the hundred part of which he never saw nor one of a thousand ever heard the voice of their Lordly shepheard their Bishop their ghostly Father and the Pastor of their soules as he would be taken to be being chosen to the office of a Bishop by Christ and consecrated by the holy Ghost I have knowne this man about sixty yeares for we were schoole-fellowes in Westminster when he was plaine Richard Neal and I Peter Smart under Deane Goodman and Doctor Grant hee was then counted an heavy-headed lubber put out of that schoole for a dunce and a droane as himselfe confessed at his last Visitation in Durham 1627. saying openly in the audience of many that the three last yeeres when he was a Grammar scholar of Westminster he made no exercise at all whereupon it came to passe said he that when I went from Westminster to Cambridge I could not so much as write true Orthography put letters and syllables rightly together in Latin and I cannot do it yet What not make true Latin being a Doctor 60. yeares old when he had passed through five Bishopricks and was to be translated to Winchester and Yorke the two greatest in England This Bishop said M. Kirton in the Parl. 1628. though he hath leapt thorow many Bishopricks yet he hath left Popery behind him after Canterbury But howsoever he was an ignorant and unlearned Grammarian he profited better in divinity he had learning enough to run through 7. preferments seven Bishopricks containing the one half of England in all which his principall care and study was to enrich himself and his kindred Chaplains creatures and favourites which he made non-Residents and Tot-quots heaping upon them all manner of preferments benefices and dignities to the intent they might flaunt it out bravely and assist him their Lord and Master couragiously in setting up Altars Images Organs Copes Candlesticks and all manner of Massing furniture especially in persecuting painfull Preachers under the name of Puritans though more conformable then themselves and in hindring Preachers from confuting Popish opinions and Arminian doctrines concerning Altars and Images and other superstitious trinkets with which he pestered the Church of Durham and many other places where he had authority as remaines upon Record in the Parliament 1628. and printed lately 1641. In the 45. page thus wee The Kings Chaplaine and Prebend of Winchest Pag. 45. reade Doctor More called in to the house of Commons saith he was referred to the Bishop of Winchester Doct. Neal to be censured for a Sermon preached by him The Bishop he had heard him preach and deliver many passages against Papists which pleased King Iames but he must not do so now this and more Doctor More himselfe told me before Doct. Sibs Againe the Bishop said to him you have a brother that preacheth against bowing at the holy name of Jesus and of bowing to the high Altar and that the Communion Table stood as in Ale-houses but he Pâ—g 45. would have them set as high Altars This Doct. More delivered in writing to the Parliament And in pag. 33. we reade that Sir Dudley North informed the House how the said Bishop Neale told Doct. More that hee had often heard him preach against Popery which he said was well The Prince was then in Spain D. Marshall relatâ—d as much said to him by the Bishop of Winchester pag. 40. liked of then but now you must not doe so whereupon the Doctor said that if occasion did serve he would not spare to do the like now to whom the Bishop further replied the times were not the same therfore you must not Whereupon Sir Rob. Philips said By this you may guesse that this Bishop had a hand in setting up those Ceremonies in Durham and that he beares good will towards them labouring to make Durham and Winchester Synonimaes This reflects upon his Majesty said he as if the King should not be pleased that men in their Sermons should refell Popery pag. 33. The like D. More told me of Bishop Neals Chaplin D. D. Beard said that D. Alabasterpreached flat Popery at Paule Crosse The Bishop of Winchester commanded him as he was his Diocesan that he should preach nothing to the contrary pag. 40. Duncan now Prebendary of Durham how insolently he shooke him up being an ancient Doctor and Prebendary of Winchester about an high Altar to be set up there and to be bowed unto as in Durham But concerning Bishop Neals protection of his Chaplin Cozens when he was accused of high treason for denying the Kings Supremacy and giving as much authority to the fellow that rubs his horses heeles as to his Majesty you shall have more out of the Diurnal of the said Parliament 1628. when that Article of the impeachment and the proofe thereof shal be examined in its order and place To conclude that which Bishop Neale could not doe in his owne person his Chaplains and favourites of the Arminian faction did in other places D. Laud B. of S. Davids B. of Bath and Wels B. of London and Archbishop of Canterbury D. Linsell Dean of Lichfield B. of Peterborough and B. of Hereford D. Corbet B. of Oxford and B. of Norwich besides his followers B. Wren B. Mountague B. Howson B. Goodman B. Manwaring B. White B. Field B. Wright and B. Harsnet who made this Epitaph of himselfe Samuel Harsnet Episcopus Cicestrensis Indignus Episcopus Norwicensis Indignior Archiepis Eboracensis Indignissimus Most true he Lorded it so long til he should have come to Grace but the longer he lived he decreased in grace he descended from bad to worse from worse to worst as he ascended from high to higher from higher to highest even the titular grace of a most unworthy Archbishop Al these Bishops were zealous maintainers of Altars and Images and other superstitious ceremonies depending upon Altars so that B. Neal and B. Laud with their factious associates and creatures have beene Nostri fundi calamitas the ruine the calamity and misery of the noble Church of England which they have pestered with Ceremonies and corrupted with unlawful Innovations wherewith they have hindred edification and instruction of the people by preaching so that for the most part they are as ignorant as ever they were in the blinde times of Popery they are as ignorant in the grounds of Religion and as unable to render an account of their saith as they were when all the Service was in Latin before the first reformation in the reign of K. Edward the sixt And how can it otherwise be in those places where Liturgies are onely read by unlearned Curats or learned loyterers in the Ministery without preaching or with such scarcity of Sermons not above one in a moneth nay one in a whole yeare as it was and is in most Parishes if not all the countrey towns of Wales and too many in England where atheisme profanenesse or idolatrous Popery abound No one thing saith B. White hath been
piping and singing beautifying of temples beyond all meane and measure pollute and defile the house of God and none but rotten members of our Church can say the contrary 6 Bernard Augustine Ierome c. reprehend the too too great magnificence of temples espâ—cially when they are made theaters rather to delight the peoples ears and eyâ— with melodio is tunes and pompous spectâ—cles then oratories to pray and praise God and be edified by preaching Bernard also reprehended in his time excessive heights and immoderate lengths of Churches because he misliked worldly magnificence in the spirituall service of God who dwels not in Temples made with hands So likewise doth Augustine Ierome Iustin Martyr and others they condemne gay ornaments and pompous spectacles of glittering pictures with melodious tunes of pipers and singers in the spirituall service of God especially at the administration of the holy Communion and Baptisme because they hinder godly meditations upon our Saviour Christ his bitter death and passion and our regeneration represented unto us in those mystical Sacraments For thus writeth Bernard in his Apologie against the superfluous ornaments of Churches I let passe the great statelinesse of temples their immoderate lengths their vaine breadths their sumptuous polishings their curious paintings which while they draw the sight of them that pray unto them they hinder their affection and they seem to me to resemble the old custome of the Jewes Mark this saith a learned writer in his Commentary on Iude how Bernard saith that those things which now adayes the defenders of superstitious vanities in Popery say were ordained to help devotion as gilded images and costly ornaments curious and sumptuous paintings and polishings of Altars and Temples they are so far from helping that they hinder devotion they withdraw saith Bernard not only the sight of them that pray but their affection also and they smell rather of Judaisme then Christianisme 7 The Iews had but one temple in the whole world and that was beautified with all manner of sumptuous ornaments altars and vestments for the Priests to offer sacrifices which could be done no where els it had singers also and musicall instruments But the synagogues which are answerable to Churches where the law of God was read and expounded every Sabbath day had none of those ornaments neither Priests nor priestly vestments nor altars nor sâ—crifices nor musick either instrumentall or vocall neither should our Church have the like because they are synagogues rather then temples Synagoga a congregation an assembly And Ierome in his Epistle to Nepotian concerning the life and conversation of the Clergy saith Iewrie had a rich temple and all things then made of gold then those things were allowed of the Lord. Then that is they are not now allowed of the Lord. And where were they allowed of the Lord Not in the Synagogues which the Jewes had in all cities of the countrey where they assembled to heare the Law and the Prophets read and expounded every Sabboth day they had not there either Altars bloody sacrifice or incense golden vessels or Priestly vestments musicall instruments or singers but only in the Temple of Jerusalem as David the King and Prophet by the instinct of Gods Spirit ordained there to be used only when solemne sacrifice was offered For thus writeth Arias Montanus Fuit in templo suggestum inter sacerdotes populum atrium constitutum in quo Levitae musicis instrumentis solennium quotidianorum sacrificiorum tempore canerent There was a pulpit gallery or scaffold erected in a great roome or court betwixt the Priests and the people where the Levites might sing and play upon their musicall instruments when the solemne sacrifices were daily offered Daily saith he but Flavius Iosephus the Jew being himself both Priest and Levite knew better what was done he in his seventh book of Antiquities saith David that renowned Prophet of God devised many instruments of musick and he taught the Levites to sing and play hymnes to the Lord per Sabbathorum dies aliásque solâ—nnitates at the solemnities of Festivall dayes and Sabbaths Therefore not every day in the week nor thrice every day they did not turn the houres of prayer into solemne services with piping and chanting morning and evening and mid-day as our new-fangled ceremony-mongers of late most audaciously attempted to do in this Church of Durham and did so indeed the space of two years without authority contrary to the Injunctions statutes and customes of our Church which they were sworne to observe Vitalianus himselfe was not so impudently presumptuous who was the first Pope that brought Organs into Churches not into his own Chappell at Rome for there they are not yet nor ever were saith Cardinall Cajetan not to be used but onely upon Holy-Dayes and this he did about the yeare of our Lord 660. about 60. years after Gregory the great who would never have allowed such excesse of piping and chanting Of this Vitalianus borne at Signium a town in Italy thus writeth Mantuan Signius adjunxit molli conflata metallo Organa quae festis resonent ad sacra diebus First Pope Vitalian to the singers joyned his Organs Which might on Holy-Dayes at Service pipe to the people 8 The singing of Psalmâ—s commended and practised by Ambrose Constantine the great Basil and the whole Primitive Church but organs and prick-song were never heard of in the Church till Pope Vitalian brought them in Athanasius that great pillar of the Church which he supported against Arrianisme Canendi usum in Ecclesiis interdixit vanitates fugitans In detestation of superstitious vanities he utterly forbad the use of chanting in Churches but he forbade not the singing of Psalms in a plaine tune by the whole congregation which was then allowed and highly commended by Ambrose and Gelasius and practised by the Emperour himselfe as Eusebius witnesseth in the fourth Book of the life of Constantine the great Cantare primus incepit unà oravit conciones stans reverenter audiit adeò ut rogatus ut consideret responderit fas non esse dogmata de Deo remisse segniter audire This most famous Christian Emperour that ever the Church of Christ had he first began to sing the Psalme he joyned with the people in prayer to God standing up reverently he heard Sermons insomuch as being intreated to sit downe he answered it is not lawfull to heare the doctrine of God slothfully and carelesly So that he used not the gesture of standing superstitiously as a ceremony more holy then sitting or kneeling as our upstart reformers do in this Church of Durham compelling all the people to stand looking about them like fooles and noddies all the time that the Nicene Creed is sung with the Organ c. which Creed Why Constantine stood to heare they can neither say by heart nor understand one word when it is sung But onely that religious Prince stood upon his feet that he might
Christian brethren sisters at the same time Durham high Altar the greatest idoll that ever vvas in the world But the holy Altar say they is not a stock or stone neither may it be called an Idoll Not an Idoll I doe not thinke that any Idoll in the world was ever so worshipped as our Durham Altar hath beene Not the Image of Iupitur Olympius or the Philistims Dagon or the Babilonians Bell or the Trojans Palladium not Apis or Anubis Oxe or Crocadill Dog or Cat qualia demens Aegyptus portenta colit or any other monstrous Deity of the blinde Aegyptians that forlorne and miserable Nation before the comming of Christ who enlightned them with the knowledge of the Gospell was ever so worshipped or had so much cost bestowed on them When they once fell down on their faces before those Idols they had done for that time but every accesse and every regresse and every turning and every rising up and every sitting and kneeling down of the Priest and others about the Altar whether there be a Communion or no hath a low leg to the Altar Neither are they common curtsies ordinary legs such as servants and petitioners use to make to their Lords and Masters but they are wonderfull solemne very profound incurvations before the venerable Altar so low that they seeme sometimes to touch the ground with their noses and beards 16 The Communion table was never so vvorshipped vvith bovving down before it And it is a forbidden ceremony both by the Word of God in the second Commandement and the Church of England Our Saviour Christ living on earth was never so vvorshipped When it was a Table standing in the midst of the Quire it was as good and as holy as now it is being turned to an Altar at the East end of the Church yet no man or woman bowed his or her body to it then as now they do in a prodigious manner Which superstitious ceremony of bowing to that Idoll was generally received and practised amongst us but within these foure or five yeares by the example perswasion and compulsion of our new fangled Popish Arminians without any warrant of Gods Word or direction of the Church in the Book of Common-prayer Canons or Injunctions Nay it is contrary to the second Commandment and forbidden by the Act of Vniformity and the 12. Canon and consequently punishable both in the commanders and obeyers Our Saviour Christ when he lived upon earth was bowed unto and worshipped by them that acknowledged him to be the Son of God The Magi Wisemen of the East fell on their faces and worshipped him they did it once neither they nor the Shepheards nor the blessed Virgin his Mother nor Ioseph her husband danced round about him lying in the cratch or manger ever and anon making low legs before him behinde him on his right hand on his left now one after another now all at once as daylie is done at our high Altar in Durham sometimes far off sometimes close by it now at the South end now at the North end now at the West side sometimes going forwaâ—d towards it sometimes going backward from it still nodding their heads and making legs and curtsies At which time a delicate noise is heard of Organs Pipers and Singers filling the peoples eares with heavenly harmony as was done when Nabuchadonozers golden Image was consecrated and worshipped 17 Our Durham Innovators Cosin and his fellowâ—s which have obtruded to the Church such strange alterations of services and ceremonies set up altars and images and bow down before them may they not â—ightly be termed superstitious Ceremony-mâ—ngers and idolaters They that lately have brought into our Cathedrall Church such fanaticall fopperies such unlawfull rites and abuses whereby it is defiled the service disordered and the Sacraments prophaned as the Homily teacheth They that without authority and against authority even the soveraigne authority of our religious Kings and Princes and Parliaments which established the whole forme of our Liturgy and Ceremonies in decent and comely manner They that with an high hand and great violence durst presumptuously adventure to innovate all things in our Liturgy to overthwart the well setled state of the Church to put us out of the possession of our Religion and forme of Service which was left unto us by our Ancestors and we had quietly possessed above sixty yeares They that not onely observe themselves but compell others to observe and approve their before mentioned ridiculous fooleries superstitious vanities abominations and Idolatries contrary to the custome and practise of this Church contrary to the example of other Cathedrals of this Realme contrary to Laws which straitly forbid under great penalties all Rites and Ceremonies not appointed prescribed by the Book of Common Prayer Injunctions May not such rightly be termed new-fangled Ceremony-mongers Idolatrous Altar-worshippers seditious Innovators schismaticall factious and turbulent breakers of the peace and contemners of governours nay rotten members and rebellious sons of this our Mother the Church of England whose doctrine and discipline they renounce they corrupt and contemne it they shoulder it out with Popish cashiered antiquities and outlandish Arminian novelties 18 May not the people be exhorted to communicate in their owne Parish Churches where the Sacrament is rightly administred and so beare to reâ—eâ—ve it in our Cathedrall polluted with idolatry least we receive our own damnation as the Church of England teacheth in the Homilies Now I pray you you I say the people of this City have you not Churches at home in your own Parishes not yet polluted with Idols and Communion-tables not changed into Altars where you may receive with comfort the holy Communion in plaine and simple manner as our Saviour ordained and the primitive Church practised and the Church of England prescribeth But you must needs come hither and wilfully make your selves partakers of our sins and superstitious vanities when you need not seeing that the holy Sacrament is not rightly administred in this Chruch of Durham as it was in our former Bishops time And where it is not lawfully ministred there it cannot safely be received without the danger of damnation Take heed to your selves I warned you before even this time two yeares and now I preach to you the same doctrine againe that I may discharge mine owne conscience and save both mine owne soule and yours if you wil heare obey the voyce of God in this place out of my mouth as I am charged to speake and so do in Ezek. 3. 17. For thus the Church of England teacheth us in the Homily of the worthy receiving the Communion in the first part thereof We must addresse our selves to frequent the same Sacrament in reverent and comely manner left as physick provided for the body being misused more hurteth then profiteth so this comfortable medicine of the soule undecently received tendeth to our greater harme and sorrow But above all things this we must be sure