A LETTER WHICH JOHN FRITH WROTE UNTO THE FAITHFUL FOLLOWERS OF CHRIST'S GOSPEL, WHILE HE WAS PRISONER IN THE TOWER OF GRACE and peace from God the Father, through our IT cannot be expressed, dearly beloved in the Lord, what joy and comfort it is to my heart to perceive how the word of God hath wrought, and continually worketh among you, so that I find no small number John ii. walking in the ways of the Lord, according as he gave John xv. us commandment, willing that we should love each other as he loved us. Now have I experience of the Rom. xii. faith which is in you, and can testify that it is without simulation, that ye love not in word and tongue only, John iii. but in work and verity. What can be more trial of a faithful heart, than to adventure, not only to aid and succour by the means of other, (which without danger may not be admitted unto us,) but also personally to visit the poor oppressed, and see that nothing be lacking unto them, but that they have both ghostly comfort and bodily sustenance, notwithstanding the strait inhibition and terrible menacing Luke xiv. Phil. i. of these worldly rulers, ever ready to abide the extreme jeopardies that tyrants can imagine. This is an evidence, that you have prepared yourselves to the cross of Christ, according unto the council of the wise man, which saith, My son, when thou shalt enter into the way of the Lord, prepare thyself unto tribulation. This is an evidence that ye have cast your accounts, and have wherewith to finish the tower which ye have begun to build. And I doubt not but that he which hath begun to work in you, shall for his glory accomplish the same, even unto the coming of the Lord, which shall give unto every man according to his deeds. And, albeit God of his secret judgments for a time keep the rod from some of them that ensue his steps, yet let them surely reckon upon it, for there is no doubt 2 Tim. iii. but all which will devoutly live in Christ, must suffer persecution; for whom the Lord loveth he correcteth, and scourgeth every child that he receiveth; for what child is that whom the father chastiseth not? If ye be not under correction, of which we all are partakers, then are ye bastards and not children. Rom. xxi. Heb. xii. Nevertheless, we may not suppose that our most loving Father should do that, because he rejoiceth in our blood or punishment, but he doth it for our singular profit, that we may be partakers of holiness, and that the remnants of sin, which, through the frailty of our members, rebel against the spirit and will, causing our works to go imperfectly forwards, may some day be suppressed, lest they should subdue us and reign over us as I have sufficiently declared in the epistle of my book, which entreateth of purgatory, to the which I remit them that desire to be further instructed in this matter. Of these things God had given me the speculation before; and now it hath pleased him to put it in use and practice upon me. I ever thought, and yet do think, that to walk after God's word, would cost me my life at one time or another. And, albeit that the King's grace should take me into his favour, and not to suffer the bloody Edomites to have their pleasures upon me; yet will I not think that I am escaped, but that God hath only deferred it for a season, to the intent that I should work somewhat that he hath appointed me to do, and so to use me unto his glory. And I beseech all the faithful followers of the Lord, to arm themselves with the same supposition, marking themselves with the sign of the cross; not from the cross, as the superstitious multitude do, but rather to the cross, in token that they be ever ready willingly to receive the cross, when it shall please God to lay it upon them. The day that it cometh not, count it clear won, giving thanks to the Lord which hath kept it from you; and then when it cometh, it shall nothing dismay you, for it is no new thing, but even that which ye have continually looked for. And doubt not but that God, which is faithful, shall Cor. x. not suffer you to be tempted above that which ye are able to bear, but shall ever send some occasion by the which ye shall stand steadfast; for either he shall blind the eyes of your enemies and diminish their tyrannous power, or else, when he hath suffered them to do their best, and that the dragon hath cast a whole flood of waters after you, he shall cause even the very earth to open her mouth and swallow them up. So faithful is Apoc. xii. he and careful to ease us what time the vexation should be too heavy for us. He shall send a Joseph before you against ye shall come into Egypt; yea, he shall so provide for you, that ye shall have an hundred fathers for one, an hundred mothers for one; an hundred houses for one, and that in this life, as I have proved by experience; and after Mark ii. this life, everlasting joy with Christ our Saviour. Notwithstanding, since this steadfastness cometh not of ourselves, for (as St. Austin saith) there was never |