THE REFORMED SPANIARD: To all reformed Churches, embracing the true Faith, wheresoever dispersed on the Face of the Earth: In special, To the most Reverend Arch- Bishops, Reverend Bishops, and Worshipful Doctors, and Pastors, now gathered together in the venerable Synod at London, this year of our Lord, 1621.  
john de Nicholas & Sacharles, Doctor of Physic, wisheth health in our LORD.  
First published by the Author in Latin, and now thence faithfully Translated into English.  
LONDON, Printed by for Walter Burr, and are to be sold at his shop in Paul's Churchyard, at the sign of the Crane, 1621.   

THE REFORMED SPANIARD.  
Declareth the reasons and motives, by which he was induced to forsake the Romish Church.  
ALthough I be by birth a Spaniard, and cannot deny but that with my Nurse's milk I have sucked in the corruptions of popery; though my whole Infancy, childhood and youth, hath been tainted with the dregs of such my education: yet no sooner was I come to years of discretion, but I began to suspect the turning of bread and wine into the very substance of the Body and blood of our Saviour, to be a mere fiction, much like (both in want of ground, & in wicked illusions) to the coiner thereof, the Antichrist of Rome.  
The beginning of my suspicion was, in that our Professor, Bartholomew Hernandez, a most learned man, in his public Lectures at Ilerda in Catalonia, in the year of our Lord, 1596. did teach us being his Auditors, to the number of above 200. that God, by his ordinary power, cannot put one and the same body in divers places at the same instant of time. This, quoth he, implieth contradiction, as at once supposing, and not supposing a body. For by taking away. from any body, the proper passion of a body; namely the possessing one place, thence followeth necessarily the destruction and abolishment of the form, nature and essence of the body itself: Forasmuch as the property of occupying one place, floweth of necessity from the very form and nature of a body, nor can by God's ordinary power be separated therefrom without destroying the subject itself, on which it dependeth. And that this confining to one place, is a true property, or proper passion of a body, it is evident, in that it suiteth with bodies universally, only & always, and is reciprocated with a body. But whether God by his absolute and extraordinary power (whereby he doth what he can do, or atchiveth a work, than which he cannot perform a greater or more perfect) can do a work, which contradicteth itself, my said Master would neither avouch, nor deny. This quoth he, is to me a bottomless Sea, whereinto I dare not launch with the small cockboat of my poor understanding. Yet withal he constantly affirmed, that God never used this his absolute power, but in one work only, and that was the Incarnating of his Son. Then which he said, that God cannot produce a more excellent and more perfect exploit: whereas in the production of this whole world, and of the invisible, and visible creatures in the same, it is otherwise. For God, if it had pleased him, could have created much more glorious Angels, men more excellent, and brighter or better heavens than these which he hath made.  
Out of this Doctrine thus delivered by our Master, there arose in my mind no small scruple, whence I forthwith, though then but young, reasoned with my self, inferring this same Transubstantiation, which presumeth to put the bodyof our Lord in many millions of places at the same instant of time, not to be of God, much less performable by the sacrificing Priests. Verily, thought I, it never came from God's ordinary power, by which he doth nothing implying contradiction; no, nor from his absolute and extraordinary, which (as my Master would have it) was never used but in the work of Christ's Incarnation. And so I concluded, that Transubstantiation is no work of Gods making.  
To deliver freely what afterward I thought, my conjecture is, that this my Master, intending here to express himself cautelously, did on purpose speak perplexedly. For swallowing this pebble stone of Transubstantiation, and being not able to concoct it, he checked his stomach down as much as he could to keep it from a dangerous vomit: and in a word to tell his case, he was fain to windeup himself in the snare of doubtful words, that he might escape the snare of the Spanish Inquisition. The truth is, this learned man, who knew well enough, white from black, should boldly have affirmed, that Almighty God, neither by ordinary nor extraordinary power, can do those things, that are contradictory to themselues, & therefore cannot set one and the same body in divers places at the same instant. And that, not by reason of any want of active power in God, who is omnipotent; but by defect of passive power in the creature (if such fictions may be called creatures) which cannot suffer their essential and concomitant properties be tome away from the main stock, without the destruction of the whole nature and essence of the subject, which nevertheless is here supposed to remain entire. For what can be more absurd, then if I should say, I present unto you a man, from whom I will notwithstanding take away the faculty of reason? which is as much as, behold here a man, no man: or, speaking of a Geometrical circle, I should instance in a circle, whose beams I would imagine to be unequalled one to the other. I am deeply touched with sorrow, for that hearing this voice, whereby God called me, I notwithstanding, did not cease to harden mine own heart against it, for the space of 9 years after; still keeping my wont of saying Masses, of hearing auricular confessions, and continuing a fierce maintainer of that erroneous Religion. When I first put on the cowl (which I undertook in the order of Saint Hierome, the most renowned in Spain) I was not full seventeen years of age: in which regard I may be the more excused, if, for want of ripeness in judgement, I took not a fit course for my soul's health. Yet at that age was I set in good forwardness in the Latin and Greek Languages, in Rhetoric, and Poetry, in Logic, and the whole course of Aristotle's Philosophy; and moreover, I had made also some entrance into the study of Physic. Being settled in the Monastery, I diverted myself wholly to Divinity, and employed me in the daily reading of the Scriptures. Which that I might the more diligently attend, I was sent to the famous and rich College of Saint Laurence in the Escurial, founded by King Philip the second: and in presence of King Philip the third, I sang that Mass, which was my first handsel.  
I nor may, nor can conceal, that all that long time, whilst I was a Mass-monger, I found no joy, no comfort, no quiet in my mind, nor peace of conscience, by communicating in the Mass, & by that unbloody sacrifice, so called; howsoever I had used more than ordinary diligence in fore-examining myself, as Saint Paul exhorteth us, 1 Cor. 11.28 and in premising auricular Confession, as the Pope willeth us. When therefore by woeful experience I found daily more & more, that I could not say with the blessed Apostle, our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our Conscience, 2 Cor. 1.12. And when as I could not find in the holy Scriptures, any mention or proof of the Mass, of Transubstantiation, of the unbloody sacrifice, or of Priests appointed to such a function, I set up my rest concerning the Mass, to let it pass, and meddle no more with it.  
The more was I encouraged to deny Transubstantiation, and to give over the Massing Trade, not only by my Master's forerecited Doctrine, which I carefully chewed upon whilst I remained in the Monastery, but also for that I had observed, that he good man, would never be brought to say Mass himself, though he were Priested, and had been by his most worthy friends thereto entreated. To whom he was wont to give this wary answer, that he was never able to bear in mind, or to learn by heart, the many ceremonies of the Mass, whereupon, if he should undertake that action, he doubted the sacrifice of the Mass, would be marred by the laughter of the bystanders beholding him. In this his sly answer, gestured not without a smile, me thinks I see one thing given out in word, and another locked up within his breast. Without doubt he in this gave way to the common weakness of those that put him to the question, being unwilling that they should take any scandal at him. For, as for his private judgement, his Dictates, before mentioned, show plainly that he had no small scruple sticking in his mind, which could not easily be pulled out; and that his suspicion against Transubstantiation had taken very deep root in him: and therefore he could not find in his heart to undergo the achievement of the Mass: inasmuch as he being persuaded against it, or at least doubting of it, could not have such intention of Massing, as is required in the very act thereof.  
Another motive drove me further from the Romish Church; namely, that the Pope, being a Creature, dareth to judge the Law of his Creator, even that Law, by which himself is to be judged at the latter day. For instead of the first Commandment of the Decalogue, written by the finger of God, he hath substituted and obtruded another unto the Spanish Nation.  
To speak more plainly, the first Commandment of the ten, written in Mount Sinai, is this, Thou shalt have none other Gods but me. This Commandment the Spaniards have not in their vulgar, the common people hear no news of it. What then is the first Commandment which the people in Spain, are taught to repeat? Forsooth this, Amor a Dios sober todas las cosas: To love God above all things. I deny not this to be God's commandment, yea the grand Commandment, being the pith and sum of the whole first Table. But if it be lawful to put out any particular Commandment, and to place this instead thereof, why in like manner do they not in the Spanish Catechism blot out some one of the Commandments in the second Table, and put, in stead of it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself; which is the sum of the second Table? These are, without question they are, two general precepts, which in no wise exclude any of the ten particular Commandments. And verily no man can love God above all, and his neighbour as himself, unless he most exactly keep all those ten Commandments. Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you, saith our Saviour, joh. 15.14.  
But as for the second Commandment, so ratified by our great and dreadful God, partly by promises, and partly by threats, styling himself a jealous God, and therein forbidding the worshipping, serving, or falling down to graven shapes, or likenesses of any thing in heaven, or in earth, or in the waters beneath the earth, and so condemning all Idolatry, and Iconolatry, that is, Image-worship; this Commandment, I say, is by the son of perdition canceled, and concealed, not only from us poor Spaniards, but also from the Italian, French, and all other Romanising Churches. Let him that hath been thus bold to blot out God's words, take heed lest his own name be blotted out of the Book of life, according to the threat in the end of Saint john's Revelation.  
Think other men as they please, every one according to the sway of his private apprehensions: for my part, if there were no other plague in the Church of Rome, but this, that the Pope hath presumed to change the first Commandment, & to nimme away the second, both of them being precepts twice written with the finger of God, and twice delivered to Moses with many signs and miracles, I shall never hope well of those, that make the Pope their Idol, unless they shall by God's grace repent, 
Acts 5.29.  and learn, that it is better to obey God, than men.  
Moreover, another motive to drive me from Papistry was; That, whereas our Lord and Saviour said concerning the Chalice of the Eucharist, 
Mat. 26.27.  Drink ye all of this, the Pope (with no less sacrilege than the former) saith, Ye shall not all drink of it; but, you Kings and Priests, drink ye only of it: As for all the rest, they must be content to take the Communion in one kind only. I am often deeply touched with admiration, and adore with reverence & humility, the infinite patience, & incomprehensible long suffering of God; who, in a sort overcoming himself, can withhold his revenging hand, from sending down fire from heaven, or making the earth to open, for the punishing such abominable & Luciferian pride of the Roman Antichrist: When as he hath of old strike King Vzzah with sudden death, for only daring with his hand to touch and set upright the Ark of the Covenant, when it tottered by reason of the unruly motion of the Oxen that bore it: which Ark was a figure of this holy Sacrament.  
Lastly, I cannot but acknowledge, that I was wont to be inflamed with no small indignation, as often as I thought upon this Ringleader of Hypocrites, who styling himself The servant of the servants of God, doth notwithstanding believe, and teach. That the power and authority of Kings over their Subjects, is only of humane and positive right: but, as for himself, h upon the words of our Saviour, All power in heaven and in earth is given to me, (as if this had been spoken of the Bishop of Rome) challengeth by divine right, a power of deposing Kings excommunicated by him; of dispensing with their Subjects in their Oath of Allegiance; of appointing those Kings to be slain by whom he shall think good: so that all this while, this Destroyer will have neither himself, nor any other, that commit such horrible and dismal parricides, to be accounted murderers; but rather judgeth, that the massacring of all the Kings of the earth is not so great a mischief, as that for the preventing thereof, there should be suffered a disclosure of any one thing related in auricular confession; which so rigorous institution of Confession, is an invention of his own. Verily often musing of these things.  
Amazed I stood, my hair did start upright: 
Virgil.   
My voice durst not come forth for deep affright.  
Upon these and other like motives, I decreed & resolved to departed out of Babylon, as soon as ever I could get any cleanly opportunity. Yet was there remaining one evil spirit unconquered by me, which bore a very strong hand over me; and that was doting adoration of the Virgin Mary, a disease which had long been my bosome-darling, and being bred in my bones, would very hardly come out of my flesh. So deep a devoto of our Lady was I, so duly and daily did I pray unto her, so reverently was I wont to adore and adorn her Images (whereof I had no less than six or seven to furnish my Chamber,) offering unto them sometime Flowers, otherwhile the choicest fruits I could get; and withal, very frequently using those words in the Roman Breviary, fraught with blasphemies: Hail Queen, the Mother of mercy, All hail our life, our joy, our hope. And, O thou our Advocate, turn unto us those thine eyes full of pity. And those, Free us from all danger thou blessed ever-virgin, thou happy gate of heaven, thou Queen of heaven, thou Mistress of the whole world.  
I was so deeply died herewith, that I had much ado to quit myself of this habit, which I had gotten by so many and so fervent actions of this kind: neither should I ever have shaken it off, unless I had with many tears & prayers, for long time craved assistance at God's hands: who being thus called upon, did in his mercy hear me, and set me free from this spirit of error, in this manner. The oversight and care of the Library of our Monastery, being committed to my charge, so that no man could, but by my leave, borrow, or carry any book out of the Library into his Camber. I was wont every Saturday, to view over all the books, & to set every of them in his order. Which when I did according to my custom, I found one time under a desk, amongst some cast books, a certain Spanish book bearing this Title.  
Two Treatises.  
The first, concerning the Pope and his Authority.  
The second, concerning the Mass, and the holiness thereof.  
At the first sight, I thought this book to have been made by a Papist, but as soon as I had read over the Epistle to the Reader, I was taken with more joy than I was able to express. I judged that I had found no small treasure, I kept it as a most precious pearl, I showed it to no man, I read it all over. Among other things, I found there a certain history taken out of Trithemius, in manner following.  
In the year of our Lord, 1470. one Allen of the Frock a Dominical Friar, devised and composed the Rosary of our Lady, which, neglecting the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour, he preached abroad; and so this Book was published, wherein are related many miracles of the Virgin Mary, wrought by virtue of this Rosary. A little after the beginning, the Author telleth a Tale, that, Once upon a time, the blessed Virgin Mary came into the Chamber or cell of this Friar Allen; and having made a ring of a lock of her own hair, she, by delivery of it, betrothed herself unto him, kissed him, and offered to him her paps to be handled, and sucked by him, and finally conversed with this sweet Friar Allen as familiarly as the spouse is wont to do with her mate.  
Who hath the patience to read, or hear this? Out upon such ribald blasphemies, and blasphemous ribaldries! Verily I blush for shame, whilst I writ out these things. But I yield from my heart all praise to Almighty GOD, for that presently upon reading this homely Tale, the former devotion which I bore to the Virgin Mary grew keycold. The truth is, I presently beheld a certain new light shining out of the Gospel of our Saviour, whence I was fully instructed, that we have only one Advocate with God the Father, namely, jesus Christ: 
1 joh. 2.1.  but as for an advocatress, we find there no news of any such. Ever since this, my life seemed irksome unto me, because I had no fit opportunity to make an escape, and to repair to some place, where I might freely publish that Religion, which I had entertained into my heart. I was then surprised with a violent disease of that sort which we Physicians, call acute per decidentiam. In the height, & consistence of which sickness, I vowed unto God, that (if I recovered) I would forthwith adjoin myself unto the true Christians, which worship God in spirit and truth. 
joh. 4.23.  As soon as I made this vow, I began to recover, and for the sooner regaining of my health, I did get leave to go to the place where I was borne, and to remain there for two months. Thither I went, there I remained, and recovered my perfect health. This my appointed time being expired, my Father, brethren, and kinsfolk thinking that I had returned to our Monastery, I conveyed myself to a Port in the Mediterranean Sea, called Caulibre: there I took ship, & thence went too Rome, with intent to see whither Christian Religion do flourish more in that City, which is called the Head of the world, then in Spain; as also that I might behold the world's wonders, which are at Rome, which if I had not seen, verily I should have ever longed to behold them. What shall I say? Scarce found I in Rome any thing, that did not give me offence and scandal. What is there at Rome, that filleth all men's eyes and ears, but the Pope's divine power, the Pope's Holiness, the Pope's Indulgency, Pardons and jubilees? Nothing at Rome is trumpeted out with more full mouth, than the most Holy Father, the Head of the Church, God upon earth. But as for the seven headed Beast, that is, (by the Angel's interpretation) seven-hilled City; and as for that Woman, 
Revel. 17.9.  with whom the Kings of the earth have committed fornication, that is (by the same interpretation) that great City, 
Revel. 17.28.  which hath dominion over the Kings of the earth; of these and such like Prophecies, bend directly enough against the grandchildren of Romalus, there is no news now to be heard among the Romans.  
Walking there, & viewing the Churches, Lord, what ugly superstition do I behold? As one wave crowdeth another, so do their new Saints shoulder out the old. A fresh yesterday Saint there is, that hath already gotten three new Churches at Rome, new built and founded unto him, and their walls from top to the floor garnished with pictures and tablets, dedicated to him. Of this upstart I would not speak, if the Romans would at any time leave speaking of him, and cease with so loud throats to call upon him; if all places did not ring again with his name: nay if this Saintling did not beat and banish out of the Churches not only God and Christ (which perhaps seemeth a small matter to the Romanists) but also the Virgin Mary herself. Francis and Anthony, and all the rest of the Saints of the higher form. Charles the Emperor, who of old was called Charles the Great, because he vanquished the Saracens, must now come down, and be called Charles the little, in comparison of this new Charles Borrhomaeus who thus triumpheth, having put to flight, not his enemies, but his friends and fellow-Saints. And why may not we thus by way of reprehension mock at the common mockery of the world? but now it is time for me to awaken out of this ecstasy.  
I remained in Rome about a Month, all which while still me thought I heard the voice of Christ saying unto me, Come forth, come forth out of Babylon. I come out on God's name, and pass over to Mompelier, where God shown me his abundant mercy in the midst of his Church, and strengthened my heart with the grace of his holy spirit: So that eight years sithence I there put off my Monkish cowl, and abjuring the gross errors of the Romish Church, I did publicly embrace the undefiled faith of the true and Reformed Religion, not without the express joy of (in a manner) all that City. And because I could not then speak the French tongue, I did by the advice of all the Pastors there apply myself not to the holy ministry (which my loss I yet with many sighs deplore) but unto my old intermitted study of Physic. But behold, while I was thus sailing in the depths of Hippocrates and Galen, a violent tempest overtaketh me, and that was this.  
My Father, a man spent with age, (being fourscore years old) and taking it very heavily that I had fled to the enemies of faith, and heretics (so they dreamingly deem of us) sent to Monpelier one of my elder Brethren, together with a Cousin German of mine, Priest; both who for the space of eight days did beleaguer me, first with fair entreaties, and plentiful tears, then with Arguments drawn from Divinity and Philosophy; thirdly by rewards and offers of worldly goods; last, by threats and terrible obiurgations, to beat me off from my found intent, and holy resolution. I think it not amiss here to relate their language.  
Thou hast (said they) twelve Nieces now marriageable, which will never get husbands so long as thou remainest an heretic; for those, who before were willing to marry them, now start back, saying; God forbidden that we should take to wife those that are akin to an Heretic: Return, return to our religion, if not for conscience, (for we know that you are a learned man, and have not rashly; nor without show of reason left us,) yet for the honour of our stock and blood, which thou hast branded with the foul spot of infamy, by forsaking the Roman Church, & embracing a new religion, which with all the Professors thereof, (for they are but a few in number) the King of Spain is resolved to abolish and ruinated. Return therefore to the holy Mother Church, at least for the love and reverence you own to our aged Father: who, ever since the time he heard that you were become an heretic, lieth sick and bed-ridde, pining away with grief and sorrow.  
Hereto I answered as became a Christian. But because they would give me no patiented audience, nor afford themselves any time to weigh my answer, I used a very honest slight to bring my brother to the house of Falcarius a very worthy Minister of God's Word, who for the space of an whole hour did make a clear demonstration of the falsehood of the Romish religion, and truth of the Reformed, out of the Tenets of them both.  
My brother making objection of novelty against the Reformed religion, and want of Calling and of Antiquity in Caluin and Beza, and other such like Pastors; M. Falcarius according to his admirable faculty, made answer: Sir, What Religion call you new? ours? you are far wide. Our Religion is the most ancient; if the Gospel of our Saviour, if the Epistles of Paul, and of other the Apostles (in a word) if the new Testament, if the Prophets, and the whole old Testament do teach the true religion, needs must you confess that our religion is most ancient; for we believe nothing, but that which we read in the old and new Testament, & that which is drawn thence by necessary consequence. Call your Religion, I pray you, call it new. For almost every Pope, when he cometh new into the Chair, doth impose upon you new precepts, and traditions, taken out of his unwritten word, to be believed and awefully observed by you, under pain of mortal sin: and what laws one Pope layeth upon you to be kept, as soon as he is gone his way by disease, or by poison, another doth cancel. 
Mat. 26. Paul. 1 Cor. 11.  Is not the Communion under both kinds very ancient; being instituted by our Saviour himself? We with the primitive Church, and with the most ancient Fathers, do retain the same, and acknowledge both kinds to be necessary to the essence of this Sacrament. Is not the worship of idols, and images a new thing? and forbidden very instantly in the second Commandment of the decalogue? We obey this divine prohibition, but ye obey the Pope, commanding adoration of Images against the express Word of God. Is not the doctrine of Transubstantiation. a novelty crept into the Roman Church, not above four hundred years ago? This we constantly reject, because it is repugnant to God's word, implieth a thousand contradictions, and maketh those to be Idolaters, that are at Mass. Those words in the Scripture, This is my body, are to be understood in the same sense and manner with those, That Rock was Christ, 1 Cor. 10.4. that is to say, a Sacramental pledge, whereby Christ was represented, and exhibited to them. Or as those words of the Patriarch joseph expounding Pharaohs dream, Gen. 41. v. 26. Those seven fair kine, are seven years: Where the word Are, is by the consent of all the Doctors taken for signify. The same Patriarch expounding the dream of Pharaohs Butler; 
Gen. 40.12.  Those three branches, are three days; that is, do signify them, when as the Scripture saith, Ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular; are we therefore transubstantiated into the very body of Christ? are not these speeches spiritually to be understood? hereto may be added, that the Hebrew tongue hath no verb which signifieth to signify, and therefore instead thereof, useth the verb substantive, Sum. Therefore our Saviour speaking vulgarly, could not say, this signifieth my body, but instead thereof said, This is my body. Which of the Fathers that flourished the first five hundred years after Christ, did ever believe that we are justified by the works of the Law, and not by Faith, as the holy Ghost speaketh by the mouth of Saint Paul; Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God? Which of the ancient Fathers have constantly maintained any other Purgatory, whereby our souls should be purged before they enter into Heaven, but the blood of our Lord and Saviour, who, as Saint Paul speaketh, By himself purged our sins? Who, as Saint john speaketh, Loved us, and washed us from our sins by his own blood; And Paul again, If the blood of Bulls and Goats, and the ashes of an Heiser, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh; how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? Who ever of the Ancients, for the first five hundred, nay six hundred years did believe, or teach, that the Bishop of Rome is the head of the universal Church, having power to deprive Kings of their Kingdoms, to assoil Subjects from their sworn Allegiance, and to dispense with Vows lawfully made unto God, to admit whom he please into the catalogue of Saints, to impose laws upon the universal Church; to pardon sins as a judge, to set free fowls out of Purgatory, to pronounce absolute, and supreme judgement, without all possibility of appeal, in matters appertaining unto Faith? so that he may avouch himself to be out of all hazard of error, and hereupon that he might lawfully be called, by the high style of divine Majesty, the Spouse of the Church, and a god upon earth?  
This, and much more to that purpose was eloquently urged, in the hearing of my said Brother, by Master Falcarius, cutting down the tares of errors, by the sharp sickle of his Arguments, whereby he drew tears from my Brother's eyes. And yet all this notwithstanding, when my Brother did see me so firmly settled in the Religion which I have now undertaken, that he could no whit prevail to draw me back, about four days after, he returned homeward full of sorrow, together with my Cousin, no less loaden with grief; myself the while with dry eyes, and cheerful spirit, beholding them at their departure.  
Two years after this, I took the degree of Batchelar in Physic, in the famous University of Monpelier: and three years after that, having employed my time in studying and practising Physic, I was promoted Doctor in that faculty, in the flourishing University of Valence in Daulphinee, not in the ordinary cursory form, but passing the rigour of examination, as appeareth by my Testimonial Letters.  
Having taken this degree, I practised Physic, near unto Monpelier, and in other parts of France, being rewarded by public pension, and (whereof I boast not) with good measure of reputation: So that by the blessing of God (to whom only be the honour) I achieved many cures of diseases, hard to be judged of, and almost uncurable.  
Whilst I practised Physic, at Saint Giles, near Nismes, 
Nismes. Arles.  and Arles upon public pension, there did betide me that which I am willing to relate for God's glory. There preached in that City a certain judaite (I should profane the most blessed name, if I should style that sect by the name of jesuite) a man eloquent enough, but above measure clamorous and spiteful against those of the Reformed religion: This man (by name Rampala) in his Sermon upon All Saint's day, expounding the answer made upon that question of S. john, Who are those that are clothed in white robes, 
Revel. 7.8.9. & 13.  and whence came they? These are they which came out of great tribulation, and washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Hear Sir Rampala layeth about him in this manner: O my beloved souls, take heed lest ye be seduced; consider, I pray you, the answer of the Angel, he saith not, 
It was use the Angel, but one of the Elders.  these are they which came out of faith only, which is the Doctrine of the Hugonots (so they call the Reformed Christians in France) but which came out of great Tribulation. Let us not therefore be Infidels, like the Hugonots, among whom there is no Sacrament to be found, no repentance, no good works; which last words, this valiant Actor thundered out with shameless confidence, and set them forth with the Theatrical Ornament, of clapping his hands one against the other.  
After Sermon, three or four Papists of my acquaintance, asked me how I liked this Rampala: whereto I answered, that he might be an eloquent man, but surely he was utterly ignorant of our confession of faith: which is evident, in that he imputed to us a Doctrine clean contrary to that which we profess. Forsooth we have never a Sacrament. What a loud lie is this? we have both the Sacraments which were instituted by our Saviour, Baptism, & the holy Supper: but as for the other five, which the Church of Rome calleth Sacraments upon her own invention, we deem them no better than bastards. He said that we have no repentance: This is very false. We believe the Gospel, enjoining repentance in those words, 
Luke 13, 3 Mat. 3.2.  Unless ye repent, ye shall perish; and again, Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand. Our Ministers do daily inculcate unto us these words of the Gospel, Exhorting unto repentance, and requiring the same. He said that we make noaccount of goodworks. This is a mere slander.  
We believe with Bernard, that good works are the way to the Kingdom of Heaven, but not the cause of our reigning in that Kingdom. 
Lib. 4. de justi. cap. 1.  We acknowledge (& this your Master Bellarmine acknowledgeth by us) that good works are necessary unto salvation, not that they are the efficient or meritorious causes thereof, (for the free mercy of God, for the merits of Christ's passion by faith in him, doth procure, and bring forth that salvation in us;) but because they do testify the same, and are lively evidences thereof. Nay moreover, we believe that justifying faith cannot by any means subsist without good works, which if they be wanting in any man, we (with Saint james the Apostle) call his faith a dead faith. 
jam. 2.20.27.   
Rampala, when it was told him what I had said, became my enemy, & hated me. The Governor of that City, being an honest an learned Gentleman, (and though himself following the Popish parts, neither a persecuter, nor a contemner of those of the Reformed Religion) entreated me to come to his garden, and to bring with me some one of my own Religion, that there I might confess with Rampala, either by opposing, or answering; I answered the said Governor, that I took kindly his offer, and would be ready to encounter Rampala there. Accordingly I came, accompanied with one whom I chose of the Reformed Religion, by name Master Marcot an Apothecary (a learned, honest and zealous man:) there we expected Rampala divers times to meet us in that field, but no Rampala appeared. It seemeth his stomach served him not to enter the lists, or to show his face, in the presence of a Reformed Spaniard. But what did his Worship? he employed a certain Popish Swashbuckler, who before in the same City of Saint Giles, had slain a man in the street. Him he suborned to do me some notable affront: and accordingly this knave taking a very sleight occasion, gave me a blow on the care in the open street. These are the concluding arguments of the judaits; this their openhanded rhetoric: this their close fist of Logic. Nor must we think this strange in those who set forth cut throats for their Champions.  
What should poor I do in this case? I did pocket up this wrong as patiently as I could; and when I had spent out my year there, I craved leave to be gone, and that by the good advice of a certain friend, who wished me to quit that place, affirming upon his knowledge that the Papists there did lay wait for me. Being to departed, our brethren of the Reformed Church there held me, and earnestly entreated me to stay; but on the other side some ten or fifteen Papists triumphed at my departure, as though it had been a sign of their conquest over me. So departed I according to our Saviour's precept, 
Mat. 10.23.  If they persecute you in one City, fly into another, and was entertained in other Towns, where I received convenient stipend, namely, in Bower, 
Bower. Kaylaz.  and Kaylaz, near unto Nismes, whose inhabitants were all protestants.  
Whilst I remained here, I read over again and again, a certain French Treatise written by M. Peter Moulin, called, The Buckler of Faith. In it, I found many things which did clear unto me the Doctrine of salvation: upon which passages I did daily meditate, and oftentimes said to myself thus: O ye my brethren Spaniards, whom God hath endued with such depth of wit; O would our Masters, the Inquisitors would suffer you to take this Buckler into your hands, to arm yourselves with this shield against all the poisonous darts of the malignant enemy. O would to God I might with loss of my life, buy the happiness to see you obey our Lord and Saviour, 
john 5.39.  bidding us search the Scriptures, rather than yield unto the yoke of Antichrist, the Lord of Lords, who commandeth you the contrary; and taking the Scriptures from you, giveth you, instead thereof, stocks and stones, to be adored and worshipped by you. O would to God that there might shine in your eyes, some glimpse of that light, which guideth us wretched men out of the kingdom of darkness, into the glorious kingdom of the Son of God. 
Colos. 1.13.  O that the same good God, who is light, and in whom there is no darkness, 
1 john 1, 5.  would say unto you, that which he said in the beginning, and still saith to his elect, 
Gen. 1, 3.  Let there be Light. Then surely you should not any longer be darkness, but Light in the Lord: 
Ephos. 5.8.  no longer wandering sheep, falling down before Idols, but returned to the shepherd, and Bishop of our souls, 
1 Pet. 2, 28  even unto Christ jesus, who is ready to betroath them unto himself by true faith, which worketh by charity. 
Hos. 2, 25.   
But there is one that hindereth you from enjoying this great benefit namely, he that will be accounted another Christ, and omnipotent; and yet in the mean either stealeth from you, or changeth God's Commandments, and will by no means suffer you to read and hear the holy Scriptures in your Mother tongue, lest you should understand them, and by the light of them, discover his tyranny.  
Would to God that you that sit in darkness, 
Luk. 1, ●9.  & in the shadow of death, might be enlightened by the Sun of righteousness arising unto you, 
Mal 4, 2.  that ye might go forth, and grow up, as Calves of the stall, shaking off the Pope's heavy yoke, which himself will not touch so much as with his finger; & yielding your necks unto the sweet yoke of Christ.  
I would to God, the Office of Inquisition, or rather Inquination, would suffer you to view engraven in this Buckler, a fair and pure Confession of Faith, most agreeable to the Scriptures. Then should you easily behold the falsehood, and deformity of your Religion, which you would thereupon loathe no less than now you detest our Religion, being induced so to do by your Preachers, who decipher it unto you, as foul, false, and contemptible, as it is in itself fair, true, and amiable. Then should you see as clear as the noon day, That the Reformed Christians or Protestants (whom ye call Heretics, because they will not thrust their necks into the Pope's tyrannous yoke) do not, as you dream, believe many things repugnant, not only against the Word of God; but also against the light of reason. Your clamorous Friars in their sermons, ring in your ears, that we believe the blessed Virgin Marie, not to have continued a Virgin after the birth of our Saviour: That we have corrupted or dismembered the Scriptures: That there be no Sacraments in our Churches; or at least, that we believe, that the Bread and Wine in the Sacrament of the Body and blood of our Lord, are nothing else, but naked and barren signs: That we damn all good Works: That we admit no penance. But, as for our persons, your people being misled, and incensed by the barking of your Friars, thinketh that we bear not the shape of men, but are Monsters with Dogs faces, or Hogs snouts: That we live barbarously and wildly, in rude Cottages or Dens. These and such like gulls they put upon you, which deserve rather our Laughter in contempt, than our labour in refutation.  
As for that one point, concerning the raising a dishonourable opinion of the Virgin Marie, let them look to it, who blush not when they read that, which before we have touched concerning worthy sir Allen, so wooed & courted by the blessed Virgin.  
Considering and weighing with myself, all these particulars, and conferring with certain learned and discreet Ministers of God's Word, as also with other well affected Gentlemen, upon their advice, and entreaty, I was inflamed with a desire, to translate the aforesaid Buckler of faith, into the Spanish tongue. And being resolved no longer to resist the motion of God's Spirit (which with sorrow I confess myself to have resisted for the space of a year) I set my hand to this task; and having with four months pains finished it, I dedicated the same unto the most Excellent Charles, Prince of Wales; being thereunto led by the first Author, by whom, the said Treatise in the Original French, was dedicated unto his Highness.  
But when as a certain honest man of Monpelier, by whom I had sent Letters into Spain to my brethren, upon his return thence, had with an Oath affirmed unto me, that he heard my elder Brother speak these words: All we his six brethren desire nothing more earnestly in the world than his death (speaking of me;) we would willingly give a reward unto any man, that would make an end of him. When I saw, that as long as I remained in France, I was in daily danger of my life, I betook myself hither into England, as into the Haven of safety: with intent that myself, who had been in Spain a bad Physician of souls, in France by God's blessing a good one of bodies; might in England become a good Physician in special to myself of body and soul, by securing them both under the Government of the most gracious King james, the most powerful defender of the sincere & unpolluted faith; resolving to yield all obedience unto such a King, professing the Reformed Religion, and withdrawing myself from Papists (whose company is wont to breed infection) somewhere within his Majesty's Dominions, either to exercise my function of Ministry, or to practise Physic, and by one, or both of these to maintain myself in diet & clothing, by my honest labour.  
Neither thought I fit to come hither unarmed; and therefore brought I with me this buckler, which I have already preseted to that most noble Prince Charles the rising Morningstar of Great-Brittaine: which my small present, his Highness, according to his wont gentleness, did most graciously accept. And now have I learned by experience that to be true which all the world witnesseth, namely, that no eloquence can express that piety towards God, and zeal for God's house, which is found in the most mighty King of great Britain, and the most excellent Prince, the lively Image of his renowned Father, upon both whom, Nature seemeth to have poured out all her endowments and ornaments culled out from all others.  
But now I betake myself to you, Fathers of this Church; most Reverend Archbishops; Reverend Bishops; Worshipful, and well-deserving Doctors and Pastors; to you I address myself, who are the salt of the earth, 
Mat. 5.  the light of the World, a City set upon an hill: to this Synod I fly, as to a City of refuge; not as a manslayer, but contrariwise, myself having of late very hardly escaped slaughter.  
Namely in the month of February lately passed, being in London, and walking in Paul's, there meeteth me, as by chance, one unknown to me, but certainly a slieknave; who entering into conference with me about matter of Physic, entreateth me that I would take the pains to visit a certain woman which lay sick of a sore disease, and forsaken of other Physicians, as uncurable. This he diverse times urged, soliciting me four days together, and promising me a large reward. Poor I, in my simple credulity yielded thereto; he leads me along the streets for the space of an hour and an half: then at length we find the house, and therein the sick woman; where, after much questioning & conferring about her disease, I tarried supper upon on the entreaty of him that brought me thither; who at Supper said Grace in Latin. Presently after eight of the clock at night we depart thence. Then he, making as though he would (as he had promised) guide me back to my chamber, leadeth me clean another way beyond the City walls, out of the broad streets, through by-lanes and narrow allies, into desert places, and into the fields. Sometime he stops his pace and standeth still, sometimes he listeneth carefully, and when I ask him the cause thereof; I listen, saith he, to hear if any man come by, of whom I may ask the way to London, which verily I have lost, and know not where I am. But verily he lied; for his listening was for nothing else, but that he might have me sure, to set upon me far enough from any to help me. I call God to witness, that, when I thus wandered with him in the dark, my mind did foreboad some mischance unto me; whereupon I lifted mine eyes to heaven, and armed myself as well as I could, with repentance towards God, and faith in our Lord jesus Christ. 
Acts 20.21.  Now then about ten of the clock in the night, having gotten me into such a place as he desired, namely in the great fields called S. james, he on a sudden flies upon me with his naked dagger, and grievously wounded me near the left ventricle of the heart; from whence come those two principal vessels of life, the one called the veiny Artery, and the other Aorta: and presently running away, left me there half dead. This wound being given me in an extreme cold night, and being in depth as much as eight fingers breadth, yet not directly, but obliquely piercing, was dangerous enough, especially when as I knew not where I was, nor whom to call on for help, being utterly ignorant of the English tongue: and surely I had never seen the morning's light, had not a certain good Samaritane that very night poured wine and oil into my wound: that is, unless the renowned Doctor Mayern his Majesty's most worthy principal Physician, being as much replenished with mercy and charity, as with knowledge and experience, had reached forth unto me his helping hand, and for three week's space entertained me in his house, had special care of my recovery.  
Though this wound be healed, yet the scar thereof remaineth, and ever will so long as I live; whereof I am so fare from being ashamed (it having been inflicted upon me in hatred of the reformed Religion) that I rather rejoice in it, & say with Saint Paul, 
Gal. 6. v. 17.  I bear in my body the marks of the Lord jesus. Paphnutius, who was present at the Council of Nice, having one of his eyes boared out, and his hamstrings cut, for his constant profession of Christianity, was not thought to be deformed, but rather more beautified by these marks: Afford unto me, I pray you reverend Fathers, unto me the meanest and basest Professor, yea and Confessor of the Christian reformed Religion, a place in this your Synod, not by way of local presence, but by admission into your good opinion, and fatherly love.  
Paphnutius after he had received those prints and seals of Christian constancy, ceased not to profess, and confess Christ the more fervently: verily I am so far from being discouraged by this dangerous conflict from walking still in that path of pure Religion, which I have set into, that this same Dagger is become a goad or spur unto me, whereby I am pricked on to run more courageously, and swiftly in the rest of that race, which I have undertaken. Now therefore, God thus putting me forward, it the more behooveth me to whet my pen against the errors of papistry, and to do my best for maintaining the honour of all reformed Churches against the calumniations of the Spaniards, who are zealous, but not according to knowledge; and father upon us another manner of Confession of faith, clean contrary to that which we profess.  
Wherefore I entreat all you Pastors and Doctors of the reformed Churches, by the bowels of God's mercies, to take especial care and order, that the true Confession of your sincere Faith may be made known to foreign people, who are miserably deceived in this behalf; namely, to that end there may be published some small Treatises translated or written in the vulgar languages of the people of Spain, Italy, France, and other Nations. I, for my part, and poor faculty, am ready and willing to employ herein my pains by day and night, even to my last gasp. This, this enterprise, I say, doth nearly concern the glory of God, the saving of souls, the maintaining of the honour of the most gracious King of great Britain, defender of the Faith, as also the shielding of your own reputations from the slanders of the Papists. Whose revile and forged calumniations against you, by no other means can be refuted, then by that course, which here is wished, and offered by  
Him, that again recommends himself to your charitable and fatherly embraces, john de Nicholas & Sacharles, Doctor in Physic.  
FINIS.