Biel others What others of this kind might be alledged your selues do knowe so wel already both because your selues be the doers are daily taken with this kind of dealing that it is about needles to bring in any mo examples of it I wold you could as readily acknowledge your ill dealing herein to your amendment as wee are able to charge you with it to the vtter discredite of the naughtie cause that you haue in hand 23 As touching this time that nowe is praesent I mean since the time that God of his goodnes hath bestowed this light of the Gospell vpon vs first it is good for you heere to remember that alreadie I named one such companion of yours in mine Epistle Iohannes Baptista Fickler such a companion in this kind of dealing as anie where I beleeue you were hardly able to finde And therefore you did wisely to say nothing of him Then also I trust your selfe can likewise tell how deepely you are charged alreadie that euer since this light of the Gospell hath set you so streight and put you so much to your shifts as it hath you haue done your endeuour the best that you could to frame the Fathers and other writers to your best aduantage And namely how to that purpose you haue dealt with Ludouicus Viues Iohannes Molanus and Carolus Sigonius whose books yet extant as they were imprinted before doo plainely shewe in their latter impressions by you howe fowly you haue abused them since So likewise when you got Manutius to Rome to reprint the Fathers for you vnder the ouersight of foure Cardinals howe corruptly you began with Cyprian first and that Manutius himselfe confessed resonable plainly how il he was there imploied by you But to come somwhat neerer vnto you what say you to that wherwith Franciscus Iunius doth charge you that himselfe did see at Lyons in the shoppe of Frelonius of your dealing with Ambrose when as there he tooke you in the maner crossing out of the works of that father which before had beene set foorth according to the ancient copies sometimes but certaine sentences onely but sometimes againe whole pages togither Or how are you able in any good sense to defend that which you haue already doone these many yeres and daily yet doo by that your Index expurgatorius Haue you not thereby put out at your pleasure whatsoeuer yet you had left of the Fathers that made against you And not onely that but whatsoeuer Arguments Annotations Scholies such like the learned men of late some of them euen of your owne side also had put thereunto whereby your former dealing with those Fathers was the rather called in question by the light that they gaue to the woorkes themselues out of their obseruation and diligent reading And haue you not nowe printed them againe after your fashion dismembred themselues nowe more by you than by your predecessors before and spoiled likewise of those learned helps that gaue light vnto them and to your former il dealing with them Or could you holde your selues contented to stay there Haue you not reached foorth those self-same fingers of yours to many other good woorks besides of diuinitie humanitie historie philosophie lawe physike and all and in them also sometimes put in what you thought good but for the most part dasht out at your pleasure whatsoeuer touched anie of your errors or no more but your pride and loosenes of life And yet notwithstanding haue you not in such sort set them forth as though they were those Fathers and Authors themselues nothing at all gelded by you For doo you professe the thing you haue doone or could you finde in your harts that men should be priuie to your dealings herein Why then did you all things in hugger-mugger Why did you so sercretly amōg your selues and none but the chiefest surest of you gather that Expurgatorie table of yours Why did you print no mo copies of it but onely for certain chiefe and speciall persons Why was it that not one of those copies might come abroad Why was there taken so strict an order that those that had them should keepe them close and neuer to bee known of them For haue you not expresly prouided ne quis praeter Prototypographum Regium hune Indicem imprimat neue ille aut quis alius publice vel priuate vendat aut citra ordinariorum facultatem out permissionem habeat And speaking of those sure-bies of yours vnto whome you dare commit these copies do you not there againe commaund that ipsi priuatim nullisque consciis apud se Indicem Expurgatorium habeant quem eundem neque aliis communicabant neque eius exemplum vlli dabunt sed tantum id curabunt diligentissime vt loca praedicta inquirant expungant c. Are not these your owne words and many others to the same effect in that your Table So your Correctors and Printers must so doo but they must not be acknown why they do it or what direction it was that they followed Insomuch that you may safely beare your nouices prosylites in hand now that there is no Doctor nor almost any other approued writer that in any thing speaketh against you For whom you could not correct to your minde him haue you boldly strooken out cleane so verie peremptory now haue you bene And those miserable prosylites of yours must needes be perswaded now that all is with them and nothing at all anie where against them For they may in no wise suspect anie such dealing in you and your selues wit make sure inough that you will not tell thē That so it may be fulfilled in them that Christ himself noted in others such like that they shuld be two-fould the children of hell more than your selues For your selues do know what legerdemaine you haue vsed in these matters to deceiue them withall and so may esteeme of your cause accordingly but only of policie for to hold vp so long as may be your earthly estate but they doo not know it and so may bee in good sadnes indeed and neuer espie how they were beguiled But God be thanked that would not suffer you so to abuse the world still but hath nowe brought foorth into the open light of the sunne that mysterie of iniquitie that you haue beene woorking so long in your secret corners God bee thanked also that before hee would so fullie bring your dooinges abroad hee suffered you to runne so farre as might be sufficient to shew vnto all how you haue deale with the Fathers and Councels and all other antiquities before and how farre past shame you are nowe to sticke at nothing whatsoeuer it be wherby you may hope to holde mens eies in blindnes still and to entangle the truth it selfe As for your selfe I doo not charge you as one of the dooers it was some-what before you came to haue anie place among them and yet not much Neither doo I thinke that yet you are of
come anie thing neere For therein perhaps must be declared and that more largely that the regard of temporall commodities set aside all other respects reasons allurements motiues and considerations which heauen and earth can yeeld whereby to stirre a Christians man to imbrace any religion are all for you and none for vs. But auaunt Sathan Hast thou not yet left thy woonted bragging Art thou not yet perswaded but that thou maiest bee able so farre to aduaunce so notorious falshood of thine which is so plainely discouered alreadie Wert thou not sufficiently foyled before when as thou didst but vaunt of the kingdomes of the world and the glorie of them as if all were thine and at thy disposition but that nowe thou hast so farre possessed the mindes of some as that in them hauing gotten the place thou art not ashamed now to say that whatsoeuer argumentes of perswasion there are in heauen or in earth they are all for that corruption that thou hast scattered into the church and none at all for the truth it selfe As for thy selfe it is but thy kind thou art a lier from the beginning and the father of all falshood and lies And as for those that thou hast so far bewitched it is the iust iudgement of God that they illusion should bee so forcible and strong against them because they would in no wise receyue the loue of the truth But for the matter that is in hande neither thou nor thine shall euer be able to come anie thing neere vnto that which thou wouldst seeme that thou could It is not in thee the touâ—eâ— that thou hast taken in hande thou art in no wise able to finish In boasting thy selfe so immeasurably thou hast more plainly discouered thy shame For either must thou with shame giue ouer this proud vaunt of thine or els so farre discouer thy weaknes whensoeuer thou shalt attempt to do it that thereby thy shame shall be the greater Howsoeuer it be this glorying of thine must needes be confusion shame to thee it is too late to auoid it now But to leaue your prince that ruleth in you â—â— to come to your self again I pray you good Sir haue you already so clean forgotten how litle able to performe that enterprise your late champion was that hauing gotten half a score reasons on behalf of your profession such as hee thought none could answere with great confidence did publish the same challenging all men to make him answere quickly found that neither hee nor his fellowes were in any wise able to stand vnto it Was this Icarus of yours so lately ouertaken that so plainly in that presumptuous follie of his yet must you needes bee renewing the same point of folly again to the ouerthrow of your self likewise Neuertheles by mine aduise it were not amis that as your bel-fouÌ„ders were wont to desire their staÌ„ders-by to say a sort of pater-nosters auees while the mettal was ruÌ„ning or as when your great masters wold haue faced vs down that a late Princes of ours was with child they ordained processions made publicke praiers that it might be a man-child a proper one too so you likewise seeing perhaps it must needs be done and none of vs may say to the contrarie would now aduise you of such necessary helps before hand that they be not wanting when you should need them Againe must the regard of temporall commoditie bee set aside in this account as a matter that is onely for vs not for you If you meane that the profession of faith that we do hold must needs be more welcome to others because it deliuereth them from power of darknes and miserable seruitude wherinto of late you had brought them in this case I graunt you said very truely but nothing at all to your owne purpose and consequently we cannot bee perswaded yet that you had so honest meaning in you But if you meane that we which are the teachers of it teach it but for our owne aduauntage and not for the truth it self which lieth fairest for your meaning and most agreeth to your disposition then must I tel you that herein also you â—latlie pronounce against the knowne and manifest truth For who seeth not or howe can your selue denie but that in regard of temporall commoditie â—â— had beene much better for vs to haue taken parte with you than so far to haue sundered our selues form you if so be that we could so haue held out the woord of god or beeing once come in haue suppressed it againe Is it not a readier way vnto temporall commoditie to keepe men so ignorant of the sufficiency of their saluation in Christ that we may thereby haue them euer to hang more vpon vs and to make no ende of endowing vs with the best things they had for their soules health then to teach our saluation in him to be so absolute and in himselfe so fully accomplished to all beleeuers that the people of God need not to seeke for such by-helps to any other whatsoeuer Is it not a readier way to temporall commoditie to make kings princes beleeue that they must hold their crowns and kingdoms at our plesure then plainy to acknowledge the fulnes of their right and power and that wee therein haue in no wise to meddle with them But the reasons are manie that turne this backe to your owne bosoms What dealing then is this in you to lay that on vs which is yours and so boldly to set vs downe so great vntruthes Or what one part is there of your profession euen in the cleerest of all as you do vse it that one way or other do ot not specially respect this temporall commoditie that you would faine haue so far from you and so neere vnto vs that is either your profit or els your pleasure or ease or at least your credit or estimation with others or yours at least much more than ours to all intents and purposes whatsoeuer But hauing once brought your fauorites to this that they shall but heare you and read such thinges as you set them downe and vtterly refuse and despise all others besides wee graunt it is for you to set a good face on the matter how bad soeuer the cause be that you defend that so those miserable adherents of yours may gather the better hope they are right when they see that you do so boldly defend them and neuer be able to find how farre you doe abuse them because they reiect or abandon from them al such as should bring them to the knowledge of it In the meane season you are no babes that can so cunningly handle your matters And thus much as touching that part of your dooings where in you haue directed your stile chiefly against mee but yet against others withall 33 As for the residue that in this your second edition you haue otherwise brought vs my selfe doo not meane as before I saide to go
your former bookes yet if anie frend of yours at whose handes your would better take it would now take out the most of that which in this your second edition you haue put vnto it my opinion by your patience is that hee should make your booke so much the better aesteemed but onelie for the names sake with most of your frends that would read it for godlines sake or to stir vp their minde therunto Not denying hereby but that some part of the matter in it selfe is good as that there is a God which rewardeth good and euill and of the certaintie of Christian Religion which two matters are prosecuted at large in two seuerall chapters and are the greatest part of your additions and some other besides But those thinges you knowe were at large handled before by the Fathers of olde against the Gentiles and Iewes and of late likewise as by diuers others in some parte or other as occasion serued so verie fullie by Monsieur du Plessis in that notable booke of his of the truth of Christian Religion You knowe likewise that such thinges as are of diuers argumentes are not euer so welcome vnto those that for the time desire to heare but of the one though in their kinde the one bee as good as the other and in time and place as welcome But yet as touching those reuerend Catholike Priestes that you speake of that suppose so manie among vs to bee falne vnto Athersine by beating out the pointes of Religion first it may bee that they doo thinke that so manie as abandon their woonted errours of poperie doo vtterlie cast of all true Religion likewise And yet notwithstanding I will not denie but that if by them-selues they measure others they may very well thinke if they can haue the grace to consider how far they are falne that it is needfull now to lay againe those first principles of all Religion that there is a God and that the faith of Christ is without question the onely truth But yet are they not able in this lande to finde anie others of what estate or calling soeuer by whome they may take so true a skantling for these matters as by themselues as their trecherous practises long since haue witnessed and daily yet doo to the shame of you all And this of the whole 34 To come to particulars my purpose is no more but this a little to vnfould vnto you these two points how loth you are to be admonished or to amend any thing that already you haue set downe be it neuer so wrong and yet that there is verie good cause why you shuld not trust to your selfe so much as you do That you are loath to be admonished or to amend that which once you haue doone amisse appeereth sufficiently in this for that you doo so greeuously take this little amendment that herein I haue tendered vnto you though in neuer so quiet and gentle manner Insomuch that whereas I neuer vsed any contumelie of speech against you for anie thing that you had so corruptly put in and besides that absteined also from iust reproofe and neuer did anie more but either left them out or amended them in quiet manner you on the other side by all such occasions haue stirred vp your selfe to lay on load in reprochfull and taunting speeches But whereas it seemeth your selfe doth account them as deadly instrumentes against whome they are throwne yet the truth is they are but the shuttle-cocks of your owne vanitie and carrie with them no force at all against the truth and vpright dealing Then also I thinke your selfe may not well denie but that I admonished you of or my selfe amended certaine things wherin you were wrong which notwithstanding you haue not corrected in this your new booke but haue come forth with them againe as corruptly now as you did before Whereof although I were able to alledge verie manie examples yet I will content my selfe with few And first when you haue occasion whether orderly giuen or purposely taken to alledge anie thing out of those bookes that are not Canonical yet you still call them the Scripture and the H. Scripture as well as those books that are Canonicall or vndoubted Scripture indeed And this you do both against the vse custom of the primitiue Church respecting the whole generally and of an euill heart to the holie and vndoubted woorde of God that by aduauncing other bookes also to the same degree you may so the more easily take downe the better estimation of it and make it no better than those that are of your own allowance In like manner whereas before I put you in mind of many places corruptly translated or wrong applied yet neuertheles you hold on still your head-strong course as propter dolos for in lubrico posuisticot Psal. 73. against Ierome and aboue for vpon all his woorks Psal. 144. against Saint Ierome and against Saint Augustine both and manie others like vnto these Wherein you doo not onelie go against the Fathers but also against the truth it selfe and all to continue your former course and a little therby to helpe out a few od points of your profession not woorth three halfe-pence the best of them all So likewise howe you did some-what ouer-slippe your selfe beyond the warrant of the woorde of God to ascribe that as a custome to Isaac that the text reporteth but of one speciall time I noted vnto you towards the beginning That you may see howe I had amended onely by leauing your errour out and nothing at all laying it vnto your charge not bewraying it vnto others Which notwithstanding now you haue taken it in againe and more discouered your weakenes therein than you did before But it may be you will say that that part of your booke was printed before What if it were yet was not the vsuall helpe of corrections in the end of your booke denied vnto you But for this cause to leaue all the fore-part of the booke and to bee sure to leaue you out three partes to your selfe and to take in hand but the fourth part onely the hindmost of all by which time though the print went on yet might you haue good time of aduisement there to picke out but some few things also wheras I pag. 271. holpe to rectify the number of quarters that you pag. 297. had set down for a Corus in Salomons prouisiō far aboue Ierom beiond al mesure much aboue Iosephus also you neuertheles do still hold on your former course in your new booke haue set it down altogither as corruptly as you did before A little after pag. 300. you had set down that on thursday c friday the Iews cried crucifige against Christ prefored the life of Barrabas before his And yet I trust you know well inough that thogh they bare him il harts before likly inough that they on thursday were practising against him yet neither of those
two things that you speake of were doone but onely on friday Wheras therfore I pag. 281. left out your thursday set them on the head of friday only yet you in your headstroÌ„g course haue put in thursday againe as it was before After that again handling the vanitie of worldly pleasures you bring in pag. 322. a text of Scripture wroÌ„g quoted also both for the booke chapter that the linage of king Baasa was destroied for that they prouoked god in their vanities In which place by those their vanities hee meaneth their idolatries as by the place it selfe is apparant and by the best interpreters thereon olde and newe And Iohannes Benedictus a Diuine of Paris and one of your owne companie taking his direction as himselfe professeth out of Ierome Augustine Ambrose Gregorie Hilary Chrysostom and all the best approoued writers that antiquitie yeelded as appeereth in his Epistle Dedicatorie in his Concordance vpon the word vanitas doth plainely so interprete that verie place Wheras therfore I left it out as not appertaining to the matter you had in hande you notwithstanding haue put it in again and as wrong quoted as it was before Belike at the first you followed some table and whatsoeuer place you found to talke of vanitie that did you think to be for your purpose and in that perswasion persist as yet But whether that were in you a vanitie or not you may at leisure resolue if it please you So likewise euen with the common sort do you plainly mistake that place of the Hebrews concerning Esau saying that God would not forgiue him though he demanded it with teares â—â— Wherein although I will not denie but that you may haue some other that dooth so expoundit yet is the stone it selfe a sufficient interpreter of that place against all And your owne fellowes of Rhemes in their note on that place doo plainelie say that it is not meant that Esau could not finde remission of his sins at Gods hands which is the sense that you haue gathered but that hauing once folde and yeelded vp the right of his first-birth vnto his yonger brother it was too late to be sorie for his viâ—â—â—uised bargaine In which latter part of their note although if they had better heeded the storie whence it was taken they might haue interpreted the same somewhat better of the blessing that was past to an other yet is the former very sound and crosseth you as directly as may be And wheras I had so mended it to your handes you neuerthelesse come in with it againe as you did before so well seene belike in the woord of God in those matters that are of deeper iudgement or fore-stalled with som vnaduisednes or ignorant preiudice that as you can readily erre with the ignorant and common sort so likewise can you as little perceiue it when as you are gently admonished of it The like might be said of manie others but these I trust may be sufficient for this matter And yet I will acknowledge withall that some few of them you haue some-what amended much like as you had direction from mee As for example whereas before your woordes were that Christ complained greeuously by the Prophet that sinners built vpon his backe and prolonged their iniquitie 348 which indeed doth not stand with the sense of the place as I had noted 330 and therewithall holpe the place by saying that Christ might so complaine you perceiuing some-what your former mistaking haue thus far holpen it that our Sauiour seemeth to complaine c. Againe whereas you said before that Christ went foorth into the streets twise in one day to reprehend those that were idle and I perceiuing tâ—â—o faultes therein amended them both saying that Christ in his parable still reprehended greeuously those that stood idle c. you perceiuing now that it was not Christ himselfe that went forth to reprehend the idle but that he put the parable of another that did haue nowe thus farre mended it that you say that Christ in his parable went forth into the streetes twise in one day c. But as for that other slip of yours that you talke so praecisely of twise in one day that haue you mended nothing at all and it may be not perceiued it neither And yet the text it self that you do speake of Mat. 20. 17. doth plainly say that first he went forth earlie in the morning then afterwards againe at the third sixt ninth eleuenth houres of the day In somuch that it is the more maruell that finding him still as you say which notwithstanding wee read but of once to rebuke those that were idle you neuer fouÌ„d him notwithstanding at any time to rebuke this your idle reading and regarding of his holy worde The sense also of diuers places of Scripture which you out of others sometimes had corruptly set down alledging it for the sense of the place which was either but an alluding vnto it or els not so good I had one way or other either amended or made more tollerable which you notwithstanding haue broght in again as far wide as they were before I am not ignorant but that by one of those foure waies which you take vpon you so coÌ„monly to vse wherof sometime there is some vse in deede in the expounding of holy scripture there may be some colour pretended for such wanton wandring expositionsâ— that diuers there be of reuerend accouÌ„t otherwise that therein haue not a little offended But in this light of the Gospell those that so dally with the word of God are worthy rather to bee hissed out than to bee repressed by admonition Last of all wheras you had ofteÌ„ vsed those profane speeches of hap chance fortune perhaps perchance and I had not onely left them out put others in their place such as gaue no such way to offence yet serued the place as well as the other but also did bring in Augustine against them you neuertheles haue taken them freely in again as one that is â—oth ouermuch to amend or litle regardeth what offence by his speech he may giue vnto others 35. That there is good cause why you should not trust to your self so much as you do might eaâ—y be gathered throughout your whole book But first as touching all such matters as belong to the controuersies with those as I said I will not meddle because that whatsoeuer slip you make therein yet it is hard for you to perceiue it much more to acknowledge it so long as you are perswaded that you are in the truth or doo but retaine the mind that you do so wilfully winking at the manifest light so hardning your harts against this gratious calling of God Then also certaine other thinges there are that are no controuersies them selues and yet notwithstanding so neere allied to them that therin also I may not deale with much better hope than in the other For therin also you
A Briefe Answer vnto those idle and friuolous quarrels of R. P. against the late edition of the RESOLVTION By Edmund Bunny Wherunto are praefixed the booke of Resolution and the treatise of Pacification perused and noted in the margent on all such places as are misliked of R. P. shewing in what Section of this Answer following those places are handled PSALM 120. 7. I labour for peace but when to that ende I speake vnto them they prepare themselues vnto warre AT LONDON Printed by Iohn Charlewood Anno. Dom. 1589. The Praeface to the Reader GENTLE Reader I am nowe to craue this fauour of thee that I may be so bolde as to present thee with such an argument as of the verie nature of it is not so welcome to those that are of a quiet and peaceable disposition such also as my selfe do so little like of that neuer yet did I medle therewith of myne onwe accord hauing otherwise business enough in another kind that is sufficient to occupie me Howbeit it is needefull also that the aduersarie be answered and that the weakenes of their allegations which otherwise might seeme to be strong be euer discouered that others be not shaken thereby And seeing that I am nowe by this occasion drawne forth to this kind of argument and withall haue left me good store of matter to goe against I could do no lesse then to answer my call in this kind also The matter is this A few yeeres since I somewhat purged and afterwarde published as it is sufficiently known vnto manie the Booke of Resolution the rather to prouoke those discontented countrimen of ours to gather themselues to more moderate waies and to better agreement in the cause of Religion as in my Praeface I had noted before To which end also I was not so curious in purging of it but willinglie left whatsoeuer I thought might tollerably stand and somewhat further to induce them also I adioyned thereunto an other little Treatise tending to Pacification Since which time the same R. P. that had set it foorth so corruptly before hath not only set it forth so again but also hath much increased it with those common fragments of their moth-eaten Poperie with some other both discourses vagaries besides Howbeit he hath altered the title and hath framed another so grosly vnto it that of whom soeuer he borrowed the best part of the former yet may you be sure that the title of this latter Booke is his without any question For beeing weary of the former title that made the whole matter no more but a Christian exercise as in deede beeing purged it might rightly be termed so vpon a smal occasion he iustleth that aside out of the way being very impotently caried with a Pharifaiacall zeale to aduance the righteousnes of workes against the suffering and merits of Christ hee must needs haue this Christian Exercise in the way of godlines to be a Directorie guiding men vnto saluation and yet Christian too as though Christ had come downes from heauen to teache vs to seeke our saluation at least in part in our own righteousnes not only in his death and merits without any thing els to be mingled withall in that account The additions also that he hath put therunto doe seldome answer the former platforme some of argument good enough in themselues but not so fitly agreeing to the matter that hee had in hand others that draw neerer to the matter that was to be handled but weake in themselues and in many places to so little purpose that he doth nought els oftimes but fetch certain idle careers about it A booke that was much vntil they had seene it desired of many vpon the hope that by the former was conceaued of it but once being had so little answering their expectation that accordingly it findeth euen among the most of themselues but smal estimation being so corrupt a thing as it is almost as incorrigible as the Ma. himself I mean not to wast my labor about it In the Praeface of which booke in certaine of his Annotations theron he much inueigheth against me and it passing angry for medling so far as I did with the former But it is vpon so litle ground to so little purpose withal that for a time I could in no wise perswade my selfe that it were any better then lost labor to make him answer both because the matter it selfe was of no importance that he laid to my charge but in al places to speake of answereth it selfe and because the booke likewise was of smal account nor had but of few of their own fauorites among them also could litle be suffered to come abroad But yet one other respect there is wherein at length I was perswaded to make him answer For it is not vnknown almost vnto any in these daies of ours what greeuous complaints they make against vs howe boldly and resolutly they cleere themselues and charge vs almost in all thinges that goe betwixt vs as plainly appeareth in their Rhemes Testament for altogether in their seueral writings besides for euery one a part by themselues Wherein it is a world to see with what faces boldnes of speech they auowe those foolish wicked doctrines of theirs that without question are only Romish and most schismatical yet notwithstanding to be very Catholike the truth of Iesus Christ as it was by himself by his Apostles deliuered vnto vs to be no better then plain heresie and for those wicked practises that of late they haue so busily imployed themselues about how some of them deny those things that were as cleere as the light of the sunne others iustifie those that are most wicked trecherous in the highest degree and when some of them are punished for those their demerits yet but in very moderate maner and but so farre as vrgent necessity required neyther yet notwithstanding they cry out of such persecution as neuer was heard of Which writings of theirs what man can read that is not before acquainted with their maner of dealing but that needs he must yeeld some credit vnto them although he can think that all is not true yet so bold speeches as those must needs breed a perswasion with some that there is some great cause that so they complain or at least somwhat there is wherein they are iniured So that when as now they find by experience they are not able by learning to shew it to those that can examine their speeches by learning the next that remaineth is by out-facing boldnes of speech to retain such credit as they are able in the harts of those that they know will examine nothing they say yet neuertheles beleeue that it is as true as the Gospel Now that they see that there is no place for the Kingdom of the Beast in the harts of those that examin all things by the word of GOD before they beleeue
and sense of the other for the hast that you made to come the sooner vnto your vaine of reproching though the matters themselus be not great yet therin you deserue som iust reproofe But it seemeth rather that of purpose you would so take them so to make you a readier way to that which you were desirous thereon to set downe And then the more impudently that you were giuen to ioine with so bad a company in so naughtie a matter the more dooth it argue the fault to raigne in you and the deepelier you haue offended therein But if I therein treated of mortification and contempt of the world then must you either seperate these things from that deuotion pietie and contemplation that after you speake of or else must you call backe as well you may for the number of them some part of those lauishing speeches that there you vse or otherwise bee contrarie to your selfe in this But the lesse that I directed mine Epistle vnto that ende the meeter it is that for my part I take not this aduauntage of you 7 My Praeface to the Reader is the next that commeth vnder your censure and how welcome that is vnto you it appeareth by the harde entertainment that with you it findeth For heere you shew your selfe to bee much offended not onelie with me but with others also And the cause why you finde your selfe so greeued is for that I saide that the Booke of Resolution seemed to me to be gathered out of certaine of the Schoole-men as they are tearmed that liuing in the corrupter time of the Church did most of all by that occasion treat of reformation of life when as others of them were rather occupied about the controuersies that were most in question among them But what is there here that so much offendeth Forsooth that thereby I endeuored as you do charge mee to make the booke more contemptible in the iudgement of others that so I might the rather get it vnder my learned censure to vse at my pleasure But that I meant not to make it contemptible may sufficiently appeer both by the report that I gaue it better than your selfe before deserued but much lesse now by the paines that I tooke about it to cleanse it from that corruption of yours wherewith it could not haue come abroad and which was a blemish to the booke it self though you cannot see it Neither should you especially taking it so much to your selfe as now you do haue thought that book so far abased by imputing a good part of it to anie of those whom there I spake of as also you could not doe it without a great ouer-weening of your selfe nor without ouer-much abasing of those And wheras you tell vs of certaine fathers out of whose homilies sermons commentaries and other works the booke was taken in which man or you might haue attributed some parte thereof to the Scriptures also but that you glorie much lesse in thē than in the others that so your glorie may redoūd more iustly to your shame it is nothing at al to the purpose that so you alledge For thogh the matter therein contained were first deriued from the Scriptures and Fathers originally yet not withstanding that hindereth not but that it may well be taken out of the monuments and workes of those that wrote long after them gathered such matter somewhat neerer togither Now as for your selfe although it may bee that I doo not know you yet by the light that now you haue giuen vs of the profoundnes that is in you and if you bee the partie that most commonly is named vnto it you are I warrant you as likely as others to make your choyse rather where you may haue it neerer gathered togither then at large in the Scriptures and Fathers themselues That heerein you charge mee so deepely with ignorance and that my studie is lesse than nothing at all in those your Schoolemen the matter is not great if therein I suffer you to take your pleasure of mee and when you haue made mee as vnlearned in them as shall like your selfe best or best may serue to aduance you it may bee that I my selfe could wel be contented to spare somewhat of that also that you would leaue mee and yet notwithstanding am not so little acquainted with them neither that anie thing I feare your learning in them or in any others And God be thanked there is much good learning to be had though a man doo neuer come neere those that you speake of as also there was long before them But I pray you good Sir are you able to alledge anie one of them all from whome a good part of that booke may not bee deriued either among those that dealt in the controuersies if you respect your pointes or doctrine or among the others if you respect the rules of life and conuersation Or to go no further than your selfe hath occasioned may we thinke that you are perswaded indeed that this booke which nowe you cal yours standeth so cleere in all your parables vnderstanding of Scriptures application of them your diuisions also and manner of speech from that sort of Schoolemen that before I spake of or you nowe speake of that whosoeuer should conceiue that in som good part it descended of them he must needs be so ignorant in them as that he knoweth not so much as the verie subiect and argument that they handle as it pleaseth you in the depth of that learning of yours to charge mee Could you warrant mee thus much that it were as woorthy the labour as it were possible inough to doo it it were no hard matter soone to shewe that a great part of it might well haue beene taken not onely out of those that before I noted but as you had dressed it in such colours as you thought good to bestow vppon it euen out of those that you also haue named vnto me When as in the first lines of al after your title and sentenced that you set vs down you cannot be content to be our resoluing to serue God beginning aright and perseuering therein to be our dutie and an acceptable seruice to him but needes you will teach vs forth seeke saluation thereby not by the righteousnes of Christ but by our owne when you tell vs that our forefathers receiued the ground of faith peaceably and without quarrelling not from the holy scriptures or frō their father but from their mother the Church when as so barely you set vs down the example of Cornelius as though you would make vs beleeue that hee had works or a vertuous life acceptable to God before that euer hee had any faith when as you call it Scripture indifferently as well what you finde in those bookes that are Apochrypha as in those that are Canonicall when you tell vs that wilfulnes in Popery is suffering for righteousnes when as so odly you take occasion to let
the place that you alledge out of the third section and either out of the foureteenth or fifteenth page there do I giue no cause at all why I wrote this Treatise neither yet do I directly set downe But by way of supposall that which so greedilie you catch for your purpose to cheare you withall For my wordes are plaine that we also will bee content to set by Religion for a season c and now consider of those things alone that do concerne our ciuille-state againe Be it therfore that whatsoeuer their profession be yet shal they haue many of those that now are with vs to ioine with them if in this point there be found no lawfull impediment or matter to stay them And now Sir I pray you if you would needs haue taken vpō you out of mine own words to declare vnto others what moued me to write this treatise ought you not rather to haue taken it out of one of those places before recited where I dealt in the selfe-same matter then out of this other alledged by you where I speake nothing at all of anie such thing And if you had ment honest plain dealing would you not haue taken the course that I speake of But put-case that that also were some part of the cause could you yet haue the face altogither to set by Religion and matters of faith which I set by but for a time whilst that I reasoned of the other then tel your reader that the consideratiō of our ciuil estate was the only matter that by mine own confessiō that my selfe confessed that indeed now I perceiued that me held with vs rather for respect of state ciuil cōmodities than of conscience beleefe Did I any where confesse this Haue you no shame to charge me with so manifest an vntruth Dooth your religion giue you that libertie Haue you so throughly digested that new lesson of yours to keep no faith to those that professe the gospel that now you regard not what you say of them nor how you charge them But the qualitie of your cause being better considered the matter is lesse that by you it is accordingly handled But you ad hereunto that regard of temporal commoditie in verie truth is the only reason or bait that wee can lay before you at this time wherby to moue you to come to our part and withall that our Lord knoweth how bare brickle a thing it is how long or litle while it may indure In the former wherof you seem now to discouer the reason to vs why you would before haue made your reader beleeue that I made this Pacification for no cause els but for that now I perceiued that mē held with vs rather for respect of ciuil commodities than of conscience and beleefe For if there were on our parts no other groundwork of persuasion but onlie the regard of temporall cōmoditie then without questiō I could haue had to this purpose no other matter at al to write of so consequently needes must I haue made the treatise only for it Therfore do but proue that to your gentle reader the other wil follow vpō it hard at the heels In the latter of thē wherin you talk of the bricklenes of it how litle it may endure althogh you cast in certain other speches besides to shadow the matter so far as to your purpose shuld be needful for the time yet considering your attempts since against the person of her Ma. the State it self it may wel be both that your self were priuy to thē that if so they had falne out you had laide thereby a pretie foundatiō to win the credit of a Prophet among you as one of your fellowes lately did in England We know as wel as you that al erthly prosperitie subiect to mutabilitie and that no man knoweth the time or season howe long or how little it is to continue And if it shall please God to enter into anie such triall of vs as you would fainest see we◠trust that we shal be in a readines to obey his wil and that it also shall be both to our great benefit and good of the Church and to the further ouerthrow both of your selues and of your profession now in this declining estate of your wicked pope-dome I also graunt as touching these speeches of yours if otherwise the cause be good and the persons be not suspitious such speeches as these may well be vttered without offence But I ad withall both that it is a false slaunder of you to charge vs that we relie vpon it and yet neuertheles are wee of dutie verie much bound heerein to acknowledge the goodnes of God towards vs and that so much the rather as wee see the same so much to greeue you and so firmly to be continued hitherto vnto vs notwithstanding so many vile attempts of yours to the contrary and that it is likely considering the qualitie that you are of that in these verie wordes you shewed your selfe to some purposes in couert manner but otherwise plainely ynough not onely how to lay in wait for the same but also that you had already conceiued an vndoubted hope to preuaile wherein notwithstanding hitherto God bee thanked you are cleerely defeated And our trust further is that seeing you are now so farre past not only religion but all honestie too as witnes these your vile and naughtie practises continually iterated one after an other both that God will still bee against you and that the most of your wonted adhaerents considering into howe reprobate waies they may easily finde you hereby to bee giuen will nowe begin euerie where to see how much you haue abused them daily forsake you more and more That Strumpet you know that sometimes hath beene in that honour and estimation with the Princes and people of the earth and with whome they haue liued in fornication being by her inchantments deceiued is at length to bee forsaken and hated of them to be stript naked and burned also And it may bee that GOD will vse this extreame wickednes of yours to make others both better to know you the more to detest you also so to make the readier way to those his iudgements which we besech him to hasten to his good pleasure for his names 〈◊〉 and for the comfort of all his people that soone should haue a readier way to their saluatiō if that great stumbling blocke were once remooued out of the way 32 As touching the hope that before hand you giue vs of that new Booke that perhaps heereafter may be taken in hande you haue in such sorte set downe the argument therof already that althogh it may be that some of you could giue the aduenture of such an attempt yet to deale plainly with you I must needes giue you to vnderstand that it is such a matter as that none of you all nor altogither are able to performe no nor to