PARSONS HOVVLET, I am muche beholding to you for youre good remembrance, in your flatte­ring, fraudulent & presumptuous e­pistle, dedicated to our moste grati­ous Soueraign, the Queenes most excellent Maiesty. VVho would haue thought, that after twenty three yeares, in the cleare lighte of the gospell, such an obscure owle as your selfe, vvhome all the kindly birds of the day must needes vvonder at, durste euer haue fluttered foorth in the broade day and skriched oute in her Maiesties eares, suche notable vntrueths and vvicked asseuerations, com­plaining of the harde case and greeuous persecu­tions, [...] of youre Catholiques (as you call In the Epistle dedicatory to her highnes, Pag. 3. 4. 5. 6. &c. them:) her highnes being a prince of such knowlege, so setled and confirmed in the truth of Christs [...], that al your deuises, flattering & fawning spea­ches, conspiracies and traiterous attempts, shall ne­uer Fol. 2. (I trust,) be able by Gods grace, eyther to fear or remoue, from that glorious trueth, which shec hath Howlers cau­ses of dedica­ting the book to he high­nes. Fol 2. professed to maynteine and continue to the vtter­most end of her life. The causes that moued youre dedication, (though the matter were not your own) [...]. [Page] vvas the composition and penning of it, beeing done (as you say) in greate modestye and humilitye, with all [...] full respect, [...] to her Maiesty, her Counsailors, and whole estate: [...] (you say) to the proceeding of al Sectaries (his zeal & opinion in religiō onely [...], erued:) the other, the waightinesse of importing her [...] soule-health, estate, and Realme, [...] the saluation of ma­ny: thousandes [...] for [...], [...] her confident Children, her highnesse their mother, and [...] Princesse, before a [...] they lay downe their griefes, as before the Substi­tute and Angel of God, &c. If these causes vvere in deede as you pretend, you vvere the more to bee borne vvith, but being subtil, slaunderous and false, youre presumption is intollerable. For first, for the maner of conceiuing & penning that treatise, if it had ben done vvith such modesty and humility you speake of, you vvoulde not so haue betraied her maiestye Mat. 26. 49. vvith a Iudas Kysse, crying All hayle and Saund. lib. 7.pag.730. yet putting her into her enemies handes. You vvoulde not beare the vvorlde in hand, as if of her selfe she [...] youre Religion, and yet so slaunderously charge her Maiesties Realme and gouernment vvith such diuersitye of Sectes, contrarye to the truth of God. Pref. Fol. 3.you vvoulde not haue charged the glorious re­ligion of Christe, to bee heresy, and the Churche of God, & it to be the Synagogue of Antichrist from vvhich vppon paine of damnation, al your Cateline Catholiques must [...], and not communicate, but must vvith all their povvers resist and auoyde. You vvoulde not haue snared and entangled the [...]. fol. 5 consciences of the modester sorte of your dissem­bling, timeseruing Hipocrites, euen as your selfe ac­compte them, (who are yet the bane of this lande, hated of you, and to vs as pricks and thornes in our sides) charging thē to sinne against the holy ghost, [Page] (vvherin you bevvray your slender diuinitie) Brist. Moti. 6. fol. [...], & mot. 12. fol. [...] you vvoulde not so haue [...] her Maiestie for a Schismatike, her Nobles for heretikes, her vvhole Saun lib. 70. pag 130. & e­adem. pag. 7. 3. people for departers and sallers avvay from the faith and true religion. You kisse her, and yet you smite her. you faune vpon her like gentle Spaniels, and [...] most cruelly you bite her, ( tanquam canes clanculo [...], as the prouerbe is, like butchers cutres. Hovvlet epi­leafe. 4 & the 14. fol. 5. you prayse her clemencie and mercy, and yet you charge her maiesties gouernment vvith vnspeaka­ble outrage and cruelty. And if you meant as you speake, Hovvl. pres. fol. 6 fol. 15. calling her The Lordes [...], the Aungell of God, the Lordes substitute your mother, [...] you lay [...] your [...] concerning religion, and [...] of her, Seeing in flattery you acknowledge this to doe harme, vvhy, do not you and the rest to do good, ac­knoweledge it in trueth, and so denye the pope his forreine iurisdiction within this realme? And [...] shee be the Lordes Angell and substitute; vvhat hath the Pope to do to entermeddle in her territories and kingdomes? Or haue you M. Howlet any speciall priuiledge or commission to speake so directly a­gainste one of your owne groundes, to charme the Prince withall, to thend shee may lende a listening eare to youre vniust complaintes? For that vvhiche The prince is [...] chiefest [...] in [...] land, to [...] the care of Gods matters doeth specially be­long to see Gods [...] established. you acknowledge in her, calling her the Lords sub­stitute, vvould bee condemned as ranke heresie in vs, because it importeth that she hath authority to heare and determine in causes of religion (as in deede she hath) according to the vvorde of God. Such as you call at vnvvares Sectaries, more fauou­rably then you meane, thereby meaning the [...] of the Gospel vvere neuer [...] with such [Page] outrage and immodestye of Spirite to the disho­noure of their naturall prince, to pronounce her a Schismatique and an heretique, [...]. mot. 40 vnder the title of obe [...] labouring to dis­charge her subiectës from their dutifull obedience, too iustle her oute of her seate, and to plucke the Crowne from her head, as you [...] haue done. If you thinke that I speake partially, let the Bull that [...] mot. 15. fol. 72. [...]. Felton set vp, sent from your abhominable Father of Rome, be remembred, and the issue that came of it, Let Sanders in his booke [...]. lib. 2. pag. 78 of the visible monar­chie [...] d. [...]. of the church, be heard to speake, Let [...]. lib. 7. pag. 130. 734. Harding Dorman and Bristow say for themselues. Let [...] imprin ted of [...] a table at Paris, and therein setteth out the Queene crounle. ie, though in the [...] amended. Rosse Mor. Phi. his booke of suc cession. Morgan Phillips, and such like traitours be exami­ned, hovve they haue borne them selues together vvith this popeholy papiste of the [...] sorte of Papistes, vvho can abide no communicating vvith vs, nor our religion in any respecte. And as for the vvaightinesse of the matter being Gods cause, importing her highnesse saluation, Estate, and Realme, with the safegarde of Thousandes, it is but a shamefull asking of that vvhiche yet is in que­stion Hovvlet pre. [...]. betwixt vs. This Owle and his Gentleman, should first haue proued their particular churche of Rome, to be the [...] Church of Christe. They shoulde first haue set downe vvherein our Churche hath departed from the doctrine of Christe and his [...], in vvhat [...], [...], Nobles; and [...] are [...] set, and continue in Heresic and [...] the woorde of God: The papistes are [...], and their ser­uice and [...] idolatry to be [...]. and then the consequence had [...] playne, that all Christians muste seperate them selues from vs, so they had vvonne their cause. For vve agree vvith them, that there oughte to bee no dissimulation in [Page] the matters of God, that [...] are to bee [...], that their [...] is to be auoided: but vvee af­firme that they are those heretiques in that Apo­staticall [...] fallen from that vvholesom [...] of Christ; and his Apostles: VVe affirme that [...] and Lordship of Rome, and the tyrannous [...] thereof ouer the [...], to be that [...]. in [...]. [...]. p. [...] in [...]. Babylon, August de [...]. [...] lib. 2 cap. 1. out of which wee are commaunded to departe, that vve be not [...] of the same destruction toge­ther vvith them. But alacke, this is your olde [...], [...]. [...] in [...] 18. de [...] dei cap. 22 [...]. 17. Howlet, when you cannot obteine youre purpose, [...] by the Popes threatning thunderboltes of excommunication, or by your [...] and [...] b Excom. Pii [...]. [...] obteined by [...] vvho vvas executed in Cornevvall. bookes to styrre vp her [...] to rebellion, then you fall to your [...] and [...] glo­sing. You file your tongues, and make them smoo­ther then [...], they seeme svveeter then honye, but the poyson of Aspes is vnder them: then your com­passion [...] out, her highnesse clemencye and mercy is praysed in youre [...] the papists dange­rous to rel. gi­on, and to [...] vvhole [...]. vvante of punishment, which yet in deede is her greatest daunger, and then she is a mother, whome notvvithstanding in deede you [...] a stepdame: a soueraigne princessc and yet no Queene of youres, Allen in his Apologie of the English Seminarie s. cap. 4. neither her Tavves any [...], because she is not established by your popes authority, your Gods vicar, of whome you woulde haue her hold her crowne in fee [...], eyther as te­nant at will, or else as [...] by youre treasons king [...] vvas compelled to doe, that hee mighte take it agayn [...] your Popc, & pay a [...] for it, to hee deposed or [...] at his [...], Chronica [...] Mathia; [...]. Math. VVest. vvhome you holde not to [...], vvhen [...] Harding in his confutati­on of the A­pology. in his Chayre, and aduisedly hee pronoun­ceth [Page] any sentence. Sun [...]. lib. 1. cap. 4. Now he hath aduisedly and [...] pronounced her Maiestie a Schismatike Bulla. paspae. pii [...]. and an here tique, therefore as in your opinion shee ought to be deposed: [...]. mot. 40. fol. 154. so are all her subiectes dis­charged of their duty and allegeance. And yet (good man,) besides your general and particuler crosses ly­ing so harde vppon your pore backes, that you sel­dome or neuer, except in the tyme of your greatest ruffe, lay [...] or fared better: example of your fel­lows at VVisbich, in the Marshalsey, and else where, VVood the priest solicited [...] to vvhoredome, and gaue her mony and a comfite to make her mad vpon him. vvho beeing idle and liuing in no calling, are bent to folly and filthinesse, and yet the poorest of them, vvho mighte beg, if they vvere abroade, neuer had more plenty of mony in their liues nor more ease and leasure to followe all delightes, sauing that they are restrained from a little libertye of going a­broad: and yet her maiesties gouernmente is accu­sed, if not in respect of her selfe, yet of her counsel­lors, inferior officers and Magistrates, in executing of her If our lavves be vnsuppor­table, that [...] not vvith life for religion, what [...] theirs, that [...] none? Fol. 6. pref. vnsupportable lawes (as you [...] call thē) through which there is such cruelty and souadge dealing as the like was neuer heard of before in any age. These thinges are greeuous, yet they [...] no­thing in [...] of that one [...] in [...] Epistle dedicatory of [...] of booke to the Earle of Leicester hath accused you [...] be [...] to God and to her royall [...]. This crabbeth & nippeth you at the very hart root, And I thinke in deede not vvithout [...]. For the trueth of the matter beeing so plainely and mani­festly [...] out, and proued in the learned vvorkes of, our time, it lieth more heauily vpon you, then you are able to remoue: and a man neede not much to stande vpon it. I vvill not speake [...] the other points [Page] of your [...] Epistle, nor of that booke so high­ly Hovvlets im­pudencye and presumption. cōmended by [...] graue [...], vvherwith you haue taken your [...] into the light, as vvith ano­ther mans vvinges, and [...] your selfe not as an Ovvle in this point, but as Esops crovve vvith other [...] fethers: [...] forsooth vvith suche mode­sty, that it is fit for none but a Queene: and yet the greatest part stollen either out of your fellovv Gregory [...] book of Schisme hath the very [...] and [...], [...] de­ficit in [...]. but he [...] in his minor. Gre­gery Martyns booke of Schisme, whome you [...] not a little, robbing him of his glory, or [...] out of a French book, wherin the protestants rendred reasōs why they could not come to your [...] masse, vvhich you foolishly haue tourned and [...] to your purpose, I leaue that to be aunswered by one that vvil stand vpon it, & do it more thronghly.

But because it hath pleased you to dravv me in a­ganst my wil, specifying my name, I wil by the grace of God. vndertake the proofe of that vvhich I haue set dovvn in that [...]. But before I enter into it, I vvold haue this diligently marked of al, that you on ly snatch at those bare vvords of mine, & neuer an­svver any iot of the matter: you mention nothing of those same more general and particular [...] of treason & [...], plainly set down, in that See the ex­amples [...] in the epistle. Epi­stle, by expresse examples, vvhiche made me to call you papistes by your right names, enemies to God & to her royall maiesty: As for your aggrauation & pelting chafe vvith that reuerend Father & his of­ficers, For letting passe the book to the print, for that this [...] vvas not onely vttered in speeche, but also let it passe in print to the view of the worlde, and vvas dedicated to a noble man of her [...] priuye counsel, (VVhose honoure like a Katife, you labor to blemish, whilste you in­sinuate, [Page] that I stirre him vppe to cruelty against you) and by suche a brar sicke fellovve, vvhom [...] possessed a long time for his fantasticall opimous, & yet I think, though he knew your nest and abiding also, with your, com­panion Carters, or vvhether it be Parsons, that hath put your name vpon himselfe, for novv you are be­come such honest mē that in an euil cause you haue names at commandement: yet you scarcely knowe him by the face, & are not able for your life to name any of those opinions: to vvhome, you farther at­tribute such pregnancy (vpon such honest mens report as your self) of [...] sing any new religion vpon a weekes [...]. Fol. 6 Praefat. &c. These circumstances I would a little consi­der, before I enter into my proofe.

Concerning the vttering of this matter in speech, being the trueth, and vttered by so many before, it should not so much grieue you, and specially for set­ting it out in print to the view of al mē, that it might come euen to your owne owlish sight, what proueth it else? but that it was done with confidēcie, & [...], not fearing the light? Hovv vvould you haue cōplained, if it had bene vttered behind your backs in the dark, as such ovvlish Hovvlets as your self are vvont to do, vvho cānot abide the light? nether loue to come to trial, vvhat good face soeuer you set vp­on the matter but your common guise is to eate & drinke men behinde their backs, to slander the truth and as much as lyeth in you, to deface it, to rage a­gainst it, & to persecute it. VVhē such as cā ansvver you are driuen avvay by your tiranny, and you [...] the chaires alone: then you fighte vvith youre ovvn shadovves, either hauing them in your handes & also both svvord and fire at your commandemēt [Page] to mainteine your chalenges: then you are strong enough to enter into disputations with them, or be­ing abroad, by your truces and safe conductes. you can vvhope and prouoke them by your sweete al­luring [...], and fawning till you haue them faste, vvhose [...] you haue burnt to ashes, vvhen they haue come to [...] the cause of God, & to giue a reason of their [...] in Conci. Con­stantiense. [...]. 19. your generall Councils. Thus trayterously you hold thē in your limed spray, [...] Pata. & as Mantuan pretily describeth. you bring them to Philip. [...]. the spit. Iohn Hus, and Hierom of Prage shall vvit­nesse Plat. volater. this to be true to all posterities, to the perpetu­al shame of al such faithlesse traitors and trucebrea­kers. This the Concill of Constance shall witnesse during vvhich there vvere sometimes at once [...]. Rom­Pla [...] Benno. Buc­chingerus. thre Blond. lib. 3. popes, somtimes tvvo, one, and none: altogether by Mirandensis. the eares, in whiche that goodly decree was ratified, Concil Con­stantiense. [...]. 19. Quod non obstantibus saluis conduc­tib. &c. that faith is not to be kept with here tikes, Nicholas de Clamangis in quadam colat­de fut Concil. where in steede of the holy ghost, (vvhō they blasphemously said they looked sor,) Concil of Constance was begun at Rome vvhere this owle shevved [...] selfe vvhich they haue concealed. an vnlucky owle, ( [...]) that same monster of birdes, portending some notable mischief, one of your great ancesters was president that so troubled the Pope and all the company, that two vvhol sessions vvere frustrate and vvithout ef­fect, sauing that they murthered the pore owl, with [...]. [...] and cudgels. Seing therfore it is in printe, you may ansvvere it, make vvhat exceptions you can, & take your best aduantages.

And as for being done to a noble man, a cheefe [...] in our Land, what other thing can it argue. but that you are such dangerous enemies, as they haue good cause vnder her maiestie, chiefly to vvatche a­gainst, to haue a diligent eye to the maintenance of [Page] the gospell, and to the preseruation of her maiesties royal person the defender of the same, to whom (as faire shewes as you make) I et [...] v. ordes, one. of Saunders chiefe [...] be [...] spoken in the parliament house, anno primo of her [...] reigne. you wish no good.

Concerning that you attribute to my person cal­ling me a brainsick fellow, and in your popish heate and burning charitie, twite [...] vvith mine impri­sonment in Newgate, I will onely saye this vnto it, the vvoordes of a brainsicke man shoulde not so greatly haue rent your catholike heart. But if you call me brainsick and mad, as the vvicked haue cal­led the prophets, and the Iewes haue called Christe and his Apostles, because by the grace of God I 2. Kin. 9. 11. haue and do stande for the trueth, against your Po­pish Ioh. 10. 20. Act. 26. 24. and Antichristian corruptions, I haue to re­ioyce in it, and I consider you do but your kinde: you coulde doe little, if you coulde not rayle, and thankes be to God, though you grenne, you cannot byte. As for my beeing in Newgate, the cause vvas not such, as should fasten vppon mee any suche vile reproche as you obiect. And how Hovvlet fol. 3. pref. standeth this re­hearsall of my imprisonment vvith your complaint made before vvhere you saye, that no punishment in a manner is avvarded those that offend against the booke. As for my pregnancy vppon report of sraning nevv religions: the veriest Owle in the worlde vvoulde not so pub­likely in print haue charged a man vvith such a hai­nous crime vpon the report of others. In deede this is common vvith the papistes, whose religion being not grounded vpon the Scriptures, they varie it as euery mans braine and fancie leadeth him. Besides that, fame is an euill lyer, especially vvhen suche are blowers of it, as can breath out nothing but slaun­ders, and reproches against the trueth, and the true [Page] professors of it, yea it deserueth no more credite, Popery a reli­gion patched together of al heresies and variable: A bird of diuers fethers. then [...] Howlet should [...] and affirme, that the papistes are no traitors. But hereby may plainely appeare vvhat light [...], rashnes, vncharitable­nesse and impudencie there is in papists, that receiue credite, blaze, and vtter vvithout all shame, whatso­euer commeth into their brainsicke heads, againste the true professors of Christs gospell. A man would haue thought that he vvho praised modesty and hu­mility, in the author of this peking letter, vvoulde haue put it in botter practise himselfe.

VVhereas he [...] me Puritane, and to require me, sheweth the doctrine of tvvo of my preachers ( [...], as pleaseth him to call them) vvho prea­ched at an exercise of The fast at Stamford don orderly, with consent & by authority as shall appeare in the end of this booke. a fast at [...], and that against the B [...], &c. I vvill not say much in it in this place, because I haue proued that, a lovvde and [...] in the end, vvhich as slaunderous and [...] as it is, is yet the principal and mayn ground woorke of his vile [...]. This is [...], that vvhereas it vvas at firste somevvhat feared that it vvoulde not proue orderly ynough: and by the in­tymation of some [...] not best affected to such holy exercises, yet vvas it afterwards procured both by honourable and vvorshipfull, and done by suche consent and authority, and vvith so good [...], that the vvhole Church vvas comforted by it. The preachers vvere suche, and so vvell knovvne to bee godly, learned and vvise, as vvoulde not vtter suche positions as this Momus, and his reporter haue spitefully patched together and blazed abroade. The collector therfore vvhome hee nameth a mini­ster, must needes eyther be some such nightebyrde [Page] as himselfe, not able to abide the light, or else [...] carterly misreporter, who giuing them some little endes, those Spiders haue VVouen according to their owne humour, to bring the trueth of God in­to hatred (if they coulde) with her royall Maiestye. But thankes bee to God her Maiestie is wise, not to be carried avvay vvith such malitious parties. Her highnes trusteth not; but with good trial: & wher she trusteth, she will not be carried away by [...] In hearing reportes she reserueth an eare alwais sor the absent, she is experienced to know [...] euill, thinges are made at the second hande, and specially vvhen they are vttered of mallice, by such as are not indifferent but partial, not sincere but spitefull. And thus much for the circumstances. Now to the proof of my matter that pincheth you so sore, to vvit, firste that you are enemies to God, and then I saye not enemies onely, but traytors to her royall Maiestye.

That you are enemies to God, the vvhole truth of God, agaynst which, you papistes do mischiuonslye set your selues, doth manifestly proue. For vvhosoe­uer is an enemy to his word, [...] himself against his glory, wrestleth against his wil & ordinance, cor­rupteth his religion, robbeth him of his greatest ho­nor, & murthereth his people, he must needes be his enemy. That al the papists are such, holding of Anti christ, it shal appeare more plainly hereafter. In the meane vvhile, to proue the pope The pope Antichrist and head of all pa­pistes. Antichrist, as the captaine & head of al this band of enemies, althogh it be needles, considering howe it is a beaten argu­mente in euerye booke; yet to satisfie the Reader, I vvill in a fevve lines speake of it. He is the speciall Antichriste that directly [...] him selfe againste, [Page] Christ, both in doctrine and manners. And besides, that Dan. 7. 11. Apo. 17. 1. 18. Daniel and Iohn in the reuelation hath hue­ly paynred him out, 2. Thes. cap. 2 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. &c. Paul ioyneth vvith them, de­claring by the effectes, that it must needes bee hee; vvith vvhom the Church was threatned so long a­goe. 2. Thes. 2. 4. I am not ignorant that euery heretique, vvho setteth himselfe against the trueth of Christ, is after a sort an Antichrist, but the pope is this great An­tichrist, that must haue his seate in the Churche of God, must vsurpe his place, and must not be in the stie of the heathen, to bee soughte for among the This being prophesied of before cannot be intended of any singuler man: but of a company and state of men, because it shal endure till the comming of Christ. Turkes, Ievves or Paganes of the vvorld: but must spring and arise amongst his ovvne, And this is not any one man of the [...] of Dan, as the Papistes vvould haue vs to dream: but a company and estate of men, and therefore it is further called an Apo. 9. 12. 2. Kin. 21.Apo­stasie, that is to say, a falling avvay from the Fayth, And thoughe hee bee called the man of sinne, and the Sonne of perdition, yet this is not meant of any singular person, but of the effect or quallity, that shall bee in the vvhole state and companye of that Apostasie, in the continuall succession thereof, vvhich is not onely borne in sinne, as all other men are, but euen borne and made, to vphold and main­teine sin Though this be spoken of al in respect of original sinne, yet by a speci­al priueledge, it belongeth to this troupe of perdition. A man of Belial, vvho vvill [...] at liberty from all lavves and subiection, vvho (as Iob saythe) hath drunk in vngodlines as the fish hath don water who hath sold himself to sinne, & is the eldest sonne of the Diuel, that as Christe the onely sonne God, (vvho vvas freely giuen for the saluation of al that Iob. 15. Ephes. 4. beleeue in him) is the head of thē to gouern them, Rom. 1. to giue them lavves, and to enriche them vvith the righteousnesse of fayth reueled by the Gospell. So [Page] he might be the head of al the faithles, giuing [...] lawes directly contrary against Christ, leading them all to spirituall whoredomes, corruptions and al ab­hominations, to their vtter [...], as that apo­staticall sea hath done.

And though Saunders de visibili monar chia Ecclesiae. lib. 8 cap. 3. &c. Sanders labor his hart out, to proue Antichrist to be some singuler man, and no succes­sion of men, and reckoneth vp (as he saith) many [...] that we hold, strengthening this fly lighte, as a Plinie lib. 10. Nat [...] cap. 17. hauk, (because of the old friendship betweene the Owle and the Hauk;) yet the apostle Paul shall con­uince him, who calleth it (as I haue said) an Aposta­sie Auxiliatur Accipiter co­legio quodam naturae, bel­lumque parti­tur. a mistery, that albeit it began to work euen in his time, yet must be no otherwise vtterly destroied, thē by the comming of Iesus Christe: whose greatnesse must be built vpon the ruins of the Romane empire and Aug. lib. 20. de ciuitate dei cap. 19. must giue life to that wounded beast in the ree­difying Apo. 13. 15. 16. thereof: which thing besides that, the moste ancient writers do plainly confirm, the practise pro­ueth. For the Romaine empire fell by litle and litle, and this was builded vp and erected. For at the firste Chris. in epist. ad Thes. ca. 2. it vvas not so euident, it crept more closely like the yuy bush, till it had choked the one and gayned the Apoc. 17. 18. top of the other, vvhich euer since it hath helde and mainteined. And though at the first Rome, was cal­led the cheefe but of courtesy, because it vvas the seate of the Empire, yet afterwards by Antichriste, it obteined, to be chiefe by tyranny, and this by pri­uiledge thereof would also be vniuersall byshop in despight of Christ and al his pouerty, Fot looke how Ioh. 14.
1. Tim. 1. God sent his sonne into the world, for the saluati­on of his, Phil. 2. humbling himselfe euen to the death of the crosse, so is he sent into the worlde, for the de­struction [Page] & condemnation of mankind,, aduancing himself aboue al that is called God. These are such (as the Apostle sayth) that vvithal other here [...] turne [...] grace of God into vvantonnesse, & denie the Lord Iesus the only ruler. They are clouds with­out vvater, carried hither & thither by the wind, wi­thered Iude. trees, vnfruiful, tvvise dead and plucked vp by the roots: this vvhole body of Antichrist hath an y­ron forhead, & a brazen brovv, a crooked & a poi­soned tong. To vvhom the definition of sinne, Ioh. 3. agreeth in euery point both in false doctrine and corrupt manners; both being most contrary to the doctrin of Christ & his Apostles. For vvheras al our actions that must stand acceptable before god, must flovv from a true and liuely Rom. 10. faith, vvithout vvhiche it vvas impossible to please God: these men hath o­uerthrovvne the vvhole doctrine thereof, resisting that righteousnesle, that is made Rom. 1. manifest by the gospell, and thrusting in a patched and vveake righ­teousnes, stilted not vpon the lavv but vppon their ovvn deuised vvorkes. And therfore they vvant that same principal effect of fayth, vvhich is true loue, & haue in the place of it most sauadge and beastly cru­elty. Read the spanish [...], and the stories of Fraunce, Eng­land, Scotland and other countries. vvhose chiefe heade in his members, killeth, hangeth, burneth, drovvneth, pineth and pincheth Christians vvith all kinde of vnvvonted tormentes, more cruelly then euer did Phalaris or Nero, and that vvithout all couler of Iustice: vvhich is a plaine argument that Sathan the greate Belsire of the Ro­mane Antichrist, vvhose liuely image he bereth (for a goose can [...] no Ovvls egges) hath instructed him and [...] him to this office. And therefore sun­dry of the Popes, in this seat haue [...] familiar con­ference [Page] with the diuell their owne damme, and by his meanes they haue had their entrance, [...] themselues in magicall and deuilish arts. Volater in. Polych onic. For Mar­tine the second in the yeare of Christ. 882. atteyned to his Popedome by [...], and Mare histor. Ioh. Marius. Sergius, that [...] deuised candles to be born vpon Candle­mas day (as they call it,) and Agnus Dei to be sung tvvise at masse, after he had [...]. lib. 2. cap. 12 [...]. hegorten Iohn the 12. of that name, of an harlot called Marozia, daughter Anno 928. also to a Harlot I [...], kept by Iohn the 11.) he vvas so great vvith the diuell, that by his povver he [...] great myracles, & at length by the help of this honest vvomans husband; named Guido, her Sonne Iohn was made pope, and the other pitifully smothered vvith a Cushin at Saint Iohns in the pal lace at Lateran. VVhat should I speake of Octa­uian, called by the name of Iohn. Plat Sabellic Luitprand. 13. vvho vvas the sonne of Albericus, the son of the foresaid vvhoore [...], vvho kept such [...], that vnlesse the Di­uell himselfe had bene in his place, hee coulde not lightly haue gone beyond him; vvho vvas a Volater Plat. Ioannes Mari us Naucieru. commō dicer, a [...], a Theefe, a vvhooremaster, vvhome their ovvne authors call a [...] of men, accursed man, that put out the eyes of some of his Cardinals, Chronic. Si­gisb. Robert [...]. cut out their tonges, cut off their fingers handes and noses, lay vvith tvvo systers one after another, vvho in playing at dice desired the diuel to helpe him, de­flovvred Stephana his fathers concubine, a vvidovv called Rainer, and another named Anne: vvho war­red, [...]. lib. 6. burned, brake vp dores and vvindovves, dranke Capg in cata­logo Anglic. drunke and pledged the diuell. Volater. lib. 12. Platina. This vvas hee that Praemon­stratensis. did homage vnto Otto, and crouned him. but after­vvard plaied the Traitor vvith him: taking part with Albertus Berengatius his aduersary. This vvas hee [Page] that was in such a league vvith Negromancers, that Capg. in Ca­tolo. &c. Dunston that Familiar of the Diuels in Englande, who could hold the diuel by the nose vvith pinsons, was dear vnto him, vvhom he made an Archbishop at length, & yet the diuel in the ende gaue this Pope his [...]? for being taken in bed vvith another mans wife he was by her husoāde thrust to the heart vvith a dagger. Of Plattin a set­eth out the vvhole story fully. [...] second vvho was a student of Negromancie, and fetched avvay by the Diuell, I neede not to speake, the story is more ma­nifest, then that it can be denied. Supplemen­tum chronic. mare histor. [...] the 8. also appeared after his death on a blacke horse, (vvhether it vvere the diuel or no that carried him? [...] tempor. let Hovvlet and his companions iudge) to a Byshop an acquaintance of his, to whom he said, he was that Ioh. Marius. Rob Barnes. vnhappy Benedict, being in great torment, & shew­ed thē of an hidden treasure, vvhich til it vvas found he could neuer be quiet (though he had bene Pope) either in hell or in purgatory. Also Bucchinga­rus [...]. Benedict the ninth gaue himselfe vvholy to this study, and vvher­soeuer hee became, alvvaies hee carried a booke of [...] aboute vvith him, hee obtained his Popeship by this magical art, he sacrificed to diuels, and made vvomen to follow him into desert places by the helpe of the diuel, vvho vvayted vpon him in e [...] the Cardinal Si­gebert volat. the likenesse of a sparravv, Ther vvas nothing done in the vvorld (as they sayde though they lied) that was hidden from him: & after he had sold his [...] Carranza. as he vvas coniuring in the vvoods, the diuell vvhom he had serued, strangled him for his good ser­uice: he vvas seene [...] his death in the shape of a beare, sauing that his head and [...] vvere the heade and taile of an asse, because (as [...] yeelded the [Page] reason) hee liued vvithout reason, vvithout lawe, vvithout God. This vvas he vvho before vvas called Hildebrand. his life is writ ten by Benno the Cardinall. Marianus Sco­tus. VVhat should I speak of Blondus. Plat Othofr. and o­thers, say that Benedict vvas in the pallace at Lateran, Syluester and Gregorye, and Clement the second vvas e­lected the 4. Caranza. Gregory the 7. De [...] & obedi­entia. Vnam sanctā in glos­sa distinc. [...]. [...]. [...] in [...]. of Gregory the 12. that bought his popedom (for at this time Benedict, Syluester and Gregorye vvere Popes all at once; and I vvonder vvhich [...] the head of the church) of Ioh. the 21. of Alexander the 6. of Paul the third, and of al the rest of them, it vvould make a whole book of a great volume, to set out all their villanyes & vvickednesse, whereby they beare the liuely resemblance of their father, vvhom they serue in that [...] See of desolation. For they were and so are their successors as proude as the ci­uell, liars like himselfe, [...] as he is filthy, cruell and tirannicall, enemies to the glorious trueth of God, and to all righteousnesse.

And though this Antichrist come like an angell of light, that he may the rather deceiue, & his brood in sheepes clothing, to the ende they may deuoure, that their deceite and illusion may be the stronger, putting on most beautifull titles and glistering vi­zards, calling themselues Apoc 17. 18. most holy, most godly, [...] Lordes annoynted, yet are they the filthiest of all others, vomiting out Apoc 16. 16. blasphemies against the most highest. Let their stories be read, published to the vvorlde by their ovvne vvriters, that testefie their [...] abhominations. That this seate might fit Antichrist (as the Scripture [...]) an vvhoore Virgii. lib. 2. sitting vppon a beaste vvith seuen heades and [...] Georgic. Homes, moste liuely describing the Roma metro [...]. See and place Hanc olim ve teres. &c [...]. [...]. [...]. of Antichriste, vvhiche vsually moste interpreters both olde and nevve, expound of Rome hauing Vrbs, septi­colis se­uen [...] nate [...] illa [...] Roma. hilles, howsoeuer that corrupter of the Rabbies commentaries, [...] Aelianus the Italian hath [Page] vvith a kind of vvhiting, blotted such places quite out, in the last great Venice Byble: as that expositi­on of Aben Ezra vpon the eleuenth of Daniell, ver­ses 36. 37. 38: vvhere Damel mentroning the false God, he [...] it of the iniquitye of Rome, and so in diuers other places: I say not vvhether it be so fitly expounded yea or no, but of the trechery Chryso. hom. 40. in Mat. of this falsifier, that vvill haue nothing, to sound a­gaynst Rome, and yet it is certaine, that this state Bernard ad Eugenium. and citie, is that Apoc. 17. 18. beast, vvoman and vvhore, Read Lact. lib. 7. cap. 17. vvho comes in, vvith crueltie and ignoraunce, vvith deceaueable and entising vvordes, vvith pleasaunt sleightes and alluring colours, drawing the vvorlde to her spirituall vvhoredomes and idolatries. Polycr. Cax­ton, Marianus Scotus, Marti­nus Polonus Sabellicus [...]. 9. lib. 1. pag. 469 In vvhich seate that vvhore Pope Ioan, as a [...] testification thereof, vvhoe leyde her burden in the open streete betvveene the [...] heater Collossae and S. Clements Church; vvhich streete their Popes shunne euer since: although Harding and that [...] Saunders deny it neuer so impudently a­gaynst an [...]. tem, Mare historia­rum, Plat and a number be­sides. vvhole cloude of their ovvne Historio­graphers, and a monument of their ovvne in Rome, that beareth [...] of it, besides the, antiquitie of their Penes por­tam, Petri, Pauli, peperit, Papa, pater, patriae, paruu­lum puerum. tenne pees, and yet I say nothing of their Porphyrie stone. This is therefore that Apoc 17. 18. & 18. 9. Ioh. 17. vvhore Near the gate of Peter and Paul, the pope the father of the country brought forth a little childe. sitting vpon this beast, compassed vvith those hilles, that by her vvhorish prouocations must allure those blinde princes of the world, vvho set them selues agaynst Christ to drinke of the cup of her abhomi­nations, vvhoe muste be bevvitched and rauished vvith [...] braueries. [...] lights, and pompous shevves. This is that ionne of perdition, because he is a lost childe and of suche a curssed state as can not be sa­ued. [Page] For vvhome vvee must not pray, but ought to crye out against him, tyl our Sauiour destroy him by the breath of his mouth. Such a lost Iudas as neuer returneth, that betraith Christ vvith a kisse, entreth by craft, not as an enemy, but as a friend, by counter set keies, or else secretly like a thief. He is Actiue & pas [...] dicitur fi­lius [...]. said to be the sonne of perdition it selfe, from the nature of the [...] begate him, not onely because he is al­ready damned, but because hee shall dravve all his 2. Thes. 2. 4. 7. members, of vvhom he is head, to the same damnati­on. Hovv should it else euer haue bene saide, that, albeit he draw an infinite number of soules into hell vvith him, yet must not he be [...] of any. Plattina. [...]. His place is not among Paynims and Ethniques, but hee shal sit in the church of God: and albeit this myste­ry Anno [...]. of iniquity began to worke long before, euen in Confirmed by a Synod vnder [...]. 607. by 62. b. shops. the Apostles times, and fast after yet the time of his manifestation vvas, vvhen Boniface the thirde obteined by the meanes of Phocas, (vvho had mur­thered [...] & 3 deacons: Sy­nod. [...] vnder Con­stance Heracli [...]. his Master Mauritius,) the seate and name of [...] Byshop, vvhich Gregor lib. 40 & 32. 36. Gregorye his predees­sour had pronounced to belong onely to the fore­runner of Antichriste, the Father of the Sonne pride, and to bee the name of a verye Lucyser, re­fusing it him selfe, vvhich yet this [...] sought, kepte and continued, and so did all his successors, [...]. 40 [...]. 38. li. 7. [...]. [...]. 30 to the ende they mighte make vp that vvhole beast that [...] to bee throvvne into that [...]. And as before, this mysterye of iniquirye wrought by little and little in the corruption of true Doc­trine, in some pointes, so [...]. from time [...] time the contrariety, directly both against the Doctrine of Christ and his manners, shevved it selfe, that the [Page] name might best fitte him and agree vnto him. And therefore he is rightly called Antichrist because he [...]. in [...]. [...] 3. shall particularly oppose himselfe againste Christe our onely mediatour and sauiour. And as [...] in composition signifieth, For and agaynste, as [...]: Apoc. 16. 13. &c. 17. 3. 4. [...] is hee vvhich is in the Kings steede, or agaynst the King, so bothe [...] this agreeth of the pope Apoc. 3. 11. For that [...] is Christes [...], and yet setteth Apoc. [...]. 13. him selfe [...] Christe bothe in Doctrine, and manners. And though he do not this in plaine vvords, because he hath tvvo * hornes like a Lambe, [...] 4. 10. and yet a * dragons mouth: yet it is [...]; that hee counterfayteth, Leo the tenth said it to [...]. [...] [...] the Gospell but a fable, and vsing only die name and letter of it. for his gayne and aduantage * Christe came to fulfill: the lavves vvhich vvere ordeyned of his Father, Luk. 22. 42. the [...], [...] art 2 [...] caus. 15. [...] pope Mar. [...]. pope violateth [...], dispenseth [...] them, [...]. 2. 8. and altereth them at his pleasure. * [...] submit­ted Ioh. 18. [...]. him selfe to the [...] vvill of his father, * humbled [...] 6. 13. Luk. 12. 13. him selfe to the death of the Crosse, * declared his Mat, 17. [...]. kingdome not to be of this vvorld, * [...] vvhen they vvould haue made him king, * refused the decyding of cruill causes, * rendred obedience to [...] magi­strates [...]. the Pelag: dist. 21. cap. Pope challengeth of right to be Christs high and generall vicar, [...]. Nich. [...] 21. cap inferior. [...] him selfe [...] all soueraigntye and povver, Bulla Cle­mentis. [...] agaynste the very Angels, Dist. [...]. 3. 40 [...]. iustleth the vvoid of God, out of his Churches, & keepeth it lockt in a straunge [...] from the vnderstanding of the cōmō people, Non habet papa superio­rem. demeth al obedience, chalengeth both the [...], and medleth in all [...]. All that holde of him muste honour him, for Peters successor (though [...] be a [...] tat. 3. Distinc. Iudas and a theese, yet he must be the head of [...] 2. in her [...] at, 1370, [Page] Christes Church, & without [...] Glossa ex­trauag. de sede vacant. [...]. vndergoe the gouernement of it, which onely [...] to Christe. Maruel it is, how contrary they be to thēselues in so substantiall poyntes of their religion. For at other Decret de translat Epis­copi cap. times they affirme, that the spirite can neuer de­part from him, and then howe can he bee a thiefe Quanto. and a Iudas, and cary soules to hell? VVhatsoeuer 1. [...]. 5. ver. vlt. Christ requireth, it maketh no matrer, he admit­teth nothing, neyther must they, that is againste his prerogatiue, against his idolatrous Masse, traditions ceremonies and customes. *Christ will haue his children to beware of Idols: See Carolus magnus, Catharinus in libello de i­maginibus. The Pope will haue [...] in ca. 1. ad Rom. Sand. de Typ­hon. & adora imaginum. them placed & worshipped in euery Church. *Christ saith, you erre not knowing the scriptures: the Conci. Trid. ses. 4. de cano­n cis Scrip. pope & his adherents for him say, The scriptures breede errors, & that Harding in his ansvver to the challēge. ignorance is the mother of deuotion, Mat. 22. 29. that Hosius de [...] dei [...]. the people are swine and dogs, & holy thinges are not to be giuen vnto them, they are dumb Pighius in lo cis communi. [...]. lib. 1. cap. 2. Iud­ges, Eckius. dead ynke, a Hosius lib. 4. de tradit, & [...] Dei [...]. blacke gospel, [...] Roman distinct [...] ynken diuinity, & Cusanus li. 6. excitat vbi ecclesia. therefore the Church is the liuely Prierius contra [...]. brest of Christe. The [...] lus Hos vt [...]. [...]. Andr. [...]. 2. contr. [...]. Church of Rome may giue authority to wri­tings, which neither haue it of thēselues, nor of their Authors. The Andra. [...] 2 [...]. fables of Esope, & the comedies of Terence, may (if the Church will) be made Cano­nicall scriptures. [...] the Pope teacheth is the expresse word of God, & whosoeuer leaneth not to the doctrine of the [...] and of the Bishop of Rome, as to the [...] rule of God, of whiche the [...] taketh force and [...], hee is an Heretique, [...] the authoritie of the Churche is a­boue the authoritie of the Gospel. The Orth. [...]. 19. change of the Churches iudgement chaungeth Gods iudge­ment, [Page] and Gods commandement also. VVho can vvithout horror and trembling in all his ioy nts, [...] these blasphemies, which this man of sinne [...] himselfe & in his members, beleheth out against the maiesty of the moste highest: I meane Andradius [...], [...], [...], Pighius, [...], [...], Osorius, Melchior Canus, Harding, San­ders, and suche other bottomles locustes. Vaux. Cani­sius catechis­me printed at Antvverp by Plantine. In deede our new Iesuites, M. Censurer and suche like, vvho hath vndertaken Campions defence, and the rest of this nevv broode, they seeme to dislike this old rot­ten stuffe. For they professe knowledge, they seeme to take a course of Catechising, and laying foorth the principles of Popish religion, auouching the ne­cessity of being learned and taughte, so that Carbonaris fides, fides ecclcsiae ro­manae. Fides Romana, id est [...]. Hosius Collyers sayth, to beleeue as the Church beleeueth is scarce sufficient with them And yet al this helpeth not their cause, for that they refuse, to bee directed 1. Tim. 25. by the rule of fayth, vvhich is the onely vvorde of God.

* The doctrine of Christ acknowledgeth but one mediator, To the virgin Salua omnes qui [...] glorifi­cant. the Pope and papistes an infinite num­ber, Thomas [...] kets bloude is made a ladder to heauen. Christ teacheth that his doctrine is profitable, full, and absolute, to make the man of God [...]: The pope and his shauelinges saye it is not so, and 2. [...] 2 [...]. [...] Ro­ma [...], nu­gas dabit, ac­cipit [...], verba dat. [...] Romae, nunc sola pecunia regnat. therefore vve must receiue vnvvritten verities, tra­ditions, and vvhatsoeuer theire idle braynes vvyll thrust out vnto vs. The scripture sayth, * It is a more blessed thing to giue then to take. The Pope sendeth out his infinite svvarmes of begging [...], the very Locustes that came out of the bottomlesse pit, that deuour vp all that groweth vpon thearth, vvho take all and giue nothing. The number of Act. 20. 35. [Page] which Sectaries following sundry Sect masters and patrons, vvas long agoe amounted to Lambert in pre. The [...] of conformities in the begin­ning. 94. sundrye [...], beyond all vvhich the Iesuites now go, vvho seeming to professe more learning, [...], and righteousnes, are the greatest hipocrites, confirming their falfe doctrine vvith wonderfull illusions, which S. Clare. Brid­get. S. Kat. and our S. Kath. of Seene with all their goodly reuelations [...]. they call miracles, vvho yet are as emptie of trueth, godlines and vertue, as any of their predecessors, S. Frauncis that in most thinges was preferred before Christe: vvith vvhome Augustine, S. Clare, and S. Bridget by their disciples were matched, are now put cleane out of countenance, and their memories in a manner [...] blotted out, by these new repairers of that [...] church Christ taught that mariage was Ioh 2. 3. 5. lawful, he consirmed it, both by doctrine & myracle 1. Tim. 4. 1 Cor. 7. [...]. 13 vvith his owne presence: the [...] de [...]. [...]. 82 [...]. Pope and his greasie [...] condemn it as vnholy, and rather admitting whoredoome to their Clearks, and such as haue re­ceiued [...] marke, then this [...] remedy, they [...]. [...]. 1. [...]. di. 34 cap lector. giue thē a vvatch worde to walke vvarily. [...] otho licet ad [...] in [...]. [...] non [...], [...] caute. And though they vvill needes haue it a Sacramente, yet it defileth their Cleargy as a prophane thing, and is for them vtterly vnlawfull. And as the Pope in [...], and in an infinite num­ber of other pointes, the greatest and vvaightieste [...]. dist. 82. [...]. of [...] religion, [...] him selfe flatly a­gainst Christ, so do all they vvho hold of him, whom for that cause vve iustly call papistes.

The name [...], [...] S. Such holde this Antichrist the pope to be their onely Gods vicar in earth, they depende vppon him [...], [...] Saund. [...]. and all the [...] of [...]. as heade of the Churche, in whome they acknow­ledge the only direction and ordering of al Churche [...] to [...] throughout the vvorlde in all [Page] kingdomes Christus [...] coelo paesidet, papa in terris residet. and countries, and therefore [...] to the [...] of God, and the vvholesome lavves prouided in that behalfe; they shut out all Princes and [...] from hauing any thing to doe [...] those cases, they barre them from the [...] of their ovvne kingdomes, and from the most principall charge *that God hath layde vpon [...]. 17. 17. 18 19. 20 them [...] I cannot but maruayle at How­lets 3. Reg. 5. 2. slyp mentioned before, vvhere he acknowled­geth 2. Par. 1. the prince to be Hovvlet [...]. Gods [...]. But slip I thinke it vvas not. For he spake the trueth, vvith his tong and lied in his [...], [...] he singeth or rather whopeth in the ears of our gratious Nightingale, of obedience, and readinesse in the papistes, to laye dovvne their [...] in her [...], yet this vnhappie owl meaneth nothing lesse. For it is to be thought, [...] vvryte, that they ioyne with, [...], alias Ducket, executed the last of Iulie. 1581. A verve [...] and vvilfull [...] proueth this. [...] Hauns, [...] this other day, for his wicked treasons. The Lord giue her highnesse more [...] subiects to reioyce in, or else it were like to be vvrong vvith her, and vvith vs all, as it shoulde quickly appeare, I am afraid, if their povver vvere to their hearts, but God hueth and blessed be his name for that holy persuasion he hath giuen vs in his pro tection. And though he glaueringly calleth her the [...] of God, yet the gentleman vvhom he ex­tolleth for such rare modesty in the 42 leafe of his discourse, calleth this Antichrist the pope, Christes substitute, without all warrant & ground from him or his vvord.

These are such deadly enemies to God, that ma­litiously they Iacob [...] trac. de [...]. lib. [...]. vvithstand that doctrine of faith and [Page] uation, vvhich the eternall sonne of God taughte [...]. Tim. 2. here vppon earth, inseperably cleauing to that vile Idol of the Masse moste derogatory to his dignity. [...]. 7. 10. For vvhereas hee is our only high and euerlasting Rom. 6. byshop ordeined of God, vvho hath not spared [...] povvre out his life and bloud for our santisication, by offering vp one [...] sacrifice once for all. These ene­mies make it vnsufficient, vvithout effect and im­perfect, and pleade another righteousnesse to satisfy the vvrath of God, They pester the earth vvith ma­ny Sacrificers and priests, matching them vvith our sauiour Christ? They make them Peeres and com­panions Psal. 110. 4. with him, to offer vp sacrifices acceptable Heb. 15. 10. & 7. 21. vnto him, as vvell for the sinnes of the liuinge as the dead, making the Apostles and [...] ly­ers, and yet they confesse vvith Dauid, that Iesus Christ is an euerlasting Priest, according to the or­der of Melchisedech. VVherein they vvholly dis­aduantage them selues, seeing they must be Priests eyther according to the order Aaron and Leui, or according to thorder of Melchisedech. The Heb. 10. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. &c. order of Aaron and Leui had an ende vvith the ce­remoniall [...] and sacrifices thereof. And Christe vvas onely that high Priest vvho vvas euerlasting, offered vp a perfect sacrifice, stood not at the aulter, but hauing offered vp his ovvne body, beeing both the priest and Sacrifice, offering not for his ovvne sinnes, but for oures, hath entred into Heauen, and is set dovvne at the righte hande of the Fa­ther for euer, hauing finished a perfect voorke of this Priesthood for our full satisfaction and attone­ment. This vvhole crowde therefore, The Pope, Cardinals, Friars, Priestes, Iesuites, Massesayers, and [Page] [...], and all that delight in them, & con­sent vnto them: they are horrible enemies of God, [...] Prophetes, vvicked [...], Apostataes, VVolues, false pastors, Idolaters, [...], & execrable [...], murtherers of soules, renouncers of Iesus Christ, and his death and passion, false vvitnes­ses, traytors, the [...], [...], and robbers of Gods honor, and most detestable. For by this * sacrifice of Phil. 4. 18. Iesus Christ, al outward and visible sacrifices of any Heb. 13. 16. other priesthood before or after are abolished and made of no effect, except these sacrifices of * prayse Psal. 51. & thankesgiuing, of almes conteining the spirituall worship of the kingly priesthod which are perpetu­all amongst al Christians. In deede we must haue a hie * Priest, who muste bee holye, innocente, and Heb. 4. 4 & 26. without spotte, vvho needed not to offer vp day­lye sacrifices, firste for his owne sinnes, and after for the sinnes of the people, but [...] perfourmed [...]. 10. 12. 14 this * in offering vp himself [...] for al. He sayth once for [...], because neither it [...] the like should or could be reiterated. And therfore he is called the * [...] of Heb. [...]. 11. [...] thinges to come, [...] into the holy place, by his ovvn blood once for all, wher through was wrought euerlasting redemption & [...], [...] of sinnes. VVherfore vnlesse vve vvil renounce Iesus Christe, vve haue no neede of such sacrifices. * Behold I come, to thende to doe thy vvill O God, by the whiche Heb. 10. 7. 12. 15. 16. 17. vvill vve are [...], [...] the offering vp of the body of Christ once for al. The holy ghost witnesseth that in this new couenant, sealed and perfected in this one on­ly Sacrifice of Christe, that he vvil no more remember [...] iniquities: and vvhere there is remission of them, there remaineth no more oblation for sinne, The sacrifi­ces of the olde [...] by reason of their imperfection must be continued & dayly renued, but Christes of­fering [Page] ces of the old lavv by reason of their imperfection must be continued and daily renued, but Christs of­fering vp himself, finished a perfect worke, & his sa­crifice vvas persect. As for their sacrifices, they are imperfect, & therfore they continue & renew a sacri fice & oblation derogatorie to that of Christs, rob­ing God of his glory, & the people of their greatest comfort in this vvorld. D. Smith of the sacramen. [...]. & [...] of the re­all presence. They are suche enemies to God, that they ouerthrovv the trueth of all religion and draw vs to execrable idolatry, teaching vs vnder bread & wine to worship vvhol Christ whō they af­firm in a [...] presence most grosly & contrary to al the scriptures to be there present, against the truth of a body & notwithstāding his resurrectiō & assen­sion they say, that such a transubstantiation is made, as there remaineth no substance of breade & vvine, most contrary to the nature of a Sacrament, though the accidents remain: & as they are enemies to him in these grosse & monstruous doctrins, so their [...] hath another ende then the supper hath. For in the supper the seruanes of Christ * make publique pro­fession of their faith, they heare the word preached, 1. Cor. 11. 23 26. they vvitnesse their faithfull persuasion, & [...] of saluation, keeping an actuall memory of the death and passion of Iesus Christ, & [...] to remē brance his vvonderfull and vnspeakable loue, vvho hath giuen his life & shed his bloud freely for them, and all eating of one breade, and drinking of one cup; are admonished of that brotherly loue and great vnity wherby they are knit together, & liue and die to Iesus Christ, as one body in one and the same spirite: vvhereas in the masse the knowledge of Christ is defaced, the preaching of the gospell is re­iected, Durandi rationat. [...] see Ga­briel. Biel. the Pontificall. & the time is altogether spent in mockinges [Page] and movvings, turnings, and remouinges from one place to another, vvith an infinite number of fruitlesse superstitions and vvicked ceremonies, vvorse then euer those were that vvere inuented by Numa Pompilius, and dravvne from the Paganes. I could vvish in my heart that some young scholler vvould take the paines to translate their Pontificall into English, that al our countrimen might see their more then hethenish and mad customes and abho­minations, Alexand. ab Alexandr. lib. Ouid. de [...]. The making of their holiwater, with­out doubt, they learned of Ouid, as they did purga­tory of Virgil, & other their misteries frō other pro­phane Genialio. 40. cap. 17. Pagans and vvriters.

Suche enemies to God they are, that vvith the gentiles Rom. 1. 19. 20. 21. &c. they haue forsaken the liuing God, & cho­sen to themselues other forren Gods, made of met­tall, wood, & stone, potearth & bread, before whom they haue [...]; to which they haue praied, which they haue adored & vvorshipped, kissed, crept to, & embraced, making their vile priests creators of their Creator. For if he be greater that maketh and crea­teth, then that vvhich is made and created, it must follovve that their dignitie muste needes be more then Gods, that that place of Scripture may iustlye fit them, vvhich saith: That 2. Thess. 2. 7. that man of sinne, [...] himselfe [...] all that is called God. And if euery prieste be greater then God, vvhat is he that createth such creatures, as can make God? In deede, if this vvere true, they are far aboue the virgin Mary, vvho bore Sacerdos est creator sui creatoris. Qui creauit me si­ne me, iam creatur medi­ante me. him but once, and they make him often. Shee vvas his mother as he was man, but they make him as he is both God and man. vvhich is horrible blasphemy: And therefore their ovvne massebooke saieth In the title do dignitate sa cerdotum in a masse booke printed at Paris. that the priest is the creator of his creator, And he that made me with [Page] out me is novv made by the meanes of me.

Such wretched enimies to God they are, that Ioh. Andreas Innocentius. Ioh. de turre. cremata, de ec cle Summa. their sayth hangeth altogether vppon Antichriste their God, vvhome they make not onely a God of the hilles, but also of the vallies. They beleeue nothing but that which he alloweth, as for Christe his Euan­gelistes, Apostles, and teachers, they make no rec­koning of them in Lanfr. con­tra VVickle­fum Lepus. respect of their Popes lawes and constitutions: he See their ca­sus [...]. that can dispence with them & a­gainst them, must needs be aboue them. And Hochstratus. Eckius in his Enchiridion. Hosius de ex­presso dei. ver­bo. ther­fore their doctors teach that to cleaue to the scrip­tures Laurentius. Ockam in dia logo par. 1. lib. 5. Ioan. is to be an heretique. Suche enemies to God they are, as are marked vvith Caynes lying, cru­cltye and murther, bothe agaynste the Lavve of Dreido de Dogmatib. vari s. lib. 4. GOD and man, See the stori­es of their go­uernment, the book of mar­tirs, Spanishe inquisitio. &c. For they haue murthered Chri­stians, vvithout all compassion, they keepe no faith nor promise. No nature or kindenesse maketh them spare vvhere hatred is [...] againste the trueth, no age sex or condition, dravveth any pittye, be they old or young; halte or blinde; with child or without, brother or father, sister or mother, wife or kinsewo­man, husband or friend, at home or abroad, Sonne or seruant, but they shal be sure to die a cruell death for it. Al stories are full of examples of their sauage and outragious cruelty, not only against the profes­sors of the trueth, but euen one of them againste a­nother, example is yet freshe in memory of Iuly. 18. 1581 Sher­vvoodes [...] againste Hobson; one of his deareste friendes: Iohn Diazi­us Pantalio in his Chronic. Sleyd an. Chrisp. muche like the vvicked Trea­son of Alphonsus against Iohn Diazius his own na­tural brother, besides infinit examples in these mur­thers in Fraunce, in the inquisition of Spaine full of hideons tormentes, which shall vvitnesse the trueth [Page] hereof to all posterities. This howling owle notwithstanding (by his bolde flight prognosticating some mischeefe) scricheth in her maiesties eares, of the hard handling of Catholikes, how they Hovvlet. pag 5. 6. are tossed and tumbled, opmrisoned and pined, husbandes seperated from their vviues, vviues from their husbands, their houskeeping broken vp, & by name, M. Dimock killed in prison, & one mystresse. Tomson a virgin sent for religion to [...]: [...] what shal I say, In imbre garrula est noctua. This foolish owle complai­neth of case, slaundering her maiestie, to vvhome he vvoulde seeme so dutifull: and her vvhole gouern­ment and state, of barbarous cruelty: when the tres­passe in deede is onely herein, that they are dealte vvith but to gently, considering their continuall at­tempts against her highnesse estate, crounc, and dig­nity. Concerning M. Dimocke his ovvne friends hath testified this to be true. M. Dimock of whom he speaketh he had the chusing of his ovvne prison (vvhiche was no choking dungeon, no Colehouse or [...] tower, (such as they were wonte to stifle men vp in) but a friends house, to vvhome his vvife (if he had a­ny) friends, and other acquaintance repaired, vvhos death vvas by Gods hande and by no procurement of those magistrates, that sought his reformation as his ovvne friends can vvitnesse. As for the yong womā vvhō he cōplaineth to be cōmitted Bridevvell a fit place for M. [...], that behaued her selfe im­modestly be­fore aucthori­ty. to bridevvel for her conscience forsooth, if conscience may be without knowlege she was cōmitted by her highnes high comissioners to a place, both for aire & ex­pēce, that vvas thought [...] for her person, & [...], hauing behaued her selfe, ouer obstinatly and immodestly [...] a sober [...], hovvsoeuer vvorthy her religion, before them. And yet this per­king Parsons or ovvlishe [...] needs be so, out of his [Page] yuie bush might haue lerned, that honester then she Diuers that vvere of the priuate church were committed to that place till they vvere re­formed. and al the pack of them vvil euer be, except they a­mend & hie them apace, haue bene cōmitted to that place, both for religiō & other causes, as som others haue bene for dishonesty & an il life. Ther haue bin such cōitted thither, as he cōplained of before, that they escaped with litle or no punishment for break­ing the booke. It is not the place but the cause that putteth off or draweth on an infamy. But her maiesti may see, & so may al the honorable, the malepertnes of this vgly ovvl, that is so curious in cōmonvvealth matters, that he prierh into her highnes officers do­ings, & hauing so slāderous a toung, pretendeth not vvithstanding such loyalty and duety tovvardes her highnes. But if vve had bene in their handling, vvee should haue had little leasure and lesse oportunity to haue opened our griefes before any Soueraignty in authority. For besides that they vvere in trueth the practisers of tyranny and cruelty in al other doings, they vvould haue dried vp the best bloud in our bo­dies, and sent vs to heauen in fierye chariots: after vnspeakable torments, to haue put an ende to our wretched liues. Their consciences forsooth may not be vrged, nor their catholikes may not bee allowed Conscientia non fine scien­tia. to obey their prince in comming to the Church, to heare the vvorde of God preached, the onely ordi­nary vvay to reforme them, and to bring them to saluation: tender regard must be had of the sex and byrth of their offenders, (& yet this vvoman vvhom he vvil needes make a great gentlevvoman is but a francklins daughter) though they offende obstinate­ly both agaynst God and their Soueraigne, vvhom they ought to obey in and for the Lorde, and that [Page] vvhen they offend against the vvoorde of God, the peace of the churche, and the good lavves of this Realme. Not so muche as a little imprisonment (in steed of death, being founde obstinate and vncorri­gible, and lightly ioyned vvith treason agaynste the state) but it must be exclaimed against, as if they had endured the greatest vvrongs in the vvorlde: vvhen it is plaine, and yet fresh in memory, Se the lamen table stories of England, France, Irelād &c. vvhat hauocke they made of the liues of noble and vnnoble, of blinde and lame, of boies & gitles, euen before their counterseite sentence of condemnation vvere past, and yet it vvas for true religion in deede, and but for standing against their blasphemies and curssed ido­latries. your opinion and religion (Hovvlet) must be reserued, but to them that did vvith a true know­ledge allege that plea of conscience, you vvere and are continually ready to abuse that place of Scrip­ture: Rom. 13. Let euery soul be subiect to the higher povvers, &c. yea, you vvoulde vrge it in all thinges vvith all extremitye and vvithout all condition in re­specte of your selues vvhen yet it mighte not binde you nor any of your greasy generation, & this maye appeare by the cold expositiō foūd of late by search in a gentlemans house, in Buckinghamshire, vpon this very place, together vvith another slaunderous, lying, and seditious libel against those godly learned men, M. Doctor Fulke and M. Charke.

Suche enimies they are to God, that they vvill bring the vvorde of God into doubt, [...] affirming the Churche to bee more auncient then the vvoorde. They vvill aske hovve [...] knovve the vvorde of God to be the vvorde of God. And albeit (God bee thanked for it) concerning the knovvledge of those [Page] tongs the As Daniel in the Chaldey, & some other vvere in Syri­ake, al the rest in Hebrue and Greeke. Hebrue, Chaldey, Syriack, and Greek, in vvhich the Scriptures were first deliuered, frō which they would faine beate vs, if they haue gayned any thing, they haue had it at our handes, [...] their light from ours, yet they vvill svveare that our [...] are false, & lead vs to a translation Reade Freder. Furi­us de lib. sac­ris in verna­culum conuertendis. fathered vpon Hierome, which we must receiue euē as it is, that yet in deed they can neuer proue to haue bene any of his, seeing in his ovvne works, the The com­mon translati­on fathered vpon Hierom, non of his as may appeare in his ovvne vvorks. difference is plaine in many places, from that of [...], vvhiche is ful of Solicismes & imperfect speeches; Notwith­standing euen by this, when vve haue accepted of it, and haue fought vvith them, their own throtes haue bene cut, as vvith their ovvne svvoord, and the er­rors See Marcus Marinus in his preface prefi­xed before his Hebrue Gram­mer. vvhich they maintein haue ben confuted, whē they hane admitted it. I think they vvil aske shortly, hovve we know there is a God, as the prophet hath sayd of the vvicked, vvho thogh they vvere ashamed to vtter it, yet * thought they in their harts that there was no God. But that you may consider further of the translation, to which that Concil. Trid. Ses. 4. conspiracy of Trent hath taken vpon them to bind all the vvorld, vpon pain of their Psal. 14. black [...], vvith what good reason, I vvil set down a fevv testimonies and places. There vvas a very an­cient booke in Hebrue, vvhich is entituled vvith­out the authours name, [...] in [...]. [...]. Nizahon, vvho vpon that psalm. The heauens declare the glory [...] God. witnesseth that vvhen Hierome did [...] that psalme at Rome he saide that he had turned the Byble with great trauel out of the [...] tong into latin, neither did I alter any thing (sayth he) but ther arose after him (as the author saith) such as with writing it out, [...] all And in Reuclines library also, being a great lear­ned man in that tongue, there vvas found in a very auncient hebrue coppy written, vvhich had these [Page] wordes, Loe Hierome the elder knew our whole [...], the whole [...] &c. VVhat likelihoode is there, that [...] being so learned a man in all the tongues, his ovvne translations being so far different from Read in Cal­uin [...] in Con cil. [...]. [...] 4. Canon. that cōmon translation, that a litle after carried his name, vvhich himselfe oftentimes taxeth and findeth faulte vvith in his vvorks, that euer [...] should be his, vvhere a man Read [...] in Concil. for his life in sundrye places can make neyther rime nor reason? as farre from the tongue vvherein Trident. it vvas vvritten, as might be. And this [...] diuers of the Doctors many times into such [...], who vver either altogether ignorant, or but meanly seen in the tongs, that they knew not which way to turn them, as namely [...] Ci­uitate Dei lib. 18. cap. 44. Augustine: vvho doubted vvhe­ther it vvere vvithin the space of forty dayes, ac­cording to the Hebrue, that the Niniuites should be destroied or vvithin three daies, as that translation fathered vppon the Septuaginta had rendred. And yet, he saith, if his opinion should be asked: he rather thinketh it to be forty, as is in the Hebrue. So Hie­rome in his Epistle to Damasus, iustly taxeth Hilari­us for interpreting that vvord Hosianna, vvhich hee rendreth the redemption of the house of [...]. And Am­brose almost after the same manner. In [...] in the primatiue Churche, the Greeke tong so flourished that it vvas the moste common tongue thorough out the vvorld, hovvsoeuer the Romanistes boast of the latine, vvhereuppon it came to passe that euen the Euangelistes and other ecclesiasticall vvriters, liuing both at Ierusalem and Rome, in the vvritings of the olde testament rather vsed the greeke inter­pretation, then the hebrue founteynes themselues. And it cannot be denied hovvsoeuer there may bee [Page] defence made for that interpretation that goeth vn der the name of these 70. both for the antiquitye of it & for their vvonderfull paines, vvho labored in it, yet that it is farre more safe to haue recourse to the The best way euermore to goe to the fountaines. founteines themselues, vvho euer denied but suche obstinate enimies? Is it not euer safer for men to looke vvith their ovvne eyes, and to goe vvith their owne feete then vvith other mens? And if any man shall obiect that they might change many thinges by the spirite of prophesie, besides that it vvas long ago confuted by Hierom, vvho affirmed that it vvas one thing to doe the duety of an enterpreter, ano­ther of a prophete; this also is to be considered, that vve must not be ouer bold vvith the vvord of the al­mighty. For albeit vve may & ought to labour pre­cisely to interpret it, yet it becōmeth no mortal mā to take vpon him, to alter, ad, or deminish any thing in that euerlasting vvord of God. And if they beare no excuse that dravvn vvith an excessiue loue of the greek that then most florished, & was most general­ly receiued, faulted: hovve shal they be excused that thruste a Lattine translation vppon vs that hath a number of vvantes, vvhiche hauing beene often shevved them, yet they vvould neuer vouchsafe to amend any, and is full of imperfections, yea contra­ry to their ovvne Decret. Ca­no 1. [...]. 9. Canons, vvhich shevv vs that the credite of the ancient bookes is to bee examined from the Hebrue volumes, and the nevve from the Greeke. And therefore Pagninus in [...] gramat. Hebr. Pagnine a learned Hebritian vvisheth that they could shevve him Hieroms tran­slation. For that saith hee, vvhiche is reade euerye vvhere in his name, is non of that incorrupt trāsla­tion, & that he hath proued by many vnansvverable arguments in his Epistle to Pope Clement himself. [Page] And therefore another graue man sayth, that it can not be proued that euer the church of God oughte to be bound to any certaine translation. But as the Lord in mercy shall encrease and continue that ne­cessary The gift of toungs neces­sary in the church. gifte of the knovvledge of tongues in his Churche, and shall giue light and vnderstanding, so vve ought euermore to repaire to the founteines, & that vve may be fit for so excellent a vvorke of the ministery of the vvorde it is a necessary laboure to learne to vnderstand it, in it ovvne language, vvhich vvhilest men haue neglected, we see hovv by the [...] indgement of God, they haue [...] into palpable darknesse. I wil omit the Psalmes as they are sung in the popish churches, & diuers other places in sun­dry lessons moste absurd, in euery popish pie and ser uice booke of theirs yet extant. For to reckon them all, vvoulde make a iust volume, and vveary a man. Onely let this be marked, that as Hierome noteth the corruption of the Greeke interpretation of the seuenty interpretors, vvhich eyther came through ignorance, or negligence, or both, so the common translation, done by an vn knowne aucthor, drawne from them, strayeth further. The Greeke I will passe ouer, and only note some fevv places out of the lat­tin, sufficiētly cōuincing the translatiō that is, to be none of Hieroms, because it differeth so much both from the Hebrue & the Greek, as in the 65 Psal. ver. 11. where he saith thou shalt water the riuers, in sted of the furrowes. & in 68. Psalme verse 19 day and daily, in steed of daily, and in the 87. [...] vers. 6. there is read, Nunquid de Syon, vvheras [...] is nei­ther in the Hebrue not Greeke, and so there he saith Many were, For many vvere borne in her, and in the [Page] 88, Psalme vers. 14. Lord vvhy doest thou reiect my prayer, for my soule. The places are infinit and haue bene found fault vvith by many, and yet neuer mē ­ded by any, onely somtimes, they set the trueth in the margent, but they keep the errors stil in the text vvhich shevveth their malic, as in the article refer­red to the seede, and vvhich is masculine, yet that [...]. [...]. they may mainteine their error, they keepe the ar­ticle feminine and vvould haue it vnderstood of the Luk. 15. virgine. So for [...] domum shee svvepte the house, they keep euertit domum, she ouerthrevv the house, & 1. Pet. 4. 23. He cōmitted himselfe to him that iud­geth vniustly, referring that vnto Pilate, if it haue a­ny sence, vvhich the Apostle meaneth to god For it is contrary. He committed him selfe or his cause to, God to him that iudgeth iustly. These & a nūber of such absurdities there are, some noted also by diuers greate learned men, vvherof I make no mention, & yet forsooth they vvill haue vs onely bound to this cōmon translation and no other. VVe say notvvith­standing, that vve are so farre from condemning the labours of those 70. interpreters, vvosocuer they vvere, that [...] thanke God for them: vvherein they haue done well, we praise their industrie, and so doe vve, the labours of him that did that common tran­slation, and theirs also that since [...] rendred any thing either out of the Hebrue or Greeke, but ther­vvithall vve affirme vvith Hierome, that if any que­stion arise amongst the lattines concerning the new [...], or if the copies vary, vve must go to the [...] of the Greeke, or if any doubte occure vvith the Greekes, we must to the Hebrue, read Au­gustines councell in his booke de doctrina Chr [...]. [Page] lib. 1. If this course had ben held, since God gaue en­crease of knovveledge from the beginning, many [...] had bene amended, and the papists vvould not haue ben so obstinat in that vvhich they cannot de­fend, but it is the proper nature of these [...] of God, still to vpholde errors, neuer to acknovvledge their [...] and faults, [...] the children of God are [...] ready to amend that vvhich is amisle, and to be thankfull to them that admonish them.

Such enemies they are to God, that they ioyne and participate vvithal the heretikes that euer vvere in one pointe of heresie or other. They haue no­thing sound in the vvhole masse and body of their religion. From Satan the subtil serpēt, vvhose eldest Euagr. lib. 1. hist. cap. 21. sonne this Antichriste is, he carrieth his fathers re­semblaunce in all things. The Epiphan. lib. 2. tom. 1. Adamites vvere beastly, againste marriage vvente naked, vsed all Iohn [...]. Campégius pighius. kindes & Sexes in common and [...], as vvee read the frantique Annabapristes did likevvise, and hovv [...] off are they from these villanies? Pope Crantius lib. 4. cap 43. Leo the 9. and Paschall, the one in the yeare 1150. the other 1100. ioyne both together in the con­demnation of marriage. Agrip. art. 21 [...]. [...]. 22. & [...]. 16. vt habetur in cap Si concubina desent excom & gratia. 34. dist [...]. 40. Their ovvne diuines teach their priesthoode to be defiled vvith marriage, but not vvith harlots, yea, that it is [...] to playe the [...] then to marrie: It is [...] for a Christian man, vvho hath not a vvise, to haue a concubine, Neither doe [...] forsvveare incon­tinencie but matrimonie. This is the cause that the Pope taketh a [...] of his Priestes for their concubines, and in [...] they Ioh [...]. 34. Christia­nos. haue any or no, they paye their [...] for it. And [...] Agrippa Bale [...] Six­ti [...] lib. de Rom. Pont. vitis. Syxtus buylded Stevves for bothe [Page] kindes, like an horrible monster, in the yeare of Christe 1474. Herein they likewise ioyne vvith Irenaeus lib. 3. Tatianus, Montanus, and Carpocrates, for they Tom. 3. [...]. lib. 2. Tom. 1. [...]. confu. 162. & [...]. mayntein the [...], tollerate vvhooredome by [...] lib. 8. bulles and licences, yea [...] in Alphonso. they preferre Sodomitrie [...]. and filthy buggery, before that holy remedy of ma­riage in their priestes, vvhich God hath appointed sor a remedye to all that haue not the gifte of [...]: and therefore Paul the thirde, besides, his com­mon Mant. 2. fast. reuenevve sor forty fiue thousande whoores, Sipudor in vil [...], [...] pati [...]. [...] paying forty thousand duckets in Rome, he had also as some report; forty thousande ruffians [...] iam tota [...] nar. [...] de Clamangis de corrupto ec­claesiae statu Constitut. O­thonis. de con cubinis cleri­corum remo­uendis. Bucer. kept vppon their charges at an houres vvarning, to do him any kinde of seruice. For euery one of these harlots had a champion to keepe her house, & to be her speciall desendant, vvhatsoeuer other incōmers there vvere besides. And though Parsons, Nichols discouerer defends both the stevvs and the stipends arising to his vnholy holinesse for them, vnder the name of a punishmente, yet vvho seeth not that it is tollerated vpon this condition, and matrimonie cannot be tollerated in priestes, vppon any condi­tion. Ioh. Filius. vegerius. Ochi nus. [...], Anselmus. Mark. 10. 4. The [...] taught the putting awaye of mens vviues for any cause, and so in a manner doe they. For the pope will dispence vvith any, Error, condi­tio, votum, co gnatio, crimē: cultus, [...], vis, or­do, ligamen, honestas: si sit affinis, si forte coire nequibit and Driander. there are tvvelue [...] alleadged, such as the scrip­ture [...] aproued off, why mē may put away their wiues. The [...] vvoulde haue the vse of o­the mens wiues, adultery and sornication to bee an indifferent thing, and so Ioh de Tur. Crem Laurent. will they, For they teache that simple fornication is no sinne, and though M. [...] slaunder Luther for pleading the [...] [...] lib. 1. cap 38 [...] de Sanc. Vict. par. 2. Distinct. 34. [...] qui. [...] cap 17. [...]. de [...]. [Page] of marriage, as much as of eating and drinking, yet they say in deed; it is lawful to haue a woman once in a moneth, Thomas A­quinas. sent. lib. 3. ad de [...] renes, to purge the reynes. I would haue seene lusty, Campion to haue beene as diligent in [...] the manifest abhominati­ons of their [...] and Canonistes, as hee is to corrupt Luthers sayings, and to dub that whiche before vvas dispr oued, and neither coldly nor fear­fully defended. But they and their complices haue [...] vvhole bookes Iason pra­tensis. printed 1549 by Petrus A­retinus at ve­nice, vpon vvhich booke [...] there haue bene written com­mentaries and many filthie pictures prin­ted there. de ratione [...] liberos: de [...] concubandi, and Ioannes a Casa an Arch­bishoppe, hath vvritten a booke in the prayse of filthy Sodomitrie, calling it a diuiue vvoorke. Hor­rible vvere it to read the bookes of these lecherous Locustes, to see vvhat questions and Summa An­gelica de ca­sibus consci­entiae. cases of plexitie they put and take vppon them to handle concerning these things, were it not the iust iudge­ment of God, that they should bevvray their filthy heartes, and leaue suche dung behinde them to in­fect the vvorlde, which is to bee cast in their ovvne faces to choake them, seeing vvithout shame they vvill dare to open their mouthes against the euer­lasting trueth of God. It vvere an infinite vvoorke to reckon vp all their heresies, but this is certaine Lut. Cortez in lib. 3. sent dist. 3. Thomae [...]. that the vvhole lumpe of popery is compact of he­resy. They are Iudasses vvith Iudas, vvhome they vvorship for betraying Christ. They are Ievvs vvith the Ievves, vvhome they iustifie for killing Christe, and they plead that they had sinned deadly, if they had not done it. They vvorship the [...] vppon vvhich [...] died, the nayles, thornes, [...] and instruments vvhere vvith he vvas executed, of which they make as sundry Idols, as they haue increased the number of such [...] reliques in sundrye [Page] countries. And to the crosse they haue dcdicated a day, [...] it holy roode day, vvhich they vvorship [...], the [...] worship which belongeth to [...]. VVith the [...] they agree almost in all things in [...] separation, apparell, pride, & [...] vvishings, obseruations, & ceremonies, doing [...] things like [...], to be seene of men, & [...] for [...] then to be [...] & iustifi­ed [...]. of [...]. VVith the Saduces some of them haue [...] the [...] of the soule and the life to come, [...] did [...] hist. [...]. c. Iohn the 23. and Pope Leo the tenth, and as they saied, that it vvas in our vvill to doe good [...]. so do they [...], that a man [...] and [...]. needeth not the grace of God to be good. The [...]. Essees, the [...], [...], Melitans, Donatists, [...], [...] and Iusticiaries, vvould be saued [...]. [...]. 2. [...] de [...]. by their ovvne workes, and so vvill they. Simon Ma­gus as they them selues take him, vvas one of their first founders, for besides that he vvas a sorcerer, hee vvould haue bought the giftes of the holy ghost, and so Mant. lib cal Read Platina & your ovvne [...]. would they of whomsoeuer they lerned it. For as [...] Irenaeus lib. [...]. Syluester the second, Ioh. the 19 Ioh the 20. [...] the 4. [...] the 8. Ioh. 21. [...]. 9. [...] the 3. [...]. lib. 6. [...]. [...]. [...]. Gregory the 6. & [...] the 7. were sorcerers & cō [...]. multis [...] cis. [...]. so they make no conscience to buy and sell their orders, and [...] all their places by mony f [...]. from the [...] to the lowest hedge prieste. VVith [...] they [...] a new [...], and [...] de turre [...] as [...] the [...] and Tatians ho'd that Christ vvas [...] the virgin Mary: So they hold that all [...] tooke flesh of the virgine Mary, and came and [...] Hel. VVith [...]. [...]. [...] they [...] vvater, waxe, Palmes, bread, wine, and [Page] many other things, as may appear by their own Pō ­tificall, with the Gnosticks they mainteine Cliutoueus de venerat. images, with Montanus they comād superstious fastings, & Gaspar Rutlā ­dus. forbid meates that God hath cōmaunded to be re­ceiued with thanksgiuing, with Cerinthus they cor­rupt Saunders de Typ. ador. imag. 1. Tim. 4. the scriptures, with Marciō & apelles they vrge vncōmāded ceremonies, with the Ande ans, & An­thropomorphits, they make God like an old man, & with the gentiles they make images of al sorts, of foursooted beasts & creping wormes, with Dona­tists, thei tie the vniuersal church not to a part of the world, as they did to afftick, but to a lesse place, euen to a citye, & both with thē, with the Anabaptists & Pelagians, they maintein free wil. They offer to the virgin Mary & cal her the Queene of heauen, as did the Colliridians, with the Cataphrigians and others who held that Christ ascended without a body, they The heresies are knovven & vvhen they shevv a diffe­rence, they shall receiue an ansvvere. hold that, that body is stil in their rouud cake, and in infinite places at once. And as Seuerus sayd that a vvoman vvas the Diuels vvorkmanship, and man also from the nauill dovvnward. So Pope Innocent the 8. auouched that they that vvere married coulde not please God, aleadging that place Qui in c [...] Deo placere non possunt. VVith Manes they make them selues Christe and aboue him. VVith the Catharists they boast of a perfection in this life, & of such wor­thincsse as deserueth heauen both for them selues and others, agreeing vvith Henrye Nicholas that Arch-heritique, that monstrous head of the frantike Familie of Loue, who peruerteth all the scriptures, and glorieth of an essentiall righteousnes. VVith the Bullinger ad­uersus [...]. Anabaptistes, they deny maiestrates, by cutting thē of from the principall part of their office, & gouern­ment [Page] in their ovvn [...], & countries, making thē hogges & swine in cōparison of their Pope, and his annointed ones, to whom no knowledg of god, nor duety in aduancing Christian religion doth belong.

Such enemies they are to God, as directly set themselues against all the commandements of God not only breaking them, as all other men do, when they say notwithstanding they can fulfill them (as o­ther [...] haue done) but in the vvhole course of their doctrine quite thvvart and ourthrovv them.

In They wor­ship many gods. steed of one God the soueraine & only Lord, vvho is onely to be worshipped, called vpon, trusted in & praised for al his benefits, they set vp a number Exod. 3. 14. & 20. of gods exceeding the [...] gentiles, robbing God of his glorye, Euery disease must haue a seueral Deut. 4. 35. & 6. 4. God both in men & in beasts, & must be called vpō with a paternoster for the cure therof, beside the abo minable Durand. In­nocent de of­ficiis [...]. [...], that was made a salue for all soares, that being first had, must prosper al the seers, helpe hūters, purge pigges and preserue hogs, cause rain & Guydon de monte Roch. faire vvether, deliuer out of purgatory & direct gene rall coūcels. VVhat was it the masse coulde not doe. And yet least there should be lacke for any thing, not so much as the toothake, but it had a saint Apo­linari This is mani­festly to bee seene through out all their bookes. & Valentin was for louers, S. Loe for smithes: Chrispiā & Martin, sor shomakers, Nicholas & Cle­tus for clearks, George for warriers & for England, Andrew for Scotland, Denis sor Frāce. Iames or Iac Saints offices many, all rob­bing God of his glory. ques, for Spain, & Patrike for Ireland. There was no town, [...], priuate house or country, but they had a sundry saint patrō or God, vpō whō they chiefly de­pēded. Read the Be­hiue. foi. 252. 253. 254. Euery church and church stepeple must beare the name of one S. or other, or of al Saints that they [Page] might match the old idolaters, who had their Paulus Diac. Lib. Ceremo, niarum. Pan­theō at Rome, & vvhich was more grosse, their stin­king reliques must be sought to, not so much as Hu­berts key, but must haue the vertue to heal the biting Legenda aurea Rom Breuiar. of a mad dog, & vpō relique sunday the Parsōs brich must be hanged out at the top of the steeple. These Pontifical. detestable idolatries buried in the darke, & scatrered amongst al christians by the light of the gospel, this Hoc est viris auibus quod noctua. &c. horsce owl that seemeth to the birds another won der, & certein other impudent Iesuites from Rome, that they may intangle many in the lime tvvigges, Eglog. 9. and bring them to the spitte of vtter destruction, labour to reuiue, & bring againe from hell, amongst vs. [...] it can not be, but portende some notable mischiefe, that this Parsons Owle, or rather Alexander ab Alexandro Ob bubonem aut [...] Cellum Iouis aut Ca­pitolium in­gressum Sul­phuris & quae lustratione vr bem & Capi­tolium expia­runt. vvolfe should thus [...] into Iupiters Cell, and into our highest Capitolium to schriche and howle so ylfa­uouredly in the eares of our Prince for the maynte­nance of cursed Idolatrie against the trueth of God. But I trust, though vve haue not that olde sacrifice of the Romanes, neyther vse brimstone or holy­water from vvhom those Popish Apes learned such toyes, to purge our cities and temple, yet vve shall cleanse it by a better purgation.

Thongh Images for­bidden. God haue forbidden Images to be set in the temple, that Idolatrie might be auoyded that they might not be as snares to corrupt men, vvho Exod. 20. Deut. 4. 12. are prone and apt vnto it, as beeing too vile and in­sufficient Esai. 41. to set him out by: vvhoe is a spirite, al­mightie, Io. 5. 21. incomprehensible, full of all maiestie and glory: yea, though Christ be God and man, and must haue a spirituall vvorship, so that no Image can set him out and beare his resemblaunce, yet ra­ther [Page] then they vvil not haue *God the father like an Abac. 2. 18. &c Iames praied to [...] staffe, & there­fore we must pray to Ima­ges. old man, decaying in nature with a vvhite bearde, and a balde head, and haue a Roode of sixe foote long in euery churche, they vvill quite leaue oute this Epist. Adrian Act. 2.second commaundemente, and because they Read the trim arguments in that 2. Nicen Councel, and you shall see good stuffe. vvould not be taken vvith the manner, all the world knowing that there be ten commandementes, they are fayne to vse this bad shift, to chop and slice the last into tvvo, God hauing made it but one, yea hovvsoeuer the heauen The name of God holy.of heauens cannot contein him, neither dwelleth hee in temples made vvith handes, yet these enemies of his, vvil bring him into Horrible blas­phem ie. the compasse of the earthe, they vvill dreame of a See Vauses Catechisme & others that commonly leaue it out, One printed at [...] by the com­mandement of the King of Spaine. breaden God, vvherein vvhen wormes breede, they will cruelly burne him vvith fire: in despite of God [...] vvil worship these images, vvith the same wor­ship that belongeth to the holy trinity, whome they feigne to speak, to sweate, and to do great [...]. The name of God holy. Though the name of God be precious, and to be honoured of al his children, yet these enemies vvill svveare in vaine by him, and because all their reli­gion is carnal, & they imagine of God, as they paint Tho. Aquin­super mandat. him, & set him out in all respects like a man, so they prophane his name in all their idolatrous vvorship, Esai. 66. 1. Act. 7. 19. they svveare also horribly, by soule, bodye, bloude, heart, in their common talke. For from them not only sprang the dishonour of his name by their ido­latries, George VVi­cellus in his retection swe reth horribly. Masses, Dirges, Trentals, vvyll vvoorshippes, deuised religion, charmings, [...] of creatures, magical abusing the scriptures, but also that horrible Prophaning and svvearing comon vvith [...] papists. svvearing by al the partes of a body, as if he vvere a man, vvhich is vsed of villaines and Ruffianes vvho are vvont to leaue no part of a body [...]. And [Page] vvhen they haue done vvith him, then they runne Esay. 18. 19. Ier. 12. 16. to their masse, other idolles and creatures, bothe of Soph. 15. [...] ovvne making, & otherwise flatly *against the Deut. 6. 13. & 10. 20. scriptures. This is common I say amongst papistes. not onely in their accustomed speeches, but in their Examples of periurie in pa­pistes, reade Ma Par. of the [...] of Ro mulus in the besieging of Auinion a Le­gate of the popes in the yeere 1222. solemne assemblies and places [...] iudgement, and vvhere they should shevv greatest fayth and trueth: vvhich are the very seede of fearfull periuries. And in al these cases their consciences [...] vvithout all touch, because they make account of some three halpeny satisfaction, vvhiche they may obtrude to God, and he shall not refuse it, as they say, for a iust recompence. If they vvill charge vs vvith the like, Also before that of the breache of the othe of the cleargie to­vvard [...] the first, vvhen they disposses­sed his heire, and crovvned king Stephen. And in the [...] of Step. they cannot, and their owne mouths shall vvitnesse for vs, because, they make it a mark of an heretique as they account vs, if he svveare not [...].

As for the The Saboth to be religious ly kept. [...], they neither knovv vvhat it is, nor hovv to keep it by any vertuous or godly ex­ercises, seeing they haue none amongst them. And therfore al the abuses that haue pestred the [...] this long time, haue sprong from their idolatries. Besides: they defiled it vvith abhominable stage­plaies and enterludes, vvith bayting and tearing, of Gardiner, Bo­ner, & the rest that vvere svvorn against the Popes su­premacy, and yet after­vvards reuol­ted. Buls, Bears, & other beasts, with reuelling & rouing like mad dogges. They cared not vvhat deuise took place, vvhat pastime vvere vsed, though therein the diuell himselfe vvere serued, so they might keep the people quiet and occupied in ignoraunce, holding them from the light of Gods vvord: And therefore their [...] vpon these holiest dayes, vvere filthy vvhoredome, drunkennesse, misrule and dissolute dealing. Nothing vvas vnlavvfull if once they heard their abhominable masse, vvherein their opinion in [Page] that point vvas not so much to be blamed. For ha­uing committed the most horrible sacriledge in the worlde, why shoulde they make bones at any other sinne whatsoeuer? True it is, that they blaspemously The Saboth day most vvic kedly propha­ned by papists both in their meetings, by idolatries, and abrode, by li­centious and [...] e­normities. charge the gospel with these abuses and corruptions but how vniustly, all the vvorld may iudge, and their own consciences shal conuince them, sith they [...] hatched vnder their ovvne vvinges, and the Gospell doth from time to time disproue them, reform them and hath gained against them. And euen as the [...], and ill fauoured face of an Ovvle doth bevvray his kinde, and al the birds of the field knovv him, assoone as they see him, follovv him and vvon­der at him: So these foule abuses bevvray by their fe­ther, that [...] & idolatry hatched them first forth into the vvorld, vvhich banished the doctrin of faith and repentance, from amongst the Sonnes of men, and lulled them [...] in deepe security, so as they vvere carelesse hovv they liued: seeing also that [...] their death, they might buye out their sinnes for so small a value. [...] they deny these thinges, a day vvill come vvhē the *iudgement of God, vvhich Rom. 2. 2. is according to trueth shal conuince them of them, and they shall feele the vveight of them.

As for the second table, they vvho are found such The seconde Table. rebelles to God, hovve can they yeelde the duties that are due to men? As therefore they [...] God, so they yeeld no honour to those chief instru­ments & preseruers of their life. Their princes, and Magistrats, vvhom God hath [...] in the highest place that vnder the shadovv of their vvings, they mighte enioy their vviues, children, goods and lands, might haue peace: and be shadovved from [...] and op­pressors, [Page] from forren povver and vsurpers; they ne­uer regarded. Alvvayes they bedavvbed them Exod. 20. vvith termes of reproch: And though God, to put Dan. 7. 6. both them in minde of theit dueties, and vs of that Deut. 17. reuerence vve should yeld him, vouchsafeth to com­municate Psalm. 51. 6. his own names vvith them, and *they are Prou. 16. [...]. 12. 10. called Gods, fathers, his ministers & substitutes, yet Rom. 13. 1. they called them the seculer povver; layety none of 1. Pet. 2. 3. 17. the cleargie; vvhich terme [...] they vnderstand, char­geth maiestrats to be none of the Lords inheritance They called them the lay and seculer [...], svvine &c. As for spirituall fathers and pastours, that brake the bread of life sincerely and truely vnto them; they e­uermore revvarded them vvith fire and svvorde, for their labors. Their natural parents they brake from, 1. [...]. 5. 3. Tit. 3. not to follovv the truth; but to be votaries & folowers [...] sectmasters, such as Benedict, Bernard, Bruno, Augustine, Albert, Frauncis, Dominicke, and such like, and if they married; they bestovved them­selues most commonly as pleased themselues. And novv, so nevvfangled they are, & [...] in their pro­fessions; of Iesus they vvil be called [...], or of the [...] Iesus; as though the aunciente name of christians vvere not holy ynough to serue their turn vvherin they iumpe vvith such as vvill he of the Fa­mily of Loue; [...] to bee of the housholde of [...], as to [...] a name for their [...] estate. And though that [...] vnlavvfull Chapiter of Trent [...] [...]. [...]. an. 1215. [...] this nevve deuised order, yer that it may Concil. Nicen. 1539. [...] an euident argument of the constancie of their Councelles, it is against their ovvne Constitutions In capite [...]. that ordered long before their [...], [...] there [...]. de re­ligiosis domi­bus. [...] be no more such [...] they found them­selues pestred with For they vvere vveary of the in­finite [Page] svvarm they had already, and therefore one of their own Petrus Alia­censis tract. 4. de reforman­da ecclesia. Cardinalles 24. yeares before this blas­phemous sect [...] out of the bottomlesse pit, ha­uing a charge committed vnto him, to giue notice of things that vvere to bee reformed, sayth playnly, that if suche beggerly orders vvere suffered to en­crease as they began, it vvould ouerthrowe all. And in this I hope he shall prooue a true Prophet, And the name of Iesus, beeing of his office, this newe broode, by taking it vpon them, vvhat doe they else but auovv themselues members of Antichrist

Of the price of mans bloud, which ought to bee precisely kepte, and preserued, they haue no regard. They poure it out as vvater, & the *earth crieth for Exod. 20. vengeance, for that shee hath drunke vp from their Gen. 4. hands, such aboundāce in al places, filling the world Deut. 5. ful of vvidows, and pore Orphans, They are so farre Leuitic. 29. off: from preseruing life vppon which God the au­thor Mat. 5. of life, hath giuen such special charge, that they Ioh. 8. vvill picke occasions and take the least, forcibly to bereue men of them. And this they vvill doe, not to execute iustice, but for hatred of righteousnesse, and for professing the trueth, without al coulor of iustice deuising al kind of torments, least they should die to easily, worse thē euer did Nero, Dionisius, Dioclesiā or the rest of such like tyrants. They cōplayn of hard dealing, but he that shal enter into their tragical sto­ries & see their practises in al countries, their proce­dings and executions, shall see plainly, vvhose chil­dren they are, by their bloudy murthers, and mer­cilesse slaughters. But as this is a note that [...] and his members, whose kingdom stands by bloud, Psalm. 10. 7. shal haue * feete [...] to shed bloude, so is it a note Rom. 3. 15. [Page] of Christ and his kingdome, to be pursued of these, to be killed and put to death, [...] vve lye before Esay. 53. them as sheepe, not before the sherers, but as before Matth. 5. butchers, and yet open not our mouths and are led Iohn. 1. to the slaughter, not for our euil and vnrighteousnes but because vve reproue them of sinne, holde oute the glory of our Christ, and renounce their false do­ctrine. VVho knoweth not that they must needes confesse, that they are vnable to keep this sixt com­maundement, if they did vnderstande that vvhiche Christ deliuereth Math. 5. that Anger, Cho­lerike passions Taunts. collorique passions and reprochful taunts, vndeseruedly bestowed, were branches of murther, but [...] Pharasaicall & loose interpretations of the cōmandments of God, both deceiued themselues, and infected the vvorld vvith this contagion, that man being able to fulfill the wil of god needeth not much to be beholding to Christ but of this I haue said afore.

As for adultery, vvhere reigned it more, then a­mongst those contemners of mariage, Adulterie raigneth in the Popes kingdome. See Bale de pontif Rom. in the preface. where were the heads of 6000. children and their bones founde in a ponde, and vnder Iouianus pon tanus de im­manitate ca. 6 Epist. Hulde­rich ad Nicho. primum. 265. Reade that vile epistle of Clem. [...]. 4. Tom. 1. Conc. and the dist. cap. [...]. causa 12. q. 1. alters, in caues and drye trenches, in their abhominable houses, but amongst them VVere not al their Cloisters, Abbeys, and Nunneries, very stewes and brothelhouses? Despi­sing Gods ordinance it vvas his iust iudgement to giue them vp as he did the Genriles, not onelye to spiritual vvhoredom, but to bodily, that they should followe the lustes of their ovvne heartes, and defile themselues one vvith another through most beastly filthines, that their Colledges, Abbeys, Nunneries, and religious houses, should be infected [...] with vnnaturall and vntimely murthers, or vvith liuing [Page] bastards and dead bones, or els that they should be filthy Gomorians and sodomites, that *leauing the Rom. 1. naturall vse they should commit vnspeakable vvic­kednes, The vices in religious hou­ses. vvhich contrary to this commaundement they nonrished vvith all kinde of pleasant delightes, idlenes, pampering of the flesh in their greatest and most solemne fastes, they made their choysest feasts, with all kind of dainties & finest [...], drinking al kind of sweet wines, that they might fully feed vpon the pride & lust of the eye, this Epist. Belgar. ad Nico. [...]. Auent. lib. 4. is so cōmō in Rome as I haue partly sayde before, and smelleth so strong throughout all Christendome, that it hath turned VVo bee to thē by whom offences come Mat. 18. many, that are euen but naturall men, who other­wise coulde haue fauoured their religion, from them: and beeinge wonne by the Gospell, pre­sently August. contra [...] lib. 5. c. 3 loue the trueth, and a great number of others stumbling thereat, haue falne to irreligion and flat Atheisme. Herein also they shewe themselues most vnskilfull of that sinceritie Christ speaketh of, when hee forbiddeth the raunging of the eye, when by no meanes they vvill acknowledge concupis­cence to be sinne, and in respecte of their false doc­trine M [...]. Fomes peccati non peccatu. are faine to denie the definition of sinne, to vvit, that sinne is the transgression of the lavve of All the patri­mony that the Pope posses­seth, he hath vvrung and stolne from Emperours & princes. The dukedome of Sicile, & many [...], Apuleia, &c. God, yet because it is reproued by Christ himselfe, they are faine to yeeld a little, that it is the [...] of sinne, and not sinne it selfe.

As for temporall things, though they be of leaste accounte, yet they steale them both from Princes, and all sortes of people. Neyther vvill their pre­tenced title of right helpe, though it be confirmed by olde and vvorme [...] prescription, to ouer­vvay the commaundement of GOD, vvho [...] [Page] not haue one man to encroch vppon another mans possession, and yet they haue Read Abbas vip sub. 198. made a spoile of all callings, getting into their handes the [...] of the whole worlde. That they rob fatherlesse chil­dren De cons Dist. 5. cap. Disci­pulos. and vvidowes, vnder the [...] of long pra­yer, by their [...] and trentals, and suche paltrye robbing deuises, yea that they [...] fa­mis excusat. a [...]. maintein [...] com­mitted in time of [...], it is more then apparant

For Lving & [...] vvitnes [...] condem­ned. bearing false witnesse the false papist vvill not sticke to belye the moste blamelesse Christians Exod 20. 23. in the vvorlde, and to charge them, though with no Deut. 5. colour, vvith moste palpable vntruthes, eyther to [...]. 19. bring the trueth into hatred, or them to the fire. 1. Reg 21. They will make no conscience falsly to accufe the Mat. 7. Luk. 6. notablest men, & most singuler instrumēts that euer Ioh. 7. haue bene in the church of God, the dust of vvhose 1. Cor. 4. shoes they are not vvorthy to licke vp. And herein Iam. 4. [...]. 25. they shevve themselues like their father the [...], Apoc, 12 10. vvho vvas a lier from the beginning, an accuser of the brethren, malicious and ful of poyson. And most [...] amongst the rest, hath that notable Apostata [...] vvas [...] at Geneua. and troubled the Church, bar­king against the most com­fortable doc­trine of Gods [...], novv he is become a [...]. See [...], and [...] al­so that make mention of [...]. Hieronim Bolsek expressed the image of his father, in that filthy & slanderous booke that he hath writ­ten of the life of that excellent man of God Iohn Caluin, whom without all shame being layde vp [...] peace, a great vvhile since, and buried vvith Ho­nour, he taketh out of his graue, and gnavveth vpon his [...] carkase and bones, more barbarously then any tygre or carian Crovve, the enuye of vvhose honour and [...] of Gods [...], thoughe it haue [...] his serpentine tongue, and [...], eythere vppon [...] or slaunderous re­portes, yet his [...] is [...] confirmed, by so [Page] many rare monuments of learned works, and graue testimonies of those that lamente his lacke in the Church of God, that though he swelt his heart, and burst for anger, he shall neuer bee able amongest the godly to empaire his credite, the value of the paring of a nayle or one haire, much lesse hurt the trueth of God, which dependeth vppon no mans person, but haue credite and authority from God the only au­thor The ttueth of God depen­deth vpon no mans person, neither do vve measure it by mens liues, but rather their liues by it. thereof. Let the vvhole armie of these slaunde­rers, that ly by tradition one from the credite of a­nother, doe vvhat they can, the trueth shall stande inuiolable. Howsoeuer men haue their faultes, vvho as they are men haue the infirmities of men, and must plead mercie before that sincere seate, yet this false vvitnesse bearing, reacheth not to men, but to the dishonour of God him selfe, and thetefore that railing Staphilus, Lindane, VVicellus, Vaqueri­us, Cocleus, Frarin, and others, that belche out their malice againste Luther, Beza, and suche like instru­mentes of God, doe but barke in vaine, like dogges against the Moone, that is farre from them & with­out their reach. Their lies are so notorious, as that of Luthers and Caluines death, that vvhole coun­tries can and are ready to testifie the contrary. But admit that some of these things vvere to be credi­ted, reported by indifferent men: yet considering these vvretches to be shameles and [...] ene­mies, hovv vnequall a thing vvere it to accept them for vvitnesses, beeing of a false and contrarye Reli­gion, beeing euen [...] vvith malice and [...] against them, vvhose learning and rare [...] they coulde neuer attaine to: and hauing no con­science in greater matters, vvil make no conscience [Page] to belye them, being aduersaries to their falsehoode and superstition, vvhom they labour to bring into hatred, that they may vvinne some credite to them selues, being in deede but monsters in the shape of men, such lyers and slaunderers, backbyters and rai­lers, as are more fitte, I am sory to speake it, to [...] agaynst VVispes, and to be set vppon Cuc­kingstooles vvith scoldes, then to bee admitted to giue euidence agaynst such godly, graue, and learned fathers. But this hath alvvaies beene the propertye of the kingdome of darknesse, to slander the trueth, and the true professors therof. They haue not* spa­red Mat. 10. 34. the Prophets, Christ himselfe, nor his Apostles, Luk. 6, 40. and therefore vvee must not looke that they vvill Ioh. 13. 16. & 15. 20. spare vs. Trueth vvas alvvaies hated of lyers, and Iohn 7. 7. none finde greater friendship in the vvorld then the children thereof. He can say little, that being cor­rupt of nature, can not speake yll: but he that spea­keth the trueth, is of God. This hath hene the prac­tise of popish heretikes, vvhen they find themselues too vveake to mainteine their wilfulnes, then they fall to playne rayling and lying. Then haue at Beza, at Caluin, at Luther the dutch Beare, vvhose Mo­ther VVe stand not vpon miracles, but such as vvere vvroght by Christ and his Apostles. vvas a vvhore and slept by the Diuell. Then Caluine to get credite to his doctrine, must be made a miracle worker (wil he nil he:) though the myracle in deede (if any such were) be The practise of popish ped­ling preachers and pelting writers. set out to haue bene attempted by one of their ovvne Iesuites, vvho This vvas printed in the Dutch tongue and re ported to haue bene done by a Ie­suite. in steede of raysinge a man from deathe, killed him, and vvas fayne to entreate the VVoman to be contented, and so persvvade the people, be­cause he could not effect it, that it vvas long of their vnbeliefe. This goodly tale is set out by Surius, and [Page] dubbed since forsooth by that Apostata Bolsecke. Surius [...]. breue. in [...] gest. But the children of God, they deale by trueth, they [...] in vita Ioa. [...]. take no aduantage of any enuious accusation, nor stand vpon vain coniectures, and ghesses, as they are vvōt to do: vvhat papist hath [...] taught, in expoun ding this ninth commandement to refrain frō vnsea sonable and vncharitable report of their neighbors faults, [...] or credite? and yet the truth is, and knovvn to them that scan this commaundement [...], that the same God which forbiddeth vs to de­fame our brother; doth therwithal enioyne vs to be as carefull ouer his credite, as ouer our own, and not to speake of our neighbours faultes, but to the ende that they maye bee amended, and other warned to take heed of the like, vvhich is wel known to be only practised amongst the professours of the Gospell, and not amongst them.

Lastly concerning coueting our neighbors house, [...], [...], maide, Oxe, Asse, or any other thing, they thinke this lust (as before I haue partly menti­oned) to be so farre from sinne, that they vvill not onely possesse whatsoeuer a Christian man hath, but they vvill neuer be satisfied, till they haue his life al­so, [...] his religion please them not. As for concupi­scence it selfe, flying thoughts and desires, vvhiche the * lavve condemneth, they make no accounte of them, though by them it bee manifeste, that vvee Gen. 6. are in that respecte not fully replenished vvith the Exod. 20. Deut. [...]. spirite of GOD, nor free from that corruption, [...]. 6. vvhiche vvee oughte dayly by nevvnesse of life to 1. [...]. 10. grow vnto. Heb. 13.

Such enemies to God are these papists, that they Rom. 7. subuert al religion, teaching for doctrin the vnsauo­ry Iam. 1. [Page] * precepts & traditions of men, they mingle their Mat. 15. Iere. 2. lead vvith the Lords gold, and * fill his haruest full of Iere. 3. darnel They breake, as you haue heard, al the com­mandements of God, to maintein their own waies, and stop from vs the springes of the vvater of life, that vve might drink of their puddles. For their own dreams they make vs forget the name of our God, and leade vs from that simplicitye that is in Christ Iesus, They are vnthankfull vvretches for al Gods benefits, and to For this vvas obiected a­gainst the vvaldenses in quodam libr. inquisitorio. say grace vvith them, vnlesse it bee after some mumbling sorte in an vnknovven tong, eyther before meate or after, is a note of a ranke Heretique.

At their tables they neyther loue to talke, nor to heare any thing of God, of his word, religion or Reinerius. Panoplia. any godlines, but al their delighte is in idle talke, ie­sting, Lyndani. scoffing, taunting, mocking and nipping at This is their common pra­ctise. them that be absent, or beeing present bee better disposed then themselues. They wil talke also fil­thily Ephes. 5. and vnshamefastlye, to recreate both them selues, and suche fleshly familiars as themselues be. They naturally hate the word of God, and sit vpon thornes, vvhere the exercises of it are vsed. And if they lay iust accusations and execute iudgementes vppon [...] offences, yet they doe it not in loue, but deuise things that were neuer hearde, nor thought of. If they be of Parsons Howlets hypo­crites, and come of purpose to church to deceiue the Though this be too com­mon a thing among all, yet it specially be­longeth to the papists. prince, and delude the [...], and most of all them­selues, they are there vvithout all reuerence, either nodding and sleeping in the time of the exercise, or else vvalking and iangling, or carried avvay with idle and vnprofitable imaginations, or else occupied [Page] in some popish paltry booke either printed at home or brought from beyonde the seas, or else they are vvatching for some aduantage, agaynst the painfull and godly minister, euermore lying in waite, to stir vp strife, and to disquiet the Church. They are neuer merry, when there is any communication of good­nesse, then you trouble them, they come to bee merrye, they svveate for anger, vvhen they cannot supresse it. Of diuelish malice and sp ite they hate God, detest their neighbours, and their owne soules [...] al god ines and honestie, to * whom sto­len Pro. 9. 17. vvaters are sweete, and a whore is more amiable then a spoused wife. Pighius is commended in an o­ration Staphi. against [...]. for it, & one Girādus against Bucer, a Colen diuine, sayth, it is better for a priest to haue an hun­dred vvhoores then one wyfe. Aquinas sayth, that marriage is to be auoyded of them that tend to per fection: Durand sayth it is not expedient. Lighttly they vvil neuer marry, they vvill oftentimes be vvell whitled, & then they can raile roundly, then we are heretiks, Puritanes, & what not? & a golden day will once come, vvhen we shall burne sor it, or else they vvil not bestovve so much cost on vs, a thrust vvith a svvord, a knock vvith a halbert, a pot with a gun or a halfepeny halter shal serue for al. They vvil vvhis­per from place to place, and from one to another and vppon their ale-bench, vvhat dayes are these, vvhat vvickednesse is in the world, All these goodly tales run amongst them from one to ano­ther. See the liues of these Gospellers, vvas there euer such couetousnes, novv al for their vvomen, vvhores and bastardes. O the golden vvorld is gone, vvhen vve had 24 egges for a peny, vvhen vvee mighte goe to this religious house and that, and haue good chere our bellies ful, [Page] and no man can saye, blacke is your eye, or from vvhence come you. They say the Masse is naught, The com­mon speech of [...]. but I can not tell, then vve had a mery vvorld, and all things plentie, O since I can remember, vvhat myrth vvas there in all townes, in our villages and vvakes, vvhat good felowship: vvhen no mans wife vvas in [...], when few mens daughters were ma­ryed vyrgins: and as for mens seruaunts, they had more myrth then in a day, then they haue nowe in a hundreth. Then they sang and sponne, they medled vvith their [...], and [...] by the fayth of others: Nowe they are so bookishe, become so vvise and learned, that they vvil meddle vvith the scriptures. It was neuer merry vvorld since there vvas so much talke of [...], since euery cobler and Tin­ker [...] vvith it, and a byble must stande in euery vvindovv. VVel, the Queene cannot liue alvvaies, and when our day commeth, vve vvill bee euen vvith them, they shall stand at our receite and [...], and then our argumentes shall make them to stovvpe, or else [...] vs a [...] payre of heeles: VVhen they [...] of any ouerthrovv, mur­ther, or cruelty against the professorus of the Gos­pell, or that some noble captaine that goeth vvith them is [...], then they banquet one another, they [...] and laugh together, and looke as bigge vpon vs as if [...] day vvere [...] ady come, & they vvere al­ready become Lords ouer vs. But he [...] sitteth in the [...] shall [...] to [...], for be seeth that their [...] Psalm. 37. [...]. The [...] that they haue whetted and drawne a­gainst vs, shall enter into their owne [...], & their bowes shal be broken. The Lorde [...] the armes of these vvicked ones, and [...] vp vvith his ovvne hande against them. For [Page] they are those false vvoorshippers vvho vvorshippe (as Ioh. 4. Christe sayde to the VVoman of Samaria) they wot not what Deceitfull Mat. 24. prophets they are, that tel vs here is Christe, there is Christe. The cake ouer the altar, the roode in the roode [...], the image vpon the crosse, and such like stuffe, but vve are cō ­maunded, not to [...] them. They are such (be­sides that generall condemnation, that is in Adam vpon al flesh) vpon vvhom the wrath of God is spe­cially declared frō heauen, for their vngodlines and vnrighteousnes, for they suppresse the truth, & hold it vnrighteously by an vniust possession. They * are [...]. [...]. vvithout excuse, bicause when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, but became vayn in their reasonings, hauing their foolish harts blinded, thin­king them selues to be vvise & learned, they became fooles, & turned the glory of the [...] God into the framed image of a mortal mā, of birds, [...] footed beasts & creping vvormes For they worship a man for S. Mathew, a byrd for S. Ioh. a calfe for S. Luke, and a Lyon for S. Mark. This is the cause (as I haue said before) that they are giuen vp to the lusts of their owne hearts (as the Gentiles were;) that they should from spirituall vvhoredome fall to carnall, & cōmit vnspeakable euils, defiling their owne bodies amongst thēselues. For they haue [...] the [...] of God into a lye, and therefore it is his righteous iudgment, that they should be giuen vp to beleeue & delite in lyes, that passing ouer the Creator, who is blessed for euer, they shoulde vvorship creatures. All the vices vvhere vvith the Apostle chargeth the Gentiles in the first to the Romanes, and the roote vvherof he proueth to be in all flesh, are apparantly [Page] in them, not only by nature, but in a full practise & execution. For they are vvholy giuen vp to follovv them with a full foote. They are ful of * vnrigteous­nes, Rom. 1. [...]. fornication, wickednes, couetousnes, lasciuious­nes, enuy, murther, debate, deceite, euil cōditioned; they are, whisperers, backbiters, haters of god, doers of wrōg, prowde, bosters. They are false * teachers 2. [...]. 2. vvhich bring in damnable sects, denying the Lord that hath bought thē, & through vvhō the vvaye of truth is euil spoken of. Presumptuous they are and stubborne, fearing not to speake euil of thē that are in autho rity. They count it a pleasure to liue heere deliciously for a time, & to follow their own decei­uable waies, fearing one another: amongst thēselues & backbiting the truth. Read that liuely description of al the Popish clergy, in that 2. epistle of Peter and the 2. chapter. They haue eies [...] of adultery, and cannot cease to sinne: they lay bayts for instable minds, hauing harts exercised to couetousnes: they are the cursed children of Cain, & haue forsaken the right way: they are gon astray, following the vvaye of Balam, the sonne of Boser, who loued the reward of iniquity. They are vvelles vvithout vvater, and cloudes carried about with a tempest, to whome the thicknes and mist of darknes is reserued for euer.

Such enemies of God they are, as exalt the sonne Thes. 2. of perdition aboue al that is called god, or worship­ped for God. They allovv his dispensations againste God and his lavves, and as for his sake (such beastes See vvhether their dayly practises proue not this to be true. they are) they set them selues againste God. So doe they not care in regarde of him, and in respecte of that idoll the masse, to betray their ovvne coun­try, Prince, Parents, kins folkes and friends to the ve­riest [Page] straungers and enemies in the world, yea and to lay dovvne their ovvn liues, Let any come forth & deny this, if they can with any coulor of truth. Our country hath founde it too true, and there is none that haue had any dealing in any place of [...] vnder her Maiestie, but can confirme it by particu­lars in their continuall practise, not only for casting abroad their [...] lil elles, but also for sending into this realme their pestiferous and trayterous [...] sundry books, Sanders, Dor­man, [...]. bookes, and bulles against the Queenes maiesty, & her honourable councel, state and peace, that haue bene the very sparks and firebrands of rebellion, & vvould haue bene of further flame and greater de­struction, had not God in his greate mercye, by the light of the gospell, taught and instructed men, how they should hold themselues in dutifull loyalty, and true obedience, Put of this a little more afterwards.

Such enemies to God they are, as deuour pore wi­dows houses vnder Sundry [...] in anno. 1580. very trayte­rous against the state, and [...] the mi nestery, scat­tered through out [...] realm. colour of long praiers, & sticke not to compasse sea & land, to bring men to theire A common practise a­mongst them, to be reuēged by Libelling. false fayth, or else to death, as Alphonsus did by his own brother Ioh. Slei. li. 17 Cris. in mart. Ioh. [...] * Blinde guides they are, wicked fools, tithers of mint, Anise & cumin, omit­ting faith, iudgement & [...]. Hipocrites they are Math. 23. 14. that make clean the outside of the cup & platter, but Mar. 12. 40. within they are full of rauen and * [...]. They are vvith the [...]; VVolues in sheepes clothing, Mat. 15 14. & 23. 16. 24. painted sepulchres, outwardly glorious, but within full of rotten and dead bones. They beare a shew of Luk. 11. 24. Christianity, and yet are full of [...] and mur­ther: Mat. 7. 15. Luk. 11. 39. 40. &c. they * say, if they had ben in their fathers daies: they woulde not haue slaine the [...] and a­postles: and yet marke vvhat they [...] in all Coun­tries [Page] against the christians. Let Queen Maries time, the continuall murthers and [...] that haue [...] in Fraunce, Flaunders, Spayne, Scotland, Ire­land, at home amongst our [...], & abroad, where­soeuer [...] hath gotten in a foote, beate wit­nesse. Are not these therefore enemies to God? Is not Antichrist the Pope, of vvhome all this hellishe rovvt hold, an enimy to God? [...]. [...]. 33. Cantic. [...] not his seat where he [...], the doctrine he tea heth, the maners that he [...], quite contrary to Christe, and playne Marcel. Palin. in Leon li. 5. marks of his Apostasie? Is not Rome (as [...]. Petra. ep. st 20. Franciscus Petrarcha calleth it) the whore of Babylon, the mo­ther [...]: [...] and [...], from vvhence all Hier. in Catal. script. eccles. in Ma. co. shame and [...] is [...]? Doth not Peter in the first epistle vnder the name of Babylon name [...]. lib 3 [...] 537. Rome, by their ovvn confession, and by Hieromes ovvne interpretation, and as Campion him selfe Abb V p 198. Apo. 18. graunteth? And herefore, as Iohn * describeth it, it is that Romane vvhoore that sitteth in her Scarlet robe, full of names of blaphemy, the habitation of diuels, the holde of all soule spirites, the cage of all vncleane & hatefull birds: out of vvhose cup, al the nations in the vvorlde haue drawne the draught of the vvine of the wrath of her vvhoredome.

Such enimies they are, as through the * effectual wor 2. [...] 2. 9. 10. 11. [...]. king of [...] all [...] the word of [...], to whom God [...] sent [...], that they should beleeue lies, and preferre the [...] fables of a lying legend, before the blessed by­ble, receiuing as a iust recompēce, the fruits of their [...] rebellion, to vvit, ignorance, blindnes, a levvd vnderstanding, and in the ende iust demnation.

Suche enimies they are, as giue heede to spirites [Page] * of errour, to the diuelish doctrine of such as spea 1. Tim. 4. 1. 2. 3. false thinges through hipocrisie, hauing their con­ciences branded vvith an hotte yron, are * grie­uous Act. 20. 27. 29. vvolues, making no conscience to teare and deuour the flocke, * concealers of Gods counsayles, Luk. 11. 52. speakers of peruerse thinges, and dravving dis­ciples after them. For they vvold haue al the vvorlde to follovv them vvithout any examination. They shut vp the kingdome of heauen, and vvill neither enter themselues, nor suffer others to enter. They Marcel. Pali. li. 6. de sceler. omnium ordi­num. are Hipocrites and Gomorrians in deede, of the seede of Cain, children of the diuel, blasphemers & bloudy persecuters. They hedge in the Catholique Church, like the Donatists, into a little corner of the vvorld: They crye, they Rome a parti culer Church, no Catholike Churche, to whom the Greek church vvould not be subiect. are the catholique church, and yet vvould dravv vs to one that is more particu lar then many others of the Greek, that vvere neuer ioyned and continued vvith them. And none must be of their Catholique church, but such forsooth as subscribe to their synagogue, much like as if they should affirme, that all Christendome vvere to bee included in Kent. They Absurditie of transubstanti­ation. confounde the humanitye of Christ, making I can not tel hovv many thousand bodies, For this point read the fumbling of their ovvne scholemen. turning the Godhead into the manhood, & the manhood into the Godhead, agreeing vvith all the auncient heretiques that erred about his diuini­ty and humanity: for Anno. 425. vvith the Futichians & Mo­nothelits, they make him to consist of tvvo natures, Prisceanns & Cyrus the first authors Anno [...]. but not to haue two natures, neither tvvo vvilles: or else they make him to haue a phantasticall body, as Niceph. lib. 18 cap. 45. Marcion Cerdon, and Manes did: to be, in infinit places at once, in heauen and in earth, denying the trueth of the humanity: as Valentinus, they make [Page] him to haue a body of an ayrie, insensible, and inui­sible substaunce, as also Apelles did: vvhereas his * ovvn vvord teacheth vs, that vve should not be­leeue Lu. 24. 39. 40. him to be present in body, except by our sen­ses vve could perceiue a difference betvvixt him & a spirite.

Such enemies they are, as Pope Lucius 24. q. 1. cap. Recta. beleeue they cannot be saued, vnlesse they bee subiecte to the Pope, vnlesse Calixt. dist. 12 Non decet Ni­chol. dist 22. omnes Greg. dist. 80. cap. 52 qui. they acknovvledge him to haue all authoritie in heauen, earth, hell, purgatorie, and vvheresoeuer. Do not they herein plainly deny God, from vvhom alone is all saluation, as did Hebion, Cerinthus, Ba­silides, Carpocares, Photinus, Artemon, Paulus Sa­mosetanus, Mat. 9. 3. Ennomius, AEtius, & Theodotinus, vvhē they vndoubtedly beleeue that the Pope can for­giue sinne? A grosser heresie, then euer the * Scribes In vita Gre. 7. Bulla Cle­mentis. and Pharisees vvere infected vvith, vvho deeminge Christ to bee onely man, thought it extreeme blas­phemic Panormit er­tra [...] cap. fin. for him to take vpon him to forgiue sinne. They are persvvaded that the Pope by his Pope Hildeb. ex plar. Benedi­ction Summa Ange­lica in dictio­ne Papa. &c. can make thinges more holy then cuer God made them in their creation? that he can dispence vvith Sigism. Nea­po Decisiones rotae in decisi­onum tertia. Christe, Peter, Paule, Moses, and all lavves both of God and man? VVhosoeuer kisseth his shoe, though hee vvere excommunicated, yet for so doing he hath cleane remission a poena & culpa;, both Ant. Ma [...]ia in addit. 1. Decis. rotae. from the punishmente and faulte. VVhat shall I saye they are suche enemies to God, that they be­leeue Nouas. Ekius l [...]or [...]m communum cap. de ecclesia. 5. q 6. [...] in glossa. Eckius de consid. Statuta canonum. vndoubtedly, that Glossa in [...]. 11. cap [...]. if a prieste or one in holy orders knovv an harlot carnally, hee sanctifieth and [Page] blesseth her in so doing, & as Petrus Rauennus saith, Though handling & kissing be occasions of incon­stancie and vnchastity in lay persons, yet in priestes and those that are in holy orders, it is far otherwise: a wife he must disauow & forswear, but not a whore. It is not good to touch a woman, therfore it is euil.

And seeing euery priest maketh a God euery day, or as often as he consecrateth, and therefore excel­leth Mant in Alph. Non [...] incont nentia, sed matrimo­nium. the virgine Mary, that did beare him but once, and from vvhom he onely tooke flesh and bloud: It can not be that they can intende, commit, or per­forme any such greate euill. And if they doe, vvhat great matter is it, seeing This is like the vvay that Iulia deuised for triall of their mortifi­cation, to laye men and vvo­men together, and a crucifix betvvixt them Agrip, art 22. Christ redeemed the whol vvorld vvith one drop of his bloud, and left the rest to the pope, his vicar generall at Rome, and from him to all the other priestes, that they mighte haue the ouerplus to make pardons vvithall, for these, ey­ther waightye, or petty offenders. It vvould vvery a man to reckon vp all their abhominations. The Non obstan­tibus consti­tutionibus, & ordinationi­bus Apostoli­cis caeterisque contrariis quibuscumque c Siluest. Prie­rius contra Lutherum. Pope and his generation are as like vnto Christe, as light is vnto darknes, and as Parsons Owle is to a Nightingale: For Christe being God, became verye man, the pope being an abhominable man, taketh vpon him the Clement [...] one [...] of this bloud: vhiche Iuli the thir e had at Rome, al England [...] as pardo­ned. [...]. office of God, yea and to bee aboue him and his word, Christ humbled himselfe, and put him selfe as it vvere out of himselfe: the pope ma­keth himselfe Alb. Pighius. equal with God, & not without rob bery, more then God, Christ neuer came amōgst the Stanislaus Ecchinius in Chimaera. multitude vpō a barred horse, both with swordes & keyes, like a Prynce and a Prieste, thoughe in deede he vvere both. But the [...] the [...]. and [...] the [...] Read [...] Sabel. pope that wil needes be his Hierarch lib. 1. cap. 2. 16. q. 1. Vicar, he hath done it. The two swords vvith Christ, Quicunque in glossa Dist inc [...]. Lector. [...]. Francis Zarabella. So [...] [...]. [...]. [...]. [...]. [Page] are both iurisdictions ciuil & ecclesiastical, See the Pon­tifical & the booke of the [...] of [...], that [...] the em­peror, Princes dukes, & earls their seuerall places. lib. 1. sect 5. ca [...]. [...]. [...]. cap 20. a Pope in the forenoone, a vvarier in the after, yea Anton. [...] part. [...]. Empe­rours, kings, princes & dukes serue him vvaite vpon his styrrup, leade his horse, holde basen and to vvell, carry in his seruice, vvaite vppon his cup kneeling, and all the rest kneeling vvhile this is a doing. They beare his Canopy ouer his head, they kisse his foote and vvhom the Lorde hath annointed to beare his image amongst men, they abase themselues and be­come slaues to this prond beaste of abomination. Christ had conuersation vvith the poore, the pope Tit 22. ca. 5. 4. looketh at leisure vpon the mighty, and he scarcely Cerem. lib. 1. cap. 80. vouchsafeth them his presence: Christ liued sparing ly and porely, they deliciously and wantonly, Baptista [...]. Pope li [...] sec. 5. c. 4. Iuly notvvithstanding his goute, vvoulde haue his porke in despite of God, and was in such a rage, al­so for his pecocke, that he blasphemed God, allea­ging that if God vvere angrye [...] an apple hee had greater cause to be angry for his pecocke, Christe vvashed his disciples [...], the pope treadeth vpon the Lords annointed vvith his feete. Marius. He crouned [...] fol. 13. Henry the sixt vvith his foote, and vvith his foote vncrovvned him againe. Christe [...] to be made a king, the pope giueth, disposeth, and transposeth [...]. [...]. kingdomes at his pleasure and appoyntmente. He setteth princes and Subiectes together by the eares, and maynteineth factions on all sides, to vpholde his proude Hierarchie, [...] Roger us Ho­uedenus. Gregory the se­cond did irritate the subiects of Leo the Emperour agaynst him. As [...] assoyled Pypin and the rest of the Frenche, from their othe and alleageance to Childericke, vvhome hee made to trotte at his horse hecles three miles together. Pope [...] 1. 15. q. 6. cap Alius. Phocas [...] and a [...]. [Page] murtherer is by him lifted vp to an Empire, & he a­gaine for recompence aduaunceth him to be Anti­christ, by giuing him that which the other sought for to wit to be the vniuersall Bishop, which his prede­cessors condemned. The places are quoted before ex gres sus Hildbrand Hildebrand that firebrand of hel, of whom al stories write shame, made Henry the fourth with his wife & Sunne to coole his feete, the space of three daies at his gate, before he would ad­mit him to his presence, and yet that was by the [...] of his whore. And Clement li. 2 desent. & re indica. cap. 2. Clement the [...], who pronoūced the empire to belong to him, made Dan dalus a noble man, & an Embassador from the vene tiās, in chaines like a dog to lie vnder his table. The Pope is the Sunne, The Emperor is but the moone. Auentin Rex venitad fores iurans per vrbis ho­nores. Post homo sit Papae sumit quo da­te coronam. Emperors & princes be his Vassalles & feodaries, & receiue their crovvns & dignities frō him. They be­come his men. Euery hedge priest is before a prince, because Priests make God, but al his Princes are the Popes creatures. Christ * sent his disciples to preach Mat. 28. the Gospel. The pope & his Cardinals persecute & stop the preaching of the gospel, & their chiefest bu­sines is to practise [...] & [...], that his Soue­raignty may be maintained in al dominiōs. Read [...] of the practise of pre­lates. Christ Mat. 5. 6. 7. himselfe taught the gospel, The pope can flye as wel Mat. 27. 32. as preach. * Christ being both poore & weake vvas [...]. 23. 26. 27. compelled to bear his ovvn crosse: the Cerem. lib. 1. se. 2. fo. 33. 35. pope being fat & strōg is born of others. * Christ wore a crown Mat. 27. 29. of thorns, the Pope weareth a triple crovvn of gold, Lu 12 13. 14. [...] with precius stons. * Christ vvold not take vpō him the deciding a ciuel cause, vvhen tvvo bre­thren stroue for land: pope Inno­centius 3. D. [...] cap. [...] Causa. 2. qu 6. cap ad [...]. The pope vvil meddle vvith al causes & deale with al persons in heauen, earth and hell. Christ died to saue vs & bring vs to heauen: the [Page] Pope liueth to kil vs, and lead vs to hell. Christ tho­rough his death recōciled vs to his father the Pope continually killeth vs and dravveth vs to his father the diuel. Fire & vvater are not so [...] as Christ and the pope. Christ vvas true and sincere, he Aurea. Leḡ. [...]. temp. is fals and counterfaite and notvvithstanding al the prero­gatiues of his chayre, (as hath bene partly touched before) vvhich as Cusan saith, hath the trueth clea­uing vnto it, yet it is euident, that Luit. Vallan­de donatio. [...] Leo, Pugosus de inusitat. mor­tis generibus. [...]. q. [...]. vino. Liberius, & [...]. [...] 31 Anastasius vvere Arians. [...] in quadam e­pist. Celestinus and Lyra. in Mat. cap 16. Marcel­linus, Nestorians, Sabe. Ennead 9 lib. 3. Honorius vvas a Monotholite. [...] de­cade 2. lib. 3 Benno. Vsperg [...]. Ioh. 13. a cruel villain, the In the accusa. of VV. Plesiu­ro knight. 14, a tyrant, Hildebrand an helhounde, a coniurer, an incestuous vvretche. Reade his life set out by one of his ovvne Cardi­nalles. Boniface the 8. vvho entred as a VVolfe, rai­gned like a Lyon; and died like a dogge, vvas so farre from not erring, that he is tainted vvith all kinde of villanies, and is pope Paschalis Casulanus Platina. accused to haue affirmed vvhore­dome to be no more sinne, then the chaffing of tvvo R d hands together. No more vvas Pope Paschall, vvho set the sonne of Henrie the fifte againste his ovvne father. And made Pope Chroni. ver­nacul. Calixte to ride through Rome vppon a Camill, vvith his face tovvard the tayle, and to holde the [...] tayle in his hande, [...]. in steede of a bridle, vvhiche doeth no more com­mende Stella. his innocenice then this doeth Pope Si [...] 4. Inno­centes, Mat. Paris. vvho armed Philippe of Fraunce agaynste Pope [...]. [...] Plat de vitu [...] King Iohn sometime our souereigne Prince, to the disturbance, vndooing, and spoyle of this Realme. Thinke you not that Pope [...]. Textor. [...] the fourth also, vvas a holy Father, vvho not onely himselfe vvas giuen to that sylthie sinne of Sodomitrye, but also dispenced vvith Peter [...], and [...] [Page] [...] Mā ­tuan [...]. 4. [...] & oratio ad [...].Hicrome for it, during those three hot monthes of the yeare; Iune, Iuly, and August. I am Their doctrin is euident, their liues are so horrible that I am a shamed [...] set them dovvne, see their ovvn stories. vvearie of speaking of all, the stories are plaine, that from that same first Apostata Bonifacius, to him that novve vsurpeth that seate, they haue bene all taynted and infected both vvith corruption of doctrine, & lewd­nes of life, VVhat shoulde I speak of their cruelty, dissention. liues, and death. Iohn the Praemōstrat. [...]. vvas begot­ten in adultery. Ioh Volateran. the 12. [...] in it. The [...]. 13. was slain as he vvas committing it, the 18. Bucching. was put to death, and both his eies put out, by the meanes and procurement of Gregory, about it, Pope Capgraue. Cle­ment poisoned Lodouik Commenta­rius super Arti [...]. Volat. Syluester the 2. was a no­table [...], Praemonstrat Benno Card. Sigeb. Gregory the iuuēter of images was giuen ouer to al kinde of vvickednesse. [...]. Sabel. Benedict is said to be the corrupter of Rome with al filthinesse, vvho sold his popedome for a great summe of mo­ny. Nauclerus. Stephan so raged against Formosus being dead long before, that hee disanulled his decrees, tooke vp his dead carcase, threw it into Tyber, chopt of 3. of his fingers, and cut of his nose Plat. Vrbanus dround fiue of his deerest [...] in sacks. If this be not ynough to prooue all these Popes, and those that hold of them, and [...] them, suche vvicked ones (which is * alike wickednes) to be [...] to god; let Pro. 17. their ovvne [...], I say, [...] further searched. Ia al thinges they are moste contrary to Christe. The vvhole description of Paule agreeth to them in all points.

VVhereas it is further sayd, that he shal [...] vp [...] ab ue [...] that is called God. It is moste euident, he con­tenteth not himselfe, vvith the [...] and [...] that belong to Angels and men, but wilhaue those [Page] that belong to God himselfe. And his clavvbakes and flatrerers, not the grossest but the finest and wittiest, not of those olde flattering Ciuilians, but our new oilemouthed diuines, M Harding and such like hold, that after a [...] he may be Hierom in Daniel cap. 3. called God. E­uen [...] Antiochus, Domitian, & Caligula arrogated those names, so do they, & therefore they make no bones to take it thus [...] Marc. in Cencil. [...]. sess. 4. Thou art another God on earth. And Cardillus a spaniard vvriting in defence of that late cōspiracy of Trent, often times caleth the Pope an earthly God. And Cardillus pro Concil Trid. Cardinall Hostensis saith that Quanto [...]. except sinne, the Pope hath power to do [...] soeuer God himselfe can do. Christ Extra de [...]. & the Pope make but one cōsistory, & Leo [...]. 39. Extra in sex to lib 1. Christ hath receiucd Peter into the fe­lovvship of the indiuisible vnitie. And theresore the Canonists De Consue­tudine. Non putamus. haue [...] vvhole disputations, whether the Pope be God or no: whether he cānot do [...] God may do: That no appeale can be made from the Popes consistory to God, because [...]. Ioh. 22. ab uno [...] non [...]. And they confesse plainly to all the vvorl de that hee is Dominus [...] noster [...] our Lorde God the Pope. And albeit the Ceremoniar. lib. 1. cap. 2. late qualifiers say, that he is [...] God nor man, but a thing betvvene both, yet they affirme, that Concil. Later sub Leo dec. in [...] Ste­phani. kings reigne by him, which is spoken only of God that he hath all Francis Za­rabella. 15. quaest. power in himselfe, aboue al povvers as vvel of heauen as of earth, therfore he doth what himselfe [...], yea vnlavvsull thinges, and he is more then God. Shall any man checke him? are not the scriptures subiect vnto him, being God, do they not say truly? that the pope Authoritat. in glossa. can dispēce against the lavv of nature? against the Dist. 82 [...]. Ielin. consti­tutionibus. Cannons of the apostles, against the Statuta Ca­nonum 6. qu. Quicunqua in glossa. new testamēt, against all the comman­dements, [Page] [...] de [...] & obedientia ca. [...]. against Pauls Epistles, In Baptisme he may alter the form, Summa An­gelica. in litte­rapp. In mariage he dispēseth with al per­sons, sauing onely vvith father and mother. A man may marry his ovvn sister, and here of Pope Martin the fist hath left vs an example. Nay one sayth, that the Pope may dispense supra [...] & of vnrighteousnes he can make lighteousnes, and of Panorm ex­tra Hostien. de trans episcop. [...] no sentence, hee can make a sentence, and of Haruaeus de [...] pape nothing, he can make something. He Card Cus. ad [...] epis. 2. challengeth suche authoritye to ex­pound Qranto. and declare the scriptures, as it is not lavv­sull for any man to holde or thinke the contrarye. Of the fulnesse of his povver he can do all thinges. If this be not the * mouth that Daniel spake of that Dan. 7. 8. vttered presumptuous things, let themselues iudge if they haue any shamefastnesse in them. If this be not that beast, before vvhome the kinges and prin­ces of the earth haue fallen dovvn and vvorshipped: Let master Censurer or Parsons Hovvlet together vvith all that darke broode tell me. But this is that * Beast, to vvhom they haue yelded their povver, & [...], 13. the vvoman that sitteth vpon this beast, is that filthy [...] of the vvorld, (as they speake of their stevves vvhich they tollerate) I mean the citty of Rome, to vvhich povver is giuen ouer euery tribe, language & nation: vvhich all the inhabitantes of the earth shal worship, whose names are not vvritten in the book of life. And hovvsoeuer this mōster come vnder the pretence of [...], & vvil haue these De maior & [...]. vnam sanctam. In glosla. [...] & presumptuous titles of most blessed and holy father, Dist 40. Non. nos. yea, vvilbe called [...]. in Iob cap. 34. lib. 25 cap. 14. [...] it selfe, and vvil be pla­ced in such absolute and spiritual estate of holinesse as none can be in, but him selfe, and therefore must not be [...] of any fault vvhatsoeuer without sa­criledge, [Page] yet herein also he is plainly proued to bee that Antichrist, that being a damnable man and no spirit, Ansel. in 2. by lying he feigneth himselfe to be God, and therfore feigneth himself to be religious; that vnder Thes. cap, 1. the couler of godlines hee may deceiue, yea he cal­leth himselfe God, and causeth himselfe to be wor­shipped. There is nothing belonging to Christ and to his special office, that he doth not take vpon him: he forgiueth sinnes, chaungeth the nature of things, Euseb de pre­parat. [...] 7. will be head of the Churche, an vniuersall by shop, Lord of the vvorlde, a commander of Angels, with­out error, and what not? This is a plaine token that [...]. he hateth God, seeing he will be called by the name Agatho. of God And being a thiefe, an Apostata, and a slaue will yet be worshipped as God, and proclaimed as a king. This is he, [...] holdeth that his Dist. 16. decrees, must be esteemed as spoken by the instincte of the holye Ghost from Peter himselfe, who hauing full autho­rity must Bonif. extra­uagant. cap. de obedient. conclude, decide and define al things, who is the wonder of the worlde, and therefore of [...] in [...]. Papa is called Pope, before whom not onely al creatures but the greatest princes of the worlde must doe ho­mage. God the iudge of the whole worlde vouch­saueth oftentimes to communicate to vs miserable [...] a reason of his doings, but this monster must yeelde no reason: No man vvhatsoeuer he [...], must aske him vvhy he doeth it. The very heauens svveate at his abhominations. And therefore I con­clude this first part, that this is the very Antichriste, that sitteth in mens consciences: And that vvhole body the head and members is that Babilon, Aegipt and Sodome, enemies to Iesus Christ, the true and onely head of his Church, and to all his members.

[Page]Novve it followeth to prooue that they are e­nemies [...] The papistes are enemies to al christian princes. to Christan princes, and namely the moste daungerous and greateste enemies, that oure Soue­reigne, the Queenes Maiesty that novv by the grace of god reigneth ouer vs, hath. Being proued (as they are) [...] to God, hovv can they be friends to his ministers & magistrates vvhome he hath appointed vnder him? If true christiā obediēce to princes must necessarily flow from dutiful obediēce to God, how can they obey christiā mē, that haue no fear of God: wel they may couch and crouch for fear of the whip, yeeld an outward & ciuil reuerence, such as M. [...] speaketh of, but they can neuer loue truely as children, but feare as slaues, vvhom true knowledge hath not framed, for in respect of God, to [...] obedience and duty. That this true obedience hath bene taught, aduanced and established in the hearts The gospell teacheth obe­dience [...] al persons the pope resisteth it. of men by the gospell, it is apparant to [...] men that vvill not be vvilfully blinde, and of mallice kicke a­gainst the pricke. For vvhere hath there bene grea­ter and more godly [...], humble, lowely and faithfull loyalty in the hearts of subiectes tovvards their princes, vvith the willing bearing of al burdens & paying of al taxes, impositions, and such like ciuill duties, but vvhere the gospell hath moste florished? let all the countries in the vvorld, where it hath bin receiued, speake the truth thereof. Contrari vvise, the troubles that haue arisen (as it cannot be denied, but that there haue beene greate troubles by occasion thereof, in many places of the vvorld) yet they haue al sprong from the vnquiet and hammering heads of faythlesse and trayterous Papists, vvho in fauour of their idolatry haue alwayes with a deadly hatred [Page] persecuted the trueth, and the true professors of it, And be they what they mighte be, of what estate or condition so euer, superiors or equals, Magistrats This needeth no confirma­tion, for the trueth hereof appeareth in all stories. or vassals, Princes or subiectes, they haue alwayes bene set against, vndermined and ouerthrown with out all respect, if once they haue made but shevv to embrace the Gospell. And hereof haue Christian princes found their troubles, common, weales their vvastinges and ouerthowes; Christian people pitiful effusion of bloud, ioyned vvith hideous cruelty, such as vvas neuer exercised amongest heathen Ty­rantes. And though all the simpler sort of papists a­mongst the common people bee not to be dravvne into this companye of [...] conspiratoures, [...] and [...], but rather are to be deemed as ignorant deceiued, and reduced by the finer sorte of heads, yet these greatest and [...], their captains, and [...] beeing politiques, haue offended of knowledge: and making that reckoning of the pope that they doe, they must needs be enemies and trai­torus to oure souereigne prince the Queene, euen such as they are to God. For they being fully persua ded in cōscience & in deed, that the pope is Christs vicar, that princes must reigne by him, muste needes deny that those princes who allow not his [...] and are so [...], off from being [...] by him, that they are excommunicated and deposed (as much as [...] in him) from their crownes and dignitye; they must deny, I say, as in deed they do, that such at [...] princes, & therfore deny them al obedience. And hence it is, that popery is alvvayes accompanied [...] treason, rebellion and consparacye, vvhereof, as our [...] Lad hath [...] more then her [Page] highnes noble progenitors, in regard that she hath more aduanced the gospel, & yet God be praysed, hath bene deliuered frō thē, so they making but the least shew that could be, of fauoring the [...] religiō (such as those dark times cold afford thē) which [...] Henry the se­cond. very dim; haue yet had their hands full, being many times put to their shifts, & hardly escaping the losse both of their crowns & liues. See our ovvn stories. So was Henry [...] 2. dealt withal whē his crown was plucked frō his head & he cōpelled like a priuate man; to the no smal dis­grace of the maiesty of a Prince. to creepe to the [...] legat, to be restored againe, So was king Iohn King Iohn. dealt withal, whē frō the pope; by the means of the [...] & monks, he was discharged frō his gouern mēt, his subiects released frō their alleageāce; his no [...] in arms & in field against him, & at length fini­shed his miserable life, by the treasō of a monk that poisoned him & himself with him, as their own sto­ries Mat. Pari. 1211 haue deliuered vnto vs. So dealt they with Hen­ry the 8. a famous prince, stirring vp the emperor a­gainst him, the french king & others, wherein those Card. Pol. lib. 3. same notable traitors, the one a negromācer Cardi­nal VVolsey & Cardinal Poole, both special dealers; doing as much as lay in them to depriue him of his kingdōe. As for that blessed [...] king Edward, al the In Northfolk, Deuonshire, & other places. cōmotiōs & treasōs that were stirred vp & practised against him. both at home & abroad came from the pope & papists at Rome. Let the stories be searched I speake not so much of those former times, I could shew how king Harrold lost his kingdome, for bani­shing Capgr. [...]. VVestmon. one Robert, [...] of Canterbury, who flying to the duke of Normandy, was not only resto [...] to his Archbishopricke again, whether the king [Page] vvould or no, but the said duke being [...] by the Ansel. VVilli. the second. pope, got the whol kingdō. So did Anselmus a trai­tor trouble VVilliā the 2. about the election of by­shops, which vvas by his ovvn right, that in spight of the kings teeth, he brought it to the pope that [...] christ. I could also shevv hovv one Raphe; a pilde & Rase Byshop of Chester. shorn bishop of Chester, did so iustle vvith the king, Barus [...]. about a tribute for vvhoores, that he suspended the churches, stopped vp the dores vvith thorns, & com pelled the king to yeeld vnto him, vvhich he coulde neuer haue done, had not the pope & diuers of that traiterous ciue assisted him. So one Stephan Langtō Steph. [...] an archbishop caused the realme to bee enterdited, stirred vp rebellion in Ireland, & prouoked the pope to cōquer it, til the king became the popes tenant, & receiued the crovvne at his handes; So Thomas A­rundell, Tho. Arundel. All this is [...] in our owne chroni­cles. being also Archbishop of Canterbury and chauncellor (for then all offices might [...] in any of their men) in the time of king Henry the second, beeing exiled vvith the earle of Darbye, belike for some treason, vvhen the king vvas abient, they de­posed Guil. of Malm. Guil. Newbri. Barns. him, & aftervvards put him to death. So raged they also against good duke Hūfrey, the stories shew ing that he began to see, and smel out their knauery the bishop of VVinchester set first vpon him at Lō ­don and aftervvards in a parliament time, not [...] from Bury they murthered him. VVhat shoulde I Rich. Scrovvp. speake of Richarde Scrovvpe Archbyshoppe of [...] in the time of Henry the fouth, who vvas in the fielde againste the king, and had the revvarde of a Traitor. And hence vvas it that they made suche lavves against the procuring of excommunications, Bulles, or ecclesiasticall censures, from the pope or [Page] See of Rome, against the king or any of his [...] Auncient presidentes to shew what they vvere [...] that procured any Bulles or [...] from Rome. in those dayes, when popery moste flourished [...] the time of Edward the first, one for [...] an excommunication from Rome, againste one of the [...] subiectes, vvas [...] the realme, and had suffered, as in case of high [...], had not the Chan cellor and treasurer of England made speciall suite for him. Theresore also it vvas enacted that no for­reign Anno. Edvv. [...], [...]. power, should hold any plea without the kings protection vvithin this realme or take any vvith­out. Anno 27. Ed­vvard. [...]. The pope should giue no benefices, nor byshop rickes here. They that procured cytations or pro­curations Stat [...] in anno 30. from Rome, fell into a Premunire, So did Edw. primi. they that tooke letters of Attourney, lormes or ad­ministrations An. 25. Edvv. [...]. for benefices, vvithout the kings spe­ciall An 27. Edvv. tertii. licence. It was made death, to [...], procure or cause to be procured any Summons, excommuni­cations Richardi pri. or [...] from Rome. If any tooke vpon Anno. 30. them the [...] of any byshop, sued any pro­ces or sentence, excommunication, Bull or [...], touching the kings crown or regality, brought An. 16. Rich. them in, or receiued them, notified them, or made execution of them, vvithin the Realme or vvithout, both the offenders and mainteiners vvere out of the kings protection, their Landes and goods vvere con fiscate, and Bulles from Rome for [...] was a [...]. An. 2. Henry. 4 I speake not of our late parliamentes and lavves, because they vvill holde they are [...], as not being ratified by their Pope and themselues. This being so manifest & plaine, I maruell at Campions impudencye that vvill auouch the Romish religion, not only by [...], and philosophy, but also by law both ciuil & temporall yet in force; and yet herein I [Page] [...] appeal to those lawyers that are his best frends & [...] his [...] mostè, (the laws stāding as they do) if they vvould plainly shevv their iudgment. [...] must the trial of Gods religiō, that is alway one & perfect, be subiect novv to the changeable [...] of men? and yet it may appeare in al ages and times, sith Antichriste displayed himselfe, that hee and his members haue beene the [...] practisers of trea­sons that euer [...], and being such euill men haue brought forth those good [...], that hath ben made agaynst such vsurpation, and vnnaturall trechery a­gainst God, [...] naturall prince, state and country. I could [...] that [...] from their practise, specially vvhen princes began to see some [...] of the truth, And this vvas the cause that vvhen king Henry began to banishe the Popes [...] aúthority, he and his land vvere interdicted And did Polus. [...]. 3. not Cardinall Poole [...] Charles the [...] in an oration, being bent against the [...], to leaue all that businesse, & to bend his [...] against [...], encouraging the subiectes of the [...] against their souereigne Lorde? The gospell and the [...] thereof, hovvsoeuer [...] be charged by viperous, & [...] tongues, such [...] as Surius, VVicellus, [...], [...] and the rest, (vvho seeme to haue [...] that faculty aboue the rest) that from it and the preachers thereof, hath sprung [...], blodshed, disobedience, contention, and [...] in france, Germany and other countries: The trueth is, that from themselues and vnder their ovvn vvings these [...] of treason and rebellion haue e­uermore bene hatched, or else from suche [...] as [...]. I mean the [...], vvho, [Page] howsoeuer they differ in some heads, yet they are fast tied together by the [...]. For Caluine, Beza, Luther and such other excellent instruments haue bin from time to time, the onely oppugners and resisters of these heretiques, and their rebellious proceedinges: when papists haue clapped their handes and laugh­ed in [...] sleeues at them, because hereby truth was brought into hatred vvith Christian princes, & they The impuden­cie of Hovvlet [...] the aduantage to set vp their [...] I do­latry and heresie: And therefore I vvonder not a litle at this platterfaced ovvle of Parsons, that vvith his staring and shamelesse countenance, dareth euen to the maiesty of a prince, vvhom the Pope his maister and al the right Papists, such as he calleth the hotter sort of Catholiques, condemne as a Sand. lib. 7. 30. Schismatique & heretique, and therfore think themselues dischar­ged of all obedience, and her highnesse to haue no [...]: of gouernment ouer them, that he should thus savvn vpon her vvhō he condemneth, and loueth as vvel as the light of the gospel, vvhich neither he, nor any of that darke broode could euer abide, yet I say, that he dareth thus shamlesly to flatter, as thogh she were so simple to be caried away with vvords, when she seeth & vnderstādeth their deeds, hath selt their practises, and (if God of his wōderful mercy had not kept her highnes) had tasted of their cruelty, as other Princes & noble gentlemē haue done before her & round about her. VVhat should I blot paper, in set­ting down such things as euery book soundeth forth only let vs hear out of the Sanders the mouth of [...], in his booke dedica­ted to the pope, appro­ued by the Cardinals, & allovved by the popish [...] of [...]. mouth of the papaists on of their own doctors, how they [...] of her [...]. I meane not to set dovvn, that might yeelde me some aduantage against them, as neyther standing vvith my [...] to [...] it, [...] spoken to the [Page] dishonoure of her maiesties person, not beeing So doth Brist. [...]. 5. fol. 72. 73. fit to be noted by vvriting in the face of the world, but rather to receiue, a punishment due for suche presumtuous [...]: onely I vvill mention, howe Storie, Felton, the Nor to [...], VVodhou e, Plumtre, and al the northen men that vver in actuall re­bellion [...], the other in [...] & [...], [...]. he maketh Story, Felton & others, that vvere con­demned not in any cause of religion, but for high treason, [...] he maketh them Martyrs. The moste [...], that refuse without al reason the meanes of [...], and haue bene for [...] & iust [...] yet [...], he calleth con­stāt [...], but I hope, some of thē are ashamed (I know whatsoeuer they ar, they may be) to haue their names in such a kalēder. Of those same rebels, in the north, that appeared in actuall rebelliō against her highnesse, he maketh a solemne kalēder, he putteth in a Catalogue their names & cōditions giuing it this Lib. 7. de visib. [...]. [...] qu: [...] fidem [...], & [...] Monarch pag. 730. pag 734. [...], arma [...], & [...] & [...]. The names & cōditions of those englishmen vvhich tooke arms, & are yet in exile for the Catho­like [...], & for the primacy of the church of Rome. He reherseth the Bull of [...] Quintus against her highnesse, & plainly asseuereth, that it vvas for iuste causes declared & published. He calleth her maiesty the pretended Queene, and sheweth hovve Doctor Morton was sent into England to admonish [...] catholike noble mē, that Elizabeth that then gouer­ned vvas an [...], & that for that cause she was by very right fallen from all gouernment & power, vvhich she vsurped ouer the catholiques, & that she might be [...] of them without any danger, [...] an heathen & publicane, neither that they were frō [...], bound to obey her laws & [...] he sheweth, that [...] noble men [...] [Page] to deliuer their brethren ab [...] de from the tyranny of heretiques, and albeit thinges fel not out to [...] expectation, yet he [...] their attempt. In another place he affirmeth that [...] in some cases, kings and Emperors that gouern christi­an Lib. 20. cap. 4. [...]. people be not subiect to Christes [...], yet by the vertue of the keyes of the kingdome of hea­uen, vvhen their gouernments hurte the [...] of [...], and the saluation of souls, they are to be depo­sed. Did [...] any professor of the [...] a sentence? Alack, they [...] out of [...], for an [...] which [...] gathered and forged many yeares after his death, that princes being in deadly In [...]. [...] Conci. Const [...]. [...]. sinne are no longer princes, nor [...] are to yeld thē any longer obedience, vvhich yet the article (as it vvas first set dovvne in the Concil of Constance) speaketh of Priestes and [...]. This Ovvle a so vvhopeth against vs of obedience, that we break the book, that we dispise aucthority, that we do this and that, but look vpō the face of this babe, mark the fea ture of this cub, view his claw, and tell me who is his damme & [...] we or these [...] papists? [...], [...] first a [...], and [...] an [...], or an [...] amongst Catholique pe ple [...] be [...] of [...] kingdom And a [...] Li. 2 ca. 4. 78. [...], If [...] A [...] [...], that Christians being [...] common [...] vnder them, [...] esse [...] born that [...] should of their [...] set [...]. [...]. d. [...] suffered an [...]: que [...] them? [...] [...] thou must not say [...] Aue, [...] of [...] their [...]. [...] they serue [...] or [...] not more to obey [...]: [...] to [...]? Do you think the Queen is [...] the [...] o [...]. not like to haue good [...] & [...] of [...] as may not [...] to salute [...]? do not they cal her [Page] their mother, Gods substitute, and their [...] Queene, in mockage, when they cry thus all [...], and yet buffet her, breking the very neck of her [...]. The same Sanders [...], that it is the special [...] of bishops, [...] their [...] or an [...], [...] Pag. [...]. they [...] the [...] the [...], as that [...] as may [...], may [...], [...] in [...] non [...], It is the [...], by [...] soeuer [...] they [...], [...], that [...] in the [...] of [...] not in the [...] of [...]. This traytor throughout that vvhole chapter laboreth to proue, that [...] del ought not to [...] the faythfull, [...] he asketh whether he be [...] the name of [...] man, [...] shall [...] that [...] not [...] be [...] to [...], [...], [...] after one [...], if [...], ob [...] a [...], [...], per [...] & [...] & [...]: For the same [...] they may [...] ought [...] of [...] to be [...] from i [...] they holds [...]. After a long [...] he [...] conclusion, Pronus [...], [...], [...], [...], eum [...] non vult, [...], & [...] It is [...] for the Church of Christ, to remoue a king that is [...], [...], [...] and [...], [...] a [...] not [...], from his [...], and [...] place. It amongst a multitude one [...] man or tvvo, haue [...] their [...] opinions, not in cō mon, but [...], not by [...], against such as they [...], but tyrants in deede, O hovv they yelpe, [...], [...], crovv and vvhoope, to bring all the [...] into [...], and yet these are their [...]: in them forsooth catholike and religious, [...] in vs [...] and [...]. [Page] This made Byshop Fysher and Syr. Thomas Moore vvith [...] others, to loose their heades. supposing to dye Catholiques, they had in deede as they vvere and deserued, the [...] of [...] The pope that then vvas, I meane Pope Clemente that was the sonne of a Curtesan, This was Leo the tenths ba­stard also, as some thinke, sente out [...] Bull againste king Henry the eyghte, but thankes bee to God, it neyther shooke his seat, as he had thought it should [...] depriued him of his kingdomes, as hee vn­doubtedly looked [...]; but it vvas a meanes to bring many of those Romish calues to a iust [...], though many ventured but to late vpon his absolution, [...] they tooke it after his life in purgatory.

Of this wholesome doctrine confirmed by the popes practise, haue sprong all rebellions, Treasons [...], tumults, [...], and vprores, in al com mon vvealths and [...], vvhere the pope hath had any thing ado, not of any right, but by vsurpati­on. Plat lib. 10. 2. Tom. Conci. For Emperors were wont [...] depose euil popes, now euil popes despose good kings. So vvas the go­uernment In [...] & [...]. [...] Parisiis cap. 14. of France once by such a deposing, trans­posed from the right heires for euer. VVhen [...] deposed Chilperick, & Pipin his Marshal became, [...] q 6. [...]. king, so did Vrban depose Perse the king of Spaine, setting in [...] Henry a [...]. I [...] not Alius. [...], [...] Henry the fourth, because I haue men­tioned them before. So would Pope Pius impiously haue done, [...] his povver had [...], to our graci­ous Queen, vvhom the Lord long preserue, to hold vp his icepter among vs Neither say we as Parsons [...] woulde [...] vs speake, that euery con­trary profession [...] in any state or [...] is by and by treason, or that they [...] any [Page] contrary religion [...] by and by traytors. For false­hood The [...]: [...] M. Charkes booke v. [...] it [...]; [...]the name of [...] or any others. is many times defended and perketh vp, when trueth is in [...] and hardly [...] face. The vvorld loueth her ovvne, & all princes be not true professors and [...] of Prophets: But this [...] saye, that [...] and treason are commonly inseperable [...] and [...]. The foundation and vvhole building is naught [...] but treason and trechery. Christe and his [...] the trueth, taughte true obedience, gaue to Caesar that vvhiche vvas Caesars, and to God that vvhich vvas Gods, Christe [...] tribute [...] and for Peter: and though [...] bee contrarye to falsehood, yet there is no [...] in [...] againste falsehood, but in [...] against trueth Our gra­cious [...] therefore by the grace of God mainteining trueth [...], true religion against [...], vpholding the Gospell of righ­teousnes, and reigning by Christe, they that shall [...] it, seeking together her [...] vvith it, from a forraigne Italian vsurper are not onely tray­tors against her, but agaynst God. They that shall If the [...] any [...] land, hee must [...] haue it frō the vvord of God, or [...] our laws & so from both, or else [...]. pinche her [...], [...] it, [...] to [...] povver, [...] her [...], [...] againste her, [...] the [...] of obedience, [...] in Bulles to roare out her [...], discharge her [...] from [...], holde her as an [...] and labour to vvithdravve the louing [...] of her sub­iectes by any newe pardons or [...], all whiche the papistes haue doone, and doe [...]? they are enimies to God, to her High­nes, to the vvhole state, and to them selues: and ex­cept they [...], God in [...] vvhen they [Page] think least of it, wil finde out their vvickednesse, and as he did vnto Story make thē feele the punishment of their vvicked treason? If this be not their dealing, let me be reproued. If their rebellion in the North, their conspiracie in Norffolke, their calculating her byrth, their practises by Sorcerye, by imagery, and such trumpery, their libelling [...] slaundering, their threatning and monstrous flattering, their [...] inuading of her highnes territories and dominions, with giuing placards to the meanest of her subiects to shed her blood, that hath beene alleaged before, be not ynough to conuince them to bee [...], let mee beare the shame of it. I coulde set downe the particulers, but that the same are handled, and it may please God, one day, besides that whiche is already declared, that a iust [...] vvil be published of it. I referre the reader for further satisfaction here­in to the vvorthye vvorks of M. Norton publi­shed at that time, when the Bull roared so [...] in our eares, and to his vvarning giuen to our Nor­then rebels. I referre them also to Howlets checke nowe in publishing. VVho did these things but pa­pistes? vvho procured the Bull, broughte it into the Realme, set it vp, and published it? And what vvas the matter, against vvhome, for vvhat, and to vvhat purpose? VVhat vvere [...]? vvho platted the deposing of the Queene, and [...] vp of another Mary amongst vs? VVho conferred vvith the Di­uell? sovved [...] reportes and [...] to effect their mali ious purposes? VVho had their [...], their Seminaristes and landleapers to gadde from place to place, and from country to counrrye, and from gentlemans house to gentlemans house to [Page] shedde the seede of [...], but ranke and [...] papistes? [...] that are in high places, knovve to whom the knowledge of these thinges speciallye belong, that [...] conspiracies, treasons, practise of her maiesties death, hath bene found in that nest, For [...] they glauer, their minds are known, and their [...] are seene, and to the discomfort of all [...] be it spoken, God of his goodnesse hath from time to [...] brought their secretest [...] and attempts done in the darke to light; he hath thrown their ladden treasons into our lappes, vnfol­ding thē & laying them open; in tender regard of his churche, and to the ende her highnesse taking good heed might more & more be confirmed in the truth & learn to rest in the assurance of his protection, that hath bene her mighry [...], in al her greatest dangers, And thanks be to his goodnes, he hath done it [...] any great blodshed or hard dealing, either of rack, or of any other torturs, and though it please [...] M. Censurer to vtter his malapertnesse, [...] into the iudgement of her [...] dealings concerning the racking of those lately in the tower, [...] the worlde in hande, that it was for religion, yet he might haue considered, that it is much better for one or two bodies to be scaired and feared, then that a vvhole countrye shoulde bee betrayed; that one member shoulde bee cut off, then all the reste shoulde [...], and had hee beene so [...] seene, as he vvould seeme to be, he had had sufficient [...] to consider, that they comming ouer at suche [...] as they did, their complices the Popes souldiers appearing in actuall rebellion in [...], and diuers [Page] commnig ouer in companies and troupes, to scatter (were it) but their errours, their Honours had good cause finding them obstinate against religion & her highnes Iawes, to distrust their sidelity, and to regard [...] safety, rather to [...] them vvith the racke, then we should be seared with the ouer­throwe of our florishing peace and country, vvihch God in mercy turne from vs. This also hath God done for her, that her highnesse may cary alvvayes a thankfull heart towardes him, vvhen shee shall haue such experience of his mercy in preseruing her, whē she shalbe established in iudgement, not to bee af­fected vvith euery Syrens voyce that seemeth very sweete, but yet bringeth a sharpe destruction, as this Howlet, that with his yuybushe at the first is verye humble, lowely and lovv, but resteth not there. For as it groweth and getteth strength, it claspeth and girdeth so harde, that within a little time it will kill the hart of the greatest oake. and get aboue it; to be an haborowe for such owles and vncleane birdes as himself is. And euen so did the first pope deale vvith the Emperour, he crept alow, till [...] aurhotity bare him vp, & so he crept vp by litle & litle, [...] the [...] decayed; was remoued and ouerthrowne, and novv he is become the [...] for al the silthy byrds in the world. I will make on farther application, the wise I hope vvill see light at a little hole.

VVho haue bene those traitors that haue stirred, vp other princes agaynst the Quecne? vvho haue procured their forces, and labored for an alteration by colourable practises, but papistes? VVho haue beene suche trayterly fugitiues as them selues? vvho are the authors of erronious & traiterous bookes, [Page] [...] forth as wildfyre, & throwen as fyr: [...] into our church & cōmon wealth, to kindle the sire [...] rebellion, but papistes? For who hath vvritten a­gainst her highnes by name, against her trusty [...] but you Papists? agaynst such as you moste hated, because their vvisdome and care in the Lord was against you, fome being [...] frō your ma­lice, & [...] yet liuing maugre your heads, to helpe (as lōg as it shal please God) with their faithful [...] against you? vvho [...] taken vpon [...] to decide [...] to discouer, as they say, priuy treasons to de­bate of state matters, and to make heires apparant, but papists? VVas there any one protestant that can be named that did these things. No goodman How let, hovvsoeuer Surius, Frarin, & such scurrilous ray­lers charge the gospell and the profestors of it, it is vvith the same trueth that the [...] their master is vvont to speake against the truth, & no otherwise. It is as fit [...] a papist to speake of obecience, and as yll it be cōmeth him, as vvhen an Ovvle counterfai­teth to become an Eagle, or when he wil take vpon him to sing like an Nightingale. You must bear with me, the name you haue chosen, vvhether truely or like a counterseite, maketh some prouerbs to fit my porpose. Is not true obedience to God in his true religion and vvorship, the mother of all true obedi­ence and duety to princes and peeres? And hovve then can a [...], that is a traitour to God in his worship, be saythful & true to princes? VVhat cōsci­ence is there, vvhere there is no knowledge? & what knowledge can there be vvithout his word. & with­out the gospel, to teach either obedience to God, or duety to Princes? The subiect that feareth God, the [Page] instructed Christian, he only knoweth how to obey in and for God. He [...] knoweth what duety is to be rendred to Gods Liuetenants. They are not the best [...], that are readiest to fulfill all Prin­ces commaundementes and pleasures, but they are [...] subiectes, that loue and honour their Princes in the Lorde, not of custome but of con­science, yea for conscience sake, though they bee euill, both to pray for them and to [...] in [...] due­ty [...] their conuersion vnto God; and if they cannot be vvonne, patiently to beare [...] is layde vppon them. The other are seruauntes and [...], these are children. The one obey of feare, the other of loue. Those fulfill their willes with the breach of Gods. These submit themselues to suffer, and pray the chaunging of their mindes, that they may enioy a kingdome, vvhere there shall be no re­spect of [...].

If any [...] obiecte the troubles of Fraunce, and Flaunders, and [...] countries, vvhere they [...] to haue colour of charging the professours of the Gospell to haue taken armes against their prin­ces, as I haue sayde [...], to I say agayne, they [...] arisen by occasion from [...] owne vvicked and wretched [...], for that through treason and [...] haue [...] drawne moste dis­honorably to break [...] ovvne fayth and [...], to goe [...] their [...] lawes and [...], whiche armed subiectes, [...] against their Princes, but vvith and [...] the [...] of them, againste the [...] & heady [...] of [...] singular per­sons And therefore they haue euermore bene [...] by their [...], [...] de [...] and [...] [Page] discharged from all disloyaltie by their publique in­strumentes and vvritings, their souldiers haue bene payed from their Princes paye, and so haue bene discharged. As for rebellion and the schollers there­of, haue alvvayes sprong out of the Schole of Po­pery, it is a vvhelpe of your ovvne litter, and an egge of your owne nest. Macke Morris vvas a Papist, so is Saunders (if he be yet [...]) that set in of late for Ireland, & brought a company thither, out of Italy to get a kingdome, to [...] a place vvherein to lay their dead [...], and to bury their bones. It is your doctrine, Hovvlet, and those of your fether, that holde that [...] be duely discharged from subiection, and Bristovv in his Motiues. Mo­tiue 40. In the [...] of obedi­ence. [...] Prince from dominion, by the [...] authoritie of the common Pastor of [...]. VVe haue and do acknow­ledge our selues subiect of duetie, by the institution of God, vve confesse her Hyghnes lawfull authori­tie to extende to and ouer all sortes, and no mans profession to exempt him from obedience & fealty, vvhich you do not: for if you yeelde any, you saye, It is but [...] common [...] sake, [...], and so farre [...] as [...] for the accustomed vse of a natural [...]. and onely in temporall thinges. You haue no cause therefore, to storme in suche [...], nor to take it in suche dudgeon, for beeing sayde to be enimies to God, and to her royall Maiestie. And it is a levvde lye that this broadefaced owle vvould face downe that Papistes set her [...] into her gouernment, and wil Hovvlet Praef. likewise be ready to maynteine her in it, vvhen all the [...] knovveth, and euery Court vpon record soundeth, that they haue shaken her seate, and endeuoured from time to time, as muche as laye in them to de­pose her from her peaceable and rightfull Scepter. To conclude therefore, The Papists erring in doc­trine, [Page] and beeing members to [...] that [...] of sinne, aduersary to [...] Christ, and beeing the most [...] liuers that euer vvere, setting them selues [...] agaynst the righteousnes of the This is [...] by all their p [...] be fore. Gospell, and beeing playnly proued to be deadly enimies agaynst all gouernment, the [...] of treasons, the styrrers vp of strife and rebellion, in all [...] vvheresoeuer they become, beeing per­svvaded that the Pope can not erre, vvho hath pro­nounced our Soueraigne to be a Schismatique, and hath [...] his Bull to depriue her of [...] royall [...] and dignitie, and to discharge her Subiectes of all loyaltie and duetie, reconciling, persvvading, and vvithdravving her subiectes to the pretended autho­ritie Against the last statute. of Rome: I conclude that they are enimiesto God, to their ovvne Realme and countrie, to their naturall Prince, and to them [...]: and I beseeche God, either to turne their hearts, or els to giue them the [...] of traytours. And thus muche to re­quire this Papist in asseuering that vvhich I set downe in my dedicatory Epistle.

Novve a vvorde or tvvo concerning the Fast at Stamford, and so an ende. VVhereas this [...] Ovvle, to bring the trueth into hatred vvith her Maiestie, by vvaye of comparison, setting his quiet Catholiques, and their doctrine of obedience, a­gaynst vs and [...] of the same matter, to [...] The common [...] of [...] to [...] and [...] men with that where, [...] they haue no [...]. me, vvho haue (as he sayde) so falsly infamed them, promising to set dovvne certayne propositi­ons [...] out of tvvo [...] of my Prea­chers. &c. I [...] no farther credite of the vvhole Church of God, of her [...], & of all indifferent men, then I shall be able to proue the same by suf­ficient [Page] testimonies to be most shamefull and [...]. And first, before I enter into it, vvhat colour of [...] can it haue, that those propositions out of their Sermons should be gathered by a Minister, vn­lesse it vvere some such [...] as Euerard Hans vvas, alias Ducket, vvho [...] thereabouts before his going ouer? Thinke you there vvas any Minister so familiar vvith this Ovvle beeing of the darke broode of Papists? If he vvere a Minister, ey­ther he must be some such hypocriticall lyer and an accuser & [...] of his b. [...], or els this ougly owle hath out of his ovvne heade to declare him­selfe a [...] like his father, [...] these shameful vn­truthes. He [...] that this [...] was forbidden, by the L. Superintendent of Lincolne, by his letters bearing date the fifth of Septēber, & yet that these Preachers vvould not [...], that the letters vvere di­rected to the [...] & Comburgesses there. In deede it is true, that after the allovvance of this Fast, by former letters [...] the Byshop, and at the request of others, all vvhich [...] are set dovvne, that the Bishop sent some such restraynt, [...] by some rumor [...], that his appoynted order should not [...] obserued, both as touching the Good thinges neuer lacke [...]. [...] of [...], & also [...] bringing in some [...], for vvhose doings he could not answer: but M. [...] & his brethren very wisely considering that the [...] now already ap­pointed and vvarranted, and beeing cleare in their [...] knovvledge from any [...] of altering that vvhich vvas prescribed and [...], [...] they should seeme to yeeld to suche suppositions as they [...] dreamed of, & so shew them selues [...]: they [Page] kept their determinatiō according to thorder which Othervvise they shoulde haue shevved themselues [...]. was prescribed. And therfore, thogh Parsons Howlet by some of his inteligencers gat notice of such a let­ter, yet he was not acquainted with the premisses, nor with al that belonged to this matter. And it might well be, that by practise of some enemy giuing false insormation (as lightly there lackes none to hinder good things) vvhen the fast had beene in diuers pla­ces of the Realme els where, [...] the fearefull earth­quake, a token of Gods anger, and vvas ordinarily sought for, by the Alderman and Comburgesses there, to the ende they might shevve their forward­nesse, to humble them selues beforc the Lord, as [...] had done, it may be, I say, that that exercise vvas then sought to be stayed, as the first vvas, but thankes be to God it vvas both orderly kept, and vvell obtayned. For vpon better information giuen The Lorde Treasurers honourable readinesse to further the fast of Stam­ford. to the Right Honorable the Lord Burleigh, Lorde high [...] of England, vvho by reason that his Honour is Lord of that towne of Stamford, and for that also his Lordships house of Burleigh is hard ad­ioyning [...], and beeing othervvise very good Lord vnto the tovvne, he vvas the rather made ac­quaynted vvith their good desire and proceeding, and by the letters of M. Robert Iohnson also satis­fied. To vvhich letter his Honour vouchsafed to giue an honourable and fauourable aunswere, retur­ned to the sayd M. Robert Iohnson from the Court then beeing at Otelandes, bearing date the 25. day of Iuly 1580. vvherein his Lordship shevveth his good contentment and forvvardnes to so holy an exercise testifying that for the sayde M. Iohnsons readines and paynes in preaching, in teaching and [Page] reading in those partes thereabout, he hath cause both to esteeme and loue him. His Lorship exhor­teth him to continue in his vocation. I set not dovvne his Honours letters in respect of duety, not hauing communicated my purpose vvith his Ho­nour, trusting of his Honors fauour in this behalfe, seeing it is against an enimy of God, and in mainte­naunce of the truth. But this is true, that therwithall his Lordship vvrote also a louing letter to the Al­derman and Burgesses of the sayd towne of Stam­ford, bearing the same date, approuing any thing, that the Bishop should direct or order in that be­halfe, & another also he vvrote to the Bishop of the Diocesse vvhich they foorthvvith sent by a speciall messenger & a letter frō themselues: and this vvas the copie of the letters sent from the towne.

To these letters and by occasion of the others the [Page] Bishop gaue his consent, and returned in effect this answere, gathered out of his letters by M. Frauncis Harington Recorder there.

[Page]Hereby may plainely appeare the shamelesse lye of this staring Owle, that blushed not in the eares of her [...] to vvhoope, that this exercise vvas kepte [...] against the Byshops will, that the prea­chers disobediently stepte vp in the pulpit, and vtte­red such sedicious [...], as he and his infor­ming scribe haue patched together, as farre from all coulor of trueth, as any of the rest, to the slaunder, not onely of those godly and learned preachers, but also of the magistrates, and vvhole corporation of that town, vvho did nothing, but according as they were directed by aucthority, sauing onely that M. Iohnson preached in the second place, in steede of him that vvas appointed by the byshop, he vpon some occasion failing (as there may [...] out in such a case many [...]) M Iohnson being notwith­standing requested of the magistrates there: both by letters at the first & at that instant, & that after the viewing of his [...]: and as for M. Liuely the first preacher, let him be heard, as able to speake for himselfe in this matter.

By these testimonies alleadged by mee, concer­ning the Fast of [...], it appeareth (I [...]) [...] hovv vayn the accusation is, that these eni­mies of God, and of her highnes, haue made against those Godly and learned men the Preachers that preached there, against the vvhole Borough & Ma­gistrates therof, and against my selfe vvho neuer was [Page] acquainted with the matter, neither had any dealing at that time or at any other [...] any suche thing. And novv because I haue sufficiētly discouered this vvhol trovvp of papistes vnder Antichrist the Pope, to be enemies to our Lord & Captain Iesus Christ, to his religion, to our gratious Soueraigne for pro­fessing it, and to vs, as [...] as vnder her highnesse gratious gouernment hartily embrace it: [...] that he hath seuered vs from them, to the ende vvee should holde out his glory against them, and not be ashamed of his Crosse in the groatest [...] they shall be able to laye vppon vs, and, that [...] should haue no fellovvship vvith them. And there­fore I moste humbly befeech her Maiestie vpon the [...] of my heart; vvhome God hath [...] to that high top of honour, to honour him, & to holde vs [...] in al obedience vnder his septer and gouernment (vvhich these enimies [...], [...] their [...] both against God [...] of [...], and against her [...] of it:) that she vvil (in that [...] knovvledge of the truth, wher­of by the singuler [...] of God shee is made [...]measure, and in that [...], the Lord in mercy hath [...] in her gracious heart, agaynst [...]) [...] vvithout famting, to the [...] on of all [...], her most [...] and louing [...]: vvherein as [...] haue by Gods: assistance pitched our staues to stand fast, so [...] fully [...] our selues of her gracious defence euen to the ende. It is no time [...] for vs to looke backe: All the boastinges land proude challenges in the vvorlde, of [...] and nevve [...], cannot [...] to any suspence of the trueth. [Page] VVe are not ignorant of their great speech & proud vvords: we know that Antichrist shal come with po­wer, yea with lying signes & wonders: his bulke shall be big, & his men shall appear as [...] as great as euer were the Anakims and Goliah: yet we are not by the grace of God, afraid of thē. VVe haue had suf ficient triall of their weapons & armour, vve knovv their standings & their studies, and euermore when we haue crapled with them, by the [...] of God, we [...] ben to hard for thē. A tast was giuen in the be­ginning of her maiesties most [...], & since at sundry times, at VVifbich of late: & this other day at the Tovvre. And as euermore God hath knit vic­torye vvith his trueth, so hee giues shame and con­fusion to salsehood, vvith vvhat vvisedome of man soeuer, vvith vvhat learning or pollicie it bee main­teined. And therefore hauing by the grace of God founde the trueth, vvee are fully determined to liue and dye in it. And it is [...], that as God and Satan can not be serued together, so vve can not be faith­full Subiects to Elizabeth our Queene mainteining [...], if vvee serue Antichriste. VVee can not be [...] to her, if vve yeelde [...] to her eni­mie, and a [...] vsurper. And [...] as vvee are made one vvith Christ our heade, & are sorted and [...] into his folde, as his Confederates, vn­der the leading of our Christian Prince on earth: vve meame by his assistance faythfully to fighte his battels. Neither can they [...] vs, thoughe they shoue in amongst vs, as long as they come in, vnder this Antichristes standered and [...], [...] the Markes both of false [...], [...]. Ty­ranny and vvicked life. [...] if they [...] to [Page] be vvith vs as friends, and yet craftily vndermine vs to coole vs and hinder vs, vvee maye for a time bee deceiued, but our [...] vvill at the length disco­uer them, and vvhen they are found out, oure eyes shall not [...] them. They shall be vsed not as con­federates to him, vvhich only the fathfull are: but as enemies, vvhom vve being commaunded to strike, vve dare not spare, neither reserue: hovve goodly and fatte Oxen soeuer they bee, and vvhat good shevvs soeuer they haue. VVe dare not trust neither the [...] & whining of these Curres in this time of their bondage & tying vp. The time vvas vvhen they vvere lose, and then they played their partes, they shewed their kinde; and we knowe that there is no change, but by regeneratiō. Their snarling, their barking agaynst the trueth, their lying in vvaite, and continuall looking for aduantage, vvhen they maye crush vs, euen in this time, testifieth vvhat vve vvere like to finde, if they had any power ouer vs. And thoughe in this [...] of them vp, as VVolues they haue licked out hands whilest we sed them to traine thē to humanity, yet lying lose, they wilbe the more [...] against vs: God of his gracious goodnes keep vs out of their handes. And we giue him most hūble & harty thanks, who in so exceeding mercy & won­derful patience, waiteth for our conuersion, euen o­uercomming our sinne vvith his goodnesse, in pro­tecting and defending vs against the madnesse and [...] of these open and deadly enemies. VVe hum­blye thanke him for defending this Realme, oure Queene, her Counsailours, and all her people. For it is vvell knovvne, and vve [...] it, that if he had looked vppon our vnthankfulnesse, vve should haue [Page] bene as a pray vnto them and they would haue ea­ten vs vp aliue: he hath done it: not vnto vs, that is, not for our sakes, but vnto his owne name, that he may haue the glory of it. And surely, if we faint not, but go cheerefully sorward in that glorious trueth, in [...] he hath called vs vnto, if we labor to approue our selues to him, giuing him a pure woor­ship & seruice according to his own appointment & will, striuing to sincerity aud cleansiug our churches from that popish filth, this man of sinn hath left be­hind him in thē, if we giue him the honor of leading vs, & will bee ruled by his woord, renouncing mans wisdome, pollicie, and strength in the worke of our saluation, then shal wee not neede to feare, though these enemies be neuer so many or mighty: If God be vvith vs vvho can be against vs? Though their Parsons be taule and terrible, their furniture vvell appointed, their strength in the iudgement of men inuincible, their knovvledge in martiall affairs equal vvith ours, their learniug, vvealth, riches, and pollicie aboue ours, yet in the name of the Lord of hoastes vve vvill not feare them: if God be in the middest of vs, compasse vs about & fight for vs, if vve be vnder his leading howe can they preuaile against vs? And surely cōfortable experiēce we haue had of his good nesse these many late years in protecting this realm, so beset with enimies, our gracious prince by nature a vveake vvoman, and subiect to many infirmities, her counsellors exercised vvith many difficulties & hard tentarions, her people giuen vp in peace, as commonly common people are in suche times, to [...] their profites and pleasures: that God, I say, hath yet so mightily defended them, and enriched [Page] vs all, with so many blessinges both of this life, and of the life to come which are moste precious, vvhat other argument can it yeelde vnto vs, then of great incouragement? This shoulde euen encrease oure hope, and adde newe strength vnto vs, to make vs stande fast to our God: The trueth is, that our polli­cie and arme hath not wrought it, but our [...] God who hath kept continuall vvatch ouer vs, to the end vve should vvalke in holy and [...] obe­dience, in fear and trembling as in his presence: not that vve should be secure and carelesse, arming these enemies of ours, vvith our sinnes and transgressions against vs, but that vve should feare before his [...], & trust in him, being armed vvith the righteousnes of Iesus Christ our head, which shal not only shroud vs from their fury, but from his ovvne vvrath and [...] damnation.

Thus muche I thought good, beeing specially dravvne in by the aduersary to speak in the defence of Gods euerlasting trueth. If I giue any iust offence to the godly, by any slippe of humaine infirmitie, I craue pardon for it: but I protest beefore him, that knoweth the secretes of all heartes, that I haue not of any malice, sinister affection or desire of reuenge, vvritten any thing, but for & in the simple desēce & maintenance of the trueth and to the end to discre­dite error and [...]. And concerning one Hovvlet, vvhome I [...] in my Epistle dedicatory to aym at, and since haue vnderstood that the name by all likelihood shoulde be counterfaite, and taken vppon, by one [...] a runnagate Iesuite: I am very sory for the wrong (if any be) that I haue done to Howlet, vvhom I supposed it to be. And I vvould [Page] the vvillingliar crye him mercy for it, [...] the Lorde vvoulde vouchsafe him an happy conuersion, from that false religion of popery, which I vvill vndoub­tedly pray for, vvith all my heart. The Lorde God of all glorye, vvho is king of kinges, and Lorde of Lordes, preserue our gracious Soueraine Queene Elizabeth, and all her honourable counsellors, [...], inferior officers and people, and so streng­then them in the trueth, as all may haue iudgement to discerne those thinges that differ, and in their se­uerall callings knovve vvhat belongeth vnto their speciall duties, that they may all detest popery, false doctrine and heresie, and vvith the glorious profes­sion of the truth, ioyne a sincere and godly conuer­sation in life, & so hold out the glory of Christ their heade, through the sanctification of his blessed spirite, till they be gathered the vvay of all flesh, and arriued at that happy Hǎuen of [...] rest, vvhich hee hath purchased.

Amen.

I haue hated the Church of the Malignant.