MarginaliaAn. 1555. February. it is sufficient that other holy Patriarkes, Prophetes, Apostles, Euangelistes, & Martyrs continued their lyues in pacience, and pacient suffering the troubles of this world: but Christ saith to euery one of his people: By your owne pacience ye shal continue your life: not that man hath pacience of him selfe, MarginaliaPacience the gift only of God.but that he must haue it for hym selfe of God, the onely geuer of it, if he purpose to be a godly man. Now therfore, as our profession & religion requireth pacience outwardly without resistance and force: so requireth it paciēce of the mind, & not to be angry with God, although he vse vs that be hys own creatures, as hym listeth.

We may not also murmure against God, but say alwaies his iudgemēts be right and iust, and reioyce that it pleaseth hym by troubles to vse vs, as he vsed heretofore such as he most loued in this worlde: and haue a singular care to this Commaundement: Gaudete, et exultate, Be glad and reioyce,MarginaliaMath. 3. for he sheweth great cause why: Your reward (saith he) is great in heauen. These promises of him that is the truth it selfe, shall by Gods grace) worke both consolation and pacience in the afflicted Christian person. And when our saueour Christ hath willed men in troule to be content & pacient, because God in the end of trouble in Christ hath ordeyned eternall consolation: he vseth also to take from vs all shame and rebuke, as though it were not an honour MarginaliaTo suffer in Christ, is honorable.to suffer for Christ, because the wicked world doth curse & abhorre such poore troubled Christians. Wherefore Christ placeth al hys honourably, and saith: MarginaliaMath. 24.Euen so persecuted they the Prophetes that were before you. We may also see with whom the afflicted for Christes sake, be esteemed by s. Paul to the Hebrewes,MarginaliaHeb. 11. where as the number of the blessed & glorious company of saintes appeare now to our faith in heauen in ioy: yet in the letter, for the tyme of this lyfe, in such paynes and contempte, as was neuer more. Let vs therefore cōsider both them and al other thinges of the world sithens the fal of man, and we shal perceiue nothing to come to perfection, but with such confusion and disorder to the eye of the world, as though things were rather lost for euer, then like to come to any perfection at al. For of godly men, who euer came to heauen (no not Christ hym selfe) vntyll such tyme as the world had thought veryly that both he and all his had bene cleane destroyed and cast away? as the Wise man saith of the wicked people: MarginaliaSap. 5.We thought them to be fooles, but they be in peace.

We may learne by thinges that nourish and mainteyne vs, both meate and drinke, to what lothsomnes and (in maner) abhorring they come vnto, before they woorke their perfection in vs.MarginaliaExample taken of our meat and drinke how thinges neuer come to their perfection before they be vtterly wasted. From life they be brought to the fire, and cleane altered from that they were when they were alyue: from the fire to the trencher and knife, and all to hacked: from the trencher to the mouth, and as smal ground as the teeth can grinde them: and from the mouth into the stomacke, and there so boyled and digested before they nourish, that who soeuer sawe the same, would loth and abhorre his owne nourishment, before it come to his perfection.

Is it then any marueile if such Christians as God delighteth in, be so mangled and defaced in this worlde, which is the kitchin and myll to boyle and grinde the flesh of Gods people in, till they atchieue their perfection in the worlde to come? And as a man looketh for the nutriment of his meate when it is ful digested, and not before: so must he looke for his saluation when he hath passed this troublous worlde, and not before. Rawe fleshe is not meate wholesome for man: MarginaliaVnmortefied men, be no people for God.and vnmortified men and women, be no creatures meete for God. Therefore Christ saith, that his people must be broken, and all to torne in the myll of this worlde,MarginaliaMath. 10. and so shall they be most fine meale vnto the heauenly father. And it shall be a Christian mans part, and the duetie of a mynde replenished with the spirite of God, to marke the order of God in all his thinges, how he dealeth with them, and how they suffer and be content to let God doe hys wyl vpon them, as S. Paul saith: MarginaliaRom. 8.They waite vntyll the number of the electes be fulfilled and neuer be at rest, but looke for the tyme when Gods people shall appeare in glory.

We must therfore paciently suffer, and willyngly attend vpon Gods doinges, although they seeme cleane contrarye after our iudgement, to our wealth and saluation: as MarginaliaExample of Abraham.Abraham dyd when he was byd to offer his sonne Isaac, in whom God promised the blessing and multiplying of his seede. MarginaliaExample of Ioseph.Ioseph at the last came to that which God promised hym, although in the meane tyme, after the iudgment of the worlde, he was neuer like to be (as God said he should be) Lorde ouer his brethren. When Christ woulde make the blynd man to see, MarginaliaIohn. 9.he put clay vpon hys eyes, which after the iudgement of man, was meanes rather to make hym double blinde, then to geue hym his sight: but he obeyed, and knewe that God could worke hys desire, what meanes soeuer he vsed contrary to mans reason: and as touching this

world, he vseth al hys after the same sort. Marginalia1. Pet. 4.If any smart, his people be the first: if any suffer shame, they begyn: if any be subiect to sclaunder, it is those that he loueth:MarginaliaIudgment first beginneth with the house of God. so that he sheweth no face or fauour, nor loue almost in thys worlde outwardly to them, but laieth clay vpon their sore eyes, that be sorowfull: yet the pacient man seeth (as S. Paul saithMarginaliaColos. 3.) life hyd vnder these miseries and aduersities, and sight vnder foule clay, and in the meane tyme he hath the testimonie of a good conscience, and beleeueth Gods promises to be his consolation in the worlde to come, whiche is more woorth vnto hym, then al the worlde is worth besides: and blessed is that man in whom Gods spirite beareth record that he is the sonne of God,MarginaliaRom. 8. what soeuer troubles he suffer in this troublesome world.

And to iudge thinges indifferently (my godly wife) the troubles be not yet generally, as they were in our good fathers tymes, soone after the death and resurrection of our Saueour Christ Iesu, wherof he spake in s. Mathew.MarginaliaMath. 24. Of the which place you and I haue taken many tymes greate consolation, and especially of the latter part of the Chapter wherin is conteyned the last day and end of al troubles (I doubt not) both for you and me, and for suche as loue the commyng of our saueour Christe to iudgement. Remember therefore that place, and marke it againe, and ye shall in this tyme see great consolation, and also learne much pacience. Was there euer suche troubles, as Christ threatned vpon Ierusalem? was there sithens the beginnyng of the worlde, such affliction? who was then best at ease? The Apostles that suffered in body persecution, and gathered of it ease and quietnes in the promises of God. And no marueyle, for Christ saith: MarginaliaLuke. 2.Lift vp your heades, for your redemption is at hand, that is to say, your eternall rest approcheth & draweth neare. The world is starke blynd, and more foolish then foolishnes it selfe, & so be the people of the worlde. For whē God saith, trouble shal come, they wyl haue ease. And when God saith, be mery & reioyce in trouble, we lament & mourne, as though we were castawayes. MarginaliaFlesh neuer mery with vertue, nor sory with vyce.But this our flesh (which is neuer mery with vertue, nor sory with vice, neuer laugheth with grace, nor euer weepeth with sin) holdeth fast with the world, and letteth God slip. But (my dearely beloued wife) you know how to perceiue and to beware of the vanitie and craftes of the deuill well enough in Christ. And that ye may the better haue pacience in the spirit of God, reade againe the 24. chap. of S. Math. MarginaliaMath. 24. Destruction of Ierusalem and destruction of the whole world compared.& marke what difference is betwene the destruction of Ierusalem & the destruction of the whole world, & you shall see, that then there were leaft alyue many offēders to repēt: but at þ^e latter day there shalbe absolute iudgmēt and sētence (neuer to be reuoked) of eternal life and eternall death vpon all men, and yet towards the end of the world, we haue nothing so much extremitie, as they had thē, but euen as we be able to beare. So doth the mercyfull father lay vpon vs nowe imprisonment (and I suppose for my parte, shortly death,) nowe spoyle of goodes, losse of frendes, and the greatest losse of all, the knowledge of Gods worde. Gods wyll be done. I wishe in Christ Iesu our onely mediatour and saueour, your constancie and consolation, that you may liue for euer and euer, whereof in Christ I doubt not: to whom for his blessed and most paynful passion I commit you. Amen. 13. Octob. 1553.

¶ To a certayne godly woman, instructyng her howe shee shoulde behaue her selfe in the tyme of her wydowhoode.  

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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 M. Hooper.THe grace of God, and the comfort of his holy spirite, be with you and al them that vnfainedly loue his holy gospel. Amen.

I thanke you (deare sister) for your most louyng remembrance, and although I can not recompence the same, yet do I wishe with al my hart, that God would doo it, requiring you not to forget your duetie towards God in these perilous dayes, in the whiche the Lord wyll trie vs. I trust you do encrease, by reading of the scriptures, the knowledge you haue of God, and that you diligently apply your selfe to folowe the same: for the knowledge helpeth not, except the life be according therunto. Further, I doo hartily pray you, to consider the state of your wydowhoode, and if God shall put in your minde to change it, remēber the saying of Saint Paul. 1. Corinth. 7.Marginalia1. Cor. 7.It is lawfull for the wydow or mayden to marrye to whom they list, so it be in the Lorde: 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 finde thereby greate ioy and comforte, if you chaunge your state. Whereof I wyll when I haue better leysure (as nowe I haue none at all) further aduertise you. In the meane tyme, I commende you to God and the guiding of his good spirite, who stablishe and confirme you