MarginaliaEzech. 34.ye chop them in peeces as it were into a Caudron, and as flesh into the pot. &c. And therefore the foresayd Ezechiel pronounceth: Behold I will my selfe vpon the shepheardes, and require my sheepe from theyr handes, and make them cease from feeding my sheep, yea the shepheards shall feed themselues no more; for I will deliuer my sheep out of theyr mouthes, so that they shall not deuour them any more.

Marginalia6. Signe. Promoting of vnworthy ministers. The sixt signe is in promoting of the vnworthy, and of neglecting them that be worthy. This as Aristotle sayth, is a greate cause many times of the dissolution of common weales. And oftentimes it so happeneth in the wars of princes, that the cont?pt and small regarding of the valiant, and the exalting of others that be lesse worthy, ingendereth diuers kindes & kindlinges of sedition. For by the reas? partly of the same, partly of the other causes aboue recited: We haue read not only in books, but haue sene with our eies, diuers florishing cities welneare subuerted. Wheras good men be not made of, but are vexed with sorrow & griefe by the euil: the contenti? at length brasteth out vpon the prince, as Haymo MarginaliaHaymo. reciteth out of Origen. This hath alwayes bene the peruers incredulitye of mans harde heart, that not onely in hearing, but also in seing: yet will they not beleue that other haue perished, vnlesse they also perish themselues.

Marginalia7. Signe. The seu?th signe is the tribulation of outward policy & commotions of the people; which in a great part is now happened already. And therefore forasmuch as Seneca sayth: Men do complayne commonly that euils onely come so fast: It is to be feared least also the ecclesiastical policy be afflicted not onely outwardly but also in it selfe. And so be fulfilled in vs, that in MarginaliaIerem. 4. Ieremy is prophesied cap. 4. Murther is cryed vpon murther, and the whole land shall perish and sodenly my tabernacles were destroyed, and my tentes very quickly. And Ezec. 7. MarginaliaEzech. 7.Wherfore I will bring cruell tyraunts from among the heathen, to take theyr houses in possession, I will make the pompe of the proud to cease, and their sanctuaryes shall be taken. One mischiefe and sorow shall follow another, and one rumor shall come after an other; then shall they seek visions in vayne at theyr prophets, the law shall be gone fr? theyr Priests, and wisedome from their Elders &e,

Marginalia8. Signe. The eight signe is the refusing of correction, neither will they heare theyr faultes tolde them, so that it is hapned to the princes and rulers of the Church, as it is written in the prophet Zach. ca. 7. MarginaliaZach. 7. Refusing of correction in the clergie. They stopped their eares that they would not heare: yea they made their hartes as an Adamant stone, least they shoulde heare the law and words which the Lord of hostes sent in his holy spirite by the Prophets aforetime. Also Esay witnessing after the same effect. cap. 30. MarginaliaEsay. 30.sayth: For it is an obstinate people, lying children and vnfaythfull, children that will not heare the law of the Lord: which say to the Prophetes, meddle with nothing, and tell vs nothing that is true and right, but speake frendly wordes to vs. &c. All this shall be verified when the Prelates begin to hate th? that tell them trueth, and haue knowledge, like vnto such of wh? Amos speaketh, chapter. 5. MarginaliaTruth sh?t. Amos. 5.They beare him euil wil that reproueth them openly, and who so telleth them the playne trueth, they abhorre him And therefore sayth the Lord to the Church of Ierusalem. Ose 4. MarginaliaOsee. 4.Seing thou hast refused vnderstanding, I haue refused thee also, that thou shalt no more be my priest. And for so muche as thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also foget thy children, and chaunge theyr honor into shame. And so shall it be like priest, like people &c. And many other sayinges there be in the prophets, speaking of the deiecting and casting downe of the priestly honor.

MarginaliaLack of learned priestes. Besides these foresayde signes and tokens hitherto recited, there be also diuers other: As the backsliding from righteousnes, the lacke of discreete and learned Priestes, promoting of childr? into the church with such other like. But these being alreadye well noted and marked, you may easely iudge and vnderstand, whether these times now present of ours be safe and cleare from tribulation to be looked for, and whether the word of the Lord be true according to my theame. Iuxta est iustitia mea vt reueletur, my righteousnes is neare at hande to bee reuealed &c. And thus muche of the second part.

MarginaliaThe third part of m?ber of the subdiuision. Now to the third part or member of my subdeuision, which is concerning the false and perilous opinions of some, vpon thys word of my theame vt veniat &c. which opinions principally be 4. repugning all agaynst the truth of the canonicall Scripture.

MarginaliaThe first opinion. The first opinion is of such men, who hauing to much confifidence in th?selues, do think and perswade with themselues, that the Prelates be the Church, which the Lord will alwayes keepe and neuer forsake as he hath promised in the persons of the Apostles. Mathew. 28. saying: And I will be with you to the end of the world. &c. But this is to be vnderstanced of fayth, whereof Christ speaketh Luke. 21. I haue prayd for thee, that thy fayth shall not fayle. MarginaliaThe church where it is, and in wh? it consisteth. Eccle. 40. Whereof we read Ecclesiast. 40. fayth shall stand for euer. &c. And albeit Charity waxe neuer so colde, yet fayth notwithstanding, shall remayne in few, and in all distresses of the world: of the which distresses, our Sauiour doth prophecy in many places to come. And least peraduenture some shoulde thinke themselues to be safe from tribulation because they be of the church, this opinion the Lord himselfe doth contrary in Ieremy the 7. MarginaliaIeremy. 7. Trust not (sayth he) in false lying wordes, saying: the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, and a litle after, but you trust in wordes and lying counselles which deceiue you and doe you no good.

MarginaliaThe 2. opinion. The second opinion is of them, which deferre tyme; for thys they well graunt, that the Church shall abide trouble, but not so shortly: thinking thus with th?selues, that these causes & tokens afore recited, haue bene before at other times as well in the churche. For both by Gregory and Bernard holy doctors, in time past the Prelates haue bene in like sort reprehended, both for theyr bribinges, for theyr Pompe and price, for the promoting of persons and children vnfitte vnto eccesiasticall functions, and other vyces moe, which haue reigned before this in the Church of God more then now, and yet by God his grace, the Churche hath prospered and stand. Doe ye not see, that if an house haue stand and continued ruinous a long season, it is neuer more neare the fall thereby, but rather to be trusted the better? Moreouer, many times it commeth so to passe in Realmes and Kingdomes, that the posterity is punished for the sinnes of the predecessors. Whereof speaketh the booke of Lamentations the 5. chapter. MarginaliaThren. 5. Onr fathers haue sinned, and are now gone, and we must beare their wickednesse. &c. Agaynst this cogitation or opinion well doth the Lord aunswere by the Prophet Ezechiel chapter 12 saying: MarginaliaEzech. 12.Beholde thou sonne of man the house of Israel sayeth in this maner. Tush as for the vision that he hath seene, it will bee many a day or it come to passe: It is farre of yet, the thing that he prophecieth. Therefore say vnto them, thus sayth the Lord God: The wordes that I haue spoken shall be deferred no longer, looke what I haue sayd, shall come to passe sayth the Lord. &c. We haue seene in our dayes thinges to happen, which seemed before incredible. And the like hath bene seene in other times also: as we read written in the booke of Lamentations chapter. 4. MarginaliaThren. 4.The kinges of the earth nor all the inhabitaunce of the worlde would not haue beleeued, that the enemy and aduersary shoulde haue come in at the gates of the Citty, for the sinnes of her priestes, and for the wickenesse of her Elders that haue shedde Innocentes bloud within her. &c. by Hierusalem, as is sayd, is ment the Church.

MarginaliaThe third opinion, or errour. The third opinion or error is very perilous and peruerse, of all such as say, veniat, let come that will come: Let vs conforme out selues to this world, and take our time with those Temporisers which say in the booke of wisedome. Sap. 2. MarginaliaSap. 2. Come let vs enioy our goodes and pleasures that be present, and let vs vse the creature as in youth quickly. &c. Such as these be, are in daungerous case, and be greatly preiudicial to good men in the Church: And if the heades and rulers of the Church were so vile to haue any such detestable cogitation in them, there were no place in hell to deepe for them. This Church founded by the Apostles in Christ, consecrated with the bloud of so many Martyrs, enlarged and increased with the vertues and merites of so many Sayntes, and indued so richly with the deuosion of so many secular princes, and so long prospered hetherto: If it now should come into the hands of such persons, it should fall in great daunger of ruine, and they for theyr negligence and wickednes well deserued of God to be cursed, yea here also in this present world to incurre temporall tribulation and destruction, which they feare more: by the sentence of the Lord saying to them in the booke of Prouerbes cap. I. MarginaliaProuer. cap. 1.All my counsels ye haue despised, and set my correcti? at nought. Therefore shall I also laugh in your destruction, when tribulation and anguish shall fall vpon you.

MarginaliaThe fourth opinion, or errour. Fourthly, an other opinion or errour is of such as being vnfaythfull, beleue not any such thing to come. And this errour semeth to haue no remedy, but that as other thinges & other kingdomes haue theyr endes and limittes set vnto them, which they cannot ouerpasse: So it must needes be, that such a domination & gouernment of the Church haue an end, by reason of the demerites and obstinacyes of the gouernors prouoking and requiring the same: like as we reade in the Prophet Ieremy cap. 8. MarginaliaIerem. 8. There is no man that taketh repentaunce for his sinne, that will so much as say, wherefore haue I done this? But euery man runneth forth still like a wilde horse in a battell And the Prophet Ieremy MarginaliaIerem. 13.in the 13. chapter of his prophecy: Like as the man of Inde may chaunge his skinne, and the Cat of mountayne her spottes; so may ye that be exercised in euill, doe good. Whereunto also accordeth that which is written of the same Prophet. chap. 17. MarginaliaIerem. 17.speaking of Iuda signifying the Church: The sinne of Iuda (sayth he) is written in the table of your hartes, and grauen so vp? the edges of your altars with a penne of Iron, and with an Adamant claw, which is as much to say, as indelible, or which cannot be raced out: as also Ezechiell speaking of the punishment, chapter 21. MarginaliaEzech. 21.sayth: I the Lord haue drawne out my sword out of the sheath, and cannot be reuoked. Notwithstanding, all these signifye no impossiblity, but difficulty, because that wicked men are hardly conuerted: for otherwise the Scripture importeth no such inflexibilitye