will deny our appeal, yet let us challenge the appeal, and take witness thereof of such as be present, and require for indifferency of hearing and judgment, to be heard either before the Queen and the Council, or else before all the Parliament, as they were used in King Edward's days.

Further, for my part I will require both books and time to answer. We have been prisoners three quarters of a year, and have lacked our books: and our memories by close keeping, and ingratitude of their parts, be not so present and quick as theirs be. I trust God will be with us, yea, I doubt not but he will, and teach us to do all things in his cause godly and constantly. If our adversaries, that shall be our judges, may have their purpose, we shall dispute one day, be condemned the next day, and suffer the third day. And yet there is no law to condemn us (as far as I know), and so one of the convocation-house said this week to Doctor Weston. To whom Weston made this answer; "It forceth not (quoth he) for a law: we have commission to proceed with them; when they be dispatched, let their friends sue the law."

Now how soon a man may have such a commission at my Lord Chancellor's hand, you know. It is as hard to be obtained as an indictment for Christ at Caiaphas' hand. Besides that, the Bishops having the Queen so upon their side, may do all things both without the advice, and also the knowledge of the rest of the Lords of the temporality: who at this present have found out the mark that the Bishops shot at, and doubtless be not pleased with their doings. I pray you help, that our brother Sanders and the rest in the Marshalsea may understand these things, and send me your answer betime. Judas sleepeth not; neither know we the day nor the hour.

Amen. The Lord Jesus Christ with his holy Spirit comfort and strengthen us all. Amen. May 6, Anno

1554.

Yours, and with you unto death in Christ,
JOHN HOOPER.

An Exhortation to Patience, sent to his godly Wife ANN HOOPER: whereby all the true Members of Christ may take comfort and courage, to suffer trouble and affliction for the profession of his holy. Gospel.

Our Saviour Jesus Christ (dearly beloved, and my godly wife) in St. Matthew's Gospel said to his disciples, that it was necessary scandals should come: and that they could not be avoided, he perceived as well by the condition of those that should perish and be lost for ever in the world to come, as also by their afflictions that should be saved. For he saw the great part of the people would contemn and neglect whatsoever true doctrine or godly ways should be shewed unto them, or else receive and use it as they thought good to serve their pleasures, without any profits to their souls at all, not caring whether they lived as they were commanded by God's word or not; but would think it sufficient to be counted to have the name of a Christian man, with such works and fruits of his profession and Christianity, as his fathers and elders, after their custom and manner, esteem and take to be good fruits and faithful works, and will not try them by the word of God at all.

These men, by the just judgment of God, be delivered unto the craft and subtilty of the devil, that they might be kept by one scandalous stumbling-block or other, that they never come unto Christ, who came to save those that were lost: as ye may see how God delivereth wicked men up unto their own lusts, to do

one mischief after another, careless until they come into a reprobate mind, that forgetteth itself, and cannot know, what is expedient to be done, or to be left undone, because they close their eyes, and will not see the light of God's word offered unto them: and being thus blinded, they prefer their own vanities before the truth of God's word. Where such corrupt minds be, there is also corrupt election and choice of God's honour: so that the mind of man taketh falsehood for truth, superstition for true religion, death for life, damnation for salvation, hell for heaven, and persecution of Christ's members for God's service and honour.

And as these men wilfully and voluntarily reject the word of God, even so God most justly delivereth them into the blindness of mind and hardness of heart, that they cannot understand, nor yet consent to any thing that God would have preached, and set forth to his glory, after his own will and word: wherefore they hate it mortally, and of all things most detest God's holy word. And as the devil hath entered into their hearts, that they themselves cannot nor will not come to Christ to be instructed by his holy word: even so they cannot abide any other man to be a Christian man, and to lead his life after the word of God, but hate him, persecute him, rob him, imprison him, yea, and kill him, whether he be man or woman, if God suffer it. And so much are these wicked men blinded, that they pass of no law, whether it be God's or man's, but persecute such as never offended, yea, do evil to those that daily have prayed for them, and wish them God's grace.

In their pharisaical and blind fury they have no respect to nature. For the brother persecuteth the brother, the father the son; and most dear friends, in devilish slander and offence, are become most mortal enemies. And no marvel; for when they had

chosen sundry masters, the one the devil, the other God, the one shall agree with the other, as God and the devil agree between themselves. For this cause (that the more part of the world doth choose to serve the devil under cloaked hypocrisy of God's title) Christ said, "It is expedient and necessary that scandals should come," and many means be devised to keep the little babes of Christ from the heavenly Father. But Christ saith, "Woe be unto him by whom the offence cometh :" yet there is no remedy, man being of such corruption and hatred towards God, but that the evil shall be deceived, and persecute the good, and the good shall understand the truth, and suffer persecution for it until the world's end. For as he that was born after the flesh, persecuted in times past him that was born after the spirit; even so it is now.

Therefore forasmuch as we live in this life amongst so many great perils and dangers, we must be well assured by God's word how to bear them, and how patiently to take them, as they be sent to us from God. We must also assure ourselves, that there is no other remedy for Christians in the time of trouble, than Christ himself hath appointed us. In St. Luke he giveth us this commandinent, "Ye shall possess your lives in patience," saith he. In the which words he giveth us both commandment what to do, and also great comfort and consolation in all troubles. He sheweth also what is to be done, and what is to be hoped for in troubles: and when troubles happen, he biddeth us be patient, and in no case violently nor seditiously to resist our persecutors, because God hath such care and charge of us, that he will keep us in the midst of all troubles, the very hairs of our head, so that one of them shall not fall away without the will and pleasure of our heavenly Father. Whether the hair therefore tarry on the head, or fall from the

head, it is the will of the Father. And seeing he hath such care for the hairs of our head, how much more doth he care for our life itself?

Wherefore let God's adversaries do what they list, whether they take life, or take it not, they can do us no hurt: for their cruelty hath no further power than God permitteth them, and that which cometh unto us by the will of our heavenly Father can do no harm, no loss, neither destruction unto us, but rather gain, wealth, and felicity. For all troubles and adversities, that chance to such as be of God, by the will of the heavenly Father, can be none other but gain and advantage.

That the spirit of man may feel these consolations, the Giver of them, the heavenly Father, must be prayed unto for the merits of Christ's passion; for it is not the nature of man that can be contented, until it be regenerated and possessed with God's spirit, to bear patiently the troubles of the mind or the body. When the mind and heart of a man seeth on every side sorrow and heaviness, and the worldly eye beholdeth nothing but such things, as be troublous and wholly bent to rob the poor of that he hath, and also to take from hin his life: except the man weigh these brittle and uncertain treasures that be taken from him, with the riches of the life to come, and this life of the body with the life in Christ's blood, and so for the love and certainty of the heavenly joys contemn all things present, doubtless he shall never be able to bear the loss of goods, life, or any other thing of this world.

Therefore St. Paul giveth a godly and necessary lesson to all men in this short and transitory life, and therein sheweth how a man may best bear the iniquity and troubles of this world:" If ye be risen again with Christ (saith he) seek the things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of