Marginalia1555. Aprill.men, neither yet by any other meanes appointed, prescribed, and taught vs, but by his holy worde. And though all men for the most part defile them selues with the wicked traditions of men & ordinances after þ^e world, and not after Christ: yet do ye after the ensample of MarginaliaToby 1. Daniell 1. 2. Mach. 1.Tobie, Daniell and his three companions, Mathathias & his fiue sonnes, be at a point with your selues that ye will not be defiled with the vncleane meates of the heathen, I doe meane the filthynes of Idolatry, and the very Heathenish ceremonyes of the Papistes: but as true worshyppers, MarginaliaIohn. 4.serue ye God in spirite and veritie, according to his sacred Scriptures: which I would wishe and will you aboue all thynges continually and reuerently (as both MarginaliaIohn 5. Marginalia1. Tymo. 4.S. Paule and Christ do commaunde you) to search and read, with the wholesome monitions of the same: to teach, exhorte, comfort and edifie one an other, and your brethren and neighbours, MarginaliaMath. 24.now in tyme of this our miserable captiuitie, and great famishmēt of soules for wāt of the foode of Gods word. And doubt not, but that the mercyfull Lord, who hath promised to be with vs euen vnto the worldes end, and that MarginaliaMath. 28.whensoeuer two or three be gathered together in his name, he will bee in the middest of them, will assiste you, and teach you the right meanynges of the sacred Scriptures, will keepe you from all errours, & lead you into all truth, as he hath faythfully promised.

And though ye thinke your selues vnable to teach, yet at the coōmaundement of Christ now in tyme of famine, the hungry people beyng in wildernes farre from any townes, which if they be sent away fastyng are sure to faint and perish by the way, MarginaliaIohn 13.employ and bestow those fiue loaues and two fishes that ye haue, vpon that hungry multitud: although ye thinke it nothing amōg so many. And he that increased the. MarginaliaMath. 2.v. loaues and. ij. fishes to feede. v. thousand men, besides women and children, shall also augment his giftes in you, not onely to the edifiyng and wynnyng of others in Christ, but also to an exceeding great increase of your knowledge in God and his holy word. And feare not your aduersaries: MarginaliaPhil. 1.for either accordyng to his accustomed maner God shall blind their eyes that they shall not espye you, either get you fauour in their sight, either els graciously deliuer you out of their handes by one meanes or other.

MarginaliaLessons of Christen maners.Obey with reuerence al your superiours, vnlesse they commaund Idolatry or vngodlynes. Make prouision for your housholdes, chiefly that they be instructed and taught in the law of God. Loue your wiues euen as your own selues, and as Christ loued the congregation. Loue your childrē, but rate them not, lest they be of a desperate mynde: and bryng them vp in the nurture and information of the Lord, and teache them euen as the godly Parentes of MarginaliaTob. 2.Tobie the younger, and Susanna did teache their children, euen from their infancie to reuerence God accordyng to his law, and to abstaine frō sinne, prouiding that in no wise they be brought vp in idlenes and wantonnes, seing that ye recken your selues to be the children of God, & looke for the life which God shall geue to thē þ^t neuer turne their belief frō him. MarginaliaTob. 3.See þ^t ye euer feare God, & keepe his commaundementes: & though the plague of God chaunce vnto you, yet remaine ye stedfast in the fayth and feare of God, and thāke him and serue him in such holynes & righteousnes as are acceptable before him all the dayes of your life. Comfort your selues in all your aduersities, and stay your selues in him, who hath promised not to leaue you as fatherles and motherles children without any comfort, but that hee will come to you like a most gentle and mercifull Lord. He will continually stand by you in all your troubles, assistyng, helping and suckeryng you at all tymes. I will be with you (sayth he) vnto the ende of the world. And cleaue you fast vnto him, which was incarnate, lyued, wrought, taught, and dyed for your sinnes: yea rose agayne from death, ascended into heauen for your iustification. Repent ye of the lyfe that is past, and ceasse from sinne, and from henceforward lyue as much tyme as remaineth in the fleshe, not after the lustes of men, but after the will of God. To do good and distribute, forget not. Fast and pray busely, and as euery man hath receiued the gift, minister the same one to an other as good Ministers of the manifold graces of God, that God in all thynges may be glorified through Iesus Christ, to whom be prayse and dominion for euer, and while the world standeth. Amen.

Yours George Marsh.

¶ An other Letter.  

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This letter was first printed in the 1570 edition and did not appear in the Letters of the Martyrs.

MarginaliaAn other letter of G. Marsh to certayne faythfull brethren in the congregationTHe same grace and peace (dearely beloued in Christ) do I intirely desire and wishe vnto you, whiche the Apostle S. Paule wisheth to all them, vnto whom he did write and send his Epistles, then which ij. thynges no better can be wished & desired of God. Grace is throughout all the Epistles of Paul, taken for the free mercy and fauour of God, wherby he saueth vs freely, without any deseruynges or workes of the lawe. in lyke manner peace is taken for the quietnes

and tranquillitie of the conscience, beyng throughly persuaded that through the onely merites of christes death and bloudshedyng, MarginaliaGrace. Peace, what it is.there is an attonement and peace made betwene God and vs, so that God will no more impute our sinnes vnto vs, nor yet condemne vs.

Dearely beloued, I will not be negligent to put you alwayes in remembraunce of thynges, though that ye knowe them your selues and bee also established in the present truth: notwithstandyng, I thinke it meete (as long as I am in this tabernacle) to stirre you vp, by puttyng you in remembraunce. Wherfore I besech, you brethren and exhort you in the Lord Iesus, that ye encrease more and more, euen as ye haue receaued how ye ought to walke and to please God. And as Barnabas that good man and ful of the holy ghost, exhorted the Antiochians, with purpose of hart, cleaue ye continually vnto the Lord. MarginaliaHe exhorteth to stedfastnes in the Gospel.And stand faste, and be not moued from the hope of the Gospel wherof (God be thanked) ye haue had plenteous preaching vnto you these yeares past, by the faythful Ministers of Iesus Christ, MarginaliaLeyuer. Pilkinton. Bradford. Saunders.Leyuer, Pilkinton, Bradford, Saūders, & others lyke, which now whē persecution ariseth because of the word, do not fall away lyke shrynkyng children and forsake the truth, but are prest and ready for your sakes, whiche are his misticall body, to forsake the chiefe and principall delightes of thys lyfe, and some of them in geuyng place to the outragious tyranny of the worlde, to forsake their liuinges, frendes, natiue land, and other chiefe pleasures of this lyfe, MarginaliaMen banished for the Gospell in Queene Maryes tyme.and to commit them selues to painful exile, that if it please god, Christ may come again out of Egypt. And other some are ready to fulfil their ministery vnto the vtmost: that is to witte, with their painfull imprisonmentes and bloudshedyng (if nede shall so require) to confime and seale Christes gospell, wherof they haue ben ministers: and as S. Paul sayth, not onely to bee cast into prison, but also to die for the name of the Lord Iesus.

Be not ye therefore ashamed of the testimonye of our Lord Iesus, neither be ye ashamed of vs whiche are his prisoners, but suffer ye aduersity with the gospell, for whiche we suffer trouble as euill doers, euen vnto bondes: but the word of God is not bound with vs. Therefore we suffer althinges for the elect sake, that they also may obtain the saluation which is in Christ Iesu, with eternall Glory: wherfore stand ye fast in the faith, & be not moued from the hope of the Gospel, & so shal ye make vs euen with ioy to suffer for your sakes, & as the Apostle sayth, To fulfil that which is behynde of the passions of Christ in our flesh, for his bodies sake, whiche is the congregation. MarginaliaThe meaning of S. Paules wordes, opened.S. Paul doth not here meane that there wāteth any thyng in the passion of Christ which may be supplyed by man, for the passiō of Christ (as touching his own person) is that most perfect and omnisufficient sacrifice, wherby we are all made perfect, as many as are sanctified in his bloud: but these his words ought to be vnderstand of the elect & chosen, in whom Christ is & shalbe persecuted vnto the worldes end.. The passion of Christ then, as touching his misticall body which is the Churche, shal not be perfect till they haue al suffered, whō God hath appointed to suffer for his sōnes sake. wherfore stablish your selues & be of good comfort, & be not moued in these afflictions, knowing that wee are appointed therūto. For on your partes nothing can be greater consolation & inward ioy vnto vs in our aduersity, thē to heare of your fayth & loue, and that ye haue a good remembraunce of vs alwayes, praying for vs as we do for you, as the Apostle writeth of the Thessalonians, saying: Nowe are wee alyue if ye stand stedfast in the Lord: MarginaliaThe condition of a true Pastor.for good shepheardes do alwaies counte the welfare & prosperous estate of Christes flocke to be their owne: for while it goeth well with the congregation, it goeth wel with thē also, in whatsoeuer afflictiō or aduersitie they be: but when they see the church in any perill or weaknes, thē be they wery of their own lyues, then can they haue no rest nor ioy. Who is weake, sayth S. Paule, and I am not weake? who is offended & I do not burne? But this affection is not in them that seeke their owne luker and glory.

MarginaliaA christian mans lyfe is a warfare vpon earth.And for asmuch as the lyfe of man is a perpetuall warfare vpō earth, let vs runne with ioy vnto the battayle that is set before vs, & lyke good warriours of Iesus Christ, please hym, who hath chosen vs to bee soldiours, and not lyke shrynkyng chyldren faynt and fall away from the truth now in tyme of aduersity and tribulation, wherwith all that wil lyue Godly in Christ Iesu, must bee tryed, euen as golde and syluar is proued in the fire, and whereof all the Scriptures haue geuen vs so much forewarning. MarginaliaThe Church is euer forwarned before afflictions.For God is wont for the most part, to warne his elect and chosen, what affliction and trouble shall happen vnto them for his sake, not to the entent to fray thē therby, but rather to prepare their mindes agaynst the boystrous stormes of persecution. As we haue a notable example in the Apostle S. Paul, vnto whom God sent Agabus, who prophecied vnto hym of the impri-