death and destruction the confusion of their countrey and the ruine of this Realme you woulde dispraise and slaunder her and say shee were a cruell tyrant Nay for all her highnesse hath vsed you so mildely and mercifully as shee hath done yet some of you woulde darken her desertes if you coulde in sayinge moste spitefully and falsly that this is the time of tyrannie these are the daies of persecution this I graunt but not in Englande though you meane in Englande Truly suche as doe say so must needes I thinke speake against their conscience and knowledge vnlesse they take mercy for crueltie and crueltie for mercie and then I may say vnto them as Esay saide to the Iewes Woe bee to you that cal euill good and good euill c. If this bee the time of tyrannie and persecution when you that are manifest enemies to your Queene and countrie before well proued are suffered to liue peaceably to inioy your goods quietly to goe at your libertie or imprisoned to fare daintily and there to liue merily or to bee releast vpon suretie Then what was Queene Maries time when her simple humble and faultlesse subiectes were cruelly imprisoned in stocks and chaines other engins tormented most tyrannously racked their friendes to come to them not suffered on the bare boordes and ground lodged to haue penne and inke and candle light not permitted for want of meate to bee famished in prisons priuily to bee murthered and abrode in euery mans eyes to bee burned That time of Queene Mary to all wise men may rather seeme to bee the time of crueltie tyrannie and persecution than this milde and mercifull time of our Queene Elizabeth I beseech God to open your eyes to see howe her grace doth persecute you for if you did see yet I feare some are blinde for the nonce you would then say that shee persecuteth you none other wise than the louing father doeth his childe and as the good scholemaster doth persecute his scholler that hee would faine haue to learne Thus much concerning your now persecution I haue declared in my said booke whereby it may plainely appeare that yours is rather a pleasant pastime then a painfull persecution to that that the Protestants felt in Queene Maries time therfore you cannot 〈◊〉 say that my said booke came foorth in the middest of your persecutions but in the middest of your easie and carelesse liuing The 36. parte YOU call my saide booke a weightie worke of fortie sheetes of paper The proud and learned Scribes and Pharisees and the other common people thought the 〈◊〉 two mytes were but of a small value but in y t sight of Christe they were counted great for that it was all shee had Euen so that my saide simple booke being al y t I was able to doe may bee counted light in your iudgement but before God I am sure it is so weightie that it will weigh downe all your learned bookes that you write for the maintenance of the Pope your Romish Church And though in 〈◊〉 you name it a weightie worke yet I haue proued in good earnest that the booke wherein you deride it is but a very light worke for that this my answere hitherto hath weyed it cleane downe But though you count it a very simple and light work yet I must content my selfe there with for so the Popes learned Doctors counted and estemed the Scriptures For Ludouicus a Canon of the Church of Laterane in Rome openly in an Oration pronounced in the late Conuenticle of Trident for the mainteining of the decrees where of you are so deepely sworne saide as followeth Ecclesia est viuum pectus Christi scriptura autem est quasi mortuum Attramentum The Church is the liuely breast of Christe But the scripture is as it were dead inke The Bishop of Poiters in the same your godly counsell of Trident saide thus Scriptura est res inanimis muta sicut 〈◊〉 sunt reliquae leges politicae The scripture is a dead dumbe thing as are all other politike lawes To this ende writeth Albertus Pigghius Si dixeris haec referri oportere ad iudicium Scripturarum c. If thou say these matters must be put ouer to the iudgement of the scriptures thou shewest thy selfe to bee voide of common reason For the scriptures are dumbe iudges and cannot speake Eckius called the Scriptures Euangelium Nigrum Theologiam Attramentariam The blacke Gospell and inken diuinitie Furthermore in the discommendation of the scriptures Pigghius writeth thus Sunt scripturae vt non minus vere quam festiue dixit quidam velut Nasus cereus qui sehorsum illorsum in quācunque volueris partem trahi retrahi fingique facile permittit The scriptures as one man both truly and merily saide is like a nose of waxe that easily suffereth it selfe to be drawne backward and forward and to be moulded and fashioned this way and that way and howsoeuer yee list Thus reuerently did your Doctors of your Romish Church write of the most holy Scriptures You wrote immediately before these wordes It is a world to see what pillers of defence they haue got what graue writers in their cause what bookes they suffer to come out against vs dayly But may not I say to you and that more rightly and truly It is a most lamentable thing both to see and to heare what pernicious and pestiferous pillers your Church of Rome hath and what impudēt writers you haue in your cause and what beastly bookes your holy father and you doe suffer to bee in printe and goe abrode wherein the holy Scripture and worde of God is made a iesting and 〈◊〉 stocke The simplest the vnlearnedst the youngest writer that is or euer was amongst y t professours of the Gospell may be counted graue writers in comparison of these your nowe mentioned doctours Whatsoeuer you count of our writers you neuer founde that wee wrote so vnreuerently and so decestablie of the holy worde of God the tryar of all truth as these and other of your Romishe graue writers haue doone These your graue writers might be auncient and graue men to see to but they haue written most childishly 〈◊〉 fondly falsly and diuelishly It is not the grauitie of the person that maketh the writing graue but the graue and true writing shewes the grauitie of the person therefore if you consider well your graue pillers y t wrote as is before in y t defēce of your church you haue no great cause mockingly and restingly to call vs graue writers as though none but they of your 〈◊〉 can be graue writers And now for that your Popes pillers and your graue writers doe call the scriptures which is the holy woorde of GOD dead Inke a liuelesse letter a dumbe Iudge that cannot speake a blacke Gospell inken Diuinitie and a nose of waxe whereby they tooke the holy Bible not to bee any weightie worke
a very little and selie wretch and farre vnable to match with the power of your mightie Gyaunt the Pope But as little Dauid not by his owne strength but by the power of God did hyt the great Golyah in the middes of his forehead with a stone of his sling and so killed hun outright So litle M. Nicols not of himselfe but by the help of God with the litle 〈◊〉 of his tongue and penne may with the stone of Gods worde hyt your mightie Pope such a blow that it wil make him to stagger Of the like Gods name bee blessed wee haue great tryall and 〈◊〉 For many as little and smal to see to as M. Nicols haue so hit the Pope by meane of their slings that hee hath had such a fall as I am sure hee will neuer recouer againe You count it a great discredite for M. Nicols to trauell as hee did especially from Rome to the Pulpit in the Towre of London well me thinkes it deserueth more credite to goe from Rome to the Towre to preache the worde of God then to bee ledde from the Towre to 〈◊〉 to bee hangd for treason And therefore though you speake it in reproche of M. Nicols that hee came from Rome to preache in the pulpit in the Towre yet it was not greatly to the prayse of Doctor Storie Ducket called 〈◊〉 and your great captaine Campion and other to he led from the Towre to preach in the pulpit at Tyborne 〈◊〉 M. Nicols 〈◊〉 from Rome into Englande and to become a professor of the Gospel subiect to his prince to bee a friende to his countrey is to bee discommended then they y t goe from England to Rome to denie y e word of God to be false to their prince and to bee enemies to their countrey are not muche to be praysed Thus if you weie all thinges vprightly you haue no great cause to showe Master Nicols progresse from Rome to the pulpit in the Towre of London to his reproch And nowe as you haue discourst and opened M. Nicols doings to the discrediting of his religion so haue I discourst and blased forth your execrable othe and religion to the discrediting of your doyngs The 17. part AFter this you say and that agayne in good sooth that you muche pittie the man and that you wishe his onely repentance to pardon and not his infamle to desperation A false meaning had neede to be finely smothed if you pitie him because hee embraceth the woorde of God and is become obedient to his lawfull and mercifull prince then I must needes say you are too full of pitie I feare you are so ful of 〈◊〉 pitie that there is small roome for true pitie that the scripture alloweth True pitie can not bee in them that so enuieth any that will allowe consent yea and reioyce in the burning and destruction of any Though you pitie M. Nicols as you say yet hee knoweth no occasion I am sure why you shoulde pitie him so much I woulde he had no cause to pitie you Nay you pitie him not but spite him that he doth so well but he and wee all doe pitie you that you doe so euill It is but a madde repentance to pardon that you wishe him for you woulde haue him repent and 〈◊〉 for ye that hee hath forsaken the Pope and returned to Christe and that hee dispiseth your Diuelishe doctrine and embraceth the worde of God And you woulde haue him trust to the Popes pardon which will vtterly deceiue him and to 〈◊〉 Gods pardon which onely can helpe him And here vpon you conclude if he repent not to pardon as you 〈◊〉 him then he must needes bee infamous and so come to desperation But we may well doubt whether your bare word without either authoritie or any argument be a sufficient warrant that hee if he continue in the gospell and the obedience of his prince shall be infamous and so come to desperation But though you would haue your simple reader to giue credite onely to your good sooth that M. Nicols if he continue in the gospel as he doth shall there by get infamie and so come to 〈◊〉 whereof you are vncertaine because you haue not yet seene the proofe for he is yet aliue yet I would haue the indifferent reader consider that I haue already with argumentes proofes and true examples plainely 〈◊〉 that diuers of your religion wrought their owne infamie came to desperation whereof I haue seene the tryall Therefore your good sooth is not a sufficient proofe that M. Nicols if hee continue as he doth shall come to infamie and 〈◊〉 But the dolefull and desperate deathes of them of your secte which are yet freshe in memorie is a manifest proofe that you and your sectaries will come to infamie and desperation if they and you continue as you and they doe Therefore wee much pittie you and wishe onely your true and vnfained repentance and that you may 〈◊〉 pardon for your sinnes at Gods hande through the death of his sonne Iesus Christe the onely Sauiour and redeemer of all the worlde and not to sticke to the popes pardon The 18. part IT seemeth that you haue a diuine knowledge in presaging or foreshewing the cause why one is borne in the place where they first come into the world it may be that you learned it of the pope who hath a diuine and heauenly iudgement for like a profound scholler and a deepe clearke soon after you somthing touched M. Nicols short progresse and course from Wales to Rome from Rome to the pulpit in y e towre of londō you say I. Nicols therfore was born at Cowbridge in Wales c. By this your saying it doth appeare that M. Nicols was borne at Cowbridge in 〈◊〉 because he wēt or made his course from Wales to Englād from England to Flaunders from Flaunders to Rome from Rome to the pulpit in the Towre of London For you say Iohn Nicols therefore was 〈◊〉 at 〈◊〉 in Wales and nowe for that there is none other cause before specified but onely his said course and trauell from Wales to England and then to Rome and so from Rome to the pulpit in the Towre of London therefore his said iourney and course from Wales to England and from England to Flaunders and from Flaunders to Rome and from Rome to the pulpit in the towre of London if we may beleue you was the cause why M. Nicols was borne at Cowbridge in Wales It was happie that hee traueyled that iourney to Rome and so from Rome to the pulpit in the Towre of London or els it seemeth by your saying hee had neuer 〈◊〉 borne at Cowbridge in Wales Had not you tolde mee this tale I shoulde haue thought that his beeing borne at Cowbridge in Wales was rather an occasion that hee made this course and iourney then that this his course iourney should haue made him be borne at Cowbridge
latine before Whatsoeuer his knowledge is in the Latine tongue I knowe not but his Christian faith exceedeth your Iesuitic all learning For as the Centurion being captaine of an hundred souldiers before mentioned and Cornelius the Captaine to whome S. Peter was sent were more accepted of God for their faith though they were not deeply learned thē the proud learned Scribes Pharisees and high Priestes So this worthie zelous knight sir Owen Hopton being the Queenes Maiesties Liefetenant and chiefe captaine of the Towre and of all her Maiesties seruants and souldiers there though he be not so deepely learned as you yet for his zelous minde his earnest loue to Gods worde and for his perfect faith in Christ is no doubt therefore more accepted of God then you that cast of Gods woorde and cleaue to your owne wit and learning And for that you say that hee was ouermuch troubled with latine it is like you thought hee had but small knowledge in Hebrwe and Greeke But for his wanting of those two tongues in my iudgement hee is not the lesse to bee esteemed if the Popes were not worse to bèe thought of for wanting of Latine for if your Spirituall Popes that had all lawes in their bosomes and an heauenly or diuine iudgement in their breastes wanted Latine and Grammer as is before proued Then sir Owen Hopton being but a temporall knight and the Queenes Lieftenant of the Towre may well lacke both Heinwe and Greeke And thus though you seeme to deride mee for want of 〈◊〉 and learning yet I wish with all my hearte that Christe doe not despise you at the last and dreedefull day for lacke of faith The 46. part YOu say that I cite all my whole matter out of Iewels defence of the Apologie Foxe his Martyrologe and Cowper Epitome of the Chronicle As good as wise as godly learned as you woulde haue named these three worthie and learned men with more reuerence then you haue done beeing three such speciall and painefull learned writers for the commoditie of their Countrie and for the perpetuall profite of our posteritie as neither your great citie of Rome nor yet the whole Countrie of Italie haue bread or brought foorth at any one time three suche as this our Countrie of England hath done of them at least so manifestly knowne by their workes as they are by their writings Wee Christians heere in Englande doe knowledge our selues greatly bounde to God for them and such like though you Iesuites doe make small account of them I had been a very vnskilfull writer if I had not written in the same part of my booke one sentence of mine owne but all of other mens doings seeing it was one of the three partes of fortie sheetes of Paper But as al your woordes before haue not been Gospel so here you haue spoken more than truth But if you were as loth to speake that is false as it seemeth you are carelesse 〈◊〉 you speake you would I am sure haue saide that some part of the same was none of theirs Whether all my matter of that parte of my saide booke bee cited out of master Iewell master Cowpers and master Foxes bookes I wil referre the same to the indifferent reader thereof And if they say that I haue cited all the matter therein conteined out of the said learned mens bookes I will become a 〈◊〉 so that you if they say contrary will become a Christian. But as many arguments similitudes and sentences of the same was of mine owne deuising through Gods helpe so there are other learned authorities that I had neuer of them But suppose that I had taken all my authors for my purpose out of them being the authours words and truely alleadged shoulde that bee a discredite to my 〈◊〉 must euery booke bee counted vnlearned and of no value vnlesse euery sentence of Saint Augustine Chrisostome or other learned fathers doctors or writers that is 〈◊〉 therein bee taken out of the authours woorke that first wrote them Then many of your Papisticall pamphlets that you esteeme and extoll must not goe for 〈◊〉 Can you make mee beleeue that euery authour cited by you is taken out of the originall worke I scantly thinke it I doubt not but that some of you doe credite your friends quoting sometime without further searche What if I shoulde alleadge out of the Gospell of Saint Matthewe these wordes of Esay spoken by Christe which rightly may bee applied vnto you With the eares yee shall heare and shall not vnderstande and with the eyes yee shall see and shall not perceiue c. Or these wordes of Esay out of Saint Markes Gospell This people honoreth mee with their lippes but their heartes are farre from mee Will you not credite Christe the citer heereof Or will you ieast at the work because I tooke thē not out of the booke of the Prophesie of Esay May not a man vpon the credite of Saint Paule recite vpon some occasion some of his 〈◊〉 of the Prophetes or other Scriptures that hee citeth in his Epistles Or shall the booke bee disdained or discredited because the writer of the booke tooke not the same out of the Prophet that spake them Or out of his booke that first wrote them They that therefore will mislike a booke are rather precise papists then perfect Protestantes If I should make a good precious medicine would you dispraise or despise that good and precious medicine or think scorn of it because the herbes y t made it was not gathered in the garden beyonde the Sea from whence the Seedes or herbes were first brought If you were so curious you were not worthie to be cured of your disease And if such curiositie were vsed many one woulde bee dead before the medicine were made It maketh no matter howe nigh or where the herbes be gathered so that they be y e right herbs and haue the very vertue And so if wee produce learned mens sayings for testimonie and make therewith a spirituall confection for the health of the soule it forceth not out of what booke wee cite them so that they bee the right woordes and the true sense of the first Authour Therfore though I had cited all my matter out of master Iewels master Foxes and master Cowpers bookes as I haue not so that they be apt fit for my purpose beeing the very true woordes of the first and originall authour thereof you had neither therefore cause to discredite my booke neither the indifferent Reader to mislike my booke Perhaps you disdaine or mislike it because I haue cited in some pointes master Iewell master Cowper and master Foxe for authoritie seeing they are yet aliue or were but late writers and therefore you thinke them vnworthie to bee cited as authours Surely if you thinke so as I beleeue both you and many other do so then I take your opinion therein to bee rather preposterous then profound and reproueable then
reasonable For if in worldly affayres witnesses are thought best when they be liuing shall witnesses then be thought best in heauenly causes when they bee dead Antiquitie is no credite to an cuill writer neither late yeeres can bee any discredite to a good writer Time ought not to be preferred before truth but truth before time Christes and his Apostles words were as true and good fifteene hundreth yeeres since as they bee nowe Therefore the long continuance of the time since maketh not their wordes the truer or their authoritie the better So that if a mans wordes or writings are worthie to bee alleadged for authoritie a thousande yeeres after hee is dead then they may bee alleadged in his life time or soone after his death Wherefore if master Iewell late Bishop of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the reuerende and learned Doctor Cowper nowe Bishop of Lincolu and the godly zelous and learned master Foxe haue written wisely faithfully and truly as most assuredly they haue doone whose worthie workes you may well disprayse but neuer confounde or confute then they deserue nowe as well to bee alleadged for authorities as though they had written them a thousande yeere since And to tel you truly thes their learned workes procured mee to produce them for witnesses and to quote their sayings in my saide booke the rather thereby to allure mo to esteeme their writings and to reade their saide bookes So that if you consider all thinges well you ought neither to disdaine nor discredite my booke for alleadging authorities out of master Iewell Doctor Cowper and master Foxe who were and are famous godly and learned writers The 47. part AS you say I doe it without all modestie or limitation of lying whether I doe lye without all modesty it is very manifest that you haue falsified my woordes with no great modestie And as my lyes are without limitation so they are without number for that you are not able to prooue mee so much as with one lye for if you coulde your Reader shoulde haue beene sure to haue hearde of it But whereas you say without any further proofe that I lye without limitation I haue plainely prooued before that you haue lyed with limitation and so your lyes are limited and mine vnlimited My lyes are so farre hence and that is because they are without limitation that you cannot finde them but your lyes are so nigh hand because they are within limitation that I quickly spied them Well though to my remembraunce I haue not made any 〈◊〉 lye in all my saide booke yet I must needes confesse that I made a very foule ouersight in taking one syllable in steede of another which was in the intitling of my booke naming it a persuasion in steede of a disuasion But for your iust reproouing mee therein I haue I trust sufficiently set foorth mine owne negligence with the due commendation of your intelligence not doubting but that your gentle instruction shall bee a sufficient warning for mee euer hereafter for vsing persuasiō in steede of disuasion When you shall chaunce to make any moe lyes you were best let them bee made without limitation as mine were and then it will bee harde to finde them for yours were limited within such a small compasse that they were espied and catcht at the first The 48. part THen after you come to shewe my lyes but it had beene better for you I thinke not to haue vttered them for surely they will rather shame your selfe then credite your cause And these are your wordes that followe For hee saith that the Papistes holde The Pope to bee very God The light of the world the Sauiour of mankinde That they print him in their bookes our Lorde God the Pope That the Pope also acknowledgeth the thing taking himselfe in deede to bee a God That hee dispenseth both against the olde and new testament That hee biddeth vs not to forbeare swearing any day That hee alloweth all priestes to haue harlots That hee giueth licence for money to keepe as many concubines as a man will That his fast is to cramme in as many banquetting dishes as men can That all papists are worse and deserue more death then drunkards theeues murtherers and Pyrates This is Luptons charitable doctrine with many thinges more which I omit You haue gathered diuers of my words written in sundrie places couched them altogether at your pleasure here in one place And you haue further more cutte and curtalde them farre otherwise then I wrote them whereby you haue marred my method and drowned my sence making my woordes to hange together as feathers doe in the winde and all to discredite my booke Thus you doe not onely deface and falsifie my woordes but also you fetch them out of their due places where I did set them and doe place them in such crooked corners that they neither reprooue falshood nor yet defend truth And whē you haue done so you neither confute nor reproue them vnles you do it with these words This is Luptons charitable doctrine with many things more which I omit or els perhappes your wordes in the margent which is Luptons lyes haue confuted them If I shoulde haue gone about to confute you onely with false repeating and vnorderly displacing of your woordes without any more a doe then I had not takē halfe the paines I haue done I haue not delt thus with you as the indifferent reader may iudge for I haue not left out one woorde of yours neyther haue I added any words to yours nor yet haue I displaced anye woordes of yours But you when you haue falsified my woordes you leaue them at randon committing the confuting thereof to your reader whose misliking thereof who can not well like them as you haue vsed them is all the confuting that you desire If you did loue the doctrine of Iesus as well inwardly as hypocritically you professe his name outwardely you woulde deale plainely and truely as Iesus did But because you deale fraudulently and falsly you are rather of the feloshippe of Iudas than of Iesus Yet for all your falsifiyng of my woordes suppose that I had written the selfe same woordes before mentioned 〈◊〉 had placed them euen in such order as you haue done you seeme by your silence without further reproouing or confuting them that they are true For if they had been false why haue you not particularly declared howe and in what sorte they are false as I haue done yours Truely if they had beene lyes as they are not you woulde haue certified your reader wherein I had lied For you that woulde discredite me for mistaking of a sillable as you thought no doubt you would haue proued me a lier in all this if you could At the first beginning of which your falsified woordes you affirme that I say that the papistes holde the pope to be very God c. If you had ment as truely