MarginaliaAn. 1555. Iuly.they are daies of trial, wherin not only ye your selues, but also þ^e world shal know þ^t ye be none of hys but þ^e Lordes dearlinges. Before these dayes came, Lord God, how many thought of them selues they had ben in Gods bosome, and so were taken & would be taken of the world? MarginaliaTrouble trieth who be of God, and who be not.But now we see whose they are. For to whom we obey, his seruaunts we are. If we obey the world (which God forbid, and hytherto ye haue not done it) then are we the worldes: but if we obey God, then are we Gods. Which thyng (I meane that ye are Gods) these dayes haue declared both to you, to me, and to all other that knowe you, better then euer we knew it. Therefore ye haue no cause to sorrow, but rather to syng, in seing your selues to be Gods babes, and in seing that all Gods children do so count you.

What though the world repine thereat? What though he kicke? what though he seeke to trouble & molest you? MarginaliaA true louer of the lord is declared by his life.My deare hartes, he doth but his kinde, he can not loue the Lord, which liueth not the Lord, he can not brooke the child, that hateth the father, he can not minde the seruaunt, that careth not for the maister. If ye were of the world the world would loue you, ye should dwell quietly, there would be no grief, no molestation. If the deuill dwelt in you (which the Lord forbid) he would not stirre vp his knightes to besiege your house, to snatch your goodes: MarginaliaThe deuill neuer entreth into his owne hogges.or suffer his frendes to enter into your hogges. But because Christ dwelleth in you (as he doth by faith) therfore stirreth he vp his first begottē sonne þ^e world, to seeke how to disquiet you, to robbe you, to spoile you, to destroy you: and perchaunce your deare father, to try and to make knowen vnto you and to the world, that ye are destinate to an other dwelling then here on earth, to an other Citie then mans eyes haue seene at any tyme: MarginaliaThe Lord geueth power to Sathan sometime ouer his seruantes, and to what end.hath geuen or wil geue power to Sathan and to the world, to take from you the things which he hath lent you, and by taking them away, to try your fidelitie, obedience, and loue towardes him (for ye may not loue thē aboue him) as by geuyng that ye haue, and kepyng it, he hath declared his loue towardes you.

Sathan perchaunce telleth God (as he did of Iob) that ye loue God for your goodes sake. What now then, MarginaliaGod vseth to try his.if the Lord try you with Iob, shall geue him power on your goodes and body accordyngly, should ye be dismayed? should ye despayre? should ye be faynt harted? should ye not rather reioyce, as did the Apostles, that they were counted worthy to suffer any thyng for the Lordes sake? Oh forget not the end that happened to Iob: for as it happened to him, so shall it happen vnto you. For God is the same God, and can not long forget to shew mercy to them that looke and long for it, as I know ye do, and I pray you so to do still. For the Lord loueth you, and neuer can nor will forget to shew and poure out his mercy vpō you. After a litle while that he hath afflicted and tryed you (sayth Peter) he will visite, comfort, and confirme you. MarginaliaIacob must teach vs to wrastle.As to Iacob wrastlyng with the aungell, at the length mornyng came, and the sonne arose: so deare hartes doubtles it will happen vnto you. Howbeit doe ye as Iob and Iacob did, that is, order and dispose your things that God hath lent you, as ye may and whiles ye haue tyme. Who knoweth whether God hath geuen you power this long euen to that end?

Go to therfore, dispose your goodes, prepare your selues to trial, that either ye may stand to it like Gods chāpions, or els if ye feele such infirmitie in your selues that ye be not able, geue place to violence, MarginaliaThis Erkinald and his wife following this coūsell, did flie both beyond Sea.and goe where ye may with free and safe conscience serue the Lord. Thinke not this counsell to come by chaunce or fortune, but to come from the Lord. Other oracles we may not looke for now. As God told Ioseph in a dreame by an aungel, that he should flie: so if ye feele such infirmitie in your selues, as should turne to Gods dishonour, and your owne destruction withall: know that at this present, I am as Gods Aungell, to admonishe you to take tyme whiles ye haue it, and to see that in no case Gods name by you might be dishonoured. Ioseph might haue obiected the omission of his vocation, as perchaunce ye will do. But deare hartes, let vocatiōs and all thinges els geue place to Gods name, and the sanctifiyng thereof.

This I speake, not as though I would not haue you rather to tary and to stand to it: but I speake it in respect of your infirmitie: which if ye feele to be so great in you that ye are not certaine of this hope, that God will neuer tempt you aboue your habilitie: flie & get you hence, and know that therby God will haue you tryed to your selues and to others. For by it you shall know how to take this world, and your home here as no home, but

that ye looke for an other, and so giue occasion to others lesse to loue this world and perchaunce to some to doubt of their Religion. Wherin though that they be earnest, yet would not they lose so much as ye do for your Religion, which ye doe confirme to me and others by your geuyng place to violence.

Last of al, ye haue cause to reioyce ouer these our daies, because they be the dayes of conformation, in the which and by which MarginaliaTribulatiō doth conforme vs to the image of Christ.God our heauenly Father maketh vs like vnto Christes image here, that we may be like vnto him elswhere. For if þ^t we suffer with him, thē we shal raigne also with him: if we be buried with him, thē we shall ryse with him again: if that we company with him in al troubles & afflictiōs, then we shall reioyce with him in glory: if we now sow with him in teares, we shall reape wyth him in gladnes: if we confesse him before men, he wyll confesse vs before his father in heauen: If we take hys part, he will take ours: If we loose ought for his names sake, he will geue vs all things for his truthes sake. So that we ought to reioyce and bee glad: For it is not geuen to euery one to suffer losse of countrey, lyfe, goodes, house. &c. for the Lordes sake. What can God the father doe more vnto vs, then to call vs into the campe with his Sonne? What may Christ our Sauiour do more for vs, then to make vs his warriours? What can the holy Ghost do to vs aboue thys, to marke vs with the cognisaunce of the Lord of hostes?

MarginaliaThe lordes cognisaūce stādeth not in forked cappes, &c. but in suffring for the lordes sake.This cognisaunce of the Lorde standeth not in forked caps, tippets, shauen crownes, or such other baggage & Antichristian pelfe, but in suffering for the Lordes sake. The world shall hate you, sayth Christ. Loe there is þ^e cognisaunce & badge of Gods children: The world shall hate you. Reioyce therefore my dearely beloued, reioyce, that God doth thus vouchsafe to begyn to conforme you, and make you lyke to Christ. By the triall of these daies ye are occasioned more to repent, more to pray, more to contemne thys worlde, more to desire lyfe euerlasting, more to bee holy (for holy is the end wherfore God doth afflicte vs) and so come to Gods company. Which thing because we cannot doe, as long as this body is as it is, therefore by the dore of death we must enter with Christ into eternall life & immortalitie of soule and body: which God of his mercye send short-for our Sauiour Iesus Christes sake, Amen.

MarginaliaAn other letter of Maister Bradford to Mistres Warcup.THe euerlasting peace of Christ be more & more liuely felt in our hartes by the operation of the holy Ghost now and for euer, Amen.

Although I know it to be more then nedeth, to write any thing vnto you (good Sister) being, as I doubt not you be, diligently exercised in reading of the Scriptures, in meditating of the same, and in hartye prayer to God for the helpe of his holy spirite, to haue the sense & feeling, especiallye of the comfortes you read in Gods sweete booke: yet hauing such oportunitie, and knowing not whether hereafter I shall euer haue the lyke (as this bringer can declare) I thought good in few wordes to take my farewell in writing, because otherwyse I can not. And now me thinkes I haue done it. MarginaliaBradfords farewell to Mistres Warcup.For what els can I or should I say vnto you (my dearely beloued in the Lord) but farewell? Farewel deare Sister, farewel: how be it in the Lord, our Lord (I say) farewell. In him shall you farewell, and so much the better, by how much in your selfe you fare euyll, and shall fare euyll.

When I speake of your self, I meane also this world, this lyfe, and all thinges properly partaining to this life. In thē, as you looke not for your welfare, so be not dismaide when accordingly you shall not feele it. To the Lorde our God, to the Lambe our Christ, which hath borne our synnes on his backe, and is our Mediatour for euer, do I send you. In him looke for welfare, and that without all wauering, because of his own goodnes and truth, which our euyls and vntruth cannot take awaye: Not that therefore I woulde haue you to flatter your selfe in any euill or vnbelief, but that I would comfort you, that they should not dismay you. Yours is our Christ wholy, MarginaliaChrist is wholy ours with all that euer he hath.yours I say hee is, with all that euer hee hath. Is not this welfare trow you? Mountaines shal moue, and the earth shall fall before you finde it otherwise, say the lyar Sathan what he lyst.

Therefore good Sister farewell, and be merye in the Lord: be mery I say, for you haue good cause. If your welfare, ioy, and saluation hanged vpon any other thing