SIR , There is no modesty that can resist the praises that come from you , and I should dissemble if I should not acknowledge that I tooke pleasure to suffer my selfe to be corrupted by the first lines of your letter , but I must know my selfe a great deale lesse then I doe to remaine long in that errour ; A Man after he hath had a pleasant dream awaketh , and I see well that after you have spoken so advantageously of my labour , you have not vsed all the seuerity of your iudgement , fauour you haue done me rather then iustice , and have sought to oblige me though with the hazard of offending truth , your selfe being theformost you encourage those that are in the race with your hand and voyce , and to perswade them to follow you , you make them beleeve they shall outgoe you . Lo here in good earnest an admirable Artifice , and which I had not discouered at the first blush , But whatsoeuer it be , or from what principle soever this glorious approbation comes to me , I doe no lesse esteem it then an ambitious man would doe a crowne , and without penetrating into your designe I rejoyce in myfortune . It is no smal thing Sir , to be beloved of you whom I have alwayes perfectly esteemed , and haue now a long time marked of the Huguenots party , as an excellent pilot who dares braue a whole fleet out of a Cockeboat , we haue the Right and the Authority , but you haue the Addresse and the Stratagems , and are no lesse confident of your courage then wee are of our cause . Certaine it is that thereby you may giue to a Sedition the apparence of a just warre , and to a multitude of Mutineeres the face of a well disciplin'd army , thereby you make pleasing to many people an opinion that hath lost the grace of novelty , and although it leaneth towards a downefall , wee must confesse it hath both lineaments and complexion in your writings , and that neuer any man did so cunningly couer weakenesse or hold vp ruines with finer force Si Pergamadextrâ Defendi possint etiam bâc defensa fuissent : The Towne of Troy from being made a Graue This arme of thine if any Arme could saue . I vse alwaies this language when there is occasion to speake of you , nor doe I take any part at all with the passions of the vulgar , who conserue not the liberty of their owne , iudgement , and know neither the faults of their owne nor the vertues of strangers . Forme out of what cloude soeuer the Day comes forth , it seemeth beautifull , and I assure my selfe that at Rome the better part did praise Hanniball , and none but plebeians spoke opprobiously of him . For it is a kind of sacrilege to bereaue whomsoeuer it be of the gifts of God , and if I did not confesse that you had receiued much , I should thinke my selfe iniurious to him who had given you much , and in a different cause should offend our common Benefactor . It is true that sometimes I haue not flattered your party , and haue beene a little moued against the Authors of these late tumults , but hauing obserued in your bookes that our opinions were agreeable , and that subiection due vnto a Soueraigne did make vp a part of that religion which you teach , I thought I might speake with your consent that which I haue already said , and that in this I was but your simple interpreter . Be the Tempest begotten by the North or by the South , it is equally odious to me , and I take not counsaile in what concernes my duty either of England or of Spaine . My humour is not to fight against the times , nor to oppose my selfe against things present , it is paine , to mee to conceiue onely the Idaea of Cato or of Brutus , and being to liue vnder the power of another I finde no vettue more conuenient then obedience . If I were a Swisse I could be content to be the Kings compere , and would not be his subiect nor change my liberty for the best master in the world . But since God hath made me to be borne in chaines I beare them willingly , and seeing they are neither rude nor heauy I will not mar my teeth in trying how to break them . It seemes that Heauen approueth a gouernment which it hath maintained by the succession of twelue hundred yeares , an Euil which had so long continued might in some sort become lawfull , and if the Age of men bee venerable that of states is holy . Those great spirits which I haue designed in my worke , and which you haue had of your party ought to haue come in the beginning of the world , to haue giuen lawes to new people , and to haue trauaild in the establishment of policy . But as it is necessary to inuent good things , socertainely it is most dangerous to goe about to change euen euill ones themselves . I haue no cruell thoughts Sir but those onely that concerne the cheifes of your party . I treate in a manner as an enemy , and I care not for insulting on your miseries , as you ciuilly reproach me , I who haue written that the King should be blessed of all the world if after hauing supprest the pride of Rebells he did not insult on the misfortune of the afflicted . The persecutors of those who submit themselues are in like execration with me as the destroyers of tombes , neither haue I onely pitty of affliction , in some sort I haue it in reuerence . I know that heretofore men consecrated places that were stricken with thunder , the finger of God was respected in the person of the miserable , and great adversities doe rather worke Religion then receiue reproaches . But so to stile the good successe of the Kings armes were to speake improperly , wee haue all gained in his Victory , all the paine that hath beene imposed vpon yours hath beene to make you as happy as our selues , and they are now possessors and enioyers of that security of which they were but amorous & iealous before their townes were taken . Our Prince will put no yoake on the consciences of his subiects , hee will not haue that receiued by force which cannot be well receiued but by perswasion , nor vse those remedies against the French which were good against the Moores . If the King of Sweden doth so vse his prosperity , and doth not defile so pure a Grace by punishments and proscriptions , I promise you to doe that which you haue desired of me , and to imploy all my Art and Vtensils to erect him a statue . This is iust to touch my inclination to pray me to praise that prince , when should all the Crownes which are imbroidered on his Scarfe bee changed into so many kingdomes , they would not be sufficient ( me thinks ) to recompence so rare a Vertue or to imploy so vast a Spirit . As I expect nothing but Greatnesse from his valour , so I hope for nothing but Goodnesse from his Vertue . And although some haue declared in Spaine that hee is the very AntiChrist , yet I am neither so deuout to beleeue that newes , nor so fearefull to bee afraid thereof . Onely I say vnto Scrupulous Men who aske mee thereabouts , that in the meane time our King hath there a Second that serues him well and that no Man could present vnto the house of Austria a Demurre that could diuert him more from studying on our affaires . Sir , I will passe noe farther , Better it is to stand at the portall of a holy place then to enter thereinto being vnprepared . Besides that this discourse is already long enough for the beginning of Acquaintance . Pardon ( if you please ) the Contentment which I haue in entertaining you , which is the cause that I haue forgotten both your businesse and my Custome which is not to preach with my friends , but you haue giuen mee the Text which I haue treated on and I beleeue that you hauing suddainly opened the bottome of my heart , and I not dissembling with you my affections ; you wil hereafter take Confidence in my freedome ; with which I protest vnto you most solemnely that I am ,

I Had ere now answered your letters if they had beene in my Possession , but they haue along time runne vp and down the towne euery one desiring to take a Copy thereof , and from the towne they haue walked to the Villages from whence the pestilence hath remoued us , for albeit that in all your writings there shine the force and liuelinesse of your Spirit seasoned with Grace and Sweetnesse , tye in these letters you haue excell'd your selfe , so elaborate is the stile , and the Conceptions strong and pleasing , that all here glisters : neither doth the soundnesse hinder the cleerenesse of it , wherein you are different from many of these times who take delight to dabble in the inke , and amongst plenty of thornes haue but little light , like that of a Gloworme shining out of a Bush , wherefore in reiecting the praises that I haue giuen your quill , you shew in earnest how much you doe deserue them , for you reiect the title of eloquent with so much eloquence , as it seemes that you haue taken a taske vpon you to shew that your Modesty is vniust , and to accuse me for not hauing praised you enough , you must change your stile if you would bee beleeued , and must become barbarous to the end you may perswade . It would very ill become me to reply vpon all points of your letter , I will not enter into that list with you , the scope of my writings being not to stroke the eare but to strike the Conscience : This is their preuiledge that write for true Doctrine , that incongruities passe oftentimes for elegancies , and that Barbarisme is sociable with Truth . For as blew and red flowers among the Corne doe delight the eye but disaduantage the haruest , so ornaments among good doctrine doe diminish the fruit of the teaching , and doe cause that insteed of of teaching matters wee are staid at words , and doe weigh periods , these flowers must fall before the fruites come on , and grosser termes doe oftentimes giue a deeper impression . And it being necessary in such matters to vse sometimes strong reprehensions ; to bring hither the flowers of eloquence , were as if we should scourge our children with a nosegay . It is for false religions to borrow these ornaments , as in their Temples and Ceremonies they will haue splendor , so they require a swollne and an artificiall language , like vnto a Woman sparkling with Diamonds whose eyes are blind , which Sir , I say to answer to those offensiue praises which you too liberally bestow vpon mee , praising mee in that I haue a Grace to lye , saying that I defend a bad cause with dexterity and Stratagems , without right and without Authority , and that I maintaine an opinion which hath lost the grace of nouelty , and for the height of all my praises , you say that I would be fit to giue a Sedition the apparence of a iust warre , which dexterity of seducing you place amongst the gifts of God , which you say you haue in great esteeme , so with a double artifice you pricke me as you tickle me , and lift mee vp a spectacle on high after you haue besmutched and deformed mee . Pardon mee Sir if I tell you that there is no blame which is not more tolerable then these praises , to bring more Art and Industry to defend Error serueth to no other end but to goe to hell with a better Grace , and to sweeten poison to destroy both himselfe and others with more dexterity . It were better a thousand times for such a Man to be dumbe then so vnhappily eloquent , and to bee the most bruitish amongst men then to haue such an ingenious peruersenesse . This is ill taking of measures , to place a fraudulent Eloquence amongst the gifts of God . It is rather the Deuill who whets the tongue and pen of such a Man , and lends him his armes to make warre against God . In briefe you haue heapt on mee those praises which Homer giues to Paris , praysing the beauty of his lockes but making him to bee the ruine of his Country . Now that if on our side there were Benifices , Riches , and Pensions , you might haue some Colour to thinke that a spirit desirous to appeare had beene drawne by these allurements to defend an euill cause , but Pouerty and Reproach being the Cognizance of our Profession , to bee wicked for nothing would be with the losse of piety to lose common Sence . And whereas you say that our Religion hath lost the grace of Nouelty , I say that it is impossible it should loose that which it neuer had , but if it were or had beene new , this should not haue beene a Grace vnto it but a Blemish . Nouelty may giue some grace vnto Sallets or Apparell , but not to the Doctrine of Saluation : that were good newes for Italy , where the new Saints doe make the old ones loose their Credit , and for the church of Rome in which the Pope doth vaunt of his power to change that which God hath commanded in his word , and that he can make new Articles of Faith , who not being able to say with Saint Peter Gold and Siluer I haue none , vseth his ship to traffick ; making a noise with the keyes , whose locks he hath changed . From this head a defluxion is fallen on the Body of the Clergy , who set vp their Banke in the Temple , and abandoning the Dominicall letter , are altogether addicted to the goldennūber , From whence it comes to passe that all is put to sale , euen God himselfe and the remission of sinnes , and that priuate Masses are not said but for those who haue contributed to the Church , the wit of auarice digging euen into Sepulchers , so that a rich Man cannot goe cheape into his Graue . And there can be no greater change then of a spirituall to make a temporall Monarchy , but our Religion is the true and ancient Christianity , onely new in this , that it reiecteth all nouelty , and esteemeth doctrine new that is not from the Beginning ; It being the heauenly Truth which the Son of God brought into the world , the violence of provoked people haue no more power against it then the Winds haue power to change the beames of the Sunne . This is it , why I make my prediction quite contrary to yours , and instead of the declining which you speake of I assure my selfe that it wil flourish and chase away the darkenesse of this Age by the brightnesse of it . And I wonder how you can delude your selfe with such a hope , in a time wherein our Religion receiueth so great Increase in the low Countreyes and in Germany , and wherein the Greeke Churches doe range themselues vnder our Confession , being drawne thereunto by the euidence of the Truth . This without doubt is one of the praises which you reserue for the King of Sweden to haue contributed to so good a Worke , of whom besides his Valour and successe you will aduance his Clemency , and for this that in places conquered he hath vsed no violence against the Roman Clergy , but letteth euen the Iesuites themselues alone , although they teach that it is lawfull to kill Kings , and that many parricides haue come out of their schooles , who hauing lately called this King Anti Christ doe now in their Colleges make declamations to his praise . And if our Churches in France doe suffer any Diminution , this proceeds not from the Cause of the contrary party , but from the Auarice of some of our Nobility who wound vs in giuing eare to that TIBIDABO which the Deuill propounded to the Sonne of God , for there are found of thosewho are alwaies armed againstiron , but not against siluer , and in this golden Age a bag of Pistolls is of great weight , & being put into the balance doth often times ouerweigh the Conscience . But the Church is no more weakned by that , then a Mans body is by hauing vomited a worme or spit forth some filthinesse . So Pride , Vanity , and Auarice are more conueniently lodged in the temples of Idols then in the house of God . True it is that those of your party do talke of our Religion with great Contempt as of a desperate Cause which notwithstanding from the lowest is often mounted vp on high : they speake of vs , as if we intended to mine the Alpes with a pin or pierce a Lyon with a festraw . They blacke vs ouer with iniuries doing as the enemies of the Gospell did of old who clad the Martirs in the skins of wilde beasts to animate the dogges to teare them , for they transforme vs into monsters to prouoke the people against vs , but the sonne of God hath prepared vs against this reproach , and he himselfe hath passed by the like proofes . I doe rely vpon your goodnesse and your Wisdome that you will support me if I be sensible on this side , for you are too cleare sighted not to discerne the weakenesse of your Cause , hauing a long time liued at Rome from whence with the examples of vices came the decisions of the Faith ; where the Iewes , enemies of the name of Christ doe liue in peace , but the Christians & the faithfull are burned ; where in the time of Lent the Shambles are shut and the Stewes are open ; where the Penitents whip themselues in publike for the sins of others ; where is exercised a marchandise of Annats , of benifices , of dispensations , and pardons : and I remember that I have reade in one of your letters that it is excellent good sinning there , and that you distinguish the Roman religion from the Popes Court , for feare the corruption of the one should not stirre vp an euill presumption of the other , although that this Court doth rule religion . A spirit excellent as yours should not suffer it selfe to bee inknarled with such senselesse opinions . But you haue a more delieate religion then that which the vulgar do beleeue , or your Church doth institute , nor doe you fasten vpon any thing which is not agreeable to your humour . I make no doubt but you scorne the hypocondriacall deuotion of those who adore bones , who kissing and apparelling Images and tossing up and downe their hallowed graines , doe make their prayers by tale in words they vnderstand not . Without doubt you doe not thinke it good that Seruice should be said in an vnknowne tongue as if God were become barbatous to Men , or as if the Pope had forbidden God to speake in French ; you haue seene at Rome many Altars where the Pope hath set vp pardons for a 100 and 200 thousand yeares with as many quarantines , and power to draw a soule out of purgatory ; you haue seene there the madnesse of the people comming two or three hundred miles to a Iubily to obtaine the remission of their sins which God hath presented vs at home by the preaching of the Gospell ; nor are you ignorant out of what stocke the Pope drawes this his liberality ; for he heapes vp the superabundance of Fastings , whippings , pilgrimages of Saints and Monkes , and conuerts the same into payments for the sins of others . When at Rome you did refresh your chamber with a Gale sufficient to driue a Ship , and did mount into your Caroach onely , to crosse a street , you had not then the leisure to studie these superstitions . But if you had then the Curiosity to take the missall , and therein to read the Cautels and the Rubricks which doe prouide against inconueniences in case the winde should carry away their God , or the Rats should haue eaten Iesus Christ , or the Priest should vomit him vp , you would excuse vs and say , certainely it is no maruaile if this poore people do finde these things of so hard digestion and ill agreeing with the maiestie of the Sonne of God . On two points principally we insist , namely on the Succession of the Pope into the Apostleship , and on the primacy of S. Peter : and we could neuer yet obtaine that any Man would shew vs the Institutions of these two things out of the word of God . But enough of these matters , from which I would haue abstained if you had not pushed me forward . I subscribe to the rest of your letters . Obedience vnto Soueraignes is a thing both iust and necessary . To find in our owne Religion or in that of the Kings occasions of Rebellion is to raise vp tumults to defend religion by courses condemned by Religion it selfe , who being necessitated in their owne particular affaires , doe hope to finde ease by moouing the fishpoole and to saue themselues in the middest of Confusion . The Cause of God was neuer aduanced that way . Moses had power to strike Egypt and their King with great plagues , yet would he neuer draw the Israelites out of Egypt without the permission of their King . I am of opinion that in Ciuill Causes it is more expedient for the people to haue a bad master then to haue none at all ; how much more hauing a good and clement King are wee obliged to be faithfull to him , who in pardoning vs hath not done as they doe who help forward their clemency by disdaine , esteeming him that hath offended them vnworthy of their choller , but hee hath followed his naturall inclination which hath carried him not only to pardon but to benefit also , so that to be conquered by him is profitable . Furthermore I haue alwaies beleeued that there is no worse estate then Anarchy , in which euery one is a slaue because euery one is a master and where the excesse of liberty is the Cause of Slauery . For this liberty bringeth licence , and licence confusion , and confusion slauery . As the hand would be an vnproper instrument , were the fingers all of an equall length , So a multitude of equall persons moue not without inconuenience ; your maxime that it is dangerous to change euill lawes is true out of the businesse of Religion . To subiect a Mans selfe by docility vnto lawes which lead unto hell , is to breake the lawes of God , and such who haue made those lawes shall not protect before God , those who obey them . But where nothing is to bee considered but the losse of goods and life , it is better to vndergoe that vniust yoake then to bee exempted from it by troubling the publike peace by rebellion against the Soueraigne , for the force of humane lawes doth not consist in this that they are iust , but in that they are lawes , and are made by them who haue Authority , and albeit they haue something of vniust in them , yet it is iust to obey them . There are to bee found Estates who haue a long time liued in peace and prosperity vnder vniust Lawes well obserued , and others liuing vnder iust Lawes but ill obserued haue fallen into ruine and confusion . This peace and prosperity will bee allwayes found more durable in a Monarchy than in any other forme of State , for it is the onely ciuill gouernement which imitates the gouernement of the vniuersall World , where there is but one Master , and all other States when they are much growne must of necessity come vnto it . But of Monarchies subsisting at this day , this of France hath the preheminence in Antiquity and good Lawes : the moouing humour of our nation & inclined to change is a cleere proofe that the State is well composed , for it had long since ouerturned the State , if the Pillars were not firme , and the building well compacted . Being borne vnder this Monarchy wee desire the prosperity of it , and that the crowne of our King may be like the crowne of Egges which daily doth increase by Age. If our religion were generally receiued in France , the Kings Maiestie should bee more exalted and his power should the more enlarge it selfe . For the Pope should no more pretend to haue power ouer the life and the Crowne of our Kings , and should vaunt no more that hee might depose them , there should not in France bee any more iustice than that of the Kings . Causes bred on this side the Alpes should not be called ouer to Rome . The Clergie should bee subiect to Ciuill Lawes and should bee tryable before the Kings Iudges . The Kingdome should no more bee exhausted of money that goes to Rome for Annats , dispensations , and pardons . So many Lands possessed by the Clergy and thereby fallen into mortmaine should owe vnto the King the same seruices and duties which other Lands doe which are possest by the Nobility . In briefe I dare say that the principall reason of the hatred which men beare to vs is because we defend by the Word of God the right of our Kings against the vsurpation of the Popes , who make them kisse their pantofles and vnder the shadow of penance doe impose vpon them corporall punishments . But this is our vnhappinesse that as the holy Scripture is a booke which is hid from Kings , so in that which concernes the liberty and independance of their Crownes , they learne nothing but from them whom the Pope holds bound by the belly . But this is too much . The pleasure which I take in entertaining you makes mee forget that I write an Epistle and not a booke , and hath carried me beyond my limits : that clause wherein you say that I would giue vnto a sedition the apparence of a iust warre hath urged me to take some kind of reuenge which hath bin this , to tire you with the length of my letters ; yet it shall not hinder mee from admiring the beauty and the force of your wit . I honour the guifts of God wheresoeuer they bee found , on the other side also , I hope that this little sharpenes which I haue vsed shall not depriue him of your fauours who honours you and who is ,