A Mystery of Iniquity Disclosed and Confuted, Part 24
A mysterye.
1 Next after him Came in a lymme.
2 Of Antichrist An Anabaptyst.
3 One Peter Franke.
4 Hi sunt fontes sine aqua, quibus caligo tenebrarum reseruatur. 2. Pet. 2.
¶The openinge. 1.
YMagyne yow neuer so manye craftye colours / yet can ye not hyde a wolfe. Now couple ye these good menne with the Anabaptistes / y• more to blemishe their names / though they neuer agreed to that supersticyouse secte. Rather shuld the Anabaptistes seme to be of youre sorte than of theirs For they hauehave in a maner the same opinion of fre will / & of iustificacion by workes that you hauehave. They will obeye no temporall magistrates / and nomore will you but by compulsyon. They force not to breake their othe of allegeaunce / & nomore do you. They wolde hauehave all mennes goodes in common / & so wolde you also / youre owne alwayes excepted. And this foredele of them ye hauehave in that article. ye are sure in eueryevery mānes goodes to hauehave a porcion by tyttle of tythes / offerynges / confessions / testaments / masses / & so forth / doynge lyttle or nothynge for it / and so are not they. And therfore I can not se / but ye are a membre of theirs / as daungerouse / coyeshe / and diuerse as ye make it. Marrye in dede a zele they hauehave vntounto the Gospell / thoughe nothynge to knowlege / which yow neuer had yet / but a most bytter hate in the stede therof. And therfore ye seme rather to be lymmes of the denyll (which hath bene a murtherer in youre spyghtfull generacion euer sens the beginnynge) than of anye congregacion that is godlye.
2 If ye knewe so wele what an Antichrist were as ye can name him / ye shuld here plucke youre selfe by the nose harde. But I perseyue wele now ye are but a wytlesse fole. It is not y• …ebaptisynge or retynctynge agayne in water that maketh an Antichrist / but the obstinate resistaunce of that heauenlye veryte which Christ ones taught. He is a verye Antichrist which vndre Christes tyttle playeth a part cleane contrarye to Christ. As where as Christ was meke / gentyll / sowlye / mercyfull / peceable / poore / pytefull / iust and true. He is cruell / ferce / frowarde / frantyck / tyrannouse / proude / vaynegloriouse / spyghtfull / wycked / and false / and yet is all done in Christes stede what blasphemye so euer he worketh. Antichrist after y• scripturs is he which calleth himselfe holye / changeth y• lawes / obserueth dayes and tymes / doth manye false miracles / denyeth Christ / destroyeth peoples / woundeth vntounto death / assoyleth for monye / iudgeth euyll good and good euyll / is worshypped of Princes / burneth in concupiscence / and shall be destroyed with the onlye breath of Gods mouthe. Now blowe in both youre fystes / & tell me whom they meane. ye knowe I am sure … they are which worketh all these feates / els are ye a manne of verye small experience. But here perauenture ye playe Tom Nytygo. ye knowe it / but ye will not be acknowne of it.
3 To assertayne yowe fullye of the matter / the great Antichrist is youre whole clergye with the layte of the same false faythe. Of the which youre holye father the Pope with his college of cardinals is the head / All Patriarkes / Archebishoppes / metropolytanes / bisshoppes / lawers / doctors / prestes / presones / curates / monkes / chanons / and nonnes are the bodye / & the .iiii. orders of fryers which came last of all are the tayle that couereth his arse / which is now cutt of in Englande / and therfore he is there become a curtall. This is the great bodye of sathan which ministreth to the worlde all fylthynesse of ydolatrie and necrolatrie. What Peter Franke was by his lyfe (whom ye call here a lymme of Antichrist) I can not iustlye report / for he was of an other nacyon. But yf that mannes lyfe maye be called good / whose ende is godlye and perfyght / I dare boldelye saye that his lyfe was good. For in his death confessed he the Lorde Iesus Christ to be his onlye sauer and redemer / which is the true seale marke of the seruaunt of God. In the myddes of the fyre also he stode withoute feare / sorowe / tremblynge / changynge of countenaūce / or dissolute mouyng: which were playne tokens of a conscience not trobled / but assertayned throughlye of a moche better lyfe after this lyfe. This lerned I in Colchestre of them which were by his onlye deathe or pacient sufferaūce / cōuerted from youre papisme vntounto true repentaunce / where as nothynge afore coude conuert them.
4 A verye theues part hauehave ye played here with the text / which ye hauehave taken out of saint Peters seconde epistle. Hi sunt fontes sine aqua / quibus caligo tenebrarū reseruatur. For ye hauehave left oute of it no lesse than these .iiii. wordes / & nebule turbinibus exagitate. These (saith saint Peter) are y• welles without water / & clowdes carryed forth with tempestes / to whom is reserued the myste of darkenesse. This was neuer spoken for anye that euer yet dyed for the veryte. But for soche subtyle soth sayers as deceyue the people / lyuinge here in all voluptuousnesse. For thus beginneth the chapter. Fuerunt pseudo Prophete in populo / s…cut & in vob is erunt magistri mendaces. Amongest the people were false prophetes / lyke as there shall be amonge yow lyenge masters also. These shall preuilye bringe in dampnable sectes / denienge the verye lorde that bought them. Manye will folowe their voluptuouse wayes / by whom y• verite shall be blasphemed. For couetousnesse shall they with fayned wordes make merchaundyse of you (saith he) but their iudgement is not farre of / neyther slepeth their vtter dampnacion. All this with moche more yet folowinge of Balaam the false prophete / and of Sodom and Gomor / is spokē of your fylthye spiritualte / yf it be indifferentlye marked. And therfor kepe it vntounto yow as yowr owne propre good / and turne it not vntounto those poste menne which hauehave no porcion therin.