Page:The Acts and Monuments of John Foxe Volume 3.djvu/536

 should draw us, we are not able to follow thee. Give us a strong spirit, that it may be ready; and although the flesh be feeble, yet let thy grace go before us, go with us, and follow us; for without thee we can do nothing, and much less enter into the cruel death for thy sake. Give us that prompt and ready spirit, a bold heart, an upright faith, a firm hope and perfect charity, that we may give our lives patiently and joyfully for thy name's sake. Amen.

Among divers other letters of John Huss, which he wrote to the great consolation of others, I thought also here to intermix another certain godly, by a faithful scholar of Wickliff, as appeareth, unto John Huss and the Bohemians; which, for the zealous affection therein contained, seemeth not unworthy to be read.

Greeting, and whatsoever can be devised more sweet, in the bowels of Christ Jesu. My dearly beloved in the Lord, whom I love in the truth, and not I only, but also all they that have the knowledge of the truth ; which abideth in you, and shall be with you through the grace of God for evermore. I rejoiced above measure, when our beloved brethren came and gave testimony unto us of your truth, and how you walked in the truth; I have heard, brethren, how sharply Antichrist persecuteth you, in vexing the faithful servants of Christ with divers and strange kinds of afflictions. And surely no marvel, if amongst you (since it is so almost all the world over) the law of Christ be too, too grievously impugned, and that red dragon, having so many heads (of whom it is spoken in the Apocalypse), have now vomited out of his mouth that great flood, by which he goeth about to swallow up the woman; but the most gracious God will deliver for ever his only and most faithful spouse. Let us therefore comfort ourselves in the Lord our God, and in his immeasurable goodness; hoping strongly in him, who will not suffer those that love him to be unmercifully defrauded of any their purpose, if we, according to our duty, shall love him with all our heart: for adversity should by no means prevail over us, if there were no iniquity reigning in us. Let, therefore, no tribulation or sorrow for Christ's cause discourage us: knowing this for a surety, that whomsoever the Lord vouchsafeth to receive to be his children, those he scourgeth: for so the merciful Father will have them tried in this miserable life by persecutions, that afterwards he may spare them. For the gold that this high artificer hath chosen, he purgeth and trieth in this fire, that he may afterwards lay it up in his pure treasury. For we see that the time we shall abide here is short and transitory; the life which we hope for after this, is blessed and everlasting. Therefore, while we have time, let us take pains that we may enter into that rest. What other thing do we see in this brittle life, than sorrow, heaviness, and sadness, and, that which is most grievous of all to the faithful, too much abusing and contempt of the law of the Lord ? Let us therefore endeavour ourselves, as much as we may, to lay hold of the things that are eternal and abiding, despising in our minds all transitory and frail things. Let us consider the holy fellowship of our fathers that have gone before us. Let us consider he saints of the Old and New Testament. Did they not pass through this sea of tribulation and persecution? were not some of them cut in pieces, others stoned, and others of them killed with the sword? some others of them went about in pelts and goats' skins, as the apostle to the Hebrews witnesseth. Surely they all walked straitways, following the steps of Christ, who said: 'He that ministereth unto me, let him follow me wheresoever I go,' &c. Therefore, let us also, who have such noble examples given us of the saints that went before us, laying away, as much as in us lieth, the heavy burden and the yoke