¶ The way to wealth, wherein is plainly taught a most present remedy for Sedition. written and imprinted by Robert Crowley the vii Of Februarye in the year of our LORD. A thousand five hundred & fifty  
☞ In Elie rents in Holborn  
¶ Cum privilegio ad imprimendum solum.  
☞ Who so thou be that dost desire,  
to live and good days see.  
Look that in thy tongue and thy lips,  
none ill or deceit be.  
flee from ill and do that good is,  
whereof cometh no blame.  
Seek thou for peace diligently,  
and then ensue the same.  Psalm. xxxiiii.  

¶ By what means Sedition may be put away, and what destruction will follow if it be not put away speedily. Consultatio Robert Crolei  
COnsidering that all men may plainly perceive the great hurt that (of late days) Sedition hath done in this realm, & that all wise men may esilye gather, what greater hurt is like to ensue, if it be not speedily seen unto: it shallbe every true Englyshmans duty forth with to employ his whole study to the removing so great an evil out of so noble a realm and common wealth, lest haply (if through negligence it grow and take deeper rote) it be shortly to strong and more surely grounded, than that it may be rooted out, without the utter destruction of the whole realm. For what can be more true, then that which the truth itself hath spoken? Every kingdom (sayeth Christ) that is divided in itself, 
Matthew. xii.  shall be brought to nought. Intending therefore to play the part of a true Englyshman, and to do all that in me shall lie to pluck this stinking weed up by the rote: I shall in this good business do as in their evil exercise the diseplayars (that gladly would, but have nothing to play for) do. Hold the candle to them that have wherewith, and will set lustily to it. And so doing, I shall be no less worthy the name of a true hearted Englishman then the trumpettar is, worthy the name of a man of war, though he do not in deed fight, but animate and encourage other.  
Sedition therefore being a dangerous disease in the body of a comen wealth: must be cured as the expert Physicians do use to cure the dangerous diseases in a natural body. And as the most substantial way in curing diseases, is by putting away the causes whereof they grew: so is it in the pulling up of Sedition. For if the cause be once taken away, then must the effect needs fail. If the rote be cut of: the branch must needs die. The boughs cannot bud, if the tree, have no sap.  
give ear therefore (o my country men) give ear. And do not disdain to hear the advise of one of the least of power brethren for the matter requireth every man's counsel, 
Daniel. xiii.  and God revealed unto young Daniel, that which the whole counsel of Babylon perceived not. give ear, I say, and if I tell you truth, be not ashamed to do that I bid, though ye know me to be at your commandment. 
Gene. xxi  For Abraham was contented to do at the biding of Saraie his wife, because he knew that her biding was gods will. And the Ninivites did at the biding of poor jonas, 
jonas. iii.  sit in sackcloth & ashes, because they perceived that he told them the truth. Yea cruel Herode did not refuse to hear john baptist, because the thing which he told him was true. 
mark vi.  least you therefore should be more lofty than the babylonians, more shamefast than Abraham, more stubborn than the Ninivites, & more cruel than Herod, give ear and patiently hear what I shall say.  
The causes of Sedition must be rooted out. If I should demand of the poor man of the country what thing he thinketh to be the cause of Sedition: I know his answer▪ He would tell me that the great fermares, the graziers, the rich but hares, the men of law, the merchants, the gentlemen, the knights, the lords, and I can not tell who, Men that have no name because they are doors in all things that any gain hangeth upon. Men without conscience. Men utterly void of god's fear. Yea men that live as though there were no God at all. Men that would have all in their own hands, men that would leave nothing for others, men that would be alone on the earth, men that be never satisfied, Cormerauntees, greedy gulls, yea men that would eat up men women & children: are the causes of Sedition. They take our houses over our heads, they buy our grounds out of our hands, they raise our rents, they levy great (yea unreasonable) fines, they enclose our commons. No custom, no law or statute can keep them from oppressing us, in such sort, that we know not which way to turn us to live. Very need therefore constraineth us to stand up against them. In the country we can not tarry, but we must be their slaves and labour till our hearts braced, and then they must have al. And to go to the cities we have no hope, for there we hear that these unsatiable beasts have all in their hands. Some have purchased and some taken by leases, whole allies, whole rents, whole rows, yea whole streets and lanes, so that the rents be raised, some double, some triple, and some four four-fold to that they were within these xii years last passed. Yea there is not so much as a garden ground free from them. No remedy therefore, we must needs fight it out, or else be brought to the like slavery that the french men are in. These Idle bellies will devour all that we shall get by our sore labour in our youth, and when we shall be old and impotent, them shall we be driven to beg and crave of them that will not give us so much as the crowmes tha● fall from their tables: Such is the pity w● see in them. Better it were therefore, for us to die like men, then after so great misery in youth to die more miserably in age.  
Alas poor man, it pitieth me to see the miserable estate that thou art in. Both for that thou art so oppressed of them by whom thou shouldest be defended from oppression: and also for that thou knowest not thy duty in this great misery. Thou art not so much oppressed on the one side, but thou art more destituted on the other side. They that should nourish and defend thy body in thy labour do oppress thee: & they that should feed thy soul & strengthen thy mind to bear all this patiently, do leave the alone. If thy shepherd had been a diligent watchman, & had espied the wolf coming upon thee, before thou hadst been within his reach he would, have stepped between the & thine enemi, & instructed the in such sort that though he had come in nine sheep skins, yet he should not have deceived thy sight. The devil should never have persuaded the that thou mightest revenge thine own wrong. The false prophets should never have caused the to believe that thou shouldst prevail against them with the sword, under whose governance God hath appointed the to be. He would have told the that to revenge wrongs, is in a subject to take and usurp the office of a king and consequently the office of God. For the king is god's minister to revenge the wrongs done unto the innocent. As he that taketh in hand therefore, or presumeth to do any office under a king, not being lawfully called unto it, presumeth to do the office of a king: so he that taketh in hand to do the office of a king, taketh god's office in hand. We read that our saviour Christ being in the estimation of the world but a private man, 
Luke. x●.  would not walk out of the bounds of that vocation. But when a certain man came unto him & desired that he would command his brother to divide the inheritance with him: he axed who had appointed him to be judge in such matters. And again when the woman taken in adultery was brought unto him: he should not give sentence of the law against her, but axed her if any man had condemned her, and upon her denial let her go. If these examples, 
john. viii.  with the terrible stories of Corah, Dathan, Abira and Absolom had been diligently beaten into thine head: 
Numeri. xvi  thou wouldst (no doubt) have quieted thyself, 
two. Reg. xviii  and have suffered thyself rather to have been spoiled of all together yea and thy body torn in pieces rather than thou wouldst have taken on the more than thou art called unto. For no cause can be so great to make it lawful for the to do against god's ordinance: But thy shepherd hath been negligent as (alas the while) all shepherds be at this day, and hath not instructed the aright. He espied not the wolf before he had woried thee, or happily he knew him not from a sheep. But it is most like he was but an hireling, and cared for no more but to be fed with the milk & fatlings and clad with the woule, as the greatest numbered of them that bear the name of shepherd in England be at this day. Yea perchance he had many flocks to keep & therefore was absent from them all, leaving with every flock a dog that would rather worye a sheep then drive away the wolf, well, brother, these be great plagues, & it behoveth the sins to be great that have deserved these so great and intolerable plagues at god's hand. Return to thy conscience therefore, and see if thou have not deserved all this and more to. Consider first if thou have loved thy neighbour as thyself, consider if thou have done nothing unto him that thou wouldst not that he should do unto the. Look if thou have not gone about, to prevent him in any bargain that thou hast seen him about, look if thou have not craftily undermined him to get some thing out of his hand, or to deceive him in some bargain. Look if thou have not laboured him out of his house or ground. See if thou have not accused him falsely or of malice, or else given false evidence against him: See if thou have not given evil counsel to his wife or servants which might turn him to displeasure. Consider if thou have not desired and wished in thine heart to have his commodity from him, if thou mightest without blame of the world have brought it about. For God looketh upon the heart and if thine heart have been infected with any of these evils than haste thou been abominable in the sight of God, and haste deserved these plagues at god's hand. Now if thou befound abominable in thy behaviour towards thy neighbour what shalt thou be found trowest thou in thy demaners to god ward? God requireth thine whole heart, thine whole mind, and all the powers of thy body and soul. Thou shalt love thy Lord God with all thy life, with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. That is to say, 
Math. xxii.  there shallbe nothing in the which thou shalt not apply wholly to the love of thy Lord God. But how was it possible for the to love God (whom thou seest not) sith thou lovest not thy Brother whom thou seest? God requireth the to love him ever. And how often hast thou gone whole days together, whole weeks, yea whole years, and never thought once to love him aright? How many and how great benefits hast thou received at god's hand, and how unthankful hast thou been for them, thinking that thou haste gotten them by thine own labour and not received them freely at god's hand? As though God had not given the thy life, thine health, and thy strength to labour. Yea and as though it were not God only that giveth the increase of every man's labour. But knowing by thine own creation and bringing up, and also by the young fruit that God sendeth the of thy body, & further by the fruits that God sendeth and causeth yearly to grow out of the earth, that there is a god almighty; yet thou hast not honoured him as God, 
romans l  but hast turned the glory of God into an Image made after the shape or similitude of mortal man, renewing and riding from place to place to seek and to honour things of thine own makeinge, crying and calling upon them in thy need and paying unto them thy vows and thancking them for thine health received doing them daily worship and reverence in the temples, and bestowing thine alms upon them in decking them and setting lights before them. Biside this thou haste put confidence of salvation in pardons that thou haste bought, in prayers that thou hast hired or mumbled up thyself, in masses that thou hast caused to be said, and in works that thou thyself haste fantasied, and haste not thanckefullye received the free mercy of God offered unto the in Christ in whom only thou mayst have remission of thy sins: and therefore God hath given the up in to a reprobate mind to do the thing that is not beseminge. 
Rom. i.  Even to stand up against God and god's ordinance, to refuse his holy word, to delight in lies and false fables, to credit false prophets and to take weapon in hand against gods chosen ministers, I say his chosen ministers. For be they good or bad they are gods chosen. If they be good: to defend the innocent▪ If they be evil: to plague the wicked. If thou wilt therefore that God shall deliver the or thy children from the tyranny of them that oppress thee: lament thine old sins, 
i. Esdras i  and endeavour emendment of life. And then he that caused King Cirus to send the jews home to jerusalem again: shall also stir up our young king Edward to restore the to thy liberty again, and to give strait charge that non shallbe so bold as once to vex or trouble the. 
Proverb. xxi.  For the heart of a king is in god's hand, & as he turneth the rivers of water, so turneth he it. Besure therefore, that if thou keep thyself in obedience and suffer all this oppression patiently, not giving credit unto false prophecies that tell the of victori but to the word of God that telleth the thy duty: thou shalt at the time, and after the manner that God hath already pointed, 
Ezech. xi.  be delivered. Perchance God will take from thine oppressors their hard stony hearts & give them hearts of flesh, for it is in his power so to do. Let him alone therefore. Read the prophecy of jeremy, and especially the seven and twenty Chapter, 
Read jeremy his prophecy.  the eight and twenty and the nine and twenti, and therein thou shalt learn thy duty in captivity, and how vain a thing it is to credit the prophets that prophecy vyctorie to them that have by their sins deserved to be led away captive, yea and to remain captive till such time as the time be complete during which God hath determined to punish them. And know thou for certainty, that if thou be still stouberne, God will not leave the so. He will bring the on thy knees, he will make the stoup. If the gentlemen and rulars of thy country should be to weak for thee, he would bring in straying nations to subdue thee (as the babylonians did the jews) and lead the away captive. So that refusing to serve in thine own country, thou shalt be made a slave in a straying contrei. Quiet thyself therefore, & strive not against the stream. For thy sins have deserved this oppression, and God hath sent if the as a just reward for thy sins: & be thou never so loath, yet needs sustain it thou must. appoint thyself therefore to bear it. Let it not be laid upon the in vain let it do the thing that God hath sent it for, let it cause the to acknowledge thy sin, repent it and become altogether a new man. That in the day when God shall deliver thee, his name may be glorified in the. And then God shall sand the plenty of true prophets, that shall go before the in puriti of life, and godly doctrine. They shall not come or send four times in an year and no more, neither shall they set one together up the tenth of thine increase to their behoof, and leave the destitute of a diligent guide (as thy shepherds do now a days) but God hath promised by his prophet to take a way these shepherds from thee, and to commit the to the keeping of David his faithful servant, that is to say to such as will be as diligent in feeding thee, as David was in governing the people of whom he had governance. give ear therefore ye shepherds of this church of England. Ye bishops, ye Deans, Archdiacons and Canons, ye Persons and ye vicars what soever ye be, that receive any part of the tenth of men's yearly increase or any other patrimony of preachers give ear to the prophet Ezechiel, for the same Lord that bade him speak unto the sheperdes of juda, biddeth him speak unto you now also. Thou son of man saith the Lord: prophecy against the shepherds of England, prophecy and say unto those shepheardis: thus sayeth the Lord God. Woe be to the shepherds of England, 
Ezech. xxxiiii.  that have fed themselves. What ought not those shepherds to have fed those flocks of England. Ye eat the fat, and deck your selves with the woule, & the mutton that is fat, ye kill to feed upon, but these silli sheep ye feed not. The sorrowful & pensive ye have not comforted, the sick ye have not healed, the broken ye have not bound up, the stray sheep ye have not brought again nor sought for the lost. But with extreme cruelty ye have played the lords over them etc. I need not to rehearse more of this prophets saying unto you, for ye know where to have it and have leisure enough to seek it, for aught that I see you busied withal unless it be with purchasing lands for your heirs & find fingered ladies, whose womanlike, behaviour and motherlike housewifry ought to be a light to all women that dwell about you, but is so far otherwise that unless ye leave them lands to mary them withal, no man will set a pin by them when you be gone. Well look to this gear be time, least perhaps it beede a scab among you. I would not your wives should be taken from you: but I would you should keep them to the furtherance of god's truth whereof ye profess to be teacheares. Let your wives therefore put of their fine frocks and french hoods & furnish themselves with all points of honest housewifery, and so let them be an help to your study and not a let. S. Paul teacheth you not to make them ladies or gentlewomen. 
i Timo. iii.  Neither doth he teach you to be so greedy upon liveings, that for the living sake ye will take upon you the duties of twenty men and yet do not the duty of one, no some of you be not able to do any part of one duty. If god's word do allow it that one of you should be a dean in one place, a canon in an other, a parson here and a parson there, a master of an house in Oxford or Cambridge and an officer in the kings house, and yet to do none of the duties hereof thoroughly: then set your pens to the paper and satisfy us by god's word and we will also help you to our power to satisfy the consciences of them that be offended at your doings herein. If you can not do so: then give over your pluralities and make your unsatiable desires give place to god's truth. Content yourself without competent living, and fail not to be diligent in doing the duty thereof. But if ye will do neither of both: trust to it ye shall hear more of it. your checking of one or two in a corner can not stop every man's mouth in a matter of truth being so great an infamy to the gospel of god which ye profess. And if ye will needs hold still your pluralities for your lordlike living sake doubt ye not ye will be charged with that which ye would seem to be clear of. For a great numbered of your unworthy curates have been the stirrars up of the simple people in the late tumults that have been, where as if you had not rob them of that which they pay yearly to have a learned and Godly teachar, they had been better instructed, as appeared by the quietness that was among them that had such shepherds. Well brother. Thou I say that art thus oppressed on the one side and destituted on the other: take mine advise with the. Submit thyself wholly to the will of God. Do thy labour truly, call upon God continually. I mean not that thou shouldest be ever muttering on thy beads, or that thou shouldest have any beads, but my meaning is, that thou shouldest ever have thine heart lifted up unto God, for so meaneth saint Paul when he sayeth. I would men should pray always and in all places, lifting up their pure hands. etc.  
And in all thy doings let thy desire be that Gods will be fulfilled in thee, and what so ever God sendeth thee, hold the content withal and render unto him most hearty thanks for that he dealeth so mercifully with thee, acknowledging that by his justice he might pour out upon the more plagues than ever were heard of. And when thou comest to thy parish church, if thy curate be an evil live are, 
Math. xxiii.  then remember what Christ said unto his disciples. When the scribes and Pharisees do set them down upon Moses seat, then do all that they command you to do, but do not as they do, for they say & do not. Remember this I say, and what so ever thy curate biddeth the do when he sitteth on Christ's seat, that is, when he readeth the bible unto thee: that do thou. But follow not his examples. Do not as thou seest him do, but at thy first entrance into the church, lift up thine heart unto god, and desire of him that he will give the his holy spirit to illumine and lighten the eyes of thine heart that thou mayst see and perceive the true meaning of all the scriptures that thou shalt hear read unto the that day. And so shalt thou be sure, that though thy curate were a devil and would not that any man should be the better for that which he readeth: yet thou shalt be edified and learn as much as shallbe necessary for thy salvation. And for thy sake god shall make thy curate (that otherwise would mumble in the mouth & drowned his words) to speak out plainly, or else he shall give the such a gift that thou shalt understand him plainly. 
〈◊〉. two.  Of such power is God, for when the Apostles spoke in the Hebrew tongue only, all that were present heard every man his own language. Doubt thou not therefore but if thou be desirous to learn thy duty out of that thy curate readeth to thee: God will make it plain unto thee, though it be not plainly read. For he that could make the Hebrew tongue (which soundeth far otherwise than other tongues do) sound all manner of languages, to every man his own language: can also make thine own language sound plain unto thee, though it were not spoken any thing plain. Thus seest thou that the cause of Sedition is not where thou layest it, for I have declared to the that thine own sin is the cause that thou art Seditious. For Sedition is poured upon the to plague thy former sin withal. Because thou knewest God by his creatures and yet diddest not honour him as God, he hath given the over into a reprobate sense to do the thing that is unseemly, even to stand up against God and god's ordinance, as I have said before.  
Now if I should demand of the greedy cormerauntes what they think should be the cause of Sedition: they would say, the peasant knaves be to wealthy, provender pritheth them. They know not themselves, they know no obedience, they regard no laws, they would have no gentlemen, they would have all men like themselves, they would have all things commune. They would not have us masters of that which is our own. They will appoint us what rent we shall take for our grounds We must not make the best of our own. These are jolly fellows. They will cast down our parches, & lay our pastures open, they will have the law in their own hands. They will play the kings. They will compel the king to grafit their requests. But as they like their fare at the break fast they had this last summer, so let them do again. They have been meetly well cooled, and shallbe yet better cooled if they quiet not themselves. We will tech them to know their betters. And because they would have all common, we will leave them nothing. And if they once stir again or do but once cluster together, we will hang them at their own doors. Shall we suffer the vila●nes to disprove our doings? No, we will be lords of our own & use it as we shall think good.  
Oh good masters, what should I call you? you that have no name, you that have so many occupations & trads that there is no on name meet for you. You ungentle gentlemen. You churls chickens I say. give me leave to make answer for the poor Idiots over whom ye triumph in this sort. And this one thing I shall desire of you that ye report me not to be one that favoureth their evil doings (for I take God to witness I hate doth their evil doings and yours also) but give me leave to tell you as freely of your faults, as I have alreadi told them of theirs. And for as much as you be strong and they weak, I shall desire you to bear with me though I be more earnest in rebuking your faults, than I was in rebuking theirs.  
True it is, the poor men (whom ye call paisaunte knaves) have deserved more than you can devise to lay upon them. And if every one of them were able and should sustain as much punishment as they all were able to sustain yet could they not sustain the plagues that they have deserved. But yet if their offence were laid in an equal balance with yours (as no doubt they are in the sight God) do●●t not but you should soon be ashamed of yoore part. For what can you lay unto their charge, but they have had examples of the same in you? If you charge them with disobedience: you were first disobedient.  
For without a law to bear you, yea contrary to the law which forbiddeth all manner of oppression & extortion, & that more is contrary to conscience, the ground of all good laws, ye enclosed from the poor their due commons, levied greater fines than heretofore have been levied, put them from the liberties (and in a manner inheritance) that they held up custom, & raised their rents. Yea when there was a law ratified to the contrary, you ceased not to find means either to compel your tenants to consent to your desire in enclosing, or else ye found such mastership that no man durst gain say your doings for fear of displeasure. And what obedience showed you, when the kings proclamations were sent forth, and commissions directed for the laying open of your enclosures, and yet you left not of to enclose still? Yea what obedience was this which ye showed at such time as the kings most honourable counsel perceiving thee: grudging that was among the people, sent forth the second proclamation concerning your negligence or rather contempt in not laieinge open that which contrari to the good statutes made in parliament you had enclosed? It appeareth by your doings that there was in you neither obedience to your prince and his laws, nor love to your contrei. For if there had been obedience in you: you would forthwith have put all his laws in execution to the uttermost of your power. And if you had loved your contrei, would you not have prevented the great destruction that chanced by the reason of your unsatiable desire: I am sure you be not rulars in your country, but ye can see before what is likely to follow upon such oppression, & especially in a realm that hath heretofore had a noble and a valiant enmminalti. But grant ye were so beastish: yet have you not lacked them that have told you of it both by words and writings. You have been told of it I say, and have had the threatenings of God laid plainly before your eyes wherein you must needs see the vengeance of God hanging over your heads for your lack of mercy. There is not one story of the Bible that serveth to declare how readi God is to take vengeance for the oppression of his people: but the same hath been declared unto you to the uttermost, beside the notable histories and chronicles of this realm, wherein doth most plainly appear the justice of god in the revenging of his people, at such time as they have kept themselves in quiet obedience to their prince & rulers & their destruction when they have rebelled.  
wittingly and willingly therefore ye have both disobeyed your king and his laws, and also brought your contrei into the miseri it is in, by pulling upon yourself the vengeance of god which of his justice he can not hold back from such people as do willingly and wittynglye oppress him in his members, in such sort as ye have done. How you have obeyed the laws in rukeinge together of fermes, purchasing and prolling for benefices, robbing the people of good ministers thereby, all the world seeth and all godly hearts lament. Look the statutes made in the time of our late sovereign of famous memory Henry the viii & say if ye may by those statutes (taken in their true meaning) either being no priests nor students in the universities have benefices, or other spiritual promotions (as you call them for ye are ashamed to call them, ministracious because ye neither will nor can minister) or being priests have pluralities of such ministrations. Well I will burden you no more with your faults, least perhaps you can not well bear them But this I shall say unto you. You shall never the sooner be gentlemen for your shout oppression, nor the later have things in private for that ye let your tenants live by you upon their labour. And think not to prosper the better in your unsatiable desire for that you triumph so Lordelyke over the poor Captyfes, that being seduced by the vain hope of victory promised them in pivyshe Prophecies have greatly offended God by rebellion: for the greater their offence is, the greater shall your plague be when it cometh. For you have been the only cause of their offence. If he therefore that is the occasion of one man's falling unto any kind of vice, were better have a millstone tied about his neck and be cast into the deep sea withal: what shallbe thought of you that have been the occasion of so many men's falling into so detestable sin and trespass against God, as to distrube the whole estate of their contrei with the great peril and danger of their anointed King in his tender age, whose blood (if he had perished) should have been required at your hands as the blood of all them that have perished shall? Oh merciful god, were it not that god's mercy is more than your sins can be: there were no way but to despair of forgiveness. But god is not only mighty in mercy & able to forgive all the sins of the whole world: but he is also ready to forgive all that return from their wicked ways, and with a constant faith & sure believe to obtain do call on him for mercy. I advertise you therefore, & in the name of Christ (whose name you bear) I require you, that without delay ye return to your hearts & acknowledge your grievous and manifold offences, committed in your behaviour to wards the poor members of Christ (your brethren both by religion and nation) whom you have so cruelly oppressed, wish even from the bottom of your hearts, that you had never done it. Be fully determined to make restitution of that ye have miss taken, though ye should leave yourselves nothing. For better is a clear conscience in the hour of death in a beggar's bosom, than mountains of gold with a conscience that is guilty, Wish that you had contented yourselves with that state wherein your fathers left you, and strive not to set your children above the same, lest god take vengeance on you both suddenly, when ye be most hasty to climb. And if for your worthiness god have called you to office so that ye may with good conscience take upon you the state that ye he called unto: then see you deal justly in all points, & follow not filthy lucre to make your children Lords, but study to furnish them with all knowledge and godly manners, that they may worthily succeed you. Grudge not to see the people grow in wealth under you, neither do you invent ways to keep them bare: lest haply it chance unto you as it did to King Nabuchodonozer and his servants when they devised ways to keep the hebrews in slavery still, 
Exodi. i●   
They rebelled not but quietly did their labour, referring their cause to God. They prepared not for wars neither had any confidence in their own strength, but when the Egyptians thought to have had a fair day at them: 
Exodi. xii.  God drowned them all in the red sea, and drove their dead bodies on land in such sort that they whom they thought to keep still in slavery might easily take the spoil of them. Think not therefore, but if the people quiet themselves in their oppression and call unto God for deliverance: he will by one mean or other give them the spoil of their oppressors. He is as mighty now as he was in those days and is now as able to slay both you and yours in one night, 
Exodi. xiiii.  as he was to slay all the first borne of the egyptians: And than who shall have the spoil? Be warned betime, lest ye repent to late leave of your greedy desire to pull away the living from the clergy, and seek diligently to set such ministers in the church as be able and will instruct the people in all points of their duty, that you with them and they with you may escape the wrath of God that hangeth presently over you both. 
jonas. iii.  The king & Citizens of Nenive were not ashamed to fit in sackcloth and in ashes lamenting their sins and there upon found mercy. Wherefore if ye will find mercy, ye must not be ashamed to do the like, for certainly the greatness of your sins importeth as present destruction to you as if ye were the same Ninivites that jonas was sent unto. Be not ashamed therefore to proclaim a solemn fast thorough out the whole realm, that all at once with one voice we may cry unto god for mercy. Leave of your communions in a corner, & come to the open temples that men may see that ye regard the Lords institution. Break your bread to the poor, that all men may see that ye regard fasting. For that is the true fast, to refrain the meat & drink that accustomably we were wont to take & give the same (or the value thereof) to the needy. So shall you both feel & know their disease, and ease it also. Trust not to your great number of valiant warriors, neither to your mighty provisions, but remember what befell to Holofernes the stout captain of king Nobuchoddnozer, when he would not hearken to the right advice of Achior his undercaptaine.  
For certainly I say unto you, 
Judith. v.  god was never more ready to deliver his people of Israel from oppression at all times when they walking in his ways committed their cause unto him: then he is now ready to deliver all christian men that do with like confidence call upon him, If you therefore will not he arken unto Achior his counsel, but determine to torment him when ye shall triumpth over the rest: doubt you not but judith shall cut of all your heads on after another & god shall strike your retinue with such a fear, 
Judith. xiii. and xu  that none shallbe so bold as once to turn his face. Yea if there were no men left on live to put them in fear, they should be feared with shadows. And though there were no gonnes to shoot at them, yet the stones of the street should not cease to fly among them, by the mighty power of God, who will rather make of every grass in the field a man, than such as trust in him should be overrun or kept in oppression. Be warned therefore, & seek not to keep the commons of England in slavery. For that is the next way to destroy yourselves. For if they commit their cause to God & quiet themselves in their vocation, being contented with oppression, if gods will be so: then shall ye be sure that God will fight for them, and so are ye over matched. But if they will needs take in hand to revenge their own wrong God will fight against you both, so that you both consuming one the other shall shortly be made a pray to them that ye doubt least of all the world.  
As you tender your own wealth therefore and the public wealth of this noble realm of England, which God hath enriched with so many and so great commodities, & as you desire to use and enjoy the same, and not to be led away captive into a straying nation, or else be cruelly murdered among your wives, kinsfolk and children, and finally to be damned for ever: so look upon these causes of Sedition, and do your best endeavour to put them away. You that be oppressed, I say, refer your cause to God. And you that have oppressed, lament your so doing and do the office of your calling, in defending the innocent and feeding the needy. Let not covetise constrain you to rob the people of that portion which they pay to have godly ministers to instruct them in their duty, and to relieve the unwieldy that be not able to labour for their food Be careful and diligent to seek for such ministers, and when you have found them let them have all that the people pay yearly out of their increase, that they may live there on and minister unto the poor, out of the same.  
Thus doing, ye shall not only escape the vengeance that hangeth presently over you but also be rewarded at god's hand both with exceeding plenti of all good things in this life, & also with life everlasting when nature shall end the same. Where as if ye will not take counsel but remain still in your wicked purpose▪ Pharaoh nor the Sodomites were never so hardened as you shallbe, neither is the remembrance of their destruction so terrible to us, as the destruction of you shallbe to others that shall come after. The spirit of GOD work in your hearts that ye being admonished of the sword that is coming, may by repentance of your sin escape the danger thereof.  
☞ So be it ☜