in great reputation amongst others which were reputed as torches and lanternes to giue light to others I say when the poore simple people which were but weake saw you generally turne your backes so cowardlye surely it was vnto them marueilous offensiue a very great discouragement so that a great many did yéeld when they were tried and fel through your occasiō And surely it is no thankes to you that all of them did not the like for surelye I will speake this to your shame that many amongst you haue bene so miserable and cursed as to be Sathans to others tempting and pricking them forward to do as you did O cursed wretches was it not inough for you to destroy your selues vnlesse you must also become giltie of the destruction and ruine of your poore brethren And now assuredly you are such if you and they die in this estate You oppose your selues yet after another sort against the aduauncement of Gods glorie and of the kingdome of his sonne Iesus Christ yea you hinder it so much as in you lyeth for you haue done what you can to spoyle the the poore church of Iesus Christ of Pastors forasmuch as you do not only gréeue them but also dishonour and disfame them so that they must néeds be ashamed confounded by meanes of you For séeing you do so miserably and cowardly reuolt from Christian religion and renounce the truth of god which they haue preached vnto you do you not secretly or rather openly declare that you count thē as false prophets seducers which haue deceiued you fed you with lyes Now God is witnes your owne conscience doth reproue you of the contrarie But notwithstanding séeing their hope to bee frustrate that they are so simply rewarded at your hāds for their paines yea that they haue euil repaied vnto thē for good shal not this discourage them from imploying thēselues hereafter about the worke of your saluation Assuredly if they had not greater regard to the glory of God then to your vnthankfulnes if they were not more desirous of your saluation then you your selues they would quite giue ouer all it may be there will be some that will do so indéed also many young men which would haue dedicated themselues to the studie of diuinitie that they might serue in the ministrie will begin to loath the same through your fault So that it is to be feared that it will come to passe that there will very few be found which will till and sow in such euill ground wherof they shall reape so small fruites And what can we expect from that but beastly brutish ignorāce such as was sometimes and is as yet in poperie corruption of the pure seruice of God and finally miserable desolation Now the Lord wil not leaue of to finish his worke and to send labourers into his haruest when hee shall sée time Yet so it is that you shall neuerthelesse be alwaies giltie of the foresaide euils in as much as they be fruites and effects of your cowardlines and vnthākfulnes howsoeuer the Lorde do turne them to some other end by his infinite goodnes You sée then howe manye monstrous crimes are coupled with your fault fal but yet this is not al for there be an infinite number of other sins that depende thereupon whereof I touch only the most notorious and that without vsing anye great discourses and amplifications as néed doth require that I may paint out the same vnto you for I content my self with setting thē down only for auoiding prolixitie Notwithstanding it standeth you vpon to thinke vpon them and to weigh thē wel that you may be brought to detest thē otherwise they shal be ordered before your face in the great day of the Lord. Consider then I pray you the ouer and besides that which hath bene touched heretofore you haue committed and do commit such an euill as is no smal one for by your backslyding you condemne not only those which stand as yet at this day through the grace of God in the profession confession of the Gospell as if they were fooles and senseles or els mad men but you doe also condemne all those which are dead in our Lord and principally a great number of the faithfull seruants of God and of holy martyres who haue sealed with their owne bloud that doctrine which you haue abiured and which did choose rather to loose their goods honours and other commodities of this life to be banished and chased frō their owne houses to be depriued of their fathers mothers wiues children kinsfolke frends to be cast in prisō amongst serpents and toades to be bound chained beaten railed vpon racked and tormented by tormentors and to suffer all manner cruelties and torments yea they chose rather to die the most cruel deaths that could be inuented then to pollute them selues in the superstitions idolatries of poperie which you allowe now by your reuolting do miserably defile both your soules also your bodies You condemne all those I saye as if they had bene vndiscréete men or some wicked heretikes on the contrarie you iustify the carnal and tyrānous barbarisme of tyrants persecutors of vniust iudges and cruel tormētors who haue murthered and put them to death And yet your owne conscience telleth you that they suffered for righteousnes sake and gaue their liues for the name of Iesus Christ and that they are therefore blessed as Iesus Christ pronounceth them to be On the other side that those which put them to death are accursed vnhappie and detestable yea very instrumentes of Satan for whom there is prepared an horrible iudgement the vengeance of God which they shal not escape howsoeuer it be long a comming Therefore you are so muche the more without excuse before God séeing that you condemne those whom you know to be iust and innocēt and approue and iustifie those whom you know to bee wicked and vngodly He which condemneth the iust and iustifieth the wicked they are both alike abhominable before the Lorde saith Salomon If you saie that you intende no such thing you saie nothing touching this matter which I doe not willingly beleeue but I aunswere also that the Lorde doth not iudge men according to their intentions if they bée not ruled according to his worde Know you then that that which you haue done and do as yet so long as you continue reuolts maketh you guiltie of al the innocent blood which hath bin shed vntil this day by the executioners and Souldiers of Satan and of Antichrist and of al the iniuries and outrages which the enemies of GOD and of his trueth haue committed and doe as yet committe dailie against the poore members of Iesus Christ who cannot but count you his enemies so long as you are on their side which make warre against him What answere will you make to all these points when you shal appeare before the iudgement seat
in the administratioÌ„ of the sacrameÌ„ts to wit that they separate those thinges which God hath coupled togither that is the preaching of the worde which is as it were the soul of the sacraments and theÌ„ they rent in péeces the holie Supper of the Lord if that which they cal their CommunioÌ„ caÌ„ be the true supper for they excoÌ„municat the simple people froÌ„ one essential part of the supper namelie froÌ„ the cup contrarie to the expresse commandement of Iesus Christ who saith Drinke ye all of this And it is said in another of the EuaÌ„gelists that all of them dranke thereof Mat. 26. Mar. 14. Consider then with what conscience you could assent to such falshoods and iniquities But this is not al come to that which followeth afterwarde consider I praie you how many pernicious errors horrible blasphemies are contained in the sixt and seuenth articles First of al you haue béene taught by the woorde of God that all hope of our saluation resteth in the onlie oblation which Iesus Christ made of his bodie vppon the crosse to appease the wrath of God towarde his elect that this sacrifice of the sonne of God was once so offered Heb. 7. 9. as saith the Apostle that it neither can nor ought to bée reiterated béeing most intire and perfect and therefore most sufficient to reconcile vs to God Notwithstanding you renounce this or at least seeme to make it imperfect and insufficient when you acknowledge that the masse is a propitiatorie sacrifice for the quick and the dead that is to saie that it is of suche power as to purchase Gods fauour to appease his wrath and to make satisfaction for sinnes and in summe to redeem and saue vs so that you put the masse an execrable idol in place of Iesus Christ spoiling him of the honor which to him beloÌ„geth which is to be our sole soueraign priest and onlie propitiatory sacrifice which alone hath this vertue to appease the Father to make him become fauorable to vs. Furthermore you auouch an horrible blasphemie against the manhood of Iesus Christ when you confesse this goodly doctrine of their transubstantiation And surely this errour is of such importance that it bringeth which it an infinit number of other errours and spoyleth vs of al hope of saluation if we receiue it For if Iesus Christ were not verie man he shoulde not haue truelie died for vs and so haue satisfied Gods iudgement for the sinnes of men and so consequently we should as yet remaine in death But now he should not haue bin verie man like to vs in al thinges except sinne Hâ—b 2. 4. as saith the Apostle if his body had béene inuisible as some ghost vnder a morcell of bread at such time as hee ordained his Supper together with his Apostles and if the Bread and Wine were transubstantiated into his bodie and into his blood by whispering certaine woordes which they call Sacramental woordes which is a kinde of charme so that hee was there fleshe and bone as thicke and as great as when hée was vpon the true trée of the crosse as these men most impudently affirme it should folow that the wicked ones vnbeleuing of the world coulde receiue Iesus Christ that he should be in daÌ„ger to be gnawn of vermin not to speak of a thousand other errors daÌ„nable absurdities which should require too long time if I should stande to rip theÌ„ vp Also if Iesus Christ should euery day come down betwéene the Priests hands that which is coÌ„tained in the articles of our faith should not be true that he is asceÌ„ded into heaueÌ„ where he shal be as touching his humanity vntil he come at the last day to iudge both the quick the dead as is coÌ„firmed by S. Peter who saith that the heauens must containe him Act. 3. vntil the restoring of al things c. Furthermore if he wer at one time in an infinite number of places as touching his humanitye his humane nature shuld be coÌ„uerted into the diuine nature which alone is infinite To be short if the doctrine of the papists touching the maÌ„hood of Iesus Christ were true theÌ„ were he not very man so consequently not our mediator And if this were so theÌ„ sholud it folow that we should be as yet vnder the curse of God Marke theÌ„ what you haue done But ouer and besides coÌ„sider that by allowing that doctrine of transubstantiation you make your selfe as guilty of that cursed idolatry which is committed in worshipping a morsell of paste or bread as if it were the sonne of God I omit to speake of another errour which issueth out of their transubstaÌ„tiation wherof they make mention about the end of the seuenth article where they say that vnder both kindes is wholly contayned the body of Iesus Christ They had forgotten to saie the blood that they might thereby continue their concomitaÌ„cy or accompanying of both kinds vnder one which they haue forged in their own brain to the end they might maintain this sacrilege in that they haue robbed the simple people of the vse of the cup. But there is not in al that so much as one sparkle of truth and yet you allow all these iniquities by this cursed abiuration As for Purgatorie which you confesse in the eight article doe you not perceiue what violence you offer to the sonne of God Iohn 1. 1. Ioh. 1. 1. Ioh. 2. Heb. 1. and what iniurie you offer to your selues You know that Iesus Christ is that Lambe of God which taketh awaie the sinnes of the world that his bloud cleanseth vs from all sinne that he is the attonement or propitiaton for our sins that he hmselfe hath purged them c. Lo it is he which is our true Purgatorie And yet you coÌ„fesse another making of none effect so much as in you lieth the vertue of the precious blood of this vnspotted lambe and renouncing the true purgation of your sinnes Furthermore Mat. 4. Ioh. 14. Ioh. 15. 1. tim 2. 1. Ioh. 2. know you not that there is one onelie God whom we must worship and reuerence to whom we must pray vppon whom we must call and that in the name and mediation of Iesus Christ alone who is our onelie mediatour aduocate and intercessour And yet consider what confession you haue made in the ninth Article contrarie to your owne conscience that is that you must worship praie vnto and call vpon Saintes which is manifest idolatry forasmuch as inuocatioÌ„ is a kind of worshipping And furthermore you auouch that the saints are our aduocates intercessors which is to robbe Iesus Christ of that honour which belongeth to him alone But you doe woorse then this comes too when you confesse that you must woorshippe or reuerence the reliques of the saide Saintes vnder which woordes they comprehende not onelie the bones and reliques of dead Saintes but also the stinking and rotten carkaises of manie
whom the sonne of God did shedde his precious bloud Rom. 14. Set before you the threatninges which are denounced against those that pollute the temple of God 1. Cor. 3. Eph. 4. which make sad the spirite of God the holie Angels and all the whole Churche Remember that which you once learned Luke 12. that the seruant which knoweth his maisters will and doth it not shal be punished double and that it shal be easier for those of Sodom and Gomorrha at the last daie Mat. 12. then for those that haue despised the day of their visitation To be brief iudge you what paine and punishment he deserueth who putteth in place of Iesus Christ the execrable idol of Antichrist abiuring the trueth of the one and approuing the falshood of the other Finallie feare least you be inwrapped in that fearefull iudgement which the sonne of God denouÌ„ceth against that cursed BabyloÌ„ Apoc. 18. into whose bosom you haue thrown your selues and returne into Noahs arke again if you will escape the floud of the wrath of God which threatneth the whole earth Heb. 10. It is a fearful thing saieth the Apostle to fal into the hands of the liuing God The temporal iudgements which the Lord did execute vpon Sodome and Gomorrha vpoÌ„ the Iewes others and which he executeth dailie vpoÌ„ his enemies are in very deed terrible fearfull and make mens haire stand vpright when they heare of them But this is nothing in comparison of the fearefull iudgement which must bee executed against the wicked after this life Es â—4 2. Cor. 2. for as the eie hath not seene the eare hath not hearde and mans heart hath not conceiued nor comprised the good things which the Lord hath prepared for these which loue honour him so likewise on the contrary we may saie that truelie that the paines the anguishes the eternal torments which are prepared for the daÌ„ned in hel cannot be compreheÌ„ded by mans vnderstaÌ„ding For if we could comprehend theÌ„ the onlie thinking therupon should cause in vs an intollerable astonishmeÌ„t feare The holy scripture doth sometimes represent them vnto vs by vtter darknes by the prison by eternal bands by wéeping gnashing of téeth Mat. 12. 1. Pet. 3. Apoc. 20. Mat. 13. Es 66. Mat. 9. mat 19. mar 9. by the worme that gnaweth without ceassing which neuer dyeth and by fire that neuer is quenched not that there is any proportion betwéen the eternall tormentes and the most extreme dolours and distresses that a man can imagine in all these thinges but to the end it may apply it selfe to our dulnes and giue vs some vnderstaÌ„ding of those infinite and vnspeakeable paynes which the damned shal suffer it describeth them vnto vs by similitudes taken from thinges which are terrible and fearful Now this is not to the ende we maie be put in anie vaine feare as litle children are made afraid with scarrebugs but that we maie be throughlie afraid indéede of the iudgements of God that we maie walke before him in feare that we maie hate sinne which inflameth Gods wrath against men and that it may make vs séek peace and reconciliation with God when wee haue offended him This is iâ— also the ende for which my brethren I put you in mind of these things forasmuch as I desire your coÌ„uersion and saluation What must you do theÌ„ you must set before your eies the greatnes the foulenes the filthines and deformitie of your fault that you maie be confouÌ„ded and ashamed in your selues that you haue shewed your selues so cowardlie and so vnthankful towarde so good a father that you maie be beaten downe with terrour and trembling and with feare of the iudgement of God which you haue deserued 1. Cor. 11. that you maie iudge and condemne your selues that you bee not iudged and condemned of the Lorde to make short that you maie come like poore offenders with ropes about your necks to craue pardon at Gods handes casting downe your selues at his féete by true humilitie yea euen plunging your selues as men say in the déep dungeons of hell Marke héere where your conuersion must beginne to witte at true repentaunce if you desire to bee receyued into fauour for an ancient father saith Hell is the waie to come to heauen that is to saie that such casting downe and humbling of poore sinners confessing and detesting their faultes accusing and condemning themselues and which think themselues worthie to bée drowned in the déepe pitte of Hell is the true preparation and disposition to receiue the grace of GOD. For hée which humbleth him selfe shall bee exalted The Lorde is nigh to heartes that are desolate Mat. 23. Luke 14.4 Pet. 5. Psal 34. contrite and humble Hee saueth those that are broken in spirite c. Afterwarde being prepared by suche a compunction and contrition of heart proceeding from a right knowledge and displeasure conceyued of and for your sinne and therewithall from a true knowledge of the iust iudgemeÌ„ts of God you must come out of this depth by the meanes of faith which shall comforte your broken heartes and will assure your fearefull consciences and wil comfort your desolate soules it will teache you that the Lord wils not the death of a sinner Ez. 18. but rather that he bee conuerted and liue also that hee hath promised to poore and miserable sinners which shall turne from their wicked wayes that hee will cast all their sinnes into the bottome of the Sea so that they shall neuer bee anie more remembred Turne you turne you Mich. 7 Ez. 18.33 from your wicked waies why will you die you house of Israell sayth the Lorde Returne then and repent of al your transgressions and your iniquitie shall not be imputed and laid to your charge Turne you vnto mee with all Io. 2. your whole hearte with fasting wéeping and mourning Rent your hearts and not your garmentes turne to the Lorde your God for he is gentle mercifull slowe to wrath and of greate pitie and suche a one as is sorie for your afflictions Es 1. Though your sinnes were as redde as scarlet yet shall they be as white as snowe and though they were as purple yet shal they be made as white as wooll But who is hee that shall make them white Faith shall teache you that it is the bloud of the sonne of GOD which cleanseth you from all sinne that it is he who died for our sinnes and rose againe for our iustification The fault which you haue committed is great and monstrous and deserueth great and grieuous condemnation as you haue alreadie hearde and as the trueth is but yet not so greate but that you maie haue forgiuenesse of the same vnlesse you through your obstinacie and want of repentaÌ„ce do make it irremissible The Lorde is iust yea and a seuere punisher of the offences of all those which doe obstinatelie perseuere therein Psal 103.