this Glasse of vanyties espied his eyes before He God forsooke whereas he ought haue loued him the more And chooseth rather with his goodes to be throwne downe to hell Then by refusing of the same with God in heauen to dwell Suggestion Nay harke Philologus how thy conscience can teache And would deteyne thée with glosinges vntrue But hearest thou Conscience thou maiest long inough preache Eare wordes from whence reason or trueth none ensue Shall make Philologus to bid mée adue What shall there no rich man dwell in Gods kingdome where is then Abraham Iob and Dauid become Conscience I speake not largelye of all them which haue this worldly wealth For why I know that riches are the creatures of the Lorde Which of themselues are good ech one as Salamon vs telleth And are appoynted to do good withall by Gods owne word But when they let vs from the Lord then ought they be abhord Which caused Christ himselfe to say that with much lesser payne Should Camel passe through néedles ey thē rich men Heauē obtayn Hereby Rich men Christ did not mean ech one which welth enioy But those which fastned haue their loue vpon this worldly dust Wherefore another cryes and sayth oh death how great anoye Doest thou procure vnto that man which in his gooddes doth trust That thou doest this Philologus thou néedes acknowledge must Whereby ech one may easly sée thou takest more delight In Mundane ioyes then thou estéemest to be with Angels bright Philologus This toucheth the quicke I féele the wound which if thou canst not cure As mamed in limmes I must retyre I can no further go Suggestion This is the gréef which Conscience takes against thée I am sure Because thou vsest those delights which Conscience may not do And therefore he perswadeth thée to leaue the same also As did the Fore which caught in snare and scapt with losse of tayle To cut off theirs as burthenous did all the rest counsayll Conscience In déede I cannot vse those fond and foolish vanities In which the outward part of man doth take so great delight No neither would I though to me were geuen that liberty But rather would consume them all to nought if that I might For if I should delight therein it were as good a syght As if a man of perfect age should ride vpon a sticke Or playe with compters in the street which pastime children lyke But all my ioyes in Heauen remaynes wheras I long to be And so wouldest thou if that on Christ thy fayth full fastned were For that affection was in Paull the apostle we may sée The first to the Philippians doth witnes herein beare His words be these oh would to God disolued that I were And were with Christ another place his mynde in those words tell We are but straungers all from God while in this world we dwell Now marke how far from his request dissenting is thy mynde He wisht for death but more then hell thou doest the same detest Suggestion The cause why Paul did loth his lyfe may easely be assignde Because the Iewes in euerie place did séeke him to molest But those which in this world obtaine securitie and rest Do take delight to liue therein yea nature doth indue Ech lyuing creature with a feare least death should them accrue Yea the same Paul at Antioche dissembled to be dead While they were gone who sought his lyfe with stones for to destroy Elias for to saue his lyfe to Horeb likwise fled So did king Dauid flee when Saul did séeke him to annoy Yea Christ himselfe whom in our deedes to follow we may ioy Did secreatly conuaigh himselfe from Iewes so full of hate When they thought from the top of hil him to precipitate Wherefore it is no sinne at all a man for to defende And keepe himselfe from death so long as nature giues him leaue Conscience The same whom you recited haue conceiued a further end Then to them selues to liue alone as ech man may perceiue For when that Paul had run his course he did at last receiue with hartes consent the smal death which was him put vnto So when Christ had perfourmed his work he did death vndergoe And would to god thou wouldest do that which these men were contēt For they dispised worldly pomp their flesh they did subdue And brought it vnder that to spirit it mostly did consent Whereby they séeking God to please did bid the world adue Wife Children and possessions forsaking for they knew That euerlasting treasures were appointed them at last The which they thirsting did from them al worldly pleasures cast But thou O wretch doest life prolong not that thou wouldst gods name As dutie binds vs all to doo most chiefly gloryfy But rather by thy liuing still wil t Gods renowne defame And more and more dishonor him this is thy drift I spy Philologus I meane to liue in worldly ioyes I can it not denye Conscience What are those ioyes which thou doost meane but pleasures straing frō god By vsing of the which thou shalt prouoke his heauy rod Suggestion Tush knowest thou what Philologus be wise thy selse vnto And listen not to these fond wordes which Conscience to thée tell For thy defence I wyll alleadge one worthy lesson moe Vnto the which I am right sure he cannot answere well When Dauid by vaine trust in men of warre from God sore fell And was appointed of thrée plagues the easiest for to chuse He saide Gods mercy easier is to get then mans as I suppose Againe he sayeth among the Psalmes it better is to trust In God then that our confidence we setle should in man Wherfore to this which I now say of force consent thou must That when two euils before vs plaste no way avoide we can Into the hand of God to fal by choyce is lawfull than Because that God is mercyfull when man no mercy show Thus haue I pleaded in this cause sufficiently I trow Conscience How can you say you trust in God when as you him forsake And of the wicked Mammon heere doo make your fained frende No no these wordes which you recite against you mostly make For thus he thinks in his destresse God cannot mée defende And therfore by Suggestion fraile to mans helpe he hath leande Marke who say trueth of him or mée and doo him best beléeue Philologus I lyke thy wordes but that to lose these ioyes it woulde mée gréeue Conscience And where Suggestion telleth thée that God in mercies flow Yet is he iust sinnes to correct and true in that he speake Wherfore he sayeth who so my name before men shall not know I shall not know him when as Iudge I shall sit in my seate This if you call to minde it wil your proude presumption breake Againe he sayeth who so his lyfe or goodes will séeke to saue Shal loose them all but who for Christ wil lose them gaine shall haue Suggestion What did not Peter Christ deny yet
demaund According to my conscience Goddes worde being my warrand Cardinall To begin therfore orderly how saist thou Philologus Haue I authoritie to call the me before Or to be short I will obiect it thus Whether hath the Pope which is Peters successor Then all other Bishops preheminence more If not then it follow that neither he Nor I which am his Legate to accompts may call thee Philologus The question is perillous for me to determine Chéefely when the party is Iudge in the cause Yet if the wholl course of Scripture ye examine And wil be tryed by Gods holy lawes Small help shall you finde to defend the same cause But the contrary may be proued manifestly As I in short wordes will proue to you breefely The surest ground wheron your Pope doth stand Is of Peters being at Roome a strong imagination And the same Peter you do vnderstand Of all the Disciples had the gubernation Surmising both without good approbation Vnlesse you will by the name of Babylon From whence Peter wrote is vnderstanded Roome As indéed diuers of your writers haue affirmed Reciting Ieromy Austine Primasius and Ambrose Who by their seuerall writinges haue confirmed That Rome is new Babylon I may it not glose But it were better for you they were dumbe I suppose For they labour to proue Roome by that acception The whore of Babilon spoke of in the Reuelation But graunt that Peter in Roome setled was Yet that he was cheefe it remayns you to proue For in my Iudgement it is a playne case That if any amongst them to rule it did behooue He should be chéefe whom Christ most did loue To whom he bequethed his mother most déere To whom in reuelation Christ did also appéere I meane Iohn Euangelist by birth Coosin germaine To our Sauiour Christ as storyes do vs tell From whose succession if that you should clayme Superioritie you should mend your cause well For then of some likelyhood of truth it should smell Where none so often as Peeter was reproued Nor from stedfast fayth so often tymes remooued But graunt all were true herein you do fayne Marke one proper lesson of a Greeke Oratour As a good childe of his fathers welth is inheritour So of his fathers vertues he must be possessour Now Peter folows Christ and al worldly goods forsakes But the Pope leaueth Christ himselfe to glory takes And to be short Christ himselfe refused to be a Kinge And the seruant aboue the Master may not be Which being both true it is a strange thing How the Pope can receiue this pompe and dignitie And yet professe himselfe Christes seruant to be Christ wil be no King the Pope wil be more The Pope is Christes Master not his seruant therefore Cardinall Ah thou arrant Heretike I will thée remember I am glad I know so much as I doo I haue wayed thy resons and haue found them so slender That I thinke them not worthy to be answeared How say you Master Hipocrisy HIP. I also thinke so But let him go forwarde and vtter his conscience And we will awhile longer here him with patience Cardinall Say on thou Heretike of the holy Sacrament Of the body and bloud of Christ what is thine opinion Philologus I haue not yet finished my former argument Cardinall Say on as I bid thée thou art a stoute Minion Philologus I shall then gladly it is a signe of vnion The which should remaine vs Christians among That one should loue another all our life long For as the bread is of many Cornells compounded And the Wine from the Iuce of many Graps do discend So we which into Christ our Rocke are ingrounded As into one Temple should cease to contend Least by our contention the Church we offend This was not the least cause among many more Which are now omitted that this Sacrament was geuen for The chéefest cause why this Sacrament was ordained Was the infirmitie of our outwarde man Whereas Saluation to all men was proclaymed That with true fayth apprehend the same can By the death of Iesus Christ that immaculate Lambe That the same might the rather of all men be beleued To the word to ad a Sacramēt it Christ nothing greued And as we the sooner beléeue that thing true For the tryall whereof more witnesses we finde So by the meanes of the Sacrament many grue Beléeuing creatures where before they were blynde For our sences some sauour of our fayth now do finde Because in the Sacrament there is this Analogy That Christ féedes our soules as the bread doth our body Cardinall Ah thou foul Heretike is there bread in the Sacrament Where is Christes body then which he did vs giue Philologus I know to the faythfull receiuer it is there present But yet the bread remaineth stil I stedfastly beléeue Cardinall To here these his errors it doth me greatly gréeue But that we may shortly to some issue come In what sence sayd Christ Hoc est Corpus meum Philologus Euen in the same sence that he sayd before Vos estis sall terrae vos estis Lux mundi Ego sum ostium and a hundreth such more If tyme would permit to alleadge them seuerally But that I may the simple sorte edifie You aske me in what sence these wordes I verifye Where Christ of the bread sayd this is my body For answere herein I aske you this question Were Christes disciples into salt transformed When he sayd ye are the salt of the earth euery one Or when the light of the world he them affirmed Or himselfe to be a dore when he confirmed Or to be a Vine did his body then change If not then why now this to me séemeth strange Cardinall Why doest thou doubt of Christ his omnipotencye But what so he willeth doth so come to passe Philologus God kéepe me and all men from such a frencye As to thinke any thing Christes power to surpasse When his will to his power ioyned was But where his will wanteth his power is vneffectuall As Christ can be no lyer God cannot be mortall Set downe therefore some proofe of his will That he would be made bread and then I recant Cardinall This Caytif myne eares with winde he doth fill His wordes both trueth and reason doth want Christes word is his will this must thou néedes graunt Philologus He spake the word likewise when he said I am the dore Was his body transformed into tymber therefere Cardinall Nay if thou béest obstinate I will say no more Haue him hence to prison and kéepe him full sure I will make him set by my friendship more store But herest thou Zeale go first and procure Some kinde of new torment which he may not indure Tiranny I am here in redines to do your commaundement And will returne hither agayne incontinent Hypocrisie At thy returne bryng hether Sensuall Suggestion That if néede be he may vs assist Least that both I and Carefull prouision The zeale of Philologus may not fully
mercy did obtaine Where if he had not of the Iewes he should haue tasted death Philologus Euen so shall I in tract of time with bitter teares complaine Suggestion Yea time inough though thou defferst vntill thy latest breath Conscience So saieth Suggestion vnto thée but Conscience it denyeth And in the ende what so I say for trueth thou shalt espye And that most false which Conscience shal in secreat hart deny Philologus Ah wretched man what shall I doo which doo so playnly sée My flesh and Spirit to contende and that in no small thing But as concernyng the euent of extreame miserie Which either studie to auoyde or els vpon mée bring And which of them I should best trust it is a doubtfull thing My Conscience speaketh truth mée think but yet because I feare By his aduice to suffer death I doo his wordes forbeare And therfore pacyfy thy selfe and doo not so torment Thy selfe in vaine I must séeke some meanes for to eschew These griping gréefes which vnto mée I sée now imminent And therfore will no longer stay but bid thée now adue Conscience Oh stay I say Philologus or els thou wilt it rue Philologus It is lost labour that thou doest I will be at a point And to inioye these worldly ioyes I ieoparde will a iont Exit Phil. Sug. Conscience Oh cursed creature O fraile flesh O meat for wormes O dust O blather puffed full of winde O vainer then these all What cause hast thou in thine owne wit to haue so great a trust Which of thy selfe canst not espie the euils which on thée fall The blindnesse of the outward man Philologus shew shall At his returne vnlesse I can at last make him relent For why the Lord him to correct in furious wrath is bent Exit Consciencia Acte fyfth Sceane 3 HYPOCRISIE SVch chopping cheare as we haue made the like hath not bin séene And who so pleasant with my Lorde as is Philologus His recantation he hath made and is dispatched cleane Of all the griefes which vnto him did séeme so dangerous Which thing you know was brought to passe especially by vs So that Hypocrisie hath done that which Sathan did intende That men for worldly wealth should cease the Gospell to defende What shall become of foolish Goose I meane Philologus In actuall maner to your eyes shall represented bée For though as now he seemes to be in state most glorious He shall not long continue so eche one of you shall sée But néedes I must be packing hence my fellowes stay for mée Shake handes before we do depart you shall sée mée no more And though Hypocrisie goe away of hypocrits héere is good store Exit Hyp. Acte fyfth Sceane 4. PHILO GISBERT PAPHI COme on my Children deare to mée and let vs talk a while Of worldly goodes which I haue got and of my pleasant state Which fortune hath installed mée who on mee chéerely smyle So that into the top of whéele she doth mée eleuate I haue escaped all mishaps of which my Conscience did prate And where before I ruled was as is the common sorte Now as a Iudge within this Land I beare a Rulers port Gisbertus Indéede good father we haue cause to praise your grauitie Who did both saue your selfe from woe and vs from begging state Where if you had perseuered still as we did feare greatly Your goods from vs your Children should to Legate bene confiscate Our glorious pompes then should we haue bene glad for to abate Paphinitius But now not onely that you had for vs but also haue Such offices whereby more gaines you yeare by yeare shall saue Philologus I was at point once very neare to haue bene quite forlorne Had not Suggestion of the flesh from folly mee reclaymed And set this Glasse of worldly ioyes my sight and eyes beforne The sight wherof did cause all thinges of mée to be disdained I thought I had felycitie when it I had obtained And to say trueth I doo not care what to my soule betide So long as this prosperitie and wealth by mée abide But let vs homewarde goe againe some pastime there to make My whole delight in sport and games of pleasure I repose Horror Nay stay thy iournay héere awhile I doo thée prisoner take I shall abate thy pleasures soone yea to soone thou wilt suppose Philologus What is thy name whence commest thou wherfore to me disclose Horror My name is calde Confusion and horror of the mynde And to correct impenitents of God I am assignde And for because thou dost dispise Gods mercy and his grace And wouldst no admonytion take by them that did thée warne Neither when Conscience counsailed thée thou wouldst his wordes imbrace who would haue had thée vnto god obedience tru to learne Nor couldst betwéene Suggestions craft Conscience truth discerne Beholde therfore thou shalt of mée an other lesson heare Which wil thou nil thou with torment of Conscience thou shalt beare And where thou hast extinguished the holy Spirit of God And made him wery with thy sinnes which dayly thou hast done He will no lenger in thy soule and spirit make abode But with the Graces which he gaue to thée now is he gone So that to Godwarde by Christes death reioysing thou hast none The peace of Conscience faded is in stead whereof I brlng The Spirit of Sathan blasphemy confusion and cursing The Glasse likewise of vanyties which is thine onely ioy I will transforme into the Glasse of deadly desperation By looking in the which thou shalt conceiue a great annoy Thus haue I caught thée in thy pride and brought thée to damnatiō So that thou art a patterne true of Gods iust indignation Whereby eche man may warned be the like sinnes to eschew Least the same torments they incurre which in thée they shall view Philologus O painfull paine of déepe disdaine oh griping gréefe of hell Oh horror huge oh soule supprest and slaine with desperation Oh heape of sinnes the sum wherof no man can number well Oh death oh furious flames of hell my iust recompensation Oh wretched wight oh creature curst oh childe of condempnation Oh angrie God and mercilesse most fearefull to beholde Oh Christ thou art no Lambe to mée but Lion fearce and boulde Gisbertus Alas deare Father what doth moue and cause you to lament Philologus My sinnes alas which in this Glasse appeare innumerable For which I shall no pardon get for God is fully bent In furie for to punish me with paines intollerable Neither to call to him for grace or pardon am I able My sinne is vnto death I féele Christes death doth me no good Neither for my behoofe did Christ shed his most precious bloud Paphinitius Alas deare Father alas I say what sodaine chaunge is this Philologus I am condemned into hell these torments to sustaine Gisbartus Oh say not so my Father deare Gods mercy mighty is Philologus The sentence of the righteous Iudge cannot be cald againe Who hath already
dignitie So that in terris Deus sum saith he In earth I am a God with sinnes for to dispence And for rewardes I will forgiue eche manet of offence I saide to Eue tush tush thou shalt not die But rather shalt as God know euerie thing My sonne likewise to maintaine Idolatrie Saith tush what hurt can carued Idols bring Dispise this law of God the heauenly King And set them in the Churche for men thereon to looke An Idoll doth much good it is a laymans booke Nemroth that Tyrant fearing Gods hande By mee was perswaded to builde vp high Babell Whereby he presumed Gods wrath to withstande So hath my Boy deuised very well Many prety toyes to kéepe mens soule from hell Liue they neuer so euill héere and wickedly As Masses trentalles Pardons and Scala coeli I egged on Pharao of Egypt the King The Israelites to kill so soone as they were borne My darling likewise doeth the selfe same thing And therefore cause Kinges and Princes to be sworne That with might and maine they shal kéepe vs his horn And shall destroy with fire Are and sworde Such as against him shall speake but one worde And euen as I was some what to slow So that not withstanding the Isralites did augment So for lack of murthering Gods people doo grow And dayly increase at this time present Which my sonne shall feele incontinent Yet an other practise this euill to withstand He learned of mee which now he takes in hand For when as Moses I might not destroy Because that he was of the Lord appointed To bring the people from thraldome to ioy I did not cease whilst I had inuented An other meanes to haue him preuented By accompting himselfe the sonne of Pharao To make him loth Egipt to forgoe The same aduise I also attempted Against the sonne of God when he was incarnate Hoping there by to haue him relented And for promotion sake himselfe to prostrate Before my féete when I did demonstrate The whole worlde vnto him and all the glory As it is recorded in Matheus Historye So hath the Pope who is my darlyng deare My eldest boy in whom I doo delight Least he should fall which thing he greatly feare Out of his Seat of honor pompe and might Hath got to him on his behalfe to fight Two Champions stout of which the one is Auarice The other is called Tyrrannicall practise For as I saide although I claime by right The kingdome of this earthly world so rounde And in my stead to rule with force and might I haue assigned the Pope whose match I no wher found His hart with loue to mée so much abounde Yet diuers men of late of mallice most vnkinde Do study to displace my son some way warde meanes to find Wherfore I maruell much what cause of let there is That hetherto they haue not their office put in vre I will go sée for why I feare that somwhat is amis If not to raunge abroad the worlde I will them straight procure But néedes they must haue one to help mens harts for to allure Vnto their traine who that should bée I cannot yet espie No méeter match I can finde out then is Hypocrisie Who can full well in time and place dissemble eithers parte No man shall easely perceiue with which side he tooth beare But when once fauour he hath got and credit in mans hart He will not slack in mine affaires I doe him nothing feare But time doth runne too fast away for me to tarie heere For none will be enamoured of my shape I doe know I will therfore myne impes send out from hell their shapes to show Exit Acte fyrst Sceane 2 MATHETES PHILOLOGVS MY mynde doeth thirst deare friende Philologus Of former talke to make a finall ende And where before we gan for to discus The cause why God doth such afflictions sende Into his Church you would some more time spende In the same cause that thereby you might learne Betwixt the wrath and ioue of God a right for to discerne Philologus With right good will to your request heerin I doo consent As well because as I perceiue you take therein delight As also for because it is most chiefely pertinent Vnto mine office to instruct and teache eche Christian wight True godlynesse and shew to them the path that leadeth right Vnto Gods kingdome where we shall inherite our saluation Geuen vnto vs from God by Christ our true propitiation But that a better ordered course heerein we may obserue And may directly to the first apply that which insue To speake that hath bene saide before I wel a time reserue And so procéede from whence we left by course and order due Vnto the ende At first therfore you did lament and rue The miserie of these our daies and great calamytie Which those sustaine who dare gainsay the Romish Hypocrisie Mathetes I haue iust cause as hath eche Christian hart To waile and weepe to shed out teares of bloud When as I call to minde the torments and the smart Which those haue borne who honest be and good For nought els but because their errors they withstood Yet ioyed I much to see how paciently They boare the crose of Christ with constancie Philologus So many of vs as into one bodye bée Incorporate wherof Christ is the liuely heade As members of our bodies which wée sée With ioyntes of loue together bee conioyned And must néedes suffer vnlesse that they be dead Some part of griefe in mynde which other féele In bodie though not so much by a great deale Wherfore by this it is most apparent That those two into one bodie are not vnyted Of the which the one doth suffer the other doth torment And in the woundes of his Brother is delighted Now which is Christes bodie may easely be decided For the Lambe is deuonred of the Wolfe alway Not the Wolfe of the Lambe as Chrisostom doth say Agayne of vnrighteous Cayne murthered was Abell By whom the Church of God was figured Isaac lykewise was persecuted of Ismaell As in the Booke of Genesis is mencioned Israell of Pharao was also terrifyed Dauid the Sainct was afflicted by his Sonne And put from his kingdome I meane by Absolon Elias the Thesbit for feare of Iezabell Did fly to Horeb and hid him in a Caue Micheas the Prophet as the Story dooth tell Did hardly his lyfe from Baalles Priests saue Ieremy of that sawce tasted haue So did Esay Daniell and the Children thrée And thousandes more which in stories we may sée Mathetes In the new Testament we may also réede That our Sauiour Christ euen in his Infancy Of Herod the King might stand in great dread Who sought to destroy him such was his insolency Afterward of the Pharises he did with constancy Suffer shamefull death his Apostles also For testimonie of the trueth did their crosses vnder go Philologus Iames vnder Herod was headed with the Sworde The rest of the Apostles did suffer much turmoyle Good Paul
was murthered by Nero his worde Domitian deuised a Barrell full of Oyle The body of Iohn the Euangelist to boile The Pope at this instant sondrie tormentes procure For such as by Gods holy word will indure By these former stories two thinges we may learne And profytably recorde in our remembraunce The fyrst is Gods Church from the Diuels to discerne The second to marke what manyfest resistaunce The Trueth of God hath and what incombraunce It bringeth vpon them that will it professe Wherfore they must arme them selues to suffer distresse Mathetes It is no new thing I doo now perceiue That Christes Church doo suffer tribulation But that the same crosse I might better receiue I request you to shew me for my consolation What is the cause by your estimation That God doth suffer his people be in thrall Yet helpe them so soone as they to him call Philologus The chiefest thing which might vs cause or moue With constant mindes Christes crosse for to sustaine Is to conceiue of Heauen a faithfull loue Wherto we may not come as Paul doth proue it plaine Vnlesse with Christ we suffer that with him we may raine Againe sith that it is our heauenly Fathers will By worldly woes our carnall lusts to kill Moreouer we do vse to loath that thing we alway haue And doo delight the more in that which mostly we doe want Affliction vrgeth vs also more earnestly to craue And when we once reléeued be true faith in vs it plant So that to call in eche distresse on God we will not faint For trouble bring forth pacience from pacience dooth insue Experience from experience Hope of health the ankor true Againe oftimes God doth prouide affliction for our gaine As Iob who after losse of goodes had twice so much therefore Sometime affliction is a meanes to honor to attaine As you may sée if Iosephes lyfe you set your eyes before Continually it doth vs warne from sinning any more When as we sée the iudgements iust which God our heauenly king Vpon offenders héere in earth for their offences bringe Sometime God doth it vs to proue if constant we will be As he did vnto Abraham somtime his whole intent Is to declare his heauenly might as in Iohn we may sée When the Disciples did aske Christ why God the blindnesse sent Vnto that man that was borne blinde to whom incontinent Christ saide neither for Parentes sinnes nor for his owne offence Was he borne blinde but that God might shew his magnificence Mathetes This is the summe of all your talke if that I gesse a right That God doth punnish his electt to kéepe their faith in vre Or least that if continuall ease and rest enioy they might God to forget through hautinesse fraile nature should procure Or els by feeling punishment our sinnes for to abiure Or els to proue our constancy or lastly that we may Be instruments in whom his might God may abroad display Now must I néedes confesse to you my former ignoraunce Which knew no cause at all why God should trouble his elect But thought afflictions all to be rewardes for our offence And to procéede from wrathfull Iudge did alway it susped As doe the common sort of men who will straightway direct And point their fingers at such men as God doth chastice héere Estéeming them by iust desert their punishment to beare Philologus Such is the nature of mankind himselfe to iustifye And to condemne all other men wheras we ought of right Accuse our selues especiall and God to magnfie Who in his mercy doth vs spare whereas he also might Sith that we doo the selfe same things with like plagues vs requight Which thing our Sauiour Christ doth teach as testifyeth Luke The thirtéenth Chapter where he dooth vaine glorious men rebuke But for this time let this suffice now le ts homeward goe And further talke in priuat place if néede be we will haue Mathetes With right good will I will attend on you your house vnto Or els goe you with mée to mine the longer iourney saue For it is now high dinner time my stomack meat doeth craue Philologus I am soone bidden to my friende come on let vs departe Mathetes Goe you before and I will come behinde with all my harte Acte second Sceane fyrst HYPOCRISIE GOD spéede you all that be of Gods beléefe The mightie Iehouah protect you from ill I beséeche the lyuing God that he would giue To ech of you present a harty good will With flesh to contende your lust for to kyll That by the aide of spyrituall assistance You may subdue your carnall concupisence God graunt you all for his mercyes sake The lyght of his word to your hartes ioy I humbly beséeche him a confusion to make Of erronious sectes whiche might you annoy Earnestly requiring eche one to imploye His whole indeuour Gods word to maintaine And from straunge doctrine your hartes to refraine Graunt Lord I pray thée such preachers to bée In thy congregation thy people to learne As may for Conscience sake and of méere sinceritie Being able twixt Corne and Cockle to discerne Apply their studie to replenish the Berne That is thy Church by their doctrines increase And make many heires of thine eternall peace Amen Amen But soft let mée sée who doth mée aspect First sluggish Saturn of nature so colde Being placed in Tauro my beames doo reiect And Luna in Cancro in sextile he behould I will the effect héereafter vnfoulde Now Iupiter the gentil of temperature meane Poore Mercury the turncote hée forsooke cleane Now murthering Mars retrogarde in Libra With amiable tryne apply to my beame And splendant Sol the ruler of the day After his Eclips to Iupiter will leane The Goddesse of pleasure Dame Venus I meane To me her poore seruaunt seme friendly to be So also doth Luna otherwise called Phebe But now I speake mischeuously I would say in a mistery Wherfore to interpret it I holde it best done For heere be a good sort I beléeue in this company That know not my meanyng as this man for one What blush not at it you are not alone Héere is an other that know not my mynde Nor hée in my wordes great sauour can fynd The Planet Mercurius is neither whot nor colde Neither good nor yet verie bad of his owne nature But doth alter his qualytie with them which doo holde Any friendly aspect to him euen so I assure We Mercurialists I meane Hypocrits cannot long endure In one condicion but doo alter our mynde To theirs that talke with vs thereby friendship to fynde The litle Camelyon by Nature can chaunge Her selfe to that colour the which she beholde Why should it then to any séeme straunge That we doe thus alter why are we controulde Sith onely the rule of nature we holde We séeke to please all men yet most doo vs hate And we are rewarded for friendship debate Saturnus is enuious how then can hée leue Adulation or Hipocrisie to him