MarginaliaAn. 1555. October.the same now that he was, and shalbe for euermore.

The world without doubt (this I do beleue, and therefore I say) draweth towardes an end, and in all ages God hath had hys owne maner, after his secrete and vnsearchable wisdome, to vse his elect, sometimes to deliuer them and to keepe them safe, and sometimes to suffer them to drinke of Christes cuppe, that is, to feele the smart, and to feele of the whip. And though the flesh smarteth at the one, and feeleth ease in the other: is glad of the one, and sore vexed in the other: MarginaliaThe Lords fauor no lesse in aduersytie, then in prosperitie.yet the Lord is all one, towardes them in both, and loueth them no lesse when he suffereth them to be beaten, yea and to be put to bodily death, then when he worketh wonders for their maruellous deliuery. Nay rather he doth more for them, when in anguish of the torments he stādeth by them and strengthneth them in theyr faith, to suffer in the confession of the truth and his faith, the bitter panges of death, then when he openeth the prison dore and letteth them go lose: for here he doth but respit them to an other time, and leaueth them in daunger to fall in like perill againe: and there he maketh them perfect, to be without daunger, paine, or perill after that for euermore. But this his loue towards them, how soeuer the world doth iudge of it, is al one, both when he deliuereth and when he suffereth them to be put to death. He loued as well Peter and Paule, when, after they had (according to his blessed will, pleasure, & prouidence, finished theyr courses, and done theyr seruices appointed them by him here in preaching of his Gospel) the one was beheaded, and the other was hanged or crucified of the cruel tyrant Nero (as the Ecclesiastical history sayth): as when he sent the Aungell to bring Peter out of prison, and for Paules deliuery he made all the dores of the prison to flie wide open, and the foundation of the same like an earthquake to tremble and shake.

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Thinkest thou (O thou mā of God) that Christ our Sauiour had lesse affection to the first martyr Stephen, because he suffered his enemies euen at the first cōflict to stone him to death? No surely: nor Iames Ihons brother, which was one of the three that Paule calleth Primates or Principals amongst the Apostles of Christ. He loued him neuer a whit the worse then he did the other, although he suffered Herode the tyrants sword to cut of his head. Nay, doth not Daniell say, speaking of the cruelty of Antechristes time: MarginaliaDaniell. 11.Et docti in populo docebūt plurimos, & ruent in gladio & in flamma, & in captiuitate, & in rapina dierum. &c. Et de eruditis reuent vt conflentur & eligantur, & dealbentur. &c.  

That is, and the learned (he meaneth truely learned in Gods law) shall teach many, and shall fall vpon the sworde, and in the flame, (that is, shall be burned in the flaming fire) and in captiuitie (that is, shall be in pryson, and be spoiled and robbed of theyr goods for a long season). And after a little in the same place of Daniel it foloweth: MarginaliaDaniell. ibid.and of the learned ther be, which shal fal or be ouerthrown, that they may be knowne, tried, chosen, and made white: he meaneth, be burnished and scoured a new, picked and chosē, and made fresh and lusty. If that then was foreseeene for to be done on the godly lerned, and for so gracious causes, let euery one to whom any such thing by the will of God doth chaunce, be mery in God, and reioyce, for it is to Gods glory, and to his owne euerlasting wealth. Wherefore well is he that euer he was borne, for whom thus graciously God hath prouided, hauing grace of God, and strength of the holy ghost to stand stedfastly in the height of the storme. Happy is he that euer he was borne, whom God his heauenly father hath vouchsafed to appoint to glorify him, and to edify his church by the effusion of his bloud.

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MarginaliaMartyrdome an high honour.To die in Christes cause is an high honour: to the which no man certainely shall or can aspire, but to whom God vouchsafeth that dignitie: For no mā is alowed to presume for to take vnto hym selfe any office of honour, but he which is therevnto called of God. Therfore Ihon sayth well, speaking of them, which haue obtained the victory by the bloud of the Lambe, and by the word of his testimony, MarginaliaApoca. 12.that they loued not theyr liues, euen vnto death. And our sauiour Christ saith: He that shal lose his life for my cause shal find it. And this maner of speach pertaineth not to one kind of christians, (as the worldly doth wickedly dreame) but to all þ^t doe truely pertaine vnto Christ. For when Christ had called vnto him the multitude together with his disciples, he said vnto them (marke that he sayd not this to the disciples and apostles only, but he sayd it to all) MarginaliaMath. 16.whosoeuer will folow me, let him forsake or deny himselfe, and take vp his crosse & folow me: for whosoeuer wil saue his life, shal lose it (he meaneth whosoeuer will, to saue his life, both forsake or leaue him and his truth): and whosoeuer shall lose his life for my cause, & the gospels sake, shall saue it: For what shall it profit a mā if he shall winne the whole world and lose his owne soule? his owne life? or what shal a man geue to recompence that losse of his owne life, and of his owne soule? VVhosoeuer shalbe ashamed of me & my words (that is to confesse me and my gospell) before this adulterous and sinfull generation, of hym shall the sonne of man be ashamed vvhen he commeth in the glory of his father, with the holy Angels.MarginaliaMark. 8. Know thou O mā of God, that al things are ordained for thy behoufe, and to the furtherance of thee, towards thy saluation. All things (saith Paule) worketh with the good to goodnes, euen the enemyes of God, and such kind of punishments whereby they goe about to destroy them, shall be forced by gods power, might, and fatherly prouidence, for to do them seruice.

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It is not as the wicked thinketh, that pouerty, aduersity, sicknes, tribulation, yea painful death of the godly, be tokens that God doth not loue them: but euen cleane the contrary, as all the whole course of scripture doth euidently declare: for then he would neuer haue suffered his most dearly beloued the Patriarkes to haue had such troubles, his Prophets, his Apostels, his Martyrs and chief champions and maintainers of his truth and gospell, so cruelly of the wicked to haue bene murdeerd and slaine. Of the whych some were racked (as the Apostle sayth) and would not be deliuered,

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MarginaliaHeb. 11.that they might receyue a better resurrection. Some were tried by mockings and scourgings, yea moreouer by bondes and imprisonment: they were stoned, they were hewen and cut asunder, they were tempted, they were slaine wyth the sworde, they wandered vp and downe in sheepe skins and Goates skins, being forsaken, afflicted and tormented: such men as the world was not worthy to haue, wandring in wildernesses, in mountaines, in dennes and caues of the earth. All these were approued by the testimony of fayth, and receiued not the promise, bicause God did prouide better for vs, that without vs they should not be cōsummated. They tary now for vs vndoubtedly, longing for the day: but they are commaunded to haue paciēce yet (sayth the Lord) a little while, vntil the number of theyr fellow seruaunts be fulfilled, and of theyr brethren which are yet to be slaine, as they were.

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Now (thou O man of God) for our Lords sake, let vs not for the loue of this life, tary them to long, and be occasion of delay of that gloryous consummation, in hope and expectation whereof they departed in the Lord, and the which also the liuing endued with gods spirite, ought so earnestly to desire and to grone for with all the creatures of God. Let vs all with Iohn the seruant of God, cry in our hearts vnto our Sauiour Christ: MarginaliaApoca. 22.Veni domine Iesu,  

come Lord Iesu come. For then when Christ which is our life, shall be made manifest and appeare in glory, then shall the children of God appeare what they be, euen like vnto CHRIST: for this our weake body shall be transfigurated and made like vnto Christes glorious body, and that by the power wherby he is able to subdue vnto himself all things. Then, that which is now corruptible, shall be made incorruptible: that is now vile, shal then be made glorious: that is now weake, shall rise then mighty and strong: that is grosse and carnall, shall be made fine and spirituall, for then we shal see and haue the vnspeakeable ioy and fruition of the gloryous maiesty of our Lord euen as he is.

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Who or what then shall let vs to ieopard, to ieopard?  

yea, to spend this life which we haue here, in Christes cause? in our Lord God his cause? O thou therefore man of God, thou that art loden, and so letted   like vnto a great bellied woman, that thou canst not flie the plague, yet if thou lust after such things as I haue spoken of, stand fast what soeuer shall befal, in thy maisters cause: MarginaliaNothing happeneth wythout gods foresight.and take this thy letting to flie, for a calling of God to fight in thy Maister Christ his cause. Of this be thou certaine, they can do nothing vnto thee, which thy father is not aware of, or hath not foreseene before: they can doe no more then it shall please him to suffer them to do for the furtherance of his glory, edifying of his church, and thine owne saluation. Let them then do what they shal, seing to thee (O man of God) all things shalbe forced to serue, and to worke with thee vnto the best before God. O be not afraid and remember the end.

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All this which I haue spoken for the comfort of the lamētable case of the man whom Christ calleth the great bellyed woman, I meane to be spoken likewise to the captiue and prisoner in Gods cause: for such I count to be as it were already summoned and prested to fight vnder the banner of the crosse of Christ, and as it were souldiers allowed and taken vp for the Lord warres, to do to theyr Lord and Master good and honorable seruice, and to sticke to him, as men of trusty seruice in his cause, euen vnto death, and to thinke theyr life lost in his cause, is to win it in eternall glory for euermore.

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Therfore, now to conclude and to make an end of this treatise, I say vnto all that loue God our heauenly father: that loue Christ Iesus our redemer and Sauiour: that loue to folow the wayes of the holy ghost, which is our comforter and sanctifier of all: vnto all that loue Christes spouse and body, the true catholike church of Christ, yea that loue life and theyr owne soules health: I say vnto all these, hearken my deare brethren and sisters, all you that be of God, of all sortes, ages, dignities, or degree: harken to the word of our Sauiour Iesus Christ spoken to his apostles, and ment to all his in S. Mathewes gospell: MarginaliaMat. 10.Feare not them which kill the body, for they can not kill the soule: but feare him more which may destroy and cast both body and soule into hell fire. Are not two small sparrowes sold for a mite, and one of them shall not fall or light vpon the ground without your father? All the heares of your head be nūbred. Feare them not, you are much more worth then are the little sparrowes. Euery one that confesseth me before men, him shall I likewise confeße before my father which is in heauen. But whosoeuer shall deny me before men, I shall deny him likewise before my father which is in heauen.

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The Lord graunt vs therfore of his heauēly grace & strength, that here we may so confesse him in this world amongst this adulterous and sinfull generation, that he may confesse vs againe at the latter day before his father which is in heauen, to his glory & our euerlasting comfort, ioy and saluation.

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To our heauenly father, to our Sauiour and redemer Iesus Christ, and to the holy ghost, be all glory and honour now and for euer. Amen.

Thus with the death and Marryrdome of these two learned pastors, and cōstant souldiours of Christ, M. Latimer, and B. Ridley, you haue diuers of their letters & other wrytings of theirs expressed, with the Farewels also of B. Ridley, wherein he toke his leaue of the world, taking his iourney to the kingdome of heauen. Diuers and sondry other treatises of his remaine also in my hand both in Latine and English, wherof ye shall see God willing) the effect and contents, in the forepromised Appendix, which I purpose by the Lordes grace after the finishing of these storyes, to adioyne.  

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