instruct the people The Preachers abovementioned were more particularly instructed to perswade the people from praying to Saints for the dead from adoring of Images from the use of Beads Ashes and Processions from Mass Dirges praying in unknown languages All which was done to this intent That the people in all places being prepared by little and little might with more ease and less opposition admit the total alteration which was intended in due time to be introduced You mention also certain injunctions appointed for the Bishops that they should personally preach once a quarter in their Diocess that they should cause their Chaplains to Preach that they should Ordain none but such as were learned in the Scriptures There was also a Form of Bidding-prayer prescribed or bidding of the Beads as you say it was then commonly called in page 37. You lead us next to the Parliament page 47. which took beginning the 4. of November in which you tell us of packing the Cardes by Sir Ralph Sadler that this Parliament without any sensible alteration of the Members continued till the death of the King and you say page 48. a great part of the Nobility and not a few of the chief Gentry were cordially affected to the Church of Rome In the same page you tell us that several Acts were repeal'd which touched the Subject in life or liberty for matter of conscience by which repeal you say all men had a liberty of reading Scriptures and being in a manner their own Expositors which you scruple whether it may be counted for a felicity There was an Act you say in the same page and following page against such as spake against the Sacrament of the Altar and for the receipt thereof in both kinds with these Provisoes notwithstanding If necessity did not otherwise require as in the case of suddain sickness and other such like extremities that wine could not be provided for the use of the Sacrament nor the sick man depart this life in peace without it And secondly that the permitting of this liberty to the people of England should not be construed to the condemning of any other Church in which the contrary was observed The next great business you say page 50. was the receiving of a Statute made in the 27. year of Henry 8. By which all Chanteries Colledges Free-Chappels and Hospitals were permitted to the King during his life but dying before he had taken many of them into his hands the great ones of the Court not being willing to lose so rich a booty it was set on foot again and carried in this present Parliament And you say page 51. these Chanteries consisted of Salaries allowed to one or more Priests to say daily Mass for the souls of their deceased Founders and their friends But in the same page you say That which made the greatest alteration and threatned most danger to the State Ecclesiastical was the Act for Election of Bishops and what seals and styles should be used by Spiritual persons In the compounding of which Act you say in the same page there was more danger couched then at first appeared for you say it was the intent of the Contrivers to weaken the authority of the Episcopal Order by forcing them from their strong Hold of Divine Institution and making them no other then the Kings Ministers only his Ecclesiastical Sheriffs and such use was made of this Act that the Bishops were not in a capacity of conferring Orders but as they were impowered by especial Licence the tenour whereof you mention page 52. and in the same place you say The true drift of the design of this Act was to make Deans and Chapters useless for the time to come and thereby to prepare them for dissolution The next Church-business you mention is page 55. where you tell us the first heats of the Visitation beginning to cool there were two Orders sent forth for the taking down of Images Page 57. you tell us Some godly Bishops and other learned and Religious men were busily imploy'd in the Castle of Windsor appointed by the Kings Command to consult about one uniform Order for the administring the holy Communion in the English Tongue under both kindes of Bread and Winde according to Act of Parliament before mentioned You are in the dark who the persons were but you think they were the same which made the Liturgy in this Kings time and you say being convened together taking into consideration as well the right rule of Scripture as the usage of the Primitive Church How doth this appear good Dector agreed on such a form and order as might comply with the intention of the King and the Act of Parliament without giving note these following words good Sir any just offence to the Romish party for they so ordered it that the whole office of the Mass should proceed as formerly in the Latine Tongue even to the very end of the Canon and the receiving of the Sacrament by the Priest himself which being passed over they began with an exhortation Dearly beloved in the Lord ye coming to this holy Communion which afterwards remained in the publick Liturgy Then followed the invitation You that do truly repent c. proceeding to the general confession distribution of the Sacrament to the people upon their knees which godly Form you say was presented to the King and published by Proclamation which Proclamation you have at large page 58 59. The next care was you say page 59. to send abroad printed copies to the several Bishops But now you come to handle the chief Key to the whole work of Reformation the Liturgy as you phrase it page 65. and the same men which drew up the Order for the holy Communion were now again imploy'd as you confess page 64. Calvin being rejected though offering his assistance The Liturgy you say is finished accepted by the King Enacted by Lords and Commons then assembled in Parliament though you say the passing of the Act gave great offence to the Romish Party not that they could except against it in regard either of the matter or manner of it but because it was communicated to the people in the vulgar Tongue page 66. Which exception you take a great deal of pains to prove to be an error You tell us page 106. That the Reformation under King Edward proceeded more vigorously then before by reviewing the Liturgy and composing of a book of Articles You say page 107. Calvin and his followers had taken some offence at some parts thereof and did excite the King and Council to a further Reformation And you say he prevaild so far in the first two years that in the Convocation there were debates about such doubts as had arisen about some things contained in the Common-prayer book but you say page 107. and 108. not one alteration made in it For though you say it was brought under a review and being so reviewed was ratified by Act of Parliament
with them that refuse either to go in your apparel or otherwise to shew themselves note Sir like unto you have age sufficient and can answer for themselves Notwithstanding thus much I may say in their behalf Neither do they commend any manner of apparel as holy nor do they condemn any apparel as unholy They say not therefore that the apparel is either holy or unholy but they may truly say the same apparel on your part hath been fouly abused to filthy purposes They may justly say they would not gladly in any appearance good Doctor note this shew themselves like unto them that have so untruly and so long deceived the world And herein they are not without sundrie Authorities and examples of the godly Fathers Saint Augustine saith his mother left bringing of Wine and Cakes to the Church but only for that she was warned it was a resemblance of the superstition of the Heathens and so she left it Saint Gregory speaking of the three sprinklings or dippings into the holy Font saith thus In unâ fide nihil officit consuetudo Ecclesiae diversa Tamen quod Haereticiid fecerint negant idem esse à Catholicis faciendum The faith being one but it is not so between us and Rome the diversity of customs hurteth nothing yet forasmuch as Hereticks have thus done they say the Catholicks may in no wise do the same Tertullian reasoneth vehemently That a Christian man ought not to go with a Laurel Garland upon his head and that for none other reason but only for that the Heathen used so to go Whereupon Beatus Rhenanus giveth this note Non solùm ab his remperandum fuit quae manifestam praese ferrent impietatem sed etiam ab illis quae possent indifferentia vocari hoc est quae essent neque bona neque mala Partim pray mark Sir ne quisquam infirmior ex Christianis offenderetur partim ne ethnici did not Calvin say the Papists would grow more insolent in suis erroribus confirmarentur dum rectius putant esse quod etiam Christianos observare vident It was meet for them to refrain not only from such things as have a manifest shew of wickedness but also from such things as might be called indifferent that is to say neither good nor ill Partly left any of the weaker Christians should be offended Partly also lest the Heathens we say Papists should be encouraged in their errors thinking that thing for that the Christians themselves do it to be the better You may read more to this purpose There is one particular which we know you will very much distaste and that is the Divine Right of Episcopacy which we deny and you with great confidence assert page 51. part 1. for there mentioning one Act of Parliament you say The contrivers of that Act did intend by degrees to weaken the authority of the Episcopal order by forcing them from their strong hold of Divine institution We hope Sir you will not assume so much upon you in the Divinity school wich is given to Aristotle in the Logick that your Dixit must suffice us We might produce the unanswered Treatise of Mr. William Prinne a fast friend to Monarchy and as earnest an Antagonist to your Ius Divinum in his unbishoping of Timothy and Titus to batter your strong hold but that learned and pious Gentleman being a Lawyer and also a sufferer under your Ius Divinum is very low in your thoughts and whatever comes to you in his name bath little credit with you as being lookt upon to be either the fruit of his ignorance or desired revenge And therefore we shall oppose the judgment of a Bishop an English Bishop one whom you in your History do very much extoll for his great learning from whom you say all Controversors have furnisht themselves being a Magazin of all sorts of learning page 131. part 2. with arguments it is Reverend Iewel from this Magazin we will take some weapons and Artillery to assault and batter your strong hold Sir you are no stranger to the distinction of Episcopus praeses and Episcopus princeps the former we allow as being for order and decency in the government of the Church but Episcopus princeps which is Prelacy and not Episcopacy this as you contend for so we to this oppose the judgment of Bishop Iewel Harding page 196. of the Defence pleading against the sufficiency of the Scriptures and for the credit of Traditions among these Traditions he reckoneth the distinction of a Bishop and a Priest and saith that they that denied this distinction between a Bishop and a Priest were condemned of heresie in the Margin over against these words in the letter R. Iewel saith it is an untruth that ever any were condemned for heresie for denying this distinction of a Bishop and a Priest for if it were so saith he both St. Paul and St. Hierome and other good men are condemned of heresie Afterward page 202. of the Defence having taken notice and answered what Harding had said against the sufficiency of the Scriptures and for Traditions he comes at last to the forementioned words and saith But what meaneth Mr. Harding here to come in with the difference between Priests and Bishops Thinketh he that Priests and Bishops hold only by Tradition he meaneth not the distinction but the office Or is it so horrible an heresie as he maketh it to say that by the do you see Doctor Scriptures of God a Bishop and a Priest are all one Or knoweth he how far and unto whom he reacheth the name of an heretick Verily Chrysostom saith Inter Episcopum Presbyter um interest ferme nihil Between a Bishop and a Priest in a manner there is no difference St. Hierom saith somewhat in rougher sort Audio quendam in tantam erupisse vecordiam ut Diaconos Presbyteris id est Episcopis anteforret cum Apostolus perspicue doceat eosdem esse Presbyteros quos Episcopos I hear say there is one become so peevish that he setteth Deacons before Priests that is to say before Bishops whereas the Apostle plainly teacheth us that Priests and Bishops be all one St. Augustin saith Quid est Episcopus nisi primus Presbyter hoc est summus sacerdos what is a Bishop but the first Priest that is to say the highest Priest So saith St. Ambrose Episcopi Presbyteri una ordinatio uterque enim sacerdos est sed Episcopus primus est There is but one confecration of Priest and Bishop for both of them are Priests but the Bishop is the first All these and more holy Fathers saith learned Iewel together with St. Paul the Apostle for thus saying by Mr. Hardings advice must be holden for Hereticks Doth not your strong hold shake if not fall before the face of these Authorities Doctor However we will charge once more see page 100 and 101. of the Defence But Mr. Harding saith the Primates had authority over other inferiour
Spirit doth very well sort with your low postures and cringings to the holy Altar which was a thing unknown to Bishop Iewel You shall find these words in his answer to Mr. Hardings Preface page 5. You say we have overthrown Altars verily Mr. Harding we have overthrown nothing but that which Gods good will note Sir was should be overthrown Christ saith Every plant that my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up An Altar we have such as Christ and his Apostles had the Table of the Lord and stood not at the end of the Quire but in the midst of the people as many wayes it may appear You say also page 140. part 2. That the Zuinglian Gospel lers or the Genevian party why cannot you call them Prote stants did rejoyce at a lamentable accident which happened to Pauls Steeple and there you fall into the praises of that Idolatrous Fabrick and to quit it of the displeasure of heaven you have got a tale by the end of an old Plumber who confessed that woful accident came by his negligence in leaving carelesly a pan of coals in the Steeple when he went to dinner We shall be as careless of examining the truth of this story as your plumber was of his coals and shall only tell what Iewel saith in his Treatise of the Holy Scriptures bound up with the Defence page 30 speaking of Kingdoms and Coun tries which were in times past Heathenish mentions England also and saith he Here in England Pauls Church in ` London was the Temple of Diana Peters Church in Westminster was the Temple of Apollo In ten of your last lines you threaten the world with a Presbyterian History for the carrying on of whose designs since the dayes of Calvin you may say Luther as well they have most miserably you say imbroyled all the States and Kingdoms of these parts of Christendom the Realms and Churches of great Britain more then all the rest Mr. Doctor where was your conscience and modesty when you writ thus Where was your Loyaltie and Obedience to your Dread Soveraign which you profess in your Epistle Dedicatory Will not your bitter spirit be conjured down neither by Royal command nor Soveraign example Sir you know or may know that Bishop Iewel is fain to Apologize for the Church of England to wipe of that slander you have cast upon the Presbyterians page 10. of his Defence They cry out upon us faith he at this present every where that we are all Hereticks and have forsaken the Faith and have with new perswasions and wicked learning utterly dissolved the concord of the Church And again page 15. That we labour and seek to overthrow the state of Monarchies and Kingdoms Nay Sir do not you shake hands with that Varlet Harding pag. 18. Before Luthers time saith he before Calvins time say you all Christian people came together peaceably into one Church in one accord but after c. That which this Reverend Bishop returns to Harding by way of answer to these filthy slanders will very well serve to take out that blot your unhappy and uncharitable pen flings upon the Presbyterians We will not justifie the seats and passions oppression makes a wise man mad of every individuum of that perswasion but having been all this time rather standers by then actors and seriously weighing their rule by which they desire all Church concernments may be regu lated and considering that you as the mouth of the Hierarchy have pleaded nothing but two Acts of Parliament the Members whereof you more then once tell us were led mostly by politique and Popish considerations in what they did for authorizing and confirming all the matters in difference we are bold to say they are got upon the better ground though the wind be against them and their advantages for inward peace though not for outward preferments are so much greater as the Word of God is greater then an Act of Parliament and the authority of God then the authority of men Oh Mr. Doctor when shall the voice and authority of Christ be heard and bear sway in the Church of God Non est Ecclesiae loqui saith Beza sed meritum loquentem audire Good Mr. Doctor consider these words of Beza in his Epistle Dedicatory before his Annotations on the New Testament Hic vero mihi in mentem venit vox illa hominum ut sibi quidem videntur acutissimorum qui non transformandam sed reformandam Ecclesiam arbitrantur Reformationem vocant eorum rituum qui florente ut loguuntur Ecclesiâ obtinuerunt sublatis nonnullis quae temporum injuriae velut rubiginem quandam ills obduxerunt restitutionem Quae nisi à nobis admittatur Ecclesiam transformari penitus suo decore Note Sir privari contendunt Bella certè speciosa oratio sed à satanae spiritu profecta qui tum demum se prodit quum adrem ventum est Tum enim nihil adeò turpe est Quòd si qui objiciat no omnia ab Apostolis vel à Luca fuisse perscripta Quaeso cur ita censent An quia pauca continent Imò verò utinam eâ paucitate contenti fuissent qui se Apostolis jactant successisse Neque enim voluit abrogari Dominus Mosaicos ritus ut alii substituerentur etsi Iudaizâ—re non licuit multo minus Gentilizare oportuit quod si veteribus Episcopis in mentem venisset Christiana religio neque tam citò neque tam turpiter primum Note Sir in Ceremonias vanas Ludicras Liturgias deinde etiam in manifestissimam superstitionem ac tandem in Atheismum degenerasset Mr. Doctor we are sorrie that having travailed over your History we must say of you as Reverend Iewel said of Harding in his Preface to the Reader of his Defence When Scriptures fail then discourse of wit must come in place of your Acts of Parliaments and when wit and discourse will not serve then good plain round railing must serve the turn Then he discourseth and flingeth now at his Lutherans now at his Hugenotes now at Brown now at the Puritans now at Bale now at Illyricus Now at the Calvinists now at the Zuinglian Gospellers Thus he saith Iewel jumpeth and courseth this way and that way as a man roving without a mark or a Ship fleeting without a Rudder Thus he sheweth us a mountain of words without substance and a house full of smoak without fire and imagineth that his little Elder-pipe by discourse of 〈◊〉 will resemble the sound of a double Canon When 〈…〉 we may say of him as the poor man said that shore 〈…〉 Here is a great crie and little wool Bring us but the authority of Scripture that wisdom that is from above to justifie our obedience in these points in difference you shall find us gentle and easie to be intreated But if you resolve to turn us off as you say Weston did Mr. Iohn Philpot and the five other Divines page 30. part 2 It is not saith he the Queens pleasure that we should spend any longer time in these debates and ye are well enough already for you saith he have the Word and we have the sword if you resolve to assault us with this Argument the Lord put on you the bowels of mercy and on us the Armour of patience FINIS You tell us in your Epistle to the Reader what study and diligence you used in the performance of the work p. 10 Note Note Note Note Note Note Note Note Note Note Note Note Note Objection Concio Synod pag. 29. Solution 1 Cor. 14 40. explained Object Dr. Pierce his Concio Synodica pag. 37. Sol. Note If Dr. Pierce be pleased to read the right learned Prelate Iewel he may learn from him we hope he will not take it in scorn to learn less upon tradition and more upon the Word of God Note Note Note See Dugdales History of Pauls Cathedral p. 5. We say also help O King Fully verified in our gracious King Note See Dugdales History of Pauls Cathedral page 3. Note Note Note
a Reformation according to the Word of God and the Primitive practice but in all your book there are but three instances of the conformity of the Reformation to the rule of the Sacred Scriptures and they are only in point of Doctrine and not in Discipline or Worship The first instance is p. 49 of your History of Edward the sixth where having mentioned an Act of Parliament declaring that it is according to Scripture that the Sacrament be administered to all Christian people under both the kinds of Bread and Wine you spend a great many lines borrowed out of Bishop Iewel to prove that this Declaration of Parliament and the words by which it was enacted do every way agree with Christs institution no Protestant not John Calvin your great eyesore will deny you this The second instance is p. 66. where you mention the Popish exceptions against the Act confirming the Common Prayer not to be upon any other account but because it was in the vulgar tongue and then you run out into a large discourse to prove that prayer ought to be made in a tongue understood of the common people the like you do p. 157. part 2. Calvin and Cartwright that firebrand as you call him will conform Mr. Doctor to this Reformation The third instance is p. 67. where you take notice of an Act for advancing the work of Reformation which took away all Laws forbidding Ministers marriage in allowance whereof you spend many lines in this Mr. Doctor the Calvinian and Zuinglian faction concur with you These are all the Presidents of Scripture or Primitive practice you alledge in your whole book for the Reformation of the Church and in matters of this nature so evident and clear out of the word of God amongst all the Zuinglian Gospellers as you call them you shall not have one dissenter or Nonformist And because you mention a memorable challenge publishled by Bishop Iewel against the Romish Clergy who injuriously you say pag. 129. part 2. upbraided the Church of England with the imputation of Novelty and charged it with teaching such opinion as were not to be found before Luthers time the Calvinian and Zuinglian faction which you so blot with your learned pen will willingly be his seconds in this challenge Nay Sir the Zuinglian Gospellers do renew this Challenge against the sacred Hierarchy as you call it in the same terms as you deliver the stout and gallant challenge of that Learned Prelate Iewel against the Romish Clergy The Zuinglian Gospellers challenge If any learned man of our Adversaries be able to bring one sufficient sentence out of the holy Scripture or any one example of any Bishop Minister or Martyr either in the time of King Edward the sixth viz. Cranmer Latimer Ridley Hooper Farrar Philpot Bradford Taylor or any other or in the times of Queen Elizabeth out of Reverend Jewel who do directly and ex professo plead for and commend the present Liturgie in the frame of it or that Episcopacy is Jure divino or for Adoration toward the Altar Bowing at the name of Iesus signing with the sign of the Cross wearing of Caps and Surplices kneeling at the Sacrament or for the exercise of Church power by lay-Chancellors if you Reverend Sir or any other be able to produce any such authority or example contending as you do professedly for these things the Zuinglian Gospellers will be then content to yield and subscribe These are the things M. Doctor which administer trouble to the Church of God at this day Satisfie but our consciences that these things ought to be continued in the Church we have done We beseech you read this passage of Reverend Iewel in a Sermon preached by him in St. Maries in Oxford it is in the beginning of the Book called his Defence of the Apology pag. 6. This only saith he will I speak and that in a word They which brought in Transubstantiation Masses calling upon Saints sole life Purtory Images Vows trifles follies bables into the Church of God have delivered new things and which the Scriptures never heard of whatsoever they Crie or Crake they bring not a jot out of the Word of God And these as I have said are the things wherewith the Church of God is disquieted at this day upon these lieth the watch and ward of the Church These they honour instead of the Scriptures and force them on the people instead of the word of God upon these men suppose their salvation and the summ of Religion to be grounded And that which is much more grievous notwithstanding at this present by the great goodness of God religion is restored note Mr. Doctor almost not to the lustre you Mr. Doctor imagine to her former dignity and light yet poor and pitifull fouls they set great store by these things they to them again and teach them do you see Mr. Doctor as though without them the Church could not be in safety O if the Word of God might be heard among so many clamours and in so great a Hurly burly if we would suffer God himself to sit as Judge in his own case the matter would be passed over with less tumult a great deal and more easily might we agree about the whole matter Wherefore if all the worship of God all godliness all religion be to be sought out of the word of God if the institutions of men have miserably perverted all things in all times let us my Brethren beware Doctor unto whom the office of teaching is allotted Consider how dangerous a thing it is to speak more and let all who will be and will have themselves accounted to be Christians remember how dangerous a thing it is to believe more You say Mr. Doctor pag. 130 131. Reverend Iewel in his learned writings is a magazin of all sorts of learning and that all our Controversors have since he wrote furnisht themselves with Arguments and authorities from him If you have been so well acquainted with his writings as you pretend to in your history you would not have presented the Churches reformation to be so glorious and splendid as you have done and would have pitcht it on a better bottom then the authority of two acts of Parliaments the members whereof you have rendred in your history to be too much swayed in their votings and actings by wordly Popish and politick respects We do highly reverence the memory of our first Reformers but is it meet to Idolize them why should not the Parliaments of succeding times do the work of the Lords house according to the light and temper of their generation as well as they did in theirs and why should not the present Bishops who according to the character of his most Excellent Majesty our Gracious Soveraign are known to be men of great sufficiency for Learning prompt them and put them on such a work Is it not a dishonour to the Church of England after so many years standing to be fed with the
in the Word against them and there is an express command to obey the laws and constitutions of our Superiors and therefore obedience is due though not for the things themselves yet for the Authorities sake enjoyning them In answer to this weighty objection we shall propose these Queries Whether the talent of Authority be faithfully and rightly laid out and improved in making that necessary which God in his Word hath in silence past by and so left indifferent We do not dislike Dr. Pierce his Scala of Obedience mentioned pag. 33. of his Synodica Concio à Synodo ad Regem à Rege statim ad Deum that we must proceed in the path of our obedience from the Convocation to the King from the King immediately to God we are very well pleased with this order though the Doctor would have it otherwise pag. 39. We know God hath tied every soul to be subject unto the higher powers Rom. 13. 1. and God requires the higher powers to be subject unto himself Deut. 17. 18 19 20. Whether by parity of reason Authority may free us where God hath bound us as bind us to observe such things where God hath left us free Whether if Authority judge it meet to bind us to indifferents such things be to be enjoyned which administer offence to the Reformed Churches abroad and to many good men at home and link us in a conformity to that Church from which in many other things we have separated We shall take a little liberty to debate upon this last Querie waving at present the two former We shall speak first to the first branch First therefore we say that the things before mentioned Liturgy Vestments c. have been an offence to the Reformed Churches abroad You tell us pag. 79. part 1. That Bucer who was sent for over to be Regius Professor in Cambridge was not well satisfied in some particular branches of the Liturgy you tell us he had given an account to Calvin of the English Liturgy desiring a Letter from him to the Lord Protector which you say pag. 80. proved the occasion of much trouble to the Church and Orders of it In this Letter you say Calvin approving well enough of set forms of Prayer descends particularly to the English Liturgy and makes it his advice it is wholsome counsel Mr. Doctor and for this alone your rash pen flings so much scorn on that learned and blessed man that all these Ceremonies should be abrogated that he should go forwards to reform the Church without fear but not as you say without wit without regard of peace at home or correspondency abroad such considerations being to be had in Civil matters but not in matters of the Church wherein as you quote his own words in latine in your Margin not any thing is to be exacted which is not warranted by the Word doth not Jewel say so and in the managing whereof there is not any thing more distastefull in the eyes of God then worldly wisdom either in moderating cutting off or going backwards but meerly as we are directed by his will revealed You tell us in the same page he toucheth on the Book of Homilies permits them very faintly for a season you say but by no means allows of them for along continuance or to be looked on as a rule of the Churches or constantiy to serve for the instruction of the people Would you have it so Mr. Doctor The Church and people of God are then little beholding to you The Churches rule is the Word of God and the people of God have found far better helps for their instruction by painfull and able Preachers and hope it shall be so still then the reading of a Homily by a simple non-preaching Curate You add concerning Calvin pag. 80. That he must needs trouble the Protector about the Ceremonies that he writes to him you quote his own words in the Margin to this effect you say That the Papists would grow insolenter every day then other unless the differences were composed about the Ceremonies But how say you not by reducing the opponents to conformity which it seems you would have but by encouraging them rather in their opposition and that he solicited the Protector in behalf of Hooper who was then fallen into some trouble about the Ceremonies Do not you see Mr. Doctor that these Ceremonies have ever been the occasion of trouble You tell us next of Peter Martyr a great and eminent Divine as you report him pag. 97. part 1. yet pag. 92. you tell us That Caps and Surplices were utterly opposed by him That he thinks it you quote his own words in your Margin most expedient to the good of the Church that they and all others of that kind should be taken away And he gives you say this reason for it That where such Ceremonies were so stifly contended for which were not warranted and supported by the Word of God there commonmonly men lay your hand upon your heart Doctor were less solicitous of the substance of religion then they were of the circumstances of it and you say he tells of himself in one of his Epistles that he had never used the Surplice when he lived in Oxford though he were then a Canon of Christs-Church and frequently present in the Quire You tell us pag. 107. part 1. That Calvin desiring esteem here in England as well as in other places writes to King Edward after the Refomation had gone as far forward as ever it went that many things were still amiss in England which needed Reformation Thus Sir by your own confessions Liturgy and Ceremonies have been an offence and trouble to the Reformed Churches abroad Martin Bucer Peter Martyr and Calvin the glorious lights of these Churches men of renown in the Church of God have strugled and born witness against them The last but not the least of which three worthies for he is the chiefest of the three Mr. Iohn Calvin then whom the Church of God since the time of the Apostles never had a more choice and happy instrument both for learning piety wisdom moderation and diligence you and most of the sacred Hierarchy as you stile it do still decry and vilifie as Iosephs Brethren did him because he brings your evil report amongst the Churches and cries down your Diana Liturgy and Ceremonies as not warranted by the Word and so not to be endured in the Church of God Never shall you or any man by all your starcht Oratory bring Mr. Calvin out of credit in the Churches of God they have tasted such a soul edifying and strengthning sweetness in his learned and happy labours that you may assoon perswade the Church of God that the Sun is dark and Honey bitter as that Mr. Calvin was not a heavenly spiritual holy man But this is no new thing Mr. Doctor to hit men desirous to see the Church perfectly reformed in the teeth with Calvin and Zuinglius as if they were a couple
Prudence and Conscience to reject conformity with her in Worship and Discipline for the same reason which moved us to depart from her doctrinal corruptions binds us to leave her to her self in the superstitions of her worship and discipline The reason why we reject Communion with the Church of Rome is for that the Popes Supremacy Infallibility Transubstantiation Merit of good works Invocation of Saints Purgatorie Latine Service Worshipping of Images half Communion and such like which are the Pillars of the Romish Fabrick cannot be proved and made good out of the Word of God And is not this reason of like force against the Ceremonies of that Church yet in use among us Is there a scriptum est for one of them without which authority the Devil the father of lies pretends not to be believed and adored Though Doctor Pierce in his Synod concio p. 44. be pleased to lay the maintenance of the Ministry Infant Baptism the Sanctification of the Sabbath yea the Personalities of the Godhead in an even levell of authority with the Orders of the Church about Liturgy and Ceremonies as if the one as well as the other must depend on his Traditionis fulcimentum his shore of Tradition and would all otherwise fall to the ground Yet we can by no means give way to this Traditional unscriptural assertion if he will please to produce but one Text of Scripture as fairly concluding for Service-Book and Ceremonies as have been and can be produced in great numbers for those four things we will never put him to the trouble of a hard word more and we shall be as ambitious to advance the reputation of the Ceremonies as well as of the Sabbath You may possibly say these Ceremonies are small matters far from the foundation and if men had not more of humour and will in them then reason or conscience they might down with them well onough We might reply that any action especially conversant about the worship of God not undertaken in faith is sin and faith hath no ground to stand upon but Divine Authority But we refer you to Bishop Iewel in the 11. page of a Sermon of his preached upon this Text Ioshua 6. Now Iericho was shut up c. which is bound up in the same Book of his defence in the end of it Ioshua saith that learned Bishop suffered nothing to stand he burnt all together he left nothing remaining were it never so little In Religion no part is to be called little a hair is but little yet it hath a shadow in the body a little disquiet is often-times cause of death The Ciniphes are but little yet are they reckoned among the great plagues of God Paul saith a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump I speak not this because I think nothing at all may be left to any special purpose For even in Iericho where was made a general destruction God himself commanded that all silver and gold and vessels of brass and iron should be saved and brought into the Lords Treasury Howbeit the things that may be reserved must not be dust or chaff or hay or stubble but gold and silver and iron I mean they may not be things meet to furnish do you see Doctor and maintain superstition And if you will know what he accounts superstition he tells you in his Reply unto Hardings Answer page 310. in the ninth Article of the Canopie Moses saith he was commanded to make the Tabernacle neither durst Moses or his work-men add or diminish to do any thing more or less otherwise then God had appointed him Solomon built the Temple but he followed not therein any part of his own fancy but only that self-same plat and proportion that God had given to his father for so saith David I Chron. 28. Here mark good Christian Reader saith he in these examples God hath bridled our devotion and hath taught us to worship him not in such sort as may seem good in our eyes but only as he hath commanded us Yet Mr. Harding by his cunning would make use of these examples to prove that we may honour God in such sort as we of our selves can best devise This was saith this learned Bishop evermore the very root of all superstition Therefore Mr. Doctor I wish you would learn of that antient worthy Father Chrysostom as Iewel quotes him page 280. in his Defense Discamus Christum ex ipsius voluntate honorare Nam qui honoratur eo maxime honore laetatur quem ipse vult non quem nos optamus And because you see Chrysostom cited give us leave to pass an observation upon one passage you let fall in page 123 part 2. you are there admiring the beauty of the face of the Church of England and this is one part of her comeliness that the Priests as you call them executed not any divine Office but in their Surplice a vestment set apart for Religious Services you say in the Primitive times as may be gathered you say from Chrysostom for the Eastern Churches and from Saint Hierom for the Western But Sir what if this vestment come not from the Primitive times but from the usages of the Heathen Then either Chrysostom and Hierom were mistaken in saying so or you have abused their names in fathering an heathenish vanity on them and the Primitive times Pray you hear the Right Learned Iewel page 281. of his Defense Neither saith he to Harding may ye justly and truly say take heed of lying Doctor you have received none of your orders and usages from the Heathen Nicolaus Leonicenus saith Isidis sacerdotes in Aegypto utebantur lines vestibus semper erant detonso capillo quod etiam per manus traditum ad nostra usque tempora pervenisse videtur siquidem ii qui apud nos divino cultui sacris Altaribus praesident barbam comamque nutrire prohibentur in sacris utuntur lineis amictibus The Priests of the goddess Isis in Aegypt used to wear linnen Surplices rub your eyes Doctor and evermore had their head shaven which thing seemeth to have been derived from them unto our time from hand to hand for they that among us minister Gods service and serve the holy Altars are forbidden to suffer the hair of their head or beard to grow and in their divine Service they use linnen garments And Sir to draw to a conclusion in this argument we say it is unlawful for the Church of England to retain either in Doctrine Worship or Discipline any Conformity to the Church of Rome And because we know this will hardly go down with you by any reasons we can lay before you We shall commend it to you under the credit of your Right Learned Prelate Iewel please you to peruse page 325 326. of his Defence The learned and godly men at whose persons it pleaseth you so rudely to scoff saith Jewel to Harding Mr. Doctor Harding used to scoff at Calvin and Zuinglius and to upbraid Jewel
Mr. Doctor In such a state as a flock is in which hath no Shepherd as the ship which hath no Pilot to guide it or the sucking-child which hath no nurse to feed it even in such state are your souls if you have not the Ministery of Gods Word Laborers they must be and not loiterers for Christ compareth the teaching of his people to things that be of great labor as to plowing to planting Therefore if they be Pastors let them feed the flock if they be Doctors consider Sir let them teach the people This is the way to build up the Church of Christ Common-prayer will not do it This is the only instrument wherewith we may cut down and have in the harvest of God For all mans devices acts laws or commandments good Doctor let the Convocation know so much be the authority thereof never so great yet are not sufficient to content one mans conscience why then Mr. Doctor do you talk of obstinacy and willfull humour Aristotle the great wise Philosopher on a time being sick when the Physitian came to him to minister him a potion and shewed him not what was in it began to chafe and take on with him why said he heal not me as thou wouldft heal an Ox or a Horse but shew me what thou givest me Even so must the people be healed of their errors Fides faith Berâ— suadenda est non imponenda faith may not be compulsed by force or rigor but gently brought in by perswasion Saint Paul saith Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God Let us follow him in his next Sermon on Luke 11. 15. He casteth out Devils through Beelzebub c. The Religon of the Jews was the true worship of the only God yet Pliny saith it was Contemptus omnium numinum the despsing of all the gods The Jews suffered no images to be in their Churches because God had forbidden them yet Cornelius Tacitus said they worship their God in the form of an Ass others said they worship a God whom they call Sabaoth in the shape and fashion of an Hogg and therefore that they were forbidden to eat Swines-flesh others that they worship Saturnus because they were com manded to keep holy Saturday The wicked and cruel Haman to bring the people of God into hatred with the King Ahashuerus made his complaint of them in this wise May it please your Majesty saith he to understand you have a people here in your Realm that useth a new kind of Religion and will not be ordered by your Graces Laws This is Gods holy will that for our exercise whatsoever we say or do be it never so well it shall be ill taken Iulian the Apostate found fault with the simplicity and rudeness of Gods Word Tertullian saith the Heathens in the time of the Primitive Church were wont to paint out in mockery the God of the Christians with an Asses head and a Book in his hand in token that the Christians professed learning but indeed were Asses rude and ignorant And do not our Adversaries the like this day against all those that profess the Gospel of Jesus Christ O say they who are they that favour this way None but Shoemakers Taylors Weavers Appren tices such as never were in the University but be altogether ignorant and void of Learning Thus you have been born in hand that you might be brought to mistrust the Go spel Saint Paul was counted a pestilent fellow and a mover of sedition Tertullian saith that in his time the Christians were called hostes publici that is enemies and destroyers of all common States And these reports they did not only scatter among the common people but also dropt them into the Magistrates and Princes ears that they might have an ill opinion of Christian Religion and suppress Note Sir the Ministers and Preachers of it So unkind commonly men have been towards the Messengers of Gods Word In these latter times it hath been laid to Preachers and Professors of Christs Gospel that they have been Godless seditious rebells despisers of good orders Such things as would not be believed spoken of a thief or murtherer will soon be believed of him that professeth the name and Gospel of Jesus Christ. Despise not good Brethren despise not to hear Gods Word not a word of the Liturgy as you tender your own souls be diligent to come to Sermons WE might Sir have been much more plentiful in our gatherings out of this holy Bishop there is not a waste line in all his Sermons Some we have not touched upon at all but so much we thought good to present unto you that you may see both the complexion and constitution of the Church of England in the time of Queen Elisabeth You see by the judgement of the best Bishop the rarest Iewel the Church of England ever had who was an eye-witness lived and preach ed and writ in the prime of his age for he was not full fifty years old when he dyed a good part of her reign the Church of England to be full of blindness disorder prophane con tempt of the Word of God yea to have something of Rome remaining in her of necessity to be purged out And truly Sir when we have read over the Sermons of this Reverend Bishop and your History we should rather judge you to be the Pupil of Doctor Harding whom you would be thought to oppose then of Bishop Iewel whom you do seem to reverence Bishop Iewel doth not think he fouls either his tongue or his pen in naming the Gospel of Jesus Christ But how oft in your History do you by way of scorn tell us of the Zuinglian Gospellers as if this were some reproach to them and you had nothing to do with the Gospel which in an hun dred places your Doctor Harding upbraids Bishop Iewel with There are some parcells and odd passages in your History which we shall only mention and refer you to learned Iewel to answer your self out of him page 53. part 1. you say The Zuinglian Churches were in an error in that they deny ed a Real presence and held there was nothing else in the blessed Eucharist but signs and figures and that Ridley whom you encline to affirmed That in the Sacrament are truly and verily the body and blood of Christ made forth effectually by Grace and Spirit Sir Harding saith the very same as you do See Iewels reply to Harding page 235 in the Article of Real presence and there you shall see how Iewel takes him up and you will understand to speak more like a Protestant Doctor and in page 262. of the Defence saith he to Harding You call our doctrine naked and cold for that we say the Sacrament is a figure You will there see how pitifully he baffles Harding Mr. Doctor it was wont to be said sursum corda but now it is deorsum corpora your stickling for a Real presence effectually made forth by Grace and