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
him In this sort you haue dealt with thee because I am named and knowne and you namelesse and therfore in this respect vnknowne And also hereby M. Nicols I and other are in greater daunger then is before mentioned for wee may be in doubt by you 〈◊〉 some of your sect to bee priuilie stabde in with a daggar dispatche with a dagge or otherwise priuily killed or murthered for they that will not 〈◊〉 to kill 〈◊〉 verie friendes and of their owne religion yea and that in prison from whence they coulde not 〈◊〉 as Sherwood did of late a stout souldiar of the Popes it is not like they will 〈◊〉 to kill the professours of Gods word whom they mortally hate and that know them not being at libertie whereby they vnknowne may hope to escape But if you shoulde goe about thus to vse vs yet wee doubt not but that God would as well preserue vs as the Diuell shoulde procure you If you had perused my booke as circumspectly and indifferently as you read it disdainfully and contemptuously and if you had been as much addicted to truth as you were bent to error you would rather haue thankt me than taunted me esteemed me than enuied mee not to haue charged me with lyes that haue vttered the truth If my booke be so vaine as you vaunte and so vntrue as you terme it then belike this your booke cleane repugnant to it is the Lanterne of learning the touche stone of truth and the welspring of wit But vntill I bee better resolued that mine is so false as you feyne and yours so true as you troue I will be so bold though somthing sleightly to write in the defence of my doings And though to my reproch you haue written to other to your discredite I haue written to your selfe Being very sory that you haue vrged me vnto 〈◊〉 and also it pitieth mee that you imploy your wit so vainely and your cunning in suche a cause Great learning and wit will hardly defende a 〈◊〉 But small 〈◊〉 with wisedome will easily maintaine a truth And now for that you haue written your said booke chiefly against matter Nicols I will leaue all that which you haue discouered to his 〈◊〉 discreadite for him selfe to answere who is best able to approue his owne sayings to vnburthen himselfe of suche vntruthes as it seemeth you charge him withall Meaning briefly in order frō the beginning of your boke to repugne such of your sayings as I am able 〈◊〉 reproue also to defend mine owne booke which you so maliciously haue staundered The title of your booke is as is before saide A discouerie of I. Nicols Minister c. I thinke by this your discouerie you will bee discouered to your further discredit You haue named him minister a name of reproche with many of your sect but a Minister of Gods worde and of the holy Sacraments haue beene and will bee esteemed with the godly aboue Papisticall Priestes maintainers and mumblers of the Masse that is most iniurious to the death of Christ. If Christe had thought it had beene a name of reproche hee woulde not haue saide these wordes to his Disciples It shall not bee so among you but whosoeuer will bee great among you let him bee your Minister c. The Angels of God were ministers for they ministred to Christe in the wildernesse Also Christe himselfe came to minister for thus he saith for euen the sonne of man came not to bee ministred vnto but to minister c. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Iames did minister vnto Christe It is no euill or hatefull name to bee the minister of Christe vnlesse it bee euill to bee where Christe is For Christe saieth If any man minister vnto moe let him followe mee and where I am there shall also my minister bee The Apostles office and function was great and holy and yet Peter counted it a ministration The Apostles called the preaching of the 〈◊〉 of God y t ministration of Gods word seying we will giue our selues continually to 〈◊〉 and to the ministration of the woorde Here the Apostles disdeyned not to call themselues ministers of Gods woord If a minister were such a reprochfull name as you and your sectaries woulde make it Saint Marke woulde not haue taken that name vpon him for hee was minister to Paul and Barnabas for thus saith the text And they had Iohn to their minister which was Marke the Euangelist The holyest priest of the Pope was neuer made Priest in such order as S. Paul was made a minister for if the Pope haue made any yet hee made them priestes on the earth but Iesus Christ him selfe made S. Paule a minister yea and that out of heauen which S. Paule reporteth him selfe saying I saw in the way a light from heauen aboue the bright nesse of the sunne shine round about me and them which iourneyd with mee when wee were all fallen to the earth I heard a voyce speaking vnto mee and saying in the Hebrewe tongue Saul Saul why persecutest thou mee it is harde for thee to kicke against the pricke And I sayde who art thou Lorde And he said I am Iesus whom thou persecutest but rise and stande vpon thy feete For I haue appeared to thee for this purpose to make thee a minister and a witnesse of those thinges which thou hast seene Thus it is manifest that Iesus Christ him selfe out of heauen made S. Paule a minister When you can showe mee that any of your priestes haue been made priestes by a better man and in a better place then S. Paul was made a minister then I will esteeme your priestes aboue our ministers but vntill that time I will reuerence and esteeme our ministers of gods word aboue your papisticall and Idolatrous priestes And as it is manifest that minister was a comendable name and that it was 〈◊〉 in Christes and the Apostles time so it appeareth that there were ministers in Chrysostomes time and that it was 〈◊〉 thought to be a name of contempt for S Iohn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thus Stat minister communis minister alta vose 〈◊〉 c. The minister and the common minister standeth vp and crieth out with a loude voyce saying keepe silence and giue eare after that the reader beginneth the prophesie of Esaie Therefore if you weigh well the words before written concerning ministers you haue no great occasion to dispise the name of a minister Misreported you say a lesuit as though you thinke him farre vnwoorthie of that name if you do thinke him not worthie to be a Iesuite no more doe I. for I take him to be the childe of God and therefore not meete to be a Iesuite And now for that it seemeth you are a Iesutte because you would not haue Maister Nycols to bee of the Iesuites societie which you take beelike to bee the best of all other I trust you will not be
and countrey as you hope but to your owne confusion I am sure as you may see if you will and some haue felt against their wills The 34. part YOu say in the commendation of your Church of Rome as followeth Albeit priuate olde men may lacke wit yet Chirstes olde spouse which is the Church can not If al be true that you say then it is so in deede for you bring none other autour but your selfe neyther any argument for proouing of the same It is impossible but that your olde spouse shoulde be verie full of witte if they haue such wise Cardinals and pregnant pillers as Petrus Asotus and Hosius were that affirmed that the same Councell wherein our sauiour Christ was condemned to die had the holy ghost and that the same was a iust decree wherby they pronounced that Christ was worthie to die Moreouer he could not chose but be full of wisedom that wrote vpon the popes decree that the Iewes had committed mortall sinne if they had not nayled Christ to the Crosse. These members of your holy mother your olde spouse were no fooles I 〈◊〉 that tooke parte with Annas and Caiphas against Christe They might well haue diuelishe witte but I am sure they had no godly wisedom In deed the true Church of Christ which is gouerned and taught by the holy ghost can want no godly wisedome but your Church of Rome whiche you counte Christes olde spouse hath and doeth lacke both learning wit and honestie as before it doth manifestly appeare That pope was very full of witte which you counte the chiefe of your Churche that gaue iudgement and sentence that they at Ratilpone in Germanie and the Abbay of Saint Denise in Fraunce had both the whole bodye of Saint Denise at once as is before mentioned He had more witte than Salomon for Salomon coulde make but one childe into two halfe children but your sayde profound and wise pope made one Saint Denise into two whole Saint Denises Belike the Pope thought that seeing euery simple and raskall priest coulde make Christes bodie at one time to be in many places thē he being the prince of al priests was able to make the body of S. Denise to be in two places And further your olde spouse of Rome can want no wit because it can not erre if it woulde and no maruell for it can haue the holye Ghost in the likenesse of an Owle to instructe it for in one of your late Councelles in Rome as they were singing and roaring of Veni creator spiritus that is Come holy ghost c. by and by at their becke and calling a poore olde Owle amazed with the noyse thinking belike shee was the holy ghost that they called for so earnestly leapt out of the hole where shee sate and came downe in the middes of them and sate amongst them Thus you may perceiue that there is a great difference betweene the Spirite of God and the Popes holy Ghost For God the holy Ghost discended and appeared to Christe in likenesse of a faire white doue but the popes holy ghost did discende and appeare to the Pope in the shape of a foule euill fauoured owle Surely they are fowlie ouerseene that wil not be guided by your Churche that is taught and instructed by suche a holy ghost Your olde spouse can neuer want 〈◊〉 that 〈◊〉 inspired by such a holy spirite The 35. part AFter this your discouering of Maister Nicols manners and learning to his reproche as you thought and commending your owne follies you discommend and goe about to discredite my sayde booke called A perswasion from papistrie But though you decide it without any reprouing or consuting therof yet I haue so reproued and confuted such partes of this your discouerie as I thought necessarie was meete for me to do that you are so vncouered that the wise may see that you daunce naked in a net though you thinke your selfe well enough couered And these are your wordes concerning the same Of late in the middest of our persecutions there came forth a waightie worke of 40 sheetes of paper made by one Thomas Lupton entituled a perswasion from papistrie he woulde haue said a diswasion but that papistrie and perswasion began both with a letter I must needes confesse my sayd booke was not published very long since it is so lately come forth that it seemeth you had no leasure to peruse the same as you shoulde for if you had red it as aduisedly as many haue done you woulde not I thinke haue derided it as you haue done You say it came forth in the middest of your persecutiōs It came forth at such time as it had pleased God to giue me his instrument leaue to finishe the same for of my selfe I am most certayne I neither began it proceeded in it neither finished it For if a sparrowe light not on the grounde without Gods prouidence then the penne of a man Gods image doth not light on the paper without Gods direction y t writeth in Christes cause and indefence of Gods worde But that it was in the middest of your persecutions I hardly can thinke for that it were requisite that they shoulde beginne before they be in the middest In deede her highnes doth not persecute you as queene Marie did vs yet shee hath power to punish you much more than shee doth And because you haue written in derision agaynste my sayde booke whiche I am nowe in hande to defende I will nowe write some parte of my wordes therein touching this time which you call the middest of your persecution And these are my wordes If you would marke but her maiesties power and knew what shee may doe and weyghe your owne dooynges and what yee ought to doe truely you woulde say then that shee is the moste miledest and mercifullest Queene one of them that euer raigned You thinke not a misse in her grace and counte her not vnmercifull though shee put theeues to death for stealing whiche GOD hath not commaunded to bee punished with death and can not you see that her Maiestie is marueylous mercifull in that shee suffereth you to liue for disobeying Gods woorde and committing Idolatrie whiche GOD by his lawe hath commaunded to bee punished with death King Iosias 〈◊〉 the idolatrous Priestevpon the alters that committed Idolatrie and yet hee is reckoned for a Godly king But our mercifull Queene Elizabeth hath not burned the popishe priestes on the alters where they committed idolatrie in saying of Masse and worshipped a piece of breade for the bodie of Christe which shee might haue done if shee would and yet you count not her for a godly and mercifull Queene You praise and extoll Queene Marie to the heauens for vsing crueltie and for burning her humble and faultlesse Subiectes But if our 〈◊〉 Elizabeth shoulde vse lawefull seueritie on her stubborne and disobedient people Gods foes and her enemies that desire her
A persuasion frō Papistrie there you altered not my words but wrote thē as I wrote them because you thought y t persuasion beeing mine owne woorde woulde disgrace or discredite mee But now you perceiuing that if you should write mine owne woordes as they bee they woulde not then serue your turne Wherefore you defaced and displaced my woordes and foysted in your owne to my reproche and to your owne credite as you thought But as coggers and foysters of false Dyse thriue but sorily by their trade so you by the chopping and chaunging of my words and foysting in your owne will gaine but little And as they for their cogging and foysting when it is knowne are so dispised that the honest doe shunne them so you when this your subtill shifting is spied for all you are a Iesuite will procure your owne shame Your Reader hauing any good consideration will not thinke but that my woordes hang better togeather then you wrote them But that your dishonest dealing may the better appeare and that the indifferent and wise Reader may iudge whether ' I wrote so fondly as you haue affirmed I will heere both write my very woordes that you so shamefully altered and also the occasion and the circumstance thereof For in this point I went about not only to prooue her 〈◊〉 greate mercie and Ienitie to the obstinate Papistes her disobedient subiects But also though some of the stubborne sort did so little consider her power that they woulde say that shee had no lawe to punishe or execute them for the same that shee had as great power and authoritie to make lawes and to punish them as Queene Mary had But all this you left out besides the marring of my sentences and arguments that the reader might thinke that it had neither good method nor matter And now heere followeth my wordes If he that counterfeateth the Queenes Maiesties seale for some priuate profite breaking thereby but one part of her lawes is a Traytour and is therefore put to death Then are not you that are obstinate and disobedient Papistes Traytours And deserue death that hate your prince without any cause and that withstande and disobey all her godly lawes and proceedings In the louing and obeying of whome and the keeping and obseruing of whose lawes and orders her Graces safetie the preseruation of her person the conseruation of the common wealth and the prosperous state of this Realme doeth chieflye depende If heereby you will not willingly see what you are I feare against your willes you will feele hereafter what you are Open your eyes therefore and see what a mercifull Queene you haue that euer since shee beganne to raigne hath rather mercifully without lawe sought to winne you then cruelly by lawe to enforce or wounde you Thinke not because shee suffereth you that therefore shee cannot punishe nor execute you whiche if some of you sticke not to say openly many of you I beleeue thinke the same priuilie Thinke not because shee hathe made no lawe for you that therefore shee can make no lawe for you for the Queenes maiestie hath as great power to punish the Idolatrous Papistes in her Realme as king Iosia had to burne the Priestes of Baall in his Realme King Asa and his people made a couenant and swore not only to seeke the Lorde to cleaue vnto him and to hearken vn-his voyce but also that whosoeuer did not so shoulde bee slaine whether hee were small or great man or woman which couenant hee perfourmed and brake not And is not our Princesse queene of England aswel as Asa was king of Iuda and hath not shee as great power in her kingdome as he had in his And if GOD was well pleased with king Asa for making and perfourming of that couenant as hee was in deede would hee then bee angrie thinke you with Queene Elizabeth if she made the like and perfourmed it I thinke not But our mercifull Queene though shee hath set foorth the true 〈◊〉 of God as speedily as earnestly and as zealously as eyther king Asa or any other rular to bee followed and obserued throughout her whole realme hath not made any such couenant or law to slea or kill them that do not follow and obey the same But consider this well if the Pope not appointed by Gods lawe to raigne and rule as hee hath doone may murther and kill as many of you thinke hee may the professours and followers of Gods worde beeing not his subiectes for disobeyiug his lawe deuised and inuented by man on earth and procured by the Diuell Then may not wee thinke that our Queene appointed by God and allowed by his worde to raigne ouer vs may lawfully kill and put to death the Idolatrous Papists her subiects for wilfully disobeying and withstanding the law of God that came from heauen beeing long since taught by the Prophetes by Iesus Christe the sonne of God and by his Apostles mooued and procured thereto by God the holy Ghoste Therefore I beseeche you weigh the milde nature of our gracious Queene the mother of mercie that doth not vse the iustice shee may and marke your holy father the Pope the captaine of crueltie that vseth the iniusticie he ought not I pray you is not our Elizabeth Queene of Englande as well as Queene Mary was Whatpower what iurisdiction what authoritie what superioritie what excellencie and what els had Queene Mary that this our Queene Elizabeth hath not Queene Mary was king Henrie the eights daughter so is our Queene Elizabeth Queene Mary was King Edwardes sister so is Queene Elizabeth Queene Mary succeeded her brother King Edwarde so did Queene Elizabeth succeede her sister Queene Mary Queene Mary was lawefull Queene of Englande Queene Elizabeth is as lawfull Queene of Englande I will not say more Queene Mary put downe Gods worde planted by her brother and set vp Papistrie and Idolatrie and obeied the Pope Queene Elizabeth put downe papistrie and Idolatrie planted by her sister and obeyed GOD Queene Mary vsed her harmelesle and obedient subiects cruelly and put them to death that professed gods worde Queene Elizabeth vseth her wicked and disobedient subiects mercifully and suffereth them to liue that professe and stifly defende papistrie and idolatrie the doctrine of the Diuell These comparisons duly considered your Queene Mary did not muche excell our Queene Elizabeth vnles in crueltie and burning her harmelesse subiects Nowe if Queene Mary might put to death her humble and harmelesse subiects for professing of Gods word Then I cannot see but that our Queene Elizabeth may as well execute her stubborne and disobedient subiects whiche shee as yet neuer did that withstande Gods woorde and will needes followe papistrie and idolatrie And further if Queene Mary had a lawe to burne the seruantes of God that were obedient to her concerning their worldly dutie and neuer ment her harme Then why may not our Queene Elizabeth make a Lawe to execute the popes seruantes that are bounde to be her
other most diuelish detestable decrees for mainteining of the same as in other places I haue declared before Wherefore though you woulde haue your Reader to thinke that your wordes were mine yet you leaue them barely as you haue doone the 〈◊〉 without disprouing them leauing them to bee discredited of your Reader Which you your selfe were not able to confute and yet they were your owne wordes and not mine as before it is manifest A true Christian woulde bee 〈◊〉 to bee taken in suche a trippe 〈◊〉 I haue now taken you being a Iesuite The 54. part AFter this what sodaine toy hath taken you in the head I know 〈◊〉 but you haue iumpt forward fortie sides or pages where belike you haue spied some thinge that will serue your turne which you haue ioyned to your former falsified wordes and that are these That his fast is to cramme in as many banketting dishes as men can and there you stay and goe no further leauing them as you haue doone the rest for your Reader to confute But as according to your wont you haue written my words otherwise then I wrote them so you left out those wordes both before and after them which openeth the sense thereof neither haue you declared how I compared the Popes fast and Christes fast together but because you haue written thē both falsely and left thē nakedly to make your reader haue an euill opinion in me to discredite my booke I wil here vtter mine owne wordes that they may shewe whether they are so without order sense or good meaning as you haue gone about to make them And thus they are as followe And as this Romish Churche hath with her most wicked prayer blotted out the pure and perfect order of praying which Christe did teach in the scriptures euen so she hath with her vaine fond and superstitious fastings quite banished the true fasting required by the Gospell For Christe in the Gospel saith When yee fast be not sad as the hypocrites are c. But when thou fastest appeare not vnto men to fast but vnto thy father which is in secret and thy father which seeth in secret shal reward thee opēly Heere Christ doth appoint vs that we must not let it be knowen whē we fast but the popes fast is published the dayes so commonly and openly commaunded appointed that euery one may know when they fast So that Christe hath appointed his fasting so priuily but the Church of Rome proclaimes her fastes as openly Christ hath appoynted no dayes nor times for his fasting The Church of Rome hath appointed dayes and times for her fasting The meaning of Christes fasting is to absteine from what soeuer either meates or drinkes that make vs prone to sinne The popes fast is to forbeare flesh onely but permits men to eate all kinde of fishe though it bee neuer so dayntie deliciously drest and all kinde of iunkettes and banketing dishes with delicate wines as muche as wee will cramme and powrein Christes fast is to keepe our bodies lowe to bee in subiection to the spirite But that is not performed in the popes fast but by their daintie dishes and drinkes the Spirite is brought in subiection of the body Christes fast is a willing and an vncompelled abstinence The popes fast is a constrayned abstinence and is done of many against their wills Christes fasting is to make vs vertuous and holy before god The popes fast is hypocritical and to make vs seeme holy before men This is difference enough to shewe you that the Christian fasting of Christe and the common fasting of the Pope are farre vnlike and do not agree so that the one shall haue his rewarde hereafter of God and the other hath his rewarde alredy of men c. And this is the circumstaunce cause and effect of my woordes Thus the indifferent reader may perceiue that you haue not onely altered my woordes but also through displacing them and cutting them from their 〈◊〉 which shoulde haue witnessed their true intente 〈◊〉 and meaning you haue gone about to beguile him yea and moste maliciously to discredite or defame mee But I trust by that time hee hath weyed my wordes and your wordes together hee will regarde my booke as it is and you as you are The 55. part IF I had made such bagaries in my booke as you haue done here in yours you might then haue iustly saide that I wandred without all witte or learning for whereas you pickte your last woordes though falsely out of the 171. page of my booke nowe on the sudden you haue leapt backwarde againe an 164. pages at the least which is a great deale further then before So that it seemeth you haue tryed howe farre if neede were you can leape backwarde especially at a dead lift If you had leapt but halfe a score sides or pages further you had leapt quite out of the booke and then you had not founde this snare where with you haue snarled mee Well I must gette out of it as well as I may and these are your woordes that followe affirming that I say in the 5. and 6. page of my booke That all papistes are worse and deserue 〈◊〉 death then drunkardes theeues murtherers and pyrates and so you leaue neyther disprouing nor confuting them by any other proofe or argument but refers it to your reader to confute if he list as you haue done all the rest or else perhappes you looke that eyther they shoulde disprooue or confute them selues or that these your knitting vp wordes that followe shoulde take the paynes to doe so muche for you Whiche are This is Luptons charitable doctrine with many thinges moe which I omitte You haue quoted in your margent that these my wordes are in the 5. and 6. page or side of my booke Surely if the seuer all matters that you write as mine were as sentencious as they be short and were vttered as truly as you haue writtē them falsely I am sure you woulde neuer haue cumbarde your booke with them There are but fifteene woordes of them in all 〈◊〉 that mee thinkes one side myght haue holdē them well enough especially seeing two lines of one of the sides of my booke holdeth as muche and more And I am sure it woulde haue done so as the ende of the fifte and 〈◊〉 pages fall out if you had written any one Sentence of myne as I wrote it But as you haue falsisted my wordes before so haue you done nowe and you seeme to include as you thought good the whole circumstaunce and argumentes of these two sides or pages to that ende in your aforesaide fifteene 〈◊〉 woordes whiche is too straite a roome for a Christian by way of argumente to prooue the easiest matter that is I knowe not what a Iesuite may doe But that it may appeare howe you goe about to disgrace my sayde booke and to discredite mee by deceauing your reader I
on a mans face the Crow fleeing and the man riding whiche brought him to his death You write in the margent A poore pope that had no chāberlaine to keep out dogs 〈◊〉 though the office of the Popes Chamberlaine were to whip out dogges Doe you thinke that an Earles dogge may not come into a Popes chamber or that a dogge cannot bee so luckie as to haue one licke at a popes foot What if GOD would haue vs to vnderstand that a dogge was as meete to kisse the popes foote as an owle was fit to bee the popes holy Ghost Truly Christ washt his Apostles feete but I neuer read that they kist his feete yet Christes feete were as well worthie to be kist as the popes Therefore all wise men may well thinke that the popes foote was more meete to bee kist of the Earle of Wiltshires dogge then of him selfe And whereas I haue neither made this a myracle neither written it for a myracle you thought to make it a myracle by foysting in your owne wordes which did cleane turne and chaunge my sense for whereas I say But also snatcht at his great toe thinking belike it was more meete to be bitten of dogges than to be kissed of men You haue written thus but also snatched at his great toe signifiyng thereby that it 〈◊〉 a part more fit for dogges to kisse than men Thus it is manifest that you haue thrust in signifiyng thereby for my words thinking belike 〈◊〉 hath so 〈◊〉 and changed my sense and meaning that it appeareth a myracle by your wordes which is that the dogge did signifie by his snatching at the Popès great toe that it was a part more fit for dogges to kisse then men Therfore it must needs appeare a myracle to euery one that reades this as you 〈◊〉 it for is it not myraculous for a dog to haue such diuine knowlege to signifie vnto y e people wherfore he hath done a thing specially such a mysticall matter as y e kissing of y e Popes foote Truly you went very farre before when you told the cause why M. Nicols was borne at 〈◊〉 in Wales and in telling my thought or what I woulde haue saide but herein you haue shewed your selfe to be of a more deepe and profounde iudgement in shewing the intent and meaning of the Earle of Wiltshires dogge for you haue flatly told what hee did signifie by his snatching of the Popes great toe Wherefore though you counted this for my myracle I must confes it is none of mine but yours for now I perceiue a Christian is farre vnable to compare with a 〈◊〉 in making of myracles It was happie that you changed my wordes and thrust in your owne wordes in their place or els we had had no myracle of the dogs kissing of y t Popes feete Now I trust you wil mende the word Myracles in the margent of your booke and write Luptons Myracle in steede of myracles for there was but two in all and one of them of right is returned to your selfe Wishing that you because it is not meete you shoulde lacke your due praise to write in the margent against the myraculous storie of the Earle of Wiltshires dogge The Iesuites myracle But I muse that you tooke such paines to leape so farre backward for this that is no myracle and might haue had halfe a dosen at the least hard by with easily going forward yea and touching the same matter and tending to suche end as the myracle of Burton which you recited before But because that myracle of Burton which you call my myracle hath lost his companion and is now cleane without companie therefore I will place some of his olde fellowes with him which you either sawe not or woulde not see for that I am loth that hee shoulde be without some comfort or companie for you know it is very vncomfortable to stande moping alone and these be they that follow One Richard Denton hauing wordes of commendations sent to him from one William Woolsey that was after burned for professing of the Gospell which were that hee marueiled that the saide Denton tarried so long beehinde him seeing he was the first that deliuered him the booke of the Scriptures into his hand and told him that it was the truth desiring him to make hast after as fast as hee coulde Which Denton saide when the saide message was doone to him I confesse it is true but alasse I cannot burne But after though hee could not burne willingly in Christes cause hee was burned against his wil not in so good a cause For after that his house being on fire hee went in to saue his goods and thereby hee was burned and lost his life And thus hee was burned for earthly goods that refused to burne for heauenly treasure Also one dale a Promoter of the professours of Gods word that helped them forward to the fire was eaten into his body with lyse and hee so died as it is wel knowē of many Alexander the keeper of Newgate a cruell enemie to them that lay there for this our religion died very myserably being so swolne that hee was more like a monster then a man and was so rotten within that no man coulde abide the smell of him Beholde also another myracle of God on the Parson of Crundall in kent who vpon Shrouesunday hauing receiued the Popes pardon from Cardinall Poole came to the Parishe Churche and exhorted the people to receyue the same as hee had doone him selfe saying that hee stoode nowe so cleere in conscience as when hee was first borne and cared not nowe if hee shoulde die the same houre in that cleerenesse of conscience Whereupon he being strucken sodenly by the hand of God and leaning a little on the one side immediatly shronke downe in the pulpet so was found dead speaking not one worde more c. Beholde another straunge myracle which God shewed on the proude papistical persecutor of Gods seruants in Queene Maries time Steeuen Gardiner then Lord chauncellour of England who after so long professing of your papisticall doctrine when there came a Bishop to him on his death bed and put him in remembrance of Peters denying of his master he answering againe said that he had denied with Peter but neuer repented with Peter And so both stinkingly and vnrepentantly dyed You could not spie this myracle or els you thought it would not serue your turne Here is also an other which if you marke well is more like a myracle then that that you made of the Earle of Wiltshires dogge As one Iames Abbas a professour of the Gospell in Q. Maries time was led by the Shiriffe to the fire where hee was burned at Bury diuers poore people 〈◊〉 in the way and asked their almes he 〈◊〉 hauing no money to giue thē and desirous yet to distribute something among them 〈◊〉 pull of all his apparrell sauing his Shirte 〈◊〉 the same vnto