Marginalia1555. February.kyng and setting our affections vpon the things that be aboue, we must patiently suffer what soeuer God shall send vnto vs in this mortall lyfe. Notwythstanding it might fortune some would say, who is so perfect that can let all thinges passe as they come, and haue no care of them: suffer all thinges and feele nothing: be attempted of the deuil, of the world, and the flesh, and not be troubled? Verely no mā liuing. MarginaliaNote thys well to thy comfort that art afflicted.But this I say, that in the strēgth of Iesus Christ, thinges that come may passe wyth care, for we be worldly, and yet are we not caried wyth them from Christ, for we bee in hym godly. We may suffer things and feele them as mortall men, yet beare them and ouercome them as Christian men. We may bee attempted of the deuyll, the flesh, and the world: but yet although these thynges pynch, they doe not pearce, and although they worke synne in vs, yet in Christ no damnation to those that be grafted in hym.MarginaliaRom. 8.

Hereof may the Christian man learne both consolatiō and patience. MarginaliaConsolation.Consolation, in that he is compelled both in hys body and goodes to feele payne and losse, and in the soule heauynes & anguish of mynd: howbeit none of them both shall separate hym frō the loue that God beareth hym in Christ. He may learne MarginaliaPatience.patience, for as much as his enemyes both of the body and soule, & the paynes also they vexe vs withall for the tyme, if they tary with vs as long as we lyue, yet when death commeth they shall auoyde and geue place to such ioyes as be prepared for vs in Christ: for no paynes of the world be perpetuall, & whether they shall afflict vs for all the tyme of our mortall lyfe we know not, MarginaliaAfflictions be the messengers and seruauntes of God.for they be the seruauntes of God to go and to come, as he commaundeth them. But we must take heede we medle not forceably nor seditiously, to put away the persecution appointed vnto vs by God, but remember Christes saying: MarginaliaLuke. 2.Possesse you your liues by your patience. And in this commaundement God requireth in euery man and womā this patient obedience. He sayth not, it is sufficient that other holy Patriackes, Prophetes, Apostels, Euangelistes and Martyrs continued their lyues in patience and pacient sufferyng the troubles of this world: but Christ sayth to euery one of hys people: by your own patience ye shall continue your lyfe: not that man hath patience of hym selfe, MarginaliaPacience the gift only of God.but that he must haue it for him selfe of God, the onely geuer of it, if he purpose to be a godly man. Now therfore, as our profession and religion requireth patience outwardly without resistāce and force: so requireth it patience of the mynde, and not to be angry with God, although hee vse vs that be hys own creatures, as hym listeth.

We may not also murmure agaynst God, but say alwaies his iudgements be right and iust, and reioyce that it pleaseth him by troubles to vse vs, as he vsed heretofore such as he most loued in this world: and haue a syngular care to this commaundement: Gaudete & exultate, MarginaliaMath. 3.be glad and reioyce, for he sheweth great cause why: your reward (sayth he) is great in heauen. These promises of hym that is the truth itselfe, shal (by Gods grace) worke both consolation and patience in the afflicted Christian person. And when our Sauiour Christ hath wylled mē in troule to be content and patient, because God in the ende of trouble in Christ hath ordayned eternall consolation: he vseth also to take from vs al shame and rebuke, as though it were not an honour MarginaliaTo suffer in Christ is honorable.to suffer for Christ because the wycked world doth curse & abhorre such poore troubled Christians. Wherefore Christ placeth all hys honorably, and sayth: MarginaliaMath. 24.Euen so persecuted they the Prophetes that were before you. We may also see with whom the afflicted for Christes sake, be esteemed by S. Paule to the Hebrewes,MarginaliaHeb. 11. where as the number of the blessed and glorious company of Saintes appeare now to our fayth in heauen in ioy: yet in the letter, for the tyme of this lyfe, in such paynes and contempt, as was neuer more. Let vs therefore consider both them and all other thinges of the world sithens the fall of man, and we shall perceiue nothing to come to perfection, but with such confusion and disorder to the eye of the world, as though thinges were rather loste for euer, then lyke to come to any perfection at all. For of godly men, who euer came to heauen (no not Christ hym selfe) vntyll such tyme as the world had thought verely that both he and all hys had bene cleane destroyed and cast away? as the wyse man sayth of the wycked people: MarginaliaSap. 5.We thought them to bee fooles, but they be in peace.

We may learne by things that nourish and mayntain vs, both meate and drincke, to what lothsomnes and (in maner) abhorring they come vnto, before they worke

their perfection in vs.MarginaliaExample takē of our meat & drinke how thinges neuer come to their perfection before they be vtterly wasted. From lyfe they be brought to the fyre, and cleane altered from that they were when they were alyue: from the fyre to the trencher and knife, and all to hacked: from the trencher to the mouth, and as small ground as the teeth can grynde them: and frō the mouth into the stomacke, and there so boyled and digested before they nourish, that whosoeuer sawe the same, would loth and abhorre hys owne nourishment before it come to hys perfection. Is it then any maruaile if such Christians as God delighteth it, be so mangled and defaced in this world, which is the kitchin and mil to boyle and grinde the flesh of Gods people in, till they atchieue their perfection in the world to come? And as a man loketh for the nutriment of hys meate when it is full digested, and not before: so must he looke for hys saluation when he hath passed this troublous world, and not before. Raw flesh is not meate wholesome for man: MarginaliaVnmortified men, be no people for God.and vnmortified men and women, be no creatures meete for God. Therefore Christ sayth, that hys people must bee broken, and all to torne in the myll of thys world,MarginaliaMath. 10. and so shall they bee most fine meale vnto the heauenly father. And it shall be a Christian mans part, and the dutye of a mynde replenished with the spirite of God, to marke the order of God in all his things, how he dealeth with thē, and how they suffer and be content to let God doe hys wyll vpon them: As S. Paule sayth: MarginaliaRom. 8.They waite vntyll the number of the electes be fulfilled and neuer be at rest, but looke for the tyme when Gods people shall appeare in glory.

We must therefore patiently suffer, and willyngly attend vpon Gods doinges, although they seeme cleane contrary after our iudgement, to our wealth and saluation: as MarginaliaExample of Abraham.Abraham dyd when he was byd to offer hys sonne Isaac, in whom God promised the blessing & multiplying of hys seede. MarginaliaExample of Ioseph.Ioseph at þ^e last came to that which God promysed hym, although in the meane tyme, after the iudgement of the world, he was neuer lyke to be (as God sayd he should be) Lord ouer hys brethren. When Christ would make the blynde man to see, MarginaliaIohn. 9.he put clay vp on hys eyes, which after the iudgement of man, was meanes rather to make hym double blynd, then to geue hym his syght: but he obeyed and knew that God could worke hys desyre, what meanes so euer he vsed contrary to mans reason: and as touching this world, he vseth all hys after the same sort. Marginalia1. Pet. 4.If any smart, his people bee the fyrst: if any suffer shame, they beginne: if any be subiect to sclaunder, it is those that he loueth:MarginaliaIudgement first beginneth with the house of God. so that he sheweth no face or fauour, nor loue almost in thys worlde outwardly to them, but layeth clay vpon their sore eyes that be sorowfull: yet the patient man seeth (as S. Paule saythMarginaliaColoß. 3.) lyfe hyd vnder these miseries and aduersities, and sight vnder foule clay, and in the meane tyme he hath the testimony of a good conscience, and beleueth Gods promises to be hys consolation in the world to come, which is more worth vnto hym then all the world is worth besides: and blessed is that mā in whom Gods spirite beareth record that he is the sonne of God,MarginaliaRom. 8. whatsoeuer troubles he suffer int his troublesome world.

And to iudge thynges indifferently (my godly wife) the troubles be not yet generally as they were in our good fathers tymes soone after the death and resurrectiō of our Sauiour Christ Iesu, wherof he spake in S. Mathew.MarginaliaMath. 24. Of the which place you and I haue taken many tymes great consolation, and especially of the latter part of the chap. wherin is contayned the last day and end of all troubles (I doubt not) both for you and me, and for such as loue the cōming of our Sauiour Christ to iudgement. Remember therfore that place & marke it agayne, and ye shall in this tyme see great consolation, and also learne much patience. Was there euer such troubles as Christ threatned vppon Ierusalem? Was there sithens the begynnyng of the world such affliction? Who was then best at ease? The Apostles that suffred in body persecution, and gathered of it ease and quietnes in the promises of God. And no maruaile, for Christ sayth: MarginaliaLuke. 2.Lift vp your heades, for your redemption is at hand, that is to say, your eternall rest approcheth and draweth nere. The world is starke blind, and more foolish then foolishnes it selfe, and so be þ^e people of the world. For whē God sayth, trouble shall come, they will haue ease. And when God sayth be mery and reioyce in trouble, we lament and mourne, as though we were castawayes. MarginaliaFlesh neuer mery with vertue, nor sory with vice.But this our flesh (which is neuer mery with vertue, nor sory with vice, neuer laugheth with grace, nor euer weepeth with sinne) holdeth fast with the world, and letteth God slip. But (my dearely beloued wife) you know how to perceaue and to