MarginaliaAn. 1555. Iuly.Your highnes and honours ought to know, that there is no innocencie in wordes or deedes, where it is enough and suffiseth onely to accuse. It behoueth Kinges, Queenes, and all that be in authority, to know that in the administration of their kingdomes, they are Gods Ministers. It behoueth them to know, that MarginaliaDifference betwene Kinges and Tyrānes.they are no Kinges but playne tyrannes, which raigne not to thys ende, that they may serue & set forth Gods glory after true knowledge: and therefore it is required of them, that they would be wise, and suffer them selues to be taught, to submit them selues to the lordes discipline, and to kisse their Soueraigne, lest they perishe: as all those Potentates with their principalities and dominions cannot long prosper but perishe in deede, if they and their kingdomes be not ruled wyth the Scepter of God, that is, with his worde: which, who so honoureth not, honoureth not God, MarginaliaGood warning to Queene Mary.and they that honour not the Lord, the Lord will not honour them, but bring them into contempt, and at the length take his owne cause, which he hath most chiefely committed vnto them to care for, into his owne handes, and so ouerthrow thē, and set vp his truth gloriously: the people also perishing with the Princes, where the worde of prophecy is wanting, much more is suppressed, as it is now in thys Realme of England: ouer which the eyes of the Lord are set to destroy it, your highnes and all your honours, if in tyme you looke not better to your office and duties herein, and not suffer your selues to be MarginaliaPrinces made slaues to Antichrist.slaues and hangmen to Antichrist and hys Prelates, which haue brought your highnes and honours already to let Barrabas lose, and to hang vp Christ: as by the grace and helpe of God I shall make apparant, if first it woulde please your excellent maiesty and all your honours, to take to harte Gods doctrine, which rather through the malice of the Pharisayes, I meane the Bishops and prelates, then your consciences, is oppressed: and not for our contemptible and execrable state in the sight of the world, to passe the lesse of it. For it (the doctryne I meane) is hygher and of more honour and maiesty, then all the whole world. It standeth inuincible aboue all power, being not our doctrine, but the doctrine of the euerliuing God and of his Christ, MarginaliaChrist ordeyned to beare dominion ouer all.whom the father hath ordayned king, to haue dominion from sea to sea, and from the ryuer vnto the endes of the world. And truely so doth he and wyll he raygne, that he will shake all the whole earth with hys yron and brasen power, with hys golden and siluery brightnes, onely by the rod of his mouth, to shyuers, in such sorte as though they were pottes of clay, according to that which the Prophetes do write of the magnificence of hys kingdome. And thus much for the thyng, I meane the doctryne, and your duties to harken, to propagate, and defend the same.

But now will our aduersaries mainely cry out agaynst vs, because no man may be admitted once to whist against them, MarginaliaChristes Martyrs falsely belyed of the prelates for heretickes, and Shismaticks.that we pretend falsely the doctrine and word of God, calling vs the most wicked contemners of it, and heretickes, Schismatickes, traytors, &c. All which their sayings how malicious and false they are, though I myght make report to that which is written by those men whose workes they haue cōdemned and all that retayne any of them, publikely by proclamation: yet here will I occasion your maiesty and honours by this my writing, to see that it is farre otherwise then they report of vs. God our father, for his holy names sake, direct my penne to be hys instrument to put into your eyes, eares, and hartes, that which most may make to hys glory, to the sauegard of your soules and bodyes, and preseruation of the whole realme, Amen.

Iohn Bradford.

MarginaliaA letter of M. Bradford to certaine persons being at that time not thorouhgly instructed in the doctrine of Gods election.I Wishe to you my good brethren, the same grace of God in CHRIST, which I wysh and pray the father of mercyes to geue to me for his holy uames sake, Amē.

our letter though I haue not red my selfe, because I would not alienate my mynde from conceiued things to write to others, yet I haue heard the summe of it, that it is of Gods election: wherein I will briefly write to you my faith, and how I thinke it good and meete for a christian man to wade in it. I beleue that man made after the image of God, did fall from that blessed state to the condemnation of himselfe and all

hys posterity. I beleue that Christ for man being thus fallen, did oppose him selfe to the iustice of God a Mediator, paying the raunsome and price of redemption for Adam and his whole posteritie that refuse it not finally. I beleue that all that beleue in CHRIST (I speake of such as be of yeares of discretion) are partakers of CHRIST and all his merites. I beleue that fayth, and to beleue in CHRIST (MarginaliaTrue fayth.I speake not now of faith that mē haue by reason of miracles Ioh. 2. 11. Act. 8. or by reason of earthyly commodity Mat. 13. custome and authority of mē, which is commonly seene, the hartes of them that so beleue beyng not right and simple before God:MarginaliaExod. 14. but I speake of that faith which in deede is the true faith, the iustifiyng and regenerating fayth): I beleue I say that this fayth and beliefe in CHRIST, is the worke and gift of God, geuen to none other then to those which be the children of God, that is, to those whom God the father before the beginning of the worlde hath predestinate in Christ vnto eternall lyfe MarginaliaM. B. For the certainty of this fayth search your hartes. If you haue it, praise the Lord: for you are happy, and therefore cannot finally perish: for then happines were not happines, if it could be lost. When you fall, the Lord will put vnder his hand that you shal not lie stil. But if ye feele not this faith, then know that predestination is to high a matter for you to be disputers of, vntill ye haue bene better scholers in the scholehouse of repentance and iustificatiō, which is the Grammer schole wherein we must be conuersant and learned, before we go to the vniuersitie of gods most holy predestinatiō and prouidence.Thus do I wade in predestination, in such sorte as God hath patified and opened it. Though in God it be the first, yet to vs it is last opened. And therefore I beginne with creation, form thence I come to redemption, so to iustification, and so to election. On this sort I am sure that warely & wisely a man may walke in it easely by the light of Gods spirite, in and by his word, seing thys fayth not to be geuen to all men, 2. Thess. 3. but to such as are borne of God, predestinate before the worlde was made after the purpose and good will of God: which will we may not call into disputation, but in trembling and feare submit our selues to it as to that which can will none otherwise thē that which is holy, right, and good, how farre so euer otherwise it seeme to the iudgemēt of reason, which must nedes be beaten downe to be more careful for Gods glory then for mans saluation, which dependeth only thereon, as all Gods children full well see: for they seeke not the glory which commeth of mē, but the glory which commeth of God Ieremy. 9. Ioan. 5. MarginaliaOf this matter he writeth more at large in the booke of Letters of the Martyrs. Fol. 391.They know God to be a god which doth on earth not onely mercy but also iudgement, which is his iustice and most iustice, although our folishe reason cannot see it. And in this knowledge they glory & reioyce, though others through vayne curiosity, grudge and murmure thereagaynst. Thus briefly I haue sent you my mynde and meaning concerning thys matter. Hereafter you shall haue (I thinke) your letter particularly aunswered by M. Philpot: as also if I haue tyme and you so require it, I will do.

Iohn Bradford.

MarginaliaNotes to this epistle added.AS touchyng the doctrine of Election (wherof this letter of M. Bradford, and many other hys letters moe doe much intreate). iij. thinges must be considered.

Marginalia1.1 First what Gods election is, and what is the cause thereof.

Marginalia2.2 Secondly, how Gods election proceedeth in working our saluation.

Marginalia3.3 Thirdly, to whom Gods election pertaineth, & how a man may be certaine thereof.

MarginaliaDifference betwene predestination and Election.Betwene Predestination & Election this difference there is. Predestination is as well to the Reprobate, as to the elect. Election onely pertayneth to them that be saued.

Predestination, in that it respecteth the Reprobate, is called reprobation: in that it respecteth the saued, is called Election, and is thus defined:MarginaliaDefinition of predestination.

Predestination is the eternall decreement of God, purposed before in hym selfe, what shall befall on all men, eyther to saluation, or damnation.

MarginaliaElection defined.Election is the free mercy and grace of God in hys owne wyll, through fayth in CHRIST hys Sonne, chusing, and preferryng to lyfe, such as pleaseth hym.