The Writings of John Bradford, MA
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THE AGES DIGITAL LIBRARY COLLECTIONS THE WRITINGS OF JOHN BRADFORD, M.A. by John Bunyan Books For The Ages AGES Software • Albany, OR USA Version 1.0 © 1997 2 THE WRITINGS OF JOHN BRADFORD, M.A., MARTYR, 1555. Fellow Of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, And Prebendary Of St Paul’s, CONTAINING SERMONS, MEDITATIONS, EXAMINATIONS, ETC. EDITED FOR THE PARKER SOCIETY, BY AUBREY TOWNSEND, B.D., 3 CONTENTS. Preface Of The Editor . 1. Two Prefaces By Bradford, 1548. Preface to Artopoeus on the Law and Gospel Preface to Orations of Chrysostom on prayer 2. Preface To Melancthon On Prayer, 1553 3. Sermons On Repentance And The Lord’s Supper, Etc. Sampson to the Christian reader Bradford to the Christian reader Sermon on repentance, 1553 Sermon on the Lord’s supper Bradford preaching before the court of Edward VI. 4. Godly Meditations On The Lord’s Prayer, Belief, And Ten Commandments, With Other Exercises. Advertisement to the reader, 1562 Instructions concerning Prayer Meditation on the Lord’s Prayer Meditation on the Belief Meditation on the Ten Commandments Meditation on prayer Paraphrase of the Lord’s Prayer On the second coming of Christ On the sober use of the body On the pleasures of life On true mortification On the Providence of God On the presence of God On the power and goodness of God On Death On the passion of Christ A general Supplication A Confession of sins A prayer for the mercy of God A thanksgiving in the time of persecution F1 A prayer on the work of Christ 4 A prayer for Faith A prayer for Repentance Dialogue between Satan and Conscience A treatise on Election and Free-will A brief sum of Election 5. Private Prayers And Meditations, Etc. Prayer on the wrath of God against sin When you awake out of your sleep, pray When you behold the day-light, pray When you arise, pray When you apparel yourself, pray When you are made ready to begin the day, pray Cogitations meet to begin the day with When you go forth of the doors, pray When you are going any journey, pray When you are about to receive your meat, pray In the meal-time, pray After your meat, pray Cogitations for about the mid-day time When you come home again, pray At the sun going down, pray When the candles be light, pray When you make yourself unready, pray When you enter your bed, pray When you feel sleep to be coming, pray Prayer for divine protection A thanksgiving, being a godly prayer for all times 6. Meditations From The Autograph Of Bradford In A Copy Of The New Testament Of Tyndale. F2 The second Birth F2 On following Christ F2 On Affliction F2 The life of Faith F2 On the conflict of Faith F2 On a good Conscience 7. Meditations And Prayers From Mss. In Emmanuel College, Cambridge, And Other Sources. F2 Meditation on the Lord’s supper 5 Admonition written in a New Testament F2 Prayer for the presence of God A sweet contemplation of Heaven Place and joys of the life everlasting Felicity of the life to come F2 Prayer for deliverance from trouble F2Prayer in the time of persecution F2 Paraphrase of Psalm 79 Prayer of one standing at the stake 8. Five Treatises. The old man and the new F2 The flesh and the spirit Defence of Election, Dedication. Part 1. Part 2. Against the fear of Death The Restoration of all things 9. Ten Declarations And Addresses. Declaration concerning religion, 1554 Exhortation to Patience Letter to men who relieved the prisoners F2 Address on Constancy Letter on the Mass, to Hopkins, etc., at Coventry, 1554 Declaration on the Reformation, 1554 Letter to the Queen and Parliament, 1554 Supplication to the King, Queen, and Parliament, 1554 F2 Remarks on a memorable trial Admonition to lovers of the Gospel, 1555 10. Exhortation, 1554-5; And Farewells, 1555. Exhortation to the brethren in England Farewell to the city of London Farewell to the university and town of Cambridge Farewell to Lancashire and Cheshire Farewell to the town of Walden 11. Examinations And Pris0n-C0nferences, 1555. The first examination The second examination The last examination 6 Talk with Hussey and Seton. Talk with Bp. Bonner Conference with Willerton Talk with Cresswell and Harding Conferences with Adn. Harpsfield Talk with Clayden and others Conference with Abp. Heath and Bp. Day Conference with Alphonsus a Castro Conference with Weston Conference with Pendleton Conferences with Weston, and Reasons against Transubstantiation Talk with a Servant Appendix. Prefaces by Dr Wilkinson and Dr Harris, Oxford, 1652 Preface by Lever, 1567 Meditation on the tenth commandment, by Lever Prayer for the afflicted in France, 1562 Ludovici Vivis Preces et Meditationes diurnae Prayer compiled by R. P. Institutio contra vim Mortis, Bradfordo authore Preface by Bp. Ironside, 1688 Officium et Sententia contra Johannem Bradford, 1555 Notes 7 PREFACE OF THE EDITOR. THIS volume contains a large portion of the doctrinal and devotional writings of the martyr Bradford; including sermons, meditations, prayers, treatises, public addresses, examinations, and prison-conferences. These are collected and arranged from a variety of sources in print and manuscript. Fourteen pieces, and parts of others, are now for the first time published. The three Prefaces, p. 5-24, are also first reprinted since the sixteenth century. It is hoped that the text presented throughout the volume is pure and correct. Fifty-one MSS., some in the autograph of Bradford, and some very early transcripts, varying severally in length from one to twenty-nine pages of this book, have been collated. The first editions of Bradford’s works are exceedingly scarce: some do not exist in our public libraries: and the copies used were obtained after much research. Every reference has been verified; and the originals are quoted in the notes. Some important pieces have usually been printed in the collection of his Letters: F3 but, as they are more properly public addresses than private epistles, they are classed in this volume as distinct treatises. Such are the following: ‘The old man and the new,’ p. 297 — 300: the ‘Defence of election,’ p. 310 — 18: ‘The restoration of all things,’ p. 351 — 64: the ‘Exhortation to patience,’ and ‘Letter to men who relieved the prisoners,’ p. 375 — 84: the Letter ‘on the mass,’ p. 389 — 99, and ‘to the queen and parliament,’ p. 401 — 3: the ‘Admonition to lovers of the Gospel,’ p. 407 — 11: the ‘Exhortation to the brethren in England,’ and ‘Four farewells,’ p. 414 — 60. Further particulars with regard to the contents of this volume are supplied in the editorial prefaces, pp. 3, 16, 28, 112, 223, 248, 258, 294, 305, 331, 350, 366, 412, 463. The remaining letters of Bradford, about eighty-four in number, some of which have not hitherto been printed, will appear in the concluding portion of his works. That volume will also include the ‘Hurt of hearing mass,’ the translations from Chrysostom, Artopoeus, and Melancthon, some minor pieces, a short memoir of Bradford, and an Index to both volumes. 8 The writings of Bradford, as a chaplain and friend of Bishop Ridley, F4 are of interest to all churchmen; and they embrace topics of deep import, which have more or less exercised the minds of devout believers in every period of the church of Christ. They fully justify the encomium of Foxe: ‘Sharply he opened and reproved sin; sweetly he preached Christ crucified; pithily he impugned heresies and errors; earnestly he persuaded to godly life.’ F5 They shew, ‘how godly he occupied his time, being prisoner; what special zeal he bare to the state of Christ’s church; what care he had to perform his office; how earnestly he admonished all men; how tenderly he comforted the heavy-hearted; how fruitfully he confirmed them whom he had taught.’ F6 Such considerations encourage the hope, that the blessing of Almighty God may attend this endeavor to present to the public the entire remains of one, whom Bishop Latimer publicly designated ‘that holy man,’ F7 and of whom Bishop Ridley, within three years after admitting him to the order of deacon, wrote: ‘In my conscience I judge him more worthy to be a bishop, than many of us that be bishops already to be a parish-priestF8. ‘Strype describes him as ‘a man of great learning, elocution, sweetness of temper, and profound devotion toward God;...of whose worth the papists themselves were so sensible, that they took more pains to bring him off from the profession of religion, than any other. F9 That impartial historian also refers to ‘Bradford’ in conjunction with ‘Latimer, Cranmer, and Ridley, as four prime pillars of the reformed church of England.’ F10 It is the editor’s welcome duty to return his best thanks, in behalf of the Parker Society, to the Reverend the Librarians of the Bodleian, Oxford, and the Cambridge University Library, and to the Reverend the Masters and Fellows of Emmanuel, and of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, for the privilege of access to manuscript remains of Bradford. The Society are also greatly indebted to the late O. H. Williams, Esq. of Ivy Tower near Tenby, for allowing a transcript to be taken of the Meditations in the autograph of Bradford, now first printed, p. 248 — 57. Sincere thanks are likewise due to the Revelation Canon Havergal, the Revelation W. Maskell, and the Revelation P. Hall, for the use of early editions of the writings of this martyr; to the guardians of Archbishop Harsnett’s Library, Colchester, for lending the Excitationes animi in Deum, by Ludovicus Vives, Lugduni 1558; to J.