Prebendary of St. Paul's, and Martyr, A.D. 1555

(On Dual Fulfillment Theory)
"As now, dearly beloved, the wicked world rejoices, the papists are puffed up against Christ and his people after their own kind, now they cry out, Where are these new-found preachers?  These and such-like words they have, to cast in our teeth, as triumphers and conquerors; but, dearly beloved, short is their joy; they beguile themselves, this is but a lightening before their death. As God, after he had given the Jews a time to repent, visited them by Vespasian and Titus, most horribly to their utter subversion, delivering first all his people from among them, even so, my dear brethren, will he do with this age, when he has tried his children from amongst them, as now he begins to do, and, by suffering, has made us like to his Christ, and, by being overcome, to overcome indeed, to our eternal comfort. Then will he, if not otherwise, come himself in the clouds: (I Thess. iv.) I mean, our dear Lord, whom we confess, preach, and believe on; he will come (I say) with the blast of a trump, and shout of an archangel, and so shall we be caught up in the clouds to meet him in the air: the angels gathering together the wicked wretches, which now welter and wallow as the world and wind blows, to be tied in bundles and cast into the fire, which burns for ever most painfully. (Matt. xiii.)" (Sermons & Tracts, 1553)

(1555)
"So are God's children by the cross of affliction. God always begins His judgement at His house. Christ and the apostles were in most misery in the land of Jewry, but yet the whole land smarted for it afterwards. So now God's children are chastised in this world, that they should not be damned with the world. For surely great plagues of God hang over this realm." (Bradford to his mother)

"Also by the cursing of the earth; by the drowning of the world; by the burning up of Sodom and Gomorrah; by the hardening the heart of Pharaoh, so that no miracle could convert him; by the drowning of him and his people with him in the Red Sea; by the overthrowing of the Israelites in the wilderness, so that of six hundred thousand only two entered into the land of promise; by rejecting king Saul; by the great punishment upon thy servant David, notwithstanding his hearty repentance; by grievously afflicting Solomon in himself and in his posterity; by the captivity of the ten tribes, and by the thraldom of the Jews, wherein until this present day they continue a notable spectacle to the world of thy wrath against and for sin. But of all the spectacles of thy anger against sin, the greatest and most notable is the death and bloody passion of thy dearly beloved Son Jesus Christ." (Prayers)

OTHER WRITINGS

"I trust our redemers comming is at hande" (To my deare Brother in the Lorde Mayster Rychard Hopkyns)

"the commyng of the Lorde, whyche is at hande" (To my good Syster Mystres Elizabeth Browne)

"for suerlye the coming of our Saviour wyl shortlye appeire in glorie" (The Hyrte of Hering Masse)

O Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the ever-living God, by whom all things were made, are ruled, and governed, of thy love for our redemption thou did not disdain to be our Mediator, and to take upon thee our nature in the worst, of a virgin, purely and without sin, by the Operation of the Holy Spirit; that thou might in thine own person wonderfully, beautify and exalt our nature, and work the same in us also, first abolishing the guiltiness of sin by remission; then sin itself by death; and last of all, death, by raising up again these our bodies, that they may be like unto thine own glorious and immortal body, according to the power wherewith thou art able to subject all things unto thee. As of thy love, for our redemption thou became man, and that most poor and afflicted upon earth, by the space of thirty-four years at the least, in great humility, and did pay the price of our ransom by thy most bitter death and passion, for which I most heartily give thanks to thee: so of the same love towards us, in thy good time thou wilt come again in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, (Matt. xxv.,) with flaming fire, with thousands of saints, with angels of thy power, with a mighty cry, the shout of an archangel, and blast of a trump, suddenly as the lightning which shines from the east, when men think least of it, even as a thief in the night, when men are asleep. And thou wilt so come thus suddenly in the twinkling of an eye, and all men that ever have been, are, and shall be, with women and children, must appear before thy tribunal judgment-seat, to render an account of all things which they have thought, spoken, and done against thy law, openly and before all angels, saints, and devils; and to receive the just reward of thy vengeance, if they have not repented and obeyed the gospel; and to depart from thee to the devil and his angels, and all the wicked which ever have been, are, or shall be, into hell-fire, which is unquenchable and of pains intolerable, baseless, endless, hopeless, even from the face of thy glorious and mighty power. But if they have repented and believed thy gospel, if they are found watching with their lamps and oil in their hands, if they are found ready apparelled with the wedding-garment of innocence; if they have not hardened their hearts, and hoarded up their treasure of thy vengeance in the day of wrath to be revealed, but have used the time of grace, the acceptable time, the time of salvation, that is, the time of this life, in which thou stretches out thy hand and spreads thine arms, calling and crying unto us to come unto thee, who art meek in hearts and lowly; for thou wilt ease all that labour, and are heavy laden. And if they have visited the sick and prisoners, comforted the comfortless, fed the hungry, clothed the naked, lodged the harbourless. And if they have not loaded their hearts with gluttony and surfeiting and carefulness of this life; if they have not dug and hid their talent in the ground, doing no good therewith, but have been faithful to occupy thy gifts to thy glory, and have washed their garments in thy blood by hearty repentance. If they have done thus, then shall thy angels gather them together, not as the wicked, which shall be collected as fagots, and cast into the fire, but as the good wheat that is gathered into thy barnóthen shall they be caught up to meet thee in the cloudsóthen shall their corruptible body put on incorruptionóthen shall they be endued with immortality and gloryóthen shall they be with thee, and go whither thou goesóthen shall they hear, "Come, blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning, &c."óthen shall they be set on seats of majesty, judging the whole worldóthen shall they reign with thee for everó then shall God be all in all with them and to themóthen shall they enter and inherit the heavenly Jerusalem, and the glorious restful land of Canaan; where is always day and never night, where is no manner of weeping, tears, infirmity, hunger, cold, sickness, entry, malice, nor sin; but always joy without sorrow, mirth without measure, pleasure without pain, heavenly harmony, most pleasant melody, saying and singing, Holy, holy, holy Lord God of hosts, &c. A sum the eye has not seen, the ear has not heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man but which they shall then inherit and most surely enjoy although here they are tormented, prisoned, burned, solicited of Satan, tempted of the flesh, and entangled with the world, wherethrough they are enforced to cry, "Thy kingdom come, come Lord Jesus, &c. (Rev. xxii.) How amiable are thy tabernacles! Like as the hart desires the water-brooks, so pants my soul after thee, O God. (Psalm xiii.) Now let thy servant depart in peace; I desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ. We mourn in ourselves, waiting for the deliverance of our bodies, &c." (Rom. viii.) Oh! gracious Lord, when shall I find such mercy with thee, that I may repent, believe, hope, and look for these blessings, with the full fruition of these heavenly joys, which thou hast prepared for all them that fear thee and so rest with thee for evermore?"

"As now, dearly beloved, the wicked world rejoices, the papists are puffed up against Christ and his people after their own kind, now they cry out, Where are these new-found preachers?  These and such-like words they have, to cast in our teeth, as triumphers and conquerors; but, dearly beloved, short is their joy; they beguile themselves, this is but a lightening before their death. As God, after he had given the Jews a time to repent, visited them by Vespasian and Titus, most horribly to their utter subversion, delivering first all his people from among them, even so, my dear brethren, will he do with this age, when he has tried his children from amongst them, as now he begins to do, and, by suffering, has made us like to his Christ, and, by being overcome, to overcome indeed, to our eternal comfort. Then will he, if not otherwise, come himself in the clouds: (I Thess. iv.) I mean, our dear Lord, whom we confess, preach, and believe on; he will come (I say) with the blast of a trump, and shout of an archangel, and so shall we be caught up in the clouds to meet him in the air: the angels gathering together the wicked wretches, which now welter and wallow as the world and wind blows, to be tied in bundles and cast into the fire, which burns for ever most painfully. (Matt. xiii.)" (John Bradford: Sermons & Tracts, 1553)

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