A16577:37
A fruitful treatise and full of heavenly consolation against the fear of death Whereunto…A frutefull treatise and ful of heauenly consolation against the feare of death Wherunto…
A fruitful treatise and full of heavenly consolation against the fear of death Whereunto are annexed certain sweet meditations of the kingdom of Christ, of life everlasting, and of the blessed state & felicity of the same. Gathered by that holy martyr of God, John Bradford.A frutefull treatise and ful of heauenly consolation against the feare of death Wherunto are annexed certeine sweet meditations of the kingdom of Christ, of life euerlasting, and of the blessed state & felicitie of the same. Gathered by that holy marter of God, Iohn Bradford.
London : Perused corrected & augmented according to the original, & imprinted in Fletestrete near to saint Dunstons Churche by William Powell, ca. 1564London : Perused corrected & augmented according to the originall, & imprinted in Fletestrete neere to saint Dunstons Churche by William Powell, ca. 1564
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Open mine eyes dear lord, to see thy kingdom, for it is spiritual, and of carnal eyes simply cannot be considered, & therefore less ought we to marvel to see it contemned, and the children thereof persecuted: the most ⟨image 29⟩part of men, and specially the great men of the world being carnal & not spiritual, although by title many be called so. Give me thy light to see, that thy kingdom (O christ) is thy sitting on the right hand of thy father & ours, & thy interpellation and mediation for us, & also thy giving of pardon & forgiveness of sins, & the holy sprite to thy church, that is, such as believe in thee and call upon god the father through confidence in thee: & hereto, thy sanctifying of of them, that thou mayest raise them up in the last day, to life & glory everlasting. Grant me to know, that for the attaining of all these been fits (which be the liberties & privileges of thy kingdom) thou haste ordained the ministry of thy gospel & sacraments, thereby to ⟨image 29⟩call & bring men to the knowledge of thy father & thee, which is eternal life. Grant that I may feel in my self lively & comfortably the efficacy and virtue of thy holy ghost, which is effectual by the ministry & word. And lest afflictions should dismay me, & the company of evil men mingled with the godly, overthrow me or offend me: grant that I may not only know how that thy church & the true children thereof shall in this world until the last day, suffer persecution, & that goats will be amongest the sheep, until the day of judgement: but also that I may in affliction rejoice and glorify thy holy name, being preserved always from the counsel of the ungodly, from the way of the wicked, & from the seat of the scornful: to delight in thy law night and day, ⟨image 30⟩to be made spiritual & to have the benefit of thy kingdom & priest hood, which be both spiritual, preserving thy people from the tyranny of sin & Satan, although in this life y permit their enemies to vex them, to thy further glory & their increase in repentance and & godliness: which give unto me and increase in me for thy holy names sake.