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
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
the Grandees of the Court began to entertain some thoughts of a Reformation on an hope to inrich themselves by the spoil of the Bishopricks You tell us pag. 48. That the first Parliament in the first year of his Reign though it consisted of such Members as disagreed among themselves yet they agreed well enough in one common Principle which was to serve the present time and preserve themselves that they came resolved to further such a Reformation as should most visibly conduce to the advancement of their several ends and to prepare a way for exposing the Revenues of the Church unto spoil and rapine You tell us pag. 95. That the alteration of Altars into Tables and the disfurnishing of the Altars of the Hangings Palls Plate and other rich utensills was taken up by some great men about the Court on hopes of profit You tell us in the fifth year of King Edward pag. 99. Gardiner was lifted out of the wealthy Bishoprick of Winchester to give the Courtiers opportunity to inrich themselves by the spoil thereof And in pag. 101. That one Iohn Poynet succeeded him to serve other mens turns And in the same page That the Pyrates of the Court were intent upon all advantages to inrich themselves You tell us in the second year of Queen Elizabeth page 121. That the Bishops Sees were kept void till the best flowers in the whole Garden of the Church had been cull'd out of it That the Queen and her Hungry Courtiers had alienated many fair Mannors from the rich Sees of Winchester Elie and indeed what not Thus Sir you have muddied the first Springs of the Reformation by casting into it the abhorred filth of covetousness But Sir Did your pen and your heart agree together when you said you could not reckon it for an infelicity that Edward the sixth died so immaturely or which in plain English is 'T was good for the Church he was taken out of the way The Preface to the Book of Homilies makes an honourable mention of him And when our precious Iewel had occasion to speak of him page 359. Of his defence these are his words That noble Prince of blessed memory King Edward the sixth Was it not an infelicity to the Church to lose her chiefest stay and pillar To have the hopes of a glorious Reformation nipt in the very Budd To have a fearfull Deluge of blood and idolatry rush in upon us by the succession of Queen Mary in whose Reign more precious blood was spilt then in all the times of her Predecessors The persecution under her Reign and the carriage of the Papists in it you relate out of Bishop Iewel page 81. of your History You have given a large testimony of King Edwards Learning before he wes eight years old page 12. Of his tenderness to consent to sign the Warrant for the execution of Ioan of Kent page 89. Of his great zeal for God in resisting the tolerarion of Popery only to his sister the Princess Mary though pressed to it by the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London resolving rather to venture lite and all things else which were dear unto him then to give way to any thing which he knew to be against the truth expressing his inward trouble by a stood of tears page 103. Of his Piety and fervent Charity in his last godly Prayer wherein he calls upon God O my Lord God! Bless my people save thy chosen people of England O Lord God! Defend this Realm from Papistry and maintain thy true Religion that I and my people may praise thy holy Name for Jesus Christ his sake As you have related it page 140. What better qualities and Principles could be desired in a Prince And what greater felicity in that kinde could the Church enjoy then so gratious and Godly a King And do not you Mr. Doctor shake hands with the shameless rayler Harding against our glorious Iewel When you hear him call'd Rayler be not displeased Look on that large Catalogue of hellish slanders poured out on that blessed man summ'd up by himself immediately before his decease This is offered to you the rather because when you have occasion to mention Harding a base Apostate and grand enemy of the Gospel it is with terms of honour and reverence viz. Dr. Iohn Harding one of the Divines of Lovain and the most learned of the Colledge page 128 in the latter part of your History But when you speak of those glorious lights of the Reformation Luther Zuinglius Calvin it is barely Calvin or Iohn Calvin as all along your History is evident That Rabshakeh Harding dipt his Pen in the same gall and speaks your sence page 31. of the Defence Did not saith he your Religion begin first of covetousness And for your â—ear of the poor Chruch being left destitute of Lands and Ornaments your Right learned Prelate Iewel gives you a corrective in page 567. of his defence c. Ye say saith he to Harding Your Bishops are gay and gallant attended and guarded with Princely routs behinde and before And thereof ye make no small account specially in respect of our estate which you call beggarly In such disdain the Heathen sometime said That Christ was the beggarliest and poorest of all the Gods that were in Heaven Howbeit our Bishopricks saving that certain of your Fathers have shamefully spoil'd them are now even as they were before certainly the poorest Bishoprick in England as it is reported is better in revenues then some three or four of your Popes Italian Bishopricks in the Kingdom of Naples Howbeit the Gospel of Christ standeth not by riches but by truth In comparison of the one we make small reckoning of the other Had that glorious King lived to perfect the Reformation which you would have accounted an infelicity to the Church and taken away more of her Patrimony yet if you will believe the Right Learned Prelate Iewel he might have revok't in all those grants made by his Predecessors See his Defence page 639. If our Kings in that darkness and blindeness of the former times gave them these things of their own accord and liberality for Religions sake Now saith he when the ignorance and error is espied out may the Kings their Successors take them away again seeing they have the same authority the Kings their Ancestors had before For the gift is void except it be allowed by the will of the Giver and that cannot seem a perfect will which is dimmed and hindered by error The next thing Mr. Doctor to be spoken to is the Reformation it self whose History you present to us And in p. 34. p. 1. you write That neither to lose time nor press too much at once upon the people it was thought fit to smooth the way to the Reformation by setting out some preparatory injunctions this to be done by sending out Commissioners accompanied with certain godly Preachers who when they went from the people left behinde them Homilies to
yet by the tenour of the Act you mention it doth appear first That there was nothing contained in the said first book but what was agreeable to the Word of God and the Primitive Church Secondly That such doubts as had been raised in the use and exercise thereof proceeded rather from the curiosity of the Minister and mistakers then any worthy cause they are the very words of the Act as you quote them And therefore Mr. Doctor you might have spared your pains p. 108. in seeking the names of those good and godly men by whom it was altered for bona fide there was no alteration at all if you will believe your own Book You tell us p. 121 122. part 1. of the hand the Convocation had in canvasing the Articles of Religion but you question whether they had any such hand in reviewing the Liturgy and you speak of digesting of such alterations as were considered and resolved on but shew not what they were in the least and possibly you say it might recieve the like authority from the Convocation you cannot say it did receive as the book of Articles had But whether so or not say you it received as much authority and countenance as could be given unto it by an Act of Parliament by which it was imposed you say upon the subject under penalties A worthy foundation for divine service And then page 121. p. 1. Mr. Doctor you begin to triumph as if you had got a firm bottom for the Liturgy the Liturgy you say thus setled and confirmed in Parliament was by the Kings command And p. 123. you say we have seen a reformation made in point of doctrine and setled in the forms of worship the superstitions and corruptions of the Church of Rome entirely abrogated good news if it were true and all things recteifed according to the Word of God How prove you this Sir and the Primitive practice we can see nothing but an Act of Parliament This is all account you give us in your History of the Reformation of the Church in the time of King Edward the sixth saving that p. 125. you speak something of Holy dayes and Fasting dayes which were to be abolished or retained But possibly more may be behind we shall not follow you in your History of the Church in the reign of Queen Mary when the Reformation by your own confession went down the wind and the professors and assertors of it persecuted in all parts of the Nation We shall therefore pass on with you to the times of Queen Elizabeth and see what was more done to the repairing and carrying on this work And when we consider what you say in the 103. page of your History of her reign that she retained such as had been of privy Council to Queen Mary her sister to be of her Council of which according as you have set them down there were thirteen of which one was an Archbishop and adding but seven to them it cannot in reason be imagined that Church reformation should be so far from growing to perfection that it is more likely to decrease and wither And so it proved for the Parliament that was summoned which passed an Act as you say p. 110 111. for recommending and imposing the Book of Common Prayer and administration of the Sacraments took care to revise the book and to make alterations and corrections now Mr. Doctor we have found some alterations in the Liturgy and what are they why say you p. 111. great care was taken for expunging mark Mr. Doctor all such passages in it as might give any scandal or offence to the Popish party in the Letany you say the Pope and his detestable enormity were expunged as giving offence and in the delivery of the Sacrament though by Calvins means as you say some Reformation had been made in the second Liturgy in King Edwards time now it is returned back into the first form and besides you say a whole Rubrick was expunged as not favouring the figment of Transubstantiation and not only so but there was made alteration in the Bread of the Sacrament in Alters and the standing of them in gestures vestments musick and what not by which compliances with Rome your plain dealing is commendable the book was made so passable you say p. 111. amongst the Papists that they repaired to our Parish Churches without scruple And to give us a more full account of the State of Religion in these times you tell us p. 172. part 2. Such a well tempered piety did at that time appear in the Devotions of the Church of England that generally the English Papists still resorted to them moreover you tell us p. 131. that Queen Elizabeth doing all this in the form and fashion of our devotions did so far satisfie the Pope then being that he shewed himself willing to confirm all by his Papal power and that Parpalio was instructed to offer in the name of his Holiness that the English Liturgy should be confirmed And now you triumph again p. 173. part 2. as if the matter were past all doubt telling us Thus we have seen the publick Liturgy confirmed in Parliament with divers penalties on all those who either did reproach it or neglect to use it or willfully withdrew their attendance from it But pray you Sir look back to what you say of this Parliament which confirmed the Liturgy p. 107. there wanted not say you some rough and furious spirits in the house of Commons who eagerly opposed all propositions which seemed to tend unto the prejudice of the Church of Rome of which number none so violent as Story Doctor of the Laws and a great instrument of Bonners butcheries others there were say you and doubtless many others also in the house of Commons who had as great a zeal as he to the Papal interest Thus Mr. Doctor we have travailed over your History and have pickt up and laid together the several pieces of this goodly building as you call it that you and others may have the full prospect of it at once and for the integrity of this action in these quotations we appeal to the great searcher of hearts And now Sir would you have the world satisfied in such a Reformation Can the conscience of a Protestant comfortably repose it self on such a foundation as you have here laid We gladly embrace the reformation of Doctrine contained in the book of Articles because we see blessed be God they have a clear and full authority from the Holy Scriptures but Sir you have dealt very deceitfully with your readers in your History in jumbling Doctrine Discipline and Worship together as if because there was a Reformation in Doctrine and that grounded upon the Word of God there must also be a Reformation in the rest too which was little or not at all and that grounded upon the Word also this deceit runs through your book you tell us ever and anon of
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-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
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