kept neat and comely and in good repair And what would you have more We know you miss the Common-Prayer-Book and some other Ornaments Truly Mr. Doctor we desire to deal plainly with you the greatest part of the people of this Nation are very ignorant Oh that you would leave your Cloyster and make some experiment by questioning and reasoning with them and we conceive plain and frequent preaching to be far more necessary for them and more required at all our hands then the reading of prayers or decking and adorning of Churches Would you commend that Nurse that should spend the greatest part of her time in decking and tricking up a child and in teaching it to speak and say after her and in the mean time suffer the child to pine away for want of milk While here is a great stir about Ceremonies Ornaments Liturgy the people perish for lack of knowledge Sermons decay apace it is come to once a day already and in some places to once a fortnight Sir diligent and frequent preaching is the great wheel should be kept going without which Prayers Sacraments Sabbaths will be but blind and blunt devotions and will quickly lose their savour and efficacy To bring you in love with Preaching we shall offer to you Bishop Iewels esteem of it who is of so great esteem with you And first we shall commend to you part of that Sermon preached at Saint Maries in Oxon which is to be found before the Book called the Defence it is upon these words 1 Pet. 4. 11. If any man speak c. In the third page are these words If the Sun were taken away from the world all things should be left dark disparkled and confounded so if the voice of the Pastor be taken out of the Church Religion is left at sixes and sevens it is left blind troubled all things are mingled with error superstition and idolatry of so great weight it is to be a Steward of the house of God The Gospel Religion Godliness the health of the Church dependeth of us alone This is our office this we take upon us and this we profess And except we do this we do nothing we serve to no use at all It is not enough to know I know not what learning the Devils perhaps know more then any of us all it belongeth to a Pastor not so much to have known many things as to have taught much Let it shame us that the basest kind of men even Coblers and Porters do that which belongeth unto them and we which ought to give light to all others are idle and do nothing For God would not have us to be idle bellies but he would have us to be interpreters of his mind Ministers of Jesus Christ the light of the world salt Angels and the sons of God Much more excellent matter to this purpose you may there read And he concludes his Sermon thus Whatsoever we are able by nature whatsoever by counsel whatsoever by wit or cunning let us bestow it all to serve the Church of God If we be the Brethren of Christ let us hear Christ let us feed his Lambs let us feed his sheep let us go let us preach let us teach And Mr. Doctor this great office of preaching is mightily hindred by non-residence and pluralities by reason of which the Church is pestered with a generation of silly Curates who can scarce read the Common-Prayer or an Homily as they should who neglect preaching which Bishop Iewel complains of as a sure in-let to Popery in his Sermon upon Ioshua 6. from these words Now Jericho was shut up c. page 14. But when saith he we see the great blindness and ignorance in all places abroad how could you Mr. Doctor so admire the face of the Church of England page 123. part 2. when you see her so blind for this Sermon was either preached before Queen Elisabeth or at Pauls Cross in her Reign what hope may we have to see Iericho he meaneth Rome suppressed or quite overthrown It cannot be but great inconveniences shall follow in the Church of God as confusion of Order and dissolution of life to the indangering of the State unless by godly care of the Magi strates some help be provided This care must shew it self in removing blind Watch-men who have no knowledge he doth not say that cannot read the Common-Prayer who are but dumb dogs that cannot bark who lie and sleep and delight in sleeping These greedy dogs can never have enough faith the Prophet Isaiah Non-residence and absence from their Cure is a fault that would be amended in the Shepherds of the Lords flock Though they be never so able to instruct and therefore worthy to have the Rooms in the Church yet if they have not a desire to do good if they feed not Christ's sheep if they be strangers to the people of their charge if they be not at hand to give their flocks their bread in due season what let may here be the Common Prayer could not prevent it but that ignorance and blindness shall grow and increase in the people Another fault saith he no less hurtful to the Church of God is the suffering of Pluralities when one man taketh the profit of two or more Benefices which is not worthy of one These Non-residents and Plurality-men teach not they know not nor care for the people of their charge they have brought this confusion do you see Doctor what a glorious Church we had in the time of Queen Elisabeth and shame into the House of God they are blind guides they are the darkness of the world Against those which are such God sheweth his heavy displeasure Ezek. 34. Ier. 2. Ier. 10. These either be a Remnant do you see Sir we are not yet fully reformed of the wicked inhabitants of Iericho i.e. Rome that resist the passage of Gods people we are yet in the Wilderness Doctor towards the Land of promise These be they that seek the restoring of Iericho do you know no such in the Convocation Sir and the over throw of Ierusalem therefore the curse of God will fall upon them the blood of Gods people shall be required at their hands because they bring the abomination of desolation into the holy place because they suffer Christs flock to perish for lack of knowledge God grant Amen all such that they may see with their eyes and understand with their hearts and know the gracious goodness of the Lord that the people be not through their negligence like Horse and Mule but that they may discern between darkness and light and between Iericho and Ierusalem Let us go on Mr. Doctor to his next Sermon to this about Iericho upon Haggai cap. 1. V. 2 3 4. Thus speaketh the Lord of Hosts saying This people say that the time is not yet come that the Lords house should be builded c. After much excellent matter which you may there read page the fifth he speaks thus What
PLVS VLTRA OR Englands Reformation Needing to be Reformed BEING An Examination of Doctor Heylins History of the Reformation of the Church of ENGLAND WHEREIN By laying together all that is there said by the Dr. about the Reformation of the Church and by many testimonies of Reverend IEWEL Bishop of Salisbury and by several Observations made upon the Whole it doth evidently appear That the present state of the Church of ENGLAND is no way to be rested in but ought to proceed to a farther Degree of Perfection Written by way of Letter to Dr. Heylin by H. N. O. I. Oxon. Dan. 5. 27. Thou art weighed in the Balances and art found wanting Luke 19 22. Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee Heb. 6. 1. Let us go on unto perfection LONDON Printed for the Authors and are to be sold in St. Dunstans Church-yard in Fleetstreet 1601. To the Christian Reader Courteous Reader THou art not we presume ignorant that Dr. Heylin hath lately writ a History of the Reformation of the Church of England His Learned name is of such great credit that it doth not only invite but bespeak his Readers approbation and acceptance The love we bear to the Reformation of the Church of England and an earnest desire to be satisfied about it led us forth to the view and consideration of that History wherein we labored to follow our Reason more then our Fancy and the truth of the Story more then the cry of Fame as not being willing to have any mans person in admiration All that the learned Doctor hath storied about the Reformation in many parts and parcels of his Book having interwoven it with variety of civil Occurrences both Forraign and Domestick thou wilt finde here Methodically put together and shalt have a full view of it at once which by several skips and leaps thou wilt be put to search for in the Doctors History We could heartily wish the Doctor would have saved us this trouble and put together the parts of this goodly Building as he is pleased to call it that we might at once have gone round about it and viewed the Towers and strength thereof This thou shalt finde faithfully done to thy hand wherein thy patience is intreated to stay and consider the several particulars lest by overmuch haste thou lose the fruit of these few lines We have here laid before thee the Evidence the Doctor brings for the Reformation with some Observations out of his own Book Reverend Jewel and others of our own upon it and the judgement is left to thy own breast We can assure thee thou art candidly dealt withal in all that we alleadge either out of the Doctors Book or any other His Printer hath mis-numbred some Pages thou mayst be at some loss if thou compare some of these quotations with the Doctors Book through the neglect of Printing but otherwise thou shalt finde the Page the words many times as they lie or at least the substance of the Doctors sense faithfully communicated to thee We suppose the Doctor cannot desire a fairer way of Tryal in the particular of the Churches Reformation then when himself in his Book and the testimonies he brings be upon the matter constituted Iudges of it we hereby conceive that any person not byassed by interst will conclude from the Doctors premises that Englands Reformation is sadly defective There was a time when there was no Smith found in Israel and the Israelites went down to the Philistims to sharpen their Weapons We contend not for Victory but for Truth and if in this contest something may be laid hold on even in the Tents of an Adversary for the advantage and advancement of it we shall not scruple to undergo the shame of our own weakness and the discredit of our own poverty as being fain to borrow both the shop and tools of an Adversary to vindicate it and support it Reader we leave these few sheets with thee desiring thy prayers for the Churches through-Reformation which is their sole desing To the Worshipfull Peter Heylin Doctor in Divinity Reverend Sir YOu have lately presented to the World an History of the Reformation of the Church of England Your historical abilitiesare sufficiently known and it is presum'd you have said as much as can be spoken upon this Subject for what can the man do that cometh after Docotr Heylin Si Pergama Dextrâ Defend◠possent etiam hâc defensa fuissent If Troy could have been presery'd Thy Hand of any best had serv'd It is not the purpose of these lines to vie abilities of learning and language with you Take to you the deserved praise of a learned Doctor and police Orator But the work at present is to scan over some passages in your History of the Churches Reformation and in such a season as this a Convocation now sitting to press onward toward perfection And in the pursuit of this design please you to take along the judgement of that Reverend Bishop Iewel Bishop of Salisbury in the reign of Queen Elizabeth one whom you often mention with deserved honour in your last History You stile him pag. 123. in the latter part of your History The right Learned Mr. Iohn Iewel Pag. 129. Reverend Iewel that learned Prelate Pag. 147. The right Reverend Bishop Iewel pag. 155. His Book which he wrote in defence of the Apologie of the Church of England against that foul-mouth'd Caviller Harding is yet extant in most Churches in this Kingdom and next unto the Bible their best Ornament From this Book and some Sermons of this reverend Bishop bound up with it and several passages in your own something is tendered to your judicious consideration Whether the reformation of the Church of England be or were at any time so compleat and in such Primitive lustre as you phrase it in the close of your History that nothing is more to be done for the perfection and beauty of it Be assured learned Sir the World shall not be abused with false quotations with wrested interpretations either out of your Book or this blessed Bishops you shall have the page the words quoted without the least prevarication And first of all Sir What a soul blot doth your pen cast upon the Reformation when you tell the world That you cannot reckon the death of King Edward the sixth for an infelicity to the Church of England They are your own words in the fourth pag. of your Epistle to the Reader That he was ill principled in himself and that his Reign was unfortunate pag. 141. part 1. And the ground of your account is Because it is not to be thought had he lived but that the rest of the Bishopricks before sufficiently impoverished must have followed Durham and the poor Church been left as destitute of Lovers and Ornaments as when she came into the world in her natural nakedness This Vein runs throughout your whole Book You tell us in the history of Edward pag. 33. that
of pestilent fellows of whom all men that loved themselves or the Church had need to beware How is your History all along chequered with Calvin Zuinglius and the Calvinian and Zuinglian faction as your betters Mr. Doctor will honour and have honoured these blessed men for see what a testimony Bishop Iewel gives of Luther and Zuinglius in page 360. of his defence c. saith he Martin Luther and Hulderike Zuinglius are most excellent men even sent of God to give light to the whole world so worse men then you we are sorry to see you tread so much in their steps have laboured to make this the reproach of our chief Reformers that they have been too much addicted unto Calvin You may read a passage in Bishop Iewels Preface to his defence or to the Reader where in the tenth page are these words He telleth the world saith Bishop Iewel meaning Harding Mr. Iewel is the open enemy of the Church Mr. Iewel is the enemy of God Mr. Iewel honoureth that Idol Calvin more then Jesus Christ so that you see Doctor Bishop Iewel had a very high if not too high an esteem of Calvin whose assistance in our reformation Cranmer rejected and whom you have so causelesly asperst Not only the reformed Churches abroad but also many holy and learned men who suffered Martyrdom in Queen Maries time have had a continual grudge against the Ceremonies profest their dislike of them and suffered as Non-conformists in the time of King Edward the sixth And to make this evident we will use no other proof but your own history And if you please to compare the number of those that were for the Ceremonies with those that were against them though preferment and ease Mr. Doctor will never want numbers we shall find considering the bias of preferment no great odds between their numbers as you have cast up the account for us You cannot tell us certainly who were the compilers of the Liturgy for page 57. You say you think they were such as you there name but p. 126. p. 2. Having occasion to mention Queen Elizabeths Coronation and wondring that the Bishop of Ely should refuse to Crown her having his first preferments from her Father you say this Bishop assisted in the composing of the publick Liturgy and appeared forward in the Reformation but afterwards he was one of those which were sent to Rome to tender the submission of this Kingdom to the Pope then living upon this ground he refused to Crown Queen Elizabeth this was one whom you call Thomas Goodwick p. 57. p. 1. Sure you will set him aside as not fit to be reckoned and besides him you reckon thirteen more who you think compiled the Liturgy And amongst these you very often glory in Cranmer and Ridley whom you call a learned stout and resolute Prelate p. 78. p. 1. but surely you have cast a fly into this ointment of their great names which doth very much defile and debase their reputation when you tell us p. 103. p. 1. That these two moved King Edward so importunately to license or at least to connive at the exercice of the Romifh Religion by the Princess Mary that they forc't tears from him whereupon you say with admiration they withdrew You bestow no encomiums on any other in all your history of Kings Edwards time but on these two who were so stiffe in point of Ceremonies these are your only sticklers for them On the other side you say p. 90. p. 1. Iohn Hooper the designed Bishop of Gloucester whom you commend for his constant Preaching and learned writings and note his humility that the King bestowed on him the Bishoprick of Gloucester without his seeking applying himself to the Arch-Bishop for his consecration desires to be forborn in some Ceremonies at his hands and to be dispensed with for the oath of Canonical obedience to his Metropolitan Cranmer and Ridley would you say by no means yield And the King being moved by the Earl of Warwick wrote to the Archbishop which Letter you mention p. 91. p. 1. in favour of Hooper notwithstanding this gracious Letter you say the two Bishops would not obey the King but Hooper persisting in his obstinacy and willfull humour as you term it was for his disobedience and contempt committed prisoner Here you see a good man and a designed Bishop boggle at the Ceremonies and choosing a prison before conformity he could not swallow these gnats though lapt up in so great honour and preferments And when Ridley and he came together to the stake in the times of Queen Mary did Hooper or Ridley then sigh out a recantation Hooper for his indiscreet obstinacy or Ridley for his unchristian and unbrotherly rigor look on what you say Mr. Doctor on this occasion you tell us page 51. in the history of Queen Mary that Hooper and Ridley being both prisoners you see Mr. Doctor what dealing both Conformists and Non-conformists receive at the hands of Rome if we think to charm her with some fond compliances we are mistaken the Controversie concerning the Episcopal habit which Hooper refused reviv'd in Bishop Ridley's thoughts and he writes to him in these words as you say p. 51. My dear Brother forasmuch as I understand by your books that we throughly agree and wholly consent together in those things which are the grounds and substantial points of our Religion against which the world so furiously rageth in these our daies however in times past in certain by-matters and Circumstances of Religion your wisdom and my simplicity I must confess have a little jarred each of us following Do not you perceive Sir how his conscience prickt him for his overhasty violence toward his tender Brother doth not he shame himself for his folly in pressing so hard upon the conscience of his Brother in such by-matters which Iewel calls bables follies trifles commending his wisdom which you brand with obstinacy and a willfull humour for his generous fortitude in contending against them even to the loss of his pretious liberty As stout and resolute a Prelate as he was yet his courage comes down he dares not look death in the face till he had washt away the stain and guilt of that unchristian action by a humble and penitent confession of the folly of it The wind of persecution and the apprehensions of death made a strange alteration in his thoughts the dust and cobwebs of his Prelatical dignity and glory were now blown over and he sensibly perceives a good conscience holding fast the truth and standing stedfast in the liberty of the Gospel to be a more desireable portion then the Bishoprick of London Verily Mr. Doctor it is a bad cause which doth not answer for it self when death knocks at the door the hot contests which you and others sweat in for these by-matters of Ceremonies are not like you see to contribute any thing to your comfort and joy in the evil day You are yet warm in your