A Christian Exhortation Unto Customable Swearers, Title page – To the reader
A Christen exhortacion vntounto customable swearers
What a ryght & lawfull othe is: whan / and before whom / it owght to be.
Item. The maner of sayinge grace / or geuynge thankes vntounto God.
Who so euer heareth Goddes worde / beleue it / and do therafter shall be saued.
Unto the reader.
GRace and increase of knowlege frome God the father / throughe owre Lorde Iesus Christ / be with the Cristen reader / and with all other … …untremen that louelove the Lord vn…aynedlye. In the Lordes byneyarde / (deare frynde) I se men in this age busylye occupyed to roote owte …wedes of inueterate vyces and olde can…ed customes. Some hath preached against supersticions. Some hath wryten against Purgatorye and Pardons. Some hath inueyed against Pylgrimage… & sectes. Some hath beatten downe Monasteries and Shrynes / Idolles & their aulters▪ Some seaketh yet to this daye to de…roy… Popyshe decrees / to abolyshe vayne Ceremonyes / to restore necessarye rytes / and to bringe agayne all thinges to Cristes first inst…cion. All these thinges are Godlye / I denye it not / and men vertuouslye exercised in so doynge. But these for the more parte hath parteyned / and yet styll doth par…eyne / to the monstruous kyngdome of Antecrist or disgysed church of hypocrites. Which hath euermore had a greate shewe or glytterynge pretence of godlynesse / though they hauehave (after S. Paule) denyed the power therof. But the abho…nable custome of swearinge or dayly blaspheming of the blessed name of god (whiche is of the de…ylles kyngedome right owt / without any colours to the cō trary) hath verye fewe or none re…uked / specially in ther wrytinges. Wherfore I hauehave cōceyued it a thinge most necessarye to setforth sumwhat concerninge the rebuke therof / to put me… in remembrance of them selfes / least they shuld through custome forgett God. So hath this execrable abusyon increased amonge the people / that rather it hath bene co…nted a vertue than a vyce / …ynge the open dore vntounto dampnacion. yea so depelye hath this pestilent poyson infected the wittes of men / that nothinge seameth pleasaunte vntounto them / freshe / or worthye to be lawghed at / vnlesse it be ioyned with the blasphemye of goddes holye name. The tale shall lacke his dewe circumstance / vnlesse it be myred with othes. As with bloode / woundes / death / and sydes / with cursinges and bannynges / as poxe / pestil…ce / fowle euyll / shame / vengeaunce / & myfchef / to badde to be vttered amonge the deuyls in helle. Oh mercyfull God / how can they thynke themselfes worthye of the name of cristianes / vsinge such deuyllishnes? how can they hope to be saued in Crist / vtteringe out of all cristen order suche owtragio…s blasphemye? moch more godlye shuld the cristyan be / than eyther Iewe or pagane / yet is he a thowsand tymes worse in hys conuersacion and lyfe. Amonge all vyces wherunto the corrupte nature of owre nacion is geuen (for the more parte) is blasphemye & whoredome / though the first of them be dyrectelye agaynst the thred commandement of God in the first table / and the other agaynst the thred in the second table (which is the seuenth in numbre) yet are they in daylye custome / God not feared / nor yet ther danger consydered. And why? They that shuld be the salte of the earth / are become vnsaverye / and wher as they ought to geue vsus the lyght of good lyuinge / they offre vsus darkenesse. Neyther is the corrupciō of execrable swearinge taken from vsus by the seasonable doctryne of owre prelates / & prestes / nor yet by ther shyninge exāples awaye lefte vsus to forsake stincking whoredome. Rather do thei shewe vsus a playne pathe vntounto them bothe. For no wher shall yow fynde more othes / nor of more dyuerse kyndes / than in bisshoppes howses. And as for comō whores / yow shall hauehave so manye / not farre from some of ther howses / as are able to serue the fylthye flocke of an whole contree. Ther eyes are so spirituall / that they can not see the… blottes. These sauers can they not smell though they go by them eueryevery daye. So small feare hauehave they to God / and so lytle good wyll beare they / …o the honorable state of matrimonye. But if a pore man begynneth to fauer the verite of the lord / they cane smelle hym owt though he be .xl. myle of. But with these thinges wyl they not meadle. And why? they are bothe necessarye for a comon wealth. By good hansome swearinge men appere valeaunte / and no faynt harted cowerdes. The stewes ar permitted / as an wholesome polytique ordinance / to auoyed a greatter inconuenience. For elles (saye they) honest mennys wyfes shuld not lyue in rest. Oh beastlye belye goddes / maye you by your polytique ordinances (contrarye saynt Paules doctrine) s…ffer an euyll thinge that good maye come therof? Faythful wyfes wyll cōtinue in ther honeste / whan you / and all whorehūters shall go to the deuyll. It geueth rather an occasion to wyfes / and maydēs to be nowght. For when the wyfe is disposed to be an whore / she knoweth wher to be receyued. Manye a mayde lykewyse / when a wanton felowe hath gotten vpehure bealye she must strayght waye to the stewes. If hure master or maystres see anye wanton towch with hure… and than (as it becommeth them) tell hure of it / she sett the lesse by them / and all because of the stewes. And it is a comon sayenge / ware ther no receyuer ther shuld be no thefe. So ware ther no stewes / ther shuld not so many honest mennis doughters rune awaye from ther fathers and playe the whores as dothe. Oh …testable hypocrites / what honest man can thinke the breaking of goddes commandementes to furder a Christen lande? why are princes / magistrates / & iudges / put in aucthorite but onlye to se them obserued? why are you made bisshoppes / but onlye to persuade them to the same? Neuer bringe you an owtragious blasphemer / nor a comon aduowtere… to open shame before the world / at Paules crosse / though ther be neuer so manye. Neuer laboure you to the kinge and his counsell for a refourmacion to be hadd of these most execrable vyces / though you know them to be most hurtefull / to a Christen comō wealth. you can wy…he at such greauous euylles / & suffer thē to be taken as no synnes. It was not without a cause that Christ called yow a blasphemous / & an aduouterous generacion. It is not for nowght / that the scripture geueth you so manye odyous names. As strangers / beastes / aduersaries / dreamers / colubers / belyals / dome dogges / ra…onynge wolues / serpentes / le …athans / bastardes / traytors / destroyers / theues / idolles / men of synne / sonnes of perdicion / vnshamefast lyers / wycked doers / enemyes to the truthe vncle…ne fowles / deuilles incarnate blynde leaders of the blynde / hypocrytes / hy …linges / false prophettes / yll sede / with an .C. more. you wyl make goddes commandementes of no effecte / to auoyed greatter inconuenience. Oh detestable enemyes to the trewth / what inconuenience can be greatter / than to neglecte the lawes of god doth he not thretten to them that breake his commandementes all thes fearefull plages? As derth / barennesse / scarsenes / nede / hunger / thurst / …o…ertie / penurye / the plages and sycknesses of Egypte / pestilence / poxe / botch / feuers / collycke / heate / em…odes / scalle / mange / meselles / madnesse / losse of goodes / wyndes / blastes / waters wythering / wastyng / burnyng / drought / rayne oppressyon / robberye / theues / rape / yll fortune / captyuite / e…ile / wrechednes / subieccion / dāger / pryson / syckenes / strypes / shame / cowardnes / blyndnes / error / dasynge of harte / desperacion / thou …ht / vnquyetnes / toyle / bondage / warre / fyer / swearde / battell / feare / tremelynge / sorowgh / schorte … lyfe / & sodene deathe both of bodye & sowle. And all this you weye not at all. you are so vnmarcyfull / that you care not to se them droppe headelinges in to helle. So that you hauehave the flees / you passe not what become neyther of body nor sowle. Wel is that people / whom God hath delyuered from suche vnpitefull g…ydes. Therfore we pore wreches / owght to geue most hartye thākes vntounto the lord / (seyng the salte is become so vnsauerye) which hath geu…e vsus such a prince / such a feythfull Iosyas / & godlye …ynister / that hath restored agayne the pure worde of God / & hath graunted vsus all free passage vntounto it / wherin we maye lerne to a voyed these vyces / with all other. This worde of God / is the mother perle / that we owght with all diligēs to seke / the pappe that we ought to sucke / and the table that we shuld eate vppon. From thence shuld we fetch the sustenance of health / the breade of lyfe / the wy…e of gladnesse / the refresshing waters / the feadinge of the sprete / the lyght of the sowle / yea it is the verye towche stone that tryeth all thinges. And this afore tyme / was hydden from vsus / by the frye of the the serpent / the satellytes of antichriste / the sorcerers of Egypte / with ther mynysters. Geue thankes therfor yet ones agayne vntounto God… which hath in these latter dayes so marcyfullye vysyted vsus from aboue / and hath sett owre feete in the pathwayes of his peace. So be it.