APPENDIX.
751
and leaveth them in danger to fall in like peril again; and there he mak-
eth them perfect, to be without danger, pain, or peril, after that for ever-
more. But this his love toward them, howsoever the world doth judge
of it, it is all one, both when he delivereth and when he suffereth them
to be put to death. He loveth as well Peter and Paul, when (after
they had, according to his blessed will, pleasure, and providence, finished
their courses, and done their services appointed them by him here in
preaching his Gospel), the one was beheaded, and the other was hanged
or crucified of the cruel tyrant Nero (as the Ecclesiastical History saith),
as when he sent the angel to bring Peter out of prison, and for Paul's
delivery, He made all the doors of the prison to fly wide open, and the
foundation of the same, like an earthquake, to tremble and shake.
"Thinkest thou, O man of God, that Christ, our Savior, had less affec-
tion to the first martyr, Stephen, because he suffered his enemies, even at
the first conflict, to stone him to death? No, surely; nor James, John's
brother, which was one of the three that Paul calleth primates or princi-
pals amongst the Apostles of Christ. He loved him never a whit the
worse than he did the other, although he suffered Herod the tyrant's sword
to cut off his head. Nay, doth not Daniel say, speaking of the cruelty of
Anti-Christ in his time: And the learned [he meaneth truly learned in
God's law] shall teach many, and shall fall upon the sword, and in the
flame [that is, shall be burnt in the flaming fire], and in captivity [that is,
shall be in prison], and be spoiled and robbed of their goods for a long
season.' And after a little, in the same place of Daniel, it followeth: 'And
of the learned there be which shall fall or be overthrown, that they may
be known, tried, chosen, and be made white,'-he meaneth, be banished
and scourged anew, picked and chosen, and made fresh and lusty. If
that, then, was foreseen for to be done to the godly learned, and for so
gracious causes, let every one to whom any such thing by the will of God
doth chance, be merry in God and rejoice, for it is to God's glory and to
his own everlasting wealth. Wherefore well is he that ever he was born,
for whom thus graciously God hath provided, having grace of God, and
strength of the Holy Ghost, to stand steadfastly in the height of the storm.
Happy is he that ever he was born, whom God, his heavenly Father, hath
vouchsafed to appoint to glorify him, and to edify his church by the effu-
sion of his blood.
"To die in Christ's cause is an high honor, to which no man certainly
shall or can aspire, but to whom God vouchsafeth that dignity; for no man
is allowed to presume for to take unto himself any office of honour but
he which is thereunto called of God. Therefore John saith well, speaking
of them which have obtained the victory by the blood of the Lamb, and
by the word of his testimony, that they loved not their own lives even
unto death."
