Jer. iv.

decree, which maketh the supremacy of the see and bishop of Rome over the universal church of Christ a thing of necessity required unto salvation, be an anti-christian law (as it is indeed), and such instructions as are given to the diocese of York be indeed a setting forth of the power of that beast of Babylon by the craft and falsehood of his false prophets (as of truth, compared unto God's word, and truly judged by the same, it shall plainly appear that they be), then, my lords, never think other but the day shall come, when ye shall be charged with this your undoing of that that once ye had well done, and with this your perjury and breach of your oath, which oath was done in "judgment, justice, and truth, agreeable to God's law."

The whore of Babylon may well for a time dally with you, and make you so drunk with the wine of her filthy stews and whoredom (as with her dispensations and promises of pardon a pœna et culpa), that for drunkenness and blindness ye may think yourselves safe. But be ye assured, when the living Lord shall try the matter by the fire, and judge it according to his word, when all her abominations shall appear what they be, then ye, my lords, (I give your lordships warning in time, repent if ye be happy, and love your own soul's health, repent, I say, or else without all doubt ye shall never escape the hands of the living Lord for the guilt of your perjury and the breach of your oath ;) as ye have banqueted and lain by the whore in the fornication of her whorish dispensations, pardons, idolatry, and such like abominations; so shall ye drink with her (except ye repent betime) of the cup of the Lord's indignation and everlasting wrath, which is prepared for the beast, his false prophets, and all their partakers. For he that is partner with them in their whoredom and abominations, must also be partner with them of their plagues, and on the latter day shall be thrown with them into the lake burning with brimstone and unquenchable fire. Thus fare ye well, my lords all. I pray God give you understanding of his blessed will and pleasure, and make you to believe and embrace the truth. Amen.

LETTER XXXIII. (COVERDALE.)

Another Farewell, to the Prisoners in Christ's Gospel's cause, and to all them which for the same cause are exiled and banished out from their own country, choosing rather to leace all worldly commodity, than their master Christ. FAREWELL, my dearly beloved brethren in Christ; both ye my fellow-prisoners, and ye also that be exiled and banished out of your countries, because ye will rather forsake all worldly commodity than the gospel of Christ.

Let

Farewell, all ye together in Christ, farewell and be merry, for ye know that the trial of your faith bringeth forth patience, and patience shall make us perfect, whole and sound on every side; and such after trial, ye know, shall receive the crown of life, according to the promise of the Lord made to his dearly beloved: let us therefore be patient unto the coming of the Lord. As the husbandman abideth patiently James v. the former and latter rain for the increase of his crop, so let us be patient and pluck up our hearts, for the coming of the Lord approacheth apace. Let us, my dear brethren, take example of patience in tribulation of the prophets, which spake likewise God's word truly in his name. Job be to us an example of patience, and the end which the Lord suffered, which is full of mercy and pity. We 1 Pet. i.. know, my brethren, by God's word, that our faith is much. more precious than any corruptible gold, and yet that is tried by the fire: even so our faith is therefore tried likewise in tribulations, that it may be found, when the Lord shall appear, laudable, glorious and honourable. "For if 1 Pet. ii. we for Christ's cause do suffer, that is grateful before God; for thereunto are we called, that is our state and vocation, wherewith let us be content." Christ, we know, suffered for us afflictions, leaving us an example that we should follow his footsteps: for he committed no sin, nor was there any guile found in his mouth; when he was railed upon, and also reviled, he railed not again; when he was evil entreated, he did not threaten, but committed the punishment thereof to him that judgeth aright.

Let us ever have in fresh remembrance those wonderful comfortable sentences spoken by the mouth of our Saviour

Matt. v.

Christ: "Blessed are they which suffer persecution for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven; blessed are ye when men revile you, persecute you, and speak all evil against you for my sake; rejoice and be glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so did they persecute the prophets which were before you." Therefore let us alway bear this in our minds, that if any incommodity do chance unto us for righteousness' sake, happy are we, whatsoever the world doth think of us. Christ our master hath told us beforeLuke xxi. hand, "that the brother should put the brother to death, and the father the son, and the children should rise against their parents and kill them, and that Christ's true Apostles should be hated of all men for his name's sake; but he that shall abide patiently unto the end shall be saved." Let us then endure in all troubles patiently, after the example of our master Christ, and be contented therewith; for he suffered being our Master and Lord, how doth it not then become us to suffer? "For the disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord." It may suffice the disciple to be as his master, and the servant to be as his lord. "If they have called the father of the family, the master of the household, Beelzebub, how much more shall they call so them of his household? Fear them not then," saith our Saviour, "for all privities shall be made plain: there is now nothing secret, but it shall be shewed in light."

Luke vi.

Matt. x.

Matt. x.

Of Christ's words let us neither be ashamed nor afraid to speak them; for so Christ our master commandeth us, saying, "That I tell you privily, speak openly abroad, and that I tell you in your ear, preach it upon the house top. And fear not them which kill the body, for the soul they cannot kill but fear him which can cast both body and soul into hell-fire." Know ye that the heavenly Father hath ever a gracious eye and respect towards you, and a fatherly providence for you, so that without his knowledge and permission nothing can do you harm. Let us there'fore cast all our care upon him, and he shall provide that which shall be best for us. "For if of two small sparrows, which both are sold for a mite, one of them lighteth not on the ground without your Father, and all the hairs of our

head are numbered, fear not then," saith our master Christ, "for ye are more worth than many small sparrows." And let us not stick to confess our master Christ for fear of danger, whatsoever it shall be; remembering the promise that Christ maketh, saying, "Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall I confess before my Father which is in heaven: but whosoever shall deny me, him shall I likewise deny before my Father which is in heaven."

Christ came not to give unto us here a carnal amity and a worldly peace, or to knit his unto the world in ease and peace, but rather to separate and divide them from the world, and to join them unto himself; in whose cause we must, if we will be his, forsake father and mother, and stick unto him. If we forsake him or shrink from him for trouble or death's sake, which he calleth his cross, he will none of us, we cannot be his. If for his cause we shall lose our temporal lives here, we shall find them again and enjoy them for evermore; but if in his cause we will not be contented to leave nor lose them here, then shall we lose them so that we shall never find them again, but in everlasting death.

What though our troubles here be painful for the time, and the sting of death bitter and unpleasant? yet we know that they shall not last in comparison of eternity, no not the twinkling of an eye; and that they, patiently taken in Christ's cause, shall procure and get us unmeasurable heaps of heavenly glory, unto the which these temporal pains of 2 Cor. iv. death and troubles compared, are not to be esteemed, but to be rejoiced upon. "Wonder not," saith St Peter, "as 1 Pet. iv. though it were any strange matter that ye are tried by the fire (he meaneth, of tribulation), which thing, saith he, is done to prove you. Nay rather, in that ye are partners of Christ's afflictions, rejoice, that in his glorious revelation ye may rejoice with merry hearts. If ye suffer rebukes in Christ's name, happy are ye, for the glory and spirit of God resteth upon you. Of them God is reviled and dishonoured, but of you he is glorified. Let no man be ashamed of that he suffereth as a Christian, and in Christ's cause for now is the time that judgment and correction must begin at the house of God; and if it begin first at us, what shall be

1 Cor. ii.

2 Cor. xi.

the end of those, think ye, which believe not the gospel? And if the righteous shall be hardly saved, the wicked and the sinner, where shall he appear? Wherefore they which are afflicted according to the will of God, let them lay down and commit their souls to him by well-doing, as to a trusty and faithful Maker."

This (as I said) may not seem strange to us, for we know that all the whole fraternity of Christ's congregation in this world is served with the like, and by the same is made perfect. For the fervent love that the Apostles had unto their master Christ, and for the great commodities and increase of all godliness which they felt (by their faith) to ensue of afflictions in Christ's cause, and thirdly, for the heaps of heavenly joys which the same do get unto the godly, which shall endure in heaven for evermore, for these causes (I say) the Apostles of their afflictions did joy, and rejoiced in that they were had and accounted worthy to suffer contumelies and rebukes for Christ's name. And Paul, as he gloried in the grace and favour of God, whereunto he was brought and stood in by faith; so he rejoiced in his afflictions for the heavenly and spiritual profits, which he numbereth to rise upon them: yea, he was so far in love with that that the carnal man loathed so much, that is, with Christ's cross, that he judged himself to know nothing else but Christ crucified; "he will glory (he saith), in nothing else but in Christ's cross:" yea, and he blesseth all those, as the only true Israelites and elect people of God, with peace and mercy, which walketh after that rule and after none other.

O Lord, what a wonderful spirit was that that made Paul, in setting forth of himself against the vanity of Satan's pseudo-apostles, and in his claim there that he in Christ's cause did excel and pass them all,-what a wonderful spirit was that (I say) that made him to reckon up all his troubles, his labours, his beatings, his whippings, his scourgings, his shipwrecks, his dangers and perils by water and by land, his famine, hunger, nakedness, and cold, with many more, and the daily care of all the congregations of Christ, among whom every man's pain did pierce his heart, and every man's grief was grievous unto him! O Lord, is this Paul's pri