MarginaliaAnn. 1555. October.the deliuerie of the people, were euer geuen when the people was brought to most miserie before: as Othoniell, Atoth, Saugar, Gedeon, Iephthe, Samson. And so was Saull indued with strength and boldnes from aboue, against the Ammonites, Philistines, and Amalechites for the defence of the people of God. Dauid likewise felt Gods help most sensibly euer in his extreme persecutions. What shall I speake of the Prophetes of God, whom GOD suffered so oft to be brought into extreme perilles, and so mightelie deliuered them againe: as Helias, Ieremy, Daniell, Micheas, and Ionas, and many other, whom it were but to long to rehearse and set out at large? And did the Lord vse hys seruantes otherwise in the newe law after Christes incarnation? Read the Actes of the Apostles, and you shall see no. Were not the Apostles cast into prison, and brought out by the mightie hand of God? Did not the Angell deliuer Peter out of the strong prison, and bryng hym out by the yron gates of the Citie, & set hym free? And when, I pray you? Euen the same night before Herod appointed to haue brought hym in iudgement for to haue slaine hym, as hee had a little before killed Iames the brother of Iohn. Paule and Silas, when after they had bene sore scourged, and were put into the inner Prison, and there were laid fast in the stockes, I pray you what apparance was there that the magistrates should be glad to come the next day themselues to them, to desire them to be content and to depart in peace? Who prouided for Paul, that he should be safely conducted out of all daunger, and brought to Felix the Emperours Deputie, when as both the high Priestes, the Phariseis, and rulers of the Iewes had conspired to require iudgement of death against hym, MarginaliaExamples of gods deliuerance.he beyng fast in prison, and also more then. xl. men had sworne eche one to other, that they woulde neuer eate nor drinke vntill they had slaine Paule? A thing wonderful, that no reason could haue inuented, or manne could haue loked for: God prouided Paule his owne sisters sonne a yong man, that disapointed that conspiracy, and all their former coniuration. The maner how the thing came to passe, thou maist reade in the. xxiii. of the Actes.MarginaliaAct. 23. I wil not be tedious vnto thee here with the rehersall therof.

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Now, to descende from the Apostles to the Martyrs that folowed next in Christes church, and in them likewise to declare how gracious our good God euer hath bene to woorke wonderfullye with them whiche in his cause haue bene in extreme perilles, it were a matter enough to write a long booke. I will here name but one man & one woman, that is, Athanasius  

the great clark and godlie man stoutlye standyng in Christes cause against the Arrians,   & that holy woman Blandina,   standyng so constantly in all extreme paines, in the simple confession of Christe. If thou wilte haue examples of mo, loke and thou shalt haue both these and a. C. moe in Ecclesiastica historia of Eusebius, and in Tripartita historia.

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But for al these examples both of holy scripture, and of other histories, I feare mee the weake man of God incombred with the frailty and infirmitie of the fleshe, will haue now and then such thoughtes and quawmes (as they call them) to run ouer his hart, and to thinke thus: All these thinges whiche are rehearsed out of the Scripture, I beleue to be true, and of the rest truly I do thinke well, and can beleue them also to be true: but all these we must needes graunt were speciall miracles of God, which now in our daies are ceased we see, and to require them at Gods handes, were it not to tempt God.

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Welbeloued brother, I graunt such were great wonderful workes of God, and we haue not seene many of suche miracles in our time, either for that our sight is not cleareMarginaliaGod worketh great myracles in our time although euery man doth not see them. (for truely God worketh with his, his parte in all times) or els because wee haue not the like faithe of them for whose cause God wrought such thinges: or because, after that he had set forth the trueth of his doctrine by suche miracles then sufficiently, the time of so many miracles to be done was expired withal. Which of these is the most speciall cause of all other, or whether there be any other, God knoweth: I leaue that to God. But know thou this my welbeloued in God, that gods hand is as strong as euer it was, he may do what his gracious pleasure is, and he is as good and gracious as euer he was. Man chaungeth as the garment doth, but GOD our heauenly father is euen the same now that he was, and shalbe for euermore.

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The worlde without doubt (this I do beleue, and therfore I say) draweth towards an ende, and in all ages God hath had his owne maner, after his secret and vnsearchable wisedome, to vse his elect, sometimes to deliuer them and to keepe them safe, and sometimes to suffer them to drinke of Christes cuppe, that is, to feele the smart, and to feele of the whip. And though the flesh smarteth at the one, and feleth ease in the other: is glad of the one, and sore vexed in the other: MarginaliaThe Lords fauor no lesse in aduersytie, then in prosperitie.yet the Lord is all one, towardes them in bothe, and loueth them no lesse when he suffereth them to be beaten, yea and to be put to bodily death, then when he worketh wonders for their marueilous deliuerie. Nay rather hee doth more for them, when in anguishe of the tormentes he standeth by them and strengthneth them in their faith, to suffer in the confession of the trueth and his faithe, the bitter panges of death, then when hee openeth the prison dore and letteth them go lose: for here he doth but respit them to an other time, & leaueth them in daunger to fall in like perill againe: and there he maketh them perfect, to bee without daunger, paine, or perill after that for euermore. But this his loue towardes them, how soeuer the worlde doth iudge of it, is all one, both when he deliuereth and when hee suffereth them to bee put to death. He loued as well Peter and Paul, when, after they had (accordyng to his blessed will, pleasure, and prouidence, finished their courses, and done their seruices appoincted them by hym here in preachinge of his Gospell) the one was beheaded, and the other was hanged or crucified of the cruell tyrant Nero (as the Ecclesiasticall historie saith) as when he sent the Aungell to bryng Peter out of prison, and for Paules deliuery he made all the dores of the prison to flie wide open, and the foundati? of the same like an earthquake to tremble and shake.

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Thinkest thou (O thou man of God) that Christe our sauiour had lesse affection to the first Martyr Stephen, because he suffered his enemies euen at the firste conflict to stone hym to death? No surely: nor Iames Iohns brother, which was one of the three that Paule calleth Primates or Principals amongst the Apostles of Christ. He loued him neuer a whit the worse then he did the other, although he suffered Herode the tyrants sword to cut of his head. Nay, doth not Daniell saye, speakyng of the crueltie of Antichristes time: MarginaliaDaniell. 12.Et docti in populo docebunt plurimos, & ruent in gladio & in flamma, & in captiuitate, & in rapina dierum. &c. Et de eruditis ruent vt conflentur & eligantur, & dealbentur. &c.  

That is, and the learned (he meaneth truelie learned in Gods law) shall teach many, and shall fall vpon the Sworde, and in the flame, (that is, shall bee burned in the flamyng fire) and in captiuitie (that is, shall bee in prison, and bee spoiled and robbed of their goods for a long season). And after a little in the same place of Daniell it foloweth: MarginaliaDaniell. ibid.and of the learned there be, which shal fal or be ouerthrowen, that they may be knowne, tried, chosen, and made white: he meaneth, be burnished and scoured a new, picked and chosen, and made freshe and lusty. If that then was foreseene for to bee done to the Godly learned, and for so gracious causes, let euery one to whom any such thing by the will of GOD doth chaunce, be mery in God, and reioyce, for it is to Gods glory, and to his owne euerlastyng wealth. Wherefore well is he that euer he was borne, for whom thus graciously God hath prouided, hauyng grace of God, and strength of the holie Ghost to stande stedfastlie in the height of the storme. Happy is hee that euer hee was borne, whom God his heauenly Father hath vouchsafed to appoint to glorifie hym, and to edifie his churche by the effusion of his bloud.

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MarginaliaMartyrdome an high honour.To dye in Christes cause is an high honour, to the whiche no manne certainelye shall or can aspire, but to whom God vouchsafeth that dignitie: For no man is alowed to presume for to take vnto hym selfe any office of honour, but hee whiche is thereunto called of God. Therefore Iohn saith well, speakyng of them, whiche haue obtained the victorie by the bloud of the Lambe, and by the woorde of his testimony, MarginaliaApocalips. 12.that they loued not their liues, euen vnto death. And our Sauiour Christ saith: He that shall loose his life for my cause, shall find it. And this maner of speache pertaineth not to one kinde of Christians, (as the worldlie dothe wickedly dreame) but to all that do truely pertaine vnto Christ. For when Christe had called vnto hym the multitude together with his Disciples, he said vnto them (marke that he said not this to the disciples and Apostles one-

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