A commentary or, exposition upon the divine second epistle general, writtenA commentary or, exposition vpon the diuine second epistle generall, written

3 They came not in their own name, but in Christs; an Apostle of Jesus Christ. ^xWe are Ambassadors for Christ, and GOD doth beseech you by us. We are suitors, not for ourselves, but for him: desiring to^y espouse you to one Husband, and to present you pure and chaste virgins to Christ. We preach not our selves, but Christ, neither our own glory, nor our own gain. Not our own glory: God is glorified in our infirmities. Woe unto us if we arrogate that, whereof God is so jealous that he will not give it to another. Not our own gain, we would then take any profession rather than this. There is no calling wherein a man may not live better, and grow rich sooner. A cluster of Law is worth a whole vintage of any other profession. Indeed in Rome, and throughout the Papal Jurisdiction, where respect of gains, not of pains, guides mens dispositions; where little learning, and less honesty will serve to bear up, and to bear out much worship, more wealth: there great riches is in Clerical hands: It is their main policy, by blowing up other states to enlarge their own. Like the floods that made war against the woods;^a let us subdue them all, and make us more countries. But for conscience; not a Pope preached these nine hundred years; yet I hope they have not been poor. They have not Peters net to catch the souls, but Peters hook to take all the fishes that have silver in their mouths. It is said of Leo 10. that whereas others were only Popes but whiles they lived, he was Pope many years after he was dead Sacra sub extremâ si forte requiritis horâ, Cur Leo non potuit sumere; vendiderat. John 22. left behind him two hundred and fifty tun of gold: so that one wrote of him, Erat pontifex maximus, si non virtute, pecuniâ tamen maximus: Whatsoever he was in piety, he was the chief Priest in money. They inveigh against us for providing for our own lawful wives and children: yet admire themselves for providing for their harlots, and bastards, and minions. They come into the ⟨p. 13⟩Church, tanquam ad auream messem; as it were to a golden harvest. The Friars were so long wilful beggars, that they had beggared all the Christian world. The Jesuits hate all other Orders but the Capuchin: because the Capuchin asks nothing, the Jesuit would have all. Their artillery hath been thus wittily described;