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The correction of the church.stines, and of such as hate thee: And they shall breake down thy stewes, and destroy thy brodel houses (that is, þ^e place wherin thou didst exercise thys wickednes) they shall strippe thee out of thy clothes: All thy fayre & beutifull iewells shall they take from thee, and so let thee sit naked and bare, &c. MarginaliaEzec. xvi.Here is plainly to be sene what shall happen to the church, and followeth more in the said chapter. Thine eldest sister is Samaria, she and her doughters vpō thy left hand: But thy yongest sister that dwelleth on thy right hand is Sodoma with her daughters, whose sinnes were these: Pryde, fulnes of meat, aboundaunce, & idlenes, neither reatched they their hand to the poore. And yet neyther Sodoma thy sister with her daughters, hath done so euil as thou and thy daughters: Neyther hath Samaria (that is the sinagoge) done halfe of thy sinnes, yea thou hast exceeded them in wickednes. Take therfore & beare thyne own confusion, &c. Againe, in the xxiij. chap. of Ezechiell: MarginaliaEzec. xxiijAfter the Prophet had described at large the wickednes, corruption, and punishmēt of the sinagoge, turning to the church, saith: And when her sister saw thys, she rageid and was mad with luste more thē before: she was madde, that is, with fleshlye luste, loue of riches, & following voluptuousnes. Her fornication and whoredome she committed with princes and great lordes, clothed with all maner of gorgious apparell: so that her pappes were broosed, and her brestes were marred. And then speaking of her punishment, sayth: Thē my hart forsooke her, lyke as my hart was gone from her sister also. And moreouer repeating again the cause therof, addeth: Thy wickednes and thy fornications hath wrought thee all thys. &c.

The like we finde also in Esay, Hieremie, Ezechiel & in all the other Prophetes, who prophecyng all together in one meanyng, and almost in one maner of wordes: Do conclude with a ful agremēt and prophesie to come, that the churche shall fall, and then be punished for her great excesses, and to be vtterly spoyled except she repēt, of all her abhominaciōs. Wherof speaketh Oseas. chap. 2. Let her put away her whoredom out of her sight, and her aduoutrie from her brestes, leste I stripe her naked and set her euē as she came naked into the world MarginaliaOsee. 2.(that is in her primitiue pouertie) So if she do not, it shal folow of her as is in the prophet Nahum. chap. 3. MarginaliaNahum. 3.For the multitude of the fornication of the fayre and bewtifull harlot, whiche is a master of wichcrafte, yea and selleth the people through her whoredome, and the nations through her wichcraft. And foloweth vpon þ^e same: Behold I wil vpō the, sayth the Lord of hoastes, & will pull thy clothes ouer thy head, that thy nakednes shall appeare among the heathen, and thy shame among the kingdomes. &c.

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The reformatiō of the church.Wherfore by these it is to be vnderstand, that vpon this churche the primitiue iustice of God, is to be reueled hereafter. And thus much of the first of the foure members aboue fore touched.

Now to the second member of my theame, Iuxta est: concernyng the nearenes of the tyme. Although it is not for vs to know, the momentes and articles of tyme: MarginaliaCertayne notes and signes, that the tribulation of the church draweth nere.yet by certeine notes and signes peraduēture it may be collected and gathered, þ^t which I haue here to say. For the tractation wherof, first I ground my selfe vpon the saying of the Apostle Paul. 2. Thess. 2. where he writeth: That vnles there come a defection first. &c.Marginalia1. signe. 2. Thes. 2.
Except there come a defection first: how it is to be vnderstanded. By the which defection, Hierome vltima quest. ad inquisitiones Ianuarij, gathereth and expoundeth allegorically, the desolation of the monarchie of Rome: Betwene the which desolation, and the persecution of the churche by Antichrist, he putteth no meane space. And now what is the state of that common wealth, if it be compared to the maiestie of that it hath been, iudge your selues. An other glose there is þ^t sayth, how by that defection is ment: þ^t from the churche of Rome, shal come a departyng of some other churches.

Marginaliaa note or marke.The second note and marke is this, when the churchshalbe worse in maners then was the sinagoge: as appeareth by the ordinary glose vpon the iii. of Hieremy, where it is writtē. The backslyder Israel, may seme iust and rightuous in comparason of sinfull Iude. MarginaliaThe Synagoge and the church compared together in maners.That is, The Synagoge, in comparason of the Churche of God. Whereof writeth Origenes saying: Thinke that to be spoken of vs, what the Lord sayth in Ezech. xvi. Thou hast exceded thy sister in thyne iniquities. Wherefore now (to cōpare thone with the other) First ye know how Christ rebuked þ^e phariseis, who as Hierome witnesseth were then the clergy of the Iewes, of coueteousnes: for that they suffered doues to be sold in the temple of God. Secondly, for þ^t they did honour God with their lips and not with their mouth, and because they said, but did not. Thirdly he rebuked them, for that they were hypocrites. To the first thē let vs see, whether it be worse to sell both church and Sacramentes, then to suffer doues to be sold in the temple, or not. To the second, where as the pharisies were rebuked for honouring God with their lippes, and not with hart: There be some, which neither honour God with hart, nor yet with lippes: And whiche neyther do wel, nor yet say wel, neither do they preach any word at all, but be dombe dogges, not able to barke, impudent and shameles dogges, that neuer haue inough: such pastours as haue no vnderstandyng, declining and strayng all in their owne way, euery one geuen to couetousnes frō the highest to the lowest. And thirdly, as for hypocrisie there be also some, whose intolerable pride and malice is so manifest and notorious, kyndled vp like a fire: That no cloke or shadow of hypocrisie can couer it, but are so past all shame, that it may be well verified of thē which the Prophet speaketh: Thou hast gotten thee the face of an harlot, thou wouldest not blush. &c.

Marginalia3. Note or token.The third signe and token of tribulation approching nere to the church, may welbe taken of the to much vnequal proportion seen this day in the church. Where one is hungry and starueth, an other is dronke. By reason of whiche so great inequalitie, it can not be that the state of the churche as it is now, can long endure. For like as in good harmonie to make the musike perfect, is required a moderate and proportionat inequalitie of voyces, which if it to much excede it taketh away all þ^e swete melodie: So accordyng to þ^e sentence of the Philosopher, by to much immoderate in equalitie or disparietie of Citisens, þ^e cōmon wealth falleth to ruine. Contrarie, where mediocritie, that is, where a meane in equalitie w^t some proportion is kept, that policie standeth firme and more sure to continue. Now among all þ^e politike regimēts of þ^e gentles, I thinke none more is to be found in hystories wherin is to be seen so great and excedyng oddes, thē in the policie of priests: Of whom som be so high, that they excede all princes of the earth, some agayne be so base, that they are vnder al rascals: so that such a policie or cōmon wealth, may well be called Oligarchia. MarginaliaOligarchia, is where a fewe beare all the sway, and al the reast be nothing worth.This may we playnly see & learne in the body of man, to the whiche Plutarchus (writyng to Thraicinus) doth semblably cōpare the common wealth. In the which body, if the sustinaunce receaued should all runne to one member, so that that member should be to much excedingly pampered, and al the other partes to much pyned, þ^e body could not long continue: So in the body of the wealth ecclesiasticall, if some who be the heades bee so enormely ouergrowne in riches and dignitie, that the weaker mēbers of the body be scant able to beare thē vp, there is a great token of a dissolution and ruine shortly. Wherupon cōmeth well in place the saying of the Prophet Esay. Euery head is sicke, euery harte is full of sorrow, MarginaliaEsay. 12of þ^e which heads it is also spokē in the Prophet Amos. chap. vi. Wo be to the secure and proud wealth in Syō, and to such as thinke them selues so sure vpon the mount of Samaria, takyng them selues as heades and rulers ouer other. &c. MarginaliaAmos. 6.And moreouer in the sayd prophet Esay it foloweth: Frō