TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFUL MASTER THOMAS EGERTON Esquire, and solicitor to the Queen's most excellent Majesty, grace and peace in Christ.  
WHEREAS I was at Chester requested (Right Worshipful) to bestow some pains in the presence of certain Recusantes (though I knew myself least able of divers there to discharge the matter) yet upon earnest entreaty I was at length over-entreated to supply the room, and to undertake a suit so charitable. Since which time it pleased some dear friends to crave a copy of my labour: which when they had obtained; they did with earnest persuasion assay to move me to commit the same to the press. Whereunto though at the first I was loath to yield, yet at length I was overcome and resolved to grant unto them: especially because I had therein discovered the shameful, subtle and malicious practices of our adversaries, the Papists, the pope's Foxes, who in this our day breath danger without delay & spite the grapes of our saviours vine, that hath these many years fructified, & even now of god's mercy doth flourish among us. That so the Pope's Foxes may be more thoroughly known: & being known, more warily avoided: or rather diligently sought and made fast, lest their liberty do work an utter waist to our vine. And forasmuch as the care of Christ's vine hath craved, or rather the malice of the Fox hath forced me to bestow this my small & unworthy travel; as I crave the Christian Reader to take all to the best, so (Right worshipful) I am bold to request your acceptation of the same, as some pledge of my thankfulness to you. Desiring the Lord God to bless you against all the Foxes & little Foxes of Rome, that seek nothing but the destruction of our vine, which God continue & keep to our comfort and his own glory, Amen.  
Your to command in Christ, EDWARD HUTCHINS.   
It is written in the Second Chapter of the Canticles & xv. verse: 
Take us the Foxes, the little Foxes, which destroy the vines, for our vines have small grapes.  
IN the premises where Christ our Saviour saw the readiness of the Church his spouse to look to her children, & thereupon gave her great encouragement to follow and not to fail in her purpose: to the end that she might the better proceed in this her godly labour to the gaining and keeping of souls: in these words he calleth upon her chief pillars to consider his vines, how they flourish and bear blossoms, & withal the Foxes and little Foxes, how they are eager to waste them, that so they might be taken & prevented. For better prosecution of which words I note two points. First a metaphor: 2. the matter: the metaphor is double: in the first heretics are compared to Foxes: in the second the godly are compared to vines. Of the 2. hereafter. Touching the 1. metaphor, as generally in all, so in this I note, 1. the metaphor itself, the title given to heretics: and secondly the reason: touching the first therefore as heretics are sometimes compared to canker, because they do corrupt and eat men: sometimes to leaven, because they do sour them that are sweet in the faith of Christ: sometimes to dogs, because they have not only mouths to bark, but also teeth to bite the godly: sometimes to evil labourers, because they do labour under and for the devil to sow cockle to choke the Lords corn: sometimes to ravenous wolves, because howsoever they pretend themselves to be sheep, yet their whole heart is how to devour the sheep: so here they are compared to Foxes. In which respect as I might at the first persuade you to beware their fretting, because they are canker: their souring, because they are leaven: their barkings and biting, because they are dogs: the merciless heart that is in them, because they are revenous wolves: so my counsel might be and for this time shallbe that you beware them, because they are Foxes. But why are heretics compared to Foxes ': Surely they are compared justly to Foxes, & among all heretics most truly do papists deserve the name of Foxes: of Foxes, because they are unclean like the Fox: Foxes, because they are subtle, & crafty like the Fox: Foxes, because they are ravenous & greedy to devour like Foxes. For as the Fox is noted to be an unclean beast, & most unclean when he is most hunted: right so doth it fall out with all heretics, & specially with papists, who are unclean always: even as the unclean spirit is the father that hath begot them, & the God that always rules them. And as they are unclean always, so they are most unclean, when they are most pressed with the word & most chased. And therefore when the lords Dogs do not only find their feet, but follow them: & not only bark after them, but come so near as to bite them: when the godly pastors take especial care of christ his lambs, & to that purpose do not only spy out false and heretical spirits, but also defend the lambs of Christ, that they may not pray upon them: when to this purpose their titles by them are proved untrue: their interest a nullest, their claims counterfeit, their countenance but the false flourish of a seducing spirit: oh then, what do they show themselves to be but Foxes? When they are thus hardly followed, and to their peril pursued, oh what are they but in proof, and therefore but in truth titled Foxes? Unclean spirits always, but then most unclean, having nothing but a face for a fence, and a mouth for a manner to slander and bark out the matter. A point easy to be proved by the practice of all heretics, that ever were, and specially of papists: but for this time wherein I am rather to wet my finger, than to wash my whole hand, only to touch it. So it fell out with the prophets, when they put their trumpets to their mouths & fought the lords battle against false Prophets, than did the wicked most slanderously charge them and defame them. So likewise fell it out with the Apostles when their sound did sound to the utmost, and their voice was heard in most places: when their bow was at a full bend, and their arrows did wound the mighty & tame many: the more they preached the truth and discovered untruth: the more they painted out & persecuted false Prophets and idolatrous spirits, the more were they abused, their good name and heavenly doctrine slandered, as new, not ancient: as schismatical, not catholic: as heretical, not true: as devilish, not divine: as utterly corrupt and no way tolerable. And as it fell out with the Prophets and Apostles, so hath it fallen out with us in these our days. For where we are troubled with many false Apostles, who do not only not consent to the open truth, but also set themselves openly against it and seek to withdraw others from it: when to that purpose they cast yet out their pamphlets, & paper weapons to win the field of us: where yet we do from time to time by the Scripture not only tear their weapons, but withal discover their cause to the world to their utter discredit: in a word: when thus they see that they can no sooner bid battle but that we as soon do foil them: them what do they but fall from arguments, which should persuade, to slanderous reporting & lying, not only against the persons of men, but also for their sakes against the manifest truth professed by them: For evidence whereof at this instant not to trouble your worship's with infinite instance, I am content only to name their late censure & later defence, wherein they failing in justifying of their divinity nothing less than divine, have fallen from reason to unreasonable outrage against the good name and zeal of godly men. Howbeit for this point I need not to say much. For where there are too many stiff papists at large and divers in many places in prison or rather in their paradise: if any man come to them of zeal and good will to work some good among them: if to that purpose he offer a dispute and desire a conference: either of prejudice to the cause they yield not thereunto: or if they do, yet when they are brought to a non plus, and can say no more: what do they but fall to railing & raging: what do they but apply their hearts to wish evil & their tongues to speak worse of God and his religion? We are by & by without any premise concluded to be heretics, no catholics: new fellows, no ancients: of Luther, not of Peter: of Calvin, not of Christ: no less than reprobates: so that where they cannot match us in reasoning, they fall to unreasonable railing: and all their apology and final but yet reasonles resolution is this, that they are catholics, and we heretics. Howbeit here by the way a retentive is ministered against all this their manner of dealing: for sith all heretics, and among all other, papists were never more pursued by the force of truth, it is no marvel, if with the Fox they be most faulty and filthy in their words against us and our religion. Just like Foxes, most unclean when they are most chased. Whereas if we would let them alone, and take them for religious rabbins: condemn our catholic verity for uncatholique heresy, and take & esteem their catholic heresies for Apostolic verities, & bend our knees to their Lord God the Pope and his devotion, as we do to God & the only good religion, then should we be their white sons, and hear nothing but well from them and among them. But where we bow to God and not to Baal, and tread their pope's triple-crowne, indeed trouble-crowne in the dust, & take Christ alone for our catholic head: and no traditions of Rome, but his word for our full and alone direction, whether to believe or live, thereof it is, that neither our profession nor we for the same can hear any thing but evil of them. Thus they prove themselves to be most unclean, like the Fox, when he is hardly followed. And therefore what shall I say to end this point of the metaphor, but desire you to pray: good God therefore purge them or else purge the land of them, for what are they but Foxes? Foxes, and that not only because they are unclean, but also crafty & subtle like Foxes. For the Fox is a crafty beast and he hath his holes and he will hide himself, and it shall be hard to drive him from one but that he will find refuge for the time in an other, and yet at length the good hunter takes him. Right so falls it out with heretics, but specially with papists: for they are crafty and subtle spirits, & when we do most persecute and press them with the truth, yet they have their shows & starting holes: they have their distinctions, their shifts, & if one serve not, yet will they coin some other colourably for the time to credit their untruth: whereby it comes to pass (by the way to mention a lamentable matter) that for want of good hunters, this their sophistry and Foxly divinity snareth many simple souls in many places. But to come to the proof of this point of the metaphor. Thus they commend to the world their good works under the name of merit: their merits under the name of grace: their penance under the name of a sacrament: their worship of saints under the name of God's honour: their mass under the name of Christ's sacrifice: their prayers for the departed under colour of charity: their vowed singleness under the name of chastity: their unsatisfying satisfactions under the name of godliness & duty. Thus they commend to the world their mistrust of god's mercy under the name of godly fear: their ignorance in scriptures under the name of Christian simpleness: their pilgrimages under the name of devotion. Thus they commend till it come to lust under the name of infirmity and yet profitable, yea a mean meritorious, more therefore than expedient: their very stews under the name of evil, & yet needful & convenient: yea rebellion under the name of catholic obedience, & murder under the name of merit. Thus they pretend for their purgatory gods justice: for their possiblenes to fulfil the law impossible gods mercifulness: for their abominable transubstantiation the almighty's mightiness. In a word: thus they commend their sensings, their shriving, their offerings, their purifiengs, their ignorant praying, their superstitious adoring, their kissing of the pax & such like lies, toys and vanities under the name of catholic and ancient customs. Thus they play the crafty Foxes and seek to set a good colour upon their doctrine most openly false and heretical: upon their practices most detestable, perilous and tyrannical. And though this were sufficient to demonstrate this point, yet to show more to the proof of the same. If we allege against their prayers to the departed a principle of divinity, that there is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ jesus: they play the Foxes and run to their holes, they shift off the matter and say: there is one mediator but not one only: whereunto when we answer that the particle (one) in that place is not only a particle of affirmation but of exclusion, as it is in the first place: Christ being our one and only mediator, in whose name as there is one & one only God to whom we may pray, they play the foxes & run to their holes: they distinguish that indeed there is one and one only mediator of redemption, & that is Christ: but yet there are many mediators of intercession: whereas yet the scripture speaks there of both, & applies and appropriates both to Christ: and they for their parts make the saints not only petitioners but redeemers: meriters & that not only of temporal but of eternal things, & that not only for themselves but also for others. So likewise where we allege against their Pope's supremacy a principle of Scripture: that Christ is the alone foundation of his temple, they run to their hole and play the Foxes: they distinguish that there is but one principal head of the Church & that is Christ: but there is another ministerial & vicarial, & that must be their Pope: whereas yet the headship of the Church is proper to Christ, & their pope by his title in this case, (if Pope Gregory were not deceived, if the pope cannot err,) indeed is not either top or toe of the Church. So likewise where against their justifying of lust for no sin, we allege a principle of scripture: that every transgression of the law is sin: & withal the prohibition of the law, thou shalt not lust: they run to their hole & play the Foxes: that the apostle speaks there of lust with & not without consent: whereas yet the Apostle speaks in general of all lust: & it were great folly once to dream that ever the Apostle doubted whether lust joined with consent were sin or not. Thus to conclude, if any man please to run over their summaries & questionaries: their old schoolmen or new men: nay to leave all, if to this purpose a man remember & run over Master Campian, that came into the land with a flourishing antecedent, with bidding of battle, with a crack & catholic show for all his fellow Foxes of Rome & of Rheims: yet where he was not only nearly assayed but easily pressed with truth, what did he but play the poor Fox? he came into the land for want of sound divinity with foolish sophistry, (what less can I call it?) in proof and trial with ridiculous and childish distinctions, and those were his holes and in them he thought to have kept himself safe or at least close to the credit of his crack and to the deceiving of the simple for the time, till treason had made the crafty conclusion, but all was too little: and (God be thanked) he proved himself that way the seeliest Fox that ever came among us. But to end this point of the metaphor: I only wish this, that all men beware the craft of heretics, but especially of papists, of seminaries & jesuits, who of all others play the Foxes most kindly. And therefore for a caveat as for their old subtle and yet overbold cracks that they are of the old stamp: that they are catholics: that they are the Church: that their Church cannot err: that they only have the right sense of God's word: that they only wish the good state of the land, the salvation of your souls: her majesties favour and safety: nothing less (God save her from them): all well (indeed all ill, as you all know too too well) to all that wish well to Zion; take heed of them: for these & the like be but holes wherein the Pope's Foxes seek to colour out their cause and to cover their faithless creed, as demonstration hath been made and that oft to the world: and therefore to end this part of the metaphor, what shall I say but once again pray: good God therefore amend them or else make an end of them: for what are they but Foxes? Foxes that not only because they are unclean and crafty like Foxes, but also crafty and subtle to devour and destroy. For so doth it fall out with all heretics and specially with papists. They come in sheeps clothing: with fair titles & tales: they will appear like Angels of light: they talk of virginity, merit, abstinence, hospitality, & all perfection, not only of duty but of supererogation: they tell the world, that no world was good but when they reigned: that then all things were plentiful: men charitable & faithful, and what not? none live well but they, say they: they fast, they pray night and day, they go long pilgrimages: they punish their bodies and do great penance: but whereunto tends all this but to deceive? these be nothing else but the false flourish of a Pharisee, the Fox's sophistry to beguile the simple: for as much as they are nothing less than that they would seem to be: they are no less than Foxes. For to make the very best of them, what are they but as nought as nought can make them? what are they but Foxes? in show gold, in truth copper: in show flowers, in proof weeds: in show sheep, indeed ravenous Foxes: oh what are they but Foxes? for what do they seek but every way and every day to devour the bodies and souls of Christians? for what do their persuasions to their religion most openly heretical? what do their conspiracies (now as you know and may lament all) the very comfort and only hope of them, most openly diabolical say any less? for (to appeal to you all) what is it? religion catholic or devilish: to save or to slay the souls of men: to command men under the pain of an eternal curse to believe that a mortal man, the man of Rome, a prelate in title, in truth the  of the world, is head of the church: that he cannot ere: indeed to plurify the godhead, to make man a god: what religion is it that accounteth marriage in their incontinent votaries as bad, if not worse, then double adultery? lust without consent no sin? good works the merit of heaven? what religion is it, that saith: worship images, where God saith: do not: but worship me only. Worship in ignorance, where God saith do not: but worship me only in spirit and verity. Lastly what religion is it or how can it be good, that calleth God's word dark, though light: the matter of strife, though the word of peace: imperfect without tradition, though the rule of all perfection: yea the sense of the word only god's word, and their sense the only true sense, which yet is most apparently false. Though this were sufficient to prove this point, which I might amplify more at large, yet to add a little more: for this is not all nor almost any thing to the largeness of the matter: nay alas what shall I say of them? are not papists cockle? do they not seek to destroy the corn? are they not thorns? do they not seek to prick and tear the rose? are they not dogs? do they not seek to devour the darling? are they not Foxes? do they not seek to waste the vine of jesus Christ among us? nay, to appeal to you all: oh where had our corn been? how not choked? oh where had our rose been? how not rented? oh where had the darling of Christ been? how not devoured? oh where had his vine been? how not wasted, if papists had obtained their perilous practices of old or of late among us? oh than once again to appeal to you all, what are they but cockle? what less than the corn? what are they but thorns? what less than the rose? what are they but dogs? what less than the darling? what are they but Foxes? what less than the vinyeard of Christ our Saviour? shall I say all (Right worshipful and dearly beloved) & prove all by that that you know & may lament all? happy could papists have thought themselves by this time, if our natural Prince, our gracious sovereign, our Queen, our Lily Elizabeth, the very life and comfort of us all had been torn in pieces: happy were they now, if foreigners could come in among us: happy if there were nothing but killing & murdering: in a word happy could papists think themselves, if they saw all your children and friends slain before your faces, and you were all to follow after: happy, if there were nothing but fainting of thighs: nothing but folding of arms: nothing but wring of hands: nothing but weeping, wailing & wooing among you: happy if the devil & his murdering servants could once dispatch and displace you. To this purpose our gracious Elizabeth was like to be torn: to this purpose they have sought her the glory of our land: to this purpose the catholics of Rome are grown to be cruel and groan to be cutthroates: to this purpose they have not long since attempted the matter: Good God therefore save us from them, for what are they but Foxes? and because they are Foxes, therefore at this time I am (right worshipful) to crave you to catch them. And so to omit the second metaphor, because the time would be too short, I come to the matter. Catch (saith Solomon) the Foxes & the little, etc. Wherein I note two points: a precept and the use. The precept in these words, take us the Foxes, and the little Foxes: the use or end implied in these words: lest our vines, etc. Touching the first point, to omit many points and at this time only to note, 1. Who are to be catched: Foxes and little Foxes. 2. Who are charged to take them. 3. Who chargeth. For the 1. Foxes and little Foxes are commanded to be taken: old therefore and young heretics must be taken, none spared, whether great or little. For as leaven soureth the dough, though it be but little: as pitch defileth the clean, though it be but little: as a canker eats and mars the body of man by little and little, though at the first never so little: so the Fox and little Fox may waste the good vine: & therefore all Foxes are commanded here to be taken: all heretics to be catched, lest the Church of Christ do suffer danger by them. But here alas what shall I say? for though all heretics ought to be taken: though neither Fox nor little Fox ought to be free but fast: though the vine be in peril of wasting by the fox though great, though little: yet alas neither is little nor great Fox made fast but suffered free in divers places. Nay, oh what may we lament but the freeness of Foxes? for what number of heretics? what number of recusants? what number of papists? to give them their due and true name, what number of traitors are there abroad? abroad and not taken? or if taken, yet sometimes enlarged? or if not enlarged, yet so visited, where they are imprisoned, that many of them never find their paradise, till they come to the prison? where I fear they want no maintenance of overplus from their fellow-foxes: where I fear they want no conference, where I fear, the Fox & the little fox are never so fast but that they do waste many vines of jesus Christ. But alas this should not be so: and here the Fox and little Fox are commanded to be taken, that the vine of christ might be safer than so. Who are therefore to take them? who are to take care, that it may not be so? surely I take it, that this precept doth bind minister and magistrate, and therefore you (Right worshipful). For in both there ought to be such carefulness over the vine, that neither Fox nor little Fox should escape their nets, where the vine is in danger. Howbeit they are to catch them differently: the Minister by the word, the Magistrate by the sword: the one by love, the other by fear: the one by softness, the other by sharpness: the one by persuading, the other by punishing, if that persuasion may not prevail. And therefore seeing that, then in this our day the light of the truth was never more light, and Christ so beareth his stars in his hand, that all men may easily see the old and only true way that lust not to be blind: and yet with our adversaries neither our Preaching nor Penning can any way prevail, but that their whole travel is by night and by day, by land and by Sea, elsewhere & at home here not only to dim the light of jesus Christ by their false and heretical doctrine, but also by force and violence to remove the stars that are in his hand, that they may no longer shine unto us: nay sith there is in them such zeal to their heresies: such hatred of the truth, that they count themselves even no less than half dead, that Zion lieth not waste in the dust: yea and to that purpose adventure not only their limbs but their uncatholicke lives: content to turn their name of catholics for the name of uncatholicke cutthroats; now by profession and practice refusing the sweet name of innocent jesus for the traitorous name of judas to work out the matter, it belongeth to the magistrate, and to you to your power (Right worshipful) to help that way, lest the vine of Christ do lie waste by the means: for the Lord's sake to catch Papists, for what are they but Foxes? whereunto the rather to move you, I shall not need to remember you what the Fox hath attempted of old or of late against the vine, because of his liberty: all men do know it, and all good hearts may lament and fear it, lest the Fox attempt the like any longer, if that he be not taken in time and prevented. But for this thus, it were policy and piety to keep the vine safe: but this being so, neither policy nor piety but pitiles impiety to let the Fox free, lest the vine do lie waist. You know what I mean: you know I speak truth: and therefore for the lords sake look to your charge & spare neither Fox nor little Fox, where you may come by them, but see that you catch them. Oh cut Papists short of liberty: for what are they but Foxes? In which case I do crave but your charity, though duty exact it. Howbeit if the light of God's countenance be dear unto you, if the Golden candlestick of Christ be golden and glorious in your eyes and among you, if your hearts be glad to see these gladsome days, wherein the Gospel of Christ, the very power of God to save your souls is preached unto you: shall I say all? if the state of our gracious sovereign and under her of Christ's dear Church be dear unto you, than you should of yourselves and readily look to the Fox and little Fox that looks for the contrary: to catch them betimes & to let them have the reward of Foxes, lest they catch you before your time & to your woe prove themselves to be Foxes upon you: which day as they hope for, so if it should come (which yet god forbidden, as he hath forbidden these many years of his goodness & infinite mercy) yet than you would wish, though too late, you had taken the Fox. It were best therefore for all magistrates to be wise in time, lest peril bring repentance when it willbe too late: and therefore diligently to inquire for foxes: namely for papists: & to let them have neither liberty, nor life, where the vine of Christ may stand in danger of wasting by them. For that is the cause why this precept is given. Oh but there is small love in your lips, will catholics say: nothing but cruelty in your mouth will others say: to whom I answer that so shall object & that out of my last part, that there is small charity in them, whosoever they are, that would have the fox spared where there is danger lest the vine by the fox be wasted. For they that have no love to the vine may pity the Fox: & in very deed there is none that wisheth the freedom of the fox, but he that wisheth danger to the vine. But herein I need not to answer much: I appeal to you all: whether ever the vine of Christ were in greater peril of wasting than now it is? & why? but because the Fox hath been too long suffered & hath not by mercy & patience been won but waxed worse, as experience & too too late hath made lamentable trial. Whereas if the fox had been taken in time, his might & malice had quite been cut off, and the vine of Christ had been in better safety: but for this only thus I say. You know and see all what mischief hath come to the world, what danger to the vine, because the Fox hath not been taken from time to time: and therefore hereafter for the Lords cause delay you no time but see that you take them. Let the vine of Christ be dear unto you, and spare not the Fox, lest you lose the vine. Oh spare us not Papists: for what are they but Foxes? for this is the charity, that this my Text craveth of you: this is the charity that ye own to the vine: and if any spare the Fox to the danger of the vine, that is no charity but cruelty, and justice will be sharp to punish it in the day of judgement, when all men shall have no judge but God, who is charity. Who will be sure to smite home, if the Fox be not catched, that goeth about to waste his vine, but suffered to work his spite upon the vine. And surely sith our adversaries are so eager to choke the wheat of God, that they the tars: to hue down his green trees, that they the dry sticks: to corrupt his sweet dough, that they the leaven: to slaughter his Lambs, that they the butchers: to waste his vines, that they the Foxes of Satan the God of this world may rule & reign once again with their bell of Rome in the church of Christ: and bring in steed of knowledge, ignorance: in steed of light, darkness: in steed of truth, untrue tradition: in steed of Antichrist, the devil: and all to the utter misery of your estate, that now is blessed and happy: sith they slack no occasions to bring this about, but every day and every way do gape and groan for the last day of this your comfortable condition in Christ our blessed Saviour, as of all others, so among all and above all, of you (Right worshipful and others of your calling) I crave to your power a contrary care: for the Lord's wheat, that the tore do not hurt it: for his sweet dough, that the leaven of Rome do not sour it: for his Lambs, that the bloodsuckers of sathan: for his vine, that the Fox do not waste it. For (to appeal to the consciences of you all) if they fight thus for darkness, oh what ought you to do for the light? if they strive thus for ignorance, oh what ought you to do for knowledge? If they do thus for heresy, oh for the Lords sake do you no less for the truth and eternal verity of jesus Christ: if they for Antichrist, fight you for Christ: oh defend his vine and suffer not the Fox to waste it. Oh save the vine from Papists: for what are they but Foxes? But how shall you save it, you will perhaps say: I have answered and add: permit them not free: take care to inquire and catch, and when they are taken, take care to keep them from coming near the vine. You have authority to do it: God and under him and for him our gracious Queen hath given you power to do it: and if you shall use it (as duty in these our dangerous days doth earnestly beg it) the Fox I grant may curse you, but the vine of Christ shall have cause to bless you for it. All which I do not say or urge (Right worshipful) so much to charge you with a duty unknown, as charitably to remember you of your duty, which I know you do know. For I doubt not but you know that God hath called you Gods, and that you ought therefore among men and for men to be Gods, that you ought therefore to be lights: enemies to darkness and all the servants of sathan the God of darkness: in a word, friends to the vine, but foes to the Fox: foes then to our vine foes, foes to Papists: for what are they but Foxes? Nay I hope that you have a special regard of the vine and withal a good will to worry the Fox. Only therefore I am here to entreat you and that in the blood of Christ and bowels of his mercy, that this your godly care may increase: for the vine of Christ doth crave it, and if you remember never so little these our days of danger, the subtle and the ravenous Fox himself of himself doth force it. Although I might remember you, that these words which sound that way, are the words not of any less man than of Solomon in the person of Christ the true Solomon, who hath chosen to himself of all women but one virgin, of all birds but one Dove, of all Doves but one Turtle, of all trees but the vine, & that is his church whereof he hath such an especial care, that as he hath charged all men, so (among & above all other) such as are of your high calling to be protectors of the same, to catch the Fox and little Fox, that he do not waste it, to catch the Popish Foxes, that go about to waste it. In fine, this is the charge that Christ here giveth, Christ who gave his life for his Church, his vine: Christ who shall judge all: so that if either love to his Church or fear of judgement may prevail, you are bound to do to your best in this behalf. Oh but some will say it were wisdom for you to speak somewhat for the Fox, or else the time may come, when the Fox will requite your favour. Whereunto I answer, that indeed flesh and blood taketh it to be the best course to spare or at least in some sort to speak for the Fox, but wisdom commandeth and charity craveth that neither Minister do speak for, nor Magistrate spare the Fox: and therefore Christ here requireth in the behalf of his vine, that we spare not to hunt and take the Fox, wheresoever, whosoever he be, that goeth about to waste the vine. And as for that day, which many men fear, indeed the Fox of Rome hopes to work it, but I hope we shall never see it: and yet if we do, our sins have deserved it, and I would pity the man most for his pitiful case, that hath spared the Fox, and all to find pity. For no doubt he that pitieth the Fox that pitieth not but laboureth to waste the vine, should find either in that day the Fox pitiles, and if he do, justly: or if not, yet one day a God, that will be sure to punish the fox's friend and his vines foe. And therefore as for those politics whosoever, that spare to catch the Fox that the Fox may spare to catch them in his day, when he comes to waste the vine: that their policy is intolerable injury to the vine, & cruel dealing towards their own souls, as without hearty repentance they shall find and feel to their utter smart, when the master of the vineyard shall come to catch and to bind for ever all Foxes, all fox's friends, & foes to the vine. In a word: this their policy what is it but folly to be pitied to spare the wave, where the ship, the brier, where the flower, the wolf where the sheep, the Fox where the vine of Christ is in danger? nay to endanger all & that to the utmost: that when the ship is drowned, yet the wave: when the flower is faded, than the brier: when the sheep is devoured, than the wolf: when the vine is wasted, yet the Fox a professed foe may prove a friend: but oh politic, or rather fool, or rather foe to thyself whosoever thou art: O pitiless policy may the vine say, the very next way to bring me to the waist, thyself to the pray. lastly to draw to an end. Perhaps it will be yet objected that the Foxes are many, mighty and malicious, and therefore it will be hard and dangerous to catch the Foxes that are in the land. Whereunto I answer, that indeed so it is, and a misery it is to consider, that the Fox is so great, so mighty and full of malice: our fathers have had trial before us, and the Fox of Rome hath spared to attempt no attempt in this our accepted time to prove himself no less unto us. But here (Right w. and dear beloved to appeal to you all) how came the Fox to be so mighty, but because he was not taken in time? and because pity to be pitied, (what less may I say of it?) hath made him mighty: and might hath made him the more malicious & hasty to bring our vine to the wasting: therefore have you (Right worshipful & others of your high calling) now the more cause to catch them, lest their might, and with their might, their malice do increase and grow to further evil and woe among us. God be thanked, where of late both his might and malice have been discovered, the Fox hath had some whelps taken, and they have found in justice the due reward of Foxes. And sith God hath beyond our desert brought the perilous practice and ●●…re pitiles purpose of sathan by them to the light, and (as you all know) that as yet the great Fox of Rome hath many whelps among us, as some of the principals are taken, so take you the care as far as you can, to hunt for the rest. So will you do if the flourish of the vine: if the vine of Christ be dear unto you. So shall you do what the true Solomon here craveth of you. In a word: you shall do well if you purpose it, but you shall do best & god will highly bless you if you practise it. In the mean time to persuade you thus I end: the time itself doth urge it: for the Fox himself is ravenous: the vine itself doth crave it: for the state thereof is dangerous: and Solomon in the person of Christ (who shall judge us all) doth here require it, in whose name therefore I end as I began: take us the Foxes and little Foxes, which destroy our vines and vine blossoms. To God the Father, the Son, and the holy Ghost, be all praise now and ever: Amen.