aboue the Apostles which would not be taken for Lords that had authoritie to command but for Ministers serving the will of the Lord. And a non after he sayth Thirdly that Elders Bishops and Pastors be all one it is manifest by that which we doe read in this wise And sending messengers from Miletus to Ephesus Acts 20 he sent for Priests or Elders of the Church and when they came unto him he sayd you know that from the first day c. And a litle after Looke therfore to your selues and to all the flocke in which the holy spirit hath set you Bishops to feed the Church of God c. The same which Luk calleth the Priests or Elders of the Church of Ephesus those Paul calleth Bishops and sayth that they be set there to that intent to feed the Church of God So we do see manifestly that Priests or Elders Bishops Pastors be all one And that there was in one selfe same Church ioyntly together many Bishops and that appoynted by the holy spirit as we may see also by that which we do read in the Apostle saying Paul and Timothie the servants of Iesus Christ to all the Saints in Christ Iesu which be at Philippos together with the Bishops and Deacons Lo there were many Bishops togeather also at Philippos And touching the questions in Baptisme thus he intreateth thereof Augustine saith If we will in wordes declare that the litle children doe know in godly matters which do not yet understand worldly matters I feare least we shall seeme to doe wrong unto our very senses in so saying whereas the playne evidence of the truth doth easily surmont all that strength and meanes of our sayings I know what Augustins answer was unto this question to Boniface the Bishop Aug. epis 57 ad Dardan where he writteth in this wise It is answered that the Child doth beleiue which hath not yet any affection of faith It is answered that it hath faith because of the Sacrament of faith Thus saith he he calleth baptisme the Sacrament of faith But in case that the Sacrament of faith be faith how is it said that the infant hath faith which hath not yet baptisme and is therefore demanded whether that he doth beleiue to the intent that he may receaue baptisme Agayne the question is not whether he hath the sacrament of faith or not but whether he doth beleiue The question is of faith and not of the Sacrament of faith yet for all that it cannot be truly reported that he hath faith therefore And so it is a very feeble answer that this great man maketh in this matter for asmuch as the infant when he is thus demanded hath neither faith neyther the sacrament of faith For how should he haue that which he hath not receaved But yet thus they are compelled to answer the matter which will needs maintayne and keepe this custome used in the Church without any ground of it And this beyng so fond a custome that it cannot be defended risen first of this that the Bishops did disorderly apply that forme of baptising of such as were of perfect yeares of understanding unto the baptising also of infans and so began to demand of infants of the abrenouncing of Satan and of the faith in the holy Trinitie as well as they did of them that were of yeares of full age In my iudgment it were more convenient if the Father of the infant that is to be baptised were present at the font to require baptisme for his child and that he should be openly examined of his faith by the Minister in the presence of them that stand by of the faith not which the infant hath but which he himselfe hath in Christ our Lord and Saviour and whereunto he will bring up and teach his infant Unto M. Musculus succeeded M. Gualter who upon the Prophet Zephaniah that prophesied onely in the time of King Iosiah which was the cheifest reformer of religiō that ever raigned among the Iewes Gualter yet notwithstanding this Prophet sent of God was such a vehement taxer of the defects in the reformation of religion remnants of Baall and relicks of superstition left in Iosiah his time that non of all the Prophets did more exclame against the reliques that were left or threatned greater plagues for lack of full reformation Whereupon M. Gualter in his first sermon upon the Prophet Zephaniah useth this spech in the name of the Lord. My servant Iosiah removed away many thinges But because through your ungodlines many thinges yet remaine being contrary to my lawes Gualt upon Zepha ser 1 verily I my selfe will bring forth Broomes much more rough where with these abominable relickes with their Patrons or defendors shal be cleane purged c. And in his second sermon a litle before the end he thus concludeth But let us consider the degrees of superstition which the Prophet in this place maketh mention of The first is when the remnant of superstitions is kept when God granteth libertie to reforme things craftie dissemblers do attend uprn these superstitions whereunto they beare good will and by litle and litle spread them a broad by and by after followeth open Idolatry but least they should seeme to forsake God altrgother first theris invented a certaine mixture but the same at the length degenerateth to a playne defection or falling from God and these things certainely even at this day are seene every where Behold England and do we as yet marveil at the wrath of God hanging over our heads Let us learne therefore to attend and waigte upon the word of God to flie all occasion of evill O that our Prelats of England would attend wait upon the word of God and so flie all occasion of evill cōsidering the degrees of superstition how they increased even in King Iosiahs time namly by retayning the relicks of superstition and not to invent a certaine mixture wherby must needs follow a degeneration to a playne defection and falling from God For every country man can tell that if a crab tree be graft with the sweet apple called the apple of paradice or with the most excellent apple that is in the world although the graft doe grow and flourish marvelously well yet if the sients be suffered to grow by litle and litle within a while the crabb tree sients will so prevaile and the graft of the good fruit so decay that the whole tree will turne againe to be a crabb tree and beare no fruit but crabbes So in King Henrie 8 time the Popes supreame head was cut of and the graft of Gods word was set up in every Church through out England which graft as Iames saith is able to saue our soules if it be receaved with all meeknes and all filthines layd a part Iames. 1. But King Henrie 8 suffered almost all the boughes upon the stocke beneath the graft to grow King Edward pared of many of them Queene
the Philippians Episcopos igitur intelligit quicunque verbo et gubernatio ni praeerant puta pastores Doctores et presbyteros c. Haec igitur olim erat episcoporum appellatio donec qui politiae causa reliquis fratribus in caetû praeerat c. Peculiariter dici episcopus caepit Hinc caepit Diabolus prima tyrannidis fundamenta iacere in Dei Ecclesia c. En quanti sit momenti a Dei verbo vel latum vnguem deflectere The Apostle saith M. Beza meaneth by Bishops all those which were appointed to rule in the word and goverment of the Church namely the Pastors Teachers Elders This was of old time the denomination of Bishops vntill he which for pollicy sake was preferred in the assemblie before the rest of the brethren began only or peculiarly to be called Bishop heerof the Devill began to lay the first foundation of tyranny in the Church of God Behold saith M. Beza of how great waight or moment it is to decline from the word of God yea though but a hairs breadth Here is also to be noted how Ierome many yeares after often times putteth the Bishops in remembrance of their originall estate and titles even when long custome had established the same As in his epistle ad Evagrium and in his Commentarie upon the Epistle to Titus and divers other places you may read Ierom. ad Evag. and in Tit. Let Bishops know saith he that rather by custome then by any truth of the Lords appoyntment they are become greater then the Elders or Ministers and the Church ought to be ruled in common And this 〈◊〉 Augustine also acknowledgeth in his Epistle to Ierome whom 〈◊〉 himself was a Bishop and a man in that degre of the highest note in the world saying to Ierome who was then but a poore Minister nor never would be other Quanquam secundum vocabulum August epist 19 quod vsus obtinuit Episcopus maior est presbytero Hieromimus tamen in multis maior est Augustino Although though saith Augustine according to the terme which vse hath brought in a Bishop is greater than an Elder yet Ierome in very many thinges is greater then Augustine And this former saying of Ierome is commonly alleadged and allowed by all the excellent writers in the defence of the gospell to the same effect as you may reade in the Harmonie of Confessions Con. Helve 2. sect 11. Tit. Of the Ministers of the Church Wher their words be these So the Bishops must know that they are aboue Priests rather by custome than by the prescript rule of Gods truth and they should haue the goverment of Gods Church in common with them Thus far Ierome Now therfore no man can forbid by any right but that we should returne to the old apoyntment of God and rather receaue that then the custome devised by men And this conclusion in the Harmonie of Confessions every man may see is plainely grounded vpon the confession of the holy Apostles Peter and Iohn saying Acts 4 9 whether it be right in the sight of God to obey you rather than God iudge ye A man would thinke it impossible that any Christian should deny that we ought rather to receaue the appointment of God then the custome devised by men Which custom as M. Musculus saith we may thank for the pride wealth and tyrannie of our Princely and riding Bishops and for all other corruptions of the Churches as shall more plainely appeare heerafter Heere the Prophet Isaiah saith of them that fought against Sion staye your selues and wonder they are blinde Isai 15 9 10 and make you blind they are drunken but not with wine they stagger but not by stronge drinke For the Lord hath covered you with a spirit of slumber and hath shut up your eyes the Prophets and your cheife Seers hath he covered And before I proceed any further I will say with Isaiah the Prophet stay your selues and wonder at an admirable worke of God For as soone as this first foundation of tyrranie as M. Beza calleth it was laide in the Church of God and that the name of Bishop which God had given to all the Ministers of his word in common was transferred to one alone among many the rest being robbed and spoyled thereof even quickly after was written upon the forhead of this Bishop a mystery a strange and vnknowne name even the very name of Antichrist that is to say Papa a-Pope For straight way in generall all the Bishops were called by the name of Papa or Pope taken as some learned men suppose of the Greeke Syracusane word Pappas signifiyng a Father The Papists themselues seeking for the Etymologie of this word are soe astonished therein that some of them say it was taken from Papé the interjection of wonder Howsoever a word it is fecht out of the bottomles pit of hell that it might be a marke to make difference between a Minister and a Bishop and betweene a Pastor and a-Pope as the word Missa was devised by the Devill to disguise the Communion withall and to supersubstantiat the blessed bread of the Lords Supper into the cursed Idoll of the Popes masse And from hence arose at last that one Pope of Rome overall of whom they say in their glose Papa stupor mundi the Pope is the wonder and the admiration of the world neither God nor man but a thing between both Some haue thought it might be taken of Pappa which some say the latine children vsed to call their Fathers by as our children call Dadd othersome haue imagined it should be taken from these two words Pater Patriae which the Romaines used to write by way of abreviation thus Pa. with a pricke and Pa. with another pricke So that the prickes in the middest being left out there remained Papa Such far fecht follies and ridiculous dotages the Papisticall crue are faine to seeke for to find their holy Father Papa the Pope But this is certaine and evident that as soone as it was agreed vpon that one onely among many Ministers of the word of God should be called a Bishop and the rest should be robbed of that name which the holy scripture hath geiven them this singular and peculiar Bishop set up as it were with a higher degree and name then the rest was straightwaye called in a speciall sort Papa As Cyprian one of the most auncient Fathers was vsually termed Cypt. Epist 2.7 The Elders Deacons of Rome writing to him doe set downe the superscription of their Epistle in these words Cipriano Papae presbyteri et Diaconi Romae consistentes salutem To Pope Cyprian the Elders and Deacons of Rome wish health And in the latter end and conclusion of the Epistle they say vnto him Optamus te beatissime ac gloriosissime Papa in Domino sēper bene valere et nostri meminisse We wish thee most blessed most glorious Pope ever good health in the Lord and
that thou alwayes be mindfull of vs. August epist â—â— Likewise Ierome writing to Augustine saith Domino vere sancto et beatissimo Papae Augustino Hierenimus in Domino salutem To the right holie and most blessed Pope Augustine Ierome wisheth health in the Lord. The very same words also are vsed vnto Augustine in his epistle 21. And so likewise in the rest Neither doe I speake these things to condemne those excellent auncient Fathers who otherwise many yeares were singular instruments profited greatly the Church of God but to shew how great a buses crept in duringe the most pure times like as hath been before said even in the time of the Apostles themselues and after more more vnto the full setting up of Antichrist the Pope that great Papa the Bishop of Rome who alone gat this naÌ„e Papa Pope at the last to be peculiar proper to himselfe Thus growing vp by little and litle from the first beginnyng of the petie Papa vntill he and all his cleargie with him came vp vnto their full perfection and papisticall dignitie Which time when it drew neere errours and most enormous and shamefull abuses crept not in by litle and litle but were throwne in by shouelles full and cart loads And further I noted it to set forth the wonderfull providence of God without which nothing is done in heaveÌ„ earth or hell To set such manifest charecters and markes vpon the first beginnings of mischeife which although it could hardlie be discerned in the beginnings thereof yet in the event and full high estate wherevnto they grew a very child might vnderstand perceaue and see it So that at the lenght when the new light of the gospell should shine even the old and first originall errors might therby the better be corrected For in Prophecies mysteries it must alwayes be obserued which that most auncient Father Ireneus saith in his 4. booke 43. chapter Omnis enim prophetia priusquam habet efficaciaÌ„ c. All prophecies saith he before they haue the effect be as it were riddles ambiguities vnto men but when the time is come and that is come to passe which is prophesied then the prophesies haue a cleare and vndoubted exposition So we see in this mysterie of Papa or Pope when it first began it was such an aenigma as was almost vnpossible to vnderstand wherevnto the old Serpent ment to bring it But now the event thereof being come and the Angell betweene heaven and earth preaching the everlastinge Gospell and setting up the new light thereof in many Nations and Churches every man that wincketh not may see it Now therefore to proceede as Augustine saith in his 18. booke and Second chapter of the Cittie of God That it may the better appeare how Babilon the first Rome keepeth her course with the Citie of God whom shee maketh a pilgrime or stranger in this world When the name of Pope had thus possessed the Bishops whereof many were both godly and learned yet they never drempt of the mischeif that followed nor of the great Papa the Pope that man of sinne even the sonne of perdition that exalteth himselfe against all that is called God and sitteth in the temple of God sheewing himselfe that he is God The mystery of which iniquity began to worke even in the Apostle Pauls time How be it the godly Fathers as I said little suspecting any such matter laboured tooth and nayle to keepe under the Pompe pride and ambition of the Bishops Pastors of the Church which they saw now began to grow both in riches and regiment and which after their time grew in few yeares beyond all measure But because I shall haue occasion to use the examples and doctrine of the auntient learned and godly Fathers against the poÌ„pe pride and lordly estate of Bishops A sufficient maiÌ„tenance is due to the ministery And what it may be least I should seeme to be injurous and prejudiciall to the sufficiencie of honor living and maintenance which both by the word of God and by the iudgment of the auncient Fathers doth of right belong vnto all Pastors Bishops or ministers of the word and which the authority of all christian Magistrats Princes ought to provide for theÌ„ I will adventure to set downe a proportion of such estate and living as I am fully perswaded doth of right and by the law of God appertaine vnto them and ought by Princes and Magistrats to be appoynted and provided for them Wherein I cannot but obserue the most excellent and honorable advice and charge which the Kings Majestie in his owne booke giveth vnto his Sonne our Noble Prince As first in his preface he saith I exhort my Sonne to be benificiall vnto the ministrie Basilicon doâ—oÌ„ praysing God that there is presently a sufficient number of good men of them in this kingdome of Scotland and yet are they all knowne to be against the forme of the English Church And in his second booke his Majestie chargeth him that he should see all the Churches within his Dominions planted with good Pastors the Scholes the Seminarie of the Church maintained the doctrine and Discipline preserved in puritie according to Gods word and sufficient provision for their sustentation It perteineth therefore to the duety of Princes to see that there be a sufficient provision for the sustentation and maintenance of their Pastors and suerly Gods law doth expresly requier it And as the law of God doth evidently forbid them a Lordly estate so it doth vtterly condemne the beggerly and miserable estate of the Pastors and preachers of his word Wherefore the law saith Beware that thou forsake not the Levite all the time that thou shalt be vpon the earth Vpon which place M. Calvine saith Deut 12 Moses addeth That the people should beware in any wise that they defrauded them not of their right And not without cause For as I haue told you before saith M. Calvine God had appoynted them of purpose to serue him Calvin and the greater parte of them also to teach his people that his law might be knowne Seeing it was so it was good reason that they should haue wherewith to finde and maintaine them For in very deede aparte of the inheritaunce belonged to them because they were descended of the linage of Abraham But God put them from it to the end they should not be troubled neither with tilling of the ground nor with any other businesses but onely giue them selues wholly to the doeing of their office And it is not without cause that Moses plainly exhorteth the people to doe their duety in this behalfe for wee see the vnthankfulnes of the world They Idolaters can finde in their hearts to mainteine their Preists and they spare for no cost but as for them that serue God purely there is commonly no account made of them as hath been seene in all times And further he saith And if it were in the worlds
of oyle S. Ierome testifieth that wine was added to the milke he writeth in his commentaries after this manner The Lord did provoke vs not only to buye wine but also milke which signifieth the innocencie of infants which manner and type is even at this day observed in the west Churches that wine milke be given to them that be borne againe in Christ S. Augustine in certaine places of his works doth shew that divers prayers and manners were vsed about Baptisme he maketh mention of Exorcismes and Exufflations against the contrary power he speaketh of Godfathers which promise faith for the infants he maketh mention also of oyle wherewith the christened were annoynted After Augustine Rabanus Maurus Bishop of Mentz maketh rehearsall of many moe Ceremonies in Baptism as to signe him that was Baptised with the Cross in the forehead and in the breast to blesse salt and to put it into his mouth of a white cloth which we call the Chrisome All those things and many such other were added from time to time by men But if antiquitie may seeme to defend the manner of these rites who dare deny the authority of the Apostles far to excell their authorities for the Apostles were longe before them Therefore it shall be best to cleaue to and follow the steppes of the Apostles as well in the ministerie of Baptism as in other godly ministrations Thus far our Bishop of Exeter And as these foule corruptions and other such like were even then brought into Baptisme so likewise in the Supper of the Lord many other orders of the Church As namely the filthy vermin of Monks in the time of Augustine and Ierome grew to be almost innumerable which although at that time they had very coulerable pretenses and great shew of vertue and holines yet had they noe ground in the word of God and so by the event we now manifestly see that they were nothing else but the very Locusts which even then began to come out in the smoke of the bottomles pit spoken of in the 9. chap. of the Revelation Yet these auncient Fathers tolerating and bringing in these and many other follies and Humane inventions laboured with might maine to keepe downe the poÌ„pe pride and stately regiment which they now saw grew so fast and without measure in the Bishops Pastors and the rest of the clergie as things in the Church which they saw to be most intollerable and most cleerely against the word of God And therefore they fought against them both by their examples of life by their doctrine and by generall constitutions and decrees made in their assemblies and Counsells Basil moral 70 cap. 28 As Basilius Magnus which saith Quod non oportet eum cui concreditum est predicare Evangelium plus possidere quam ea quae ad necessariuÌ„ ipsius vsum sufficiant That it is not lawfull for him to whom the preaching of the word of God is committed to possesse more then that which may suffice for the necessary vse of this life And to shew the practise of his owne life thervnto according vpon occasion being threatened with the confiscation of his goods he answereth Siquidem horum nihil me cruciari poterit equidem opes non habeo Zoz lib. 6 ca. 16 praeterquam vestem laceram et paucos libros sicque terram incolo quasi semper ex ea migraturus Certainely saith Basil none of these thinges can greatly vex me for surely I haue no riches more then a ragged gowne a few bookes and so I dwel vpon earth as looking ever to depart out of it And Gregorie Bishop of Nisse in his funerall oration in which he did celebrate the prayse and memory of this his brother Basil the great saith Placuerat ab initio nihil quicquam possidere et paupereÌ„ esse tanquam petra immota atque inconcussa stabile firum Impress Basil Anno 1562. pag 347 id iudicium fuit concupisebat per puritatem appropinquare Deo It pleased him saith Gregorie Nissen to possesse nothing at all and to be a poore man and this his judgment was stable and firme as a rocke that could not be removed and he coveted by puritie to drawe neere unto God Marke well what a Puritane this Basil the great was who had his addition of greatnes not for the greatnes of riches but for the greatnes of his learnyng vertue and purity of life And marke how the Bishop of Nisse also numbreth these things among his excellent vertues namely that he lived in a meane estate which he calleth povertie in comparison of pompous dignitie and Lordship As he that may dispend but one hundred pounds by the yeare is but a begger in respect of him that may dispend three or foure thowsand Thus much of Basil the great And Ierome complaineth and cryeth out against the Lordship of Bishops of his time in his Commentary upon on the booke of the Preacher saying Hoc autem propterca evenit quia nemo peccantibus Episcopis audet contradicere nec statim Deus scelus ulciscitur Ierome sed differt paenam dum expectat penitentiam This mischeife commeth to pass saith Ierom because wheÌ„ Bishops doe naughtily no man dares speake against them and God doth not straight way take vengaunce of the abominable wickednes but he deferrs the plague expecting their repentance Heere we may see by these few wordes of Ierome how the Lordly state of Bishops was even then crept up what thinke yee Ierome would say if he saw their magnificent estate in our age Alas the poore proud Bishops of Ieromes time if they should be compared with these the comparison would be as between Mountaines and moule hills But straight way after in the same place Ierome saith further Nemo quip pe audet accusare maiorem propterea quasi sancti et beati et in preceptis Domini ambulantes augent peccata peccatis For indeede saith Ierome no man dareth to accuse him that is greater then himselfe and therefore as though they were holy and blessed men they goe foâ—â—â—rd and heape sinne upon sinne And heere it is worthy to be noted how Ierome againe in this place girdeth at the superiority that Bishops then had got aboue other Ministers of the word For saith he no man dares accuse him that is greater theÌ„ himselfe and therefore they goe boldly from one wickednes to another and this is indeede all the advantage that they get by their superiority But if that mischeife came of that small superiority what a world of wickednes commeth of the Lordly estate wherein the Bishops now are But Ierom in the same place goeth forth saying Difficilis est accusatio in Episcopum si enim peccaverit non creditur et si convictus fuerit non punitur It is a difficult accusation against a Bishop saith Ierome for if he offends no man belieues it yea if he be convicted yet is he not punished And agreeable speech vnto
soever the office vocation and charge of preaching of the word is allotted let him speake as the words of God which caveat and lesson ought most carefully to be taken heed unto that no man presume to Preach and teach any thing wherto he hath not expresse word of God for his warrant and except he be most certaine that the same be directly to be avouched out of the sacreed scriptures Which being so what may be thought of the Pope and his dirtie dreggs and traditions Here you see M. Luthers judgment that all traditions which haue not the expresse warrant of the word of God are but dirtie dreggs and Popish traditions And marke it well that what traditions soever is brought into the Church which hath not the expresse word of God for it the same is to be nombred among the Popes dirtie dreggs I say except the same be most certaine and directly to be a vouched out of the sacred scriptures And anon after he saith againe A Prelate or Bishop ought to doe nothing in the Church vnlesse he be certaine and sure of the warrantise thereof by Gods word For God cannot abide to haue his service umbled and mingled at pleasure with every foolish gewgawe and light trumpery You see how this beginnyng of the day light whereby God shewed himselfe agayne unto the world doth cōstantly affirme that a Bishop ought to doe nothing in the Church unlesse he be certaine and sure of the warrantise thereof by Gods word no not to bring in a ceremonie nor a light guegawe for God saith M. Luther cannot abide it nor suffer it to be used in his service And yet not so content he goeth farther saying And therefore we are straightly forbidden not to relie unto nor to allow whatsoever decree or constitution the Bishop list to obtrud and enioyne unlesse they stand upon a sure groūd that the things which they doe are allowed of God yea don of God himselfe and unlesse the be able to say doe this for it is the will and Commandement of God and we haue his expresse word and commandement for our warrant If they be not able to say thus they ought to be accounted as lyers deceavers much lesse ought any Christian to yeelde unto them therein any obedience or subscription No Christian saith M Luther ought to subscribe nor obey to any of the Bishops Canons Subscriptiō unlesse they be able to say do this for it is the will cōmandement of God and we haue his expresse word and commandement for our warrant Thus doth this Angell or messenger of God write who having a liuely faith by this faith he being dead with Abell yet speaketh this unto all the world and even unto England in playne English whereby yee may perceaue he was no sleeping Sardian Angell nor rich luke warme Laodician but like the Angell of Ephesus could not forbeare them which were evill and was himselfe poore with the Angell of the Smirnians and far from the pompe and pride of the Laodician Angell which lived like a Lord and rejoyced he was encreased in riches and had need of nothing But if this excellent messenger of God were now in England and would refuse to subscribe to a number of Canons and many light guegawes which are neither commanded of God nor haue the expresse warrant of the word of God he should surely be turned both out of his preaching and out of his living though many hundred sleeping Sardian Priests and blind unpreaching Ministers should keep their place But let us go forward with M. Luther upon the fift chapter of the same epistle thus he saith When S. Peter or any other of the Apostles came into any Cittie wherein Christians were 1. Peter 5. they ordeyned some one or other of them such as lived honestly and unblameablie and had wife and children and also skilfull in the Scriptures of God to to haue the superintendencie and charge over the rest And them they called Seniors or Elders whom afterward both Saint Peter and also S. Paule called Bishops whereby we may note that Bishops were none others then the very same that were Elders Touching this purpose we read in the Historie of S. Martine how a certaine man came into a place in Aphrica and there in a poore Cottage found an elderlie man whom they thought to haue been some playne Countriman Within a while they saw many people come flocking to him to whom he preached and expounded the word of God wherby they perceaved that he was their Pastor or Bishop For in those dayes there was no difference either in apparrell or manners betweene the Bishops and the residue of Christians In which saying of M Luther these three things are to be observed First that there was no differēce in the word of God and by the doctrine of the Apostles between a Bishop and an Elder or Minister or as he is now called a Parish Priest in the latin word taken out of the Greeke Presbyter for in the new Testament as you haue heard before he is never called Sacerdos that is to say a Priest as in all the old Testament it is ever englished But heer you see plainly by the judgmēt of M. Luther that a Bishop by the word of God and doctrine of the Apostles is nothing else but the Minister of a Parish And you heard before how precisly and violently he rejected whatsoever ordinance in the Church hath not the expresse word of God and commandement for it And therefore he saith touching all constitutions of Bishops without this expresse warrant we ought to take them for lyers deceavers and by no meanes to subscrib unto them Seeing this he speaketh not onely of Ceremonies and other traditions but even of the goverment orders of the Church as in the same place within a few words he plainly and vehemently expresseth For saith he there is nothing so pernicious nothing so monstrous 1 Pet 4.11 nothing so beastly as to goe about to governe the Church of God without the warrant of Gods owne word and worke And therefore S. Peter saw great reason to ad this much thereby to teach how the Church ought to be governed And in the fift chapter he doth in a mannner repeate the same againe for taking occasion from the care and diligence that every Bishop and Pastor ought to haue of every particular within his owne flocke In chap 5 Heereby saith he we may well perceiue and know that a Bishop is even the same that is here ment by an Elder And therefore it is not true which some say that a Bishoprick is a dignitie and a Bishop onely he that weareth a forked Miter Episcopacie is not a name of dignitie but of Office Which thing he also affirmeth in divers places as in his booke contra Papatum he saith Bishops wheresoever they be in all the world are equall to our Bishops or Parish Ministers and Preachers Of none can it be said one is
Lord and other a Servant Where Luther useth this word vel parochis which must needes be englished either after the Popish phrase Parish priests or in better English parish Ministers Which you see heere M. Luther maketh as great a Lordbishop as a Diocesan Bishop or Bishop of a Diocese and unto this rule he pulleth downe the proud Pope himselfe and so breaketh the necke of his Popedome For he saith that Bishops in all the world are not other in right and truth but Parish Ministers and that the one ought not to liue like a Lord and the other like a Minister or servant And upon the 5 chapter of Peter aforesaid he saith Furthermore S. Peter calleth it peculiarly the flocke of Christ In chap 5 2. as though he should say Thinke not that the flocke is any of your owne ye are but onely Servants and Ministers to looke unto it ye ye are no Lords nor Masters over it And further afterward he saith For we haue but one Lord Iesus Christ and he it is which governeth over soules Elders Pastors haue no further charge then to feed And heere in one word S Peter overthroweth all the kingdome of the Pope and concludeth that no Bishop hath any authority so much as in one word to clogg and tye the consciences of the faithfull to the observation of their precepts For they themselues ought to be servants and Ministers and to say thus saith the Lord and these be the words of Christ it is not we the words are none of ours and therefore ye ought to doe that which is here commanded According to that which Christ saith Luke the 22. The Kings of the Gentiles reigne over them and they that beare rule overthem are called gratious Lords but ye shall not be so Contrary whereunto the Pope boasteth and brageth saying we ought to be Lords and to us onely it belongeth to excercise cheife rule and supreme authoritie The second thing that I speake of to be observed in the former saying of M. Luther is this That the state of Bishops in those dayes was such that a Bishop could not be knowen by any Lordly countenance or attendance from a plaine man of the countrie The third thing is that in his apparell he differed nothing from the common sort of men he had not on his head as our booke of Martyrs of a certaine Bishop saith a Geometricall that is to say a square cap although his head be round nor a white rochet vpoÌ„ his blake coat nor a priests cloke nor a formall gowne For by those Mathematicall marks he must needs then haue been knowen froÌ„ a plaine man of the Country as that foresaid Bishop in Africa was not Yea though he had been an unpreaching Prelat and so could not haue been knowen by his preaching But let us heare what M. Luther further saith In our booke of Martyrs many thinges are specified which are most worthy to be noted concernyng him Fox Edition 1570 to 2. pag 976. Election of Ministers ought to be by the Church to whom they belong but for brevities sake I will onely obserue this one thing namely that he affirmeth the voyces of the people ought not to be severed from the choosing of Ecclesiasticall persons in which poynt all the auncient Fathers doe with one voyce agree with M. Luther they were also chosen themselues in that manner and so caused other to be chosen And so likewise all the Protestant writers and lights of the gospell do generallie affirme in their writings that by the law of God and by the holy Scriptures it ought to be still observed in the Churches of God And yet at this day it is exploded out of many Churches as namely here with us that professe the Gospell as a thing that cannot stand with a Christian common wealth wherein I will onely recite the wordes of our booke of Martyrs and one worthy sentence and also one notable example out of auncient Fathers and so leaue it to the consideration of the Christian reader and to the consciences of all christian Magistrats that profess the Gospell with myne owne prayers to God that this Apostolicke order of chosing of Ministers may be againe restored to all Christian Churches Fox pa. 5 ed. 1570. col 2 After which time of the Apostles saith our booke of Martyrs the election of Bishops and Ministers stood by the Cleargie and the people with the consent of the cheife Magistrate of the same place and so continued during all the time of the Primitiue Church till the time and after the time of Constantine the fourth Emperour which Emperour as writeth Platina and Sabellicus Enead 8 lib 6 published a law concernyng the election of the Romane Bishop Platina Sab. Ene 8. lib 6 that he should be taken for true Bishop whom the Cleargie and people of Rome did chose and elect without any tarying for any authoritie of the Emperour of Constantinople or the deputie of Italie so as the custom and fashion had ever been before that day anno 685. And a non after in our booke of Martyrs it is thus written â—owsons â—â—uralities of â—enefices likewise vowsons and pluralities of benefices were things then asmuch unknowen as now they are pernicious to the Church taking away all free election of Ministers from the flockes of Christ Heerunto I add touching this matter as I promised first a most worthy senteÌ„ce out of Cyprian who florished about 260 yeares after Christ He in his 68. Epistle saith â—yprian Epi â—8 iuxsta â—amelium Plebs obsequens preceptis Dominicis et Deum metueÌ„s a peccatore preposito seperare se debet nec se ad sacrilegi sacerdo tis sacrificia miscere quando ipsa maxime habeat potestatem vel eligendi dignos sacerdotes vel indignos recusandi Quod et ipsum videmus de diuina auctoritate descendere vt sacerdos plebe praesente sub omnium oculis deligatur et dignus atque idoneus publico iudicio ac testimonio comprobetur The people beyng obedient unto the commandement of God and fearing God ought to seperat themselues from a wicked Pastor or Minister and not to joyne themselues to the sacrifice of a sacrilegius Priest seeing the People it selfe cheiflie hath power either to choose priests that are worthy or to refuse those that be unworthy which thing we see doth come from the authority of God that the Priest may be chosen in the presence of the people that he which is worthy and meete for the place may be allowed with a publicke judgment and testimony And a litle after he concludeth saying Et sit ordinatio iusta et legitima que omnium suffragio et iudicio fuerit examinata And let the ordination be just and lawfull which is tryed by the judgmeÌ„t and voyce of all Athanasius And now as I said take one example namely of Athanasius the great The confession of whose faith is read in our Churches of England
a holy Senat of Elders which dilligently warned theÌ„ that transgressed in the Church corrected them sharply yea and excluded them out of the Ecclesiassticall fellowship namely if they perccaved that there was no hope of a mendment to be looked for in them But in the latter times the Popes Bishops tyrannically taking that kind of punishment into their hands and excercising it sacrilegiously contrary to the first institution haue turned an wholsome medicine into an hurtfull poyson making it abominable both to the good and bad Behold what fruit this alteratioÌ„ of Gods order ordinaÌ„ce in the Church hath brought by taking away the Eldership from the Church or Congregation and committing it unto the Bishops who by their Lordly authority tyrannically saith M. Bullinger tooke it from the Church into their owne handes and that even in some places where the light of the Gospell is set upon the golden candlesticks thereof whereby they haue turned an wholsome medicine into an hurtfull poyson making it abominable both to the good and bad as in all Queene Elizabeths time we might see heere in England that by their Lordly power oftentimes for such a trifling matter as an honest Magistrat would haue been a shamed to laye a man by the heeles they were not a shamed to commit a christian to the Devill And shewing what the Elders were he sayth Wherefore the Elders in the Church of Christ are either Bishops or otherwise prudent learned men added to Bishops that they may the more easily beare the burden layd upon them Decad 5 sermon 3 and that the Church of God may the better and more conveniently be governed For Paule saith The Elders that rule well let them be counted worthy of double honor most specially they which labour in the word and doctrine 1 Tim â— There were therefore certaine other in the Ecclesiasticall function who albeit they did not teach by and by as did the Bishops yet were they present with them that taught in all businesses Perhaps they are called of the same Apostle elsewhere Govenours 1. Cor. 1 â—â— that is to say which are set in authority concernyng discipline and other affayres of the Church And in this poynt with Bullinger M. Peter Martyr most playnely agreeth He that ruleth well etc. Martyr in Rom. 1 2 This me thinketh saith M. Martyr is most fitlie to be understood of Elders not in very deed of them which had charge of the word and of doctrine But of those which were appoynted as assistants unto the Pastors they as being the discreter sorte indeed with a greater zeale godlines were chosen out from among the laitie Their office was cheifly to attend unto Discipline c. And touching the Lordship of Bishops where it is objected against theÌ„ that think Bishops should be no Lords that they would mainteine the Anabaptisticall opinion which deny Magistracie and the authoritie of Kings and Princes M. Bullinger confuteth the Anabaptists with the selfe same reason and scripture whereby he proveth that Bishops should be no Lords Decad 2 sermon 9 And unlesse that Christians saith Bullinger when they are once made Kings should continue in their office and governe kingdoms according to the rule and lawes of Christ how I beseech you should Christ be called King of Kings Lord of Lords Therfore when he said Kings of nations haue dominion over them but so shall not ye be He spake to his Apostles who stroue among themselues for the cheife and highest dignitie As if he should haue sayd Princes which haue dominion in the world are not by my doctrine displaced of their seates nor put besids their thrones for the Magistrats authority is of force still in the world and in the Church also The King or Magistrate shall reigne but so shall not yee ye shall not reigne ye shall not be Princes but teachers of the world and Ministers of the Churches Thus breifely saith he I haue answered to the Anabaptists obiections And againe upon the very same matter in like sort in the 5 Decade and 2 sermon citing the lik place of Peter Not as though ye were Lords over Gods heritage saith he Peter speaketh not of any Empire and Lordship yea by expresse words he forbids Lordly dignitie For even as he is appoynted of the Lord a Minister and an Elder not a Prince and a Pope so also he appoynted no Princes in the Church but Ministers and Elders who with the word of Christ should feed Christs flocke And upon that place of Luke the 22 The Kings of the Gentiles raigne over theÌ„ they that beare rule over theÌ„ are called gratious Lords c. Decad 3 sermon 3 This simple and playne truth saith M. Bullinger shall coÌ„tinue invincible against all the disputations of these Harpyes The most holy Apostles of our Lord Christ will not be Lords over any man under pretence of religion yea S. Peter in playne words forbiddeth Lordship over Gods heritage and commandeth Bishops to be examples to the flocke Marke how M. Bullinger applyeth this place of scripture and how bitterly he speaketh agaiÌ„st the Lordship of Bishops calling them Harpyes that is monstrous birds having maiden visages and talens of a mischevous and marveilous capacitie But before in the same sermon he sayth In the order of Bishops and Elders from the beginnyng there was singular humilitie charitie and concord no contention or strife for prerogatiue or titles or dignity For all acknowledg themselues to be the Ministers of one Master coequall in all thinges touching office or charge He made them unequall not in office but in gifts by the excellencie of gifts And therfore in the first Decad second sermon he saith Did not Christ himselfe refuse a crowne upon earth And did not he that is Lord of all minister Doth not he himselfe disallow that any Minister should seeke any prerogatiue no not in respect of Eldership He that is greatest among you saith he let him be as the youÌ„ger He therefore commandeth an equallitie amongst them all And therefore S. Ierom iudgeth rightly saying that by the custom of man and not by the authoritie of God some one of the Elders should be placed over the rest and called a Bishop wheras of old time an Elder or Minister Bishop were of equall honor power and dignitie And it is to be observed that S. Ierom speaketh not of the Romish Monarchie but of every Bishop placed in every Citie aboue the rest of the ministers And to answer the objection which is made in defence of the Lordbishops that they take not upon them civill offices and Lordly dignities but by their Princes Magistrats it is layd upon them and given them he saith Shall we beleiue that Peter would haue receaved secular power with imperiall goverment if the Emperour Nero had profered it him No in no wise for this word of the Lord tooke deepe roote in his inward bowels But it shall not be so
with you And touching the election of Bishops and Ministers this bright starre fixed in the right hand of Christ sayth Decad 5 sermon 4 Titus 1. 1 Tim. 5. They which think that all power of ordayning Ministers is in the Bishops Diocesans or Archbishops hands doe use these places of the scripture For this cause I left thee in Creta sayth Paule to Titus that thou shouldest ordaine Elders in every Citie And agayne Lay hands soddainly on no man But we say that the Apostles did not exercise tyranny in the Churches and that they themselues a lone did not execute all things about election or ordination other men in the Church beyng excluded For the Apostles of Christ ordeyned Bishops or Elders in the Church but not without communicating their Counsell with the Churches yea and not without having the consent and approbation of the people And a litle after he saith So undoubtedly Titus though it were sayd unto him Ordayne Elders in every Citie yet he understod that hereby nothing was permitted to him which he might doe privatly as he thought good not having the advise and consent of the Churches Wherefore they sinne not at all that shaking of the yoke and tyrannie of the Bishops of Rome for good and reasonable causes to recover that auncient right graunted by Christ to the Churches And as for Archdeacons he coupleth them with the filthy vermine of Monks Decad 5 sermon 3 saying And when wealth increased there were Archdeacons also created that is to say overseers of all the goods of the Church They as yet were not mingled with the order of Ministers or Bishops and of those that taught but they remayned as stewards or factors of the goods of the Church As neither the Monks at the begining executed the office of a Priest or Minister in the church For they were counted as lay men not as Clearks and were under the charge of the Pastors But these unfortunat birds never left soaring untill in these last times they haue climed into the top of the Temple Archdeacōs and haue set themselues upon Bishops and Pastors heads And touching the Leviticall apparell and the Lordly estate of Ministers he precisely cōcludeth thus The misticall attire and garments of the Priesthood he neyther did commend to his Apostles nor leaue to his Church Decad 3 sermon 18 but tooke them away with all the Ceremonyes that are called the middle wall betwixt the Iewes and the Gentiles The Lord himselfe and his Apostle Paul will haue the Pastors of his people clad with righteousnes and honestie and doe precisely remoue the Ministers of the Church from superioritie and secular affaires Now if the Lord himselfe and his Apostle do precisely remoue the Ministers of the Church from superioritie and secular affaires I wish it might also be remembred precisely followed which the Kings Majestie saith in his first booke to his Sonne our Noble Prince for saith our gratious King Basilic dorō 1 part In any thing that is expresly commanded or prohibited in the booke of God you cannot be over precise Decad 5 sermon 4 And for a full conclusion in this matter M. Bullinger saith That order or function instituted by Christ in the Church sufficeth even at this day to gather governe and preserue the Church on earth yea without these orders which in these last ages new inventions hath instituted For that doth the thing it selfe witnes and the absolute perfection of the Primitiue Church a voucheth it And therefore at the last he useth this exclamation Oh happie had we been Sermon 3. if this order of Pastors had not been changed but that auncient simplicitie of Ministers that faith humility and dilligence had remained uncorrupted But in processe of time all things of auncient soundnes humilitie and simplicitie vanished away whilest some things are turned upside downe some things either of their owne accord were out of use or else are taken away by deceit some things are added to c. The authors desire Whereunto I will ad the exclamation of myne owne soule saying Oh happy should we bee if it might please his gratious Majestie to restore unto his poore subjects of England the auncient orders of the Ecclesiasticall Ministers set downe by Christ and his Apostles without any other orders which mans invention hath instituted for that order and function sufficeth even at this day to gather governe and preserue the Churches of God upon earth without any of these orders and such like which mans invention hath brought in namly Archbishops Diocesan Lords Archdeacons Deanes Commissaries Officialls which are brought in by mans invention not once mentioned in the scripture And so I will proceed to M. Musculus set up also as an excellent light of God among the golden Candlesticks Musculus of Tigurie and the Swicers I haue already shewed out of Musculus that in playne wordes he sayth That the device of men pag 14.15 that Bishops should be greater then other Ministers was such a mischeife to the Church that we may thank the custome thereof for all the wealth pride and tirannie of our Princely and riding Bishops and for the corruptions of all Churches which if the aūcient Fathers did now see The Devils invention they would no doubt acknowledg it not to be the device of the holy Ghost as it was pretended But of the Devill himselfe to take away the true Ministery of the Church of God set downe by Christ and his Apostles Now further in his booke of Common places Tit. Of the Ministery of the word of God he saith It is not meete that a Bishop do convert the power of his Ministery to other Churches but to Minister faithfully in the same wherein he is elected and confirmed like as it was not convenient for the Apostle to convert his Apostleship to a Bishopricke and to be restrained to one Church onely As also it is unto Iames. The like is to be said of Titus Tim. Mark Evāgelists Chry. Tit. 1. which is falsly attributed unto the Apostle Peter Wherefore let the Bishops looke to themselues which wheras they doe not lawfully Minister in one Church yet they do extend their power not to a few Churches but unto whole Provinces also Let them read Chrysostome upon the Epistle to Titus the first chapter By Cities he sayth Indeed he would not haue a whol Iland committed unto one man but every man to haue his charge and care alone And a non after he saith Yea the impudencie and state of Bishops is become so great that a nomber of Bishoppricks be swallowed up in the gurmandise of som one Metropolitan Bishop such as there be many now a dayes And the Bishop of Rome even like the Devill paynted with his wide mouth devoureth up all the Bishopricks and Churches of the world And a litle before he saith They that boast themselues to be the successors of the Apostles ought not to extoll themselues
Mary layd such violent handes upon the graft that she pulled it clean out of the stock cast it into the fire Our late gratious Queene Elizabeth receaved frō heaven a graft agayne and set it into the stock which by the blessing of God grew flourished but the boughes and sients which King Edward left shee suffered still to grow As the pompous estate of Bishops with the abominations of pluralities and Nonresidencies and such like with divers bad and beggerly Ceremonies which all remaine to this day O that our Prelats of England would lift up their eyes to heaven and behold the wrath of God which as Gualter saith hangeth over our heads for these reliques of Antichrist and other our sinfull wickednes then would they surely be so farr from mainteinyng the same or perswading his Majestie to let them continue that humblie one their knees they would beseech him though all their wealth and pompe should perish yet with his mightie hand to rent of the crabb tree scients and with the sharp sword to cut of the boughes that grow upon the stocke whereby the blessed graft of Gods word might liuely grow and flourish which exceept it be donne can never prosper nor as the Apostle speaketh can never haue free pastage be glorified And it is worthy to be noted that to his great honor it is written Iosiah also tooke away them that had familiar spirits and the Soothsayers and the Images 2 Kings 2 ◠24. and the Idols and all the abominations that were espied in the land of Iudah and Ierusalem to performe the words of the law which were written in the booke that Hilkiah the Priest found in the house of the Lord. But this is to be observed in his most excellent reformation that the text sayth he tooke away all the abominations that were espied in the land of Iudah and Ierusalem For where very great defection and falling away from true religion is established by publicke authoritie it is a merveilous difficult matter for a Prince that would make reformation therof to espie whatsoever ought to be reformed So that if there be not daylie more and more amended the sients of the crabb tree stock being suffered will out grow the graft and spoyle the tree as we see in this most excellent reformation which Iosiah made which yet is so bitterly taxed not only by Zephaniah the Prophet but also by Ieremia as you may read in the third chapter where he sayth The Lord sayd also unto me Ier. 3.6.7.8 in the dayes of Iosiah the King hast thou seene what this rebell Israell hath done For shee hath gone up upon every high mountaine and under every greene tree and there playd the harlot And I said when shee had done all this Turne thou unto me but shee returned not as her rebellious sister Iudah saw When I saw that by all occasions rebellious Israell had playd the harlot I cast her away and gaue her a bill of divorcement yet her rebellious sister Iudah was not affraid but she went also and playd the harlot And afterward in the 10 and 11 verses he sheweth how high the abominations of Iudah even in the time of Iosiah were growne Neverthelesse saith Ieremiah for all this her from them as well as of Monks Thirdly that many that doe professe the Gospell handle the matter as ill as the Monks and Popish Bishops In that they restore not agayne to the Church and Congregation the libertie of choosing their Ministers which by tyrannie they tooke from them ruling the matter by their Lordly estate as they list themselues Fourthly that this evill also shortly if it be not amended will bring into the Churches that professe the Gospell both Symonie the utter confusion of Discipline And after in the same Homilie he saith Whosoever would haue in the Church the auncient authority of Discipline and the boldnes of the Prophets Apostles in the Ministery and to be short the old integritie and soundnes of the whole Church let him labour to recover and call agayne this auncient order of choosing Ministers shewed to us by the Apostles Note Obserue christian reader that whosoever wisheth to haue the old integritie and soūdnes of the whole Church ought to labor in his degree asmuch as in him lyeth to recover and call agayne this auncient order of choosing Ministers shewed us by the Apostles in Acts 15 22. Homilie 104. that is with the Churches free consent But in another Homilie he sayth Through the covetousnes and ambition of Bishops it is come to passe that the libertie of the Church is troden under foote and choosing of Ministers dependeth upon them O wicked wretchednes of those Biships which doe not onely heerein through their covetousnes and ambition offend Christ and rob his Churches of their right but also with great crueltie and bould faces maintayne the same to be well done and purpose to continue therein to their liues end And of the choosing of Deacons likewise upon the sixt chapter Hom. 41. he saith Therefore the chosing of Deacons to whom the administration of the Church goods is committed belongeth to all the Church But afterward upon the 15 chapter he saith Hom. 104. Now where the ambition of Prelats hath disturbed and broken this order who contrary to the commandement of Peter the Apostle haue challenged unto them a Lordship over the inheritance or Church of Christ the Congregations are every day molested with new contentions and there appeareth no end either of errors or most bitter debates I think verely M. Gualter in these words poynted with his finger specially to England for no Nation of christendom that is called a reformed Church or had the Gospel once shinyng in at the windowe hath had or is like to haue such endless contention and continuall errors only through the Lordship and magnificent estate of Lord Bishops Hom. 86 which no reformed Church in all Europe hath retained but England And upon the 13 chapter he sayth We must iudge them called of God that are furnished with necessary gifts of the holy Ghost and chosen by the voyce of the lawfull Congregation for that the Church hath heerein her voice election appeareth plainely by this place And likewise in the 1 chapter Homelie the 9. he sayth And the holy Ghost would haue all this historie so dilligently described for that a sure rule and president might be left to them that came after whereby to rule the election of Ministers And touching the dignitie and superioritie of Ministers one over an other he sayth in Acts 20 Hom. 133 Although the dignitie of all Ministers in the Church is a like and none ought to challenge power or authoritie over other yet an order is necessary in the Church which can never be kept and mainteyned except Ministers will obserue modestie and humilitie among themselues And in the 8 Homelie about the chosing of Mathias he saith First Peter will
to the institution of Christ and his Apostles If he haue bread wine a table and a faire table cloth let him not be solicitous nor carefull for the rest seeing they be not thinges brought in by Christ but by Popes unto whom if the Kings Maiestie and honorable Counsell haue good conscience they must be restored agayne And great shame it is for a Noble King Emperour or Magistrat contrary to Gods word to detaine and keepe from the Divell or his minster any of their goods or treasure As the Candles vestiments crosses Altars for if they be kept in the Church as thinges indifferent at length they wil be mainteyned as things necessary If a Preacher now I will not say before a King but before a Lord Bishop should so plainely affirme that vestiments surplices and crossing are of the Divell he should be sure himselfe with his wife children not only to be turned out of doores like dogs but also from preaching of the Gospell of Christ As many excellent Preachers haue been of late yeares though many hundred dumme dogges haue and doe keepe their place within this Realme of England And of the Ceremony of kneeling at the Communion he saith ib. post The outward behaviour and gesture of the receiver should want all kind of Superstition shew or inclination of Idolatrie Wherefore seeing kneeling is a shew and external signe of the honoring worshiping and heretofore hath grevous and damnable Idolatrie ben committed by the honoring of the Sacraments I could wish it were commanded by the Magistrates that the communicators receavers should do it standing or sitting but sitting in my opinion were best And afterward he proveth the same by the example of Christ who together with his Apostles receaved it sitting And agayne in his third Sermon before the King Sermon 3 he saith Yet doe I much marvail that in the same booke it is appoynted that he that will be admitted to the ministerie of Gods word or his Sacrments must com in white vestimēts which seemeth to repugne plainely with the former doctrine that confessed the onely word of God to be sufficient And certainely I am sure they haue not in the word of God that thus a Minister should be apparelled nor yet in the Primitiue best Church And in his first Sermon upon Ionas Sermon 1 he saith This is the note and marke to know the Bishops and Ministers of God from the Ministers of the Divel by the preaching tongue of the Gospell and not by the shining clipping vestiments and outward apparell And in his Epistle to the Kings Majestie Epistle to King Edw. he saith And a thowsand times the rather shall your Maiestie restore agayne the true ministerie of the Church in case ye remoue and take away all the monuments tokens and leavings of papistrie For as long as any of them remaine there remaineth also occasion of relapse unto the abolished superstition of Antichrist And to the poynt matter of Excommunication in his Apologie against them that accused him to be a mainteiner of such as cursed Q. Mary which Apologie was set forth and allowed according to the order appoynted in Queene Elizabeths Injūctions 1562. If they knew Gods lawes saith M. Hooper as they doe not indeed they should see and finde that no ordinary excommunication should be used by the Bishop alone but by the Bishop and all the whole parish c. Also when the incestious man was excommunicated S. Paul alone did not excommunicat him but Saint Paules consent and the whole Church with him A declara of the 8 com And to the Lordships of Bishops upon the eight commandement these be his words They know that the Primitiue Church had no such Bishops as be now a dayes as examples testifie untill the time of Silvester the first A litle and a litle riches crept so into the Church that men sought more her then the wealth of the people And so increased within few yeares that Bishops were made Prinees and Princes were made servants So that they haue set them up with their almes and liberalitie in so high honor that they cannot pluck them down agayne with all the force they haue what blindnes is there be fall in the world that cannot see this palpallie that our Mother the holy Church had at the beginning such Bishops as did preach many godly sermons in less time then our Bishops horses be a brideling c The Magistrats that suffer the abuse of these goods be culpable of the fault And anō after he saith They should be reasonably provided for and the rest and over plus taken from them and put to some other godly use Looke upon the Apostles cheifly and upon all their successors for the space of 400. yeares And then thou shalt see good Bishops and such as diligently applyed that painfull office of a Bishop to the glory of God and honor of the Realmes they dwelt in Though they had not so much upon their heads as our Bishops haue yet had they more within their heads as the Scriptures and histories testifie for they applyed all the wit they had unto the vocation and ministery of the Church wherunto they were called Our Bishops haue so much wit that they can rule and serue as they say in both states viz. In the Church and also in the civill pollicie when one of them is more then one is able to satisfie let him doe alwayes his best diligence If he be so necessary for the Court that in civill causes amd giving of good counsell he cannot be spared Pope and all the Popish apparell before his death And first in his letter to M. Grindall he saith We Pastors many of us were to cold and bare to much alas with the wicked world Ridley Acts Mo pag 1902. edit 1570. our Magistrats did abuse to their owne worldly gayne both Gods Gospell and the Ministers of the same And anon after hc sheweth how earnestly he maketh his prayer for them that were banished for the word of God for all those Churches which haue forsaken the kingdome of Antichrist professed openly the puritie of the Gospell of Iesus Christ Where marke that he prayeth for them that professe not onely the Gospell but even the puritie of the Gospell In his Epistle to M. Hooper himselfe Epistle Rid. to Hooper he acknowledgeth his former fault with these wordes Howsoever in times past in smaler matters and circumstances of religion your wisedome and my simplicitie I confesse haue in some things varied c. Now I say c. I loue you and the truth for the truth sake which abideth in us But most plainely he acknowledgeth his fault when it pleased God to draw him neerer unto himself by scourging him with the same whippe wherewith he had whipped his fellow Elder M. Hooper Act. Mon pag 1677 edit 1570 as he himselfe calleth him in his Epistle For when M. Ridley was commanded to
him Tell me saith Harpsfield were not the Apostles Bishops Brad No except you will make a new definition of a Bishop that is giue him no certaine place Harps Indeede the Apostles office was not the Bishops office for it was vniuersall But yet Christ instituted Bishops in the Church as Paul saith He hath giuen Pastors Prophets c. so that I trow it be proved by the scripturs the succession of Bishops to be an essentiall poynt Brad The ministery of Gods word and ministers be an essentiall point But to translate this to the Bishops and their succession is a plaine subtiltie And therefore that it may be plaine I will aske you a question Tell me whether that the scriptures know any difference betwene Bishops Ministers which ye call priests Harpsfield No. Brad Well then goe on forwards and let vs see what ye shall get now by the succession of Bishops that is of Ministers which cannot be understood of such Bishops as Minister not but Lord it Wherein every Reader may obserue these things First that the Apostles were not Bishops for that a Bishop must haue a certaine place and a flocke to feede wherein he must be resident And not like an Apostle or Evangelist to travell from flocke to flocke from place to place Secondly by the scripture there is no difference between a Bishop and a Minister which is so cleere and manifest that the very Papist himselfe is driven to coÌ„fesse it Thirdly that it being true which the most rankest Papist for shame cannot denie that by the scripture Bishops Ministers differ not Then the glorious succession of the Pope and all his Diocesan and Lordbishops are utterly overthrowne For as M. Bradford saith What Lordly estate can any Bishop get when he ought not to differ from the poore and meane estate of a Minister Fourthly that they are Papists which will haue a Minister of the Gospell to be called a Priest for tell me saith Bradford whether the scripture know any difference between a Bishop and a Minister which you call a Priest Heereunto I will annexe some few sayings out of M. Iohn Bale Bale who being in Germanie wrote divers bookes and sent them hither wherby England receaved great light knowledg and was of such name note in Germanie that Pantalio that learned Germaine in his Ecclesiasticall Chronicles setteth him downe among the three speciall Englishmen which together with Bucer Peter Martyr preached the Gospell in England during King Edwards time To whom Queene Elizabeth in her very young dayes when she had translated a booke of French into English sent â—omilies Yet will I hereunto adde one place out of our owne English Homilies appoynted to be read publikely in our Churches at this day Our Saviour Christ saith our English Homilie against wilfull rebellion teaching by his doctrine that his kingdome was not of this world did by example in flieing from those that would haue made him King confirme the same expresly also forbidding his Apostles and by them the whole Cleargie of all princelie dominion over people and Nations and he with his Apostles likewise namely Peter Paule did forbid unto all Ecclesiasticall Ministers dominion over the Church of Christ which words are there referred to these places of scripture Math. 20. d 25. Mar. 10. f 42. Luk. 22. e 25. Math 23 a 8. Luke 9 f 46. 2 Cor 1. d 24. 1 Pet 5.1.2.3.4.5 Seeing therefore Christ and his Apostles both by their example practise course of their whole life and also by their doctrine and all the cheifest of the auncient Fathers in the Primitiue Church likewise by their doctrine practise of life And seeing all the principall lights of the Gospell which God hath set up from time to time in the deepe darknes of Antichrist together with all the godlie Martyrs lights of the Gospell both in other Nations and specially in this our owne Realme of England do so vehemently set forth the deformitie and require reformation of those abuses in this treatise mentioned and spoken of yet in our Churches in England remayning unreformed Doe my Lords the Bishops trow you which stand so fircely in defence of those shamefull enormities against such a cloud and multitude of witnesses being the most learned holy men and Martyrs Doe they yet I say expect till the beasts of the feild the foules of the ayre and the very stones of the streete should crie for reformation What is it possible to thinke that they themselues doe not see and know that the Pluralitie of benefices Nonresidencies the horrible abuse of excommunication and such like are untollerable thinges in a Christian Churche Yet not one of these they list to amend I will hereunto joyne the prayer of that excellent learned man Doctor Fulke in his Sermon at Hampton Court Fulk in Queene Elizabeths time printed dedicated to the Earle of Warwike in which having proved most learnedly the Pope to be the very Antichrist spoken of by the Apostle and Rome to be undoubtedly the whore of Babilon spoken of in the Revelation concludeth his sermon with this prayer saying Let us therefore pray unto Almightie God instantly that all men in their vocation may seeke the utter overthrow and destruction of Babilon that Princes and Magistrats may according to the Prophesies of them hate her with a perfect hatred and utterly abolish whatsoever belongeth to her that they may reward her as she hath rewarded us and giue her double punishmeÌ„t according to her workes and in the cup of affliction that she hath powered forth for us they may power forth double as much to her And looke how much she hath glorified her selfe and lived in wantonnes which was without measure so much they may bestow upon her of sorrow and torments That Preachers and Ministers of Gods word may playnlie and without dissimulation or halting discover her wickednes and earnestly to vrge whatsoever hath need of perfect reformation that all subiects may continue in holy obedience first to God and then to their Prince to the advancing of the honor glorie of God through Iesus Christ c. And surely all men without exception which wil be saved by Christ must in their vocation and degree not coldly but fircely fight against Antichrist And specially now when the first Angell hath powred out his Viall upon the throne of the beast so that his kingdom waxeth darke Rev. 16.10 Even now all men ought to seeke the overthrow and the utter destruction of Babilon and not to be weried with the tediousnes of time nor to giue over for the pleasures worldly profitts of this life And not to say as the wicked did in the dayes of the Prophet Malachi What profit is it that we haue kept his commandement Mal. 3 14 15 16.17 and that we walked humblie before the Lord of hosts Therfore we count the proud blessed even they that worke wickednes are set up and they that
A DISCOVRSE OF THE ABVSES NOVV IN QVESTION IN THE CHVRCHES OF CHRIST OF THEIR CREEPING IN GROwing vp and flowrishing in the Babilonish Church of Rome how they are spoken against not only by the scriptures but also by the ancient Fathers as long as there remayned any face of a true Church maintained by publique authority And likewise by the lights of the Gospell and blessed Martyrs of late in the middest of the Antichristian darknes By Thomas Whetenhall Esquier Pro. 24.24.25 He that saith to the wicked thou art righteous him shall the the people curse and the multitude shall abhorre him But to thē that rebuke him shal be pleasure and vpon them shall come the blessing of goodnes Imprinted 1606. THE PRINTER TO THE CHRISTIAN READER CHristian Reader it is well knowne to all men how odiously the adversaries of the Churches reformation in England do accuse and defame the seekers of the said reformation with Noueltie Singularity Schisme Error and with many other such like most foull crimes The iniquity and vntruth whereof will through Gods blessing well appeare to euery one that shall read and pervse this present most profitable Discourse following Wherein two maine and principall matters to witt The Inventions and Traditions of men in Church affayres and the overreaching Clergy beyond the condition of ordinay Pastors wherevnto all the particulars now in controuersie are easily reduced are observed in all ages and times since the Apostles to haue ben held by some godly persons and faithfull Witnesses of the truth to haue ben hainous transgressiōs against the ordinances of Christ in his New Testament So that heerby men may see that it is noe new thing that the servants of Christ and the louers of his ordinances should striue now against these Corruptions For if this be Schismaticall now I say to striue against these Corruptions then surely all the holy Martyrs and pillars of the Gospell in all ages past but chifly since the discovery of Antichrist were Schismatiks For they then travayled laboured as by this Discourse we may see in one and the same cause wherin now the true seruants of Christ doe also labor But if in former times those were faithfull men the true louers of the Gospell of Christ who hated all mens Additions in matters of the Church then doubtles soe are these now and it will be manifest to all good men that they are wrongefully traduced and accused in such wise as is before mentioned To which end and purpose this ancient Christian Gentlman hath worthily observed gathered and giuen out to the world as his last service to God to his people these testimonies of sundry old and new writers The which comming vnto my hands I could not in loue to thee good Reader but communicate the same vnto thee The rather considering how many thinges dayly are spoken written to the contrary by the adversaryes to dazell the eyes of Gods people in these causes The Lord Iesus inlighten the minds of all his true Children in all his wayes who only is the way the truth and the life and grant us his peace Amen A TABLE OF THE PRINCIPALL MATter 's contained in this Discourse False Accusations against the seekers of Reformation 166 The Apparel of Ministers did not differ from the apparell of other men pag 70 129 130 164 Neither ought it to differ 163 164 170 171 175 176 Audianus was no Herjtike though his successors were pag 6 B The ordinary name of Bishop is common to all Ministers in the New Testament pag 13. 14. 15 16 Bishops chosen in and proceeding from the Court are the cause of al corruption pag 123. Ordinatiō made by a Lord Bishop is void pag 127 128 131 132 The like Excommunication is no better pag 77. 78 C The Ceremonies in question are vnlawfull for vs pag 85. 86. 87. 98 113. 114. 149. 150. 172. 173 When how Ceremonies of mans invention were first brought into Gods worship pag 33 Civill rule in pastors is vnlawfull and contrary to Gods word in the New Testament pag 58 90 91 92. 95. 96. 97. 98 107. 108. 110. 122. 125. 126. 136. 137 143 151 152. 159. 161. 174. 175. 180. Corruption in the Churches tooke place immediately after the Apostles pag 4 The time of the highest Ecclesiasticall corruption tyranny p. 56. 57 What a visible Church is pag 76. 77. 140. 141. 142. Churches are all equall in power jurisdiction spirituall rights pag 2. 3. One Pastor cannot be but to one Church See Pluralities Church government belongeth wholly and only to each Church By no meāes to any one man either within or without the same pag 70 89 124 The Churches government ought to depend only on Gods word pag 69 99 108 109. The signe of the Crosse pag 130. Custom without Gods word is pernicious pag 106. D Discipline in our Churches is necessarie to be restored p. 108. 109 The folly of them who now think orherwise pag 80. 81 87 88. 90. It is necessarie to salvation ibidē E False Ecclesiastikes pag 92. An Eldership pag 94 95 97. 118. 124 130 131. Election of Ministers ought to be by that Churches free consent to which they belong pag 71. 72 73. 74. 75. 98. 107 108 109 118. 123. 127 128 131 132 138 173. Election of Ministers by the free liking of every Church is a thing easy and no way inconuenient in a civill Monarchie p. 74. 94. 100. Excommunication is in each Churches power in none other touching any member therein pa. 77 78 89 90 94 128 130. 150 151 Church Government see before in Church and Discipline I Questions to the Infants in their Baptizing are vaine pa 101 102 130. K Kneeling in receaving the Communion ought to be reformed pag 149 150. M Maintenance ought to be reasonable and liberall for a Minister Yet not superfluous 21 c. 42 54 59 117 121 122 133 135 143 178. VVhat a reasonable Maintenance may be pag 21 132 135 Ministers of mans Institution are unlawfull pag 61 62 94 98 99. Mingling of mens inventions in Gods worship is very pernitious pag 103. 104 105 106 111 113 114 120 124 125 129 147 148 150 167 168 175 184 187 188. 189. N Non residents very wicked pag 146. 152 160. 168. 169. 172. 174. O The Oath ex Officio vnjust and tyrannous pag 138 139. 140. P The name Papa Pope was aunciently common to all Bishops pag 17 18. 19. Pastors are all equall pag 109 112. see Superioritie in Pastors Churches are all equall Ignorant Pastors and bare Substitutes a deadly evill pa. 92. 93. 118 138 145 152 169. 170. Paulus Samosatenus a stately Prelat like those of our times pa. 7. 8 The first beginning of true reformation ought to be in reforming the Prelats pag 83 137 152. No amendment to be expected from the Prelats pag 82 Pluralities damnable pa 123. 129. 138 152. 156 157 160. 168. 169 172. Pompe and riches in the
vpon the Church of Sardis as a theife in the night and that they should not knowe vvhat hower he vvould come vpon them And to conclude that he vvould spue the luke warme Laodicians out of his mouth All vvhich greuous plagues in a short time fell vpon thos Churches of Asia And shall vvee escape if now in this great light of the Gospell vve retaine and maintayne any filthines of corruption in our Churches No God is not partiall neither vvith him is any variablenes neither shadowing by turnning Besides heer also it is vvorthly to be noted that among these seaven Churches of Asia representing all other thereis not one word spoken of an Archangel Archbishop or Lord Bishop that might over rule or governe all the rest vvhich in these our times are some of the greatest and most noisome corruptions vvhich doe overflowe all To vvhich purpose I heere set downe the vvords of M. Fox speaking of the first Primitiue Churches his vvords are these Act Mon. p 36 It is evident saith he to all men that haue eyes in their head c. that there was not then any one Mother Church aboue other Churches One Vniversall Church Militāt Invisible but the whole vniversall Church was the mother Church under which uniuersall Church in generall were comprehended all other particular Churches in speciall as sister Churches together not one greater then another but all in like equalitie c. But this ring of equalitie being broken all flewe in peeces Howbeit of this more shall be spoken God vvilling hereafter There remaineth now to speake of the third generall thing vvhich Christ heere commaundeth his servant Iohn to vvrite of namely Revel 1.19 the things that should come to passe cōcerning the Churches of God after the Apostles time to the end of the vvorld And how the Synagogue of Sathan and the vvhore of Babilon by litle and litle should creepe in and vvith her filthines endeavour to envenime the Churches till at the last she should become that glorious vvhore described in the 17. chapter clothed in scarlet and purple guilded vvith gold pretious stones and pearles and having a cup of gold in her hand full of abominations filthines of her fornication sitting upon the scarlet coullered Beast having seavē heads ten hornes and by her glorious power should banish the true Churches of God and make make them flie into the wildernes that is into secret places hidden and vnknowne vnto men But leaving the high estate of the Babilonish whore vvhich is the great Cittie that in Iohns time reigned over the Kings of the earth vvhich all men know vvas the Citie of Rome and now calleth her selfe the Catholique Church Leaving her as I haue said in her magnificence I vvill shew how by litle and litle she crept in and so at the last got vp vnto that her high estate Now this beginnyng of corruption both in doctrine and Discipline made no long delaye after the Apostles time Eusebius Hist Eccle For as Evsebius in his Ecclesiasticall History lib 3. cap 32. saith Vt vero et Apostolorum chorus c. As soone as the company of the Apostles and all that age which had received the hearing of the Lords owne liuely voyce was departed out of this world then as it were into an emptie house the wicked error of false doctrine thrust in and plunged her selfe Which thing also is euident by all Ecclesiasticall Histories as the heresie of Cerinthus sheweth about the yeare of our Lord 70. Which taught that the vvorld vvas not made of God but of Angells and that Circumcision vvas necessary to be observed and that the kingdome of Christ after the resurrection should be vpon the earth And likewise the heresy of the Ebionites about the yeare 85. Which taught that Christ vvas very man both by Father and Mother and that Moses law vvas necessary to be observed Thus daily many heresies and foule corruptions crept in so that by the time that Augustine and Epiphanius lived they vvrote speciall books against heresies to the number of an hundred severall heresies of note cōtayning all of them great corruptions some in doctrine and manners some in Discipline and orders of the Church Which corruption in Church-Discipline was often times the cause of the hereticall doctrine And heerin I purpose God assisting me cheifly at this time to insist shewing what the auncient Fathers of the Primitiue Church did practise teach in these pointes of religion now controversied among vs and likwise what the lightes of the gospell the blessed Martyrs of God from age to age since even vnto this day haue also practised and taught touching the same And this I doe the rather because many excellent men haue alreadie by manifold reasons grounded and taken out of the word of God proved that there ought to be a full reformation both in Doctrine and Discipline according to that order in the Church which Christ and his Apostles left Which must be acknowledged to be the onely sure ground of proofe for all pointes of controversie in the Church of God But because the enimyes of ful true Reformation of religion doe yet after the old fashion rest vpon custome antiquitie and auncient Fathers I haue thought good to follow this course before named that it might be plainely seene both how the cheife of the auncient Fathers and also of the principall lights set vp by the Lord in the deapth of the darknes of Antichrist with one voyce agrement taught practised and proved the same both by the scriptures and manifold reasons grounded thereon touching the matters of reformation now desired And heerin I thinke good for example before I enter into the rest to set downe out of Epiphanius the heresie of Audianus which heretickes were afterward called Anthropomorphits who being thrust out of the Church as simple men in time lacking learned teachers fell into a perswasiō and beleife that God was like vnto a man whereof they tooke the name of their heresie Erat autem vir a Mesopotamia oriundus clarus in patria sua c. Epiphanius de Heres Audianus saith Epiphanius was a man by birth of Mesopotamia a famous man in his owne Countrie for the sinceritie of his life and of faith and Zeale towards God which often beholding the things that were done in the Churches he did oppose himselfe against such evills even to the face of the Bishops and Elders and did reproue them saying These things ought not to be soe done these thinges ought not to be soe handled as a man studious of the veritie and of such thinges as are spoken by men which lead a most exacte life and are vsually spoken for loue of the truth Wherefore Audianus seeing such thinges as I haue said in the Churches he was driven to speake and confute it and kept not silence For if he saw any of the Cleargie to seeke after filthy luker whether he were Bishop or
onely with a needfull lyving And againe he saith Sed quēadmodum sacerdotes c. Like as the Preists liue of the holy service and Alter so they that preach the gospell ought to liue of the gospell and as they doe eate so these take their livyng but they doe not abound nor gather any treasure And upon the second chapter to the Philippians sermon the 9. Even speakyng in the defence of the Pastors maintenance he hath these words Dic quaeso sericisvestitur multitudinem sequentium et concomitantium habens Circa forum arroganter incedit Equo vehitur Domos edificat habens vbi maneat Si ista facit et ego reprehendā et non par cam imo ipsū sacerdotio quoque indignū dico Quomodo enim admonebit ne superfluis istis vacent cum se ipsum admonere nequeat Si vero necessarium victum abunde habuerit ideo ne iniustus erit Sed circum ire oportebat et mendicare Et tu vt discipulus nihil inde dic quaeso pudifieres At pater quidem carnalis si hoc faceret turpe putares Si vero spiritualis ad hoc cogatur non quaeres pre pudore latebras Tell me I pray thee saith he is the Pastor clothed in silke having a great number followyng accompaning him Goeth he proudly about the Market place Is he a horsebacke or at his foote cloth doth he build houses having already an habitation to dwell in If he doe these thinges I my selfe will reproue him neither will I spare him yea I my selfe also say that such a one is vnworthy of the Preisthood For how shall he admonish other men that they giue not over themselves to those superflutious things seeyng he cannot admonish himselfe But if he haue a plentifull necessary lyving shall he therefore be counted uniust Thou wilt say he ought to goe up and downe and begg And I pray thee tell me wouldest thou not be ashāed to be the Disciple of such a one If thy fleshly Father should doe so thou wouldest be ashamed Now if thy spirituall Father should be driven therevnto doest thou not for very shame hide thy selfe If Appelles with his pensill should haue paynted out this matter he could never halfe so liuely haue paynted out the Lord Bishop and the Parish preist of our dayes as this goulden mouth in these wordes hath done condemnyng both these extreames as shamefull and abominable But I leaue it to the reader that winketh not but openeth his eyes to behold the state of the Church in our time and to compare it with that time In his 50 Hom. vpon the Epistle to Timothie the 5 chap Chrys in 1. Tim. he discourseth in these words Honorem hoc in loco obsequium c. In this place saith Chrysostome honor is taken for readines to doe the thing that a man is willed to doe and for needfull liberalitie For that which followeth thou shalt not mousell the mouth of the Oxe that treadeth out the corne and the laborer is worthy of his reward sheweth that to be the Apostles meanyng for when he also commandeth that widowes should be cherished with honor it must needes be referred to a necessary livyng c. Therefore saith he if any man be a delicat fellow or negligent in his office he is surely worthy of no reward except he be an Oxe that treadeth out the corne except he draw the yoke even against the thornes and the frost shrinke not away he is unworthy Therefore unto the Teachers a necessary livyng ought plentifully to be ministred least they should faint or be discomforted neither that being occupied in the smallest thinges they should depriue themselues and other of great things that they might worke spirituall things having no regard of secular affaires For such were the Levits which had no charg of worldly busines as the lay men had Yet to the Levits some care of such thinges was permitted and by the law there was appoynted unto them revenues tithes first fruits vowes and many other things but unto them by the law these thinges were worthelie permitted as unto them that sought things present earthly Now Chrysostome concludeth with these words Yet I saith he will speake it bouldly that the cheifest Prelats of the Church ought to haue no more but onely foode and rayment least their affectiōs should be drawne away to thes worldly things He saith not that they should haue thē yet not set their affections upō thē but he saith they should not haue thē least their affections should thereby be drawne to loue them Thus haue ye heard both the judgment practise of all the principall cheifest of all the auncient Fathers which are called the Docters of the Church which lived under the most godly and christian Emperours in that three hūdreth yeares whch our booke of Martyrs calleth the florishyng time of the Church In which time although many ceremoniall corruptions steps towards the Hierarhie were brought in yet the Lordship of Bishops was by them all with one voyce and consent and with one vniforme practise of their life vtterly condemned as most wicked and abominable Fox pag 406 edit 1563 But as M. Fox saith speaking of the time betweene Augustine and Barnard And this while saith he still the regiment and riches of Bishops encreased and thereof ensued a monstrous regiment Yea blind Barnard himselfe saw plainely that the Lordship of Bishops with their riches great livyngs and magnificent estate was a wicked and monstrous regiment And that all men might knowe these thinges to be so plaine that even a blind man could see it therefore I will heere set downe som few of his sayings touchyng that purpose as in his 77. Sermon upon the Canticles in the title De malis pastoribus of evill Pastors Vnde hanc illis ex vberare existimas rerum affluentiam vestium splendorem mensarum luxvriem congeriem vasorum argenteorum et aureorum 〈◊〉 nisi de bonis sponsae Inde est quod illa pauper et inops et nuda relinquitur facie miseranda inculta hispida exangui Non est hoc ornare sponsam sed spoliare non est custodire sed prodere non est defendere sed exponere non est iustituere sed prostituere non est pascere gregem sed macctare et devorare Whence trow you doth this abūdance of riches flow unto them saith Barnard as that bravery in apparell the voluptuousnes of their tables their cubbards of gold and silver plate but of the goods of the spouse of Christ Here of it commeth that she her selfe is left poore needy and naked with a miserable face vndressed rude and terrible to see as pale as a dead corse This is not to garnish beautifie the spouse but to rob and spoyle her this is not to keepe her but to destroy her not to defend her but to thrust her out of dores not to instruct her but to make a whore of her this is
highest Ecclesiasticall corruption tyranny shewyng himselfe that he is God And for the maintenance of his high exaltation he thought it requysite aboue all other to take care of these two thinges First how to keepe under the temporall Princes Lords which had long raigned before him and to set up his spirituall Lords as his owne creatures which should be apperteyning and beholding to himselfe onely for all their Lordly estate The highest ecclesiastical corruption and tyranny that at the last both the Lords temporall spirituall might serue him to his great glory Now this great Antichrist reignyng over his temporall Lords and Princes who by the ordinance of God were appoynted to reigne themselues to the honor of Christ and not to the glory of Antichrist and specially triumphing by his spirituall Lords as his owne creatures created unto their Lordships and Archlordships by himselfe onely and not ordeyned therevnto by God but by him appoynted for his speciall gard and defence of his owne person and of his wife the great whore of Babell It pleased the Almightie God which created heaven and earth in the time by him appoynted reformation beginyng to rayse vp againe agreeable unto his first institution certayne poore Ministers Bishops Pastors to whom he committed the word of God which is the sword of the spirit therwith to fight against this glorious Antichrist and all his spirituall Lords And therefore as you haue heard before the auntient Fathers utterly condemning the great livyngs and Lordly estate of Bishops both by their doctrine decrees and practise of their owne lyues Now likewise let us heare what these men thus newly raysed up of God hold and affirme also in the practise of their owne liues approue touching the same Lordship of Bishops and other unwritten Traditions of men And first of Wickliffe of whom our booke of Martyrs saith This is out of all doubt Iohn Wicleffe Act. Mon pag 323 edit 1570 that at that time all the world was in most desperat and vile estate and that the lamentable ignorāce and darknes of God his truth had overshadowed the whole earth this man stepped forth like a valiant Champion Vnto whom it may be iustly applyed that is spoken in the booke called Ecclesiasticus of one Simon the sonne of Onias Even as the morning starre being in the middest of a cloude and as the Moone beyng full in her course and as the bright beames of the Sunne so doth he shine and glister in the temple and Church of God This Wickliffe in his answer unto King Richard the second as touching the right and title of the King and the Pope joyning old Barnard before named with himselfe saith How could the Apostle giue unto you that which he had not himselfe Harke what he saith Not bearing rule saith he as Lords in the cleargie but behaving your selues as ensamples to the flocke And because thou shalt not thinke it to be spoken only in humilitie and not in veritie marke that the Lord himselfe sayth in the Gospell The Kings of the people doe rule over them but you shalt not doe so Heere Lordship and Dominion is plainly forbidden to the Apostles and darest thou then vsurpe the same If thou wilt be a Lord thou shalt loose thine Apostleship or if thou wilt be an Apostle thou shalt lose thy Lordship For truely thou shalt departe from the one of them If thou wilt haue both thou shalt lose both or else thinke thy selfe to be of that number of whom God doth so greatly complaine saying They haue reigned but not through me they are become Princes and I haue not knowne it now if it doe suffice thee to rule without the Lord thou hast thy glory but not with God But if we will keepe that which is bidden us let us heare what is sayd he that is the greatest among you saith Christ shall be made as the least and he that is highest shall be as the Minister and for example he set a child in the middest of them So this then is the true forme and institution of the Apostles trade Lordship and rule is forbidden ministration and service is commaunded Ye heare what this bright mornyng starre which is likened to the full Moone in her strenght and to the sun-shining in the Church and temple of God sayth and concludeth that Lordship and rule is forbidden to Bishops and ministration and service is commaunded And in another place he saith To enrich the Cleargie is against the rule of Christ Fox tom 1 art 31 pag 55 16 art 34. Silvester the Pope and Constantine the Emperour were deceaved in giving and taking possessions into the Church And in another article he saith The Pope with all his Cleargie having those great possessions as they haue be heretikes in so having and the secular power in so suffering of them doe not well And touching the practise of his owne life It is written of him that he went in a simple russet gowne Fox tom 1 pag 526. and yet he was specially favored mainteined by the great Duke of Lancaster sonne to King Edward the third with the Lord Henrie Percie high Marshall of England and many other Lords and men of great account who esteemed him as an excellent learned man true Preacher of the gospell imbraced his doctrine even to the danger of their owne liues were able enough to maintaine him like a Lord or at the least to haue put him out of his simple russet gowne into a Mathematicall capp with foure angles deviding the whole world into foure partes as our booke of Martirs termeth it with a great and large sarcenet scarf about his necke and a wide sleeved gowne with a standing coller as an Archdeacon if he or they had thought it meete for him to haue been so like a Lord or pettie Lord mainteyned The next that we read of which God raysed up after Wickliffe was Iohn Husse Iohn Husse who being of so great reputation amonge the Bohemians that they came to the Counsell of Constance to make his defence for the gospell of Christ He was accompanyed and assisted besides others of his frends with divers Noble men of the Bohemians who stood by him and spake boldly in his defence even to the day and time of his Martirdome yet was he never nor would be mainteyned with the great living and high estate of a Lord Bishop as plainely appeareth by his last farwell to his deare frend brother Martin farwell saith he in Christ Iesus with all them that keepe his law Acts Mo. to 1. p. 747. My graye coat if you will keepe to your selfe for my remembrance but I thinke you are ashamed to weare that gray colour therefore you may giue it to whom you shall thinke good My white coate you shall giue the Minister N my scoller To George or else to Zuzicon 60 groats or else my gray coate for he hath faithfully served me
Surely this was but apoore Lord Bishop that went in such a graye coate as M. Martine his frend might be ashamed to weare it yet was he the principall preacher of the gospell in all the kingdome of Bohemia and a true and christian Bishop but how farre unlike he was unto the Lordbishops in our time every man may see even as far as a coate of course russet cloth is frō a coate of fine black velvet and yet he lived not so miserably as our Parish Ministers commonly doe for it is evident by his request that he had an honest servant or twaine And heere it is also worth the noting that the Minister should haue his whit coate which was not a surplice but a coate to be ordinarily worne as was likewise his gray coate Wherby we may evidently see that a white coloured garment was at that time amonge them a graue couler and meete for a Minister as it is a mong us stage like and meete for a player specially when a white coate is put upon a blacke gowne But this Preacher of the gospell excellent Bishop Iohn Husse in his poore estate more profited the Church of God in his time then a carte loade of the Lord Bishops in our time with all their great livings sumptuous estate And God so blessed his labours that almost the whole kingdome of Bohemia receaved the gospell and God for the mayntenance thereof sent unto them the invincible captaine Zisca Who if he now lived it is very like he should be called a Puritane for so precise he was as saith his history that he would not suffer any image or Idoll to be in the Churches Zisca Acts Mo. to pag 766. neither thought it to be borne withall that Priests should Minister with Copes or vestiments for the which cause he was much more envied amongst the States of Bohemia And a litle after upon his Tombe in his Epitaph it is thus written Eleaven times in ioyning battaile I went victor out of the feild I seemed worthily to haue defended the cause of the miserable and hungrie against the delicate fatt and glottonous Priests and for that cause to haue received helpe at the hand of God This cause is worthy to be noted for the which Zisca thought himselfe to be defended of God And after Zisca God for the maintenance of his gospell raysed up another who like a victorious Prince was called for his noble acts Procopius Magnus which feared not himselfe to come to the generall Counsell of Basill Procopius Magnus and there boldly and openly mainteyned the Gospell professed by him and his Bohemians so that it being objected against them as a great crime that they had taught the invention of the begging Fryers to be Diabolicall Acts Mo. to 1. edit 2 pag 779 Then Procopius rising up sayd It is not untrue For if neither Moses neither before him the Patriarks nether after him the Prophets neither in the new law Christ nor his Apostles did institute that order who doth doubt but that it was an invention of the Devill and a worke of darknes This rule and maxime of Divinitie being true and out of all doubt as the noble Procopius affirmeth then whēce commeth Pope Cardinall Patriarke Legate and likewise Metropolitanes Primats Archbishops Diocesanes Archdeacons Deanes Commissaries Officialls and such like but out of darknes and from the Devill for neither Moses nor the Patriarks before him nor the Prophets after him neither Christ nor his Apostles after him appoynted or instituted any such orders to be in the Church And in the fruitfull exhortation which the Bohemians wrote to all Kings Princes they all likewise say And if ye knew them as we know thē ye would as diligently destroy them as we doe Acts Mo. to 1. edit 1570 pag 775. For Christ our Lord did not ordayne any such order and therfore it must needs come to passe that shortly it shall be destroyed as our Lord saith in the Gospell of S. Mathew the 15 chapter Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shal be rooted up And a non after they say As long as they haue such goods they will never cease to be at strife with Lords Citties neither will they begin to teach you the true foundation of truth For they doe as a dogge which as long as he holdeth a bone in his mouth and knaweth it so long he holdeth his peace and cannot barke Even so as long as they haue this bone of pleasant riches they will never preach the Gospell truely Thus much of these Angells Messengers of God and bright starres sent of him into Bohemia to lighten the world with all which although through the iniquitie of the time they tollerated many corruptions yet they all agreed that the Lordly estate of the Prelats was the cause of all mischeife in the Church and according to the saying of M. Fox before noted pag 5◠by the geeat encrease of regiment and riches of Bishops there ensued agayne a monstrous regiment For within short time after although there remained in Bohemia certaine sparks raked up in the Ashes of those blessed Martyrs Wicliffe Husse Ierome of Prage that monstrous regiment of the Church grew to be far worse then it was before And the great Antichrist with his spouse the great whore of Babell both in glorious reigning cruell sheeding of bloud in all the parts of Christendom made all Kings and Princes his slaues and buchers and his spirituall Lords and Archlords as his owne creaturs devised and instituted by himselfe alwayes to be the Lords of his privie Counsell to the effectuall working of all his abominations For the time was not yet come appoynted by the high providence of God Revel 16 when the viale of the wrath of God should be powered out upon the throne of the beast But after one hundered yeares according to the Prophesie of Iohn Husse Ierome of Prage God raysed up Luther in the yeare of our Lord 1516. Luther being just one hūdred yeares after the burning of the sayd Iohn Ierome in the Counsell of Constance which was in the yeare 1416. Then according to their prophesie as it is writtē great Babilon came in remembrance before God to giue unto her the cup of the wine of the fiercenes of his wrath Revelat 16 But before this great worke of God should be wrought it pleased him to giue unto her three notable preparatiues wherby her purging following might be so violent that even her bowels liver lungs heart life should at the last by continuall purging depart from her By these preparatiues I meane first the battaile between three Popes continuing almost fortie yeares fighting for the glorious throne of the Popedome whereby the whole world began to see that they were some of them knaves all And the very Counsell of Constance doth plainely affirme the same de heere S Peter prescribeth namely unto whom
Non a minoritis sed a maioritis incipiendum est For where the Counsell pretēded to make a reformatiō in the Church one stood up and sayd the reformation must begin at the Fryer Minorits that is at the litle ones no sayd the Emperour not at the litle on s but at the great ones meanyng that they ought to begin not at the beggerly Fryer Minors but at the pompous and proud Prelats and Popes And Ieremiah the Prophet speaking of the beggerly sort and great men saith Ierem. 5.45 Therefore I sayd surely they are poore they are foolish for they know not the way of the Lord nor the iudgment of their God I will get me unto the great men and will speake vnto them for they haue knowne the way of the Lord and the iudgdment of their God but these haue altogether broken the yoke and burst the bonds And in the 23 chapter he sayth speaking of the Prophets which were the cheifest and in highest degree of all Ecclesiasticall persons in that time Chro. 23 15 Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts concerning the Prophets behold I will feed them with wormwood and make them drinke the water of gall for from the Prophets of Ierusalem is wickednes gon forth into all the land Now let us heare what M. Bucer saith touching the great livings of the Lord Bishops and the poore estat of the parish Ministers First to the Lord Bishops he saith in his second booke of the kingdom of Christ Agnoscant igitur tādem gravissimam suam culpam Episcopi quod ecclesias tam diu iam tamque horrende non tam neglexerunt quam vastaverunt Let the Bishops at the last acknowledg their most grevous fault that now so long time they haue not onely neglected but violently robbed the Churches And in the 13 chapter he toucheth againe the restoring unto the poore Parishes that which the Bishops by injurie and rob berie had taken from them Si vero parochiis non sit tam multum reliquum vt inde prospici queat fidelibus earum ministris tum certe vti et supra diximus ab Episcopis et ditioribus sacerdotiis petendum erit unde et his despoliatis parochiis consulatur Hic communio sanctorum exercenda erit vt egentibus ecclesiis succurratur ab iis quae abundant If there be not saith M. Bucer so much left unto the Parishes as therof there may be made a sufficient provision for their faithfull Ministers then certainly as we haue sayd before there must be taken from the Bishops and richer benefices where with these parishes that haue been so spoyled may be sufficiētly provided for For heerein the Communion of Saints ought to be exercised that the Churches which stand in need may be helped by them that doe abound And a non after he sayth Valeat itaque Domini lex dignus est opera rius cibo suo et mercede Item duplici honore digni sunt presbyteri qui bene praesunt ecclesiis maxime qui laborant in verbo et doctrina Debent autem hi et suo docere exemplo reliquos Christianos ut cum eis datur quibus alantar et tegantur his sint contenti valeat et lex spiritus sancti vestra abundātia sublevet illorum inopiam et illorum abundantia sublevet vestram inopiam quo sit inter vos aequalitas Therfore let the law of the Lord take his force which sayth the worke man is worthy of his meate and his wages and also the Elders which rule the Churches well are worthy double honor cheiflie those which labour in the word and doctrine And these also ought to teach all other Christians by their example and when there is given unto them foode and rayment with that let them be content And also let the law of the holy Ghost stand in his full force let your abundance vp hold their need that there may be equalitie I neede not to put the reader in any remēbrance what to obserue in these wordes they are playne enough that the Lordly livings of Bishops should be taken from them and they thēselues should not liue like Lords but in a meane estate as well as the rest of the Ministers Bucer in mathew 18.7 And touching the rest of the popish reliques he sayth vndoubtedly as there is no agreement at all between Christ and Beliall so sinceare and unfeined christians can by no meanes suffer themselues to be clogged with any whit of Antichrists trash and trumperie c. Wherfore so soone as true godlines and the right worship of God hath been preached and professed of many Antichrists Ceremonies and rites ought by and by to be abrogated and the reformation therof may not be prolonged c. These are indeed saith he over mild and to soft and sober Christians which can beare with such Antichristian trash like unto them who at Corinth knowing that an Idoll was nothing did eat thinges offered unto Idols and boasted as these our men doe in this wise In outward matters we are free What is that to me that another useth those thinges naughtily I will use them well c. Thus do they for sooth provide goodly for the weake ones yea they serue their owne bellies seeking to gratifie such as are either Christs enimyes or else backsliders for no man besids these will earnestly contend for Superstitious Ceremonies this is their modest bearing and delaying whereby they are so far from furthering of the Gospell that by litle and litle they do utterly abolish it Thus you heare M. Bucers judgment that noble light set up by God in Germanie and by King Edward brought into England and made the divinity Lecturer in Cambridg both for the establishing of the Discipline set downe by Christ and his Apostles in the first Churches for the taking away of the Lordly estate of Bishops and for the utter abolishing of all our vayne and beggerly Ceremonies which he calleth Antichristian trash Unto him I will joyn Peter Martyr his combresbyter or fellow Elder P. Martyr brought into England also by King Edward and made the Divinitie Lecturer in Oxford Whose departing from Argentine in Germanie was greatly lamented he was saith Sleidan a man there exceedingly beloved for his sincere judgmēt his great mildnes and modestie and for his incomporable learning In his Epistle to the Lords of Polonia professors of the Gospell and Ministers of the Church there when they began to make the reformatiō of religion in the rite of administring the Sacraments saith M. Martyr That manner is most to be imbraced which shall be most playne and most removed from the Papisticall trifles and Ceremonies and which shall come neerest to the purenes which Christ used with his Apostles Christian minds ought not to be occupied much in outward rites Ceremonies but to be fed by the word to be instructed by the Sacraments to be inflamed unto prayers to be confirmed in good works and excellent examples of life
Moreover I counsell you that in any wise ye bring in Discipline into your Churches so soone as possible ye can for if it be not receaved at the beginnyng when men are very desirous of the Gospell it will not soone be admitted afterward when as it hapneth some coldnes shall creepe in And how vainly you shall labour with out it very many Churches may be an example unto you who since they would not at their very first reformation take upon them this healthfull yoke could never afterward as touching manners and life be brought into order by any iust rule whereof it happeneth which I speake with greife that all things in a manner haue small assurance and and doe threaten ruine on every side Therefore it is a greivous loss and a certayne destruction of Churches to want the strenght of Discipline Neither can it be truely and soundly sayd that they haue and do professe the Gospell which either be without Discipline or do contemne it or be not delighted therwith Certainly since in the Evangelists and in the Apostolike Epistles it is taught with so great diligence it must be confessed not to be the least part of Christian religion Whereby it commeth to passe that the Gospell seemes to be despised of them which haue banished froÌ„ themselues so notable a portion thereof But under what devise or couller it is reiected at this day in many places is worth the hearing They say that there is a danger least under the colour of Discipline the Ministers of the Church should take upon them tyrannie should correct reproue and excommunicate for no iust causes but at their owne pleasure c. Neither do these good men perceiue that there needeth not be any feare of the Ministers where the rule of the Gospell as touching brotherly correction is observed For this charge is not to be committed to the authority and will of one man but in the shutting out from brotherly societie them which will not be amended a consent of the Church must be had by whose authority if it be don no man can iustly coÌ„playne of the tyrannie of one or of a few Marke how this Divine lecturer which hath so good testimonie of his sincere judgment great modestie and mildnes and of incomparable learnyng would haue the Discipline receaved wheresoever any reformation of religion is made and saith plainly it is a great part of christiaÌ„ religion and a notable portion of the Gospell and that they which refuse or reject it may be counted enimyes and not lovers of the Gospell And that the charge of excommunication is not to be committed to one man or to a few but to the whole Church And as for the rites and Ceremonyes and administration of the Sacraments he setteth downe these three caveats to be observed in the using of them First that they be most plaine and simple Secondly that they be most removed from the superstitious trifles of the Papists Thirdly that the manner of using them come nearest to the purenes that Christ and his Apostles used Certainly if M. Martyr were now in Oxford and with all his sinceritie and modesty and learning should mayntaine this most playnenes in the MinistratioÌ„ most furdest removed from Popish Ceremonyes and trifles and cry out for the purenes that Christ and his Apostles used he should be turned out for a wrangler or a Puritane if he had no more hurt But let us heere what M. Martyr saith further upon these poynts In his Common places speaking of the goverment of the Church he saith If thou respect Christ it shall be called a Monarchie part 4 cha 5 sect 9 Com. in 1. Cor. 5 13. For he is our King who with his owne bloud hath purchased the Church unto himselfe He is now gone into heaven yet doth he governe this Kingdom of his indeed not with visible presence but by the spirit and word of the holy scriptures And there be in the Church which doe execute the office for him Bishops Elders Doctors and others bearing rule in respect of whom it may be iustly called a goverment of many c. But because in the Church there be matters of very great waight and importance referred unto the people as it appeareth in the Acts of the Apostles therfore it hath a consideration of publicke goverment But of the most waight are accounted excommunication absolution choosing of Ministers and such like so as it is concluded that no man can be excommunicated with out the consent of the Church And a non after he saith Cyprian writteth unto Cornelius the Bishop of Rome that he laboured much with the people that they which are fallen might haue pardon Which if it might haue been given by himselfe there had been no need that he should so greatly haue travelled in perswading of the people And Augustin against the Donatists sheweth the same when he saith we must then cease to excommunicate if the whole people shall be infected with one and the selfe same vice For it will not sayth he consent to excommunication but will defend and mainteine him whom thou shalt excommunicate Wherefore this right perteineth to the Church neither ought to be taken from the same against which opinion they cheifely are which would haue the same to be committed to one Bishop or Pope And in the 5 section a litle before he giveth this definition of excommunication Excommunicatio est c Excommunication is the casting out of a notorious wicked man from the fellowship of the faithfull by the iudgment of them that be cheife and the whole Church consenting by the authoritie of Christ and rule of the holy scriptures to the salvation of him that is cast out and of the people of God And after he had confirmed the same by divers places of scripture he sayth Seeing it is the Gospell of Christ as touching all the parts it ought to be receaved of the Church and credit every wher to be given unto it So as they are to be wondred at which would professe the Gospell and yet do exclude this particle And touching the magnificence of Bishops and their stately using of Civill affaires In the same part and 20 chapter Section 16 he sayth But why in times past in the old testament were both Principalitie and Priesthood ioyned together This may be declared the cause Namely that in those persons Christ was shadowed â—n 2 Kings 11 initio to whom was due both the true Priesthood Soveraigne Kingdom But after his commyng upon the earth we haue no other Priest but himselfe our onely mediator and redemer Vndoubtedly those Ministers of the Church which are instituted by him are appoynted to preach the Gospell of the sonne of God and to administer the Sacraments wherefore it is meete they should abstayne from outward principalitie administration of civill affaires Since they haue ben so instructed by Christ For he saide unto his Apostles The Princes of the Nations haue dominion over them
haue a partner or fellow ioyned with the Eleaven In Acts 1 not a servant whō the rest at their pleasure might command For he knew that equalitie was needfull among Christs Ministers And in his 4 Homelie shewing that Christ had warned his Apostles many wayes and in many playne termes that they should not liue at ease and in Princly pallaces like Lords but suffer adversitie and possesse their soules in patience At last he concludeth These I say and many such like things they heard of Christ yet forgetting them all they dreamed of a worldly kingdome in which they hoped likewise they should be Lords This dreame of theirs a-man would haue thought that Christ had beaten out of their braynes long before Luc. 22.25.26 when he sayd unto them The Kings of the Gentiles reigne over them and they that beare rule ovcr them are called gratious Lords but ye shall not be so but let the greatest among you be as the least and the cheifest as he that serveth Notwithstanding this dreame of being Lords under a worldly King did so pleasantly swym and had so sweet a smell within their earthly braynes that nothing but the miraculous gift of the holy Ghost could picke it out From which sweete dreame our sleeping Sardian Angells and Lordbishops even at this day will not be a waked but with a warme gay coulered cloake they cover thē selues saying it was not Superioritie and Lordship that Christ forbad his Apostles but pride ambition and tyrānicall rule Or else that they beyng Church Ministers should take no rule over their brethren unlesse they had it by speciall commission from some Magistrat But who except he be a Sardian Angell that will not be awaked seeth not that Christ forbad them that degree and superioritie which they desired to haue under him simplie Which surely was none other but to haue under him an honest rule and Lordship yea I say by Commission from him of whom they then imagined that he should be as a Teacher so a just and Supreame civill Magistrat likewise For none but a blasphemer of Christ of his holy Apostles can dreame or imagine that the Apostles thought their Master should be such a King as that they might fit at his elbow Mark 10.35 37 Math. 20.20 21 and proudly and ambitiously raigne under him eyther without Commission or by his Commissiō which they expresly desired For then must it needes follow that they supposed that both they and he himselfe should raigne like cruell proud and ambitious tyrants which God forbid that any christian should dreame that ever it came within their thoughts Therefore it is most cleere and evident that Christ forbad his Apostles and in them all Pastors and Ecclesiasticall persons all Lordship and Magnificent estate with whatsoever modestie honestie they would cary themselues therein yea though they might by any Commission haue it M. Gualter speaking of the things which now a dayes under the name of the Apostles and Canons of the Apostles are obtruded he rejected them with this reason Surely sayth he I will never thinke the Holy Ghost eyther so unwise as to take a negligēt writer of so high matters or else so forgetfull In Acts 1 Hom. 1 as to let passe any of those thinges the knowledge and observation whereof was so necessarie in his Church And would not the selfe same reason hold with as great or greater force if a man should say surly I can never beleiue the holy Ghost either so unwise as to take so negligent writers of so high matters or else so forgetfull as to let passe any or so manie of those things the knowledg and observation whereof was or should be so necessary in his Church as Popes Cardinals Primats Metrapolitans Archbishops Diocesans Archdeacons Deanes Commissaries Officialls and such like And M. Hooper our most blessed Martyr of England M. Hooper vseth the like vehemencie of speach and to the same purpose and effect For he accuseth God saith M. Hoper of ignorance and foolishnes that entendeth tures Can you shew that ever Christ or his Apostles vsed it I think you will not say that Philip used any Oyle in the baptisme of the Aethiopian If this reason be good against Oyle it is good against the Surplice Crosse c. Yea all other humane inventions for like use Likewise is the Injunction of our Noble Queene Elizabeth set forth by publique authoritie Injunctiō 3. in these playne termes Workes devised by mans fantasies saith the Queene besides scripture as wandring of pilgrimages seting up of Candles praying upon beads or such superstition haue not onely no promise of reward in scripture for doing of them but contrariwise great threatnings and maledictions of God But if it were tolerated to haue a Candle a light set up in the Church to signifie the light of the Gospell that is preached amongst us Psal 119.107 what hurt might seeme to be therein Doth not David say Thy word is a lanterne unto my feet and a light unto my pathes And although the Crosse were worshipped amonge the Papists with Divine Honor as no man can justly deny yet was the Candle never worshiped it was nothing else but an idle and superfluous Ceremony invented beside the scripture And certainly there cannot possible be any Ceremony more perspicuous in signification more cleere in shew more easie to be understod or better cloked to agree with scripture then a Candle or Taper set vp to signifie the light of the gospell And yet we see her Majesties Iniunction saith Becaus it is devised by mans fantasie beside the scripture it hath not onely no promise of reward but contrariwise great threatninges and maledictions of God It were indeed a small matter if a mā would think to bring into the church som such idle or unprofitable Ceremony if that were all but if unto the least invention brought into the Church by man there belong the curse and malediction of God How ought we then to beware to looke about us that we attempt no such matter Yea how carefull and cleere eyed ought our Cleargie and Magistrats to be in those cases I ment in like sort to haue cited many mo of the excellent lights of the Gospell among the Germaines and Helvetians which write with one consent to the selfe same effect and purpose in all the poynts before intreated of but these may suffice and prolixitie is to be avoyded wherin I feare that I haue all readie offended But I cannot omit that famous learned man Hieronymus Zanchius both because he is a man of singular learning Zanchius and commonly objected against thē which desire reformation in the poynts of religion aforesaid First one is no number and one swallow proveth not springtide Secondly this one being wel waighed agreeth not fully in any one poynt with the enimyes of reformation And first he affirmeth flatlie as all the rest doe that by the word of God and the holy
scripture there are no more degrees or orders of them that are appoynted to preach the word of God but Pastors Doctors Wherein these are his words Zanchius cōfes fid cap. 25. Art 9. Plures autem ministrorum verbi ordines a Christo in Ecclesia institutos non agnoscimus quam quos Apostolus in epistola ad Ephesios ex pressit c. We doe not acknowledg more orders of Ministers of the word instituted by Christ in his Church saith M. Zanchius then those which the Apostle in his Epistle to the Ephesians hath expressed That is Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastors Doctors of which the first three Christ would not haue to be appoynted to any certaine places but now heare now there either to collect or plant Churches which the Apostles did or to water nourish and confirme those Churches which the Apostles had so planted and gathered together which the Prophets and Evangelists did and therefore might not be perpetuall in the Church but the two latter Christ would haue to be consecrated unto Churches that were certaine to governe preserue them that is to say Pastors and Doctors and that to be observed unto the end of the world which therefore we use to call perpetuall and ordinarie Ministers Of which in the next Article he saith Art 11 The Doctors did only teach and the Pastor did not only teach but also Minister the Sacraments and governe the Church By these you may plainly see M. Zanchius judgment that Christ hath appoynted in the Church no mo orders of them that preach the word of God but only Pastors Doctors which should remaine as perpetuall ordinarily called in the Church of which the one did only teach and the other which is the Pastor both preach and Minister the Sacraments and governe the Church And although afterwards he would defend or as he himselfe termeth it excuse those Fathers others which brought in more orders into the Church yet in the same chapter he saith that all those thinges were turned to tyrannie and ambition and concludeth with these words Quae causa est cur quo propius acceditur in iis etiam ordinibus ministrorum ad simplicitatem Apostolicam eo magis etiam nobis probetur atque ut vbique accedatur dandum esse operā iudicemus Which is the cause saith he why we iudge the neerer men come to that simplicity of the Apostles even in those orders of Ministers in the Church the more it is to be allowed and approyed and that in every place men ought to endevor themselues to attaine unto it Is it most evident that Zanchius condemneth and not justifieth the Lordship of Bishops in our time And the titles Metropolitans Archbishops Diocesans and the rest which long since haue been brought in by custom not by any truth of the Lords appoyntment according to old Ieromes saying Which words and judgment of Ierom Zanchius in the 11. Article commendeth alloweth and acknowledgeth himselfe to be fully of the same opinion And in the 25 chapter and the eleventh Aphorisme he endeth thus Interim quēadmodum non improbavi patres in ea re de qua est questio Sic etiam non possum nostrorum Zelum non amare qui ideo illa nomina oderunt quia metuunt ne cum nominibuus vetus eti am ambitio et tyrannis cum ruina Ecclesiarum revocetur In the meane time saith Zanchius like as I haue not condēned the Fathers in this matter in which the question is of the names and titles of Archbishops Metropolitans and so forth so also I cannot but loue the zeale of our men which therfore hate these names least with them the old tyrannie and ambition with the destruction of the Churches should be brought in agayne Can he be called a favorite of them which loveth them the better that hate those names Or can he be acounted to alow of those fūctions which saith as you haue heard before that the simplicitie of the Apostles alowed not of them Which simplicitie he saith is best to be alowed and in every place men should endevour to attaine unto it Although the Fathers did it for honest causes saith he perteyning to that time in which age the discipline of the Church kept them under from the wealth pompe and pride wherein they afterward lived and now liue For the Ecclesiasticall persons were bound by their Discipline Cap. 25. Art 38 Huius partes hae erant praecipuae c Of which Discipline the principall parts were First that they should abstaine from many pleasures delights which otherwise in laye men might in some sort be tollerated such as are many fleshly delights braue pompe great cheare costly housholdstuffe a great company of temporall servants and such like But howsoever he handle the matter beside which 1 Having set downe the true and lawfull Ministerie of the Gospell Theses Genevenses 71 which the Sonne of God ordayned and by his spirit divided into severall functions it now remaineth that we adioyne the false Ministerie of the same to the end that contraries being laid one against another may be better manifest 2 In the true Ministery of the Gospell there are three things which distinguish the same from the false The one that the authoritie of their callings proceed from the Sonne of God as being ordained either immediatly by himselfe or mediatlie by his Apostles The other is that the calling be lawfull that is such a calling as is squared according to the prescript lawes of the doctrine and Discipline of the Apostles The third is the prescript administration of the holie callings Now all these we advouch to haue been by litle and litle utterly overthrowne by the Papisticall tyrannie which with the Apostles we may iustly call the mysterie of iniquitie 3 And first we affirme that the callings of the Popish Cleargy which they expresse by that proud title of Hierarchie are in part altogether false that is such as haue at the first been invented by man and afterwards became meerelie diuelish and in part counterfeite that is such as onely retained the names of true callings which they abolished indeed 4 These functions following we hold to be altogether false and destitute of all true foundation namely the Primacie of the Bishop of Rome over all Churches the Cardinalship Patriarkship Archiepiscopalship breifly that whole Episcopall degree of Lord Bishops over their fellow Elders I wish the reader well to marke the first three poynts not to forget the fourth set downe by speciall name that is that these functions or offices following are utterly false and haue no manner of true foundation that is to say the office of Popes Cardinals Patriarkes Archbishops and to be short the whole Bishoplike degree over the rest of the Elders or Ministers The like may be sayd of Lausannae and the Universitie therof and so in many other parts of Savoy But I will onely ad some few sayings of Calvin Viret Beza
Marlorat Danaeus and Tilenus leaving all the rest of the French Churches and learned men there which are exceeding many in number but all with one consent agreeing with those last a fore named lights of the gospell both in their doctrine Discipline and practise of life And first of Calvin which was as famous a Pastor in the Citie of Geneva as Augustine was in Hippo Calvin or Ierome in the towne of Bethlem yet lived he not like a Lord but like Augustine and Ierome and as hath been before shewed in a very meane estate whereof I my selfe haue been an eye witnes The author Ioh. Cal. vita ante eius epist and as in the Historie of his life and death ye may also read Where it is written Testari certe potest Senatus quū perexigua essent eius stipendia c. The Senate of the Citie can testifie that although his stipend was very small yet was he so far frō being discontent therwith that a more ample allowance being freelie offred him he obstinatly refused it And a litle before his riches and wealth that he left behind him are set downe in these words Cuius bona omnia c. All those goods his librarie also being dearely sold came scarselie to three hundred French Crownes which a mounteth not to one hundred pounds of our mony but lacketh about some ten pounds thereof and yet all that he left came scarselie to so much And according to this his practise both publicklie privately he taught and wrote as you may read in his Instistutions lib. 4. cap. 4. Where he saith Heereby also we iudge what use there was and what manner of distribution of the Church goods Ech wher both in the decrees of the Synods among the old writers it is to be found that whatsoever the Church possesseth either in lands or mony is the patrimonie of the poore And a non after he saith But sith it is equitie and established by the law of the Lord that they which imploy their service to the Church should be fed with the common charges of the Church and also many priests in that age consecrating their patrimonies to God were willingly made poore the distributing was such that neither the Ministers wanted sustenance nor the poore were neglected But yet in the meane time it was provided that the ministers themselues which ought to giue example of honest sparing to other should not haue so much whereby they might abuse it to riotous excesse or deliciousnes but only wherwith to sustaine their owne need Har. Evang. Mat 20 25 And upon the 20 of Mathew 25 verse he saith Ye know that the Lords of the Gentiles haue dominion over them c. He declareth that there shal be no such superioritie in his kingdom as they did striue for They therfore are deceaved which do stretch this saying to all the godly in generall when as Christ onely teacheth of that matter in hand that the Apostles were very fond to make any question of degree of power or of honor in their estate and calling for the office of teaching whereto they were appoynted had no likelihood wtth the Empires of the world And after he saith The purpose of Christ was to put a difference between the spirituall regiment of his Church earthlie Empires least the Apostles should apply themselues to courtlie graces and fashions For as every one among the Nobles is beloued of Kings so he climeth up to wealth and offices But Christ set Pastors over his Church not to beare a Lorlie rule over them but to Minister So the error of the Anabaptists which doe banish Kings Magistrats from the Church of God because Christ sayd they were not like his Disciples is overthrowne For the comparison is not made heere between Christians and prophāe men but between offices And anon after he saith So David Ezekias and such like when aswillingly they became the servāts of all mē yet were they adorned with the Scepter Diadem Thrōe and other such ensignes But the goverment of the Church admitteth no such thing For Christ gaue no more allowance to the Pastors then that they should be Ministers and that they should altogether abstaine from Lordlie government I need not to make any explanation of his words for they are plaine enough further for the election of Bishops Ministers M. Calvin saith Truelie this is a most foule example Bishops made at the Court a soule mattes that out of the Court are Bishops to possesse Churches And it should be the worke of godly Princes to abstaine from such corruption For it is a wicked spoyling of the Church when there is thrust unto any people a Bishop whom they haue not desired or at the least with free voyce allowed And upon the the 14 of the Acts he saith Paul Barnabas are said to choose Elders Do they this alone by their private office Nay rather they suffer the matter to be decided by the consent of them all therefore in ordayning Pastors the people had their free election And upon the 6 of the Acts where the seaven Deacons were chosen by the people these are his words As touching this present place the Church is permitted to choose For it is tyrannous if any one man appoynt or make Ministers at his pleasure Therefore this is the most lawfull way that those be chosen by common voyces who are to take upon them any publicke function in the Church And concerning Nonresidencie and Pluralities of benefices he saith Instit 4. 8 Non obiiciam verbum Dei c. I will not obiect against thē saith M. Calvin that the word of God doth in every place cry out against it which long since amongst them hath ceased to be in any manner of account Neither will I obiect many most severe constitution in many Counsells that hath been ordeyned against this wickednes For these Constitutions also as often as they list they stoutly contemne But I say that both these things are a prodigious or monstrous mischevous wiekednes utterly against God against nature against the Ecclesiasticall governement that one arrant theefe should sit over divers Churches together that he should be named unto Satans kingdom But also unlike to the earthly kingdomes which are governed by good civill pollicie Therefore Iesus Christ said that he came not to be served but to serue and to shew unto his Disciples the difference that they should put betweene the worldli◠kingdomes and their estate And his Church and the estate and government of the same c. He saith the Kings of the nations c. And a non after he saith When Iesus Christ sent his Apostles he said unto them As my Father sent me so send I you For he medled not nor tooke upon him to raigne as a worldly Prince But when the people sought him to make him a King he hid himselfe And when he was requyred to devide an inheritance between two brethren
he would not medle with it not because the thing it selfe was evill or that it was evill don to appoynt those which were indifferent But to shew that he was come and sent of God his Father for greater thinges he left that office unto Cesar and to his officers And was content with that his Father had committed unto him And the same Commission he had in that behalfe he gaue to his Apostles Now one word of Marlorat Agayne saith he what are these reverend Cardinalls Marlorat exp one the Revel cap 17 3 Archbishops Archprelats Patriarks Primats Presidents Deanes Cannons Archpriests Archdeacons Abbots Priors or Masters Cōmendators For like as Antichrist hath his names of blasphemy even so they that be in office under him and are bound unto him by oth haue also names by themselues which the scriptures know not of In deed the Primitiue Church had Ministers Stewards Elders or Overseers Apostles Prophets Evangelists Shepheards and Teachers as you may perceaue by these places 1. Cor 4.1.12.4.5.6.7.8 And Ephe 4.11 But all these were names of service and labour and noe stiles of pride And upon the 9 chapter he hath these words For the tayles of Antichrist are Bishops Officials Commissaries Deanes Registers Chancelours Proctors and Somners which are like unto venemous serpents Now somwhat also touching these matters of Religion and Hierarchie of the Church Beza as they call it out of M. Beza whom M. Peter Martyr and many other learned men not without cause do so greatlie admire for his sinceritie in judgment and excellent gifts as you may read in many of their epistles and workes But I will heere set downe the testimonie of that singular divine and most noble patrone of the Gospell among our English writers D. Fulke who against Gregorie Martin that conning Papist and false accuser defendeth Calvin Beza and Viret by these words The bookes saith D. Fulke of Calvin Beza Uiret keep themselues within the compasse of the holy scriptures Fulk 7. in epist ad Ro◠and hold no blasphemous or other erronious opinions that derogate any thing from the glorie of God or be hurtfull to the salvation of men as your slaunderous and malitious pen supposeth Now therefore let us heare what Beza saith whose books keep themselues within the compasse of holy scriptures and hold no erronious opinions as D. Fulk testifieth First touching the election of Ministers upon this place of the Acts. Acts 1. ◠2 3 And when they had ordained them Elders by election in every Church and fasted they commended them to the Lord in whom they believed where upon in his Annotation he hath these words Paulum ac Barnaham sciamus nihil privato arbitrio gessisse t. Let us know that Paul Barnabas did execute nothing upon their owne private choyse nor exercised any tyrannie in the Church and to be short they did not any such manner of thing as do now a dayes the Romish Pope and his serving men which they call Ordinaries Some had rather referre this unto the laying on of hands which also is necessary and catching this pretence they say that our vocation is voyd because the Ordinaries and defiled with infinit superstitions But som man will say these be auncien things I grant they be auncient but much more auncient is the simplicitie of the Apostles under which simplicity the Church florished And for the signe of the Crosse he saith Whatsoever use was made thereof in the old time it is now but an execrable superstition And touching the questions in baptisme he answereth Itaque sicut Chrisma et exorcismus quantumvis vetusta c. Therefore like as the Chrisme and exorcisme or coniuration although they be very auncient by very good right are abolished so we would wish this interogatiō being not onely vayne but also flolish were left out And towards the latter end of the same Epistle he saith Aiunt quoque excommunicationes et absolutiones in curiis quibusdam Episcopalibus in Anglia fieri non ex presbyterii quod nullū ibi sit sentētiâ etc. They say also that in England excommunications absolutions are done in certaine Episcopall courts and not by the iudgment of the Presbyterie which is not there to be had Whereunto we answer that it seemeth to us almost uncredible to see such an abuse of most perverse manner and example yet to be used in that kingdome where the puritie of doctrine doth florish for it is out of doubt that the right use of excommunication before the Papisticall tyrannie was never in the power of one man but perteyned to the right of the Presbyterie not utterly excluding the peoples consent Heereunto I will agayne anex the testimonie and defence of D. Fulke against the Papists and other which with such contempt reject the sincere judgment and excellent learnyng of M. Beza Whatsoever account you make of M. Beza he shall notwithstanding saith D. Fulke with all godly learned men be accounted as he deserveth Fulke def of the English tran cap 5. One who hath more profited the Church of God with his sincere translation and learned Annotations then all the Popish Seminaries and Seminarists shal be able to hinder it Iangle of grosse and flase Translations as long as you will Thus passing over allmost infinite other lights of the Gospell both of the most auncient and late writers abroad which speake to the very same effect in these poynts of religion with us in question Onely I will set downe further the wordes of Danaeus and Tilenus two famous learned men among the reformed Churches of France which are exceeding many in number and almost excellent in reformation of Christian religion Who according to the judgment of them all Danaeus in Tim. 5.22 doe speake thus of the Election and Ordination of Ministers Ex his omnbus apparet quam nulla sit c. By all this it appeareth that the calling of those Ministers of Gods word or Pastors of the Church is none or not lawfull which are made and chosen by the authoritie letters seales commandement and iudgment of the King onely or Queene or Patron or Bishop or Archbishop That which is yet done agrevous thing in those Churches even in the middest of England which haue notwithstanding and doe follow the pure word of God It is marvaill that the Englishmen otherwise wise wittie and very godly should yet wittinglie and willingly be blind in the acknowledging and tollerating of these relicks of Popish Idolatry and tyrannie Therefore they iudge excellently which condemne or takyng away and would haue taken away out of a Church reformed according to Gods word * Omnem il laem chartulariam et Episcopaticā curionum et pastorū c. all this way of makyng Curates and Pastors of the Church by Bishops and their letters of Orders and the calling of the Ministers of the heavenly word their approbation and their entrance by the onely consent and letters of the
Bishop Because so the order prescribed by Gods word in the ordination of such persons is omitted and violated as it may most plainly appeare Even because all the right and voyce giving both of the Ecclesiasticall Senat and of the christian people is most wretchedly taken away from them by this meanes in this kind of Ecclesiasticall callings and with great tyrannie and abuse translated to one certayne man the Bishop The Lord God of his great mercy amend these corruptions which are yet and are defended in his Churches which surely will at length draw 〈…〉 great ruine of Gods Church and will make the holy Ministery of Gods words either mercenary or altogether contemned and base Which God turne away D. 〈◊〉 Answer to the Count. Laval quest 3. After him we will ad D. Tilenus his iudgment unto the Earle of Lavall in France Who demanding whether the calling to the Ministery be necessary and from whom Calvin had his calling Tilenus answeren First that it is necessary And then that Calvin had his calling from the Church of Geneva and from Farell his predecessor who had also his from the people of Geneva who had right and authoritie to institute and depose Ministers For so declareth S. Cyprian saying that the people obeying to the commandements of God should seperat themselues from a wicked guid Câ—pr epist 〈…〉 and not to meddle with the sacrifices of any Sacrilegious Priest considering that the sayd people haue chiefe authoritie to make choyse of worthy persons and to reiect the vnworthy This was so practised by the people of Geneva and in divers other parts of Evrope where in these latter times they did forsake those sacrilegious Priests and sacrifices of the Pope for to establish faithfull Ministers and proclamers of the Gospell To be short the Reformed Churches had their calling and sending partly from God and partly from the people and partly froÌ„ the Church of Rome From God as the chiefe cause from the people as by lawfull instruments from the Church of Rome as by a corrupt instrument God gaue the essence and the forme interior to this sending the reformed Church gaue testimonies and approbations and the exterior forme the Church of Rome hath added thereto abuses and corruptions which our suceeeding Ministers haue renounced There resteth now for further proofe of these matters before spoken of to rehearse the judgment and words of divers of our owne English writers and blessed Martirs which agree with those Fathers and lights of the Gospell in other Countries before cited And first having sufficiently spoken alreadie of Wicklife that first light of the gospell set up with us in the middest of the Antichristian darknes L. Cobham Fox pa 669 edit 1570 I will begin with the noble Martir the Lord Cobham who in defence of the sayd Wickliffe saith As for that vertuous man Wickliffe whose iugdments ye so highly disdayne I shall say heere for my part both before God and man that before I knew that despised doctrin of his I never abstained from sinne But since I learned therein to feare my Lord God it hath otherwise I trust been with me somuch grace could I never find in all your instructions And what the doctrine of Wickliffe was and how like a Lordly Prelat he lived I referre the reader to that which hath been before spoken of him pag 57. But the Lord Cobham beyng charged with the decrees of holie Church answerd I know none holier then Christ and his Apostles And as for that determination I wote it is none of theirs for it standeth not with the scriptures but manifestly against theÌ„ If it be the Churches as you say it is It hath been hers onely since she receaved the great poyson of worldly possessions not afore And a non after agayne he saith For since the venime of Iudas was shed into the Church ye never followed Christ neither haue ye stand in the perfection of Gods law Then the Archbishop asked him what he meÌ„t by that venime The Lord Cobham said your possessions and Lordships For then cried an Angell in the aire as your owne chronicles mention woe woe woe this day is venime shed into the Church of God Heere you see plainely by this noble Martirs iudgment that the Lordship of Bishops and their possessions was the very curse of God vpon the Church and the very poyson that turned her froÌ„ And in his Practise of Popish Prelats Prelats appoynted to preach Christ Pract. of prelats pa 342 may not leaue Gods word and Minister temporall offices but ought to teach the lay people the right way and to let them alone with all temporall busines And aftherward he saith They that haue the oversight of Christs flocke may be no Emperours Kings Duks Lords Knights temporall Iudges or any temporall officer or under false names haue any such dominion And a none after he saith Mathew the 20. Christ called his Disciples unto him and said Ye know that the Lords of the heathen people haue dominion over them and they that be great doe exercise power over them howbeit it shall not be so among you But whosoever wil be great among you shall be your Minister and he that will be chiefe shall be your servant even as the Sonne of man came not that meÌ„ should Minister unto him but for to Minister giue his life for the redemption of many Wherefore the officers in Christs kingdom may haue no temporall dominion or iurisdiction nor execute any temporall authoritie or law of violence nor haue any like manner among them And in his booke of Obedience he saith Let Kings take their dutie of their subiects and that necessary unto the defence of the Realme Obed. of achr pa 124. let them rule the realmes themselues with the heelp of lay men that are sage wise learned and expert Is it not a shame aboue all shames and a monstrous thing that no man should be found able to governe in a worldly kingdom saue Bishops and Prelats that haue forsaken the world and are taked out of the world and appoynted to preach the kingdome of God Christ saith that his kingdom is not of this world Ioh. 18. Lvke 12. Vnto the young man that desired him to bid his brother to giue him part of the inheritance he answered who made me a judge a devider among you No man that layeth his hand to the plough and looketh backe is apt for the kingdom of heaven Luke 9. No man can serue two Masters but he must despise the one Mat 6. To Preach Gods word is to much for halfe a man And to Minister a temporall kingdome is to much for halfe a man also Either other requyreth an whole man One therefore cannot do both well And after in the same booke he saith An other sort of the Prelats are of the Kings secret Counsell 16 pag 152. Woe unto the Realmes where they are of the Counsell as profitable are
to draw all to them had appropriat unto themselues the terme that of right is common unto all the whole Congregation of them that beleiue in Christ and with their false and subtile wiles had beguiled and mocked the people and brought them into the ignorance of the word making them understand by this word Church nothing but the shaven flocke of them that shore the whole world Therefore in the translation of the new Testament where I found this word Ecclesia I translated it by this word Congregation Even therefore did I it and not of any mischevous mind or purpose to stablish herisie as M. More untruely reporteth of me in his Dialogue where he rayleth on the translation of the new Testament And where M. More saith that this word Church is knowne well enough I report me unto the consciences of all the land whether he saith truth or otherwise or whether the lay people understand by Church the whole multitude that professe Christ or the iugling spirits onely And when he saith that Congregation is a more generall terme if it were it hurteth not For the circumstance doth ever tell what Congregation is ment Never the lesse yet saith he not the truth For wheresoever I may say a Congregation there may I say a Church also as the Church of the Devill the Church of Satan the church of wicked men the Church of liâ—rs and a Church of Turkes thereto For M More must grant if he will haue Ecclesia translated throughout all the new Testament by this word Church that Church is as coÌ„mon as Ecclesia Now is Ecclesia a Greeke word and was in use before the time of the Apostles and taken for a Congregation among the Heathen where was no Congregation of God or of Christ Concio Populiâ— And also Lucas himselfe useth Ecclesia for a Church or Congregation of Heathen people thrise in one chapter even in the 19 of the Actes where Demetrius the gold smith or Silversmith had gathered a company against Paul for preaching against Images Howbeit M. More hath so long used his figures of Poetrie that I suppose when he erreth most he now by reason of a long custome beleiveth himselfe that he saith most true Or else as the wise people when they dance naked in nettes beleiue that no man seeth them even so M. More thinketh that his errors be so subtilly couched that no man can espie them Up on which matter it is worth the note of remembrance first that M. Tindall sheweth the reason why the Cleargie would haue this word Church used in the English rather then Congregation And it is thus that like hard hearted adamants they might draw all thinges to themselues and appropriate to themselues only the terme that of right is common to the whole Congregation of them that beleiue in Christ desiring to make the people understand by this word Church not the whole congregatioÌ„ of God but themselues onely And surely it is well knowne that the lay people unto this day doe commonly understand was at his owne privat studies c. ordinarily winter and Sommer at two of the clocke in the morning Let us therfore heare what this golden mouth saith in the foresaid poynts of reformation yet desired and not obteyned As touching the Lordship of Bishops he saith Right Prelating is busie laboring not Lording M. Latimer Sermon 4. at Paules And a non after he saith But thus much I dare say that since Lording and loytering hath come up preaching hath come downe contrary to the Apostles time For they Preached and Lorded not And now they Lord and preach not For they that be Lords will ill go to plough it is no meete office for them It is not seeming for their estate And further he saith And no marvell for if the ploughmen that now be were made Lords they would cleane giue over ploughing they would leaue of their labors and fall to Lording out right and let the plough stand And thus both ploughes not walking nothing should be in the common weale but hunger For ever since the Prelats were made Lords and Nobles the plough standeth there is no worke done the People starue They hauke they hunt they card they dice they pastime in their Pallacies with gallant gentlemen with their dancing Minions and with their fresh companions so that ploughing is set aside And by their Lording and loytering preaching and ploughing is cleane gone And thus if the ploughmen of the Country were as negligent in their office as Prelats be we should not long liue for want of sustenance And agayne a litle after As dilligently as the husbandman plougheth for the sustentation of the body so diligent must the Prelats and Ministers labour for the feeding of the soule both the ploughes must still be goyng as most necessary for man And wherefore are Magistrats ordayned but that the tranquillitie of the common weale may be confirmed limitting both ploughes But now for the fault of unpreaching Prelats me thinks I could gesse what might be said for excusing of them They are so troubled with Lordly living they be so placed in palaces couched in Courts rusting in their rents dauncyng in their dominions burdened with Ambassages pampering of their panches like a Munk that maketh his Iubillie munching in their mangers moyling in their gay mannors mansions and so troubled with loytering in their Lordships that they cannot attend it They are otherwise occupied some in Kings matters some are Ambassadors some of the privie Counsell som to furnish the Court som are Lords of the Parliament some are Presidents and controwlers of mints Well well is this their dutie Is this their office Is this their calling And yet further anon after he saith It is also a slander to the Noble men as though they lacked wisdom and learning to be able for such offices or else were no men of coÌ„science or else were not meete to be trusted for such offices And a Prelate hath a cure and charge otherwise and therefore he cannot discharge his dutie be a Lord President too For a Presidentship requireth a whole man and a Bishop cannot be two men A Bishop hath his office a flocke to teach to looke unto and therefore he cannot meddle with another office which alone requyreth a whole man He should therefore giue it over to whom it is meete and labour in his owne buisines as Paul writeth to the Thessalonians Let every man doe his owne buisines and follow his calling Let the Preist preach and Noblemen handle the temporall matters And afterward speaking of those which about a King do hinder the reformation of religion calling them Blanchers he saith Therefore say they all things shal be well but not out of hand for feare of further busines Blanchers These be the Blanchers that hitherto haue stopped the word of God and hindered the true setting forth of the same There be so many put offes so many put bies so many respects
put on the Surplice and the rest of the Popish apparell as our booke of Martyrs sheweth D. Brooks Lord Bishop of Gloucester commeth to him with these words saying B Put of your cap M. Ridley put upon you this surplice Ridley ib pa. 1934 pag 1935 ed. 1570. Not I truely B But you must Rid I will not B You must therefore make no more a doe but put this surplice upon you Rid Truely if it come upon me it shall be against my will Br Will you not do it upon you Rid No that I will not Br It shall be put upon you by one or other Rid Doe therin as it shall please you I am well contented with that and more then that the servant is not aboue his Master If they delt so cruelly with our Saviour Christ as the scripture maketh mention and he suffered the same patiently how much more doth it become us his servants And in saying of these wordes they put upon the said D. Ridley the Surplice with all the trinkets appertayning to the Masse and as they were putting on the same D. Ridley did vehemently inveigh against the Romish Bishop all that foolish apparell calling him Antichrist that apparell foolish and abominable yea to fond for a vice in a playe Wherin these fiue things are to be observed in this peece of dialogue First that none of all the Popish attire is named but the Surples and that is named three times that it might not be forgottē Secondly that M. Ridley compares those Popish garments to the attire that in scorne and dispite Herod and the rest of the crucifiers put upon Christ Which thing as you heard before M. Iohn Husse speaketh of saying That when they put the white garment upon him he could not but remember how Herod put the white garment upon Christ to scorne him with all Thirdly that he compareth the very crueltie thereof with the cruell and shamefull dealing against Christ As likwise our booke of Martyrs saith of M. Hooper when he was driven by Ridley and the rest Acts Mo. pag. 667. edit 1570 to weare the popish apparell Thus saith our book of Martyrs He had upon his head a geometricall that is a foure squared cap able it that his head was round What cause of shame saith Master Fox the strangnes thereof was that day to that good preacher every man may easily iudge Fourthly that the same rod of Gods correction was now layd upon M. Ridley which he and the rest of the Bishops had laid upon their fellow Elder M. Hooper Fiftly how vehement the spirit of God stirred him up to detest the surplice and the rest of the Popish apparell calling the Pope Antichrist the surplice with the rest of the Popish apparell foolish and abominable and to fond for a vice in a playe Alas that ever the good learned preachers of the word of God should be compelled either to loose their Ministery or else to be attyred like vices and fooles in playes But let us go forward and heare what this noble witnes and Martyr of God saith in other poyntes of reformation now desired In his treatise wherein is conteyned a lamentation for the change of religion in England Acts Mo. pag 1946. edit 1570 he saith There are in the Papistrie an innumerable rablement of abominations Among which he setteth downe by name dispensations and immunities from all godly Discipline lawes and good order pluralityes and totquots and as he saith a thowsand moe O that dispensations of Nonresidencies pluralities vnions and totquots which M. Ridley nombreth among the rablemēt of Popish abominations were out of England and restored unto the Pope which he so often calleth Antichrist and to his spouse the Church of Rome which he calleth the very whore of Babilon And for the name of Priest in his disputation at Oxford he saith There are but two onely orders of Preisthood allowed in the word of God namely the order of Aaron and the order of Melchisedech but now the order of Aaron is come to an end by reason it was unprofitable and weake Hebr. 7. And of the order of Melchisedech there is but one Priest alone even Christ And generally of all matters of religion speaking of the Church of Rome before she plaied the harlot Acts Mo pag 1939. edit 1570. and maried her selfe to Antichrist he saith If ye will know how long that was and how many hundred of yeares to be curious in poynting the precise number of yeares I will not be to bold But thus I say so long and so many hundred yeares as that sea did truely teach and Preach that Gospell that religion exercised that power and ordered every thing by these lawes and rules which that sea receaved of the Apostles as Tertullian saith the Apostles of Christ and Christ of God So long I say that sea might haue been called Peter and Paules chaire and sea or rather Christs chaire and the Bishop therof Apostolicus or a true disciple and successor of the Apostles How happie were we all our Bishops if by this rule of M. Ridley they might be called Apostolici and true Disciples and Successors of the Apostles which cannot be till every thing be ordered by these lawes and rules which they receaue from the Apostles the Apostles of Christ and Christ of God Cranmer Now although I haue alreadie spoken of Cranmer yet heere agayne I cannot but compare him to Solomon with his many hundred wiues who at the last drew him to Idolatry and all abominations So Cranmer being married to many hundred Churches was at the last driven to subscribe to all abominations of Popery For well may we compare the many hundred wives and concubines of Solomon unto the multitude of Churches subject unto an Archbishop pag 929. ed. 1570. And rightly no doubt it is spoken by one of the blessed Martyrs in our booke of Actes Monumēts that it is as lawfull for a lay man to haue two wiues at once as for a preiq to haue two benefices And Cranmer being the elect child of God with Solomon at the last detested the foulnes of his owne fall First he fired his owne hand for subscribing to all the abominatiōs of Antichrist and so entred through the fire of torments into euerlasting ioye with Christ Iewell The like may be sayd of Iewel Bishop of Salisburie who although he did beare much with the injquitie of the to follow but children and infants And in another place he saith They use them as the marchants use his counters somtime they stand for an hundred pounds somtime for a penie This is the objection which unto this day is commonly made against the reformation which many good men desire to be made according to the original of the primitiue Churches which objection you see heere with what derision M. Iuell rejecteth it as though therby they counted Christ and his Apostles as children and
babes without wit and judgment to know what was fit for the Church of God and to be used in all ages And yet saith he when they list they shall be counted holy Fathers holy Doctors And against our double fleeced men thus he speaketh O that Aggcus the Prophet were now a liue and saw the rearing up of Gods Temple here in England ib postea what think yee he would say You build your owne houses leaue the house of God forsaken nay he would say you build your owne Mansions pull down the house of God The Masters of the worke build benefice upon benefice and Deanerie upon Deanerie as though Rome were yet England And against the Nonresidents and pluralitie men thus he cryeth out Serm. in Ios These Nonresidents and pluralitie men teach not they know not nor care for the people of their charg they haue brought confusion and shame into the house of God If it be true which this excellent Iewel of England saith that Nonresidents plurality men are they that bring shame and confusion in to the house of God with what face can any Christian man maintayne them not rather inveigh against them But let all the pretious Iewels in the world crie out upon them yet the bellie hath no eares Of these belliefleecers it is written Whose God is their bellie and glorie to their shame For with shame enough they haue brought as M. Iewell saith shame and confusion into the house of God And where the Papist Harding maintayneth that an Ecclesiasticall person may use a civill office without care and so neither deceaue himselfe and those that heare him de apol pag 522. M Iewell setteth downe upon the Margent Fond and childish As though a Bishop moy haue the temporall sword and execut a temporall office without worldly cares pag 623. And yet agayne to the same purpose afterward he saith Christ himselfe saith to the Pope and to all other Priests and Bishops The Kings of Nations rule over them and they that are great exercise authoritie over the people But it shall not be so among you S. Cyprian saith as he is aleaged by Gratian Christ by severall duties and distinct honors hath set a difference between the offices of both powers And straightway to the same effect he alleageth Bernard It is playne that temporall dominion is forbidden the Apostles Now therefore darest thou the Pope usurpe eyther the Apostleship being a Prince or the prīchood being the successor of the Apostles Doubtlesse from the one of them thou art forbidden If thou wilt indifferently haue both thou shalt loose both Otherwise thinke not thou canst be accepted from the number of them of whom the Lord complayneth They haue made themselus Kings but not by me I wot not how M. Iewell joyning himselfe with Cyprian and Bernard could more plainly condemne civill offices in Ecclesiasticall persons And it is worthy to be noted how M. Iewel applyeth these wordes of Christ to be spoken onely of Pope Bishops and Priests And wher M. Harding calleth the Pope the Prince of Pastors M. Iewel answereth him in this sort de apol pag 112 1. Peter 4 He might haue remembred that the right of this name belongeth unto Christ S. Peter saith That whē Christ the Prince of Pastors shall appeare ye may receaue the uncorruptible crowne Now to infeaffe the Pope with Christs peculier titles a mun might think it were great blasphemy Certainly S. Cyprian saith None put to silence in the Church of God To be short Origen saith Querendum est c We must examine what is ment by this that followeth Leaue her no manner of remnant the meaning is this Abolish not certaine of the superstitions of the Caldees reserving certaine Therefore he commandeth that nothing be left in her be it never so litle May it therefore please you to understand that at the beginning there appeared no such distinction or difference of apparell in the Ministery Ualafredus Abbas saith Veteres cōmuni indumēto vtentes celebrabāt missas The old Fathers said mass that is to say ministred the holy cōmuniō having on their owne cōmon apparell S Augustin in his rules to his Clearks or Mōks writeth thus Ne sit notabilis habitus vester Let not your apparell be notable S. Ierom describing the order of the Church at Bethlē saith thus In veste nulla discretio c. In apparell there is no difference there is no wondring Howsoever a man list for to go it is neither standered nor praysed And Pope Coelestinus the first saith Discernendi sumus a plebe c We must be knowne from the laye people by our doctrine not by our coate by our conversation not by our apparell by the puernes of our mind not by the attire of our bodie For if we once begin to devise novelties we shall tread our Fathers orders under foote make roome for superstition The minds of the ignorant ought to be taught and not to be mocked Neither may we goe about to dasell their eyes but rather power wholsome doctrine into their heartes These places cited by M. Iewel I haue heere set downe that the unlearned reader which yet loveth the sinceritie of the Gospell may be the better armed against them which affirme that all thinges which are in their owne nature indifferent may be used in the Church and service of God yea though they haue been heretofore yet are in other places never so superstitiously and Idolatriously abused Of which opinion the heretickes were that Augustine in his booke Ad quod vult Deum speaketh of August ad quod vult deū cap 28. Which ioyned cheese with bread in the ministration of the Supper and were called Artotyritae which they thought to be a thing indifferent and therefore lawfull to be done And to say the troth no man can deny it but to eate cheese is a thing indifferent but in that place and at that time by the Minister to be delivered unto the communicants with the bread of the Lord it was a thing abominable and utterly unlawfull to be donne and therefore even in that poynt they were worthy to be cōdemned for heritickes though they had held no other poynt of heresie but that And what lesse can be said of other Ceremonyes and their defenders But of M Iewels words I wish specially to obserue these They may iustly say they would not gladly in any appearance shew them selues like unto them that haue so untruely so long deceaved the world And heerein they are not without sundrie authorities and examples of the godly Fathers And marke this word they may iustly say it For if they may justly say Reply they would not weare them then are they uniustly imposed upon them Agayne M Iewell saith pag 417 ed. 1565. Neither durst Moses or his workmen to adde or to minish or to alter any one thing of their devise or to doe any thing more or lesse