srael, drawing sore judgments and calamities thereon;
yet had he the heart and the face to charge those events on the
great assertor of piety, Elias: "Art thou he that troubleth
Israel?" The Jews by provocation of Divine justice had set
themselves in a fair way towards desolation and ruin; this event to
come they had the presumption to lay upon the faith of our Lord's
doctrine: "If," said they, "we let Him alone, all men will believe
on Him, and the Romans shall come, and take away our place and
nation:" whereas, in truth, a compliance with His directions and
admonitions had been the only means to prevent those presaged
mischiefs. And, si Tibris ascenderit in maenia, if any public
calamity did appear, then Christianos ad leones, Christians must be
charged and persecuted as the causes thereof. To them it was that
Julian and other pagans did impute all the concussions, confusions,
and devastations falling upon the Roman Empire. The sacking of Rome
by the Goths they cast upon Christianity; for the vindication of it
from which reproach St. Austin did write those renowned books de
Civitate Dei. So liable are the best and most innocent sort of men
to be calumniously accused in this manner.

Another practice (worthily bearing the guilt of slander) is, aiding
and being accessory thereto, by anywise furthering, cherishing,
abetting it. He that by crafty significations of ill-will doth
prompt the slanderer to vent his poison; he that by a willing
audience and attention doth readily suck it up, or who greedily
swalloweth it down by credulous approbation and assent; he that
pleasingly relisheth and smacketh at it, or expresseth a delightful
complacence therein: as he is a partner in the fact, so he is a
sharer in the guilt. There are not only slanderous throats, but
slanderous ears also; not only wicked inventions, which engender and
brood lies, but wicked assents, which hatch and foster them. Not
only the spiteful mother that conceiveth such spurious brats, but
the midwife that helpeth to bring them forth, the nurse that feedeth
them, the guardian that traineth them up to maturity, and setteth
them forth to live in the world; as they do really contribute to
their subsistence, so deservedly they partake in the blame due to
them, and must be responsible for the mischief they do. For indeed
were it not for such free entertainers, such nourishers, such
encouragers of them, slanderers co