the worlde to be his chosen nurse to his peculiar persecuted people So may all we her subiectes acknowledge our selues more then most bound to god for her maiestie since we vnder a mayden Prince whose person is vnapt to bodely warres are so defended that against the force of the worlds furie both our soules and bodies are conserued in much peace far aboue the nations rounde about vs The onely cause thereof is Iesus Christ our mighty Michael who himself without our fighting hands or armed bodies breaketh the Dragons force and disapointeth him of his pray The second diabolicall imphe is the domestical foe which the Church harboreth carieth in her arms to quiet make stil his wanton and wrauling cryes Dandleth him on her Mootherly Knée hoping to surpresse his brawling voyce wyth her patient compassion For shew of recompence this poysoned broode calleth her by the name of mother her spouse Christ they worship by the tittle of lord But in déede they are the bond slaues of Agar and beare a deadly hate to Sara Their mindes be set on Sina that gendreth bondage vz. rotten Rome and Hierusalem they séeke but to féede vppon to florishe in to enriche themselues vnder her And espying her liberties and preheminences they doe from time to time busie themselues to betray the same The true church of God now in Englande séeke they to betray to the handes of the wicked and by slaunders to polute the sanctuarie of the lord The engines that these enemies vse agaynst vs are scoffing speches rayling voyces and slaundering wordes Sée you not say these men what discorde sundry sectes and religious are amongest these new broched bretherne how they preach wryte dispute and euer seeke to beate downe another Is not this a marke of Sathans Sinagog And the common refuge of these euilles is to couller their cankred malice with the couert of desired obedience to Lawes whylest such for the most parte liue as though they themselues were priuileadged from all good gouernement The contempt of godly Lawes set downe in this state and present gouernement is to be wyth diligent eye and earnest care redressed And I would to GOD suche rulers Ecclesiastical ciuill were selected as would more diligently looke hereto So should the mouthes of men haue lesse cause of their great outcryes agaynst the present state For I thinke it no reason to pull downe the whole house for the weakenes of on rotten sparre or to cutte of the hande for the fault or defect of a finger or yet vtterly to subuert the state because euery parte hath some infirmitie But as concerning the contentions amongst the learned I answere I lament both the cause and the action yet here by hath the papist no warrant to Blaspheme our Religion or to condemne the Prince or Preachers and professors of the same for if contention amydde the learned and in the Church of God be a sufficient cause to refuse her to slaunder and to reuile her wyth reprochfull tearmes yea and condemne the people state and ministery of christs spoused wife this holy church then shall we finde this Churche in no age among the children of men planted frée from such sharpe censure As if we loke into the church of Israell brought from Pharao into the desert we shall sée the same often to rebell against Moises yet not all the Israelits Wherefore the Church then could not be frée from contentiō Dathan Abiram disliking the priesthood which god ouer them had set vpō Aron his line stirred vp sharpe cōtention tumultuous vprore for the same Consider her condition in the time of Saule his persecuting of Dauid behold small vnitie Saule commended of some Dauid reaping the greater praise What vnity had the church whē 400. salse prophets contended with Helias the prophet of the Lord for the idoll Baal their false god After Israel retorned from her captiuity was not the church cut into diuers sectes factiōs in outward show they professed gods law penned by Moises the Prophets but in déede truth they were seperated into diuers opinions sundrie sects euery party receiued his name according to his opiniō The holy scripture approued authors tell vs that in the Iewes church there were Pharises Saduces Esseis yet who dare say that at this presēt ther was not in the place thē gods holy church It is therfore now no strāg or new thing to haue dissēting opiniōs in amōgst mē professing one religion about some points conteined in the same The new Testamēt witnesseth the like In the time of the Apostles what sharpe contention was there betwixt Paule Peter at Antioch for cause in religiō Peter offēding against the rules therof was openly reproued by Paule Also betwixt Paule Barnabas was such vnitie that they parted asonder the one from the other about John Marke a disciple Notable is that long sharpe disputation sore cōtention which crept into the church betwixt Paule Barnabas on the one part the Pharises which were cōuerted to the gospell at Antioch on the other about iustification whether it came by faith alone or that circūcision the law were of necessitie to be ioined thereto This strife was such that it could not nor was otherwise abandoned the church then by that Apostolicall councell holden at Hierusalem About this time and shortly after the Apostles there arose out of the church sundry sectaries as the Corinthiani Martionisti Gnostici and Carpocratiani The Gentilles then as some papistes doe now sayde the christians are troublesome and contentious they cannot agrée about their christ and his religion but we holde one vnitie in our profession therefore they offer vs more then great cause to haue in suspence our hast to subscribe to their professed Gospel Yet all this their friuolous speches set a part both the Apostles and others wyth them at that presēt ioyning in the sinceritie of the professed trueth were of the true church of god Also that church whereout these wicked Sectories Heritykes came was that and the best beloued Wyfe the Church of Iesus Christ notwithstanding such contentions and variable mindes as then that state caryed to the posteritie And euen so is our church now holding fast the substance of Doctrine geuen by the scriptures and the administration of the Sacraments according to his worde Lykewise in substance though in some matter accidentreth there arise question the same yet offe-no ioy to the professed papist for as they contende so doe both sides striue to be far from popish affects This our Church also I say of and in England is the true church of God the reuerend fathers the Bishops with others the preachers of his holy word in this our nation now gouernment abiding in the truth of doctrine though ther be amids their harmony in the
substance of our religiō some little iarring crochet in lesse matters out of musicke her concorde are to be accompted as members of that musicall body whereof Christ is the head and worthy buylders of that spirituall house of which Iesus our Lord is the chiefe corner stone If I should stand to reherse the contentions of the Church since the first Church till this present I should passe the limits of a large booke farsed with onely testimonies to that end As for example the contention among the learned and Godly fathers in the East and west churches for the time and day wherein the Easter day should be kept was great and perilous a cutting asunder of the said church and an absolute breache of perfect vnity till Nicene councell ended the cause but salued not the whole sore For the hygh authoritye of places and men Ecclesiasticall it is a worlde to reade and sée how Iohn the Bishop of Constantinople began and the Romane Gregory encountering him Prophecied his Romish seate to be prepared for the same Antechristianisme after his dayes which Boniface the worker of euill enthronised in his full pompe which contention I feare will not be banished till the spirit of the Lords mouth consume the authors fautors thereof This sore how in those better dayes more pure times it hath festered into the harts of Godly learned men then most famous by this little taste ye may at the first perceiue But let vs as ye would haue it O ye fawning papists graunt ye that some Heresies doe bréed in our English church at this day shall ye therefore accuse the same to be estraunged from God shall you wyth wylye subtletie to that ye may deface the Churche our Spirituall Moother and carye the names of her Sonnes and Children and louers of our gracious Nurse ELIZABETH Naye rather ought ye to lyke of our Religion that manifesteth suche Heresies and confesse that where the Lorde hath fyrst sowne Wheate there the Enemie comming after hath in the same chosen Lande sowed Tares And ye ought to know that the Lordes will is to haue both for a season to grow together that the blade of the Tare might the better make knowne the eare of the good wheat So is it good reader the wisdome of Gods purpose that Heresies springing vp with true doctrine the veritie should more clearly appeare and the sowers of truth should more diligently study to refell the false opinions of the wicked by the forcible power of that first sowne truth the word of god Let not the wicked therefore perswade thée that our Church and Religion is euill false because of scismes Heresies which some wicked not yet by the sentence of the Church fully cut of percase do hold for it begā in the Apostles time that Heritykes and Seismatykes should frō the true church haue their procéedinge and of the same their first place to be trayned vp in trueth that their Iudgement should be the greater And Rome it selfe which is now wrapped in horrible heresie and manifold scismes though they yet boast of vnitie came out of Gods church and hath made manifest Apostacie there from as if you set the Religion in Rome now professed wyth the Doctrine which the same dyd holde what tyme Paule wrot his Epistle to them you shall most playnely sée that the Romanistes are gone out of Gods Churche great and Huge Herityques Came not Arius that pestiferous man who hath by his Bookes denyed Christes Eternitie wyth the Father onely acknowledging him to be made as a Creature Oh myghty and Monstrous Blasphemie came he not out I say of the Churche of GOD at Alexandria where he was first a Scholemaster and after an admitted Preacher dyd he not of malice agaynst Alexander the good Bishop there first broche forth his Heresies Where had Agelius ▪ his place to spred his Heresie which was of the sect of Nouatus that Heretike hatched vp in the Church at Rome and was the Father of the Heretykes called Katharoi but euen where the christian Chrisostom was chiefe Pastour and Bishop and in his Church at Constantinople Shall the contentions in the Apostles age in Christes Church then or the controuersies amongest the learned in the Christian Churches since cut the one or the other from being the Church of God God forbid Yea if from the church of the Apostles there procéeded scismes Heresies by the wicked amongst them if since in all times as the Eccl. histories tell vs Satan hath so troubled the good corne with counterfait cockle why shal we thinke it strange to haue the same tentations now which our fathers before vs our childrē after our departure shal be assalted with ▪ yea your holy mother of Rome ye papists hath nursed vp such wicked children her selfe in whom whose popes alone ye repose your whole trust as may bear the bel before the deuill the patron of your religion for their great heresies And they are sundry in number As Liberius Anastatius Honorius Siluester and the mery monster Iohn the B. aboue others more notable Adhere to al the rest in that sea since Antechrists possession first thereof taken Albeit ye cannot deny the premises or kéep frō our sight your many sundry iarring opiniōs yet ye wold that your sinagog of Rome should be accōpted the holy monarch mother church of the world that notwithstanding the procreation of such a pestilent poysoning brood why should ye then abridge vs of the lyke libertie which ye chalenge to your selues that séeing we doe with all might séeke to repreffe the opinions of them that be wicked wyth the power of the Gospell and to mayneteyne vnitye in Godlynesse to all our powers Herein you doe but poure out your much malice striuing to hinder vs You haue exhibited against your willes much lyke to your graundsire Caiphas to our side and with vs the Testimonye of trueth So mightie is God our defender that he draweth wyth violence out of your wicked mouthes to your greater condemnation if ye repent not the vouch of verity But to conclude this poynt Christian reader take and taste this Antidotum here confected to thy vse agaynst their venomous speaches and it shall not onely comfort thy afflicted minde which God graunt for his Sonnes sake but also shall kéepe thée stedfast vntill the Lorde performe the promise long syth by his holy Prophetes solempnely made to his Churche for euer As first in Micah thus Thou wylt perfourme thy trueth to Jacob and mercye to Abraham as thou haste Sworne to our Fathers in olde tyme. And agayne in Esay wholy and specially from eleuenth verse to the ende of the same which Chapter is most comfortable agaynst these our subtill dayes Oh thou afflicted and tossed wyth Tempestes sayth the Prophete to Goddes Churche thou that hast no comfort behold I wil lay thy
to sweare truely that which hee himselfe knoweth by sight or self hearing and not to leane vpon other mens reportes Furthermore let no man frame himselfe to sweare for trifling things or lightly prouoked but in mere necessitie then with graue consideration and reuerent regard of Gods presence before whom wée all stand whose eyes behold the déedes of all men whose eares receaue the whispering spéech of the déepe dissembling harte Trēble therefore to sweare for light matters or at euery mans first perswasion for an oth is the extreme poynt of Gods ordinance to bée vsed of men and before Magistrates to banish braules and contention and to conserue the peace and vtilitie of his church The fourth and last poynt is that wée sweare in Justicia Let not your othes sayth he be contrary to right and godlines but thereby séeke to geue to euery man that which of right is due vnto him whether in cases pertayning to God to godly Magistrates or to any other sorts of men And let the loue of God and of eour Christian brethren wyth regard of the onely truth hée alwayes your guide in swearing and not the faces of sinfull men In any case beware of too much credite in other men geue thy selfe his true Iusticia that is to say let thine owne eyes thy reason thy conscience thy faith thy honestie thy person with his name fame and crauing credite kéepe him selfe subiect to the Lord his God in holines and righteousnes in the middle of the euill world al the dayes of thy lyfe Farre bée it from thée to become the slaue of the riche in thy swearing the foresworne tenaunt of thy leude prouoking landlord or a chayned lumpe of flesh to the bones of thy kindred by such meanes or any wayes else to bée caried from the truth to the hurt of an other though hée bée thine enemie or to the condemnation of thine owne soule by a false othe to purchase thy friend his pleasure Finally if thou shalt embrace that which here thou art exhorted vnto and shalt abhorre that which thou readest here forbidden of God thou shalt in such swearing blesse his name and he shall acknowledge thée for his child and in his Christ shall defend thée from the force and rage of the mighty wicked in earth and shall geue thée in the end of this thy life thy resting place and dwelling house his holy Tabernacle the heauenly blisse as the Prophet Dauid doth witnesse in the fiftenth Psalme most comfortably to the reading of the which I referre thée Now are we come to that which we erst promised vz. to speake of our deliuerance from our enemies by this erected horne Christ whereto god hath sworne that we should not only giue him the more credit but also shuld frame our selues in him to lead the life that such redemption requireth at our hands But this redemption reacheth to the ends of the world therfore what kind of enemies so euer or in what sort they bend their battrie against vs God by this Scripture with other his promises hath assured vs the victory and from our foes full deliuerance Our enemies are sinne Satan the world and the flesh who in all ages haue not onely troubled the church people of god with grosse and carnall vices but haue set vp in the sayde Church a fourme of Religion deuised in Hell carying the title of holinesse and Gods seruice wherewith they haue more easely drawne the multitude of men from GOD to such sinne vnder the cloke of deuotion to their perpetuall confusion and shame This imagined holinesse and humane religion did Sathan first broche in the church of Iesus vnder Moyses and eftsones renued the same as hée could chaunging him selfe after the fashion of euery age preuayleth till the time of Christ and the Pharisies and since also hath playd his part in the Synagoge of Rome of whose filthie cup the Kynges and Nations of the earth haue tasted to their extreme dronkennes This is the greatest enmitie that Sathan can worke to Gods people vnder coulour of séeking and seruing him to drawe them quite from his Maiestie and in such sort blyndeth their eyes and wyth his fierie Dartes so kendleth their carnall zeale that in the will worshippe of their owne inuention they spare no cost or shunne any payne to séeme more then religious therein In this our age the Church of England is vexed wyth two horrible Impes and messengers of our enemie Sathan as sent of hym to molest our happie state to stoppe the ioyes that wée are to conceiue in our most comfortable Christ The first imphe is the forraine papisticall foe the seconde is our domesticall Englishe hipocrites The forrayne Papistes beyonde the seas haue bent their force agaynst the truth professed here in Englande and to encounter wyth the same haue prepared a double shot agaynst this frontire our religion The one shooting slaunder by rayling penne at the truth and persons professing the same the other charged wyth treason and Popishe pouder shooteth at the state and person of our souereigne as at the Liefetenaunt of the Lordes bande But from them both the Lorde in his great mercie hath and doth deliuer vs And with the truth of his Gospel by such habilitie as he geueth to his church and ministerie in these our dayes doth so ouertake the wylinesse of our aduersaries that their penned bookes are in euery respect learnedly and truly made knowne as they are to be ouer weake to breake the Walles of Gods church much lesse to confounde the Doctrine professed in the same Wherfore as men alwearied in wofull wast labors after sundrye conflictes hauing spent all their popish muniments in this war they pray a peace take a day of truce and so by scilence subscribe to the conquering truth which by his force their pouertie they are compelled vnto The charged shot of treason which the Romanistes haue trayled to this nation are they not by the Lord before the time of their discharge and without the strength of man broken al in péeces The smith that framed them the pope I say is he not ashamed to sée his Platforme put to foyle What Nation doth hée more enuie then this our happye Land What confederacies doth he make with sundrie conspiracies both wyth in and wyth out the Lande against the Lord and his anoynted Prince What offers of ayde what practises for proofe of good successe hath his vnholy holinesse assayde in this Lande and yet the Lorde hath deliuered and preserued from al his subtle engines both her maiestie and vs that she should be mauger his bearde the Nurssing Moother not onely to the Churche vnder her gouernement but also to the Afflicted members of Iesus CHRIST which that Huge Dragon doth Persecute from place to place And happye may her Maiestie be that GOD vouchsafeth to select her béeing a weake woman from among the mightie Monarchies of
stones with Carbuncle lay thy foundations with Saphire I wil make thy windows of Emraudes thy gates shining stones all thy borders of pleasant stones and all thy Children shal be taught of God and much peace shal be vnto thy Children in righteousnesse shalt thou be established and be farre from oppression for thou shalt not feare it and from feare for it shall not come nie thée Beholde the Enemye shall gather himselfe but wythout me whosoeuer shall gather hymselfe in thée agaynst thée shall fall Beholde I haue made the Smyth that bloweth the Coales in the Fyre and him that bringeth forth an Instrument for his worke and I haue Created the Destroyer to destroy but all the Weapons that are made agaynst thée shall not prosper And euery Tongue that shall aryse vp against thée in Iudgement thou shalt Condemne Thys is the Lordes Heritage and their ryghteousnesse is of mée sayth the LORDE Thus farre the Prophete speaketh to teache thée good Reader great cause of comfort and courage agaynst dispayre though England which is Gods church haue now many enemies risen vp against her her religion yea though her owne skirtes doe carie suche as insult agaynst her she is Promised that theyr Weapons and the smith that framed them shal not prosper Their lybelling bookes which séeke to persecute her though they come from the house of counsell and séeme to procede from the seate of learnings iudgement yet shal this church of God be set a Iudge ouer their wearie trauels and toyling spite and shall condemne them Let that worthy Jewel of famous memory the holy confessor and Saint of and by Iesus Christ treasured vp in the Lapydarie of the heauens for the glory of our God let his excellent workes I say stand for an ample warrant hereto to this age to her posteritie for euer And let others whether at home or abroade looke for the same end of their molesting troubles which they cast into this our age and Church But thou wilt say why doth the Lord suffer so long our weake consciences to be troubled with these contending strifes What art thou O man that wilt dispute with God These troubles to vs yet in respect of the Schismes of old are but as an entring into the first moment of the day Waite thou the lords leysure and be still learne thy song framed by firme hope in truth which Micah hath taught the church of God alwayes in her trouble to sing thou shalt be relieued though thy enemies yet séeke to triumph ouer thée Reioyce not against me O my enemie saith the church there for though I fal I shal arise when I shal sit in darknes the Lord shall be a light vnto me I will beare the wrath of the Lord because I haue sinned against him vntil he plead my cause and execute iudgement for me then wil he bring me forth to the light I shal sée his righteousnes Then she that is my enemie shall looke vpon it shame shall couer her which said vnto me Where is the Lord thy God my eyes shall behold her now shal she be troden downe as the myre of the stréets c. Thus much forth of the prophet Micah where thou maist learn to accuse thy self for thy sinne as Dauid did séeing the people afflicted not with Achab to charge the Lord or his profession Prophets whē troubles plagues arise in the church but to turne thy eyes into thy owne conscience sée the booke of thy iniquities there written to confesse before god man that thy sinne is the cause of such trouble plague brought into the church people by Satan his malice the pollicie of these his wicked impes Last of all discourage not at the romish scoffes taunting reproches nor yet despaire in the bottome of her darke dungeons sharpe persecutions for the lord wil comfort thée in them if thou rest vpon his laysure remaine constant in the end deliuering thée wil stampe thy enemie into dirt make thée beautiful in the sight of al men that thou maist serue him thy god thus deliuered frō feare in new holines deuoid of hypocrisie in iustice righteous dealing to with al men in the place of thy abode traffike els where amōgst men in earth And euer respect thy deliuerāce frō sinne regard thy state so that Satan eftsones pul thée not to thy former sinne which cōpelleth his erst bondage for the end of such as so fal is worse then the beginning And thus much for the first part of this Hymne in which I haue bene more prolixe then first I purposed but I trust that the profite which may rise vppon the attentiue reading of the matter simply set downe wil coūteruaile the tedious sight of so much blotted paper sith my willing trauayles hath forced me to dwell in comfortable spéech with the lesse learned some thing the longer because they of themselues can not conceiue such profitable matter as this our text doth exhibite to the serching eye assuredly perswaded that the better so godly learned will vouchsafe soueraigne Censure to this my vnpolished pen. And wherein I erre from the truth if by the same I may heare louingly therof as I hope I haue geuen no poyson to the Church so I wil be glad to reforme that and those thinges which godly reasons with learned truth shall require at my hands The Lord graunt continuance of his gospell in this Nation preseruation to her Maiestie with encrease of Gods knowledge and zeale to his holy name and to vs and his whole Church from all heresies Scismes and ciuill dissentions if it stand with his good wil and pleasure once full deliuerance that we may serue the Lord our god in sinceritie of hart and integritie of life in his sight by his holy spirite all the dayes of our life to whom by and with Christ our Lord to that deitie in the trinal vnitie be al praise power glory for euer Amen Vers 9 And thou child shalt be called the Prophet of the most high for thou shalt goe before the face of the Lord to prepare his wayes As the sacred Priest before had declared Gods great benefites and faithfulnes in performing his louing promises to the redemption of his elect So now he returneth to this present action and vsing the person of an interpreter expoundeth the Oracle of God declaring his sonne this child to be the same preacher and Doctor which erst by the Prophet Malachy was promised to precede Christ By whose trauel in Doctrine the way should be prepared for the Lordes comming his and our Messias Which office this babe in his appoynted time executed right wel with sinceritie of hart ▪ sparing no person place time or people or omitted any occasiō when he might most aptly performe such his calling This Baptistes voyce was euer crying against the sinnes of all exhibiting the remedie
wholy chiefely and for lyfe they ought to séeke the same in sinceritie of harte wythout Hypocrisie Thus my deare Bretherne we ought in my Iudgement to teache the Lordes flocke to kill Satan and beate downe sinne and not wyth bitternesse of penne and carping speache in Pulpits through byting one an other to bring that promise or iuste threat vpon vs you shall be deuoured one of another The LORDE amend this euill and graunt vs more carefull ouer his Heritage for his names sake Wheresoeuer the Preacher findeth the people voide of these effectes as wher is not this ragged desert There ought hee to prepare a path by the doctrine of the worde which is of power to conuerte the loste childe of Israell To preach the comfortable causes in Christ to allure vs and to shewe vs the horrible state of our own corrupted nature and the gréedie desire that sathan hath of our destruction Can men thinke with doublenesse of harte to please the Lorde Can they serue God by halfes Or go towards him as far as the lawes of men leade or compell them and no further and yet of God be well accepted If God be God follow him if Baal be he go after him If Nicodemus whose weake cōming many make to thē selues a sinister refug had not proceded to more perfection hee had not aduentured to aunswer in Christes behalfe to the counsel or yet of so great a tiran as Pilate was durst he haue begged the body of Iesus or againste the malice of so many cruell ennemies haue ioyned with noble Joseph in so hard a sute The luke warme persons that be neyther hote nor colde are as a burden and surffet to the Lordes stomack which he hath promised to vomit out of his mouth Loue the Prince and liue in and vnder her gracious gouernement ye Papists and Atheistes and Hipocrites also for the Lordes sake Let his holy Lawe force you as a moste absolute Iniunction to her godly Lawes and not as you say pollitiquely but popishly to leane to his law because of her graces iniunctions Neither halve before God to refuse your obedience to religion Gods Sacraments and deuine seruice in the Churche nowe godly set downe vsing your clawing coolour because some and suche do not obserue the saide Iniunctions For it is more then sene to al that a nūber of you make those Iniunctions which at the firste were set downe to bring you forwarde a presente let to your obedience a cloke for your maliciousnesse The actes and wordes of such as molest the godly quiet and desired peace of the church I wil not or may defende I lamente the cause and praye God to cease the action to his glory the peace of his Church and the extirpation of the serpent and all his at his good appointed time But you dissembling Hipocrites are lyke vnto the wicked persons in the dayes of Darius who fearinge leaste Daniel with his religion should be preferred sought by all meanes to claspe that holy Prophet vnder the Kinges Iniunction to his destruction So it is not the loue ye haue to our godly Elizabeth whom ye wish to giue place to your Darius but the Lord wil doth laughe your deuises to scorn his name be praised therfore and her graces good Lawes but the hate which you haue conceaued againste Daniel the e Prophetes of the Lord because they séeke to enstruct you the right way to make you prepared for the Lord and to reclaime you from popery to the professed trueth many of you hauinge blinde eyes voyde of sight by the reason of hardnesse of your hartes the which cannot repent pray ayd at the same law which your selues most deadly hate No doubt concerning the ministers and preachers admitte they be good protestants they be al of like accompt in your audite as well the trew and faithfull pastours which obserue the appointed order as such other their godly Brethren which wading no further vnwilling were to vse the same not contemptuously refusing because of the precept but moderatly by petition regardinge theyr peoples quiet or hurt with humblenesse of harte pray God and craue at the Gods a in earth by his power placed ouer vs as foloweth Mercifully vouchsafe O ye godly Princes of the Lorde that as Timothie may not refuse circumcision where Paule séeth the infirmities of the Iewes to require the same and the Chuche her néede of such a teacher So let not Titus be compelled thervnto where as false Brethren priuily créepe in to bring into bondage the children of the lord No place wold Paule admit to such though elswher he consideringe the weakenesse of the Iewes refused not to asociate the Nazarets at Jerusalem with the shauing of hys head according to the lawe though amid the gentils hee reproued Peter for the like Iewish obseruation And when it shal please thee O Lord graunt our gracious Princes hart further prepared to scoure the Lordes pathe by godly aduise of her noble councellers that by her publike authority and not our priuate affectes all such matter may bee remoued as worke no way the profit of his church And to vs ministers and men her graces subiectes prayer and trewe patient obedience regarding more the loue and quiet of the Churche then our owne lyke or priuate desiers No lesse praise deserueth the good Emperour Theodosius in destroying the idolatrous temples then godly Constantine in shutting vp theyr gates Faithfull Josias in his reformation thought it best to breaketh Aulters and cast the duste of them into the brooke Kedron and the Scripture saith to his commendation that before him there was no such king that turned to the Lord with all his harte and all his soule and with all his might according to the lawe of Moises neither after him arose there any such This example saith one learned writer is written to teach vs to ouerthrowe and vtterly destroy all Idolles and euery entisment of superstition that no parte of such monumentes be lefte t◠admonish the posterity Musculus vpon the sentence by God giuen to the serpent the instrument wherwith the Serpent deceyued Heua and brought Adam to sinne asketh a question whether the sentence were iust since the serpent was not the author but the organ wherwith nothing priuie to Sathans purpose or wisshing hurt but was sorced by Sathan therto He also answereth yea not onely because it procéeded from the iust God but geuing reason for the same saith it is very right that to the greater detestation of sathans malice fraud and disceit not only himself but all his instruments wherewith hee worketh his malice become subiect and receiue like iudgement with him For like as saith he euery such instrument wherewith any good thing or felicitie is brought to passe deserueth and is worthely beloued and had in estimation So by