A Godly Letter to the Faithful in London

John Knox To the faithful in Londō / Newcastell / Barwyke / & to all others / within the Realm of England / that leuith the coming of our Lord Jesus / Wissheth continuance in godliness too the ende With a declaration of prayer / annexeth to the same.

W Hē I remember the fearthfull threathninges of God / pro • oficed against Realms / and nations / to whom the light of God's word hath ben offered / and contemptiously by them refused / as my heart unfeignedly / morneth for your present estate / dearly beloved in our savior Ihesus Christ / so doth the hole powers / of body & soul / trymble and shake / for the plagues that are to come. But that God's true word hath ben offered to the realm of England can none deny / except such as by the dyuel holden in bondage (God justly so punishing their proud inobediens) hath neither eyes to se / nor understanding to dycerne good from bad / nor darkness from light. Against whom no otherwise will I contend at this present / then did the Prephete Jeremiah / against the styffe necked & stubborn people of Judah / saying: The wrath off the Lord shall not be turned away, till he have fulfilled the thoughts of his heart. And thus leave I them (as of whose reap̄taūce there is small hope) to the hands of him that shall not forget their horrible blasphemis spoken in dispitte of Christ's truth / and of his true minister • And with you that unfeignedly morneth for the great shipwrake of gods true religion / purpose I to communicate such counsailer / and admonicious / now by my writing / as sometimes it pleased God / I did proclaim in your cares. The ende of which my admonition is / that euin as that you purpose / and intend to avoid God's vengeance / both in this life / and in the life to come / that so ye avoid and flee (as well in body as in spirit) all fellowship / and societye with Idolaters in their Idolatry. You shrynke (I know) euin at the first. But if an orator / had the matter in hādlinge / he would prove it honest / profitable / easy / and necessary to be done / and in everyone point were store enough / for a longe oration. But as I never labored to persuade any man in matters of religion (God I take to record in my conscience) except by the very simplicity & plain infallable truth of God's word. No more mind I in this behaulfe. But this I affirm / that to flee frō idolatrye / is so profitable and so necessary to a Christian / that unless he so do / all worldly profyth turneth to his perpetual disprofeit / and condemnacion. Profijt aperteyning / either to the bodies / or to the souls / of our selves / and our posterity / corporal commodities consisteth in such things as man chiefly couetith for the body / as riches / estimation / longe life / health and quietness in earth. The only comfort and joy of the soul is God by his word expelling ingoraunce / sin / and death / and in the place of those / planting true knowledge of him self / and with the same justice and life / by Christ his son. If any off these forsaide move us / then of necessity it is / that we avoid Idolatry / for plain it is / that the soul hath neither life nor comfort / but by God alone / with whom Idolators / hath no other participacion • hen hath the devils / and albeit that abhominable Idolators / for a moment • rysiphe yet approacheth the hour / when God's vengeance shall stryke / not only their souls / but euin their vile carcasies / shall be plagued / as God before hath threatened. Their cities shall be burned / their land shall be laid wast / their enemies shall dwell in their strong holds / their wives and daughters shall be defyted their chyldrē shall fall in the edge of the swerd / mercy shall they find none / because they have refused the God of all mercy / when lovingly and longe he called upon thē / you would know the time / and what certitude I have here off. To God will I appoint no time / but that these and mo plagues / shall fall upon England (and that ere it he long) I am so sure / as that I am that my God liveth. This my affirmacion / shall displease many / and shall content few / God knowith the secretes of all hearts / knoweth that also / it displeaseth myself / and yet like as before I have ben compelled to speak in your presens (& in presens of others) such things / as were not pleasable to the ears of men / whereof (alas) a great part this day are come to pass / so I am compelled now to write with the tears of my eyes / I know to your displeasur. But dear brethrē / be subject unto God / and give place unto his wrath / that ye may escape his everlasting vengeance. My pen I trust / shall now be no more vehement / then my tongue hath been after then ones / not only before you / but also before the chief of the Realm. What was said in Newcastel & Barwyke before the sweat. I trust yet some in those places beareth in mind / What vpō the day of all Saints / the year that the duke of Somerset was last apprehended. What before him / that then was duke of Northumberland / in the town of Newcastell / & other places moo: What before the kings majesty at Wynsore / Hamptoncourt / and Westmynster / & finally what was spoken in London / in moo places then one / when fyers of joy & riotous bankettinge were made at the Proclamacion of Mary your queen. If men will not speak / the stones and timber of those places / shall cry in fire / and bear record that the truth was spoken / and shall absolve me / in that behalf in the day of the Lord.

Suspect not brethrē / that I delight in your calamities / or in the plagues that shall fall vpō that unthankfull nation. No / God I take to record / that my heart mourneth within me / and that I am crucyet for remembrance of youre troubles / but if that I should cease / then did I against my conscience / as also against my knowledge / and so should be gyltie of the blood of those that perished for lack of admonicions / and yet shall the plague not a moment the longer be delayed / for the Lord hath appointed the day of his vengeance / before the which he sendeth trompettes and messengers / that his elect / watchynge with prayers / and sobriety / may be his mercy esscape the vengeance that shall come. But now you would know the grounds of my certitude / God graundt that hearing them / you may understand / and stedfastlye believe the same. My assurances are / not the maruailes of Marlynge / neither yet the dark sentences of prophaine Prophets / but the plain [ 1] truth of God's holy word. The immutable [ 2] justice of the everliving God. And the ordenary [ 3] course of his plagues from the beginning are my assuraunces & grounds. God's word threateneth distrucciō to the inobediēt. Hys immutable justice must require the same. The ordenarye punishments and plagues showeth examples / What men then having understanding / can cease to prophecy?

The word of God plainly speaketh / that if a man shall hear the curses of God's law / and yet in his heart shall promys to him self / felicity and good luck / thinckinge / he shall have peace / albeit he walcke after the Imaginacions of his own will and heart. To such a man the Lord will not be merciful / but his wrath shall be kyndled against him / and he shall destroy his name frō under the heaven / how the Lord threathneth plagues after plague / and ever the last to be the first / whill finally / he will consume realms / and nations / if they repent not / read the .26. Chapter off Leviticus / which chapter / oft I have willed you to mark / as yet I do unfeignedly / anh think not / it apretāneth to the Jews only / No brethren. The Prophets are the interparatours of the law / and they make the plagues off God commō to all offendore / the punyshment ever beginning at the household of God. And here I must touche a point off that deuillishe confession made (a late) by that miserable man / whose name for sorrow I cannot recyte. This argument he useth to prove the doctrine of late years done / taught amongst you / to be wicked / Trobles and plagues (saith he) hath followed the same / not only here in England / but also in Germany / as he willeth you to mark. This fragill / and vain argument at this time / no otherwise will I labor / to confute / then by plain scriptures declaring / that plagues apertayneth to all inobedient / beginning first / where God's mercies hath been offered / and obstinately refused / & that may answer the blind rage of ignoraūces.

The Prophets Isaiah, Ieremi, Ezechieli, after they had proclaimed plagues to fall upon the people off Israel / and upon the house of Judah / prophesieth particularlye against certain nations and cities / not only adiacēt in circute about Jerusalem / but also against such / as were far distant / as against Moab, Ammon, Palestine, Egypt, Tirus, Damascus, and Babilone. And in conclusion general prophesies / are spoken against all inobedient / and sinful nations / as in the .24. chapter off Isaiah plainly appeareth / as also the Lord commanding Ieremye / to give the cup off his wrath / to all nations / one after another / who should drink off the same / although they refused it of his hand / That is albeit / they would not believe the voice off the prophet / yet should they not escape. The plagues that he spake. For every nation like unto this / shall I punisshe saith the Lord of hosts / with the same agreeth Amos saying: The eyes of the Lord are upon every sinful nation, to root it out of the earth. These and many mo places evidently proveth that plagues spoke in the law of God / apertaineth to every rebellions people / be they Jew / or be they Gentile / Christians intytel / or Turks in professiō / And the ground off the Prophets / was the same / which before I have rehearsed for my assuraunces / that England shall be plagued / which is God's immutable and inviolable justice / which cannot spare in one Realm and nation / those offenses that moste severally he hath punisshed in another / for so were he in equal and made differēs / as touching executiō off his just judgments / betwixt parson and parson / which is most contrarious to the integrity off his justice / for thus he speaketh by Jeremiah his prophet: Behold, I have begōne to punisshe in the house where my name is incalled / and shall I spare the rest, as the Lord would say / howe can my justice permit those crimes unpunished in proud contemptnors / that neither regardeth me / nor yet my law / seeing I have not spared my own people / that externally beareth some reuerēs to my name.

That God hath punished other realms & nations / men of small understanding / will easily confess. But whether that like crimes hath ben / and yet are committed within the realm of England / as were before the last plagues of God among those nations / that is to be inquyred / in this case can nothing better instruct us then God's plain word / rebuking the vices / which reigned in those days / And omitting all such as prophesied before / it shall suffice for this time / to rehearse some places of Ieremye. The time of whose prophecy well considered / shall make the matter more sensible. He beginneth in the .13. year of the reign of king Josiah and contine with till after the destrucciō of Jerusalem / which came in the .11. year of Zedekiah / Longe preached this godly man to wite .39. years and six months / before the uttermost of the plagues apprehended this stubborn nation and that he did with much trouble and injury sustained / as in his prophesyes / is to be seen. Be all lykelyhold then / there were some Cob Carles / that were not pleased with the profit / neither yet with his preachings. And yet plain • t is / that no Kyng so truly turned unto God with all his heart / with all his soul / and with all his strength / according to all the law of Moses / as did Josiah / & yet as said is. The prophet of God was troubled / not by no small number / for I find him complain / universally & generally upon the people's iniquity / for thus judgeth he God's speaking. My people have committed dubble iniquity. They have forsaken me / the fountain of lyning water / and have digged to thē selves Sestornes / that can hold no water. Why wilt thou iustefye thyselfe? Under thy wings is found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents / whom thou found not in corners / and yet thou sayest / I am innocent. Thou hast gotten a whores forehead / thou canst not think shame / my people is foolish / they know me not / they are folysh children / and have no wysdō / wise they are to committee mischief / but to do good they are all together ignorant. Every mā may beware of his neyghbor / and no man assuredly may trust in his brother / for every man is becōme dis • eatfull / they have practesed their toūges to lies / and guyle. They have lef • my law (saith the Lord) and have followed the wicked imaginaciōs of their own hearts / they have followed after Balaam / whom their fathers taught them. Of this and of many moo places like appeareth the general offenses / off that people to have ben defectiō frō God / shedding of innocent blood / Iustifiyng of thē selves / & defense of their iniquity / while yet they abeūded in reaf / murder / oppressiō / lies / craft / practice / deceat / & manifest idolatrye / following the trade of their fathers / who under Manasseh, & Ammō / of whom the one in the beginning / the other all his life mantaineth Idolatry / had ben the ringleders of all abomination.

The prophets off God woēdering at so manifest iniquity judged that such ingnorauncy and inobediēce was only amongst the rascals sort off men / and therefore he saith: These be but poor ones / they are folisshe / they know not the way of the Lord / nor the judgment off their God / I will goo to the nobils and I will talk with them / for they know the way off their Lord / and the judgments of their God. But what findeth he amongst them / he declared in these words, They have all brokē the yocke, they have heaped sin vpō sin / and one misschefe upon another / frō the least unto the moste / all are bent upon auaryce / and gape for lucre / from the priest to the prophet / every man dealth deceatfully. Behold / their ears be incircūcised / they cannot aduert / The word of God is a rebuke unto them / they delight not in it. They have committed abhominable misschiefe / What this abomination was / God showeth to Ezekiel / all had forsaken God in their hearts / in so much that a great number openly / had turned their backs unto God / and made sacrifice to the sun / every man in his own secret closet. Yea / women mourned for that they were not permitted to commit open abomination / is it not to be wondered that all estates were so corrupt under so godly a prince. But our prophet Jeremiah proceadith in his complainte / sayings / they cannot repent / neither yet think shame. They have denied the Lord / and said it is not he / we shall neither se sword nor hunger. You hear the obediens that the prophet found amongst the princes off Judah / and yet I say / it is not to be wondered that the vineyard / which was so well mannured / brought forth no better grapes. They had a king most godly minded / they had prophets (for Jeremiah was not alone) most faithful and fervent. They were admonisshed by diverse plagues / and always the prophets called for repentance / and yet followed nothing / but open contempt off God / and of his messengers. Their repentance were like the morning dew / it remained not / although they cold say in their mouthe / the Lord liveth / yet were their oaths nothing but lies. Fynde me one man / that doth equity & justice &c. to him will I be merciful saith the Lord. Here was narrow and sharp inquisition amongst so great a multitude be like / there hath not been very many / when he that knoweth the secrete thoughts searcheth so diligently. But before we proceade further in this matter / it shall be profitable / to se how these procedīges doth agree with our estate and time. And first that we had not God's word offered unto us / will none (except arrant papist) allege. We had a king off so godly disposition towards virtue / and chiefly towards God's truth / that none frō the beginning passed him / and to my knowledge / none of his year did ever match him in that behalf / iff he might have been lord of his own will. In this mean time / if sins did abound / let every man accuse his own conscience for here I am not minded to specefie all that I know / neither yet is it necessary / seeing some crimes were so manifest and so heinous that the earth cold not hid the innocent blood / nor yet could the heavens without shame / behold the craft / the deceat / the violens and wrong / that openly was wrought. And in the mean ceason / the hand off God was busy over us / & his true messengers is kept not silence. You know that the realm off England was visited with strange plagues and whether that it was ever prophesied / that the worse plagues were to follow / I appeal to the testemony of your own conscience / but what ensewed here upon? Alas I am ashamed to rehearse it / universal contempt of all godly admonitions / hatered of those that rebuked their vices: Autoresing of such / as cold inuente most vylanye against the preachers of God. In this matter I may be admitted for a sufficient witness / for I hard and saw / I understood and knew / with the sorrow of my heart / the manifest contempt and the crafty devices of the devil against those most godly and learned preachers, that this last Lent / Anno. 1553. were appointed to preach before the Kynges majesty / as also against all others / whose toūges were not tempered by the holy water of the court too speak it plainlye / who flatteringe against their own conscience / could not say / all was well / and nothing needed reformacion.

What reverence and audience was given unto preachers / this last Lent / by such as then were in authority / their own countinaunces declared assuredly / even such as was given to Ieremye / they hated such / as rebuked their vice / and stubbernlye they said: We will not amende / and yet howe boldly their sins were rebuked / such as were present / can witness with me / almost there was none / who did not prophesye and plainly spake the plagues that are begun / and assuredly shall ende. Mayster Grindall plainlye spake the death of the Kynges majesty / complayninge upon his household servants / who / neither feared to rail against the word off God / and against the true preachers of the same.

That godly and fervent man master Leuer / playnlye spake the desolacion off this common wealth. And master Bradford (whom God for Christ's his son sack comfort to the ende) spared not the proudest of them / but boldly declared / that God's vengeance shortly should strycke / those that then were in authority / because they lothed & abhorred the true word of the everlasting God / & willed thē to take example by a noble man / who became so cold in hearing God's word / that the year before his death / he would not disease him self to hear a sermō / God punisshed him (said that godly preacher) and shall he spare you that be dubble more wicked? No / ye shall say / will ye / or will ye not / ye shall drink of the cup of the Lord's wrath / Iudicium domini, Iudiciū domini. The judgment of the Lord / the judgment of the Lord / cried he with a lamentable voice / and weaping tears. Master Haddon / most lernedly opened the causes of the byepassed plagues / and assured them / that the worse was after to come / If repentance shortly were not found. Muche more I hard of these four / and of others / which now I may not rehearce / & that (which is to be noted) after that the hole counsel had said they would hear no mo of their sermons / they were indiscreet fellows / yea / & pratynge knaves / but I will not speak all / for if God contynew me in this trouble. I purpose to prepare a dysshe / forsuche as then led the ring / yea / who but they • but now they have been at the skoole of Placebo / and there they have learned amongst ladyes to daunse as the devil liest to pype. Agaynst those / whom God hath stryken / seeing now resteth to them no place of repentance / nothing mind I to speak. But such as live to this day / would be admonisshed that he that hath punished the one / will not spare the rest But to our matter. This presidents I judge sufficient to prove this our age to have been / & yet to remain like wicked (if it be not worse) with the time of Ieremye. Now let us search what followed in Judah? Mischefe upon mischefe / notwithstādinge the continual and long cryeng of the prophets / while finally God in his anger toke away good king Josiah / because he was determened to destroy Judah / as before he had destroyed Israel. After the death of this godly Kynge / great was the trouble / diverse & sundry were the alteracions in that commē wealth. Three kings taken prysoners / one after other in short space / what other were the miseries of that stubbern nation. O God, for thy great mercies sake, let never thy small and troubled flock / within the realm of England / learn in experiens. But in all those troubles / no repentance appeared / as by the prophet ye may learn / for thus he crieth: Thou haste stryken them o Lord / but they have not mourned / thou hast destroyed them / but they have not received discipline. They have hardened their faces harder then stones / they will not convert: The hole land is wasted / but no man will wyn / ponder & consider / the cause. This people will not hear my word / They walk in the wicked invention of their own hearts: They go after other gods to worship and serve them and of the prophets natural friends of the men of Anathotes / some plainly said. Speak no more to us in the name of the Lord / lease thou die in our hands / belike these men had small fantasye to God's prophet. But yet shall a sermon (and that which ensewid the same) made in the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim / son to Josiah / make evident / and better known / how much the people were bent to Idolatry / and to hear false prophets / after the death of their good king. The prophet is commanded by God to stand in the court or entres of the Lord's house / and to speak to all cities of Judah / that then came to worship / in the house of the Lord / and is commanded to keep no word back / if peradventure (saith the Lord) they will herken and tourne every man from his wicked way. The tenor of his sermon / is this / Thus faith the Lord: if ye will not obey me to walk in my laws / which I have given you / and to hear the words of my servants the prophets whom I sent unto you / rising up betymes and still sending / if ye will not hear thē (I said) then will I do to this house / as I did unto Silo / & will make this city / to be abhorred of all the people in the earth. Hear not the words of the prophets / that said unto you / you shall not serve the king of Babylon / I have not sent them (saith the Lord) howbeit / they are bold to prophesye lies in my name / if you give ear unto them / both you and your false prophets shall perish: Here is first to be noted / that the people was already entered in to iniquity / and especially straighte after the death of their king / into Idolatry / frō which the Lord by his prophet labored to call them back / threatening unto them desolation / if they proceed to rebel. Secondarely / it is to be observed / that amongst them were false prophets / not that they were so known / & hold̄ of the people / no / they were hold̄ and esteemed for so they boasted them selves to be. The true church of God that cold not err / for howe should the law perish from the mouthe of the preasts. These false prophets were mayntaynors of Idolatry / and yet boldelye promised to the people prosperity and good luck. Wherewith the people were so abused and blinded / that the words of Ieremye / did rather hard̄ their hearts / then provoke any to reap̄taunce / as the consequentes declared / for his sermon ended / the priests / prophets / and the hole people apprehended Ieremye / and with one voice cried / he is worthy of the death. Great was the uproar against the poor prophet / in which appearinglye / he could not have escaped the death. If the princes of Judah / had not hastelye comme from the kings house / in to the temple / and had taken upon them / the hearing of the cause / in which after much debate (while some defendid and some accused the prophet most vehemently) the text saith / that the hand of Ahikan the son of Saphan, was with Ieremye / that he should not be given into the hands off the people / to be killed. Hereof you may easlye consider (beloved brethren) what were the mannours of that wicked generation immediately / after the death of their good king / and howe they were encoraged to Idolatry by false prophets / but in all this time / the prophet ceaseth not most faithfully / to execute his office / for albeit after this he might not enter in the temple (for he was forbidden to preach) yet at God's commandment / he writing his sermons / and causing them to be openly red in the temple (alas I fear we lack Baruck) and after they come to the ears of the counsel / & last to the king. And albeit in dispyte they were ones brent / Yet is Jeremiah commanded to writ again / and boldly to say: Jehoiakim shall have no seed, that ever shall sit upon the seat of David. Their carrion shall be casten to the heat of the day / and to the fr • st in the night / and I shall viset saith the Lord the iniquity of him / of his seed and of his seruasites / and I shall bring upon them / upon the dwellers in Jerusalem and upon all Judah / all the calamities that I have spoken against them.

Albeit / when these words were spokē and written / so they were contempned / that they d •• st cry / Let the counsel of the holy one of Israel come, we will follow the devises of our own hearts / yet no word of his threatenings were spoken in vain / for after many plagues sustained by the misschefes father / the wicked and miserable son in the third month of his reign was led prysoner to Babylon. But now when the time of their desolation approacheth / God styred above thē such a king / such prophets and priests / as their own hearts wished / even such as should without repugnaunce / lead them to their vomet again / that they who never delyted in the truth / might fill their bellies with horrible lies. Zedekiah was king / and such as longe had resisted poor Ieremye / had now gotten in their hand / the fearful whip of correction Paschar / and his companyons led the king as they lyft / vn goith Topeth (a place of Idolatry) the hill Aulters smoketh with incense: Ba • l and his belly G • ddes / before the vengeance of God / was poured upon them / & vpō them whom they deceauid / gettet the day theī longe looked for. Inconclusion / so horrible were the abominations that newly were erected / that the Lord crieth to his sore troubled flock / what hath my well-beloved too do in my house (meaning in the temple of Jerusalem) seeing the multitude committeth such abhominatiō / they have provoked me to anger / burninge incense unto Baäl.

Which great abominations / when God had shewin / not only to Jeremiah / who then was in Jerusalem / but also to Ezekiel being prisoner in Babylon. Their bodies being separated / in prophecy they did both agre / that hole Israel & Judah should be destroyed. Thus writeth Ezekiel / Ah / upon all the abominations of the house of Israel / they shall fall by the sword / by pestilence and hunger / he that is far of shall die of the plagues / he that is • ye / shall fall by the sword / he that is left / and is beseaged / shall die by hunger / and I shall cōplet my wrath upon them. A • d Jeremiah saith: Behold / I will give this city in the hands of the Chaldees / in the hand of Nabuchod •• ser / king of Babylon / who shall take it. The Chaldees verily shall entre in to it / & they shall burn i • with fire / & the houses in which they burnt incense to Baal. &c. The children of Israel & the children of Judah had done nothing from their youth / but wickedness & that before my eyes to provoke me to anger / They have turned unto me their backs / and not their faces: They / their kings / their princes / their prophets / their priests / hole Judah and all the city of Jerusalem / they would not hear / and be reformed. They have set up their dōge (so termeth he their Idols) in the place that is consecrate to my name. And where the king of Babylon was lyeng about the city / he saith to the messyngers of Zedekiah (who were sent to demand of the prophet / what should become of the city). The Chaldees shall take this city and shall burn it with fire: Yea / if you had killed all the host of the Chaldees that besageth you / & if they killed / mē were left / every man should rise in his tent / and should burn this city with fire / he that abideth in this city shall die / either by sword / by hunger / or by pestilēs / but he that shall go forth to the Chaldees / shall live / & shall wynne his soul for a pray / And to the king in secret askinge his counsel / he boldly saith / if suddenly thou shalt go forth to the princes of the Babylonians. Thy soul shall live / and this city shall not be brent with fire / but and if thou go not forth to the captains of the Babylonians / this city shall be given over into the hands of the Chaldees / who shall burn it with fire / neither shalt thou escape their hands. Thus did these two prophets (as also did others) before them plainlye speak the desolation of that place / for such offenses / as before hath bē rehearsed. But how pleaseth such messaige the city of Jerusalem? the priests / princes & people of Judah? & what reward receiveth Jeremiah for his longe travail and painful preaching. Verily / euin such as Pashur & his counsel judgeth mete. He spake against the temple, he prophesied mischief against the city, he fainted the hearts of the soldiers, and of the people, but principally, he was vnfrendly to the faith, that Passhur taught the people: To week / the faith of their forefathers / who always rebelled against God. And therefore he was reputed a heretycke / accused of sedition / and dampened of treason. Playne preachings were made against all that he had spoken / and such felicity was promised / that within two years should the yocke of Nabuchonosor be broken from the necks of all people and the vessels of the lords house (together with all prysoners) should be brought again to Jerusalem. Now did this habound with wyne & oil / O pleasing and blessed amongst the people were such prophets / Jeremiah had troubled them, and therefore he must die. To prison shall he go / for the king can deny nothing to his princes / of whom Pashur appeareth / to have ben chief chaūcelour / by whom was not only the king / but also the hole multitude so blinded / that boldly they durst cry: No mischaunce shall come too us, we shall neither se pestilens nor hunger. The king of Babylon shall never come against this lande. In the midst of these stormy troubles / no other comfort had the prophet / then to complain to his God / at whose commandment he had spoken. And in this his complaint he is so kyndled against their Idolatry / and great unthankfulness that he crieth / as in a raige. O thou Lord of hosts, the tryar of the just, thou that seith the reins and the heart, Let me se thy vengeance taken upon thē, for unto the have I referred my cause▪ 〈◊〉 this prayer was most fearful to his enemies / if they had seen the effiaccie thereof so by the same was the prophet assured / that God's wrath was kyndled against that sinful natiō & that it should not turn back / till he had performed the cogitations of his own heart. I appeal to the conscience / of every indifferent mā / in what one point differeth the regiment manners / and estate of England this day frō the above rehearsed estate off Judah in those days / except that they had a king / a man (as appeareth) of nature / more facied / nor cruel / who sometimes was entreated in the prophets favor / and also required him of counsel in some dangers. And you have a Queen / a woman of a stout stomach / more styffe in opinion / then flexible too the truth / who in nowyse may abide the presens of God's prophets. In this one thing you disagre in all other things so like as one nut is too another. Their king led by pestilence priests / who guides your queen / it is not vnknowē / Under such came Idolatry to the highte again. O would to God / that the worse were not amongst you / In Jerusalem was Jeremiah persecuted / for speaking the truth / & for rebuking their Idolatry. What prison within London / tormenteth not some true prophet of God? for the same causes: And o thou doungeon off darkness where that Idole of late days was first erected (thou Tower of London) in the doth moo Jeremiah's then one suffer injury & trouble / whom God shall comfort according to his promise / and reward their persecutors even as they have deserved / and in that day shalt thou trymble / and such as shall purpose to defend the / shall perish with the / because thou waste first defiled with that most abhominable Idol.

Consider (dear brethren) if all things / as appertayninge to iniquity be a like betwixt England and Judah / before the destruction thereof / yea / If England be worse then Judea was in those days / seeing God spared not them / shall we think that the Lord's vengeance shall sleep / man's iniquity being so rype? No dear brethren: He that hath understanding must know the contrary, And he to whom the Lord's mouth hath spokē / must show the causes / why the lande shall be waste.

It may offend you / that I cal England worse / then was unthankful Judea / but if good and evident reasons advised may take place / then I fear not judgment. From Jerusalem / many passed at admonition of the prophets / leaving all that they had / rather then they would abide the danger of God's plagues that were threatened. God's prophets hath cried. but I hear not of many that prepareth to fly / God grant they repent not. In Jerusalem were princes / & noble men who defended Jeremiah, and also that did absolve him / when wrongfully he was accused by the priests. But howe many now of the nobility within England boldly speaketh in in the defense of God's messinger is easy too be told. Amongest them had God's prophet lyberty / to speak in maintenance of his doctrine. How such as seeketh a trial of their doctrine / hath been and are entreated amongst you / it is hard of in strange countries. In Jerusalem was Abdemelech / why when the prophet was cast in prysō (as worthy of death) boldly past to the king / and defending the innocence of the innocent / obtayneth his liberty / but in England I hear of none (God stir some) that dare be so bold / as to put their hands betwixt the Lions / and their pray / the poor saints of God / & those cruel murderers. In Jerusalem / Jeremiah being dampened to prison / was fed of the kings charges / & that when great hunger and scante of bread was in the hole city: In London where all plenty haboundes / are God's messengers permitted to hunger. Yea / (O horrable to be hard) and ancient fathers / are so cruelly entreated / that like extremetye hath seldom been used upon thieves and murderers. In this behalf do I not blame you (beloved brethren) for I assuredly know your hearts to mourn for the troubles of your brethren / and faithful preachers, and that you seek all means possible / how they may be comforted & releaued / but these things to the end that you mayese / that more abomination / & less fear of God / more in just dealing / and lese shame more cruel persecucion against God's messengers / and less mercy and gentleness / is now amongst youre chief rulars within England / then in those days was in Judea / and yet did not Ierusalē escape the punishment of God. Shall we then believe that England may avoid the vengeance that is threatened / No dear brethren, If Idolatry continue / as it is begun / no more can England escape God's vengeance / then God him self may lease his justice. And therefore (dearly beloved in our savior Jesus Christ) If profit to yourself or to your posterity can move you any thing / then must ye avoid and flee Idolatry. For if the Lord's messengers / that shall be sent too execute his wrath / find you amongst fylthie Idolaters / your bodies committing like abomination with them. Ye have no warrant that ye shall escape the plagues / prepared for the wicked. But rather it is to be feared that ye shall be plagued with them. The hole trybe of Benjamin, perished with the adulterers / & yet were they not all adulterers in faict. Hole Amalek was commanded to be destroyed / & yet was not one of those living that troubled the Israelites / in their passage from Egypt. Pharaoh was not drouned alone (as in another letter / I have more plainly writ̄) neither yet found Ionathas mercy / as touching life corporal / in the day when God's vengeance punished Saul the repobater / and why? the Apostle answereth: Because men knowing the justice of God, (saith he) and doing the contrary are worthy of death / not only those that doth wickedly / but also such as consenteth to the same. And no man can be excused / but that he consentes / who daily frequenting in the company of wicked men / giving neither sign in words nor in deed / that iniquity displeaseth him. And therefore yet I say / if profit may move us. &c. most profitable shall it be even for the body in this present life too avoid Idolatry / for so doing / As we shall esscape the plagues / which the ungodly shall suffer / so is God by his promise oblished unto us to be our father / our portiō / our inheritaūce & defense / he promiseth (& will not disceaue) to carry us upon his own wings from all danger. To plant us & our posterity in everlasting memorial. To feade us in the time off hunger / and finally to fight for us / and to save us from all miseries and mischaunces, But now to the subsequent.

As it is most profitable for body and soul to avoid Idolatry / so is it so necessary / that unless we so do / we refuse to be in league with God. We declare ourself to have no faith / & we • enye to be God's witness / and so must he of this justice expressed in his word deny us to apertaine to him or to his kingdom. And then (alas) what restith for us / but perpetual death ordained for those that will not continue in league with God. The league between God & us containeth these conditions / that God shall be our God / and we shall be his people / he shall communicate with us / of his graces & goodness we shall serve him in body & soul / he shall be our safeguard from death and damnation / we shall stick too him / and flee from all strange God's. This is the league in making whereof we swear solempnedly / never to have fellowship with any religiō / except with that which God hath auctoris • d by his manifest word. If by God's scriptures these presydents be so plain / that reasonably no man can de • ye any point thereof. Then have I good hope that ye will admit it to be necessary / that you avoid Idolatry / if the league between God and you shall be kept sure. And first it is to be observed / that God's justice / being infinite in matters of religion / requireth like obediens of all those that be within his league at all times / that he requireth of any one nation / or particular mā in any one age / for all that bide with ī his league / are one body (as Moses doth witness) recompting men / women / children / servants / princes / priests / officers / and strangers within the covenant of the Lord. Then what God requireth of one (as touching this league) he requireth of all / for his justice is immutable / & what he dampneth in any one that he must dampne in others / for he is righteous without parcialitie. Then let us consider what God hath required of such as hath been in league with him / and what he pronounceth damnable. Moses the mouth of God to his people of Israel speaketh as followeth: If thy brother the sonne of thy mother / or the wife of thy own bosom / or thy neighbor / whom thou lovest as thy own life / shall privily solyst the / Sayng let us go and serve other God's, whom thou hast not know̄. &c. Obey him not / hear him not / neither yet let thy eye spare him / be not merciful unto him / nor hyde him not / but kill him / let thy hand be the first upon him / that such a one may be killed / and then the hands of the holy people stone him with stones / until he die. And likewise commandeth he to be donne with a hole city / if the indwellers thereof turn back to Idolatry / addinge also / that the city and the whole spoil thereof shall be brent. That no portiō shall be saved / nor yet that the city shall be builded forever again because it is accursed of God.

Here is a plain declaracion / what God requireth of them that will continue in league with him / and what he hath dampened by his expressed words. And do we esteem (beloved brethren) that the immutable God will wink at our Idolatry / as that he saw it not: seeing he commandeth judgment to be executed so seuerly against Idolaters / and against such as only provoked or solisted others to Idolatry / that neither should blood nor affinity neither multitude nor riches / save such as offendeth / neither yet that we should coūsayll their offenses / but that we should be the first that should accuse brother / son / daughter / or wife / and why? because he intendeth (saith Moses) to bring the frō the Lord thy God / Who led thy forth from the land of Egypt / and therefore let him die / that all Israel hearing / may fear / and presumed not after too commit the like abomination. Let nothing apertayninge to such a man or city / cleave unto thy hand / that the Lord may turn frō the furor of his wrath & be moved over thy with most tender mercy and affeccion / and that he may multiplye thy / as he hath sworn unto thy fathers.

In these words most evidently is expressed unto us / why God will that we avoid all fellowship with Idolatry / & with the maintainers of the same: In which are three things chiefly to be noted / first that the holy Ghost instruct us / that maintaynours of Idolatry / & provokers to the same / intendeth to draw us frō God / & therefore he cōmaūdeath us / that we shall not counsel their inpietie / but that we shall make it known / & that we shall punish it / if we will have the league betwixt us & God too stand sure. And here is the firmamente of my first cause / why / it is necessary to avoid Idolatry / because that otherwise we declare our selves litell to regard / yea / to have broken / and plaīlie denied that holy league / which is between us & God / through Christ Jesus. Secōdarely it is to be noted / that Idolatry so kindleth the wrath of God / that it is never quenched / until the offenders / & all that they poses / be destroyed frō the earth / & that by fire. It may appear that this is seueare & rygorous judgment / but let the cause be considered / & thē shall we understand / that in the same / God showeth unto us his most singular love / declaring him self enemy unto our enemies / for all those that would draw us frō God (be the kings or quenes) being of the devils nature / are enemies unto God / & therefore will God that in such cases / we declare our selves enemies unto them. And last it is to be noted / that obediēs givē unto God / in taking vēgeaūce vpō Idolators / by such means / as God hath appointed / is a cause why God showeth his mercy / why he multiplieth us / & enbraseth us with brotherly love / where contrary wise / by cōsentinge with Idolatry / are the mercies of God shut up frō us / & are cutted of the body of Christ / to wyther and root / as trees without moisture. But now shall some demand / what then? shall we go too / and kill all Idolators. That were the office & duty of every ciuell magistrate within his realm and Iurisdiccion. But of you is required only to avoid participacion and company of that abomination / as well in body as in soul / as David and Paul plainly teacheth. David in his exile / in the middes of Idolators saith: I will not offer their drink offerings of blood, neither yet will I take their name into my mouthe, & Paul saith: You may not be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils, you may not drink the Lord's cup / and the cup of devils. As these two places / of scriptur plainly resolveth the former question / so do they confirm that which is before said. That the leag betwixt us and God requireth / auoydinge off all Idolatry. Fyrst plain it is / that in Gathe and in Corinthus / were no small number off Idolators / when David was there in exile / & when Paul wrote his Epistle / yet neither saith David / that he will kyl any in that place because he was their magistrate / neither giveth Paul any such commandment / but in one thing they both agre / that such as hath socitie & league with God / must so abhor Idolatry / that no parte of the body be defiled therewith. For David saith: I will not take their names in my mouth. As he would say / so odious are the names of false & vain God's / that the mention of them is righteouslye compared to stinckinge donge / & vile carrion / which neither can be eaten / neither yet smellid without displeasur of such that hath not lost the judgment of their senses / & therefore saith David / I will not defile me mouth with thē / that is / I will never speak one favorable word of them. I think much less / would he have croched and kneled before them for any man's pleasure. Aduert brethren / that David inspyred with the holy Ghoste knew no such sheftes / as worldly wise men imagyn now a days: That they may kept their hearts pure and clean to God / howbeit / their body daūse with the devil: Not so dear brethrē, not so, The temple of God hath nothing to do with Idols. The cause expresseth David in their words: The Lord him self is my portion and my enheritaunce. Great is the cause / if it be deaply considered. David illuminated by the holy Ghost seyth evē the self same thing / which before we have alleged of the Apostles words / that God will not parte spoil with the devil / promitting him to have the servant of the body / & he too stand content with the soul / heart and mind. No brethren / David marketh this / the fundament & reason / why / he will neither offer sacrefice to Idols / neither yet defile his mouthe with their names / because (saith he) the Lord is my portion, as he would say / such is the cōdiciō of the league between me and my God / that as he is my tower of defense against my enemies / preserving and norishing both the body & soul / so must I be hole his in body and soul / for my God is of that nature / that he will suffer no portiō of his glory to be given to another. In confirmation of this saith Isaiah / after he had rebuked their Idols and vain inuecinons. These are thy portion, and Jeremiah likewise, in mockinge of thē saith / let thy bedfellows deliver thy / call upon them / and let them hear thy / thou hast committed fornicacion & whoredom with stock and stone. The prophets meaning thereby / that Idolaters can have no league nor covenant with God / in so far / that their hearts be alyenated from him / which the service of their bodies doth testefye / and therefore renounceth God such league / & bound as was before offered for Isaiah would say / even such as thou hast chosen / such shall be the portion. And Ieremye would say / thou put thy trust to them / which he meaneth / by the liēg with thē in bed / & therefore let them show their power in thy deliverance / and thus he sendeth them as it were to suck water from hot burninge coles. It shall nothing excuse / to say we trust not in Idols / for so will every Idolatour allege / but if either you or they in God's honor / do anything contrary to God's word / you show yourself to put your trust / in somewhat else besides God / and so are you Idolators. Mark brethren / that many maketh an Idol of their own wisdom or fantasye / more trusting to that / which they think good / nor unto God / who plainly saith not that thing / which seameth good in thy eyes / do unto thy God / but what thy Lord God hath commanded them. But of this some other time / God willing / more shall be spoken hereof / I suppose it be plain / that like as God is immutable / who / by his law / hath not only forbid̄ all fellowship with Idolaters in their Idolatry / but also hath commanded that vengeance / & punishment be taken vpō thē. And as the saints of God were inspired with the holy ghost / who would not so much as ones fauourablye speak of Idols / & last as the scriptures be infallable / which promiseth that God may not abide / that our bodies serve the devil / in joining our bodies with Idolatry / so is it off more necessity / that both in body & soul / we abstain frō the same / if we will have the league between God & us to stand sure. I will not trouble this time with aūswering to any such objections / as men sekinge to leave as they list / doth now a days invent / seeing that partly in another letter: I have answered the same / & if God shall grant any rest in this wicked world / I purpose by the grace of God / as occasiō shall be offered fully to answer what can be said for their defense / which in very deed / when all is said that they can / they have said nothing that God will admit.

Now restith to show that in haunting Idolatry / we declare our selves too be without faith / and doth deny to bear witness unto God / but that faith purgeth the heart / I trust none of you will deny. But whether that inward faith requireth an eternal confession / and if a man may not have faith / and yet do in ceremonies of the Church / as the world doth / herein perchance you doubt. As too the first the Apostle answereth in these words / in the heart it is believed unto Justice / but by the mouthe is confession unto salvation.

And David saith: I have believed / & therefore I have spoken / but I was sore troubled / as David would say / I would not counsel the confession of my faith / howbeit / trouble did ensew the same. Thus the holy Ghost joineth faith and confession / as things that be inseparable the one from the other / and therefore dare I not take upon me to disceauer them / but must say / that where true faith is / there is also confession of the same / when time and necessity requireth / & that where confession is not found that their faith is a sleep / if we be not from home.

Now is it to be considered / if this time requireth the confession of our faith. Christ and his Euangile are oppugned / his holy sacraments are profaned. Christ's messengers are some exiled / some cruelly tormented in prison / our adversaries hath gotten the upper hand / and an execrable Idol / erected up in confirmation of all iniquity. What now shall I do? that am assured that all this is abhominaciō / here Christ is in battle / shall I do as the multitude / or as Christ's enemies doth / what confession give I then? Assuredly even such as the rest doeth / for neither doeth foot / hand / eye / nor mouth witness the contrary. The feet carrieth the body to serve an Idol. The eye beholdeth it with a certain reverence. The mouth dare not whisper what the heart thīketh / yea / the hands are extended / and giveth significacion of humble obedience. Have I not now iustefied the devil / and damned Christ? it cannot be denied. But let me have no credit / onelesse the same be yet proved by moste plain demonstrations of God's sacred scripture. The Lord by his prophet Isaiah / saith his people of Israel / and this is answer also to the second question / if I may not do as the world doth / and yet have faith / You are my witnesses, whether there be any God but I alone / is there any creator that I should not know him These words were spoken / as it were making an entresse too rebuke all Idolatry & the vain inuētours of the same / as the Lord would say. Thou house of Jacob / and your natural children / discending from Abraham. You are my people / whom peculiarly I have chosen to show in you the greatness of my name / and for that ende have I spoken unto you / hid things from the beginning / that you may understand and know that there is no knowledge but in me alone / that you persuaded of my infinet wisdom / power and goodness may testefye / and bear witness of the same / too such as hath not then like understanding with you. Hereof it is plain / that of such as to whom God giveth knowledge / he requireth a confession to provoke the ignorance to embrace God and his word / or at least that by the understanding man / the vanity of the foolish should be rebuked. So zealous is God over his gifts / that if we labor not to employe them to the glory of God / and to profit of others his creatours / he will according to the threatening of Christ / take the talent from us / and will give it to such as will labor there upon. Some perchaūce would gladly labo • / but theyse not what fruit shall succeed / & therefore judge they better to cease. Even as God could bring forth no fruit / except he make us first of counsel. God is to be obeyed in his commandments / and the success is to be committed to him / whose wisdom is unsearchable / he commandeth us refrain Idolatry / to let other mē see that thei do wrong. This ought we obey / albeit the present death should follow / for we are called as witness between God & the blind world / as is beforesaid: Israel thou art my witness. The world asketh / is the man's God's service / or is it Idolatry? God hath opened to us / that it is abhominable Idolatry / but when that we for fear of our vile carcases / do as the blind world doth. What witness bear we? Assuredly false witness against God / for that we iustefye and maintain that with our presence / which God condemneth against our neighbor / for that we confirm him in error to both our condemnacions. But when we abstaye from all fellowship of Idolatry / what ever ensewe there upon / we do our duties unto God's glory. Let no man think that I am more seuear then necessity requireth. No brethren / I always contain my affirmations / within the bounds of God's scriptures / and that shall Jeremiah the prophet witness / who writing to the Jews / being prysoners in Babylon / after he had forbidden them to follow the vain religion of that people / amongst whom they wexe then conversant by many reasons / prouinge that their Idols were no God's / at last he saith / you shall say to them: The God's that made neither heaven neither earth, shall perish from the earth / and from under the heaven. Here is to be observed / as John Calvin / that singular instrumente off God moste diligently noteth.

That the rest of the prophets work was written in the Hebrew tongue / which then was peculiar to the Jews / but these verses and words above rehearsed / were written in the Chaldee tongue / in the tongue of that people / when the Jews were then in thralldom as that the prophet would constrein them to change their natural tongue / and in plain words declare the hatered and alienation / which they had from all worshippynge off Idols. I beseech you brethren / mark the words of the prophet / he saith not / you may think in your hearts / that they are vain / & that they shall perish / but you shall say it / & that not preuely / but to them / who put their trust in such vanity / as that the three children openly spake / denyenge to give the reverence of their bodies before an Idol. And Daniel that would not keep secrete the confession of his faith only thyrty days / as in my former letter more plainly is express • d / hereof it is plain that requyringe that you prophaine not your bodies with Idolatry. I require no more then God's scriptures by plain precepts and examples teacheth. Neither yet require I of every man / and at all times so much. For I constraīne no man to go to Idolaters / in the time of their Idolatry / and to say that all that they do / is abhominable and naughte. But only that we keep our own bodies (called of the Apostle the temples of the holy Ghost) clean from all such diabolical conuencions / which that we do is most profitable / and also necessary to the preservation of our selves / and of our posterity / of whom somewhat (now at the end) must I speak.

Every man that is not degenerated too the nature of a brute beast / will appear to bear such love to his children / that to leave them riche / in rest / and in good state / he patiently will suffer troubles / and without grudge will do many things / that otherwise are contrary to his own pleasure. And with my heart I wish to God / that the perfection of this were more deaply grounded in man's heart / I mean very love / & not fond folishnes / which under the name of love / procureth destruction of body and soul / where contrariwise / true love most carefully laboreth for salvation of both / if this love I say / towards our children / which every man pretendeth to have / be in us. Then of necessity it is / that for these causes we shall aduoid all society of those filthy abominations. This my affeccion may appear strange but if it be with indifferencye perceived / it shall be very easy to be understand.

The only way to leave our children blessed and happy is to leave thē righteously instructed in God's true religion / for what availeth all that is in earth / if condēnation follow death yea / & God's vengeance goo before the same as of necessity they must / where the true knowledge of God is absent. Playne it is / that the true knowledge of God is not borne with man / neither yet cometh unto him with natural power / but he must have scoolemasters to trayne him up in that / which he lacketh / The chief scholemayster, (the holy Ghost excepted) of the age following / is the work practesies & lief of the forefathers / where unto commonly we se the children so addict & bound / & especially / if it be in Idolatry. That God cryeng by the mouths of his messengers / have much to do / to ryffe or pluck any man back from their forefathers footesteppes.

Now if that you altogether refusinge / God stoop under Idolatry / what schoolemaisters are you to your posterity / what • mage show you to your chyldrē? Yea / in what estate leave you them / both touching body & soul. Assuredly / you are even such scholemaisters / as were those fathers / who consentinge to Jeroboam / to his Idolatry left unto their chyldrē a patron of perdition. To speak it plainly / you leave them blinded in Idolatry / & bound slaves to the devil without hope of redemption or light to be received. Tusshe wilsome say. The Lord knoweth his own: Trewe it is. But this ordenary means to come by his knowledge / are not to contempned. He commandeth you to teache your children his laws / statutes and ceremonies. That they likewise may teache the same to the generations following. But yet will some object / what taught our fathers unto us? O dear breathrē be not so ingrate and unthankfull unto god. Neither yet I would that you should flatter yourselves / thinking that such a trōpet shall be blown to your posterity / as hath been blown unto you. If all come to so close silence / as che Lord's messengers fond the beginning of this our age. When this hole realm of England was drouned in so deadly a sleep / that the sound of the Lord's trumpet was not understand / while first the moste parte of the blowers gave their blood in a testimony / that their doctrine was the same / which begā with blood / was planted and kept in mind by the same / and by blood increased / and did fructefye / will the Lord have his messengers to fight alone? will he bestow such abundance off blood upon your children / to encorage them / as that he did upon you / for your instruction & encoragement / if that ye all so traytorously flee frō him / in the day of this his battle. The contrary is greatly to be feared. Oft reuoluinge howe God hath used my tongue (my tongue I say / being most wretched of others) plainly to speak the troubles that are perfet. There occurreth to my mind a certain admonition / that God would / I commonly should use in all congregations. The admonitiō was this / that the last trumpet was in blowynge within the realm of England / and therefore ought every man to prepare him for battle / for if the trumpet should cease / and be put too silence / then should it never again blow with like force in England / till the coming of the Lord Jesus. O dear brethren / howe sore these threatenings perseth my own heart this day / only God knoweth / & in what agonye of heart I write this same / God shall declare / when the secretes of all hearts shall be disclosed. I wish myself to be accursed of God / as touching all earthly pleasure or comfort for one year of that time / which (alas) neither you nor I did righteously esteem / whē all abounded with us. I sob and groan / I cal and I pray / that in that point I may be deceived. But I am commanded to stand content / for it is God him self / that perfourmeth the words of his true messengers / his justice & order cannot be perverted. The sun keepeth his ordenary course / and leapeth not back from the West to the South / but whē it goith down we lack the light of it till it rise the next day towards the East again. And so is it w • th the light of the gospel / which hath his day appointed by God / as witnesseth Christ saying while ye have the light / believe in the light / that darkness apprehend you not. And Paul / the night is passed / & the day is come (meaning of the gospel) & also this day / if you hear his voice harden not your hearts. And albeit that this day be all time frō Christ's incarnacion / till his last coming again. Yet evident it is / that all nations hath not had at one siene the light of gods word. But by the contrary most evident it is / that where the light of the gospel for mans unthankfulness / hath ben takē away / there is it not to this day yet restored again / witness hole Israel / & all the congregations of the gentylles where Christ was first preached by thapostels. What is in Asya? ignorance of God / what in Affrika? abnegation of Christ / what in those most notable Churches of the Greciās / where Christ was planted by Paul & long after / uttered by others? Mahomet and his false sect / Yea / what is in Rome? the most Idol of all others / that adversary to Christ / that man of sin extolled above all that is called God. Hath God punisshed those nations before us / not only the first offenders / but even their posterity to this day / & shall he spare us? if we be like unthankfull as they were / yea / if we be worse then they were? for of them no small mumber suffered persecution / banishment / slander / poverty / & finally the death for the professiō of Christ / who having only this knowledge / that Idols were odious before God / could neither for lose of temporal goods / for honors offered if they would obey / nor yet for most cruel torments suffered in resisting ones be persuaded to bow before Idols. And (alas) shall we after so many graces that God hath offered unto us for pleasure / or for vain threatening of those / whom your hearts knoweth / & your mouths hath confessed to be odious Idolators / run back to Idolatry / to the perdition of yourselves / & of your posterity to come. Shall gods holy precepts work no greater obedience in you? shall nature no otherwise mollifye your hearts? shall not fatherly pity overcome that cruelnes. O behold your chyldern / and consider the end of their creation / great cruelty it were to save yourselves / & to dampne them. But o more then cruelty and madness / that cannot be expressed / if for the pleasure of a momente / you deprived yourself / & your posterity of that eternal joy / that is ordained for those that continueth in confession of Christ's name / & truth to the ende / which assuredly you do / if without resistance all together / you retorne to Idolatry again. Alas / then the trumpet hath lost the sound / the sun is gone down / and the light vanished / but & if that God shall strengthen you / boldly to withstand all such impiety / thē is their but a dark mystie cloud overspread the sun for a moment / which shortly shall vanishe / so that the beams of the sun / afterward shall be sevenfold more bright and amyable then they were before. Your patience & constauncie shall be the lowdar trumpet to your posterity / then were all the voices of the prophets that cried unto you / and therefore for the tendre mercy of God. Arm yourself to stand with Christ / Fly frō that abhominable Idol. The mayntaynors thereof shall not escape the vengeance of God. Let it be known to your posterity / that you were Christians / and no Idolators / and so is not the trumpet ceased so longe as any boldly resisteth Idolatry. These precepts are sharp & hard to be observed will some object. And yet again I affirm that / compared with the plagues / which assuredly shall fall upon the cōtempnours / they shall be found easy & light for avoiding Idolatry / it may chance that you be contempned in the world / but obeyers of Idolatry / as before God thei are abhominable / so shall they be compelled body & soul to burn in hell / for avoiding of Idolatry / your worldly substance shall be spoiled / but for obeyng Idolatry / heavenly riches shall be lost for avoiding Idolatry / you may fall in the hands of earthly tyrants / but obeyers / consenters and mayntaynors of Idolatry shall not escape the hands of the living God / for avoiding Idolatry / your chyldern shall be deprived of father / friends / riches / & earthly rest / but by obeyeng Idolatry / they shall be left without God without the knowledge of his word / and without the hope of his kingdom.

Consider dear brethren / that how much more dolerous it is to be tormented in hell / then to suffer trouble in earth / to be deprived of heavenly joy / then to be robbed of transitory riches. To fall in the hands of the living God / then to abide man's vain / & vncertein displeasure. So much more fearful & dangerous it is / to obey Idolatry or dissēbling to consent too that abomination / then auoydinge the same / to suffer what inconueniēs may follow thereupon by man's tyranny. O be not like to Esau / that sold and lost his byrthright for a mease of potage. I am not prejudicial too God's mercies / as that such as after shall repent / shall not find grace. God forbid / for here in am I most assuredly persuaded. That in what so ever hour a sinner shall repent / God shall not remember one of his iniquities / but albeit / his offenses were as red as Skarlette / they shall be made as white as snow. And albeit in multitude they passed number / yet so shall they be blotted out / that none of thē shall appear to the dānation of the very reap̄taunt / for his promises be infallible / that such as truly believe in Christ / shall never entre in to judgment / for the blood of Christ Jesus / purgeth them frō all sin / so that how far the heaven is dystant from the earth / so far doth he remove the sins from the penitent. But consider dearly beloved brethren, that these and like promisies are made to penitent sinners / & doth nothing apertaininge to prophaine parsons / Idolators / nor too fearful shrinkers from the truth / for fear of worldly trouble. And if any allege / God may cal them to repentance / how wicked that any man be. I answer that I acknowledge / and doth censes God's omnipotensye / to be so free / that he may do what pleaseth his wysedom / but yet is he not bound to do / all that our fantesie requireth. And likewise I know that God is so loving and so kind / to such as feareth him / that he will perform their willes and pleasures / although kings & princes had sworn to the contrary. But herein standeth the doubt whether that such as for pleasure of men / or for auoydinge tempo all punishment / defyleth them selves with Idolatry. Feareth God / and whether they with all their lives / denieth Christ by consentinge to Idolatry / shall at the last hour / be called to repentance. No such promese have we within the scriptures of god but rather the expressed contrary. And therefore God is not to be tempted / but is too be hard / feared and obeyed.

When thus earnestly he calleth & threateneth not without cause. Passe from the midst of her / o my people (saith the Lord) that you be not partakers of her plagues / and that is meant of that abhominable whore / and of her abomination. How long will you halte on both partes, you may not both be partakers of the cup of the Lord / and of the cup of the deuel. He that denieth me before men / I will deny him before my father / he that refuseth not him self / & taketh up his cross & follow me / is not worthy of me. No man putting his hand to the plough / & lokinge backwarde is worthy of the kingdom of God. And Paul to the Hebrews only meaneth of this sin / where he saith: who willingly sinneth after the knowledge of the truth / cannot be renewed to repentance. O dear brethren / remember the dignity of your vocatiō / you have followed Christ / you have proclaimed war against Idolatry / you have laid hand vpō the truth / and hath communicate at the Lord's table. Will you now suddenly slyde back? will ye refuse Christ & his truth? and make paccion with the devil & with his deceauable doctrine? Will ye tread the precious blood of his testament under your fete / and set up an Idol before the people / which things assuredly you do / as often as ever you present your bodies amongst Idolators / before that blasphemous Idol. God the father of all mercies for Christ his sons sake preserve you from that sore temptation / whose dolours and dangers / very sorrow will not suffer me to express. Alas brethren / it is to be feared / that if you fall once a sleep / you lie to long before you be wakened. Yet some shall object / Peter the Denyar obtained mercy. To whom I answer particular examples / maketh no common law / neither yet is there any resemblance or lykelyhodde between the fall of Peter / and our daily Idolatry. Peter upon a sodayn / without any former purpose / thus denied Christ within the space of a hour or two. We upon determined purpose / and advised mind daily deny Christ. Peter had Christ's assurance and promise / that after his denial he should be converted. We have Christ's threatenings / that if we deny we shall be denied. Peter in the bishops hall / and amongst wicked men of war / committed his offense for fear of life. We in our city and household / only for the loose of the wicked Mammon / doth no less. Peter at the warninge of the Cock / and at Christ's look / left that company / that provoked his sin. We after Christ's admonitions yea / after gentle exhortations / and fearful threatenings / will continue in the midst of Idolators / and for their pleasures will crocke & knele / as the deuel commandeth / what lykelyhode is here / let every mā judge. But much I wonder / that men that can espy so narrow thiftes / as to hyde them selves from the presens of God / behind a busshe with Adam their father / cannot also espy that Judas was an Apostle in presens of men / of no les authority then Peter was / that Cayn was the first borne in the world. That Saul was the first anointed king by God's commandment / and by his prophet / and that Achitophel was a man of moste singular wysedom / and yet none of these found place of repentance. Have we any other assuraunces and particular warrantes within the scriptures of God / then they had that all our life we may be in league with the devil / and then at our pleasure that we may lay hand upon Christ / and clothe us with his justice: Be not deceived brethren, for albeit moste / true it is / that who so ever incalleth the name of the Lord / shall be saved / Yet like true it is / that whosoever incalleth the name of the Lord / shall avoid and esschewe all iniquity / & that whosoever contine with in open iniquity / the same man incalleth not the name of the Lord / neither hath God any respect to his prayer / and greater iniquity was never from the beginning of the world / then is contained in that abhominable Idol / for it is the seal off that league / which the devil hath made with the pestilent sons of Antechriste / and is the very chief cause / why the blood of the saints of God / hath ben shed nere the space of a thousand year / for so longe almost hath it been in devising / and in deckinge with that whorishe garment / wherein it now triumpheth / against Christ / against the only one sacrifice of his death / & merits of his passion / which whole abomination you confirm / and showeth youre selves / consentinge to the murder of those that hath suffered for speaking against it / as oft as ever you decore that Idol with your presens. And therefore avoid it / as that ye will be partakers with Christ / with whom ye have sworn to die and to live in baptism and in his holy supper. Shame it were to break promys unto man / but is it not more shame too break it unto God? foolishness it were to leave that king / whose victory you did se present / and too take parte with him / whom understood & perceived to be so vanqueshed and overthrown / that he neither might withstand / neither yet abide the coming of his adversary. O brethren / is not the deuel the prince of this world / vanquished & cast out? hath not Christ made conqueste off him? hath he not carried our self up to glory in despite of Satan's malice. Shall not our champion retorne? you understand that he shall and that with expedition / when Satan and his adherents Idolators / worshippers of that blasphemous beast / fylthie persons / and fearful shrinkers from the truth of God shall be caste in the lake burninge fire and brimstone / which never shall be quenched. But in the mean time / you fear corporal death / if nature admitted any man too live ever / then had your fear some aparēce of reason / but if corporal death be common to all / why will you leoperde to lese the life everlasting? to decline and escape / that which neither rich / neither poor / neither wife / neither foolish / proud of stomach / nor feable of coraige / and finally no earthly creature / by no craft nor mene of man did ever escape / if any hath escaped the horrible fear of death / it was such as boldly did withstand men's iniquity in the earth.

But it grudgeth the flesh (say you) for fear of the torment / let it do the own nature and office / for so must it do till it be burdened with Christ's cross / and then no doubt / shall God send such comfort / as now we look not for. Let us not torn back from Christ / albeit the flesh cōplain / and feareth the torment. Wonder it is that the way too life is so fearful unto us, considering that so great a number of our brethren / hath passed before us in at the same gatte / that we so much alhorre. Hath not the moste parte of the saints of God entered in to their rest / by tormente & troubles of whom witnesseth Paul / some were racked / some heawin a sonder / some slain with swerdes / some walked up & down in sheep skins / in neade, tribulatiō & vexation, in mountains / dens / and in caves off the earth / and in all those extremities / what complaints hear we of their mouths / except it be that they lament the blindness of the world / and the perdition of their persecutors. Did God comfort them / and shall he despise us if in obediens to him / we follow their footsteppes / he shall not do it / for he hath promised the contrary. And therefore dearly beloved in the Lord, As that you purpose too avoid the vengeance of God / that suddenly shall strike all obstinate Idolators. As that you would hane the league between God and you to stand sure / and as that you will declare yourselves to have true faith / without which no man ever shall entre in life. And finally / as that you will leave the true knowledge of God / in possession to youre children. Auoyde Idolatry / & all participation thereof / for it is so odious before God's presens / that not only doth he punish the inuentours / and first offenders / but oftentimes their posterity are stryken with blindness and dasynes of mind. The battaylle shall appear strong / which you are to suffer / but the Lord him self shall be youre comfort / he shall come in youre defense with his mighty power / he shall give you vittorie / when none is hoped for / he shall tourne your teres to everlasting Ioye / he shall confound your enemies with the breath of his mouthe / he shall set you se their destruction that now are most proud.

The God of all comfort & consolation for Christ Jesus / his sons sake / grant that this simple & plain admonition / yea / rather the warning of the holy ghost may be received / & accepted of you with no les fear & obedience then I have written it unto you with unfeigned love / and sorrowful heart / & then I doubt not / but we shall be comforted / when all such as now motesteth us / shall trymble & shake by the coming of our Lord Jesus / whose omnipotent spirit perserue and keep you undefiled body and soul to the ende. Amen.

A godly prayer.

AH Lord / moste strong and mighty God / which destroyest the coūsails of the ungodly / and ryddest awai the tyrants of this world / out of the earth at thy pleasure / so that no counsel or force cā tesiste thine eternal counsel and everlasting determination / we thine poor̄ creatures and humble servants / do moste instantly desire the for the love that thou hast to thine well-beloved / and only begotten soune our Lord and savior Jesus Christ / that thou wilt loke upon thine cause / for it is time o Lord / and bring to naught all those things that are or shall be appointed / determined and fully agreed against the and thy holy word / let not the enemies of thy truth to miserablye oppress thy word & thy servants / which seek thy glory / tender the advancement of thy pure religion / & above all things wish in their hearts that thy holy name may only be glorefied among all nations. Geue unto thy servants the mouth of thy truth & wysedom / which no man may resist: And although we have moste justly deserved this plague and famyn of thine word / yet upon our true repentance / grant we beseke the / we may be thereof released / and here we promise before thy divine majesty / better to use thy gifts then we have done / and more strayghtlye to order our lives / according to thy holy will and pleasure / and we will sing perpetual praises too thy moste blessed name / worlds without ende / through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

A declaration of prayer / made by John Knox.

V Nto the small and dispersed flock of Jesus Christ / How necessary is the right inuocatiō of God's name / otherwise called perfect prayer / becometh no christiā to misknow. Seyng it is the very braūch / which sprigeth forth of true faith. Wherof / if man be distitute / notwithstanding he be induid with whatsoever other virtues / yet in the presens of God is he reputid for no Christian / therefore a manifest sign understand nothing of perfyt faith / for if the fire may be without heat / or the burning lamp without light / then true faith may be without fervent prayer. But because in times passed was / and yet alas / within small multitude is / that recoued to be prayer / which in the sight of God was and is nothing less. I intend shortly too touch the circonstaunce of prayer.

Here after followeth a Confession

O Mnipotent and everlasting God father of our LORDE Jesus Christ whoo be thy eternal providence / disposes kyngdoms / as best seameth to thy wisdom / we acknowledge and confess thy judgments to be righteous in that thou hast taken frō us / for our ingratitude and for a businge of thy most holy word / our native Kyng & earthly comforter / justly may thou pour forth upon us the uttermost of thy plagues / for that we have not known the days and time of our merciful visitacion / we have contempned thy word / and despised thy mercies / we have transgressed thy laws / for deceytfully have we wrought every man / with our neighbors oppressiō and violence we have not abhorred / charity / hath not apeared among us as our profession requireth / we have littel regarded the voices of thy prophets / thy threatenings we have esteemed vanytie and wynd / so that in us / as of our selfs restes / nothing worthy of thy mercies / for all are found frutles / evē the princes with the prophets / as wythered trees apt and mete too be burnt in the fire of thy eternal displeasure. But o Lord / behold thy own mercy & goodness / that thou may purdge and remove the moste filthy borden / of our moste horrible offenses / let thy love overcome the severity of thy judgments / even as it did in giving to the world thy only son Jesus / when all mankind was lost / and no obedience was left in Adam nor in his seed. Regenerate our hearts o Lord by the strength of the holy ghost / convert thou us / and we shall be converted / work thou in us unfeigned repentance / and move thou our hearts too obey thy holy laws. Behold our troubles and apparent destruction / and stay the sword of thy vengeance before it devour us. Place above us o Lord for thy great mercies sake / such a head with such rulers and maiestrates as feareth thy name / and willeth the glory of Christ Jesus to spread. Take not from us the light of thy Euangely / and suffer thou no papistry to prevail in this realm. Illuminate the heart off our sovereign lady queen Marie / with prignant gifts of thy holy ghost. And inflame the hearts of her coūsail / with thy true fear and love / repress thou the pride of those that would rebelle. And remove from all hearts the contēpte of the word / let not our enemies rejoice at our destruction / but loke thou too the honor of thy own name o Lord / and let thy Gospel be preached with boldines in this realm / if thy justice must punish / then punish our bodies with the rod of thy mercy. But o Lord let us never reuolte / nor turn back to Idolatry again. Mytigate the hearts of those that persecute us / & let us not faint under the cross of our savior / but assist us with the holy ghost / even to the ende.

Here after followeth the Table of this boke.

A.
• A confession of Christ's moste sacred Euangely / upon the death of that moste verteous & moste famous king Edward the .vi. fo. xvi.
• A plague threatened to England. fo. xvi
• A pointed places to pray in may not be neglected. fo. xv.
• Angels may not be mediators. fo. x.
• Agaynste such as would have mediators too Jesus Christ. fo. xii.

B.
• Better it is to obey God then man. fo. xiii.
• By whom we must pray. fo. ix.

C.
• Corporal things. fo. xii.
• Comforte to the afflicted. fo. xiv.

D.
• Daily bread. fo. vi.

F.
• Fleshe striveth against the spirit. fo. xiv.
• For whō & at what time we should. fo. xvi.

G.
• God's sentence may be changed. fo. xvi.
• God delivereth his chosen from. fo. vi.

H.
• How the spirit maketh intercession. fo. iii.

I.
• Jesus Christ / God & man is mediator. fo. x.
• Impedimentes cometh of the weakness off the flesh. fo. xiv.
• Intercession to saints. fo. x.
• Ipocrisie is not allowed with God. fo. v

L.
• Let every man judge his own heart. fo. iii.

N.
• Not to pray is sin most odious. fo. vii.

O.
• Obedience of Christ. fo. xi.
• Obseruacion in godly prayer. fo. ix
• Of necessity we must have a mediator. fo. ix.

R.
• Reddines of God to hear sinners. fo. vii.

S.
• Sporris stire us to prayer. fo. vi.

T.
• Turks and Jews / fo. ix.
• The hope to obtayn our petitions / should depend upon the promises of God. fo. vii.
• The cause of their boldness was Jesus. fo. v.
• The petition of the spirit. fo. xiv.

W.
• What prayer is. fo. ii.
• Who prayeth not in tribulation. fo. vi.
• When sinners are not hard of God. fo. iv.
• Why we should pray / and also understand what we do pray. fo. iii.
• What fasting / almose deeds are. fo. v.
• When we be not heard. fo. x.
• What is to be gathered in the name. fo. xv.
• Who maketh other mediators then Ihesus Christ taketh over from him. fo. xi.
• What should be prayed for. fo. xiii.
• When and for whom we should pray. fo. xv
• Why God differreth or prolongeth to grant us our petition. fo. xiii.
• Where constaunte prayer is / there is granted petition. fo. vii.
• Who prayeth not. fo. iii.
• What is to be observed in prayer. fo. ii.