To the Right Honorable and my very good Lord

the Earl of Bedford, one of her Majesty's most honorable privy Council, and to the Honorable, godly, and virtuous Lady, the Countess his wife: John Fielde wishes increase of godliness and constancy by Jesus Christ forever. AMEN.

Because I cannot (my very good Lord and Lady, whom the Lord, I say by the profession of his glorious Gospel, has made right Honorable) by any other means testify the duty that I owe you, but in such poor sort as this is, I most humbly beseech you to accept of it. Look not upon it as it is in itself: but value it according to the hearty affection of the giver, who with all duty protests his humble service towards your Honor, to the uttermost that he shall be able for the advancement of your knowledge, increase of godliness and spiritual gain, in the true practice of God's blessed and holy truth, the greatest benefit that ever God in mercy could have bestowed upon you. I am sorry that my skill is no better, to help you forward in that so excellent a work: but forasmuch as God accepts us according to that measure we have received, I hope you of your Honorable courtesy, will likewise take it well, that I show this remembrance of you in presenting such a present as he has bestowed upon me. And this I will say: though in respect of my labor it be homely, yet in respect of the matter it is most excellent: a work of one of the rarest instruments whom God has raised up, in these last times to give light amidst our great ignorance, & to draw many to that blessed knowledge, which I beseech God we may both thankfully accept of: & also diligently conform ourselves with all obedience, to live according to it: that the Lord do not either take this blessing from us, or else bring upon us severe judgments, for abusing so excellent a treasure.

I know some unthankful wretches, puffed up with pride & a vain opinion of themselves, will hardly endure that I should speak thus either of the work, or of this singular instrument of God. For the nature of men's corruption is such, and especially of such as seek to be magnified one of another, that they tread under their feet God's glory: and being behind others in gifts, they pout and swell against them whose shoe latchets they are not worthy to loose: Besides that they are so corrupt, either being open Papists, counterfeit professors, or manifest heretics, that they can abide no sincerity. Of the first sort I will not say much, because now I mind not at large to dispute with them, as being the open & hopeless enemies of God (I mean the obstinate ones) who set themselves not only against his servants, but against his holy word. For what should a man say to such, whom nothing can please, but that they have received either from their own brains, or else from their sottish doctors, who are destitute of all truth & godliness? What they tell them, be it never so silly, nay so false, they will receive with all greediness: No Legend so lying, no opinion so gross, no motive so light, no life so villainous, as they will not accept of, maintain & defend, both with tooth & nail, if it come from themselves & from their own polshorne generation. But alack it should be otherwise, if they would be content to have all things tried by that undeceivable touchstone that God has appointed: If the everlasting word of God which of right (proceeding from God) ought to have his preeminence of perfection to judge all) did bear the bell, as also God has appointed it should do, this matter would be soon at an end. For whatever building should be found, either in the one or the other, that had not his foundation therein, it should quickly vanish, & every man's work should appear. But if men will come with prejudicate minds, to be admirers of men's Persons, & will only look to a personal & local succession and be carried away with the empty & bare titles of their names and professions, without examination of that they bring, men shall easily offend both in the one and in the other. Let all men therefore be examined, let the word of God discuss according to her prerogative: when God speaks let all men hold their peace, and if he teach, let all flesh be confounded.

In matters of faith and religion, let that word only be heard which is the true instructor, having been set down by men as writers, yet by the holy ghost the true inditer, who came not to suggest a piece, & so to leave an imperfect work, but to lead us into all truth, & to teach us whatsoever was necessary for our salvation; not leaving things doubtfully to be received from hand to hand by way of tradition, but plainly written to remain to all the sons of God as God's sufficient & perpetual Testament.

Fy upon these blasphemous mouths that will accuse God of infidelity, of cruelty of lack of care to his Church in providing for his: that like high traitors dare clip & adulterate his coin, wringing the scepter of his kingdom out of his hand, & bounding his government to some one people, city & country, as did the Donatists: challenging to themselves with the old Chatarists, and new Anabaptists and such as are of the Family of love, that they cannot err, when the most of their Popes (and specially such as followed him that proudly to show himself Antichrist, challenged the name of universal Bishop) were Sorcerers, Conjurers, Whoremongers and incestuous livers, Heretics, Murderers, Sodomites, covetous Harlots, and cruel blasphemers in all their doings.

I stand not to cite the places out of their own stories, they are manifest, and all the world may know them. And as for their Councils they were nothing but wranglings and repeals one of another's Laws and Canons: their customs drawn from men's errors, and therefore (as Cyprian says) being without truth, though they were never so old, are but old errors.

And yet we leave the fountain, and go to the stinking puddles that they have digged unto themselves: we must leave the light of God, and go to the darkness of men: the instruction of the holy Ghost, & rest upon these Dunces, that know not what they say, nor whereof they affirm, The word of God must be drawn in and out by them as they think good, and therefore they speak most despitefully of it.

They call it a dead letter, a nose of Wax, a Shipman's hose, a School mistress of error, dark, hard, insufficient of itself, and I cannot tell what. And yet as I said, if anything come from their Dunces, they receive it and never distrust it. The name of a Catholic is enough to authorize unto them any thing be it never so false, absurd, peevish and contrary to the known and express truth of God. They cry the Church, the Church, no otherwise than crafty strumpets that will most scold for their honesty, when they never came where it grew.

And then they brabble with us about the translation, O it is corrupted, it is not according to the Hebrew text, & to discredit that which makes most against them: besides that, they forbid the people the reading of it, they bear the world in hand, that they have observed so many and so many faults, when all men of learning and judgment know that the time wherein their errors were most palpable & rife, all kind of good learning was worn out, the knowledge of tongues decreased, they whom they most spited were the lighters of their Candles before all the world.

For to themselves Hebrew letters though (as they say) they were as big as Oaks, yet they were Pitchforks and staples: and as for Greek, they were so far from understanding of it, that not one amongst a thousand could read it. I speak not of the latter times, for now good learning being brought to light, with the knowledge of the Gospel many of them have tindered their Candles at our lights, and many (thanks be to God) are converted, and more should be, had not God in his justice for their wicked Rebellion made the means fruitless, reserving them to a farther judgment.

But let us see, where they ever amended anything they blamed. Their common translation has been amended by us, to which yet so obstinate they are, that all upon pain of the black curse in their conspiracy of Trent, must be bound only to hold themselves: when as in many places for their lives, they are not able to make any construction or sense of it. But the obscurer it was, the better liked of them, and the more to their profit: and therefore they kept it under & forbade the reading of it, lest the light thereof should discover their faults and filthy corruptions.

And this is the principal cause that Calvin and such notable men are so ill liked, and with such violence condemned amongst them. But what should good men look for other of these blind Balamites, but such condemnation? The other sort are those, that having once tasted of the sweet doctrine of the Gospel, are yet through an indisciplinate kind of life, being also devoid of true humility, carried away from the sincerity of the truth, some slugging still in dark ignorance, and folding themselves in their own persuasions, believing nothing but that which they can compass, & receiving nothing but that which stands to the liking of their humors & graveled consciences, following like Swine their own beastly and carnal appetites.

These men would be awakened. And when the Lord shall open their eyes, they shall see that the profession of the gospel of God, consists not in a bare confession, they shall find that the counsel of God in part reveals itself, by our vocation: which also is from him, & then they shall know themselves to be effectually called, when they find sanctification as a continual companion in them: which is approved and known by mortifying the old Adam in us, and by quickening the inward man, in that daily reparation that makes us as dear Children to resemble our heavenly father.

Indeed we shall come short in the perfection thereof, but he that is perfect shall supply our wants, both strengthening us to will and perform what soever is good, & also perfecting in himself that which is imperfect in us. These men would be warned not to abuse the Gospel of grace, and the glad tidings of their everlasting salvation to their own perdition: who while they speak of Christ should endeavor to know him as he is: that his bare name deceive them not, to lull them asleep in sin, and while they seek to comfort the oppressed, should likewise take heed that they strengthen not the wicked, to continue in their cursed security and fleshly liberty.

It is very true that in Christ we have all things, but Christ with all his riches only belongs to his children, and to them he is applied with all his benefits, through a true and lively faith: and he has sundry offices, to which, his must submit themselves. They must acknowledge his kingdom to be ruled by his word, and they must be subject to his law, who has thoroughly and continually provided for their government. They must rest in that which he teaches, because he is their only Prophet, their only Priest, in whose only sacrifice the father is pacified and well pleased. And Christ is the mark to whom the law leads, the end and perfection thereof, that they in him should walk in obedience.

The last sort which are as ill as the worst, I mean either open or else close and crafty Heretics, they can as ill brook the sincere word of God as any of the others, bleating also against his government and discipline, because it restrains, corrects and bridles their heretical opinions and manners. They allege overmuch severity, continually abusing his mercy, and like fantastical wretches, because they would be left to themselves to spew out their heresies, they continually bark against this wholesome correction and holy obedience.

These fellows pick many quarrels, making it subject to the inconstant wills of Popes and ignorant Princes, as though it were a Shipman's hose, to be altered and changed at their pleasure. But alack they do but catch the wind in a net: For it must needs be that Christ's scepter bruise them, and it prevail. And especially they cannot abide such men as this good Calvin was, because he rubbed them on the gaul, and broke even the skull (as I may say) of their heretical corruptions.

For some of them are Arians, other some Anabaptists, and Servetus, Davidians and Sylvanists, Pelagians, & Freewill men, Libertines and of the Family of Love, joining with them infinite heresies, and secretly in this security of the Church, disperse their poison, which I fear me, will one day so break forth when we least think of it, to the trouble of the whole Church of God, that it will be a long time or ever it be purged and appeased.

I would to God there were none in England, I would to God they had fewer favorers, and we more judgment and zeal to defend the sincere truth of our God, then should they not give such evident tokens of the venom that is within them, in defending Servetus that Dog that hath renewed all the old heresies of the Arians, that so much troubled the Church in time past: neither would they themselves in their own fantasies with such impudence condemn the dear servants of God, for procuring and calling upon the magistrate for his lawful execution against Heretics and poisoners of the Church.

They would not make a mash & hotchpotch of the civil and ecclesiastical state, and so jumble them together. They would not deny the power of the magistrate's sword, committed to his ministers not in vain, but to be used in cutting off the rotten members thereof, for the preservation of the whole body. They would not bark so like Dogs against the everlasting predestination and election of God, the most comfortable doctrine that can be, being the foundation of all the rest, where it is wisely taught according to the word, and learned within that sober compass that it is prescribed: joining and jumping so near with Anabaptists, the spiritual illuminate, Pelagians, and other merit mongers, who however they differ in some particular marks, yet are birds of one and the same feather. This shall always be found true that they follow the corruptest men of our age in all these matters. But whatever they say, God's truth is of sufficient power to overcome all their heretical blasphemies. Moses' rod shall devour their Sorcerers' serpents. Dagon shall break his neck where his truth is received. And this sun arising shall scatter all their darkness. These excellent instruments shall live when they shall be forgotten, unless it be in immortal shame & opprobry. Let us not therefore be discouraged but hold fast the truth of our good God, & with fear and reverence, let us seek after those things he hath revealed unto us. There can be no danger if we keep ourselves within the compass of the holy Scriptures. For this doctrine of God's eternal election and Predestination is most comfortable.

O, but say they with the old Heretics, if I be elected and predestinated, what need I to avoid evil works, they shall neither further nor hinder me: God is sure and what need I torment and vex myself to do well & to lead a straight and a godly life, we like not these peppered consciences! Such heretics there were long ago that so wrote and taught that occasioned Saint Augustine to write that excellent work of the Predestination of God's Saints, confuting such caitiffs as these. Saint Augustine therefore answers them, that this doctrine is a most comfortable doctrine, necessary to be known, to be published and preached to the people in his due time and place. For it is that same everlasting and unchangeable decree of GOD, whereby he has undoubtedly determined in the time that he himself best knows, to call his elect to the knowledge of his truth, that his mercy and glory might be declared in them. And this has the Scripture confirmed Rom. 8. verse. 30. Whom he has predestinated those he has called, and whom he has called those he has justified. And again in the first Chapter to the Ephesians, we are elected before the foundations of the world, and in the 9th to the Romans speaking of Esau and Jacob (of whom these Sermons especially intreat) he says that one was elected and the other rejected before they had done either good or evil. The foundation hereof, is only the purpose of his will: not foreseeing (as the Papists say) any worthiness or unworthiness of man: but for just causes known to himself, & in himself not in us in which without further inquiry we ought to rest, acknowledging him to be only good, wise, & most righteous, who is & shall be blessed and justified forever.

Now for them that are either rejected or elected, we wade no farther to judge of them than may appear by the effects, neither do we judge absolutely of them, but with condition unless upon those peculiar lost ones of whom God himself in his word hath pronounced. Read Ephesians 1. & 1 Peter 1. Now if any Potsherd will reason with the potter, which not resting in his will, would wade further to know the secret causes of this, we say unto him with the Apostle: O wretched man who art thou that disputest with God. Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus?

For further satisfaction in this question, I refer all Christians to the Books that are written hereof, & namely to these excellent Sermons: M. Knox hath learnedly answered the objections of the adversaries in a Book printed at Geneva. We have also home writers, that have dealt fully and plainly therein, as Veron of Predestination, and M. Crowley in his book against Cerberus, rightly so called for his barking blasphemies, against this most comfortable and excellent doctrine: others that are learned may further satisfy themselves, with those learned answers of M. Beza against that impure Apostate Castalio.

And now to return to your Honours, I most humbly beseech you to accept my poor labours, which I offer under your Honours' names to the whole Church of God. And I beseech your honours, as God has called you to the knowledge of his glorious Gospel, which is a token of your election, so go forward more and more in the growth thereof: that the Gospel being truly rooted in your hearts, it may bring forth sanctification, the true seal of your adoption, that you may feel his goodness in the assurance of that everlasting and blessed inheritance. God has called you to high honor, not so much by your places & calling amongst men (which yet is somewhat, because it is a great benefit of God) but in that he has made you his adopted children, it is that you should show obedience, in that he has made you heirs with his son, and Citizens with his Saints, it is that you should look up to Heaven and have your joy there despising this world, and living to righteousness and true holiness. And this will the Lord in mercy bestow upon you, thereby sealing your election, if you separate yourselves from the corruption of the world: I say not that you should go out of the world, but that you should depart from evil, and be followers of God as dear children, walking in love, even as he has loved you. Beware of these two Cankers that corrupt the whole world, and is most likely to assail Nobility, I mean Pride and Covetousness, Let them not once be named amongst you as becomes Saints. A day will come, when the Lord will fulfill your hope in better things than all this world can give you. Stand fast in his truth in these slippery days, and above all things let his glory, and the advancement of his word, be dear and precious unto you. In God's matters, let his will be the rule thereof, and not your own wisdom and affections. Examine yourselves often by it, and neglect not holy exercises. Let other Gallants of this world, follow their foolish and fading pleasures, delight you in his law, and be good examples to others. Care not for the contempt of the world, but hold fast a good conscience that you may be approved before GOD. The Lord Jesus bless you both, that as he has knit you together, so you may draw on forwards in one yoke towards his kingdom, that that may be your aim and mark in all your deeds, words, and thoughts. Amen.

October 25. 1579.

Your Honours most humble and faithful ever to command in Christ,

John Fielde.