to feare if these Israelites feared so much at the building of an Altar vvhych vvas meant to the honour of God and onely contrary to the outward shevv of the vvordes of the lavve shall not vve tremble at thys Alter vvhich all the charity in the vvorld can not conceiue vvell of as that vvhich hath none vse but to serue the deuil good Nehemiah for one piece of thys our sin found in the people feared the wrath of God proclaymed publike fasting prayer Let vs folovv his example that the Lord may be still our God and remember vs to do vs good Much more haue vve to shake for that thys our turning frō God in straunge mariage and permitting strange Gods vvhich the liuing God turne from vs should be more foule and more grosse thenany of those former vvhiche neuerthelesse deserued and had such plagues For it cannot I dare say be shevved in all the holystory that those people of God in the vvorst mariage emōg them did yet euer make any precedent pact or articulat cōdition aforehand vvith the Idolaters that they should quietly agaynste the lavves of theyr holy land commit Idolatry but rather at firste the Idolaters dissembling theyr ovvne or making semblant of the true religiō fayre foftly vvan by little little through familiarity mutuall conuersation of lyfe after mariage by a stealing insinuation or flattery and creping persvvasion daungerous therefore to haue any sort of felovvship vvith the vvicked an open exercise of theyr paganisme But if any man perswade our Prince in vvhose handes the Lorde hath put and holden a soueraigne scepter of peace novv twenty yeeres and more and by vvhose handes the Lord hath quite expelled Idolatrye he make her and vs thankfull for it vppon cammunication of thys mariage to indent vvith man hovv farre God should be honoured vvhat is thys but to sinne more then the supposed sin of the Reubenites to excede the transgressions of Salomon or Iehoram euen to erecte an Idolatrous altar not in a corner of the Realme but on the hyghest hyll of the land in London vvhich is our Ierusalem and to make an open fault not of infirmitye but by addised composition agaynst the Lord and hys truth not in tvvo shires and a halfe but in the greatest part of the realme and head of the land our prince in so much as it should be safer to set vp a thousande hyll alters for hedgecreping Priestes other where rather then thys high Altar so neere the Court. The sinne of Achan though not in thys kind proues that the sin of one man and hym pryuate doen in secrete and buried close vnder the ground gaue forth such a stench in the Lords nostrels as was contagious to the vvhole host and hys garmente brought the plague emong them Much more shall the hygh sin of a highest magistrate doen and auoued in open son kindle the vvrath of God and set fire on church and common weale And this fire if it fasten on our church it is like wild fyre or fire from heauen that all the seas can not stoppe nor quench but the flakes thereof wyll flye ouer sea and keepe hauoke in the churches both on thys side and beyoind seas Our neighbour vvel builded church of Scotland must needes think hir selfe to haue some what in hand vvhen our wall is aburning The infant churches in the lovv countryes shall loose a nource of vs The elder churches in Garmani a sister of strength And vvhen I remember the poore orphane churches in france I must needes giue the pryce of godlesse impudencie to those vvhich vvyll needes forsooth mayntaine thys mariage as a mean to assure religion in fraunce and to preferue the professors there from more massacres These men haue lyke vnkind mothers put as it vvere theyr owne child the church of England to be nour sed of a french enemy and friend to Rome and novv very kindly they take in both armes the church of fraunce and giue it a priuy deadly nipp vnder colour of offering it their teates vvherein is nought but vvind if not poyson As therefore the ennemies to Gods truth seeke those churches ruin throug hatred to religion so should we who are members of one body vvith them haue a care of them as of our selues The enemies think there kingdom of Antichrist can not stand vnles Christ be put out of these churches let vs knovv as those reformed Churches next vnder God and theyr owne forces haue stoode by good neighbourhood euen so that there standing is our necessary strength Certainly the Pope seeth vvell that one great staye vvhy neyther the French King in Fraunce nor the Spanish king in the low countryes can destroy religion is the helpe and avve of other Princes confessing the gospell emong which our Queene is in regard with the chiefe A game he seeth as vvell that next vnder God one greate cause vvhy hys interdictions against vs take no place in England nor Ireland and that those kings to whom hee hath giuen our land as it vvere to vvhom soeuer occupanti can not come to take possession of vs is because that they of the reformed religion in both those countryes are as a brazen doore and an yron wall agaynst our popish enemies and therefore by thys match he seekes to sunder them from vs and vs from them and so by vnbarring our brazen doore and treading dovvne our vval to lay open hys passage to vs I vvill not therefore vouchsafe this straunge suppositon of these persvvaders the place of an obiection to be aunsvvered in the ende but vvill vse it for an other mayn reason of proofe in thys part that thys mariage is agaynst the church because it is agaynst the churches of Fraunce the vvhich it must needes kill in the place as they say and vvithall giue our church a deathes wound Here is therefore an imp of the crovvne of Fraunce to marye vvith the crovvned Nymphe of Englande It is proued alreadye that his comming shakes the church in Englande and hovv shall he stablish the religion in France VVhat is France to the church of God and to England for religions sake Fraunce is a house of crueltie especially against Christians a principll prop of the tottering house of Antichriste and vvithout vvhich our VVesterne Antichriste had bene ere this sent to his brother Mahomet into Greece vvhether he long sence sent his maisters the Emperoures of Rome The long and cruell persecutions in Fraunce the exquisite torments and infinite numbers there put to death doe vvitnes hovv worthy that throne is to be reckoned for one horn of that persecuting beast the primitiue Empire Thys man is a son of Henrye the second vvhose familie euer since he maryed vvith Catherine of Italie is fatal as it vvere to to resist the Gospell and haue bene euer oney after other as a domitian after Nero as a Traian after domitian and as Iulianus after Traian VVhose manifest cruelties and
dishonour to her spouse vvith the separating her from her Lord God and vvith the treading vnder foot of that precious lavve vvhich îs her holy rule for order and souereigne preseruatife againste all headlong confusion if they say yea vve say nay and proue it nay Namely that this procuration of mariage is a breach of Gods lawe and not onely for the sinne thereof is against the church because it hasteneth vengeaunce but vve shevve by demonstratiue reasons that it goeth to the very gorge of the Church I trust I shall not neede to proue to these mens consciences this Maior proposition or Maxime that is to say Syn prouoketh the wrath of God and that greate sinnes call down great plages and mighty sinners are mightily punished This argument The vvorld sinneth such a citie sinneth such a land sinneth such a try be such a kindred such a family such a soule sinneth Ergo the vvorld such a city land trybe kindred family soule shall feele the vengeance of that high lavvgeuer against vvhom they sinne is a most necessary consequence This next though it be but the Minor in order and vvill not perhappes vvithout farther proofe be yelden vnto by thys kynde of protestātes yet is it as true as the former that is that it is a sin a greate and a mightye sinne for England to geue one of Israels daughters to any of Hemors sonnes to match a daughter of God vvith one of the sonnes of men to couple a Christian Ladye a member of Christ to a Prince good sonne of Rome that Antichristian mother citie For the inuincible manifestastion therfore of this truth let vs first consider England as a region purged from Idolatry a kingdome of light confessing Christ and seruing the liuing God Contrariwise Fraunce a den of Idolatrye a kingdome of darkenes confessing Belial and seruing Baal Then let vs remember vvhat was the first institution of mariage which is set before vs as a directory rule for vs in our mariages for euer and vvhereunto Christ teacheth vs playnly in al cases and other incidentes of mariage to looke back vvhen vpon a case put of mariage he aunsweres IN THE BEGINNING IT VVAS NOT SO. The first mariages were betvvene payres in Religion and in the feare of god And the first vvritten commaundements that are giuen by Moses touching mariage haue their regard to that first institution as it were to the oldest lavve The vvhich Moses rightly vnderstanding and according to the interpretation of al lawes vvhen they bid or forbid any thing do therevvith forbid or bid the contrarye He also in Denteronomie forbad those matches vvherein the sonnes of God vvere giuen to the daughters of mē adding thys reason for saith he such mariages wil make thy children to fal from me And this place at once may expound those other many places vvhere it is sayd least they make thy children to commit Idolatry to be added as a certaine punishment by the iudgement of God and not for a doubtfull reason as some vvould fayn haue it that seke to dravv the lavves of God to their lustes who should rather rule theyr lustes by the lawes VVhich pure institution of mariage S. Paul also continues when enlarging the holy vse thereof to all sortes of men he yet hath this restraint that it be in the Lord that is to saye in his feare as it was from the beginning and according to his former commaundements in his vvorde It is more then enough to breake the holy ordinaunce instituted of God vvhich ought to gouerne vs without further enqui rye of reason or commodity But as the holinesse of his lavves is holesome to vs euen in this life by obedience so doth theyr trāsgression breede vs infinite incommodities For the ende of this holy kind of mariage is our mutuall helpe and vpholdiug one an other in the feare of god vvhich appeareth by the reason of forbidding those vnholy mariages vvhich is least sayth the spirit of God their sonnes drawe your daughters or their daughters your sonnes from the lord Nowe as the one comes to passe vvhere thorder of God is kept so the contrary effect must iustly followe vpon neglect especially if such a mariage be made in a gospellike land vvhere the lavv of God is preached and contrarye to warning giuen out of Gods booke Then vvithout peraduenture all blessing is taken awaye and the plague follovveth And to teach our politiques by reasonable argumentes what other reasons haue the lavves of all lands to ioyne like to like in mariage but for the norishing of peace and loue betvvene man and vvife and for the vvell bringing vp of the children in euery familye vvherby to make them profitable members in some seruiceable vocation considering that families are the seedes of Realmes and petie partes of common vveales where if there be good order the vvhole land is vvell ordered and contrary as in anye instrument if euery string or many strings be out of tune the whole musick is marred and who so vvill preserue any entier must conserue euery part so if the families be distempered and out of tune the vvhole land is disturbed Thinke you that the common vveal can haue this care for her lesse partes and thus prouide for the vvell trayning vp of her chil dren that the church of England vvherin this holy lavv of religious matching marying the faithful vvith the faythful is giue by Christ to this end that their children might be sanctified and holily brought vp in christian religion thinke you I say that the church wil easely depart vvith her deere daughter her daughter of hiest honor Elizabeth the Queene of England vvho is the tēple of the holy ghost and vvill not hold her fast in her louing armes as being loath to giue her to a straunger one that hath shevved no signes of regeneration and her selfe vvant thassistaunce of a faythfull husband and her children of her body if any she haue vvhich receiue outvvard sanctification and entry into the bosom of the church thorough the promise of their faythfull parentes be in danger to be profaned before they be borne and to be corrupted after they are borne and thorovvout al their education S. Paul speaking of contrary couplings together compareth them to the vneuen yoking of the cleane Oxe to the vncleane Asse a thing forbidden in the lawe And here againe the lawes of men vvhieh medle but vvith the distribution of the things of this life haue learned this equitie of the lavves of God that it is a greate disparagement for health to be ioyned in mariage vvith any foule disease for beuty vvith deformity youth vvith decrepite age or to tender a townes man daughter to a gentilman of birth A citizen of Rome vvoulde hold foule scorne to mary a Barbariane And the common vvealthes of England Fraunce I dare say vvould meruail if eyther our Queene or Monsieur being both great princes borne and of
THE DISCOVERIE OF A GAPING GVLF VVHEREINTO ENGLAND IS LIKE TO BE SWALLOvved by an other French mariage if the Lord forbid not the banes by letting her Maiestie see the sin and punishment thereof Saue Lord let the King here vs in the day that vve call Psal. 20. verse 9. Mense Augusti Anno. 1579. IN all delibrations of moste priuate actions the very heathen are wont first to consider honesty and then profit Some of thē also many times not without some blind regard to a certain diuine nature which they vvorshipped before the altar of the vnknovven god Oh the strange Christianity of some men in our age vvho in their state consultations haue not so much respecte to Pietie as those first men had to honesty nor so much regarde to honestie as they had to profit are therfore iustly giuen vp of the Lord our God to seeke profit vvhere in deed it is not and deceiued by theyr lusts to embrace a shewing false Good in stead of that vvhich is the good End of a vvise man Yea vvho neglecting the holy and sure vvisedome of God in his vvord vvherein are the onely honorable enstructions for polytyques and honestest rules of gouering our houses and ovvne person do beate their braines in other bookes of vvicked vile Atheistes and sette before them the example of Turkish and Italian practises wherby the Lorde many times thrustes theyr hands into the neste of vvaspes and hornets vvhile they seek the hony of the svvete bee Thys sicknes of mynd haue the french dravven from those Easteern partes of the vvorld as they did that other horrible disease of the body and hauing alreadie too far VVestvvard communicated the one contagion doe novv seeke notably to infecte our minds vvith the other And because this infection spreeds it selfe after an other maner from the first they haue sent vs hither not Satan in body of a serpent but the old serpent in shape of a mā vvhos sting is in his mouth and vvho doth his endeuour to seduce our Eue that shee and vve may lose this Englishe Paradise VVho because she is also our Adam soueraigne Lord or lordly Lady of this Land it is so much the more daungerous therfore he so much the more busily bestirres him Novv although the truth be that vppon further ripping vp of this serpentine attempt vve shall find the Church notably vnder mined by the Pope the verye foundations of our common vveall dangerously digged at by the french our deere Queene Elizabeth I shake to speake ledd blyndfold as a poore Lambe to the slaughter yet should not my feare be so great knovving her Maiesties vvisedome sufficient to teach her in such a matter as this neither to trovv a Frenche man nor once here speake a dayly hearer of masse for she may knovv him by his hissing and lisping but that some English mouthes professing Christ are also persvvaders of the same And though this ship fraughte vvyth Englands bane vvere already vndercrossed saile vvith the freshest gale of winde in her sterne that can blovv in the skye for our best port yet had vve counter puffes and counterbuffes ynough to keepe him aloofe and to send him backe againe into the deepes if he had none but onely french maryners and onely french tackle But alas this ship of vnhappy loade hath emong vs of our selues I vvould not in Princes Court those vvho with all theyr might and maine helpe to hale it in and as though the blustring vvindes of our enemies malice and the broade sayles of our sins were not sufficient to giue it a speedy passage hither our ovvne men vvalke on thys shoare and lay to theyr shoulders with fastened lynes and cables to draw it in This is our mischiefe thys is the swallowing Gulfe of our bottomles destruction els myght vve thinke our selues impregnable It is not the feeble assault of this carpet squire that vvold make vs come to the vvalles or once shut the gates against him Therefore albeit I wote vvell you vnderstand already in generall what is that great calamitie thus imminent ouer our heades whereof I speake and albeit the bare consideration of some fevv apparant circūstances of thys strange sought mariage by Fraunce vvith England do suffyciently moue and affecte euerye Christian hart in respect of the hurt to the Church of Christ euery English hart in respect of the detriment to England and euery honest affectionate hart of anye her maiesties louing true seruant in regard of the greate daunger thereby comming to her royall Person yet to th ende our mindes may be the more earnestlye stirred vp by more particularly vveighing the euills of this matter vve vvill enter into the partes of thys practise and gage the verye bellye of this great horse of hidden mischiefes falshoode meant to vs And according as those not halfe taughte Christians and halfe harted Englishmen vvhiche persvvade and sollicite thys french mariage haue in theyr mouthes nothing but the churche and common weale pretending hereby eyther against their own conscience or of some other humor that blindeth them to bring greate aduauncement to religion and aduauntage to the state vvith many smooth wordes of I wot vvhat assurance to her maiesties person I will likewise dravv al my reasons to those chiefe heads of Religion and the Pollicie shevving prouing I hope that this is a counsaile against the Church of Christ an endeuor of no vvell aduised Englishman as vvell in regard of the commō state as of her maiesties good estate to euery of which it is pernitious and capitall In the ende I vvill aunsvvere such of they re aduerse or peruerse reasons as shall be lefte vndisproued in thys my proofe And first if a man vvould here bring in the Church to speake for her selfe standing vpon the doctrine of her Prophetes and Christ the Lord leaning vpon the piller of truth vvhose crovvne and garlond is to suffer rather then to vse any vayne helpe of mā against Gods lavve mild thoughe she be without all gale in her hart and haue no vvords in her hony swete mouth but of a most louing mother yet vvould she with sharpe reproofe take vp these goodly procurers of her vvelth as very practisers of her vvoe she vvoulde call them to account vvhy they take her holy name in their mouthes and she vvould scarce repute them for her chyldren vvho vvill nedes forsoth be her fathers for to reason vvith these Politiques in their ovvne professyon can they thinke anye counsaile holesome to the state or becomming good counsailours which can not be once deliberated of much les put in execution without both despising of the Prince and contemptuous breach of the country lavves they must needes say noe if they haue any sincerity or playne dealing left at least they wyll saye nay for feare And think they that any their vayneglorious deuise can proue to the lyfe or health of the church which is offered her with shamefull
detected trecheries against Gods church haue bene seuerally sealed with his visible markes of vengeaunce vvritten not vpon the vvall but successiuely on theyr carcasses vvith a heauēly fingar not by torch light but at noone day in the eyes and eares of the vvorld in so much as Baltazar the father had hys Maneh grauen in the apple of hys eye and that in the eysight of Anne du Bourg vvhose death for professing Christ he had voued to see His first son had his Tekel told in his eare vvhych rotted hym vvhyle he was yet aliue And his next sonn had his Phares marked in euery vent of hys body that as he had shed Christian blood vvith Iulianus so he mighte take of hys owne blood in his hand and saye with Iulianus Vicisti Galiaeè VVho vvould not tremble to come nere this kindred so vvrathfully marked of God vvho vvould become one vvith thys generation so hatefull to men let vs bost in this Galilean and defie Iulian. let vs vvith confidence glory in the crosse of Christ and not vouchsafe to ioine vvith these apostate princes This present king besides the sinnes of his auncesters haue giuen the Lorde cause enowgh of personall actious by hys owne excesses VVhich though the Lord doe not yet bring in vppon hym thorough hys long suffering yet assuredly there is a measure of hys wickednes measured out and a tyme for his iudgements vvhensoeuer the Saintes of God haue filled his bottle vvith teares The plague common to the house he hath That is he vvants one of his loins to sit vpon his seate So that vve see by proofe in three brothers that the Lord wyll not leaue one of Ahabs house An ill disposed body he hath a suspitious and fearefull mynde euen of hys friendes Touching thys prynce novv offered to thys church in mariage if he be behynd in mischiefes remember he is younger in yeeres and neuer came to that hability by myght of a kingdome to performe his inborne malice to the church and the discredit of hys brethern haue notably hindred hym that vvay Neuerthelesse so farre as his place vvould suffer he hath bene vsed to doe that seruice to Rome and damage to the church that he vvas fit for At the mas sacring mariage he vvas not old ynough to execute any thing but vvas set by hys mother to cry and vveepe at the cruelties that so shevving some misliking of them hys credit might be saued for such another desperate match all the rest of the credites of the king then and hys mother brother and sister being lyttle enough to colour that mischiefe since that tyme he hath bene set a vvorke in Fraunce and Flaunders diuers counterfeit fallings out betvveene hym and his brother and suddein appeasings VVhen he fled from the Court to Dreux declaring hymselfe protector of common liberty he quickly made first a truce and then a peace vvhereby to frustrate the gathering and keeping together of that great armie of protestants If hys meaning had bene but indifferent to religion he vvould not haue bene at that stately assembly and signed with them the abolishing of religion in Fraunce He vvas content to be vsed to pull townes out of the protestantes hands and in warres agaynst them namely La charite Issoire where after hys reuolt he committed such abominable cruelties and beastly disorders as if he novv meant neuer so good fayth had neuer so honest a mynd in these matters yet is it not lyke that this mans foule hands should lay one stone of Gods church Yea so farre is the Lord from blessing such a disloyall hand in his publicke seruice to the saluation of others that he curseth hym in publick and priuate in towne and field euen in hys ovvn soule and body to euerlasting death vnlesse he make open acknovvledgement of so open and shamefull outrages and perseuer in vvell doing After thys he leapes ouer Paris vvalles as fleeing frō the Court and tooke on hym the voyage into Flaunders vvyth shew of some tollerable mind to religion or at least to helpe the oppressed professors vouing vvith diuers solemne othes and making others to sweare that they vvould neuer come at the court againe and yet presently vpon his retorne he left his poore court all amased at Alencon and vvith tvvo or three gentilmen onely posted to yeeld himselfe into the kings hands vvith these words Syr I yeeld my selfe to you to dye at your feete in your seruice assuring you that neuer vvill I be estranged from you vvith moe lyke vvords such as detect greatly the French lightnes and french falshood in hym generall to all papistes of that nation The king vvith many embrasings and caresses gaue hym the best vvelcome in the vvorlde On vvhich day also came to the Court the Duke Guise the great ennemy to the church of God vvith fiue or sixe hundred horses vvith vvhom vvhatsoeuer vnkindnesses he had seemed before to haue he novv entered into a present familiariaritie and open kindnes VVhen vve speake therefore of Fraunce and of the practises there against the church of their some time mitigated nature tovvards Religion or of dissentions in apparance and bruites of ielousie vvhich the Queene mother puts as visarde vpon her practises vve must cast our eye wholly to her as the very soule whereby the bodies of the king of Mousieur of theyr sister Marguerit and of al the great ones in Fraunce do moue as a hundred hands to effect hyr purposes And vvhen we speake of Queene mother vve muste straightvvayes present before vs but a body or tronk vvherein the Pope moueth as hyr soule to deuise and haue executed vvhatsoeuer for the appetit of that sea euen as Necromancers are sayde to cary about a dead body by the motion of some vncleane spirit And thys soule of Fraunce as it hath bene moste eager and obstinately bent against Christes church in all thinges vvherein she entermedled so aboue the rest hath she bene a dāgerous practiser in mariages For to begin vvith the mariage of her other daughter into Spayne in the lyfe of her husband vvhat tyme a sister of hys vvas maryed into Piemont so three greate princes linked in a threefold cord as it vvere by that alliaunce all the world knoweth that the capital capitulation and article of inprimis as I may say in that threefold mariage was against God and his annoynted which strong cord though the Lorde vvhich is in heauen laughed to scorne and turned to the strangling of the tvvisters thereof insomuch as the father dyed presently and the daughter liued but a shorte tyme after and with small ioy yet hath not thys spyder left to twist once more And albeit in the mariage of the first daughter she spedde not so well by reason there was no sin of the church in it for they yoked themselues asses to asses yet in ioyning thys latter sister vvith the king of Nauarre she had better luck