Io. Whitgifte.
All this is true, for if any nation shall refuse the word of God offered vnto it, or not suffer Christ wholly to be placed in his throne, no doubt God will poure vppon that nation his plagues, as he hath done vpon al other that haue runne into the same contempt. But would you make your reader beléeue, that bycause this Churche of England doth not admit your kind of gouernment, therefore the walles of it be bro∣ken, the word of God contemned, and Christe not suffered wholly to be placed in hys throne? We admit the Gospell wholly, and in gouernments the magistrates take vpon them no office only proper to Christ, neyther yet any authoritie which is not by the word of God limited vnto them. These wordes might aptly haue bin spoken if you had written against the state of the Churche in Fraunce, or any such like king∣dome as refuseth the Gospell offered vnto it, and most cruelly persecuteth the true professors of the same. I do not excuse such in the Churche of England as contemne the word of God, neither do I iustify the whole Church for not receiuing the Gospell offred, by bringing foorth the frutes therof as it ought to do: But I exhort euery mā, from the highest to the lowest, euen in the bowells of Iesus Christ, to haue a better