e olde Testament and the newe / ar full of
such sentences / and commaundementes / which do forbidd straunge
worshippinge of godd and Idolatrie.

[[2. Mach. 7.]]

Call to your mynde the historie of the Machabees / which I do
not recite as thoughe I wold gyue to that booke ony lyke
autoritie with the Canonicall scriptures, but bicause the
historie is rehersed not only ther / but also in Iosephus / and
the examples of them ar profitable for vs / therfor I do alledge
them. That godly Mother hadd rather haue the whole fruite of her
bodie to be miserablie destroyed / then ons to taste of swynes
fleshe.

[[Gen. 2.]]

Swynes fleshe / and Adams apple / of their very nature ar not so
to be abhorred / for eiche of them is a goode creature of godd.
But forsomutche as vnto them godd hathe ioyned his worde to
forbid the tasting of them / therfor euen as Adam could not eate
the forbidden apple / so could not they eate swynes fleashe
without committing of greate synne: which rather then they wolde
do / the poore babes offer themselues to the deathe / and the
godly mother doth most stronglye therto encorage them and most
constauntly abide the same herself.

In the church of christe ther haue beene innumerable martirs /
as Eusebius / and others do write / which haue most constantly
abidden deathe / bicause they wold not depart from the Religion
of christe / nor file themselues with Idolatrie: They wold not
put one grayne of franckinsence vppon the altars of the Idols /
nor throwe one floure / nor ons bowe the knee before them / but
suffered rather deathe.

[[Matth. 10.]]
[[Luc. 12.]]

They hadd this alwais before ther eyes: Feare not hym that
killethe the bodie / &c. And that he speakith of killing the
bodie / is likewise to be vnderstonded of taking awaye of goodes
and ritches: But he is to be feared / which after that he hath
taken awaye bothe lyfe and goodes / can throwe the soule into
euerlastinge fire / feare hym.

S. Paule to persuade the Corinthians that they shuld abstayn
from meates offered vnto Idols / vsith theise reasons:

[[1. Cor. 3.]]

Bicause they wer the Temple of godd. They wer the membres of
christe / and therfor they might not become the membres of an
Idoll. Bicause they wer partakers of the lords table of which
they could not be partakers and of the table of Deuels also. And
the same thing that Paule said vnto the Corinthians / do I also
saye vnto these our brethern of whom I do entr