of God for greater is he that is in you then he that is in the world they are of the world and therefore speake they of the world and the world heareth them we are of God hee that knoweth God heareth vs he that is not of God heareth vs not hereby know we the spirit of veritie the spirit of errour thus much S. Iohn in that place O let vs still and still more and more eschue abandon this spirit of error this spirit of the world this spirit of Antichrist and euer imbrace and acknowledge the spirit of truth the spirit of God the spirit of Christ O let vs for the loue of God for the loue of Christ for the loue of our owne soules euermore seeke the lambe of God follow the lambe of God behold and imbrace the lambe of God looke for the health of our bodies the saluation of our soules the safegard of both not in or from or by any other but only in and from and by the only lambe of God repose our whole beliefe trust and felicity in the lambe of God that taketh away the sin of the world that redeemeth saueth vs wretched and wicked sinners of the world that with his owne precious bloud hath paid the great ransome for the release of our miserable bondage and captiuity vnder the yoke of sinne and hath suffered that great insufferable passion due to vs sinners to bring vs vnto heauen vnto God vnto himselfe sitting on the right hand of the father in all maiestie power and glorie for euer and euer Thus you haue a short confutation of those vngratious worldlings that either with wilfull or no better then beastly violence or with witlesse desperate blasphemy or with fond and obstinate self-loue haue proued themselues the most indiscreet rulers the most vnskilfull writers the most vile and vngodly sinfull men that euer were called men or euer liued in the world I meane first those vngodly antichristian hellish Aristotelists Auerroists Plinians call them in word as they were in deed men of more subtilty then surety which denying the immortalitie of the soule accounting it no better then heat and breath mouing and remouing the body only haue ignorantly and preiudicially denied the finall cause of Christs sorrowfull humiliation and glorious resurrection which saued our soules from damnatiō and death in the nethermost noisome deadly pit the lake of torment the prison of misery and all thraldome world without end and defending the eternity of the world iudging it without beginning and without ending which vndoubtedly was fashioned finished in six daies as we surely proue by the Genesis of Moses the wonderfull prophet of God the wisest lawmaker in Israël the mightiest captaine of armes by the Hexaëmerons of diuers both Greeke and Latin doctors and fathers by our Apostolicke beleefe most stedfastly builded on God the father almightie maker of heauen and earth the sea and all that is in them at whose last comming the earth shall melt away like wax and the heauens shal be folded vp like a garment haue defaced with all their might the maiestie of Christs ascension and denied the eternitie of his last dreadfull iudgement both which wee reuerence and magnifie with all godly loue and Christian zeale hauing visiblie and faithfully seen the one with the Apostles eyes and vnfaynedly looking for the other with liuely heartes with spirituall hunger and thirst with desire to leaue this mad and drunken world to liue infinitely raigne with him in euerlasting life Then I meane those hypocriticall Pharisies those impious Iewes and Iewish confederats succeeding the heathenish infidels and pagans in course and time of yeares but farre before them in all wickednes sinne in euery notorious iniquitie and enormitie that did treacherously and sophistically seeke to vndermine Christ and to take him in his words that in the gall of bitternes and bond of impietie mocked and spitte at him and most grieuously and vniustly disgraced him in spite of heauen and earth of angels and men euen as God had appointed in his secrete ordinance and wonderfull prouidence before the foundation of the world was layd that in the pride and rage of Iudaisme in the height of anger and depth of malice whipped him like an outcast the sonne of God crowned him with thorns like a mad bedlem the innocent lambe of God nay led and perced and wounded him to death like a hurtfull beast the triumphant king of angels and men mightie Sauiour of the world But they soone felt the heauy intollerable hande of God for these so Iewish and diuelish abhominations and when their brasen faces would not blush nor their iron heartes relent the very stones of the temple were riuen asunder the faire vaile was rent in twaine frō the top to the bottom those sensles stones were more soft and pensiue then the Iewes the dead carcases were more tenderly and mercifully affected toward Christ crucified at his one and last exclamation in one hower then the elders of Iury were in all their life time which heard many heauenly admonitions diuers happy promisses sundry blessings and cursings yet liued and died in their gainesayings being at last themselues as stones and carcasses reiected throwne out and troden vpon hauing their children and cities vtterly destroyed and their land layd wast and those mockings and spittings that thorny crowne and vineger and gall those nayles and that speare and that crosse and all the rods and crosses that were laid vpon Christ haue euer since bene laide vpon them being esteemed the most odious abiects of all men the very roges and runnegates of the earth against whom all men haue set themselues euen as they oppose and set themselues against all men like Ismaëites and Edomites more vile in Gods eyes then dunge and clay on the ground and all good and godly Christians are inuincibly confirmed in Christian faith by the shamefull ouerthrow of those Iewish and christians which is come to passe according to the gospell of Iesus Christ for his kingdomes sake and our endlesse comfort and instruction to him therefore be prayse for euer Then I meane the Turkes and turkish religion or rather hereticall superstition that in steed of noble prophets on our side hath but one fugitiue monke but the same one false monke on their part to defend it against our so many learned and constant professours that hath no history for his defence and in that respect condemneth historians that could neuer get any sober and learned orator to maintaine his cause and therfore disaloweth the graces and power of rhetorick that cannot be defended by disputation and therefore forbiddeth all disputations that is forced against his owne will law to prefer Christ before Mahomet our mercifull king before his bloudie captaine for honest and honorable birth for vertuous and wonderfull acts for blessed and heauenly translation himselfe being borne basely and liuing vitiously and dying of lewd causes more like a ruffian
a rhetoricall rule were more precious then a morall neyther Irenaeus nor Epiphanius nor other old or yoong schollers are blasphemous for repeating the blasphemies of written heresies he that knew Alipius well did not once thinke him guilty of theft because he studied in the place and by chaunce handled the hammer and other tooles that a robber left there S. Augustine would not accuse him more in his confessions to God then those hasty fellowes which tooke them out of his hands and handled those instruments more then he had done he is strangely wise that feareth shadowes and yet taketh his enemy by the hand that strayneth at a gnat and swalloweth a camell that condemneth an heresie in one schoole and yet commendeth it in another that thinketh no mans gowne whole cloth but only his owne as Aristotle iudged all writers erroneous beside himselfe He was without doubt in some points an excellent philosopher but sometimes euen his naturall reason faileth and our common sense confuteth his common sense but the particulars of his questions and disputations wherein he transcendently exceedeth other men are not very fit for this place Come to supernaturall and diuine matters and alas what are his Metaphisicks where he maketh any mention of god or gods but either absurd Paganisme or intollerable Atheisme If we doubt hereof let vs search better l. 12. metap c. 7 6 8 9 10. and not fondly goe about to excuse or salue the matter by distinction of a Philosophicall truth and a Theologicall truth or by any like fruitlesse suttilty and quiddity of the schooles there is but one perfection truth of one the same matter that truth must be fet out of the diuinitie and highest schooles euen into the philosophy and lower schooles wheresoeuer heathenish philosophy is cōtrary or contradictory to Christs diuinity as Viues speaketh more instantly l. 5. cor art Beware lesse any man spoile you through philosophy and vaine deceipt after the traditions of men and after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ saith S. Paul Colos c. 2. v. 8. We must not be miscarried with the plausible name of Aristotle or Philosophy no more then of Therapontigonus of Pyrgopolynices or such but must christianly consider what becommeth Christians to beleeue most christianly defend that which may be warranted by good christianity whereby in our infancy we were incorporated into the church and in our last end hereafter shal be receiued into the triūph of heauen Aristotle no doubt had a notable high reach in many controuersies of common reason notwithstanding his errors of the number of spheres the order of planets the saltnes of the sea the cause of fountains the time of the rainebow the Salamanders quality the proportion of mans body and other particulars noted by Viues Greuinus Albertus Bessarion Bodinus the rest but Christ knoweth how far he was frō the true knowledge of a regenerate minde a more perfit reason directed and reformed according to Gods owne philosophy in the only fountain of all truth cōcerning matters of beleefe the very perfit truth it selfe for they which knew not God nor his word that is the bread of life vnderstanding and the water of wisdome without which none can liue saith Iesus c. 15. v. 3. nor glorified him as God became vaine in their imaginations and their foolish heart was full of darkenes filling their hungrie schollers with swines meate in steade of the childrens bread Luke c. 15. v. 16. as Gabriel Biel applyeth that text in his initial oration against philosophical curiositie and ignorance and for christian profession to his prelections de canone missae when they professed thē selues wise they became fooles saith S. Paul that great Doctor Rom. c. 1. v. 21 28. But no maruell though before Christes comming the heathenish Philosophers hauing no conference with the people of God preferring Athens before Ierusalem and the kingdome of Macedonia or Persia before the kingdome of Israël no maruell though such Philosophers before Christ had no sense or but very little feeling of God and Christ considering how many great Scholers and famous writers euen since the incarnation of our Sauiour Christ according to his humanitie euen since this Christian Philosopher S. Iohn cried out Behold the lamb of God haue either blindly of ignorance or spitefully of malice or diuelishly of impiety and wickednes not only not acknowledged this lambe of God or any such saluation or redemption of the world by this lambe of God but also denied and defaced blasphemed this most innocent and most righteous lambe of God I let passe the rabble of Scribes and Pharisees and Iewish Rabbines and other hypocrites that not regarding Christs vnmatchable starre or Gods irrefragable voice from heauen either with hand or with heart did conspire the bitter most intollerable passion of this most innocent lambe of God and so vniustly and vnmercifully crucified the most mercifull Sauiour of the worlde We are taught by S. Paul not to take heede of any Iewish fables or commandementes of men turning from the truth Tit. c. 1. v. 14. He that readeth of their Thalmud or doctrine may soone see their blasphemies against God in fayning him euery day to weepe once to be angry once then the creste of the cock is white and pale in accusing him of sinne when hee made the Moone lesse then the Sunne of a lie when he calleth the Sunne a greater light and the Moon a lesse against Christ in supposing that the temple of Ierusalem was not so rased and destroyed but that three or foure cubites were vntouched and those stones left one vpon another where a Rabbine might sitte and studie the Thalmud against heauen by deuising a hole in the North-parts which is vnfinished to trie by way of chalenge if any can match Gods worke and make it vp Whereupon certaine new Buylders with new wittes haue set a Chappel with the high end to the North that their faces being turned that way in prayers time God at their humble suit may himselfe make vp that hole after so many yeares triall of other defectiue efficients Nowe they saide all euill comes from the North because that part is open which being stopped the euill may perhaps be stopped and thus they builded If our Emanuel like well of this dedication who may or dare call it mis-went or mis-set and what new founder wil not follow this patterne by the counsell of that Quidam in Munster he that seeketh riches goeth and looketh toward the North perhappes hereby to obtaine an increase of yerely reuenues by praying that way for dayly bread or to be contrarie vnto Mahomet whose face is toward the South as other Christians are contrarie to the Iewes in looking towards the East O happie times and happie men that reuiue Homer and Auerroes and other renowmed Pagans to make them builders and Architects in Christes Church wee are too common and vulgar now but they are so
peerelesse that we may hope for new artes new manners new worldes to preuent articall hyperboreall harmes and to winne goods by the sonnes of Arcturus whom perhaps they can guide by their learning and answere the question in Iobs booke cap. 38. v. 32. against the Moone in sending her to God her creator to complaine of the Sun for keeping the light from her at his certaine times against innocent Adam by geuing him both natures of male and female in Paradise before Eue was made and telling of his ingendring with the beasts of the field against Noa the Preacher of righteousnes by reporting of the Crowes ielosie toward him to let passe many such impudent fictions vnreasonable impieties senselesse things But the Iewes credit is little worth with Christians and themselues are weried and tyred with looking so long for a new Messias whereas they had the right lambe of God among them and most horribly slaughtered him without all pitie or mercie euen according to the spirituall visions and diuine predictions of the Prophets that euery scripture might be fulfilled and no iote of Gods word passe vnaccomplished Act. c. 4. v. 28. The first comming of this lambe in humilitie is as certainly past as his second comming in maiesty glory is not farre of God grant we be found ready at the great comming of the great bridegrome with the fiue wise virgins that were so well prouided with oyle in their lamps Math. c. 25. v. 7 10. As I haue lightly passed ouer the light and vaine Iewes so I hope I may also do with the Turks considering that the very name of Iew and Turke are alike odious among good Christians The Alcoran and Mahomets whole heape of learning is not vnknowne to some students where Mahomet is made a greater and a mightier prophet then Christ because he had a greater body and was girded with a sword where the lambe of the diuell or rather that woolfe of hell is preferred before the lambe of God because the beast wrought more wonders then Iesus where God is said to be but one onely single God in person without any wife and therefore without any sonne or daughter or any such issue because God is not able in his extraordinary power to beget a body without ordinary means where diuers notable histories and speciall parts of the bible are fabulously deliuered strangly corrupted because otherwise they serue not his purpose where the finger of the diuell hath incountred the finger of God and the spirit of Belzebub opposed it selfe against the spirit of Christ This horrible abhominable booke although it be read of some men yet I trust there is not any christian that maketh any better account thereof then it deserueth though Leo Nardus gather out of it a certaine Confirmation of our gospell in his tollerable vnnecessary deuise being in truth the very booke of the diuell vnder pretense of worshipping the one only true God whereas no man cōmeth to the father but he whom the sonne leadeth and guideth as many texts of scripture might be alleaged to that purpose Iohn c. 14. v. 6. Math. c. 11. v. 27. c. In this booke Sergius a false monke and a Nestorian heretike had his hand therein thinking to go beyond all Antichrists in oppugning and defacing the diuinity of Christ Sabel l. 6. Enne 8. but I hope there shal not greatly neede any long confutation in this place either of Mahometists or of Nestorians or of any like hereticks that denied the deity of Christ they haue bene materially and throughly confuted by the best diuines of al ages from time to time euē since the primitiue church to this day and these Sergianks and Alcoranks cannot endure long but they shall be stopped vp as wels without water and they are carried about with a whirlewinde and tempest and to them the blacke darkenesse is reserued for euer 2. Pet. c. 2. v. 17. God be praised this poison hath not greatly at any time infected this church of Englād or any special mēbers therof but hath alwaies bin reckoned among the most venimous scismes the most horrible apostasies the most abhominable heresies of other erroneous churches and little better account may iustly be made of Scaliger that suttle maister of late yeares suttle as a spinners web full of cunning and simply good for nothing and therefore hated of right wisdome which the heathen miscalled Pallas as the morall physitian Petrarke writeth l. 1. dial 7. who eyther in the pride of his name Iulius Caesar or of his wit or militarship accounteth the ministers of holy things in al countries and places like those Mahometicall impostors which deceiued the king of Moluccae with their Manucodiata a bird of paradise for dreaming and fayning many matters thereby to lead the people into vaine hope and maintaine their opinions or sects Exercit. 228.5 And little better account hath bene made of Iosephus the writer of the Iudaicall historie and himselfe a Iewish priest who reporteth of Iesus but as of another good wise man or a good prophet at the most because he could say no more then he knew or would not seeme to be wiser then his countrymen from whom both the turkish and all other vngratious violent doctrines had their beginning l. 18. c. 4. antiq Some other places of christendome haue bene more touched and plagued with these corrupt inuentions of Iudaisme Nestorianisme Mahometisme such like execrable apostasies and heresies robbing Christ of his diuinity and themselues of their saluation in denying him to be the lambe of God I pray God wee may euer continue cleare in the vniuersities and cities which are to be the nurseries of true doctrine and seminaries of true religion the tree of apostasie and heresie must not onely be hewen downe but plucked vp by the very rootes and burned in vnquenchable fire Math. c. 3. v. 10. Certaine ancient fathers in the primitiue Church were troubled with confuting the wicked ruffianly apostata Iulian Carion saith l. 3. who desperately opposed himselfe with might and maine with haue among yee my maisters the Nazarites during that short florish of his empire which vanished like a mist euen as Athanasius had prophesied of him against the holy one in Israel the blessed lambe of God and not onely fought against Christ with the tyrannicall armes of a bloudy Emperour but also with the sophisticall weapons of a broken rhetorician euer ready aswel to martyr the zealous confessor with the one as to confute the most zealous doctor with the other But himself in the end was striken with an arrow wonderfully as Achab was cōstrayned to crie out in a horrible and wofull agonie Vicisti galilaee ô galilean thou hast gotten the victory ô Christ I must needes confesse my selfe ouercome and so he gaue vp the blacke ghost Theod. l. 3. c. 25. and certaine fragments of his glorious and blasphemous stile are yet extant sufficiently confuted aswell by many learned christians as by that
the land of promise the holy land and patterne of all holy land so far and so long as nothing was done without the lawes of Moses which were the lawes of God Now if it would please God to open the eyes and eares and hearts of our tribes of our hundreds of our counties of our shires of our fathers rulers that they might see and perceiue heare and vnderstand know fully acknowledge freely I say no more yet I might well name our reformers a sort of new Arrians that inuent lies against our spirituall lords as they did against Athanasius deuise one slander of his abusing a woman another of cutting of Arsenius arme both which in the triall proued false and ridiculous as those should doe if the libelling accusers were knowne yet truth wil raigne though they die in the darke and in another kinde of Arrianisme abuse Christs church impudently and profanely as if he were a man no God not caring whether it be true or not true that they write so that the wauering and rude multitude voyde of deliberation and iudgement seeme to like it for whose onely pleasures it is published in the rudest fashion seeing al learned and ciuill men peacemakers abhorre it but God almightie send a true spirite into them that as new borne babes they may be children concerning maliciousnes not in knowledge or a new Iubilee in vs and for vs at his good pleasure These are Gods goods Gods cities Gods suburbs Gods mannors which he himselfe hath geuen before Constantines donation no whit belonging to vs as legacies of his first will and testament to his owne holy and beloued Priesthood Or if our rough smoothed brethren which name they vse for a bayte if our Esaus and Nymrods reformers hunters if our temporizing temporall correctors mammonistes these presumed and supposed iudges of eternall lawes if they will in their wild and wily wilfulnes frustrate this constitution of God if they care not howe short their daies may be vpon the earth which the Lorde hath geuen them so that they may not honour their ghostly fathers without whose authoritie they shall neuer rule Subictes or seruants or children but suppresse and ouer-rule them if they wil clayme and auouch a second wil or testament and disauow and disclayme the old will and testament cancell the auncient actes of Gods former registers make a parlement act of their owne priuate and in deede no better then apostumated braynes which in the second consequence and in the third depending thereon concluding any way either simply or comparatiuely a causis and a partibus will certainly cast themselues and all other into a manifest anarchy into all disturbance and vtter confusion because the same obiections against one state of spirituall Lords may as iustly and more sensibly be deriued vpon secular Lordes of like degree I say if Moses eternall lawes the very true lawes of God be in these new reformations no better then temporarie and transitorie lawes which were a deepe roote for atheisme and a ground-worke for blasphemie yet I hope these Martins will not make themselues worse then Pagans being counted Christians they cannot possibly I trust be so irefull and raging as to exceede the profane Egyptians who allowed their priestes no small commodities in plenty of bread of flesh of wine besides their domesticall immunities and priuiledges whereby they spent nothing of their own neque è re domestica aliquid conterunt neque impendunt saith Herodotus in Euterpe and Danaeus in his Aphorismes gathereth more from that second booke than I doe they wil not for shame doe lesse for other christians thē they did for other idolatrous Egyptians cap. 47. ver 22. of Genesis But in trueth these reformers haue without trueth contemned Moses and Iosua like Iannes and Iambres and the Gibeonites in former times God send them more of his grace and mercie or the rewarde of those men if it be his will now will they also count Ioseph that heauenly politike guyde that true patterne of politickes a partiall and parciall iudge and account him and his rulers al superstitious rulers for not touching and buying the lands of the Egyptian priests and fathers in the seuen yeares of intollerable dearth and famine when all other men of the Temporaltie sold euery man his land his cattle himselfe and all to buy bread Surely those holy men of our so learned dayes and so christiā peace that put almost all Gods husbandrie in lopping and proyning and making euery thing lesse then it shoulde be much like that holines that the Graecians Hyppocrates name in those words sacer morbus sacer piscis os sacrum whereby they vnderstand greatnes more thē goodnes quantitie more then qualitie a diseased holines a fishy holines slicke on the skinne and sicke within a bonish holines and fitter to choake men then to feede them would in their reforming discipline make our gouerners and Iosephs worse affectioned to their naturall and spirituall countreymen or fathers and instructors that haue altogether alike one baptisme one confirmation one communion one beleefe one prayer one law one gospel one God and one mediatour sauiour then Pharao was to the idolatrous Priestes of his kingdome hauing more forcible necessitie then to haue sequestred and impropriated their church-landes and goods then euer other kinges and princes had or ought to haue by the rule of Gods word to empayre their church-lands and goods which euen in the naturall witte of Trebatius are sacred being once dedicated vnto God and therefore inuiolable according to the nature of holy things Macrob. l. 2. Satur. cap. 3. but receiuing al their blessings and fruites for the churches sake whereof they are members which is the onely spouse and best beloued sister of the lamb of God not for any meritorious worke of their owne ought contrariwise rather to increase their annuities and reuenues as they will for a woorse and meaner loues cause in common vsuall fauour increase the liuings of such as they onelie wish well vnto But these our reformers say what they list either like tyrants that cannot be hindered or like wittals that must be tolerated and these will haue their words though the rulers bid peace Then leaue them a while to themselues and let them alone and thinke in your harts beloued christians and iudge in your owne consciences vnfainedly like right Nathanaels without guile or gal iudge I pray soberly aduisedly in your mindes and then marke my communication Is not equitie or law and reason vniuersal and common for all reasonable men is any man forbidden in equity and reason to keepe his owne goods which are lawfully giuen him did Naboth offend God by keeping his inheritance vineyard or Ahab in asking and Iezabel in catching it by false processe and wrongfull execution when hir cosmeticall physitians had cōmended the prospect and recreation of the place and his greedy lawiers told him of his profit and prerogatiue may one man or lord
surest freend to God and Gods people which ioyneth the power of the world vnto the mightines of the word the arme of Moses to the tongue of Aron the blessings of God to Gods blessed church that by vniting of both powers either may be stronger Eccle. c. 4. v. 12. that in this greatest light of diuinitie diuines should be in greatest light and reputation yea if it were but to anger the deuill in hell who like a crafty theefe as he is euer seeketh by miserable pouerty to cast them into wofull contemptible estate That vnhappie pouertie may make the men ridiculous as Iuuenall wryteth Satyra 3. or as Synesius bishoppe of Ptolomais singeth in his seconde and thirde Hymne sad pouertie may pull them from heauenly studies to earthly cares as he had learned of Agur the sonne of Iaketh or rather of experience the daughter of trueth that our preachers nowe may pronounce a seuenfold Vae and a mighty malediction ouer thē which empayre Gods tenthes or any other dues as the olde Prophets aforetime did in Iudaea Mala. c. 3. v. 8 10. Amos cap. 4. vers 4. that there is no iust cause why the papistes should be readier to magnifie their Cleargie in a false superstition then the Protestants to vphold rewarde their cleargie in a true religion why the heathen churches should be in greater reuerence with the paganes then the christian churches with the christians as the loue of good men should exceed the loue of the wicked why secular men may get their wealth by testamēt or desert spirituall men hauing the same plea both of testament and desarte may misse of their own goods and lose them by force by tyrāny hypocrisie vnder a mercifull Prince in a peaceable state in their owne natiue countrey of their own neighbors by the waiward and sophisticall wrangling of their own professors and such other deceitfull and vngodly meanes and essayes of the maker the shifter the hooker against the golden rules of vniuersalitie of antiquitie of vnanimitie which Vincentius in his commentarie standeth so well vpon Then to whom may I best liken this race of Reformers and with what may we iustly and truely compare them If I should continua similitudine resemble them to the Vipers broode that kill their owne damme which bred and brought them vp to life I am sure you that know the vse of this kind of simile and the manners of this people against their mother the Church that first bred them will say I speake trueth If in like sort I compare them to the noysome Cuckoo reckoned among other vnclean birdes in Leuiticus which must not be eaten or tasted of c. 11. v. 16 whose propertie is to starue his nest-felowes and destroy his nurce that fed him our dayly experience doth approue it and if Orus or Pïerius were aliue euen they woulde make these two naturall examples the Hierogliphickes of Reformers God graunt they be not like the vnaduised Physitian that would needes cut a veine where no danger was and thinking to ease and lighten the head where the signe was which poynt hee either forgat or neglected let the life bloud out and killed both head and heart together I pray God they prooue not like the hasty and curious husbandman that to make his trees growe in more sightly order as he thought so cropped and disarmed disarayed them that in short time they withered vp I hope in Christ they shall neuer be like that conceited harebrainde Captaine who when by grosse ouersight and blindenes he had lost the Citie in neglectigg one gate which had most neede of defence beyonde his expectation cast himselfe and his neighboures into bondage and death and as it were out of Gods blessed Paradise into the wilde fielde and hote Sunne But alas I see well they are to day like themselues yesterday and to morow like themselues to day seking this day and all other like themselues to make desperate exchanges to bring in fruitlesse amendments stūbling at strawes that hinder not the way and leaping ouer great blockes that halfe stoppe vp the way crying out vpon the godly orders and decent customes of the church as il birds that file their owne neast exclaiming against conuocation robes and graue apparrel because sometimes forsooth there hangs a straw or feather or threads end or some such great thing which a cranke a cursitour a Martin a carter threw or blewe vpon them in his terrible mocking vaine and letting passe the mōstrous vnnaturall vnlawfull vngodly vnciuil and more then Iewish vsurers whom the most learned M. doctor Wilson once her Maiesties Secretarie hath condemned in his Dialogues to the endlesse shame of gromelgayners ill occupiers by heathens by Christians by the old fathers by the auncient counsels by emperors by bishops by decrees by canons by all sectes of regions and of all religions by the gospell of Christ by the mouth of God omitting the outlandish and English corruptions or witcrafts by which and those kinde of people together if we marke well this seminarie of reformers is cheefly vpholden and boulstred out and by such companions as make the bookish vnwary Minister a cloake for their conueyances and a shadowe for their skarres It is but too true which Ptolomy wryteth in his 12. aphorisme that loue and hatred corrupt mens iudgements either in themselues by extenuating the greatest faults and by extending the least commendations or by enlarging the least faults and abridging the greatest prayses of their aduersaries which like not their proceedings Wherefore I would to Christ they would once leaue off from their vncharitable and vnwarie contradictions and be so gratiously and godly wise to take the lambe of God out of the Lions and Beares mouth as valiant young Dauid did saue his lamb with his cunning and hardy sling and taught some old shepheardes as he learned of other to keep their sheepe and lambes from hungrie and emptie and rauenous beastes of the field and of the wood Saue the lambe of God not because he hath need of your helpe but that yee may bee blessed and saued by him Hurt not the seruants of the Lambe if ye haue any foresight in you least while you goe about to drowne the poore mouse as the enuyous frog did you make your selues a pray to your enemies by the same deuise and thread which drowned him as Aesope said to Delphi for himselfe in a sillie tale conteyning a subtile and solemne precept to beware of reuenge Let vs looke vpon the Princes and heads of Israël let our noblemen allow and follow their actes which shal be renowmed and praysed for euer their offeringes shal be famous throughout all posterities no reformers or misinformers shall euer deforme and defame their good workes and good names and the sixe sonnes of Arcturus in heauen shall not continue longer then the giftes of Naason Nathaniel Eliab Elizur and the other rulers vnto Pagiel and Ahyra which giftes they gaue at the setting vp of