The ill successe it hath had these very many yeares, being no more in∣creased, where the encreasings of God are great, &c.
As it is alwayes safer to proceed by the causes & reasons of things* 1.1 then by theyr events and successe, so especially is this rule of vse in* 1.2 the case of religion, whose way as it is in it selfe narrow and found by few, how much more being streytned by the fyery persequuti∣ons of the wicked world.
Indeed the Church of England hath advantage of vs and (as I suppose) of all the Churches in the world for monstrous speedy growth, and encrease, for that of a Synagogue of Satan consisting of Popish Idolaters, and cruel murderers of the saynts, it grew fro top to toe into a true and intire body of Christ of a suddayn, & be∣fore the greatest part of it so much as heard the gospel preached in any measure for their conversion.
But consider herein M. B. dealing: He spares no vngodly means in this his book, and otherwayes, by slaundering our persons, by falsyfying our opinions, by exaggerating our infirmities, by incen∣sing the Magistrate against vs, to suppresse vs, and yet reprocheth vs because we grow no faster: dealing with vs much what as the Iewes did with Christ when they blindfolded him first, & then bad him prophesie who smote him, Luk. 22. 64.
But let it be as Mr B. would have it, that the cause of religion is to be measured by the multitude of them that professe it, yet must it further be considered, that religiō is not alwayes ••own & reaped in one age: * 1.3 One soweth and another reapeth. Iohn Husse and Ierom