An account of a disputation at Oxford, anno dom. 1554 with A treatise of…

if we will confess him, he will confess us, and that before his Father in Heaven, and all his Angels and Saints, saying—Come ye blessed of my Father, possess the Kingdom prepared for you from the beginning. There shall be joy, mirth, pleasure, pastime, solace, melody, and all kind of beatitude and felicity, such as the Eye hath not seen, the Ear hath not heard, nor the Heart of Man is able in any point to conceive it as it is. In respect of this, and of the joy set before us, should we not run our race, though it be somewhat rough? Did not Moses so, the Prophets so, Christ so, the Apostles so, the Martyrs so, and the Confessors so? They were drunk with the sweetness of this gear, and therefore they contemned all that Man and Devil ⟨p. 11⟩could do to them. Their Souls thirsted after the Lord and his Tabernacles, and therefore their Goods and Life were not so dear to them. Read the Eleventh to the Hebrews, and the seventh Chapter of the second of Maccabees, and let us go the same way; that is, by many Tribulations let us labour to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, for all that will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution. Think therefore the Cross, if it come for Confession of Christ, no strange thing to Gods Children, but rather take it as the Lords Medicine, by the which he helpeth our Infirmities, and setteth forth his Glory. Our Sins have deserved cross upon cross; Now if he give us his Cross to suffer for his Truth and Confessing him, as he doth by it bury our Sins, so doth he glorify us, making us like to Christ here, that we may be like unto him elsewhere. For if we be partakers of the Afflictions, we shall be partakers of the Consolations; if we be like in Ignomy, we shall be like in Glory. Great cause we have to give thanks to God for lending us Liberty, Lands, Wife, Children, Life, &c. thus long; that we shall be guilty of Ingratitude, if he shall come and take the same away, except we be cheerful and content. And God hath given, and God hath taken away, saith Job; as it pleaseth the Lord o be it done. And shall not we do thus, especially when the Lord taketh these away of Love to try us, to prove us, whether we be faithful Lovers or Strumpets; that is, whether we love him better than his Gifts. This is most true, that it is not lost which seemeth so to be for Confession of Christ.

if we will confess him, he will confess us, and that before his Father in Heaven, and all his Angels and Saints, saying—Come ye blessed of my Father, possess the Kingdom prepared for you from the beginning. There shall be joy, mirth, pleasure, pastime, solace, melody, and all kind of beatitude and felicity, such as the Eye hath not seen, the Ear hath not heard, nor the Heart of Man is able in any point to conceive it as it is. In respect of this, and of the joy set before us, should we not run our race, though it be somewhat rough? Did not Moses so, the Prophets so, Christ so, the Apostles so, the Martyrs so, and the Confessors so? They were drunk with the sweetness of this gear, and therefore they contemned all that Man and Devil