examined before me The Lord grant us grace to stand together fighting lawfully in his Cause till we be smitten down together if the Lords Will be so to permit it for there shall not an hair of our heads perish against his Will but with his Will whereunto the same Lord grant us to be obedient unto the end and in the end Amen Sweet mighty and mercifull Lord Jesus the Son of David and of God Amen Amen let every true Christian say and pray I told the Chancellor That I would not be out of the Catholick Church but into his Church by Gods grace I would never come Well said he then is our Church false and Antichristian Yes said I. When I desired leave to confirm my Doctrine by writing you would not grant it because I was a private person and the Parliament was above the Authority of all private Persons and therefore the sentence thereof might not be found fault with c. And yet my Lord said I I can shew that one man hath come into a general Council and after the whole had agreed upon an Article hath by the Word of God declared so pithily that the Council had erred in declaring the said Article that he caused the whole Council to alter their Act. Panormitanus also said I saith That unto a simple Lay-man that bringeth the Word of God with him there ought to be given more credit then to a whole Council assembled together The Chancellor facing me and hoping to dash me out of Couutenance I told him in that Cause being Gods Cause he should not make me afraid to speak I was never the worse but the better to be earnest in a just and true cause and in my Master Christs matters When Winchester had read the Condemnation he declared that I was in the great curse c. Well my Lord said I here I stand before God and you and all this honourable Audience and take him to witness that I never wittingly nor willingly taught any false Doctrine and therefore have I a good conscience before God and all good men I am sure you and I shall come before a God that is righteous before whom I shall be as good a man as you and I nothing doubt but that I shall be found there a true Member of the true Catholick Church of Christ and everlastingly saved and as for your false Church ye need not to excommunicate me forth of it I have not been in it these twenty years the Lord be thanked therefore But now ye have done what ye can my Lord I pray you yet grant me one thing that my poor wife being a stranger and having ten children by me may come and speak with me as long as I live She shall not come at thee said he Then I have tried out all your charity said I. Two things more I purposed to have touched if I could have been permitted The one how it was lawfull for a private man to reason and write against a wicked Act of Parliament or ungodly Council c. The other was to prove that Prosperity was not alwayes a token of Gods love For the first I shall adde one example more The high Priests the Elders Scribes and Pharisees decreed in their Council and gave â—he same command to the Apostles that they should â—ot preach in the Name of Christ as ye have also forbidden us Notwithstanding when they were charged therewithall they answered We ought more to obey God then man Even so we may answer you God is more to be obeyed then man and your wicked Laws cannot so tongue-tie us but we will speak the Truth The Apostles were beaten for their boldness and they rejoyced that they suffered for Christs Cause Ye have also provided rods for â—s and bloody whips yet when ye have done that which Gods Hand and Counsel hath determined that ye shall do be it life or death I trust that â—od will so assist us by his holy Spirit and Grace that we shall patiently suffer it and praise God for it And whatsoever become of me and others which now suffer for speaking and professing the Truth yet be ye sure that Gods Word will prevail and have the upper hand when your bloody Laws and wicked Decrees for want of sure foundation shall fall in the dust For the second point It may please your Lordship to understand That we poor Preachers whom you so evil intreat did most boldly and plainly rebuke the evil government of those under King Edward in many things especially their covetousness and neglect and small regard to live after the Gospel as also their negligence to occasion others to live thereafter I might instance in what I once did at Paul's Cross for which I was fain to answer before all the Council and many of my Brethren did the like so that we for the not rebuking of their faults shall not answer before God nor be blame-worthy before men I am an English man born and God knoweth do naturally wish well to my Countrey I have often proved that the things which I have much feared should come to pass have indeed followed I fear you have and will with your Governing bring England out of Gods Blessing into a warm Sun I pray God I may fail of my guessing in this behalf but truly that Englands welfare will not be with expelling the true Word of God out of the Realm and the shedding innocent blood Gods works are wonderfull and incomprehensible by mans Wisdome c. He hath put his Beloved and Dear Heart into his enemies hands This to worldly wise men is a madness above all madness and yet God doth this Can the world shew the cause This I am right sure of that it was not because they were in Heresies and subject to false gods services and idolatry and their enemies men of God and beloved of God The Herods and Pharaohs plainly determined that if the men which they killed and handled evil had been Gods people God would never have suffered them to come into their hands but rather have done the contrary and have let Iohn Baptist kill Herod and the Israelites Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar Even the like is now to be seen in us and in our most cruel adversaries They are not therefore the Catholick Church because our mercifull God hath at this present given our lives into their hands neither are we therefore Hereticks because we suffer punishment at their hands The holy men of God recorded in Scripture were in their dayes accounted to be Hereticks Seditious and Dâ—sturbers of the whole world But here they will cry out Lo these men will be still like â—â—hn Baptists the Apostles and Prophets c. I anâ—â—er We make not our selves like to them in doing â—iracles c. but onely in this in Doctrine and in â—ffering persecution and infamy for the same We â—â—ve preached their very Doctrine and none other â—â—ing and for this Cause
pure Law of God which proveth the best of us all damnable sinners in the light of God and that our best works are polluted in such sort as the Prophet describes them with the which manner of speaking our free-will Pharisees are much offended for it felleth all mans righteousness to the ground In his Letter to Mr. Augustine Bernher Pray for me that I may be strong and hardy to lay a good load on that bloody beast of Babylon O that I might so strike him down that he should never be able to rise again but that stroke belongeth onely to the Lord to strike at his coming which I hope will be shortly Carpenter All Bavaria said George Carpenter is not so dear to me as my wife and children yet for Christs sake I will forsake them cheerfully Carver Mr. Derick Carver being asked by Bonner whether he would stand for his Confession answered He would for your Doctrine is poyson and sorcery If Christ were here you would put him to a worse death then he was put to before At the stake he spake thus Dear Brethren and Sisters I am come here to seal with my blood Christs Gospel because that I know it to be true As many of you as do believe upon the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost unto everlasting life see you do the works pertaining to the same As many of you as do believe on the Pope of Rome you do believe to your utter condemnation and except the great mercy of God prevent not you shall burn in Hell perpetually In his Prayer O Lord my God thou hasâ— written He that will not forsake wife children house and all that ever he hath and take up his cross and follow thee is not worthy of thee Lord thou knowest that I have forsaken all to come unto thee Lord have mercy upon me for unto thee I commend my Spirit and my soul doth rejoyce in thee Chrysostome Eud xia the Emperess having sent him a very threatning message he gave this answer Go tell her Nil nisi peccatum timeo I fear nothing but sin When she had procured his banishment as he went forth of the City he said None of these things trouble me but I said within my self if the Queen will let her banish me the Earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof if she will let her cast me into the sea I will remember Ionah if she will let her cast me into a burning fiery Furnace or among wild beasts the three children and Daniel were so dealt with if she will let her stone me or cut off my head I have St. Stephen and the Baptist my blessed Companions if she will let her take away all my substance Naked came I out of my Mothers womb and naked shall I return thither again He used to say the Devil 's first assault is violent resist that and his second will be weaker and that being resisted he proves a Coward Clarebachius I believe said Adolphus Clarebachius that there is not a merrier heart in the world at this instant then mine is Behold you shall see me die by that faith I have lived in Colham See Sir Iohn Oldcastle under the Letter O Clark When Roger Clark was sentenced he said with much vehemency Fight for your God for he hath not long to continue At the Stake he cried out to the people Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world Coligni Iasper Coligni great Admiral of France who was slain in the Massacre at Paris August 24. 1572. being shot in the left Arm with two Bullets and the fore-finger of the right hand broke off with a third and being told by a Gentleman that it was to be feared the Bullets were poysoned he said All must be as it pleaseth God Seeing his Friends weep which held his Arm whilst the Incisions were made he said My Friends why do you weep I judge my self happy that bear these wounds for the Cause of my God To Mr. Merlin his Chaplain he said These wounds my Friend are Gods blessings The smart indeed is troublesome but I acknowledge the will of my Lord therein and I bless his Majesty who hath been pleased thus to honour me and to lay any pain upon me for his holy Names sake Let us beg of him that he will enable me to persevere to the end Speaking concerning those that wounded him I know assuredly said he that it is not in their power to hurt me No though they should kill me for my death is a most certain passage to eternal life N When the Blood-hounds brake open the house where he lay wounded he spake thus I perceive what is a doing I was never afraid of death and I am ready to undergo it patiently for which â— have long since prepared my self I bless God that I shall die in the Lord. â— now need no longer any help of man therefore my friends get ye hence The presence of God to whose goodness I commend my soul is abundantly sufficiently for me Coâ—vâ—r Sheep we are for the slaughter said Francâ— Co'ver to his two Sons massacred together with himself this is no new thing let us follow millions of Martyrs through temporal death unto eternal life Coo. Roger Coo being asked by the Bishop of Norâ—ichâ— whether he would not obey the Kings Laws answered As far as they agree with the Word of God I will obey them Whether they agree with the Word of God or no we are bound to obey them said the Bishop though the King were an Infidel Coo replyed If Shadrach Mâ—shach and Abednâ—go had so done Neluchadnâ—zzar had neveâ— confessed the Living God Constantine Being carried with other Martyrs in a Dungâ— Cart to the place of Execution he spake thusâ— Well yet are we a precious odour and a sweeâ— savour to God in Christ. Cornford Iohn Cornford one of the last five that suffered Martyrdome in Queen Mary's dayes when thâ— Sentence should have been passed and they should have been executed by the Papists being moveâ— in Spirit with a vehement zeal for God in the namâ— of them all pronounced Sentence of Excommunication against the Papists in these words In the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of the most mighty God and by the power of the holy Spirit and the authority of his holy and Apostolick Church We do hereby give into the hands of Satan to be destroyed the bodies of those Blasphemers and Hereticks that do maintain any errour against his most holy Word or do condemn his most holy Truth for Heresie to the maintenance of any false Church or feigned Religion so that by this thy just judgement against thy Adversaries thy true Religion may be known to thy great glory and our comfort and to the edifying of all our Nation Lord Jesus So be it It is observable that within six dayes after this Excommunication Queen Mary died and the tyranny of all
entirely desiring your everlasting felicity to warn you and most heartily desire you to watch and pray On the high mountains doth not grow most plenty of grass neither are the highest trees farthest from danger but seldome sure and alwayes shaken of every wind that bloweth Such a deceitful thing saith our Saviour is honour and riches that without grace it choketh up the good seed sown c. It maketh a man think himself somewhat that is nothing at all for though for our honour we esteem our selves and stand in our own light yet when we shall stand before the living God there shall be no respect of persons for riches helpeth not in the day of vengeance nor can we make the Lord partial for money Though the world rage and blaspheme the Elect of God ye know that it did so unto Christ his Apostles and to all that were in the Primitive Church and shall be unto the worlds end I beseech you in the bowels of Christ my Lord Jesus stick fast unto the Truth let it never depart out of your hearts and conversations c. Yours in him that liveth for ever In his Letter to his Wife after his Condemnation I exhort you to love God with all your heart and soul and mind c. To lay sure hold on all his promises that in all your troubles you may run strait to the great mercy of God c. And be sure that neither Devil Flesh nor Hell shall be able to hurt you But if you will not keep his holy Precepts and call for Gods help to walk in the same but will leave them and do as the wicked world does then be sure to have your part with the wicked world in the burning lake Beware of Idolatry which most of all stinks in Gods Nostrils and hath been of all good men detested from the beginning of the world for the which what Kingdomes c. God hath punished with most terrible plagues c. to the utter subversion of them is manifestly to be seen through the whole Bible yea for this he draadfully plagued his own people c. But how he hath preserved those that abhorred superstition and idolatry c. is also to be seen from the beginning out of what great danger he hath delivered them yea when all hope of deliverance was past as touching their expectation c. I exhort you also in the bowels of Christ that you will exercise and be stedfast in Prayer the onely mean to obtain of God whatsoever we desire so it be askt in Faith O what notable things do we read in Scripture that have been obtained through fervent Prayer Whatsoever you desire of God in Prayer ask it for Jesus Christ's sake for whom and in whom God hath promised to give us all things necessary Though what we ask come not by and by continue still knocking and he will at length open his treasures of mercy c. Yet once again I warn you that ye continue fervent in Prayer c. In his Letter to Mr. Throgmorton Whereas the love of God hath moved you to require my Son to be brought up before your eyes and the self same love hath also moved me to leave him in your hands as a Father in my absence I shall require you in Gods behalf according to your promise that ye will see him brought up in the fear of the Lord and instructed in the knowledge of his holy Word that he may learn to leave the evil and know the good c. And this I require you to fulfill or cause to be fulfilled as ye before the Living God will make answer for the same Yours and all mens in Christ Iesus Hector Bartholomew Hector being condemned was threatned that if he spake any thing to the People his Tongue should be cut off yet he did not forbear He pray'd for the Judges That God would forgive them and open their eyes He refused a Pardon offered him at the Stake At his Death many wept saying Why doth this man die who speaketh of nothing but of God When he was called before Authority to be examined he would answer them to nothing before he had made his Prayer to God Whereupon falling down upan his knees he said Lord open my mouth and direct my Speech to utter that onely that may tend to thy honour and glory and the edification of thy Church When he was bound to the Stake Gunpowder and Brimstone was brought to be placed about him he lifting up his eyes to Heaven said Lord how sweet and welcome is this to me Hernaudes Mr. Iulian Hernaudes a Spanish Martyr came from the Wrack and the Tortures of the Inquisition inflicted on him for bringing with him and causing to be brought into Spain many Books of the Holy Scriptures in Spanish as from a Conquest saying to his Fellow-prisoners as he past by them These Hypocrites are gone away confounded no less then wolves that have been long hunted When he was brought forth to his Execution he said to the rest Courage my valiant and constant Brethren now is the hour come in which as the true Champions of Iesus Christ we must witness his Truth before men and for a short tryal for his sake we shall triumph with him for ever and ever Herwyn When Iohn Herwyn of Flanders was led to Prison the Bailiffe meeting certain Drunkards in the Street and saying They say we have many Gospellers in Houscot but it little appears by these disorders he replied Mr. Bailiffe is drunkenness a sin What of that said the Bailiffe Why then said Herwyn commit you not these fellows to Prison seeing it is your office to punish vice and to protect such as fear God After he was in Prison because he was not called forth before the Magistrates assoon as he desired and expected he grew heavy and sad asking Why they so delayed the matter for his heart was fired with an holy zeal to confess Christ before his Judges When he was brought forth he admonished his Judges to examine the Doctrine of the Roman Church by the true Touch-stone which is the holy Scripture that so they might discern how opposite and contrary the one is to the other Consider also said he what the words of St. Peter import where the affirms That we ought to obey God rather then man c. When he craved for Justice either one way or another they urged him to desist from his Opinion but he answered That his faith was not built on an Opinion but said he the Lord hath taught me to eschew evil and do good Seest thou not said they how these opinions have troubled the world and how many of the learneder sort do contradict them So far is it off said he that the Doctrine of the Gospel should be the cause of troubles debates and strifes which raign in the world These troubles indeed arise from the rage of men And as for your learned
was laid up for them In the Epistle it self I savour many things in God but I keep my self within bounds lest I perish by vain glory Now I am mostly to fear neither am I to mind those that would puffe me up They that praise me scourage me I do indeed love to suffer but that I am worthy I know not I beseech you not I but the love of Christ Jesus to make use onely of Christian Food and to abstain from Heresie a strange Herb. Temporaries embrace Christ but they are not of the Fathers planting If they were there would appear the Branches of the Cross and their fruit would be incorruptible In his Epistle to the Romans I Christ Jesus his bond-man hope I may salute you if it be his will that I may be judged worthy to reach the goal I have begun well if or O that I may have grace to take my lot without let I fear least your love hurt me I would not that you should please men but God even as you do Do you labour that I may be sacrificed unto God seeing the Altar is prepared that you in love making a Quire may sing to the Father in Christ Jesus that a Bishop of Syria hath been honoured thus to set in the West being called from the East It is good to fall from the World to God that I may rise in him Beg onely this for me that I may be supplyed with inward and outward strength that I may not onely say but will and not onely be called but be found a Christian. If I be found so I shall be called so even then when I shall not appear to be a Believer to the World Nothing visible is perpetual The things that are seen are temporary those which are not seen are eternal Christianity is a work not a work of perswasion but of greatness when it is hated by the World I write to the Churches and require of all that I may voluntarily die for God if that you forbid it not I beseech you bestow not upon me unseasonable love Suffer me to be the food for the wild Beasts by whom I shall enjoy God I am Gods Corn when the wild Beasts have ground me to powder with their teeth I shall be his White-bread Yea rather cunningly entice the wild Beasts to be my Sepulcher and to leave nothing of my body behind them lest when I am dead I be found troublesome to any Then shall I be a true Disciple of Christ indeed when the World shall not see even my body Pray unto God for me that by these instruments I may become a sacrifice unto God From Syria even till I came to Rome I fought with Beasts as well by Sea as by Land night and day being bound among the cruel Leopards I mean my Military Guard who the more benefits they received at my hands became so much the worse unto me but I being exercised and now well acquainted with their injuries am taught every day more and more to bear the Cross yet hereby am I not justified Would to God I might once enjoy the Beasts prepared for me which I wish also to fall upon me with all their violence whom also I will cunningly entice without delay to devour me and not to abstain from me as they have from others whom for fear they have left untouched and if they be unwilling to it I will even compell them to fall upon me Pardon me I know what is for my advantage Mr. Clark renders it I know well how much this will avail me Now do I begin to be a Disciple seeing I neither regard things visible nor invisible so I may gain Christ. Let Fire the Cross Skirmishings with wild Beasts Cuttings Butcherings or Rentings in pieces Breakin gs of my Bones asunder Manglings of my Members Bruisings of my whole Body and the Torments of the Devil all the Torments that man and the Devil can invent fall upon me so that I may enjoy Jesus The Ends and Kingdomes of this World will not help me It is better for me to die for Christ Jesus then to reign over the Ends of the Earth What will it profit a man to gain the whole World and lose his own soul I seek him who died for us and rose again Pardon me my Brethren be not an hindrance to me that I may not live be not unwilling that I should die Seeing I desire to be Gods do not gratifie the World Suffer me to enjoy pure light when I shall be there I shall be a man of God Permit me to emulate the sufferings of Christ my God Whosoever enjoyes him understands what I desire and will bear with me when he knows what constrains me The Prince of this World would hold me and corrupt my soul and will for God Let none of you help him but rather help me that is God Do not name Christ Jesus and love or covet the World Let not envy dwell in you Living but in love with dying I write unto you My love is crucified and there is not in me a fire of love towards any thing of an earthly matter but living water and he that speaks within me saith unto me Come unto the Father I rejoyce not in corruptible nourishment nor in the pleasures of this life I would have the bread of God heavenly bread the bread of Life which is the flesh of Christ the Son of God who in these last times is made of the seed of David and Abraham and for drink I would have his blood who is love incorruptible and life eternal Be mindful in your prayers of the Church in Syria which instead of me hath the Lord for their Pastor Jesus Christ alone will take care for it and your love to him But I am ashamed to be called one of that number Neither am I worthy seeing I am the last of them and an abortive but through the mercy of God I have obtained that I may be some one if I can enjoy God In his Letter to the Philadelphians Ye children of the Light flie the dividing of Truth and wicked Doctrines Follow as sheep your Pastor In your concord there is no place for the Wolves to get in If any one preach Judaism unto you do not hear him It is better to hear Christianity from one that is circumcised then Iudaism from one that is uncircumcised If both do not preach Christ Jesus they are to me Funeral Pillars and Monuments of the dead upon whom Names onely are inscribed Where division and anger is God dwells not In his Letter to the Smyrnaeans Jesus Christ is truly dead and truly risen He hath not suffered onely according to appearance as some Infidels teach If these things be done by Christ onely in opinion I am bound onely in opinion But why should I deliver up my self unto Death to the Fire to the Sword to Beasts but that he that is near the Sword is near unto
been his Servant yet in all his time hath he not so much as once hurt me How then may I speak evil of my King and Sovereign Lord which hath thus preserved me The Proconsul still urging him to swear by Caesar's prosperity he replied If thou requirest this pretending that thou knowest not what I am Know then that I am a Christian and if thou desire to know the Doctrine of Christianity appoint a day and thou shalt hear I have thought it my duty thus to say unto you forsomuch as we are commanded to give unto the Governours and Powers ordained of God the hounour meet and due to them and not hurtfull unto us The Proconsul telling him he had wild Beasts to whom he would throw him unless he took a better way Polycarp said Let them come we have determined with our selves that we will not by repentance turn us from the better way to the worse but convenient it is that a man turn from things that be evil unto that which is good and just I will tame thee with fire replied the Proconsuâ— if thou set not by the wild Beasts nor yet repent Then said Polycarp you threaten me with fire which shall burn for the space of an hour and shall be within a little while after put out and extinguished but thou knowest not the fire of the judgement to come and of everlasting punishment which is reserved for the wicked and ungodly But why make you all these delayes Give me what death soever you list When they would have tyed him to the Stake with iron hoops he said Let me alone as I am For he that hath given me strength to come to the fire shall also give power that without this provision I shall abide and not stir in the midst of the fire When his hands were bound behind him he prayed thus O Father of thy welbeloved and blessed Son Iesus Christ by whom we have attained the knowledge of thee the God of Angels and Powers and of every creature and of all just men which live before thee I give thee thanks that thou hast vouchsafed to grant me this day that I may have my part among the Number of the Martyrs to drink of the Cup of Christ unto the resurrection of eternal Life both of body and soul through the operation of thy holy Spirit among whom I shall this day be received into thy sight for an acceptable sacrifice and as thou hast prepared and revealed the same before this time so thou hast accomplished the same O thou most true God which canst not lye Wherefore for all these things I praise thee I bless thee I glorifie thee by our everlasting Bishop Iesus Christ to whom be glory evermore Amen As soon as the fire was kindled some of his Church then present saw this marvellour thing The fire being like unto a Vault or Roof of an House and after the manner of a Shipmans Sail filled with wind compassed about the Martyr as with a certain Wall and he in the middle of the same not as Flesh that burned but as Gold and Silver when it is tried in the fire They smelt also a savour so sweet as if Myrrhe or some other precious Balm had given a scent When they saw that his body could not be consumed by fire one thrust him through with a Sword which being done so great a quantity of blood ran out of his body that the fire was quenched therewith Polycarp going with St. Iohn to a Bath at Ephesus and espying Cerinthus the Heretick in it said Eugiamus ocius c. Let us depart speedily for fear least the Bath wherein the Lords adversary is do fall upon us He so detested Hâ—reticks then when Marcion of his former acquaintance met him at Rome and wondring that he took no notice of him said unto him Dost thou not know me Polycâ—rp Yea said he I know thee well Thou art the eldest Son to the Devil His manner was to stop his ears if at any time he heard the wicked speeches of Heretieks and to â—â—un those very places where such speeches had been uttered He suffered Martyrdome in the seventh year of â—â—rus Anno Christi 170. and of his age 86. Praetorius Arias Praetorius the day before his death dream'd he saw a Coffin carried and asking whose it was he heard this answer That Christ was to be laid in his Sepulcher and that he should speedily follow him When he awaked he concluded his own death was not far off Whereupon he cried out He that followeth Christ walks well not in darkness Jesus be thou merciful to me a miserable sinner and draw me after thy self Prest Prest's Wife being asked by the Bishop of Exeter Whether she had not an Husband She answered That she had an Husband and Children and had them not So long as she was at liberty she refused neither Husband nor Children but now standing here as I do said she in the Cause of Christ and his Truth where I must forsake Christ or my Husband I am contented to stick onely to Christ my heavenly Spouse and renounce the other Here she making mention of the words of Christ He that leaveth not Father or Mother Sister or Brother or Husband c. The Bishop told her That Christ spake that of the holy Martyrs which died because they would not sacrifice to the false gods so said she I will rather die then I will do any worship to that foul Idol which with your Mass you make a god The Bishop telling her That if she had been an honest woman she would not have left her Husband and Children and run about the Countrey like a Fugitive She told him Sir I laboured for my living and as my Master Christ counselleth me When I was persecuted in one City I fled into another When I would have my Husband and Children to leave Idolatry and to worship God in Heaven he with his Children rebuked men and troubled me I fled not for whoredome nor for theft but because I would not be partaker with him and his of that foul Idol the Mass. During a Moneths liberty which was granted her by the Bishop she went into the Cathedral at Exeter and seeing a Dutchman making new Noses to certain fine Images which were disfigured in King Edwards time What a mad man art thou said she to make them new Noses which within a few dayes shall all lose their heads The Dutchman accused her and laid it hard to her charge and she said unto him Thou art accursed and so are thy Images He called her Whore Nay said she thy Images are Whores and thou art a Whore-hunter for doth not God say You go a whoring after strange gods figures of your own making When judgement was given against her she lifted up her voice and said I thank thee my Lord my God this day have I found that I long sought This favour they pretended after her Judgement That
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. M. A. Hebr. 12.1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a Cloud of Witnesses let us run with patience the race that is set before us James 5.10 Take my Brethren the Prophets who have spoken in the Name of the Lord for an example of suffering afflliction and patience London Printed for the Author and are to be fold by Robert Boulter in Saint Paul's Church-yard 1665. Gentle Reader THou art desired to take notice that through the transposing of some Leaves of the Manuscript the Authour living far distant there hath been committed an Errour at the Press in Mr. Iohn Bradford's Letters beginning at Page 44. Line 26. immediately before Mr. Iohn Brown Wherefore thou art entreated to turn to Page 68. Line 6. and read to Page 71. Line 26. and so the Mistake will be rectified Renowned Mr. Samuel Ward of Ipswich gives the following testimony to the living speeches of dying Christians which he collected AS for their last Speeches and Apothegms pity it is no better mark hath been taken and memory preserved of them The choice and prime I have culled out of ancient Stories and later Martyrologies English Dutch and French The profit and pleasure hath paid me for the labour of Collecting and the like gain I hope shall quit the cost of thy Reading By these which are but an handful of Christs Camp-Royal it sufficiently appears they had their Faith fresh and lively in the face of their grand Enemy Death and by vertue of their Faith their Spirits Wits and Tongues untroubled and undismayed The learned and ingenious Author of the Preface to Mr. Frith's Treatises of preparation to the Cross under the Title of Vox Pisces or the Book-Fish gives the following Testimony to several of the remarkable passages in this Collection PErhaps unto some Palats no Lequor seemeth desirable but that which hath a delicious tang of the curiosity of these later Times both for method and stile For my part I say with the words in the Gospel Luke 5.39 The old Wine is better And accordingly contemplating and comparing the devout Discourses written in our Language upon the breaking forth of the Light of Reformation I am far more deeply taken with the solid simplicity and powerful Spirit which methinks I find in the Writings of those Confessors and Martyrs who watered the Garden of Reformation with their own bloud in this Land then with the more elaborate and artificial composures written more lately in the Times of our Peace Who in reading the Letters and Ghostly Meditations of blessed Bradford Taylor Philpot c. yea even of other their Brethren less learned that wrote and spake with that Hand Heart and Breath which they were most ready to yield up for the testimony of the Truth doth not therein perceive that lively warmth of holy zeal which is able to awake even a dull and sleepy soul Among which Martyrs as this worthy Frith is one of the first for antiquity so well may he be in the foremost rank for comfortable exhortation and soundness of Doctrine The Collectors Preface THe Speeches of dying men are remarkable the Speeches of dying Christians are much more remarkable How remarkable then are the Speeches of dying Witnesses for Christ It is rationally expected that dying men much more that dying Christians and most of all that dying Witnesses for Christ should speak best at last It is their last And the Sun shineth brightest at setting They are immediately to give in their last account They are upon the borders of Eternity And the motions of Nature are more intense as they draw nearer the Center To be sure Saints are most heavenly when nearest Heaven Rivers the nearer the Sea the sooner are met by the Tide We have good Scripture-ground to expect that dying Christians especially dying Witnesses for Christ should have extraordinary assistances from on high for their last Discourses That the Wine of the Spirit should be strongest in them at their last They have Gods Word for it That in that hour it shall be given them what they shall speak for it is not they that speak but the Spirit of their Father One observeth that when Stephen was to deliver his last speech and to suffer he was filled with the Holy Ghost so that all that sate in the Council looking stedfastly on Stephen saw his face as if it had been the face of an Angel His soul was so warmed by the love of God that he looked both his Adversaries and the tempestuous approaching Storm out of countenance When he was stoned he got a larger sight He saw the Heavens opened and his Majestick Glorious Master the light-giving Diamond of Heaven standing at his Fathers right hand And this he got no doubt as for himself so to hearten all those that were to come after he being the first Martyr after Christ. Hence it hath been often found that their last Speeches have been Oraculous and Prophetical Zenophon personates Cyrus as inspired whilst he is breathing out his last requests The nearer we return to the Original Divinity as Plotinus speaketh the more Divine we grow One observeth from a Scripture instance That what hath been asserted by dying Witnesses hath most speedily come to pass Zachariah told the children of Israel Because ye have for saken the Lord he hath also forsaken you For this he was immediately stoned and the Lord sealed his Word very speedily afterwards For the Assyrians coming with a small company against them the Lord delivered a very great multitude into their hands and so without delay in their sight sealed the words of his dying Witness Zachariah And why his word sooner then Isaiah's Ieremiah's Ezekiel's c. By them he pleaded much longer with his Apostatizing Church I know none but this It was the Lords pleasure and to shew his respect to dying Witnesses that he would have what they say taken special notice of It may be that he might shew that whatever fail the words of dying Witnesses shall not fall to the ground It is true we must not lay such weight upon these sayings as we must lay upon Scripture prophesies for though such sayings may be true prophesies yet we are not infallibly assured that these are prophesies till they be accomplished yet their sayings while dying for and in the Lord do give good encouragement to them that remain alive and so to be much esteemed by them whether they respect the honour of God or the good of souls The last Speeches of Christs
favour his life yet that he would favour his own soul He answered What care I have of my soul you may see by this that I had rather give my body to be burned then to do that thing that were against my conscience B Babilas Babilas Bishop of Antioch being cast by Decius into a filthy stinking Prison for the name of Christ with as many irons as he could bear intreated his Friends that visited him that after his death they would bury with him the signs and tokens of his valour meaning his bolts and fetters Now said he will God wipe away all tears and now I shall walk with God in the land of the living Bainham Mr. Iames Bainham when he repented of his Recantation in Austin's Church in London He declared openly with weeping eyes that he had denied God and prayed all the people to beware of his weakness and not to do as he did For saie he If I should not return again unto the truth this Word of God he having a New Testament in his hand would damn me both body and soul at the Day of Judgement He perswaded them to die by and dy rather then to do as he did for he would not feel such an hell again for all the worlds good When he was at the Stake in the midst of the flaming fire which had half consumed his Arms and Legs he spake these words O ye Papists Behold ye look for miracles and here now you may see a miracle for in this fire I feel no more pain then if I were in a Bed of Down it is to me as a Bed of Roses Barâ—evil Iohn Barbevil said to the Friers that called him ignorant Ass Well Admit I were so yet shall my bloud witness against such Balaams as you be Bale Mr. John Bale in his excellent Paraphrase in Apocalyps In his Preface He that will live godly in Christ Jesus and be a patient sufferer he that will stand in Gods fear and prepare himself to temptation he that will be strong when adversity shall come and avoid all assaults of Antichrist and the Devil let him give himself wholly to the study of this prophesie He that knoweth not this Book knoweth not what the Church is Whereof he is a member It containeth the universal troubles persecutions and crosses that the Church suffered in the Primitive Spring what is suffereth now and what it shall suffer in the later Times by the subtilties of Antichrist and his Followers the cruel Members of Satan and it manifesteth what Promises what Crowns and what Glory the said Congregation shall have after this present Conflict with the Enemies that the promised Rewards might quicken the hearts of those that the Torments feareth Unto St. Iohn were these Mysteries revealed when he was by the Emperor Domitianus exiled for his Preaching into the Isle of Patmos at the cruel Complaints of the Idolatrous Priests and Bishops and by him writ and sent out of the same exile into the Congregations The Contents of this Book are from no place more freely and clearly opened nor told forth more boldly then out of exile Flattery dwelling at home and sucking there still his Mothers breasts may never tell out the truth he seeth so many dangers on every side as displeasure of Friends decay of Name loss of Goods offence of Great men and jeopardy of Life c. The forsaken wretched sort hath the Lord provided alwayes to rebuke the world of sin hypocrisie blindness for nought is it therefore that he hath exiled a certain number of believing Brethren the Realms of England of the which afflicted Family my faith is that I am one Whereupon I have considered it is no less my bounden duty under pain of damnation to admonish Christs flock by this present Revelation of their perils past and dangers to come for contempt of the Gospel which now reigneth there above all in the Clergy Graciously hath the Lord called them especially now of late but his voice is nothing regarded His Servants have they imprisoned tormented and slain having his Verity in much more contempt then before We looked for a time of peace saith the Prophet Ieremiah and we fare not the better at all we waited for a time of health and we find here nothing else but trouble And no marvel considering the Beasts head that was wounded is now healed up again so workmanly as Rev. 13. mentioneth The abominable hopocrisie idolatry pride and filthiness of those terrible termagaunts of Antichrists holy houshold those two-horned Whoremongers those Conjurers of Egypt and lecherous Locusts leaping out of the bottomless Pit which daily deceive the ignorant multitude with their Sorceries and Charms must be shewed to the World to their utter shame and confusion To tell them freely of their wicked works by the Scriptures I have exiled my self for ever from mine own native Countrey Kindred Friends Acquaintance which are the great delights of this life and am well contented for the sake of Christ and for the comfort of my Brethren there to suffer poverty penury abjection reproof and all that shall come beside Here are we admonished before-hand of two most dangerous evils neither to agree with those Tyrants that wage war with the Lamb in his elect Members nor yet to obey those deceitful Bishops that in hypocrisie usurp the Churches Titles Of those hath our heavenly Lord premonished us in this heavenly work of his and graciously called us away from their abominations lest we should be partakers of their sins and so receive of their plagues If we unthankfully neglect it the greater is our danger Barlaam He holding his hand in the flame over the Altar sung that of the Psalmist Thou teachest my hands to war and my fingers to fight Barnes I have been reported said Dr. Barnes at the Stake to be a Preacher of Sedition and disobedient to the Kings Majesty but here I say to you that you are all bound by the command of God to obey your Prince with all humility and with all your heart and that not onely for fear of the sword but also for conscience sake before God Yea I say further If the King should command you any thing against Gods Law if it be in your power to resist him yet may you not do it Basil. When Valens the Emperour sent his Officers to him seeking to turn him from the Faith And first of all great preferments were offered him Basil rejected them with scorn Offer these things said he to Children When he was afterwards threatned grievously Threaten said he your Purple Gallants that give themselves to their pleasures When the Emperors Messenger promised him great preferment Alas Sir said this Bishop of Caesâ—rca these speeches are fit to catch little Children that look after such things but we that are taught and nourished by the holy Scriptures are ready to suffer a thousand deaths rather then to suffer one syllable or tittle of
come to Gods company In his Letter to Mr. Laurence Saunders A Friend having moved the Prisoners to subscribe to the Papists Articles with this condition so far as they are not against Gods word Dr. Taylor and Mr. Philpot think the salt sent by our Friend is unseasonable for my own part I pray God in no case I may seek my self and indeed I thank God I purpose it not In another Letter This will be offensive therefore let us Vadere plane and so sane I mean let us all confess we are no changlings but re ipsa are the same we were in Religion and therefore cannot subscribe except we will dissemble both with God with our selves and with the world In his Letter to Dr. Cranmer Dr. Ridley and Dr. Latimer Our dear brother Rogers hath broken the Ice valiantly this day I think or to morrow at the uttermost hearty Hooper sincere Saunders and trusty Tailor end their course and receive their Crown The next am I who hourly look for the Porter to open me the Gates after them to enter into the desired Rest. God forgive me mine unthankfulness for this exceeding great mercy For though I justly suffer for I have been a great Hypocrite c. the Lord pardon me yea he hath done it he hath done it indeed yet what evil hath he done Christ whom the Prelates persecute his truth which they hate in me hath done no evil nor deserved death O what am I Lord that thou shouldest thus magnifie me Is this thy wont to send for such a wretched Hypocrite in a fiery chariot as thou didst for Elias In his Letter to the Lord Russel Faith is reckoned and worthily among the greatest gifts of God by it as we are justified and made Gods children so are we Temples and Possessours of the Holy Spirit yea of Christ also Eph. 4. And of the Father himself Iohn 14. By faith we drive the Devil away 2 Pet. 5. We overcome the world 1 Iohn 5. And are already Citizens of Heaven c. Yet the Apostle doth match even with faith yea as it were prefer suffering Persecution for Christs sake Phil. 1. Though the wisdome of the world think of the Cross according to sense and therefore flieth from it as from a most great ignominy and shame yet Gods Scholars have learned to think otherwise of the Cross as the Frame-house wherein God frameth his Children like to his Son Christ the Furnace that fineth Gods gold the High-way to Heaven the Suit and Livery of Gods servants the earnest and beginning of all consolation and glory In his Meditation on the Commandements As the first Command teacheth me as well that thou art my God as what God thou art therefore of equity I should have no other Gods but thee that is I should onely hang on thee trust in thee serve thee call on thee obey thee and be thankful to thee so because thou didst reveal thy self visibly that thou mightest visibly be worshipped The second Commandement is concerning thy Worship that in no point I should follow in worshipping thee the device or intent of any man Saint Angel or Spirit but should take all such as idolatry and image-service be it never so glorious And why forsooth because thou wouldst I should worship thee as thou hast appointed by thy Word for if service be acceptable it must be according to the Will of him to whom it is done and not of him who doth it c. So that the meaning of this Precept is that as in the first I should have none other Gods but thee so I should have no worship of thee but such as thou appointest And therefore utterly abandon mine own will and reason all the reasons and good intents of man and wholly give my self to serve thee after thy will and word Thou bidst me not to take thy Name in vain as by temerarious or vain swearing c. So by denying thy truth and word or concealing it when occasion is offered to promote thy glory and confirm thy truth By reason whereof I may well see that thou wouldst have me to use my tongue in humble confessing thee and thy word and truth after my Vocation c. Thy Ministers I pray not for thy Church I am not careful for no not now good Lord when wicked Doctrine most prevaileth Idolatry Superstition and Abomination abound the Sacraments c. blasphemously corrupted c. all which my wickedness brought in my profaning of the fourth Commandement and my not praying Thy Ministers are in Prison dispersed in other Countreys spoiled burnt murthered many fall for fear of goods life name c. from the truth they have received to most manifest idolatry false Preachers abound among the people thy people dearly bought even with thy bloud are not fed with the bread of thy Word but with swillings and drink for swine Antichrist wholly prevaileth and yet for all this also I am too careless nothing lamenting my sins which have been the cause of all this Help thy Church cherish it and give it harbour here and elsewhere for Christs sake Purge the Ministry from corruption and false Mâ—niâ—ters Send out Preachers to feed thy people Destroy Antichrist and all his Kingdome Give to such as be fallen from thy truth repentance Keep others from falling and by their falling do thou the more confirm us Confirm thy Mâ—nisters and poor people in Prison and Exile Strengthen them in thy truth Deliver them if it be thy good will Give them that with conscience they may so answer their Adversaries that thy servants may rejoyce and thy Adversarieâ— be confounded Avenge thou thy own cause â— thou God of Hosts Help all thy people and mâ—â— especially because I have most need Set my heart strait in case of Religion to acknowledgâ— thee one God to worship none other God to reâ—verence thy Name and keep thy Sabbaths Set mâ— heart right in matters of humane conversation tâ— honour my Parents to obey Rulers and reverencâ— the Ministry of the Word to have hands cleaâ— from bloud true from theft a body free from Aâ—dultery 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 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 flie the pain it putteth 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 prisons his deliverance out
It is no arrogancy 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 and I will hear thee and thou shalt praise me I answered the 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 not worthy to proâ—ess it What bring I to pass in so doing but adde sin to sin What is greater sin then to deny the truth of Christs Gospel He that is ashamed of me or of my words saith Christ of him also will I be ashamed before my Father and all his Angels I might also by the same reason forbear to do any of Gods Commandments When I am provoked to pray the enemy may say to me I am not 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 lately 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 this Church hath been from the beginning said I though it bear no glorious shew before the world being ever for the most part under the Cross and affliction contemned despised and persecuted The Bishop contended on the other side that they were the Church So cried all the Clergy against the Prophets of Ierusalem said I saying The Church the Church c. So much out of Mr. Glover's choice Letter After he was condemned his heart was lumpish and desolate of all spiritual consolation whereupon fearing least the Lord had utterly withdrawn he made his moan to Mr. Austine Bernher his familiar friend telling him how he had prayed night and day to God and yet had no sense of comfort from him The Minister desired him to wait patiently the Lords leisure and howsoever his present feeling was yet seeing his cause was just he exhorted him constantly to stick to the same and to play the man not doubting but the Lord in his good time would visit him and satisfie his desire with plenty of consolation whereof said Mr. Bernher he was right certain and sure and therefore desired him whenever any such feeling of Gods heavenly mercies should begin to touch his heart that then he should shew some signification thereof The next day as he was going to the place of his Martyrdome and was come within light of the Stake although all the night before praying for strength and courage he could feel none suddenly he was so mightily replenished with Gods holy comfort and heavenly joys that he cried out clapping his hands to Austine and saying in these words Austine He is come he is come c. and that with such joy and alacrity as one seeming rather to be risen from some deadly danger to liberty of life then as one passing out of the world by any pains of death Godfrey When one called Godfrey de Hâ—mmele Heretick he said No Heretick but an unprofitable Servant yet willing to die for his Lord and reckoning this death no death but a life Goodman Mr. Christopher Goodman an exiled Minister of Christ in Queen Mary's dayes declaring the cause of all the then misery in England and the onely way to remedy the same writes as followeth from Geneva If all in whom the People should look for comfort be altogether declined from God as indeed they appear to be at this present time in England without all fear of his Majesty or pity upon their Brethren Then assure your selves dear Brethren and Servants of God there can be no better counsel nor more comfortable or present remedy which you shall prove true if God grant you his Spirit and Grace to follow it then in continual and daily invocation of his Name to rest wholly and onely upon him make him your shield buckler and refuge who hath so promised to be to all them that are oppressed and depend upon him to do nothing commanded against God and your conscience preferring at all times the will of God to the will of men saying and answering to all manner of persons This God hath commanded this we must do That God hath forbidden that we will not do If you will rob us and spoil us for doing the Lords will to the Lord must you make answer and not to us for his goods they are and not ours If ye will imprison us behold you are oppressours if ye will hang us or burn us behold ye are murtherers of them which fear the Lord. And for our part if you take from us this vile and corruptible life we are sure the Lord will grant it us again with joy and immortality both of soul and body If God give you grace to make this or the like answer and strength to contemn their Tyranny you may be sure to find unspeakable comfort and quietness of conscience in the midst of your danger and greatest rage of Satan And thus boldly confessing Christ your Saviour before men as by the examples of thousands of your Brethren before your faces God doth mercifully encourage you you may with all hope and patience wait for the joyful confession of Christ again before his Father and Angels in Heaven that you are his obedient and dearly beloved Servants being also assured of this that if it be the will of God to have you any longer to remain in this miserable world that then his Providence is so careful over you and present with you that no man or power can take away your life from you nor touch your body any farther then your Lord and God will permit them which neither shall be augmented for your plain confession nor yet diminished for keeping of silence for nothing cometh to the Servants of God by hap or chance whose hairs of their heads are numbred Whereof if ye be so assured as ye ought there can be nothing that should make you to shrink from the Lord. If they do cast you into Prison with Ioseph the Lord will deliver you If they cast you to wild beasts and Lions as they did Dâ—niel you shall be preserved If into the Sea with Ionas you shall not be drowned or into the dirty dungeon with Ieremy you shall be delivered or into the fiery Furnace with Shadrach Meshach and Aâ—ednego yet shall not be consumed Contrariwise if it be his good pleasure that you shall glorifie his holy Name by your death what great thing have you lost changing death for life
pour upon the diligent hearers of his Word as was in David who desired being a King Rather to be a door-keeper in the House of God then to dwell in the tents of the ungodly lamenting nothing so much the injuries done to him by his Son Absalom which were not small as that he was deprived of the comfortable exercises in the Tabernacle of the Lord which then was in Sion Neither doth there appear in such persons that greedy desire whereof Isaiah makes mention which ought to be in the Professours of the Gospel who never would cease or rest till they should climb up to the Lords hill meaning the Church of Christ saying one to another Let us ascend to the hill of the Lord to the house of the God of Iacob and he will teach us his wayes and we shall walk in his footsteps for the Law shall come forth of Sion and the Word of the Lord from Ierusalem Which zeal the Prophet doth not mention in vain but to shew what a thirst and earnest desire should be in true Christians and how the same appeareth in seeking and resorting to those places where it is set forth in greatest abundance and perfection as was after Christs Ascension in Ierusalem And as that zeal shewed them to be of Christ by the like must we be judged Christians also that if we flee for Christ the places whereunto we flee may bear witness for what cause we are fled Neither is it a sufficient excuse which many alledge that they believe to be saved by Christ that they have sufficient knowledge of their duty and the rest they can supply by their own diligence I dare say their faith is not so much but they had need to desire with the Apostles Lord encrease our fâ—ith And if they will so confess why do they forsake the chiefest means that God hath ordained which is the open Congregations of his people where his Word the fountain of Faith is most purely preached and where the godly Examples of others may be a sharper spur to prick them forward and as for the knowledge and diligence of such there may be no buckler to defend their doings for if they have those gifts whereof they boast where may they better bestow them then in the Church of God except they will say they are born to themselves and have the gifts of God which he would have common to others applied to their own private fancy which is to lap them up in a clout and not to put them forth to the vantage of the owner as did the unprofitable Servant and as do all they to whom God hath given either learning counsel or worldly substance who either for the strength of Cities pleasantness of the air traâ—fick or merchandize or for any other worldly respect or policy do absent themselves from the Congregation and company of their poor Brethren where Christ hath advanced his Standard and blown his Trumpet If God then give you not strength at the first to stand in his Profession to the death nor that you cannot be quiet in conscience abiding in your Countrey you see how his mercy hath given you liberty to kill and what places he hath appointed you to flee unto that is where you may do good to your selves and others where ye may be free from Superstition and Idolatry where your faith may be encreased and not diminished and your selves strengthened and confirmed and more strongly armed But if you in tarrying will neither stand manfully to Christ your Master but betray him doing as the Papists do nor yet with thanks use this remedy that God hath granted to our infirmity to resort to his Churches godlily instituted what answer shall ye be able to make to his Majesty when he shall call for an account of your doings How shall you avoid his wrathful indignation now ready to be poured upon his enemies For in taking part with their impiety you must be partakers of their Cup likewise Neither is this any new or hard Doctrine that may exceed your capacity but may rather be termed your A. B. C. and first Principles wherein none ought to be ignorant That if we will be Christs Scholars we must learn to bear his Cross and to follow him not to cast it off our shoulders with the enemies and run from him Be no more deceived in so plain a matter If the Lord be God follow him if Bâ—al be God go after him Let not the example of any lead you into errour for men are but mortal Trust in the Lord for he is a sure rock Trust not your own shifts for they will deceive you Mark the end of others and in time be warned These Lessons are hard to the flesh but eaâ—â—e to the spirit The way of the Lord is a strait path but most faithful sure and comfortable From Geneva this first of Ian. An. 1558. Goose. Iohn Goose burnt in England An. 1473. being prest by the Sheâ—â—ff of Lâ—ndon to recant and so deliver himself from death answered That for his Religion he was at a pass and neither could nor would recant the same When the Sheriff gave him some meat of which he did eat heartily he said to the standers by I eat now a good and competent Dinner for I shall pass a sharp shower before I go to Supper Gordius When a solemn Feast was celebrated in Caesarea in honour to Mars Gordius a Citizen thereof who had been a Centurion and had chosen exile for sometime in the heat of Persecution left the Desert wherein he lived in exile and got him up into the chief place of the Theater and with a loud voice cried out Behold I am found of them that sought me not and to those that asked not for me have I openly appeared The Sheriff asking him who he was from whence he came and for what he came thither I am come said he to publish that I set nothing by your desires against the Christian Religion but that I profess Jesus Christ to be my hope and safety The Sheriff threatning him with all kind of torments It would be to me a damage said he if I should not endure divers torments for Christs Cause When he was tormented he lifted up his eyes to Heaven saying The Lord is my helper I will not fear the thing that man can do unto me I will learn no evil for thou Lord art with me He blamed the Tormentors if they favoured him at all The Sheriff promising great things if he would deny Christ It lieth not in you said he to place any in Authority which be worthy to have a place in Heaven When he was led out of the City to be burnt many with tears beg'd him to save himself but he said Weep not I beseech you for me but rather for those that bring us to the fire and thereby purchase Hell fire to themselves Truly I am ready for the Name of Christ to suffer
was damb'd and his Child both Iudge you no farther said he then ye may by the Scritures How can your Child being an Infant said Harpsfield believe The deliverance of it said Hankes from sin standeth in the faith of his Parents Saint Paul saying Else were your Children unclean To trust to any said Bonner we bid you not but to pray to them we bid you They that list said Hankes receive your Doctrine You teach me that I should not believe nor trust in any but to call on them and Saint Paul saith How shall I call on him on whom I believe not Bonner calling him fool he said A Bishop must be blameless or faultless sober discreet no chider nor given to anger Mr. Hankes telling Bonner That Christ saith These tokens shall follow them that believe in me They shall speak with new tongues câ—st out Devils and if any drink deadly poyson it shall not hurt them Bonner ask'd him With what new tongues do ye speak Forsooth said Hankes where before I came to the knowledge of Gods Word I was a foul Blasphemer and filthy talker Since I came to the knowledge thereof I have praised God with the sâ—me tongue and is not this a new tongue How do you said Bonner cast out Devils Christ said Hankes did câ—st them out by his Word and he hath left the same Word that whosoever doth credit and believe it shall câ—st out Devils Did you said Bonner ever drink deadly poyson Yea forsooth thee I have said Hankes for I have drunk of the pâ—stilent Traditions and Ceremonies of the Bishop of Rome Bonner threatning that he should be burnt for an Heretick Where prove ye said Hankes that Christ or his Apostles did kill any man for his faith Did not Paul said B. excommunicate Yes my Lord said H. but there is a great difference between excommunication and burning If you will have us grant you to be of God then shew mercy for that God requireth An old Bishop perswading him to learn of his Elders to bear somewhat I will bear with nothing said he that is contrary to the Word of God Fecknam charging him for building his Faith on Latimer â—ranmer Ridley c. I build my Faith said he upon no man and that ye well know for if those men and as many more as they be should recant and deny that they have said or done yet will I stand to it and by this shall ye know that I build my Faith upon no man Chadsey asking him What he said of the Bishop of Rome From him said he and all his detestable enormities good Lord deliver us Bonner saying You speak of Idols and you know not what they mean God hath taught us what they be said Hankes for whatsoever is made graven or devised by mans hand contrary to Gods Word the same is an Idol Chadsey telling him It was pity he should live In this case said he I desire not to live but rather to die I wouâ—d my part might be to morrow Bonner threatning to send him to Newgate My Lord said he you can do me no better pâ—easure Bonner telling the Keeper His Prisoner would not go to the Sermon Yes my Lord said he I pray you let me go and that that is good I will receive and the rest I will leave behind me Bonner asking after his imprisonment Whether he was the same man he was before he answered I am no Changeling nor none will be Miles Huggard asking him Where he proved that Infants were to be baptized Go teach all Nations said he baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Sir here is none excepted Bonner threatning him again Ye shall do no more said he then God shall give you leave As for your cursings railings and blasphemings I care not for them for I know the moths and worms shall eat you as they eat cloth or wooll His examination he writ himself and subscribed it T.H. Who desireth all faithful men and Brethren to pray unto God to strengthen me in his Truth unto the end Pray pray pray gentle Brethren pray Bonner advising him at his publick examination to speak advisedly for he stood upon life and death Well said he I will willingly receive what shall be put unto me My Lord as you be my friend in causing these my sayings to be written so do you cause them to be read and yet I will never go from them Being exhorted to return again to the bosome of the Mother Church No my Lord said he that will I not for if I had an hundred bodies I would suffer them all to be tâ—rn in pieces rather then I will abjure or recaâ—t Some of his Friends being not a little confirmen by his example and discourses yet being somewhat afraid of so sharp a punishment desired him a little before his death that in the midst of the flame he would shew some token if he could whereby they might be more certain whether the pain of burning were so great that a man might not therein keep his mind quiet and patient Whereupon it was agreed between them that if the rage of the pain were tolerable then he should lift up his hands above his head towards Heaven before he gave up the ghost Accordingly when he had continued long in the fire his speech taken away his skin drawn together his fingers consumed so that all concluded he was dead contrary to all expectation he reached up his hands burning on a light fire over his head to the living God and with great rejoycing as it seemed clapped them three times together He was burned to ashes Iune 10. 1555. In his Letter to the Congregation The holy Spirit conduct and lead you all in all your doings that you may alwayes direct your deeds according to his holy Word that when he shall appear to reward every man according to his works ye may as obedient children be found watching ready to enter into his everlasting Kingdome with your Lamps burning and not be ashamed of this life which God hath lent you c. All flesh saith the Prophet is grâ—ss and all his glory as the flower of the field which for a season sheweth her beauty and as soon as the Lord bloweâ—h upon it it withereth away and departeth Here we are as Pilgrims and Strangers following the footsteps of Moses among many unspeakable dangers c. in danger of that dreadful Dragon and his sinful seed to be tempted devoured and tormented who ceaseth not behind every Bush to lay a baâ—t c. casting abroad his Apples in all places times and seasons to see if Adam will be allured and enticed to leave the living God and his most holy commandment c. promising the world at will to all that will fall down and for a mess of pottage sell and set at naught the everlasting Kingdome of Heaven Therefore I am bold in bonds as
your Brethren that you have vouchsafed to take me a Prisoner and condemned man by the hand whereby to my rejoycing it is somewhat apparent that your old love and friendship towards me is not altogether extinguished and I trust also that all the things I have taught you in times past are not utterly forgotten c. For the which most true and sincere Doctrine because I will not now account it falshood and Heresie as many other men do I am sent hither by the Queens command to die and am come where I taught it to confirm it with my blood And now Mr. Sheriffs My request to you is That there may be a quick Fire shortly to make an end and in the mean time I will be as obedient unto you as your selves would wish If you think I do amiss in any thing hold up your finger and I have done for I am not come hither as one inforced or compelled to die for it is well known I might have had my life with worldly gain but as one willing to offer and give my life for the truth rather then to consent to the wicked Papistical Religion of the Bishop of Rome c. When the Sheriffs fetcht him from his Chamber to the place of Execution with Bills Weapons c. Mr. Sheriffs said he I am no Traytor neither needed you to have made such a business to bring me to the place where I must suffer for if ye had willed me I would have gone alone to the Stake and have troubled none of you all When he saw the multitude of People that were assembled he said unto them that were about him Alas why be these People assembled and come together peradventure they think to hear something of me now as they have in times past but alas speech is prohibited me Notwithstanding the cause of my death is well known unto them when I was appointed here to be their Pastor I preached unto them true and sincere Doctrine and that out of the Word of God because I will not account the same to be Heresie and untruth this kind of death is prepared for me When he was come to the place where he was to suffer after he had begun to pray a Box was brought and laid before him upon a stool with his Pardon or at leastwise it was feigned so to be from the Queen if he would turn at the sight thereof he cried If you love my soul away with it if you love my soul away with it In his Prayer he was overheard to say Lord I am Hell but thou art Heaven I am swill and a sink of sin but thou art a gracious God and merciful Redeemer Thou art ascended into Heaven receive me Hell to be partaker of thy joyes where thou sittest in equal glory with thy Father for well knowest thou wherefore I am come hither to suffer and why the wicked do persecute this thy poor Servant not for my sins and transgressions against thee but because I will not allow their wicked doings to the contaminating of thy blood and to the denial of the knowledge of thy Truth wherewith it did please thee by thy holy Spirit to instruct me the which with as much diligence as a poor wretch might being thereto called I have set forth to thy glory And well seest thou my Lord and God what terrible pains and cruel torments be prepared for thy Creature such Lord as without thy strength none is able to bear or patiently to pass But all things that are impossible with man are possible with thee Therefore strengthen me of thy goodness that in the fire I break not the Rules of patience or else asswage the terrour of the pains as shall seem most to thy glory When he was at the Stake three irons made to bind him to the Stake were brought one for his Neck another for his Middle and the third for his Legs He refusing them said Ye have no need thus to trouble your selves for I doubt not but God will give strength sufficient to abide the extremity of the fire without bands notwithstanding suspecting the frailty and weakness of the flesh but having assured confidence in Gods strength I am content ye do as ye shall think good When he was first scorch'd with the fire he pray'd saying mildly and not very loud but as one without pains O Jesus the Son of David have mercy upon me and receive my soul. When the second fire was spent and onely burnt his lower parts he said for Gods love good people let me have more fire In the third fire he prayed with somewhat a loud voice Lord Jesus have mercy on me Lord Jesus have mercy on me Lord Jesus receive my Spirit The Reasons of Mr. Hooper's refusing the Episcopal Habits c. I find thus C. Why do not you my Lord use these innocent and harmless weeds H. I put my self upon the tryal of the Searcher of Hearts that no obstinacy but meer Conscience makes me refuse these Ornaments C. These Ornaments are indifferent of themselves and of ancient use in the Church H. They are useless being ridiculous and superstitious C. Nay my Lord being enjoyned by lawful Authority they become necessary not to salvation but to Church-unity H. Being left indifferent by God it is presumption in man to make them necessary C. By a moderate use of these Ceremonies we may gain Papists into the Church H. While you hope to gain Papists into the Church you lose many Protestants out of it C. You discredit other Bishops who have used this Habit. H. I had rather discredit them then destroy mine own conscience C. How think you being a private person to be indulged with to the disturbance of the publick Uniformity of the Church H. If it please your Grace but to read these Letters I hope you will be satisfied and then he produced the Letters from the Earl of Warwick anâ— King Edward C. These are to desire that in such reasonable things wherein my Lord Elect of Glocester craveth to be born withall at your hands you would vouchsafe your Graces favour the principal cause is that you would not charge him with any thing burdenous to his Conscience I. Warwick WE do understand you stay from Consecrating our well beloved Mr. J. Hooper because hâ— would have you omit and let pâ—ss câ—rtain Rites and Ceremonies â—ffensive to his Conscience whereby you thiâ—â— you shall fall in premunire of Laws We have thoughâ— good by advice of Our Council to discharge you 〈◊〉 manner of Dangers Penalties and Forfeitur◠〈◊〉 should run into by omitting any of the sâ—me and 〈◊〉 Our Letters shall be your sufficient Warrant and Disâ—charge Edward Rex In his Letter writ in Answer to one sent hiâ— concerning certain taken in Bow Church-yard whilst they were praying I do rejoyce in thâ—â— men can be so well occupied in this perillous time and flee for remedy to God by Prayer as well foâ— their own lacks
you do require me so to do I will not refuse to go with you and if it happen that they evil intreat me yet nevertheless I trust in my Lord Jesus that he will so comfort and strengthen me that I shall desire much rather to die for his glory sake then to deny the Verity which I have learned by his holy Scriptures When he came to the Cardinals they told him they had heard that he had taught great and manifest errors through the Realm of Bohemia c. You shall understand answered Mr. Hus that I am thus minded and affectioned that I should rather chuse to die then I should be found culpable of one only error much less of many and great errors For this cause I am willingly come to the general Council to receive correction if any man can prove any errors in me Some of the Articles presented to the Council against him 4 He saith that all Priests be of like power 8 He holdeth this opinion That a man being once ordained a Priest or a Deacon cannot be forbidden or kept back from the office of preaching When several false witnesses rose up against him he said Albeit they were as many more in number as they are I do much more esteem yea and without comparison regard the witness of my Lord God before the witness of all mine adversaries He being ask'd whether it was lawful for him to appeal unto Christ answered Verily I do affirm before you all that there is no more just nor effectual plea then that which is made unto Christ forasmuch as the Law doth determine that to appeal is no other thing then in a cause of grief or wrong done by an inferiour Judge to implore and require aid and remedy at an higher Judges hands Who is then an higher Judge then Christ Who can know or judge the matter more justly or with more equity In him is found no deceit nor can he be deceived Who can better help the miserable and oppressed then he It being in his Accusation that he counsel'd the people to resist with the sword all such as did gainsay his Doctrine c. he answered That he at all times when he preached did diligently admonish and warn the people that they should arm themselves to defend the truth of the Gospel according to the saying of tbe Apostle With the helmet and sword of salvation that he never spake of any material sword but of that which is the Word of God Some more Articles against him taken out of his Treatise of the Church 1 There is but one holy universal or Catholick Church which is the universal Company of all the Predestinate 6 A reprobate man is never a member of the holy Church 18 An Heretick ought not to be committed to the secular powers to be put to death for it is sufficient that he suffer the Ecclesiastical censure In his appeal Forasmuch as the most mighty Lord One in Essence Three in Person is both the chief and first and also the last and uttermost refuge of all those which are oppressed and forasmuch as the Lord Jesus Christ very God and Man being compassed in with the Priests Scribes and Pharisees wicked Judges and Witnesses c. hath left behind him this godly example for them that shall come after him to the intent they should commit all their causes into the hand of God O Lord behold my affliction c. thou art my Protector and Defender O Lord thou hast given me understanding and I have acknowledged thee For mine own part I have been as a meek Lamb which is led unto sacrifice and have not resisted against them Deliver me from mine enemies for thou art my God I appeal to the Sovereign and most just Judge who is not defiled with cruelty nor can be corrupted with gifts and rewards neither yet be deceived by false witness I Iohn Hus do present and offer this my appeal to my Lord Jesus Christ my just Judge who knoweth and defendeth and justly judgeth every mans just and true cause The day before his condemnation when four Bishops were sent by the Emperour to him to know whether he would stand to the judgement of the Council Mr. Iohn de Clum spake thus unto him Mr. I. Hus I require you if you know your self guilty of any of those errours which are objected against you that you will not be ashamed to alter your mind to the will of the Council if contraiwise I will be no Author to you that you should do any thing contrary to your conscience but rather to suffer any kind of punishment then to deny that which you have known to be the truth Mr. Hus with tears answered Verily as before I have oftentimes done I do take the most High God for my witness that I am ready with my whole heart and mind if the Council can instruct me any better by the Scripture to change my purpose One of the Bishops telling him he should not be so arrogant as to prefer his own opinion before the judgement of the whole Council he said If he which is the meanest or least in all this Council can convict me of errour I will with an humble heart and mind do whatsoever the Council shall require of me When they condemned his appeal as heretical he said O Lord Jesus Christ whose Word is openly condemned here in this Council unto thee again do I appeal which when thou wast evil intreated of thine enemies didst appeal unto God thy Father committing thy Cause unto a most just Judge that by thy example we also being oppressed with manifest wrongs and injuries should flee unto thee Whilst they were reading his Sentence He interrupted them often and specially when he was charged with obstinacy he said with a loud voice I was never obstinate but as alwayes heretofore even so now again I desire to be taught by the holy Scriptures and I do profess my self to be so desirous of the truth that if I might by one onely word subvert the errours of all Hereticks I would not refuse to enter into what peril soever it were to speak it When the Sentence was ended kneeling down upon his knees he said Lord Jesus Christ forgive mine enemies by whom thou knowest that I am falsly accused c. forgive them for thy great mercies sake When he was degraded he spake to the people thus These Lords and Bishops do exhort and counsel me that I should here confess before you all that I have erred the which thing to do if it might be done with the infamy and reproach of man onely they might peradventure easily perswade me thereunto but now truly I am in the sight of the Lord my God without whose great ignominy and grudge of mine own conscience I can by no means do that which they require of me With what countenance should I behold the Heavens With what face should I look upon
will to the flaming Bush that he is willing to accompany the Church in the fiery Furnace Say after the perusal of this Manual I dare trust in God in the greatest difficulties I will take no thâ—ught what to answer to the Sons of men but will believe it shall be given in that hour I will cast all my care on him I will assure my self that as my tribulations do so my consolations shall abound he hath been others help therefore under the shadow of his wings will I rejoyce They that know thy Name will put their trust in thee for thou Lord hast not forsaken them that seek thee Our Fathers trusted in thee they trusted and thou didst deliver them they cried unto thee and were delivered they trusted in thee and were not confounded Here you have Gods former dealings with and appearings for his suffering Saints to publish to thee and me what his future behaviour will be What David said of the tried sword we may of God much rather There is none like it I have considered the dayes of old the years of ancient times I will remember the years of the right hand of the most High Moreover in these Gleanings thou wilt see the excellency of Christ and the high advantages of Faith in that the Lord Christ is worthy for whose sake all is to be parted from Here is the Lord Iesus rated and valued above all the comforts contentments and happiness of both the worlds not that these were of a Stoical Apathy or prodigal of their blood and lives onely Christ was the first Figure and all the world but empty Ciphers without him The estimate which their souls set on Christ did infinitely exceed the rate which they sâ—â— on any thing else all was but dross and dung this is the voice of all these Saints â—â—arted Christ is not valued at all if he be not valued above all What shall I say more Here you may see somewhat to shoar up the dejected Christians who may be too much discouraged at the low condition of Gods Church upon reading here sad Melancthon may be contenteâ— to let God continue the reins of Government in his own hands and we may when even sinking leaâ—â— of Austin Let the world said he sink or swim be ruined or prosper I will bless the Lord that made the world Here you may in short see the Cavils against the Cross blown off to your hand the objections against the Truth abundantly silenced Here you will meet with seasonable Cautions against unscriptural Compliances Here cases of the present Age are briefly debated and cleared and here you may have a Directory how to keep your Consciences inoffensive towards God towards the Saints and towards them that are without But Reader I will not detain thee from enjoying the labours of my Friend The Lord bless them to thee and me See that thou refuse not him that speaketh from Heaven nor these whose blood like their Masters cries against their enemies for vengeance but calls aloud to you to stand fast in the Faith once delivered and to consider the end of their Warfare which that thou mayest is heartily desired by A Cordial Friend to all the Friends of Christ S.L. Swan-like SONG' 's The Second Part. I. Ieuville NIcholas Ieuville being condemned to be burned alive and his tongue to be cut out the Tormentor putting the Halter about his Neck said Praised be God for I am now counted worthy to be one of the Heavenly Order Ignatius When Trajan the Emperour returned from the Parthian War and came to Antioch having commanded gratulatory Sacrifices to be offered in every City he required Ignatius who was Pastour of the Church at Antioch to be present at those Sacrifices but he before Trajan's face did justly and sharply reprove their Idolatry for which cause he was delivered by ten Souldiers to be carried to Rome As he passed through Asia so guarded he confirmed the Congregations through every City where he came preaching the Word of God to them and giving them wholesome Exhortations When he came to Smyrna he wrote an Epistle to the Church at Ephesus and another to the Church of Magnesia on the River Meander and another to the Church at Trallis In his Epistle to the Ephesians You have heard of my being carried bound from Syria for the common Name and Hope I hope through your prayers I shall so fight against the Beasts at Rome that through Martyrdome I shall become his Disciple who offered himself a sacrifice for us unto God I do not command you as if I were any thing for though I am in bonds for the Name of Christ I am not as yet perfect in Christ Jesus Now I begin to be a Disciple Onesimus himself doth exceedingly commend your decent and meet order and that you all live according to the Truth and that there is no place for Herest among you and that you hear none farther then he preacheth Christ Jesus in truth Oppose their anger with mildness and their proud brags with humility and their cursings with praying and their errors with stedfastness in the Faith Let us be found in Christ Jesus unto everlaststing life Without him nothing becomes you in whom I carry about these bonds spiritual pearls in which I may stand advanced by the help of your prayer of which I alwayes desire to be partaker that I may be numbred among the Ephesian Christians who have alwayes in the strength of Christ consented with the Apostles See that you often meet together to give God thanks and to praise him for when you have often met together in the same place the power of Satan is weakened and his mischief vanisheth away by the concord of your faith The Tree is manifested by its fruit the work of profession doth not now appear unless by the power of Faith we be found to persevere to the end It is herrer to be a Mute and a Christian then to be Talkative and no Christian. It is good to teach but let him that teacheth do what he teacheth In his Letter to the Mâ—gnesians It becomes us not onely to be called but to be Christians As there be two sorts of moneys one Gods the other the Worlds so each sort hath its peculiar stamp Unbelievers have the stamp of the World Believers in love have the stamp of God the Father through Jesus Christ through whom unless our Will be inclined to die after the example of his Passion his Life is not in us There is one Christ then whom nothing is more excellent Let all therefore agree as in one Temple Although I am in bonds I am not to be compared with one of you yet at liberty I know you are free from pride and when I praise you I know you even blush In his Exhortation prefixt to his Epistle to the Church at Trallis he perswades them not to refuse Martyrdome lest thereby they should lose the hope that
the hatred of all men against me As I was not so fervent in rebuking manifest iniquity as I should so was I not so indifferent a feeder as is required of Christs Steward for the love of friends and carnal affection of some men with whom I was most familiar allured me to make more residence in one place then in another having more respect to the pleasure of a few then the necessity of many Moreover remaining in one place I was not so diligent as mine office required but sometime by counsel of carnal friends I spared the body some time I spent in worldly business of particular friends and sometime in taking recreation c. And albeit men may judge these to be light and small offences yet I acknowledge that unless pardon should be granted unto me in Christs blood that every one of these three offences deserved damnation And beside these I am assaulted yea infected and corrupted with seeking the favour estimation and praise of men O Lord be merciful to my great offence and deal not with me according to my great iniquity but according to the multitude of thy mercies remove from me the burden of my sin for of purpose and mind to have avoided the vain displeasure of man I spared little to offend thy Majesty Think not that I thus accuse my self without cause to appear more holy or to accuse my Brethren No God is Judge to my Conscience that I do it from an unfeigned and sore troubled heart This great tempest cometh from the great mercy of our heavenly Father to provoke us to unfeigned repentance for neither Preacher nor Professor did rightly consider the time of our merciful visitation but we spent our time as though Gods Word had rather been preached to satisfie our phantasies then to reform our evil manners Which thing if we earnestly repent then shall Jesus Christ appear unto our comfort be the storm never so great Haste O Lord for thy Names sake Observe next the vehemency of the fear which the Disciples indured in that great danger of longer continuance then any before They were in the midst of the raging Sea and it was night and Christ their Comforter absent from them and cometh not to them neither in the first second nor third Watch. What fear think you were they in Such as be in like danger in England do by this storm better understand then my Pen can express What we read here to have chanced to Christs Disciples and their poor Boat the same thing hath chanced doth and will chance to the true Church travelling like a Ship in the Sea of this troublesome World to the Haven of eternal felicity The wind that alwayes hath blown against the Church of God is the malice of the Devil As the wind is invisible and yet the poor Disciples feel that it troubleth and letteth their Ship so the pestilent envy of the Devil worketh in Reprobates so subtily that it cannot be espied by Gods Elect nor by his Messengers till first they feel the blasts thereof to blow their Ship backward As the vehement wind causeth the waves of the Sea to rage and yet the dead water neither knoweth what it doth nor can cease from being troubled and troubling Christs Disciples in their poor Ship so by the envy and malice of the Devil are wicked and cruel both Subjects and Princes whose hearts are like the raging Sea compelled to persecute the true Church of Christ and yet so blinded that they see not their manifest iniquity nor can they cease to run to their own destruction The whole malice of the Devil hath alwayes this end to vex and overthrow Christs afflicted Church Albeit the Tyrants of the Earth have learned by long experience that they are never able to prevail against Gods Truth yet because they are bound Slaves to their Master the Devil they cannot cease to persecute the Members of Christ when the Devil bloweth his wind in the darkness of the night i. e. when the Light of Christs Gospel is taken away and the Devil reigneth by Idolatry Superstition and Tyranny It is fearful to be heard that the Devil hath such power over any man but yet the Word of God hath so instructed us and therefore we must believe it He is called the Prince and god of this world because he reigneth and is honoured by Tyranny and Idolatry in it He is called the Prince of darkness that hath power in the aire It is said he worketh in the children of unbelief c. And therefore wonder not that now the Devil rageth in his obedient Servants for this is their hour and power granted to them they cannot cease nor asswage their furious fumes for the Devil their Sire stirreth moveth and carrieth them at his will I do not attribute to him or them power at their pleasure but onely as God shall suffer When therefore I hear what the ravenous Lions do I pray O Lord those cruel Tyrants are loosed by thy hand to punish our former ingratitude whom we trust thou wilt not suffer to prevail for ever but when thou hast corrected us a little and hast declared to the world the tyranny that lurked in their boldened breasts then wilt thou break their jaw-bones and wilt shut them up in their Caves again that the generation and posterity following may praise thy holy Name before thy Congregation Amen I know that God shall yet shew mercy to his afflicted Church in England and repress the pride of these present Tyrants as he hath done those that were before us Therefore beloved Brethren in our Saviour Jesus Christ hold up to God your hands that are fainted through fear and hear the voice of your God who sweareth by himself that he will not suffer his Church to be oppressed for ever and that he will not despise our sobs to the end if we will rowe and strive against this vehement wind I mean if that ye will not turn back headlong to Idolatry then shall this storm be asswaged in despight of the Devil Be not moved from the sure Foundation of your Faith for albeit that Christ Iesus be absent from you as he was from his Disciples in that great storm by his bodily presence yet he is present by his mighty power and grace He standeth upon the mountain in security and rest i. e. his flesh and whole humanity is now in Heaven and can suffer no such trouble as once he did yet he is full of pity and compassion and doth consider all our travel anguish and labours wherefore it is not to be doubted but that he will suddenly appear to our great comfort The tyranny of this world cannot keep back his coming more then the blustering wind and raging Seas let Christ to come to his Disciples looking for present death We gave you warning of these dayes long ago for the reverence of Christs blood let these words be noted The same Truth that spake
light into the World Weston pressing him to recant You shall have no hope said he in me to turn I pray for the Queen daily even from the bottom of my heart that she may turn from this Religion When he was excommunicated by Weston he said I thank God most heartily that he hath prolonged my life to this end that I may in this case glorifie God by that kind of death When he was brought forth from the Bailiffs to see a Mass with a general Procession and understood so much he run as fast as his old bones would carry him to a Shop and would not look towards it After the Sentence was past upon him he was committed again to Prison in Oxford where in Prayer he oftentimes continued so long kneeling that he was not able to rise without help and among other things these were three principal matters he prayed for 1 That as God had appointed him to be a Preacher of his Word so he would give him grace to stand to his Doctrine to death that he might give his hearts blood for the same 2 That God of his mercy would restore his Gospel to England once again and these words Once again once again he did so inculcate and beat into the ears of the Lord God as though he had seen God before him and spoke to him face to face 3 That God would preserve the Lady Elizabeth and make her a comfort to this comfortless Realm of England Neither were these things desired of him in vain but the Lord most graciously granted every one of these requests 1 The Lord assisted him to be constant to the last At the Stake he lifted up his eyes towards Heaven with an amiable and comfortable countenance saying God is faithful which doth not suffer us to be tempted above our strength Afterward he shed his blood in the Caâ—se of Christ. The blood ran out of his heart in great abundance his body being opened by the force of the fire 2 The Gospel was restored again unto England 3 When the enemies trâ—umphed Gods Word was banished no place left for Gods Servants to cover their heads God havâ—ng wonderfully preserved the Lady Elizabeth set her on the Throne and thereby the captivity of sorrowfull Christians was released In his Letter to Mr. Morice I thank you that now of late you would vouchsase to write unto me so poor a wretch to my great comfort among all these my troubles Seeing there is no pain that can break my charity and patience cause me to dishonour God to displease God to be displeased with God nor to joy in God bring me from surety of Salvation separate me from Christ or Christ from me I care the less for it In his Letter in answer to Dr. Sherwood God gives us both what he knows best for us to me patience becoming a Christian in the midst of my sufferings and to you as sound a judgement as you have now a fervent zeal I said that all Popes Bishops Vicars Rectors not entring by the door but ascending some other way are Thieves and Robbers c. Hence you gather that I said all Popes Bishops Vicars Rectors simply are so O my Brother is this a good collection Is there not a vast difference between these two assertions All not entring in by the door are Thieves And all simply are Thieves Whence I pray you could it seem to you to say Simply all are Thieves when I said onely All not entring in by the door are Thieves Unless perhaps all appear to you to ascend some other way and not to enter by the door If you think so if you be wise do not say that you do so think you know how dangerous it will be for you to say so You say that Christ did onely in secret and not in publick task the Pharisees but I am but a man not a searcher of hearts c. But did not Christ by name accuse them even before the multitude saying Woe unto you Scriles and Pharisees Hypocrites It is true I am but a man that see not the spot lying hid in anothers heart but onely the life exposed to the view of all and so knowing them by their fruits whom Christ would have so known I do condemn that course of life whoever take it up which I find often condemned in the holy Scriptures and in the holy Interpreters thereof Am not I then undeservedly found fault with by you What I spake rightly concerning the Church you wickedly calumniate as if I had made all equal with Peter as to the use of the Keys when there was not a word mentioned concerning the power of the Keys c. But I onely admonished my hearers that the Church of Christ was built upon a Rock and not upon the Sands least they trust in a dead faith and not shew forth their faith by their works In his Letter to Sir Edward Bainton To recompence your goodness towards me I shall not cease to pray my Lord God who is able and also doth indeed reward all them that favour the favourers of his Truth for his sake for the truth is a common thing pertaining to every man for the which every man shall answer another day and I desire favour neither of your Worship nor of any man else but in truth and for the truth I take God to witness which knoweth all I marvel not a little how the Bishop of London having so broad wide and large Diocess committed unto his Cure and so peopled as it is can have leisure for preaching and teaching the Word in season out of season privately publickly to his own flock convincing exhorting admonishing c. to trouble me or to trouble himself with me c. I do not think Judges now adayes so deeply confirmed in grace or so impeccable but that it may behove and become Preachers to admonish them to do well to examine whether the accusers do not pervert the words of the accused and this I did upon occasion of the Apostles saying Ye are not under the Law but under Grace What a saying is this said I if it be not rightly understood The words sound as if he would encourage Christians to break Law seeing they be not under the Law and what if Paul's adversaries would have so taken them and accused him of the same to my Lord of London If he would have heard Paul declare his own mind he would have escaped but if he would have rigorously followed utcunque allegata probata and have given sentence after the relation of the Accusers good St. Paul must have born a fagot at Paul's Cross the Bishop of London being his Judge But my Lord will say Peradventure that men will not take the Preachers words otherwise then they mean therein As though St. Paul's words were not otherwise taken Because he said That our unrighteousness commendeth the righteousness of God he was reported to mean That we
this Realm that I am acquainted with but they shall write unto you and godlily threaten you with their Authority I will do all this yea I will kneel upon both my knees before the Kings Majesty and all his honourable Council with most humble Petition for your Reformation rather then the Devil shall possess you still to your final damnation so that I do not despair but verily trust one way or other to pluck both you and your crabbed Brother as crabbed as you say he is out of the Devils claws maugre the Devils heart In the moneth of October An. 1555. Mr. Latimer and Dr. Ridley were brought forth together to their final Examination and Execution At his last appearence being prest to recant he said I must use here the counsel of Cyprian who when he was ascited before certain Bishops that gave him leave to take deliberation and counsel to try and examine his opinion he answered them thus In sticking to and persevering in the truth no counsel nor deliberation must be taken and being asked which was most like to be the Church of Christ whether the persecuted or the persecutor Christ said he hath foreshewed That he that doth follow him must take up his Cross. How think you then my Lords Is it like that the See of Rome which hath been a continual persecutor is rather the Church or that small flock which hath alwayes been persecuted even to death Mr. Latimer being told That his and St. Cyprian's case was not one Yes verily said he my cause is as good as St. Cyprian's for his was persecution for the Word of God and so is mine As he was going to Execution Dr. Ridley spying him behind him said O be ye there Yes said Mr. Latimer have after as fast as I can follow When he could not be suffered to answer Dr. Smith's Sermon at their Execution on that in the Corinthians If I give my body to be burned and have not charity c. he said Well there is nothing hid but it shall be opened When a Fagot was brought kindled with fire and laid at Dr. Ridley's feet Mr. Latimer said Be of good comfort Mr. Ridley and play the man We shall this day light such a Candle by Gods Grace in England as I trust will never be put out He received the flame as it were embracing it and crying out vehemently O Father of Heaven receive my soul. Laverock Hugh Laverock an old lame man after he was chained to the Stake cast away his Crutch and comforting Iohn Apprice a blind man his Fellow-Martyr said unto him Be of good comfort my Brother for my Lord of London is our good Physician he will heal us both shortly thee of thy blindess and me of my lameness Lavoy Mr. Aymond de Lavoy a French Minister having intelligence that some were sent to apprehend him and being willed by his Friends to flie and shift for himself he said That he had rather never to have been born then so to do It is the office of a good Shepherd not to flie in time of peril but rather to abide the danger lest the Flock be scattered or else least in so doing he should leave some scruple in their minds Thus to think That he had fed them with dreams and fables contrary to the Word of God Wherefore beseeching them to move him no more therein he told them That he feared not to yield up both body and soul in the quarrel of that Truth which he had taught saying with St. Paul I am ready not onely to be bound for the testimony of Christ in the City of Bourdeaux but to die also When his Hearers flew upon the Sumner to deliver their Preacher out of his hands he desired them not to stop his Martyrdome seeing it was the Will of God that he should suffer for him he would not said he resist Whilst he was in Prison he bewailed exceedingly his former life though there was no man that could charge him outwardly with any crime One of the Presidents coming to him and shaking him by his beard bid him tell what fellows he had of his Religion None said he but such as know and do the Will of God my Father whether they be Nobles Merchants Husbandmen or of whatsoever degree they be In his torments in Prison he comforted himself thus This body once must die but the Spirit shall live The Kingdome of God abideth for ever In the time of his tormenting being but of a weak body he swounded afterward coming to himself again he said O Lord Lord why hast thou forsaken me The President answering Nay wicked Lutheran thou hast forsaken God Alas said he why do ye thus torment me O Lord I beseech thee forgive them they know not what they do All their tortures could not force him to confess one mans name but he said unto them I thought to have found more mercy with men Wherefore I pray God I may find mercy with him To the Friers that came to confess him after his condemnation he said Depart I will confess my sins to the Lord. Do ye not see how I am troubled enough with men will ye yet trouble me more others have had my body will ye also take from me my soul away from me At last he took a certain Carmelite bidding the rest to depart whom after much talk he did convert to the Truth Such trust have I said he to the Judge in my God that the same day when I shall die I shall enter into Paradise The Church said he is a Greek word signifying as much as Congregation or Assembly And so I say Whensoever the Faithfull do congregate together to the honour of God and amplifying of Christian Religion the Holy Ghost is verily with them By this it should follow said the Judge that there be many Churches It is no absurd thing said he to say there be many Churches or Congregations among the Christians and so speaketh St. Paul To all the Churches which are in Galatia When the Judges left him looking on him as a damned Creature he said with St. Paul Who shall separate me from the love of God shall the sword hunger or nakedness No nothing shall pluck me from him As he was carried to the place of Execution he sang Psal. 114. and preaching still as he went one of the Souldiers bidding the Carter therefore to drive apace he said unto him He that is of God heareth the Word of God Many being offended that passing by an image of the Virgin Mary he would not pray unto her lifted up his voice to God praying That he would not suffer him at any time to invocate any other but him alone At his Execution he said O Lord Make haste to help me tarry not do not despise the work of thy hands and you my Brethren that be Students I exhort you to learn the Gospel for the Word of God abideth for ever Labour to know
provided That they pass judgement concerning them out of the Scriptures and prove the contrary by testimonies thence Afterwards the Arch Bishop of Triers treated privately with him to perswade him Luther told him It was not sâ—fe for him to submit so momentous a business to them who after they had called him under safe conduct attempting him with new commands had condemned his Opinion and approved the Popes Bull. Afterwards the Arch Bishop desired Luther to shew what remedies there were in this case He answered None better then Gamalieâ—'s who said If this câ—unsel or work proceed of men it shall come to nâ—ught but if it be of God ye cannot destroy it Caesar and the States may write to the Pope that they are certain If this his purpose 〈◊〉 of God it will of iâ—s own accâ—rd come to nâ—ught within three yea within two years The Arch Bishop asking him What if the same Aâ—â—icles which the â—ouncil of Constance condemned be collected out of your Writings to be submitted to a Couâ—cil I may not said he and I will not hold my peace concerning such because I am certain the Word of God is condemned by their Decrees therefore I will rather lose life and head then abandon the manifest Word of the Lord. When Luther was commanded by the Emperour to return within one and twenty dayes under safe conduct He said It is as pleaseth the Lord. Blessed be the Name of the Lord. I humbly give most hearty thanks to the Emperour and all the Princes c. for so benign and favourable audience and for safe conduct to come and return I desire nothing of you but a reformation by the holy Scripture and that I do most earnestly desire Otherwise I am ready to suffer all things life and death shame and reproach for the Emperour and Empire reserving nothing for my self but onely the free Word of God to be confessed and testified by me In his Letter to his Father Know dear Father that your Son is come to this to be most certainly perswaded that nothing is before nothing more holy more religious then Gods command But you will say Didst thou ever doubt hereof Truly I did not onely doubt hereof but I was altogether ignorant that it was so and if you will suffer me I am ready to demonstrate that this ignorance was common to you with me If you had known that Gods Command is to be preferred before all things you would by your Paternal Authority have taken away my Monks Cole and if I had known it I should not have entred into the Monastery without your leave and against your consent But God hath caused all to work for good He would have me to experience the wisdome of the Universities and the holiness of the Monasteries that is that they should be known to me by many sins and impieties lest occasion should be given to wicked men to triumph over their future Adversary that I condemned what I knew not I therefore lived a Monk though without crime not without fault Will you now come and free me my Father The Lord hath come before you and freed me My Conscience is freed which is the richest liberty I am now a Monk and no Monk a new Creature not of the Pope but of Christ. The Pope doth indeed create Puppets that is Idols like himself in which Number I was once a poor seduced One but now freed by grace Your authority over me doth indeed remain intire But he that hath freed me hath greater authority over me Novemb. 21. 1521. In his Epistle to Prince Frederick The perils and dangers which seem to hang over your Person Dominions and Subjects and especially my self condemned by Edicts and Bulls by the Popes and Emperours Authority upon my return are not unobserved Certainly no less then a violent death is to be expected by me every hour But what shall I do God calls and urges me to return To this I am not induced by pride and contempt of the Emperour or of your Excellency or of any Magistrate for although sometimes we must not do what is commanded by man as when any thing is commanded contrary or repugnant to the Word of God yet the Power and Authority is never to be contemned but alwayes to be highly honoured But I am assured that the beginning of my Preaching at Wittenberg came not from my self but from God Neither can any kind of persecution and death teach me otherwise yea I think I prophesie rightly That no terrours nor cruelty shall be able to put out this Light Besides whilst I was absent from Wittenberg Satan hath entred in among my flock c. and I have resolved rather to regard the great necessity of that Church then the offending or pleasing your Excellency yea then the hatred and fury of the whole world Certainly this is my flock committed to me by the Lord These are my children in Christ. Shall I doubt whether I should câ—me to or stay from them for whom I ought to lose my life and chuse death which I shall God helping me willingly and cheerfully I do also very much fear least some great and horrible insurrection be in Germany to punish Germany ' s contempt of and ingratitude for the Blessings of God We see with how great liking applause and concurrency the Gospel is received by very many but many receive this Blessing carnally they plainly see the truth but do not walk in the truth as they ought The Ecclesiastical Tyranny is weakned and broken and that was all I aimed at in my Writings Now I see God will proceed farther and will sometime do the same that he did to Ierusalem when he overturned altogether both the Ecclesiastical and Political Government for persecuting the Gospel and other outrages I have lately begun to learn that not onely the Ecclesiastical Spiritual but the Political and Civil Authority ought to yield unto the Gospel c. Seeing therefore that God requires by Ezekiel that we be as a Wall unto the people I have thought it necessary to do all we can and ought by mutual counsels studies instructions admonitions exhortations for the averting or at least for the deferring â—f the anger and judgement of God This I dare affirm and wish that your Excellency were assured thereof that it is far otherwise concluded in Heaven then in the Convention at Norinberg and in short time we shall see that they who nâ—w dream that they have quite devâ—ured and eâ—ten up the Gospel have not so much as far fashiâ—n sake said Grâ—ce as the English expressiâ—n is for these untouched dainâ—ies The Gospel begins to be â—ppressed and therefore herein I ought not to regard any mortal I beseech therefâ—re your Excelâ—ency to take in good part my coming home without your command yea privity You are the Lord of my body and little fortunes but Christ of the souls to whâ—m he hath sent me c. I hope being confident
and faithful followers of him therein persevering in purity of doctrine and holiness of life Other things Jesus Christ the Lord who is able and willing to look after his own concernments will take care of He will defend his own Church Go to then O my Brethren so let your light shine forth that God the Father may be glorified in us and the Name of Christ be made illustrious and conspicuous by the light of your life Continue to love one another unfeignedly Lead your whole life as in the sight as under the eye of God In vain do we press to holiness if our words be without deeds there is need of the Light of life and the heavenly Spirit if we will confound Satan and convert this world unto Christ the Lord. O my Brethren What a cloud is there arising what a storm a coming what a defection is at hand But it becomes you to stand fast The Lord who is careful of his own affairs will be present with you For my self I pass not the horrible aspersion of corrupting the Truth that is câ—st upon me I am just now going before the Tribunal of Christ and that through grace with a clear conscience There it will appear that I have not seduced the Church The night before he died when a very dear Friend returned to him Oecolampadius asked him What news he had brought His Friend answering None I will tell you some then said Oeculampadius I shall presently be with my Lord Christ. A while after being asked Whether the light offended him He putting his hand to his heart said Here is abundance of light Here is light enough Ogner or Ogvier Robert Ognier's Son said to his Father and Mother at the Stake with him Behold millions of Angels about us and the Heavens opened to receive us To a Frier that railed Thy cursings are blessings To a Nobleman that offered him life and promotion Do you think me such a fool that I should change eternal things for temporary And to the people We suffer as Christians not as Thieves or Murtherers When the Provâ—st of Lile had seized on Robert Ogvier his Wife and his two Sons Baudicon and Martin as they were conveyed along through the streets of the City Baudicon with a loud voice said O Lord assist us by thy grace not onely to be Prisoners for thy Name but to confess thy holy Truth in all purity before men so far as to seal the same with our bloods for the edification of thy poor Church When they were brought before the Magistrates they said unto Robert Ogvier c. It is told us that you never come to Mass yea and also disswade others from coming thereto and that you maintain Conventicles in your Houses He answered Whereas you lay to my charge that I go not to Mass I refuse so to do indeed because the death and precious blood of the Son of God and his sacrifice is utterly abolished there and troden under foot for Christ by one sacrifice hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified The Mass is the meer invention of men and you know what Christ saith In vain do they worship me teaching for Doctrines the Commandments of men As for the second Accusation I cannot nor will deny but there have met together in my House honest people fearing God for the advancement of Gods glory and the good of many and not to wrong any I knew indeed the Emperour had forbid it but what then I knew also that Christ in his Gospel hath commanded it Where two or three are gathered together in my Name there saith he am I in the midst of them Thus you see I could not well obey the Emperour but I must disobey Christ. In this case then I choose rather to obey my God then man When one of the Magistrates demanded what they did when they met together Baudicon the eldest Son of Robert Ogvier answered If it please you my Masters to give me leave I will open the business at large to you Leave being granted he lifting up his eyes to Heaven began thus When we meet together in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ to hear the Word of God we first of all prostrate upon our knees before God and in the humility of our spirits do make a confession of our sins before his Divine Majesty Then we pray that the Word of God may be rightly divided and purely preached we also pray for our Sovereign Lord the Emperour and for all his honourable Councellors that the Commonwealth may be peaceably governed to the glory of God yea we forget not you whom we acknowledge our Superiours intreating our good God for you and for this whole City that you may maintain it in tranquility Thus I have summarily related what we do Think you now whether we have offended highly in this matter of our assembling When Robert and Baudicon were condemned they praised God for the Sentence and when they were returned to Prison after Sentence was past they rejoyced that the Lord did them that honour to enroll them in the number of his Martyrs Robert being told by a seducing Frier That iâ— he would give ear to him he would warrant him he should do well Poor man said he how darest thou attribute that unto thy self which belongs to the eternal God and so rob him of his honour For it seems by thy speech that if I will hearken to thee thou wilt become my Saviour No no I have one onely Saviour Jesus Christ who by and by will deliver me from this present evil world I have one Doctor whom the heavenly Father hath commanded me to hear and I purpose to hearken to none other Another Frier exhorting him to have pity of his soul which Christ had redeemed Thou willest me said the good old man to pity mine own soul. Dost not thou see what pity I have on it when foâ— thâ— Name of Christ I willingly abandon this body of mine â—n the fire hoping to day to be with him in Paradise I have put all my confidence in God and my hope wholly is fixt on the merits of Christs Death and Passion he will direct me the right way unto his Kingdome I believe whatsoever the holy Prophets and Apostles have written and in that Faith will I live and die Baudicon said Let my Father alone and trouble him not thus he is an old man and hath an infirm body hinder him not I pray you from receiving the Crown of Martyrdome One telling Baudicon That he would sell all he was worth to buy Fagots to burn him and that he found too much favour He answered The Lord shew you more mercy Some of the Friers having fastned a Crucifix betwixt the old mans hands when Baudicon espied it he said Alas Father what do you now will you play the Idolater even at the last hour and then pulling the Idol out of his hands threw it away saying What cause
to the joyes of thy salvation Now all ye which behold my wound tremble for fear and take heed that ye slumber not nor fall into the like crime but rather let us assemble together and rend our hearts c. I mourn and am sorry at the heart-root O ye my Friends that ever I so fell c. Let the Angels lament over me because of this my dangerous fall Let the Assemblies of Saints lament over me for that I am severed from their blessed societies Let the holy Church lament over me for that I am wofully declined Let all the people lament over me for that I have my deaths wound Bewail me that am in like case with the reprobate Jews for this which was said unto them by the Prophet Why dost thou preach my Laws c. now soundeth alike in mine ears What shall I do that am thus beset with manifest mischiefs Alas O death why dost thou linger Herein thou dost spite and bear me malice O Satan what mischief hast thou wrought unto me How hast thou pierced my breast with thy poysonous dart Thinkest thou that my ruine will avail any thing at all Thinkest thou to procure to thy self any ease or rest whilst that I am grievously tormented who is able to signifie unto thee whether my sins be wiped and done away whether I shall not again be coupled with and made a Companion to the Saints O Lord I fall down before thy Mercy-seat have mercy upon me who mourn thus out of measure because I have greatly offended Rid my soul O Lord from the roaring Lion The Assembly of the Saints doth make intercession for me who am an unprofitable Servant Shew mercy O Lord to thy wandring Sheep who is subject to the rending teeth of the ravenous Wolf save me O Lord out of his mouth c. Let my sackcloth be rent asunder and gird me with joy and gladness Let me be received again into the joy of my God Let me be thought worthy of his Kingdome through the earnest Petitions of the Church which sorroweth over me and humbleth her self to Jesus Christ in my behalf to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all glory and honour for ever and ever Amen Ormes Cicely Ormes of Norwich was taken for that she said to two Martyrs at the Stake That she would pledge them of the same Cup. The Chancellour of Norwich offered her That if she would go to the Church and keep her tongue she should be at liberty and believe as she would She told him She would not consent to his wicked desire therein do with her what he would for if she should she said God would surely plague her Then the Chancellour told her He had shewed more favour to her then ever he did to any and that he was loth to condemn her c. But she answered him That if he did he should not be so desirous of her sinful flesh as she would by Gods grace be content to give it in so good a quarrel Before she was taken this time she had recanted but never was quiet in Conscience till she had forsaken all Popery Between the time she had recanted and now was taken she had provided a Letter for the Chancellour to let him know that she repented her recantation from the bottom of her heart and would never do the like again while she lived but before the Letter was delivered she was taken When she came to the Stake she kneeled down and prayed and then said Good people I believe in God the Gather God the Son and God the Holy Ghost three Persons and one God This do I not nor will I recant but I recant utterly from the bottom of my heart the doings of the Pope of Rome and all his Popish Priests and Shavelings I utterly refuse and never will have to do with them again by Gods grace And good people I would ye should not think of me that I believe to be saved in that I offer my self here unto the death for the Lords Cause but I believe to be saved by Christs Death and Passion and this my death is and shall be a witness of my faith unto you all here present Good people as many of you as believe as I believe pray for me Laying her hand on the Stake she said Welcome the Cross of Christ. She was burnt at the same Stake that that Simon Miller and Elizabeth Cooper was burned at to whom she had said That she would pledge them c. After she had wiped her hand blacked with the Stake she touched the Stake again with her hand and kissed it and said Welcome the sweet Cross of Christ. After the Tormentors had kindled the sire about her she said My soul doth magnifie the Lord and my spirit rejoyceth in God my Saviour Oswald Iohn Oswald denied to answer any thing untill his Accusers should be brought face to face before him Nevertheless said he the Fire and Fagots cannot make me afraid but as the good Preachers which were in King Edward's dayes have suffered and gone before so am I ready to suffer and come after and would be glad thereof P. Palmer Mr. Iulius Palmer was wont to say None were to be accounted valiant but such as could despise injuries When he was a Papist he told Mr. Bullingham then a Papist also As touching our Religion even our Consciences bear witness that we taste not such an inward sweetness in the profession thereof as we understand the Gospellers to taste in their Religion yea to say the truth we maintain we wot not what rather of will then of knowledge But what then rather then I will yield to them I will beg my bread His Conversion was occasioned by the constancy of the Martyrs at their death he having oft said in King Edward's dayes That none of them all would stand to death for their Religion When he returned from the burning of Bishop Ridley and Bishop Latimer he cried out Oh raging Cruelty Oh Tyranny tragical and more then barbarous From that time he studiously sought to understand the Truth for which they suffered When he resolved upon leaving his Fellowship in Magdalens Colledge in Oxford he was demanded of a special Friend Whither he would go or how he would live He made this answer Domini est terra plenitudo ejus The earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof Let the Lord work I will commit my self to God and the wide world After his leaving his Fellowship being at Oxford he was perswaded to hear Frier Iohn that succeeded Peter Martyr in the Divinity Lecture and hearing him blaspheme the Truth departed and being found in his Chamber weeping and askt why he slipt away so on a sudden O said he if I had not openly departed I should have openly stopped my ears for the Friers blasphemous talk in depraving the Verity made my heart worse to smart then if mine ears had been cut off
her life should be spared if she would recant Nay that will I not said she God forbid that I should lose the life eternal for this carnal and short life I will never turn from my heavenly Husband to my earthly Husband from the fellowship of Angels to mortal Children and if my Husband and Children be faithfull then am I theirs God is my Father God is my Mother God is my Sister my Brother my Kinsman God is my friend most faithfull After her Condemnation she refused to receive my money from well affected people saying I am going to a City where money beareth no mastery Whilst I am here God hath promised to feed me When she was brought to the Stake without the â—alls of Exeter in a place called So then hay in the â—roneth of November 1558. the Priests again asâ—â—ulted her but she prayed them to have no more â—alk with her and cried still God be mercifull to 〈◊〉 a sinner God be mercifull to me a sinner This Agnes Priest or Prest was the sole Devonshire Martyr saith Dr. Fuller under the reign of Queen Mary Wherefore as those Parents which have but one Child may afford it the better attendance as more at leisure So seeing by Gods goodness we have but this single Native of this Countrey yea of this Diocess we will enlarge c. 1 Her Christian Name which Mr. Fox could not learn â—e have recovered from another excellent Author Mr. Vowell in Hollingshead pag. 1309. 2 I am informed by the Inhabitants thereabout that she lived at Northcot in the Parish of Boynton in the County of Cornwall c. 3 She was a simple woman to behold thick but liltle and short in staâ—â—re about Four and fifty years of age 4 She was endited on Munday the fourth week in Lent An. Phil. Mar. 2. and 3. before W. Stanford Iustice of the Assize So that we may observe more legal formality was used about the condemnation of this poor woman then any Martyr of far greater degree 5 Her own Husband and Children were her greatest Persecutors from whom she fled because they would force her to be present at Mass. 6 She was condemned by Bishop Troublefield Bishop of Exeter c. yea she was the onely person in whose persecution Bishop Troublefield did appear and it is justly conceived that Blackstone his Chancellour was more active then the Bishop in procuring her death Potten Agnes Potten of Ipswich in a night a little before her death being asleep in her bed saw a bright burning fire right up as a Pole and on the side thereof she thought there stood a number of Queen Mary's Friends looking on then being asleep she seemed to muse with her self whether her fire should burn so bright or no. And indeed her suffering was not far unlike her dream At the Stake she and Ioan Trunchfield who sufferred with her required the people to credit and to lay hold on the Word of God and not upon mans devices and inventions and to despise the Ordinances and Institutions of the Romish Antichrist with all his superstitious and rotten Religion Pusices Shut thine eyes but a while said Pusices to an old man trembling at Martyrdome and thou shalt see Gods Light R. Rabeck Iâ—hn Rabeck a French Martyr being urged to pronounce Iesu Maria conjoyned in one Prayer boldly answered That if his Tongue should but offer to utter those words at their bidding he himself would bite it asunder with his Teeth Ramus The great crime that the Sorbonists objected against Peter Ramus and for which he suffered much was That by opposing Aristotle he enervated Divinity Whence we may see what a Divinity they were for who made Aristotle the great Master thereof who laughs at the Creation of the World Divine Providence and the Immortality of the Soul and slighting Life eternal placed the happiness of man in this mortal Life onely and left nothing for man after death then to have it said He was happy in a word who defined humane felicity from mans ability and not from divine grace In his adverse condition he would comfort himself with the following Verses 1. Committe vitam rem decus Dei unius arbitrio Animi tibi ex sententia Confecta reddet omnia Illustris aurorae ut jubar Tua faciet ul sit aquitas Ut luce virtus sit tuaâ— Meridiana clarior In English thus Commit to God life wealth and name And what thou wilt shalt have the same Thy righteousness shall shine more clear Then the light of the morning 〈◊〉 2. Deus â—abit his quoque finemâ— Durate ut vosâ—â—t rebus servate secundis These shall not want an end Bear up and wait till Gâ—d doth better send That which he first disliked in Popery was their execrable idolatry in corrupting the second Commandment and the Sacrament of the Lords Supper When in the Possiac Synod he heard the Cardinaâ— of Lorain acknowledge That the first of the fifteetâ— Centuries since Christ was a truly golden Age but the rest were so much the worse by how much they farther departed from the first Peter Ramus concluded That the Age of Christ and his Apostles was to be restored and chosen When the Civil Wars brake forth in France for Religion he went into Germany and at Heidelberg having made to Tremellius and the Church a Confession of his Faith he received the Sacrament of the Lords Supper in that Church After his conversion he daily did read the Old and New Testament and out of each Chapter collected an Index containing Rules and Examples relating to both the parts of Christian Doctrine viz. Faith and the Actions of Faith and so made his Commentaries and certainly he had made much greater progress in Divinity had he not been so soon not much above two years after his conversion taken away by a violent death When in that horrid Massacre at Paris begun Aug. 24. 1572. he was mortally wounded Aug. 26. in the seven and fiftieth year of his age he was heard to commend his soul to God in these words O Iehovah against thee onely have I sinned and done evil before thee Thy judgements are truth and righteousness Have mercy upon and pardon my Murtherers for they know not what they do Read Some of the Articles that were exhibited against Adam Read and other Scotch Confessors were these following 1 That Images are not to be had in the Kirk nor to be worshipped 4 That it is not lawfull to fight for the Faith nor to defend the Faith by the Sword if we be not driven to it by necessity which is above all Law 12 That the Pope is not the Successor of Peter but where he said Go behind me Satan 17 That the Pope exalts himself against God and above God 19 That the blessings of the Bishops of dumb Dogs they should have been stiled are of no value 20 That the excommunication of the Kirk is not to be feared if there be no
When he was condemned by them for an Heretick he said Although I be not of your Company yet doubt I not â—ut my Name is writ in another place whether this sentence will send us sooner then we should come by the course of Nature In his Letter to Dr. Crannier I wish you might have seen these mine Answers before I had delivered them that you might have corrected them but I trust in the substance of the matter we do agree fully both led by one Spirit of Truth and both walking after one Rule of Gods Word I trust the day of our delivery out of all miseries and of our entrance into perpetual rest and unto perpetual joy and felicity draweth nigh The Lord strengthen us with his mighty Spirit of Grace Pray for me I pray you and so shall I for you The Lord have mercy of his Church and lighten the eyes of the Magistrates that Gods extreme plagues light not on this Realm of England Turn or burn In his Letter to Mr. Latimer in Prison I pray you good Father let me have one draught more of your Cup wherein you mingle to me profitable with pleasant to comfort my stomack for surely except the Lord assist me with his gracious aid in the time of his Service I know I shall but play the part of a white-liver'd Knight But truly my trust is in him that in mine infirmity he should try himself strong and that he can make the Coward in his Cause to fight like a man Sir Now I daily look when Diotrephes with his Warriours shall assault me wherefore I pray you good Father for that you are an old Souldier and an expert Warriour and God knoweth I am but a young Souldier and as yet of small experience in these fights help me I pray you to buckle mine harness And now I would have you to think that those darts are cast at my head by some one of Diotrephes or Antonius his Souldiers By Antonius he meant some Popish Persecutour as Winchester alluding thereby to the Story of Victor l. 3. De Persecuâ— Aphri Object 1. All men marvel greatly why you do not go to Mass which is a thing as you know now much esteemed of all men yea of the Queen her self Answ. Because no man that layeth hand on the plough and looketh back is fit for the Kingdome of God and also for the same cause why St. Paul wouâ—d not suffer Timothy to be circumcised which is that the Truth of the Gospel might remain with us uncorrupt Gal. 2. And again If I build again the things which I destroyed I mâ—ke my self a Trespasser This is also another cause lest I shouâ—d seem by outward fact to allow the thing which I am perswaded is contrary to sound Doctrine and so shouâ—d be a stumbling block to the weak But wo be to him by whom offence cometh Mat. 18. It were better for him that a Milstone were hanged about his neck and he cast into the midst of the sea Object 2. Have not you used in times past to say Mass your self and therefore why will you not now vouchsafe once either to hear it or see it Answ. I confess unto you my fault and ignorance but know you that for these matters I have done penance long ago both at Paul 's Cross and at Cambridge and I trust God hath forgiven me mine offence for I did it ignorantly Object 3. But you know how great a crime it is to separate your self from the Communion or Fellowship of the Church and to make a scisme or division Answ. I know that the Unity of the Church is to be â—â—tained by all means and the same to be necessary to salvation but I do not take the Mass as it is at this lay for the Communion of the Church but a Popish deâ—ice c. Object 4. Admit there be a fault in the Mass do not you know both by Cyprian and Augustine that Communion of Sacraments doth not defile a man but consent of deeds if you do not consent to the â—â—ult in the Mass why do you trouble your self in â—ain Answ. Forasmuch as things done in the Mass tend â—â—enly to the overthrow of Christs Institution I judge â—hat by no means either in word or deed I ought to conâ—ent unto it What is objected out of the Fathers is meant â—f them who suppose they are defiled if any secret vice be â—â—ther in the Ministers or in them that communicate with them and not of them which do abhor superstition â—â—d wicked traditions of men and will not suffer the same 〈◊〉 be thrust upon themselves or upon the Church in stead â—f Gods Word and the truth of the Gospel Object 5. The Mass is the Sacrament of Uniâ—â— c. Answ. It 's true the Bread which we break accordâ—â—â— to the Institution of the Lord is the Sacrament of 〈◊〉 Unity of Christs mystical Body for we being many 〈◊〉 one Bread and one Body forasmuch as we are partaâ—â—rs all of one Bread But in the Mass the Lords Institution is not observed for we are not all partakers of one â—â—ead but one devoureth all c. So that as it is used it may seem a Sacrament of singularity c. Object 12. Is not abstaining from the Church by reason of the Mass contrary to the examples of the Prophets and Apostles of Christ Answ. It can no where be shewed that the Prophets or Christ or his Apostles did in the Temple communicate with the people in any kind of worshipping forbidden by the Law of God How else I pray you can you understand that St. Paul alledgeth when he saith 2 Cor. 6. What concord hath Christ with Belial or what part hath the Believer with the Infidel or how agreeth the Temple of God with Images For ye are the Temple of the Living God as God himself hath said I will dwell among them and will be their God and they shall be my people wherefore come out from among them and separate your selves from them saith the Lord and touch no unclean thing so will I receive you and will be a Father unto you and you shall be my sons and daughters saith the Lord God Almighty Object 14. For so much as you are so stifly I will not say obstinately bent and so wedded to your Opinion that no gentle exhortations and wholsome counsels no other kind of means can call you home to a better mind there remaineth that which in like cases was wont to be the onely remedy against stiffe-necked and stubborn persons that is you must be hampered by the Laws and compelled either to obey whether you will or no or else suffer that which a Rebel to the Laws ought to suffer Do you not know that refusing to obey the Laws of the Realm is the readiest way to stir up Sedition and Civil War It is better that you should bear your own sin then that through the example of your breach
hear me patiently seeing I am appointed to die and look daily when I shall be called to come before the eternal Judge and therefore you cannot think but that I onely study to serve my Lord God and to say that thing which I am perswaded assuredly by Gods Word shall and doth please him and profit all to whom God shall give grace to hear and believe what I do say If the Popes supremacy be necessary to salvation to be owned How chanced it that ye were all my Lords so light as for your Princes pleasures H. 8. and E. 6. which were but mortal men to forsake the Unity of your Catholick Faith i. e. to forsake Christ and his Gospel How chanced it also that ye and the whole Parliament did not onely abolish and expell the Bishop of Rome but also did abjure him in your own persons and did decree in your Acts great Oaths to be taken for that purpose On the other side if the Law and Decree which maketh the supremacy of the See and Bishop of Rome over the universal Church of Christ be a thing of necessity required unto salvation by an Antichristian Law as it is indeed then my Lords never think other but the day shall come when ye shall be charged with this your undoing that which once ye had well done and with this your perjury and breach of your Oath which Oath was done in judgement justice and truth agreeable to Gods Law The Whore of Babylon may for a time dally with you and make you so drunken with the wine of her filthy stews and whoredomes as with her dispensations and promises of pardon a poena culpa that you may think your selves safe but be ye assured when the Living Lord shall try the matter by fire and judge it according to his Word unless ye repent without all doubt ye shall never escape the hands of the Living God for the guilt of your perjury and breach of your Oath then shall ye drink of the Cup of the Lords indignation and everlasting wrath which is prepared for the Beast his false Prophets and all their partakers For he that is partner with them in their whoredomes and abominations must also be partner with them in their plagues and be thrown with them into the Lake burning with brimstone and unquenchable fire In his Letter to the Prisoners c. and Exiles For the fervent love that the Apostles had unto their Master Christ and for the great commodities and increase of all godliness which they felt by their faith to ensue of afflictions in Christs Cause And thirdly For the heaps of heavenly joyes which the same do get unto the godly which shall endure in Heaven for evermore for these causes they rejoyced that they were accounted worthy to suffer contumelies and rebukes for Christs Name And Paul was so much in love in that which the carnal man loatheth so much i. e. with Christs Cross that he judged himself to know nothing else but Christ crucified he gloried in nothing else but Christs Cross. Why should we Christians fear death Can death deprive us of Christ who is all our comfort our joy and our life Nay forsooth But on the contrary Death shall deliver us from this mortal body which loadeth and beareth down the Spirit that it cannot so well perceive heavenly things in the which so long as we dwell we are absent from the Lord. And who that hath a right knowledge of Christ our Saviour that he is the eternal Son of God life light the wisdome of the Father all goodness all righteousness and whatsoever heart can desire yea infinite plenty of all these above that that mans heart can conceive or imagine for in him dwelleth the fulness of the Godhead bodily and also that he is given us of the Father and made of God to be our wisdome our righteousness our holiness and our redemption who I say is that believeth this indeed that would not gladly be with his Master Christ To die in the defence of Christs Gospel is our bounden duty to Christ and also to our neighbour to Christ for he died for us and rose that he might be Lord of all and seeing he died for us we also saith St. Iohn 1 Ioh. 3. should jeopard yea give our life for the Brethren Farewell dear Brethren farewell and let us comfort our hearts in all troubles and in death with the Word of God for Heaven and Earth shall perish but the Word of the Lord endureth for ever In his Lamentation for the change of Religion in England Of late in every Congregation throughout all England was made Prayer and Petition unto God to be delivered from the Tyranny of the Bishop of Rome and all his detestable enormities from all false doctrine and heresie and now alas Satan hath perswaded England by his falâ—hood and craft to revoke her old godly prayer c. This is one maxime and principle in Christs Law He that denieth Christ before men him shall Christ deny before his Father and all his holy Angels in Heaven Now then seeing the doctrine of Antichrist is returned again into this Realm and the higher Powers alas are so deceived and bewitched that they are perswaded it to be Truth and Christs true Doctrine to be errour and heresie and the old Laws of Anticrist are allowed to return with the power of their Father again What can be hereafter looked for of Christians abiding in this Realm but extreme violence of death or else to deny their Master Therefore prepare and arm thy self to die for both by Antichrists accustomable Laws and Scripture Prophesies there is no likelyhood of any other thing except thou wilt deny thy Master Christ which is the loss at the last of body and soul unto everlasting death My counsel to such as are yet at liberty is to flie from the plague and get them hence I consider not onely the subtilties of Satan and how he is like to deceive it it were possible even the chosen of God and also the great frailty which is oftentimes more in a man then he doth know in himself and which in the time of temptation will utter it self but also the examples of Christ Paul Elias c. and Christ saith When they persecute you in one City flie unto another Truly before God I think that the abomination that Daniel prophesied of so long before is now set up in the holy Place the Doctrine of Antichrist his Laws Rites and Religion contrary to Christ and to the true serving and worshipping of God I understand to be that abominition therefore now is the time in England for those words of Christ Then saith Christ they that be in Jewry let them flie into the Mountains then saith he mark this then for truly I am perswaded and I trust by the Spirit of God that this then is commanded By those in Iewry I understand such who truly confess one Living God and the
Commonwealth their minds by the sight of the outward Image might be withdrawn or wander from the matter To allow a most certain peril for an uncertain profit and the greatest danger for the smallest benefit in matters of Faith and Religion is a tempting of God and a grievous offence In the Primitive Church there were no Images in places of Assembly for Religion this the Heathens objected to the Christians for a crime as Origen and Arnobius testifie c. Lactantius saith It is not to be doubted that there is no Religion wheresoever is any Image Not onely by Varro's judgement but also by St. Augustine's approbation of Varro the most pure and chast observation of Religion and nearest the Truth is to be without Images By the judgement of this ancient Father Epiphanius to permit Images in Churches is against the Authority of Scripture meaning against the second Commandment c. Besides Epiphanius doth reject not onely graven and molten but painted Images Again he spared not the Image of Christ yea he did not onely remove it but with a vehemency of zeal cut in pieces and he is carefull that no such kind of painted Images be permitted in the Church It is manifest to them that read Histories that not onely Emperours but also divers and sundry Councils in the East Church have condemned and abolished Images both by Decrees and Examples But this notwithstanding experience hath declared That neither Councils nor Writings Preachings Decrees making of Laws prescribing of Punishments have holpen against Images to which Idolatry hath been committed nor against Idolatry whilst Images stood In his Letter to his Dear Brother and Reverend Fellow-Elder in Christ Iohn Hooper My dearly beloved Brother c. whom I reverence in the Lord c. Forasmuch as I understand by your works that we throughly agree and wholly consent together in those things which are the grounds and substantial points of our Religion against which the world so furiously rageth in our dayes howsoever in time past by certain by-matters and circumstances of Religion your wisdome and my simplicity I grant hath a little jarred each of us following the abundance of his own sense and judgement Now I say be you assured that even with my whole heart God is my witness in the bowels of Christ I love you in the Truth and for the Truths sake which abideth in us and as I am perswaded shall by the grace of God abide in us for evermore Because the world as I perceive Brother busily conspireth against Christ our Saviour with all possible force and power let us joyn hands together in Christ and if we cannot overthrow yet to our power and as much as in us lies let us shake those high Altitudes not with carnal but with spiritual weapons Let us also prepare our selves for death by which after our short afflictions here by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we shall triumph together with him in eternal glory I pray you Brother salute in my Name your Reverend Fellow-Prisoner and Venerable Father Dr. Cranmer by whom since the first day that I heard of his most godly and fatherly constancy in confessing the Truth of the Gospel I have conceived great consolation and joy in the Lord. It will also be to me great joy to hear of your constancy and fortitude in the Lords Quarrel I am earnestly moved to counsel you not to hasten the publishing of your Works especially under your own Name least your mouth should be stopped hereafter and all things taken away from the rest of the Prisoners whereby otherwise if it so please God may be able to do good to many Farewell in the Lord my most Dear Brother Once again and for ever in Christ my most Dear Brother farewell Rieux Dionysius de Rieux was one of them who was first burned at Melda or Meaux in France An. 1528. for saying That the Mass is a plain denial of the Death and Passion of Christ. He was alwayes wont to have in his mouth the Words of Christ He that denieth me before men him also will I deny before my Father Rogers Mr. Iohn Rogers preaching at Paul's Cross even after Queen Mary was come to the Tower of London confirmed the Truth of that Doctrine which he and others had there taught in King Edward's dayes exhorting the people constantly to remain in the same and to beware of all pestilent Popery Idolatry and Superstition For that Sermon he was called in Question In his Examination and Answer Ian. 22. 1555. I never granted King Henry the Eighth to have any Supremacy in spiritual things as are the forgiveness of sins giving of the holy Ghost authority to be a Judge above the Word of God The Chancellor asserting That the Parliament that abolished the Popes Supremacy was with most great cruelty constrained thereunto He answered With cruelty Why then I perceive that you take a wrong way with cruelty to perswade mens consciences for it should appear by your doings now that the cruelty then used hath not perswaded your consciences How would you then have your consciences perswaded with cruelty Sir Richard Southwell telling him That he would not burn in this year when it cometh to the Purpose he answered Sir I cannot tell but I trust to my Lord God yes lifting up his eyes to Heaven I desire the hearty and unfeigned help of the Prayers of all Christs true Members the true Imps of the true unfeigned Catholick Church that the Lord God of all consolation will now be my comfort aid strength buckler and shield as also of all my Brethren that are in the same case and distress that I and they all may despise all manner of threats and cruelty and even the bitter burning fire and the dreadfull dart of death and stick like true Souldiers to our dear and loving Captain Christ our onely Saviour and Redeemer and the onely true Head of the Church that doth all in us all which is the property of an Head and that we do not traiterously run out of his Tents or rather out of the plain field from him in the greatest jeopardy of the battel but that we may persevere in the fight if he will not otherwise deliver us till we be most cruelly slain of his enemies For this I most heartily and at this present with tears most instantly and earnestly desire and besâ—ech you all to pray In his second Examination and Answer Ian. 28 29. 1555. Should said the Chancellor when the Parliament hath concluded a thing any private person have authority to discuss whether they had done right or wrong No that may not be I answered shortly That all the Laws of men might not neither could rule the Word of God but that they all must be discussed and judged thereby and obey thereto and neither my conscience nor any Christians could be satisfied with such Laws as disagreed from that Word Mr. Hooper and Mr. Cardmaker were