N20568:9826
The new and complete book of martyrs; or, An universal history of martyrdom: being Fox's Book of martyrs, revised and corrected, with additions and great improvements. : Containing an authentic account of the lives, persecutions and sufferings of the holy martyrs; and the many dreadful persecutions against the Church of Christ in all parts of the world, by pagans, Jews, Turks, papists, and others, from earliest ages of the church to the present period. ... The whole forming at once a general Christian martyrology, and a complete history of persecutions. / By the Rev. Mr. John Fox, M.A. late of Magdalen College, Oxford. ; Now revised, corrected and improved, with many additional articles, relating to the acts and monuments of the church. By Paul Wright, D.D. ; Embellished with forty elegant copper plate engravings. ; In two volumes. Vol. I[-II].The new and complete book of martyrs; or, An universal history of martyrdom: being Fox's Book of marytrs, revised and corrected, with additions and great improvements. : Containing an authentic account of the lives, persecutions and sufferings of the holy martyrs; and the many dreadful persecutions against the Church of Christ in all parts of the world, by pagans, Jews, Turks, papists, and others, from earliest ages of the church to the present period. ... The whole forming at once a general Christian martyrology, and a complete history of persecutions. / By the Rev. Mr. John Fox, M.A. late of Magdalen College, Oxford. ; Now revised, corrected and improved, with many additional articles, relating to the acts and monuments of the church. By Paul Wright, D.D. ; Embellished with forty elegant copper plate engravings. ; In two volumes. Vol. I[-II].
New-York: printed by William Durell, 1794
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
OF late the Lord's supper was duly administered, and taught to be common to all that are true christians, with thanksgiving, and setting forth of the Lord's death and passion until his returning again, to judge both quick and dead: but now, alas, the Lord's table is quite overthrown, and that which ought to be common to all the godly, is made private to a few ungodly, without any kind of thanksgiving, or any setting forth of the Lord's death at all, that the people are able to understand.
OF late all that were endued with the light and grace of understanding God's holy mysteries, did bless God, who had brought them out of that horrible blindness and ignorance▪ whereby in times past being seduced by Satan's subtleties, they believed that the sacrament was not the sacrament, but the thing itself whereof it is a sacrament▪ that the creature was the creator, and that the thing which had neither life nor sense, […] was the horrible blindness▪ was the Lord himself, which made the […] to see, and hath given all senses and […] ⟨p. 925⟩unto man: but now, alas, England is returned again like a dog to her own vomit and spewing, and is in worse case than ever she was: for it had been better never to have known the truth, than to forsake the truth once received and known: and now not only that light is turned into darkness, and God's grace is received in vain, but also laws of death are made by the high court of parliament, masterfully to maintain by sword, fire, and all kind of violence, that heinous idolatry, wherein that adoration is given unto the lifeless and dumb creature, which is only due unto the everliving God: yea, they say they can, and do make of bread both man and God, by their transubstantiation. O wicked men, and Satan's own brood!
OF late all that were endued with the light and grace of understanding God's holy mysteries, did bless God, who had brought them out of that horrible blindness and ignorance▪ whereby in times past being seduced by Satan's subtleties, they believed that the sacrament was not the sacrament, but the thing itself whereof it is a sacrament▪ that the creature was the creator, and that the thing which had neither life nor sense, 〈…〉 was the ho•r•ble blindness▪ was the Lord himself, which made the 〈…〉 to see, and hath given all senses and 〈…〉 ⟨p. 925⟩unto man: but now, alas, England is returned again like a dog to her own vomit and spewing, and is in worse case than ever she was: for it had been better never to have known the truth, than to forsake the truth once received and known: and now not only that light is turned into darkness, and God's grace is received in vain, but also laws of death are made by the high court of parliament, masterfully to maintain by sword, fire, and all kind of violence, that heinous idolatry, wherein that adoration is given unto the lifeless and dumb creature, which is only due unto the everliving God: yea, they say they can, and do make of bread both man and God, by their transubstantiation. O wicked men, and Satan's own brood!
OF late was the Lord's cup at his table distributed according to his own commandment, by his express words in the gospel, as well to the laity as to the clergy, which order Christ's church observed so many hundred years after, as all the ancient ecclesiastical writers do testify, without contradiction of any one of them, that can be showed unto this day: but now, alas, not only the Lord's commandment is broken, his cup denied to his servants, to whom he commandeth it should be distributed, but also with the same is set up a new blasphemous kind of sacrifice to satisfy and pay the price of sins both of the quick and the dead, to the great and intolerable reproach of Christ our Saviour's death and passion, which was and is the one only sufficient and everlasting available sacrifice, satisfactory for all the elect of God, from Adam the first, to the last that shall be born in the world.
OF late was the Lord's cup at his table distributed according to his own commandment, by his express words in the gospel, as well to the laity as to the clergy, which order Christ's church observed so many hundred years after, as all the ancient ecclesiastical writers do testify, without contradiction of any one of them, that can be shewed unto this day: but now, alas, not only the Lord's commandment is broken, his cup denied to his servants, to whom he commandeth it should be distributed, but also with the same is set up a new blasphemous kind of sacrifice to satisfy and pay the price of sins both of the quick and the dead, to the great and intolerable reproach of Christ our Saviour's death and passion, which was and is the one only sufficient and everlasting available sacrifice, satisfactory for all the elect of God, from Adam the first, to the last that shall be born in the world.
OF late the commandment of God, "Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image, nor any similitude nor likeness of any thing in heaven above, or in earth beneath, or in the water under the earth, thou shalt not bow down to them nor worship them:" this commandment of God, I say, was graven almost every where in churches, was learned by every body both old and young; whereupon images that provoked the simple and ignorant unto idolatry, as the wise man saith, were taken out of the churches, and strictly forbidden that none should any where bow down to them, or worship them: but now, alas, God's holy word is blotted and razed out of churches, and stocks and stones are set up in the place thereof. God commanded his word so to be ordered, that it might be had in continual remembrance at all times, and in every place: and on the other side, he forbid images and idols so to be either made or set in any place, where any should bow or worship them: but now, alas, that which God commanded is not minded, and that which he forbiddeth, is powerfully maintained by falsehood and craft, and wickedly upheld.
OF late the commandment of God, "Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image, nor any similitude nor likeness of any thing in heaven above, or in earth beneath, or in the water under the earth, thou shalt not bow down to them nor worship them:" this commandment of God, I say, was graven almost every where in churches, was learned by every body both old and young; whereupon images that provoked the simple and ignorant unto idolatry, as the wise man saith, were taken out of the churches, and strictly forbidden that none should any where bow down to them, or worship them: but now, alas, God's holy word is blotted and razed out of churches, and stocks and stones are set up in the place thereof. God commanded his word so to be ordered, that it might be had in continual remembrance at all times, and in every place: and on the other side, he forbid images and idols so to be either made or set in any place, where any should bow or worship them: but now, alas, that which God commanded is not minded, and that which he forbiddeth, is powerfully maintained by falshood and craft, and wickedly upheld.
OF late all ministers that were admitted to the public office and ministry of God's holy word, in their admission made a solemn profession before the congregation, that they should teach the people nothing as doctrine necessary to eternal salvation, but that which is God's own holy word, or may be thereon grounded without any doubt; whereby vanished and melted away of themselves many vain, yea, wicked traditions of man, as wax before the fire: but now at one brunt they are revived, and are in full hope also to return again in as great strength as ever they have been. And how can any man look for any other thing, but when you have received the head, you must also receive the whole body, or else how can the head abide? The head, under Satan, of all mischief, is Antichrist and his brood, the same is he which is the Babylonical beast. The beast is he, whereupon the whore •itteth. The whore is that city, saith John in plain words, which hath empire over the kings of the earth. This whore hath a golden cup of abominations in her hand, whereof she maketh to drink the kings of the earth, and of the wine of this harlot have all nations drank, yea and kings of the earth have lain by this whore, and merchants of the earth, by virtue of her pleasant merchandise, have been made rich.
OF late all ministers that were admitted to the public office and ministry of God's holy word, in their admission made a solemn profession before the congregation, that they should teach the people nothing as doctrine necessary to eternal salvation, but that which is God's own holy word, or may be thereon grounded without any doubt; whereby vanished and melted away of themselves many vain, yea, wicked traditions of man, as wax before the fire: but now at one brunt they are revived, and are in full hope also to return again in as great strength as ever they have been. And how can any man look for any other thing, but when you have received the head, you must also receive the whole body, or else how can the head abide? The head, under Satan, of all mischief, is Antichrist and his brood, the same is he which is the Babylonical beast. The beast is he, whereupon the whore •itteth. The whore is that city, saith John in plain words, which hath empire over the kings of the earth. This whore hath a golden cup of abominations in her hand, whereof she maketh to drink the kings of the earth, and of the wine of this harlot have all nations drank, yea and kings of the earth have lain by this whore, and merchants of the earth, by virtue of her pleasant merchandize, have been made rich.
NOW what city is there in all the whole world, that when John wrote, ruled over the kings of the earth; or what city can be read of in any time, that of the city itself challenged the empire over the kings of the earth, but only the city of Rome, and that since the usurpation of that see hath grown to her full strength? And is it not read that the old and ancient writers understand Peter's former epistle to be written at Rome, and it to be called of him in the same epistle in plain terms, Babylon? By the abominations thereof I understand all the whole ⟨p. 926⟩trade of the Romish religion, under the name and title of Christ, which is contrary to the only rule of true religion, that is, God's word. What word of God hath that devilish drab for the maintenance of her manifold abominations, and to set to sale such merchandise, wherewith (alas! the madness of man) the wicked harlot hath almost bewitched the whole world? Did not Peter, the very true apostle of Christ (of whom this stinking strumpet beareth herself so high, but falsely and without all just cause) did not he, I say, give all the world warning of her pelf and trash, of her false doctors and apostles (for this whore will be called the Lord's apostle, whosoever say nay) after this manner in his latter epistle? "There were among the people in times past false prophets, as there shall be among you in time to come false preachers, which shall privily bring in pestilent sects, even denying the Lord which hath bought them and redeemed them, procuring to themselves swift damnation, and many shall follow their damnable ways, by whom the way of truth shall be railed upon, and through covetousness by counterfeit tales or sermons, they shall make merchandise upon you," &c. And doth not John likewise in his Revelation, after he hath reckoned up a great rabblement of this whore's mystical merchandise, at the last (as though he would knit up all in plain words, without any mist at all, setting out the whore's merchandise) reckon up amongst the rest, and concludeth, saying, And the souls of men too? Whereupon, I pray you, else rose this true proverb in Latin, Omnia Romae venalia, that is, All things for money are set to sale at Rome?
NOW what city is there in all the whole world, that when John wrote, ruled over the kings of the earth; or what city can be read of in any time, that of the city itself challenged the empire over the kings of the earth, but only the city of Rome, and that since the usurpation of that see hath grown to her full strength? And is it not read that the old and ancient writers understand Peter's former epistle to be written at Rome, and it to be called of him in the same epistle in plain terms, Babylon? By the abominations thereof I understand all the whole
BUT you would know which be these merchandises which I said this whore setteth forth to sell, for which all her false prophets, with all their jugglings and crafty glosses, cannot bring one jot of God's word. Surely, they be not only all these abominations which are come into the church of England already (wherefore I have spoke somewhat before) but also an innumerable rabblement of abominations and wicked abuses, which now must needs follow; as popish pardons, pilgrimages, Romish purgatory, Romish masses, dispensations, and immunities from all godly discipline, laws and good order, pluralities, unions, with a thousand more. Now shall come in the flattering friars and the false pardoners, and play their old pranks and knavery as they were wont to do. Now shall you have (but of the see of Rome only, and that for money) canonizing of such saints as have stood stout in the pope's cause, shrining of relics, and from any kind of wickedness (if you will pay well for it) clear absolution from punishment and crime, for thousands of years; yea, and at every bishop's hand and suffragan, ye shall have hallowing of churches, chapels, altars, super•altars, chalices, and of all the whole household stuff and adornment which shall be used in the church after the Roman guise, for all these things must be esteemed of such high price, that they may not be done but by a consecrated bishop only. O Lord, all •hese things are such as thy apostles never knew. As for conjuring (they call it hallowing, but it is conjuring indeed) of water and salt, of christening of bells, and such like things, what need I speak? For every priest that can but read, hath power (they say) not only to do that, but also hath such power over Christ's body, as to make both God and man once at the least every day of a wafer cake.
BUT you would know which be these merchandizes which I said this whore setteth forth to sell, for which all her false prophets, with all their jugglings and crafty glosses, cannot bring one jot of God's word. Surely, they be not only all these abominations which are come into the church of England already (wherefore I have spoke somewhat before) but also an innumerable rabblement of abominations and wicked abuses, which now must needs follow; as popish pardons, pilgrimages, Romish purgatory, Romish masses, dispensations, and immunities from all godly discipline, laws and good order, pluralities, unions, with a thousand more. Now shall come in the flattering friars and the false pardoners, and play their old pranks and knavery as they were wont to do. Now shall you have (but of the see of Rome only, and that for money) cononizing of such saints as have stood stout in the pope's cause, shrining of relics, and from any kind of wickedness (if you will pay well for it) clear absolution from punishment and crime, for thousands of years; yea, and at every bishop's hand and suffragan, ye shall have hallowing of churches, chapels, altars, superaltars, chalices, and of all the whole houshold stuff and adornment which shall be used in the church after the Roman guise, for all these things must be esteemed of such high price, that they may not be done but by a consecrated bishop only. O Lord, all hese things are such as thy apostles never knew. As for conjuring (they call it hallowing, but it is conjuring indeed) of water and salt, of christening of bells, and such like things, what need I speak? For every priest that can but read, hath power (they say) not only to do that, but also hath such power over Christ's body, as to make both God and man once at the least every day of a wafer cake.
AFTER the rehearsal of the said abominations, and remembrance of a number of many more, which (the Lord knoweth) it grieveth me to think upon, and were too long to describe; when I consider on the other side the eternal word of God that abideth for ever, and the undefiled law of the Lord which turneth the soul from all wickedness, and giveth wisdom unto the innocent babes, I mean that milk that is without all guile, as Peter calleth it, that good word of God, that word of truth that must be engraven within the heart, and then is able to save men's souls; that wholesome seed, not mortal, but immortal, of the eternal and everlasting God, whereby the man is born anew, and made the child of God, that seed of God, whereby the man of God so b•ing born, cannot sin, as John saith, (he meaneth so long as that seed abideth in him) that holy scripture which hath not been devised by the wit of man, but taught from heaven by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, which is profitable to teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct, and to give order in all righteousness, that the man of God may be whole and sound, ready to perform every good work: when, I say, I consider this holy and wholesome true word that teacheth us truly ⟨p. 927⟩our bounden duty towards our Lord God in every p•int, what his will and pleasure is, what his infinite great goodness and mercy is, what he hath done for us, how he hath given us his own dearly beloved Son to death for our salvation, and by him hath sent us the revelation of his blessed will and pleasure, what his eternal word willeth us both to believe, and also to do;
AFTER the rehearsal of the said abominations, and remembrance of a number of many more, which (the Lord knoweth) it grieveth me to think upon, and were too long to describe; when I consider on the other side the eternal word of God that abideth for ever, and the undefiled law of the Lord which turneth the soul from all wickedness, and giveth wisdom unto the innocent babes, I mean that milk that is without all guile, as Peter calleth it, that good word of God, that word of truth that must be engraven within the heart, and then is able to save men's souls; that wholesome seed, not mortal, but immortal, of the eternal and everlasting God, whereby the man is born anew, and made the child of God, that seed of God, whereby the man of God so b•ing born, cannot sin, as John saih, (he meaneth so long as that seed abideth in him) that holy scripture which hath not been devised by the wit of man, but taught from heaven by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, which is profitable to teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct, and to give order in all righteousness, that the man of God may be whole and sound, ready to perform every good work: when, I say, I consider this holy and wholesome true word that teacheth us truly
and hath for the same purpose inspired the holy apostles with the Holy Ghost, and sent them abroad into all the world, and also made them and other disciples of Christ inspired by the same Spirit, to write and leave behind them the same things that they taught (which as they did proved of the Spirit of truth, so by the confession of all them that ever were endued with the Spirit of God, were sufficient to the obtaining of eternal salvation) and likewise when I consider that all that man doth profess in his regeneration, when he is received into the holy catholic church of Christ, and is now to be accounted for one of the lively members of Christ's own body, all that is grounded upon God's holy word, and standeth in the profession of that faith, and obedience of commandments which are all contained in God's holy word.
and hath for the same purpose inspired the holy apostles with the Holy Ghost, and sent them abroad into all the world, and also made them and other disciples of Christ inspired by the same Spi•it, to write and leave behind them the same things that they taught (which as they did prooved of the Spirit of truth, so by the confession of all them that ever were endued with the Spirit of God, were sufficient to the obtaining of eternal salvation) and likewise when I consider that all that man doth profess in his regeneration, when he is received into the holy catholic church of Christ, and is now to be accounted for one of the lively members of Christ's own body, all that is grounded upon God's holy word, and standeth in the profession of that faith, and obedience of commandments which are all contained in God's holy word.
AND furthermore, when I consider whom our Saviour Christ pronounceth in his gospel to be blessed, and to whom Mos•s […] in the law, what ways the law▪ the prophets, the psalms, and all holy scriptures, both new and old, do declare to be the wa•s of the Lord, what is good for man to obtain and abide in God's savour, which is that faith that justifieth before God, and what is that charity that doth pass and excel all, which be the properties of heavenly wisdom, and which is […] undefiled religion which is allowed of God, which things Christ himself calleth the weighty matters of the law, which thing is that which is only available in Christ, and what knowledge is that that St. Paul esteemed so much, that he counted all else vanity, what shall be the manner of the extreme judgment of the latter day, who shall judge, and by what he shall judge, and what shall be required at our hands on that fearful day, how all things must be tried by the fire, and that only shall stand for ever which Christ's words shall allow, which shall be the judge of all flesh, to give sentence upon all flesh▪ and every living soul, either of eternal damnation, o• of everlasting salvation, from which sentence there shall be no place to appeal, no wit shall serve to elude, nor any power to withstand or revoke. When (I say) I consider all these things, and confer to the same again and again all those ways wherein standeth the substance of the Romish religion (whereof I spake before) it may be evident and easy to perceive, […] these two ways, these two religious, the one of Christ, the other of the Romish see, in these latter days be as far distant the one from the other, as light and darkness, good and evil, righteousness and unrighteousness, Christ and Belial. He that is hard of belief, let him note and weigh well with himself those places of holy scripture whereupon this talk is grounded, and by God's grace he may receive some light. And unto the contemner I have nothing now to say, but to rehearse the saying of the prophet Isaiah, which Paul spake to the Jews in the end of the Acts of the Apostles.
AND furthermore, when I consider whom our Savi•ur Christ pronounceth in his gospel to be blessed, and to whom Mos•s 〈…〉 in the law, what ways the law the prophets, the psalms, and all holy scriptures, both new and old, do declare to be the was of the Lord, what is good for man to obtain and abide in God's savour, which is that faith that justifieth before God, and what is that charity that doth pass and excel all, which be the properties of heavenly wisdom, and which is undefiled religion which is allowed of God, which things Christ himself calleth the weighty matters of the law, which thing is that which is only available in Christ, and what knowledge is that that St. Paul esteemed so much, that he counted all else vanity, what shall be the manner of the extreme judgment of the latter day, who shall judge, and by what he shall judge, and what shall be required at our hands on that fearful day, how all things must be tried by the fire, and that only shall stand for ever which Christ's words shall allow, which shall be the judge of all flesh, to give sentence upon all flesh and every living soul, either of eternal damnation, o of everlasting salvation, from which sentence there shall be no place to appeal, no wit shall serve to elude, nor any power to withstand or revoke. When (I say) I consider all these things, and confer to the same again and again all those ways wherein standeth the substance of the Romish religion (whereof I spake before) it may be evident and easy to perceive, these two ways, these two religious, the one of Christ, the other of the Romish see, in these latter days be as far distant the one from the other, as light and darkness, good and evil, righteousness and unrighteousness, Christ and Belial. He that is hard of belief, let him note and weigh well with himself those places of holy scripture whereupon this talk is grounded, and by God's grace he may receive some light. And unto the contemner I have nothing now to say, but to rehearse the saying of the prophet Isaiah, which Paul spake to the Jews in the end of the Acts of the Apostles.
After he had expounded to them the truth of God's word, and declared to them Christ out of the law of Moses and the prophets, all the day long from morning to night, he said unto them that would not believe, "Well spake the Holy Ghost unto our fathers, saying▪ Go unto this people and tell them, ye shall hear with your ears, and not understand, and seeing you shall behold, and not see the thing: for the heart of this people is waxed gross and dull, and with their ears they are hard of hearing, and they have shut together their eyes, that they should not see, nor hear with their ears, nor understand with their hearts, that they might return, and I should heal them, saith the Lord God."
ALAS, England, alas, that this heavy plague of God should fall upon thee. Alas, my dearly beloved country, what thing is it now that may do thee good? Undoubtedly thy plague is so great, that it is utterly incurable, but by the bottomless mercy and infinite power of Almighty God. Alas, my dear country, what hast thou done that thou hast provoked the wrath of God, and caused him to pour out his vengeance upon thee for thine own deserts? Canst thou be content to hear thy faults told thee? Alas, thou hast heard oft, and would never amend. England, thy faults of all degrees and sorts of men, of magistrates, of the ministers' and of the common people, were never more plainly told since thou bore that name, than thou didst ⟨p. 928⟩hear them of late, even before the magistrates in king Edward's days; but thou heardst them only, and didst amend never a whit. For even of thy greatest magistrates some (the king's highness then, that innocent, that godly-hearted and peerless young christian prince excepted) evermore unkindly and ungently, against those that went about most wholesomely to cure their sore backs, spurned privily, and would not spare to speak evil of them, even unto the prince himself, and yet would they towards the same preachers outwardly bear a jolly countenance and a fair face.
I have heard that Cranmer, and another whom I will not name, were both in high displeasure, the one for showing his conscience secretly, but plainly and fully in the duke of Somerset's cause, and both of late, but especially Cranmer, for repugning as they might, against the late spoil of church goods, taken away only by commandment of the higher powers, without any law or order of justice, and without any request or consent of them to which they did belong. As for Latimer, Lever, Bradford, and Knox, their tongues were so sharp, they ripped in so deep in their galled backs, to have purged them (no doubt) of that filthy matter that was festered in their hearts, of insatiable covetousness, of filthy carnality and voluptuousness, of intolerable ambition and pride, of ungodly loathsomeness to hear poor men's causes, and to hear God's word, that these men of all others these magistrates could never abide. Others that were very godly men, and well learned, that went about by the wholesome plasters of God's word, howbeit after a more soft manner of handling the matter, but, alas, all sped alike. For all that could be done of all hands, their disease did not diminish, but daily did increase, which, no doubt, is no small occasion in that state of the heavy plague of God that is poured upon England at this day. As for the common lawyers, it may be truly said of them, as of the most part of the clergy, of curates, vicars, parsons, prebendaries, doctors of the law, archdeacons, deans, yea, and I may say, of bishops also, I fear, for the most part, (although I doubt not but God had, and hath ever, whom he in every state knew and knoweth to be his) but for the most part, I say, they were never persuaded in their hearts, but from the teeth forward, and for the king's sake, in the truth of God's word, and yet all these did dissemble, and bear a copy of a countenance, as if they had been found within.
I have heard that Cranmer, and another whom I will not name, were both in high displeasure, the one for shewing his conscience secretly, but plainly and fully in the duke of Somerset's cause, and both of late, but especially Cranmer, for repugning as they might, against the late spoil of church goods, taken away only by commandment of the higher powers, without any law or order of justice, and without any request or consent of them to which they did belong. As for Latimer, Lever, Bradford, and Knox, their tongues were so sharp, they ripped in so deep in their galled backs, to have purged them (no doubt) of that filthy matter that was festered in their hearts, of insatiable covetousness, of filthy carnality and voluptuousness, of intolerable ambition and pride, of ungodly loathsomeness to hear poor men's causes, and to hear God's word, that these men of all others these magistrates could never abide. Others that were very godly men, and well learned, that went about by the wholesome plaisters of God's word, howbeit after a more soft manner of handling the matter, but, alas, all sped alike. For all that could be done of all hands, their disease did not diminish, but daily did increase, which, no doubt, is no small occasion in that state of the heavy plague of God that is poured upon England at this day. As for the common lawyers, it may be truly said of them, as of the most part of the clergy, of curates, vicars, pasons, prebendaries, doctors of the law, archdeacons, deans, yea, and I may say, of bishops aso, I fear, for the most part, (although I doubt not but God had, and hath ever, whom he in every state knew and knoweth to be his) but for the most part, I say, they were never persuaded in their hearts, but from the teeth forward, and for the king's sake, in the truth of God's word, and yet all these did dissemble, and bear a copy of a countenance, as if they had been found within.
HYPOCRISY and dissimulation St. Jerome doth well call a double wickedness; for neither it loveth the truth (which is one great evil) and also falsely it pretendeth to deceive the simple for another thing. This hypocrisy and dissimulation with God, in matters of religion, no doubt, hath wholly also provoked the anger of God. And as for the common people, although there were many good, where they were well and diligently taught; yet (God knoweth) a great number received God's true word and high benefits with unthankful hearts. For i• was great pity and a lamentable thing to have seen in many places the people so loathsomely and irreligiously to come to the holy communion, and to receive it accordingly, and to the common prayers, and other divine service, which were according to the true vein of God's holy word, and in all points so godly and wholesomely set forth, in comparison of that blind zeal, and undiscreet devotion which they had aforetimes to those things▪ whereof they understood never one whit, nor could be edified by them any thing at all.
AND again, as for our alms-deeds, which are taught in God's word, whereby we are certain that God is pleased with them, and doth and will require such at our hands, which are a put of true religion, as St. James saith, and such as he saith himself he setteth more by than by sacrifice; to provide for the fatherless, infants and orphans, for the same, aged, and impotent poor needy folk, and to make public provision that the poor that might labour, should have wherewith to labour upon, and so he kept from shameful beggary and stealing in these works: I say, how wayward were many, in comparison (I mean) of that great prodigality whereby in times past they spared not to spend upon flattering friars, false pardoners, painting and gilding of stocks and stones, to be set up and honoured in churches, plainly against God's word? And yet because no place is to be defrauded of their just commendation, London, I must confess, for such godly works in sir Richard Dobs, knight, then ⟨p. 929⟩lord mayor, his year being marvellous well: the Lord grant the same may so likewise persevere, continue, yea and increase, to the comfort and relief of the needy and helpless, that was so godly begun. Amen.
ALL these things do administer more matter of mourning and bewailing the miserable state that now is: for by this it may be perceived, how England hath deserved this just plague of God. And also it is greatly to be feared, that those good things, whatsoever they were that had their beginning in the time when God's word was so freely preached, now with the exile and banishment of the same, will depart again.
