MarginaliaAnno. 1555. October.Lord suffered, which is full of mercy and pity. Marginalia1. Peter. 1.We know my brethren by gods word, that our faith is much more precious then any corruptible gold, and yet that is tryed by the fire: euen so our fayth is therefore tried likewise in tribulations, that it may be found when the Lorde shall appeare, laudable, glorious, and honorable. Marginalia1. Peter. 2.For if we for Christes cause doe suffer, that is grateful before God, for thereunto are we called, that is our state and vocation, wherwith let vs be content. Christ we know suffred for vs afflictions, leauing vs an example that we should folow his fotesteps, for he c?mitted no sinne, nor was ther any guile found in his mouth: when he was railed vp?, and all to reuiled, he rayled not againe: wh? he was euill intreated, hee dyd not threaten, but committed the punishment therof to him that iudgeth a ryght.

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Let vs euer haue in fresh remembrance those wonderfull comfortable sentences spoken by the mouth of our Sauiour Christ: MarginaliaMath. 5.Blessed are they which suffer persecution for righteousnes sake, for theyrs is the kingdome of heauen. Blessed are ye when men reuile you, persecute you, and speake all euill against you for my sake: reioyse and bee glad, for great is your reward in heauen: for so did they persecute the Prophetes whiche were before you. Therfore let vs alway beare this in our minds, that if any incommodity  

doe cha?ce vnto vs for righteousnes sake, happy are we whatsoeuer the worlde doth thinke of vs. Christ our maister hath tolde vs before hand, MarginaliaLuke. 21.that the brother should put the brother to death, and the father the sonne, and the children should rise against theyr parents and kill them, & that Christes true Apostles should be hated of all men for his names sake: but he that shall abide paciently vnto the end, shalbe saued.

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Let vs then endure in all troubles paciently after the example of our maister Christ, and be contented therewith, for he suffred being our maister & Lord: how doth it not then become vs to suffer? MarginaliaLuke. 6. Math. 10.For the disciple is not aboue his maister, nor the seruaunt aboue his Lord. It may suffice the disciple to be as his maister, and the seruaunt to be as his Lord. If they haue called the father of the family, the maister of the houshold Belzebub, how much more shal they call so them of his houshold? Feare them not then (saieth our Sauiour) for all priuities shalbe made plaine: there is now nothing secrete, but it shall be shewed in light. Of Christes wordes let vs neither be ashamed nor afaid to speake them, for so Christ our maister comma?deth vs, saying: MarginaliaMath. 10.that I tell you priuily, speake openly abroade, and that I tell you in your eare, preach it vpon the house top. And feare not them which kill the body, for the soule they can not kill: but feare him which can cast both body and soule into hell fire.

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Know ye that the heauenly Father hath euer a gratious eye and respect towarde you, and a fatherly prouidence for you, so that without his knowledge and permission, nothing can do you harme. Let vs therfore cast all our care vpon him, and hee shall prouide that which shalbe best for vs. For if of two small sparrowes which both are sold for a mite, one of them lighteth not on the ground without your father, and all the heares of our head are n?bred, feare not th? (sayth our master Christ) MarginaliaMath. 10.for ye are more worth then many small sparrowes. And let vs not sticke to confesse our maister Christ for feare of daunger whatsoeuer it shall be, MarginaliaTo confesse Christ, and not to feare da?ger.remembring the promise that Christ maketh, saying: whosoeuer shall confesse me before men, hym shall I confesse before my father which is in heauen: but whosoeuer shall deny me, him shal I likewise deny before my father which is in heauen. Christ came not to geue vnto vs here a carnall amity, & a worldly peace, or to knit his vnto the world in ease and peace, but rather to separate and diuide them from the world, and to ioyne them vnto himselfe: in whose cause wee must, if wee will be his, forsake father and mother, and sticke vnto him. If wee forsake him or shrinke from him for trouble or deathes sake, which hee calleth his crosse: he will none of vs, wee cannot be his. If for his cause we shal lose our temporall liues here, we shall finde them agayne and enioy them for euermore: but if in his cause we will not be contented to leaue nor loose them here: then shall wee loose them so, that wee shall neuer find them again, but in euerlasting death. What though our troubles here be painfull for the time, Marginalia2. Corin 4.and the sting of death bitter and vnpleasaunt: yet we know that they shall not last in c?parison of eternitie, no not the twinckling of an eye, and that they paciently taken in Christes cause, shall procure and get vs vnmeasurable heapes of heauenly glory, vnto the which these temporall paines of death and troubles compared, are not to be estemed,

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but to be reioysed vpon. Wonder not, (sayth S. Peter) Marginalia1. Peter. 3as though it were any straunge matter that ye are tryed by the fire (he meaneth of tribulation) which thing (sayth he) is done to proue you: nay rather in that ye are partners of Christes afflictions, reioyce, that in his gloryous reuelation, ye may reioyce with mery hartes. If ye suffer rebukes in Christes name, happy are ye, for the glory and spirit of God resteth vpon you. Of them God is reuiled & dishonored, but of you he is glorified.

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Let no man be ashamed of that he suffreth as a Christian, and in Christes cause: for now is the time that iudgement and correction must begin at the house of God, and if it begin first at vs: what shall be the ende of those, thinke ye, which beleue not the Gospel? And if the righteous shall be hardly saued, the wicked & the sinner where shal he appeare? Wherfore they which are afflicted according to the will of God, let them lay downe and commit their soules to him by well doing, as to a trusty and faithfull maker. This (as I sayd) maye not seeme straunge to vs, for we know that all the whole fraternity of Christes congregation in this world, is serued with the like, and by the same is made perfect. MarginaliaThe causes why the Apostles so reioysed in their afflictions.For the feruent loue that the Apostles had vnto their maister Christ, and for the great c?modities  

and increase of all godlines which they felt by their faith to ensue of afflictions in Christes cause, & thirdly for the heapes of heauenly ioyes which the same doe get vnto the godly, which shall indure in heauen for euermore: for these causes (I say) the Apostles of their afflicti?s did ioy, and reioyced in that they were had and accompted worthy to suffer contumelies and rebukes for Christes name. And Paule, Marginalia1. Corin. 2.as he gloryed in the grace & fauour of god, wherunto he was brought and stode in by faith: so he reioyced in his afflictions the heauenly and spirituall profits which he numbred to rise vpon them: yea, hee was so farre in loue with that that the carnall man lotheth so much, that is, with Christes crosse, that he iudged himselfe to know nothing els but Christ crucified: he will glory (he sayth) in nothing elles but in Christes crosse, yea and he blesseth all those, as the onely true Israelites and elect people of God with peace and mercy, whiche walketh after that rule and after none other.

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O Lord, what a wonderfull spirit was that that made Paule, Marginalia2. Corin. 12.in setting forth of himselfe against the vanity of Satans Pseudopostels, and in his claime there, that he in Christes cause did excell and passe them all, what wonderfull spirit was that (I say) that made him to recken vp all his troubles, his laboures, his beatings, his whippinges and scourgings, his shipwrackes, his daungres and perils by water & by land, his famine, hunger, nakednes, and colde, with many moe, and the daily care of all the congregati?s of Christ, among whom euery mans paine did pearce his hart, and euery mans grief was greuous vnto him? O Lord, is this Paules Primacy, whereof hee thought so much good that he did excell other? Is not this Paules saying vnto Timothy his owne scholer? Marginalia2. Timoth. 2. The glory of Paule wherin it consisted.and doth it not pertayne to whosoeuer will be Christes true souldiours beare thou (sayth he) affliction like a good souldiour of Iesu Christ.Marginalia2. Timoth. 2. This is true: if we dye with him (he meaneth Christ) we shall liue with him: if we suffer with him, we shall raygne with him: if we deny him, he shall deny vs: if we be faythles, he remayneth faythfull, he cannot deny himself. This Paule would haue knowen to euery body: for there is none other way to heauen but Christ and his way: and all that will liue godly in Christ, shall (sayth S. Paule) suffer persecution. Marginalia2. Timoth. 3.By this way went to heauen the Patriarkes, the Prophets, Christ our Master, his Apostles, his Martyrs, and all the godly since the beginning. And as it hath bene of old, that MarginaliaGal. 4he which was borne after the flesh, persecuted him which was borne after the spirit, for so it was in Isaacks time: so sayd S. Paule, it was in his time also. MarginaliaThe waye to heauen is by afflictions.And whether it be so or no now, let the spirituall man, the selfe same man I meane that is indued with the spirit of almighty God, let him be iudge. Of the crosse of the Patriarkes, as ye may read in their storyes if ye read the booke of Genesis, ye shall perceiue, Of other S. Paule in few words MarginaliaHeb. 11.comprehendeth much matter, speaking in a generality of the wonderfull afflictions, death, and tormentes which the men of God in gods cause & for the truth sake willingly and gladly dyd suffer. After much particular rehersall of many, he sayth: other were racked, and despised, and would not be deliuered, that they might obtayne a better resurrection. Other againe were tried with mockings and scourgings, and moreouer with bondes and imprisonment: they were stoned, hewen asunder, tempted

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