The massacre in France is yet fresh bleeding in the memorie of men that liue and sawe it when vnder colour of reconcilen of a marriage betwixt a reformed and deformed Catholicke the innocent partyes were wonne from their Serpentine wisedome and so charmed as there remained nothing in them but the simplicity sincerity security of Doues wherein asleepe in peace they were at mid-night awaked with the shricks and grones of their murthered friends and all-togither be came sharers in the Crowne of Martyrdome What then shall wee thinke these holy Saints sinners aboue all that dwelt in the Citty of Paris and Kingdome of Fraunce or now dwell in the Kingdome of great Brittaine because they suffered such things from Antichrist and his followers I tell yow nay but except we repent we shall all likewise perish All these died for their sauing Faith euen that Faith which was able to saue their Soules from the Iustice of God and the violence and iniurie of Sathan could not saue their bodyes from the Tyrannie of their owne Prince who ought to haue beene their safeguard so mercifull is God so mercilesse is man But see the iust iudgement of God vpon Shepheards that prone wolues the King neuer prospered after but was often affrighted with the lamentable shrikes of men women children intermixt as if the massacre had still sounded vengeance in his eares which noise not only himselfe but diuerse of his neere attendants did professe to heare often with wonder horror and amazement And thus languishing a long tyme he fell at length into a strange and generall bleeding at all the open parts of his body which could not be staunched till he died as if Nature by Gods commandement would not strengthen the vaines to hold in that guilty blood which vnnaturally and prodigally had powred out so much innocent blood He that will take paines to reade the historie it selfe and to consider euery circumstance aright shall be fully satisfied in the particulars and may from thence see what foule dealing wee are to expect from Papists let their words and promises be as faire and their treatyes conclusions and vowes as serious and solemne as they please There they may obserue the simplicitie of the Admirall otherwise a wise man but wearyed with warre and beleeuing that reconcilement firme which he desired might bee so and knew to be so vpon his part he was wonne or wrought from himselfe by glorious promises and rockt asleepe in senseles security and ease the bane of bold and braue spirits not to be awaked by the thicke and loud alarums of all his friends There they may obserue how the contrary faction of the house of Guise seemed to be disgraced and left the Court for a colour as if they tooke it ill to be iustled out by the Admirall their aduersarie There they may obserue how the Queene Mother tutors her sonne to dissemble and still sets a head vpon the faction shee hated thereby to breake them and betray them and religion togither For religion neuer receiued greated blowes then from false heads and false hearts soulderd on for that end by art and deuilish policie There they may obserue and see and be a stonished at it a young King protest and sweare publiquely contrarie to his inward purpose and dissemble so artificially that after the fact being retired he demands of his Mother and of other his flatterors in priuate If he had not playde his part well Perhaps he expected a triumph for lying for periurie for dissimulation and for betraying the too-credulons hearts of his faithfull people as Nero did for fidling and fireing of Rome There is nothing written but is written for our learning if examples can make vs to beware and to be wise Wee liue intermingled in our Land with the subiects of Antichrist vnto whom wee are more odious then the Iewes to Caesar or Pontius Pilate or to any of the Romanes Those only sought subiection of the body these of body and soule Those tooke these watch to take occasion and opportunitie of such massacres amongst vs as in other places with all bloody expression of vnreconcileable hate they haue found and effected Our Sauiour when he sent out his Apostles to preach and to plant the Gospel told them they should goe as Sheepe among Wolues and will'd them therefore to be wise as Serpents and innocent as Doues We are their followers in Faith and in Fortune and it is no wisedome in vs to arme the Romish Wolues against our selues or yet to suffer them to be armed or to arme themselues with Force Office or Authoritie to doe vs a mischiefe Especially since we haue the Lawes of the Land inabling vs to disarme them in these and all other respects And for my part I beleeue it is no part of inhumanitie or tyrannie to execute the Lawes for the generall safeguard against the seacret and seditious conspiracies intended or imagined against vs But I thinke it Treason to the Church and State and Rebellion against God the King of Kings to sit still till these arme themselues and disarme vs the more safely and speedily to effect a Massacre which I am fully perswaded and they will smart for it who are not so perswaded with me they will neuer forbeare any longer then till they can fit and furnish themselues for it nor will they abstaine from it for any other respect of Age Sexe Office or Innocencie then for the attendance of the first neerest and fittest occasion and opportunitie offered to do it surely which rather then they will long be without and long for when they are fit for it they will prouoke it by force and all meanes possible in their power yea they will faine a cause rather then want it to serue their turne as a colour for their crueltie Assuredly they will then call our Sacrificing Treason if it can serue their turne to breed a quarrell when they haue vs vnder hatches and haue fitted themselues with authoritie and strength to doe vs a displeasure But you will aske what should moue me to thinke so since they haue not found vs bloodie towards them I answer though they haue not found vs such they haue fain'd vs such in their writings and what they faine vs to be we shall surely find them to be in their workes Their Posteritie beleeue their sayings and in Foraine parts they thinke and will not be perswaded otherwise but that we haue vsed all cruelties against them and haue cast them to be worried and torne assunder by wild Beasts Notwithstanding whatsoeuer they write of vs at their pleasure thereby to exasperate their partie to breed a detestation of our Liues and Doctrine and to stirre vp compassion for the benefit of their persons all which are as easily effected by lyes as by truth when preiudice possesseth the hearer and both sides cannot be heard indifferently yet it is certaine they beleeue not their owne lyes but in their owne soules rest secure that we
EXOD. 8. 19. DIGITVS DEI. ESAY 59. 1. The Lords Hand is not shortned 2 TIM 3. 8 9. Now as Iannes and Iambres withstood Moses so do these also resist the truth men of corrupt mindes reprobate concerning the faith But they shall proceed no farther for their folly shall be manifest vnto all men as theirs also was To the Reader MY heart is inditing of a good matter I Ps 45. speake of the things which I haue made touching the King my tongue is the pen of a readie writer God shall wound the heart of his enemies Ps 68. and the hayrie scalpe of such a one as goeth on still in his trespasses Loe they that are farre from thee shall perish thou hast Ps 73. destroyed all them that goe a whoring from thee But it is good for me to draw neere to God I haue put my trust in the Lord God that I may declare all thy workes Confounded be all they that serue grauen Images that Ps 97. boast themselues of Idols It is time for thee Lord to worke for they haue made Ps 126. void thy Law Thou hast giuen a banner for them that feare thee that Ps 60. it may be displayed because of thy truth The righteous shall see it and reioyce and all iniquitie Ps 107. shall stop her mouth So that a man shall say verely there is a reward for the Ps 58. righteous verely he is a God that iudgeth in the earth All men shall feare and shall declare the worke of God Ps 64. for they shall wisely consider of his doing The workes of the Lord are great sought out of all them Ps 111. that haue pleasure therein Who so is wise and will obserue these things euen they P. 107. shall vnderstand the louing kindnesse of the Lord. Many O Lord my God are thy wonderfull workes which Ps 40. thou hast done thy thoughts which are to vs ward they cannot be reckoned vp in order vnto thee when I would declare them they are more then can be numbred I haue preached righteousnesse in the great Congregation loe I haue not refrained my lips O Lord thou knowest I haue not hid thy righteousnesse within my heart I haue declared thy faithfulnesse and thy saluation I haue not concealed thy louing kindnesse and thy truth from the great Congregation I will speake of thy testimonies also before kings and will Ps 119. not be ashamed Helpe me O Lord my God O saue me according to thy Ps 109. mercie That they may know that this is thy hand that thou Lord hast done it Let them curse but blesse thou when they arise let them be ashamed but let thy Seruant reioice Let my aduersaries be clothed with shame and let them couer themselues with their owne confusion as with a mantle As we haue heard so haue we seene in the Citie of the Ps 48. Lord of Hoasts in the Citie of our God God will establish it for euer The Lord is knowne by the iudgement which he executeth Ps 9. the wicked is snared in the worke of his owne hands This shall be written for the generation to come and the Ps 102. people which shall be created shall praise the Lord. DIGITVS DEI. Luke 13. 1 2 3 4 5. There were present at that time some that told him of the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their Sacrifices And lesus answering said vnto them Suppose ye that those Galileans were greater sinners aboue all the Galileans because they suffered such things I tell ye nay but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Or those eighteene vpon whom the towre in Siloe fell and slew them thinke ye that they were greater sinners aboue al men that dwelt in Hierusalem I tell ye nay but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish IN the nine and fortieth Verse of the former Chapter our Lord saith that He is come to send fire on the earth And in the one and fiftieth Verse denies that he is come to giue Peace on the earth but rather diuision betwixt Father and Sonne Mother and daughter one friend and another This fire is his Word Is not my Word like a fire saith Ier. 23. 29. the Lord and like a hammer that breaketh the Rocke in peeces the preaching whereof hath battered and shiuered asunder the Rocke of Rome and hath occasioned great diuisions in the world in euerie age filling it at this present with warres of all kinds reall and verball For this cause the Romish Catholikes a politique people haue taken order to stop the free passage thereof lest men should burne their fingers with it c. Or indeed lest thereby their Babylon should be set on fire as doubtlesse Rem Test Preface it must be so consumed 2 Thes 2. 8. And surely they haue seene a faire effect of this their policie For from this silence of the Scripture proceeds that vniuersall Peace amongst them whereof they so much boast and whereupon others so resolutely build In the beginning and infancie of the world the Serpent Ier. 8. 11 12. by Satans procurement found a meanes to betray our Parents by teaching them to seeke a prohibited and curious knowledge saying Ye shall not dye for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof then your eies shall be opened Gen. 3. 4 5. and ye shall be as Gods knowing good and euill But now in the dotage of the world Antichrist by Satans inspiration hath found a way to betray the Church by closing our eyes against commanded and necessarie knowledge saying Ye shall not dye for God doth know that in the day ye fast from the Scriptures ye shall be as Innocents knowing neither good nor euill The greatest part of the world especially of the Feminine gender beleeue this new-found Paradox of Antichrist and the rather because it neuer troubles their consciences nor straines their wits nor takes them off from their Canonicall howres deuoted to Poeticall fictions which Legendarie stuffe is the Diuinitie whereupon at this day the Faith of the Cloister Catechist is principally founded But the word of our Sauiour though it be the Gospel of peace is yet a Fire that inflames a Sword that deuides It aimes at another peace then worldlings and fleshlings dreame of they cast their eyes vpon peace with men this teacheth a peace with God they seeke temporall peace though therein they sinne against God and their consciences and doe obstinately pursue and often obtaine it though it lasts no longer then vntill the stronger hath gotten aduantage by it for whose purpose and benefit it was onely concluded this other aimes to reconcile God and man togither and to breed peace of conscience the earnest and initiation of an eternall peace hereafter The Apostle saith If it be possible as much as lyeth in Rom. 12 18. you haue peace with all men So farre as is possible Sana conscientia
to ruine thereby to settle them amongst such as hold them not to be indifferent And whether vpon the other side it be charitie in them who are at libertie to condemne vs and all other Churches of Antichristianisme who vse those formes and esteeme them indifferent Whether it can be imagined that we will in France by Treaties Articles and Arguments or in the Vnited Prouinces by reall assistance or in the Palatinate by chargeable Armies deale so seriously and effectually for the vpholding and replanting of Religion as long as these differences remaine vndetermined vnsetled vnreconciled as the Papists doe for the planting of their Superstition or as we would doe if in all respects we were perfectly one And whether the Religion in France the Vnited Prouinces and the Palatinate be not the same in substance with that in Great Brittaine which we should not doe well therefore to discountenance and abandon for the outward forme sake These points in the humilitie of my Soule and as in the presence of God the Searcher of the Heart and the Iudge of all men and all actions I present with all feare and reuerence to the eye and consideration of my Superiours not with any purpose to contend or saucely to censure the contrarie resolutions of such as God hath placed ouer me in authoritie or to giue them the least offence or distast by propounding these things publikely or as a man that thought my selfe able to direct in these bottomlesse Depths or to saile in these Seas by my selfe and my owne skill without Compasse where no Land can be seene but hoping hereby to giue occasion to men of place and abilitie to studie the point and to pursue it to purpose to a finall resolution and determination And if these poore vnworthy papers of mine shall euer haue the happinesse to kisse his Maiesties hands or the hand of any that may whisper a plaine truth into his Iuditious eare then I humbly desire he may know and from my Soule and the sinceritie and simplicitie of my Heart I speake it that nothing could haue moued me to write what I haue done lest thereby I should offend his Maiestie whose wisedome hath beene pleased to run a contrarie course but onely that I feared to offend God by concealing this truth from the eares of his Maiestie and the rest of his loyall Officers and louing Subiects which I am fully perswaded God put in my Heart to the end I should vtter it And to incourage me and prouoke me the more to this worke the infirmitie of this Season and of my body with it are continuall messengers telling me I must make hast for I am not likely to stay long here but I must appeare before his Tribunall where Kings and Beggers Pr. 12. 2. stand vpon euen termes and where men shall answer as well for the concealing of truth as for the venting of falshood The Pestilence also walkes about the Street and enters euerie mans dore at night or noone-day without knocking This also makes me the bolder as men that are in the heat of warre dare do more then vpon cold blood But my hope is in the vnspeakeable mercie of God that he will perswade the Heart of his Maiestie and all others that shall reade this Treatise that whatsoeuer is herein vtrered proceeds from an vpright and good intention thereby to helpe to vnite the reformed Churches in one and to remoue or qualifie such differences as hold them deuided to the great aduantage of the enemie Wherein if I haue tatled to little purpose or perhaps a little too much it is because I am able to doe nothing but tattle but were I able to doe more I would doe it that our deuisions might not be told in Gath nor our nakednesse published in the Streets of Askelon to the reioycing of the publike enemie For I know how much it concernes the Reformed Churches that they should be vnited in one if it be possible that the humours of men might be mittigated and made in loue with Peace which is so much in their mouthes And I know how much it concernes the prosperitie of our Church and State and the peace and prosperitie of all Reformed Churches that England and Scotland should first be perfectly vnited I know what aduantage euen in opinion much more in action the enemie takes from our deuision and I feare euen some of those who pretend to be Chyturgions to close the wounds do make them wider vpon purpose by pressing the Flesh too hard Force neuer did good especially with fierie natures but mollifying Oyles of interchange and abatement may by kind conference close and consolidate all differences And vpon the other side I know how much those Spirits haue disaduantaged the cause that haue made their breath bellowes only to blow vp contention by opposing Superiour powers with violence and dipping their pens in Gall and Vineger haue exasperated the humour without any other profit to the cause then prouoking of farther prosecution where patience submission and expectance might haue qualified and allaid the heat In which regard I could wish that men howsoeuer forward and zealous that way would be warie how they stirre vp coles of contention by writing against Iuda as if they writ against Aegypt lest they kindle a fire to the great hurt of the Reformed Churches which may waste that strength and Spirit within that employd abroad would waste and consume the foundation of Babylon I specially I wish this course were taken at this time when his Maiestie hath beene gratiously pleased to condescend to our weaknesse and to secure our feares and iealousies by open protestation that his whole intention is to procure and effect the good of the Reformed Churches and Religion in all his designes that he will neuer entertaine Treatie to the contrarie and to resolue vs of this a thing that he need not hath made a fearefull imprecation against himselfe and his posteritie in case he do otherwise It is no more then reason that we beleeue what we heare him say and sweare and shew so much good manners at least as to meet him halfe way vpon our knees when he wooes and inuites vs to come attending a while with silence and patience his Maiesties leasure and pleasure for the timely fulfilling and perfecting of these promises which as it is my resolution to doe out of dutie so I wish it were the resolution of all others especially considering if euer we may haue hope in outward meanes for effecting amitie and vnitie amongst the Reformed Churches a thing so much desired by all that know how to desire that which is good we may expect it in his Maiesties peaceable Reigne who is made by God an able instrument to this end being acquainted with all the controuersies that trouble the Church and exercised in all the differences both concerning fundamentall and circumstantiall points and armed with power art and argument beyond all other princes to accomplish this worke which
would make him more famous being finished and compounded by his meanes then if he had conquered the whole world And now to conclude by returning to the Romane Catholiques I desire them that they would not slightly passe by that Iudgement of God executed vpon their Brethren in the Black-Fryars but that they would lay it to heart and confesse ingeniously it was neither Chance nor Accident that did it but the Hand of Gods power which is in all actions yea in the ouerthrow of that house wherin the children of Iust Iob feasted Shall there be euill in a Amo. 3. 6 Citie and the Lord hath not done it Who is he that saith and it commeth to passe the Lord commandeth it not Confesse then your wisedomes had charmed many wise and sensible men but you could not charme senselesse Stones Man may be mocked and deluded God cannot Submit your selues therefore to him Kisse the Sonne lest Ps 2. 12 he be angry and so ye perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little Acknowledge your Pope to be Antichrist that Man 2 Thes 2 of sinne that Sonne of perdition that sits in the Temple of God as God that is dispensing pardoning absoluing binding the conscience making new Articles of Faith which none but God can doe exalting himselfe also aboue all that is called God and worshiped that is aboue Kings Princes and Gouernours Ciuill and Ecclesiasticall aboue Saints and Angels whom he appoints to be worshiped and canonizeth or condemneth at pleasure All those that write and despute and labour the point so eagerly about personall and visible succession thereby to retaine you still in their superstitious bonds doe but labour to proue the Pope to be Antichrist For prouing a visible Temple of God at Rome they proue a visible Antichrist to be there The Field was well knowne to be Math. 13 the Householders wherein he first sowed Wheat the enuious man after sowed Tares If it had belonged to the enuious man why should the Householder or his Seruants complaine Might not he sowe what Graine he would in his owne Field But it was not his Field it belonged to the Householder and therefore his intrusion to intermingle Seed for the spoyling of the whole crop was an effect of Enuie The Doctrine of Christ and Antichrist is mingled in your Church as the Tares and Wheat both in one Field doe but distinguish that which is of God and that which is of man and the controuersie is cleared We confesse you haue sauing Truth amongst you but it is mingled with all-condemning falshood as Apotheocaries mixe poyson and preseruatiues And therefore the rising of Antichristianisme in the Church is called A Mysterie of Iniquitie for the subtile and close creeping in of Errour and winding about the Root of Truth so that they seemed all one and of one age This Mysterie began to worke euen in the Apostles time and good men perhaps out of good entention were made Seeds-men against their wills whilst one inuented one thing another man another one added this Ceremonie thereby to intice the people another that to win the Heathens from a grosser Idolatry to a lesse as they thought and thus doubtlesse if Errour be examined it shall be found to be verie old and much of it fathered vpon none of the worst men nay much of it will be found to be so ancient as the time when it was brought in and the person who introduced it will hardly be found yet if this be compared with the pure Wheat of the Word which God by his Sonne and the Ministerie of his Seruants the Apostles of Christ hath sowne in the Church it will easily be found to be Tares and trash of humane inuention Doe but cast Mar. 5. 15. out the Diuell therefore whose name is Legion or Multitude and the man is ours which is amongst you and will sit quietly at Iesus Feet Acknowledge also your Rome as it is the Seat and Sea of Antichrist and the Head Citie of your Church to be Babylon and as in the ruines of Shilo Ierusalem was Ier. 7. 12 taught to see her future miserie so in this shadow behold what the Lord will doe though perhaps mystically as Rome is mysticall Babylon to the Sinagogue of Satan which you now stile the Romane Catholique Church when it shall be fulfilled which the Spirit of God proclaimes Apocal. 18. 2. Babylon the great is falne is falne c. Not that I beleeue the Citie it selfe shall be ruined and burnt the Houses and Temples puld downe and your Pope no more named but that I thinke the Truth shall be reuealed to such as now sit in darkenesse and in the shadow of death and then Kingdomes and Countreys and Churches will one after another reforme themselues and forsake the Doctrine of Diuels that absurd Superstition and Idolatry which you now zealously out of a scornefull Ignorace exercise thinking you doe therein God good seruice This seemes to be Hieroms opinion vpon these words 2 Thes 2. 8. Quem Dominus D. Hieron Com. in Mich C. 5. interficier Spirituoris Haec interfectio non abolitionem significat â—aith he This interfâ—â—tion doth no signifie a totall abolition but a cessation of euill life which they led before Et destruet illustratione aduentus sui And shall destroy with the brightnesse of his comming Nun quam autem destrueret si interfectio abolitionem sonaret cum iam esse cessasset But let vs returne to consider the words vsed by the Angell Apocal. 18. 2. Babylon the great is fallen is fallen and is become the habitation of Diuels and the hould of euerie foule Spirit and a cage of euerie vncleane and hatefull Bird For all Nations haue drunke of the Wine of the wrath of her Fornication Marke the note of vniuersalitie whereof the Church of Rome so much glories All Nations Marke also the Metaphor vsed to expresse beguiling Errour Drunke The most wise and learned man may be ouertaken and mistaken in drinke And the Kings of the Earth haue committed Fornication with her Marke the Metaphor doting Lust will doe much And the Merchants of the Earth are waxed rich through the aboundance of her delicacies Marke the Metaphor for couetousnesse and commoditie will preuaile verie farre and make euen good men looke through their fingers but for bad men they will easily be perswaded to proue such Merchants as Iudas was and to sell their Master Christ for pleasure and profit Here is the strength of Wine of Women and of Wealth or of the King ioyned 1 Esd 3. 10 11 12 against the strength of Truth yet at length Magna est veritas preualet Truth is strongest and beares away the victorie Yet Truth must struggle for the victorie her opposites are strong enough to striue and will not be conquered till we haue fought vnder her Banner and resisted vnto blood Heb. 12. 4. Now after you haue heard and considered this aduisedly then attend to that which followes immediately after at the fourth Verse And I heard another voyce from Heauen saying Come out of her my People God hath a People God hath a number of Elect names God hath a Church in Babylon that ye be not partakers of her sinnes and that ye receiue not of her plagues For her sinnes haue reached vnto Heauen and God hath remembred her iniquities Reward her euen as she rewarded you and double vnto her double according to her workes In the Cup that she hath filled fill to her double How much she hath glorified her selfe and liued deliciously Marke what she hath assumed challenged and arrogated to her selfe so much torment and sorrow giue her for she saith in her heart I sit a Queene and am no Widow and shall see Es 47. 8. no sorrow Doth any Church boast so but the Romish Therefore shall her plagues come in one day death and mourning and famine and she shall be vtterly burnt with fire for strong is the Lord God who iudgeth her Stronger then all the Kings that would defend her And doe not say or hear others saying that such as perished were greater or lesse sinners then the rest of the Romish Idolators that suruiue since we iudge not their persons but opinions and actions For except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish The Lord open your eyes that you may discouer Antichrist in the midst of his masking and open your eares that you may heare Christ in the midst of the Candlesticks and turne your hearts from following the vanitie and Idolatry of those superstitious Fathers of your Flesh that you may beleeue the Veritie of God the Father of your Soules and so possesse an eternall habitation with him in Glorie and Immortalitie Amen FINIS
will do them no violence how much soeuer we know our selues to be their Masters except we be vrged and prouoked beyond the patience of men Yet this assurance of our lenitie doth no good to winne and soften their affection but doth rather much hurt to imbolden their presumption They know our tenets our practise our natures It is the Romish Milke onely which makes all that tast of those Adulterate Teates to be vnnaturall Wolues Fratricides and Parricides The Powder-Treason was tryall enough of this truth where Digby Grant and the Winters with others not of the worst natures and Rookewood who appeared to be of himselfe a man of tender and good affections apprehensiue of other mens sufferings inwardly touched with naturall hate of the euill entended yet all these were so hardned by their subtile and satanicall Guides vnder colour of the Romane Catholique good and the merrit of the worke as they shut the eyes of Nature against Grace and obstinatly and desperatly resolued to pursue the bloodie plot to the vttermost though the innocent suffered with such as they iudged nocent yea-though that blow had giuen an end to the honour of our Nation Whereas vpon the contrarie part our clemencie and Christian charitie therein appeared who fell not vpon them in furie and rage to root them vp when the occasion would haue giuen countenance to such a reueng nor importuned our Superiours to extend the punishment answerable to the crime but wept to consider the scandall of our Countrimen and thought it enough that some few of the chiefe Malefactors suffered a death appointed ordinarily for Traytours without the exact inuention of any new torture proportionable and suitable to the merrit of their cause when I am fully perswaded had it beene possible the Diuell could haue made our Religion guiltie of such a villanous attempt in any place where they had beene Masters as we were here it would haue cost vs a generall Massacre and all Nations would haue risen vp against vs and expeld vs their Dominions as persons vnworthy to liue in the World or to breath the common Ayre with bruit Beasts much lesse with Christians For neuer could Hellish villanie before cause the Name of Christ be so blasted and blasphemed as it might be now through the euill occasion of these Antichristians Neuer could that be thought the true Religion which dig'd so deepe for a false foundation and tooke so much helpe from Hell to aduance it Notwithstanding it may be feared through our remisnesse not searching the festered sore to the bottome or through our too tender pittie for they will not call it mercie and Christian charitie though Rookewood alone had the grace to acknowledge that as their Act was without example so his Maiesties mercie in proceeding against them the Actors onely was without president some of this Spirituall generation may as Cicero said of Cateline creepe into the Senate House againe the place they would haue blowne vp to fire the Commonwealth by Faction whom their former traines of grosser Treason could not blow vp For if the Lord in iustice should so deale with vs and permit this to be done we had no more to say for our selues then the Isralites to the Prophet 1 Kings 20. 42. Especially when men thus affected for point of Faith I speake not of their honours are admitted into this high place of Councell which by Iustice might be that against them as long as they continue of that Religion as the Sanctuarie was against the Moabites though Conuerts for ten generations and against the Edomites and Aegyptians vnto the third generation Deut. 23. 3. It is dangerous hauing such blood in the Bodie of the State though in the extremest parts but to haue it in the heart and bosome nay about the head to heare and see all and to haue a hand in the highest and most seacret Councell and in compounding the fundamentall Actes of State is so dangerous in my poore iudgement as it makes me say in this respect also If we doe not repent we are like all likewise to perisp What all perish with Massacres as the Galileans did Yes vndoubtedly except we thinke the young Wolues not so cruell and bloodie as their Syres or that they account vs lesse Sinners and lesse Heretikes then they thought the Waldenses and the Albigenses and our innocent neighbours in France Bohemia the Palatinate Hassia and other parts of Germanie and through the Christian World to be whom they haue so serued successiuely vpon all aduantages presented or obtained Assuredly if a Lambe be a Lambe still a Wolfe will be a Wolfe still and their Spirituall guides whom they follow with blind obedience both traine them vp and lead them on in blood You shall not heare of a Minister in the Head of the Troopes pressing to enter a Worke or to charge the Enemie with an ambitious and eager forwardnesse well may they informe animate and rectifie the consciences and courages of such as goe on and assist them by prayers but they are no open Actors in blood whereas it is ordinarie as it appeared at Ostend and all other places for Friars Priests and Iesuites armed with holy water and a red Crosse on their Shoulders to leade on the Troopes most furiously and desperatly and to mount the place which they are appointed to enter before all others except they be commanded backe by Leaden Bulls or Iron Arguments And what they doe publikely they faile not priuatly much more to inculcate thereby to breed a detestation of our persons and profession togither and to beget and cherish an vnreconcileable hate betwixt vs. For they know if Kings Princes and People recouer their wits and become sober the kingdome of Antichrist must downe at an instant and the deeper they haue drunke of her dregges the more they will hate her and their owne former drunkennesse Our blessed Sauiour proceedes farther in the fourth Verse to relate that which befell to eighteene persons who were buried vnder the ruins of a Towre being part of the Wall of Ierusalem adioyning to the Fish-poole of Siloah whereof mention is made in the third Chapter of Nehemiah the fifteenth Verse demanding of his Auditorie whether or no they thought them greater sinners then all other men that dwelt at Ierusalem subioining his infallible iudgement saying as before I tell you nay but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish The first example proceeded from the tyrannie and malicious crueltie of man vnder the colourable pretence of Iustice but this latter example is of the nature of those whom Ignorance and Atheisme call and account Accidents An accident in the iudgement of this Dwarfe Ignorance and this Monster Atheisme is such a thing whereof God takes no * Of this minde was that Papist who being told by a Reformed Catholike that the falling of Black-Friars House vpon the heads of their Idolatrous Priest and people was a iust Iudgement of God made answer That he protested he thought