professed in baptism, to fight under the standard of your Captain Christ, and will you now, for peril's sake, leave your Lord? You made a solemn vow, that you would forsake the world, and will you be forsworn, and run to embrace it now? You swore and promised to leave all and follow Christ, and will you now leave him for your father, your mother, your children, your lands, your life, &c? He that hateth not these, saith Christ, is not worthy of me. He that forsaketh not these and himself also, and withall taketh not up his cross and followeth him, the same shall be none of his disciples.

Therefore, either bid Christ adieu, be forsworn, and run to the devil quick, or else say, as a christian should say, that wife, children, goods, life, &c. are not to be dear unto you in respect of Christ, who is your portion and inheritance. Let the worldlings, who have no hope of eternal life, fear perils of loss of lands, goods, life, &c. Here is not our home, we are here but pilgrims and strangers; this life is but the desert and wilderness to the land of rest. We look for a city, whose workman is God himself. We are now dwellers in the tents of Kedar. We are now in warfare, in travail and labour, whereto we were born, as the bird to fly. We sorrow and sigh, desiring the dissolution of our bodies, and the putting off of corruption, that we might put on incorruption.

The way we walk in is strait and narrow, and therefore not easy to our enemy, the corrupt flesh; but yet we must walk on, for if we hearken to our enemy, we shall be served not friendly. Let them walk the wide way, who are ruled by their enemies; let us be ruled by our friends, and walk the strait way, whose end is weal, as the other is woe. The time of our suffering is but short, as the time of their ease is not long; but the time of our rejoicing shall be endless, as the time of their torments shall be ever, and intolerable. Our breakfast is sharp, but our supper is sweet. The afflictions of this life may not be compared in any part, to the glory that shall be revealed unto us. This is certain, if we suffer with Christ, we shall reign with him; if we confess him, he will confess us, and that before his Father in heaven, and all his angels and saints, saying, Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning. There shall be joy, mirth, pleasure, solace, melody, and all kind of beatitude and felicity; such as the eye hath

not seen, the ear hath not heard, nor the heart of man is able in any point to conceive it, as it is.

In respect of this, and of the joy set before us, should not we run our race, though it be something rough? Did not Moses so, the prophets so, Christ so, the apostles so, the martyrs so, and the confessors so? They were drunk with the sweetness of this gear, and therefore they contemned all that man or devil could do to them. Their souls thirsted after the Lord and his tabernacles, and therefore their lives and goods were not too dear to them. Read the eleventh chapter to the Hebrews, and 2 Maccabees vii., and let us go the same way, that is, by many tribulations. Let us labour to enter into the kingdom of heaven; for all who will live godly in Christ Jesu, must suffer persecution.

Think therefore the cross, if it come for confession of Christ, no strange thing to God's children; but rather take it as the Lord's medicine, by the which he helpeth our infirmities, and setteth forth his glory. Our sins have deserved cross upon cross; now if God give us his cross to suffer for his truth and confessing him, as he doth by it bury our sins; so doth he glorify us, making us like to Christ here, that we may be like unto him elsewhere. For if we be partakers of the affliction, we shall be partakers of the consolation; if we be like in ignominy, we shall be like in glory. Great cause we have to give thanks to God, for lending us liberty, lands, goods, wife, children, life, &c. thus long; so that we shall be guilty of ingratitude, if he now shall come and take the same away, except we be cheerful and content.

God hath given, and God hath taken away, saith Job, as it pleaseth the Lord, so be it done. And should not we do this, especially when the Lord taketh these away of love to try us, and prove us, whether we be faithful loves or strumpets, that is, whether we love him better than his gifts, or otherwise? This is a truth of all truths to be laid up in our hearts, that that is not lost, which seemeth so to be for the confession of Christ. In this life your children shall find God's plentiful blessing upon them, when you are gone, and all your goods taken away. God is so good, that he helpeth the young ravens, before they can fly, and feedeth them when their dams have most unkindly left them. And trow ye, that

God who is the God of the widows, and fatherless children, will not especially have a care for the babes of his dear saints, who die, or lose any thing for conscience to him?

Oh, my dearly beloved, look up therefore with the eyes of faith. Consider not things present, but rather things to come. Be content now to go, whither God shall gird and lead us. Let us now cast ourselves wholly into his hands, with our wives, children, and all that ever we have. Let us be sure, the hairs of our head are numbered, so that one hair shall not perish, without the good will of our dear Father, who hath commanded his angels to pitch their tents about us; and in their hands, to take and hold us up, that we shall not hurt, so much as our foot, against a stone.

Let us use earnest prayer; let us heartily repent; let us hearken diligently to God's word; let us keep ourselves pure from all uncleanness, both of spirit and body; let us flee from all evil, and all appearance of evil; let us be diligent in our vocation, and in doing good to all men, especially to them who be of the household of faith; let us live in peace with all men, as much as is in us. And the Lord of peace give us his peace, and that for evermore, Amen. pray you remember me, your poor afflicted brother, in your hearty prayers to God. This second of September.

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No. 101.†

JOHN BRADFORD.*

TO M. RICHARD HOPKINS,

Then Sheriff of Coventry, and Prisoner in the Fleet, for the faithful and constant confessing of God's Holy Gospel.

DEARLY beloved in the Lord, I wish unto you, as unto mine own brother, yea, as to mine own heart-root, God's mercy, and the feeling

See Appendix, Note (LL.)

+ Fox iii. 340. Cov. 354.

↑ See Appendix, Note (MM.)

of the same, plentifully in Christ, our sweet Saviour; who gave himself a ransom for our sins, and price for our redemption, praised therefore be his holy name, for ever and ever, Amen.

I will not go about to excuse myself, for not sending unto you hitherto, suffering for the Lord's sake as you do, to the comfort of me, and of all that love you in the truth; but rather accuse myself, both before God and you, desiring of you forgiveness, and with me to pray to God, for pardon of this my unkind forgetting you; and all other my sins, which I beseech the Lord in his mercy to do away, for his Christ's sake, Amen.

Now to make amends to youward, I would be glad if I could, but because I cannot, I shall heartily desire you to accept the will, and this which I shall now write unto you, thereafter; I mean, after my will, and not after the deed, to accept and take it. At this present, my dear heart in the Lord, you are in a blessed state, although it seem otherwise to you, or rather unto your old Adam; the which I dare now be so bold as to discern from you, because you would have him not only discerned, but also utterly destroyed. For if God be true, then is his word true. Now his word pronounceth of your state, that it is happy, therefore it must needs be so.

To prove this, I think it need not; for you know that the Holy Ghost saith, that they are happy who suffer for righteousness' sake, and that God's glory and Spirit, rest on them who suffer for conscience to God. Now this you cannot but know, that this your suffering is for righteousness' sake, and for conscience to Godwards; for else you might be out of trouble, even out of hand. I know in very deed, that you have and feel your unthankfulness to God and other sins, to witness to you, that you have deserved this imprisonment, and lack of liberty betwixt God and yourself; and I would you so would confess unto God in your prayers, with petition for pardon, and thanksgiving for his correcting you here. But you know that the magistrates do not persecute in you your sins, your unthankfulness, &c.; but they persecute in you Christ himself, his righteousness, his verity, and therefore happy be you, who have found such favour with God your Father, as to account you worthy to suffer for his sake, in the sight of man. Surely you shall rejoice therefore one day, with a joy unspeakable, in the sight of man also.

You may think yourself born in a blessed time, who have found this grace with God, to be a vessel of honour to suffer with his saints, yea, with his Son. My beloved, God hath not done so with many. The apostle saith, Not many noble, not many rich, not many wise in the world, hath the Lord God chosen. Oh then, what cause have you to rejoice, that amongst the not many, he hath chosen you to be one. For this cause hath God placed you in your office, that therefore you might the more see, his special dignation and love towards you. It had not been so great a thing, for M. Hopkins to have suffered, as M. Hopkins; as it is for M. Hopkins also to suffer, as M. Sheriff. Oh, happy day that you were made Sheriff, by the which, as God in this world would promote you to a more honourable degree; so by suffering in this room* he hath exalted you in heaven, and in the sight of his Church, and children, to a much more excellent glory.

When was it read that a Sheriff of a city hath suffered for the Lord's sake? Where read we of any Sheriff, who hath been cast into prison for conscience to Godwards? How could God have dealt more lovingly with you, than herein he hath done? To the end of the world it shall be written for a memorial to your praise, that RICHARD HOPKINS, SHERIFF OF COVENTRY, FOR CONSCIENCE TO DO HIS OFFICE BEFORE GOD, WAS CAST INTO THE FLEET, AND THERE KEPT A PRISONER A LONG TIME.

Happy, and twice happy are you, if herefore you may give your life. Never could you have attained to this promotion, on this sort, out of that office. How do you preach now, not only to all men, but especially to magistrates in this realm? Who would ever have thought, that you should have been the first magistrate, who for Christ's sake should have lost any thing? As I said before therefore,

I

say again, that your state is happy. Good brother, before God I write the truth unto you, my conscience bearing me witness, that you are in a most happy state with the Lord, and before his sight.

Be thankful therefore, rejoice in your trouble, pray for patience, persevere to the end, let patience have her perfect work. If you

* Fox. Roume.-Cov.