two things that you speake of were doone but onely on friday Wheras therfore I pag. 281. left out your thursday set them on the head of friday only yet you in your headstroÌ„g course haue put in thursday againe as it was before After that again handling the vanitie of worldly pleasures you bring in pag. 322. a text of Scripture wroÌ„g quoted also both for the booke chapter that the linage of king Baasa was destroied for that they prouoked god in their vanities In which place by those their vanities hee meaneth their idolatries as by the place it selfe is apparant and by the best interpreters thereon olde and newe And Iohannes Benedictus a Diuine of Paris and one of your owne companie taking his direction as himselfe professeth out of Ierome Augustine Ambrose Gregorie Hilary Chrysostom and all the best approoued writers that antiquitie yeelded as appeereth in his Epistle Dedicatorie in his Concordance vpon the word vanitas doth plainely so interprete that verie place Wheras therfore I left it out as not appertaining to the matter you had in hande you notwithstanding haue put it in again and as wrong quoted as it was before Belike at the first you followed some table and whatsoeuer place you found to talke of vanitie that did you think to be for your purpose and in that perswasion persist as yet But whether that were in you a vanitie or not you may at leisure resolue if it please you So likewise euen with the common sort do you plainly mistake that place of the Hebrews concerning Esau saying that God would not forgiue him though he demanded it with teares â—â— Wherein although I will not denie but that you may haue some other that dooth so expoundit yet is the stone it selfe a sufficient interpreter of that place against all And your owne fellowes of Rhemes in their note on that place doo plainelie say that it is not meant that Esau could not finde remission of his sins at Gods hands which is the sense that you haue gathered but that hauing once folde and yeelded vp the right of his first-birth vnto his yonger brother it was too late to be sorie for his viâ—â—â—uised bargaine In which latter part of their note although if they had better heeded the storie whence it was taken they might haue interpreted the same somewhat better of the blessing that was past to an other yet is the former very sound and crosseth you as directly as may be And wheras I had so mended it to your handes you neuerthelesse come in with it againe as you did before so well seene belike in the woord of God in those matters that are of deeper iudgement or fore-stalled with som vnaduisednes or ignorant preiudice that as you can readily erre with the ignorant and common sort so likewise can you as little perceiue it when as you are gently admonished of it The like might be said of manie others but these I trust may be sufficient for this matter And yet I will acknowledge withall that some few of them you haue some-what amended much like as you had direction from mee As for example whereas before your woordes were that Christ complained greeuously by the Prophet that sinners built vpon his backe and prolonged their iniquitie 348 which indeed doth not stand with the sense of the place as I had noted 330 and therewithall holpe the place by saying that Christ might so complaine you perceiuing some-what your former mistaking haue thus far holpen it that our Sauiour seemeth to complaine c. Againe whereas you said before that Christ went foorth into the streets twise in one day to reprehend those that were idle and I perceiuing tâ—â—o faultes therein amended them both saying that Christ in his parable still reprehended greeuously those that stood idle c. you perceiuing now that it was not Christ himselfe that went forth to reprehend the idle but that he put the parable of another that did haue nowe thus farre mended it that you say that Christ in his parable went forth into the streetes twise in one day c. But as for that other slip of yours that you talke so praecisely of twise in one day that haue you mended nothing at all and it may be not perceiued it neither And yet the text it self that you do speake of Mat. 20. 17. doth plainly say that first he went forth earlie in the morning then afterwards againe at the third sixt ninth eleuenth houres of the day In somuch that it is the more maruell that finding him still as you say which notwithstanding wee read but of once to rebuke those that were idle you neuer fouÌ„d him notwithstanding at any time to rebuke this your idle reading and regarding of his holy worde The sense also of diuers places of Scripture which you out of others sometimes had corruptly set down alledging it for the sense of the place which was either but an alluding vnto it or els not so good I had one way or other either amended or made more tollerable which you notwithstanding haue broght in again as far wide as they were before I am not ignorant but that by one of those foure waies which you take vpon you so coÌ„monly to vse wherof sometime there is some vse in deede in the expounding of holy scripture there may be some colour pretended for such wanton wandring expositionsâ— that diuers there be of reuerend accouÌ„t otherwise that therein haue not a little offended But in this light of the Gospell those that so dally with the word of God are worthy rather to bee hissed out than to bee repressed by admonition Last of all wheras you had ofteÌ„ vsed those profane speeches of hap chance fortune perhaps perchance and I had not onely left them out put others in their place such as gaue no such way to offence yet serued the place as well as the other but also did bring in Augustine against them you neuertheles haue taken them freely in again as one that is â—oth ouermuch to amend or litle regardeth what offence by his speech he may giue vnto others 35. That there is good cause why you should not trust to your self so much as you do might eaâ—y be gathered throughout your whole book But first as touching all such matters as belong to the controuersies with those as I said I will not meddle because that whatsoeuer slip you make therein yet it is hard for you to perceiue it much more to acknowledge it so long as you are perswaded that you are in the truth or doo but retaine the mind that you do so wilfully winking at the manifest light so hardning your harts against this gratious calling of God Then also certaine other thinges there are that are no controuersies them selues and yet notwithstanding so neere allied to them that therin also I may not deale with much better hope than in the other For therin also you
you alledge are The first was that wheras you talked as you say of Catholike priests that heare confessione I made you to say men that be skilful to giue counsell And true indeed that whereas you had so framed your speech as best might serue you to restraine the wife comfortable handling right managing of a christian soule only to those whom you vntruly cal catholike priests withall to establish that lewd deuise of your auricular confession to make it a sacrameÌ„t too I on the other side leauing those your contentious brablings quietly exprest the matter you had in hand in such other tearms as might sufficiently expresse the thing it selfe not leane to any of those corruptions neither But as I forbare to name you so may you see that I tooke not the place to our selues Though I 〈◊〉 out that vnruly and disorderly companie of yours whome you would so faine commend vnto vs vnder the name of Catholike Priests then the which they are nothing lesse yet did I not so fraâ—â—â— it as that it might seeme to import none but our selues by putting in the Ministers of the Gospell into their roomes but left the description 〈◊〉 indifferent to you if so you could imploy yourselues as I did vnto vs. This is the partialitie that heere I vsed and the like might bee saide of both the others 13 Concerning the cause that you haue in hand the matter that you chiefly charge me withall is partly for that I haue put thereto somewhat of mine owne but especially for that I haue taken so much out of yours That which I put to â—â— mine owne was so little in it selfe and so indifferently and sparingly done that as you haue taken it nothing so greeuously as the other so in much you needed to haue found no fault at all And yet notwithstanding I will not denie but that in this point you had the aduantage against mee if there were anie thing materiall therein because that the mention thereof was omitted in my prâ—face to the Reader and the additions themselues in som few places no better distinguished But now that your selfe haue made the search let vs see what it is that thereby you haue found The places that your selfe haue gotten and wherein you find your selfe most greeued in this kind are in al but three and those of no speciall importance but that well they might haue beene omitted by me sauing onlie that thereby you might better perceiue howe little cause you had to bee offended in this also First you charge mee that whereas you had set downe that our Sauiour beeing demaunded by a certaine Prince how he might be saued would giue him none other hope but onely by keeping the Commandements saying If thou wilt enter into life keep the Commandements there doo I helpe the matter with a parenthesis saying he would giue him none other hope so long as he sought saluation by his works but keepe the Commandements The next is that whereas you alledged out of Saint Paul and out of the Reuelations that men shall be crowned in heauen according to their fight in his life I bodged in as you say this parenthesis in some good measure thereby to limit the Holy Ghost in his meaning The third and last is that whereas you alledged plainly the words of Scripture No man knoweth whether he be woorthie of loue or hatred in Gods sight I added this parenthesis by outward thinges These are all the places that you charge me withall I likewise do willingly acknowledge that for the first last it is true but as touching the second I say that there you haue somewhat depraued my wordes from the sense that I had giueÌ„ them And now as touching my dooings herein it was meet that seeing you labour so much to establish your owne righteousnes as to make a way to saluation thereby and to keepe men alwaies in doubt of the fauour of God towardes them so to make your owne wares more saleable to all and to that end peruerted these places of Scripture the better to shrowd those naughtie errours but gainefull â—â—to you vnder the cloake and shewe of truth I on the other side should bee as carefull that no 〈◊〉 tooke occasion of error by either of them Which how could I on your behalfe more easily haue doone than by giuing so briefe an interpretation vppon those places especially when as my interpretation is such as is not mine but borrowed of others greater than I as your selfe doeth or may knowe and verie agreeable vnto the truth of the places themselues But as touching this place of Ecclesiastes which also you haue not rightlie quoted whereas it pleaseth you to say that you plainely alledged the woordes of that place as plainely as you haue doone it yet notwithstanding if you will take the paines to consider of your dooinges againe you may plainely perceiue first that you haue added three woordes in the ende more than the text it selfe dooth yeelde by anie translation whatsoeuer though yet notwithstanding it stand well ynough with the sense of the place then also these woordes hee bee woorthie whereon the chiefe strength of your sense consisteth are not found in the Hebrew it selfe nor in Saint Ierome when of set purpose hee interpreteth the place although I denie not but that in your common vulgar translation which gladlie you would father vppon him it bee there for this point as corruptly interpreted as it is heere alledged by you So likewise more specially to consider of that other place of yours where you say that I bodged in that parenthesis in some good measure if you marke the place better you shall finde that I did not adde these woordes vnto the affirmatiue as you haue framed them to your better aduauntage which indeed had beene more obscurely spoken and that you haue corruptly cited both my woordes and yours also For you saide before that none should bee crowned there in the life to come but according to the measure of his fight in 〈…〉 and thereunto cited those places of Scripture which yeeld no such matter vnto you but onely that such as striue heere shall ouercome and bee crowned there without anie apportioning of it according to their measure of striuing as you had framed it Whereas therefore you had further gone than those places did warrant and would gladly abuse that also to the mainteinance of some of your errours not eating in the meane season howe you tormented a weake conscience which way could I in fewer wordes and with lesse alteration of those that you had giuen mee both haue answered those places you cited and prouided for the broken heart against such discomfortable doctrine as you would gladlie haue forced vppon it out of the same Weigh then the matter a little better and you shall see the bodging that you speake of to be so bound with the baâ—â—bias that you put on it that needes it must holde the contrarie course to
and is in no wise to be allowed As touching the other with what face could you say it that â— do charge my fellow Ministers and brethren first to haue vrged this separation e Whereas in truth I doo no where so charge them but verie plainelie impure that to our aduersaries and especially to those that are the most cunning and most learned of them adding further in plaine tearmes both that they doo busily vrge that point and would haue neither vs nor others to make at all any quaestion of it is plainely appeereth in the beginning of the fifteenth section But belike the time is nowe come that God would haue it knowne vnto the world that the deeper you are rooted in those your Romish conceits and the more sway that you beare among your selues that are of that sort the more assured may we also bee that you haue the more piâ—â— off not onely al conscience and feare of God oâ—â— all honestie too and shame among men so 〈◊〉 to auouch so plaine vntruths 29 Your dalliance tendeth to this ende that now at the length I against al custom of my brethren do offer vnto you this so great and sodaine courtesie â—hen that you take vppon you to shewe what the cause is why so I haue doone This great and sodaine cortesie that now I offer vnto you is that I doo not denie you to bee members of the same church with vs generally and therewithal grant that the church wherof I speak is the true church Catholike and Apostolike I cannot denie you to be of one and the self-same church with vs generally because that being demaunded of your faith you say that you beleue in Christ and withal witnes that your profession by receiuing after a sort both the old Testament the new those two Sacraments that are therein to vs commended as we also on the other side beleue in Christ receiue those scriptures haue those Sacraments in daily vse But this curtesie as you tearme it doth not in truth so much please you as it doth inwardly vex fret you that therby you see your woÌ„ted course so crossed with the truth it selfe that you are out of hope so farre to abuse the facilitie of diuers as heretofore ful oft you haue done to your own aduauntage bearing them in hand and facing them downe that if they like not of your errors but imbrace the truth of Christ as it is in it selfe without your corrupt or needles additioÌ„s they are no more of the Church as they were before but now must go seeke a new habitation so conuey their descent froÌ„ other auncestors as that alwaies they find theÌ„selues to be a distinct people froÌ„ you not only since your corrupt estate but also before That you account this a new a sodain curtesie that I now at the length against all custom of my brethrenâ— as you say do offer to you that it is a meere fiction of yours a manifest vntruth yet notwithstaÌ„ding it is true too that hitherto we haue accounted you as your self alledgeth yet do the Synagogue of Sathan For we all accouÌ„t you in som sense to bee of the church as the Scribes and Pharisies were as that maÌ„ of sin is said to sit in the Temple of God as abhomination was said to stand in the holy place as Ismael was for a time with Isaac in the house of Abraham as Esau was for a time with Iacob in the womb of Rebecca as those wer builders that euer refused the head stone of the corner as those were his owne that neuertheles did refuse him knew him not when he came amoÌ„g them many such like I dare aduenture that you are able to alledge none that in such seÌ„se denieth you to be of the church As for example M. Caluin is one that most of al excludeth you from al sound interest in the church of God colour of it as plainly appeereth as in many other places of his godly profouÌ„d learned works so namelie in the second chap. of the fourth booke of his Institutions And yet he so concludeth his Treatise as that in such sense as I haue set down he leaueth you some interest in the church His woordes are plaine in the beginning of the last section of that chap. Quum ergo ecclesiae tit ulum non simpliciter voâ—umus concedere Papistis non idro Ecclesias apud cos esse inficianâ—â—er sed tantum litigamus de vera legitiâ—ima ecclesiae institutione quae in communione cum sacrorum quae signa sunt professionis tum vero potissimum doctrinae requiritur Antichrist uÌ„ in temple Dei sessurum praedixerunt Dan. Paul illius scelerati et abominandi regni ducem antesignanum apud nos facimus Rom. Pont. Quod sedes eius in templo Dei collocatur it a innuitur tale fore eius regnum quod nec Christi nec ecclesiae nomen aboleat Hinc igittur patet nos minime negare quin sub eius quoque tyrannide Ecclesiae maneaÌ„t sed quas sacrilegia impietate profanarit c. That is when as we do not simply or without al maner of limitatioÌ„ grant to the papists the title of the Church we do not altogither denie that they haue any churches but only we striue about the true lawfull institution of the Church which is sought in the felowship or partaking partly of holy thinges which are signs of our profession but chiefly of doctrine That Antichrist should sit in the temple of God Daniel and Paul haue for shewed of that wicked abhominable kingdome we doo holde that with vs the captaine and chiefe leader is the B of Rome That his seal is placed in the Temple of God thereby wee are giuen to vnderstand that such shal be the maner of his kingdome that shall not abolish the name of Christ or of the Church Hence therfore it appeareth that we doubt denie but that vnder his tyrannie Churches remaine but such as he with sacrilegious impietie hath prophaned c. And on 2. Thes. 2.4 he thus coÌ„cludeth his treatise thereon Templumerge Dei esse fateor in quo dominatur Papa sed innumeris sacrilegiis prophanatum That is I graunt therefore that to bee the Temple of God in the which the Pope beareth the sway but with innumerable sacrilegies prophaned Luther also you know wel inough dealeth roundly with you maketh you no better in respect of our Apostacle and vsurpation than the Synagogue of Sathan and the Kingdome of the Beast and yet in respect of the worde and Sacraments after a som remaining among you he dooth freely leaue you altogither as much as I haue giuen you For writing against the Anabaptists hee graunteth that there is plurimum bom Christiani sub Papatu and then reckoneth vp the holy Scriptures both the Sacraments and the Catechisme of the Lords Prayer the ten Commandements the Articles of the faith graunting
needs must this also be an obscure sentence apt to deceiue to vse the same the tricke of an heretike But doe you thinke that Epiphanius or Augustine would sooth you herein or that S. Peter meant of any such matter If they would find it set it down if not how is it then marke whence you are falne that you are not ashamed so fowly to wrest them The aduantage that herein you haue left to me against your self is in comparisō no great matter yet such as I saide such as it is needs must you heare of it because you are so ready to catch at others It resteth therfore in these 2. points one that you do the sentence some wrong to set it down so negligently cōfusedly as you do not distinguishing the members thereof by orderly pointing as you had it of me as it is witnes your selues in the text it self the other that twise togither you do so resolutely ascribe it to S. Paul Touching the first it may be but the ouersight of you or your printer howbeit both of you ought to haue vsed more diligēce in it The sentēce is to good purpose it is weightie and of great importance you ought to haue seene better vnto it both he for his part and you for yours But I doubt very much that your Printer hath doone but as you your selfe set it downe vnto him and that you haue doone it of purpose nothing at all regarding how confusedly nor how ill-fauoredly you serue vs with the word of God But we will not so take it at your handes With ill will you are brought at length to haue some dealing with the written worde of God and very shame hath woon at your hands not so far to abandon your selues from the scriptures as otherwise full gladly you would And nowe that you must for shame doe somewhat you would gladly do it as ill-fauouredly as you might that so wee might find neither life nor comfort nor sense therin But you shall not so abuse the word of life you shall not shrinke from it and yet you shall not sliue it neither Whereunto if we may be so bolde as to adde that your selfe is one of these Iesuite-friers that late ofspring of that ruinous Popedom as that R. P. that is thought to bee the authour of this booke is said to be you haue done well so to let the world vnderstand and you may do well to marke it your selfe what ill accord there is betwixt Iesus and Iesuites whensoeuer they meete You had no sooner espied him to be in place but by and by your stomake rose against him and some way or other must you needes shewe your gall there was no remedie As touching the latter of them I denie not but that it is the iudgement of diuers of the ancient fathers that it might bee the Apostle Saint Paul that wrote it and of some that it was and so likewise of the writers nowe But yet you cannot bee ignorant withall that the matter was then in question among them yet is with the learned now What ground therefore can you haue to affirme so resolutely that which the fathers of olde and the learned now haue not yet so throughly decided If you alledge the determination of the church of Rome we hold it for nothing in these matters now since the time that you are departed away from the faith in so manie things as you are and haue banded your selues against the Lord and his annointed And if needs you will looke to be allowed this libertie that you may so determine vpon it as you thinke good you had need first to see how those reasons may be answered that are to the contrarie rather than so seruilely to cleaue to the bare iudgement of those that set it downe as themselues list I speake it but of your owne companions nowe without regarding vnto what side the strongest reasons incline Seeing that we do all agree that it is Apostolical and the vndoubted word of God it can be no derogatiue vnto it soberly to harken further of him that wrote it neither yet to doubt in such a point of an opinion but so farre receiued so long as wee see not the reasons cleared that are to the contrarie But it may be you wil thinke that these things are so small in themselues that the aduantage that therein you haue left vnto mee was not to be regarded nor so to be laide to your charge Whether it be litle or great it forceth not now but this may I plainely set downe vnto you that the lesser of them both is of that importance that therein as I said you haue giuen greater cause or iust reproofe than I did to you or any other not onely for setting downe the sentence it selfe in such sort as I did but also in all the rest that followeth When you were so readie to reproue another vpon your owne surmise without any sufficient ground for your perswasion therein you should haue taken such heed to your selfe as that wherein you condemned another your selfe were not found more faultie than he 4 Being come thus far your conclusion is And this for the first Page Yea verily your dealing about my first Page onely may bee sufficient to teach vs all how ready you are to pick som quarrel or other what indifferencie or plain dealing we may looke for at your hands in al the rest And I will assure the Reader togither with you that such as this your beginning is such none other is that which followeth in the one you haue giuen a tast of the other For such occasiō as I gaue you in the disposing of the title in prefixing the sentence aforesaid so to inueigh against me as you do such haue I giuē you in that which followeth as you deal in these things against me as if there were a fault cōmitted when as notwithstanding you haue found none do not nor can not lay any to my charge euē so do you in the rest likewise as I trust the indifferent Reader shall soon perceiue And so you haue done very well so distinctly to point your finger as you doe to this your woorthy handling of those matters that you met withall in the first page I am content if so you wil haue it that it shall stand for a right pattern of al the rest Be it now whatsoeuer it can be such as this is such is the other any man that will may in this beginning see the whole course that you do hold vntill the ending 5 Which that your self may better declare as you haue ended with this your first page so haue you a fresh begū with the next For there by placing the arms of the church of York the Archbishop that now is togither you readily infer a conclusion no doubt that followeth on the premisses passing wel that it is with vs Good doctrine
otherwise abuse them to your owne fancie was it not meet that they should be deliuered from such ill dealing Your workes of merite hire labouring for reward gaining of heauen and the facilitie that you suppose therein doo 〈◊〉 remaine which also you complaine to bee strooken out So are they indeed For what reason was there to let them stande Is it not inough for you to haue heauen offered vnto you but that you must haue it by your owne purchase also Or being your selfe so vainely perswaded of the righteousnes that is in man must we needs let the same stand to the dishonour of God and ouerthrow of others If needs you will thinke so well of your selues of your owne three-halfepeny works yet there let it die and go no further let not others be troubled with it nor haue the infection of so dangerous vaine an opinion brought before them Works are good when they are doone for the seruice of God to glorifie him or to benefit others but if you doo them to gaine heauen you haue made them odious to God and your selfe is an hireling also 15 Those that varie from the nature of these others going before and take vnto them an other course not charging me now with corrupting falsifiyng and such like but onely with want of wit discretion or grace are such as you gather out of my Annotations of which you say some are fond others absurd and a third sort wicked Howbeit as fond as I am yet thus much haue I marked withall that althogh you do reply to certaine of them where you thinke that they haue some matter for you yet on the other side where you are able to say nothing against that which I haue noted which we may find in manie of them you do not there acknowledge your ouersight but only passe it ouer with silence and still holde on your wonted course loath to amend it though you see that you cannot defend it But to consider of those wherein you thinke that you haue the aduantage and first as touching those that are fond whereas I haue giuen a note of a point wherin Philosophers were long since deceiued and out of which certaine of our deuines had taken occasion of errour also you crie out a-maine that I charge you and your fellowes to hold that errour Whereas notwithstanding I neuer meant neither you nor your fellowes neither and my words are cleere inough in themselues because I spake of Philosophers and not of you and of the diuines of a time past and not of the time that now is present And seeing you cannot but know as I do take it propter summam doctoris authoritatem vrbis but that most of the ancient Philosophers do holde that anima sequitur temperaturam corporis and that not onely diuers of our Phisitians in times past that stucke so much to natural reason doubted of the soules immortalitie but certain of our diuines also that were woont to take their light so much from Philosophie were somwhat likewise deceiued hereby how commeth it to passe that none of these considerations nor altogither could help you to vnderstand that I meant neither you nor your fellows For notwithstanding these considerations and the euidencie of the place it selfe see now how far the desire of contentiō hath blinded your eies that it could not with any indifferencie be wrested to this supposed sense of yours yet as though the matter were cleere could not be otherwise you therupon take it maruelous hotly call it patching cobling lying fondnes But the lesse that you finde any such thing in that which is there set down by me the more must it rest on that which thereon is so vnaduisedly gathered by you and considering how wide you were in this matter what letteth now but that ye might well take home again some of those your toyish speeches aduising your self a litle better who now it is that hath affirmed that which is neither so nor so whether it bee you or I that is that good man that vnderstandeth not what he dooth say or his aduerse-part doth hold albeit if yee beleeue him he hath studied the schoolmen And but that you are possessed alredy with so inordinate affectiōs as many waies you shew your selfe to bee you could neuer so far mistake this as you did vnles you haue som priuy gal in your profession that belike was a litle rubd therby As in this you haue mistakē me so bicause in another place you haue mistooke your self seing no reason in the death of Christ and I tooke you with it alledging there was great reason in it that Christ should die here you can in no wise take it in another sense but that I would make the mystery of our redemption no matter of faith but onlie of reason So that whereas before by declaring that you saw no reason in it you made it knowne that you litle vnderstood the mystery of our saluation in him so cōsequently could minister but cold cōfort to others for that matter in time of need so by this your interpretation of my admonition theron you shew your self not desirous to learn any better nor in good part to take it being offered 16 Then concerning those that you cal absurd first you come to my note of the knowledge that we shal haue one of another after our resurrectiō in the kingdome of God which you holde to bee such as shal cōsist of that earthly knowledge that we now haue in this life and altogither omitting the reasons that I alledged you content your selfe with the ods of the persōs that you wold seem to haue conceiued and there you rest Howbeit you were to haue knowne both that Cyprian in that his sermon by occasion of the pestilence that then so raged in those partes endeuoring himselfe to imbolden the people to bee willing to die if God should cal them might verie wel vtter in the way of perswasion many thinges whereon it were not good to build any generall doctrine and that all the opinions of the learned either of him or anie other are not alwaies to be receiued Then also that you would seeme to set so much by Cyprian it is no more but your wonted vanitie as vppon disdaine you do in like sort make light of others You would gladly shrowd your selues vnder the credit and reuerend estimation of the godlie Fathers but in truth you esteeme of none of them all but so farre as you hope to wrest them to your owne naughtie purpose So that although Cyprian were indeed as fully on your side as you face vs out that he is yet notwithstanding there is no iust cause for you to make it so cleere a matter as that there may be no question of it But nowe in truth there is no such matter as you pretend For whereas you did speake of our naturall parentes kinsfolke and freendes as
not restrained further among vs than the woorde of God alloweth it to be Which latter point was in no wise to be reprooued by you considering how fowly you are polluted because you doo so far abandon that holie ordinance of God from you And yet are you so eagerly set thereon that to force that aduauntage on your side you haue depraued both my Annotation and Saint Augustines rule besides which faine you would haue strengthened against vs therin With like wisedome and honestie is it that when wee aduaunce the blessednes of these daies to the glorie of God and ioy that our monie dooth not nowe goe foorth to the mainteinance of forraine power abroad you call the one intolerable lying flatterie the other you 〈◊〉 is but a fiction As touching my selfe there â—â—ede bee no question but that you are througly â—â—â—gred with me you do so vnquietly take whatsoeuer I doo whatsoeuer I say When I bring in that sentence of Scripture Iesus Christ yesterday today and the same for euer you cannot tell what I should meane thereby and besides you abuse for my sake I feare the sentence it selfe When I am so bold as to gesse that a good part of your booke might be taken out of certain of the Schoolmen thereupon I must bee so ignorant in them that I do not so much as knowe what they treat on and yet both you know that so it might and your self are faine both to shut vp your eies that you might in no wise see whom I speake of and there also to alter my words againe to your aduauntage Afterward in the Pacification not onely the methode misliketh you when as notwithstanding you doe finde no fault with it but also whatsoeuer I say that do you euer almost take in a contrarie sense when as notwithstanding the woordes bee cleere inough in themselues as before is declared But then comming to your owne sweet selues the copie of your countenance is by and by altered and there you put on more amiable lookes For you forsooth are the onely men that can make books of deuotion pretie contemplation you perhaps it is wel that this commeth in with perhaps will one day declare that our profession is such as hath nothing at all in heauen nor in earthy to mooue men vnto it but onely respect of temporal commoditie but yours hath all So that now for deuotion and the controuersies also all the learning that thereunto belongeth lieth altogither with you and none with vs. And yet are you no sooner entered into the remembrance of the learning you haue found in manie of vs and name 〈◊〉 in the controuersies that are betwixt vs but that by and by you call hard vpon vs for bookes of deuotion when you were desirous to say somewhat against vs by the authoritie and force of some speciall places in all your store you found none other but such as did most readily turne against your selues when you thought you had Cyprian to accord vnto you in your perswasion of our glorified estate it appeereth you did not vnderstand your owne author when you heard that the silence of the blessed Virgin and of other Disciples of Christ leauing him vnto the reproch of all men and nothing at all defending his innocencie against them was a breach of diuers of Gods commaundements you could not tell how to begin to find it the breach of anie one To which end also may bee referred that knowledge and faith is with you but of one weeks learning your grosse and rude definition of a Christian man your imperfect discourse against despaire your so vnskilfull reckoning of those yeres that I haue admonished you of so distinctly and plainly set downe in the text it selfe But the more you denie learning to those that so readilie finde such ignorances in you in so small a roome so manie togither in a woorke that was laboured and carâ—â—â—ing with it great vaunts of learning the strongger you conclude against your selfe the more haue you brought your selfe in question and the lesse are you able nowe to cast off the selfe-same reproch that you were so desirous to cast vpon vs. All which if nowe you had rather to haue in lesse roome it is no more in effect but this that you haue boldly borne vs in hand of much you haue mistaken depraued and falsified more and freelie haue you taken your libertie and pleasure to carpe at all but otherwise against me or for your selfe that is woorth the writing or woorth the reading you haue brought as little as may bee and that is nothing 38 This is in a manner the effect of all your labours heerein these are the causes you had to complaine and this is the busines you haue made thereupon And now haue I no more at this time to say vnto you because I see no such temper in you as may put mee in anie hope to doo you anie good by sound admonition For seeing that you haue so manie waies so ill a cause not onelie in your religion now but also in your naughtie dealings against princes and states themselues yet notwithstanding are in no wise able your selues to find it nor can be made to perceiue it by those that do most plainly point you vnto it how many we thinke otherwise of you but that either you are starke blind and can see nothing at all or els haue hardened your hartes so much against the mercifull calling of God that though you see it yet you cannot beleeue it nor yeeld your selue in obedience vnto it If it be so then is it cleere that in that case there can bee no dealing with youâ— your conuersion so long as the iustice of GOD doth leaue you therein to your selues Yet others may see and acknowledge in you the feareful but righteous iudgements of God that hauing followed idols so much as you haue nowe are you become idols your selues hauing eies and yet not able to see eares and yet not able to heare faire nostrels to see too and yet hauing in them of this kind of life no breath at all Insomuch that nowe we haue in you experience againe of that which hath beene taught vs before that as the wares of God are plaine and right vnto the iust so are they stumbling-blockes to the wicked and that Christ himselfe in the wisedome of the Father is in so wonderfull maner giuen vnto vs as that although he be in Sion a chiefe corner-stone ebect and pretious to them that beleeue yet is hee likewise a stone to stumble at a rocke of offence to them which stumble at the woord and are disobedient Go your waies therefore yee shrinking children that haue forsaken the Lord of life and counted your selues vnwoorthie of him that haue had the Gospell deliuered vnto you by Christ himselfe and haue not kept it that all this while bearing the world in hande that you are the onelie builders can neuer bee induced to haue