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
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
Mr. Doctor In such a state as a flock is in which hath no Shepherd as the ship which hath no Pilot to guide it or the sucking-child which hath no nurse to feed it even in such state are your souls if you have not the Ministery of Gods Word Laborers they must be and not loiterers for Christ compareth the teaching of his people to things that be of great labor as to plowing to planting Therefore if they be Pastors let them feed the flock if they be Doctors consider Sir let them teach the people This is the way to build up the Church of Christ Common-prayer will not do it This is the only instrument wherewith we may cut down and have in the harvest of God For all mans devices acts laws or commandments good Doctor let the Convocation know so much be the authority thereof never so great yet are not sufficient to content one mans conscience why then Mr. Doctor do you talk of obstinacy and willfull humour Aristotle the great wise Philosopher on a time being sick when the Physitian came to him to minister him a potion and shewed him not what was in it began to chafe and take on with him why said he heal not me as thou wouldft heal an Ox or a Horse but shew me what thou givest me Even so must the people be healed of their errors Fides faith Berâ— suadenda est non imponenda faith may not be compulsed by force or rigor but gently brought in by perswasion Saint Paul saith Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God Let us follow him in his next Sermon on Luke 11. 15. He casteth out Devils through Beelzebub c. The Religon of the Jews was the true worship of the only God yet Pliny saith it was Contemptus omnium numinum the despsing of all the gods The Jews suffered no images to be in their Churches because God had forbidden them yet Cornelius Tacitus said they worship their God in the form of an Ass others said they worship a God whom they call Sabaoth in the shape and fashion of an Hogg and therefore that they were forbidden to eat Swines-flesh others that they worship Saturnus because they were com manded to keep holy Saturday The wicked and cruel Haman to bring the people of God into hatred with the King Ahashuerus made his complaint of them in this wise May it please your Majesty saith he to understand you have a people here in your Realm that useth a new kind of Religion and will not be ordered by your Graces Laws This is Gods holy will that for our exercise whatsoever we say or do be it never so well it shall be ill taken Iulian the Apostate found fault with the simplicity and rudeness of Gods Word Tertullian saith the Heathens in the time of the Primitive Church were wont to paint out in mockery the God of the Christians with an Asses head and a Book in his hand in token that the Christians professed learning but indeed were Asses rude and ignorant And do not our Adversaries the like this day against all those that profess the Gospel of Jesus Christ O say they who are they that favour this way None but Shoemakers Taylors Weavers Appren tices such as never were in the University but be altogether ignorant and void of Learning Thus you have been born in hand that you might be brought to mistrust the Go spel Saint Paul was counted a pestilent fellow and a mover of sedition Tertullian saith that in his time the Christians were called hostes publici that is enemies and destroyers of all common States And these reports they did not only scatter among the common people but also dropt them into the Magistrates and Princes ears that they might have an ill opinion of Christian Religion and suppress Note Sir the Ministers and Preachers of it So unkind commonly men have been towards the Messengers of Gods Word In these latter times it hath been laid to Preachers and Professors of Christs Gospel that they have been Godless seditious rebells despisers of good orders Such things as would not be believed spoken of a thief or murtherer will soon be believed of him that professeth the name and Gospel of Jesus Christ. Despise not good Brethren despise not to hear Gods Word not a word of the Liturgy as you tender your own souls be diligent to come to Sermons WE might Sir have been much more plentiful in our gatherings out of this holy Bishop there is not a waste line in all his Sermons Some we have not touched upon at all but so much we thought good to present unto you that you may see both the complexion and constitution of the Church of England in the time of Queen Elisabeth You see by the judgement of the best Bishop the rarest Iewel the Church of England ever had who was an eye-witness lived and preach ed and writ in the prime of his age for he was not full fifty years old when he dyed a good part of her reign the Church of England to be full of blindness disorder prophane con tempt of the Word of God yea to have something of Rome remaining in her of necessity to be purged out And truly Sir when we have read over the Sermons of this Reverend Bishop and your History we should rather judge you to be the Pupil of Doctor Harding whom you would be thought to oppose then of Bishop Iewel whom you do seem to reverence Bishop Iewel doth not think he fouls either his tongue or his pen in naming the Gospel of Jesus Christ But how oft in your History do you by way of scorn tell us of the Zuinglian Gospellers as if this were some reproach to them and you had nothing to do with the Gospel which in an hun dred places your Doctor Harding upbraids Bishop Iewel with There are some parcells and odd passages in your History which we shall only mention and refer you to learned Iewel to answer your self out of him page 53. part 1. you say The Zuinglian Churches were in an error in that they deny ed a Real presence and held there was nothing else in the blessed Eucharist but signs and figures and that Ridley whom you encline to affirmed That in the Sacrament are truly and verily the body and blood of Christ made forth effectually by Grace and Spirit Sir Harding saith the very same as you do See Iewels reply to Harding page 235 in the Article of Real presence and there you shall see how Iewel takes him up and you will understand to speak more like a Protestant Doctor and in page 262. of the Defence saith he to Harding You call our doctrine naked and cold for that we say the Sacrament is a figure You will there see how pitifully he baffles Harding Mr. Doctor it was wont to be said sursum corda but now it is deorsum corpora your stickling for a Real presence effectually made forth by Grace and
instruct the people The Preachers abovementioned were more particularly instructed to perswade the people from praying to Saints for the dead from adoring of Images from the use of Beads Ashes and Processions from Mass Dirges praying in unknown languages All which was done to this intent That the people in all places being prepared by little and little might with more ease and less opposition admit the total alteration which was intended in due time to be introduced You mention also certain injunctions appointed for the Bishops that they should personally preach once a quarter in their Diocess that they should cause their Chaplains to Preach that they should Ordain none but such as were learned in the Scriptures There was also a Form of Bidding-prayer prescribed or bidding of the Beads as you say it was then commonly called in page 37. You lead us next to the Parliament page 47. which took beginning the 4. of November in which you tell us of packing the Cardes by Sir Ralph Sadler that this Parliament without any sensible alteration of the Members continued till the death of the King and you say page 48. a great part of the Nobility and not a few of the chief Gentry were cordially affected to the Church of Rome In the same page you tell us that several Acts were repeal'd which touched the Subject in life or liberty for matter of conscience by which repeal you say all men had a liberty of reading Scriptures and being in a manner their own Expositors which you scruple whether it may be counted for a felicity There was an Act you say in the same page and following page against such as spake against the Sacrament of the Altar and for the receipt thereof in both kinds with these Provisoes notwithstanding If necessity did not otherwise require as in the case of suddain sickness and other such like extremities that wine could not be provided for the use of the Sacrament nor the sick man depart this life in peace without it And secondly that the permitting of this liberty to the people of England should not be construed to the condemning of any other Church in which the contrary was observed The next great business you say page 50. was the receiving of a Statute made in the 27. year of Henry 8. By which all Chanteries Colledges Free-Chappels and Hospitals were permitted to the King during his life but dying before he had taken many of them into his hands the great ones of the Court not being willing to lose so rich a booty it was set on foot again and carried in this present Parliament And you say page 51. these Chanteries consisted of Salaries allowed to one or more Priests to say daily Mass for the souls of their deceased Founders and their friends But in the same page you say That which made the greatest alteration and threatned most danger to the State Ecclesiastical was the Act for Election of Bishops and what seals and styles should be used by Spiritual persons In the compounding of which Act you say in the same page there was more danger couched then at first appeared for you say it was the intent of the Contrivers to weaken the authority of the Episcopal Order by forcing them from their strong Hold of Divine Institution and making them no other then the Kings Ministers only his Ecclesiastical Sheriffs and such use was made of this Act that the Bishops were not in a capacity of conferring Orders but as they were impowered by especial Licence the tenour whereof you mention page 52. and in the same place you say The true drift of the design of this Act was to make Deans and Chapters useless for the time to come and thereby to prepare them for dissolution The next Church-business you mention is page 55. where you tell us the first heats of the Visitation beginning to cool there were two Orders sent forth for the taking down of Images Page 57. you tell us Some godly Bishops and other learned and Religious men were busily imploy'd in the Castle of Windsor appointed by the Kings Command to consult about one uniform Order for the administring the holy Communion in the English Tongue under both kindes of Bread and Winde according to Act of Parliament before mentioned You are in the dark who the persons were but you think they were the same which made the Liturgy in this Kings time and you say being convened together taking into consideration as well the right rule of Scripture as the usage of the Primitive Church How doth this appear good Dector agreed on such a form and order as might comply with the intention of the King and the Act of Parliament without giving note these following words good Sir any just offence to the Romish party for they so ordered it that the whole office of the Mass should proceed as formerly in the Latine Tongue even to the very end of the Canon and the receiving of the Sacrament by the Priest himself which being passed over they began with an exhortation Dearly beloved in the Lord ye coming to this holy Communion which afterwards remained in the publick Liturgy Then followed the invitation You that do truly repent c. proceeding to the general confession distribution of the Sacrament to the people upon their knees which godly Form you say was presented to the King and published by Proclamation which Proclamation you have at large page 58 59. The next care was you say page 59. to send abroad printed copies to the several Bishops But now you come to handle the chief Key to the whole work of Reformation the Liturgy as you phrase it page 65. and the same men which drew up the Order for the holy Communion were now again imploy'd as you confess page 64. Calvin being rejected though offering his assistance The Liturgy you say is finished accepted by the King Enacted by Lords and Commons then assembled in Parliament though you say the passing of the Act gave great offence to the Romish Party not that they could except against it in regard either of the matter or manner of it but because it was communicated to the people in the vulgar Tongue page 66. Which exception you take a great deal of pains to prove to be an error You tell us page 106. That the Reformation under King Edward proceeded more vigorously then before by reviewing the Liturgy and composing of a book of Articles You say page 107. Calvin and his followers had taken some offence at some parts thereof and did excite the King and Council to a further Reformation And you say he prevaild so far in the first two years that in the Convocation there were debates about such doubts as had arisen about some things contained in the Common-prayer book but you say page 107. and 108. not one alteration made in it For though you say it was brought under a review and being so reviewed was ratified by Act of Parliament
dish and spoon and suck-bottle provided for her infancy And must it be still with us in matters Ecclesiastical as Spain would have it to be in Civils to be wards to the Church of Rome that we may not espouse a thorough-Reformation for fear of the Popes curse and the Spaniards rage For this Mr. Doctor all along your history was the compass our first Pilots steered by pag. 58. part 1. and in pag. 103. part 2. You say Queen Elizabeth resolved to proceed to a Reformation as the times should serve so also pag. 116. Do you not tell us pag. 12 13. That though the Letters written by Prince Edward to his father may be used as good evidences of his great proficiency with reference to the times in which he lived Yet in our days in which either the wits of men are sooner ripe or the method of teaching more exact and facile they would be found to contain nothing which is more then ordinary And speaking of Doctor Ridley one of the greatest of them pag. 53. you say he was a man of great learning as the times then were And shall our ripe witted times and more exact methods every way bow down to their dull forms and paterns Our heavenly Master the only Arch-bishop of our souls had intrusted them with two talents and they take it so traded faithfully and gained other two talents and shall not we who have five talents committed to us labour to be faithfull in a like proportion We have justly separated from the Church of Rome and have departed from her because she hath departed from the Word of God what she had remaining according to the Scriptures in doctrine or worship the Protestant Churches have retained and embraced not because it was reserved by her but because they saw it founded on the Word of God And Mr. Doctor England hath been numbred among the Protestant Churches and your title page tells of a history of the Reformation of the Church of England a Reformation of what but of the Idolatries Errors Heresies Superstitions and Corruptions it should be so which the pride avarice ambition of many of the blind Ring-leaders in the Romish Clergy had brought into it There are yet such things remaining in the worship and appendents to it in the Church of England for with the doctrine we meddle not the blood of the Martyrs shed in the defence of it alone by the Word of God hath washed away the Romish filth cast into it which are visibly seen and practised in the Romish Churches We have before named them but that you may know where our shoe wrings us and what are our just scruples We tell you again that the English Liturgy is tantum non the Romish Mass. Do not you tell us pag. 76. that King Edward tells his Popish Rebells It is indeed saith he somewhat altered and pag. 66. That the Translation of the Mass which used to be served up in Latine into English was the cause why the Romish party were offended with the Act confirming the Common-prayer book We say also The Ius divinum of Episcopacy i. e. Prelacy Bowing toward the Altar Bowing at the name of Jesus signing with the sign of the Cross holy Vestments Kneeling at the Sacrament these are found most evidently in the tents of Popery How come they then to be found in the Protestant Church of England Hath she received them from Scripture Where is any thing there that gives the least shadow Shew us good Dr. And therefore these are some dreggs of that disease and some reliques of those abominations which England was overwhelmed with in the times of Papacy which through a strong Zeal to these in some State-policy in others and a fear of giving offence to the Romish party at home and abroad in others of our State and Church Physicians have not to this day been purged out but suffered to remain But you will say it may be Mr. Doctor that the Apostles rule Let all things be done decently and in order will warrant all these things tending to decency and good order This is a rule of Natures teaching for the Apostle tells the Corinthians to whom he spake 1 Cor. 11. 13 14. Jugde in your selves Is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered doth not nature it self teach you that if a man have long Hair it is a shame unto him And in chap. 14. of the same Epistle where these words are ver 40. he taxeth some for over-priding themselves in their gifts not aiming at the Edification of the Church ver 5. and saith he ver 23. If the whole Church be come together in some place and all speak with tongues and there come in some that are unlearned or unbelievers will not they say that ye are mad And in ver 29 30. That the Prophets should speak but one at a time and the rest should hold their peace while any one speaketh And in ver 34 35. he gives order That women should not speak in the Church and saith It is a shame that is it is not decent as the speaking of many at once was not orderly for women to speak in the Church And then he concludes with a general rule founded in nature Let all things be done decently and in order ver 40. What is here Mr. Doctor to warrant any such things as are before mentioned which neither nature nor reason direct to but are taken up by the will and pleasure of men and receive their legitimacy not by any connaturalness to the worship of God but by forinsecall Canons and Constitutions Let us put the case thus Mr. Doctor Suppose you or some of the Prebends of Westminster should forsake your Cloyster and go down into the Countrey to some one of your Parsonages and coming among an ignorant and unlearned people should officiate the Liturgy after the Roman order and so turn the Common-Prayer into the Mass again Or suppose you should preach to them in Hebrew Greek or Latine which they understand not or suppose while you are preaching in the Abbey another of your fellow-Prebends puffed up with his knowledge and gifts should at the same time take upon him to stand up and speak together with you Or that women should usurp authority to speak or teach thinking they can speak more to the edification of the people then you or any of your Brethren in these cases this rule of the Apostle is to be prest and observed Let all things be done decently and in order for to remedy such unnaturall disorders and confusions the Apostle left it and your Zuinglian Gospellers are as much as your self for this decency in the church But you will reply Mr. Doctor These things though they be indifferent yet the Church having judged them meet and expedient to be used in the worship of God it becomes every man to observe them though they have not any express warrant in the Word there is nothing
Cloyster lined with manifold favours your zeal for the Church cannot want its recompence but sir it is good to remember your latter end you know not but that your conscience may be then awakened and read over this history you have written and pinch you for the Errata's of your zeal and charity against your poor Brethren we are confident that much of that you have laid into the foundation of the Reformation of the Church of England though you and others judge it gold silver pretious stones will be found wood hay and stubble when he appeareth who is like a refiners fire There is one very naughty passage in your book pag. 38. part 1. utterly unbecoming the mouth of a Christian much less a Doctor of Divinity where you are not ashamed to say That because in the twenty fourth Injunction in King Edwards time that upon Holy and Festival dayes it shall be lawful for men to labour in harvest you extend this liberty as well to the Lords day as the Annual Festivals and then you quote an Act of Parliament to authorize this liberty and say that by that Act any man either in harvest or or at any other times in the year when necessity shall so require who will not pretend necessity may labour ride fish or work any kind of work at their pleasure upon the Lords day And you tell us what was done at Court on that day Sir we are confident that the intention of that Act did not reach to allow so gross a prophanation of the Lords day and you that are so versed in Acts of Parliament for they are the only sphere wherein Liturgy and Ceremonies move cannot you find an Act of Parliament restraining this abuse If you cannot which we know you may it had been the duty of a Protestant Reformed Doctor of Divinity to have discovered the evil of such abuses and to have laboured with all your might that such an Act may pass Oh Sir must Jesus Christ our Lord have no preheminence above our Lady and must Iohn Baptist be lifted up to an equality with him whose shoe-latchet he confessed he was not worthy to unloose What! have Peter and Paul and Philip and Iacob done as much for us as Jesus Christ and where is the least hint that one hour is to be set apart to their honour Must every paltry holy-day be set in equality of reputation with the Lords day which Christ sanctified by his resurrection the accomplishment of a far greater work then that of Creation and his Apostles instituted by their constant solemn Assemblies upon it You say in page 38. part 1. in the latter times the Lords day began to be advanced into the reputation of the Jewish Sabbath If by latter times you mean the Apostles times it is true for then it began and when ever it began why should not Christians be as zealous to advance the Lords day unto the highest pitch of reputation that ever the Jewish Sabbath was in abateing the Ceremonious rigor have not Christians greater obligations greater encouragements to glorifie God and lift up his name which is Holy Holy Holy Oh Mr. Doctor the time past may suffice you for this folly You need not have now told us that men may do any thing at their pleasure if they say they have necessity on the Lords day and seek to establish this mischief by a Law We would be loth to be in your coat in the day of the Lord for your debasing the Lords day for the best preferment the Church of England can give us We say to you as Bishop Iewel said to Harding Arripe severitatem Christianam palinodiam cane Well Sir to go on with our reckoning you have seen one Non-conformist and Ridley's recantation for his Prelatical rigor which amounts to another and so he is to be taken off the file and you have two less then you had We shall pass on with more speed in the numbring up the rest You tell us page 93. part 1. of one Trins a Deacon who refused to wear the vestments appointed to be worn Of one Mr. Iohn Rogers Prebend of Saint Pauls and Divinity Reader of that Church who could never be perswaded to wear them The like aversness as you call it you ascribe unto Mr. Iohn Philpot Archdeacon of Winchester who suffered in Queen Maries time So that here you have Hooper Ridley when in his cold blood Trins Rogers and Philpot all disgusting these Ceremonies Many more there were but these you have left upon record with your own pen. To proceed to the times of Queen Elisabeth you have heard Iewels testimony in part who was the glory of her Reign for learning and you will see it more fully by and by You tell us page 120. part 2. that one Whitehead who had been Chaplain to Anne Bollen the Queens mother was offered the Archbishoprick of Canterbury but you say he refused it because he was more inclined to the Presbyterians then the Episcopal form of Government And page 123. part 2. you say Coverdall waved the acceptation of the Bishoprick of Oxon or any other then vacant out of a disaffection to the Habit of that Order And page 124. part 2. you say Alexander Nowell Dean of Saint Pauls Preaching before Queen Elisabeth spake irreverently of the sign of the Cross for which she from her closet window immediately checked him commanding him to retire from that ungodly digression And page 165. part 2. you tell us that Father Iohn Fox the Martyrologist being called on to subscribe appeared before the Bishop with the New Testament in Greek To this said he I will subscribe and if this will not serve take my Prebend of Salisbury the only preferment I hold in the Church of England and much good may it do you You tell us of Sampson Dean of Christ-Church who was deprived you say pag. 164. part 2. for refusing to wear the Habit belonging to his place You tell us also of one Hardiman page 115. part 2. a Prebend of Westminster deprived also for throwing down the Altar and defacing the vestments And in the same page you say both the Professors of divinity in the two Universites and Whitington Dean of Durham were Non-conformists These instances are your own and so you have no reason to except against them We have not wronged you as far as we know in a syllable and now Sir we leave it to you to judge Whether the point of conformity to such Ceremonies which have been a continual occasion of offence to the Reformed Churches both at home and abroad be still to be pressed with accustomed rigor A second branch of the third Querie was Whether such Ceremonies which link us in a conformity with that Church from which in many other things we have justly separated be to be continued and enjoyned We say that the Church of England having renounced Communion with the Church of Rome in all material points of Doctrine ought in point 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-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
other Honourable and Worshipful that are here that have or may have access unto her to put her in remembrance that her Grace will be mindful of the house of God and redress the greediness both of corrupt Patrons and of such who ingross and gather into their hands many livings being themselves the remnant do you see Doctor of the ignorant and persecuting Babylon and yet leave to take charge over the people blind Sir Johns not only lack Latin but lack honesty and lack conscience and lack Religion It would be a great furtherance to the Church of God Doctor commend the care of this to the Con vocation and a wonderful way to increase Schools and the Universities Now I come saith he to the manner of the building And what better way can be devised to restore Christs Church Doctor tell the Convocation so then that we see used by Christ himself when in any matter he was opposed by the Pharisees he calleth them back to the Scriptures so Iosias so Ezechias so Iosaphat reformed the Temple of God when it was polluted according to the pattern of the Scri ptures Wherefore the foundation of this building whereupon all the whole work must rest must be Christ and his holy World Whatsoever we see that they have done which were our latter Fathers before us that have destroyed Christs Church let us remember to do the contrary note Sir Their founda tion is ignorance let our foundation be Christ and the knowledge of Gods ' Word They build Gods Word upon the Church let us as Paul doth teach us build the Church on Gods Word Let us remember whatever they do or have done to do the contrary Consider this last passage Mr. Doctor you have little reason to find such fault with Sir Stephen as you call him page 93. part 1. or with other Reformers since who were desirous to be as contrary to Rome as the Word would warrant them if it were a peccancy of humour a right learned Prelate would not have advised to it This pretious Iewel sparkles once more concluding his Sermon with a sharp reproof and moving exhortation We are in love saith he with our own corruption and as the people saith we rejoyce when we have done wickedly we cannot abide to have our faults touched our pride is grown up as high as heaven and our covetousness is sunk as deep as hell our poor weak brethren be offended and think that these be the very fruits of Christs Gospel yet we can in no wise suffer to be reproved we say to the Preacher Peace and talk not to us in the Name of the Lord tell not us of the Scriptures tell not us of Christ of Peter and Paul We bid him speak us fair and bless those things that be accursed by Gods own mouth We say he is too busie he medleth with that he knoweth not Yes yes man he knoweth it well enough he knoweth that pride is pride that sin is sin and thou and thine own conscience knoweth it too if thou wouldst be known of it and this is extream misery that we are so far plunged in sin that we can neither abide our own faults nor yet the amending of them Are these the fruits of Gods Gospel Are these the fruits of the innocent blood that we see shed before our eyes Are these our tears for the sins we have committed Are these the thanks we render unto God for giving unto us so great blessings But what said I blessings would God we were so blessed that we might consider our blessedeness Many already bewray the weakness of their stomacks they brook not the Gospel yea they seem already weary of these Preachers they call them Pulpit-men of the Spirit and I know not what as though they themselves had nothing to do with Gods Spirit Ah merciful God and so this blessed Bishop goeth on most excellently and seasonably for our times In the following Sermon upon these words Psal. 69. 9. The zeal of thine house c. he hath these words All men ought to be patient and gentle in matters pertain ing to themselves but in Gods cause no man must yield or be patient where all along he presseth for a learned and Preaching ministry but not a word for the Common-Prayer He directs his speech to Queen Elizabeth Oh that your Grace did behold the miserable disorder of Gods Church where is your glorious reformation your goodly building Mr. Doctor or that you might foresee the calamities that will follow It is a part of your Kingdom and such a part as is the principal prop and stay of the rest I will say to your Majesty as Cyrillus sometimes said to the godly Emperor Theodosius and Valentinian Ab eâ quae erga deum est pietate reipublicae vestrae status pendet the good estate and welfare of your Commonwealth hangeth upon true godliness you are our Governor you are the nurse of Gods Church we must open this grief before you God knoweth if it may be redressed it hath grown so long and is run so far but if it may be redressed there is no other besides your Highness that can redress it I hope I speak truly that which I speak without flattery that God hath endued your Grace with such a measure of learning and knowledge as no other Christian Prince He hath given you peace happiness the love and true hearts of your Subjects Oh turn and employ these to the glory of God that God may confirm in your Grace the thing which he hath begun Let us follow him to his next Sermon on these words Mat. 9. 37 38. The harvest is great but the labourers are few c. He saith not the harvest is great and there are but few Scribes but few Pharisees but few Sadduces but few Priests but few Levites Their number was almost infinite I say not there be but few Cardinals few Bishops few Priests that should be Preachers not Common-prayer-book men Sir few Archdeacons few Chancellors few Deans few Prebendaries few Vicars few Parish Priests for the number of these is almost infinite Cardinals have Pillars and Poleaxes carried before them in token that they be Pillars and Stayes of the Church and Poleaxes to beat down all evil doctrine And what shall I speak of Bishops their cloven Miter signifieth the perfect knowledge of the Old Te stament and the New their Crosier staffe signifieth their diligence in attending the flock of Christ. Their purple Boots and Sandals signifie that they should be ever Booted and ready to go abroad thorow thick and thin to teach the Gospel not a word of the Liturgy or ordering of Churches or Ceremonies O lift up your eyes and consider how the hearts of your poor brethren lie wast without instruction had they not the Common-prayer without knowledge without the food of life without the comfort of Gods word such a misery as never was seen among the heathens where is your Primitive lustre