for all the time of our mortal life, we know not; for they be the servants of God to go and to come as he commandeth them. But we must take heed we meddle not forcibly nor seditiously to put away the persecution appointed unto us by God, but remember Christ's saying, "Possess you your Luke xxi. lives by your patience." And in this commandment God requireth in every man and woman this patient obedience. He saith not, it is sufficient that other holy patriarchs, prophets, apostles, evangelists, and martyrs, continued their lives in patience and patient suffering the troubles of this world; but Christ saith to every one of his people, " By your own. patience ye shall continue your life:" not that man hath patience of himself, but that he must have it for himself of God, the only giver of it, if he purpose to be a godly man. Now, therefore, as our profession and religion requireth patience outwardly, without resistance and force; so requireth it patience of the mind, and not to be angry with God, although he use us, that be his own creatures, as him listeth. We may not also murmur against God, but say always his judgments be right and just, and rejoice that it pleaseth him by troubles to use us as he used heretofore such as he most loved in this world; and have a singular care to this commandment, Gaudete et exultate, "Be glad and rejoice:" Matt. v. for he sheweth great cause why: "your reward (saith he), is great in heaven."

These promises of him that is the truth itself shall (by God's grace) work both consolation and patience in the afflicted christian person. And when our Saviour Christ hath willed men in trouble to be content and patient, because God in the end of trouble in Christ hath ordained eternal consolation, he useth also to take from us all shame and rebuke, as though it were not an honour to suffer for Christ, because the wicked world doth curse and abhor such poor troubled Christians. Wherefore Christ placeth all his honourably, and saith, "Even so persecuted they the prophets Matt. v. that were before you." We may also see with whom the afflicted for Christ's sake be esteemed by St Paul to the Heb. xi. Hebrews: whereas the number of the blessed and glorious company of saints appear now to our faith in heaven in joy; yet in the letter, for the time of this life, in such pains and contempt as was never more. Let us therefore consider both

Wisd. v.

Matt. x.

Rom. viii.

them and all other things of the world sithence the fall of man; and we shall perceive nothing to come to perfection, but with such confusion and disorder to the eye of the world, as though things were rather lost for ever than like to come to any perfection at all. For of godly men who ever came to heaven (no, not Christ himself) until such time as the world had thought verily that both he and all his had been clean destroyed and cast away? as the wise man saith of the wicked people, "We thought them to be fools, but they be in peace."

We may learn by things that nourish and maintain us, both meat and drink, to what loathsomeness and (in manner) abhorring they come unto, before they work their perfection in us. From life they be brought to the fire, and clean altered from that they were when they were alive; from the fire to the trencher and knife, and all-to hacked; from the trencher to the mouth, and as small ground as the teeth can grind them; and from the mouth into the stomach, and there so boiled and digested before they nourish, that whosoever saw the same would loath and abhor his own nourishment, before it come to his perfection. Is it then any marvel, if such Christians as God delighteth in be so mangled and defaced in this world, which is the kitchen and mill to boil and grind the flesh of God's people in, till they achieve their perfection in the world to come? And as man looketh for the nutriment of his meat when it is full digested, and not before; so must he look for his salvation when he hath passed this troublous world, and not before. Raw flesh is not meat wholesome for man: and unmortified men and women be no creatures meet for God. Therefore Christ saith that his people must be broken and all-to torn in the mill of this world, and so shall they be most fine meal unto the heavenly Father. And it shall be a christian man's part, and the duty of a mind replenished with the Spirit of God, to mark the order of God in all his things, how he dealeth with them, and how they suffer, and be content to let God do his will upon them; as St Paul saith, they weep until the number of the elects be fulfilled, and never be at rest, but look for the time when God's people shall appear in glory.'

We must therefore patiently suffer, and willingly attend upon God's doings, although they seem clean contrary, after

our judgment, to our wealth and salvation; as Abraham did when he was bid to offer his son Isaac, in whom God promised the blessing and multiplying of his seed. Joseph at the last came to that which God promised him, although in the mean time, after the judgment of the world, he was never like to be (as God said he should be) lord over his brethren. When Christ would make the blind man to see, he put clay upon his John ix. eyes, which, after the judgment of man, was means rather to make him double blind than to give him his sight; but he obeyed, and knew that God could work his desire, what means soever he used contrary to man's reasons: and as touching this world, he useth all his after the same sort. If any smart, 1 Pet. iv. his people be the first; if any suffer shame, they begin; if any be subject to slander, it is those that he loveth; so that he sheweth no face or favour, nor love almost, in this world outwardly to them, but layeth clay upon their sore eyes that be sorrowful yet the patient man seeth (as St Paul saith) life Col. iii. hid under these miseries and adversities, and sight under foul clay; and in the mean time he hath the testimony of a good conscience, and believeth God's promises to be his consolation in the world to come, which is more worth unto him than all the world is worth besides: and blessed is that man in whom God's Spirit beareth record that he is the son of God, what- Rom. viii. soever troubles he suffer in this troublesome world.

And to judge things indifferently, my godly wife, the troubles be not yet generally as they were in our good fathers' times, soon after the death and resurrection of our Saviour Christ Jesu, whereof he spake in St Matthew; of the Matth. xxiv. which place you and I have taken many times great consolation, and especially of the latter part of the chapter, wherein is contained the last day and end of all troubles (I doubt not) both for you and me, and for such as love the coming of our Saviour Christ to judgment. Remember, therefore, that place, and mark it again, and ye shall in this time see great consolation, and also learn much patience. Was there ever such troubles as Christ threatened upon Jerusalem? Was there sithence the beginning of the world such affliction? Who was then best at ease? The apostles, that suffered in body persecution, and gathered of it ease and quietness in the promises of God. And no marvel; for Christ saith, "Lift up your heads; for your redemption is at hand;" that is to say,

Luke xxi.

your eternal rest approacheth and draweth near. The world
is stark blind, and more foolish than foolishness itself; and so
be the people of the world. For when God saith trouble shall
come, they will have ease: and when God saith, "Be merry,
and rejoice in trouble," we lament and mourn, as though we
were cast-aways. But this the flesh (which is never merry
with virtue, nor sorry with vice, never laugheth with grace,
nor ever weepeth with sin) holdeth fast with the world, and
letteth God slip.

Matth. xxiv. in the Spirit of

But, my dearly beloved wife, you know how to perceive and to beware of the vanity and crafts of the devil well enough in Christ. And that ye may the better have patience God, read again the 24th chapter of St Matthew, and mark what difference is between the destruction of Jerusalem, and the destruction of the whole world; and you shall see that then there were left alive many offenders to repent: but at the latter day there shall be absolute judgment and sentence, never to be revoked, of eternal life and eternal death upon all men; and yet towards the end of the world we have nothing so much extremity as they had then, but even as we be able to bear. So doth the merciful Father lay upon us now imprisonment (and, I suppose, for my part shortly death), now spoil of goods, loss of friends, and, the greatest loss of all, the knowledge of God's word. God's will be done! I wish in Christ Jesu, our only Mediator and Saviour, your constancy and consolation, that you may live for ever and ever; whereof in Christ I doubt not: to whom for his blessed and most painful passion I commit you. Amen.

Your brother in Christ,

13 October, 1553.

JOHN HOPER.

LETTER XXVII.

A Letter which he wrote to certain godly persons, professors
and lovers of the truth, instructing them how they
should behave themselves at the beginning of the change
of religion.

The grace, mercy, and peace of God the Father, through
our Lord Jesus Christ, be with you, my dear brethren, and

1

with all those that unfeignedly love and embrace his holy gospel. Amen.

It is told me that the wicked idol the mass is stablished again by a law, and passed in the parliament-house1. Learn the truth of it, I pray you, and what penalty is appointed in the act to such as speak against it: also, whether there be any compulsion to constrain men to be at it: the statute throughly known, such as be abroad and at liberty may provide for themselves, and avoid the danger the better. Doubtless there hath not been seen before our time such a parliament as this is, that as many as were suspected to be favourers of God's word should be banished out of both houses. But we must give God thanks for that truth he hath opened in the time of his blessed servant King Edward the Sixth, and pray unto him that we deny it not, nor dishonour it with idolatry; but that we may have strength and patience rather to die ten times than to deny him once. Blessed shall we be, if ever God make us worthy of that honour to shed our blood for his name's sake: and blessed then shall we think the parents which brought us into this world, that we should from this mortality be carried into immortality. If we follow the commandment of St Paul that saith, "If ye be risen again with Christ, seek the things Col. iii. that be above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God," we shall neither depart from the vain transitory goods of this world, nor from this wretched and mortal life, with so great pains as other do. Let us pray to our heavenly Father that we may know and love his blessed will, and the glorious joy prepared for us in time to come, and that we may know and hate all things contrary to his blessed will, and also the pain prepared for the wicked men in the world to come.

There is no better way to be used in this troublesome time for your consolation than many times to have assemblies together of such men and women as be of your religion in Christ, and there to talk and renew among your

[The bill "for repealing king Edward's laws about religion" was sent down from the House of Lords to the Commons on Oct. 31, 1553, and after being discussed six days in the Commons was carried, and sent back to the upper house. Burnet's Hist. of Reform. Vol. II. B. 11. p. 255. Ed. 1683. See also Strype, Eccl. Mem. Vol. III. Part 1. p. 83.]