Hercules made it his Business to rid the World of bad Men but saith he you make all the good men you can bad And when the Pharisees boasted of their Succession and Linnage that they were of the Blood of Abraham Christ replied ye seek to kill me a Man that hath told you the Truth which I have heard of God this did not Abraham ye are of your Father the Devil and the Lusts of your Father ye will do But now suppose we should grant something to Successions doth the Pope only succeed St. Peter In what Thing in what Religion in what Function in what part of his Life What one thing ever had St. Peter like the Pope or the Pope like St. Peter unless they will say that when St. Peter was at Rome he never taught the Gospel he never fed the Flock that he took away the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven hid his Lords Treasure that he only sate in the Lateran and with his Finger pointed out all the Spaces of Purgatory and the several sorts of Pains there presently and at his Pleasure dismissed some Souls for Money and sent other miserable Souls into Torture that he taught them the use of private Masses which might be mumbled over in every Corner that he muttered the sacred Mysteries in a low soft Voice and in a strange Language that he hanged up the Eucharist or consecrated Bread in every Church and enshrined it on every Altar and carried it before him whither-ever he went on an ambling Jennet with Lights and Bells That he consecrated Oyl Wax Wooll Bells Calices Temples and Altars with his sacred Breath that he sold Jubilees Graces Immunities Expectancies Preventions first Fruits Palls the use of Palls Bulls Indulgencies and Pardons that he call'd himself the Head of the Church the High Priest the Bishop of Bishops and the only most Holy that he usurp'd Authority over other Churches that he exemped himself from all Civil Power that he made Wars set Discord amongst Princes that he was carried upon the Shoulders of Noble men in a gilded Chair with a Crown full of Labels or Tassils with a Persian Gallantry adorned with a royal Scepter and a golden Diadem glittering with Jewels Did St. Peter heretofore do all these things at Rome and as it were from hand to hand deliver them down to his Successors for all these fine things are now done at Rome and that in such manner as if nothing else ought to be done 21. UNLESS perhaps they would be better pleased with turning the Table and saying that the Pope does all those things which we know heretofore St. Peter did that he travails into all Countries preacheth the Gospel not only publickly but privately from House to House that he insisteth opportunely and inopportunely in season and out of season that he doth the Work of an Evangelist and performs the Ministry of Christ that he is the Watch-man of the House of Israel that he receives the Oracles and Word of God and delivers them as he received them to the People that he is the Salt of the Earth the Light of the World that he feeds not himself but the Flock that he doth not intangle himself with the Civil Affairs of this Life that he doth not exercise Lordship and Dominion over the People of the Lord that he doth not so much seek to have others minister to and serve him but rather that he may serve and assist others that he thinks with St. Peter that all Bishops are his Companions and Equals that he submitteth himself to Princes as to them that are sent by God that he renders to Caesar the things that are Caesars and which all the ancient Bishops of Rome without exception have done calls the Emperor his Lord. Now unless the Popes at this day do all these things or that St. Peter did all the other which we have set forth in the foregoing Paragraph there seems to be no reason why he should so strangely value himself upon the Account either of St. Peters Name or Succession 22. THERE is much less cause for them to complain so dreadfully as they do of our departure from them and to recal us back again to their Society and Faith There is a Story that one Cobilon a Lacedaemonian being sent to make a League with the King of Persia and sinding by chance his Courticrs playing at Dice he return'd forthwith without dispatching or mentioning the Business he came about Being examined upon his return home why he had not executed the publick Commission they had given him he replied that it seemed to him to be a great Dishonour to their Common-wealth if he had made an Alliance with a parcel of Dicers Now if we should return to the Pope and the Popish Errors and make a League not only with Dicers but with men infinitely more debauch'd it would not only bring an ill Report upon our Fame and Reputation but would be pernicious and destructive to us by incensing the Wrath of God against us and burthening and wasting our Consciences for we have only left him who we saw had for many Ages blinded the Nations of the Earth and departed from him who with too much Insolence useth to pretend that he cannot err and that whatever he doth he cannot be judged by any mortal man no not by Kings nor Emperors nor all the Clergy nor all the People tho he should carry a thousand Souls with him to Hell from him who assum'd Dominion not only over Men but over the Angels of God commanding them when he pleased to go and come and carry Souls to Purgatory and bring them back again as his Holiness thought fit Whom Gregory the Great stil'd plainly the Fore-runner and Harbinger of Antichrist and an Apostate from the Faith from whom those Champions who now so vigorously opposed the Gospel and that Truth they are very well satisfied of have every man of them heretofore fallen and would now again freely and willingly leave him if the Note and Shame of being thought too too inconstant and their Credits with the People did not hinder them from it Lastly we have departed from him to whom we were no way bound and who hath nothing to pretend for our Submission to him but I know not what Genius of the Place and the Succession he possesseth 23. AND we of all the Nations in Christendom have had the greatest reason to desert the Pope for our Kings even those who followed the Faith and Authority of the Bishops of Rome with the utmost observance and deference a long time since sufficiently felt the weight of their Yoke and groan'd under the Tyranny of the Papal Kingdom for the Roman Bishops pluckt the Diadem from off the Head of our Henry the 2d and compell'd him to wait upon their Legate in a private Habit without any of the Insigns of Majesty that he might be exposed to the Contempt of all his Subjects And another Bishop of Rome armed
but a Sword 5. WHEREFORE if the Pope does indeed desire we should be reconciled to him he ought first to reconcile himself to God for as St. Cyprian saith Schisms arise from hence that the Head is not sought and a Return is not made to the Fountain of the Holy Scriptures and the Precepts of our Heavenly Master are not kept for else it is not Peace saith he but War neither can any man be united to the Church who is separated from the Gospel But these men with whom we are concern'd do use to make a base gain by the Name of Peace for the Peace they seek is only a Peace of idle Bellies for all these Controversies betwixt us and them might with great facility be ended if Ambition Gluttony and Luxury did not hinder it and from hence proceed all their Tears their Souls are in their Dishes and all their loud Clamors and Noise are only that they may basely and wickedly keep what they have acquired knavishly 6. IN these times the Pardoners Dataries Collectors and Pimps of the Court of Rome make the greatest Complaints against us who with others of their Trade think that great Gain is Godliness and serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but their own Bellies for in the foregoing Ages this sort of men had a very profitable imployment but now whatever is gain'd to Christ turns as they think to their Loss Yea his Holiness too complains sadly that Piety is grown cold and his Revenue is become much smaller than heretofore it was and therefore the good man does his utmost to make us hated loads us with Reproaches and condemns us for Hereticks without any mercy that they who know not the real cause of all this may thereby be induced to believe us the very worst of men and yet in the interim we are not therefore ashamed nor indeed ought we to be so of the Gospel of Jesus Christ because we esteem the Glory of God more than the good Opinion of Men. We know that all we teach is true and we cannot offer Violence to our own Consciences or give Testimony against God for if we deny any part of the Gospel of Jesus Christ before Men he will in like manner deny us before his Father and if there be any that will be offended and cannot bear the Doctrine of Christ they are blind and the Leaders of the Blind but the Truth is still to be preached and owned and we must patiently expect the Judgment of God 7. AND in the interim our Adversaries should do well to bethink themselves seriously of their own Salvation and to put an end to their Raging Hatred and Persecution of the Gospel of the Son of God that at last they may not find him the Vindicator and Revenger of his own Cause for God will not be had in derision and men too now see what is doing that Flame the more it is repress'd with so much the greater Violence doth it break out again and display it self Their Infidelity and Unbelief shall never be able to frustrate or put a stop to the Faith of God and if they shall still persist in the Hardness of their Hearts and refuce to receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ The Publicans and the Harlots shall go into the Kingdom of God before them The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ open all their Eyes that they may see that blessed Hope to which they are called that we may altogether glorifie the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent down to us from Heaven to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be rendred all Honour and Glory to all Eternity Amen Amen AN EPISTLE Written by the Reverend Father in God JOHN JEWEL Lord Bishop of SARUM TO SEIGNIOR SCIPEO A Venetian Gentleman In Answer to a Letter of his in which he complains of the Kingdom of England for their not appearing in the Council of Trent nor excusing their Absence by Letters SIR YOU are pleased to write to me with much freedom according to the great Acquaintance which hath been between us ever since we lived together at Padua where you were imployed in the publick Service of your Common-wealth and I in the Pursute of Learning that both your self and many others with you in those Parts do much admire that seeing there is at this time a General Council call'd by the Pope at Trent for the composing Controversies in Religion and the extinguishing all Contentions that have arisen on that account and that whereas all other Nations are assembled there the Kingdom of England alone has neither sent any Ambassador thither nor excused their Absence by Envoys or Letters but in the mean time without the Consent of the Council hath chang'd almost the whole Order of their Ancient and Paternal Religion that one of these things hath the appearance of a proud Contumacy and the other of a pernicious Schism for it is a great Wickedness for any man say you to decline the most holy Authority of the Pope of Rome or to to withdraw himself when he is call'd to a Council by him And that Controversies in Religion ought not to be determined any where but in such Conventions for there are the Patriarchs and Bishops and the most Learned of all Orders of Men in the Church at their Mouths the Truth is to be sought there are the great Lights of the Church and there the Holy Ghost is ever present and accordingly pious Princes have in every age referr'd all those Doubts which have happened concerning the Worship of God to such publick Consultations That neither Moses nor Joshua nor David nor Ezechia nor Josias nor any other of the Judges Kings or Priests did ever deliberate of the Affairs of the Church any other way than in a Council of the Bishops That the Apostles of Christ and the Holy Fathers held Councils that so the Truth was discovered so Heresies were suppress'd so Arrius so Eunomius so Eutyches so Macedonius and so Pelagius were overcome and so at this time the Dissentions of the World may be composed and the Ruins of the Church repair'd if Men would be pleas'd to lay by their Animosities and Partiality and come to this Council but without a Council it is utterly unlawful to attempt any Change in Matters of Religion 2. THIS Sir is almost the whole Sum of your Letter and as for me I will not now presume to give you in Answer on the behalf of England an exact Account of the reason of all our publick Transactions nor do I think it is your Will or Expectation that I should the Counsels of Kings are conceal'd and secret and so they ought to be and this you Sir know perfectly well that they are not to be reveal'd at random to every body or any body and yet in compliance with that old and intimate Acquaintance that has been between us because I see you so earnestly desire it I will shortly and friendly tell
others till at last Stephen Gardiner finding who were their Benefactors threatned he would in a short time make them eat their Fingers ends for hunger and it was sore against his will that he proved a false Prophet for he clapt up so many of their Benefactors in England that after this there came but a small if any Supply out of England to them But then Christopher Prince of Wittenberg and the Senators of Zurick and the foreign Divines were so kind to them that they had still a tolerable Subsistence and Mr. Jewel stood in need of the less because he lived with Peter Martyr till his return into England SO saith Mr. Humfrey in his Life but it is apparent by the first lines of his Epistle to Seignior Scipio that he studied some time at Padua and there being no mention of his travelling at any time before his exile nor indeed any possibility of it I suppose that whilst he was thus with Peter Martyr at Zurick he made a step over the Alpes to Padua which was not very distant and there studied some time and contracted his acquaintance with the said Venetian Gentleman for this Journey is no where mentioned by any other Author that I have seen and I can find no time so likely for it as now DURING all the time of his exile which was about four years he studied very hard and spent the rest of his time in consolating and confirming his Brethren for he would frequently tell them that when their Brethren indured such bitter Tortures and horrible Martyrdoms at home it was not reasonable they should expect to fare deliciously in Banishment concluding always Haec non du rabunt aetatem These things will not last an Age Which he repeated so very often and with so great an assurance of mind that it would be so that many believed it before it came to pass and more took it for a Prophetick Sentence afterwards When the English left their Native Country they were all of a piece bu◠some of them going to Geneva an other places which had imbrace the model of Reformation settle by Calvin they became fond 〈◊〉 these foreign Novelties and som◠of them at Franckford in the yea◠1554. began an alteration of th◠Liturgy and did what they could to dra◠others to them and to these men Knox th◠great Intendiary of Scotland afterwards joyned himself and not long after one Whitehead a zealous Calvinist but of a much better temper than Knox. Not contented with this alteration the fifteenth of November 1554. they writ Letters in open defiance of the English Liturgy to them of Zurick who defended it in a Letter of the 28 th of the same month Grindal and Chambers were sent from Strasburgh to Frankford to quiet these Innovators but to no purpose so returning back again the English at Strasburgh wrote to them the thirteenth of December all which procured no other regard from them but only to obtain Calvin's judgment of it which being suitable to their own as there was no wonder it should things continued thus till the thirteenth of March following when Dr. Richard Cox entered Frankford drove Knox out and resettled the Liturgy there Whereupon in the end of August following Fox with some few others went to Basil but the main body followed Knox and Goodman to Geneva their Mother City as Dr. Heylyn stiles it where they made choice of Knox and Goodman for their constant Preachers under which Ministry they rejected the whole Frame and Fabrick of the Reformation made in England in King Edward's time and conformed themselves wholly to the fashions of the Church of Geneva c. Thus far Dr. Heylyn Mr. Jewel being then at Zurick used his utmost endeavour to reclaim these men and put a stop to this rising Schism Exhorting them as Brethren to lay aside all strife and emulation especially about such small matters least thereby they should greatly offend the minds of all good men which thing he said they ought to have a principal care of And doubtless this good man thought that their gratitude to God for restoring them to their Native Country under the auspicious Reign of Queen Elizabeth of Blessed Memory had for ever put an end to this dispute and he seems to speak as much in his Apology for the Church of England but within a few years this fury broke loose again and just about the time of Jewel's death became more trouble some than ever before and just about an hundred years after its rise by a dismal Rebellion overturn'd at once the Church and Monarchy of Great Britain BUT to return to Mr. Jewel and our Exiles the seventeenth of November 1558. God remembred the distressed State of the Church of England and put an end to her Sufferings by removing that Bigotted Lady the news of which flying speedily to our Exiles they hasted into England again to congratulate the Succession of Queen Elizabeth of ever Blessed Memory HIS good Benefactor and Tutor Mr. Parkhurst upon the arrival of this news made him a visit in Germany but fearing Mr. Jewel had not chosen the safest way for his return to England left him and went another way which seeming more safe in the end proved otherwise Mr. Jewel arriving safely in England with what he had whilst the other was robbed by the way and so at his landing in England Mr. Jewel who was here before him very gratefully relieved his great Benefactor THE time of Mr. Jewel's arrival in England is no where expressed that I can find but he being then at Zurick in all probability was for that cause none of the first that returned so that when he came back he had the comfort to find all things well disposed for the reception of the Reformation for the Queen had by a Proclamation of the thirtieth of December 1558. ordered that no man of what quality soever he were should presume to alter any thing in the State of Religion or innovate in any of the Rites and Ceremonies thereunto belonging c. until some further order should be taken therein Only it was permitted and with all required that the Litany the Lords-Prayer the Creed and the Ten Commandments should be said in the English Tongue and that the Epistle and Gospel should be read in English at the time of the High Mass which was done saith Dr. Heylyn in all the Churches of London on the next Sunday after being New-Years-day and by degrees in all the other Churches of the Kingdom Further than this she thought it not convenient to proceed at the present only she prohibited the Elevation of the Sacrament at the Altar of the Chappel Royal Which was likewise forborn in all other Churches and she set at liberty all that had been imprisoned for Religion in her Sisters time and ordered the Liturgy to be revised with great care and that a Parliament should be summoned to sit at West-minster the 25th of January 1559.
Right is devolved to all Princes in common yet has so unjustly usurpt it to himself alone and thinks it sufficient to communicate his design of holding a Council to the Greatest Prince in Christendom as to his Servant But if the Modesty of Ferdinand the Emperor be so great perhaps because he doth not thorowly understand the Papal Arts that he can digest this Injury yet the Pope who pretends to so much Sanctity ought not to have offered him this Affront and thus to have arrogated to himself another Mans Right 12. BUT some of his Party may reply that the Emperor then called the Councils because the Bishop of Rome was not then arrived to that height of Greatness and yet he did not even then sit with the Bishops or at all interpose his Authority in their Deliberations and Consultations Yes as Theodoret acquaints us Constantine the Emperor did not only sit with the Bishops but admonished them to determine the Controversie then depending out of the Prophetick and Apostolical Writings In this Disputation said the Emperor concerning Divine things there is set before us which we ought to follow the Doctrine of the Holy Ghost for the Books of the Evangelists and Apostles and the Oracles of the Prophets do sufficiently shew us what we ought to think of the Will of God Theodosius another Emperor not only sat amongst the Bishops as Socrates saith but also was Moderator of the Dispute and rent the Papers of the Hereticks and approved the Sentiments and Doctrine of the Catholicks And in the Council of Chalcedon the Civil Magistrate who under the Emperor governed that Council condemn'd three Bishops Dioscorus Juvenalis and Thalassius by his Sentence for Hereticks and gave judgment that they should be deposed from that degree In the Third the Constantinopolitan Council the Civil Magistrate not only sate with the Bishops but also subscribed the Canons with them We have read said he and subscribed them In the Second Council of Orange the Ambassadors of the Princes being Noble-men themselves sate and not only voted concerning Matters of Religion but also subscribed amongst the Bishops for thus it is written in the end of that Council Petrus Marcellinus and Felix Liberius two Noble and Illustrions Praefecti Praetorio of Gaul and Patricians have consented and subscribed Syragrius Opilio Pantagathus Deodatus Cariatho and Marcellus honourable Men and Magistrates have subscribed But if the Praefecti Praetorio and Patricians or Noble-men could then subscribe the Councils may not Emperors and Kings do it now There were no need to prosecute so plain and apparent a point as this is but that we have to do with a parcel of Men who use to deny the clearest things oven those things which lye plain and open before their Eyes out of a contentious Disposition and a desire of Victory The Emperour Justinianus made a Law for the correcting the Manner and curbing the Insolence of the Clergy and altho he was a most Christian and Catholick Emperor yet he deposed Sylverius and Vigilius two Popes Successors of St. Peter and Vicars of Jesus Christ as they are now called 13. AND now seeing that Princes have imployed their Authority upon Bishops received commands from God concerning Religion brought back the Ark of God composed Sacred Hymns and Psalms governed the Priests made publick Discourses concerning the Worship of God purged the Temple demolished High Places burnt Idolatrous Groves and have admonished the Priests concerning their Office and given them Laws of Living have slain wicked Prophets deposed Bishops called Councils of Bishops and sate with them and taught them what they should do have punished Heretical Bishops have taken cognizance of Religion subscribed Councils and given Sentence in them and done all this not by the command of another but in their own Names and that rightly and piously shall we say after all this that the care of Religion belongs not to them Or that a Christian Prince who is pleased to concern himself in these things acts ill immodestly and wickedly In all these Affairs the most Ancient and most Christian Kings and Emperors have intermeddled and yet were never accused of Impiety or Immodesty for so doing and will any pretend to find either more Catholick Princes or more Illustrious Examples 14. BUT now if they might do all these things tho they were only Civil Princes and governed their several States Wherein have our Princes offended who tho they are in the same Authority may it seems not do the same things Or wherein consists the wonderful force of their Learning Wisdom and Holiness that contrary to the Custom of all the Ancient and Catholick Bishops who have heretofore deliberated with Princes concerning Religion they should now reject and exclude Christian Princes from the cognizance of the Cause now depending and from all Participation and Congress with them in their Councils But yet it cannot be denied they have taken a prudent care for themselves and the upholding their Kingdom which they foresaw otherwise would soon have perished For if they who are placed by God in the highest Station had once seen and understood these Mens Arts that the Commands of Christ are contemned by them that the light of the Gospel is obscured and extinguished by them that they play tricks with and delude them and shut up against them the entrance into the Kingdom of God They would never so patiently have suffered themselves to be so proudly despised and injuriously scorned and abused But now on the other hand they have rendred all Princes obnoxious and subject to them by their blindness and Ignorance 15. WE as I said before have done nothing in the changing of Religion either insolently or rashly nothing but with great deliberation and slowly Nor had we ever thought of doing it except the Will of God undoubtedly and manifestly opened to us in the most Sacred Scriptures and the necessity of our Salvation had compelled us so to do for altho we have departed from that Church which they call the Catholick Church and thereupon they have kindled a great envy against us in them who cannot well judge of us yet it is enough for us and ought to be so to any prudent and pious man who considers seriously of his Salvation that we have only departed from that Church which may enr which Christ who cannot err so long since foretold should err and which we see clearly with our Eyes has departed from the Holy Fathers the Apostles Christ himself and the Primitive and Catholick Church And we have approached as much as possibly we could to the Church of the Apostles and ancient Catholick Bishops and Fathers which we know was yet a Perfect and as Tertullian saith an unspotted Virgin and not contaminated with any Idolatry or great and publick Error Neither have we only reformed the Doctrine of our Church and made it like theirs in all things but we have also brought the Celebration of ☞ the Sacraments and the
Definition of the Fathers and the Decrees of the Nicene Council have most plainly committed both all inferiour Clerks and also all the Bishops to their own Metropolitans for all Affairs may be most prudently and justly ended in those places where they began nor will the Grace and Assistance of the Holy Ghost be wanting to any Province Let this Equity be â—ver of great esteem with all Christian Priests which hath been constantly retained 35. BUT Elutherius Bishop of Rome wrote much better and more pertinently to the thing we have now in hand in his Epistle to Lucius a King in Britain You have saith he desired I would send you the Roman and Caesarean Laws which you have a desire to settle in your Kingdom of Britain We may abrogate the Roman and Imperial Laws when we will but not the Law of God for you have by the Mercy of God received the Law and Faith of Christ in your Kingdom of Britain and you have with you in your Kingdom both Testaments compile out of them by the Assistance of God and the Counsel of your Kingdom a Law and then by it with Gods permission govern your said Kingdom for you are the VICAR OF GOD in that Kingdom according to that of the Psalmist the Earth is the Lords 36. IN short Victor Bishop of Rome held a Provincial Synod at Rome and Justinianus the Emperor commandeth that if need require Synods should be held in each Province and threatned that if this were neglected he would punish those that made default Every Province saith St. Jerome hath its particular Manners Rites and Opinions which cannot easily be removed or changed without a very great disturbance And why should I commemorate the most ancient Municipal Councils that of Eliberis Gangra Laodicea Ancyra Antiâ—ch Tâ—urs Carthage Milevis Toledo and Bourdâ—aux for this is no new thing So was the Church of God governed before the Fathers met in the Council of Nice for they had not presently recourse to a General Council Theophilus held a Provincial Synod in Palestinâ— Palmas in Pontus Irenaeus in Gaul Bachilus in Achaia Origen against Beryllus in Arabia and I omit many other Provincial Synods which were kept in Africa Asia Greece and Egypt which were most â—ious Orthodox and Christian tho the Pope had nothing to do with them For the Bishops then as necessity required and as things fell out presently consulted the Well-fare of their Churches in Domestick Councils and sometimes implored the Assistance of their neighbour Bishops at other they frankly aided each other without asking and if need were did by turns help one the other Nor did only the Bishops but Princes of those times think that the Concerns of the Church pertain'd to their Oâ—â—ice for to omit Nebuchadnezar who published a Capital Edict against all that should blaspheme the God of Israel and David Solomon Ezechias and Josias who did partly build and partly reform the Temple of God Constantius the Emperor without any Council took away the Worship of Idols and put forth a most severe Edict by which he made it capital for any man to offer Sacrifice to any Idol Theodosius the Emperor commanded all the Temples of the Pagan Gods to be razed to the Ground Jovinianus another of them so soon as ever he was declared Emperor made his first Law for the restitution of the Christian Exiles Justinianus was wont to say that his Care of the Christian Religion was as great as that of his Life Joshua so soon as ever he was made the Governour of the People had Precepts concerning Religion and the Worship of God given him for Princes are the nursing Fathers of the Church and the Keepers of both Tables nor was there any one Cause why God setled Governments in the World greater than this viz. That there might be some to preserve Religion and Piâ—ty in safety 37. AND therefore many Princes in this Age do sin the more grievously who being call'd Christians sit idely and enjoy their Pleasures and tamely suffer wicked Rites of Worship and the Contempt of the Deity and turn over all this Care to the Bishops and those very Bishops whom they know to have all Religion in the utmost degree of scorn as if the Care of the Churches and People of God did not at all belong to them or as if they were meer Herds-men of Cattle and to take care of Bodies but not in the least of mens Souls they remember not in the mean time that they are the Ministers of God and chosen for that purpose that they might serve the Lord. Ezechias the King would not go up to his own House until he saw the Temple of God throughly purged And David said I will not give Sleep to my Eyes no Slumber to my Eye-lids until I find out a Place for the Lord a Tabernacle for the God of Jacob. O that Christian Princes would hear the Voice of their Lord and Soveraign Be wise now therefore O ye Kings be learned O ye that are Judges of the Earth I have said saith he that ye are Gods that is men divinely chosen who should take care of my Name Think thou whom I have raised from the Dunghil and placed in the highest degree of Dignity and Honour and set over my People when thou so studiously buildst and adornest thy own House how thou canst despise and neglect my House or how thou canst every day petition me that I would confirm thy Kingdom to thee and thy Posterity What that my Name may for ever be treated unworthily that the Gospel of my Christ may be extinguished that my Servants may for my Sake he butchered before thy Eyes and in thy View that this Tyranny may rage the longer that my People may be imposed upon for ever that the Scandal may be confirm'd by thee Wo to him by whom Scandals come and wo to him by whom they are confirm'd Thou tremblest at the Blood of Bodies how much more shouldest thou abhor the Blood of Souls remember what I did to Antiochus Herod and Julian I will translate thy Kingdom unto thy Enemy because thou hast sinned against me I change Times and Seasons I reject Kings and I set them up that thou mayst understand that I am the most highest and that I rule in the Kingdoms of men and give them to whom I will I bring down and I lift up I glorifie those that glorifie me and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed FIFIS Lloyd's State-worthies p. 374 Eccles Restaurat p. 283. Tortura Torti p. 130. 1569. 13 Eli. e. a. In the English Life before his Works is called Witney November 1548. This Dispute began the 28 th of May Anno Christi 1549. and lasted five days 1551. 1553. Fuller in his Church History saith he was expelled for refusing to be present at Mass Anno 1553. 1554. Peter Martyr Ecclesia Restaurata p. 196 Peter Martyr also helped himself for he would not go without the Queens Pasport and leave and