Marginalia1555. August.And so the next day after Samuel suffered, these two godly wiues, the one called Anne Potten, the other called Ioane Trunchfielde, the wife of Michaell Trunchfielde Shomaker,
This story first appeared in the Rerum and is another indication that RoseNottingham furnished Foxe with her account of Samuel during Foxe's exile in Basel.
This interesting story was only added to the account of Samuel in the 1570 edition.
Robert Samuel's two letters to a congregation of protestants, one exhorting them to constancy in the face of persecution and the other providing a statement of doctrine, were both first printed in Letters of the Martyrs and were then printed in the 1570 edition and all subsequent editions. The first letter was printed in Letters of the Martyrs, pp. 504-11.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaEccle. 9.A Man knoweth not his tyme, but as the fishe is taken with the Angle, and as the byrdes are caught with the snare: euen so are men caught and taken in the perilous tyme when it commeth vppon them. The tyme commeth: the day draweth neare. Ezechiel. 7. MarginaliaEccle. 4.Better it were to dye, (as the Preacher saith) then to lyue and see the miserable workes which are done vnder the Sunne: suche sodayne and straunge mutations, such wofull, haynous, and lamentable diuisions so fast approcheth, and none or very few thorowly repenteth. Alas for this sinnefull nation, a people of great iniquitie & seede of vngraciousnes, corrupting their wayes. They haue forsaken the Lord, they haue prouoked the holy one of Israel to anger, & are gone backward.MarginaliaEsay. 1. Who nowe liueth not in such securitie and rest, as though al dangers were cleane ouerpast? MarginaliaComplaynt against England and that not vndeserued.Who nowe blindeth and buffeteth not Christe, with seest me, and seest me not? Yea, who liueth not now in suche felicitie, worldly pleasures, and ioyes, wholy seeking the world, prouiding and craftily shifting for the earthly clod and al carnall appetites, as though sinne were cleane forgotten, ouerthrowen, and deuoured? Like hoggishe Gergesites now are we more afrayde and ashamed of Christe our Messias, fearyng the losse of our
[Back to Top]filthy pigges,MarginaliaMath. 8.MarginaliaEnglish people rightly resembled to the Gergesites.MarginaliaMarke. 5. I meane our transitorie goodes, and disquietyng of our sinfull and mortal bodyes in this short, vncertaine, and miserable life, then of a Legion of Deuyls seducing and driuyng vs from hearing, reading, and beleeuyng Christe Gods eternal sonne and his holy word, the power to saue our soules:MarginaliaRom. 10. vnto vanities, lyes, and fables, and to this bewitchyng world.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaAboundance of goodes is a thing perilous.Oh perilous aboundance of goodes, too much saturitie of meates, wealth and quietnes, whiche destroyed with so many soules, those goodly Cities Sodome & Gomorre.MarginaliaGene. 19. Ieroboam, so long as he was but a poore man, not yet auaūced to his dignitie, liued in the lawes of God without reprehension: but brought once to wealth and prosperous estate, he became a wicked and moste shamefull Idolater. And what made the couetous yong man so loth to folow Christ, when he was bydden to forsake but worldly wealth which he hen enioyed?MarginaliaMath. 19. Woe be vnto these false elusions of the world, baites of perdition, hookes of the deuyll, which haue so shamefully deceiued and seduced full many from the right path vnto the Lorde, into the high wayes of confusion and perpetual perdition.
[Back to Top]We might now woorthily (deare Christians) lament and bewaile our heauie state, miserable condition, and sorowfull chaunce: yea, I say, we might well accuse our selues, and with IobMarginaliaIob 3. curse these our troublous, wicked, and bloudye laste dayes of this worlde, were it not that we both see and beleeue, and finde in Gods sacred booke, that MarginaliaEsay. 10. God hath alwayes a remnant, whom he pollysheth with hard aduersaryes.a remnaunt God hath in all ages reserued, I meane the faythful, as many as haue bene from the beginnyng of the worlde, exercised, whetted, and pullished with diuers afflictions, troubles, and tossinges, caste and dashed againste all peryls and dangers, as the verye drosse and outcastes of the earth, and yet wyll in no wise halt betweene God and Baall: for God veryly abhorreth two men in one: Marginalia1. Cor. 4. Two men in one, God abhorreth.he can not away with them that are betweene both, but casteth them awaye as a filthy vomite. MarginaliaApoca. 3.Christe will not part spoyle with his mortal enemie the deuyll: he wyll haue al or lose al: he wyll not permit the Deuyl to haue the seruice of the body, and he to stand contented with the hart and mynd: but he wyll be glorified both in your bodyes and in your spirites, whiche are his, as saint Paul saith. 1. Cor. 6. For he hath made all, bought all, and dearely payd for all, as saint Peter saith: Marginalia1. Pet. 1.With his own immaculate body hath he cleane discharged your bodyes from sinne, death and hell, and and with his moste precious bloud payde your ransome and full price once for all and for euer.
[Back to Top]Now what harme, I pray you, or what losse susteyne you by this? why are you, O vaine men, more afrayd of Iesus your gentle Saueour, & his Gospel of saluation, then of a Legion of cruell deuyls, going about with false delusions vtterly to destroy you both bodies and soules? Thinke you to be more sure then vnder your captaine Christ? MarginaliaNo true quietnes in Sathans seruice.Doo you promise your selues to be more quiete in Satans seruice, thē in Christes religion? esteeme you more these transitorie & pernicious pleasures, then God & al his heauēly treasures? Oh palpable darkenesse, horrible madnes, and wilful blindnes, without comparison, too muche to be suffered any longer. We see, and wyl not see: we know and wyl not know: yea, we smarte and wyll not feele, and that our owne conscience well knoweth. MarginaliaThe myserable madnes of worldly men lamented.Oh miserable and brainelesse soules, which would for foolish pleasures and slippery wealth, lose the royall kingdome and permanent ioyes of God, with the euerlasting glory which hee hath prepared for them that truely loue hym, and renounce the worlde.Marginalia2. Cor. 4. Iohn 12. The children of the worlde lyue in pleasure and wealth, and the Deuyl, who is their God and prince of this world, keepeth their wealth which is proper vnto them, and letteth them enioy it. MarginaliaTransitory pleasures of this lyfe not to be passed vpon.But let vs whiche be of Christe, seeke and enquire for heauenly things, which by Gods promise and mercy in Christ, shalbe peculiar vnto vs. Let (I say) the Crecians, Epicures, & such other beastly Belials
Belial is a demon mentioned several times in the Bible, but this usage is derived from 2 Corinthians 6: 15-16, where Belial's followers are characterized as idolators as contrasted with the followers of Christ. Epicureans are technically followers of the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus who saw the attainment of pleasure as the chief human goal, but in the sixteenth century the term was a synonym for atheism and unbelief. The term Cretian is obscure.
[Back to Top]Let vs therfore passe for those things that do perteine to the spirite, and be celestial.MarginaliaColoß. 3. We must be here (saith PaulMarginaliaHeb. 13.) not as inhabitours and home dwellers, but as straungers: not as strangers onely, but after the mynd of Iob,MarginaliaIohn 7. as painfull souldiers appoynted of our gouernour to fight agaynste the gouernour of darkenes of this worlde, agaynste spirituall craftines in heauenly thinges.MarginaliaEphes. 5. The tyme is come: we must to it: Marginalia1. Pet. 4.the iudgement must begin first at the house of God. MarginaliaLuke 14.Beganne they not first with the greene & sappy tree? and what folowed then on the drye braunches? Ieremie speaking in the person of God, saith: In the Citie wherein my name is inuocate, wyl I begin to punish: but as for you,
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