The unite and Schism of the old church.  Blessed are the atonmakers studying for peace/ for they are the children of God. Matthew .v. 
M.D.XLIII. In june.   

Of the unite & Schism of the old church.  
our Lord/ being the author of peace and unite & not of strife & dissension/ anon from the beginning and from the first calling of his people the jews/ he most straightly bound them together retained into the fellowship of one body both with laws ecclesiastik and politic. 
Isa. lvij i. Cor. xiv.  For he commanded them to cleave only to the one god/ him only to call upon/ him only to love & worship/ yea and that with no nother rites nor by nonother ways than himself had prescribed and taught them he prescribed them not after their own device/ not in every place they listed/ but in one place/ at one altar/ and that after his own prescript laws to sacrifice/ and not any where else to runforthe to strange gods for help/ lest they should divided their hearts unto many with helping gods or saints as they be now called: but as they were the membres of one body/ so to have respect only to one god/ his laws only to observe and firmly to persever & abide in unite and concord of religion. And although this people then being under the judges did often times err & transgress yet abode they in that unite/ namely under Samuel and King David and in the first years of king Solomon his reign. But that first most ungodly and ambitious herety a Hieroboam dissolved and broke this ancient entire unite of that church/ for he did first set up the Calves to be worshipped in Dan and Bersaba/ inventing a new religion & a new worship for god/ that is/ even a strange worship against gods law whereby himself with his people were alienated from God and his true worship/ he so dividing the hearts of the people that they could neither depend only nor wait upon the only one God and his laws/ nor yet agree among themselves in any civil society. 
Hieroboan the first heretic. The iij of the kings ca xi. & xii.  For let our faith ☞ and religion be once corrupt divided & mixed with men's dreamed rites/ superstitious ceremonies/ troublous traditions with armed Acts and articles/ and anon there must nediss follow civil seditions battle and strifes as ye may see it this day begun. And here by the way/ thou shalt know that an heretic is he that by false doctrine or by defending the same/ divideth any church which was/ or is likely to be/ well instituted. 
who be heretics.  But in these troublous contentions and seditious strifes the poor miserable people were then grievously tormoiled and tormented until the Lord with the sword of the Assirions did cut of and made an end (for that time) of their abominable heresies and schisms/ as even now after the thrusting away of the Gospel graciously offced us/ there must nediss follow bloody battle and mutations of kings and realms as the stories & words of the Bible plainly declare. For when Princes fear that the word of peace and obedience freely and purely preached would make mutation tumult and seditions and so for this cause repress the free course thereof either by putting the preachers to silence/ by banisshing them or burning them/ then (be they sewer) Quod verebantur/ hoc accidet illis. 
job. iij.  That at they feared shall come upon them/ the Lord so threatening and adsewering them saying. For as asmich as this people abhorred the sweet waters of Silo that flow so still (Silo is the sweet gospel of peace sent us) & hath rather pleasure in this king Rezin & in the son of Romilus/ that is in their wont wicked Romisshe rites and traditions: 
Isa. viii  behold/ behold saith the Lord/ I shall cause the mighty floods to swell up and to break in upon them/ even the king of the Assirions/ whose part (after the way be made for him by the civil battles of the christians among themselves) the great Turk shall play it. Oh Immanuel.  
Let this therefore be a warning in time to all realms christian/ wherein because the very hieroboam's even the counsels of the Bishops with their captived seculare arms have most heretically & scismatykly with their borrowed seclar sword kut insunder the most holy unite and concord of Christ's church mangled and hacked into so many decent rites & laudable (as they say) ceremonies &c/ by burning and banisshing the fire true preachers/ holding yet fast in their honowr the Pope's thorney traditions and false religion dividing the peoples hearts from god into a thousand ways/ works/ worshippings/ merit's/ saints to pray with/ or for us (I can not tell whether) some sent to the bishops book for their salvation/ some to the Acts of the perlement to seek out their articles of the Pope's faith fathered by these seditious hieroboam's counsel upon the King & his Nobles/ but none do they send to the holy Bible/ albeit under a colowr it be laid in every parissh church and the curate which either with an evil will or else can scant spell it/ commanded to read it. Because (I say) these faccious bocherely Hieroboam's have made like division in our churches/ therefore a like sword (if they repent not in time) abideth them to divide their heads from their bodies and their souls from god. But I return to where I left of. Then was there yet left in judea two trybs which worshipped the Lord at Jerusalem/ which people for all this godly monition and bloody ensample at Israel their neighbours captivity/ yet did these twe● trybs haunt still their new gods and a new ways in worshipping their very God after their own devices mixed together with god's prescript laws. Wherefore even those same two trybs also/ it behoved into the vengeance taking of their heresy and division (Heresy (I say) is a scab which divideth christian churches) to be kut away with the sword of the Caldeis. 
Heresy  For so said the Lord oft before by his ꝓphetis. Thus thou seest (good reader) how that strife and battle ☞ follow the division of the unite of churches and the corruption of religion: which ungodliness/ heresies/ and schisms/ the sword of the Turk at last must kutte clean away/ when our unientle hieroboam's will not suffer the sweet sword of god's word peaceably preached to divide us from our wicked living into the unite of one faith only thereby to be justified/ and into one and the same christian religion to be baptised.  
From the return out of the Babilonik captivity/ for a little space the jews were somewhat more religious/ persevering in the unite of the true doctrine. And then were there bishops unto whose cure the doctrine of the truth and unite of the church was committed: but after that the bishops neglected the doctrine and began to study scold and strive who should bear most rule making altercation for crowns/ miters/ diadems/ robes/ rochettes/ bisshopryks and I can tell for what other popissh paludaments or rather very nugaments/ even the very badges of their lordly bysshopryks: 
The heresies & schisms after the Babilonyk captivity/ when bishops ruled.  then at last began the true religion to be shaken in sundry and scattered/ and evil men were sprongen up/ which yet for their shining hipocrysye seemed somewhat pope holy/ which openly stired up heresies/ that is to say/ sects and divisions from the holy tradition of the law/ and in conclusion brought the people into vary and diverse contrary factions & schisms Omnia enim plena fiunt impij 〈◊〉 vanitas exaltatur inter filios hominum. And so by their own traditions and institutions they derkened and oppressed the holy sacred religion of god/ yea by their hypocrisy and superstition they utterly so deformed it/ that they made it abominable heresy (as they have now done) and new learning to be loathed & detested of all men/ Insomuch that john Bapt. and Christ himself now comen/ the true religion/ pure gospel/ and the plain doctrine of the truth were scant known/ for that they were so utterly deformed & corrupted (as they be now I say) with men's vain traditions. This corrupt deformity and abominable corruption began about the time of the Machabeiss and so forth increased the years following. For josephus verily writing of the jests of jonathas/ in the xiij book of his antiquities/ the eight chap. saith that in the same time there were iij. sects or heresies among the Jews/ which sectary or heretical men believed contrary and ●●●ersly of our justification/ of man's state and condition: 
iij. sects before Christ's coming  of which one was the Pharisaikal sect/ the t'other/ the sect of the saducees/ and the third the Essenes'. For these sects preceded the coming of Christ into flesh not little less than an c.xlviij years/ but in their own opinions/ in their habits / and almost in all things/ they were first of all among themselves/ and soon after from the other comen sort/ most divers and most contrary. And they drew after them to follow the same their own foolish fashions very many/ in somich that at last even the priests and full many of the greatest learned descended into their orders and instituts For we have herdeoute of the testimony of john th'evangelist/ the Levites and priests to have been pharisais/ yea and the Apostle Paul said himself to have had been the most straightest follower of the pharisees sect/ so that what soever was seen to these men to be ordained enacted and decreed (as ye see it now) in things concerning the faith and religion of god/ it was decreed enacted and made so fast of them that noman might say against it/ and it was set forth and given of the priests to all the people for gods law and for his decrees/ and were called the decente rites of their fathers and laudable traditions of their elders/ of which traditions Paul incidently maketh mention in the i chap. to the Galathians/ and Mat. in the xu chap. 
joan. i.  
Gala. i.  
Philip. iij.  
The traditions of the Pharisees fathers.  These pharisaiss would be exalted and excel the more in authority & glory for that their own traditions 
mat. xv  
Phariseis.  rites and ceremonies after their own pleasure invented seemed after their own corrupt judgement to themselves and to other like/ less than other men's institutions to vary from the holy scriptures. Their conversation and outward living seemed sober abject/ and as though they would be little set by/ giving themselves to no excess nor to no delicate superfluite nor superfluous dainties. They believed althingis to be carried of fortune/ chance/ and destiney (as they call it) but yet in the mean season free liberty they took not fro man. These aknowleged the judgement of god/ the pains of the evil and rewards of the good/ they confessed the immortality of souls and the resurrection of the bodies. Some say they had their name of phares which signifieth to seꝑate or divide for they showed themselves in their hole habit and living to be holier than the common people/ and so for their pure holiness to be divided from them (as now of late were/ & yet be/ our pharisais) some then into cloisters/ and some yet into collegis/ wearing distinct apparel and shaven crowns from the layite. Some think they had their names of another hebrew word which signifieth to explain and interpret scriptures/ for they were the chief and most busiest preachers & teachers of the people/ which thing I believe the more/ because the story of the gospel declareth our Lord often time to have had refuted their false gloss unwritten verities and untrue expositions/ plain examples there are setforth in Mat. v. and xu chapped furthermore/ the Saduceis would apere to keep no nother observations besides the law of Moses/ these gave nothing to fortune and destiny/ but to the free liberty they attributed allthings. 
Saduceis.  For they threw allthings subject under our own power/ aknowleginge our own selves to be the authors of good works. They denied to be any spirits and angels and the resurrection of the dead/ which thing Luke in the acts of the apostles showeth/ and therefore were they estiewed of the pharisaiss as men most vile and unpure/ and thus was there perpetual strife betwixt them both. 
twenty-three. ca  Whereof even the sorry miserable unlearned people was so wrapped and intricated in their strifes and diversity of their invented dreamis that not only they might not unwrap and lose themselves out of these perplex trifles/ but they were made ignorant of the very right and true way of their justification and of the true way of their salvation/ which rightwise making only by faith and true ways of salvation thorough Christ only/ when john Bapt. and christ and his apostles would repair declare & show them plainly and openly/ then they reputed and took them for such heinous heretics preaching against them/ that there was never no kind of doctrine so bitterly refused/ unpugned/ thrust from them/ and dampened of the pharisaiss and saducees as was christis holy & true preaching/ in this mischief they consented/ although they never agreed among themselves in their doctrine. For never had Christ our Lord and christis verity more pernicious enemies (as ye yet see it this day) than the Pharisees and Saduceis. And as for the Essenes'/ who so list to see them in their own lively colours painted/ let him look but on a Monk of the charture house/ or a friar observant/ whom pliny painteth very lively in his first book of the natural stories ca xvij. and josephus in his xviii book of thantiquites ca ij. and in his two book of the jews battle cap. seven. 
Essenes'.  Now compare the state of their time to our time and to our pharisais. 
Of the unite & Schism of christian churches.  But yet (christian reader) that thou mightest the clearlyer by comparing together/ understand this hole cause and matter of the sectis of the jews/ though must know those heresies to be very like the sectis and heresies which in these last days have been/ and yet are sprongenup in the church of christ. Christ with his apostles delivered to us the doctrine of unite/ that is to weit/ only health & salvation to be setforth in him only/ which alone is our justification/ holymaker/ satisfaction/ even that host once alone for all offered up for our sins/ our mediator/ intercessor/ and to be short/ he alone is unto his faithful church allthings and in althingis. He commanded his apostles to glue together his church by this perfect doctrine of unite into one body/ and by his Baptism and Brede brekinge to gather them together now conseigned and sealed up together/ so to seek allthings in th'only son of God/ that they among themselves thorough love might consent and godly agree being all one thing in christ/ and that there be no dissensions nor sectis in his church/ unto no creatures being addict unto none but to christ her spouse dedicating herself/ when neither Paul nor Peter was crucified for her nor she herself baptised into the names of any men. This doctrine of unite/ those same goodmen which in times past professed and taught it/ and by the same doctrine conserved the unite/ the christian churches held them for catholic and faithful/ but the adversaries and fighters against this doctrine and unite they took them for heretics. 
The catholic and heretyk●.  And so for certain. C. years the church was conserved in the evangelik unite by the godliness erudition/ and diligent watch of the faithful flockfeders of christ/ whom they called bishops. But afterward when these bishops (this doctrine of the unite neglected) begun to scold and brawl about (I can not tell what) trifles questions of naught/ and to bend and apply their ambitious minds to be lords and occupy kingdoms/ thorough their satanical altercations and most pestiferous profane ambition/ the doctrine of unite was smitten out of wynt. For than satisfactions/ wilworks/ good deadis/ money and men's merits bought and sold begun to be boasted and preached for men to come to heaven by them/ whereby the merit of christis passion was blotted out of men's brestis and men's hearts were divided insunder. Then was it disputed (as ye have seen it of late in our parleaments and convocations) of the intercession and praying to saints/ and of their worshipping (god save it) and of the veneration of images and relics/ of purgatory / unwritten verities/ of kings authority and power over gods holy everlasting word/ of gay significations for decent ceremonies and laudable rites/ of preistis vows/ Sacraments/ and I can not tell what: and whether they might be sewerlyer stablished by mortal menis transitory new vain acts/ then by the old everlasting word of the ever living god. Here of lo/ are the hearts of the faithful thus abstract from the doctrine of unite/ that they seek not althingis at/ and in christ: yea and in those like days of disceptation passed/ there enfolowed the division of the west empery from the east/ and that even for the worshipping of images. Then the Monks with all the false religious rabblement thrusted in themselves which with their dirty doctrine confirmed fast this foresaid defection and baffle/ increasing the same with new additions and toputting/ and odious ordinances out of their nwne sick heads devilishly dreamt. These monstrese monks and flattering friars (with their Poped and Cardinaled holy bishops and shavelings assisting them) invented and carried into the church new father's/ new rules/ new vows/ new fellowships and false fraternities/ new wicked worship's/ new name's/ new Sacraments/ new ceremonies rites traditions/ yea and a new god to/ and to be brief/ all new and all against the old holy scriptures/ so that if thou wolust seek for the old institutions of God thou shalt nowhere in their new doctrine of division find their proper names/ and yet (by your leave) these Monks with their shaven sort/ as they differ and discord in habit/ apparel and in their living/ so did they yet never agree among themselves in their doctrine. For they fight one against another/ they haat/ they curse and ban each other/ but against christ they be all one. The people follow their factions/ doctrines and acts made as they lift/ and is kut and divided into more than a thousand peeses. These fryerly flies monkisshe monsters/ and busy blind bishops (their counsel gathered) decree what they list/ and defend it with the seculare sword/ then they cause it to be often in the year red and preached to all the world and received pain of death/ and with these their own dead dreams are the miserable mortal men implexed and masshed/ yea and so madded/ that as they can not understand their new strange termed scolastik doctrine and untrue theology/ so can they not know the wholesome plain doctrine and true divinity of Christ and his apostles. For whiles they be set of these blind goydes into a thousand ways/ by misses/ by vows/ by intercession of saints/ by pardons/ satisfactions/ by & thorough purgatory/ yeretids/ monthids/ by their own works and other men's merits and all for money/ the poor wretches not knowing christ the very way/ nor one's so hardy to open their lippis/ to reason against them/ but secretly lamenting their miserable ignorance are thrust headlongs into hell with these their beastly blind leaders. In the mean time if any man come sent from God and desire the doctrine of unite to be brought in again preaching the old and only way by Christ/ yea if he in any wise dissent from their opinions lately received of blind fools (for against the true doctrine as saith the prophet they have conjured and sworn) upon him anon they lay busy wait/ & for because they challenge to themselves the lordly censure & cruel correction of the doctrine in the church anon they send out enquirours to fetch them in to be prisoned and brent. By these edders spiritual spume the way of the truth and unite is blasphemed: neither are there this day living more pernicious pestilent enemies to the unite of the church and to the christian doctrine then this serpentine seed out of whose mouths continually the spiteful lothly names of heretics and heresies and new learning are forth vomited and out spewed into every dish upon their tables. Thorough these drunken crownis of Ephraim/ by their own pleasant opinions/ by their own consaighted doctrine and sworn traditions the troth of the gospel and of the apostles is obscured and oppressed daily. Now (good reader) thou seest (I think) how properly the times before Christ's incarnation/ and now this last time before his coming to judgement agree together and be correspondent for in either of them/ heretics & sectesowers did run and preek before him/ miserably kutting into peeses and piteously polluting the church of God. But both of them/ the Lord at his coming revealeth openeth and destroyeth/ and his own church he reduceth into the right way defendeth and delivereth it mightily. Now therefore nediss must the Turk (the way first prepared for him by your own bloody persecution of the just and by intestyn battle) come in and make an end of these your heresies and schisms. For there is neither emperor no● King that will yet suffer them/ when good occasion & opportunity was offered them/ to be reform in their churches and unite and christian religion to be restored in their time. Here thou seest (good reader) who in the church be had for faithful/ and who for heretics. 
Who be faithful & who be heretics.  Every true faithful/ is he that professeth trwlye the doctrine of unite/ and in the only holy church grounded upon christ he only acknowledgeth christ the very flokfeder & saviour/ allthings reposing into christ/ allthings of christ asking/ and besides christ he knoweth no part of salvation nor help or hope of life to be looked for/ only of the voice of his shepherd depending/ choosing nothing out of himself nor out of any man's invention to follow it as a mean to his salvation. But whoso followeth the contrary/ he is an heretic & a scismatyk/ namely if he be incurable and pertinate stiff in his own false opinion and will not fall from creatures to christ only/ from lies and vain fryvole traditions with their unsavoury significations feigned of men/ unto the troth and gospel of jesus christ/ but entice and wrap other men with himself into the same errors. Wherfor●●oh ye popisshe peace ●●eakers & iewisshe I●●oboams with your ●●●lare aakwarde arms even very Baalis brittle buklers) sith hitherto ye have been men most merciless and very bloody butchers conceived (as isaiah painteth you) betwixt the hoorehunter and harelot even that same deceitful perverse and adulterous generation/ which so many years have mustered (ministered I should say) in the church so pestelently: 
Isa. lvij  and yet neither for the fear of god nor for dread of your damnation nor for shame of men will not repent and amend/ I cannot marvel enough at your blind security/ nothing remembering nor fearing the wrath of god hanging over your heads/ nothing intending to avoid it. Oh heretics/ which thorough your hypocrisy fain in yourselves such holiness/ be sewer God looketh openly upon your mischief and ungodly life. 
An exhortation unto our bishops.  Repent/ repent you/ acknowledge openly your manifest crimes/ for though ye believe it not/ yet all the world see them/ be ye turned unto god which for your faith in his son jesus will freely forgive you/ be ye converted to him in the holy amendment of your hole lives at the squire of god's law. Show forth (I say) your true penance in your words and works/ tell it us once in all your conversation/ and not with lying lips/ and then we shall take you no more for dissembling hypocryts thus to write against you that all the world present and to come may see you and beware of you. Do penance for the fear of our lord out of a sincere heart. Remember the excellent oration & sermone that john Bapt. had to your predecssors/ saying. Who shall show you (oh edders whelps) to avoid the wrath of god coming upon/ do therefore the fruits seeming and as it becometh true penitent hearts. Lo/ john was not afraid to tell even the high bishops in estimation of all men most holiest/ the true preacher of christ dirst tell king Herode his open crime to his own face/ where be now our flatterers of kings into the destruction of their bodies and souls & into the predicion of their realms? john called them edders whelps/ christ called Herode that fox/ we must say my Lord & it please your grace/ your high majesty &c. And Christ inveighing against them/ cried woe/ woe be to you learned in the law ye scribes and pharisaiss hypocryts which build the sepulchres of the prophets and so forth. 
Math. xiii.  And john bapt. told them that the axe was vent to smytdown the tree to be straitewais cast into the fire. And here incidently shall ye 
●ieꝑs.  know the nature of viepers/ whose whelps john Bapt. and Christ call these our pharisaical Hieroboans. 
Math. iij. & xii.  The male of the vieper putteth his head into his mates mouth/ which for the sweetness she feeleth therein/ biteth it of/ which head is turned into eggs/ and the third day out of these eggs are hatched her whelps yet abiding in her belie/ then eftsone she putteth forth every day one whelp till they come to the number of twenty 
pliny in his x Book cap. lxij  And at last the impatient fierce residue which cannot tarry there any longer/ gnaw themselves out of the belly of their own dam or mother/ whom by their birth they kill. Right worthily/ saith Chrisostom/ did joan call the pharisais viepers whelps/ for these kind of serpents so swiftly do they haast themselves to slay their own mother that the belly in whom they be borne eaten out/ they will come forth into light by the death of their own dam. Which even the same do our pharisais/ for their handis dropinge the blood of their parent's/ yet imbrued with innocent blood/ they slay them which are sent of god to lead them into the light of the verity. Wherefore well may we lay against them their own bloody cruelty/ rebellion/ impiety chorlissh ingratitude/ the hatred of god's word and the murdering of the faithful preachers: as who should say of them: ye be borne out of rebel/ ingrate and bloody parents whose wicked steapes like natural children ye justly follow. And when joan and Christ called them edders whelps/ they looked bake to the serpent and his seed bringing Adam and Eve unto everlasting damnation which should evermore fight against the blessed seed and his membres. 
Gen. iij  Wherefore the Lord himself/ cried/ woe/ woe be to you scribes and pharisaiss hypocrites that ye be/ which build the sepulchres of the prophets &c. 
Math. twenty-three.  And as for foxes/ into whose meat they shall be kutte/ as their selves have divided the unite of Christ's churches/ their own sly fraudelent thievish subtile shifts to feed their insatiable mawis and to reateine still their idle belly lusts/ pride and ambition/ declare themseluis to be even those wily foxes which have their devilish dens with somanye stertinge holes to escape builded so prowdlye with other men's sweat to feed and solace in all security & sin their own idle heavy dung sacks/ whose apparent great long puffed up tails/ that is to say their feigned lying long blown up authority/ are knit together of their satanical Samson 
Psalm. lxij.  
Foxes.  
isaiah xxviij.  
In the book of judges cap. xv.  with fire brands to burn the good corn of the Philistens even the chosen innocents of god. Fox's/ tail tied/ look contrary ways with their faces. our bishops how enviously soever one looketh upon or turn their faces from other/ yet are their tails tied together with fire brands adversus dnm & christum eius quia convenerunt in unum. 
Psal. ij  Be they never so divided among themselves/ yet against the Lord and his anointed they agree and run together as all one crying Combure combure/ crucifige crucifige/ burn him burn him/ &c.  
Here may ye see by christis & Joan'S ensamples to be lawful for preachers sharply to rebuke great men's open crimes: 
Great men's crimes must be openly rebuked.  but to flatter and dissemble with them it is not lawful. Away therefore with these flattering hypocrites which cry out saying. The crimes and sins of great men & noble prelate's must be covered with noah's cloak Gene●. ix. For in the scriptures it is inveighed of gods own spirit more vehemenly and sharplier against the evil prelate's and worse heads over the people than against the silly subjects. For these simpilons err not utterly of their own fault/ but by the evil ensamples and sinful teaching of their prelate's & naughty living of their rulers & magistrates which seduce the lay people of the Lord. Wherefore the more sin steketh in them the more grievously to be tormented/ as ye may see it in the vi chapter of the book of Wisdom/ which would god the Magistratis would with fear lay before their eyes. Ye see now in this time verily how that by the beastly idleness/ malice and ungodliness of the bishops priests and seclare monks with the negligence of their captived seclare sort/ the church of Christ erreth and strayeth far from the way of the trwthe grievously labouring in heavy pains oppressed of tyrannous persecutors: and thorough the fault of these men chiefly/ Peter's poor little fishing boat is almost overwhelmed with the terrible tempestuous sudden surges. Right well therefore do they which plucking the visar from their faces/ show their abomination to the people sharply rebuking their ungodliness/ that these ypocrits once known/ men may be war of them and their doctrine. 
How the prelate's & Magistrate's should be rebuked.  Rebuke them therefore for the zeal thou hast to the truth to the glory of god and to thy brother's salvation. And let thy liberty in speaking be the liberty of the free benign spirit/ & rebuke not of malice after the fleshly licence of thy noun affected mind. Let the words and writings of the ministers of the truth be prudent rather then bold/ grave and not light ardent not in ire and wrath but in the vehemence of the spirit of god/ let them be shamfaste modest in a just severity tempered with holy devotion and devout holiness so long as thou seest them not in a desperate state obstinately and openly stiff-necked against gods word fighting/ wittingly to sin against the holy ghost. But yet be thou (as Christ ordained thee) the salt of the earth/ that is/ let thy words be quick lively and sharp in thy sermons and earnest in thy rebukis/ be salt savoury and no waterisshe beet. 
Mat. v  For constancy and liberty in speaking conciliateth & joineth authority to the minister/ be fervent as isaiah and Paul bid thee/ although some cold softlings and menpleasars earetulers synistrely interpret thy zealous constant fervency to be foolish rasshnes. 
isaiah. lviij.  
ij. timo iiij.  Tell them that god is no slow avenger of evil/ he is no insensible stock but as full of eyes as Argos and as clear eyed as the lizard or slow worm presently and thoroughly beholding them. Pharisees Hypocrites and Epicures promise themselves security and long life/ but tell thou them with joan bapt. that the axe is now laid to the tree root. Which present wrath the Lord in Luke expresseth saying. Woe be to women with child and to the soukgevers with their nieples in these days/ for there shallbe great affliction upon the earth & wrath upon this people. For they shallbe smitendown with the edge of the sword/ and shall be led captive into among all the strange nations. And jerusalem/ that is they that are now named christians shallbe trodendown of the heathen Turks. Let us now therefore in time (christian brethren) fear the lord and walk in his precepts/ not promising ourselves any security or long life in this our corruption and sins/ for God our just judge is awake. This therefore is my counsel/ even to do penance/ that is turn quiklye and earnestly unto our Lord God/ and to confess our sins to him/ amend our lives and to serve him in holiness & rightwiseness/ for these are the fruits of a repentant heart/ which heart thorough faith hath now truly consecrated and given herself over whole to god. 
The way instituted of God to move us to repentance.   
But first let us take away the impediments of true repentance/ as are security of long life the opinion of our own rightwiseness by good works/ faith and trust in vain lies &c. And then teach nothing else to be in our selves but poison sin and corruption/ and that in god only we have life and salvation which is not appeased with extern worshippings and works dreamt out of our own headis. Then thonderforthe the fear of the terrible judgement of god at hand and his present wrath and indignation ready to be powered down from heaven upon all unrighteousness. If these things be taught and received and the other impediments removed/ we be soon converted to god only/ working the very godly repentance in the fere of god/ or else is the axe layid to the root of the tree/ that is to say/ destruction and death dance present before thy door/ so that now there is no hope to the of any longer life. For as longe as there is any hope of fruit in trees/ they dung the roots/ rubof the moss/ cut of the sear branches/ but it is the token of the last desperation of any fruit when the axe is laid to the root/ to the root he saith & not to the body or branches/ signifying a sudden remediless downfall. For the root kutt insunder/ the tree is dead. Repent ye therefore and receive the gospel/ or else stretcheforthe your necks unto the axe bend over your heads. For this is sewer that the wrath of the lord which shall smite you down by the rootis hangeth over your shaven crowns. For every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is kut down. He saith not/ shallbe cut downe/ for his judgement and damnation to present. We be trees planted of the Lord into this end/ even to bear and bringforth good fruit/ that is good works/ yea and that by the heavenly juice & moister of our Lord Christ. These are the fruits of the spirit/ as faith and truth &c/ of the which after isaiah had written/ Paul often times repeat the same namely to the Galathens to the Ephe. &c. 
Isay. v.  
Gala. v.  
Ephe. iiij.  Unto this place lay the xiij of Luke and xu of joan and thou haste a plain exposition thereof. Of all these words may we learn the very true good works to be required of every of us/ and not fig leaves of our own patching together to cover our shameful nakedness as did Adam and Eve/ not the glittering show of godliness/ but even godliness innocency and christian religion indeed. Again we learn hereof the heavy vengeance of god to be ready prepared for all sinful ungodly men/ yea and that the most certain vengeance and wrath/ left any man dirst promise himself to escape unpunished for the contempt of the most high God. Long-suffering doubtless is the lord/ but yet in the mean season he is rightwise and an avenger not overflow nor to slack. And now to warn the in time/ here hast thou which is true repentance and which is false: and how we may avoid the imminente plagues to be cast upon us by the incursions of the Turks with other plagues imminent/ that is if from the bottom of our hearty we be converted unto the Lord amending our corrupt manners/ nothing doubting of the mercy of our god. For this is once full of comfort/ that christ came to call sinners to repentance and not them that seemed just in their own eyes. The pharisais/ scribes/ and saducees as are now our antichristen spiritualty with their captived seculare/ were the most desperate ungodly as Christ and joan bapt. well knew them/ & yet they both/ exhorted them to repentance/ christ called them to him promising them forgiveness if their penance were true. Let us not therefore despair of forgiveness/ nor cast awaye and condemn a man never so sinful and criminous except his sin be unto death. 
i joan in the last chapped.  For God our father is jentle & of an infinite mercy constant and true of his promises as ye see in jere. and Ezechie. xviij. chap. At last that thou mayst know what is true repentance and to steer the there unto/ let this be the definition thereof. Repentance or penance is a turning or conversion unto the Lord god/ whereby we/ of the sincere fear of god humbled/ aknowelege our sins/ and all our whole life we make new. 
Penance what it is.  This definition hath certain chief principals/ out of the which/ the hold nature of penance shallbe fullier expressed and known. first thou hearest it called a turning/ and because it is not a turning to what soever dead satisfaction or creature thou liftest/ therefore is it added unto the lord god/ for so readest thou it in jeremy. Israel/ if thou wilt be returned/ be returned unto me/ saith the Lord. 
The turning to God.  Here is excluded all turnings to saints and to any other creature/ again/ here is included the turning away from lies from the devil & the turning to the truth. Where it is plain that here it behoveth to have the doctrine of truth which must show us who is god to whom we must be converted/ what is good & true/ to the which we must be turned/ and what is evil and false from which we ought to be averted/ and to be brief what must be amended and how. For this cause the prophetis and apostles exhorting men to penance/ long and much do cleave/ tarry/ and labour in the description of the nature of god/ in his goodness rightwiseness verity & mercy/ in describing the laws to live well and in the offices of men/ and also in the sins of men to be accused opened and exaggered or throne upon heaps as thus to be showed many and grievous/ then they throwto threatening & menacings laid before their eyes with the terrible and horrible sight of the judgement of god to be at hand: in which all/ the sincere fear of god (the spirit of god working together in our hearts) is stired up/ so that now with reverence we fear god justly being angry with us/ which are verily alto corrupted/ yea we be not else then the stinking canell and sinful sink of all sin and mischief. 
the fear of god.  But this fear of god whereof we here speak is called sincere into the difference of that fear which casteth down into desperation. For sincere fear/ out of herself bringeth forth even the very true offices and dediss of repentance/ namely the confession and aknowleginge of sins. Nether is it enough to have herd thyself to be a sinner and god to be angry with thee/ unless thou confessest thyself to be even such one and offcest up thyself standing before god in judgement/ that is to say unless thyself now humbled before god in his pre●●nce diffidest & distrustest thy noun rightwiseness 
The confession of sins & humiliation.  which thou seest to be the most corrupt/ and aknowlegest thyself to be even the very most bond man of sin & death. This confession of sins and humbling of thyself jeremy requiring/ in his eight chap. saith. There was not one that repented him of his evil doing saying. What have I done? But this aknowleging of thy sins hath a sorrow and heaviness annexed/ for the true repenters sorrow and lament that ever they have offended so benign and gentle a father/ and that they have committed so grievous sins which could not be forgiven but by the bloodshedding of his 〈◊〉 soon so innocent a lamb. 
heaviness.  Now may thy heart bl●●d for thy sins beholden in the death and bloody wounds of christ. Here here doth this sorrowful heaviness/ this aknowleging/ & humbled heart/ express the fre● confession of thy sins and the humble asking forgiveness of thy trespassis. And now forber●●se Repentance is the conversion unto god and not the turning away from him/ therefore hath this humiliation and confession now a great manly faith & a large hope. 
The confession of sin with faith & hope.  For this sinner thu● confessing casteth and giveth himself over into the mercy of god/ and down upon his knees he asketh meekly forgiveness of him whom he now accouraged and instruct with the promises of god/ doubteth not to be merciful to all such confessors. On this manner every where in the Psalms the penitents so pray that every man might see both to confess and express their faith & to trust also in the troth and rightwysmakinge of god thorough christ. For penance with out faith first beholding Christ's passion is of none effect/ but pernicious and deadly/ as it appeareth in the penance of judas/ whereof Paul speaketh thus. 
False penance  The heaviness which is godly after gods will/ that bringeth forth wholesome repentance never to be repent: 
ij. Cor. seven.  but contrary/ the worldly heaviness bringeth death: and thus therefore we conclude. Penance to be the conversion unto god/ whereby we out of the sincere fear of god humkled/ a knowledge and confess our sins never to be committed again. Now there followeth the other chief principal belonging to penance/ which is the innovation of thy whole life. 
The innovation of thy life.  They verily which fear god and have felt his judgments and mercy/ may not make a light thing nor little regard their sins unto the which they have hitherto married themselves but they know that they must utterly abhor and detest them/ occupying themselves moste holy in godly thoughtis words and works/ before allthings fight all their lives king against the world the devil & their flesh For penance is not the work of a few days/ but the perpetual custody of the life and the everlasting study to live innocently. Also the works done of the penitent & of the new livers are called the fruits of penance/ and works worthei penance/ of which/ chiefly are the mortyfying of the flesh & the study to live virtuously/ the battle with sins/ watch/ fasting/ prayer/ alms/ patience/ abstinence with like fruits of the spirit. 
The fruits of penance.  Paul nowmbring like work● of true penance saith. 
ij. Cor. seven.  This work even to be heavy & sorrowful as god asketh it how great care hath it brought forth? yea what a satisfaction? indignation & displeasure? what zeal? what fear? desire? & vengeance? first lo penance or the heaviness conceived of the holy ghost begetteth in you (saith he) care/ that is the study & most careful cure and diligent heed taking lest ye be polluted again with those filthinesses from which by the grace of god ye be purged/ then he addeth/ that this godly heaviness begetteth Satisfaction/ that is the excusation or cleansing from sin: 
Godly heaviness what fruit it bringeth forth.  for so mich signifieth the greek word Apologia/ which Paul there useth/ adding thereto. Every where ye have gotten yourselves praise because ye be pure in this behalf. Then there followeth Indignation/ that is the very vehement wrath & displeasure to yourselves for your crime committed and for your most shameless filthiness/ for with repentance/ our own shame beginneth: unto the which/ fear is joined/ even the continual fear of god. For the neglecting and little regarding of god is the cause of much abomination. Also there followeth desire/ which containeth loving promisessis to do good/ & an earnest fervour to godward/ whereof David speaking saith. As the hunted heart desireth the fresh waters so desireth my soul my living god. There is added/ zeal/ that is an ardent study & imitation to attain and set hold upon the most honest ways of living. At last the●e standeth vengeance/ for he that thus is displeased with himself & punisheth his body mortifying it for his sins/ that man verily scourgeth his body being avenged thereof for so boldly & proudly resisting the spirit of god fighting against his flesh. Thismiche hast thou of the nature of Repentance/ which thou mayst well divide into open and private penance/. Open penance is openly received for open sins/ as to be smitten openly with manifest famine/ pestilence or battle/ of which thou hast an elegant example jonas three & joele two and in divers other places of the holy scriptures. Private penance is that at every man receiveth of his own mind the holy ghost so/ to do/ exciting him whereby the word of truth heard/ the heart is pricked with remorse for his secret and open sins to/ which he lamenting convertethe unto God: of this penance/ many right fair and holy ensamples ye have in the old and new Testament/ but chiefly of David two Reg. xii. of Achab. iij. of kings xxi. of Manasses two para. xxxiij. of Matthew Mat. ix. of the sinful woman Luke vij of Zachey Luke xix of Peter Mat. xxvi. and joan xxi and of the jews Act. ij.  
Of the penance/ confession/ and fond fashions of satisf●ccions/ which after the time of the Apostles/ about the time of Cyprian and Council of Niece and so following some fathers did thrust into their churches/ I will not here greatly reason ne write/ because I am full assewered/ the doctrine of the apostles/ to be perfect enough/ so that whoso will walk after their lantern he shall walk in the sufficient light and not in darkness. Now at last/ as ye see Baptism to go before the Lords Souper/ so see ye sin to precede Penance and both the sacraments/ Paul exhorting everyman to prove and examine himself ere he eat of this bread and drink of this cup/ which text how wickedly the Bishops have translated in their book in the xxxix lief all men may see it. 
i. cor. xi  Also sin precedeth Baptism/ for we be conceived and borne in sin/ and who would be washen except he were fowl? Who repent but such as see their sins and their whole nature and life to be all corrupt bringing forth out●●f their own breast the most corrupt fruits? even manifold mischief/ infinite crimes and poison/ for the which God is not with out cause angry and may make us bond men unto death and eternal damnation/ unless we open our eyes and behold our sins washen away in Christ's blood/ buried in the holes of his deep wounds/ therewith also beholding the merciful clemency of hour father which for his infinite mercy will not suffer sorry sinners to be lost/ but rather to be converted from evil to good/ himself being now appeased with us only for Christ's sake (if we so believe it) never to impute nor twit us by our sins/ but he forgiveth us quiet setting them as far from us as is the