preferre humane Tradition before divine ordinance And in the same Epist. If we shall return to the head and beginning of divine tradition which we all know he means the Bible humane error ceases and the reason of heavenly misteries unfolded whatsoever was obscure becomes leare And in the 14. Distinct of the same Epist directly against our modern fantasies of a still visible Church he teaches that succession of truth may fail to renew which we must have 〈◊〉 to the fonntaines using this excellent similitude if a Channel or Conduit pipe which brought in water plentifully before suddenly fail doe we not goe to the fountaine to know the cause whether the Spring affords no more or whether the vein be stopt or turn'd aside in the midcourse thus ought we to doe keeping Gods precepts that if in ought the truth shall be chang'd we may repaire to the Gospel and to the Apostles that thence may arise the reason of our doings from whence our order and beginning arose In the 75. he inveighs bitterly against Pope Stefanus for that he could boast his Succession from Peter and yet foist in Traditions that were not Apostolicall And in his Book of the unity of the Church he compares those that neglecting Gods Word follow the doctrines of men to Corch Dathan and Abiram The very first page of 〈◊〉 against the Gentiles averres the Scriptutes to be sufficient of themselves for the declaration of Truth and that if his friend Macarius read other Religious writers it was but {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} come un virtuoso as the Italians say as a lover of elegance and in his 2d Tome the 39. pag after he hath rekon'd up the Canonicall Books In these only saith he is the doctrine of godlinesse 〈◊〉 let us man 〈◊〉 to these or take from these and in his 〈◊〉 having again set down all the Writers of the old new Testament these saith he be the anchors and props of our Faith besides these millions of other Books have bin written by great and wise men according to rule and agreement with these of which I will not now speak as being of infinite number and meer dependance on the canonical Books Basil in his 2d Tome writing of true Faith tells his auditors he is bound to teach them that which he hath learn't out of the Bible and in the same Treatise he saith That seeing the Commandments of the Lord are faithfull and sure for ever it is a plain falling from the Faith and a high pride either to make void any thing therin or â—…o introduce any thing not there to be found and he gives the reason for Christ saith My Sheep heare my voyce they will not follow another but fly from him because they know not his voyce But not to be endlesse in quotations it may chance to be objected that there be many opinions in the Fathers which have no ground in Scripture so much the lesse may I say should we follow them for their own words shall condemn them and acquit us that lean not on them otherwise these their words shall acquit them and condemn us But it will be reply'd the Scriptures are difficult to be understood and therfore require the explanation of the Fathers 't is true there be some Books and especially some places in those Books that remain clouded yet ever that which is most necessary to be known is most easie and that which is most difficult so farre expounds it selfe ever as to tell us how little it imports our saving knowledge Hence to inferre a generall obscurity over all the text is a meer suggestion of the Devil to disswade men from reading it and casts an aspersion of dishonour both upon the mercy truth and wisdome of God We count it no gentlenesse or fair dealing in a man of Power amongst us to require strict and punctual obedience and yet give out all his commands ambiguous and obscure we should think he had a plot upon us certainly such commands were no commands but â—…nares The very essence of Truth is plainnesse and brightnes the darknes and crookednesse is our own The wisdome of God created understanding fit and proportionable to Truth the object and end of it as the eye to the thing visible If our understanding have a film of ignorance over it or be blear with gazing on other false glisterings what is that to Truth If we will but purge with sovrain eyesalve that intellectual ray which God hath planted in us then we would beleeve the Scriptures protesting their own plainnes and perspicuity calling to them to be instructed not only the wise and learned but the simple the poor the babes foretelling an extraordinary effusion of Gods Spirit upon every age and sexe attributing to all men and requiring from them the ability of searching trying examining all things and by the Spirit discerning that which is good and as the Scriptures themselvs pronounce their own plainnes so doe the Fathers testifie of them I will not run into a paroxysm of citations again in this point only instance Athanasius in his fore-mention'd first page the knowledge of Truth saith he wants no humane lore as being evident in it selfe and by the preaching of Christ now opens brighter then the Sun If these Doctors who had scarse half the light that we enjoy who all except 2 or 3 were ignorant of the Hebrew tongue and many of the Greek blundring upon the dangerous and suspectfull translations of the Apostat Aquila the Heretical Theodotion the Judaiz'd Symmachus the erroneous Origen if these could yet find the Bible so easie why should we doubt that have all the helps of Learning and faithfull industry that man in this life can look for and the assistance of God as neer now to us as ever But let the Scriptures be hard are they more hard more crabbed more abstruse then the Fathers He that cannot understand the sober plain and unaffected stile of the Scriptures will be ten times more puzzl'd with the knotty Africanisms the pamper'd metafors the intricat and involv'd sentences of the Fathers besides the fantastick and declamatory flashes the crosse-jingling periods which cannot but disturb and come thwart a setl'd devotion worse then the din of bells and rattles Now Sir for the love of holy Reformation what can be said more against these importunat clients of Antiquity then she her selfe their patronesse hath said Whether think ye would she approve still to dote upon immeasurable innumerable and therfore unnecessary and unmercifull volumes choosing rather to erre with the specious name of the Fathers or to take a â—…ound Truth at the hand of a plain upright man that all his dayes hath bin diligently reading the holy Scriptures and therto imploring Gods grace while the admireâ—…s of Antiquity have bin beating their brains about their Ambones their Diptychs and Meniaia's Now he that cannot tell of Stations and Indictions nor has wasted his pretious howrs in the endles
OF REFORMATION Touching CHVRCH-DISCIPLINE IN ENGLAND And the CAVSES that hitherto have hindred it TWO BOOKES Written to a FREIND Printed for Thomas Vnderhill 1641. Faults escap't in the printing are heer corrected Page 1. l. 5. at frequent must be a comma p. 2. l. 27. sensual p. 4. l. 31. exorcism p. 5. l. 9. at adoration a comna p. 6. l. 4. in ignorance there wants an a. l. 29. she taught p. 7. l. 9. adde in Discipline which is the execution p. 19. l. 4. collegues l. 13. known p. 70. l. 6. yea other nattonsp 72. l. 5. each other state l. 7. at common is no period but a comma OF REFORMATION IN ENGLAND And the CAVVSES that hitherto have hindred it Sir AMidst those deepe and retired thoughts which with every man Christianly instructed ought to be most frequent of God and of his miraculous ways and works amongst men and of our Religion and Worship to be perform'd to him after the story of our Saviour Christ suffering to the lowest bent of weaknesse in the Flesh and presently triumphing to the highest pitch of glory in the Spirit which drew up his body also till we in both be united to him in the Revelation of his Kingdome I do not know of any thing more worthy to take up the whole passion of pitty on the one side and joy on the other then to consider first the foule and sudden corruption and then after many a tedious age the long-deferr'd but much more wonderfull and happy reâ—…ormation of the Church in these latter dayes Sad it is to thinke how that Doctrine of the Gospel planted by teachers Divinely inspir'd and by them winnow'd and sifted from the chaffe of overdated Ceremonies and refin'd to such a Spirituall height and temper of purity and knowledge of the Creator that the body with all the circumstances of time and place were purifi'd by the affections of the regenerat Soule and nothing left impure but sinne Faith needing not the weak and fallible office of the Senses to be either the Vshers or Interpreters of heavenly Mysteries save where our Lord him-selfe in his Sacraments ordain'd that such a Doctrine should through the grossenesse and blindnesse of her Professors and the fraud of deceivable traditions drag so downwards as to backslide one way into the Jewish beggery of old cast rudiments and stumble forward another way into the new-vomited Paganisme of sensuall Idolatry attributing purity or impurity to things indifferent that they might bring the inward acts of the Spirit to the outward and customary ey-Service of the body as if they could make God earthly and fleshly because they could not make themselves heaâ—…enly and Spirituall they began to draw downe all the Divine intercours betwixt God and the Soule yea the very shape of God himselfe into an exterior and bodily forme urgently pretending a necessity and obligement of joyning the body in a formall reverence and Worship circumscrib'd they hallow'd it they fum'd it they sprincl'd it they be deck't it not in robes of pure innocency but of pure Linnen with other deformed and fantastick dresses in Palls and Miters gold and guegaw's fetcht from Arons old wardrope or the Flamins vestry then was the Priest set to con his motions and his Postures his Liturgies and his Lurries till the Soule by this meanes of over bodying her selfe given up justly to fleshly delights bated her wing apace downeward and finding the ease she had from her visible and sensuous collegue the body in performance of Religious duties her pineons now broken and flagging shifted off from her selfe the labour of high soaring any more forgot her heavenly flight and left the dull and droyling carcas to plod on in the old rode and dâ—…udging Trade of outward conformity And here out of question from her pervers conceiting of God and holy things she had faln to beleeve no God at all had not custome and the worme of conscience nipt her incredulity hence to all the duty 's of evangelicall grace instead of the adoptive and cheerefull boldnesse which our new alliance with God requires came Servile and thrallike feare for in very deed the superstitious man by his good will is an Atheist but being â—…carr'd from thence by the pangs and gripes of a boyling conscience all in a pudder shuffles up to himselfe such a God and such a worship as is most agreeable to remedy his feare which feare of his as also is his hope fixt onely upon the Flesh renders likewise the whole faculty of his apprehension carnall and all the inward acts of worship issuing from the native strength of the SOVLE run out lavishly to the upper skin and there harden into a crust of Formallitie Hence men came to scan the Scriptures by the Letter and in the Covenant ofour Redemption magnifi'd the external signs more then the quickning power of the Spirit and yet looking on them through their own guiltinesse with a Servile feare and finding as little comfort or rather terror from them againe they knew not how to hide their Slavish approach to Gods behests by them not understood nor worthily receav'd but by cloaking their Servile crouching to all Religious Presentments somtimes lawfull sometimes Idolatrous under the name of humility and terming the Py-bald frippery and oftentation of Ceremony's decency Then was Baptisme chang'd into a kind of exorcisme and water Sanctifi'd by Christs institute thought little enough to wash off the originall Spot without the Scratch or crosse impression of a Priests fore-finger and that feast of free grace and adoption to which Christ invited his Disciples to sit as Brethren and coheires of the happy Covenant which at that Table was to be Seal'd to them even that Feast of love and heavenly-admitted fellowship the Seale of filiall grace became the Subject of horror and glouting adoration pageanted about like a dreadfull Idol which sometimes deceve's wel-meaning men and beguiles them of their reward by their voluntary humility which indeed is fleshly pride preferring a foolish Sacrifice and the rudiments of the world as Saint Paul to the Colossians explaineth before a savory obedience to Christs example Such was Peters unseasonable Humilitie as then his Knowledge was small when Christ came to wash his feet who at an impertinent time would needs straine courtesy with his Master and falling troublesomly upon the lowly alwise and unexaminable intention of Christ in what he went with resolution to doe so provok't by his interruption the meeke Lord that he threat'nd to exclude him from his heavenly Portion unlesse he could be content to be lesse arrogant and stiff neckt in his humility But to dwell no longer in characterizing the Depravities of the Church and how they sprung and how they tooke increase when I recall to mind at last after so many darke Ages wherein the huge overshadowing traine of Error had almost swept all the Starres out of the Firmament of the Church how the bright and blissfull Reformation by Divine Power
strook through the black and settled Night of Ignornnce and Antichristian Tyranny me thinks a soveraigne and reviving joy must needs rush into the bosome of him that reads or heares and the sweet Odour of the returning Gospell imbath his Soule with the fragrancy of Heaven Then was the Sacred BIBLE sought out of the dusty corners where prophane Falshood and Neglect had throwne it the Schooles opened Divine and Humane Learning rak't out of the embers of forgotten Tongues the Princes and Cities trooping apace to the new erected Banner of Salvation the Martyrs with the unresistable might of Weaknesse shaking the Powers of Darknesse and scorning the fiery rage of the old red Dragon The pleasing pursuit of these thoughts hath oft-times led mee into a serious question and debatement with my selfe how it should come to passe that England having had this grace and honour from GOD to bee the first that should set up a Standard for the recovery of lost Truth and blow the first Evangelick Trumpet to the Nations holding up as from a Hill the new Lampe of saving light to all Christendome should now be last and most unsettl'd in the enjoyment of that Peace whereof we taught the way to others although indeed our Wicklefs preaching at which all the succeding Reformers more effectually lighted their Tapers was to his Countrey-men but a short blaze soone dampt and stifl'd by the Pope and Prelates for sixe or seven Kings Reignes yet me thinkes the Precedencie which GOD gave this Iland to be the first Restorer of buried Truth should have beene followed with more happy successe and sooner attain'd Perfection in which as yet we are amongst the last for albeit in purity of Doctrine we agree with our Brethren yet in execution and applying of Doctrine home and laying the salve to the very Orifice of the wound yea tenting and searching to the Core without which Pulpit Preaching is but shooting at Rovers in this we are no better then a Schisme from all the Reformation and a sore scandall to them for while wee hold Ordination to belong onely to Bishops as our Prelates doe wee must of necessity hold also their Ministers to be no Ministers and shortly after their Church to be no Church Not to speake of those sencelesse Ceremonies which wee onely retaine as a dangerous earnest of sliding back to Rome and serving meerely either as a mist to cover nakednesse where true grace is extinguisht or as an Enterlude to set out the pompe of Prelatisme Certainly it would be worth the while therefore and the paines to enquire more particularly what and how many the che◅We causes have been that have still hindred our Vniforme Con◅ to the rest of the Churches abroad at this time especially when the Kingdome is in a good propensity thereto and all Men in Prayers in Hopes or in Disputes either for or against it Yet will I not insist on that which may seeme to be the cause on GODS part as his judgement on our sinnes the tryall of his owne the unmasking of Hypocrites nor shall I stay to speake of the continuall eagernes and extreame diligence of the Pope and Papists to stop the furtherance of Reformation which know they have no hold or hope of England their lost Darling longer then the government of Bishops bolsters them out and therefore plot all they can to uphold them as may bee seene by the Booke of Santa Clara the Popish Preist in defence of Bishops which came out piping hot much about the time that one of our own Prelats out of an ominous feare had writ on the same Argnment as if they had joyn'd their forces like good Confederates to support one falling Babel But I shall cheifly indeavour to declare those Causes that hinder the forwarding of true Discipline which are among our selves Orderly proceeding will divide our inquirie into our Fore-Fathers dayes and into our Times HENRY the 8. was the first that rent this Kingdome from the Popes Subjection totally but his Quarrell being more about Supremacie then other faultinesse in Religion that he regarded it is no marvell if hee stuck where he did The next default was in the Bishops who though they had renounc't the Pope they still hugg'd the Popedome and shar'd the Authority among themselves by their sixe bloody Articles persecuting the Protestants no slacker then the Pope would have done And doutles when ever the Pope shall fall if his ruine bee not like the sudden down-come of a Towre the Bishops when they see him tottering will leave him and fall to scrambling catch who may hee a Patriarch-dome and another what comes next hand as the French Cardinall of late and the See of Canterbury hath plainly affected In Edward the 6. Dayes why a compleate Reform was not effected to any considerate man may appeare First he no sooner entred into his Kingdome but into a Warre with Scotland from whence the Protector returning with Victory had but newly put his hand to repeale the 6. Articles and throw the Images out of Churches but Rebellions on all sides stir'd up by obdurate Papists and other Tumults with a plaine Warre in Norfolke holding tack against two of the Kings Generals made them of force content themselves with what they had already done Hereupon follow'd ambitious Contentions among the Peeres which ceas'd not but with the Protectors death who was the most zealous in this point and then Northumberland was hee that could doe most in England who little minding Religion as his Apostacie well shew'd at his death bent all his wit how to bring the Right of the Crowne into his owne Line And for the Bishops they were so far from any such worthy Attempts as that they suffer'd themselvs to be the commō stales to coun tenance with their prostituted Gravities every Politick Fe◅ch that was then on foot as oft as the Potent Statists pleas'd to employ them Never do we read that they made use of their Authority and high Place of accesse to bring the jarring Nobility to Christian peace or to withstand their di◅oyall Projects but if a Toleration for Masse were to be beg'd of the King for his Sister MARY lest CHARLES the Fifth should be angry who but the grave Prelates Cranmer and Ridley must be sent to extort it from the young King But out of the mouth of that godly and Royall Childe Christ himselfe return'd such an awfull repulse to those halting and time-serving Prelates that after much bold importunity they went their way not without shame and teares Nor was this the first time that they discover'd to bee followers of this World for when the Protectors Brother Lord Sudley the Admirall through private malice and mal-engine was to lose his life no man could bee found fitter then Bishop Latimer like another Doctor Shaw to divulge in his Sermon the forged Accusations laid to his charge thereby to defame him with the People who else was thought would take ill the innocent mans death unlesse the
Physick't And surely they were moderate Divines indeed neither hot nor cold 〈◊〉 Grindall the best of them afterwards Arch Bishop of Canterbury lost favour in the Court and I think was discharg'd the goverment of his See for favouring the Ministers though Camden seeme willing to finde another Cause therefore about her second Yeare in a Parliament of Men and Minds some scarce well grounded others belching the soure Crudities of yesterdayes Poperie those Constitutions of EDW. 6. which as you heard before no way satisfi'd the men that made them are now establish't for best and not to be mended From that time follow'd nothing but Imprisonments troubles disgraces on all those that found fault with the Decrees of the Convâ—…cation and strait were they branded with the Name of Puritans As for the Queene her selfe shee was made beleeve that by putting downe Bishops her Prerogative would be infring'd of which shall be spoken anon as the course of Method brings it in And why the Prelats labour'd it should be so thought ask not them but ask their Bellies They had found a good Tabernacle they sate under a spreading Vine their Lot was fallen in a faire Inheritance And these perhaps were the cheife impeachments of a more sound rectifying the Church in the Queens Time From this Period I count to begin our Times which because they concerne us more neerely and our owne eyes and eares can give us the ampler scope to judge will require a more exact search and to effect this the speedier I shall distinguish such as I esteeme to be the hinderers of Reformation into 3. sorts Antiquitarians for so I had rather call them then Antiquaries whose labours are usefull and laudable 2. Libertines 3. Polititians To the votarists of Antiquity I shall think to have fully answer'd if I shall be able to prove out of Antiquity First that if they will conform our Bishops to the purer times they must mew their feathers and their pounces and make but curttail'd Bishops of them and we know they hate to be dockt and clipt as much as to be put down outright Secondly that those purer times were corrupt and their Books corrupted soon after Thirdly that the best of those that then wrote disclaim that any man should repose on them and send all to the Scriptures First therfore if those that over-affect Antiquity will follow the square therof their Bishops must be elected by the hands of the whole Church The ancientest of the extant Fathers Ignatius writing to the Philadelphians saith that it belongs to them as to the Church of God to choose a Bishop Let no man cavill but take the Church of God as meaning the whole consistence of Orders and Members as S. Pauls Epistles expresse and this likewise being read over Besides this it is there to be mark'd that those Philadelphians are exhorted to choose a Bishop of Antioch Whence it seems by the way that there was not that wary limitation of Dioces in those times which is confirm'd even by a fast friend of Episcopacie Camden who cannot but love Bishops as well as old coins and his much lamented Monasteries for antiquities sake He writes in his description of Scotland that over all the world Bishops had no certaine Dioces till Pope Dionysius about the yeare 268. did cut them out and that the Bishops of Scotland executed their function in what place soever they came indifferently and without distinction till King Malcolm the third about the yeare 1070. whence may be guest what their function was was it to goe about circl'd with a band of rooking Officials with cloke bagges full of Citations and Processes to be serv'd by a corporalty of griffonlike Promooters and Apparitors Did he goe about to pitch down his Court as an Empirick does his banck to inveigle in all the mony of the ConÌ„trey no certainly it would not have bin permitted him to exercise any such function indifferently wherever he came And verily some such matter it was as want of a fat Dioces that kept our Britain Bishops so poore in the Primitive times that being call'd to the Councell of Ariminum in the yeare 359. they had not wherewithall to defray the charges of their journey but were fed and lodg'd upon the Emperors cost which must needs be no accidentall but usuall poverty in them for the author Sulp. Severus in his 2 Booke of Church History praises them and avouches it praise-worthy in a Bishop to be so poore as to have nothing of his own But to return to the ancient election of Bishops that it could not lawfully be without the consent of the people is so expresse in Cyprian and so often to be met with that to cite each place at large were to translate a good part of the volume therfore touching the chief passages I referre the rest to whom so list peruse the Author himselfe in the 24. Epist. If a Bishop saith he be once made and allow'd by the testimony and judgement of his collegues and the people no other can be made In the 55. When a Bishop is made by the suffrage of all the people in peace In the 68. marke but what he saies The people chiefly hath power either of choosing worthy ones or refusing unworthy this he there proves by authorities out of the old and new Testament and with solid reasons these were his antiquities This voyce of the people to be had ever in Episcopal elections was so well known before Cyprians time even to those that were without the Church that the Emperor Alexander Severus desir'd to have his governours of Provinces chosen in the same manner as 〈◊〉 can tell So little thought it he offensive to Monarchy and if single authorities perswade not hearken what the whole generall Councel of Nicaea the first and famousest of all the rest determines writing a Synodal Epist. to the African Churches to warn them of Arrianisme it exhorts them to choose orthodox Bishops in the place of the dead so they be worthy and the people choose them whereby they seem to make the peoples assent so necessary that merit without their free choyce were not sufficient to make a Bishop What would ye say now grave Fathers if you should wake and see unworthy Bishops or rather no Bishops but Egyptian task-masters of Ceremonies thrust purposely upon the groaning Church to the affliction and vexation of Gods people It was not of old that a Conspiracie of Bishops could frustrate and fob off the right of the people for we may read how S. Martin soon after Constantine was made Bishop of Turon in France by the peoples consent from all places thereabout mâ—…ugre all the opposition that the Bishops could make Thus went matters of the Church almost 400. yeare after Christ and very probably farre lower for Nicephorus Phocas the Greek Emperour whose reign fell neare the 1000. year of our Lord having done many things tyrannically is said by Cedrenus to have done nothing more grievous and
Jesuits presum'd in Italy to give their judgement of S. Paul as of a hot headed person as Sandys in his Relations tells us Now besides all this who knows not how many surreptitious works are ingrass'd into the legitimate writings of the Fathers and of those Books that passe for authentick who knows what hath bin tamper'd withall what hath bin raz'd out what hath bin inserted besides the late legerdemain of the Papists that which Sulpitius writes concerning Origens Books gives us cause vehemently to suspect there hath bin packing of old In the third chap. of his 1. Dialogue we may read what wrangling the Bishops and Monks had about the reading or not reading of Origen some objecting that he was corrupted by Hereticks others answering that all such Books had bin so dealt with How then shall I trust these times to lead me that restifie so ill of leading themselvs certainly of their defects their own witnesse may be best receiv'd but of the rectitude and sincerity of their life and doctrine to judge rightly wee must judge by that which was to be their rule But it wil be objected that this was an 〈◊〉 state of the Church wanting the temporall Magistrate to suppresse the licence of false Brethren and the extravagancy of still-new opinions a time not imitable for Church government where the temporall and spirituall power did not close in one beleife as under Constantine I am not of opinion to thinke the Church a Vine in this respect because as they take it she cannot subsist without clasping about the Elme of worldly strength and felicity as if the heavenly City could not support it selfe without the props and buttresses of secular Authoritie They extoll Constantine because he extol'd them as our homebred Monks in their Histories blanch the Kings their Benefactors and brand those that went about to be their Correctors If he had curb'd the growing Pride Avarice and Luxury of the Clergie then every Page of his Story should have swel'd with his Faults and that which Zozimus the Heathen writes of him should have come in to boot wee should have heard then in every Declamation how hee slew his Nephew Commodus a worthy man his noble and eldest Son Crispus his Wife Fausta besides numbers of his Friends then his cruell exactions his unsoundnesse in Religion favoring the Arrians that had been condemn'd in a Counsell of which himselfe sate as it were President his hard measure and banishment of the faithfull and invincible Athanasius his living unbaptiz'd almost to his dying day these blurs are too apparent in his Life But since hee must needs bee the Lord-starre of Reformation as some men clatter it will be good to see further his knowledge of Religion what it was and by that we may likewise guesse at the sincerity of his Times in those that were not Hereticall it being likely that hee would converse with the famousest Prelates for so he had made them that were to be found for learning Of his Arianisme we heard and for the rest a pretty scantling of his Knowledge may be taken by his deferring to be baptiz'd so many yeares a thing not usuall and repugnant to the Tenor of Scripture Philip knowing nothing that should hinder the Eunuch to be baptiz'd after profession of his beleife Next by the excessive devotion that I may not say Superstition both of him and his Mother Helena to find out the Crosse on which Christ suffer'd that had long lien under the rubbish of old ruines a thing which the Disciples and Kindred of our Saviour might with more ease have done if they had thought it a pious duty some of the nailes whereof hee put into his Helmet to beare off blowes in battell others he fasten'd among the studds of his bridle to fulfill as he thought or his Court Bishops perswaded him the Prophesie of Zachariah And it shall be that that which is in the bridle shall be holy to the Lord Part of the Crosse in which he thought such Vertue to reside as would prove a kind of Palladium to save the Citie where ever it remain'd he caus'd to be laid up in a Pillar of Porphyrie by his Statue How hee or his Teachers could trifle thus with halfe an eye open upon Saint Pauls Principles I know not how to imagine How should then the dim Taper of this Emperours age that had such need of snuffing extend any beame to our Times wherewith wee might hope to be better lighted then by those Luminaries that God hath set up to shine to us far neerer hand And what Reformation he wrought for his owne time it will not be amisse to consider hee appointed certaine times for Fasts and Feasts built stately Churches gave large Immunities to the Clergie great Riches and Promotions to Bishops gave and minister'd occasion to bring in a Deluge of Ceremonies thereby either to draw in the Heathen by a resemblance of their rites or to set a glosse upon the simplicity and plainnesse of Christianity which to the gorgeous solemnities of Paganisme and the sense of the Worlds Children seem'd but a homely and Yeomanly Religion for the beauty of inward Sanctity was not within their prospect So that in this manner the Prelates both then and ever since comming from a meane and Plebeyan Life on a sudden to be Lords of stately Palaces rich furniture delicious fare and Princely attendance thought the plaine and homespun verity of Christs Gospell unfit any longer to hold their Lordships acquaintance unlesse the poore thred-bare Matron were put into better clothes her chast and modest vaile surrounded with celestiall beames they overlai'd with wanton tresses and in a aâ—…aring tire 〈◊〉 her with all the gaudy allurements of a Whore Thus flourish't the Church with Constantines wealth and thereafter were the effects that follow'd his Son Conâ—…antius prov'd a flat Arian and his Nephew Iulian an Apostate 〈◊〉 there his Race ended the Church that before by insensible degrees welk't and impair'd now with large steps went downe hill decaying at this time Antichrist began first to put forth his horne and that saying was common that former times had woodden Chalices and golden Preists but they golden Chalices and woodden Preists Formerly saith Sulpitius Martyrdome by glorious death was sought more greedily then now Bishopricks by vile Ambition are hunted after speaking of these Times and in another place they gape after possessions they tend Lands and Livings they coure over their gold they buy and sell and if there be any that neither possesse nor traffique that which is worse they sit still and expect guifts and prostitute every induâ—…ment of grace every holy thing to sale And in the end of his History thus he concludes all things went to wrack by the faction wilfulnesse and avarice of the Bishops and by this means Gods people every good man was had in scorn and derision which S. Martin found truly to be said by his friend Sulpitius for being held in admiration