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the wordes of the
righteous Deut. xvij. When couetousenesse findeth
vauntage in servinge falshed / it riseth vpp in to an obstinat
malise agenst the trouth and seketh all meanes to resiste it
and to quench it. As Balam
the false prophete / though he wiste that god loued
Israhel & had blessed them and promised them greate thinges
/ and that he wold fulfyll his promises / yet for
couetousenesse and desyre of honoure / he fell in to soch
malice agenst the trueth of god / that he sought how to resiste
it and to curse the people. Which when god wold not let him doo
/ he turned him selfe a nother waye and gaue pestilent counsell
/ to make the people synne agenst god wherbye the wrath of god
felle vppon them / and many thousandes perished. Notwithstondinge gods trueth abode fast and was fullfilled in the reste. And
Balam as he was the cause that many perished / so escaped he not
him selfe. No moare did any that maliciously
resisted the open
trueth agenst his awne conscience / sence the world
beganne / that euer I red. For it is sinne agenst the holy gost
/ which Christ saith
shall neyther be forgeuen here nor in the worlde to come / which
texte maye this wise be vnderstonde that as that
sinne shalbe punished
with euerlastinge damnacion in the life to come:
even so shall it not escape vengeaunce here. As thou seist in
Iudas / in Pharao / in Balam and in all other tirantes which
agenst their consciences resisted the open trueth of god.
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