my ●ill but thi●e be done c. Help me to accustome ●●y self continually to mortifie my concupiscence 〈◊〉 pleasant things i. e. of wealth riches glory liberty favour of men meats drink apparel ease yea and life it self c. In his Meditation of Gods Providence Pa. 192.193 This ought to be unto us most certain that nothing is done without thy Providence O Lord i.e. without thy Knowledge i. e. without thy Will Wisdom and Ordinance for all these Knowledge doth comprehend in it c. This will we must believe most assuredly to be all just and good howsoever otherwise it seem so unto us But though all things be done by thy Providence yet Providence hath many and divers means to work by which means being contemned thy providence is contemned also Pa. 194. Indeed when means cannot be had then should we not tye thy Providence to means but make it free as thou art free for it is not of any need that thou usest any instrument or mean to serve thy Providence Thy Power and Wisdome is infinite and therefore should we hang on thy Providence even when all is clean against us Grant Dear Father that I may use this knowledge to my comfort and commodity in thee i. e. Grant that in what state soever I be Pa. 195. I may not doubt but the same doth come to me by thy most just Ordinance yea by thy merciful Ordinance for as thou art just and thou art merciful yea thy mercy is above all thy works Look for thy help in time convenient not onely when I have means by which tho● mayest work and art so accustomed to do but also when I have no means but am destiture yea when all means be directly and clean against me gran● I say yet that I may still hang on thee and on thy Providence not doubting of a Fatherly end in thy good time And least I should contemn thy Providence or presuming upon it by uncoupling those things which thou hast coupled together preserve me from neglecting thy ordinary and lawful means in all my needs if so be I may have them Pa. 196. and with a good conscience use them although I know thy Providence be not tyed to them farther than pleaseth thee Howbeit so that I depend in no part on the means or on my diligence wisdom and industry but on thy Providence which more and more perswade me to be altogether fatherly and good how far soever otherwise it appear yea is felt of me In his Meditation of Gods presence Pa. 197 198. There is nothing that maketh more to true godliness of life than the perswasion of thy presence Dear Father and that nothing is hid from thee but all to thee is open and naked even the very thoughts which one day thou wilt reveal either to our praise or punishment in this life as thou didst David's faults 2 King 12. or in the life to come Mat. 25. Grant to me Dear God mercy for all my sins especially my hid and close sins c. and that henceforth I alwayes think my self conversant before thee so that if I do well I pass not the publishing of it as Hypocrites do if I do or think any evil I may know that the same shall not alwayes be hid from men Grant me that I may alwayes have in mind that day wherein all my works shall be revealed so in trouble and wrong I shall find comfort and otherwise be kept through thy grace from evil In his Meditation of God's power beauty Pa. 199. and goodness Because thou Lord wouldest have us to love thee not onely dost thou will entice allure and provoke us but also dost command us so to do promising thy self unto such as love thee and threatning us with damnation if we do otherwise whereby we may see both our great corruption and naughtiness and also thine exceeding great mercy towards us What a thing is it that power riches authority beauty goodness liberality truth justice which all thou art good Lord cannot move us to love thee whatsoever things we see fair good wise mighty are but even sparkles of thy power beauty goodness wisdome which thou art In his Meditation of death Pa. 202 203. c. O Dear Father That our hearts were perswaded that when we go out of the prison of the body and so taken into thy blessed company then Whatsoever good we can wish we shall have and whatsoever we loath shall be far from us c. Then should we live in longing for that which we now most loath Pa. 204. If we remember the good things that after this life shall ensue without wavering in the certainty

whether every man be found upon the pain of eternal damnation in all things to do as he is thereby taught and commanded and in no wise to leave undone any thing that is to be done being taught and commanded by the same 4 Whether any man the Lord Jesus Christ God and man only except by the holy Ordinance of God ever was is or shall be Lord over Faith 5 By what lawful Authority or Power any man of what Dignity Estate or Calling soever he or they be may be so bold as to alter or change the holy Ordinances of God or any of them or any part of them 6 By what evident tokens Antichrist in his Ministers may be known seeing it is written That Satan can change himself into the similitude of an Angel of Lignt and h●s Ministers fashion themselves as though they were Ministers of righteousness 7 What the Beast is which maketh war with the Saints of God and what the gorgeous and glittering Whore is which fitteth upon the Beast Gilby Mr. Anthony Gilby See Mr. Gilby ' s Admonition to england and Scotland to call them to repentance Printed at Geneva 1558. pag. 59. an exiled Minister of Christ in Queen Mary's dayes in his Admonition speaks thus Whereas many have written many profitable Admonitions to you twain O England and Scotland both making one Island most happy if you could know your own happiness and others with Pen and Tongue with Word with Writing with jeopardy and loss of Lands Goods and Lives have admonished you both twain of that cankered poyson of Papistry that ye foster and pamper to your own perdition and utter destruction of your selves and yours souls and bodies for now and ever I thought it my duty seeing your destruction to mans judgement to draw so near how much or how little soever they have prevailed Pag. 60. yet once again to admonish you both to give testimony to that truth which my Brethren have written and especially to stir your hearts to repentance or at the least to offer my self a witness against you for the justice of God and his righ●eous judgements which doubtless if your hearts be hardned against you both are at hand to be uttered Thus by our writing whom it pleaseth God to stir up of your Nations all men that now live and that shall come after us shall have cause also to praise the mercy of God that so oft admonisheth before he strikes and to consider his just punishment when he shall pour forth his vengeance Give ear therefore betimes O Britain for of that name both rejoyceth whilest the Lord calleth exhorteth and admonisheth that is the acceptable time when he will be found If ye resuse the time offered ye cannot have it afterward though with tears as did Esau ye do seem to seek it Yet once again in Gods behalf I do offer you the very means which if God of his mercies grant you grace to follow I doubt nothing but that of all your enemies speedily ye shall be delivered Ye rejoyce at his Word I am sure if ye have any hope of the performance Then hearken to the matter which I write unto you not forth of mens Dreams and Fables nor forth of prophane Histories painted wi●h mans wisdom vain eloquence or subtile reasons but forth of the infallible Word of God Is not this Gods curse and threatning amongst many others pronounced against the sinful Land and disobedient people Deut. 28. That strangers shall devour the fruit of thy Land and be above thee c. and thy strong walls wherein thou trusted shall be destroyed c. And doth not Isaiah reckon this also as the extremity of all plagues for the wickedness of the people to have women raised up to rule over them Isa 3. But what saith the same Prophet in the beginning of his prophesie for a remedy against these and all other evils Pa. 61. Your hands are full of blood saith he O ye Princes of Sodom and people of Gomorrah but wash you make you clean take away your wicked thoughts forth of my sight cease to do evil learn to do well c. Then will I turn my hand to thee and purge out all thy dross and take away thy tynne and I will restore thy Judges as aforetime and Counsellors as of old And Moses said before in the place alledged That if thou wilt hear the voice of the Lord thy God Deut. 2● and do his Commandments thou shalt be blessed in the Town and blessed in the Field The Lord shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to fall before thee c. Lo the way in few words O Britany to win Gods favour and therefore to overcome thine enemies But to print this more deeply upon your hearts O ye Princes and people of that Island whom God hath begun to punish seek I warn you no shifting holes to excuse your faults no political practises to resist Gods vengeance Submit your selves to him Pag. 62. who holdeth your breath in your nostrils who with one blast of his mouth can destroy all his enemies Embrace his Son Christ and repent betimes for your obstinacy against him and his Word and for your cruelty against his Servants Repent repent For repentance is the onely way of your redress and deliverance Consider how the Lord hath intreated Israel and Juda his own people how oft they trespassed and how he gave them over into the hands of their enemies But whensoever they repented and turned again to God unfeignedly he sent them Judges and Deliverers Kings and Saviours Noah pronounceth that within a hundred and twenty years all flesh should be destroyed We have many Noahs that so cry in our times yet no man repenteth All the time that Noah was preparing for the Ark to avoid Gods vengeance the multitude derided this holy Prophet as the multitude of your two Realms doth at this day deride all them that by obedience to Gods Word seek the means appointed to avoid Gods judgements Then the people would not repent Pag. 63. but as if they should live for ever they married they banqueted they builded they planted deriding Gods messenger Do not you the like I appeal to your own consciences The Lord calleth to fasting saith the Prophet Isaiah to mortifie themselves and kill their lusts but they kill Sheep and Bullocks Jeremy cries for tears and lamentation They laugh and mock Malachi crieth to the people of his time Turn unto me and I will turn unto you saith the Lord of Hosts and they proudly answer Wherein shall we turn Are ye not such Do you not ask Wherein shall we turn when ye will not know your sins Ye will not confess and acknowledge your faults though ye go a whoring in every Street Town and Village with your Idols though the blood of the oppressed cry every where against you for vengeance So that seeing no token of repentance I cannot cry unto you with John Baptist

disdained as slaves misers and wretches The Bishop laid to my charge my not coming to Church Here I might have dallied with him and put him to his proofs Notwithstanding I answered him through Gods merciful help that I neither had nor would come at their Church as long as their Mass was used there to save if I had them five hundred lives The Bishop asking me who should judge the Word I told him Christ was content that the people should judge his Doctrine by searching the Scriptures and so was Paul Methinks ye should claim no farther priviledge nor pre●eminence than they had The Bishop telling me He was my Bishop and therefore I must believe him If you say black is white said I must I also say as you say and believe the same because you say it is so Pa. 425. If you will be believed because you be a Bishop Why find you fault with the people that believed Mr. Latimer Mr. Ridley Mr. Hooper c. that were Bishops Because they were Hereticks said the Bishop And may not you erre quoth I as well as they I looked for learning at my Lords hand to perswade me and he oppressed me onely with his Authority He said I dissented from the Church and asked me where my Church was before King Edward's time I desired him to shew me where their Church was in Elias time and what outward shew it had in Christs time The tidings that I should be carried to Lichfield did at first somewhat discourage me fearing least I should by reason of my great sickness through extream handling which I looked for have died in the Prison before I should come to my answer But I rebuked immediately with Gods Word this infidelity in my self c. after this manner What make I of God Is not his power as great in Lichfield as Coventry Doth not his providence extend as well to Lichfield as Coventry Was he not with Habakkuk Daniel Meshach Jeremy in their most dangerous imprisonments He knows what things we have need of them He hath numbred all the hairs of our head The Sparrow falleth not to the ground without our heavenly Fathers will much more will he care for us if we be not faithless whom he hath made worthy to be witnesses of his truth So long as we put our trust in him we shall never be destitute of his help neither in prison nor in sickness nor in health nor in death nor before Kings nor before Bishops Not the Devil himself much less one of his Ministers shall be able to prevail against us With such like meditations I waxed chearful of good consolation and comfort So that hearing one say They could not provide Horses enough for us I said Let them carry us in a Dung-Cart for lack of Hoeses if they list I am well content for my part I told Jephcot the Chancellors Servant That they should have judgement without mercy that she we● no mercy and this mercy I found at his hand at Lichfield He put me into a Prison that same night where I continued till I was condemned in a place next to the Dungeon c. very cold with small light and there he allowed me a bundle of Straw instead of a Bed without Chair Form or any other thing to ease my self withall God of his mercy gave me great patience through prayer that night so that if it had been his pleasure I could have been contented to have ended my life In the time of my imprisonment I gave my self continually to prayer and meditation of the merciful promises of God made unto all without exception of persons that call upon the Name of his dear Son Jesus Christ I found in my self daily amendment of health of body increase of peace in conscience many consolations from God by the help of his holy Spirit sometime as it were a taste and glimmering of the life to come All for his onely Son Jesus Christs sake To him be all the praise for ever and ever The enemy cease not many times sundry wayes to assault me Oftentimes objecting to my conscience my own unworthiness of the greatness of the benefit to be accounted amongst those that suffer for Christ for his Gospels sake Against him I replied with the Word of God on this sort What were all those whom God had chosen from the beginning to be his Witnesses and to carry his Name before the world Were they not men Acts 24. Rom. 11. Rem 4. John 1. as well subject to sin and imperfections as other men be Who gave first unto him What hast thou that thou hast not received All have received of his fulness They were no bringers of any goodness to God but altogether receivers They chose not God first but God chose them They loved not God first but he loved them first Yea he both loved and chose them when they were his ene mies full of sin and corruption as well as void of all goodness He is and will be the same God as rich in mercy as mighty as able as ready as willing to forgive sins without respect of persons to the worlds end of all them that call upon him God is near he is at hand he is with all with all I say and refuseth ●one excepteth none that faithfully in true repentance call upon him in what hour what place or what time soever it be It is no arregancy nor presumption in any man to burden God as it were with his promise and of duty to claim and challenge his aid help and assistance in all our perils dangers and distress calling upon him not in the confidence of our own godliness but in the trust of his own promises made in Christ His Word cannot lye Call upon me in the day of trouble Psal 50. and I will hear thee and thou shalt praise me I answered ●he enemy also on this manner I am a sinner and therefore unworthy to be a witness of this truth What then Must I deny his Word because I am ●ot worthy to profess it What bring I to pass in ●o doing but add sin to sin What is greater sin ●han to deny the truth of Christs Gospel He that 〈◊〉 ashamed of me or of my words saith Christ of him ●lso will I be ashamed before my Father and all his ●ngels I might also by the same reason forbear to ●o any of Gods Commancments When I am provoked to pray the enemy may say to me I am 〈◊〉 worthy to pray therefore I shall not pray c. 〈◊〉 When the Bishop came to Lichfield he perswaded me to be a Member of his Church which had continued so many years As for our Church as he called it it was not known he said but larely in King Edward's time I profess my self to be a Member of that Church said I that is builded upon the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Jesus Christ being the head corner-stone And the Church hath been