was now become a Lambe not much against thine owne will out of the fold of our Lord and made thee of a Lambe a wolfe like to himselfe againe Oh how great a joy would the conservation of thy salvation have beene to God the holy Father of all Saints had not the devill the miserable father of all castawaies as an Eagle of monstrous wings and claws carryed thee captive away against all right and reason to the unhappy roote of his children And to be short as great gladnes and sweetnesse did thy conversion to righteousnesse minister to heaven and earth as now thy detestable returne after the manner of a sicke mastive unto the horrible vomit againe breedeth griefe and lamentation which being done The members are now become the armours of iniquity for sinne and the devill which in right sence should have beene busily imployed as the armours of justice for God for now with thy listening eares are not heard the praises of God sweetly sounded forth by the pleasant voices of Christs Souldiers nor the Organs of ecclesiasticall melody but thine owne praises which are nothing rung out after the fashion of Bacchus giddy rout by the mouthes of thy villanous followers fulfilled with lies and also with foming malice to the utter overthrow of every one of their neighbours so as the vessell sometimes prepared for the service of God is now turned to a vessell of durt and what was once reputed worthy of Heavenly honour is now worthily cast into the bottomelesse pit of hell Neither yet is thy sensuall mind which is overcome by the excesse of folly any whit abated or debarred of his course with committing so great sinnes but hot and prone like a young colt that coveteth every pleasant pasture runneth headlong forward with irrecoverable fury through the large fields of offences in heaping new wickednesse on the head of the old For the former marriage of thy first wife although after thy violated vow of Religion she were not lawfully thine yet being sometimes thine was now despised another the wife of a man then living and hee no stranger but thine own brothers sonne being in her place beloved Vpon which occasion that stiffe necke of thine being already laden with many burthens of sinnes is now moreover with two monstrous murthers the one of thy aforesaid Nevew the other of her who sometimes was thy marryed wife as with the outragious extremity of thy sacriledge from low to lower and from bad to worser bowed bended and depressed downe Afterwards also didst thou accept her by whose deceit and suggestion such mighty matter of offences was undergone publickely and as the flattring tongues of thy parasites with faigned but not faithfull words pronounce lawfully as a widdow but as we say most wickedly to be thine owne in wedlocke And therefore what holy man is there whose bowels being mooved with the narration of such an history would not presently break out into weeping and lamentations What Priest whose heart lyeth open unto God would not instantly upon the hearing of this with marveilous mourning cry out that saying of the Prophet Who shall give water to my head and to mine eyes a fountaine of teares and I will day and night bewaile those of my people who are slaughtered For why full little alas hast thou with thine eares once heard that reprehension of the Prophet speaking in this wise Woe be unto yee O wicked men who have left the Law of the most holy God and if ye shall be borne your portion shall be to malediction and if ye die into malediction shall be your portion al things that are from the earth to the earth shall bee converted againe so shall the wicked from malediction passe to perdition but ever supposed if they returne not unto our Lord receiving especially this admonition Sonne thou hast offended adde no farther offence thereunto but withall doe thou pray for the forgivenesse of the former And againe Forslow not to be converted unto our Lord neither yet doe thou put of the same from day to day for his wrath doth come suddenly Because as the Scripture saith When the King heareth the unjust word all under his dominion become wicked And The just King according to the Prophet raiseth up his Region But warnings truely are not wanting to thee since thou hast for thine instructor the most eloquent Master of almost all Britaine Take heed therefore lest that which Solomon noteth befalleth not to thee which is Even as he who stirreth up a sleeping man out of his heavy sleepe so is that person who declareth wisdom unto a foole for in the end of his speech will he say What hast thou first spoken Wash thine heart as it is written from malice Oh Ierusalem that thou maist be saved Despise not I beseech thee the unspeakeable mercy of God calling by his Prophet the wicked in this sort from their offences I will on the suddvine speake to the Nation and to the Kingdome that I may roote out and dispearse and destroy and overthrow As for the sinner hee doth in this wise exhort him vehemently to pennance And if the same people shall do pennance from their offence I will also doe pennance upon the evil which I have said that I would doe against them And againe Who will give them such an heart as they may heare me and keepe my Commandements and that it may be well with them all the daies of their lives And also in the Canticle of Deuteronomy A people without counsell and prudence I wish they would be wise and understand and foresee the last of all how one pursueth a thousand and two put to flight ten thousands And againe our Lord in the Gospell Come unto me all yee who doe labour and are burthened and I will make ye rest Take up my yoake upon you and learne of me because I am meeke and humble of heart and yee shall finde repose in your soules For if thou dost hearken to these admonitions but with deafe eares if thou contemnest the Prophets if thou despisest Christ and although most base we are makest no account of us so long as with sincere pietie and puritie of minde we observe the same of the Prophet that we may not bee found Dumbe dogges not able to barke howsoever I for mine own particular am not of that singular fortitude in the spirit and vertue of our Lord as to declare To the house of Iacob their sins and the house of Israel their offences and so long as wee shall remember that of Salomon Who so termeth the wicked to be just shall be accursed among the people and odious to nations for they who reproove shall have better hopes And againe Respect not with reverence thy neighbour in his ruine nor spare thou to speake in time of Salvation And as long also as wee forget not this Withdraw them away by force who are
actions and if in these the earth shall not be disturbed and every inhabitant thereof fall to lamentation and the finall end as a flood ascend and I will turn your festivall dayes into wailing and cast on the loynes of every one hairecloth and on the head of every man baldnesse and make him as the mourning of one over his beloved and those who are with him as the day of sorrow And againe In the sword shall die all the sinners of my people who say Evils shall not approch nor yet shall light upon us And listen ye likewise what holy Micheas the Prophet hath spoken saying Hearken ye Tribes And what shall adorne the City shall not fire and the house of the wicked hoording up unjust treasures and with injury unrighteousnesse If the wrongfull dealer shall be justified in the ballance deceitful weights in the scales by which they have heaped up their riches in ungodlinesse And hearken also what threates the famous Prophet Sophonias thundereth out together Neere draweth on saith he the great day of our Lord neere it is at hand and very swiftly approcheth The voice of the day of our Lord is appointed to be bitter and mighty that day a day of wrath a day of tribulation and necessity a day of clouds and mist a day of the trumpet and outcry a day of misery and extermination a day of darknesse and dimnesse upon the strong Cities and high corners And I will bring men to tribulation and they shall goe as if they were blinde because they have offended our Lord and I will powre out their blood as dust and their flesh as the dung of Oxen and their silver and gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of our Lord. And in the fire of his zeale shall the whole earth be consumed when the Lord shall accomplish his absolute end and bring solitarinesse upon all the inhabitants of the earth Come together and be joyned in one thou Nation without Discipline before ye be made as the fading flowre before the wrath of our Lord falleth upon ye And give eare also unto that which the Prophet Aggeus speaketh on this wise Thus saith our Lord I will once moove the Heaven Earth Sea and dry land and I wil drive away the Thrones of Kings and roote out the powre of the Kings of the Gentiles and I will chase away the chariots of those who mount upon them Now also behold ye what Zacharias the sonne of Addo that chosen Prophet said beginning his prophesie on this manner Returne ye to me and I will returne unto ye saith our Lord and be not like your Fathers to whom the former Prophets have imputed saying Thus saith our Almighty Lord Turne away from your waies and they have not marked whereby they might obediently heare me And afterwards And the Angell asked me what dost thou see and I said I see a flying sythe which containeth in length twenty cubits The malediction which hath proceeded upon the face of the whole earth because every one of her theeves shall be punished even to the very death and I will throw him away saith our Almighty Lord he shall enter into the house of fury and into the house of swearing falshood in my name Holy Malachy the Prophet also saith Behold the day of our Lord shal come inflamed as a furnace and all proud men and all workers of iniquity shall be as stubble and the approching day of our Lord of hostes shall set them on fire which shall not leave a roote nor a bud of them And hearken ye also what holy Iob debateth of the beginning and end of the ungodly saying For what purpose doe the wicked live and have dishonestly worne even to old age and their issue hath beene according to their owne desire and their sonnes before their faces and their houses are fruitfull and no feare nor yet the scourge of our Lord is upon them Their Cow hath not beene abortive their great with young hath brought forth her young ones and not missed but remaineth as an eternall breede and their children rejoyce and taking the Psaltery and Harpe have finished their dayes in felicity and fallen peaceable a sleepe downe into hell Doth God therefore not behold the workes of the wicked Not so truely But the candle of the ungodly shall be extinguished â—â—d destruction shall fall upon them and dolors as of one in childbirth shall with hold them from wrath and they shall be as chaffe before the wind and as the dust which the whirlewind hath carryed away Let all goodnes faile his children let his eyes behold his owne slaughter nor yet by our Lord let him be redeemed And a little after he saith of the same men Who have ravenously taken the flocke with the shepheard and driven away the beast of the Orphans and engaged the Oxe of the Widdow and deceiving have declined from the way of necessity They have reaped other mens fields before the time the poore have laboured in the Vineards of the mighty without hyre and meate they have made many to sleepe naked without garments of the covering of their life they have bereaved them And somewhat afterwards when hee had throughly understood their workes he delivered them over to darkenesse Let therefore his portion be accursed from the earth let his plantings bring forth witherings let him for this be rewarded according to his dealings Let every wicked man like the unsound wood be broken in peeces For arising in his wrath hath he overthrown the impotent Wherefore truely shall he have no trust of his life when he shall beginne to grow diseased let him not hope for health but fall into languishing For his pride hath beene the hurt of many and he is become decayed and rotten as the mallowes in the scorching heate or as the yeare of corne when it falleth off from his stubble And afterwards If his children shall be many they shall be turned to the slaughter and if he gather together silver as if it were earth and likewise purifie his gold as if it were durt all these same shall the just obtaine Heare yee moreover what blessed Esdras that Library of the Law threatneth in his discourse on this wise Thus saith our Lord God My right hand shall not be sparing upon sinners neither shall the sword cease over them who spill the innocent blood on the earth Fire shall proceede from out my wrath and devoure the foundations of the earth and sinners as if they were inflamed straw Woe be unto them who offend and observe not my Commandements saith our Lord I will not forbeare them Depart away ye Apostatizing children and doe not pollute my sanctuarie God doth know who doe offend against him and he will therefore deliver them over to death and to slaughter For now have many evils passed over the round compasse of the
Thy Princes are unfaithfull companions of theeves all love gifts hunt after rewards they doe no justice to the Orphan the widowes cause entreth not unto them For this saith our Lord God of hosts the strong one of Israel Alas I will take consolation upon my foes and be revenged upon mine enemies and the hainous sinners shall be broken to powder and offenders together with them and all who have left our Lord shall be consumed And afterwards The eyes of the lofty man shall bee brought low and the heighth of men hath bowed downe And againe Woe be to the wicked evill be fall him for he shall be rewarded according to his handy workes And a little after Woe be unto ye who arise earely to follow drunkennesse and to drinke even to the very evening that ye may vapouring fume with Wine The Harpe and the Lyra and the Taber and the Pipe and Wine are in your banquets and the worke of our Lord ye respect not neither yet consider ye the workes of his hands Therefore is my people led captive away because they have not had knowledge and their Nobles have perished with famine and their multitude hath withered away with thirst Therefore hath hell enlarged and dilated his spirit and without measure opened his mouth and his strong ones and his people and his lofty and glorious ones shal descend down unto him And afterwards Woe be unto ye who are mighty for the drinking of wine and strong men for the procuring of drunkennesse who justifie the wicked for rewards and deprive the just man of his justice For this cause even as the tongue of the fire devoureth the stubbell and as the heate of the flame burneth up so shall their roote be as the ashes and their branch shall rise up us the dust For they have cast away the law of our Lord of hosts and despised the speech of the holy one of Israel In all these the fury of our Lord is not turned away but as yet his hand is stretched out And somewhat after debating of the day of judgement and the unspeakeable feare of offendors he saith Howle ye out because the day of our Lord is neere at hand if then neere what shall it now be thought to be in regard destruction shall proceed from God For this shall all hands be dissolved and every mans heart shall wither away and be bruised small tortures and dolours shall hold them as a woman in labour so shall they be grieved every man shall at his neighbour stand astonished burned faces shall be their countenances Behold the day of our Lord shal come cruell and full of indignation and of wrath and fury to turne the earth into a desert and breake her sinners in small peeces from off her because the starres of Heaven and the brightnesse of them shall not unfold their light the Sunne in his rising shall bee covered over with darknes and the Moone shall not shine in her season and I will visite upon the evils of the world and against the wicked their owne iniquity and I will make the pride of the unfaithfull to cease and the arrogancy of the strong I will bring full low And againe Behold our Lord will disperse the earth he will strip her naked and afflict her face and scatter her inhabitants and as the people so shall be the Priest and as the slave so shal be his Lord as the handmaid so shall be her Lady as the purchaser so shall be the seller as the usurer so shall be he that borroweth as he who demandeth so shall be he that oweth With dispersing shall the earth be scattered and with sacking shall she be spoyled For our Lord hath spoken this word The earth hath bewailed and hath fleeted away the world hath run to nothing she is weakned by her inhabitants because they have transgressed lawes changed right brought to ruine the eternall truce For this shall malediction devour the earth And afterwards They shall lament all of them who doe in heart rejoyce the delight of the timbrells hath ceased the sound of the gladâ—some shall be silent the sweetnesse of the Harpe shall be hushed they shall not with singing drinke their wine bitter shall the potion be to the drinkers thereof The Cittie of vanitie is wasted every house is shut up no man entring in an outcry shall be in the streetes upon wine all gladnesse is forsaken the joy of the land is transferred solitarinesse is left in the town and calamitie shall oppresse the gates because these things shall be in the middest of the land and in the middest of the people And somewhat afterwards Swarving from the truth have they wandred out of the right way with the stragling of transgressors have they gone astray Feare and intrapping falls and a snare upon thee who art the inhabitant of the earth And it shall come to passe Who so shall flye from the voyce of the feare shall tumble downe into the intrapping pit and who so shall deliver himselfe out of the downefall shall bee caught in the intangling snare because the flood-gates from aloft shall be opened and the foundations of the earth shall be shaken With bruising shall the earth be broken with commotion shall she be moved with tossing shall she be tottred like to a drunken man and she shall be taken away as if shee were a pavilion of one nights pitching and her iniquitie shall hang heavie upon her and she shall fall done and shall not attempt to rise againe And it shall be that our Lord in the same day shall visit on the warfare of heaven in the high place and on the Kings of the earth who are upon the earth and they shall be gathered together in the bundle of one burthen into the Lake and shall there be shut up in prison and after many dayes shall they be visited And the Moone shall blush and the Sunne be confounded when our Lord of hosts shall raigne in mount Sion and in Ierusalem and be glorified in the sight of his Seniors And after a while yeelding a reason why hee threatneth in that sort he saith thus Behold the hand of our Lord is not shortned that he cannot save neither yet is his eare made heavy that he may not heare But your iniquities have divided betweene ye and your God aâ—d your offences have hid his face from yee that he might not heare For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquitie Your lippes have spoken lying and your tongue uttereth iniquity There is not who calleth on justice neither is there he who judgeth truely but they trust in nothing and speake vanities and have conceived greefe and brought forth iniquity And a little after Their workes are unprofitable and the worke of iniquity in their hands their feete runne into evill and make haste that they may shed the innocent blood their thoughts are unprofitable thoughts spoyle and
earth A sword of fire is sent out against yee and who is he that shall restraine it shall any man repulse a Lyon that hungereth in the wood or shall any one quench out the fire when the straw is burning our Lord God will send out evills and who is he that shall represse them and fire will passe forth from out his wrath and who shall extinguish it it shall brandishing shine and who will not feare it it shall thunder and who will not shake with dread God will threaten all and who will not be terrified before his face shall the earth tremble and the foundations of the sea fleet from the depth And marke ye also what Ezechiel the renowned Prophet and admirable beholder of the foure Evangelicall creatures speaketh of wicked offendors unto whom pittifully lamenting before hand the scourge that hung over Israel our Lord doth say Too farre hath the iniquity of the house of Israel and Iudah prevailed because the earth is fully filled with iniquity and uncleannesse Behold I am mine eyes shall not spare nor yet will I take pitty And afterwards Because the earth is replenished with people and the City fraughted with iniquity I will also turne away the force of their power and their holy things shall be polluted prayer shall approach and sue for peace and it shall not be obtained And somewhat after The Word of our Lord quoth he was spoken unto me saying Thou sonne of man the land that shall so farre sinne against me as transgressing it shall commit an offence I will streatch forth my hand upon her and breake in peeces her foundation of bread and send upon her famine and take away mankind and cattle from her and if these three men Noah Daniel and Iob bee in the midst of her they shall not deliver her but they in their justice shall be saved saith our Lord. If so be that also I shall bring 〈◊〉 evill beasts upon the land and punish her she likewise shall be turned to destruction and there shall not be one who shall have free passage from the face of the beasts and admit these three men are in the midest of her I live saith our Lord if their sonnes and daughters shall be preserved but they alone shall be saved and as for the land it shall fall to confusion And againe The sonne shall not receive the unrighteousnesse of the Father neither yet the Father the sonnes unrighteousnesse The justice of the just shall be upon himselfe And the unjust man if he turneth him away from all the iniquities which he hath done and keepeth all my Commandements and doth justice and abundance of mercy hee shall live in life and shall not dye All his sinnes whatsoever he hath committed shall have no further being he shall live the life in his owne justice which hee hath performed Doe I with my will voluntarily wish the death of the unrighteous saith our Lord raâ—her than he should returne from his evill way and live But when the just shall turne himselfe away from his justice and doe iniquity according to all the iniquities which the unrighteous hath committed all the just actions which hee hath done shall remaine no further in memory In his offence wherein he hath fallen and in his sinnes in which hee hath transgressed he shall dye And within some words afterwards And all nations shall understand that the house of Israel are led captive away for their offences because they have forsaken me And I have turned my face from them and yeelded them over into the hands of their enemies and all have perished by the sword according unto their uncleane sinnes and after their iniquities have I dealt with them and turned my face away from them This which I have spoken may suffice concerning the threates of the holy Prophets onely I have thought it necessary to intermingell in this little worke of mine as well as the former menaces a few words also borrowed out of the wisdome of Salomon which declares unto Kings matter of exhortation or instructioÌ„ that they may not say I am willing to lade the shoulders of men with heavie and insupportable burthens of words but not so much as once with mine owne finger which is with speech of consolation to moove the same Let us therefore heare what the Prophet hath spoken to rule us Love justice saith he yee that judge the earth This onely testimony if it were with a full and perfect heart observed would abundantly suffice to reforme the governours of our Country For if they had loved Iustice they would also love God who is in a sort the fountaine and originall of all justice Serve our Lord in goodnesse and seeke him in simplicity of heart Alas who shall live as one before us hath sayd to see these things performed by our Countrymen yea if perhaps they may be any where accomplished Because he is found of those who doe not tempt him he appeareth truely to them who have faith in him For these men without respect doe tempt God whose Commandements with stubburne despight they contemne neither yet doe they keepe to him their faith unto whose Oracles be they pleasing or somewhat severe they turne their backes and not their faces For perverse thoughts doe separate from God and this in the Tyrants of our time very plainely appeareth But why doth our meannesse intermeddle in this so manifest a determination Let therefore him who is onely true as wee have sayd speake for us the holy Ghost I meane of whom it is now pronounced The holy Ghost verily will avoyde the counterfetting of discipline And againe Because the spirit of God hath filled the globe of the earth And afterwards shewing with an evident judgement the end of the evill and righteous hee saith How is the hope of the wicked as the doune that is puffed away with the wind and as the smoake that with the blast is dispersed and as the slender froth that with a storme is scattered and as the memory of a guest who is a passenger of one day But the just shall live for ever and with God remaineth their reward and their cogitation is with the highest Therefore shall they receive the kingdome of glory and the crowne of beauty from the hand of our Lord. Because with his right hand he will protect them and with his holy arme defend them For very farre unlike in quality are the just and ungodly as our Lord verily hath spoken saying Them who honour me I will honour and who so despise me shall be of no estimation But let us passe over to the rest Hearken saith he all yee Kings and understand ye learne ye Iudges of the bounds of the earth listen with your eares who conteine multitudes in awe and please your selves in the troopes of nations Because power is given unto yee from God and puissance from the highest who will
which I have given unto yâ—e and to your fathers as I have done to Shilo and I will cast yee away from my counâ—enance And againe My children have departed from me and have no abiding and there is not he who any more pitcheth my tent and advanceth my Pavillion because the Pastors have dealt fondlâ— and not sought out our Lord. Wherefore they have not understood and their flocke hath beene dispersed And within some words after What is the matter that my beloved hath in my houses committed many offences shall the holy flesh take away thy malitiousnesse from thee wherein thou hast gloried our Lord hath tearmed thy noone a plentifull faire fruitfull goodly olive at the voyce of the speech a mighty fire hath beene inflamed in her and her Orchards have beene quite consumed therewith And againe Come ye to me and be ye gathered together all ye beasts of the earth make ye haste to devoure Many Pastours have throwne downe my vine they have trampled my part under foote they have given over my portion which was well worthy to be desired into a desart of solitarinesse And againe he speaketh Thus saith our Lord unto this people which have loved to moove their feete and not rested nor yet pleased our Lord now shall he remember their iniquities and visite their offences Prophets say unto them ye shall not see the sword and there shall no famine be among ye but our Lord shall give true peace unto ye in this place And our Lord hath said unto me The Prophets doe falsly foretell in my name I have not sent them neither yet laid my Commandement on them they prophesie unto ye a lying vision and divination together with deceitfulnesse and the seducement of their owne hearts And therefore thus saith our Lord in sword and famine shall those Prophets be consumed and the people to whom they have prophesied shall by meanes of the famine and sword be cast out in the waies of Ierusalem and there shall be none to bury them And moreover Wâ—e be to the â—astours who desâ—roy and rent in peeces the flocâ—e of my pasture saith our Lord. Thus therefore saith our Lord God of Israel unto the Pastours who guide my people ye have dispersed my flocke and cast them forth and not visited them Behold I will visite upon ye the malice of your endeavours saith our Lord. For the Prophet and the Priest are both defiled and in my house have I found their evill saith our Lord and therefore shall their way be as a slippery place in the darke for they shall be thrust forward and fall downe together therein for I will bring evils upon them the yeare of their visitation saith our Lord. And in the Prophets of Samaria I have seene foolishnesse and they did prophesie in Baal and deceived my people of Israel and in the Prophets of Ierusalem have I seene the like resemblance adultery and the way of lying and they have comforted the hands of the vildest offendors that every man may not be converted from his malice they have beene all made to me as Sodome and the inhabitants thereof as those of Gomorrha Thus therefore saith our Lord to the Prophets Behold I will give them wormewood for their food and gall for their drinke For there hath passed from the Prophet of Ierusalem pollution over the whole earth Thus saith our Lord of hosts listen not unto the words of Prophets who prophesie unto ye and deceive ye for they speake the vision of their owne heart and not from the mouth of our Lord. For they say unto these who doe blaspheme me our Lord hath spoken peace shall be unto ye and to all that walke in the wickednesse of their owne hearts they have said Evil shal not fall upon them For who was present in the counsell of our Lord and hath seene and heard his speech who hath considered of his word and hearkened thereunto Behold the whirlewinde of the indignation of our Lord passeth out and a tempest breaking forth shall fall upon the heads of the wicked the fury of our Lord shall not returne untill the time that he worketh and untill he fulfilleth the cogitation of his heart In the last daies of all shal ye understand his counsell And little also doâ— ye conceive and put in execution that which the holy Prophet Ioel hath likewise spoken in admonishment of sloathfull Priests and Lamentation of the Peoples dammage for their iniquities saying Awake ye who are drunke from your wine and weepe and bewaile ye all who have drunke wine even to drunkennesse because joy and delight are taken away from your mouthes Mourne yee Priests who serve the Altar because the fields have beene made miserable Let the earth mourne because corne hath become miserable and wine beene dryed up oyle diminished and husbandmen withered away Lament ye possessions in regard of Wheate and Barly because the vintage hath perished out of the field the vine withered up the figges diminished the pomegranates and palme and apple and all trees of the field are withered away in respect that the children of men have confounded their joy All which things are spiritually to be understood by you that your soules may not wither away with so pestilent a famine for want of the word of God And againe Weepe out yee Priests who serve our Lord saying Spare O Lord thy People and give not over thine inheritance unto reproch and let not Natioâ—s hold dominion over them that Gentiles may not say Where is their God And yet ye yeeld not your eares unto these sayings but admit of all matters by which the indignation of the fury of God is more vehemently inflamed With diligence also attend ye what holy O see the Prophet hath spoken unto Priests of your behavior Heare these words O yee Priests and let the house of Israel together with the Kings house marke them fastâ—n ye them in your eares for that unto ye appertaineth judgement because yee are made an intangling snare to the espying watch and as a piched nâ—t more and worse then the toyle which the followers of hunting have framed To ye also may this kinde of alienation from our Lord be meant by the Prophet Amos saying I have hated and rejected your festivall daies and I will not receive the savour in your solemne assemblies because albeit ye offer our burnt sacrifices and hosts I will not accept them and I will not cast mine eye on the vowes of your declaration Take away from me the sound of your songs and the Psalme of your Organs I will not heare For why the famine of the Evangelicall meate consuming in your abundance of victuals the very bowels of your soules rageth violently within ye according as the aforesaid Prophet hath foretold saying Behold the daies shal come saith our Lord and I will send out a famine upon the earth not the famine of bread nor the thirst of water
people which words likewise as I heare yee your selves are not ashamed to pronounce full often in publicke Vpon the chaire of Moses have Scribes and Pharisees sate observe ye therefore and accomplish all whatsoever they shall speake unto ye but doe ye not according unto their workes For they doe but speake and they of themselves doe nothing It is truely unto Priests a dangerous and superfluous doctrine which is overclouded with sinfull actions Woe be unto ye Hypocrites who shut up the Kingdome of Heaven before men your selves truely enter not in neither yet doe yee suffer those that are entring to passe in For yee shall with horrible paines bee tormented not onely in respect of the great offences of your wickednesse which ye doe heape up for punishment in the world to come but also in regard of those who dayly perish through your bad example whose blood in the day of judgement shall be required at your hands Yeeld ye in like sort diligent attention unto the misery which the Parable setteth before your eyes that is spoken of the servant who saith in his heart my Lord maketh delay in his comming and upon this occasion perchance hath begunne to strike his fellow servants eating and quaffing with drunkards The Lord of the same servant therefore saith hee will come on a day when hee doth not expect him and in an houre whereof hee is ignorant and will divide him from holy Priests undoutedly and will place his portion with hypocrites with them certainely who under the pretence of Priesthood doe shadow much iniquity affirming that there shall bee weeping and gnashing of teeth Which sorrow in this present life neither for the daily ruines of the children of our holy Mother the Church nor yet for the desire of the Kingdome of Heaven they have often sustained But let us see what Paul the true Schollar of Christ and Master of the Gentiles who is a mirrour of every ecclesiasticall Doctor Even as I saith he am the Disciple of Christ speaketh about a worke of such importance in his first Epistle on this wise Because when they have knowne God they have not magnified him as God or given thankes unto him but vanished in their owne cogitations and their foolâ—sh heart is blinded affirming themselves to be wise they are made fooles Although this seemeth to be spoken unto the Gentiles looke into it notwithstanding because it may conveniently be applyed unto the Priests and people of this age And after a few words Who have changed saith he the truth of God into lying and have reverenced and served the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed for ever therefore hath God given them over unto the passions of ignominy And againe And even as they have not approved themselves to have God in their knowledge so God hath yeelded them up unto a reprobate sence that they may doe such things as are not convenient being replenished with all iniquitie malice uncleannesse of life fornication covetousnesse naughtinesse full of envie murther of the soules truely of the people contention deceipt wickednesse backbiters detracters hatefull to God spitefull proud puffed up devisers of mischiefes disobedient to their Parents senselesse disordered without mercy without affection who when they had knowne the justice of God understood not that they who commit such things are worthy of death And now what one of the afore-cited sort hath indeede beene voyde of all these And if he were yet perhaps hee may be caught in the sense of the ensuing sentence wherein hee saith Not onely who doe these things but also who consent unto the doers to wit that none of them truely are free from this wickednesse And afterwards But thou according to thy hardinesse and impenitent heart dost lay up for thy selfe wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the just judgement of God who will yeeld unto every one according unto his workes And againe For there is no acceptation of persons with God For whosoever have offended without the Law shall also without the law perish whosoever have offended in the Law shall by the Law be judged For not the hearers of the Law shall with God be accounted just but the dooers of the law shall be justified How severe a sentence shall they therfore sustaine who not onely leave undone what they ought to accomplish and forbeare not what they are forbidden but also flie as an hideous snake the very hearing of the word of God though lightly sounding in their eares But let us passe over to that which followeth to this effect What shall wee therefore say shall we continue still in our sinne that grace may abound God forbid for we who are dead in sinne how shall wee againe live in the same And somewhat afterwards Who shall separate us saith hee from the charity of Christ tribulation or distresse or persecution or famine or nakednesse or danger or the sword What one I pray you of all you shall with such an affection be possessed in the inward secret of his heart since ye doe not only labor for atchieving of piety but also indure many things for the working of impiety and offending of Christ Or who hath respected this that followeth The night hath passed and the day appreached Let us therefore cast of the workes of darkenesse and put on the armour of light even as in the day let us honestly walke not in banqueting and drunkennes not in couches and wantonnesse not in contention and emulation but put ye on our Lord Iesus Christ and make no care to bestow your flesh in concupiscences And againe in the first Epistle to the Corinthians hee saith As a wise workemaster have I laid the foundation another buildeth thereupon but let every man consider how he buildeth thereon For no man can lay any other foundation besides that which is Christ Iesus But if any man buildeth upon this gold and silver pretious stones hay wood stubble every ones worke shall be manifests for the day of our Lord shall declare the same because it shall be revealed in fire and the fire shall prove what every mans work is If any mans worke shall remaine all by the fire shall be adjudged Who so shall build thereupon shall receive reward If any mans worke shall burne he shall suffer detriment Know ye not that ye are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God inhabiteth in ye but if any man violate the Temple of God God will destroy him And againe If any man seemeth among yee to be wise in this world let him be made a foole that he may become wise For the wisedome of this world is foolishnesse with God And within some words afterwards Your glorying is not good Know ye not that a little leaven corrupteth the whole masse Purge ye therefore the old leaven that ye may be a new sprinkling How shall the old leaven which
confession of Christ and condemned most miserable Iudas for his thirsting covetousnes I praysed Stephen for his glorious crowne of martyrdome but reproved Nicholas as miserable in respect of the shamefull marke of his uncleane heresie I did assuredly reade They had all things in common but likewise Why have yee conspired to tempt the spirit of God I did on the other side behold to how great a security men of our age were growne as if there rested no cause at all of feare Wherefore considering with some whatsoever compunction of heart full often in my amazed minde these things and very many other which because of briefenesse I have determined to omit If quoth I our Lord hath not spared his people so peculiarly chosen out of all Nations his royall race and his solely Country to whom hee said My first begotten Israel If not her Priests Prophets Kings throughout the revolution of so many Ages if not his servant and Apostle and members of his primitive Church when they wandred from the right way what will he then doe against such deformity of this of our present time on the which besides the unspeakable and monstrous sinnes that it hath in common with all the wicked of the world have also fallen that naturall quality as it were and irrecoverable and inevitable burden of folly and inconstrncy What I speake to my selfe hast thou oh wretch so great a care cast upon thee as though thou wert some eminent and most high Doctor that thou shouldest withstand the bâ—llowes of so violent a streame and keepe the charge committed into thy hands against this race of invetrate vices which throughout the space of so many yeeres have without interruption beene spread and continued Hold therefore thy peace for otherwise thou wilt bid the foote see and the hand speake Behold and plainely confesse Britaine hath rulers she hath watchmen Why dost thou goe about thus trifling to mutter Shee hath I say shee hath if not more not lesse then a just number but because overpressed with so great a weight they bend under their burthens they have not left them a time of breathing My sences therefore as debtors joyned in one obligation with these and such like objections yea rather more biting mutually forebusted themselues they as I have said no small time having read there is a time of speaking and a time of holding ones peace as it were in a cumbersome narrow passage of feare with wrastling strived the Creditor notwithstanding at the last prevailed and gained the victory saying If thou art not of that audacity that among the prosetical creatures who in regard of the gift of reason have the next roome to the Angelicall messengers thou dost not feare to bee marked with the comely note of golden liberty refuse not yet at least the affection of the understanding Asse to that dâ—y dumbe but then inspired with the Spirit of God denying to carry the mitred Magician who went to accurse the people of God and dashing in the streights of the vineyards his loosned foote albeit shee therefore did feele his most cruell blowes to whom although unthankfull and furiously â—in the meane time beating against all right and reason her innocent sides she did as it were with a finger shew the heavenly Angell threatning with a naked sword and crossing his course whom he blinded with dull folly did not behold Wherefore in the zeale of the house of our Lord and of his holy law be it that I am constrained either by the accounts of mine owne conâ—â—its or the religious prayers of my brethren I doe now satisfie the debt long challenged at my hands worthlesse truely yet faithfull as I suppose and friendly to all renouned Souldiers of Christs band but grievous and in supportable to foolish Apostataes of whom the first unlesse I am deceived will with teares perchance that flow from the charity of God receive the same and the last with sorrow but such as is outwrested from the indignation and pusillanimity of an attainted conscience But before the performance of my promise I will God willing in few words endeavor to discourse 1. Of our Countries situation 2. Of her disobedience 3. Subjection 4. And rebellion 5. Of her second subjection and dreadfull slavery 6. Of her Religion 7. Persecution 8. Holy Martyrs 9. And divers heresies 10. Of her Tyrants 11. Of two her wastfull adverse Nations 12. Of her defence 13. And also of her spoile 14. Of the second revenge taken on her enemies 15. then of her third confusion 16. Of her famine 17. Of the Letters writen to Agitius 18. Of her victory 19. Of her villanies 20. Of the suddaine rumour of her approaching enemies 21. Of the faminous plague 22. Of her Counsell 23. Of a foe farre more cruell then the first 24. Of the overthrow of the Cities 25. Of the remnants of our Countrimen 26. And of the last victory obtained by our Nation which was through the goodnesse of God bestowed on us in our time THE EPISTLE of GILDAS THE Iland of Britaine placed in the ballance of the divine poising hand as they call it which weigheth the whole world almost the uttermost bound of this earth towards the South and West extending it selfe from the South West out towards the North Pole eight hundred miles in length and containing two hundred in bredth besides the farre outstretched Forelands of sundry Promontaries embraced by the embowed bosomes of the Ocean Sea with whose most spacious and on every side saving only the Southerne streights by which we saile to Gallebelgicke unpassable enclosure as I may call it shee is strongly defended enriched with the mouths of 2. noble Floods Thames and Severne as it were two armes by which outlandish commodities have in times past beene transported into the same besides other Rivers of lesser account strengthned with eight and twenty Cities and some other Castles not meanely fenced with Fortresses of Wals embattelled Towers Gates buildings whose roofes being raised aloft with threatning hugenesse were mightily in their aspiring toppes compacted adorned with her large spreading fields pleasant seated hils even framed for good husbandry which overmastereth the ground and mountaines most convenient for the changeable Pastures of cattell whose flowers of sundry collours troden by the feete of men imprint no unseemely picture on the same as a spouse of choice decked with divers jewels watered with cleere Fountaines and sundry Brookes beating on the snow white sands together with silver streames sliding forth with soft sounding noise and leaving a pledge of sweet savours on their bordering bankes and lakes gushing out abundantly in cold running Rivers Secondly this Land with a stiffe proud necke and stubborne minde from the time since shee was first inhabited hath ungratefully rebelled sometimes against God other whiles against her owne Country-men and at other seasons also against outlandish Kings and their Subjects For what matter of fowler deformity or what greater
as Souldiers and such as would undertake mighty dangers as they pretended for their good hosts and entertainers which being a long time largely bestowed stopped as they say the dogges mouth Yet afterwards notwithstanding they cavill that they had not sufficient victuals and habitations appointed them forging thereupon quarrels of set purpose and if they found not greater abundance of bounty they protest they would breake the league and sacke the whole Iland and without delay they make good their threats with following effects XXIIII For the fire of just revenge being in regard of our former offences now inkindled was increased and continued from sea to sea as fed by the hand of the sacrilegious Easterlings which spoyling and consuming al neere adjoyning Cities and Countries when it was once inflamed ceased not till burning almost the whole Westerne face of the Iland it dipped histerrible red scorching tongue into the Ocean Sea Wherefore in these assaults not unlike those which the Assyrians sometimes attempted against Iudah the same was also Historically performed in us which the Prophet lamenting said They have burned with fire thy Sanctuary they have pollat d in earth the Tabernacle of thy name And againe O God the Gentiles have come into thine inheritance they have defiled thy holy Temple In so much as all the townes with the often beatings of the Rammes and all the Townes-men Pastours Priests and People with naked swords that glittred on all sides and crackling flames were together whirled to the ground lamentable and dreadfull to behold there lay the toppes of lofty Towres now tumbled downe the stones of high wals the holy Altars and rented peeces of carcaces covered with distilling congealed purple blood confusedly in the midst of the streetes heaped in one as if they were to be crushed together in a certaine horrible winepresse and now besides the ruines of houses there remained no grave at all for the dead but the bellies of beasts and birds be it spoken with reverence to the sacred soules if many yet were to be found which at that time by the blessed Angels were assumpted to the high Heavens for that vine which was sometimes so good had as then so degenerated into bitternes that according unto the Prophet like as when the winemakers or harvest men have done there was hardly a grape or eare of corne to be seene XXV Some therefore of the miserable remnants being taken in the mountaines were in heapes murthered others constrained by famine came and yeelded themselves to be eternall slaves to their foes if they were not instantly neverthelesse slaine which truely was the greatest favour that could be offered them some others passed over beyond the Seas singing or rather sighing with wonderfull lamentation under the shadowes of their sailes in place of the Marriners sound this heavy sentence Thou hast given us as Sheepe to be slaughtered and among the Gentiles hast thou dispersed us Others committing the safegard of their lives in continuall doubtfull dread to the mounting hils to the fortresses of deepe downefals to most thicke wooddy forrests and to the Rockes of the Seas remained albeit with trembling hearts yet still in their Country But in the meane while an opportunity happening when as these most cruell robbers were returned home the poore remnants of our Nation to whom do flock from divers places round about our most miserable Countrymen as fast as Bees to their hives for feare of an insueing storme being strengthened by God and with all their hearts calling upon him and lading as they say the Heavens with innumerable vowes that they might not be now brought to utter distruction take armes under the conduction of Ambrose the Aurelian a modest man who of all the Romane Nation was then alone in the confusion of so great a tempestuous season by chance left alive his parents who for their honour were adorned with purple being slain in the same broyles although his progeny in these our dayes do foulely degenerate from the worthinesse of their Ancestors and provoke to battaile their cruell Conquerors and so by the goodnesse of our Lord obtaine the victory XXVI After this sometimes our Countrymen sometimes the Enemy won the field to the end our Lord might in this Land try after his accustomed manner these his now Israelites whether they loved him or not untill the yeare of the siege of the mountaine of Bath and of the last almost though not the least slaughter of our villanous foes which was as I am sure forty foure yeares and one moneth after the landing of the Saxons and also the time of my Nativity And yet neither to this day truely are the Cities of our Country as before inhabited but being forsaken and overthrowne doe hitherto lye desolate our forraigne warres ceasing but civill remaining For as well the remembrance of so desperate a distruction of the Iland as also that of the unexpected recovery of the same remained in the minds of them who were eye witnesses of the wonderfull events of both and in regard thereof Kings publicke Magistrates and private persons with Priests and Clergy men did all and every of them live orderly according to their severall vocations But when these departed out of this world and a new off-spring succeeded that was ignorant of this troublesome time and had onely experience of the present prosperity all the lawes of truth and justice were so shaken and turned upside downe that I will not say one step but not so much truely as one little memory of these vertues hardly rested to be seene in the fore-recited orders of men a few yea a very few excepted who in respect of the losse of so great a multitude which rusheth daily head-long downe to hell are accounted so small a number that our reverent mother the Church doth in a sort scarce behold them reposing in her bosome whom shee doth onely accept for her true children whose worthy lives being admirable to all men and of God beloved by the sacred prayers of whom as by certaine pillars and most profitable supporters our infirmity is sustained up that it may not utterly fall downe to the ground I would have no one suppose I goe once about to reprove if any way enforced by the encreasing heapes of offences I shall more liberally yea more lamentably not so much declare as bewaile the wickednesse of those who are become servants not onely to their bellies but also to the devill rather then to Christ who is our blessed God world without end For why shall their Countrymen conceale what forraigne Nations round about doe as now not onely know but also cast in their teethes Britaine hath Kings but Tyrants shee hath Iudges but wicked often spoyling and confounding but the Innocent defending and protecting but the faulty and Felons having very many wives but queanes and adulteresses sundry times swearing but forswearing vowing and almost instantly falsifying the same making warres but civill and
life in offending God because as yet an acceptable time and day of Salvation shineth on the faces of the repentant wherein thou mayest worke well that thy Flight may not be made in the Winter or Sabbath Turne away according to the Psalmist from evill and doe good seeke forth blessed peace and follow the same because the eyes of our Lord will bee cast upon thee when thou dost righteousnsse and his eares will bee then open unto thy prayers and he will not destroy thy memory out of the land of the living thou shalt cry and he will heare thee and out of thy tribulations deliver thee for Christ doth never despise an heart that is contrite and humbled with his feare Otherwise the worme of thy torture shall not dye and the fire of thy burning be never extinguished And why art thou tumbled in the old filth of thy naughtinesse yea since the very first spring of thy tender youth thou Beare thou rider and ruler of many and guider of the chariot which is the Beares bearour thou contemner of God and depressour of his lot Cuneglasse and by interpretation in Latine a yellow or golden butcher why dost thou raise so great a warre as well against men as also against God himselfe against men yea thy Country-men with thine especiall powers against God with thine infinite offences Why besides other thine innumerable ruines having throwne out of doores thine owne wife dost thou with the lustfull love or rather blockish dulnesse of thy minde against the Apostles expresse prohibition denouncing that no adulterers can be partakers of the Kingdome of heaven esteeme according to the Poet as the exceeding dainties of the celestiall nimphes her detestable sister who had vowed unto God the everlasting continency of her widdowhood Why dost thou provoke with thine often injuries the lamentations and sighes of Saints by thy meanes corporally afflicted which will in time to come like a terrible Lionesse breake thy bones in peeces Desist I beseech thee as the Prophet saith from wrath and leave of thy deadly and that which will be thy selfe tormenting fury which thou breathest out against heaven and earth which is against God and his flocke make them rather with altered mindes to pray for thee who possesse a power of binding over this world when in this world they binde the guilty and of loosing when they loose the penitent Be not as the Apostle saith proudly wise nor hope thou in the uncertainty of riches but in God who giveth thee many things abundantly and by the amendment of thy manners purchase unto thy selfe a good foundation for hereafter and obtaine a â—rue and truely everlasting life and not a transitory one Otherwise thou shalt know and see yea in this very world how bad and bitter a thing it is for thee to leave thy Lord God and not have his feare before thine eyes and in the next how thou shalt be burned in the foule incompassing flames of endlesse fire nor yet by any manner of meanes ever dye For why the soules of the sinfull are as well eternall in perpetuall fire as the soules of the just in perpetuall joy and gladnesse And likewise O Dragon of the Island O depriver of many Tyrants as well from their kingdomes as also from their lives and among the fore-recited the last in my writing but the first in thine owne mischiefe exceeding many in power and also in malice more liberall in giving more licentious in sinning boystrous in armes but stronger in working thine owne foules destruction Maglocune to what end art thou as one Soken in the wine pressed out of the Sodomiticall grape foolishly moyled in that so ugly old deformity of thine offences Why dost thou wilfully heape in bands upon thy kingly shoulders such huge weights of sinnes not unlike as I may say unto the unsupportable burdens of great mountaines Why dost thou not shew thy selfe unto the King of all kings who hath made thee as well in kingdome as also in stature of body higher than almost all the Dukes of Britaine besides better likewise in vertues than the rest but on the contrary side for thy sinnes much worser The certaine affirmation of which sinnes do thou a while with an indifferent eare heare and listen unto wherein I will not touch any whitte thy domesticall and higher offences if yet any of them are light but onely report those open ones which are spread farre and broade in the knowledge of all men Didst not thou in the very first entrance of thy youth most terribly oppresse through sword speare and fire the King thine uncle together with his most couragious bands of Souldiers whose countenances in battell were not much unlike unto young Lions Little esteeming those words of the Prophet that say Men of blood and deceite shall not accomplish the middle part of their daies and were not the sequell of thy sinnes such as insued yet what revenge shouldest thou expect at the hands of the just Iudge for this onely offence He also saying by his Prophet Woe be to thee who spoylest and shalt not thou thy selfe be spoiled and thou who killest shall not thy selfe be killed and when thou shalt make an end of thy spoyling then shall thy selfe ruinate But when the conceit of this usurping raigne had succeeded according to thine owne hearts wishes didst not thou being taken with a desire of returning to the right way day and night as then perhaps through the deepe remorse of thy sinnefull conscience chaw first of all the cudde of thy many meditations about the service of God and the observance of the rules of Monkes and afterwards make it knowne to the whole world and for ever vow thy selfe before Almighty God and in the sight of Angels and men breaking as it was thought those most large nets wherein fat buls of thy sort are wont to be headlong intangled and overcomming all temptations of thirst of Kingdomes Gold and Silver and which is greatest that of thine owne will and wert professed a Monk without any thought as thy selfe didst say of violating the same and didst not thou being now become of a crow a dove like the same bird when shee sheareth swiftly with her singing wings the empty aire and avoideth with her often winding turnes the fell talons of the ravenous hawke safely recover thy selfe to the cels and reposes of Saints as thy most trusty refuge Oh how great a joy should it have beene to our Mother the Church if the enemy of all mankind had not lamentably pulled thee in a sort out of her bosome Oh how ample fewell of Heavenly hope would have been inkindled in the hearts of desperate sinners hadst thou remained in thy blessed estate Oh what and how great rewards in the Kingdome of Christ would have beene laid up for thy soule against the day of judgement if that crasty wolfe had not caught thee who of a wolfe
Heare now likewise what fell upon the two sacrilegious Kings of Israel even such as ours are Ieroboam and Baasa unto whom the sentence and doome of our Lord is by the Prophet in this sort directed For what cause have I exalted thee a Prince over Israel in regard they have provoked me in their vanities Behold I will stirre up after Baasha and after his house and I will give over his house as the house of Ieroboam the Sonne of Nebat whoso of his blood shall dye in the City the dogges shall eate him and the dead carkasse of his in the field shall the foules of the aire devoure What doth hee also threaten unto that wicked King of Israel a fellow souldier of the former band by whose collusion and his wives deceit innocent Naboth was for his Fathers Vineyard oppressed talking by the holy mouth of that Elias yea the selfe-same mouth that was instructed with the fiery speech of our Lord. Thou hast killed moreover likewise thou hast possessed and after these thou wilt adde yet more Thus saith our Lord in this very place wherein the dogges have licked the blood of Naboth they shall lick up thy blood also Which that it fell out afterwards in that very sort we have certaine experience But least perchance according as it befell unto the aforesaid Achab The lying spirit which pronounceth vaine things in the mouthes of your Prophets may seduce ye harken ye to the speeches of the Prophet Michaias Behold God hath suffered the spirit of lying to possâ—sse the mouths of all thy Prophets that doe here remaine and our Lord hath pronounced evil against thee For even now it is certaine there are some Doctors replenished with a contrary spirit preaching and affirming rather naughty pleasure then truth whose words are softer then oyle and the selfe same are darts who say peace peace and there shall be no peace to them who persevere in sinnes as the Prophet in another place on this wise speaketh It is not for the wicked to rejoyce saith our Lord. Azarias also the sonne of Obed did speake unto Asa who returned from the slaughter of the Army of ten hundred thousand Ethiopians saying Our Lord is with yee while ye remaine with him and if yee will seeke him out he will be found by ye and if ye will leave him he will forsake ye For if Iehoshaphat but yeelding assistance unto a wicked King was thus reproved by the Prophet Iehu the sonne of Anany saying If thou givest aid to a sinner or lovest them whom our Lord doth hate the wrath of God doth therefore hang over thee what shall become of them who are fettered in the proper snares of their owne offences whose sinnes but not whose souleÌ„s we must of necessity hate if wee will fight in the Army of our Lord the Psalmist saying Hate ye evill who love our Lord. What was said to the sonne of the afore reÌ„cited Iosaphat named Ioram that most horrible murtherer who being himselfe a bastard slew his noble brethren that hee might possesse the throne in their place by the Prophet Elias the wagon and wagoner of Israel Thus speaketh quoth he the Lord God of thy Father David Because thou hast not walked in the way of thy Father Iosaphat and in the waies of Asa the King of Iudah but hast made thy passage through the wayes of the Kings of Israel and in unsensiblenesse according to the behaviour of the house of Achab and hast moreover killed thy brethren the sonnes of Iosaphat men farre better then thy selfe behold our Lord shall strike thee and thy children with a mighty plague And a little afterwards And thou shalt be marveilous sicke of a disease of thy belly until the entrailes of thy belly shal together with the malady it selfe from day to day passe forth away from thee And listen also what the Prophet Zachary the sonne of Ioiades menaced to Ioas the King of Israel leaving our Lord even as ye now do who arising spoke in this manner to the People Thus saith our Lord why doe ye transgresse the Commandements of our Lord and doe not prosper Because ye have left our Lord he will also leave you What shall I mention of Esay the first and chiefe of the Prophets who beginneth the proeme and enterance of his Prophesie or rather vision saying in this sort Heare O yee Heavens and O thou earth conceive in thine eares because our Lord hath spoken I have nourished children and exalted them but they themselves have despised me The Oxe hath knowne his owner and the Asse the manger of his Master but Israel hath not knowne me and my people hath not understood And after a few words framing threatnings answerable to so great a folly he saith The Daughter of Sion shall be uterly left as a shelter in the Vineyard and as a hovell in the Cowcumber Garden and a City that is sacked And especial-conventing and accusing the Princes he saith Heare the word of our Lord O yee Princes of Sodome perceive ye the Law of our Lord O yee people of Gomorrah Where truely it is to be noted that unjust Kings are tearmed the Princes of Sodome for our Lord forbidding sacrifices and gifts to be offered unto him by such where we with greedy covetousnesse receive those offerings which in all Nations are displeasing unto God and to our owne destruction suffer them not to be bestowed on the poore and needy speaketh to them who laden with abundance of riches are likewise given to the filth of offences on this wise Offer not any more your sacrifice in vaine your incense is abomination unto me And againe he denounceth And when yee shall stretch out your hands I will turne away mine eyes from ye and when ye shall multiply your prayers I will not heare And hee declareth wherfore he doth this saying Your hands are full of blood And likewise showing how he may be appeased he saith Be ye washed be ye cleane take away the evill of your thoughts from mine eyes leave of to deale perversly learne to doe well seeke for the judgement succour the oppressed doe justice to the pupill or Orphan And then assuming as it were the part of a reconciling appeaser he adding saith If your sinnes shall be as scarlet they shall be made white as Snow if they shal be as red as the little worme they shall be as white as wooll If ye shall be willing and will heare me ye shall feede on the good things of the Land but if ye wil not and shall provoke mee unto wrath the sword shall devoure ye Receive ye heare the true and publike avoucher witnessing without any falshood or flattery the reward of your good and evill not like the soothing humble lippes of your Parasites whispering poysons into your eares And also directing his sentence against ravenous judges he saith thus
confusion are in their wayes and the way of peace they have not knowne and in their steps there is no judgement their pathes are made crooked unto them every one who treadeth in them is ignorant of peace in this respect is judgment removed farre off from yee and justice taketh no hold of yee And after a few words And judgement hath been turned back and justice hath stoode a farre off because truth hath fallen down in the streets equitie could not enter in and truth is turned to oblivion and who so hath departed from evill hath layne open to spoyle And our Lord hath seene and it was not pleasing in his eyes because there is not judgement And thus farre may it suffice among many to recite a few sentences out of the Prophet Esay Now truely doe ye a while with diligent eares hearken unto him who was foreknowne before he was formed in the belly sanctified before hee came forth of the wombe and appointed a Prophet in all Nations Ieremiah I meane what he hath pronounced of foolish people and cruell Kings beginning moderatly his Prophesie in this manner And the Word of God was spoken unto me saying Goe and cry in the eares of Ierusalem and thou shalt pronounce Heare the Word of our Lord thou house of Iacob and all ye kindreds of the house of Israel Thus saith our Lord What iniquity have your fathers found in me who have beene farre removed from me and walked after vanitie and are become vaine and have not sayd Where is he who made us ascend out of the Land of Egypt And after a few words From the beginning of thine Age thou hast broken my yoake violated my bands and sayd I will not serve I have planted thee my chosen vine all true seede How art thou therefore converted into naughtinesse O strange Vine If thou shalt wash thee with Niter and multiply unto thee the hearbe Borith thou art spotted in my sight with thine iniquity saith our Lord. And afterwards Why will yee contend with me in judgement Ye have all forsaken me saith our Lord in vaine have I corrected your children they have not received discipline Heare ye the Word of our Lord. Am I made a solitarinesse unto Israel or a lateward Land why therefore hath my people sayd we have departed we will come no more unto thee What doth the Virgin forget her ornament or the Spouse her gorget my people truely hath forgotten mee innumerable dayes Because my people are foolish they have not knowne me they are unwise and mad children They are wise to doe evill but to doe well they have beene ignorant Then the Prophet speaketh in his owne person saying O Lord thine eyes doe respect faith thou hast stroken them and they have not sorrowed thou hast broken them and they have refused to receive discipline they have made their faces harder than the rocke and will not returne And also our Lord Declare ye this same to the house of Iacob and make it to bee heard in Iuda saying Heare ye foolish people who have no heart who having eyes see not and eares heare not Ye will therefore not dread me saith our Lord and yee will not conceive griefe from my countenance who have placed the sand the bound of the sea an eternall commandement which she shall not breake and her waves shall be moved and they cannot and her sourges shall swell and yet not passe the same But to this people is framed an incredulous and an exasperating heart they have retired and gone their wayes and not in their heart sayd Let us feare our Lord God And againe Because there are found among my people wicked ones framing wiles to intangell as if they were foulers setting snares and ginnes to catch men As a net that is full of birds so are their houses fullfilled with deceites Therefore are they magnified and enriched they are become grosse and fat and have neglected my speeches most vildly the orphans cause they have not sentenced and the justice of the poore they have not adjudged What shall I not visit over these saith our Lord or shall not my soule be revenged upon such a nation But God forbid that ever shold befall unto you which followeth Thou shalt speake all these words unto them and they shall not heare thee and thou shalt call them and they shall not answer thee and thou shalt say unto them This is the Nation that hath not heard the voice of their Lord God nor yet received discipline faith hath perished and been taken away from out their mouth And after some few speeches Whoso falleth doth he not arise againe and who so is turned away shall he not returne againe why therefore is this people in Ierusalem with a contentious aversion alienated they have apprehended lying and they will not come backe againe I have beene attentive and harkened diligently no man speaketh what is good There is none who doth pennance for his sinne saying What have I done All are turned unto their owne course like a horse passing with violence into battle The Kite in the sky hath knowne her time the Turtle and Swallow and Storke have kept the season of their comming but my people hath not known the judgement of God And the Prophet being strucken into feare with so wonderfull a blindnesse and unspeakeable drunkennesse of the Sacrilegious and lamenting them who did not lament themselves even according to the present behaviour of these our unfortunate Tyrants he beseecheth of our Lord that an augmentation of teares might be granted him speaking in this manner I am contrite upon the contrition of the daughter of my people astonishment hath possessed me is there no gumme in Galaad or is there no Physition there Why therefore is not the wound of the daughter of my people healed Who shall give water unto my head and to mine eyes a fountaine of teares and I will day and night bewaile the slaughtered of my people who will grant me in the wildernes the Inne of passengers and I will utterly leave my people and depart from them because they are all of them adulterers a roote of offenders they have bent their tong as the bow of lying and not of truth they are comforted in the earth because they have passed from evil into evill not known me saith our Lord. And againe And our Lord hath said Because they have forsaken my law which I have given them and not heard my voice nor walked thereafter and have wandred away after the wickednesse of their owne heart in that respect our Lord of hostes the God of Israel saith these words Behold I will feede this people with wormewood give them to drinke the water of gall And a little after speaking in the person of God See therefore thou doe not pray for this people nor assume thou for them praise and prayer because I will not heare in the
time of their outcry unto me and of their affliction What then shall now our miserable Governours doe these few who found out the narrow way and left the large were from God forbiden to powre out their prayers for such as persevered in their evils so highly provoked his wrath against whom on the contrary side when they returned with all their hearts unto God his divine Majesty being unwilling that the soule of man should perish but calling backe the castaway that he should not utterly be destroyed the same Prophets could not procure the Heavenly revenge because not Ionas when hee desired the like most earnestly against the Ninevites could obtaine it But in the meane while omitting our owne words let us rather heare what the propheticall trumpet soundeth in our eares speaking thus If thou shalt say in thy heart why have these evils befalne For the multitude of thine iniquities If the Ethiopian can change his skin or the Parde his sundry spots ye may doe also well when ye have learned evill supposed ever because ye will not And afterwards These words doth our Lord say to this people who have loved to move their feete and have not rested and not pleased our Lord now shall he remember their iniquities and visit their offences and our Lord said unto me Pray thou not for this people to worke their good when they shall fast I will not heare their prayers â—nd if they offer burnt sacrifices and oblations I will not â—eceive them And againe And our Lord said unto me â—f Moses and Samuel shall stand before me my soule is not bent to this people cast them out away from my face and let them depart And after a few words Who shall have pitty on thee Ierusalem or who shall be sorrowfull for thee or who shall goe to pray for thy peace Thou hast left me saith our Lord and gone away backeward and I will stretch forth my hand over thee and kill thee And somewhat after Thus saith our Lord Behold I doe imagine a thought against you let every man returne from his evill course and direct ye streight your waies and endeavours Who said we despaire we will goe after our owne thoughts and every one of us doe the naughtinesse of his evill heart Thus therefore saith our Lord. Aske the Gentiles who hath heard such horrible matters which the Virgin Israel hath too often committed Shall there faile from the rocke of the field the snow of Libanus or can the waters be drawne dry that gush out colde and flowing because my people hath forgotten me And somewhat also after this propounding unto them an election he speaking saith Thus saith our Lord Doe ye judgement and justice and deliver him who by power is oppressed out of the hand of the malicious accuser and for the stranger and orphan and widdow doe not provoke their sorrow neither yet worke ye unjustly the griefe of others nor shed ye out the innocent blood For if indeed ye shall accomplish this word there shall enter in through the gates of this house Kings of the linage of David sitting upon his throne But if ye will not harken unto these words by my selfe I have sworne saith our Lord that this house shall be turned into a desart And againe for he spoke of a wicked King I live saith our Lord if so be that Iechonias shall be a Ring on my right hand I will plucke him thence away and give him over into the hands of them who seeke his life Moreover holy Abraham cryeth out saying Woe be unto them who build a City in blood and prepare a towne in iniquities saying Are not these things from our Almighty Lord and many people have failed in fire and many Nations have beene diminished And thus complaining hee beginneth his prophesie How long O Lord shall I call and thou wilt not heare shall I cry out unto thee to what end hast thou given mee labours and griefes to behold misery and impiety And on the other side And judgement was sat upon and the Iudge hath taken in regard hereof the Law is rent in peeces and â—udgement is not brought fully to his conclusion because â—he wicked through power â—readeth the just underfoote In this respect hath passed forth perverse judgement And marke yee also what blessed Osee the Prophet speaketh of Princes saying For that they have transgressed my covenant and ordained against my Law and exclaimed out Wee have knowne thee because thou art against Israel they have persecuted good as if it were evill They have raigned to themselves and not by mee they have held a Principality neither yet have they acknowledged me And heare ye likewise the holy Prophet Amos in this sort threatning In three hainous offences of the sons of Iudah and in foure I will not convert them for that they have cast away the Law of our Lord and not kept his Commandements but their vanities have seduced them And I will send fire upon Iudah and it shall eate the foundations of Ierusalem Thus saith our Lord In three grievous sinnes of Israel and in foure I will not convert them for that they have sold the just for money and the poore man for shooes which they tread upon the dust of the earth and with buffets they did beate the heads of the poore and have eschewed the way of the humble And after a few words Seeke our Lord and ye shall live that the house of Ioseph may not shine as fire and the flame devoure it and he shall not be that can extinguish it The house of Israel hath hated him who rebuketh in the gates and abhorred the upright word Which Amos being forbidden that he should not prophesie in Israel without any fawning flattery answering saith I was not a Prophet nor yet the sonne of a Prophet but a Goate herd I was plucking Sicamores and our Lord tooke me from my herd and our Lord said unto me Goe thy way and prophesie against my people of Israel and now heare thou the Word of our Lord For hee directed his speech unto the King Thou sayest doe not Prophesie against Israel and thou shalt not assemble troopes against the house of Iacob For which cause our Lord saith thus Thy wife in the City shall play the harlot and thy sonnes and daughters shall dye by the sword and thy ground be measured by the cord and thou in a polluted land shalt end thy life but for Israel shee shall be led from his owne Country a captive And afterwards Heare therefore these words ye who doe outragiously afflict the poore and practise your mighty power against the needy of the earth who say When shall the moneth passe over that we may purchase and the Sabbaths that wee may open the treasuries And within a few words after Our Lord doth sweare against the pride of Iacob if he shall neglecting forget your
our benefits bestowed upon them become more cruell but I by their wickednesse am the better instructed neither yet am I in this justified Oh when shall come those beasts the causers of my Salvation which are for me prepared when shall they be let out loose at me when shall it be lawfull for my carkas to enjoy them whom I doe most earnestly wish to be eagerly inraged against me and truely â— will incite them to devoure me moreover I will humbly pray least perchance they should dread to touch my body as in some others they have heretofore done yea also if they doubtfully stagger I will offer violence I will enforce my selfe upon them Pardon mee I beseech ye I know what is commodious for me even now I beginne to be the Disciple of Christ let all envy be it either of humane affection or else of spirituall wickednesse surcease that I may diserne to obtaine Christ Iesus let fires let crosses let cruelty of beasts let breaking of bones and renting of limbes with all the paines of the whole body and all the torments devised by the art of the devill be altogether powred out on mee alone so that I may merit to attaine unto Christ Iesus Why do ye behold these things with the sleepy eyes of your soules why do ye hearken unto them with the deafe eares of your sences Shake off I beseech yee the darkesome and blacke mist of the slothfulnesse of your hearts that so ye may see the glorious light of truth and humility A Christian and he not meane but a perfect one a Priest not base but one of the highest a Martyr not ordinary but one of the chiefest saith Now I begin â—o be the Disciple of Christ. And ye like the same Lucifer who was throwne downe out of Heaven are puffed up with words not with power and after a sort doe chaw under the tooth and make pretence in your actions even as the Authour of this your wickednesse hath expressed saying I will mount up into the Heavens and be like unto the highest And againe I have digged and drunk water and dryed up with the steppes of my feete all the rivers of the bankes Where more rightly yee should have imitated him and harkened unto his words who is doubtlesse the most true example of all goodnesse and humility saying by his Prophet I am verily a worm and not a man the reproch of men and the outcast of the people Oh unspeakeable matter that he called himselfe the reproach of men when as he washed quite away the reproaches of the whole world And againe in the Gospel I of my selfe am not able to doe any thing When as he being coeternall with the Father coequall with the Holy Ghost and consubstantiall unto both Created not by the helpe of another but by his owne Almighty power the Heaven and Earth with all their inestimable Ornaments and ye neverthelesse have arrogantly lifted aloft your voyces notwithstanding the Prophet saith Why doth earth and ashes swell in pridâ— But that I may returne unto the purpose which of yee I say like the famous Bishop of the Church of Smerna Policarpus that witnesse of Christ hath courteously entertained as guests at his table those who violently drew him out to be burned and being for the charity which he did beare unto Christ brought to the stake sayd He who gave me grace to endure the torment of the fire will likewise graunt mee without fastning of nayles to suffer constantly the flames And now overpassing in this my discourse mighty armies of Saints I will as yet touch but one for examples sake Basil I meane the Bishop of Caesaria who when hee was thus by the unrighteous Prince threatned that unlesse he would on the next morrow be as the rest defiled in the durty dunghill of the Arrian heresie he was absolutely to be put to death answered as it is reported I truely will be to morrow the same as to day and for thee I wish thou wouldest not change thy determination And againe O would I had some worthy reward to bestow on him that would speedily discharge Basil from the bands of this breathing bellowes What one of ye to daunt the menaces of Tyrants doth inviolably keepe the rule of the Apostolicall speech which in all times and ages when some ever hath beene observed by al holy Priests to suppresse the suggestion of men when they sought to draw them headlong to naughtinesse saying in this manner It behoveth rather to obey God then men Wherfore after our accustomed manner making our refuge unto the mercy of our Lord and to the sentences of his holy Prophets that they on our behalfe may now levell the darts of their Oracles at unperfect Pastors as before at Tyrants so as thereby receiving compunction they may be cured let us behold what manner of threates our Lord doth by his Prophets utter against slothfull and dishonest Priests and such as doe not as well by examples as words rightly instruct the people For even Hely the Priest in Silo for that hee did not severely proceed with a zeale worthy of God in punishing his sonnes when they contemned our Lord but as a man overswayed with a fatherly affection too mildly and remisly admonished them was sentenced with this judgement by the Prophet speaking unto him Thus saith our Lord I have manifestly shewed my selfe unto the house of thy Father when they were the servants of Pharaohin Egypt and have chosen the house of thy Father out of all the Tribes of Israel for a Priesthood unto me And a little after Why hast thou looked upon mine incense and upon my sacrifice with a dishonest eye and hast honored thy children more then mee that thou mightst blesse them from the beginning in all sacrifices in my presence And now so saith our Lord Because who so honour me I will honour them againe and who so make no account of me shall be brought to nothing Behold the dayes shall come and I will destroy thy Name and the seedâ— of the house of thy Father And let this be to thee the signe which shall fall upon thy two sonnes Ophnee and Phinees in one day shall they both dye by the sword of men If thus therefore they shall suffer paines who correct them that are subjected under their charge with onely words and not with condigne punishment what shall become of those who by offending exhort ye and draw others unto wickednesse It is apparant also what befell unto the true Prophet who was sent from Iudah to prophesie in Bethel and forbidden not once to taste any meate in that place after the signe which he foretold was fulfilled and after hee had restored the wicked King his withered hand againe being deceived by another Prophet as he was tearmed and so made to take but a little bread and water his host speaking in this sort unto him Thus saith our Lord
but a famine in hearing the word of God and waters shall be mooved from sea even to sea and they shal run over from the North even unto the East seeking out the word of our Lord and yet shall not find it Let holy Micheas also pierce your eares who not unlike a certaine heavenly trumpet soundeth shrilly forth against the deceitfull Princes of the People saying Hearken now yee Princes of the house of Iacob is it not for yee to know judgement who hate goodnesse and seeke after mischiefes who plucke their skinnes from off men and their flesh from their bones Even as they have eaten the flesh of my people and flâ—yed of their skins from them broken their bones to peeces and hewed them small as meate to the pot they shall cry to God and he will not heare them and in that season turne his face away from them even as they before have wickedly behaved themselves in their inventions Thus speaketh our Lord of the Prophets who seduce my people who bite with their teethes and preach against them peace and if a man giveth nothing to stoppe their mouthes they raise and sanctifie a war upon him Night shall therefore be unto yee in place of a vision and dâ—rkenesse unto ye in lâ—we of divination and the sunne shall set upon your Prophets and the day shall waxe darke upon them and seeing droames they shall be confounded and the diviners shall be derided and they shall speake ill against all men because there shall not be any one that will heare them but that I myselfe shall doe mine uttermost strongest endeavour in the spirit of our Lord in judgement and in power that I may declare unto the house of Iacob their impieties and to Israel their offences Hearken therefore unto these words ye Captaines of the house of Iacob and ye remnants of the house of Israel who abhorre judgment and overthrow all righteousnesse who build up Sion in blood and Ierusalem in iniquities her rulers did judge for rewards and her Priests answered for hire aâ—d her Prophets did for money divine and rested on our Lord saying And is not our Lord within us evils shall not fall upon us For your cause therefore shall Sion be ploughed up as a field and Ierusalem as a watch cabbin of a garden and the mountaine of the house as a place of a wooddy wildernesse And after some words ensuing Woe is me for that I am become as â—e that gathereth stubble in the harvest and a cluster of grapes in the Vintage when the principle branch is not left to be eaten Woe is me that a soule hath perished through earthly actions the reverence of sinners ariseth even reverencing from the earth and hee appeareth not that among men correcteth All contend injudgement for blood and every one with tribulation afflicteth his neighbour for mischiefe hee prepareth his hands Listen ye likewise how the famous Prophet Sophonias debated also in times past with your fellow banqueters for hee spake of Ierusalem which is spiritually to be understood the Church or the soule saying O the Citty that was beautifull and set at liberty the confident Dove hath not obediently hearkened to the voyce nor yet entertained discipline she hath not trusted in our Lord and to her God she hath not approached And he sheweth the reason why Her Princes have beene like unto roaring Lyons her Iudges as Wolves of Arabia did not leave towards the morning her Prophets carrying the spirit of a contemptuous despising man her Priests did prophane what wâ—s holy and dealt wickedly in the law but our Lord is upright in the middest of his people and no unjust morning will he make in the morning will he give his judgement But heare ye also blessed Zachery the Prophet in the Word of God admonishing yee For thus saith our Almighty Lord Iudge ye righteous judgement and worke yee every one towards his brother mercy and pitty and hurt yee not thorough your power the Widdoow or Orphan or stranger or poore man and let not any man remember in his heart the malice of his brother and they have beene stubborne not to observe these and have yeelded their backes to foolishnesse and made heavie their eares that they might not hearken and framed their hearts to be not perswasible that they might not listen to my law and words which our Almighty Lord hath sent in his spirit through the hands of his former Prophets and mighty wrath hath beene raised by our Almighty Lord. And againe Because they who have spoken have spoken molestations and diviners have uttered false visions and deceitfull dreames and given vaine consolations in respect hereof they are made dry as sheepe and are afflicted because no health was to bee found my wrath is heaped upon the Shepheards and upon the Lambes will I visite And within a few words after The voyce of lamenting Pastors because their greatnesse is become miserable The voyce of roaring Lyons because the fall of Iordan is become miserable Thus saith our Almighty Lord who have possessed have murthered and yet hath it not repented them and who have sold them have sayd Our Lord is blessed and we have beene enriched and their Pastors have suffered nothing concerning them For which I will now beare no sparing hand over the inhabitants of the earth saith our Lord. Heare ye moreover what the holy Prophet Malachy denounceth unto yee saying Yee Priests who despise my name and have sayd Wherein doe we despise thy name in offering on mine Altar polluted bread and yee have sayd Wherein have we polluted it In that ye have sayd The table of our Lord is as nothing and have despised such things as have beene placed thereupon because if yee bring what is blind for an offering is it not evill If ye set and apply what is lame or languishing is it not evill Offer therefore the same unto thy governour if he will receive it if he will accept of thy person saith our Almighty Lord. And now doe ye humbly pray before the countenance of your God and earnestly beseech him for in your hands have these things beene committed if happily he will accept of your persons And againe And out of your ravenous theft ye have brought in the lame and languishing and brought it in as an offering Shall I receive the same at your hands saith our Lord Accursed is the deceitfull man who hath in his flocke one of the male kinde and yet making his vow offereth the feeble unto our Lord because I am a mighty King saith our Lord of hosts and my name is terrible among the Gentiles And now unto yee appertaineth this Commandement O yee Priests if yee will not heare and resolve in your hearts to yeeld glory unto my name saith our Lord of hosts I will send upon ye poverty and accurse your blessings because ye have not setled these things on your hearts Behold I will extend out
which are faithfully contained in the same so as it may be plaine and apparant unto all that everlasting torments are reserved for them that they are not Priests or the servants of God who doe not with their uttermost power follow and fulfill these instructions and precepts Wherefore let us hearken what the Prince of the Apostles Saint Peter hath signified about this so weighty a matter saying Blessed be God and the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ who through his mercy hath regenerated us into the hope of eternall life by the resurrection of our Lord Iesus Christ from the dead into an inheritance which can never corrupt never wither neither be defiled conserved in heaven for yee who are kept in the vertue of God Why then doe ye fondly violate such an inheritance which is not as an earthly one transitory but immortall and eternall And somewhat afterwards For which cause be ye girded in the loynes of your minde sober perfectly hoping in that grace which is offered ye in the revelation of Iesus Christ Examine ye now the depths of your hearts whether yee be sober and doe perfectly conserve the grace of Priesthood which shall bee duely discussed and decided in the Revelation of our Lord. And againe he saith As children of the benediction not configuring your selves to those former desires of your ignorance but according unto him who hath called yee holy be ye also holy in all conversation For which cause it is written Be ye holy because I am holy Which one of ye I pray hath with the burning desire of the-whole minde so pursued sanctitie that he hath earnestly hastened as much as in him lay to fulfill the same But let us behold what in the second lesson of the same Apostle is conteined My deerest saith he sanctiâ—ie your soules for the obedience of faith through the spirit in charitie in brotherhood loving one another out of a true heart perpetually as borne againe not of corruptible seede but of incorruptible through the Word of God living and remaining for ever These are truely the Commandements of the Apostle and read in the day of your ordination to the end ye should inviolably observe the same but they are not fulfilled by ye in discretion and judgement nay not so much as duely considered or understood And afterwards Laying therefore aside all malice al deceipt dissemblings and envie and detractions as infants now newly borne reasonable and without guile covet ye milke that ye may thereby grow to salvation because our Lord is sweet Recount yee also in your mindes if these sayings which have sounded in your deafe eares have not often likewise bin troden by ye underfoote And againe Ye truely are the chosen linage the royall Priesthood the holy nation the people for adoption that ye may declare his vertues who hath called yee out of darkenesse into that his so mervoilous light But truely by yee are not onely the vertues of God not declared and made more glorious but also through your wicked examples are they by such as have not perfect beleefe despised Ye have perchance at the same time likewise heard what is read in the lesson of the Acts on this wise Peter arising in the middest of the Disciples sayd Yee men my brethren it is expedient the Scripture be fulfilled which the holy Ghost hath by the mouth of David foretold of Iudas And a little after This man hath therefore purchased afield of the reward of iniquitie This have yee heard with a carelesse or rather blockish heart as though the reading thereof had nothing at all apperteined unto your selves What one of yee I pray yee doth not seeke the fielde of the reward of iniquitie For Iudas robbed and pilled the purse and yee spoyle and waste the sacred gifts and treasures of the Church together with the soules of her children Hee went to the Iewes to make a Market of God ye passe to the Tyrants and their father the Devill that ye may despise Christ. He did set to sale the Saviour of the world for thirty pence and yee even for one poore half-penny what neede many words The example of Matthias is apparently layd before yee for your confusion who was chosen into his place not by his owne proper will but by the election of the holy Apostles or rather the judgement of Christ wherat ye being blinded doe not perceive how farre yee run astray from his merits while yee fall wilfully and headlong into the manners and affection of Iudas the traytor It is therefore manifest that he who wittingly from his heart tearmeth ye Priests is not himselfe truely a worthy Christian. And now I will assuredly speake what I thinke This reprehension might have beene framed after a milder fashion but what availeth it to touch onely with the hand or dresse with a gentle oyntment that wound which with impostumation or stinking corruption groweth now in it selfe so horrible as it requireth the searing iron or the ordinary helpe of the fire if happily by any meanes it may bee recured the diseased in the meane while not seeking a medicine and the Physitian much erring from a rightfull remedy O yee enemies of God and not Priests O yee traders of wickednesse and not Bishops O yee betrayers and not successours of the holy Apostles O ye adversaries and not servants of Christ Yee have certainely heard at the least the sound of the words which are in the second lesson taken out of the Apostle Saint Paul although ye have no way observed the admonitions and vertue of them but even as statues that doe neither see nor heare stood that day at the Altar while both then and continualy since he hath thundred in your eares saying Brethren it is a faithfull speech and worthy of all acceptance Hee called it faithfull and worthy but ye have despised it as unfaithfull and unworthy If any man coveteth a Bishopricke he deâ—ireth a goodworke Ye doe mightily covet a Bishopricke in respect of avarice but not upon occasion of spirituall commoditie and for the good worke which is convenient for the place ye want it It behoveth therefore such an one to be voyde of all cause of reprehension At this saying we have more neede to shed teares than utter words for it is as much as if the Apostle had sayd He ought to be of all others most free from occasion of rebuke The husband of one wife which is lkewise so contemned among us as if that word had never proceeded from him Sober Wise Yea which of ye hath once desired to have these vertues ingrafted in him Vsing hospitality For this if perchance it hath beene found among ye yet being neverthelesse rather done to purchase the favour of the people then to accomplish the Commandement it is of none availe our Lord and Saviour saying thus Verely I say unto yee they have received their reward Moreover A
man adorned not given to wine no fighter but modest not contentius not covetous O lamentable change O horrible contempt of the heavenly Commandements And doe ye not continually use the force of your words and actions for the overthrowing or rather overwhelming of these for whose defence and confirmation if neede had required yee ought to have suffered paines yea and to have lost your very lives But let us see what followeth Well governing saith he his house having his children subjected with all chastity Imperfect therefore is the chastity of the Parents if the children be not also indued with the same But how shall it be where neither the father nor yet the sonne as depraved by the example of his evill parent is found to be chaste But if any one knoweth not how to rule over his owne house how shall hee imploy his care over the Church of God These are the words that with apparant effects shold be made good and approoved Deacons in like manner that they should be chast not double tongued not overgiven much to wine not followers of filthy gaine having the mystery of faith in a pure conscience and let these also be first approoved and so let them administer having no offence And now trembling truely to make any longer stay on these matters I can for a conclusion affirme one thing certainely which is that all these are changed into contrary actions in so much that Clarkes which not without griefe of heart I doe here confesse are shamelesse and deceitfull in their speeches given to drinking covetous of filthy commodity having faith or to say more truely unfaithfulnesse in an unpure conscience ministring not upon probation of their good workes but upon foreknowledge of their evill actions and being thus defiled with innumerable offences they are notwithstanding admitted unto the holy function ye have likewise heard on the same day wherin ye should with farre more right and reason have beene drawne to prison or punishment then preferred unto Priesthood when our Lord demanded whom his Disciples supposed him to be how Peter answered Thou art Christ the Sonne of the living God and our Lord in respect of such his confession said unto him Blessed art thou Simon Baâ—jonas because flesh and blood hath not revealed unto thee but my Father who is in Heaven Peter therefore instructed by God the Father doth rightly confesse Christ but ye being taught by the devill your father doe with your lewd actions wickedly deny our Saviour It is said to the true Priest Thou art Peter and upon this rocke will I build my Church But ye are resembled unto the foolish man who hath builded his house upon the sand And verily it is to be noted that God joyneth not in workemanship with the unwise when they build their house upon the deceitfull uncertainty of the sands according unto that saying They have made Kings unto themselves and not by me Semblably that which followeth soundeth in like sort speaking thus And the Gates of hell whereby the infernall sins are to be understood shall not prevaile But of your fraile and deadly frame marke what is pronounced The floods came and the winds blew have mainely dashed upon that house and it sell and great was the ruine thereof To Peter and his successors our Lord doth say And I will give unto thee the Keyes of the Kingdome of Heaven But unto ye I know yee not depart from me ye workers of iniquity that being separated with the goates of the left hand ye may together with them go into eternall fire It is also promised unto every good Priest What soever thou shalt loose upon earth shall be likewise loosed in heaven and whatsoever thou shalt binde upon earth shall be in like sort bound in Heaven But how shall ye loose any thing that it may be loosed also in Heaven since your selves for your sins are severed from Heaven and hampred in the bands of your owne hainous offences As Solomon saith With the cords of his sins every one is tyed And with what reason shall ye binde any thing on this earth that above this world may be likewise bound unlesse it be your only selves who intangled in your iniquities are so detained on this earth as ye cannot ascend into Heaven but without your conversion unto our Lord in this life will fall downe into the miserable prison of hell Neither yet let any Priest flatter himselfe upon the knowledge of the particular cleannenesse of his owne body since their soules over whom he hath government shall in the day of Iudgement be required at his hands as the murtherer of them if any through his ignorance â—loth or fawning adulation have perished because the stroke of death is not lesse terrible that is given by a good man then which is inflicted by an evill person Otherwise would the Apostle never have said that which he left unto his successors as a fatherly Legacy I am cleare and cleane from the blood of all for I have not forborne to declare unto ye al the counsell of God Being therefore mightily drunken with the use and custome of sinnes and extreamely overwhelmed with the waves as it were of encreasing offences seek ye now forthwith the uttermost endeavours of your mindes after this your shipwrake that one borde of pennance which is onely left whereby ye may escape and swimme to the land of the living that from yee may be turned away the wrath of our Lord who saith I will not the death of a sinner but that he may bee converted and live And the same Almighty God of all consolation and mercy preserve his few good Pastors from all evill and the common enemy being overcome make them free inhabitants of the heavenly City of Ierusalem which is the congregation of all Saints grant this O Father Sonne and Holy Ghost to whom be honor and glory world without end Amen FINIS The cause why Gildas alledgeth almost only the Scriptures Gildas citeth Scriptures not after the vulgar Translation The reasons why Britaine was at this time so defiled with vices The excuse of the invective of Gildas against the Scottish and Irish. The excuse of his seveare censuring of the English How the Kings Majestie is descended of the blood royall of these three Nations How the Saxons and Britaines are united in this Realme How other Kingdomes have increased by Vnions How united nations have beene called by one generall name How conveniently the name of Britaine agreeth to the Kingdome of the whole Island The Conclusion * Moses Num. 20.12 * Levit. 10.1 * Num. 14.28 * Exod. 14.22 * Exod. 16.14 * Exod. 17.6 * Exod. 17.11 * Num. 21.6 * Num. 14.45 * Deut. 1.45 * Num. 11.1 * Iosu. 3.16 * Ios. 6.20 * Ios. 21.24 * 2 Sam. 21.1 * Ieremies foure Lamentations written with the order of the Hebrew Alphabet * Thren 1.1 * Thren