steade. God hath withered the roote of þe proud nations, and planted the lowly among them. God hath ouerthrowen the Landes of the Heathen, and destroyed them vnto the ground. He hath caused them to wither awaye: He hathe brought them to naught, and made the memoriall of them to cease frō the earth. But what auayleth it to rede such threttes of God, if we beleue them not? Or, if we beleue them to bee Gods threttes, and despise them? Doubtles the Lord is righteous, a ielouse God, a punisher of Sinne, as he sayth him selfe. MarginaliaExod. xx.I punish þe sinnes of the fathers vpon their children, into the iii. and iiii. generation, of them that hate me. God geue vs grace to remember this, and with spedy and vnfained repentance to turn vnto god. I say (vnfained repentance) & not (alas) as we haue done in tymes past like hypocrites to dissemble with God and man, making Gods holy worde nothing els but a cloke to couer oure malice, couetousnes, whordome, pryde, excesse, glotony, wrath, enuie, hatred, murder, with al other wicked liuing most detestable in the sight of God. If men will wel consider them selues, they haue long enough dissembled and heaped þe wrath of God heuie enough vpō their heads. MarginaliaHigh tyme to turne to God.It is now high time to becom a new people, to amend in dede, and to followe the counsell of the holy Ghost, saying vnto vs by the Prophet Hieremie.MarginaliaThre. 3. Why do mortall men murmur against God? let thē murmur against their own sinnes. Let vs serche our own wayes, and lette vs seke and returne vnto the Lord. Let vs lyft vp our hartes and hādes vnto the Lord in heauen. for we haue done wickedly and prouoked the Lord to wrath, and therfore wilt thou not be entreated. Doubtles the Lord wyl not be entreated, except men very earnestly turne vnto him. we haue felt in our selues, and seen before our eyes, that when God striketh, no man can be abl to abide the heauy stroke of his fiste. He hath hetherto corrected vs with mercie, as a father: let vs thanke him, returne vnfainedly. so will he not extend his wrath as a Iudge. His wyl is, that we should returne and liue, & not perishe with the wicked. MarginaliaEzech. 33.I liue, saith the Lord, and will not the death of a sinner, but that he be conuerted and liue. Here the godly othe certifieth vs of forgeuenes, & requireth an vnfayned conuersion vnto God, that is, that men acknowledge in hert their wicked liuing, and be sory that euer they haue with wicked lyuing offended against that so good & louing a father, & truste to haue forgeuines through Christes bloud, and fully and firmely set their hartes to serue God, and to walke the wayes of his commaundementes all the dayes of their life. Thē shall we be the true Christians, buylt vpon the corner stone Christe, not waueringe or chaunging at euery puffe of wind, not seking an Epicurish life in all voluptuous and vaine vani-
[Back to Top]tie, not rauening, extortioning, or with vsurie oppressing the poore and nedy, but stefast, vnmoueable, liuinge in the feareof Gods iudgementes, and trust vpon his mercy, mortifiyng our brutishe and carnall lustes, being merciful and helpfull to the poore and neady, wayting for the blessed tyme when Christ shall call vs, to be ready and accepted before him. Our mercifull Lorde and good father graunt vs grace so to do, for the loue of his deare sonne Iesus Christ, our certaine and most deare Sauiour, to whom with the father and holy ghost, bee all honour for euer, and euer, Amen.
[Back to Top]Pretious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his sainctes.
These are they which are come out of great troubles, & haue washed their clothes, & made them whyte in the bloud of the lambe.
This account first appeared in the 1563 edition and it was unchanged in subsequent editions. This account was based on the articles alleged against Benbridge and his answers to them, which were probably copied from the Winchester diocesan records, and also on the testimony of individual informants.
MarginaliaIuly. 29.THomas Benbrige Gentlemā, single and vnmaried,
Note that a passage here, which only appears in the 1563 edition, states that Benbridge was 'half sure' (i.e., betrothed). On the gentry status of Benbridge and his family, see R. H. Fritze, '"A Rare Example of Godlyness Amongst Gentleman": The Role of the Kingsmill and Gifford Families in Promoting the Reformation in Hampshire' in Protestantism and the National Church, ed. Peter Lake and Maria Dowling (London, 1987), pp. 154-55.
[Back to Top]Marginalia1FIrst, we articulate against you, that the church of God ministreth rightly according to the rite Apostolical.
To this he answereth, that baptisme is not administred at this present, so as it was in the Apostles tyme, for that it is not ministred in the Englyshe tongue.
Marginalia 2 The reall presence.
He aunswereth, that he beleueth not, that