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
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
hys French kingdome being there but slendrly beloued for his famelie and for his person and where other greate houses for valure in theyr persons and perhapes title of theyr auncesters would be iudged by the vvise and by the multitud more worthy to reign ouer them and so perhaps we might keepe a gage that they would not care to redeeme The hazardes to himselfe and his state muste needes tell vs that it is a commoditie by our extreeme incommoditye vvhich he seekes especially to Gods Church agaynste whych all the kynd of them haue sworne enimitie For the Lords name sake therefore Oh christian Queene ELIZABETH take heede to your selfe and to the churche of Iesus Christ for vvhich he shedde his blood and vvhich he hath shielded vnder your royall defence shevv your selfe a zealous Prince for Gods gospell to the end forefee in a tender loue to this people committed to your gouernment the continuance of the truth emong them and theyr posterity And for so much as in any great plague that can come to thys chutch your maiestie must haue your part being a chiefe member therein as by being in the bosome thereof you receiue of the graces bestowed emong vs haue a care euen of your selfe and for your selfe also we instantly beseeche you to keepe thys sin far from you by admitting no counsail that may bring it neere you and in that cōmon confession of sins vvith the shaking of thys rod driues vs all to deny some of your delites also enter with the whole church into iudgement of our selues that we be not iudged of the lord And sith the Lord hath vsed you as a meane to spred and enlarge Christes kingdome in other churches and to harbarough the persecuted Christians in your owne kingdome stop your maiesties eares against these forcerers theyr enchanting counsails which seeke to stay thys happy course of yours and to prouoke Gods anger agaynst you pray agaynst these dangerous tempters and temptations and know assuredly to your comfort that all the faythful of God pray for you and whē you are in your secrete most separate closet of prayer they ioyne with you in spirite The Lorde endue you with wisedome accordinge to that you haue neede of at this speciall tyme and considering the state of princes is in this one point more vnhappy then the poore mans degree that they haue none ennemies that dare tell truth and commonly such as bene theyr chiefe fauorites yea too manye churchmen vvhich haue particular priuileges to speake truth a cruell and impious betraying of a sacred prince studie rather for smooth delicate wordes then for playn rough truth so much the more I beseech the Lord of hys mercy to supplye theyr vvant of dutie vvith such extraordinarye store of counsail in your ovvne breast and graunt you such a principall spirite to discerne spirites and to sift counsayles that you may smell a flatterer from a loyall counseller proue all and approue the best And seeing the very place of a prince doth bring him some disaduantage through our old Adam vvho when he is lift vp will hardly yelde to the good poore aduice of them that speake truth in a bare simplicitie the same Lord fill your royall hart vvith such a tractable and easie swetenes of a yelding nature that you readely and humblye may hearken to all good counsayles sent you from God and such as feare God and loue your Maiestie Yea that you may know that it makes most for your safety to encourage and make muche of playne honest speakers and to put out of hart all flatterers For true playne men are the best spyes of a prince they watch when you sleepe and wyll ryng a timely a larum in your eare before the danger approche flatterers neuer watch but when you wake and that they may be seene they vvill lull you in securitye til the sin and punishment therof be heard at the doores The Lord de liuer you from them euen as from Rauens and Dogs And whosoeuer dooth moste hottlye follovve thys sute ot french mariage with your Maiestie seeke to satisfie your selfe moste gracious Queene vvith what fayth and loue he can doe it let thys be one fyre to trye him in that vvhereas mariage is the moste important matter euen to the priuatest person that hee can doe all his life long as that which makes most to an happy or vnhappy life here and therefore euen the meanest body will not enter thys weighty consultation of mariage vvithout speciall prayers to God for hys direction if these men vvhyle they deale in this high mariage so neerely concerning your owne person and so muche importing the vvhole church in these partes of the worlde and the state of England haue perswaded not onely your priuate praiers but according to your publike place haue also proclaimed or wished to be proclaymed publik solemne prayer to God through the land that he might send the best issue to thys counsayl then haue they not neglected a great helpe in thys thyng and haue cōsidered of thys matter as the consequence thereof requires Againe let this be a second tryall for it vvere well done to trye them seuen times if heretofore through out all your younger yeeres they haue continually bene thus earnest and taken euerye good occasion to persvvade you to mariage hanging vpon your skyrtes as it vvere and lying at your feete for to vvin you to mariage alleaging reasons for churh and common weale as they novv prrtend then may you thinke they novve haue also a good meaning at least and are but deceined but if hertofore they haue bene eyther domme or slovv speakers in this cause whē all good men vvished it and vvhole parliaments humbly besought it whā they that be most religious prayed for it of God and prayed it at your hands aboue others no appointing you to one as though there had bene but one husband in the vvorld but leauing it to your godlie considerate choyce any vvhere if in that meane vvhile these present perswaders rather tended they re owne enriching and aduauncement making no greate reckoning of thys matter or if they haue not very vehemently and continually thorowe out your reigne enforced it vvith the same heate they novv doe I can not see vvhat good thing can thus sodenly bring them about to thys earnest thought of mariage and that vvyth this man pressing you vvith him as the onely fit man after so many yeeres of your raygne and at these yeeres of your life but that they be very Balaams perhaps not of malice but blynd not seing vvhat harme they seeke euen to themselues and are abused by some Balac and that Romish archbaalam vvho by Gods mercy hauing in vayne assayed all other engins to ouerthrovve this church of God by excommunication interdiction absoluing our neyghbour kinges of any auncient leage or late oth of societie and dissoluing the fealty and loyalty of subiects and hauing don hys vvorst by all