A. D. neither of both shall excuse either that synagogue and seigniory, or Pilate; but Mary. at the Lord's hand, for the effusion of that innocent blood, on the latter day all shall drink of the deadly whip. Ye are witty, and understand what I mean; therefore I will pass over this, and return to tell you how ye are fallen from 1555. Christ to his adversary the bishop of Rome. in the sec And lest, my lords, ye may peradventure think, thus barely to call the bishop of Rome Christ's adversary, or (to speak in plain terms) to call him antichrist, that it is done in mine anguish; and that I do but rage, and, as a desperate man, do not care what I say, or upon whom I do rail; therefore that your lordships may perceive my mind, and thereby understand that I speak the words of truth and sobriety (as St. Paul said unto Festus), be it known unto your lordships all, that as concerning the bishop of Rome, I neither hate the person nor the place.' For I assure your lordships (the living Lord beareth me witness, Many before whom I speak), I do think many a good holy man, many martyrs and good men saints of God, have sat and taught in that place Christ's gospel truly, which of Rome. therefore justly may be called "apostolici," that is, true disciples of the apostles; and also that church and congregation of Christians to be a right apostolic church; yea and that, certain hundred years after the same was first erected So long as and builded upon Christ by the true apostolical doctrine taught by the mouths the see of of the apostles themselves. If ye will know how long that was, and how many lowed the hundred years, to be curious in pointing the precise number of the years, I will rules of not be too bold, but thus I say; so long and so many hundred years as that see tes, it did truly teach and preach that gospel, that religion, exercised that power, and might be ordered every thing by those laws and rules which that see received of the called apostles, and (as Tertullian saith) the apostles of Christ, and Christ of God, so Paul's long, I say, that see might well have been called Peter and Paul's chair and chair. see, or rather Christ's chair, and the bishop thereof "apostolicus," or a true Appendiz. disciple and successor of the apostles, and a minister of Christ. Rome fol the apo Peter's or See hath de rules, and other reli But since the time that that see hath degenerated from the trade of truth and The see true religion, the which it received of the apostles at the beginning, and hath of Rome preached another gospel, hath set up another religion, hath exercised another generated power, and hath taken upon it to order and rule the church of Christ by other from the strange laws, canons, and rules than ever it received of the apostles, or the apostles' apostles of Christ, which things it doth at this day, and hath continued so hath set doing (alas, alas) of too too long a time: since the time (I say) that the state up anand condition of that see hath thus been changed,2 in truth it ought of duty gion. and of right to have the names changed both of the see and of the sitter If true therein. For understand, my lords, it was neither for the privilege of the place doctrine or person thereof, that that see and bishops thereof were called apostolic; but see apofor the true trade of Christ's religion, which was taught and maintained in that stolic, see at the first, and of those godly men. And therefore, as truly and justly as trary docthat see then, for that true trade of religion, and consanguinity of doctrine with trine the religion and doctrine of Christ's apostles, was called apostolic; so, as truly maketh and as justly, for the contrariety of religion, and diversity of doctrine from the see to Christ and his apostles, that see and bishop thereof, at this day both ought to be christian. called, and are indeed, antichristian. make the then con be anti ting The see is the seat of Satan, and the bishop of the same, that maintaineth the abominations thereof, is antichrist himself indeed. And for the same causes this see at this day is the same which St. John calleth in his Revelation, Babylon, or the whore of Babylon, and spiritually Sodoma and Egypt, the mother of fornications and of the abominations upon the earth. And with this whore do Kings spiritually mell, and lie with her, and commit most stinking and abominable commitadultery before God, all those kings and princes, yea and all nations of the adultery earth, which do consent to her abominations, and use or practise the same; that with the is (of the innumerable multitude of them to rehearse some for examples' sake), Babylon, her dispensations, her pardons and pilgrimages, her invocation of saints, her what it worshipping of images, her false counterfeit religion in her monkery and friar- meaneth. age, and her traditions, whereby God's laws are defiled; as her massing and false ministering of God's word and the sacraments of Christ, clean contrary to Christ's word and the apostles' doctrine, whereof in particular I have touched something before in my talk had with the see of London, and in other treatises whore of Mary. more at large: wherein (if it shall please God to bring the same to light) it shall appear, I trust, by God's grace, plainly to the man of God, and to him A.D. whose rule in judgment of religion is God's word, that that religion, that rule 1555. and order, that doctrine and faith, which this whore of Babylon, and the beast whereupon she doth sit, maintain at this day with all violence of fire and sword, with spoil and banishment (according to Daniel's prophecy 2) and finally with all falsehood, deceit, hypocrisy, and all kind of ungodliness, are as clean contrary to God's word, as darkness is unto light or light unto darkness, white to black or black to white, or as Belial unto Christ or Christ unto antichrist himself. I know, my lords,3 and foresaw when I wrote this, that so many of you as should see this my writing, not being before endued with the spirit of grace and the light of God's word, so many (I say) would at these my words lordlike stamp and spurn, and spit thereat. But sober yourselves with patience, and be still, and know ye that in my writing of this, my mind was none other, but in God (as the living God doth bear me witness) both to do you profit and pleasure. And otherwise, as for your displeasure, by that time this shall come to your knowledge, I trust by God's grace to be in the hands and protection of the Almighty, my heavenly Father and the living Lord, which is (as St. John saith) the greatest of all; and then I shall not need (I trow) to fear what any lord, no nor what king or prince, can do unto me. ye My lords, if in times past ye have been contented to hear me sometimes in matters of religion before the prince in the pulpit, and in the parliament-house, and have not seemed to have despised what I have said (when as else, if had perceived just occasion, ye might then have suspected me in my talk, though it had been reasonable, either desire of worldly gain, or fear of displeasure), how hath then your lordships more cause to hearken to my word, and to hear me patiently, seeing now ye cannot justly think of me (being in this case appointed to die, and looking daily when I shall be called to come before the eternal Judge) otherwise but that I only study to serve my Lord God, and to say that thing which, I am persuaded assuredly by God's word, shall and doth please him, and profit all them to whom God shall give grace to hear and believe what I do say? And I do say even that I have said heretofore both of the see of Rome and of the bishop thereof, I mean after this their present state at this day, wherein if ye will not believe the ministers of God, and true preachers of his word, verily I denounce unto you in verbo Domini, except ye do repent betimes, it shall turn to your confusion, and to your smart on the latter day. Forget not what I say, my lords, for God's sake forget not, but remember it upon your bed. For I tell you moreover, as I know I must be countable of this my talk, and of my speaking thus, to the eternal Judge (who will judge nothing amiss), so shall you be countable of your duty in hearing, and you shall be charged, if ye will hearken to God's word, for not obeying to the truth. Alas, my lords, how chanceth this, that this matter is now anew again to be persuaded unto you? Who would have thought of late, but your lordships had been persuaded indeed sufficiently, or that ye could ever have agreed so uniformly, with one consent, to the abolishment of the usurpation of the bishop of Rome? If that matter were then but a matter of policy, wherein the prince must be obeyed, how is it now made a matter wherein (as your clergy say now, and so say the pope's laws indeed) standeth the unity of the catholic church, and a matter of necessity for our salvation? Hath the time, being so short since the death of the two last kings, Henry the Eighth and Edward his son, altered the nature of the matter? If it have not, but was of the same nature and danger before God then, as it is now, and be now (as it is said by the pope's laws, and the instructions set forth in English to the curates of the diocese of York) indeed a matter of necessity to salvation : how then chanced it that ye were all, O my lords, so light and so little passed upon the catholic faith, and the unity thereof (without the which no man can be saved), as for your princes' pleasures, which were but mortal men, to forsake the unity of your catholic faith-that is, to forsake Christ and his Gospel? And furthermore, if it were both then, and now is, so necessary to salvation, how (3) He speaketh to the lords temporal. (4) Psalm iv. (5) If the unity of the pope's church standeth upon necessity of salvation, why did the lords of this realm abjure this unity in king Henry and king Edward's days? If it be otherwise, why then do they perjure themselves, turning to it again? (1) Rev. xvii. (2) Dan. vii. chanced it also that ye, all the whole body of the Parliament agreeing with you, did not only abolish and expel the bishop of Rome, but also did abjure him in your own persons, and did decree in your acts great oaths to be taken of both the spiritualty and temporalty, whosoever should enter into any weighty and chargeable office in the commonwealth? But, on the other side, if the law and 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 antichristian 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 the beast of Babylon, by the craft and falsehood of his false prophets (as of truth, compared to 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 drunken 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 this 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 will be happy, and love your own souls' 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 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 betimes) 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 in 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. Another farewell of Bishop Ridley 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 leave 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. 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 dear beloved. Let us therefore be patient unto the coming of the Lord. As the husbandman abideth patiently 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. Let Job be to us an example of patience, and the end which the Lord suffered, which is full of mercy and pity. We 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 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 all to reviled, he Mary. A. D. 1555. Mary. railed not again: when he was evil entreated, he did not threaten, but com. mitted the punishment thereof to Him that judgeth aright.1 A.D. : Let us ever have in fresh remembrance those wonderful comfortable sentences 1555. spoken by the mouth of our Saviour 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 before 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 so call them of his household ?5 "Fear them not then," saith our Saviour, "for all privities shall be made plain; there is now nothing secret, but it shall be showed in light." 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." To con fess Christ, and not to fear danger. Know ye that the heavenly Father hath ever a gracious eye and respect toward you, and a fatherly providence for you; so that without his knowledge and permission nothing can do you harm. Let us therefore 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 them (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 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 death and troubles compared, are not to be esteemed, but to be rejoiced upon.* "Wonder not," saith St. Peter, "as 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 are Mary. A. D. 1555. why the 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 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 they appear? Wherefore they which 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, The and for the great commodities and increase of all godliness which they felt by causes their faith to ensue of afflictions in Christ's cause, and, thirdly, for the heaps of apostles heavenly joys which the same do get unto the godly, which shall endure in so reheaven for evermore; for these causes (I say) the apostles of their afflictions did Joiced in joy, and rejoiced in that they were had and accounted worthy to suffer contu- flictions. melies 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 numbered to rise upon them: yea, he was so far in love with that which the carnal man loatheth 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 walk after that rule and after none other. their af wherein it con is by af O Lord, what a wonderful spirit was that that made Paul,-in setting forth of The glory himself against the vanity of Satan's pseudo-apostles, and in his claim there, of Paul, that he, in Christ's cause, did excel and pass them all,-what wonderful Spirit was that (I say), that made him to reckon up all his troubles, his labours, sisteth. his beatings, his whippings and 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?3 O Lord, is this Paul's primacy, whereof he thought so much good that he did excel others? Is not this Paul's saying unto Timothy his own scholar? and doth it not pertain to whosoever will be Christ's true soldiers? "Bear thou," saith he, "affliction like a good soldier of Jesus Christ."4 This is true: "If we die with him [he meaneth Christ], we shall live with him; if we suffer with him, we shall reign with him; if we deny him, he shall deny us; if we be faithless, he remaineth faithful, he cannot deny himself." This, Paul would have known to every body; for there is none other way to heaven but Christ The way and his way and "all that will live godly in Christ, shall," saith St. Paul, to heaven "suffer persecution." By this way went to heaven the patriarchs, the pro- flictions. phets, Christ our master, his apostles, his martyrs, and all the godly since the beginning. And as it hath been of old, that he which was born after the flesh, persecuted him which was born after the Spirit (for so it was in Isaac's time); so said St. Paul, it was in his time also. And whether it be so or no now, let the spiritual man (the selfsame man I mean, that is indued with the Spirit of Almighty God), let him be judge. Of the cross of the patriarchs, as ye may read in their stories; if ye read the book of Genesis, ye shall perceive. Of others, St. Paul in few words comprehendeth much matter, speaking in a generality of the wonderful afflictions, death, and torments, which the men of God, in God's cause and for the truth's sake, willingly and gladly did suffer. After much particular rehearsal of many, he saith, "Others were racked and despised, and would not be delivered, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Others again, were tried with mockings and scourgings, and moreover with bonds and imprisonment: they were stoned, hewn asunder, tempted, fell, and were slain upon the edge of the sword, some wandered to and fro in sheep's Appendiz. pilches, in goats' pilches, forsaken, oppressed, afflicted; such godly men as the world was unworthy of, wandering in wildernesses, in mountains, in caves, and in dens; and all these were commended for their faith." And yet they abide for us the servants of God, and for those their brethren which are to be slain, as they were, for the word of God's sake, that none be shut out, but that we (1) 1 Cor. ii. (2) 2 Cor. xi. (3) 2 Tim. ii. (4) Ibid. See |