MarginaliaAn. 1555. December.of our Lord IESVS CHRIST. I that am vnder the crosse with you (thankes be geuen to God therfore) haue felt in the same more true ioy and consolation, then euer I did by any benefite that God hath geuen me in my lyfe before. For the more the world doth hate vs, the nyer God is vnto vs, and there is no perfect ioy, but in God. Wherefore CHRIST sayd: MarginaliaIohn. 16.In me you shall haue ioy, but in the world affliction. Blessed be God which sendeth vs this affliction, that we might perfectly ioy in him. For this cause in the ripest tyme of iniquity, and in the most feruent season of persecution of the true church, which CHRIST in the. xxj. of LukeMarginaliaLuke. 21. prophecied to come, he willeth vs to be of good chere, and to lyft vp our heads, for our redemption is at hand.

O that the Lord would come and deliuer vs frō thys world, which is a vale of miserye, vnto his owne kingdome, where floweth perpetuall ioy and cōsolation. MarginaliaPerfect ioy considered.And verely that is the true and onely ioy which is conceiued, not of the creature, but of the Creator, the which when we do possesse, no body cā take it away from vs. MarginaliaComparison betwene the ioy in God and the ioy in this world.To the which ioy all other ioyes being compared, are but mournings, all delightes sorrow, all swetenes sower, al beuty filth, and finally all other thinges that bee counted pleassant, are tediousnes. Your own selfe is better witnes of this, then I: aske your selfe, wyth whom you are best acquainted. Doth not the holy Ghost speake the same in your hart? Haue you not perswaded your selfe thys to be true, before I wrote therof? For how should you, being a woman, and a young Gentlewoman, beutyfull, and at your own liberty, haue ouercome this your fraile kynde and age, and despised your excellent beuty and estate, vnles all those things which bee subiect to the senses, had bene counted of you vyle, and litle to be estemed in comparison of those thinges which inwardly do comfort you, to ouercome the flesh, the world, & the deuill. &c.

God increase your ioy in all spirituall thinges, and establish your hope to the day of eternall rest. You haue forsaken darknes, and are entred into lyght, God graūt the same may shine still in you, vntil the perfite day come of the Lord, in the which is all our consolation. Here we must bee darkned, þ^t there we may appeare as bright as the Sunne in the face of the whole world, and of all them that now condemne vs for well doing: MarginaliaGods Saincts shall be as iudges against their aduersaries.whose iudges then we shall be to their horrible griefe, though now wrōgfully they iudge vs. Pray hartely, & that often, that God once againe for hys CHRISTES sake, would be mercyfull to his afflicted church in England. Faithful praier is the only remedy that we haue against the fiery dartes of the deuill, that be kindled against vs. By praier the Amalachites shall be ouercome, and the roarynges of the Lyon, which seeketh styll to deuour vs, shall be stopped and put to silence. The Lord stop Leuiathans mouth, that he swallow not vp Gods seely  

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Innocent.

Praise the Lord for the faithfull testimony and sacrifice which two of our brethren of late haue through fire rendred to the truth of the Gospell, MarginaliaThe Gospell triumpheth by the death of Martyrs.which now triumpheth by the death of Godly Martyrs. The Lord is at hand, therefore watch and pray. The last of May. 1555. Captiue in the Kings Bench.

Yours with hart in CHRIST Iohn Philpot.

¶ An other letter of M. Philpot, to the godly Lady Vane.  

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BL, Additional MS 19400, fo. 50r-v. This letter was heavily edited by Foxe, with a number of passages where Philpot expressed his affection for Lady Fane being removed.

MarginaliaAn other letter of Ioh. Philpot to the Lady Vane.GOd the father of our Lord IESVS CHRIST increase in your godly hart þ^e faith of the Gospell, which is your eternall inheritance, and by the holy Ghost comfort your spirite with all spirituall consolation, to the day of the Lord, Amen.

I can not but prayse God most hyghly and earnestly, my deare and faythfull Lady, for the great and vnfayned loue which you beare vnto me in CHRIST, declared oftentymes, aswell now as of late, MarginaliaLady Vane a liberall benefactor to Gods Saintes.by manifest and liberall tokens. Blessed be God that hath made you so worthy a member in his kyngdome. For it can not be but such shal reape with abundance in tyme of reward, þ^t here do sow so plentiously in well doyng. Albeit I am most vnworthy to receiue any such benefite at your hands, as in respect of a piller of CHRISTES Church, which am scarse a shadow therof. But the zeale of CHRISTES Church in you wisheth me to be such a one as þ^e tyme doth require. God fulfil your desire of me, that I may be found constant and no wandryng starre. I am not worthy of the name of a Prophet or of a Minister of Gods worde, for that I haue (beyng letted  

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Hindered.

spouse IESVS, and do reioyse of the veritie of his word: for the which (praysed be his name) he hath counted me worthy to suffer: and in deede MarginaliaMark. 9.who that geueth a draught of water in the name of a Disciple (as CHRIST hath promised) shall not lose his reward. Therfore, that your gentlenes doth in the name of him, which I am not, the Lord recōpense vnto you in all his blessinges, which he is accustomed to poure on them which loue his flocke vnfainedly.

Good Lady, you haue to ioy that þ^e kingdome of God is thus continually before your eyes, and that you are not ashamed of the bandes of CHRIST, which you with his people in part do suffer. They may be assured of the glory euerlastyng, which here are not ashamed to take vp the crosse of CHRIST and to folow him. Here we must weepe and lament, whiles the world laugheth and triumpheth ouer vs: but our teares shall shortly be turned into vnspeakeable ioy, and we shall eternally be mery to gether, when the world shal lament their infidelitie with out end. &c.

I would I were able to do any thing that might shew codigne thākes for that sincere loue you beare vnto me in CHRIST. You adiure me (as it were) by your gētle letters to be bold on you in all my nedes. I thanke God which ceaseth not to prouide for vs. I lacke nothyng at this present, but onely hability to thanke your faithfull hart for your goodnes towardes me. I loue you and not yours, as it is meete Christiās to loue one an other in God: and your faith which I beholde in you, is more worth vnto me then all your possessions. And I thinke I shall not nede long to be chargeable vnto you, for that this Weeke I looke for Commissioners to sit on me and on my felow prisoners in prison, lest the spirite of our breth might blow further abroad. The will of God be done. We are not so good as Iohn the Baptist which was beheaded in prison. Darkenes can not abyde the light. Therfore their doyngs must declare what they are. We are as shepe appointed for a sacrifice to the lord. We must not feare the fire, for our Lord is a consumyng fire, which will put out the fiercenes of ragyng tormētes from vs. Be not afrayd of them that can kill the body, but feare him that can cast both body and soule into hell fire. God forbid that we should reioice otherwise then in the crosse of CHRIST, and pray that he would make vs worthy to suffer for his sake. God will haue our fayth tried and knowen,MarginaliaA perfect Christen man how he is knowne. and therfore let vs willyngly humble our selues vnder the mighty hand of God, that he may gloriously lift vs vp in his good tyme. There is none perfectly faithfull in dede till he can say with S. Paul: MarginaliaRom. 8.I am persuaded that neither death, neither lyfe, neither aungel: neither princes or powers, neither thynges present, neither thynges to come, neither hyghnes, neither lownes, neither any other creature is hable to separate me from the loue of God which is in CHRIST IESV our Lord. This fayth God plante both in you and me vnmoueably. In this fayth we haue to reioyce and in none other.

All the tribulations of the world are not worthy of the eternall waight of glory which is prepared for them, that here do with pacience abyde the crosse. Wherfore let vs bee strong with the strength in him, that is hable to make vs strong, and lament the weakenes, I might say the infidelitie of our fainte Gospellers. CHRIST whom we would pretend to haue put vppon vs, is the strength of GOD, and how then may they be weake where CHRIST is? MarginaliaThe tyme of tribulation better for a Christian, then the tyme of ioy.We haue more to be glad, touching our selues, of this tyme, then we haue had of any time before, in the which we haue so ready away to goe vnto God, and so good occasion to shew our duety in glorifying his holy name. For if we be imprisoned in this cause, we are blessed. If we lose all that we haue, we are blessed a hundreth fold. If we dye we are blessed eternally: so that in sufferyng of persecutions all is full of blessynges. Be blessed therfore (O elect Lady) of God with the blessed of God, and flye (as you do) the concupiscence of the world. Embrace that which is perfect, and ioyfully looke for the comming and the crosse of our Lord IESVS CHRIST. &c. Thus desiring God to preserue you to his true peace, & to giue you victory of that tēptation which now is come to try our fayth, CHRIST be with you & blesse you both in body and soule: and my prayer shall folowe you where soeuer you go, as I desire that you may be with me. The last weeke I sent your beneficēce to Oxford:  

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I.e., Philpot sent money which Elizabeth Fane had sent him to Ridley, Cranmer and Latimer in Oxford.

By yours with all his power, in the
Lord, Iohn Philpot.