MarginaliaAn. 1555. February.beware of the vanitie & craftes of þ^e deuill well inough in Christ. And that ye may the better haue patience in the spirite of God, read agayn the 24. chapt. of S. Mathew, and marke what difference is betwene MarginaliaMath. 24. Destruction of Ierusalē, and destruction of the whole world compared.the destruction of Ierusalem and the destruction of the whole world, and you shall see, that then there were left alyue many offendors to repent: but at þ^e latter day there shalbe absolute iudgement and sentence (neuer to be reuoked) of eternall lyfe and eternall death vpon all men, and yet towardes the end of the world, we haue nothyng so much extremity, as they had then, but euen as we be able to beare. So doth the mercyfull father lay vppon vs now imprisonment (and I suppose for my part, shortly death) now spoyle of goodes, losse of frendes, and the greatest losse of all, the knowledge of Gods word. Gods will be done. I wish in Christ Iesu our onely Mediatour and Sauiour, your constancie and consolation, that you may lyue for euer and euer, wherof in Christ I doubt not: to whom for his blessed and most payneful passion I commit you, Amen. 13. Octob. 1553.

¶ To a certaine godly woman, instructing her how she should behaue her selfe in the time of her widowhode.  

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This was first printed in Letters of the Martyrs, p. 142. The identity of the recipient is unknown, but the contents of the letter make it clear that she was a widow considering remarriage.

MarginaliaAn other letter of Maister Hooper.THe grace of God, and the comfort of his holy spirite, be with you and all thē that vnfainedly loue his holy Gospell, Amen.

I thanke you (deare sister) for your most louing remembraunce, and although I can not recompence the same, yet do I wish with all my hart, that God would do it, requiring you not to forget your duty towardes God in these perilous dayes, in the which the Lord will try vs. I trust you do increase, by reading of the Scriptures, the knowledge you haue of God, & that you diligently apply your self to folow þ^e same: for the knowledge helpeth not, except the life be according therunto. Further, I do hartely pray you, to consider the state of your widowhode, & if God shall put in your minde to change it, remember the saying of Saint Paule. 1. Corrinth. 7. Marginalia1. Cor. 7.It is lawfull for the widow or mayden to mary to whom they list, so it be in the Lord: that is to say, MarginaliaTo mary in the Lord, what it is.to such a one as is of Christes religion. Dearely beloued in Christ, remember these wordes, for you shall find thereby great ioy & comfort, if you chaunge your state. Whereof I will when I haue better leysure (as now I haue none at all) further aduertise you. In the meane time, I commend you to God and the guiding of his good spirite, who stablishe & confirme you in all well doing and keepe you blameles to the day of the Lord. Watch and pray for thys day is at hand.

Yours assured in Christ, Iohn Hooper.

¶ To all my deare brethren, my relieuers and helpers in the City of London.  

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First printed in Letters of the Martyrs, pp. 117-20. BL, Add. 19400, fos. 15r-26v is the original letter and also Bull's printing cast-off.

MarginaliaAn other letter of Maister Hooper to his frendes in London.THe grace of God be with you, Amen. I haue receaued from you (dearly beloued in our Sauiour Iesus Christ) by the hands of my seruaunt William Downton, your liberality, for the which I do most hartely thanke you, and I prayse God hyghly in you and for you, who hath moued your hartes to shew this kindnes towards me, praying him to preserue you frō all famyne, scarcity, and lacke of the truth of his word, which is the liuely foode of your soules, as you preserue my body from hunger and other necessities, which should happen vnto me, were it not cared for by the beneuolence and charity of godly people. Such as haue taken all worldly goods & lands from me, and spoyled me of all that I had, haue emprisoned my body and appointed no one halfepeny to feede or relieue me withall. MarginaliaThe Christian charity of M. Hooper to his enemies.But I do forgeue them and pray for them dayly in my poore prayer vnto God, and from my hart I wishe their saluation, and quietly and patiently beare their iniuries, wishing no farther extremity to be vsed towards vs. Yet if it seeme contrary best vnto our heauenly father, I haue made my reckening, and MarginaliaM. Hooper fully resolued to suffer.fully resolued my selfe to suffer the vttermost that they are able to do against me, yea death it selfe, by the ayde of Christ Iesu, who dyed the most vile death of the crosse for vs wretches and miserable sinners. But of this I am assured, that the wicked world with all his force & power, shall not touch one of the heares of our heades without leaue and lycence of our heauenly father, whose will be done in all thyngs. If he will life, lyfe be it: if he will death, death be it. Onely we pray, that our willes may be subiect vnto his will, and then although both we

and all the world see none other thing but death, yet if he thinke life best, we shall not dye, no although þ^e sword be drawen out ouer our heads: as Abraham thought to kill his sonne Isaac, yet when God perceaued that Abraham had surrendred hys wyll to Gods wyll, and was content to kill his sonne, God then saued his sonne.

MarginaliaGods wyll to be obeyed in all thinges.Dearely beloued, if we be contented to obey Gods will, and for hys commaundementes sake, to surrender our goods and our sleues to be at his pleasure, it maketh no matter whether we keepe goods and life, or lose thē. Nothing can hurt vs that is taken from vs for Gods cause, nor nothing can at length do vs good, that is preserued contrary vnto Gods commaundement. Let vs wholy suffer God to vse vs and ours after his holy wisdome, & beware we neither vse nor gouerne our selues contrary to hys wyll by our owne wisedome, for if we do, our wisdome wyll at length proue folishnes. It is kept to no good purpose that we keepe cōtrary vnto his commaundements. It can by no meanes be taken from vs that he would should tary with vs. He is no good Christian that ruleth himselfe & his, as worldly meanes serueth: for he that so doth shall haue as many chaunges as chaunceth in the world. MarginaliaDifference betwene the true Christian, and the worldling.To day, with the world he shall like and prayse the truth of God, to morow as the world wyll, so wyll he like and prayse the falshode of man: to day with Christ, and to morow with Antichrist. Wherefore deare brethren, as touching your behauiour towards God, vse both your inward spirites and your outward bodyes, your inward and your outward man (I say) not after the meanes of men, but after the infallible word of God.

Refraine from euill in both, and glorify your heauenly father in both. MarginaliaBoth the inward mā and outward man must concurre in the honour of God.For if ye thinke ye can inwardly in the hart serue hym, and yet outwardly serue with the world in externall seruice, the thing that is not God, ye deceaue your selues, for both the body and the soule must together concurre in the honor of God, as S. Paule plainly teacheth 1. Cor. 6. For if an honest wyfe be bound to geue both hart and body to fayth and seruice in mariage, and if an honest wiues fayth in the hart cannot stand with an whorish or defiled body outwardly: much lesse can the true fayth of a Christiā in the seruice of christianite, stand with the bodely seruice of externall idolatry: for the mystery of mariage is not so honorable betwene man and wyfe, as it is betwene Christ and euery Christian man, as S. Paule sayth.

Therefore deare brethren, pray to the heauenly father, that as he spared not the soule nor the body of hys dearely beloued sonne, but applyed both of them with extreme payne, to worke our saluation both of body and soule: so he wyll geue vs all grace to apply our bodies and soules to be seruantes vnto him: for doubtles hee requyreth as well the one as the other, and can not bee miscontented with the one, & wel pleased with the other. Either he hateth both, or loueth both: he deuideth not his loue to one and hys hatred to the other. Let not vs therefore good brethren, diuide our selues, and say our soules serue him whatsoeuer our bodies doe to the contrary, for ciuyll order and policie.

But (alas) I know by my selfe what troubleth you, that is, the great daunger of the world that will reuenge (ye thinke) your seruice to God, wyth swoord and fyre, with losse of goods and lands. But deare brethren, way of the other side, that your enemies and Gods enemies shal not do so much as they would, MarginaliaGods enemies can do no more then he geueth them leaue.but as much as God shall suffer them, who can trap them in their own counsels, and destroy them in the middest of their furies. Remember ye be the workemē of the Lord, & called into his vineyard,MarginaliaMath. 20. there to labour till euening tyde, that ye may receiue your penny, which is more worth thē al the kings of the earth. But he that calleth vs into hys vineyard, hath not told vs how sore or how feruently the Sunne shall trouble vs in our labour: but hath byd vs labour and commit the bitternes therof vnto him, who can and wyll so moderate all afflictions, that no man shall haue more layd vpon him, then in Christ he shall be hable to beare: vnto whose merciful tuition and defence I commend both your soules & your bodies. 2. Septēber. 1554.

Yours wyth my poore prayer Iohn Hooper.

¶ To a Marchaūt of London, by whose meanes he had receaued much comfort in his great necessitie in the Fleete.  

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This was first printed in Letters of the Martyrs, pp. 127-28. BL, Add. 19400, fol. 27r is the original letter.

MarginaliaAn other letter of Maister Hooper to a good helper of hys.GRace, mercy, and peace in Christ Iesus our Lord.

I thanke God and you for the great helpe and cō-