honorable Counsailors â—udges and other Maiestrates mai not hold their honors authorities For if the mother being a forraigner to Fraunce vvhere al maner gouernmeÌ„t is denyed hir by their lavves can depose natural Maiestrates and help hir couÌ„trimeÌ„ to the richest offices promote an Italian to be high Chanler there make hir halfe Italians to be marshals of fraunce you may be sure a french husband will easely aduaunce his Italianate french meÌ„ to our English preferments Our lavvyers shall be fain to learn some other occupation For nevv maisters new men and new Lords new laws No doubt the lavvs of fraunce vvil preuaile against the lavves of Normandy yea the forrein lavv called ciuil wâ—l eate vp our free customs natural lavves Our soldiars of necessiâ—y must be sent out vnder some Ioab for some more desperate seruice then S. Quintin one vvay or other to be dispatched and cut in pieces For of all English people they vvill be worse loued of these french Our Lord bishops may think it ther greatest honor to take such part as other poore men doe sure they are all to loose theyr dignities and riches and so many of them as euer vvere votarie priests must part froÌ„ wiues and children Our Merchants and poore richmen they may quickly without any counters cast vp theyr bookes of reckonings by that time such factors and malefactors as these men haue ransaked their coffers Touching the meanest sort of men euen in france it selfe this ve ry day al be contemptible pesants and Lackeys And if ther own natural poore labouring men find no better condition of life vnder these vncourteyus kings it vvere madnes for vs to looke for so good vve must doubtles be one degree at least beneath vile pesants â–ª Lackeis And if these nevv surueiers come into this land we may bid farevvel to thold English liberall measure of syxtene foote and a halfe to the pole our Ortyards must be measured by the foote our houses by the stories vvindowes chimnies and accordingly nevv rents raysed vpon them our children shall not come freely into the world without some vnnaturall excise for euery birth as the earnest penny of a trybu tary lyfe our maydens vvho in some coÌ„mon vveals are vvont to be bestowed wyth the publike purse must vnder thys vyle stranger yeld a share of their own mariage portions vvhich Impositions I neyther dravv from old Tyrans nor Imagin here of myne own head but they are such as the french king very lately demanded and such as hys subiectes euen novv denye vvherevpon the former trobles are lyke to reuiue notvvithstanding his mothers late ryding about france vvith fayre promises for the release of such brutishe exactions Much might be sayd in these particulars by thys lyttle the noble gentle and others vvhat soeuer may learn to hate strange coÌ„maunders and to esteeme our naturall regiment to detest the Turkish tyrany of Valoys to thank God for the kind gouernment of Queen Elizabeth which the Lord grant hir happely to hold on and finally to end as she began But I had rather we shold feele our griefe in the ache of our head the Queen theÌ„ to esteme our gteuances apart Farre from vs then is this great assurance imagined to hyr Maiesties selfe by thus matching euen as farr as certein peril is from safety vvhere is the preseruation of Religion vvher is the streÌ„gth and gayn to the land vvhere is thys honor to our kingdom euen as farr from thys mariage as preseruatife is from poyson gayn froÌ„ spoyle and beggery and honor from danger of perperual slauery I should haue bene afrayd to haue spoken thus much had not the streight of this necessitie driuen me and my words ben the words not of a busie body speaking at all aduentures but of a true Englishman a sworne liegeman to hir Maiestie gathering these necessary consequences by theyr reasonable causes And sith the faith of a man is broken sometime asvvel in not doing or not saying as in doing or saying I humbly besech that vvhatsoeuer offence any thing here sayd may breed it be vvith fauor construed by the affection of my hart vvhich must loue my country and Queene though it shold cost me my lyfe yea rather let them of this land vvho excel seuerally in all good professions hauing wisedom disposition vvords at vvil that hearing so publickly famously notoriously a mariage to be practised by the pope vvhich is against al lavves of God and man vnvvritten and vvritten of nature and nations of the land and of policie of armes peace tending to the losse of our religion to the subuersion of our state and freedome to the captiuity of our Queene and hir people vnder our hateful foe the french can not yet be stirred vp to any pietye tovvards theyr God theyr country or theyr prince to handle this matter in theyr seuerall skils as it requires You Noble men and high counsailors ioyne to your vvisedoms courage and adding to them both the feare of God remember you be born chosen for fathers of aduise to the prince and in a secondary degree assisting Tutors to the common vvee le render to the Queene that faythfull counsaile vvhich she may vvel chalenge for aduauncing you to thys honor and pay to vs again that duety of carefull loue vvhîch our reuerence of honor most vvyllingly acknowledged to you doth deserue You bishops and others who sometime speak in the eares of our prince let not your study be to leern french for the entertayning of thys stranger as though then you should be ioly gentilmen vvith the rest but learn to speak the word of God and speak it boldly for keeping out this stranger You vvhosoeuer in Court honored by hir Maiestie vvith any speciall fauoure and grace alas that none of you vvill doe hyr that right as to tell hyr hovv farr more precious hir royall person is and vvith hovv farr greater daunger thereto it is then that this odd fellow by birth a french man by profession a papist an Atheist by conuersation an instrument in Fraunce of vncleannes a fly worker in England for Rome and Fraunce in this present affayre a sorcerer by common voyce fame shold haue such free and gracious accesse to hyr chayre of estate great presence vvho is not fir to looke in at hir great chamber doore All England in a tenderiealous loue to hyr person besecheth God to preserue hir prayeth hir to take heed of popish french men You of the meaner sort throughout the land all priuate ones knovv your place to be in all subiection peaceable patience vvith your prayers to sollicite the Lorde for his church for this common vveale and for the Queen that of his great mercy he vvill turne away this plague of a stranger in Christian Israel and forreigne frenchmen in England The onely noise of whose making hither toward gaue al these causes
dishonour to her spouse vvith the separating her from her Lord God and vvith the treading vnder foot of that precious lavve vvhich îs her holy rule for order and souereigne preseruatife againste all headlong confusion if they say yea vve say nay and proue it nay Namely that this procuration of mariage is a breach of Gods lawe and not onely for the sinne thereof is against the church because it hasteneth vengeaunce but vve shevve by demonstratiue reasons that it goeth to the very gorge of the Church I trust I shall not neede to proue to these mens consciences this Maior proposition or Maxime that is to say Syn prouoketh the wrath of God and that greate sinnes call down great plages and mighty sinners are mightily punished This argument The vvorld sinneth such a citie sinneth such a land sinneth such a try be such a kindred such a family such a soule sinneth Ergo the vvorld such a city land trybe kindred family soule shall feele the vengeance of that high lavvgeuer against vvhom they sinne is a most necessary consequence This next though it be but the Minor in order and vvill not perhappes vvithout farther proofe be yelden vnto by thys kynde of protestātes yet is it as true as the former that is that it is a sin a greate and a mightye sinne for England to geue one of Israels daughters to any of Hemors sonnes to match a daughter of God vvith one of the sonnes of men to couple a Christian Ladye a member of Christ to a Prince good sonne of Rome that Antichristian mother citie For the inuincible manifestastion therfore of this truth let vs first consider England as a region purged from Idolatry a kingdome of light confessing Christ and seruing the liuing God Contrariwise Fraunce a den of Idolatrye a kingdome of darkenes confessing Belial and seruing Baal Then let vs remember vvhat was the first institution of mariage which is set before vs as a directory rule for vs in our mariages for euer and vvhereunto Christ teacheth vs playnly in al cases and other incidentes of mariage to looke back vvhen vpon a case put of mariage he aunsweres IN THE BEGINNING IT VVAS NOT SO. The first mariages were betvvene payres in Religion and in the feare of god And the first vvritten commaundements that are giuen by Moses touching mariage haue their regard to that first institution as it were to the oldest lavve The vvhich Moses rightly vnderstanding and according to the interpretation of al lawes vvhen they bid or forbid any thing do therevvith forbid or bid the contrarye He also in Denteronomie forbad those matches vvherein the sonnes of God vvere giuen to the daughters of mē adding thys reason for saith he such mariages wil make thy children to fal from me And this place at once may expound those other many places vvhere it is sayd least they make thy children to commit Idolatry to be added as a certaine punishment by the iudgement of God and not for a doubtfull reason as some vvould fayn haue it that seke to dravv the lavves of God to their lustes who should rather rule theyr lustes by the lawes VVhich pure institution of mariage S. Paul also continues when enlarging the holy vse thereof to all sortes of men he yet hath this restraint that it be in the Lord that is to saye in his feare as it was from the beginning and according to his former commaundements in his vvorde It is more then enough to breake the holy ordinaunce instituted of God vvhich ought to gouerne vs without further enqui rye of reason or commodity But as the holinesse of his lavves is holesome to vs euen in this life by obedience so doth theyr trāsgression breede vs infinite incommodities For the ende of this holy kind of mariage is our mutuall helpe and vpholdiug one an other in the feare of god vvhich appeareth by the reason of forbidding those vnholy mariages vvhich is least sayth the spirit of God their sonnes drawe your daughters or their daughters your sonnes from the lord Nowe as the one comes to passe vvhere thorder of God is kept so the contrary effect must iustly followe vpon neglect especially if such a mariage be made in a gospellike land vvhere the lavv of God is preached and contrarye to warning giuen out of Gods booke Then vvithout peraduenture all blessing is taken awaye and the plague follovveth And to teach our politiques by reasonable argumentes what other reasons haue the lavves of all lands to ioyne like to like in mariage but for the norishing of peace and loue betvvene man and vvife and for the vvell bringing vp of the children in euery familye vvherby to make them profitable members in some seruiceable vocation considering that families are the seedes of Realmes and petie partes of common vveales where if there be good order the vvhole land is vvell ordered and contrary as in anye instrument if euery string or many strings be out of tune the whole musick is marred and who so vvill preserue any entier must conserue euery part so if the families be distempered and out of tune the vvhole land is disturbed Thinke you that the common vveal can haue this care for her lesse partes and thus prouide for the vvell trayning vp of her chil dren that the church of England vvherin this holy lavv of religious matching marying the faithful vvith the faythful is giue by Christ to this end that their children might be sanctified and holily brought vp in christian religion thinke you I say that the church wil easely depart vvith her deere daughter her daughter of hiest honor Elizabeth the Queene of England vvho is the tēple of the holy ghost and vvill not hold her fast in her louing armes as being loath to giue her to a straunger one that hath shevved no signes of regeneration and her selfe vvant thassistaunce of a faythfull husband and her children of her body if any she haue vvhich receiue outvvard sanctification and entry into the bosom of the church thorough the promise of their faythfull parentes be in danger to be profaned before they be borne and to be corrupted after they are borne and thorovvout al their education S. Paul speaking of contrary couplings together compareth them to the vneuen yoking of the cleane Oxe to the vncleane Asse a thing forbidden in the lawe And here againe the lawes of men vvhieh medle but vvith the distribution of the things of this life haue learned this equitie of the lavves of God that it is a greate disparagement for health to be ioyned in mariage vvith any foule disease for beuty vvith deformity youth vvith decrepite age or to tender a townes man daughter to a gentilman of birth A citizen of Rome vvoulde hold foule scorne to mary a Barbariane And the common vvealthes of England Fraunce I dare say vvould meruail if eyther our Queene or Monsieur being both great princes borne and of
croked by vvay to meete vvith this great inconueniences that forsooth it shal be capitulated onely lavvful for Monsieur and a fevve of his nation to haue theyr miserable mas vvithout the admission of any Englishman surely these mē neyrher measure this article at the standarde meatvvande of the Lord nor vveigh the easines of performing it in a vvise mannes ballance For I pray you doe but goe vpon the Tamis and see vvhat companies goe to the french mas enquire vvhat numbers flocked in at backfield gates to the portugale mas hovv the Spanish massers had theyr customers more then ynough and you shall easily see the loose reckoning of these men in matters of so great valeue they vvill kepe better bookes of theyr crovvnes do they see deputed Ambassadors hable to break our highest lavves of Gods honor in themselues and in so many of our nation and can they think as they speake that so great a prince the husband vvhich God forhid of our Queene and perhaps vvhich God defend honored vvith the name of our king for our Quueenes sake shall not and vvill not giue him selfe hys ovvn conditions for his ovvne religion to hym and his and so many of ours as vvill seeke it at hys hands But vvether thys be their grosse ouersight or vvhether they vvink vviles agaynst religion I vvil not novv dispute this is more then vvonderful that such as pretend outvvard profession of religion should make so irreligious accompt of Religion Oh the vvickednes of our professors and the hypocrisie of our protestantes Is not Idolatry the highest treason that can be agaynst the Lords ovvn person doth it not go directly to the poynt he stands most on for his honor do our lips say that vve are zelous of gods honour and tender ouer hys church can our harts rest in quiet and not tel her maiestie hovv great a dishonor it ys to haue one mas and vvhat a plague it menaceth to the church vve doe not loue her whatsoeuer we say vvhē flatteryng hyr perhaps in other vanytyes vve do not fall dovvn before hyr vvyth teares bevvaylyng the vvrath of God kyndled agaynst hyr yf by hyr aduised permyssion and by meanes of hyr maryāge God should be so hyghly dyshonored in thys kyngdome vvhervvyth he hath honored her Take not the vvord of God in your mouthes you that breath suche lukevvarme counsayl halt no more on both sides If God be God let hym be so honored If Baal be your god take you to hym altogether honest men serue one mayster and hym vvholly and our mayster vvyll be so serued or not at all Of all sinnes ingratytud ys odyous vvyth God and man no vnthankfulnes lyke to ours vvho hauyng bene thus long maynteyned in peace and in the begynnyng hauyng all natyons our enemyes haue novv many faythfull borderyng freendes and are rych at home through our peace and by the blessing of God wil novv svvarue from the Lord and trust to our ovvn deuises and make leage vvith them and suffer theyr Idolatry in our land that neuer lesse loued vs then novv vvhen they looke fayrest Good Lord if it be possible make vs vvyse vvythout experience of our soly Thys vvere to set vp altar agaynst altar and vvyth Antiochus to offer the foule svvine in the holy sanctuary for this sin of Idolatry committed great iudgements haue bene executed vpon the transgressors vvhereby all they that beleue the story of the scripture and are not stark Atheistes must confes that thys feare vvhych vve feare is no vayne feare The old vvorld vvas drovvned the people of God often giuen vp into theyr enemies handes and in the end the tvvelue tribes of Salomons kingdome rent a sunder and a perpetual translatiō often tvveluethes out of Salomons posterity for euer Ieroboam vvhen he set vp alters in the land of Israel contrary to Gods law he would haue bene loath that any man should haue sayd he cōmitted Idolatry or made the people Idolatrous yet that sin follovved and he throvven out of Gods fauour noted with a foule blot for a ringleader in sin often reputed in the scripture his kingdom cam to naught the vvhole people suffered a transmigration irretornable in Affiria The onely feare of thys sin hath made the heares of many good mens heads stand right vp Dauid durst not take the Idoles name in his mouth he would then haue shaken to haue set vp an Idole to be worshipped The memory of Asa is with a holy prayse for that his mother Maacha hauing set vp a woden Image in a groue he would not suffer her to haue her vvicked religion to the dishonour of God but vvithout reuerence of her superstitious request deposed her from her dignity vtterly and brake downe her Idole stamped it and burnt it at the brooke Kidron In which story I pray you obserue these two circumstances king Asa the son to his own mother and the maner hovv he did it euen with despight to Idolatry and zeale to god The Lord send Queene Elizabeth the euerlasting commendation of Asa for many such notable actes Elizeus protesteth by othe that he woulde not once talke with Ioram King of Israel had it not bene in the presence of Iosaphat Priuate men are bidden to flye from Idolatry Princes beare the Lords sword to make it flee and to chace it far away If therefore they vvill have his hand to hold vp theyr svvord they muste let ther svvord serue him chieflie But most notably the feare of thys sin euen before it was committed and hovve ielous therefore they should be that are in authority appeares in the ende of Iosue where the children of Israell feared least the Lord vvould impute to them as all one faulte to commit Idolatrye in them selues and not to remoue it in their brethren VVhich made them vvhē the the tribes of Ruben Gad and the halfe of Manasseh after the cōquest of Canaan at theyr departure home ouer Iordan had sette vp but one Alter of a good meaning in deede and for a monument of theyr vnity in Religion vvith theyr brethren but supposed of the reste of the trybes to be set vp to the dishonour of the Lord and contrary to his lavv vvhych commaunded but one alter throughout the land they the other ix trybes a halfe whose lotts vvere fallen vvithin Iordane assembled themselues and had not theyr rulers and princes that went Ambassadors ouer to Gilead broughte a reasonable and a religious satisfaction by the Reubenites answere vvere ready to fal out vvith theyr brethren vvhome othervvise they loued rather then to vvincke at the dishonor of theyr heauenly father The reason of vvhich theyr doing I beseech all gouernours to marke vvhich vvas they feared least thorough that one Altar the anger of God should also haue consumed them Novv if one Altar set vp in the vttermost corner of that land threatned destruction to the whole and the offence of tvvo trybes and a halfe made all the rest