A cloud of witnesses, or, The sufferers mirrour made up of the swanlike-songs, and other choice passages of several martyrs and confessors to the sixteenth century, in their treatises, speeches, letters, prayers, &c. in their prisons, or exiles, at the bar, or stake, &c. / collected out of the ecclesiastical histories of Eusebius, Fox, Fuller, Petrie, Scotland, and Mr. Samuel Ward's Life of faith in death, &c. and alphabetically disposed by T.M. ...

Goodman.

Mr. Christopher Goodman, * 1.1 an exiled Minister of Christ in Queen Mary's dayes, declaring the cause of all the then misery in England, and the onely way to remedy the same, writes as followeth from Geneva.

—If all in whom the People should look for comfort, be altogether declined from God (as in deed they appear to be at this present time in Eng∣land, without all fear of his Majesty, or pity upon their Brethren)—Then assure your selves (dear Brethren and Servants of God) there can be no better counsel, nor more comfortable or present remedy (which you shall prove true, if God grant you his Spirit and Grace to follow it) then in con∣tinual and daily invocation of his Name, to rest wholly and onely upon him, make him your shield, buckler, and refuge, who hath so promised to be to all them that are oppressed and depend upon him;

to do nothing commanded against God and your conscience, prefering at all times the will of God to the will of men, faying & answering to all man∣ner of persons, This God hath commanded, this we must do: That God hath forbidden, that we will not do. If you will rob us & spoil us for doing the Lords will, to the Lord must you make answer, and not to us; for his goods they are, and not ours. If ye will imprison us, behold you are oppressours; if ye will hang us, or burn us, behold ye are mur∣therers of them which fear the Lord.—And for our part, if you take from us this vile and corrupri∣ble life, we are sure the Lord will grant it us again with joy, and immortality, both of soul and body. If God give you grace to make this or the like an∣swer, and strength to contemn their Tyranny, you may be sure to find unspeakable comfort & quiet∣ness of conscience in the midst of your danger, and greatest rage of Satan. And thus boldly confessing Christ your Saviour before men (as by the exam∣ples of thousands of your Brethren before your fa∣ces God doth mercifully encourage you) you may with all hope & patience wait for the joyful con∣fession of Christ again, * 1.2 before his Father and An∣gels in Heaven, that you are his obedient and dear∣ly beloved Servants; being also assured of this, that if it be the will of God to have you any longer to remain in this miserable world, that then his Providence is so careful over you, & present with you, that no man or power can take away your lise from you, nor touch your body any farther than your Lord and God will permit them, which nei∣ther shall be augmented for your plain confession, nor yet diminished for keeping of silence; for no∣thing cometh to the Servants of God by hap or chance, whose hairs of their heads are numbred.

Whereof if ye be so assured, at ye ought, there can be nothing that should make you to shrink from the Lord. I they do cast you into Prison with Jo∣seph, the Lord will deliver you: If they cast you to wild be••sts and Lions, as they did Daniel, you shall be preserved: If into the Sea with Jonas, * 1.3 you shall not be drowned; or into the dirty dungeon with Jeremy, you shall be delivered; or into the fiery Furnace with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, yet shall not be consumed. Contrariwise, if it be his good pleasure, that you shall glorifie his holy Name by your death, what great thing have you lost? changing death for life, misery for felicity, continual vexation and trouble for perpetual rest and quietness, churing rather to die with shame of the world, being the Servants of God, than to live among men in honour, being the Servants of Satan, and condemned of God. Otherwise, if you give place to the wickedness of men to escape their ma∣lice and bodily dangers, you shew your selves therein to fear man, more than the mighty and dreadful God: him that hath but power of your body, and that at Gods appointment then God, himself, who hath power, after he hath destroyed the body, to cast both soul and body into hell fire, there to remain everlastingly in torments unspeak∣able. And moreover, * 1.4 that which you look to ob∣tain by these sinful shifts, you shall be sure to lose with grief and trouble of conscience; for this say∣ing of your Master being true and certain, that They which seek to save their life (meaning by any worldly reason or policy) shall lose it. * 1.5 What shall be their gains at length, when by dissimulation and yielding to Popish Blasphemy, they dishonour the Majesty of God to enjoy this short, miserable, and mortal life, to be cast from the favour of God,

and company of his heavenly Angels, to enjoy for a short time their goods and possessions among their fleshly and carnal Friends, when as their consci∣ence within shall be deeply wounded with hell∣like torments? when Gods curse and indignation hangeth continually over the heads of such, ready to be poured down upon them; when they shall find no comfort, but utter despair with Judas, who for this worldly riches (as he did) have sold their Master, * 1.6 seeking either to hang themselves with Ja∣das, to murther themselves with Francis Spira, to drown themselves with Justice Hales, or else to fall into a raging madness with Justice Morgan? What comfort had Judas then by his money recei∣ved for betraying his Master? was he not shortly after compelled to cast it from him, with this piti∣ful voice, * 1.7 I have sinned in betraying innocent blood?—Then, dear Brethren in Christ, what other reward can any of you look for, committing the like offences? — There is no trust but in God, no comfort but in Christ, no assurance but in his pro∣mise, by whose obedience onely you shall avoid all danger. * 1.8 And whatsoever you lose in this world, and suffer for his Name, it shall be here recompen∣ced with double, according to his promise, and in the world to come with life everlasting, which is to find your life, when you are willing to lay it down at his Commandment. I am not ignorant how unnatural a thing it is, & contrary to the flesh, willingly to sustain such cruel death, as the Adver∣saries have appointed to all the Children of God, who mind constantly to stand by their profession, yet to the Spirit notwithstanding is easie & joyful; for though the flesh be frail, the Spirit is prompt and ready. * 1.9 Whereof (praised be the name of God) you have had notable experience in many of your

Brethren, very Martys for Christ, who with joy patiently, and triumphing have suffered and drunk with thirst of that bitter Cup, which nature so much abhorreth, wonderfully strengthened no doubt by the secret inspiration of Gods holy Spirit; so that there ought to be none among you so feeble, weak, or timerous, whom the wonderful examples of Gods present power and singular favour in those persons, should not encourage, bolden, and forti∣fie to shew the like constancy in the same Cause and Profession. Nevertheless great cause we have thankfully to consider the unspeakable mercy of God in Christ, who hath farther respect to our in∣firmity, that when we have not that boldness of Spi∣rit to stand to the death, as we see others, he hath provided a present remedy, that being persecuted in one place, we have liberty to flee into another. When we cannot be in our own Countrey with a safe conscience (except we would make open pro∣fession of our Religion, which is every mans duty, * 1.10 and so be brought to offer up our lives in sacrifice to God in testimony that we are his) he hath molli∣fied & prepared the hearts of Strangers to receive us with all pity and gladness, where you may be also not onely delivered from the fear of death, and the Papistical Tyranny, practised without all measure in that Countrey, but with great freedom of conscience hear the Word of God continually preached, & the Sacraments of our Saviour Christ purely and duely ministred without all dregs of Popery or Superstition of mans invention, to the intent that you being with. others refreshed for a space, and more strongly fortified, may be also with others more ready and willing to lay down your lives at Gods appointment; for that is the chiefest grace of God, and greatest perfection, to fight even

unto blood under Christs Banner, and with him to give our lives. * 1.11 But if you will thus flee (Beloved in the Lord) you must not chuse unto your selves pla∣ces, according as you fancy, as many of us, who have left our Countrey have done, dwelling in Po∣pish places among the enemies of God in the midst of impiety; some in France, as in Paris, Orleance, Roan; some in Italy, as in Rome, Venice, Padua, which persons in fleeing from their Queen, run to the Pope, fearing the danger of their bodies, feek where they may poyson their souls, thinking by this means to be less suspected of Jezebel, shew themselves afraid & ashamed of the Gospel, which in times past they have stoutly professed. And lest they should be thought favourers of Christ, have purposely ridden by the Churches and Congregati∣ons of his Servants, their Brethren, neither minded to comfort others there, nor to be comforted them∣selves; wherein they have shewed the coldness of their zeal towards Religion, & given no small oc∣casion of slander to the Word of God, which they seemed to profess. * 1.12—This manner of fleeing then is ungodly, &c. Neither is it enough to keep you out of the Dominions of Antichrist, and to place your selves in corners, you may be quiet and at ease, and not burthened with the charges of the poor, thinking it sufficient if you have a little exer∣cise in your houses in reading a Chapter or two of the Scriptures, and then will be counted zealous persons, and great Gospellers; No Brethren, and Sisters, this is not the way to shew your selves man∣ful souldiers of Christ, except you resort where his Banner is displayed, * 1.13 and his Standard set up, where the Assembly of your Brethren is, and his Word openly preached, and Sacraments faithfully mini∣stred; for otherwise what may a man judge, but

that such either disdain the company of their poor Brethren, whom they ought by all means to help and comfort, according to that power that God hath given them for that end onely; and not for their own ease; or else that they have not that zeal to the House of God, the Assembly of his Servants, and to the spiritual gifts and graces (which God hath promised to pour upon the diligent hearers of his Word) as was in David, who desired, being a King, Rather to be a door-keeper in the House of God, * 1.14 than to dwell in the tents of the ungodly, lamenting no∣thing so much the injuries done to him by his Son Absalom (which were not small) as that he was de∣prived of the comfortable exercises in the Taber∣nacle of the Lord, which then was in Sion. Nei∣ther doth there appear in such persons that greedy desire (whereof Isaiah makes mention) which ought to be in the Professours of the Gospel, * 1.15 who never would cease or rest, till they should climb up to the Lords hill, meaning the Church of Christ, saying one to another, Let us ascend to the hill of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us his wayes, and we shall walk in his footsteps; for the Law shall come forth of Sion, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem. Which zeal the Prophet doth not mention in vain, but to shew what a thirst and ear∣nest desire should be in true Christians, and how the same appeareth in seeking and resorting to those places, where it is set forth in greatest abun∣dance and perfection, as was after Christs Ascensi∣on in Jerusalem. And as that zeal shewed them to be of Christ, by the like must we be judged Chri∣stians also, that if we flee for Christ, the places whereunto we flee, may bear witness for what cause we are fled. * 1.16 Neither is it a sufficient excuse which many alledge, that they believe to be saved

by Christ, that they have sufficient knowledge of their duty, and the rest they can supply by their own diligence. I dare say their faith is not so much, but they had need to desire with the Apo∣stles, Lord, encrease our faith. And if they will so confess, why do they forsake the chiefest means that God hath ordained, which is the open Congre∣gations of his people, where his Word, the foun∣tain of Faith, is most purely preached, and where the godly Examples of others may be a sharper spur to prick them forward; and as for the know∣ledge and diligence of such, there may be no buck∣ler to defend their doings; for if they have those gifts whereof they boast, where may they better bestow them than in the Church of God? except they will say they are born to themselves, and have the gifts of God, which he would have common to others, applyed to their own private fancy, which is to lap them up in a clout, and not to put them forth to the vantage of the owner, as did the un∣profitable Servant, * 1.17 and as do all they to whom God hath given either learning, counsel, or worl••ly substance, who either for the strength of Cities, pleasantness of the air, traffick, or merchandize, or for any other worldly respect or policy do absent themselves from the Congregation and company of their poor Brethren, where Christ hath advanced his Standard, and blown his Trumpet. If God then give you not strength at the first to stand in his Profession to the death, nor that you cannot be quiet in conscience, a biding in your Countrey, you see how his mercy hath given you liberty to kill, and what places he hath appointed you to flee unto, that is, where you may do good to your selves and others, where ye may be free from Superstition and Idolatry, where your faith may be encreased

and not diminished, and your selves strengthened, and confirmed, and more strongly armed. But if you in tarrying will neither stand manfully to Christ your Master, but betray him, doing as the Papists do; nor yet with thanks use this remedy, that God hath granted to our infirmity, to resort to his Churches, godlily instituted, what answer shall ye be able to make to his Majesty, when he shall call for an account of your doings? How shall you avoid his wrathful indignation, now ready to be poured upon his enemies? — For in taking part with their impiety, you must be partakers of their Cup likewise. Neither is this any new or hard Do∣ctrine, that may exceed your capacity, but may ra∣ther be termed your A. B. C. and first Principles, where in none ought to be ignorant. That if we will be Christs Scholars, we must learn to bear his Cross, and to follow him, not to cast it off our shoulders with the enemies, * 1.18 and run from him. —Be no more deceived in so plain a matter. If the Lord be God, follow him, if Baal be God, go after him.—Let not the example of any lead you into errour, for men are but mortal. Trust in the Lord, for he is a sure rock.—Trust not your own shifts, for they will deceive you. Mark the end of others, and in time be warned. These Lessons are hard to the flesh, but easie to the spirit. The way of the Lord is a strait path, but most faithful, sure and comfortable.—From Geneva this first of Jan. An. 1558.

Notes

• * 1.1

  See hit Sermon on Act. 4.19. Enlarged and Print∣ed at Ge∣na. 1558. Pa. 216, &c.
• * 1.2

  Pa. 218.
• * 1.3

  P••. 219.
• * 1.4

  Pa. 220.
• * 1.5

  Mat. 16.
• * 1.6

  Pa. 221.
• * 1.7

  Mat. 27. Pa. 222.
• * 1.8

  Mat. 10.
• * 1.9

  Pa. 223.
• * 1.10

  Pa. 224.
• * 1.11

  Pa. 225.
• * 1.12

  Pa. 226.
• * 1.13

  Pa. 227.
• * 1.14

  Psal. 84.
• * 1.15

  Pa. 228. Isa. 2.
• * 1.16

  Pa. 229.
• * 1.17

  Pa. 230.
• * 1.18

  Pa. 233.