desolation, unless there be speedy repentance.――[_Then follows what has been already quoted in_ vol. ii. p. 162.]――The faithfull of your acquaintance here salute you. The grace of the Lord rest with you. * * * * * Nº XII. [Cald. II. 107.] The same to the same. (See above, p. 165.) I thank you heartily, dearly beloved in the Lord Jesus, that ye had such remembrance of me as to certify of that part which not a little troubled and yet troubleth me. What I have done or am able to do in that behalf I will not trouble you at this present, this only excepted, that it will please you to travel as in the end of your letter ye write ye would do, to wit, that my sons might be Denezans there. I am informed both be letter and be tongue, besides conjectures that probably may be gathered, that the Duke and his friends are inflamed against me. Ofter than once I have called to mind your words to me that day that I had been more {397} than vehement, as some men thought, in the end of the ―――― chapter of John’s Evangell, concerning the treasonable departure of Judas from Christ, and of the causes thereof. Before that I came forth of the preaching place, ye said, Before my God I think your eyes shal see performed that which your mouth hath pronounced. My words were these, I fear that such as have entered with us in professing of the Evangell, as Judas did with Christ, shall depart and follow Judas, how soon the expectation of gain and worldly promotion faileth them. Time will try farther, and we shall see overmuch. We look daily for the arrival of the duke and his Frenchmen, sent to restore Satan to his kingdome, in the person of his dearest lieutenant, sent, I say, to repress religion, not from the king of France, but from the Cardinall of Lorrane in favour of his dearest nice. Lett England take heed, for surely their neighbours houses are on fire. I would, dear brother, that ye should travell with zealous men, that they may consider our estate. What I would say, ye may easily conjecture. Without support we are not able to resist the force of the domesticall enemies, (unless God work miraculously,) much less are we able to stand against the puissance of France, the substance of the Pope, and the malice of the house of Guise, unless we be comforted be others than by ourselves. Ye know our estate, and therefore I will not insist to deplore our poverty. The whole comfort of the enemies is this, that be treason or other means they may cutt off the Regent, and then cutt the throat of the innocent king. How narrowly hath the regent escaped once, I suppose ye have heard. As their malice is not quenched, so ceaseth not the practice of the wicked, to put in execution the cruelty devised. I live as a man already dead from all affairs civil, and therefore I praise my God; for so I have some quietness in spirit, and time to meditate on death, and upon the