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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A16174	A reproofe of M. Doct. Abbots defence, of the Catholike deformed by M. W. Perkins Wherein his sundry abuses of Gods sacred word, and most manifold mangling, misaplying, and falsifying, the auncient Fathers sentences,be so plainely discouered, euen to the eye of euery indifferent reader, that whosoeuer hath any due care of his owne saluation, can neuer hereafter giue him more credit, in matter of faith and religion. The first part. Made by W.P.B. and Doct. in diuinty.	Bishop, William, 1554?-1624.	1608 (1608)	STC 3098; ESTC S114055	254,241	290

in steede of God WILLIAM BISHOP WHAT a worthy graue Preface he vseth to assure men that vve wil not deny S. Paul nor his Epistle to the Romans vvhich neuer were called in doubt by any man But good S ir vvhiles you muse and busie your head so much vpon bables you forget or wilfully mistake the very point of the question Was the Church of Rome at her most flourishing estate when S. Paul wrote that Epistle to the Romans was her faith then most renowmed ouer al the world as you write nothing lesse for not the tenne thousand part of that most populous Citty was then conuerted to the faith and they that had receiued the Christian faith were very nouices in it and stoode in great neede of the Apostles diuine instructions Any reasonable man would rather judge that the Church of Rome then came first to her most flourishing estate when Idolatry and al kind of superstition was put to silence and banished out of her vvhen the Christian religion was publikly preached countenanced by the Emperours authority which was not before the raigne of Constantine the great our most glorious country-man vvherefore M. Abbots first fault is that he shooteth farre vvide from the marke vvhich he should haue aimed at principally The second is more nice yet in one that would seeme so acute not to be excused It is that he taketh an Epistle written to the Romans for their instruction and correction as if it were a declaration and profession of their faith vvhen as al men know such a letter might containe many thinges vvhich they had not heard off before Further yet that you may see how nothing can passe his fingers vvithout some legerdemaine marke how he englisheth Theodorets wordes Dogmatum pertractationem The handling of opinions is by him translated al points of doctrine vvhereas it rather signifieth some then al opinions or lessons But I wil let these ouer-sights passe as flea-bitings and follow him whither he pleaseth to wāder that euery man may see when he is permitted to say what he liketh best that in truth he can alleage out of S. Paul nothing of moment against the Catholike faith S. Paul saith he is wholy against you and for vs. Quickly said but wil not be so soone proued First he condemneth the worshipping of Saints and Saints Images in that he reproueth the Heathens for changing the glory of the incorruptible God into the similitude of the Image of a corruptible man O noble disputer and wel worthy the whippe because we may not make false Gods or giue the glory of God vnto Idols may vve not therefore yeeld vnto Saints their due vvorship might not S. Paul whiles he liued as al other most Godly men be reuerenced and vvorshipped for their most excellent spiritual and religions vertues with a kinde of holy and religious respect euen as Knights and Lordes and other worldly men are vvorshipped and honoured for their temporal callings and endowments with temporal worship vvithout robbing God of his honour Is the Lord or Master dishonoured and spoiled of his due reuerence and respect if his seruants for his sake be much made off and respected yet with such due regard only as is meete for their degree This is so childish and palpable that if the Protestants were not resolued to sticke obstinately to their errours how grosse soeuer they be they vvould for very shame not once more name it To the next ROBERT ABBOT PAVL saith and we say the same that Ibid. vers 17. the righteousnesse of God is from faith to faith you say otherwise that it is from faith to workes that faith is but the entrance to workes and that in workes the righteousnesse of God doth properly consist WILLIAM BISHOP THE sentence of S. Paul is mangled his wordes are for the justice or righteousnesse of God is reuealed therein in the Gospel by faith into faith which are obscure and subject to diuers expositions The most common is that Christ the justice of God is reuealed in the Gospel by conferring the faith of them that liued before the Gospel vvith their faith that liued vnder it the faith of them who liue in the Gospel giuing great light for the cleerer vnderstanding of such thinges as were taught of Christmore darkely in the law and Prophets This being the literal sence of this place what is here for mans justification by only faith where only mention is made of Gods justice and not one vvord of the imputation of it to man but of the reuelation of it in the Gospel What a foule mistaking is this alas his pouerty of spirit and want of good armour compelleth him to lay hand on any vveapons how simple and weake soeuer In the next verse it is plainly shewed that God did grieuously punish al them vvho liued wickedly notwithstanding they held the right faith for saith S. Paul Rom. 1. v. 18. the wrath of God from heauen is reuealed vpon al impiety and vnrighteousnesse of those men that retaine or hold the truth of God in injustice Whence it followeth first that men may haue a true faith without good workes for they held the truth of God being themselues wicked Secondly that the same faith would not auaile them aught nor saue them from the just wrath of God if it were not quickned by good workes ROBERT ABBOT THE Apostle in expresse termes affirmeth Rom. 4. v. 6. imputation of righteousnesse vvithout vvorkes We doe the same but you professedly dispute against it WILLIAM BISHOP WE hold with the Apostle that vvorkes be not the cause of the first justification whereof he there treateth nor to deserue it though inspired with Gods grace they doe prepare vs and make vs fit to receiue the gift of justification neither doe the Protestants wholy exclude workes from this justification vvhen they doe require true repentance which consisteth of many good workes as necessary thereto We hold that justice is increased by good workes which we cal the second justification against which the Apostle speaketh not a vvord but doth confirme it vvhen he saith in the same Epistle Rom. 2. v. 13. Not the hearers of the law are just with God but the doers of the law shal be justified Marke how by doing of the law which is by doing good workes men are justified with God and not only declared just before men as the Protestants glose the matter Now touching See the place Rom. 4. v. 6. imputation of righteousnesse the Apostle speaketh not like a Protestant of the outward imputation of Christs justice to vs but of inherent justice to wit of faith vvhich worketh by charity which are qualities Rom. 6. powred into our harts by the holy Ghost so that there is only a bare sound of wordes for the Protestants the true substance of the Text making wholy for the Catholikes ROBERT ABBOT PAVL teacheth that Rom. 6. v. 23. Page 98. eternal life is the gift of God through IESVS

not what blasphemy is For God doth not withdraw his loue and liking from any man that he once loued and doth not abhorre his soule vnlesse that man doe first forsake God and commit some offence against his diuine Majesty as all diuines agree but to imagine that our Sauiour committed any offence against his heauenly Father as impious Caluin doth insinuate is flat blasphemy against his immaculate purity In c. 27. Mat. and against the holy Scriptures that doe testifie Hebr. 7. vers 26. Our high Priest to be holy innocent impolluted segregated from sinners higher then the heauens c. That had no necessity to offer for his owne sinnes How therefore could his heauenly Father abhorre his soule or how could he be so euil perswaded of so good a Father God indeede to shew the rigour of his justice against our sinnes for which Christ suffered and the better to declare Christs inuincible fortitude and most feruent loue towardes vs was content not to yeeld vnto Christs humanity vpon the crosse so much as the ordinary inward comfort vvhich he affordeth vnto al that suffer for his names sake and that only did Christ in the name of his humanity expresse where he said My GOD my GOD why hast thou forsaken me and doest not afford me so much as that inward consolation which thou grantest to others But he was at the very same instant most assured that euen then God did loue him more ardently if it were possible then at any time in his vvhole life before because that then he did for his sake according to his heauenly decree and to satisfie his vvil and pleasure suffer the greatest sorrowes that the nature of man could sustaine and that without any kinde of extraordinary or ordinary helpe comfort or consolation but of this I haue spoken more in the Preface before alleaged Here I am only to note how M. Abbot slandereth me in this place with that whereof he himselfe cleareth me afterwards in his booke Let vs goe on vvith his reproches He saith That we be but sicophants and hirelings to the Pope for whose sake we must gale and disgrace howsoeuer there be no truth in that we speake How proueth he this is it not the part of a notable sicophant indeede to vpbraide a vvhole order of men vvith so great crimes vvithout any proofe at al How many learned Catholike writers be there in the world that neuer receiued one peny from the Popes holynesse no nor neuer so much as saw him or had any particular dealings with him what they doe out of their duty towardes God and of zeale to his sacred truth that M. Abbot vvould haue seely soules to beleeue to be done only of constraint and feare or for some hope of worldly gaine Perge mentiri goe on Sir with your tale By which meanes saith he many of your subjects are intangled in a misconscience of religion and thereby drawne from their true loialty and prepared for seditious practises so saith he both simply and falsly without any colour of proofe But we say that by the Catholike doctrine al subjects consciences are rightly informed in the waies of God and thereby instructed to be true and faithful to their Princes and to hate al such practises as tend to the perturbation of the vveale publike Yea vve doe more forcibly and effectually by the Catholike doctrine moue al subjects vnto dutiful obedience then the Protestants doe Caluin lib. 4. Instit ca. 10. num 5. Perkins reformed catholike pag. 157. for they hold that Christian liberty alloweth al men the free vse of al thinges indifferent and that such thinges may not be made necessary in conscience so that if the Prince goe about to restraine his subjects of that liberty they are not bound to obey him vvhereas we al maintaine that al men are bound in conscience to obey al such just lawes of Princes as are not directly against the law of God our doctrine therefore doth farre excel the Protestants in the matter of true loialty And to answere here by the vvay to that odious argument of theirs That the Papists forsooth are but halfe subjects because in matters of religion they are not ruled by their King and his lawes but doe depend vpon the Pope I say that if al they who in matters of faith and saluation doe not take their temporal Prince to be their supreme gouernour should be esteemed but halfe subjects then the mighty Monarkes of France and Spaine and al other Catholike Kings or Princes of the vvorld haue not any one whole subject for none of their people acknowledge them for chiefe cōmanders in Ecclesiastical causes then also for a thousand yeares together our former Kinges were wholy destitute of true and loial subjects for they depended no lesse then we doe vpon the Bishop of Rome for declaration and decision of spiritual affaires as it is very particularly demonstrated in that learned answere vnto Sr. Edward Cookes fift booke of reportes Briefly if this their reason vvere good the Apostles and al the first and best Christians vvere but halfe subjects for in matters of faith not one of them vvould be ruled by the Roman Emperors or other their temporal Princes but did al acknowledge and confesse some other supreme gouernour in those spiritual cases wherefore they must either allow vs to be perfect loial subjects notwithstanding our dependance vpon the Popes holynesse in causes Ecclesiastical or else condemne as disloial al the best Christian subjects that euer vvere euen since Christes owne daies And thus much may serue for this place to shew that they are to be reputed vvhole subjects and that of the best marke who doe giue vnto Math. 22. vers 21. Caesar that which is Caesars reseruing neuerthelesse vnto God and his Vicar that vvhich to him appertaineth I returne to M. Abbots accusations They haue beene bold already saith he to tel your Majesty that if you wil not yeeld them what they desire God knoweth what that forcible weapon of necessity wil driue them to at length meaning as he expoundeth it that if we could not get vvhat vve desire by vviles like Aspes we would like raging Lions seeke it by open violence These wordes of M. Abbots maketh me remember that worthy saying of a graue wise author Sr. Thomas Moore Take away lying and railing from Heretikes and you shal leaue them little or nothing This one little sentence of mine whereon he makes a whole discourse a part and doth glance and girde at it very often elsewhere thinking to haue gotten thereby a great aduantage against al Catholikes he could not propose to his Majesty without a lease of lies The first is that he auoucheth my only feare and conjecture to be the constant opinion of al Catholikes they haue beene bold saith he vvhen he citeth my only vvordes vvriting in mine owne name wherefore he doeth open wrong to others to impute that to them whereunto they were not

in other workes be of the same merit and therefore Priests and religious persons might aswel marry as liue continently Secondly He laboureth to proue that the Deuil cannot ouer-come them that be regenerated in ful faith Thirdly He putteth no difference betweene abstinence from meate and eating of the same with thanks-giuing Fourthly That al who haue kept their baptisme shal haue the same reward in heauen and not any one a greater then another These saith S. Hierome be the hissings of the old serpent by these sleights the Dragon cast man out of Paradise And doe our Protestants by hearkning vnto these serpentine voices thinke to recouer Paradise againe doe they not beleeue just with Iouinian that it is of no greater merit to liue a professed Virgin then to liue maried sauing that they are so much worse then Iouinian vvas as to deny the best Christian to haue any merit at al by any state or vvorke soeuer Be they not secondly wel assured in their owne opinion that the Deuil cannot subuert them and put them by their places in heauen doe they not thirdly in proper tearmes teach with Iouinian that fasting is no more acceptable to God then eating And they that hold one simple justification common to al without any kinde of merit must needes consequently hold that al in heauen haue the same reward vvhich was the fourth point of Iouinians heresie They then be so formal Iouinians that they cannot deny it but are driuen to maintaine M. Abbots Page 56. that Iouinian vvas a right honest man and vnderstood Paul better then any of them al Hierome with al his Hebrew Greeke and Latin was no body in comparison of him But what say they then to Augustine Lib. 2. Retract cap. 22. another professed aduersary of that Iouinian who stileth him for his ignorance joined with impudency and for the lewdnesse of his doctrine a very monster And further telleth vs that the old holy Church of Rome did most faithfully and most valiantly resist him and his errours So did also that most graue and holy Bishop S. Ambrose Ambros lib. 3. Epist 81. vvith many other worthy Prelates his neighbours condemning Iouinian and his complices for false teachers Besides he is yet further ranked in the rew of damnable Heretikes by the ancient learned and Godly Authour Vicentius Lyrinensis In Cōmonit cap. 15. neither can the Protestants name any one approued authour for a thousand yeares after his daies that held him for any better And yet such goslinges doe they make of their followers that they must rather follow Iouinian then Hierome Augustine Ambrose and the old Church of Rome and vvhatsoeuer else He that wil take no warning but longeth to be gulled let him hardly hearken vnto them In like manner doe they vphold the Heretike Vigilantius Hieron cont Vigilant Who denied the Relikes of Martirs to be worshipped and waxe candels to be lighted before them at noone day and said That whiles we liued we might one pray for another but no mans praier after his death wil helpe any other Out of vvhich it followeth euidently that it is in vaine to pray to Saints that can doe vs no good Thirdly he taught That they did better who vse their owne goodes and doe of their reuennues giue peece-meale some-thing to the poore then they that sel al away and giue it al at once to them and become Monkes and Religious Fourthly That Clergie men should marry For these points expresly Vigilantius was reproued by S. Hierome as an vnpure and an vngodly Heretike and in one nights worke vvas so taken downe and as it were crushed in the head that he neuer after durst once quack or reply one word S. Hierome is therein also seconded by Gennadius a famous Authour of a thousand yeares standing and by S. Thomas of Aquine with others without any contradiction at al vntil Luthers vnhappy daies And yet the Protestants his disciples hauing put on their brazen faces M. Abbots Page 68. doe not only paraleel and equal him but also preferre him before S. Hierome one of the best learned among the Christians that liued since the Apostles daies M. Abbot very shamefully saith Page 67. that Hierome himselfe commended this Vigilantius for a holy Priest And to make his lie the more luculent he puts it in the superlatiue degree sanctissimum S. Hierome doth indeede commend one Vigilantius for a holy Priest but were there no more of that name besides that wicked Heretike whom he calleth rather Dormitantius then Vigilantius Are there no more Abbots but one any man that hath but halfe an eie may see if he wil view that Epistle that S. Hierome spake there off a farre honester man then the other was whom he calleth neither sanctissimum nor sanctum but a man replenished with an vncleane spirit Hieron cont Vigilant very vnlearned and more fit to keepe an Ale-house then to serue in the Church To returne then to my purpose vvhereas he can be no true Catholike according to S. Augustines rule and the common opinion that beleeueth any one point of heresie Ad Quodvult In fine The Protestants doe hold nine points of heresie condemned in three notable Heretikes Aërius Iouinian and Vigilantius And that so openly without any kinde of cloaking or colouring that they are compelled to defend the authors themselues for honest men who notwithstanding by the verdict of al approued Antiquity lay condemned as vvicked Heretikes for more then a thousand yeares togither Now I wil proceede to some of the rest of their erronious opinions which though they imbrace yet they dare not defend the authours of them for godly men but with vs doe condemne their authours though they vphold some of their errours It is noted by the blessed Martir Ireneus that one of Simon Magus errours was That men were saued by grace Lib. 1. cont Haeres c. 20. and not for good and just workes the Protestants agree with him in this that saluation and heauen are not giuen for good workes For though they teach that good vvorkes be necessary as signes and fruites of our faith yet they wil not in any case admit them to be any cause of saluation but make their justifying faith the only and whole cause thereof by which they fal also into the heresie of Eunomius related by S. Augustine in these vvordes Eunomius is reported to haue beene an enemy to good workes August ad Quodvult Haeres 54. so farre forth that he auouched the committing of what sinne soeuer and the continuance in the same to hinder no man so that he were a partaker of that faith which he taught Doth not the new deuised faith of Protestants giue them the like assurance of saluation though they be no lesse sure to commit and to continue in mortal sinne euen vntil their dying day The Nouatians were branded for Heretikes Euseb 6. Histor cap. 35. Socrat. 1. Histor cap. 7. Zozom 1. Histor

cap. 21. by the best Hystoriographers and other approued authors of the auncient Church for denying Priests to haue power to forgiue some sort of the more hainous crimes Our Protestants exceede the Nouatians therein for they hold that Priests haue no power to pardon any sinne at al either little or great but only to pronounce them absolued for the satisfaction of the congregation And M. Abbot doth vpon meere surmises goe about very ignorantly to colour their deceit Page 187. in saying that the Nouatians denied absolution not from any sinnes but only from the sentence of excommunication Ibidem for both Socrates and Sozomene doe affirme in plaine tearmes the Nouatians to haue taught that it lay not in the power of a Priest but in God alone Illud genus peccati ignoscere To pardon and forgiue that kinde of sinne And againe That hope of pardon was not to be expected of the Priests but of God who could remit sinnes And there is no mention of any sentence of excommunication pronounced against them but that the offendours through the enormity of their sinnes had depriued themselues of the benefit of the Priests absolution And because M. Abbot saith yet further that Nouatus denied absolution to one only kinde of sinne let vs heare how formally that most graue Doctor S. Ambrose hath 1200. yeares before confuted him these be his wordes The Nouatians say Ambros de Poenitent cap. 2. that excepting some of the grieuous sinnes they doe giue pardon vnto the lighter offences But S. Ambrose replieth thus So did not Nouatianus the authour of your errour For he held that penance was not to be injoyned to any sinne at al vpon this consideration that he would not binde that which afterwardes he could not loose least by binding he might put them in hope of loosing Therefore doe you condemne the sentence of your owne Master because you put that difference betweene sinnes that some of them may be forgiuen and other some you thinke remedilesse But God maketh no such distinction who hath promised his mercy vnto al and hath giuen licence vnto Priests to pardon without any exception Obserue how directly that auncient Father doth crosse our new Masters in witnessing that both Nouatianus himselfe denied Priests to haue power to pardon not only the greater but any sinne at al And on the other part that God gaue vnto Priests authority to pardon al sorts of sinnes without any exception of the most grieuous Hieron 〈◊〉 Epist de errorivus Mōtan Niceph. lib. 18. cap. 43. Math. Paris in Henrico 3. Guido de lacobis cap. 2. The Montanists also as I rehearsed before out of S. Hierome did jump with the Nouatians in this point Afterwardes as heresies in tract of time grow more formal about the yeare of Christ 600. there sprong out of that corrupted roote certaine lewd impes called Iacobites who did teach in terminis That it was not necessary to confesse our sinnes to a Priest but it would serue to confesse them only to God Doe our Protestants differ from them any one jote therein That the Manichees among many other errours did deny Free-wil al Antiquity doth confesse The same doe the Protestants though not altogither after the same manner nor vpon the same groundes For the Manichees denied freewil aswel to sinne as to doe vvel Aug. 1. Retract 15. de duobus naturis cont Manich. for they dreamed that there vvas in a man both a good soule which they supposed to be a part of the good God and an euil soule descended of the nation of darkenesse Out of the forcible operation of the one of these two soules they imagined al good and badde deedes of man to proceede vvithout the free choise or consent of his owne wil. M. Abbot craftily to cleere their party from the infamy of the one branch of the Manichean heresie doth deny that they doe agree with them in the other True it is that the Protestants doe not deny vs free-wil to doe euil as the Manichees did yet doe they agree with them in the other part attributing the vvhole vvorking of good vnto grace as the Manichees did to the good soule without any free choise or consent of ours And albeit S. Augustine in refuting them doe most cōmonly insist vpon their denial of liberty to doe euil In disput cōt Fortunatū in act●s cum Foeli●e cap 12. as being the more euident eminent absurdity yet doth he in sundry places intimate that the Manichees held it absurd to affirme that we had free wil to doe good The Donatists vvere of opinion that the visible Church of Christ was perished in al other parts of the world and only remained vndefiled in those coasts of Afrike where their heresie bare the sway August ad Quodvult alibi and vvere therefore by the verdict of Antiquity declared blinde Heretikes The Protestants as obstinately and more blindly doe auouch that the visible true Church was for 900. yeares togither banished out of the world and was of late restored from that long exile by Friar Luther and his followers and doth yet remaine only vndefiled in those corners of Europe where their new Gospel doth domineer they are therefore in that point Donatists It was a very preposterous shameful inuention of the Arrians yet of necessity imbraced afterwardes by other Heretikes to appeale from the judgement of their spiritual Pastors vnto the lay Magistrate thus writeth S. Ambrose of the Arrian Bishop Auxentius He being brought vnto an exigent doth flie vnto that suttle tricke of his predecessours to draw vs into the Emperours displeasure Orat. tertia cont Auxentium affirming that he being but a young-man and a Nouice in the faith ignorant also of the holy Scriptures as commonly other Princes are must notwithstanding in his Consistory determine this Ecclesiastical cause so did the Donatists appeale from the judgement of Bishops vnto the Emperour Epist 48. 162. Lib. 3. cont Iulian. cap. 1. as witnesseth S. Augustine And so the Pelagians would haue done if they could haue preuailed therein as the same most graue Father hath also recorded And is not this as it were the foundation and shot-anker of al the Protestants superstitious proceedinges Another rotten twigge of the same Pelagians heresie it was Aug. de Peccat Merit lib. 1. cap. 9. To deny children to be purged from original sinne by baptisme attributing that rather to a couenant made long since to old father Abraham most learned Protestants be of the same minde And al of them agree vvith Proclus the condemned Originist Epiph. Haeres 64. vvho taught Original sinne to be so in seperably joined with our mortal bodies that til death it is not clearely purged of it The Antidicomarianitae that is Epiph. Haeres 78. enemies of the blessed Virgin Mary were scored vp for Heretikes for denying that most holy Mother of God to be worshipped and honoured yet doe the Protestants

haue beene various in the transforming of his countenance In Germany beleeuing one thing in Heluetia another at Geneua turning the third way in Holland vvandering the fourth How many countries they infect with their new and prophane Gospel so many diuers professions of faith and distinct formes of Church gouernement they haue These changlinges that are so farre degenerated from their predecessors piety and doe disagree so much one with another Yea that doe in the same country often chop and change their owne religion are of al constant Catholikes to be auoided as vnstable and wauering soules caried about with euery blast of new doctrine But concerning dutiful obedience vnto the Prince vvho is Gods Lieutenant general in temporal causes Catholikes if they be compared to Protestants wil be found an hundred times more loyal and constant vvhich point because I haue touched in my answere vnto M. Abbots Epistle in the beginning of this booke I neede not here againe handle it at large And although some men of our religion haue now and then as fraile and sinneful creatures forgotten their duty both to God and their King yet they haue beene so few and that so seldome in comparison of the Protestants that for one of ours more then a thousand of theirs haue within this hundred yeares failed therein though we be in number a thousand of our religion for one of theirs if you take al Christendome ouer And albeit the state seeme now to be settled against the religion of our fore-fathers and not vnlike so to continue vntil it shal please God of his infinite mercies to alter and amend it vvhich notwithstanding as al the faithful know may be very shortly because his diuine power is infinite and no man able to resist his vvil yet we shal be by the assistance of Gods good grace so farre off from biting our tongues or the lip either thereat as M. Abbot fondly imagineth that vve wil rather pray to God to open our lips and to loose our tongues to magnifie his holy name that he hath giuen vs that true Christian happinesse and honour not only Phillip 1. vers 28. to beleeue a-right in Christ IESVS in these daies of infidelity but also to suffer disgrace and to sustaine persecution for the constant profession of his holy name and only true Catholike Apostolike Roman faith They who make profession of religion to please the Princes of the earth to heape vp honours and to rake riches togither haue great cause of griefe when they finde themselues therefore by the present state discountenanced impouerished and vtterly rejected But others vvho know our blessed Sauiour as al Christians ought to doe and the true honour vertue and riches of his Crosse doe more regard of his loue yea of one good looke of his then of al earthly Kinges countenances fauours and preferments And doe make a higher estimate of bearing his Crosse after him and of suffering persecution for his glorious name sake then of al vvorldly ease honours and commodities Imitating therein that generous and most noble minded Moyses Hebr. 11. vers 25. Who chose rather to be afflicted with the people of God then to haue the pleasures of temporal sinne esteeming the reproach for Christ greater riches then the treasures of the Aegiptians It doth not therefore so much trouble vs to behold the state settled against the Catholike religion for our owne temporal interest who haue thereby so manifold occasions to mortifie our euil passions to flie the temptations of the wicked world and to endeare our selues vnto our most louing redeemer But very great sorow and continual sadnesse of hart haue we to consider that Christian religion first planted in our country and euer since vntil our fathers daies most constantly continued is now banished thence and with it al honesty of life al good and charitable dealing with our neighbour is vtterly decaied and banished out of the City and Country And in place thereof swearing and forswearing drunkennesse dishonesty and al manner of deceit and knauery openly practised countenanced and without blushing professed That the goodly faire and stately Churches built by our Catholike Ancestors for Catholike assemblies at the blessed sacrifice of the Masse and for the due administration of the holy Sacraments and true preaching of Gods word be now prophaned and turned to places of dishonouring of our soueraigne Creatour and of seducing his poore creatures That the famous Vniuersities and other Schooles founded for instruction principally of Catholike doctrine and deuotion be now made shops of new errours loose manners and impiety Vpon these and such like spiritual considerations finding our poore country depriued in manner of al Gods blessings and our deare country-men made slaues of the Deuil and fuel for the flames of hel fire vve Catholikes are exceeding pensiue yet doe vve not therefore fare like madde men nor gnaw our tongues for anger as M. Abbot scornefully vvriteth but doe in bitternesse of soule most earnestly pray vnto the Father of mercies in vvhose handes are the harts of al Kinges to inspire our dread soueraigne King IAMES and the Lordes of his most honourable Councel vvith the true knowledge of his sacred vvil and word and to kindle in them so feruent a zeale of the Catholike Roman faith as that they may imploy those very rare and singular gifts of nature arte and experience which God hath plentifully powred vpon them towardes the reclaiming of our country from the new prophane heresies and most wicked conuersation of these miserable times vnto our Ancestours sound faith sincere honesty and most charitable and vpright dealing This chiefly is the heape of our heauinesse this is al the harme vve wish them this is al the treason that can be justly laid to our charge That vvith the aboundance of such honour and prosperity as this vale of misery affordeth them they might also be heires of eternal happinesse glory and felicity And albeit for this inestimable heauenly blisse vvhich we most hartily desire vnto our natiue soile and best beloued country we be stiled a thousand times traitours and euery way vsed most vnkindly yet we shal not surceasse by Gods grace to pray for them continually vvho doe day and night persecute vs yea ouer and besides be ready also by the assistance of the same his grace not only to bestow our best and most seruiceable daies to doe them good but also the dearest bloud in our bodies if it shal please our blessed Sauiour so to dispose of vs. And is it likely that men thus by the grace of God affected should cry out as M. Abbot malitiously surmiseth O fallaces spes O deceitful hopes doth he not here rather notably discouer the basenesse and corruption of his owne mind as exceeding far dissenting from the right temper and disposition of a sound and noble Christian who should be nothing daunted for seing the worldly state settled against him because our great Master Christ hath assured vs of that