1587. A CHRISTIAN and wholesome Admonition, Directed to the Frenchmen, which are revolted from true religion, and have polluted themselves with the superstition and Idolatry of Popery.  
LONDON Printed by john Wolf, dwelling in Distaff Lane, near the sign of the Castle.   

A song or sonnet of the author containing a grave contestation and complaint of the Lord, against the unthankfulness, cowardliness, and disloyalty of the French revolts, a denunciation of their extreme woe, if they continue revolts still and an exhortation to turn to him.  

Hear heaven and earth, and all things else,  
Which th'ample cope of heaven contains:  
Hear my just plaints touching the fall,  
Of people which in France remains.  
Whose faint and feeble faith did fail  
When th'enemy did it assail.   

What moved thee my covenant  
Vnthankfullie thus to forsake:  
That thou thyself mightst join to Baal  
His cursed ways that thou mightst take?  
O people most unthankful then,  
O most ingrateful sons of men.   

Tell me if that at any time,  
I dealt with thee uncourteously?  
What means this change? hopest thou to find  
Thy good or thy felicity?  
If thou estranged be from me,  
In whom all good things are that be.   

O cursed wretch? O madding fool?  
Thou hast (that thou thyself mightst save)  
Thyself bewrapt in Satan's nets,  
Who both thy body and soul will have,  
And sure he will thy goods destroy,  
To thy great grief and sore annoy.   

Bethink thyself. Condemn thy fault,  
Return to me whose mercis great.  
A pardon is prepared for those,  
Which thorough faith shall it entreat.  
Which tears from dewe● eyes let fall,  
And unto me for mercy call.    

To the Christian Reader. O Lord strengthen us, that we may fight thy battle, stand by us, or else we can not prevail. Give us faith, and we shall have victory for ever. Amen.  
Many men are of many minds. And few there are, that accept thankfully the labours of other men, in these unthankful and last times. Yea it may be, they will think the publishing of this book to be needles, considering that we, neither (thanks be to God) now suffer, or are like to suffer persecution. For amongst us, God's word is preached, the Churches are in peace; and flourish: all things go with with us, and not against us. Again, the gospel having continued so long, by all likelihood, it taketh such deep root, as we shall not need to fear, the coming in, or springing up again of Popery. In deed, if these things were as they ought to be, received, followed, and obeyed: if men did know, and would confess the goodness of the Lord in calling them, and vouchsafing them so many mercies, in waiting so long for worthy fruits of their conversion and repentance: then no doubt, we should the less need to fear that which our sins do threaten: that in so great light, and after so many happy days: in the broad day of so many graces of knowledge & wisdom of God revealed unto men, that ever either dark popery in the course of Idolatry or heresy, atheism, or such like iniquity should ever so grow again, as that persecution should be feared. But none of these things give us any comfort. For howsoever God's word be preached, (which yet is done with great corruption, and that as scantly as may be) yet it is not followed. We have in deed some outward peace, but the spiritual peace of God, especially established in the ministery of the Gospel, that is far from us: for alack, we are waxed wanton at home, & we prescribe God abroad according to our own lusts, in the matters of his own worship: we eat and drink with the drunkard, and say: Our master is gone into a far journey, and will be long a coming home. God's enemies, the Amorites and Edomites may do what they will, and the way is not taken that should stock up by the root these cursed fruits and wicked generations. For they have long looked, though God in favour and long patience have waited for our repentance and therefore disappointed them, for the day, wherein they might once again lead us forth as sheep to the cruel slaughter. And what shall we say. Is not God just, that he should chastise his children and be obeyed of his enemies? Yes verily. In all times the godly have, and must bear their crosses. As long as Christ shall have a Church on earth, Antichrist shall have his Synagogue. There will ever be children of the flesh, to persecute those that are of the spirit. And therefore those that dream of an earthly kingdom, they deceive themselves: for it is impossible that God's servants should have their heaven in this world. God hath his cup in his hand fully mixed. His children must not only kiss the cup, and drink the first draft, but also his enemies shall sweep up the dregs even to the bottom. Wherefore my good brother, whosoever thou art, read such like exhortations as this is. And howsoever God shall work, pray that thou mayest abide such fiery trials as he doth see meet and expedient for thee. Look not upon men, but look upon the truth of thy God. All the men of the world, shall not be able to stand to plead any thy least revolt from the truth, before the almighty God. Therefore neither for living nor land, for life nor limb, deny not the least jot of his everlasting will. In time of peace, while it is yet summer, provide against winter. Before the storms come, prepare the cables. Remember the anchor that may hold the ship fast in all dangers. For surely God will come, he can not but visit, that he may purge this land from hipocrises, will-worships, vanities & follies, wherewith it is in a manner overwhelmed every where. And albeit this be to be looked for, yet fear not thou, whosoever thou be that art God's child. For these rods shall be for thy good. Thine enemies cruelty shall bring thee to felicity, and themselves to everlasting woe. God will make way for thee, to escape all peril. Though they would send thee to hell, yet thou shalt go to heaven. In killing thee, they shall honour thee, and thou shalt live for ever. The grace of our Lord jesus Christ be with thee. Amen.  
FINIS.   

TO THE RIGHT worshipful, godly, virtuous, and my singular good friends, M. Henry Nevil Esquire, and Mistress Anne Nevil his wife, grace and peace with increase of godly zeal.  
RIght worshipful, sithence my first acquaintance had with you●, such hath been the continual course of your manifold courtesies towards me, as that if I should not seek in some, though not in semblable sort to requite them, I might justly be counted a man most unthankful, if unthankful persons deserve the names of men. And because mine ability is in no case such, as that I can in such sort, as willingly I would make equal recompense for the same: I must content myself in such sort as I can to do it. And therefore as one repaying shells for nuts, or shreds for whole cloth, I thought meet to present unto your hands these my simple labours, being the first fruits of my slender knowledge in the French tongue, as a token and testimony of my thankfulness and duty, which for good causes I own unto you both, but principally in regard of that zeal of God's glory wherewith it hath pleased him to inflame both your hearts, and that in such sort as that you seem to be good means appointed of God to provoke others. As touching the work itself (right worshipful) and the necessity thereof, I need not speak, seeing it hath pleased God that somewhat should be said as may appear by my very loving brother M. I. F. touching the necessity & times of the argument even for these times whereto I refer you. And thus beseeching you most humbly to accept this simple mite at mine hands, and to pardon my boldness in presuming to make you patronize so simple a work, regarding mine own labours, I commit you to the tuition of the Almighty, beseeching him to work farther in you a true zeal of his glory, that you may zealously proceed in that course of godliness which you have begun.  
Your worships much bounden and at commandment in the Lord. Christopher Fetherstone. At Maighfield in Sussex this 24, of june. 1587.   

A Sonnet made by way of exhortation to the Frenchmen which are revolted from true religion, to the end they may return to God.  

O Frenchmen which were once beloved,  
With love surpassing that of men:  
Of God, who had by sundry signs,  
The same revealed to you as then.  
But now that God you have forsaken,  
And part with Romish idol taken.   

What spirit? what counsel? or what rage,  
So carrieth you? what hope? what fear:  
Doth make you turn: yea so revolt  
From him that loved you so dear?  
O blockishness which Satan breeds,  
Not once to see whither he you leader,   

What? will you then forsake for earth,  
The holy heavens? what? hazard all  
To gain a thing that's nothing worth?  
What thing more precious can you call,  
Then God, the soul, and body neat,  
And honour, which are riches great?   

You lose all those if you proceed,  
In course which you have erst begun:  
Return to God. Up, courage take,  
And to that path full swiftly run,  
Which constant hath proposed to you,  
Up, up, I say and enter now.    

A CHRISTIAN AND wholesome admonition, directed to the Frenchmen which are revolted from true religion, and have polluted themselves with the superstitions and Idolatries of Popery.  
AMongst the effects of true godliness, this aught by good right to be placed in the first place, as being chief, or to speak plainly, the only duty of christians, forasmuch as under it, it comprehendeth all the rest: that is in sum, that we be in such sort enforced with the zeal of God's house, that when we shall see his holy and sacred name dishonoured and blasphemed by worldly and profane men, and our poor neighbours forsaking the ensign of their sovereign Lord & master, forsaking their fellows, and taking part with the enemy of their salvation, we be thereby more moved and touched to the quick, then by any thing that can befall us. By this moving or touching I mean chief two things: the first is, that being displeased and grieved when we see such offences as redound to the dishonour of God, and to the destruction and utter ruin of our poor neighbours, we humble ourselves in the presence of our God, renting, not our garments, but our hurt, with weeping, fasting, mourning, and fervent prayers to the Lord, that it may please him to set up on foot again those of his elect which are fallen through infirmity, and to strengthen those other whom he hath preserved by his goodness, giving them grace to persist constantly even until the end, in the profession of his holy name. The second is, that every man according to his vocation do faithfully employ the gifts and graces which he hath received at the hands of God, to the maintenance of his glory, and to procure and further so much as in him lieth, the salvation of his neighbours.  
And surely so it is, that the most faithful servants of God have always done this: yea even at this day also many good men do it, whom the Lord hath preserved through his grace from the rage of this last tempest: which do not only weep & mourn, being extremely grieved and vexed, to see the ruins and desolations of the poor Churches in France, and to see the precious name of the Lord blasphemed and dishonoured by the most strange kind of revolting that ever was seen in the Church: but over and beside this, they strengthen themselves every man according to his ability to repair the breaches, and to do what in them lieth, that this evil may go no further. Now as for me, I have obtained this honour through the mercy of God, that I should be of the number of those which being dedicated and consecrated to his service, have not only their hearts wounded and pierced through with the beholding of such disorders and confusions, which are as it were a deluge or inundation of evils, wherewith the whole earth in a manner is covered: but also desire for their part to procure some wholesome remedies for these maladies.  
And therefore I determined to write some brief admonition, which I meant to direct to those whom God had particularly committed to me: and not to publish the same, directing it to all Churches in general. Which was not for want of good will toward my brethren in the Lord, and toward all the Churches of jesus Christ: but knowing mine own infirmity and insufficiency, I never durst have enterprised it without the provocation or rather injunction of my brethren and companions in the Lords work, which have charged me with this, what reasons soever I could allege for mine excuse. Which thing I meant to set down by way of preface, that the causes which induced me to write this admonition might be made known. The which I address unto all those in general, who having sometimes made open profession of religion, have now forsaken the same: always provided that there remain in them as yet some remnant of true godliness, of good conscience, and of the fear of God, and some hope of conversion. And this belongeth principally to you Frenchmen, who heretofore have taken part with true and pure religion, making protestation before God and his Angels, that you would live and die in it, and have so forsaken the impieties, superstition and idolatries of popery, that you did solemnly promise never to return to the same again, yea though you should lose not only your goods, honours, and other temporal commodities, but also your lives. Notwithstanding the only fear lest you should lose these things, and the vain imagination lest you should suffer some discmomoditie by following jesus Christ, made you break your vow and promise to God, and hath drawn you aside very quickly out of the right way of his truth, yea even to the great dishonour of his majesty, to the offence of his Church, and to your own utter destruction, unless you repent. To you it is, I say, that I direct this my work particularly, that I may lovingly and brotherly confer with you, touching the offence which you have committed: beseeching you in the name of the living God, that you would find some spare time to read it, pondering together with me the reasons which shall be therein set down before your eyes, out of the word of God. And that not only to the end you may approve the same (as all those will not stick to do, which will not flatter them selves, nor stubbornly withstand the truth of God) but above all that having approved the same, there may be in you an holy resolution, accompanied with the effect thereof: that is in sum, that you may with speed repair by a true and ready conversion that fault which you have committed. Which being well considered and weighed, as it ought, together with the circumstances thereof, you shall full well know, and shall be enforced to grant, that it is nothing so small and light as the enemies of your salvation would make you believe, namely the devil, the flesh, and the world, which endeavour moreover to cast you into a deep sleep, and so to besot you, that you may not any longer have any feeling of your faults, but may more and more plunge yourselves in filth & mire, that you may there continue, and finally become antichrists, a people without God and without religion, that is to say, being wholly become slaves to Satan, as is befallen to more people in our country of France, than were to be wished, through the just judgement of God. Furthermore, when you shall well perceive the greatness and hugeness of your fall, it must needs come to pass that you shall see the horrible & fearful judgements and vengeance, which the Lord bringeth upon all those, who through their slackness an disloyalty, have been the cause that his holy name hath been profaned, and their neighbours offended. Which knowledge may serve to bring you to a true dejection and humility before the majesty of God: not that you may faint and sink down under your burden, and so fall into despair, through the consideration of your transgressions, and by the sight of God's justice: but rather that being by this means humbled in the presence of God, you may be the better brought to draw near unto him: or rather to speak more properly, to provoke him to draw nearer to you: according to that which the Prophet saith, that The Lord is nigh unto those that are comfortless, beaten down, and broken in heart, and saveth them that be of a contrite spirit, even through the feeling of their sins and iniquities: so that a man may truly say, that such humility is as it were the first gate or door to enter in unto the throne of the grace and mercy of God: who is in such sort just to punish sinners in his wrath, even those which are obstinate, and which harden their hearts when they hear his voice, and abuse his patience, that he is also ready to show mercy, he is pitiful, gentle, and merciful to all those which being convict in their conscience, and having accused themselves before God, return unto him without feigning, throwing themselves as it were into the arms of his most bountiful father, to seek for grace at his hands.  
These are (my brethren) the principal points which I mean, by the grace of God, to lay open unto you in this my present writing: that is, a brief collection of that which you must do, that you may escape the just wrath and indignation of the Lord, and be reconciled to him. This is that which I require at your hands, for the glory of God, and for your own benefit and salvation: this is that which all your brethren & members (whom God hath preserved) desire and crave daily at the hands of God with groanings, sighs, and most fervent prayers. This is that which the Angels of heaven look for at your hands, that they may rejoice and praise God for your conversion: Briefly, this is that whereunto you are called and invited by the goodness and clemency of our heavenly father, who stretcheth out his arms unto you, to embrace you as his children. Wherefore it standeth you upon to look to it: for the case so standeth that you must now either honour or dishonour God, you must either be saved, or else condemned?  
Now forasmuch as my desire is to help & comfort you therein, I will take pain, through God's help, to make these things more plain, & somewhat more largely & in order to deduct them. First of all then, if you be desirous to come to the true knowledge of your fault that you may detest the same, & obtain pardon for it at the hands of God, you must beware that you weigh it not in a false balance, such as is that of Satan's, the flesh, & the world, the sworn enemies of our salvation: for these shall not be your judges at the last day: but you must peyze them in the seals of the will of God, which is declared unto us in his word: for that is the only most certain, and most perfect rule whereto all our actions must be referred, & wherewith they must all be hedged in, and according to the which alone men shall be judged of the Lord.  
I know full well that all those which have forgotten themselves in this case, forsaking the profession of true religion, that they may range themselves under the banner Antichrist, must not be placed in one & the same rank. For one sort is so fallen that they are as it were out of all hope ever to be able to rise again, of which sort are that heap and rabble of hypocrites, which had intruded themselves into the Church of God, making a show that they would follow jesus Christ, and make profession of his Gospel: notwithstanding, forasmuch as they never had any sparkle of true godliness, neither any will to renounce their concupiscences, and the vanities of this world, that they might dedicate & consecrated themselves to God, to follow jesus Christ, & to reform their life according to the doctrine of his Gospel, it is come to pass that their hypocrisy is discovered: for seeing they could not (so long as they professed religion) give their lusts the bridle, and run into all filthiness, dissoluteness, and infamous facts: give over themselves to their delights and filthy pleasure, satisfy their ambition & covetousness, enjoy their ease, delicates, & commodities of this life, take their pastime, and so live in such rest according to the flesh, that they might not be disquieted or troubled any manner of way Briefly, seeing they could not serve two masters which were quite contrary the one to the other, that is to say, God & the Devil, they forsook God & gave themselves to follow the world, which is as it were the devils bawd: other some stayed not till they might be tried by the fan of persecutions, & so to go out of the church, but they revolted of their own accord at sundry times, & upon divers occasions, either because they could not abide to be reproved for their faults & offences, or else because they would not submit their neck to the yoke of jesus Christ, & range themselves according to the order of the church as others did, or else because they could not addict themselves to the affairs of the world as hath been said. This was the cause why they stumbled at the first stumbling stone whereon they light in the way, nay rather they went purposely to seek the same. Othersome have taken occasion at the cross & persecution. And albeit the most part of these men make a show that they approve our religion, & yet to the end they may be counted good Catholics, are more superstitious, and addicted to ceremonies than others, yet so it is that they be very Epicures & Atheists, which in their hearts deride all religion. As for this sort of men, we may rather desire it than ever hope for it, that they will ever be brought to a true knowledge of their offence, that they may turn unto the Lord: For the Prince of darkness hath stricken them with such blindness, through the just judgement of God, that they are in greater darkness of beastly ignorance, as touching the knowledge of their fault, than they were before they came to the knowledge of the truth. And it fareth with them as with him that in a dark night cometh to put out a candle or light wherewith he was enlightened a while, for afterward his eyes dazzle more, & he is in worse case than before he had that light. Therefore no marvel if these men be so turned out of the right way, that they cannot return into the same again. For as the Apostle saith, If those which have once been illuminated, and have tasted of the heavenvly gift, & have been made partakers of the holy ghost, and have tasted of the good word of God, and of the powers of the world to come: If these I say, fall away, it is impossible that they should be renewed to repentance: seeing they crucify the son of God afresh, so much as in them lieth, and make a mock of him. Now then forasmuch as these men are hardened in their wickedness, & so consequently incurable, it were but lost labour to write to them, & to exhort them to acknowledge and amend their fault, wherefore my meaning is not to apply myself to them in this my writing, save only to denounce against them the sentence of the holy ghost, speaking by the Apostle to the hebrews, that is, that seeing they have sinned willingly after they knew the truth, that is to say, seeing that being altogether estranged and cut off from the Church of jesus Christ, they take pleasure in iniquity, & contrary to the testimony of their own conscience do maliciously resist the known truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin for them, but a fearful looking for judgement, and a consuming fire which shall devour the adversaries. And this is that which we both can & will say, touching these men at this time.  
But as for you my brethren to whom I now speak, God will not have me to reckon you amongst those men: for if it were so, then would not I take so much pains as to write to you. But as I know that in the more part of you there was more frailty than malice & hatred against the truth, so likewise I have a good hope, that after the lord through his goodness hath beheld you with the same eye wherewith he beheld S. Peter, he will make you come out of the house of that wicked Priest Caiphas, where Antichrist & his ministers pursue jesus Christ to death, & spit in his face with mocks, railings and blasphemies most horrible: I hope also that after you have wept bitterly for your fault, you shall be reconciled to God, and received to mercy. Notwithstanding it is very necessary that you be awaked up & thoroughly touched, lest you lie sleeping in your sin, and so flatter yourselves, whether by excusing or lessening your fault, or by feeding yourselves with I cannot tell what vain hope, and so fall finally into the same hardness and obstinacy whereinto many are fallen: who when they first began to fall away, made none account always to continue in the filthy sink: but did hope, yea & persuade themselves to come out thence in time: notwithstanding they have suffered themselves to be lulled fast asleep by the world in the bed of their tender & delicate flesh, they drive off from day to day, waiting for some golden world wherein the Gospel of jesus Christ might be preached without contradiction, and the profession of religion should no longer bring with it the cross & afflictions. But what? They see that in steed of having an end, these afflictions continue, nay are redoubled contrary to their hope: forasmuch as they never as yet learned this lesson which jesus Christ teacheth all those which will follow him, that is, 
Mat. 16  that they forsake themselves, and take up their cross, that they may bear it during their whole life, and that being thus prepared they follow him. Forasmuch then as these men see themselves deceived by their vain hope, and that they never took any time to bethink themselves and to ponder their fault, and to mark and consider the judgements of God upon those that are so slack and disloyal as to fly from their ensign, at such time as they are to enter the battle: they are resolved to forsake all, and to lie tumbling in their filth, that they may perish miserably, yea eternally, rather than they will suffer even a little with jesus Christ, that they may reign and be glorified with him eternally. And now my brethren to the end you may make your profit of their folly, and that by other men's harms you may learn to be wise, you must beware that you take not the same way which they have taken: but contrariwise enter you rather into yourselves, and examine your conscience thoroughly without flattery, giving the same judgement of your fault, and pronouncing the same sentence of condemnation against your own selves, which you sometimes gave upon these which had used the like slackness & disloyalty, to the end that judging yourselves you may not be judged of the Lord, as saith the Apostle. And that you may the better do this, you must rather hearken to the voice of God, and to the witness of your own conscience which accuseth you, then to the enchanting voice of that old Serpent, who to the end he may seduce you (as he hath already made too great a beginning) ceaseth not to whisper into the ear of your conscience, that which he sometimes said to our first parents: and hath God said, you shall not eat of every tree of the Garden, etc. And if he cannot bring his matters so about that he can take from you all feeling of your offence, and all perceiving and understanding of the judgement and vengeance of God, he will suggest unto you by the flesh and the world divers excuses wherewith you may cloak and lessen the same, making you believe (if possibly he can) that it is not so horrible as men say it is: or else he will give you his accustomed cup of slumbering, besmeared with some hope to return to God again, when the tyranny is overpast: but he will beware that he do not tell you, that all that which he doth, tendeth to draw you away by little & little from the obedience of God your father, that he may hale you to eternal destruction: but on the contrary he will persuade you, if he can, that hereby you provide for your good, and comfort. Notwithstanding you know that he is a liar and deceiver: for when he went about to blind the eyes of our first parents, he told them: your eyes shallbe opened: and when he sought to make them devils like to himself, he said unto them, you shall be Gods: and intending to make them subject to the first and second death, he promised them immortality and life, saying: you shall not die. Beware then how you give ear to his deceitful and wicked counsels, to the enticements and enchantments of this enchanter, who is an enemy to your salvation: but rather hearken to the voice of that Sovereign Physician who will not only make you feel and know your grief, the danger wherein you are, and the means whereby you may provide for your curing: but will also heal you himself, if yourselves be not a stop and hindrance to it.  
First of all than my brethren, I most earnestly beseech, and beseech you again in the name of this great God and father of mercy, that you will earnestly consider how many ways your fault deserveth condemnation before God. You know that the most vile vice and that which both most of all deserve to be punished by all laws both divine and humane, is this, to wit, if a child do so degenerate that he withdraw himself from submitting himself to a good father and mother, yea denieth them to be his parents, and doth become a servant and slave to a stranger that is even their very deadly enemy, and in whose house he shall be constrained to hear a thousand speeches tending to their dishonour and reproach: or if a subject be so unthankful, unfaithful, disloyal, and treacherous to his natural Prince (at whose hands he had received many benefits and great honour) as to revolt from his obedience, and to band himself with his mortal enemy which maketh open war against him. And yet you have dealt thus. For the Lord had sometimes granted you such favour as to draw you out of Satan's family (whose slaves you were by nature) that he might adopt you in his son jesus Christ, that he might make you sit at his own table, and train you up as his own children, and make you inheritors of his kingdom, but you are departed out of his house, and having denied him to be your father, you have quite forsaken him, that you might become slaves to Satan, in whose synagogue your ears shall be polluted with infinite and horrible blasphemies against the Majesty of God. You had a good mother, which is the Church of jesus Christ, which had conceived you in her womb by the incorruptible seed of the word of God, which had brought you forth not without great pangs and thralls of afflictions and persecutions, had given you suck with her two breasts which are the old and new testament, and which had brought you up and nursed you with great care, bearing your infirmities, and covering and wiping away your filth: and in am of all this you have forsaken her, denying her to be your mother, and have even as it were thrown yourselves into the arms of a strange strumpet, or rather of that great whore of Babylon, which in steed of giving you good and wholesome nourishment, giveth you to drink the poison of her uncleanness and abominable whoredoms, that your souls may thereby be infected and destroyed: and she ceaseth not to make deadly war against your chaste mother the spouse of jesus Christ, and to murder all her children. Furthermore, you had a good king and Sovereign Lord even jesus Christ the eternal son of God, who loved you so dearly that he gave himself up to death for your sakes which were his enemies, who had delivered you from the tyranny and slavery of the devil, who had redeemed you, not with gold or silver or any other corruptible thing, but by his own precious blood, which he shed for you: and not only so, but had over and beside granted you so great honour as to make you his fellows, that he might make you partakers of his graces, of his glory, and of his celestial kingdom: and yet for all this, as soon as he summoned you to the combat of the cross, that he might make you go the self same way which he had gone before you, to the end that after the victory he might give you the crown of glory and immortality: you turned your backs and forsook him, yea you renounced him (if not all, at least the greater part of you) by the most execrable abjuration which that infernal Dragon did ever spew out of his stinking mouth against the Majesty of God: and that which more is, you have enrolled yourselves under the captain of all impiety, which is Antichrist of Rome, the sworn enemy of the son of God and of your salvation. See what an heap of backslidinges, disloyalties, and most vile unthankfulness here is. But now I do well perceive that those which will not give glory to God, nor give ear to his word, but take counsel of Satan, to confirm themselves in their error, will not be unprovided of replies, and will not be ashamed (some such there be) to seek to cover or lessen their fault, alleging that old saying of time servers and of certain backsliders, which know full well, yea in their hearts condemn the abuses, impieties, superstitions, and Idolatries of Popery, and are constrained to confess the truth, to wit, that that is the very true religion which we profess through the grace of God. Notwithstanding because they are afraid to bear the blows, they will not march on under the banner of jesus Christ: but to the end they may apply themselves to the world, they follow the banner of Antichrist. Moreover if a man come to admonish them and to tell them their duty, they reply, that albeit they serve the devil with their bodies, yet they cease not to be Christians, and children of God, forasmuch as they reserve him the chief, which is the Spirit, wherewith they serve and honour him: and though they have forsaken the church of jesus Christ, and are fallen from their profession of the Gospel, and have renounced religion, yet was not this in heart, and with affection, but only in word. But all these allegations are so feeble, and these replies are so frivolous, that they deserve none answer at all. And I am very certain that the most part of you my brethren, have sometimes rejected them, as not worthy to be received, and of none importance, when they would have paid you with such money, yea I am sure you laugh at them even at this time in your own hearts: and that for good cause. For where can you find that the Lord hath permitted us to make such a partition between our soul and body, as with the one to serve God, and the devil with the other? Is not the Lord the creator and saviour aswell of the one as of the other? Will not he be glorified in both? We know that the Apostle will have us to offer not only our spirits, but also our bodies to the Lord in Sacrifice, that is, that we consecrate and dedicate ourselves to the service of God, both in soul and body. And that which more is, our bodies are called by the Apostle the Temples of God, and must be made partakers of his glory aswell as ourselves: even then when we shall be fashioned according to the glorious body of the Son of God. It followeth then that we must not serve the devil therewith, polluting them with superstitions & Idolatries, but we must keep them in all pureness and holiness for the service of our god. For what husband is he that is so foolish which would take such an answer for payment at his wives hand, and that would suffer her to make such a partition? If a woman were so impudent and shameless as to speak to her husband on this wise: my husband, I prostitute my body indeed to such & such, and make it common every day in the brothelhouse: but I reserve the better part for you, and that's mine heart, wherewith I love you, serve and honour you. I pray you, should not such a woman deserve to be cast off, of her husband as a mocker, or rather as a common, vile, and detestable harlot? It is most certain that she should. What will the Lord than do, who is jealous over his glory and our salvation, who hath espoused us to himself, that keeping our faith and promise made to him, we may be pure and chaste in body and mind? What will he do, (I say) if we pollute our bodies in Idolatry, which is spiritual whoredom? Wherefore we see that this is a vain excuse: for indeed if this partition could have been made with a good conscience, that is to say, to prostrate the body before Idols, and to keep the heart for God, think we that Daniel and the three Hebrew children would not rather have used this opportunity, then to have exposed their life to so great dangers, seeing there was nothing required at their hands save only an outward kind of worship. But what shall we say of so many martyrs, whose memory is fresh as yet? Who would rather shed the last drop of their blood, or be burnt alive with soft fire, then once to bow their knee before Baal, how little soever it were? Why did they it not for safeguard of their life to preserve it from so cruel torments, and from the fire? Because they feared eternal torments, and the fire of God's wrath, who abhorreth such Idolatry, what protestation soever we make, that we keep our heart whole and pure for him, for he will have both the one and the other. Now it may appear by that, what account we ought to make of that other reply, which many amongst you have in their mouth, when a man studieth to set before their eyes the filthiness of their fault. If I tell you that you have abjured and forsworn christian religion, and received and allowed all the abominations of the great whore: also that you have denied the son of God, and acknowledged this Idol of Antichrist, putting him as it were in his place, you will say that you did it not with your heart & affection, but only in word, to content men, and you think that you may escape by this goodly distinction. But the Lord will not judge you after your subtleties & sophistry, which shall vanish away like smoke, when we shall appear before the throne of his Majesty. He hath not said, He which shall confess me with the heart and affection, him will I confess before my father in heaven, and before his Angels: & he which shall deny me with the heart, him will I also deny: but he speaketh of confessing and acknowledging those which shall confess him before men, and of rejecting and denying those which shall have denied and renounced him before men: And what is it to confess jesus Christ before men? It is to make open profession of his Gospel, to make free confession of his truth, yea to feel it with our blood, if need be, after the example of this cloud of martyrs, which shall stand up in judgement against you at the great day. On the other side, what is it to deny jesus Christ before men? is it not to do even as you have done? And to do that which you do as yet daily.  
But lest you think that I charge you to sore, and without cause, I beseech you consider with an equal and quiet mind, what this cursed and detestable abjuration which you have made, importeth: the which I cannot read without an inward trembling: especially when I behold the cursed and miserable estate of so many silly souls, which by this means are caught in Satan's net, wherein they continue entangled until such time as they be united again with the Church of jesus Christ. But admit there be some few among you, which have exempted themselves from making the foresaid abjuration, yet you cease not to deny jesus Christ to be your sole Saviour, to tread his blood under your feet, and to renounce the merit of his death and passion, when by your presence & assistance you approve that abomination of the mass, which is the seal, and detestable sacrament of this abjuration, and renouncing of the son of God, and as it were a poisoned heap of all the impieties of popish doctrine.  
But for the better explaining of all this, let us consider the things more distinctly: not that I purpose to rip up all the points that are comprised in this goodly form of confession and abjuration, and to refute them by reasons and plain testimonies of Scripture: for than I should make a great volume touching that matter alone: which should be a superfluous thing, seeing I should then handle and do again that which hath been already done most excellently by many excellent servants of God in our time: & specially by him who made not long ago, the answer to the profession of faith, published against those of the reformed church, by the Archbishop & monks of Bourdeaux, in which answer framed according to the word of god, he doth plainly & amply depaint & point out all the abuses, impieties, superstitions & idolatries of popery, which are gathered into their forms of abjuration, so that they are made known to all even, to little children, unless they be such as be blinded by the prince of darkness. Furthermore I have not enterprised here to dispute against those, which admit no reason, nor no word of God, but only custom, the traditions of the fathers, their opinions, their dreams & toys, the laws, ordinances, statutes and tyrannous decrees of their Antichrist: for this were but lost labour. And surely, I do not write properly to those men: but unto you my brethren do I speak: to you I say, which know these abuses by the word of God, which have condemned and detested them, & which are convict in your own conscience, that all the points of doctrine contained in this abjuration, are as many horrible blasphemies against jesus Christ, and the doctrine of his Gospel: except the Nicene creed, the which these cozeners have set in the very beginning of this goodly confession, which they have made, to blear the eyes of the simple fools, as if their doctrine were conformable to this creed, and as if we did reject and reprove the same: whereas contrariwise it is we that receive it, confess, and approve it in all points and throughout, as being grounded upon the word of God: and on the other side they so pronounce it with their mouth in their execrable mass, that they reject the most part of those points that are contained in it, and in the Apostles creed: as we could depaint out before their eyes, and make them touch with their finger, if they had eyes to see, ears to hear, and an heart to understand that which should be set before them out of the word of God. Forasmuch then as you are not ignorant of these things which you have learned out of the word of God, it shall be enough for me to touch them superficially, to put you in mind thereof, and by this means to represent unto you in some sort, the filthiness, foulness, and deformity of your fall, to the end you may be ashamed thereof, and confounded in yourselves, yea so grieved, that God may be glorified in your conversion.  
first of all, consider I pray you how many impieties and horrible blasphemies are comprised in the second article which followeth immediately after the recital of the Nicene creed. You have thereby protested to receive and allow, all the abuses, errors, superstitions, idolatries, and abominations of the Church of Rome, and to renounce the truth of God, which hath been taught you out of his word: for you receive the holy Scripture upon such condition, that it shall not be interpreted according to the Analogy of faith (as S. Paul commandeth) that is, that it shall not be interpreted according to the Scripture itself, 
Rom. 12.  conferring one place with an other, that there may such sense be gathered thence as shallbe agreeable to the grounds and articles of the christian faith: but according to the sense & interpretation, which it shall please them to give it, which falsely taking to themselves the right and authority to interpret, do ordinarily and most manifestly corrupt and pervert the same for maintenance of their dreams & inventions. So that by this one only article you have promised to condemn (as being false) all the true and pure doctrine of your salvation which you have learned out of the word of God, interpreted by the word of God himself: & on the other side to approve all the corruptions, lies, and falsehood of the leaven of the pharisees, which is in the doctrine of Antichrist, And what shall we call this, but to turn light to darkness, to reject jesus Christ as a liar, and to embrace Antichrist as being true? Surely by agreeing to this one only article, you have (so much as in you lay) given as great advantage to the enemies of the Gospel, as if a man should deliver up into the hands of his adversary, all his papers, rights, and instruments giving him leave to turn them all to his most advantage, yea to interpret the laws as he list, and to pronounce such sentence as he shall think good, as if he were both judge & plaintiff. And surely there is no error so absurd, no abuse so gross, no impiety so abominable, which Antichrist and his ministers do not maintain by this means against the truth of God: for when a man shall allege plain places of scripture in defence of the truth, and to refute falsehood: and that the matter shall be made so plain and so evident of itself, that they cannot tell what to answer on the contrary, this shall be their last refuge: to wit, that our holy mother the church understandeth these places otherwise: and that the Scripture admitteth none other sense and interpretation, no yet any other authority, save that which it pleaseth our holy father the Pope to bestow upon it. Thus will they argue: so that by making you allow and approve this article, there resteth no more now, but that they may freely triumph over jesus Christ, and his doctrine, in so much that it was not needful to specify the rest which follow: the proof whereof dependeth upon the granting of this alone. Notwithstanding seeing that to the end they might more strictly bind you unto them they make a recital of the principal heads of their false doctrine examine them all one after another, and you shall full well know what reprehension your back sliding deserveth.  
The third is no less pernicious than the second. For it followeth upon it as a general consequence, drawing after it all the special consequences & conclusions, which they make touching their inventions, & human traditions, whereby they have corrupted & perverted the pure service of God aswell in regard of the doctrine, as of the ceremonies, which they could never maintain & defend, were it not that their false gloss & interpretations which they give upon the scriptures did help them. Wherefore seeing you have granted them this, that it belongeth to them to give the Scripture such sense and interpretation as shall seem best to them, it followeth thereupon, that you do likewise grant to them, that all the abuses, all the dreams, and toys, all the ceremonies & observations which Satan hath brought in into the church, whereof some are altogether foolish, frivolous, & ridiculous, and other superstitious coupled together with impiety & idolatry, without having any ground in the scripture, yea being directly contrary to the same for the most part, and by the which also the purity and simplicity of Christian religion hath been turned into a kind of judaism & Paganism: you grant to them, I say, that all these babbles, all this filth & abominations are good and holy, as being parcels of the service of God, being established in the church by our Lord jesus Christ & his Apostles: as also these liars have been so shameless as to call all these filthy and stinking dregs, which have infected the Church: traditions, observations, and ordinances of the Apostles. But you know full well that they agree aswell with the doctrine of Christ & his Apostles, as darkness with light, and falsehood with truth. For where can they find that jesus Christ or his Apostles did ordain the mass together with the furniture & trappings thereof which are full of foolish toys? Where can they find that filth, wherewith they have corrupted holy baptism, as cream, salt, spittle, conjured water, lights and such like things? Where can they find the baptizing of Bells, holy water, Processions, Prayer for the dead, and a thousand such babbles, toys, & trifles as were too long to rehearse? But chiefly an infinite number of errors contained in the mass, and in all the rest of their book of ceremonies? Of which sort is that execrable idolatry which they commit in worshipping a morsel of Bread, the invocation and intercession of saints the adoring and worshipping of the images, and relics of dead Saints, the fire of Purgatory, the Pope's pardons & indulgences, and such like impieties condemned by the word of God. And yet for all this like silly souls you have miserably bound yourselves to receive and approve all these things. O eternal God is it possible that you should have been so undiscrete? Is it possible that you should continue so blockish as to have no remorse of conscience in you.  
But let us proceed: you have been taught out of the word of God that jesus Christ hath for the continual use of his Church instituted only two Sacraments, to wit, Baptism, and the holy Supper, to represent unto us the holy mysteries of our salvation, that is to say, our regeneration, and the spiritual life which we draw from jesus Christ our head, in as much as we are most strictly united and coupled together with him: and to seal up in our hearts the promises of salvation and eternal life, which are there made unto us by the Lord. You know moreover, that the Church of God must content itself with these two, not only because they are sufficient to represent unto us all the benefits of jesus Christ, and to assure us of his grace & favour, but also because it is not lawful for mortal man, no not for the very Angels to ordain any sacraments, or to establish any thing in the service of God: forasmuch as this right belongeth to god alone. notwithstanding mark what you confess by the fourth article of this tyrannous abjuration: you acknowledge that there be 7. sacraments in the law of grace, instituted by jesus Christ: which is most false. We confess indeed that that which they call Confirmation (which is nothing else but a receiving of such as are instructed & catechized in the church catechisms into the church, that is to say, of those which having been catechized and instructed in the doctrine of Christ, were received into the fellowship of the faithful with prayer to recommend them to God) is an holy thing, which hath been practised in the Primitive Church, even in the Apostles time: also we do not deny but that repentance (which is nothing else but the acknowledging of our faults & the misliking of the same, & the amendment of our life) is a good & wholesome thing, ordained & commanded of God: we confess also that that which they call the order of Priesthood (that is to say, the laying on of hands, which was used in the Church in old time, & which is used at this day in many reformed Churches, when Pastors, Elders, Deacons, & other ecclesiastical persons are to be admitted unto the public charges of the church) we confess, I say, that this is a laudable & holy ceremony, ordained & practised by the Apostles. As for marriage we know also that it is an holy institution of the Lord, & that the custom of blessing the same in the Church is Christian. We grant I say, that all these things are good and holy, & are grounded upon the word of God: but we deny them to be Sacraments. First of all because jesus Christ hath not instituted them to be such: and secondly because they have not those things that are required necessarily in true Sacraments: for than they must have been ordained by jesus Christ to continue in the Church until the consummation of the world: and for the use of the whole Church in general, and of every member thereof in particular. Furthermore, there should have been visible signs to represent the invisible graces of God, and the promises of salvation and eternal life, which things we see to be in baptism and in the holy supper only. As for extreme unction as they call it, we do not deny but that the oil wherewith the Apostles did anoint the sick, was an outward sign which did represent the grace of God, even in that time of the said Apostles who had the gift of healing: but this Sacrament lasted but for a time, and had an end together with the gift of healing & working miracles. We conclude then that there be but two Sacraments in the Church of Christ, and that the other five were invented by men. And yet you confess that all that was instituted by Christ jesus: & that which is worse, you avouch an horrible blasphemy, when you grant that the Sacraments confer grace: for by this you attribute not only to the true Sacraments, but also to men's inventions, that which belongeth to the holy Ghost, who alone conferreth the grace signified by them, and that to the true faithful alone. And the Sacraments (as also the word) are only instruments which he useth to this end: so that we receive by them nothing appertaining to our salvation, unless the spirit of God work inwardly in us, and unless we have a true and lively faith.  
You have also learned by the same word of God that the said Sacraments must be ministered with the same purity & simplicity wherewith they were instituted by our sovereign Doctor & master jesus Christ, 
Deut 4. & 12. Pro. 30. Apo. 22.  and that it is an intolerable boldness to add any thing thereto, and detestable sacrilege to take any thing, therefrom, how little soever it be: forasmuch as this were to seek to be more wise than he who is the eternal wisdom of the father. And yet nevertheless you approve by the first article all those ceremonies which these men have annexed to the administration of the Sacraments, which they have wickedly and ungodly profaned and polluted. Also you allow all those things which they use in the administration thereof, which they themselves have invented and ordained how foolish, superstitious and wicked soever they be: as you know that the more part of them do rather resemble jugglers tricks and toys, or the superstitious & profane fashions of the heathen, than the simplicity & gravity of Christians. Moreover, you approve by the same article two horrible sacrileges which amongst others they commit in the administration of the sacraments, to wit, that they separate those things which God hath coupled together, that is, the preaching of the word, which is as it were the soul of the sacraments: and then they rend in pieces the holy Supper of the Lord, if that which they call their Communion, can be the true supper: for they excommunicate the simple people from one essential part of the supper, namely from the cup, contrary to the express commandment of jesus Christ, who saith, Drink ye all of this. And it is said in another of the evangelists, that all of them drank thereof. 
Mat. 26. Mar. 14.  Consider then with what conscience you could assent to such falsehoods and iniquities.  
But this is not all: come to that which followeth afterward, & consider I pray you how many pernicious errors, & horrible blasphemies are contained in the sixth and seventh articles. First of all you have been taught by the word of God that all hope of our salvation resteth in the only oblation which jesus Christ made of his body upon the cross to appease the wrath of God toward his elect, & that this sacrifice of the son of God was once so offered, 
Heb. 7. & 9  as saith the Apostle, that it neither can nor aught to be reiterated, being most entire and perfect and therefore most sufficient to reconcile us to God. Notwithstanding you renounce this, or at least seem to make it imperfect and insufficient, when you acknowledge that the mass is a propitiatory sacrifice for the quick and the dead, that is to say, that it is of such power as to purchase God's favour, to appease his wrath, and to make satisfaction for sins, and in sum to redeem and save us: so that you put the mass an execrable idol in place of jesus Christ, spoiling him of the honour which to him belongeth, which is to be our sole & sovereign priest, and only propitiatory sacrifice which alone hath this virtue to appease the Father, & to make him become favourable to us. Furthermore you avouch an horrible blasphemy against the manhood of jesus Christ, when you confess this goodly doctrine of their transubstantiation. And surely this error is of such importance, that it bringeth which it an infinite number of other errors, and spoileth us of all hope of salvation, if we receive it. For if jesus Christ were not very man, he should not have truly died for us, and so have satisfied God's judgement for the sins of men, and so consequently we should as yet remain in death. But now he should not have been very man like to us in all things except sin, 
H●b. 2. & 4.  as saith the Apostle, if his body had been invisible as some ghost, under a morsel of bread at such time as he ordained his Supper together with his Apostles: and if the Bread and Wine were transubstantiated into his body and into his blood, by whispering certain words, which they call Sacramental words (which is a kind of charm) so that he was there flesh and bone, as thick and as great as when he was upon the true tree of the cross, as these men most impudently affirm: it should follow that the wicked ones & unbelieving of the world could receive jesus Christ, & that he should be in danger to be gnawn of vermin, not to speak of a thousand other errors & damnable absurdities which should require too long time if I should stand to rip them up. Also if jesus Christ should every day come down between the Priest's hands, that which is contained in the articles of our faith should not be true, that he is ascended into heaven, where he shall be (as touching his humanity) until he come at the last day to judge both the quick & the dead: as is confirmed by S. Peter, who saith that the heavens must contain him, 
Act. 3.  until the restoring of all things, etc. Furthermore if he were at one time in an infinite number of places as touching his humanity, his human nature should be converted into the divine nature which alone is infinite. To be short, if the doctrine of the papists touching the manhood of jesus Christ were true, them were he not very man, & so consequently not our mediator. And if this were so, them sholud it follow that we should be as yet under the curse of God. Mark then what you have done. But over and beside consider, that by allowing that doctrine of transubstantiation, you make yourself as guilty of that cursed idolatry which is committed in worshipping a morsel of paste or bread, as if it were the son of God. I omit to speak of another error which issueth out of their transubstantiation whereof they make mention about the end of the seventh article: where they say that under both kinds is wholly contained the body of jesus Christ. They had forgotten to say the blood, that they might thereby continue their concomitancy or accompanying of both kinds under one, which they have forged in their own brain, to the end they might maintain this sacrilege, in that they have rob the simple people of the use of the cup. But there is not in all that so much as one sparkle of truth, and yet you allow all these iniquities by this cursed abjuration.  
As for Purgatory which you confess in the eight article, do you not perceive what violence you offer to the son of God, 
john 1. 1. joh. 1. 1. joh. 2. Heb. 1.  and what injury you offer to yourselves? You know that jesus Christ is that Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world: that his blood cleanseth us from all sin: that he is the atonement or propitiaton for our sins, & that he himself hath purged them, etc. Lo it is he which is our true Purgatory. And yet you confess another, making of none effect, so much as in you lieth, the virtue of the precious blood of this unspotted lamb, and renouncing the true purgation of your sins.  
Furthermore, 
Mat. 4. joh. 14. joh. 15. 1. tim 2. 1. joh. 2.  know you not that there is one only God whom we must worship and reverence, to whom we must pray, & upon whom we must call, and that in the name and mediation of jesus Christ alone who is our only mediator, advocate and intercessor? And yet consider what confession you have made in the ninth Article contrary to your own conscience: that is, that you must worship, pray unto, and call upon saints: which is manifest idolatry, forasmuch as invocation is a kind of worshipping. And furthermore you avouch that the saints are our advocates & intercessors, which is to rob jesus Christ of that honour which belongeth to him alone. But you do worse than this comes too, when you confess that you must worship or reverence the relics of the said Saints: under which words they comprehend not only the bones and relics of dead Saints, but also the stinking and rotten carkaises of many, whose souls it may be are tormented in Hell, as saith an ancient Doctor? and not only the bones of men, but also of beasts, which these deceivers make the poor blockish people worship, that they may thereby get money. And is it possible them that you should be come to such blockishness?  
But what will you say to that which they make you confess by the tenth article? that men must not only have images of jesus Christ, of the virgin Marie, and of all the other saints, but also that they must worship and honour them. Know you not that this is contrary to the express commandment of the Lord? and that such honour and worship is abominable idolatry? 
Exod. 20.  Moreover, have you so slenderly profited in the knowledge of God, and of his holy truth, that you have not learned to abhor and detest that cursed and damnable merchandise which the Pope maketh of his pardons and indulgences, which he selleth for good round sums of ready money, to the great dishonour of the son of God, to the contempt of his precious blood, and to the hurt of poor souls? Have you ever read either in the old or new Testament, that the blood and merits of Saints ought to be coupled with the blood and merit of jesus Christ thereby to race out sins, and to satisfy God's justice. Have you ever read that jesus Christ hath commanded that of such a mingle mangle should be made a treasure which should be at the disposing of that Antichrist of Rome, to bestow it upon whom soever he will, or rather to sell it to those, that would buy it, and that such pardons should be profitable for all Christians, that is to say, such as should be able to save them from sin and from eternal death. And yet they are so impudent as to say so, yea to affirm that jesus Christ is the author of such abominations, & that hath he left them to the church, that is according to their interpretation, to the Pope, that he might be the keeper and steward thereof. And yet you have been so blind as to grant such an impiety by the eleventh article. O immortal God, who would ever have looked for any such thing at your hands.  
And that which worse is, you do not only approve this cursed tyranny of Antichrist, confessing by the twelfth article that the great whore of Babylon (which they falsely call the holy Catholic and Apostolic Church) is the mother and mistress of all other Churches, but you do also withdraw yourselves from the obedience and subjection which you own unto the only, and high Bishop of our souls, which is jesus Christ, that you may become slaves and servants to the tyrannous lordship of the Bishop of Rome, (yea binding yourselves with promise and oath thereto) who calleth himself most impudently the successor of Peter. But you know that the life and doctrine of th'one and other, do plainly show that there is as great difference between S. Peter and the pope of Rome, as between an Angel of God, and an angel of Satan. Which were quickly proved, if it were needful to enter any farther into this matter: as also that which he saith of this holy Apostle, calling him Prince or chief of the Apostles, to the end he may establish his own tyrannous primacy. But you know that this is a fair flat lie: for he cannot find so much as one syllable in the whole scripture, whereby he can prove the jesus Christ appointed Peter to be prince and chief over his other Apostles much less that this holy Apostle did ever exercise any lordship over his companions: but rather we see that all of them did faithfully exercise their ministery there where God called them, with equal authority, without any pretence of primacy or superiority of one over another. But admit we should grant the Pope that, yet he must prove many other things before he can make this conclusion, that he is therefore chief of all Bishops, and head of the Church. Which he shall never be able to do out of the word of God. You are not ignorant how untruly this cursed creature calleth himself the vicar of jesus Christ: who ceaseth not to persecute him in his members with desperate rage: yea who hath corrupted, perverted, and falsified the doctrine of the Gospel: who oppresseth the Church of jesus Christ, constraining her with might and main to forsake and renounce her true spouse, to commit fornication with Satan in all manner of pollutions, profanations, & abominable idolatries, that he may hale her headlong with him to hell. You know that he is the man of sin, the son of perdition, which sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself against God, and making himself to be worshipped as God: yea boasting and vaunting himself forth as God: you know that he is in sum very Antichrist, that is, a sworn enemy of jesus Christ and his doctrine. To be brief, you know that he is the very lieutenant and vicar of that murderer of bodies and souls, which is the devil: whose commandments and ordinances he executeth most exactly against the poor faithful children of God: and yet you are so besotted that you confess him to be the vicar of jesus Christ. O what blindness is this? And what brutish blockishness.  
Finally, to the end you might leave nothing undone which might appertain to a full and perfect renouncing of christian religion, of the fellowship of jesus Christ and of his church, and to a full approbation and acknowledging of all impieties and abominations which are in the kingdom of Antichrist, you promise and vow to keep entirely and inviolably even until your last breat all that which hath been determined and concluded by their Canons, decrees, and counsels, and principally all the tyrannous and wicked decrees and ordinances of the council of Trent: wherein the pure and true doctrine of jesus Christ hath been accursed and condemned as false and erroneous: and contrariwise wherein all the impieties and abominations of Antichrist have been confirmed and ratified: and all this without any hearing of the matter, and without any deciding of any by the word of God: but only upon a certain absolute and tyrannous authority, as appeareth by the articles of the said Council. This is in sum that evil and offence which you have committed against God and your own salvation by this wicked and devilish confession and abjuration: there is some difference between that which was imprinted at Lions, which I have followed, and that which is imprinted at Paris: first in that the order of the second and third articles is changed: and also in that which is imprinted at Paris, there be two other errors, the one touching free will, and the other touching justification by works: upon refutation whereof, I will not stand any longer, being well assured that you condemn them, aswell as all the rest. And therefore you are so much the more blame worthy in that you avouch them contrary to your own conscience. Consider then my brethren into what a danger of destruction you have thrown yourselves headlong, and how shameful, cowardly, and vile your renouncing whereby you have renounced the doctrine of the gospel, is, so to return to those corruptions which you had before cast up, and to welter again in that filthy mire from which you were once washed. Open your eyes, and behold how great the foulness and filthiness of your fault is. Surely the more I consider the same, together with all the circumstances thereof, the more damnable do I find it to be both before God and also before men: for it comprehendeth in it an infinite number of the most monstrous crimes that could be committed against the majesty of God. You may judge of it as you shall think good, but it is so: you know how greatly we are bound to love him, who hath so dearly loved us that he hath (as one would say) forgotten himself, to save us, and to bring us from that cursed and miserable estate wherein we stood through our own fault. He hath not spared his only and well-beloved son, but hath delivered him up to death, yea even to the death of the cross, for us that were his enemies: the son also for his part, who would have thought it no robbery to make himself equal with God, (as saith the Apostle) did notwithstanding abase himself full low that he might lift us up on high, 
Phi. 2.  he became poor to enrich us, he covered himself with our confusion and shame that he might make us partakers of his glory, he became mortal, that we might have immortality: to be short, he put himself in our place, he presented himself guilty before God's judgement seat, and descended into hell that he might bring us thence and exalt us to the heavenly inheritance. Now then ought not this infinite bounty, this incomparable love, this incomprehensible favour, this depth of compassions and mercies, inflame us with a mutual love toward our good God, and toward his son jesus Christ. And what doth this love import, save only that being dedicated and consecrated to his service, we should glorify him in all and through all things, preferring his honour and glory, the sanctifying of his name, the advancement of his kingdom, the fear, the reverence, and the obedience which we own unto him, before all things that are pleasant to the eye, good, precious, and excellent in this world, yea even before our very life itself. But mark I pray you how you have done your duty in this point. You have preferred the love of the world and of yourselves before the love of god: you have dishonoured and defamed the Lord (so much as in you lieth) a thousand thousand ways. For over and beside that you have infringed and broken his covenant, you have denied him to be your God and father, you have abjured his holy and sacred truth, you have allowed and received in steed of it that which is falsehood, you have denied the son of God, and taken Antichrist for your head, you have polluted your bodies (which he had chosen to be his temple) by abominable idolatry, you have made the holy ghost, and the holy Angels heavy and sorrowful, and grieved the whole Church of God, which is ashamed and confounded by reason of your backsliding, and even sobbeth and lamenteth for the same: besides all these evils, I say, there is this also, that is, that now you open the mouth of the unbelieving to blaspheme (more than ever heretofore) the holy and precious name of God whereon you sometimes called. Know you not with what flouts, scoffs, and scorns worldly and profane men were wont unreverently to speak of Christian religion, even then when they had but small occasion? But now how great occasion do you minister unto them by your backsliding? Will not they say that the religion whereof you made profession, is not so good, so true, nor so well grounded upon the word of God, as you have professed? Will not they speak evil of the doctrine of the Gospel, yea and of jesus Christ himself, as if you had been deceived by him? Satan, antichrist, and all his ministers, as the Priests, monks, and all that rabble which fight for their bellies against the truth of god, all these I say will make bone fires for joy, will laugh with wide open mouth, will triumph, and depress the true doctrine of jesus Christ, and extol their errors, superstitions, and idolatries.  
In like manner you are the cause that the Lord shall be blasphemed and disfamed, that religion shall be despised and not regarded, that the doctrine of jesus Christ shall be mocked and scorned, and that the enemies shall set up their horns on high, and triumph concerning the victory which they think they have gotten.  
And that which more is, you let and hinder so much as in you lieth, the kingdom of jesus Christ: for if you would have done your duty, and have constantly persisted in the profession and confession of the Gospel, if you had preferred (as you ought) the honour and glory of God, and your own salvation, before your goods, pleasures, and commodities, before the honour of the world, of yourselves, and of your neighbours, and before your own life, many should have been well edified thereby, whereas now they are greatly offended and grieved by your fall: those that are strangers from the knowledge of jesus Christ, would have been brought nigh unto him to taste of the doctrine of the gospel, if you would have stood to the defence thereof, though it had been with loss of your goods and lives: as in times past the holy martyrs won more souls to jesus Christ by their invincible constancy, then by their doctrine and instruction. But now those that never tasted of the same, will more loath it then ever, seeing you make less account of it then Esau did of his Birthright, who sold it for one mess of pottage. Those which began to discover the abuses, superstitions, and idolatries, of popery, and to have some smell of the Gospel, would have gone forward, and would have been confirmed by your perseverance: but now seeing you forsake the which they begun to love, they will also be out of liking with the same: & on the other side, seeing that you receive again the which they begun to disdain, that shall confirm them in their false opinions, or make them become athists. You know that in the church of God there be many which make profession of Christian religion, and yet there is in them great infirmity, whereof jesus Christ will have us to have regard that we do not offend them: these would have been fortified and strengthened by your good example: but when the poor simple people which had but slenderly profited and which had been but simply instructed, saw that many of you which had attained to so great honour as to be called to public charges of the Church, or which were otherwise men of account, & such as were had in great reputation amongst others, & which were reputed as torches and lanterns to give light to others: I say when the poor simple people which were but weak, saw you generally turn your backs so cowardly, surely it was unto them marvelous offensive, & a very great discouragement: so that a great many did yield when they were tried, and fell through your occasion. And surely it is no thanks to you that all of them did not the like: for surely I will speak this to your shame, that many amongst you have been so miserable and cursed, as to be Satan's to others, tempting and pricking them forward to do as you did: O cursed wretches, was it not enough for you to destroy yourselves unless you must also become guilty of the destruction and ruin of your poor brethren? And now assuredly you are such, if you and they die in this estate.  
You oppose yourselves yet after another sort against the advancement of God's glory, and of the kingdom of his son jesus Christ, yea you hinder it so much as in you lieth: for you have done what you can to spoil the the poor church of jesus Christ of Pastors: forasmuch as you do not only grieve them, but also dishonour and disfame them: so that they must needs be ashamed & confounded by means of you. For seeing you do so miserably and cowardly revolt from Christian religion, and renounce the truth of god which they have preached unto you, do you not secretly or rather openly declare that you count than as false prophets & seducers, which have deceived you, & fed you with lies? Now God is witness, & your own conscience doth reprove you of the contrary. But notwithstanding seeing their hope to be frustrate, & that they are so simply rewarded at your hands for their pains, yea that they have evil repaid unto them for good, shall not this discourage them from employing themselves hereafter about the work of your salvation? Assuredly, if they had not greater regard to the glory of God, then to your unthankfulness, & if they were not more desirous of your salvation than you yourselves, they would quite give over all: & it may be there will be some that will do so indeed: & also many young men which would have dedicated themselves to the study of divinity, that they might serve in the ministry, will begin to loathe the same through your fault. So that it is to be feared that it will come to pass that there will very few be found which will till and sow in such evil ground whereof they shall reap so small fruits. And what can we expect from that but beastly & brutish ignorance, such as was sometimes and is as yet in popery: corruption of the pure service of God, and finally miserable desolation? Now the Lord will not leave of to finish his work, and to send labourers into his harvest, when he shall see time. Yet so it is that you shall nevertheless be always guilty of the foresaid evils, in as much as they be fruits and effects of your cowardliness and unthankfulness, howsoever the Lord do turn them to some other end, by his infinite goodness.  
You see then how many monstrous crimes are coupled with your fault & fall: but yet this is not all, for there be an infinite number of other sins that depend thereupon: whereof I touch only the most notorious, and that without using any great discourses and amplifications (as need doth require) that I may paint out the same unto you: for I content myself with setting them down only, for avoiding prolixity. Notwithstanding it standeth you upon to think upon them, and to weigh them well, that you may be brought to detest them: otherwise they shall be ordered before your face in the great day of the Lord. Consider then I pray you the over and beside that which hath been touched heretofore, you have committed and do commit such an evil as is no small one: for by your backsliding you condemn not only those which stand as yet at this day through the grace of God in the profession & confession of the Gospel, as if they were fools and senseless, or else mad men, but you do also condemn all those which are dead in our Lord: and principally a great number of the faithful servants of God and of holy martyrs, who have sealed with their own blood that doctrine which you have abjured, and which did choose rather to lose their goods, honours, and other commodities of this life: to be banished and chased from their own houses, to be deprived of their fathers, mothers, wives, children kinsfolk & friends: to be cast in prison amongst serpents and toads: to be bound & chained, beaten, railed upon, racked and tormented by tormentors, and to suffer all manner cruelties and torments: yea they chose rather to die the most cruel deaths that could be invented, then to pollute themselves in the superstitions & idolatries of popery, which you allow now by your revolting, & do miserably defile both your souls, & also your bodies. You condemn all those I say, as if they had been undiscreet men, or some wicked heretics: & on the contrary you justify the carnal and tyrannous barbarism of tyrants & persecutors, of unjust judges, and cruel tormentors who have murdered and put them to death. And yet your own conscience telleth you that they suffered for righteousness sake, and gave their lives for the name of jesus Christ: and that they are therefore blessed, as jesus Christ pronounceth them to be. On the other side, that those which put them to death are accursed, unhappy, and detestable, yea very instruments of Satan, for whom there is prepared an horrible judgement, the vengeance of God, which they shall not escape, howsoever it be long a coming. Therefore you are so much the more without excuse before God, seeing that you condemn those whom you know to be just and innocent, and approve and justify those whom you know to be wicked and ungodly. He which condemneth the just, and justifieth the wicked, they are both alike abominable before the Lord, saith Solomon. If you say that you intend no such thing: you say nothing touching this matter which I do not willingly believe: but I answer also, that the Lord doth not judge men according to their intentions, if they be not ruled according to his word. Know you then that that which you have done and do as yet, so long as you continue revolts, maketh you guilty of all the innocent blood which hath been shed until this day by the executioners and Soldiers of Satan and of Antichrist, and of all the injuries and outrages which the enemies of GOD and of his truth have committed, and do as yet commit daily against the poor members of jesus Christ: who cannot but count you his enemies so long as you are on their side which make war against him.  
What answer will you make to all these points, when you shall appear before the judgement seat of God? What excuses will you make? It may be you will say, that that which you did was not done with a glad heart, and of set purpose, as if you did approve Popery, and that you did intend to live and die in it, or as if you did condemn that Religion which only you acknowledge to be good, holy and approved of God, whereunto also you desire to return in time, by the grace of GOD, but that you did it only to escape the violence of this outrage which came upon you unawares. That is as much as if you should say, that you were constrained somewhat to fashion yourselves after the world, to bear off the blows & to save your goods and honours, yourselves, your wives, & children etc. Othersome will make many excuses, saying: I had a charge and family, I know no way nor means how to escape out of the realm, I know not whither to go to get my living, & to provide for the necessities of these that are mine: the time which was troublesome, the instance and importunatnesse of my kinsfolks & friends, the tears of my wife, the cries of my children, & other trials did so shake me, that in fine I was glad to yield: & moreover they will not forget to allege the infirmity of man, the example of David, of S. Peter and others, as we are naturally very eloquent and copious, to excuse our faults. But if we must come once to poise them & to weigh them throughlie, that we may condemn them & humble ourselves in the presence of God, them we are as dumb as fishes, and we cannot in any case abide the another man should depaint and lively represent them unto us, that by this means we may be brought into the knowledge of them, and so to detest them. But and if we be reproved for them, we do either flatly deny them, if any way we can, or at least we seek to cover them and to lessen them by all means possible. And whence cometh that? Surely from our corruption, and from the love of ourselves, which Satan knoweth full well how to use, that he may thereby blear our understanding, or else strike us stark blind, to the end we may not see the evil favouredness and filthiness of our faults, and that we may not perceive the danger wherein we are, nor seek any way or means to escape thence.  
Now sure I am that there is no one of you that is come so far, as that he will go about to deny so manifest a fault as yours is, that is to hold and avouch that he hath not offended, for such a one should show himself to be too desperately hardened, blinded by Satan, & a sworn enemy to his own salvation. But we may well presume and believe that sundry which have not as yet forsaken the world, neither are gone far in renouncing themselves, will have these and the like excuses ready to allege: which are even as many pillows or cushions which Satan, the flesh, and the world lay under your elbows, that they may lull and rock fast asleep your poor consciences, For when all your excuses shall be well weighed and considered, it may be they shall have some colour, and be of some importance with men, which are naturally moved with such affections & human passions which corrupt their judgement: but when they shall be examined according to the word of God, which peyzeth all things aright, than they shall come short, and shall be of none importance. You will say then first of all that you did not this voluntarily, and of purposed malice. I grant you that, and yet God would not have any to come even so far. But would you have done it if you had not had a will to do it? your will could not be so driven and enforced, but that you might have avoided such a mischief and inconvenience, if you had had a true zeal of the glory of God, and an earnest desire of your own salvation, an holy affection to edify your poor neighbours, and a right and good conscience. Now you are so convict in yourselves, that these things have been so small & slender in you, that they have been weighed down with the weight of your affections, whereto you have yielded yourselves yea even with a strange kind of revolting: for what manner violence was this which you allege for your excuse? Have you resisted unto blood? Have you been bound with chains and cast into filthy dungeons? Have you been racked by torments, or judged to be burnt quick? And albeit God had laid all these trials upon you, & that he would have been glorified in your patience & constancy, what had been your duty to have done then? aught ye to have fallen back? aught you to have refused to have drunk of the cup of the son of God? to have borne the yoke of his order, & to have been associated unto such a goodly & honourable company of martyrs, whose memorial doth and shall remain for ever, not only honourable, but also blessed & holy, in the church of God, & who even now reign & triumph with jesus Christ, being crowned with glory, & eternal immortality. If I say, god had brought such sharp trials upon you as he brought upon them, that you might bear witness of his holy truth, & it had so fallen out that you had done then as now you have done, for the avoiding of torments, & so cruel death: you might by good right have been counted revolts, disloyal & traitors to the son of God, neither should you have deserved to bear the name of Christians. How vile then, how shameful, & how damnable is your cowardliness and backsliding, seeing you should only have been deprived for a time of some temporal commodities? you have made more account of a little pelf, than of the glory of God, of heavenvly treasures, and of your own salvation. You have been afraid to lose your goods, and have no whit feared to lose God's favour, & to incur his wrath & displeasure. You have quaked & trembled at the frivolous words of men which are nought but worms of the earth, when they threatened you with the confiscation of goods & have not trembled at the terrible threatenings of the judgements of God, neither have you feared the fire of his wrath and curse more than your goods and yourselves. But I pray you what letted you to save, if not all your goods, yet the most part of them, seeing you had such leisure and time to bethink yourselves, and to set your things in order? Surely you cannot say that you were taken at unawares as by some sudden clap of lightning: For if you would have opened your eyes you might have seen long before a cloud arising, which did threaten to France some great tempest. You were oftentimes advertised by your Pastors that the unthankfulness of men, the contempt of the graces of God, the simple reformation which was to be seen in many, the coldness of zeal and love, too too great liberty which every man gave himself to live as he list, shaking off the yoke of Ecclesiastical discipline, and not regarding any admonitions whatsoever, which were given & made in the name of God: you have I say been often told that all these things would without all doubt provoke the Lord to wrath, and would bring upon us some great calamities. This was done to the end every man might humble himself and prevent the wrath of God, by true repentance and amendment: this was to the end every man might be ready, and might make provision for patience, strength, constancy, faith, hope, and for other such spiritual furniture, 
Ephe. 6.  whereof the Apostle speaketh: this was in sum to the end we might prepare ourselves for the battle, & that we might beg of God those things which we had not of ourselves. And without all doubt he would have given us it, if every man had been ready and willing to do his duty. But what? we have done quite contrary (we have kept our old course, & have become rather worse than better: we have counted than busy & importunate fellows which threatened us with the judgements of God: we counted them too bitter and sharp which fought our salvation by telling us the truth we would have had them to have preached as we would have them, we had itching ears, & we would have had them fed with some vanity of man's eloquence, for we loathed the plainness of the word of God. To make short, there were in us so many wants, that in stead of preventing the wrath of God, we did more inflame the same: instead of preparing & fortifying ourselves that we might endure this assault, we became reckless and careless, and at length so white liuered, so cowardly and faint hearted, that the more part being terrified with the very sound of the trump, did yield themselves to the enemy without making any resistance. O what a shame was this? Then is your backsliding so much the more to be condemned, seeing you have despised the admonitions wherewith your ears were beaten so long before. And the which more is, this tempest came not at a sudden or at unawares as that of the Massacre, but lumbered a long time in the air before the clap came. And he whom you had greatest cause to fear (as touching men) seemeth to have been raised up of God to admonish you of that which you were to do; which was done by edicts and declarations sent abroad one after another: as if he would have said, My friends, set your things in order, and keep yourselves from that evil which is threatened unto you. But you have neglected all that, whether it were because you were drunken with some vain hope which deceived you, or whether it were because you were resolved rather to sit upon your own dunghills, and to abide by your garlic and onions of Egypt, then to follow jesus Christ any more through the deserts, and any longer to bear his cross. which you loathed at length. Which appeareth by this, in that in steed of preparing yourselves to new afflictions, and of following jesus Christ, even to the end, as all those aught to do which are his true Disciples, and desire to attain to the reward of the high calling: in steed thereof, I say you have promised to yourselves some rest and ease of the flesh: but you were deceived, as all those shall be which so cast their accounts without their hostess. This was then your overthrow.  
Now I doubt not but that many can say in truth that they had many lets, and were assailed by grievous temptations, seeing they were charged with a family, & destitute of means. To be short, it may be, that many other poor men had many lets & hindrances: & for this cause they are rather to be pitied, yet so it is that they are not excusable before god for all this: & they must all yield themselves as guilty: for howsoever it be, when it pleaseth the Lord to call us, we must follow him without looking back, & without looking upon the hardness of the way by the which we must go. The Israelites could not see with the eyes of the flesh, how the Lord did deliver them out of the tyranny and slavery of Egypt, how they escaped out of that distress wherein they saw themselves, having the mountains on the right hand & on the left, & having the read sea before them, and the host of the Egyptians behind them: also how the Lord provided for their necessities in the desert, & how he brought them into the promised land: they saw none of these things I say, notwithstanding they followed the calling of the Lord, referring the events and issues of all things to his providence: which fell out well with them. And thus ought those to have done which allege for their excuse the foresaid straits: that is, they should have shut their eyes against all that which flesh & blood could set before them to turn them away, and they should have given up themselves to the providence of this heavenly father, who feedeth the fowls of the air, & who knoweth well the means how to provide bread for his children, which follow his calling, & not only the means, but hath also a will to do it, as he hath promised. And indeed, even then, when we see nothing, which way soever we turn our eyes, but matter of despair, them principally doth our faith show itself, when notwithstanding all lets & hindrances we trust in God, & hope contrary to hope, after the example of Abraham. So that all excuses which these men can allege to the Lord, cannot any way justify them. But & if the hindrances were such, that they had no way nor means to escape out certain it is that this was an evident argument that the Lord called them to bear witness of his truth: & therefore ought they rather to have died the death than to have denied the son of God so shamefully. To make short, it behoved them either to fly, or else to suffer, seeing the Lord referred it to their choice, and called them to do either the one or the other.  
Now if these men be without excuse (as they be indeed) how much more those which cannot so excuse themselves, if they will speak truth? And yet were there any that showed themselves so slack & so faint hearted, & more ready to come to parley, & finally to yield themselves to the enemy. Those to whom God had given more means to resist and stand steadfast, those that might quickly have escaped the danger, & even have comforted their poor brethren, by encouraging them, & reaching them out the hand, to draw them out of the mire & filth: those are they, I say, which have showed themselves most cowardly & cold, either because they had more to lose (I mean more mire & earth, and less godliness & fear of God) or else because it grieved them to forego their pleasures and commodities, to incur fear, to endure the discommodities & disturbances of banishment & such like things. They could well find in their hearts to go into paradise by that large & wide way & gate: but jesus christ saith that this is the way that leadeth to destruction, & that the narrow way & straight gate lead to eternal life. So that these men are the more guilty before God, the less excuse they have. But furthermore you will object that I am too rigorous, and that I have no regard to man's infirmity, & that there is none so good but he doth offend etc. I answer, that your fault cannot be sufficiently exaggerate, it is so monstrous and scandalous: and it is most necessary that you be brought to the sight of your malady and misery, that you may be cured. And as for the infirmity of our flesh, I know (I praise God) that it is greater than I can express, the Lord knoweth it better than we, and he taketh pity and compassion thereon, but yet for all that he will not take our excuses, which we allege, for payment: for it ariseth from a corrupt fountain, that is, from sin, yea it is sin in itself: and principally he condemneth it when we nourish it, cherish it, and entertain it in ourselves, when we take pleasure and flatter ourselves in it, & when we will make a buckler of it to cover and defend our faults: we ought rather, when we proceed against ourselves to begin here, that is, first of all to condemn our infirmity, as being a fruit of our corruption, and afterward our sluggishness and slackness in that we despise the means which God setteth before us to strengthen ourselves with all in the power of his spirit. If during the time of your prosperity (at which time the Lord granted you grace to take some rest, or at least to take some breath) you had well known your infirmity, and that this knowledge engendering in you a distrustfulness of yourselves, had stirred you up to crave help at God's hands even the strength of his spirit, you should not have fallen into this inconvenience.  
If you say that the love of your fathers, mothers, wives, and children, their provocations, their cries & their tears, the desire of their good and commodity, and the fear you had to leave them open to all manner perils and dangers, or to suffer and endure any harm: if you allege, I say, that all these things were of great force to make you stagger and to abate your courage: I grant that these are great trials, namely to those that have a tender heart, and that a man must be furnished with singular strength from above, that he may be able to overcome all those things: I say moreover, that this human & natural affection is laudable, & approved of God, when it is well ruled: for he that careth not for those that belong unto him, is worse than an Infidel, saith the Apostle: 
1. Tim. 5  but I say therewithal that this affection hath not only been disordered in you, 
Deut. 6. Mat. 24.  but also strangely disordered & unbridled. For you know what that meaneth which the Lord requireth at our hands, that we love him with all our heart, strength, thought, and understanding: that is to say, that there be nothing in the world neither without nor within us, that may be able to turn us aside, how little soever, from the entire and perfect love which we own unto our God and father: moreover that we love nothing in this world, of all that which we can and aught to love, no not ourselves, but only in him, and for his sake, or to speak plainly, that there be nothing which we love properly, but him alone. You know also what jesus Christ saith, that if we prefer the love of our fathers, mothers, wives, children, brethren, sisters, and of our own life before the love which we own unto him, yea if we hate not all these things for the love of him, we can not be his disciples, and we are not worthy of him.  
This was then a marvelous excessive and disordered affection that carried you away so far, as to make you forget the love of your God and father, and of your saviour and redeemer jesus Christ. Furthermore, I ask you this question, what greater good and commodity, yea what greater honour you could desire and procure for your wives and children, then to show them an example of true godliness and of the fear of God, of patience and Christian constancy? To carry them with you (if need had been) into some place of safety, where God might be called upon, served and honoured? And there to learn in good time to bear the cross of jesus Christ, that they might have this honour together with you, namely to wear the livery and collar of his order, that you might together be partakers of this blessing of the son of God. 
Ma●. 5.  Blessed are they which suffer persecution for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven: and of that whereof S. Paul speaketh that if we suffer with him we shall reign with him and shall be glorified with him: furthermore, how could you better save them from danger, and provide for their safety and your own, then to bring them to this strong dungeon of the house of God, that is into the church, which is without rifts and free from undermining, and which is founded upon a rock, and guarded by the celestial armies, which lie encamped round about, 
Mat. 16. Psal. 34. Ps. 125.  being covered and environed on every side with the favour of the almighty, being guarded, fortified, and defended by the invincible force of the spirit of God.  
To be brief, what better thing could you do for those that are of your blood, and for your own souls, then to further and procure the salvation, the life, and the eternal felicity of you all? But you have taken a clean contrary course, for you have procured their perdition, their dishonour and eternal confusion together with your own, and have drawn them and yourselves into far greater danger, then if with your own hands you had delivered them up to the most cruel & bloody cutthroates of the world, or else if you had committed them to the mercy of Lions, Tigers, and Bears, or of other bruit beasts which are merciless. For first of all, of what benefits, favours & blessings of God have you deprived yourselves together, seeing you have cut yourselves off from the church of jesus Christ, & from the communion of saints without which there is no blessedness felicity, salvation, neither any life whatsoever, but all unhappiness, cursedness, death, ruin and destruction, What duty have you done to edify them, when you showed them the example of your cowardliness, treachery, and disloyalty? What account will they make to come to Christian religion, seeing you make so small account thereof? What reverence will thy give to jesus Christ and his doctrine, seeing you renounce the same so cowardly? To be brief, what constancy and stability can be expected at their hands, if they become members of the Church of God, seeing you have so offended them and made them to stumble by your apostasy? In sum then, so far of is it that you have procured their good and commodity, in doing that which you have done, that on the contrary you have purchased them the greatest evil and curse that could befall them: for you have drawn them with you to the way of destruction, yea you have even thrust them into hell there to abide for ever, if God be not merciful to them and you. Furthermore, what honour have you procured them in teaching them by your example, and it may be, by leading and carrying them yourselves into the brothelhouse to commit whoredom with Idols? Had not this been greater honour to have continued in the house of the Lord, to have sit at the table with the son of God, to have drunk of his cup, and to have eaten the bread of Angels with the Saints, then to be in the infamous house of this great whore, to sit with her ruffians and bawds, to receive at her execrable hands the cup of her filthiness and uncleanness, which the Apostle calleth the cup of devils? Moreover, into what danger have you brought both them and also yourselves? Those to whom God hath given eyes to see, see by the accomplishment of the signs that were foretold by the spirit of God, that Antichrist doth now put in practise his last endeavours, seeing the measure of his impieties and abominations is grown up to the full: as he doth plainly declare in these last times, by that outrageous violence which he useth now as if he were mad, foaming out his rage more furiously than ever against the Church of jesus Christ. And therefore they conclude by the word of God, that the Lord will not be long, neither will he defer to display his fearful judgements upon this cursed Babylon. For which cause the spirit of God exhorteth us to come thence, saying: Come out of her my people, that you be not partakers of her sins, and that you be not punished with her: for her sins are come up to heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities etc.  
Lo here then a trumpet from heaven which soundeth and warneth you that the eternal will send out his thunder and lightning upon Babylon: and yet you are so undiscreet as to run into her together with your wives and children, there to save yourselves. If you see an house on fire, or some lightning from heaven fall upon it, will you be so foolish and mad as to run into it there to save yourselves and your young children, and that which is dear & precious unto you? And yet you have done thus, seeking for life in the midst of death, for happiness amidst cursedness, and for salvation there where there is nothing but ruin and destruction. And moreover, you think yourselves very wise and discreet in that you have gotten you such a covert whiles the hail doth fall upon the heads of others. But alas, this is a poor and dangerous coverture, which will at last fall upon your heads, upon your goods, upon your wives and children, if you come not thence with more speed.  
You will say, that that is your desire, & that you are not entered into it with any purpose that you will continue there always, & that you hope to return to the church, all this do I believe: but first of all I answer you, that you must not thus dally with God, & that it hath fallen out evil with many which have thus dallied, and that by the just judgement of God, who will not suffer those which mock him to escape scotfree, as men do. For you shall very hardly find one of an hundred (of those which did sometimes revolt from true religion) which hath made his account to continue still in that filthy puddle, and which hath not fed himself with some vain hope to return to the church again, when the evil time should be over. But yet it came to pass the Satan taking occasion hereat, hath by little & little extinguished the small zeal, & choked the little quantity of good seed of godliness and of the fear of God which was in them, that he might more and more tread them down in the sink, out of the which they could never afterward arise by any force, or leisure. I say nothing but that which you yourselves know full well, and the experience whereof you have seen in many. And how cometh this to pass, if not by the just vengeance of God, who depriveth those of his graces, which make themselves unworthy thereof through their unthankfulness, and delivereth those up into the power of Satan which abuse his mercy? The Lord is not bound to receive to mercy those that are mockers and contemners of his grace, that he should grant it them so often as it shall please them to accept it, after that it hath been offered them sundry times, and that they shall have rejected and despised the same, yea after that they shall have trod it under their feet, and put it away from them with their haggish notes delighting more in filth, then in this inestimable treasure and this great and precious pearl: for buying whereof the good husbandmen and true merchants of the Lord sell all that they have: as jesus Christ teacheth us by those two parables which are in the Gospel. 
Mat. 13.  It is then a just thing with the lord to punish such mockers and profane men, and that divers ways: for to some he denieth the blessing of his grace, whereof they made less account then of a mess of pottage, howsoever they come to seek it with weeping and howling, as did that profane Esau. They shall cry after me, saith the Lord by jeremy, but I will not hear them. O than some there be whom in his just judgement he suffereth to become so hardened in their evil, and to fall into such brutish blockishness, that being without feeling, and not seeing the deep gulf of that wretchedness into which they are fallen, they know not what need they have of the grace of God that they may be delivered thence: whereby it cometh to pass that they never crave it at God's hands, but die like brute beasts. There be yet some others which are sorer stricken with this lightning of God's judgement: that is, those whom Satan hath cast into such despair, that in steed of coming to god to crave mercy at his hands, they fly from him, they hate him, they blaspheme him, & they despise him: they are miserably vexed and tormented with remorse of their conscience, which is as a worm which gnaweth them without end and without ceasing: or rather like the infernal furies which pursue them, which torment them, which hale them, toss them too and fro a thousand ways, not suffering them to take any ease or rest: to make short, the rest of their miserable life which they lead as it were in despite of God and of nature, is nothing else but a very beginning of hell, and an hydious image of that cursed and more than miserable condition wherein the damned are and shallbe for ever. Thus fared it with judas, with julian the Apostata, and with others. I would feign set before your eyes that which in our time befell a certain Apostata called Spira, where you might see that verified which hath been said, for in him we have an example of the terrible and fearful judgement of God against those which do so dally and trifle with his majesty, renouncing the profession of his Gospel, for the avoiding of persecutions: and which run after the world for a time, hoping shortly after to return to the right way again. But for the avoiding of prolixity I send you to the history which is common, beseeching you to read it and to meditate upon it diligently, not that you may do as this miserable wretch did, but that you may learn what punishment your fault deserveth which is all one with his: for he had the same knowledge which you have, he at the beginning of his revolting did allege the same excuses, and made the very same protestations, that in time he would return: But to the end the Lord might avenge himself of so great backsliding, he would not give him grace so to do: for after that Satan had once taken possession of him, he set before his eyes the greatness and monstrousness of his sin, together with such an hideous and fearful representation of the judgement of god, that he despaired, and ended his life so miserably, and with such an evident testimony of the just fury and indignation of God against Apostasy, that it is a thing unpossible to see such a spectacle without great terror and fear. Now the Lord doth not show like judgements in this world against all revolts: that is true, yet so it is that the just punishment which he executeth upon some one in this world, showeth how detestable a thing the renouncing of the gospel is to him. And if he defer his just vengeance and doth not execute the same upon some certain, yet they shall not escape scotfree, and their punishment shall be no whit the lighter therefore: but on the contrary their condemnation shall be so much the more grievous because they have abused the patience of God.  

Rom. 2.  Now true it is, my brethren, that I count you not amongst these, as I have already protested: but so it is, that you are entered into the self same way which these are entered, and are in like danger, if God do not grant you grace to retire thence by ready & true repentance. It remaineth then that you awake & that thoroughly at the sound of this trumpet which the Lord causeth to sound in your ears, who granteth unto you such grace as to advertise and exhor you to turn to him. He granteth you sometime to bethink yourselves & doth now set before you the means of reconciliation because he will not lose you: take heed you despise them not: 
Ps. 95.  and seeing you hear his voice this day harden not your hearts: he calleth you with arms displayed, and offereth you his grace, beware you despise it not unthankfully, for fear lest it be afterward denied you, for a just punishment of your unthankfulness: the means to attain to this grace is, that you have true repentance and true faith: repentance to humble you, and to throw you down even to hell by a lively feeling and knowledge of your offence, and by a true apprehending of the just judgement of God: faith to lift you up & to set you on foot again in hope, by a right apprehension and acceptation of the clemency and mercy of God. This is then the course which you must observe: first of all examine & poise the fault which you have committed, together with all the circumstances thereof, not flattering yourselves any manner of way, and you shall be constrained to confess that it is as yet greater and more monstrous. more foul and vile before God than I am able to express and set forth: know and acknowledge therein your backsliding, cowardliness, treachery, disloyalty and unthankfulness most detestable: consider what dishonour, what injury, what outrage you have done to God your father, to jesus Christ your Saviour, to yourselves, your wives, your children, and to all the whole Church. Those which said they were Gods dear children, have forsaken and denied him: his covenant is broken: jesus Christ is renounced before men, even by those whom he had redeemed with the price of his blood, and by those which had sworn faith and allegiance to him: the doctrine of his Gospel is cast of and condemned as false, and the impieties and abominations of Antichrist are received and approved as true and holy and that by a detestable confession and abjuration: the Lord is dishonoured and blasphemed, his holy name is polluted and profaned by the sacrilegious mouth of profane persons & infidels: religion is contenmed and there is none account made of it: the kingdom of jesus Christ is hindered & kept back: your poor neighbours are offended the simple sort is discouraged, by your evil example they are fallen and run headlong into the same destruction whereinto you are fallen: your poor Pastors are confounded and ashamed, and consequently discouraged by you from returning to till the lords field: lo the poor church is forsaken of those which said they were her children, and a cruel and murdering harlot is received and acknowledged for the true mother. Lo your true mother is forsaken, grieved, abashed, and ashamed to see the shameful backsliding of her children: she weeps and wails by reason of their destruction: the Temple of God it is polluted, the holy Ghost is made sad therewith, and the holy Angels mourn and lament for it: briefly lo here a most detestable and abominable Apostasy, which comprehendeth so great a number of so grievous and horrible crimes, as that the only rehearsal thereof is sufficient to make the hairs of a Christian man's head, that feareth God, to stand upright. Thus then must you poise your fault, that it may seem to you so black, so foul, and so ugly, as that it may make you ashamed in the presence of God and of his Church.  
Consider on the other side huw much wood and matter you have ministered to set on fire the wrath of God against you. 
〈◊〉 5.  You know that the scripture saith of the wrath and indignation of the Lord, that it is a consuming fire which spoileth, destroyeth and devoureth all that wherewith it meeteth: You know that he is an enemy to sin, and that his justice requireth that all that be punished which is contrary to his law, Mark how many crimes and monstrous sins are comprised in your offence: is not the smallest of them sufficient to provoke him to wrath? Know you not that one only sin hath sometimes so provoked the Lord to wrath, that to punish the same he hath caused the earth to open and to swallow up those also that have committed it? that he hath made fire come down from heaven to consume those which were guilty thereof, 
Num. 16. Num. 21.  that he hath sent serpents in the wilderness the plague, the sword, & the destroyer, & other scourges to punish the murmurings, 
Num. 14.  the unthankfulness, & other sins of his people? The holy history declareth what judgements & vengeance the Lord hath sundry times & upon divers occasions used against the Israelites. Sometimes they were visited by the plague, sometimes by famine, sometimes by war. The lord hath raised up divers enemies to execute his judgements upon them.  
They have oftentimes had upon them the army of the Philistines, oftentimes the Moabits, oftentimes the Ammonites & other enemies. Shortly after the Syrians, the Babylonians, Antiochus, & finally, the Romans. They were oftentimes overcome & discomforted, brought under subjection & led into captivity, & in fine, quite discomfited & destroyed by the Roman empire. To be short, the Lord did display the severity of his judgements upon this people in such sort, that there is not at this day any nation under the ●oape of heaven more miserable: which hath continued ever since that fearful judgement of God which was executed upon this people in the sacking and destruction of jerusalem: so that the very marks of the wrath of God do continue so deeply engraven in all this miserable race, that those which perceive them not, have none eyes to see withal. And wherefore came all this upon them? Even because they had treacherously broken the covenant of the Lord, because they had forsaken his pure worship to run after the idols & superstitions of the Gentiles, because they had unthankfully despised his graces & singular favour which he had granted them of his own liberality, because they had rejected the salvation which was sent unto them: and finally because they had put to death the Lord of glory, who came to save them. You will say that you are not culpable of such crimes: and this is our undoing, when in steed of profiting by the examples of the judgements of God which are proposed unto us in the scriptures, we post them over unto others. But the spirit of God judgeth otherwise touching them, 
1. Cor. 10.  when he saith by Saint Paul, that these judgements which came upon the people of the jews, were examples for us: and that these things are written to put us in mind, upon whom the ends of the world are come. But what is the most monstrous crime that ever the jews did commit, and for the which they are set before the eyes of the whole world for a spectacle of the just wrath and anger of God? even because they had crucified the Lord of glory. And now the spirit of GOD speaking by the Apostle to the hebrews calleth this which you have done, 
Heb. 6  and do as yet contrary to your own conscience, the crucifying of the Son of God afresh, and the setting of him to be reproached. Then I pray you what punishment doth your fault deserve? call to mind the threatenings which are contained in the Scripture against such backslidinges and treacheries, against such unthankfulness, against such pollutions and profanings of the name of God, against such despising of his graces, against such Apostasies, abjurations and renouncings of the son of God, and of the doctrine of his Gospel: to be short, against such offences as that of yours is. You know that the Lord calleth himself a jealous God, to show that he cannot abide such injury to be done to his majesty. Wherefore he doth also threaten that he will visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children until the third and fourth generation of those that hate him. 
Ex. 20.  Now I have already showed you that after you had forsaken his side, that you might associate yourselves with his enemies, he cannot take you for any other but for haters of him, so long as you continue with them. And furthermore, this is to hate the Lord, when a man cleaveth to impieties and idolatries whereby he is dishonoured.  
Wherefore this threatening appertaineth to you, as doth that also which he useth against those that take his name in vain, saying, that he will not hold them guiltless. 
Exo. 20.  And have not you taken his name in vain when you became unfaithful and perjured persons breaking & violating the faith and promise which you had made to him? Do not you as yet take his name in vain, when you, through your revolting are the cause that it is polluted, dishonoured and blasphemed by the wicked once? Moreover, consider I pray you a little what the threatening importeth which the son of God useth against those which shall forsake him, & join themselves with his enemies: which shall be ashamed of him and of his Gospel: which shall renounce him before men, which shall seek to save their life, by renouncing the truth. 
Mat. 12.  He that is not with me, saith he, is against me, and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad. And what is it to be against jesus Christ and to scatter abroad, but to be counted his enemies. And what entertainment can you look for at his hands at that last day, and how miserable shall your estate be, if he account you such? Furthermore what meaneth that threatening which he pronounceth against those which shall be ashamed of him & of his words, saying that he will also be ashamed of them: when he shall come in the glory of his Father with the holy Angels? Surely the meaning thereof is, that he will not account them his, but will reject those which shall show themselves so unthankful as to be ashamed of the son of God, 
Mar. 8.  who was not ashamed of our poor and miserable nature, but hath done us so great honour as to join & couple himself with us, honouring us with this title of brethren that he might unite and knit us with God his father. Moreover, consider what that denying and renouncing which he threateneth to those shall have denied and renounced him before men, doth import when he saith, that he will deny them before God his father, and holy Angels: which is confirmed by Saint Paul, who saith, 
Mat. 10.  that If we deny him he will deny us also. You are not ignorant that this is even the extremest woe and curse, to be denied and rejected of the son of God. Mark also what a curse he pronounceth against those that give offence, when he saith: Woe be to him by whom offences come: 
Luke 17. Mat. 18.  it were better for him that he were cast into the sea, and that he had a millstone hanged about his neck. And indeed, what punishment think you be deserveth who by his evil example shall be the cause of the destruction of his poor brother, for whom the son of God did shed his precious blood? 
Rom. 14.  Set before you the threatenings which are denounced against those that pollute the temple of God, 
1. Cor. 3. Eph. 4.  which make sad the spirit of God, the holy Angels, and all the whole Church. Remember that which you once learned, 
Luke 12.  that the servant which knoweth his masters will and doth it not shallbe punished double: and that it shallbe easier for those of Sodom and Gomorrha at the last day, 
Mat. 12.  then for those that have despised the day of their visitation. To be brief, judge you what pain and punishment he deserveth, who putteth in place of jesus Christ, the execrable idol of Antichrist, abjuring the truth of the one, and approving the falsehood of the other. Finally, fear lest you be enwrapped in that fearful judgement which the son of God denounceth against that cursed Babylon, 
Apoc. 18.  into whose bosom you have thrown yourselves: and return into Noah's ark again, if you will escape the flood of the wrath of God, which threateneth the whole earth. 
Heb. 10.  It is a fearful thing saith the Apostle, to fall into the hands of the living God. The temporal judgements which the Lord did execute upon Sodom and Gomorrha upon the jews & others, and which he executeth daily upon his enemies, are in very deed terrible & fearful, and make men's hair stand upright when they hear of them. But this is nothing in comparison of the fearful judgement which must be executed against the wicked after this life: 
Es. ●4. 2. Cor. 2.  for as the eye hath not seen, the ear hath not heard, and man's heart hath not conceived, nor comprised the good things which the Lord hath prepared for these which love & honour him: so likewise on the contrary we may say & that truly, that the pains, the anguishs, the eternal torments which are prepared for the damned in hell cannot be comprehended by man's understanding. For if we could comprehend them, the only thinking thereupon should cause in us an intolerable astonishment & fear. The holy scripture doth sometimes represent them unto us by utter darkness, by the prison, by eternal bands, by weeping & gnashing of teeth, 
Mat. 12. 1. Pet. 3. Apoc. 20. Mat. 13. Es. 66. Mat. 9 mat. 19 mar. 9  by the worm that gnaweth without ceasing, & which never dieth, and by fire that never is quenched: not that there is any proportion between the eternal torments, and the most extreme dolours and distresses that a man can imagine in all these things: but to the end it may apply itself to our dullness, and give us some understanding of those infinite and unspeakable pains, which the damned shall suffer, it describeth them unto us by similitudes taken from things which are terrible and fearful. Now this is not to the end we may be put in any vain fear, as little children are made afraid with scarrebugs, but that we may be throughlie afraid indeed of the judgements of God: that we may walk before him in fear: that we may hate sin which inflameth God's wrath against men: and that it may make us seek peace and reconciliation with God when we have offended him. This is i● also the end for which (my brethren) I put you in mind of these things, forasmuch as I desire your conversion and salvation. What must you do then? you must set before your eyes the greatness, the foulness, the filthiness, and deformity of your fault, that you may be confounded and ashamed in yourselves that you have showed yourselves so cowardly and so unthankful toward so good a father: that you may be beaten down with terror and trembling, and with fear of the judgement of God which you have deserved: 
1. Cor. 11.  that you may judge and condemn yourselves, that you be not judged and condemned of the Lord: to make short, that you may come like poor offenders with ropes about your necks, to crave pardon at God's hands, casting down yourselves at his feet by true humility, yea even plunging yourselves (as men say) in the deep dungeons of hell.  
Mark here where your conversion must begin, to wit, at true repentance, if you desire to be received into favour: for an ancient father saith, Hell is the way to come to heaven: that is to say, that such casting down and humbling of poor sinners, confessing and detesting their faults, accusing and condemning themselves, and which think themselves worthy to be drowned in the deep pit of Hell, is the true preparation and disposition to receive the grace of God. For he which humbleth himself shall be exalted. The Lord is nigh to hearts that are desolate, 
Mat. 23. Luke 14.4. Pet. 5. Psal. 34.  contrite and humble. He saveth those that are broken in spirit, etc.  
afterward, being prepared by such a compunction and contrition of heart proceeding from a right knowledge and displeasure conceived of, and for your sin, and therewithal from a true knowledge of the just judgements of God, you must come out of this depth by the means of faith: which shall comfort your broken hearts: and will assure your fearful consciences, and will comfort your desolate souls: it will teach you that the Lord wills not the death of a sinner, 
Ez. 18.  but rather that he be converted and live: also that he hath promised to poor and miserable sinners which shall turn from their wicked ways, that he will cast all their sins into the bottom of the Sea, so that they shall never be any more remembered. Turn you, turn you, 
Mich. 7 Ez.. 18.33.  from your wicked ways: why will you die you house of Israel? saith the Lord. Return then, and repent of all your transgressions, and your iniquity shall not be imputed and laid to your charge. Turn you unto me with all, 
Io. 2.  your whole heart with fasting, weeping, and mourning. Rend your hearts, and not your garments & turn to the Lord your God, for he is gentle & merciful, slow to wrath and of great pity, and such a one as is sorry for your afflictions. 
Es. 1.  Though your sins were, as red as scarlet, yet shall they be as white as snow: and though they were as purple, yet shall they be made as white as wool. But who is he that shall make them white? Faith shall teach you that it is the blood of the son of GOD which cleanseth you from all sin: that it is he who died for our sins, and rose again for our justification. The fault which you have committed is great and monstrous, and deserveth great and grievous condemnation, as you have already heard, and as the truth is: but yet not so great but that you may have forgiveness of the same, unless you through your obstinacy and want of repentance do make it irremissible.  
The Lord is just, yea and a severe punisher of the offences of all those which do obstinately persevere therein, 
Psal. 103. Ezech. 18.33.  and which will not give place to his admonitions: but yet he is also full of compassion and pity toward poor sinners which acknowledge their faults, which humble themselves before him, 
joh. 1.  which with weeping tears, sighs and fervent prayers ask pardon at his hands. If we confess our sins saith Saint john, the Lord is faithful to forgive us them. He which confesseth and acknowledgeth his trespasses, and forsaketh them, 
Prou. 28.  shall obtain mercy, saith Solomon. I grant your sin is great: but yet God's mercy is greater. 
Rom. 5. Heb. 4.  Where sin hath abounded, saith the Apostle, there grace hath abounded much more. Let us draw near then with assurance to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to be helped in due time. This is the exhortation which the spirit of God maketh unto you, speaking by the Apostle to the hebrews, that he may take from you all distrust of reconciliation and of grace. There be examples in the Scriptures which will well fit your purpose for this matter: as that of David, that of Manasses, and that of Peter. Which I pray you read and meditate upon them diligently, not to the end you may flatter and bring yourselves fast on sleep in the infirmity of your flesh, and that you may thereby cover, excuse, and lessen your sin, as many do to their judgement and condemnation: for such examples are not set before us to this end, but rather to the end you may strengthen and arm yourselves against the temptations of Satan, who, if he see that God toucheth your hearts with any repentance, will do what he can to cast you headlong into despair: moreover, it is to the end you may come to the throne of the grace of God by the self same way, & may enter in by the very same gate whereby they came & entered in thither. And what way & gate is this? it is true repentance, and a true & lively faith, accompanied with true amendment without which all the rest is as nothing.  
Mark what David did. So soon as he was told of his fault by the Prophet Nathan, he sought no starting holes or frivolous excuses to cloak or cover the same any manner of way, but on the contrary he confesseth it, and doth freely acknowledge it: he himself condemneth it, and accuseth himself before God: he doth wonderfully humble himself with weeping, sobbing, sighing, night and day. And as he was not ashamed to commit the sin, no more was he ashamed to confess and acknowledge the same openly, and as it were to make an honourable amends for the same before the whole Church that was in his time, and that was to come afterward. For the Psalms which he made are as it were a public confession: to be brief, he showeth all tokens and testimonies of a true penitent heart, which was contrite and humbled through the feeling of sin, and by the knowledge of the wrath of GOD, which beateth him down even to the depth, afterward he riseth again by the means of faith, which setteth before him the greatness and the multitude of the compassions and mercies of this most merciful father: to whom he maketh recourse with fervent prayer to crave pardon and mercy. Which thing he doth with certain persuasion and assurance that the Lord would receive him to mercy, as he did through his grace. Mark then what manner repentance and faith that of David's was, and what was the fruit thereof. Now all this was accompanied with a ready amendment: for after that the Prophet was humbled before the Lord, after that he had craved pardon, and after that he perceived that the wrath of GOD conceived against him was appeased, and that his conscience was at rest, what doth he? Doth he lie wallowing still in his filth? Doth he drive off to amend himself, and to repair his fault until such time as he might commodiously do it without any let or hindrance of other business? Not so, but he resolveth out of hand to walk all the rest of his life in the fear and obedience of the Lord, consecrating himself wholly to his service.  
Thus did Manasses king of juda: for after that he was told of his faults and iniquities, not by some Prophet, but even by the Lord himself, who because he would not lose him, 
1. Chr. 33.  spoke to him with his fatherly rod, delivering him up into the hands of the Assyrians, which bound him with manacles, and chains, and carried him to Babylon.  
After that he was thus visited by the Lord, it is said that he humbled himself before him, that is to say, that he acknowledged and confessed his faults with grief and sorrow, when he perceived the wrath of God which he had deserved. It is said further, that he prayed unto the Lord, that is, he had recourse unto his grace and mercy, with full confidence and assurance that he should obtain it. As indeed the Lord was merciful unto him: for it is said that he heard his prayer, he received him into favour again, and made him return to jerusalem that he might establish him again in his kingdom. Hereupon ensued a ready change and amendment: for he took away the strange gods and idols that were in the house of the Lord: he broke down all the altars which he had built contrary to his commandment: he re-edified the true altar of the lord, and offered thereon peace offerings, and sacrifices of praise. Also he gave commandment throughout all juda that they should serve the Lord the God of Israel: to be short he made such and so ready an amendment of all his faults, that he did indeed declare that there was no feigning nor hypocrisy in his repentance and in his faith, but that it was pure, entire, and sincere. Such was his reversion: such was that of Saint Peter. True it is indeed, that there is not so ample mention made of it in the Gospel, as of that of David, and that of Manasses: for it is only said that after that Saint Peter had denied his master, and that jesus Christ had beheld him, the Cock cruel then was he so well awaked and touched at the quick, 
Mat. 26. Mat. 14. Luk. 22.  that he rushed out of the priests house, and wept bitterly. Now that which followed thereupon, showeth plainly that his fault was forgiven. For jesus Christ took him afterward for his disciple, and continued him in his office of an Apostle. Then we may conclude that this faith and repentance was true and entire: for that his bitter weeping showed that he was thoroughly touched with his fault, and that he was extremely grieved at it, not only because he saw the punishment which he had deserved if God would have handled him sharply and severely, but principally by reason of his too monstrous unthankfulness, backsliding, and disloyalty which made him ashamed before God and men. If then his repentance were true and entire, whereby he was beaten down even to hell, we may well say that his faith was of the self same stamp, and that this look which the Lord gave him was of marvelous force and efficacy: seeing that being fallen so far, and having committed such an horrible sin, that (as they say) he was not sufficient enough to punish it: yet was he not swallowed up with despair, but he was raised up out of that dungeon of destruction, even by apprehending a greater depth then that was: that is the infinite depth of the riches of the grace and mercy of God, whereunto he had recourse, with full assurance that this most bountiful and merciful father would take pity and compassion on him. You see then the repentance and the excellent faith of this holy Apostle: and also how he sealeth and confirmeth all by a sudden and true amendment: for immediately after that he saw the breakneck of destruction, and the woeful and miserable estate whereinto he was fallen, he came thence without delay, and then went to seek his brethren and companions, that is, he came within the lists of the Church again how small soever it were at that time, and in how poor and miserable estate soever it was according to the world, so that the poor faithful could look for nothing but for the cross, tribulations, and persecutions, considering the sharp entertainment which the sovereign master and head of the Church had and found.  
This than was the way and gate whereby David, Manasses, and S. Peter had access unto the throne of that grace and mercy of God. The very self same thing is taught us by the history of the prodigal son, which jesus Christ setteth down in the Gospel, 
Luk. 15.  to show us on the one side how greatly they are blinds and void of understanding, which upon any occasion whatsoever forsake the house of their heavenvly father, without that which there is nothing but mere hunger, poverty, misery, woe and cursedness. On the other side this serveth to teach us by what means we may come and be received into favour. This was then a foolish son, yea blind and bewitched of Satan: who finding (it may be) his father's government and discipline too hard and austere, and being desirous to follow his foolish affections and disordered desires, doth withdraw himself from his said father, goeth out of his house, and runneth after his own lusts: he falleth shortly after into a most piteous and miserable estate: he which refused to sit at his father's table, doth now sit at table with hogs: he which disdained good and honourable entertainment, the exquisite and delicate meats & iunkates whereof he had sufficient, cannot now fill himself with the meat of hogs: he which despised the goodly and precious ornaments wherewith he was clothed when he was in his father's house, goeth now all tattered and torn like a beggar: to make short, he which might have been in full good case, if he had would, is now accursed and brought to utter destruction through his own folly, and consequently unworthy ever to come within his father's doors, and to have so much as a good look of him whom he had so grievously offended. Lo here then a child that was utterly lost, deprived of all goodness, honour and felicity, and plunged as it were in a gulf of woe, shame, and reproach. What remaineth then for him but to despair? And yet he taketh not that course, but the quite contrary: for he cometh to himself, he perceiveth his wretchedness, he bewaileth his estate, he is displeased with himself for his sin, he resolveth with himself to come and humble himself before his father whom he had offended, he purposeth to crave pardon of him, assuring himself of his goodness and mercy, finally he cometh out of that filth, and without any more a do to his father he comes, he confesseth and acknowledgeth his sin to him, saying that he had sinned against heaven and against him, and he counteth himself unworthy to be taken for his son, and having none other means left but to fly to his mercy, he beseecheth him to take pity and compassion upon him, and to grant him this grace that he would receive him into his house, if not as his child, yet at least as one of his hired servants: acknowledging with David that the condition of the poor porters of God's house is far more blessed and honourable then 
Ps. 84.  that of the greatest monarchs of the earth which are without the Church.  
Thus did this poor prodigal child, that he might escape out of that woeful misery into which he was fallen, and that he might recover that good, that honour, and that felicity which he had lost: as indeed all fell out so well, that he findeth his father better disposed, more ready, and better inclined to receive him (not as a servant, but as a son) than he durst desire. In like manner you see that the true and only means to obtain grace and mercy at the lords hands, is true repentance, a true faith, and true amendment.  
Lo then, my brethren, what course you must observe: lo here the way which you must follow: lo here the gate whereby you must enter in unto the Lord to obtain his favour. But mark well the band and conjunction of these things which cannot be answered: for deceive not yourselves, unless you amend your fault you may well say that you acknowledge it, that you are grieved at it, that you condemn it, & that you count it so grievous and so monstrous, as that it deserveth a thousand deaths and a thousand hells, if there were so many, yet all this is nothing but mere hypocrisy and mocking of God and men. In like manner if you say that you have a true and certain assurance in the goodness & mercy of God, 
Exod. 20.  that he will take pity upon you, and will give you grace to return to his Church: that also shallbe nothing but a false and perverse persuasion, and rather a carnal assurance and confidence than a true faith: to be short, all that shall be nothing but a mere mockery of God, and an abusing of his patience, and consequently a means to inflame his anger so much the more against you, if there withal you show not in effect that you do truly repent, and that your faith is free from all dissimulation, and hypocrisy. This effect is nothing else but a ready change & amendment whereunto you are exhorted in the name of God. For execution whereof we need not here stand upon particulars, you know my meaning well enough. There remaineth nothing for you to do but to have a good and free will, proceeding from a true zeal of God, and from a fervent desire of your salvation, coupled with an holy affection to advance the kingdom of jesus Christ, and to edify his church.  
If the very same occasions which made you fall, do now present themselves before your eyes and keep you from amending and redressing your offence, whether it be in regard of your affairs, of your goods, of your commodities, or whether it be in regard of your own persons and of your kinsmen, or be it in regard of your other circumstances: be you full well assured that is Satan's doing, whose drift it is to plunge you deeper in the dung and filth, and more and more to enwrap and entangle you in his nets, that you may not escape him. But give no place to the subtleties and false persuasions of this enemy: resist him and he will fly from you, saith the Apostle. He will set before you a thousand difficulties and impossibilities thereby to astonish you, and to keep you back, if possibly he can, that you may not be resolved to enter into the way of true conversion: and if you enter the same he will lay a thousand disturbances and stumbling blocks in your way to stop and stay you, and to make you retire: he will set before your eyes the might, the means, and the multitude of your enemies, and the small means you have, so that you cannot in long time escape out of this Babylonish captivity: he will set before you the cross, the afflictions, the sufferings, the persecutions, the poverty, the contempt, the perils and dangers, whereunto those which follow jesus Christ are daily subject. On the other side he will promise you all rest, all assurance, all good things, the honours, pleasures, delights and commodities of this life, if you will worship him and continue in his service. But you must make him the very same answer, and give him the repulse after the self same sort as jesus Christ did, that is by the word of God: 
Mat. 4.  come behind me Satan, for it is written etc. You must then here take the Spiritual armour of a Christian knight which the Spirit of God setteth down unto you by Saint Paul, 
Eph. 6.  that is amongst the rest, fervent and continual prayers to the Lord, the buckler of faith, and the sword of the spirit which is the word of God, to beat back the fiery darts of this wicked one: you must oppose against all that which he shall purpose unto you through the enticements of the flesh and the world, that which you sometimes learned in the School of Christ. If then he lay stumbling blocks cross your way to keep you from returning to God, beware you stumble not at them, but strengthen yourselves in the power of the Spirit of God, and leap over them, remembering that grave sentence of jesus Christ, whereunto but a few have regard: Blessed is he, saith he, that is not offended at me: that is, which shall not be letted or hindered, by any occasion whatsoever, to come unto me, You know full well what we must conclude on the contrary, that is, that he is unhappy and more than unhappy the which shall be offended through him: for in very deed it were better for us never to have been borne in this world, then to be separated from jesus Christ.  
As for that which Satan can set before you touching the might, means, and multitude of your enemies thereby to make you astonished, and touching the feebleness and infirmity of the poor Church, and the small means it hath according to the world to help itself, that hereby he may discourage you: remember that which is spoken so often in the Scripture, 
2. Tim. ●.  that the Lord he is a God of power and of hosts: remember that which Eliseus saith to his servant: Those that are with us are more than those that are with them. 
Rom. 8.  Strengthen yourselves with that which Saint Paul saith: If God be with us who can be against us. His meaning is not that if god be on our side there shall not any longer be any enemies to make war against us, but his meaning is, that if we have God on our side, we may despise all the strength not only of men, but also of Satan & of hell. And indeed what can all the powers & forces of all the kings & potentates of the earth do if they be coupled together, and what are they able to do against the power of the most mighty? Surely they are nothing but a vapour of smoke that vanisheth away, and as wax that melteth at the fire, 
Ps. 58.  as saith the prophet. How is it then, will some say, that the lord deferreth the deliverance of his church so long? Because the time is not yet come: without all doubt he will deliver it, howsoever it be long first, and he will break the head of his adversaries in pieces even as an earthen vessel, 
Psal. ●.  yea even by his iron rod. For seeing he beginneth his judgement at his own house, it is a most evident token that he will end it with those that are rebellious against his Gospel, and that their end shall be most miserable: 
1. Pet. 4.  For they shall drink the dregs of the Lords cup when he shall visit them, 
1. Pet. 4.  not in his gentleness & benignity, as he dealeth with those that are his own, but in his anger and in his wrath: notwithstanding this shall come to pass at the time which he hath appointed & ordained. Wherefore it behoveth us to watch, and in our patience to possess our souls, and the Lord shall show us wonderful things. 
Luke 21.   
But and if you be terrified through the horror of the cross, of afflictions & persecutions which are proposed unto all those which will be true disciples of the son of God, and desire to be made partakers of his celestial kingdom, call to mind that which you have learned out of the word of God: to wit, that the afflictions of the faithful are blessed with God, forasmuch as he hath sanctified them in the person of his son: also that they are honourable, forasmuch as by them they are made partakers of the sufferings of jesus Christ, and are made like to his image, 
2. Pet. 4. Rom. 8.  bearing & wearing his livery as knights of his order: also that they are tokens & testimonies of the favour & fatherly will of God, who chasteneth those whom he loveth, & scourgeth every child whom he receiveth to himself: 
Pro. 3. Heb. 12. Apoc. 3.  also that they be but light and of small continuance being compared with that weight of most excellent glory, which they work in us: For if we suffer with jesus Christ we shall reign and be glorified with him, 
2. Cor. 4.  saith the Apostle. And blessed are they which suffer persecution for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of God saith Christ jesus. 
2. Tim. 1. Mat. 5.  Also the afflictions are not only profitable for the faithful, but also necessary, forasmuch as by them the Lord correcteth that natural corruption & perverseness which doth incessantly drive us to rebel against his holy commandments: they tame our flesh, and bridle it, for fear lest it wax wanton & go astray: it teacheth us how to know ourselves, to forsake the world, to wax out of love with it, that we may so much the more desire to attain to eternal life: by this means we are provoked to pray & earnestly to call upon God, & to put our trust in him: our faith & our patience are exercised, proved & fined: to be brief, afflictions are a mean whereby the Lord procureth and furthereth our salvation so many ways, that those which fly from them & which abhor them, show themselves not only unadvised, but also altogether blind & sworn enemies to their own good and salvation.  
Furthermore, 
Rom. 8.  like as afflictions (as also all things else whether prosperity or adversity fall out to the good & salvation of those which love & fear the Lord: so likewise on the contrary we may say that all things turn to a curse to those which are out of God's favour. Wherefore this rest, this ease, these good things, these honours, and these temporal commodities which the world promiseth you, to hinder you from turning to God, ought not to prevail with you: And surely if you suffer yourselves to be made drunken with such deceivable allurements, it will go ill with you: for he which maketh you such fair promises hath no power to perform them: so that you shall be frustrate of your vain hope, & shall become twice miserable. But put case you should enjoy all these things peaceably, you should yet be more accursed: for they shallbe given you in the wrath of God, & the use thereof shall be accursed to you so long as you continue separate from jesus Christ and his Church. Furthermore, what profit should you reap by this to have the full and whole fruition of all beautiful, precious, & excellent things that are in the world, if you lose your own souls? and what will you give in recompense thereof saith jesus Christ? 
Mat. 26.  What is there in this world which we ought to count so dear & so precious as the eternal salvation of our souls? The son of God made so great account of it that to purchase the same for us, he shed his most precious blood, & suffered a most cruel & a most horrible death: not only in his body, but also in his soul, forasmuch as he was put even as in the press of God's wrath, and suffered the heavy burden of his just judgement for us, so that he was in a manner oppressed with it, so that he said, My God, my God why hast thou forsaken me? We must then needs say that our salvation is a thing of great price, seeing it cost the son of God so dear. Will you then show yourselves so unthankful towards him as to contemn & tread under foot so precious & so inestimable a treasure? Will you be so cruel and so uncourteous to yourselves as to deprive yourselves thereof for ever, to enjoy transitory commodities, and to escape certain light and small discommodities which are not worth the naming?  
What man is he so mad that will stick to forego three or four pence, to gain a treasure of one thousand crowns? Or who is he that is so dainty as that he cannot suffer a little prick of a pings point, the pain whereof is gone in the turning of a hand, that he may be blessed & enjoy perpetual pleasures during his whole life? In like sort what man is he that is so foolish as to hazard the loss of all his goods upon hope to get one poor penny: or rather a thing of nothing what man is he that is so mad and void of reason, who to enjoy a quarter of an hours pleasure would bind himself to go up at the end thereof upon a scaffold, and there to have his head cut off, or else to be tormented upon a wheel. And what are all torments, yea even the most cruel torments that a man can endure in this world, being compared with the eternal torments, as hath been said.  
For the honour of God therefore, my brethren, bethink yourselves. Come out of the cursed Babylon, return to your father's house, who is ready to receive you as his children, & to kill the fat calf to the end to feast you & to make you good cheer, yea, to apparel you with the precious ornaments of his son jesus Christ, after that he hath forgiven you all your offences. Take heed that you drive not off from day to day, abusing his patience, for fear lest his wrath wax hotter & hotter against you, & lest he shut the gate of his grace against you, when, after you have stopped your ears against his advertisements you shall come to seek him in vain. follow him now seeing he calleth you to him: harden not your heart against the sweet voice of this most merciful father. You have dishonoured him by your falling away, honour him now, and give him glory through your conversion: you have cowardly forsaken the banner of jesus Christ, gather fresh strength and courage now, so that it may appear that you gave back to th'end you might leap better, and that you might fight more valiantly than ever heretofore: you have denied and renounced him before men, and have abjured the truth of the gospel: make now a quite contrary abjuration and denial: renounce Antichrist in the face of the whole world: abjure all his impieties and abominations: cast up all his filth and infections out of your stomach: you have offended, dishonoured, and grieved the poor Church of jesus Christ: edify it now and repair the honour thereof: you have made sad the holy Ghost and all good men, and have made glad Satan and Antichrist together with their ministers, do now the quite contrary: make glad all those to whom you have ministered matter of sorrow, and let all those be confounded and ashamed which rejoice at your fall, and which triumph over it: you are gone astray, and are again entered into the way of destruction, whence the Lord had drawn you, return now again to the right way which you have forsaken, 
Mat. 12.  for fear lest that wicked spirit which was gone out of your heart, return again, that he may enter in again with seven other spirits worse than himself, least after they have gotten possession of you they make your last estate worse than your first: that is most cursed and most miserable. Now the father of all mercy vouchsafe in mercy to behold you: the high shepherd and bishop of your souls vouchsafe himself to look out his wandering sheep, and to bring it again to his flock. The spirit of strength and of wisdom vouchsafe to strengthen and prudently to direct you in all your actions: that all this may redound to his honour and glory, to your good and salvation, and to the edification of his church, for the love of his son jesus Christ Amen.