The fortress of the faithful against [the] cruel assaults of poverty and hunger newly…The fortresse of the faythfull agaynst [ye] cruel assautes of pouertie and honger newlye…

Philemon. Christopher. Theophile and Eusebius talk together.

Philemon. Christopher. Theophile and Eusebius talke together.

Philemon. WHO soever (most dear brethren) with a single eye beholdeth the corrupt manners of this most corrupt world, he shall easily perceive that Satan our old enemy sleepeth not, but as .s. Peter saith walketh about like a roaring lion,¹ seeking whom he may devour. For if a tree may be known to be fruitful by her green leaves, flourishing blossoms and pleasant fruit, if a workman may be proved by his labours & pains not to be idle, if the sun may be perceived to shine because of his fiery & glistering beams, surely Satan by the works that he bringeth forth in ⟨image 19⟩the children of this world, may justly be judged not to be idle, not to sleep, not to slack his office, but to behave him self in all points like very Satan. For when at any time sense the beginning of his infernal empire brought he forth so large testimonies of his devilish travails, and showed him self so diligent & painful in procuring things mete for the enlarging of his empire as he doth in these out days? Let our time be compared with any age that hath ben from the beginning (I speak even of that age which was most ungodly, most wicked) and it shall more right well seem to be most godly, most virtuous. For although y• pride, the covetousness the whoredom, the unmercifulness, y• malice, the banqueting, the building the buying and selling. &c. exercised in the days of Noah,² or at any other time, was without doubt great & abominable, & justly deserved the vengeance ⟨image 19⟩of god, as it came to pass, yet compared with the outrageousness of vices used in this our time, yea & that so universally & unmeasurably, they may be judged but trifles seeing the number of them compared with the infinite multitude that now most wickedly live, is almost nothing. The pride of these our days is lucifer like, y covetousness is unsatiable, the whoredom is monstrous, the unmercifulness is boherlike, the malice is immortal, the ban ketting is too much Epicurelike the building is infinite, the buying and selling is full of falsehood, craft, & dissimulation, & so forth of other vices, which are already grown unto such an exceeding height, y they can stretch out their branches no further,