Bishops by the name of Pastors and Doctors seeing that properly Christ alone is our Maister and Teacher and indeede that onelye good Shepheard which gaue his life for vs. In like manner albeit God and the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ be also our Father which is in heauen yet notwithstanding wee may call men also our Fathers and in so doing offer God no wrong at all And therefore whosoeuer hee be that knoweth as well as I can tell him that these names and titles are in sense manifolde and ambiguous in signification so that they may be giuen to diuerse things in diuerse respectes and yet holdeth plea in this sort hee doth but seeme to holde himselfe play in a serious matter to make an idle shewe of his vaine wit and a sinfull spoyle of the simple reader For my part hauing resolued vppon that which before wee haue taught namely That in the regiment of the Church Bishoppes were placed ouer Bishoppes according vnto God his diuine ordinance and institution I cannot see howe that methode of Gods distinct order coulde haue beene expressed in more apt and fit termes after the Apostles decease then by these reuerend titles of Patriarks and Archbishops In the which also setting aside the arrogancy and tyrannie of those which haue abused their authority and doe abuse there is not so much state or pride as some presume I but will some say our Bishops and Archbishops doe entertaine secular charges and inuade ciuill honours and are imbost with temporall titles all the which how crosly they confront the doctrine of the Apostles and the good meaning of their titles who so blinde as may not see it To this I would answere before I proceed any further but it is not for this place neither dooth this question fall into this treatise Wherefore hereafter I will set down what I thinke of this matter when I come to his proper place In the meane while gentle Reader suppose I here defend not those which now liue who whiles they ar in view are enuied but those faithfull seruants of Christ Iesus who heereto-fore haue ruled the church with great fruit before the tyranny of Rome abused the Church of God namely Gregory Nazianzen Gregorie Nysen Basil the great Athanasius Chrisostome Cyprian Ignatius Polycarpus Ambrose Augustine and such like whose liues as they are further from our eies so from our enuye These cannot I with any good conscience doe not you of any conceit condemne of pride ambition tyranny or Anticristianisme for whome all the world will stand vp witnes that they were Bishops Archbishops and Patriarches and gouerned the churches after a singuler maner and with an especiall power ouer the rest If any man thinke hee haue a single gift in these thinges and suppose he haue the spirit of discretion as his familiar to discerne spirits good leaue hath hee let him vse it but let him take heed his spirit of discretion proue not the spirit of presumtion I verely can finde no such spirite of Antichrist in those most christian fathers I find they were men and had their errors and yet in this argument their writings are of greater authority with me then are they which haue written of the same matter in this age and within our memorie But nowe concerning the last exception against their names I meane of Arch bishops I answere and deny that they were the inuētions of Antichrist this first then also that whatsoeuer was inuented or is vsurped either of Antichrist is hand ouer head to be reiected of vs for of necessity a necessary pollicy he deuised rather then inuēted some good things that with them he might ouercast many bad So doth Satan many times transforme himselfe into an Angell of light that he may deceyue without suspect hee fayneth holines that he may draw into wickednes hee defendeth the truth that he may driue into error For he should bewray himself too grossely if he should teach nothing but leasings But yet can there bee a more witlesse conclusion then this Antichrist taught this ergo it is false Antichrist deuised this ergo it is naught vnlesse it should be interserted or at least vnderstood that the same is contrary also to the worde of God As for example that which Peter was taught of the holy Ghost hee confessed with a liuely faith namely That Iesus was the very Christ and the onely sonne of the liuing God But now doth not Antichrist also confesse the same with his mouth yea whosoeuer dare deny the same he condemneth to the fagot Doth he not also imbrace the sacred volumes of Gods holy word yes and more then that forasmuch as the Lord hath taught vs in his word that we should pray continually he hath of himselfe deuised to deuide the whole day in matinges and euen song But now to come to the poynt because hee abuseth vnto superstition both fasting and prayer and the holy Bible and the blessed confession of the sonne of God shall we therfore all in a fling renounce these thinges Admit it be his desire that the ministery should be of som reckoning in the world and that it should be aduanced to no meane degree of honour in the common wealth And what then that we may not be like vnto him shal we requite the Ministers of Christ with shame for fame and with slaunders for honours And because he seeketh to magnify them without meane shall we suffer them to lie subiect and abiect among the basest routs of the common meany If braine-sicke men vppon a quarelous minde may presently gainesay whatsoeuer the Bishop of Rome hath sayd or don I fear me in the end they wil in their great hast ouerrun all christian religion leaue it far behinde them Wherfore whosoeuer shall think euery thing forthwith to be reiected for that eyther the author thereof abused the same to tyranny or the Bishop of Rome inuerted the same to superstition he is easely to be carried with euery shallow streame into any deepe error What things soeuer are in the Church of Rome that now is may iustly be distinguished into three parts Wherof ther are some things that wel consort with the word of God and some that do flatly contradict the same but the most things are such as there vse is eyther good or bad which thinges are called things indifferent Now albeit bad men may make a bad vse of good thinges yet can they not inuert the nature therof Baptisme the word of God or whatsoeuer else of that kinde the Romanists haue in vse no wise man will therefore reiect as if they were euil because they haue not vsed thē wel As for things vtterly euil because no man at any time vseth them well they are vtterly to be reiected of vs as is all kind of Idolatry whatsoeuer doth either vndermine or ouerthrow the sound substātiall doctrine of truth But as for things indifferent seeing they are such as is he that vseth them they are
greater ignominy by how much the more fondly they abuse their owne authority and the peoples simplicitie such therefore I must necessarilie and may worthelie accuse of Atheisme and irreligion the rest I cannot excuse of errour and ignorance onely Indeed error and ignorance doe sometime mitigate the guilt of the offender but neuer can it obliterate the staine of the offence It will seeme a hard matter I know vnto some that sacrilege should be openly reprehended and vnto some an absurd thing that in the policy of the Church Bishoppes should be required For there are here in England a certaine number of wicked men and I am very sorie for them who are so farre out of order with that order as if no Ecclesiasticall Discipline were to be had vnder them Amongst whome the quarrell is growen so farre that nowe they deuorce themselues from the communion of the English church as Papisticall and Antichristian and so betake themselues to their priuate and not permitted conuenticles VVhome I could doe no lesse then lightly note in this place because they seem to patronage their odious scisme and mutinous huggor-muggar by the precedent presidents of our foraine Churches O God thou knowest and themselues cannot bee ignoraunt that the first peregrine churches which were heere in England had their Lord Bishop Alasco and these which at this day are vnder the protection of the most gracious Elizabeth doe acknowledge the Bishops of those Diocesses in the which they are and to them they supply But thankes be vnto God there are others who being somewhat more milde and moderate in their proceedings doe not altogeather estraunge themselues from the assemblies of their churches but yet they haue the Bishops in emulation also and promise vnto themselues a golden worlde could they but once bring to passe that by a preposterous Alchymy of earthly pollicy they could turne gold into drosse that is Bishops into Presbiters their reuenues into annuities But to them I dare say and can foreshew that they shal bring themselues The whole state Ecclesiastik into deepe disdaine disdaine worse then themselues deserue And whereas the Lord be praised for it we haue now some good Discipline it will come to passe that then they shall haue none at all but voluntary which as soone as it is begone will be gone I omit the tumults and contentions with the which they shall first trouble and turmoyle both heauen and earth But this is plaine and I dare promise them that they which were the first authors thereof will proue their first enemies so sone as vnder these colours they shal haue obtained their desires The calamities of your present churches your selues see and suffer but from whence they arise or what is the true remedy pardon me I beseech you if I speake as I thinke you seeme not to see or conceiue at all Doe you not heare of the turbulent state of other Churches and you know what they were from the beginning Where if they had intertained for a popish Prelat a true BB. for Romish masmongers Euangelique Ministers contented and contenting themselues with the rites and reuenues of their owne Churches no doubt all thinges amongst them had continued more peaceable and prosperous aswell in Church as Common-wealth The like I affirme of other prouinces from whence is exiled the tyrant of Churches But what can be done where the mindes of men are foreseasoned with preiudice and alreadie resolued That to bee ruled by bishops and to be releeued by Tythes and other oblations of the people is a point of Poperie But may I not be so bolde to tell them and I will tell them but the truth that these and such like medicines as they go about to administer vnto the Church maladies are like to prooue but prouocations vnto further mischiefes Admit the drugs they concoct be not simplie offensiue yet is it to be considered and wise men wil consider whether the faintnes and infirmitie of the whole body of the common-wealth may abide the same Here there is need of great wisedome no lesse moderation the which as it may be in many so must it be in one which may execute the same and this is he which is not to looke ouer one part but to watch ouer all not of the whole worlde which neuer any mortall thing or could or can but of one Cittie or prouince so farre forth as the power of man may extend it self And may wee not also more saflie walke in the steppes of the auncient fathers then rashlie to step aside into tracts of our owne treading Now how you will accept of this my libertie I cannot well tell but I hope well of you and commit the whole cause vnto God himselfe This I am perswaded and this haue I learned that in an vnstayed estate it is not the part of a good Cittizen to suspend his censure of the Common-wealth nor of a faithfull Christian to suppresse his opinion of the Church of Christ For mine owne part if in this daungerous enterprise I shall obtaine that onelie which I haue propounded vnto my selfe I shall haue iust occasion to giue thankes vnto my GOD but if it fall out otherwise yet shall I haue discharged my duetie vnto my Brethren and performed my vowe to the Church of GOD. Vnto the whiche I haue hitherto thought my selfe indebted as muche as this comes vnto That a knowen errour ought not to bee ouer-slipped in the silence of mee But put case I doe smale good vpon those for whose sakes especially I haue traueiled in this duetie yet shall their remaine a perpetuall note of that notorious errour vnto all posteritie that they yet at the length may amend that in the which they haue found their Fathers to haue bene faultie London the fourth of the Kal. of Aprill Desirous of your welfare Hadrian Sarauia To the curteous Reader WHosoeuer thou bee gentle Reader into whose hands this booke shall come in any case I would not haue thy minde troubled with this discourse as if we did reuerse som graund Article of thy faith when wee doe but restore for so we holde it behofefull the graue Senat of Bishops into the reformed Churches so called Doe we crosse herein the iudgement of some late writers of great name Why then iudge you and iudge me worthie of double blame if I should be either so frontlesse or so forgetfull at least as to aduenture vpon this contradiction of mine own head suppose ye me at the least backt with the piller of truth the sacred scripture and borne out with the consent of the auncient Fathers and countenaunced with the continued custome of the whole Church What then Will you saye did they whome you cal men of name see nothing I answere they did see indeede that which I see But as they which take vppon them to repaire an old house albeit within dores there bee many pretie romes and necessarye corners which they would willinglie and might well bee
the which it doth appeare that by that prohibition of violent dominion which Kings may vse ouer theyr subiects the power of gouernement in the Church is not inhibited by the which one Minister is eminent in authority ouer another no more then the power of the Pastor is thereby intercepted which is ordinary and ought to be ouer his people Will any man say that the Lord hath so confounded those two distinct orders of Ministers that the Apostles should differ in nothing from the seuenty Disciples I doe therefore greatly wonder that men learned should so far ouer-shoote themselues as once to perswade or to be perswaded that out of this place so often aledged to so little purpose the superior authority of Bishops ouer Priests was forbiddē by Christ the which they can by no means do without the reproofe reproch the preiudice and impeachment of all the most auncient best learned Fathers whose persons they may soner accuse then conuince of Tyranny and whose gouernement they may more easely discommend then mend The Lorde his purpose was to take that error from the Apostles which was in their minds not to take that power from the Apostles which he had giuen into their hands That the forme of the Apostles gouernment did not end with the death of the Apostles Chap. XVI THat the gouernment of the Apostles is sayde by some to haue deceased with the death of the Apostles it is neyther grounded vppon true authority of Scripture nor proued by any consequence of reason nor maintayned by any president of the Fathers Neither is it of any greater force nor haue they any greater reason that say the Apostles authority was extraordinary For by the same reason they may at this day deny that any man hath any authority to baptise and to preach If what things were extraordinary in the Apostles they could not returne to theyr posterity may not the same reason serue to proue that ther is no authority left vnto vs after the Apostles either to preach or to baptise I would gladly then hear some iust cause why rather the Church gouernment should cease with vs which was vnder the Apostles then the preaching of the Gospell or the administring of the Sacraments For in them ther was as much extraordinary as in the other This is much like as if of olde a man should haue sayde that after the death of Moyses and Aaron the Priests and Leuites had not the same power with Moyses and Aaron because theirs was extraordinary Wherefore as after theyr decease the same order of gouernment which was vsed of Moses and Aaron remayned to their posterity In like manner the Apostles and Euangelists were a lantherne and a law vnto vs which should come after them of perfect Church gouernement And that which our Sauiour sayd of the Priestes of the Iewes That they did sit vppon the chayre of Moyses and Aaron may be sayd of our Bishops that they sit in the chayre of Peter and Paul that is that they haue succeeded them in the same seate and state of gouernment There are two words which being not well taken may be very offensiue namely Temporarie and extraordinary For it is to be vnderstood that there are not ioyntly to be giuen alike to the whole function Apostolick and euery part therof And yet some are made to beleeue that whatsoeuer was in them extraordinary the same was also temporarie When as indeed whatsoeuer was in them extraordinary was not temporarie For all things in the Apostles were extraordinary of the which many things in processe of time became ordinary Onely those things which deceased with the Apostles were temporarie But what things those were I haue already declared at large And nowe that I may first begin with the preaching of the gospell it were very hard to restraine that to the persons of the Apostles and their age onely For albeit so large a legacie as was the Apostles bee not committed vno any yet is there some such like of the same kinde with the like authoritie That the commandement To preach the gospell vnto all nations the Apostles beeing now receiued vp into heauen doth in like manner bind the Church to the which the Authoritie Apostolique is also requisite Chap. XVII THe command to preach the gospell and the commission to all nations wee vnderstand to bee so giuen in charge to the Apostles that withal it obligeth the church also nether did the charge of preaching the gospell to the incredulous heathen respect the apostles only but al future ages to the worlds end In the last of Mathew when the Lord had sayd that all power was giuen vnto him in heauen and in earth and had commanded that they should go forth and teach al nations c. he added I am with you vnto the worlds end Which cannot be restrained to the Apostles onely seeing it concerneth all whom he commandeth to preach and to whom he promiseth his diuine presence for euer neither can this promise be deuorced from the former command and thereby it appeareth that Christ commanded the church also that Apostles hauing takē heauen order might be taken that the gospell might be preached to the Gentiles in all coastes vpon al occasions And verelie if the Apostolique authority had bin Temporarie that also had bene a personal gift and particuler neither would they haue presumed to haue taken themselues companions and co-partners in that Apostolik charge to the which themselues only were appointed of the Lord. But when as they knew that their office whatsoeuer authoritie they had receaued was rather giuen to the whole church then to their sole selues they therevpon were bolde to make others ioynt partners with them in their Apostolike power whom they also knew should be their successors Neither in nature could so great a worke bee finished of so few labourers and therfore also the commandement of the Lord could no further bind the Apostles then for the terme of their mortalitye in the which time the Lorde did not purpose to determine either the promise of his helpe or the preaching of his word The Apostles then had need of many helpers in the Lord and fellow-labourers for the busines of the Lord the which when they could not accomplish themselues they left their posteritie to finish that which themselues could not effect Had the Apostles carried their commission to heauen with them and besides the priuate care of perticular Churches the Bishops whome the Apostles left their successours had thought the further propagation of the gospel did nothing pertaine to them I doubt me the cōfines of Christ his kingdome had neuer bene enlarged to so great a monarchie as it is What neede I remember you of the rare and memorable examples of the thrise reuerend fathers in the Primatiue church With what serious studie with what earnest desire with what constant endeuour and last of al with what great labours and many streaming showers of the bloud of Martyrs
And therefore he exhorteth those vppon whome this deadly desire groweth that they would vse to sacrifice for the same and humbly to fly to the Temple of the Gods to frequent the company of good men to heare theyr godly conference and to endeuour themselues to doe and to speake those things which are honest and iust But if so be that infirmity wil not so depart death for such a wretch were better then life Wherefore he enacteth this Law VVhosoeuer is aprehended for Sacrilege De legib Dialog 9. if hee be a seruant or a foreyner his fault being written in his forehead and his handes and being well whipped with so many stripes as the Iudge shall award let him bee thrust naked out of the borders of the land For happely by this punishment being brought to shame he may amend his manners For no punishment is appointed for any mans hurt but of two thinges it commonly effecteth the one it maketh him eyther much better or not so bad that sustaineth the punishment But if it be a Cittizen which shall be found to haue commited any such thing against the Gods or to haue done some great and gracelesse wrong to his parentes or his countrey let the iudge so censure of him as of one which is incurable considering this with himselfe what honest instruction and education he hath had of a childe and yet hath not absteyned from the most heynous sinnes VVherefore let this mans punishment be death the least of all euils So shall he profite others by his example while he is made infamous among all and is put to death beyond the borders of his own countrey The lawes of the twelue tables prouide thus against the same sinne VVho so stealeth or pilfereth any holy thing or committed to the holy place let him be held and handled as a murtherer of his Father But what neede I recite the seuerity of Lawes in this behalfe it is a thing well enough knowen if it were but halfe so much feared But euen they also which escape the lawes and iudgements of men because they are eyther too mighty or too crafty yet can they not escape the vengeance of God For it is one of the most detested sins after the which the wrath of God yearneth till it be reuenged The examples whereof are to be seene in Histories both sacred and prophane Chap. IX Certaine examples of Gods vengeance against Sacrilege THe first example of Sacrilege may be that which we read of Achan in the 7. of Iosua who took of the excommunicate things of Hierico a Babylonish garment two hundred sickles of siluer a wedge of gold For this offence of one wretched fellow did not all Israell feel the heauy wrath of God till satisfaction was made by the death of that accursed party and his whole family To this I may adde an other committed by the Priests and no lesse seuerely punished of God then was that of Achan In the first of Samuel the second Chapter we read of a certayn man of God who came to Ely the chiefe Priest and sayd vnto him Thus saith the Lorde did not I plainly appeare to the house of thy Father when they were in Egypt in Pharaos house and I chose him out of all the tribes of Israell to he my Priest to offer vppon mine Altar and to burne incense and to weare an Ephode before me I gaue to the house of thy Father al the offerings made by fire of the children of Israell VVherefore haue you kicked against my sacrifice and against mine offerings which I cōmāded in my tabernacle honorest thy children aboue me to make your selues fat of the first fruites of all the offerings of Israell my people VVherefore the Lord God of Israell sayth I sayd that thy house and the house of thy Father should walke before me but now the Lord saith it shall not be so for them that honor me I will honor and they that despise me shall be despised Behold the dayes come that I will cut off thine arme and the arme of thy Fathers house and ther shall not be an old man in thy house And thou shalt see thine enemy in the habitation of the Lord in all things wherein God blesseth Israel and there shall not bee an olde man in thy house for euer Neuer the lesse I will not destroye euery one of thine from mine Altar to make thine eyes to fayle and to make thine heart sorrowfull And all the multitude of thine house shall dye when they bee men And this shall be a signe vnto thee that shall come vppon thy two sonnes Hophny and Phinees In one day shall they die both And I wil stirre mee vp a faithfull Priest that shall doe according to mine heart and according to my minde And I will builde him a sure house and hee shall walke before myne annoynted for euer And it shal come to passe that whosoeuer is left in thy house shal come and bow down to him for a piece of siluer and a morsel of bread and shal say appoint me I pray thee to one of the Priests offices that I may eat a morsel of bread c. Thus saith the mā of God al which things as he foreshewed came to passe not long after For the sons of Ely were slaine in battayle the Arke of the couenant was taken of prophane men And Ely hearing the dolefull messenger of these wretched newes fell from his seate backeward and brake his necke his daughter in law the wife of Phinees died in childe-bed the holy mount Sylo was forsaken of the Lord neyther was the Arke of the Lorde euer brought thither againe And after all this 80. and 5. men Priests of the house of Ely were slain vnder Saul I need not speak of the calamities which befel that whole family for the Sacrilege of two men only And albeit the prophane Philistines did honorably vse the sacred Arke after their manner Yet notwithstanding God plagued them also for their prophanation neither was it forgiuen thē that they once handled so holy a matter But I omit the Sacrileges committed from that time to the captiuity of Babylon Wher the infamous act of Balthasar may be a notable exāple of Gods iustice against al Sacrilegers He in a brauery cōmanded those holy vessels which his father Nabuchadnezar had stollen frō Hierusalem to be set forth for a cupbord of plate in sumptuous banquet that out of them both he his cup-mates might carouse a full despite to the dishonor of God But the wrath of God found the sot in the deede doing brought him in a sharp reckoning with an heauy vp shot in the miraculous motion of a hand writing And here Daniel cald before the king to read expound the heauenly drawn writ in stead of a taking away taketh him vp amōg many other things bordeth him thus Thou hast lift vp thy self against the lord of heauē they haue broght the vessels of his house
before thee thou thy Princes thy wiues thy cōcubins haue drōk wine in them thou hast praised the Gods of siluer and gold of bras iron wood stone which neither see neither hear nor vnderstand the God in whose hād thy breath is and al thy waies him hast thou not glorified Then was the palm of the hand sent from him hath written this writing MENE MENE THEKEL VPHARSIN This is the interpretatiō of the speach MENE God hath nūbred thy kingdom hath finished it THEKEL thou art weighed in the balance thou art foūd too light VPHARSIN thy kingdom is deuided it is giuen to the Meeds Persians After this maner did Daniel salute him But the same night was Balthazar slaine the Empire of the Chaldees and Assyrians which continued an hundred and thirty yeares was now finished and theruppon giuen away by God to the Meedes and Persians But I passe on to the time of the Grecians vnder whom the Iewes suffred much sorrow as wel by their own nation as by the Grecians Amōg the rest the diuelish enterprise of Alsimus hie priest of the Iewes attempting the ouerthrow of the Temple was not left vnpunished For hee was strooke with a dead Palsy ended his life in great misery In like manner Heliodorus sent by king Seleucus to Hierusalē for no other end thē to ransanck the temple which he vnderstood to be the guardian of great treasure felt in himself the reuenging hand of God neither had he escaped present death had not Onias the Priest intercessed for him But he being glad he had so escaped deliuered to the king That God was the ouerseer of that temple the great guard of that treasury yet notwithstanding if the king had any man he would gladly do a spite he might send him thither The robbing of that Temple cost Marcus Crassus Romaine Emperour ful dear Did not God reuenge his Sacrilege by his enemies the Persians They infused molten gold into his head being dead because hee thirsted after ill gotten good in his life But Iudas the Traytour is worthy to haue the first place among this holy rabble Whose Sacrilegious couetousnesse bread such a monster in his brest that for base lucre he spared not his own Maister his conscience euer yelling that he betraied the innocent Wherefore afterwards he being his own accuser and iudge tormentor set down his due punishment and in desperate manner tooke it of himselfe Much of this making were that holy couple Ananias Saphyra whom God tooke in the manner and took down with suddaine death onely for that they aduentured to conceale keepe backe some part of that theyr owne treasure which them selues of theyr owne accord had dedicated to the Lord. The fact no doubt might better haue beene excused in theyr own then in another mans treasure and yet wee see the direfull censure of God in this case to the terror of all other How Iulian the Emperour was paied home at the last as wel for his Sacrilege as his Apostacy the fame of al histories hath made a iust record This is he that in a mockery of Christ and christianity when he had libde the Church and left it neuer a good thing sayd He had well prouided of theyr souls health For to be poore is one of the priuy Counsels of the Gospell I may ioyne with this Iulian Iulian his Vncle one caterpiller with an other This Gentleman when he had well ransackt the Church and raked together theyr most precious vessels sumptuous Monuments at Antioch in Syria and had cast them vppon the ground all vppon one heape he began very gamesomely to play vppon Christ and to wanton at his pleasure to increase the disgrace of that holy spoyle of the Church at last he vncased his postherne parts and sat him downe vppon the same But now see if God could see the same and not reuenge it Nay but presently thereuppon his priuy disgraceful parts and those poores which nature had ther placed for necessary vses were straungely benummed in so much that the canckred flesh about those vnseemly parts cōtinually putrified and turned into wormes but last of all the vgly disease grew on so far that it passed far the Art of Phisicke For the greedy vermine hauing once entred the inner partes still scrawled to the quicke and sound flesh nor imight they euer cease their restlesse gnawing till he had yelled out his cursed soule Many more instances might be remembred of christian Princes were it not to tedious a thing for me to repeat them as also for that there are some things regestred for wicked sacrileges which if they had bin done without the contempt of God might very well haue bene excused For no doubt it had bin sacrilege in Dauid when hee eat the Shewbread were it not that necessity did excuse it And therefore sacrilege is to bee measured according to the mans irreligion which is bewrayed aswell in the contempt of false Gods as the neglect of true namely whensoeuer that is contemned by vs which is worshipped by other men and we do it not of any true deuotion towardes God but of a certaine irreligion in our selues Generally so greatlye is it to bee regarded with what minde a thing bee done as that to destroy the groues and temples of false Gods of a certaine religion towardes the true God is to be accounted for great godlines in the true worshippers The same thing if it be done of the worshippers thēselues of false Gods or of some other Atheist and contemner of al the gods it is to be taken for godles impiety and wretched sacrilege If any man aske the question how he should be said to contemne God that thinketh there is no God I aunswere that that onely thing it selfe that he thinketh there is none procedeth of a contempt so consequently of him which is And therfore it need not seeme straunge to any man that the wrath of the true God hath bene so inraged not onely against sacrilegious idolatours but euen in the sacrilege of idol Gods Of which iudgement seeing prophane histories affoord vs infinit copie we will take view of a few of that company Nor Brennus nor Xerxes could violate the temple of Delphos and not taste the cuppe of gods vengeance for it As for the sacrilege of the Tholosian gold from whence the adage grew I shal not need to speake of it beeing so generally knowen But the souldiers of Cambyses sent to spoile the Temple of Ammon were ouerwhelmed quicke in vengeable heapes of heauy sand and their master a scorner of the Aegyptian religion albeit superstitious yet because he did it irreligiously not long after he had slaine Apus was slaine himselfe by his owne sword And how present was the vengeance of God in the reuenge of Pyrrhus Hee rauisht at his pleasure the Lucresian Proserpina but when he wold haue sailed away full fraught with his nefarious pray he