The Pitiful estate of the Time present. A Christian consideration of the miseries of this time, with an exhortation to amendment of Life: compiled by one zealous in the Law of God, And set forth by Public Authority, being perused and allowed by the same. Wisdom. 6. Give ear ye that rule the multitudes, for power is given you of the Lord, & strength from the highest, which shall try your works and search out your imaginations, how that ye being Officers of his Kingdom have not executed true judgement, wherefore ye shall have the sorer punishment. ¶ Imprinted at London in Whitecrosse street, by Henry Denham. The Preface to the Reader. AS ACCORDING to the saying of Saint Paul, Rom. 15. all that is written is written for our instruction and learning, that we might fashion ourselves to the good will and pleasure of GOD, in following of virtue and embracing that is good, forsaking vice and detesting that which is evil. I therefore hereby moved and occasioned, did peruse of late a book of small volume which hath to name, the Trial of truth, set forth a year passed and more, in the which book, as the Auctor zealously made a brief discourse of the sundry visitations and punishments of God for our forgetfulness of him thorough our sinful wickedness, so did he likewise brotherly warn & admonish us to leave, forsake, and abhor our accustomed evil, and Christianlike exhort us to live in newness of life, putting us in remembrance that the Fire which fell from heaven, so quickly defacing the budge Temple of Paul's, the strange and monstrous shape as well of Children as of beasts, (whereof there were divers and sundry,) with also the unseasonable time then thorough the daily dropping showers, were altogether plain declarations and tokens of God's vengeance and heavy wrath to come upon us and more sharply to punish us than ever he did before, where of we might assure ourselves, unless with hearty repentance and specty amendment of our wicked life we turned unto the Lord our God. And this in manner was the effect of that little work, wherein it appeareth that the Auctor was more careful for us than we are for ourselves. For notwithstanding that he, with also many others, have not ceased thorough their continual, daily and painful travail in writing and setting forth of Godly Books, whereof never since Christ's time more plenty than of late years hath been, teaching, instructing, persuading, exhorting, admonishing, and in God's behalf threatening us, & by all means possible seeking to draw us from evil to good, from worse to better, from sin to godly life, that we might learn to do the will of our heavenly Father: yet are we for all this so unmindful of GOD and of his good gifts in his creatures, and our minds so set and busied in the vain and transitory things of this world, that we are not at leisure to know God, nor by hearing and reading to learn how to attain unto the world that is permanent and everlasting: but either the works so set forth for our instruction are so long that we cannot intend to read them thorough (although in the mean we be neither idle nor yet well occupied) or else if they be short, then sooner read over than well considered and followed, as the crooked conditions and wickedness of us wretched people of England, doth to evidently declare, whose abominations are so vile & detestable in the sight of God, as that I cannot but marvel how either we dare presume to ask or hope to have any thing at the hands of our heavenvly Father, that might be beneficial or necessary for us, but rather look for present destruction, & to be rooted from the face of the Earth, nothing regarding the many and often warnings of God by his ministers, neither yet his loving correction, which with favour hitherto we have had▪ alas how oft hath he called us home so carefully, so lovingly, so fatherly, tendering us even as the Father his children, & yet we will not come but still so much neglect his merciful goodness, that needs he must of his justice, being a jealous god that hath pmised to visit the sins of the fathers upon the children, unto the third & fourth generation of them that hate him, even punish with sorrow to us our sins, and lay upon us the heavy burdens that our wickedness hath worthily deserved, for where the shaking of the rod will not help or prevail, there must needs sharp strokes follow, and we shall have them, let us assure ourselves thereof, except speedy amendment of our wicked life and earnest reformation of our monstrous manners, which as I heartily wish, and because I would (as much as in me is) be a means to provoke and stir up my brethren thereto▪ (whose forgetfulness of their duties towards God I heartily lament and bewail) have therefore thought it my part, though with eloquence unacquainted by pleasantness of style to please the Reader, yet 〈◊〉 this simple sort plainly to declare my good will, tendering (as nature forceth me) the welfare of the whole body of this Realm of England, whereof although I be but a weak, yet thorough the grace of God, a well willing member. Read and discern. The Pitiful estate of the Time present. OH WRETCHED AND graceless people, why do we so long tempt the Lord our God, and thorough our devilish doings deny him? we deny him I say in that we being a people void of all Godly sear, still continue careless and neglect the keeping of the holy precepts and commandments of our eternal and everliving GOD, whom we thorough the lewdness of our life do so shamefully abuse and offend. For (alas) how doth all kind of vice rather increase than diminish? Vice flourisheth in England. For who heareth not the horrible vice of blasphemy and swearing so brim and rife in the mouth of young and old of all degrees as well in court as in country, Otheo common in old and young. that almost every tongue is imbrued with bloody oaths, which though it highly offend the Majesty of God, and worthily deserveth sharp correction and punishment, yet not all so considered, but every one still suffered to swear and forswear, sinking in their sin. Filthy whoredom likewise, The whore doom of England stinketh be fore the face of God. which in all degrees and places, as it is to be hated as most shameful in the sight of the Almighty, so would God that houses of fame and estimation were not as well spotted therewith as are the brothel houses, whose graceless inhabitants are limbs of the devil. And lamentable is it to see in England at this day, from the courtier to the Carter that stinking sin is so common, that it is rather accounted an ordinary pastime than an audible offence, whoredom accounted no Sin which as it stinketh before the face of God, so is it left unpunished, saving now and then in Bridewell, (a place so necessary for the redress of such vice, as I know not how it might have been put to a better use to have benefited the common wealth) or sometime likewise in London with a little carting it is remembered, though to many that discrue it come not to the promotion. And therefore according to the old proverb, better is sometime a friend in court than a penny in purse. But take heed I say ye Magistrates, beware of partiality. Yet to say truth, whether carting or a flap with a Fore tail, all is to one purpose, and therefore even as good never a whit as never the better, for carting doth but make them careless and shameless and rather to continue in their beastliness than bring them to honesty and repentance of their evil. Wherefore if it be not the sooner otherwise looked to and a sharper sauce provided for such filthy whores & whoremongers, ye shall shortly in place of honest modest Matrons and undefiled virgins have the Realm replenished with a company of cankered, corrupt, & loathsome whores, whereof the filthy flock increaseth a pace and to fast. And here may ye see and bcholde how vice aboundeth for lack of the just reward that thereunto belongeth, which should be severe justice, for neglecting whereof as the Magistrates incur the displeasure of God, so are the wicked that still sleep in their sin encouraged to become and continue the members of the devil. But oh ye Magistrates look to your charge, & oh ye loathsome whores and whoremongers let Sodom and Gommorra be your looking glasses, wherein without your repentance and amendment of your beastly life, ye may most plainly behold your utter destruction. But now to proceed, The abuse of the Saboth day. as concerning the Sabbath day or rather the lords day, how well it is observed: I report me to those delicate feeders, whose servants even just upon that day, when they should be at Church to hear the divine service and have their duties taught them, must then forsooth run a gadding from market to market to make provision for a dish of needenot for the latter course, when there is already to much for the first, which wasteful money were better bestowed in the works of Faith, helping by charity thy needful brethren that have not so well to fill their hungry bellies, (but the is forgotten, or scant thought on.) Also other some there be, who when they should congregate themselves in the Temple or Church, which is a place appointed to invocate the name of GOD and to praise him for his manifold benefits, then are they packed up together in Taverns and Alehouses, yelling for victuals to fill their filthy paunch. But oh beastly belly, whether is the Lord thy God or thou first to be served? iwis I remember there was not long a go a godly order made in London by the Lord Maior and the worshipful the Aldermen, that the doors of taverns and vittailing houses should be kept shut in service time, which order is commendable, if it were observed according to the good meaning, that the doors should I say, be kept shut in service time, to keep out such belly bibbers, but now they first fill and furnish their houses with gests and then they shut the doors. But (alas) what mockery is this with God & the Magistrates? God and the Magistrates mocked by the tipplers which are but harbourers of unthrifts. for the which, unless they may feel the smart, it will be the longer the worse, before it be better. For in vain are good laws made unless they be thoroughly executed: and therefore I wish that there were certain in each parish appointed that on the Saboth day might visit the vitailing houses, and as well to make report of those that are the receivers of such gests (that they might for so receiving of them be considered according to their deserving,) as also to drive from thence those greedy gluttons that mind so much their bellies, and bring them to God's banqueting house that he might have more store of gests to feed Faithfully with hungry spirits upon his holy word which is the comfortable food that nourisheth the soul of man, and that the Children and servants by the godly and virtuous life of those their Parents and Masters, might both learn to know their duties to God, praising his holy name, as also their due obedience to their elders, The want of good ensample of Elders is the destruction of Youth. for want of whose good examples and their to much liberty giving, the riotous youth (the more is the pity) run to fast headlong to destruction. But no marvel, for neither can an evil tree bring forth good fruit, nor thorns can bring forth Grapes, and therefore such carpenters such tools, and such masters such servants. But yet a little more concerning the abusing of the lords day, upon the which almost even as though of necessity, the bears at Paris garden must be baited, Beatbayting on the Sabbath abominable. but so ugly are not the bears as the idle lookers on are beastly. God for his mercy defend that the devil bait not the souls of such as delight so beastly to spend the day of the Lord God of Saboth. But to proceed, on that day the masters and scholars of Fence must show themselves and their cunning, whereas after oft meeting with foins and flourishes and dealing of desperate and bosterous blows, they part with broken heads, maimed arms & hands, and bloody faces, finishing up the matter with such swearing & terrible tearing of GOD, that it is great wonder that God with the sword of his displeasure layeth not on load amongst them beating their weapons to their heads and them into the earth. Lo, thus is the day of the Lord turned to the day of bloodshedding and blasphemy thorough the school houses of Fence, nay rather of mischief, Schoole-houses of Fence, breed thieves to feed the gallows for thereby are to many loitering scholars & vagabonds encouraged to mischief, bearing themselves so bold of their Fence that they are as ready to keep a standing in the high ways as the strongest thief in England, and so in the end to many (the more is the pity,) for all their cunning, are to seek of Fence to keep their necks from the halter. Lo, what folly Fence breedeth. And thus with these & many other abuses is the Lords day polluted. But let us not think that the Lord our God who punished with Death the man for gathering sticks only on the Saboth day, Numeri. 15 will leave us unpunished that so shamefully abuse the same which so expressly he hath commanded to be kept holy and appointed to worship him on. Let us be assured we shall know the price thereof as well, as also for the wonderful wickedness the otherwise reigneth amongst us that are void of all Godliness and full of abomination and sin: For truly there is amongst us no pureness in heart, no truth in mouth, no uprightness in dealing, but doubleness, fraud, deceit and guile. Brotherly love is clean banished. For who can almost speak well of an other? and charity is become so cold that the fruits of Faith faint thorough cankered covetousness, who is so deeply crept into the corrupt consciences of men so generally, The Canker of covetousness hath eaten away the good consciences of the people of England. that who almost is not therewith infected? and to whom as the term goeth, all is not fish that cometh to net, and so they have that they would have, they care not how they come by it? which as it is to manifest and apparent, so likewise to lamentable to behold that amongst those that take upon them the name of Christians such crooked conditions should be used as hereafter shall be declared. And first concerning covetousness, which whether it be to conversant with us, let those of reason judge, who seeing and well noting the great and gracious blessing of God upon the earth, which hath so plentifully brought forth and yielded her increase of all things necessary for the food of man (thanks to God therefore,) yet notwithstanding, a dearth to remain, and upon no occasion save only thorough the cursed covetousness of ravening Cormorauntes, that (so they may fill their bottomless bags) care not what nor whom they devour. I would to god the Graziours, who thorough their greedy joining of pasture to pasture for to much lucre's sake, Graziours and great sheep master's cormoraunts in the common weal. filling faster their coffers than they fat their cattle: and also the unsatiable sheepemaisters, that to increase and augment such needless and not necessary number of sheep as now there are, having spoiled thereby whole villages and towns, (to the great decay of tillage,) were not I say the chiefest occasions of this present mischievous misery: thorough the devilish dealing of which two kinds of people, we have been and to lately were forced to seek in foreign countries our bread corn, whereas before such greedy covetousness reigned, we had plenty & enough at home to serve ourselves and to spare for others our neighbours, till now that the sheep which God had ordained for man, are by covetous men increased to such noisome numbers, that they have devoured men and driven them from their dwellings, Many sheep and few ploughs maketh England swarm with beggars. who with their wives and children beg about the countries, their houses being overthrown: but better were therefore more ploughs and fewer sheep, than so many sheep to the increase of beggars. But, oh marvelous brutishenesse of those people that for the excessive gain of pasture money, prefer the bruit beasts before their poor brethren, and that to feed beasts starve Christians. ★ But why do yet so oppress my people and mar the faces of the poor saith the Lord by the mouth of his servant and Prophet Isaiah, Esay. 3. that so join one house to another and bring one land so to another the the poor can get no ground, but that they may dwell upon the earth alone? and for such doth Hell open hy● mouth and gape for saith the Prophet, who threateneth the wrath of God upon such. And Abacuc likewise in his second chapter, Abacuc. 2. I refer thee to the place the reading whereof God grant may be a warning. But are the farmers in this point altogether clean and blameless? nay would to God there were not to many in England whose barns God hath well replenished with store, The covetous Farmers abuse the good gifts of God. that both say and do, as not long since I heard a rich and wealthy farmer say & bound it with an oath, that he would sell his Corn at such a price, or keep it till the mice eat it. But (as I fear me) there be to many farmers of that charity. So no marvel though so great a scarcity of breadecorne as of late, hath been, which would have been further out of course but for the gracious provision of the worthy Marchanntes and citizens of London that fed thereby as well the city as a great part of the Country about them. The worthy provision of the merchants & Citizens of London. The Lord prosper, bless and hold his holy hand over that City and inhabitants that are so careful for their Country. But again to my matter wherewith I was in hand. As those words and deeds of such Farmers are not christianlike, so are they not the best members in the common weal of England, as they use themselves in so shamefully abusing the good gifts of GOD, enhancing the price of Corn of mere covetousness to enrich themselves to the great detriment and harm of their neighbours and brethren, whose wealth thereby how much it is of late increased, the sumpteousnesse and bravery of their children doth well declare, who in many places in england are at these days grown to such a fineness that they are more readier for houses of the court, The folly of parents maketh unthrifty children. than the plough, & so given to idleness that they hold great scorn to tread the furrows and follow their father's steps, But now the father to Cart, the son to Court. Well, well, provender pricketh, and wealth I say maketh wantonness, which God grant of the getters to be truly come by and with upright conscience, for according to the old proverb, well gotten well spent, God send the plough more friends and followers. But yet a little further concerning covetousness. How lamentable is it to see and behold the number of men that daily sail in the payment of their debts, and as they term it play bankroute? I mean not those (neither deserve they the name) whose substance by casualty of fire, by spoiling of Pirottes, or thorough force of stormy and tempestuous weather, by shipwreck with the surges of the deep seas are perished, unto which and many other perils the merchants adventurers thorough the sufferance of god are oftentimes subject and by such means overthrown, their wealth plucked from them and they impoverished, who as they gladly and willingly would, but have not wherewith to satisfy their creditors, so are they yet in this respect to be helped, considered and borne withal, (and God forbid that otherwise it should be.) But of those shameless ones I mean, of which number of late there hath been to many, that when thorough their credit they have heaped together a mass of treasure in money and commodities, they suddenly absent and hide themselves and play bankroute, an unchristianlike play and to a devilish and wicked end and purpose, for having wherewith to satisfy and content all their creditors, they will either pay nothing at all or as little as they list, and thus they reap the corn that is not their own, job. 24. and spoil sometime thereby the sucking fatherless child. And by this wicked means is many an honest man brought to an after deal and oftentimes undone, with whose goods those thieves enrich themselves: A wilful bancktout & a thief all one. thieves I say, for theft it is and no better, and yet is it now a days made an ordinary occupation. And where is the redress, or which of them (as before I said,) doth not what him listeth? Well, woeful is it to see that among Christians such parts should be played, and more lamentable is it that still it is suffered. Covetousness is a perilous poison, and yet though loath I am to write it, I know no estate or vocation in England that is not infected therewith even from the mountains to the valleys. And therefore to conclude where the rage of corrupt covetousness reigneth, the right of justice must needs be minished, I would it were not so, but (alas) it is to manifest. ‡ But must not God needs punish us in whom there is no truth nor knowledge of him, Oseas. 4. but untruth, lying, swearing, adultery theft, and all manner of such filthiness? Are these things a declaration of brotherly love amongst us? Gallat. 5. do we as we would be done unto? love we our neighbours as ourselves, that thus bite and devour one an other? Oh intolerable wickedness and oh mischievous and pestilent people. But hath our Heavenly Father revealed the light of his Gospel unto us that we in such shameful wise should abuse his great mercy? no, no, wherefore to the Carnal Gospelers as well as to the Impudent Papists, I say: be no longer careless, but learn to know the will of the Lord, and do it. Let word and deed be one. Profess and follow or else we are but slanderers & enemies of the Gospel, and the blessing and great good gifts of God (the light of his Gospel) is evil bestowed upon us, showing ourselves to be the enemies of jesus Christ and of his truth the spoilers. Counterfeits are we and plain dissemblers with God and the World, yea, even a people in whom scant one spark or property appeareth that unto Christians appertaineth: for if we were Christians we would follow Christ's lore, ‡ who being the Way, john. 14. the Truth and life, we renounce and go from the Way, decline from Truth, and forsaking Life do thorough our wicked means seek to ourselves Death and destruction. The Lord be merciful unto us, for we are grown to this point, that we neither fear the Lord our God nor stand in awe of the Magistrates. And what is the cause, but for that the good laws made by them for the punishment of offenders are no better executed but in a manner each one left to himself to do what he listeth? But truly even as much do the Magistrates offend GOD in not punishing the offenders, as they that commit the offence. For all this evil cometh of sufferance, Sufferance breedeth inconvenience. but to much sufferance causeth care and to much sufferance breedeth disobedience. And is it not sufferance that tickeleth the talketive tongues of the wicked and evil disposed, so shamefully and sclaunderouslye to report and speak evil of the blessed word of GOD and doctrine of jesus Christ, and of the Preachers and Teachers of the same, unreverently jesting and scoffing at them, as daily they do, even like unto Diotrephes that of arrogancy exalted himself, john. 3. Ep● despised the doctrine of the Apostles, jesting at them with malicious words? And what is it else but sufferance that so animateth the obstinate Archpapistes so stoutly to continue in their Romish heretical error, contrary to the will of God and their due obedience to their Prince? But no marvel therefore, though the common sort so carelessly continue in their evil, The Archpapistes Ringleaders to mischief. when the Ringleaders to mischief, (the Archpapistes,) being the maintainers of idolatry, breakers of Wedlock, thieves, murderers, and rebels against the Prince in Gods and her proceedings, are thus suffered to wallow still in the poisoned puddle of their wicked will, and yet remain unpunished. But yet as it is not enough but a perilous matter for one man to call another thief, unless he be able to prove it, So I likewise to try the to be true which here I have written of them, will therefore make due proof thereof, as well for mine own discharge as also to satisfy the reader. And first that they are maintainers of idolatry, Archpapistes maintainers of Idolatry. the great number of people whom God hath yet spared alive, witness with me, how they when they were in authority, or rather when God suffered them to be as whips & scourges to us for our forgetfulness of God: how they than I say, thorough their violent compulsion, forced the people (to the great derogation and dishonour of God,) to erect Idols and garnish the Church and House of God with Mahomet's, which (as in the book of Wisdom is specified) neither have been from the beginning nor shall continue to the end, Wisdom. 14. but have only been invented thorough the wealthy Idleness of men: but wherewith yet they I say then so charmed and enchanted the minds of many of the simple ignorant people, with their Idolatrous infection, as that I would to GOD there were not now in these days to many that worshipping in in Coffers and Corners their senseless Babylonical blockbabes, think they please God better than to come to be instructed by the hearing of the word of GOD preached. Thus have they I say seduced the people from the true and living Lord to worship strange and unknown Gods and honouring of abominable Images, ‡ which is the beginning and end of all evil, Wisdom. 14● showing themselves thereby to be the manifest enemies of the Almighty, Deutro. 13. and as Moses doth note and name them, false Prophets, dreamers and maintainers of wicked idolatry, which being a spiritual whoredom and an abomination so grievous and heinous in the sight of God, as that he hath always abhorred and extremely punished it: yet are they with tooth and nail supporters of the same. Wherefore as God by the mouth of Moses plainly expresseth that they ought not to be pitied nor reserved and kept as they yet are, Deut. 13.16. so doth he also appoint them their reward, jeremy. 26. which is that they should be destroyed without compassion. Zachar. 13. And accordingly did Elia with 450. false Prophets of Baal at the broke Kison. 3. Kings. 16 2. Chro. 34. Also josia who burned the bones of the Priests upon the altars of the Idols. But now to go forward with my proof: Breakers of wedlock I said they were, as most true it is they be. For although that Christ as by the authority of the scriptures, doth permit unto every man without exception that cannot live chaste, 1. Cor. 7.9. Timoth. 3. as well spiritual as temporal, his wife, to live together in that holy and blessed state of matrimony ordained by God for the avoiding of hateful whoredom ★ who being once coupled according to the laws of God no man ought to separate or put asunder yet notwithstanding that, Leuitic. 17. Math. 19 Mark. 10. how did they (I say) abuse and shamefully separate divers and sundry of the ministery then matched in matrimony, Papists breakers of wedlock dealing as cruelly with them therefore as if they had committed some notorious offence, disallowing in the ministry then, that to be necessary, which Christ in his time for his apostles did see to be convenient and necessary? And Paul witnessing the same, saith: 2. Corin. 7. It is better to marry than to burn, but he saith not, It is better to take a whore than to marry, as a great many of their beastly brood of lecherous Massepriestes did, who as they would not marry, so lived they not Casté, but Cauté played the whoremongers, and some Palam defiled their neighbours wives, committed daily incest and were even fellow companions to the Sodomites, whose beastliness these Mitered men oft winked at and would not see the wickedness of their God Bells belly gods, but looked thorough the fingers at them, as some of them to well know to their shame though they say nay and lie as their generation hath always been accustomed, who never will do other. But though for their wicked whoredom they have in this world escaped the punishment due for the same, Hebru. 13. yet shall God shut them out of his Kingdom into everlasting fire, unless they repent, which God grant they may. But now to proceed, thieves also I said they were, Papists are thieves john. 10. ‡ and so S. john calleth them that come not but to steal & destroy, of which number they are & so showed themselves to be when they not only did break into God's orchard, stealing from us the fruit of life, but also lopped and destroyed the flourishing branches that plenteously yielded forth the fruit thereof, jeremy. 12. ‡ Treading down the Vineyard and pleasant portion of the Lord, of malicious purpose to leave it waste and to make it a wilderness, stealing away the heavenly treasure of God's Sanctuary, and with consciences most filthily defiled filling and replenishing the Lord's house with robbery & falsehood, and therefore again I say thieves and also enemies to God, that love him not: ‡ For how can they 2 john. 4. love God whom they have not seen, when they loved not their brethren with whom they were daily conversant? For it is not so long ago to be yet forgotten, how unmercifully they dealt with the silly faithful flock of jesus Christ, who by the divine inspiration and good gift of the holy Ghost, setting forth the glory of God & plentifully preserving the wholesome and delectable doctrine of jesus Christ, wherewith almighty god had richly replenished them, and wherewith they daily taught and trained us to know the will of our heavenly father. They did I say forbid to teach the truth, and would not suffer them to preach Christ unto the people, but, notwithstanding the express commandment of God almighty who straightly charged them ‡ that they should not touch his anointed, Psalm. 105. nor do his Prophets any harm, yet did they rigorously recompense them, turmoiling and tossing them from post to pillar, mocked them, buffeted them, with rods beat them, imprisoned them, hungersterned them, 1. john. 3. ‡ and even as Cain to his brother Abel, so did these tyrants most cruelly murder their innocent brethren, Papists at murderers and with fire consumed to ashes the flesh of jesus Christ in his members, ‡ whose beautiful feet brought us tidings of good things, Roma. 10. even the peace of the Gospel of Christ our Saviour. And why did they thus to them? ‡ because their works were good and their own evil, 1. john. 3. they being of the offspring of those that killed the Lord jesus and the Prophets and now likewise thirsted for the blood of these innocent martyrs, and therefore murderers from the beginning. 1. Regum. 15. ‡ But now I call to remembrance how Samuel the zealous Prophet of the Lord calling for King Agag the enemy of God and murderer of his people, to whom after he had said these words (as thy sword hath made women childless, so shall thy mother be childless,) did then in the zeal of God he we King Agag in pieces, Oh cruel murderer and sheader of innocent blood, The reward of a murderer. worthily rewarded. But if Agag being a King was not spared, how well have these then deserved to have the same curresye, being continual committers of shameful things, merciless oppressors, cruel persecutors of Fatherless and Widows, shedders of innocent blood, unsatiable murderers wilfully working the merciless motions of their hateful hearts, thorough whose terrible tyranny many mothers were left child clesse, and many children fatherless and motherless, that were of the family of the faithful in jesus Christ? of which most terrible tragedy though the whole world can witness yet remain those murderers unrecompensed with agag's just reward. But last of all that I said they were rebellious, Papists a● rebellious. let their stubborn and disobedient behaviour towards their Prince be witness, in that they so arrogantly contend with their Sovereign, despising and resisting the word of GOD, which by the Princes most Gracious proceed, to the unspeakable comfort of all her graces true faithful and loving Subjects, is (thanked be God therefore) most entirely and truly set forth and taught, which they utterly detest, and follow the imaginations of their own hearts and still continue in their evil. Lo, these be of them that had so blinded the world with their counterfeit holiness, that they were counted and thought to be without spot, and yet most grievous transgressors and full of all iniquity and poison, refusing to do that which by God's law they are commanded, and regarding rather the usurping monstrous Pope that Romish beast and Antichrist, than fearing God and respecting their due obedience to their Sovereign & most gracious Prince and liege Lady, who as Solomon saith, prover. 16. aught to be feared as a Lion, and whose displeasure is a messenger of death: who therefore although they fear not I say for the love that faithful Subjects bear to their Prince of duty, 1. Peter. 2. yet I think they should fear, love and humbly obey her for the love and fear of him ★ that shall call the heavens from above and the earth, Roman. 13. Psalm. 50. that he may judge his people, ★ against which day of vengeance when shall be opened the righteous judgement of GOD, 2. Thessaly. 1. Rom. 2.13. such stubburn-hearted contentious rebels that follow iniquity, disobey and resist the truth and the higher powers which is the ordinance of GOD, and that either's cannot or will not repent, do but heap unto themselves the wrath of God who will reward them with trouble and anguish of soul to everlasting damnation. Esay. 46. A charitable exhortation to the Papists. Wherefore O ye presumptuous priests that are of an high stomach but far from righteousness, as ye have been terrible tyrants and your hands full of blood, so now put from you the violence and mischief of your minds: and as ye have not ignorantly but arrogantly fought against the God of glory, so call now to him for the assistance of his holy spirit that it may please him therewith to strengthen you against your adversary the devil, that he no longer bewitch you nor withdraw your minds from God: for now ye sail & stumble in your judgement, being ignorant as young children, Esay. 28. and because ye will not hearken unto the voice of God pronounced by his chosen vessels, he suffereth you to be tangled, snared, and to fall backwards in your wilfulness. 1. Peter. 1. Lean therefore no longer upon the weak staff of antiquity which both you and many men ground themselves upon, doing as their fathers did, for as well our Forefathers as also ourselves have done unrighteouslye and have not kept the way which the highest commanded us, and therefore custom without truth is not alloweable, but is an old error. Pray therefore unto the Lord God to open your eyes that ye may spy out the wondrous things in the law of God, Psalm. 119 ★ Seek him with your whole hearts unfeignedly that ye may walk in his ways, leaving the wicked and wilful blindness wherein you have so long been nuzzled, and be no longer as Fools that make good sport of Sin, but foresee your wickedness which as the Lord according as the Scriptures make mention, hath punished in Princes being the highest, and to whom he hath given the government of his people, so will he not surely leave it unrecompensed in popish priests, but aswell in priests as in all people generally of what vocation or calling soever, that repining the truth of jesus Christ and wilfully wallowing in wickedness and sin carlessly continue in the same, he will hisite and for their reward give them to drink of his displeasure and heavy wrath. Wherefore I as much as in me is, exhort you in the Lord to become obedient children ‡ and to return with the prodigal child from your gross feeding on swinecods and with hearty repentance meekly and humbly to turn to your heavenly Father, Luke. 25. feeding on his heavenly word, that we your brethren might rejoice of the finding of you that were lost & reviving of you that were dead. 1. Peter. 5. ‡ Submit therefore yourselves in lo●●linesse of heart under the mighty hand of God and show your due obedience and be subject to your most gracious and merciful Prince, be no more devilish wilful but godly willing, arm yourselves I say with singleness of heart as ministers to work the will of our heavenly Father, not compelled but willingly, not with proud and lordly stomachs but meekly, giving good example to the flock of jesus Christ, of which as ye have been merciless sposlers, destroyers and famishers, so now thorough the most gracious operation of the Almighty ye may become repairers, feeders and nourishers of the same, that when the chief shepherd shall appear ‡ he may exalt you when the time is come, 1. Peter. 5. that then ye may receive an incorruptible crown of glory, which I beseech God for his great mercy sake to grant unto you, the is may I say become his servants and with joy in him possess the earth during his good pleasure, and after this life to have the fruition of the life everlasting. Be therefore no longer the masters of error puffed up with pride, but the Disciples of truth, & show yourselves no longer as brute beasts naturally made to be destroyed, whose hearts God hath so hardened for that ye should not hearken unto his word, because he would have you rooted from the earth. But leave in time your disobedience, for disobedient children shall find no rest, wherefore if ye still presumptuously proceed as ye have begun ‡ know that presumptuousness goeth before destruction and after a proud stomach there followeth a fall, prover. 16. Deutro. 17. Esay. 5. for the Lord abhorreth all such as are of a proud stomach and will not suffer them to escape unpunished ★ but will recompense them their wickedness and destroy them in their own malice ‡ hycause they rebel against him. Psalm. 94 Psalm. 107. Therefore I say once again as one that from the bottom of my heart wish your conversion to GOD, take heed and tempt the Lord God no longer, neither presume to much of the mercy of your Prince, for if ye do, surely God will in the end put in her Grace's heart, as most excellent ‡ even sent of and by him, Rom. 13. Wisdom. 6 for the punishment of the wicked and to the praise of the good (to consider) that as a Mother, who being tender over her Children with overmuch cockering them, doth but make them so wanton and careless that they regard her not, and so sparing the rod hurteth her Children and harmeth herself, so likewise that her grace thorough her great lenity and mercy in to long suffering you doth but make you the more forgetful of your duties to your so gracious a Prince, & move you the rather to work your selves woe, with practising of that that might be hurtful to her highness, which the almighty god of Israel defend. But yet is it to be feared and just cause hath her Majesty to be out of hope of your conversion to God and to have you her faithful and true Subjects hereafter, that in so long a time of respect have not had the grace to learn to fear God and to know your duties to him and your so gracious and merciful a Prince. ‡ job saith that if a tree be cut down, job. 14. there is some hope saith he that it will sprout out and shoot forth the branches again, and a root being waxen old and dead in the ground, yet when the stock getteth the cent of the water it will bud a new & bring forth bows: but how long hath the Queen's Majesty even as a mother of mercy, thorough her gracious goodness and great lenity made the trial hereof in you, reserving and watering you all this while with her mercy, to try thereby if she could cause you to bring forth the flourishing branches and beautiful buds of repentant hearts, thereby as well to benefit yourselves as also others thorough the good example of your humbleness, who notwithstanding stubbornly continue the longer the worse, showing yourselves therefore not to be of those trees or root that job speaketh of, but rather plainly painting forth yourselves in your perfect colour's and showing yourselves to be the same that certainly ye are, A graceless papist and a rotten root one in effect. even rotten roots void of Godly sap and into whom no inoysture of godly understanding or knowledge can enter. Wherefore according to the saying of our Saviour Christ by the mouth of matthew, Ye must be plucked up, hewn down and cast into the fire and wholly rejected as wilful Heretics ‡ against whom no admonition will prevail. Math. 7. But now my think I hear some partial Papist say: behold I pray you the charity of this gospeler, this Protestant is in his extremities, what? my think he would have the poor men worse handled than they are already, being meetly well trounced and hampered I trow, as the Tower, Fleet, Marshalsee and such other places can witness. In deed sir ye say true, they have been so ill bestead, so sore hurt and so extremely dealt with, as that those that be in worse liking have no cause to complain. So some of them are so foul fallen away that they are grown from a horseloade to a cartloade, which betokeneth no want of victuals and good cherishing, but rather of to much pampering. Well I say the Devil is not without friends as now right well appeareth, by whose means these terrible tyrants that rather rebel with peril as traitors to God and their Prince, than obey with rest as obedient subjects, who rather may be said to have been to long preserved in places of pleasure, than accounted as prisoners, considering how well they were used and provided for, who having then but to much liberty are now fet further at large to have more Elbow room and scope, to take their pleasure on progress about the country to refresh themselves as though before they had been misused or had received to much injury, whereas if they had their just desert, Death, Death should and ought to be their reward. But lo, the filthy fowls are flown, the bloody birds are uncaged who flickering abroad are making wings for a new pray, which God disappoint them of. But as it is most requisite and needful that the Prince (whom God long preserve) have good regard by her taster appointed, to avoid the purposed mischief from her body by poisoning of meats, (which wicked and crayterous Subjects both have and may attempt that seek to advance and establish themselves and the wickedness the they embrace,) so is it most necessary and convenient that a regard be had by the Prince to her people committed to her charge, lest the venomous privy persuasion and devilish counsel of this Antichristian rabble do slay and poison the souls of the simple Subjects, whereby might ensue as well peril to the Prince as destruction of the common wealth, which the almighty God defend for his mercy sake, and grant that thorough this to long sufferance the like furious flame flash not again suddenly abroad as once it did before any spark was feared to have been kindled, for according to the old proverb, the which is bred in the bone will never out of the flesh, & so will the viperous brood never leave engendering of poison, The property of papists is to work mischief. whose study as it hath evermore been to devise & imagine how to work mischief, so cannot I say the bitter branches of that traitorous and tyrannous tree yield better fruit, and therefore are to be considered according, for secret and perilous hath their privy poisoned practice and packing ever been from the beginning, A Papist enuimy to God and traitout to his prince. as experience hath taught, to the destruction (the more was the pity) both of Prince and people, whereof let ancient stories and Chronicles be witness. And I would that now the same bloody and murdering brood were not in hand to brew that mischief which God grant them never to ton but that they may be scalded in their own lycker. Well, well, they that will may see the wickedness of that generation, but therefore are such scabbed sheep no longer to be suffered which do but infect the sound flock. And (alas) that sufferance thorough to much lenities should only cause such careless wicked men so wilfully to work their own destruction, whereas the law (if it were justly executed) ‡ being ordained for the unrighteous, disobedient, murderes of Fathers and Mothers, manslayers, whoremongers. etc., might bring them to God and be a terror to other evil disposed, who now thorough their being borne withal are rather encouraged and boldened in their evil. Wherefore as the corn doth better grow up where no cockle is to cumber it, prover. 25. ‡ so take the dross from the silver and there shall be a clean vessel thereof, and as the common wealth is the better maintained and flourisheth where the law is worthily executed upon the offenders, so would the Gospel of our saviour Christ be more willinglier embraced in the hearts of the simple ignorant ones, if the Archerimies' were cut of from the face of the earth, whose stubborn and presumptuous resistance of Gods and the Queen's proceedings, is now the only let, which as it highly offendeth the Majesty of God, so is it an occasion of the increase of evil to the further provocation of his wrath. Therefore as it is good by all means possible to cure an infected member, Necessary and present remedy in extremity. so is it much better if it be found uncurable to cut it of, than that it should infect the whole & sound body. And whereas cankered corsies in currish patiences are so festered the the precious medicine of mercy may not cure them, them must of necessity, justice, a medicine more sharp & apt for such a Nunq sanus, be ministered. Luke. 3. Wherefore let the crooked ones be made strait & the rough ones made plain. And high time it is, for they do now but lie like dumb dogs or as ravening and devouring wolves lurking for their prey, their bellies not yet full enough of blood. These be those froward ungodly ones, the from their mother's womb have strayed and spoken lies, Psalm. 58. whose venom is as the poison of Serpents, who still imagine mischief in their hearts, refusing to hear the voice of the charmer (charm he never so wisely) but wilfully stop their cares because they will not hear nor learn the will of their heavenly Father. Roman. 9 ‡ These I say be of them whom God hath stirred up even as he did Pharas, to be as they have been, persecutors of his Children, to show his power on them the the name of God might be declared, who as he hath mercy on whom he will, so likewise those whom he will he maketh hard hearted, even as he doth these (if they repent not) on whom he will show his wrath, though he suffer them with long patience, being the vessels of wrath ordained to damnation, yet in the end he will cut them from the earth & with Pharaoh overwhelm and drown them in the sorrowful Sea of perpetual destruction. The mercy showed to them is but in vain, and the doctrine of jesus Christ whereof they are wished to be partakers, is but cast away upon them, being as they are, plain contemners thereof, showing themselves forsaken of God and left to themselves, and therefore ought not that which is holy to be given to such dogs, Math. 7. for it is but as Pearls strawed before swine the tread them under their feet and turn again to rend the givers thereof, as they already have done and again would do if power & beastly will were according. What otherwise therefore shall be done unto these wilful stubborn ones ★ who being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own, Roma. 10. and being disobedient unto the righteousness of God, if they will still so continue in their unfaithfulness and be by no means converted unto godwards, but even according to the sentence of God Almighty pronounced by Esdras, die in their unfaithfulness? 4. Esdr. 15. ★ For the ungodly & transgressors and such as become unfaithful and obstinate unto the Lord, Isaiah. 1. must altogether be utterly destroyed, yea devoured with the sword. 1. Esdra●. 7. Again Esdras willeth the those which know not the law of God should be taught, which much disagreeth with ignorance to be the mother of devotion, as some of their affinity have taught, and those (saith he) that will not then fulfil the law of God and the kings law; shall have this judgement without delay, loss of goods, imprisonment and death, 1. Esdras. 6. ★ then there shall be a beam taken from his house and set up, & he shall be hanged thereon. 4. Regum. 10 ★ And if jehu did cause all the priests of Baal to be slain and destroyed because they were the enemies of GOD, why then are these vile Vipers and romish bloodsuckers, 1. Regum. 28. these intolerable Devils, utter enemies both to God and their Prince, thus suffered to persist in their evil, escaping so long the death which they so worthily have deserved, & seeing God will have his fierce wrath executed upon his enemies? Why are they still suffered thus to triumph and proudly to make their vaunt and boast that the Prince hath no power to harm them? The brags of the Papists. Abacuc. 1. why are they I say thus suffered to mock their King & laugh their Prince to scorn? Well, well, if God be herewith pleased, then let it be still as it is. But as certainly as God was offended with king Saul forsparing of king Agag enemy to the children of God, 1. Regum. 15. and for reserving the Cat-tail and beasts which he commanded to be slain, and Saul notwithstanding doing therein as seemed best to himself, neglecting the commandment of the highest: even so undoubtedly is God now not pleased with the reserving of these so manifest enemies, who although they have the shape of men, yet in their manners more monstrous and beastly than brute beasts in deed, who should not thus long have been unrewarded if there were not some either draw backs or claw backs, or both, the look smooth with their heads and sting with their tail, bearing two faces in a hood, whose power overgoeth right and by whose means the law is torn in pieces so that right judgement cannot proceed nor go forth, Abacuc. 1. but flattering hypocrites are enemies to the Gospel. Would God that such as are infected and sick of that disease were dispatched both from court & country, Three chief points to be noted. for never shall truth tellers, be thoroughly welcome in England till such false flatterers be out of credit and estimation, neither shall that ugly Whore and shameless strumpet of Babylon be clean overthrown, till such her loitering lovers be brought to confusion, nor yet the proud hearts of the arrogant Papists the utter enemies to God and their Prince, be mollified, meekened, and made humble and lowly, till judgement with justice be joined together, the neglecting whereof is cause presently that the boy presumeth against the elder, and the vile person against the honourable. Wherefore me think although there were no word of God at all to instruct or move us, yet our consciences would move us to consider condign punishment for such so notorious grievous detestable transgressors and offenders as these stubborn rebel's art, ★ who although they declare their own sins themselves & hide them not, and that their words, works and counsels are against the Lord our God and our Prince & Sovereign, yet are they winked at and suffered. Yet notwithstanding, as I doubt not but the the Queen's most excellent Majesty (to whom God grant a long & prosperous reign to advance his truth to the glory of his holy name, & the unspeakable comfort of his people committed to hit charge) is mindful and well considereth the terrible threatening of God upon Princes for not executing justice, who having but deferred the same, hoping thorough her clemency & great mercy to bring them to the knowledge of God and their due obedience to her Grace, yet lo, being but for this cause prolonged, 4. Esdr. 1●. ★ the innocent blood of the troubled hath so long cried vengeance unto the Lord upon his enemies, Apocal. 6. and the souls of the righteous still continually complaining, and the Lord our God himself having so long suffered, and holden back his hand, looking when the sword of justice should be drawn by the Prince to whom he hath committed it for the executing of offenders, as well Idolaters, murderers, maintainers of whoredom, rebellious and envious enemies of his truth, and seeth notwithstanding his quarrel not maintained, but the worthy extreme deserved punishment deferred, and justice in his cause neglected, 4. Esdr. 15. The deferring of justice hath provoked the wrath of God. cannot, ★ because he will no longer suffer such injury, but as a righteous judge to revenge his own cause doth now in his wrathful indignation plentifully pour his perilous plague of pestilence upon us, in such terrible wise, as that we are glad to fly from our cities, mislike our lodgings, forsake our houses, dispersing ourselves abroad in sundry places, because the the messenger of God (death) daily climbing in at our windows, is come into our houses to destroy us. Yea the Lord as we see ★ consumeth us with the breath of his wrath even as the withered grass, Esay. 40. and as he not long since, when we were greater in number, took then from us the fruit of the earth, or gave so small increase thereof, as that we had not wherewith sufficiently to feed upon: so now he having plentifully blessed the earth with store, destroyeth now by death the people for whose sakes he provided & appointed it. Two chief causes of the plague in London. And the causes why that London specially is more sharplyer visited than any one place of England beside (is) for that the word of God being there most purely and plentifully preached and taught, is there least followed. The second cause why, is, for that the enemies of God that have been such shameless shedders of innocent blood & pitiless persecutors of him in his members, have been there so long reserved, where with the Lord (as well appeareth) is grievously offended and therefore hath laid the greater burden upon us. Wherefore we see the to much mercy is as well hurtful to the offenders, as condign punishment for them is necessary, jeremy. 28. Deute. 13.18. ★ who if they were cut away from us, we should be void of evil, wherefore I would those stumbling blocks were removed, & according to the saying of S. Paul, galath. 5. I would God they were cut of from us, which do disquiet us. And with job I say: job. 24. oh that all compassion upon them were forgotten, 1. Thessaly. ●. ‡ for they displease God & hinder men from their salvation, God therefore for his great mercysake grant that the sword of justice no longer rust in the scabbard but that it may be put to the use that God hath appointed it, that such may justly receive that which unjustly they have done unto the clect servants of God, and that as well the obstinate Papists as also the carnal Gospelers may feel the weight thereof, or else it will be still the longer the worse, To much mercy marks good manners. for to manifest it is at this day in England, that the overmuch mercy & pitifulness maketh a presumptuous and careless people, which if it be not the sooner redressed, let us assure ourselves the this plague of pestilence (wherewith we have lately perished so fast) is but a beginning of sorrows and a declaration of a more heavy & grievous vengeance of God to come upon us, which, if for the neglecting the punishing of sin and for not maintaining of God's quarrel be wilfully purchased, them woe, woe, woe will be upon us, for God will then so handle us as he never did before, Ezechiel. 5. who hath plenty of plagues in store, yea, Levitic. 2● even ready hanging over our heads. Wherefore good brethren let every one of us enter into himself and well behold the monstruousness of our beastly behaviour that so shamefully aboundeth, considering that where the vinyeard bringeth forth the best wine the Lord doth keep it and in due time water it and preserveth it day and night from the enemy that he do it no harm, Esay. 27. but where the vinyeard yieldeth and bringeth forth briars and thorns the Lord will run thorough it by wars and will make the strong cities desolate and the habitation forsaken, & God who made & created the people, will not favour them. Beware I say therefore oh England, be warned, be not tolong careless, for it is manifest enough unless we will be wilful blind, Esay. 26. that the hand of the Lord is lifted up against us, & we have felt the heavy burden thereof upon us. The Lord grant us therefore grace & speedy amendment of our life, lest the Lord in his wrath make of our Cities & blessed famous & fruitful country an heap of broken stones, Esay. 17. as he did with Damascus or with the walled City of Aroer whereof he threatened to make soldes of cattail, and so we purchase to ourselves sorrow without hope of comfort, from the which misery that the Lord our God, in whose hands we are as the clay in the potters, may defend us, let us speedily and continually in all humbleness of heart, in weeping, fasting and praying in manner and form following, invocate the name of God our heavenly father, to whom with the son and the holy Ghost be all praise and glory, world without end. Amen. (⁂) The Prayer. OH most puissant & mighty king, the god of our forefathers and of thy people Israel, who turnest man to destruction and then again art gracious and merciful, deliver now from peril us poor wretches that with unfeigned hearts call upon thee, & although our wickedness past hath most highly offended thee (oh Lord our God) and hath been most grievous in thy sight, who therefore hast laid thy heavy hand upon us, the smart whereof we have felt to our great discomfort, although not so sharply as our wickedness well deserved, yet now Lord at the humble suit of us sorrowful sinners, cease thy anger, withdraw thy dreadful hand, and let thy mercy quench the flame of thy fury, look down upon us, behold the misery of thy feeble flock that are almost drowned in the dungeon of dolour, stop not thine ears at the crying of our lamentable and mourning voices, but comfort us, relieve us, and suffer not the surges of sorrow to overwhelm us, but raise thou us up that are fallen, give us a Godly consideration of the wonderful work of thy late wrathful indignation upon us by the overthrow and destruction of the great number of our Brethren, whom in thy ireful desetued displeasure by death thorough Plague thou hast taken from us, that thereby we being warned may henceforth eschew and avoid the importable burdens of thy heavy vengeance that thou reservest in store for Sinners. Preserve good Lord the Queen's most excellent Majesty, and grant her to our comfort, a long and prosperous reign, make her zealous & servant in the trial of thy truth & proving of thy will and testament, and oh lord forgive our enemies that have been persecutors of thy people and selaunderers of thy truth and Gospel, turn their hearts if so it be thy heavenly will, if not, (but that they be of the number of those whose hearts thou hast hardened because they should not understand the mysteries contained in thy holy word, nor the unspeakable comfort contained in the same) then suffer theyn● Lord no longer to shadow themselves in secret corners privily to work their perilous pretence, poisoning thy people with the pestilent persuasion of damnable doctrine, but according to thy promise, which is that the generation of the wicked shallbe without honour, so stand now up Lord of hosts and be no longer merciful unto thy enemies that of malicious wickedness resisting thy truth, Psaline. 59 do green as dogs at thy people, but thorough thy Godly motion, so move the heart of our most gracious Queen, as jehu, in the defence of thy Gospel and people to draw the sword committed to her by thee, to cut away from the face of the earth those rebellious enemies and sworn adversaries against thee and thy Gospel, to weed and root out the rotten members that infect and poy son the body of the common wealth, that then the noisome number and remnant of the wicked being swept out with the besom of destruction, the flock of thy fold thorough thy mighty assistance and gracious help and furtherance may all the days of our life be at defiance with Satan, utterly forsake, abhor & cast of the patched loathsome wicked weed of our old Adam, and being appareled and adorned with the gladsome garment and rich attire of righteousness, we may shine in all virtue, and be pleasant and acceptable in thy sight, to the praise and glory of thy holy name and our eternal comfort. To thee oh God the Father, the Son, & the holy Ghost, three persons and one immortal, invisible and everliving God, be all praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. Give God the praise. I. S. Imprinted at London, in Whitecrosse street, by Henry Denham. Anno Domini. 1564.