faultes Christian charitie forceth me to winke at them because I know greater matter in my selfe And I see they are men and no Angels and they liue in a perillous time and haue many occasions to offend so that it is harder for them to stande vpright then for some other that are in priuate state Hee is an Angell that neuer falleth hee is no man Men are fraile and in daunger to sinne though they haue otherwise great graces If any of them haue fallen with Aaron to anie great and horrible offence I trust they are with him also risen by repentaunce and with teares in the mercie of God washed away their wickednesse Or if they haue not I must needes say with Christ Better it were that a Milstone were hanged about their neckes and they cast into the sea then that by their continuance in euil they shoulde bee occasion that anie shoulde fall from God or reiect his Gospell As their vertues are more profitable and beneficial to the Church of God then the vertues of other priuate persons so are their vices and faults more hurtfull daungerous They stande on an high place where all mens eyes are fastened vppon them their least faultes cannot be hidde and the greatest are of all men abhorred A wart in the face and a blemish in a Bishoppe is no small disfiguring of either of them If other mens faults be seene the offence is not accounted great but if a bishops be espied it is esteemed not according to the greatnes of the thing but according to the dignitie of the person Hee that knoweth the will of his Master and doth it not shalbe beaten with many stripes Sacerdos saith Chrysostome sipariter cum Subditis peccat non eadem sed acerbiora patietur If a Priest shall offend as the inferiour doeth hee shal suffer not the same punishment but farre greater It behooueth them therefore in the feare of God to looke more diligently about them then any other and specially in these miserable dayes vvherein all mens eyes are so curiously set vpon them that they almost cleane forget to looke any thing vpon themselues or to finde fault vvith any other then vvith Ecclesiasticall persons and officers Obiection Heere some perchaunce vvill take me in mine ovvne turne and conclude against al that hitherto I haue spoken yea and against the vvhole purpose of my vvriting That if Bishoppes offences be so grieuous and hurtfull more then other mens are and that our Bishops and Ecclesiasticall Ministers are seene to commit so soule and heynous faultes that they are worthie of all that euill that is spoken against them and that I cannot iustly blame these persons that with great zeale doe reproue these their doings so hurtful to the Church of Christ and so dangerous to the people of God Answere Surely if all bee true that is vvritten and spoken against them as I trust and in part I knovve it is not I must needs confesse and vvere vvicked if I vvoulde denie that they had iustly deserued vvhatsoeuer euill coulde be vttered of them For sure I am if as I say all vvere true that is spoken that they should be as detestable as any heretikes that euer vvere in the Church yea as the Pope and Antichrist himselfe vvhose pillars and vpholders they are called and accounted vvith many And yet can I not excuse them vvhich in such manner doe persecute them vvith the bitternesse of their tongue and penne no more then I can excuse Nabuchodonosor or any other tyrant that plagued the people of God offending against his lavve For vvhatsoeuer God in his prouidence respected they looked onely to the satisfying of their couetous ambitious cruell and bloody affection And so vvhatsoeuer God regardeth in chastening his negligent Ministers or in vvaking them out of sleepe vvith the sourre of infamy and reproch yet by their virulent and vnseasoned speeches that are vsed by the scornefull and disdainefull reproches by the rash and vncharitable vntruethes I feare it may bee too truely gathered that they vvhich bee the instruments thereof seeke to fulfill their enuious proude and disdainefull appetites or the working of some other purpose which they looke to bring to passe by the discrediting of the Bishops and other chiefe of the Clergie which be as great blockes and stops in their way Qui habet aures ad audiendum audiat But let such persons in time take heede vvhen God as a mercifull father hath chastised his children sufficiently and stirred them to remember their dueties that he cast not the rod into the fire as before time he hath vsed to doe and bring the rewarde of their vnchristian dealing vpon their ovvne heades If right zeale vvith conscience and detestation of euil vvere the roote of these inuectiues which so boyle in loath some choller bitter gall against the Bishops other of the Clergie surely the same spirit would mooue them to breake out into like vehement lamentations against the euils and vices which shew themselues in a great nomber of this Realme I meane the deepe ignorance and contempt of God in the midst of the light of the Gospell the heathenish securitie in sinne and wickednesse the monstrous pride in apparell the voluptuous riot and sensualitie the excessiue buildings and needelesse nestes of mens treasures which bee as cankers consuming the riches of this Realme What shall I say of the loosenesse of whoredome and adulterie the wrongfull wresting by extortion bribery and vsury the crafty cosening for priuate commoditie the libertie in false swearing and periurie with the heape almost of all other vices where with mans life may be distained so that if some stay were not by moderat gouernment and some meane number restrained in conscience by the doctrine of the Gospell it were greatly to be feared that our wickednesse would growe in haste to such perfection as it woulde presently pull out of heauen Gods wrath against vs. But all these thinges are wrapt vp in deepe silence among most of these men vnlesse it bee to vpbraid Bishops as causes thereof and the corrupt gouernment as it is thought of this Church with the rich and wealthy states of Bishops pretended to bee the onely cause of Gods indignation toward vs. But this is the wicked working of the deuill to turne mens eyes from their owne sinnes that they may not acknowledge them and by repentance turne away the displeasure of God and his iustice hanging ouer vs and if it be possible also to destroy the course of the Gospell that hath bene so long with so small fruit among vs. But here I haue to aduertise the godly and chiefely the Prince and Magistrates that they be not abused and ledde by the cunning that Sathan hath alwayes vsed to deface the glory of God and disturbe his Church When Sathan seeth the doctrine of Trueth to spring vp amongst men and somewhat to prosper when hee seeth wickednesse and vice by diligent preaching to bee repressed and thereby his
are more easily wroght by ambitious persons to giue their consent to vnwoorthy men as may appeare in all those offices of gaine or dignity that at this day remaine in the choice of the multitude yea though they be learned Men doe knowe by experience that parishes vpon some priuate respect do send their Letters of earnest commendations for very vnfit and vnable persons whereby it may bee gathered what they would do if the whole choise were in their handes especially being so backwardly affected toward the trueth of religion as a great part of men are They will aunswere perhappes that they shall bee ouerseene by the Pastours neere about them in a particular Synode and forced both to be quiet and also to make more fitte elections But vvho seeth not vvhat matter of trouble this vvil be vvhen vpon the occasion almost of euery election they must haue a particular Synode And if the parish vvil not be ruled as surely many vvil not then must they bee excommunicated and appeale made vnto the Prince and Magistrate And that vvhich passeth novv with quietnesse and vvith a little amendment may bee vvell vsed shal be continuall occasion of broile and trouble whereto this nation is more inclined vpon light causes then any other Moreouer that vvhich is most of all pretended for this manner of common Election that they may knovee their minister and thereby haue the better liking of him can not possibly bee brought to passe vnlesse they vvill imagine that euery parish shall haue within it selfe a Schoole or Colledge where those shall bee brought vp that shall bee preferred to the ministerie among them But howe possible that is to bring to passe among vs let anie man iudge If their ministers shall come vnto them from the Vniuersities or other schooles they shall haue as little acquaintance with them as now they haue and farre greater occasion of partiall sutes then nowe there is So that inconueniences by this meanes shall bee increased and not remedied That euery parish in Englande may haue a learned and discreete minister howsoeuer they dreame of perfection no man is able in these dayes to deuise how to bring it to passe and specially when by this change of the clergie the great rewards of learning shall be taken away men thereby discouraged to bring vp their children in the studie of good Letters Furthermore who seeth not howe small continuance there shall bee in the Vniuersities to make men of any profound knowledge whē the very necessity of places shall drawe men away before they come to any ripenesse the effect whereof is partly perceiued at this day already much more would be if their deuise should take place Touching the inconuenience of Discipline by excommunication onely which they so much crie for how it will be of most men contemned and of how smal force it wil be to bring to effect any good amendment of life some learned men of this age in their workes set foorth to the vvorlde haue at large declared I let passe that experience teacheth that men of stubburnnesse vvil not shunne the company of them that be excommunicated and then must they bee excommunicated for keeping of company vvith them and so will it fall out that more vvill be excommunicated then in Communion whereof vvhat deformities and inconueniences vvil arise Saint Augustine doeth reach vs. The loosenesse of these dayes requireth Discipline of sharper lavves by punishment of body and danger of goods which they doe and vvill more feare then they vvill excommunication And God bee thanked if men would be contented with any moderation we haue a very good manner of discipline by the ecclesiasticall commission vvhich hath done and doeth daily much good would do more if it were more cōmon men would take more pains in it But this is that which they be most grieued with because they are not doers in it themselues The deciding of matters in controuersie by the Pastours and Elders of the Church beside that it will interrupt the course of the lawes of the realme it will be great occasion of partiall and affectionate dealing and thereby of further strife and discorde and a matter of schismes and diuisions as is to bee perceiued aboundantly in the Ecclesiasticall Writers For some will incline to the one part and the residue shall be wrought to fauour the other which hath beene the principal roote of al schismes in the Church yea and thereby of many heresies Wee must not onely looke in these corrupt times howe vprightly men should deale but cōsider by present experience of sundrie persons and places howe affectionately they do deale in some like matters and thereby gather what they will doe when they haue greater authoritie This order was good where the church was in persecution vnder tyrants but where the assistance may be had of a Christian Prince or Magistrate it is neither necessarie nor so conuenient as it may be otherwise Surely common election of ministers and this deciding of matters in controuersie by a multitude will breede greater strife and contention then without danger will bee appeased Furthermore their whole drift as it may seeme is to bring the gouernement of the Church to a Democracie or Aristocracie The principles and reasons whereof if they bee made once by experience familiar in the mindes of the common people and that they haue the sense and feeling of them It is greatly to bee feared that they will very easily transferre the same to the Gouernement o of the common weale For by the same reasons◠they shall be induced to thinke that they haue iniurie if they haue not as much to do in ciuill matters as they haue in matters of the Church seeyng they also touch their commoditie and benefite temporally as the other doeth spiritually And what heereof may follow I leaue to the iudgement of other The way hereof is alreadie troden foorth vnto them by some that haue written and spoken in that matter Which speeches I woulde bee loath to touch particularly because I thinke diuers of them not to haue any meaning to indure that sequell But men must consider not onely what they meane presently themselues but what other may gather vpon them hereafter Cyprian Hillarie and other ancient writers did not meane so ill in some things that they left written as some Heretikes following did father vpon them vsing their sayinges as the groundes of their false and erronious doctrines The Preachers of the Gospell in Germanie at the beginning were farre from the meaning to mooue the people to rebell against their Gouernours but some part of doctrine vndiscreetely vttered by diuers of them speaking against some abuses gaue a great occasion thereof to the griefe of all good men in such sort as they were not able by any perswasion to quiet them vntill it had cost a hundred thousand of them their liues The loosenesse and boldnesse of this time in many may iustly cause some feare that
ample giftes vnto the Church not onely in money and plate but as it is to be gathered in reuenue also For Optatus Mileuitanus vvriteth that Mensurius bishop of Carthage before Cecilianus vvhen hee vvas sent for to the Emperor fearing that he should returne no more againe left in the custody of certain persons Ornamenta plurima aurea argentea many ornaments of gold siluer The restoring of which ornaments iewels afterward was one great occasion of the schisme of the Donatists as the same Optatus sheweth Wherefore it may appeare the Church was not in those dayes so poore needie as some men would haue vs thinke it was though it were then vnder heathenish cruel tyrants with al extremitie forbidding that any persons should giue either goods or lands to the releefe of it Sabellicus writeth that in the time of Maxentius the Emperour one Lucina a noble and rich gentlewoman of Rome appointed the Church of Rome to be heire vnto all her substance possessions Which whē that cruell tyrant vnderstoode he for the time banished her out of the citie But when Constantine that good first Christian Emperour vndertooke the defence maintenance of Christian religiō he not only liberally bestowed vpon the Church himselfe but by law made it free to all that would giue any thing vnto the Church were it in lands or otherwise Which law Valentinianus Theodosius other afterward confirmed nor euer was it abridged but by Iulian the Apostata A copy of one decree of Constantine is in Eusebius Those things that belong to the right of other we will not only not to haue retained but plainly to be restored Wherfore our wil plesure is that so soone as thou shalt receiue these our letters if there be any goodes belonging to the Catholike Church of Christians either in cities or other places takē in possession by the citizens or by any other that the same presently be restored in like right as before they had it See therfore that all things either houses or gardens or whatsoeuer be with speed restored to the Church againe By this meanes not only the Emperours themselues gaue both lands many other rich gifts but also sundry other rich godly persons Constantine gaue lands in the country about Sabine and an house a garden at Rome The same Constan out of the tribute of euery city gaue a portion to the churches for the maintenāce of their Ministers established thē to cōtinue as a Law for euer Eusebius writeth that beside many other benefites as contribution of corne building of Churches c. he granted to all Ecclesiastical persons free immunitie of all seruices and taxes sauing only for their lands For the lands of the Church were subiect to tribute as other were by an ordinance made by the sonnes of the forenamed Constantine This may appeare also by Ambrose writing of the second Valentinian If he require tribute we denie it not the lands of the Church do pay tribute The church then had lands and that a good while before Ambrose his time which was about the yeere of our Lord three hundred sixtie and eight Yea Ambrose himselfe liued by his owne lands being Bishop Therefore it may appeare hee did not thinke it to be against the worde of God for a Bishoppe or Minister of the Church to liue vpon the reuenewe of landes After the time of Constantine the wealth of the Church increased as well in landes as other substance prouision not only by the gifts of Emperors Kings and Queenes but partly also as I haue said by the deuotion of other godly persons who oftentimes left to the vse of the Church either a great part or their whole substance and possessions partly by the gift of bishops themselues partly by other ecclesiastical persōs which because they were not married nor had issue or heires were by order bound to leaue vnto the church al their possessions both lands goods Sometime also by the punishment of offēdors For it is read that one Bassus a gētleman falsely accused Sixtus bishop of Rome whē Sixtus had cleared himselfe in a synode of Bishops Bassus for his slaunderous accusation was banished his landes giuen vnto the Church The same Sixtus gaue lands vnto the Church himselfe also Crescentius a noble man gaue vnto the Church of Rome all his substance and a manour in Sicilie called Argianum Eudotia the Empresse wife to Theodosius adorned the Bishops house at Constantinople gaue vnto it a yeerely reuenue By the counsell at Berythe it may appeare the Church of Edessa had rentes manours woods plate set with pretious stones c. This state of wealth y e church grewe vnto not much more then in the space of one hundred yeeres after it pleased God to giue peace vnto it frō outward Heathenish enemies and yet in the meane time had it other tempestes and bitter stormes of aduersitie that did more hinder deuotion and godlinesse then the bloody persecutions of the Emperours did as namely the troubles raised by the Ariā heretikes by the space of many yeres especially in Asia Greece and al the East parts of the world And shortly therupon followed the horrible inuasion of the Goths Vandals Herules other barbarous people which as swarmes came out of the North parts with maruellous cruelty ouerwhelmed all the west Countreyes of Europe to the great hindrance daunger vnquietnesse of the Church of God After these stormes and tempests were somewhat ouerblowen the riches of the Church did very much increase both in lāds otherwise by such means as before I haue rehearsed And this generally I obserue in al histories in al times that the wealth thereof vnder christiā princes was neuer diminished but rather increased nor euer did they murmure at it or thought it too much vntill the Pope chalenged his vsurped dominion did seek to bring the necks of Princes vnder his girdle to alter Empires Kingdomes Principalities at his will and pleasure saying that he had Ius vtriusque gladij the power of both swords Here I know some will say that by mine owne confession I am fallen to acknowledge that botch that first bredde Antichrist and set him vp into his throne aboue Kings and Princes that is to say the immoderate wealth of the Ecclesiasticall men which then did corrupt religion and so say they doth it now with vs. No no good Christians they that so say eyther are blinded with ignoraunce or looke into things with partiall eies seeke rather a secret furthering of priuat purposes thē the knowledge of the true causes of that wherof they speake For they that will indifferently consider the states of times with true iudgement weigh the circumstances of them may easily discerne that it was not the vvealth of the Clergy but other causes of greater vveight and importance that
AN ADMONITION TO THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND VVHEREIN ARE ANSVVERED NOT ONELY THE slaunderous vntruethes reprochfully vttered by Martin the Libeller but also many other Crimes by some of his broode obiected generally against all Bishops and the chiefe of the Cleargie purposely to deface and discredite the present state of the Church Detractor libens auditor vterque Diabolum portat in lingua Seene and allowed by authoritie Imprinted at London by the Deputies of Christopher Barker Printer to the Queenes most excellent Maiestie 1589. TO THE READER I Am not ignoraunt Gentle Reader what daunger I drawe vpon my selfe by this attempt to answere the quarrels and slaunders of late time published in certaine Libelles against the Bishops and other chiefe of the Clergy of the Church of England We see the eagernesse boldenesse of their spirit that bee the authors of them we taste alreadie the bitternes of their tongues and pennes The raging furie of their reuenge vpon all which they mislike themselues dissemble not but lay it downe in words of great threatnings I must needs therfore looke for any hurt that venemous scoffing and vnbridled tongues can worke toward me And how should I hope to escape that when the Saints of God in Heauen doe feele it In the course of their whole Libell when they speake of Peter Paul or the Blessed Virgin Marie c whome other iustly call Saintes their phrase in derision is Sir Peter Sir Paule Sir Marie Surely it had becommed right well the same vnmodest Spirite to haue saide also Sir Christ and so throughly to haue bewrayed himself Seeing they haue sharpned their tongues and heartes against heauen we poore creatures on earth must bee content in our weaknesse to beare them The dartes I confesse of deceitefull and slaunderous tongues are verye sharpe and the burning of the woundes made by them will as hardly in the hearts of many bee quenched as the coales of Iuniper But I thanke God I feare them not though they bring mee greater harme eyther in credite liuing or life then I trust that God that seeth knoweth and defendeth the trueth will suffer them Ambrose beeing in case somewhat like sayeth thus Non tanti est vnius vita quanti est dignitas omnium Sacerdotum If I therefore shoulde hazarde the one for the defence of the other I trust the godlye woulde iudge that I did that duetie which I owe to the Church of God and to my brethren of the same function and calling What is the cause why wee bee with such spight and malice discredited Surely because as the duty of faythfull Subiectes dooth binde vs liuing in the state of a Church refourmed we doo indeuour to preserue those Lawes which her Maiesties authoritie and the whole state of the Realme hath allowed and established and doe not admitte a newe platforme of gouernment deuised I knowe not by whome The reasons that mooue vs so to doe are these two First wee see no proofe brought out of the word of God that of necessitie such forme of Gouernement ought to be Secondly that by the placing of the same it woulde bring so many alterations and inconueniences as in our opinion woulde bee dangerous to the Prince and to the Realme Some of those inconueniences I haue in this treatise laid downe and leaue them to the consideration of them whom God hath set in place of gouernment It may be some will iudge that I am wordly affected because I shewe my selfe so much grieued with losse of our credite and hinderance of good name among the people In trueth although a godly Minister shoulde haue no wordly thing so deere vnto him as his credite yet if the hurt went no further then to our selues wee should make lesse account of it But seeing by our reproche and infamie the doctrine which wee teache is greatly hindered we ought by all lawfull meanes to defend it Christ himselfe in this respect answered such reproches as the enemies obiected against him As that hee vvas a friende vnto Publicanes and sinners That hee vvrought his miracles by the power of Beelsebub That hee broke the Sabbaoth day That hee was a Samaritane That hee had a deuill c. Saint Paul also to the Corinthians against his Aduersaries sheweth that hee was not a vaine Promiser That hee was not light and vnconstant and a wauering Teacher That hee did not teache craftily or corruptly dispensing the worde of God That hee did not teach ambitiously as seeking his owne glorie c. The like did a nomber of learned Fathers of the Primitiue Church at large answering those vile and reprochefull Slaunders raysed against the Christians in those dayes Augustine in a whole woorke answered Assertions falsly fathered vpon him and so did many other Wee seeke not therein our owne prayse and commendation If I doe insert particular prayses and commendations I must say vnto the Libellers as S. Paul sayde to the Corinthians Si insipiens fui in laudando vos me coegistis If I haue bene foolish in ouermuch praising your immodest reproches vntrueths and slaunders do driue me to it In this mine answere I seeke not to fatisfie all kinde of men but onely the moderate and godly For the malicious Back-biter Rayler will neuer be satisfied but the more he is answered the worse he will be If my defence may take moderate place with the better sort I shall be glad if not I may not be excessiuely grieued with sorowe but I must say with Paul Gloria nostra haec est testimonium conscientiae nostrae And with Iob Ecce in caelis testis meus This witnesse in heauen and the witnesse of our owne heart and conscience is sufficient to comfort vs. And for our further helpe we must pray with Dauid who was lamentably beaten and bitten with viperous tongues Leade vs O Lorde in thy righteousnesse because of our enemies make thy way plaine before vs. This God I trust will deliuer vs from the daunger of euill tongues and open their eyes and hearts that they may see and vnderstande what hinderance they bring to the Gospel of Christ which they will seeme to professe so earnestly Amen T. C. The Contents of this Treatise AN Admonition to beware of the contempt of the Bishops and other Preachers Page 1. The ende which the enemy of the Church of God respecteth in woorking their discredite pag. 23. Answeres to the vntrucths and slaunders vttered in Martins late Libell pag. 33. Against my Lord of Canterburie pag. 37. Against my Lord of London pag. 51. Against the Bishop of Rochester Lincolne and Winchester pag. 62. 63. c. The causes why the Bishops desire to maintaine the present state of the gouernment of the Church and what inconucniences they feare vpon the alteration thereof will come to the state of the Realme pag. 79. c. Answeres to certaine generall Crimes obiected to all the Bishops without exception as first The Crime of Simonie and Couetousnesse pag. 66.
The dispensing with Banes for money pag. 100. The Sale of Christian libertie in Marriages pag. 103. That they make lewde and vnlearned Ministers for money pag. 108. That they maintaine an vnlearned Ministery therby be occasion of Reuoltings many other mischiefs to the Prince and the Common weale But it is declared that there is no such vnlearned Ministery as they pretend and therefore can not bee an occasion of Reuolting or any other like mischiefes but that there bee other true and right causes to redresse of which it behoueth them that God hath set in place in time to haue speciall regarde for feare lest those mischiefes that be pretended doe increase pag. 109. c. The Crime of mainteyning Pilling and powling Courts pag. 135. The Crime of abusing Ecclesiasticall discipline pag. 141. The Crime of ambition and griedie seeking after Liuings and promotion pag. 144. That Bishops are carnally disposed which they shewe by hoarding vp great summes of money by purchasing Landes for their wiues and children by furnishing their tables with plate and guilded Cups by filling their purses with vnreasonable Fines and Incomes pag. 148. That the Prince ought to take away their great Lands and Liuings and set them to meane Pensions that in pouertie they may be answerable to the Apostles pag. 157. which they take vpon them to prooue by the whole course of the Scriptures pag. 162. The Lawe pag. 166. The Prophets pag. 177. The example of Christ pag. 190. and the doctrine of his Apostles pag. 221. Answere to the prescription of the old Lawe vvith the true meaning thereof pag. 166. Ansvvere to the Allegations out of the Prophets noting hovve absurdly and affectionately they be abused pag. 177. c. Answere to the example of Christ and the true doctrine that is to be taken of the same pag. 191. c. Answere to the doctrine of the Apostles declating hovv the same is rightly to be vnderstanded pag. 221. A Declaration how Ministers haue bene maintained from the beginning wherein is shevved that they haue had both Lands Houses Rents and Reuenues pag. 231. c. A Declaration that the wealthie state of the Church vvas not y e chiefe cause of setting vp Antichrist in his Throne as it is pretended but that the Histories of that time do declare other causes of more importance which also beginne to growe among vs and therefore good heede to be taken in time pag. 238. c. ¶ AN ADMONITION to the Church and people of England to take heede of the contempt of those Bishops and Preachers which God hath sent to them as messengers to bring vnto them the doctrine of their saluation WHen I call to my remembrance the loathsome contempt hatred and disdaine that the most part of men in these dayes beare and in the face of the vvorld declare tovvarde the Ministers of the Church of God asvvel Bishops as other among vs here in Englande my heart can not but greatly feare tremble at the consideration thereof It hath pleased God novv a long time most plentifully to povvre dovvne vpon vs his manifold great benefits of vvealth riches peace and quietnesse euen in the middest of the flames of discord dissention and miserie round about vs yea and that more is by the space of these thirtie yeeres by the continual preaching of the Gospel hath called vs vnto him as before time he called his chosē people of the Ievves by his Prophets and yet do vve not only not shevv any sound token either of our returning to him that called vs or of our thankefull receiuing his worde which he hath sent vs or of conforming our liues thereunto as hee willeth vs but also euidently to the eyes and eares of all men shew our hatred and misliking of those reuerend persons whome it hath pleased God to vse as his messengers to call vs vnto him and as his instruments to bring vnto vs the glad tidings of the Gospel which before with sworde and fire was taken from vs. For who seeth not in these dayes that hee who can most bitterly inueigh against Bishops and Preachers that can most boldely blaze their discredites that can most vncharitably slaunder their liues and doings thinketh of himselfe and is esteemed of other as the most zealous earnest furtherer of the Gospel Yea they thinke it almost the best way most ready to bring themselues in credite and estimation with many A lamentable state of time it is wherein such vntemperate boldnesse is permitted without any bridle at all What man therefore that feareth God that loueth his Church that hath care of his Prince and countrey can remember this thing and not dread in his heart the sequele thereof When the Israelites derided and contemned the Prophets which God had sent among them his wrath was so kindled that hee brought the Assyrians vpon them to their confusion When the tribe of Iuda did the like to Ieremie and other messengers of God they were cast into the captiuitie of Babylon When the Iewes reprochefully vsed Christ and with vvicked slaunder persecuted his Apostles that brought to them the light of saluation their Citie and Temple vvas burned their people slaine and as Christ threatned their countrey made desolate and giuen ouer to the spoyle And shall wee thinke that God vvill not remaine the same God tovvard vs Is his minde changed is his iustice slaked is his hand shortned that either he wil not or cannot reuenge as he hath bin wont to doe No good Christians let vs neuer deceiue our selues with such vaine and godlesse cogitations God remaineth alwayes one and is not mutable His benefits to the Israelites and Iewes were neuer greater then they novv these many yeeres haue bene toward vs they were neuer more earnestly eyther by Gods blessings allured or by preaching called to repentance then vve haue bene And yet our vnthankefulnesse in some respectes is greater then theirs and our vncourteous vsing of his messengers not much inferiour yea if the willes of many were not brideled by Gods singular grace in our Prince and gouernours it is to bee feared it woulde shewe it selfe as outragious as theirs did We haue iust cause therefore to feare the like plague which they in like case sustained And surely it cannot bee but that it hasteneth fast vpon vs. Obiection But some will say I knowe That I doe great iniury to the Prophets the Apostles and other messengers of God to compare them with such wicked men such blinde guides such couetous hypocrites such antichristian Prelates such symonicall Preachers as our Cleargie men now are Answere I doe not compare them good Reader in worthines of grace and vertue but in likenesse of office and ministerie These haue brought vnto this realme the same light of the Gospell the same trueth of doctrine the same way of saluation that the Apostles brought to the people of God in their time They are the mouth of God whereby hee speaketh to
vs and calleth vs to his knowledge as hee did his chosen by other in the Primitiue Church And howsoeuer by the libertie of this time it pleaseth men in the heate of their spirite to boyle out with reprochfull choler against them yet I am sure they are not able to vse more bitter and vncourteous speech then the like affection vttered against the Prophets against Christ himself and his Apostles as after more euidently shall appeare I knowe they being but fraile and sinfull men in comparison of those blessed Saintes of God beforetime may giue more iust cause of reproche and minister more matter to euill tongues then they did And yet I doubt not but the tenth part of that euil that vnthankefull mindes vtter against them shall neuer be found to be true They that haue the feare of God will not rashly iudge of other and christian charitie will hide the blemishes and faultes of their brethren and specially of the preachers of the gospell sincerely teaching Gods trueth Charitie woulde consider that the times are dangerous and that wee are lighted into these corrupt and perillous last daies whereof Christ prophecied in the Euangelists and therfore may thinke our selues thrise happy if wee haue tollerable Ministers though they bee farre from that rule that Christian perfection requireth These dayes bee like the times Nazianzen writeth of When they heare any thing spoken of a Minister or Priest they by and by conceiue that of all which is reported of one And wee are become a Theater not to Angels and men as that Champion Saint Paul saith But wee are become a Stage to the most vile and abiect men at all times and in all places in the Streetes in Shoppes at Tables at feasts at Councels euen to the very playing scaffoldes which I speake with teares and are scoffed at euen of the vile and contemptible players c. The time was saith Caluine when no man durst open his mouth against the Ministers or Preachers of the worde But nowe there is no speech more plausible None of these base persons would speake a word if they did not see themselues backed by men of great authoritie and receiue reward for so dealing Such vntrueths woulde soone vanish and bee forgotten vnlesse they were nourished by them for whose pleasure they were deuised It may be hardly thought that the true zeale of God and loue of his Gospell is in that heart that can easily breake out to the discrediting of the ministers and teachers therof They woulde rather sigh in their hearts and groane in their consciences and pray vnto God in the spirit of mildenes to take away such blemishes from the face of his Church and to amende the faults thereof if not all at once yet by little and little as to his gratious prouidence might seem best For surely where hatred and contempt of the ministers is there all goodnes must needes growe to confusion And that maketh mee to feare that to our great euil the ruine of the gospell is at hand among vs. For where God is loued and feared there his word is imbraced and his ministers reuerenced This is the cause of all euil sayth Chrysostome that the authoritie of spirituall gouernours is decayed no reuerēce no honor no feare is vsed toward them Obey your gouernours saith Paul and be subiect to them But now al things are ouerthrowen cleane confounded Neither speake I this for the gouernours sake but for your owne And a little after He that honoureth the Priest honoureth God and hee that despiseth the Priest by little and little falleth to this also that he will vse reproch against God himself He that receiueth you sayth Christ receiueth me And in another place sayth the Scripture Haue his Priestes in honour Hence commeth it sayth Cyprian that the bonde of the Lordes peace is broken Hence is it that brotherly loue is violated Of this cause is it that trueth is corrupted vnitie is broken that men leane to Schismes because Priestes are slaundered Bishops are enuied and euery man either complaineth that hee is not ordeined rather then another or else disdaineth to haue another aboue him c. The Iewes were esteemed to despise God because they made so small account of his seruant Moses And to Samuel saith the Lord They haue not despised thee but me Yea if it be an euill Minister sayth Chrysostome yet God marketh that for his sake thou doest reuerence and obey him that is not worthie honour of himselfe and therefore will he pay thee thy rewarde If he that receiueth a Prophet in the name of a Prophet receiue the rewarde of a Prophet it cannot be that he that reuerenceth and obeyeth his ordinarie Minister shall want his reward Christians should remember that Bishops and Preachers are the Angels of God the Ambassadours of Christ the Ministers of our saluation and therefore that they can not be slaundered or abused but the reproche must touch God himselfe Esay sheweth when the vnthankeful disobedient Iewes did mocke the Prophets did put out their lips and lell out their tongues in disdaine of them that God was dishonoured with the reproch there of Happily it will be doubted whether our Bishops Preachers bee the ministers and messengers of God or no. Yea some dare affirme boldly that indeede they be not But good Christians beware of such cogitations as displeasant and misliking affections may raise in you If they be not the ministers and messengers of God if they bee not sent of him then it is not the message of God that they haue brought vs it is not his worde that they haue taught vs they be not Gods Sacramentes that they deliuered vnto vs and so doe a great nomber of vs remaine as no Christians Though they were such vnworthy persons as the vnthankfull mindes of many doe imagine them or as the vncharitable tongues and pennes of some of late time haue blazed them yet bringing nothing vnto you but Gods will out of his holy Scriptures for in deede they haue not done otherwise howsoeuer their doctrine be defaced you shoulde assuredly bee perswaded that they are the instruments of Gods blessing vnto you Although they that be superiours saieth Chrysostome and Gouernours were euill and spotted with manye faultes yet shoulde not the Disciples withdrawe them from their instruction For if Christ speaking of the Doctours of the Iewes that because they sate in Moyses Chaire they were worthie to bee hearde of their Disciples although their woorkes were not commendable what fauour are they woorthie of which contemne and trample vnder foote as it were the Prelates of the Churche which by Gods goodnesse liue moderately If it bee a foule matter for one to iudge an other howe much more is it vnlawful to iudge their Maisters and instructers Baalam was a couetous prophet and yet by him GOD blessed his people Nowe surely if you haue receiued at their handes the blessing of Gods trueth
and the light of his holie worde as in deede you haue the cogitation of this benefite shoulde moue your mindes more fauourably to thinke of them and more charitably to iudge of their doinges Or if you doe not looke that you leaue not great occasion to men to thinke of you that you make light accompt of that doctrine of the Gospell which aswell their predecessours as they haue and doe daily preach vnto you and so that you bee not those men that you would pretende to bee For men will thinke this If these persons did fauour the Gospell they woulde rather seeke meanes to hide the blemishes and imperfections of their Prelates and Preachers then thus odiously to amplifie and paint foorth their discredite to their vtter shame and reproche in the worlde For as much as in them lyeth through their sides in the hearts and mindes of manie they giue a mortall wound to the doctrine which by them hath now these manie yeeres beene taught in this Realme For will men iudge trowe you that after so great darkenesse and ignoraunce of Gods woorde as the Churche of Christ is reported by vs to haue beene wrapped in that God woulde restore and sende vnto the same the light of his trueth by so wicked and naughtie instruments as these men be imagined to be For they condemne not onelie those Bishops and ministers that be now in place but their predecessors also whose place these men occupie and whose doctrine they confirme Men will thinke surely either that that doctrine which we call darknesse and errour was the true light or that these Preachers can not be so euill persons as malice doth make them Christ would not suffer that the deuill shoulde vtter any thing to the glorie of God and will he suffer deuillish and Antichristian persons to bee the chiefe Preachers and restorers of his Gospell GOD alwaies hath appointed godlie men to be the teachers and reuiuers of his trueth as Abraham with the other Patriarches Moses Aaron Dauid the Prophets the Apostles And in our dayes Luther Zuinglius Oecolampadius Cranmer Ridley Iewell c. For God is neuer destitute of his godly captaines to gouerne his Church and to set foorth his word Obiection Oh but our Bishops and preachers bee couetous they giue not to the poore they imbesill the goodes of the Church they bee woorkers and clokers of Simonie they hinder reformation of the Church c. Answere But how know you that It were safe for your consciences first to trie and knowe the trueth before you rashly to condemnation iudge your brother Common speeches and coniecturall collections doe oftentimes prooue false Doe you think that al is true which is spoken of your selues I appeale to your owne consciences Surely hee must bee a very happie man in these dayes of whome some euill is not spoken which in his owne conscience hee knoweth not to bee true Nowe if this may and doeth happen to most priuate persons howe is it not likely that it happeneth also to Bishops and ecclesiasticall Ministers Yea of all other it is most like that they shoulde feelethe bitternesse of false and backbiting speeches The Ministers of God haue beene alwayes subiect to that crosse And in these dayes they haue to doe with so manie and diuers kindes of enemies as it is not possible for them to escape the daunger thereof On the one side is the Papist whose errours they confute whose obstinacie they punish On the other side are the phantasticall spirites of Anabaptists Of the families of the loue and sundry others of the like sort whose wickednesse and corrupting of the church is by our ecclesiastical gouernors drawen into the light reproued repressed Yea beside these there are an infinit number of Epicures and Atheistes which hate the Bishops and speake euil of them and wish them to be taken away partly because they are as bridles to their loose and wicked life partlie because they staye from them that spoyle and praye which nowe for a fewe yeeres with great hope they haue gaped after and with much adoe is holden out of their iawes Moreouer who knoweth not that they which haue the office of iudging correcting and reproouing other bee their doinges neuer so sincere shall often light into the displeasure and misliking of manie and thereby gette misreport Therefore seeing Bishoppes and other chiefe of the Clergie are besette with so manie difficulties and lie in daunger ofso manie aduersaries no maruaile though their blemishes bee amplified and as the prouerbe is of euery moul-hill made a great mountaine Yea no maruaile though their best doinges and sincerest meaninges by mislikers are depraued and with hard and vncharitable interpretations wrested to their reproofe Wherfore al Christians that haue the feare of God loue his trueth but principally the chief gouernours that haue authoritie to deale with the Clergie ought to take great heed that by such deprauing reports they bee not carried to mislike or discredite them which neuer iustly deserued so great reproofe Let them diligently consider what may fall vnto themselues also beeyng in place subiect to like obloquie What meant Saint Paul when he saide Against an elder receiue no accusation vnder two or three witnesses Surely he did see that the office of teachers and reproouers iudges and gouernors lieth in great daunger of euill speech and false accusations and therefore would not haue them rashly condemned either in priuate or publike iudgement much lesse to bee defaced and contemned to be disobeyed and resisted yea though they were more grieuous offenders then standeth with the worthinesse of their offices Aaron had grieuously offended and greatly distayned his calling when hee was the Minister to make the golden Calfe and to further the peoples horrible and shamefull idolatrie I trust all the enemies that the Bishops and Cleargie men of England haue shall neuer bee able to prooue that in this time of the Gospell anie one of them did euer commit an offence either so horrible and displeasant in the sight of God or so hurtfull and offensiue to the Church And yet after that when Corah Dathan and other did call him proude Prelate and saide that hee and his brother vsed tyrannie ouer the people of God howe grieuously God did take it and howe dreadfull punishment came vpon them for misusing the Ministers of GOD the historie doeth sufficiently declare yea though many of the offenders were of the highest state birth and linage among the people Obiection But it is a common Obiection many thinke they sufficiently excuse their contempt when they say That our Bishops Preachers speake well and teach other to doe well but they followe not the same themselues and therefore men doe not beleeue them nor be any thing mooued with their preaching Answere But I say vnto you if you followe any doctrine in respect of the person that speaketh it you doe not like good Christians yea if Paul speake any thing of
himselfe you doe not well if in that respect you beleeue him but you shoulde embrace his doctrine and followe his teaching because he is the Apostle and messenger of God sent to deliuer his holy will out of the scriptures and as it were from the mouth of God himselfe Obiection It will be sayd that Bishops should be The light of the world the salt of the earth patternes and examples to the flocke of Christ Answere I graunt they should be so and if they be not the daunger is theirs but Christ is the iudge whose office thou mayest not presume without danger to take vpon thee in iudging his Minister If they be not such as they shoulde be wilt thou headlong therefore runne to thine owne perdition and cast thy selfe into the danger of Gods wrath and displeasure aswell by reiecting the trueth of his doctrine as also by rashly iudging and condemning his Minister Doest thou not remember that Christ sayeth That men shall make an accompt of euery idle worde that they speake And shall they not make a streight account thinke you for their vncurteous and vnsauorie speeches for their vncharitable and bitter raylings against them by whose meanes they haue receiued the doctrine of saluation Who can bee worse then a Publicane And yet the Pharisey is greatly reproued for that he spake so contemptuously of the Publicane and so arrogantly preferred himselfe before him The Pharisey sayth Chrisostome by his euill speech did hurt the Publican nothing but rather did him good yea though the thinges were true that hee spake of him Wee also drawe vnto our selues extreame euill by our euill speeches euen as the Pharisey as it were did thrust a sworde into himselfe and receiuing a sore wounde departed Let vs therefore rule our vntamed tongues least wee also haue a like rewarde for if hee that spake euill of a Publican escaped not punishment what defence shall we haue that are wont to raile against our fathers If Marie which once blasphemed her brother was so sore punished what hope of health shall we haue which dayly ouerwhelme our superiors with railing speeches and taunts They that haue the right feare of God looke first into their owne bosomes they bee inquisitiue of their owne liues they sitte as iudges and examiners of their owne consciences but nowe a dayes the more it is to bee lamented men forget them-selues they looke not into their owne doings they cast that end of the wallet behinde them wherein their owne faultes are wrapped and be alwayes curiously prying into the liues and doinges of other and specially of Gouernours Bishops and Ecclesiasticall Ministers In them if they see neuer so light a blemish if in their face they can finde neuer so small a warte or espie in their eye neuer so little a moate they are esteemed by and by misshapen Bishoppes blinde guides Monsters of Antichrist not meete for any roome in Christes churche not to bee suffered in any christian common weale Yea they loath their doctrine Counsell and instruction be it neuer so true and good they wil not take anie aduise at their hands yea they saye their teaching can doe no man good Thus doe they make those men stumbling stockes for themselues to perdition whome God of his singular grace and prouidence hath sent with his worde among them as Ministers of their saluation Thinke of Bishops Preachers how basely vncharitably soeuer it shall please you they are not onely the Surgeons of your soules but your spirituall fathers also A naturall childe though he suffer griefe and iniuries at his fathers hande will not be in a rage against him but will take the hurts patiently and mildely so long as any way they may be borne Although hee see faultes in his father as that hee is euill of sight or doateth for age or that he bee weake and staggereth as he goeth yea and sometime falleth to the grounde he wil not therefore vndutifully chide his father but by such meanes as he can will helpe and with his best indeuour wipe away the filth that he gathereth by his oft falling hee will bee mindfull of that good lesson Noli gloriari in ignominia Patris tui neque enim tibi tam gloria quà m probrum est So surely those good and kindly children that loue God their great father wil vse themselues toward their spiritual fathers in his Church If Noah happen in his sleepe to lye somewhat vncomely and leaue open his nakednesse they vvill not follovv the example of cursed Cham and with derision fetch not their brethren only but their fathers enemies also to beholde it that hee may bee for euer shamed and the aduersaries mouthes opened against him They will rather with blessed and obedient Sem and Iaphet take the garment of christian charity and going backvvarde hide their fathers nakednesse yea and happily with the rusling of their feet or by casting on of the garment purposely wake him out of his sleepe that he may vnderstand hovve vncomely he doeth lie in the derision not onely of their vnkind brother but of other also that seeke his reproche and by that meanes be taught to take heed that he doe not fal on sleepe againe in such vncomely maner Chrysostome complaineth at this vnkindnesse What coulde be more happy then they What more miserable then wee for they gaue their blood and their life for their Maisters but wee will not vouchsafe to vtter so much as a few wordes for our common fathers when 〈…〉 them reproched backebited slaundered both of their owne and of others for wee neither reproue or represse such cursed speakers yea I woulde to God we our selues were not the first accusers Surely wee heare not such opprobrious rebukes at the mouthes of Infidels as wee see powred out against our superiours by them that are of the same religion Thus much haue I spoken and the longer stoode vppon this matter the Lord knoweth not so much to helpe the credite of them that bee blamed as if it may be possible to turne away from vs Englishmen the great daunger of our vnkindenesse in abusing them by whome God hath deliuered vnto vs so great and inestimable benefites Obiection Some perchance will aske me whether I entend by this meanes to cloake and hide the corrupt and naughtie life of the chiefe ministers of the Church whereby they slaunder the Gospel deface their calling and be an open offence to a great number of godly Answere I answere God forbid I should haue any such meaning Their great offences I greatly reproue and thinke them woorthy vpon triall of trueth not only of blame but also of more sharpe punishment then any other for that the offence giuen by them is greater And we haue a Prince and Magistrate who by Gods lawe if there be so iust cause both may and ought to deale with them neither can their authoritie bee refused they claime not exemption But as for their smaller
kingdome of errour and wickednesse to decay and the glorie of God to increase then hee bestirreth him by all meanes hee can And if by Gods good prouidence the Princes and Magistrates bee such as by sword and fire he cannot either ouerthrowe it or worke some mischiefe against it then seeketh hee by lying and slander to discredit and deface the messengers that GOD sendeth with his worde and instruments that he vseth to aduance and sette foorth his trueth by this meanes to worke hinderance to the trueth it selfe When Ieremie preached the will of God earnestly and truely vnto the Iewes were there not false Prophets and other very neere the Prince which perswaded him and other rulers that hee was a naughtie man not worthie to liue that hee was an enemie to his Countrey that hee conspired with the Babylonians and was with money or otherwise corrupted by them to perswade the people of Iuda not to refuse their subiection When God by the Ievves in captiuitie and by the fauour of the Queene Hester began to spread his knovvledge among the Gentiles so that their heathenish idolatrie vvas somewhat blemished the deuil raised vp a fit instrument by such meanes as before is mentioned to vvork their confusion For Haman came to king Assuerus and said There is a people dispersed throughout all the prouinces of thine Empire not agreeing among themselues vsing newe lawes and contemning thy ordinances and thou knowest it is not expedient for thy kingdome that they should bee suffered to waxe so insolent And if it shall please thee to appoint that they may be all put to death I will bring in tenne thousand talents into the kings treasure It vvas a shrevvd tale to persvvade a Prince For he tempered his hateful and slaunderous lying with the sweete savvce of gaine and commoditie The subtile Sathan did see that sometime they which othervvise are good Princes vvhen hope of great benefite is offered vvill be more easily persvvaded to some kinde of hard dealing vvhich othervvise they themselues vvould not like When Iohn Baptist was sent to prepare the vvay for the comming of Christ though hee vvere a man of very austere liuing did not the Pharisees persvvade the people and chiefe rulers that hee was but an hypocrite that he vvas possed vvith a deuill and therfore that his doctrine should not be beleeued When Christ himselfe came a perfect patterne of all temperance and godly vertue did they not say that he was a glutton and a wine bibber a Samaritane a friend of Publicanes and sinners a worker with deuils a seducer of the people c. and by this means in the hearts of many wrought the discredite both of his doctrine and of his myracles In like manner dealt Sathan with his instruments against the Apostles and godlie professors of Christian religion in the Primitiue Church as it appeareth in the Ecclesiasticall Histories and auncient Fathers For malitious tongues and pennes did spreade abroade of them that they murdered their children and did eate them that vsually at their assemblies they committed incest that they worshipped the sunne that they worshipped an asse head that they were traitours to the Empire that they were generall enemies of all mankinde with an infinite number of other like false and slaunderous crimes and by this meanes the wicked enemies of Christ raised those grieuous and terrible persecutions wherewith the Church was vexed the space of three hundred yeeres vnder the Emperours Yea and this craft of the deuill ceased not vnder the Christian Emperours For then stirred hee vp schismes and factions errours and heresies almost in number infinite and still by backebiters and slaunderous instrumentes defaced and brought out of credite the godly and learned bishops which were as the pillars of Christian trueth against the enemies of God and his Church Constantine that woorthie and godlie prince at the beginning fauoured and furthered all those reuerend and learned Bishops that did mainteine the doctrine of Nicene Councell against the Arians but after that Eusebius of Nicomedia the great patrone of that heresie had procured friendes in the court and therby crept in some credite with the Emperour he and the residue of his sort deuised shamefull slaunders against Athanasius and other that in the ende with great displeasure of the Emperour he was banished into Fraunce and there continued all the reigne of the saide Constantine His enemies with great impudencie had charged him with shamefull vntruths as that he cruelly and vniustly had excommunicated diuers persons that as a couetous extortioner he had oppressed the countrey of Egypt with exactions that he had committed adultery with a strumpet who was brought before his face to auouch it to be true that he had murthered Arsenius vsed his arme to worke sorcery that he sent money to one that went about treason against the Emperour that hee had affirmed in threatning wordes that he would cause the citie of Alexandria to send no more tribute-corne to Constantinople for the Emperors prouision as before time it had vsed to doe As they dealt with Athanasius so did they in like manner with Eustathius Macarius and al other godly Fathers which defended the true faith of Christ and set themselues against the indeuours of heretikes and other seditious and factious spirites And in like maner were other vsed after that time as Ambrose Cyrill and Chrysostome It were a matter almost infinite to recite the examples thereof and to shewe how like they are to the attempts of some in these dayes And although it pleased GOD by strange meanes at that time to reprooue sundrie of those shamefull vntrueths deuised against manie yet by stoute affirmation and colourable proofe thorow friendship many of them tooke suche effect that sundrie woorthy and good men were put out of their bishoprikes driuen into banishment and put to death to the great trouble of the Church and exceeding hinderaunce of christian faith for the space of many yeeres We reade in histories that Philip king of Macedony a subtile and politique prince who is thought to haue conquered more by craft and cunning then by force of warre dint of sworde minding to bring the Graecians vnder his subiection in concluding an agreement with them conditioned that they shoulde deliuer vnto him their Orators as the very firebrands of discord among them and the onely occasioners of that displeasure and misliking that was betweene him and them At which time Demosthenes one of the Orators speaking for himselfe admonished the Athenians to call to their remembraunce the parable betweene the shepheardes and the wolues The wolues pretending desire of agreement between them and the shepheards perswaded them that all the cause of their displeasure was the vnseasonable barking of the dogges and promised great amitie so that they woulde put away their ill-fauoured curres and mastiues But when the dogs were remooued the wolues tooke their pleasure in spoyling the flocke more cruelly then euer they did
before So sayth Demosthenes this King Philip vnder pretence of friendship seeking his owne benefite would haue you to deliuer vp your Orators which from time to time call vpon you and giue you warning of his subtile and craftie deuises to the ende that when you haue so done ere you bee ware he may bring you and your citie vnder his tyrannie And this saying of Demosthenes proued after verie true indeede Euen so good Christians the subtile serpent Sathan prince of darkenesse seeking to bring the Church of England vnder his kingdome againe from which by the mightie hand of God it hath beene deliuered indeuoureth cunningly to perswade the shepheardes that is the chiefe Gouernours of this realme to put away their barking dogges that is to put downe the state of Bishops and other chiefe of the Cleargie to take away their landes and liuings and set them to their pensions the sooner by that meanes to worke his purpose And heere in he turneth himselfe into an Angel of light and pretendeth great holines and the authoritie of Gods word and the holy Scriptures For such a subtile Protheus he is that he can turne himselfe into all maner of shapes to bring forward his deuise The craftie enemie of the Church of GOD doeth well knowe the frailetie and corruption of mennes nature that they will not of them-selues easily bende to that is good vnlesse they bee allured vnto it by the hope of benefite Hee vnderstandeth that Honos alit artes and if he shall by any cunning bee able to pull away the reward of learning hee right well seeth that hee shall haue farre fewer dogges to barke at him and almost none that shall haue teeth to bite those hell houndes that hee will sende to deuoure and destroy the flocke of Christ Happily there may bee some young Spanielles that will quest lauishly ynough but hee will not feare them because hee knoweth they will haue no teeth to bite If the state of the Cleargie shall bee made contemptible and the best reward of learning a meane pension hee foreseeth that neither yong flourishing wittes will easily incline them-selues to godly learning neither wil their parents and friendes suffer them to make that the ende of their trauaile To bring this to passe hee worketh his deuises by sundry kindes of men first by such as be Papists in heart and yet can clap their handes and set forwarde this purpose because they see it the next way either to ouerthrowe the course of the Gospell or by great and needelesse alteration to hazard and indanger the state of the common weale The second sort are certaine worldly godlesse Epicures which can pretend religion and yet passe not which end thereof goe forwarde so they may bee partakers of that spoyle which in this alteration is hoped for The thirde sorte in some respect the best but of all other most dangerous because they giue the opportunity and countenance to the residue and make their indeuours seeme zealous and godly These bee such which in doctrine agree with the present state and shewe themselues to haue a desire of a perfection in all things and in some respect in deede haue no euill meaning but through inordinate zeale are so caried that they see not howe great dangers by such deuises they drawe into the Church and state of this Realme Howe great perils euen small mutations haue brought to Common-weales the knowledge of Histories and the obseruation of times will easily teach vs. Obiection But in this place mee thinketh I heare some crie out with earnest affection against me and say that I shew my selfe to bee a carnall man and in this matter of the Church vse carnall and fleshly reasons out of humaine policie and doe not stay my conscience vpon Gods word the holy Scriptures where unto only in the gouernment of the Church wee shoulde cleaue though all reason and policie seeme contrary Answere If I doe stay my selfe and grounde my conscience vpon humane policie in any matter of faith and religion I must needes confesse my selfe to be worthie great blame But if in some things perteining to the externall fourme of gouernement or the outwarde state of the Church I haue respect to Christian policie not contrary to Gods word I see no iust cause why I shoulde be misliked if in consideration of the corrupt affection of mans nature I wish the state of a Christian Church common weale to bee such that yong and towardly wittes not yet mortified by Gods spirit may bee allured with the hope of benefite to the studie of learning and principally of the holy Scriptures leauing the secret direction of their minde to God I trust no man can with good reason reprooue this my desire and in the course of my writing no man shall iustly say that either I doe staye mine owne conscience or will other men to grounde theirs vpon reason and policie onely without the word of God For neither will the feare of God suffer mee so to deale in matter of such weight neither doe I see that by such meanes I can further the cause that I write of Many Pamphlets haue bene of late yeres partly written and partly printed against the whole gouernment of the Church by Bishops and those in sundrie sortes according to the nature and disposition of the Authors but in all great protestation of euident and strong proofe out of the Scriptures and other writers But especially there is one which I haue seene the writer whereof maketh this solemne protestation following That as he looketh to be acceptable to the Lorde at the iudgemēt of the immaculate lambe in his accusation that he maketh against the Clergie of this Realme hee will not cleaue to his owne iudgement nor will followe his owne braine nor wil of himself inuent ought nor vntruly blame ought but will faithfully and vntruly sincerely and incorruptly rehearse the holy Scriptures and the sentences actes and deedes of other learned men which determine and agree vpon those things that he layeth downe against them You may well vnderstand therefore that such an accusation will not bee answered and shifted away with humane reason onely The matter must haue more pith and substance in it But howsoeuer that accusation will bee answered I woulde the authour had perfourmed his protestation as faithfully as to carry some credite and fauour he layde it out solemnely Then shoulde not his writing containe so manie vncharitable and contemptuous speeches so many slaunderous vntruethes so many wrested Scriptures so many false conclusions so many impertinent allegations as he doth vse The purpose to perswade so great and dangerous a mutation in a common weale should haue carryed with it not onely more trueth and comlinesse of speech but also more weight of matter sound substance of proofe But such is the libertie of this time and such is the manner of them that to slaunder and deface other passe not what they speake or write I will
any other in that cause except the blowes of their despitefull and malitious tongues which notwithstanding hee contemneth remembring how true it is that Hierome saith Istae machinae haereticorum sunt vt conuicti de perfidia ad maledicta se conferant When heretikes are conuinced of falsehood and vntrueths their shift is to flee to railing and slandering And againe Detractio vilium satis hominum est et suam laudem quaerentium To backebite is the shift of base men and such as seeke their owne praise He did indeede peruse Doctor Bridges booke before it went to the Presse and hee knoweth that the sufficiencie there of causeth these men thus to storme as not being able otherwise to answere it which maketh them so bitterly to inueigh against his person and therefore Si insectari personam deploratae causae signum est as it is indeede illorum causa est deploratissima It is shame for your Grace Iohn of Cant. that Cartwrights bookes are not answered Hee neuer thought them so necessarie to bee answered as the factious authors of the Libel pretend And of that opinion are not a fewe wise and learned men that beare good will vnto the party and with all their hearts wish that God woulde direct him to vse his good giftes to the peace and quietnesse of the Church There is sufficient written already to satisfie an indifferent reader He that with indifferent minde shall reade the answere of the one and the replie of the other shall see great difference in learning betweene them The desire of disputation is but a vaine brag they haue bene disputed conferred with oftner then either the worthines of their persōs or cause did require Wherein their inability to defende such a cause hath manifestly appeared as it is wel knowen to very many wel able to iudge But what brags are here by the Libeller vttered which doe not agree vvith the old Heretikes Schismatikes His Grace threatned to send Mistres Lawson to Bridewel because c. This is a notorious vntrueth For neither did he nor D. Perne euer heare but of this Libeller that she spake any such vvordes of him But in trueth asvvell for the immodestie of her tongue wherein she excelleth beyond the seemelinesse of an honest woman as also for her vnwomanly and skittish gadding vp down to Lambehith frō thence in cōpany vnfit for her without her owne husband he threatned to send her to Bridewell if she reformed not the same which he meaneth to performe if she continue her lightnesse And yet Dame Lawson so notorious for the vilenesse of her tongue other vnwomanly behauiour is one of Martins canonized Saints Quia quod volumus sanctum est as Augustine said of their predecessors the Donatists It is likewise an vntruth which is reported in that page of her words spokē by M. Shaller For surely if she had vttered them he would haue sent her thither without faile But Dame Lawson glorieth in her own shame so do her teachers That vvhich he calleth a Protection Chard had from the Lords of her Maiesties priuie Counsell vpon charitable and good causes moouing their Lordships He seemeth to charge the Archbishop wish infidelitie c. This needeth no ansvvere it shevveth of vvhat spirit they are Touching the Premunire c. The Libeller doth but dreame let him and his doe vvhat they can The same may be ansvvered to their threatning of fists c. That which hee speaketh of buying a Pardon c. as it is most vntrue so is it slaunderous to the State If there vvere any such matter it may soone appeare by search but the impudencie of these men is great and villanous slaunder vvill neuer long be vvithout iust revvard He saith we fauour Recusants rather then Puritans c. Herein he doeth notoriously abuse vs though the Recusant for the most part behaueth himself more ciuilly before the Magistrate then doth the Puritane vvho is commonly most insolent and thereby deserueth more sharpe vvordes and reproofes then the other That vvhich he speaketh of Recusants threats against Puritane Preachers hath no sense For how can the Recusant so threaten the Puritane when he neuer commeth to heare his Sermons But these vvicked Martinists account her Maiesties louing subiectes liking and allovving the orders of the Church and procuring the contrary to be reformed by authoritie as Papistes and Recusants By which sinister practise and iudgement many are discomforted and obedience greatly impeached Doth your Grace remember what the Iesuite at Newgate c. No truely for he neuer heard of any such matter but by this lewde Libeller neyther doeth he thinke that there was euer any such thing spoken Schismatikes are impudent lyars the vvorlde knoweth what he hath euer bene and vvhat hee is he doth disdaine to answere such senselesse calumniations That which he speaketh of Thackwell the Printer c. is a matter nothing pertaining to him M. Richard Yong was the dealer therein without his priuitie who is able to iustifie his doings in that matter and to conuince the libeller of a malicious slaunder The man is knowen and liuing the Libeller may talke with him and knowe his owne wickednesse The mouth that lyeth killeth the soule The Lord will destroy lying lippes and the tongue that speaketh proude things Waldegraue receiued iustly according to his deserts hauing founde before that time greater fauour then hee deserued being a notorions disobedient godlesse person an vnthriftie spender consumer of the fruits of his owne labours one that hath violated his faith to his best and dearest friends and wittingly brought them into danger to their vndoing His wife children haue cause to curse all wicked and vngodly Libellers The Calumniation touching the Presse and Letters in the Charterhouse which presse Waldgraue himselfe soulde to one of the Earle of Arundels men as it is since confessed must receiue the same ansvvere with the other of Thackwell sauing that to M. Yong must bee added also some other of greater authority who can tel Martin that his spirite is not the spirit of God which is the spirit of trueth but the spirite of Sathan the author of lyes Charge them O shamelesse man with this matter who are able to answere thee and not the Archbishop vvhome it toucheth not though it becommeth not euery common base person to demaund an account of the doings of men in authoritie The decree there mentioned being first perused by the Queenes learned counsell and allovved by the Lords of her Maiesties most honorable priuie Counsel had his furtherance in deede and should haue if it were to doe againe It is but for the maintenance of good orders amōg the Printers approued and allovved by the most the best the wisest of that company for the suppression of inordinate persons such as Waldegraue is Hee erected no newe Printer contrary to that decree but vsed meanes
to mislike Othervvise hee defieth all Martinistes in Englande and doeth appeale vnto the vvhole State of the learned and obedient Clergie for his innocencie therein Touching master Euans c. That of Euans concerning the Vicarage of Warwike is maliciously reported Hee reiected him for lacke of conformitie to the orders of the Church If hee haue done him any vvrong thereby the lavve is open hee might haue had his remedie That honourable person mentioned by the Libeller I am sure accepted of his answer And I knowe that according to his honourable disposition he thinketh himselfe greatly abused by the libeller in this point But vvhat careth such a corner-creeper what he saith of any man be he neuer so honourable The rest of that tale is vntrue not worth answering And if the relator there of durst appeare and shevv himselfe Martin could not bee long vnknovven If any of his men at any time reported that hee should say hee vvould not bee beholding to neuer a noble man in this land c. he shevveth himselfe to be of the Libellers conditions that is a common lyar For hee neuer spake the wordes to any man neither doeth hee vse that familiaritie vvith his men But the Libeller careth not vvhat he speaketh either of him or of his men so that he may fill vp his libell with vntrue slaunders That vvhich follovveth of the Archbishops words to the knight that he was the second person of the land c. is of the same kinde The knight I am sure is liuing let him be examined of that matter True it is that there was a good knight with him an old friend of his about such a sute but that he euer spake any such wordes vnto him as the Libeller vvoulde make the vvorlde beleeue is most false the Knight liueth and can testifie the same But the Libeller thinketh all men to be as proude and malapert as himselfe and other of his faction are whose pride the world seeth and it is vntolerable He was neuer D. Perns boy nor vnder him at any time but as fellow of the house where he vvas master Neither did he euer cary his or any other mans cloake bagge Although if he had so done it had bin no disgrace to him Better mens sonnes then the Libeller is haue caried cloakebags But the levvde man is not ashamed to lye in those things that are open to euery mans eyes such is his malice and impudencie How Dauisons Catechisme was allowed or how long in perusing I knovv not some paultry pamphlet belike it is like to that busie and vnlearned Scot now termed to be the author there of D. Wood is better able to iudge of such matters then either Dauison or any Martinist that dare be knovven Touching the Apocrypha c. He gaue commandement in deede meaneth to see it obserued For who euer separated this Apocrypha from the rest of the Bible from the beginning of Christianity to this day Or vvhat church in the vvorld refourmed or other doth yeat at this present And shal vve suffer this singularity in the church of England to the aduauntage of the aduersary offence of the godly contrary to al the vvorld besides I knovve there is great difference betvvene the one and the other yet all learned men haue from the beginning giuen to the Apocrypha authoritie next to the Canonicall Scriptures And therfore such giddy heads as seeke to deface them are to be bridled A foule shame it is not to be suffered that such speeches should be vttered against those bookes as by some hath bene enough to cause ignorant people to discredite the vvhole Bible Touching Doctor Sparke c. Their Honors that were thē present can wil I am sure answere for the bishops to this vntrueth They made report to diuers in publike place and some to the highest of that cōference after an other sort to another end thē the Libeller doth That seely Obiection God knoweth was soone answered in few words viz. That the trāslation read in our Churches was in that point according to the Septuagint correspondent to the Analogie of faith For if the word be vnderstood of the Israelites then is it true to say that they were not obedient to his cōmandement but if of the signes wonders that Moses and Aaron did before Pharao or of Moses and Aaron themselues then is it on the other side true that they were obedient to his commandement This might haue satisfied any learned and peaceable Diuine pacified their immoderate contention against the booke of common praier This was then and is now the answere to that friuolous obiection and this is the Nonplus that the Libeller vaunteth of More modestie might haue become both D. Sparke the reporter euen conscientia suae imbecillitatis in that conference Touching Patrike c. He neuer made Patrike Minister neither intended to make him neither was hee of his acquaintance at all in Worcester It is vvel knowen that the Archbishop hath not ordeined moe then onely tvvo Ministers since his comming to this Archbishoprike And therefore this Calumniation must be placed vvith the former Thus is this godlesse Libeller ansvvered in few words touching such matters wherewith he chargeth the most reuerend father the Archbishop of Cant. whereby the world may perceiue with what spirit he is possessed The wise man saith that destruction shall suddenly come vpon the backebiter and calumniator The Psalmist saith The Lorde will destroy lying lips and the tongue which speaketh proude things and that death shall suddenly come vpon them and hell shall receiue them S. Ambrose saith that Detractors are scarcely to bee accounted Christians And Cyprian saith Non qui audit sed qui facit conuitium miser est Not he that is railed at but he that raileth is the wretched man The wicked Iewes when they could not otherwise answere Christ called him Samaritan and said he had a deuill shortly after tooke vp stones and cast at him So the Anabaptists within our memory after slanderous and opprobrious calumniations against the godly Preachers and magistrates then liuing fell to blowes and open violence The Libeller in this booke hath perfourmed the one and threatned the other This haue I layd downe word by word as I receiued the same from my Lorde of London who desireth to haue the matter heard by indifferent Iudges and will shewe the Suggestions to be very vntrue ANd as to Martins lewde exclamation against the B. of London cōcerning the cloth thought to be stollen frō the Dyars this is the trueth of the case that vpon notice giuē to the said B. that such like cloth was wayued within his Manor of Fulham and left in a ditch there and no owner knowen hee presently hoping to take them that brought it thither or at the least to saue the same from purloyning or miscarying appoynted the same to be watched diuers nights and in the
ende hearing neither of the owners nor of them that so waiued it willed the same to bee brought to his house in Fulham and there to be kept for him or them which by law ought to haue it were it in respect of the first property or of the alteratiō therof by meanes of the liberties Wherupon a good space after the Dyars indeed came to the Bishop and claimed the cloth sought by earnest means to haue it again without making any proofe that the cloth was theirs or that the same cloth was it for which the theeues were executed or that fresh sute was made after the saide theeues for the same But vpon cōference had with learned Lawyers therein it was resolued that the propertie of this cloth was altered and transferred to the lyberties and so it seemeth the Dyars themselues haue found els woulde they by lawe haue sought remedie therefore yer nowe it being vvell nie tovvards three yeres since Yet neuertheles so farre hath the sayd Bishop bene from exacting the extremitie that offer hath bene made to the Dyars of a good part of the cloth where in the rigour of law they haue lost all And further to restore all or to make sufficient recompence therefore if by law it ought to be so vpon the examinatiō of the trueth of the case And as for Martins erronious iudgement that this is theft being taken and claymed by right and lawe as aforesay de because the true owners are defeated as hee saith surely he might knowe if it were matter for his humor that the Lawe worketh this in other cases as in strayes proclaymed and kept a yeere and a day according to the law the propertie is altered and transferred to the Lord from the true owner so is it for stollen cattel brought bona fide to the ouert market The first owners propertie is gone and the buyer hath it And so is it for waiued goods as vvas this cloth And to shewe that the sayd Bishop had not so great a desire to detaine the cloth as the Libeller hath presumed hee often times asked an officer of his howe it happened that the Dyars came not for it for he vvas euer ready and yet is to deliuer it to them or the value thereof if it prooue to be theirs And thus much is to be ansvvered to that matter The Libeller obiecteth against the Bishop as a great heinous fault that of his Porter hee made a Minister which al things considered he thinketh that doing to be iustifiable lavvfully done and not to lacke example of many such that haue bin after that sort admitted both since her Maiesties cōming to the Crovvne by many good Bishops and by sound histories Ecclesiasticall that where the church by reason of persecution or multitude of Hamlets and free Chappels which haue commonly very smal stipends for the Minister honest godly men vpon the discretion of the Gouernours of the Church haue and might be brought in to serue in the vvant of learned men in prayer administration of Sacraments good example of life in some sort of exhortation And this man therefore when the bishop founde him by good and long experience to be one that feared God to be conuersant in the scriptures of very honest life conuersation he allowed of him to serue in a small congregation at Padington where cōmonly for the meannesse of the stipend no Preacher could bee had as in many places it commeth to passe where the Parsonage is impropriat and the prouision for the Vicar or Curat is very smal And how this poore man behaued himselfe there time and tryall prooued him for he continued in that place with good liking of the people 8. or 9. yeres till he grew dull of sight for age thereby vnable for to serue any longer It is to be founde among the Greeke Canons that in Spaine Africa when the Goathes Vandalles had by extreme persecution made hauocke of the Church men those fewe that were left there aliue made their moane to the Churches of Rome Italy that their Churches stoode emptie because they could get none to serue no not such as were vnlearned Whereby it appeareth that in the time of necessitie and such great want the Church did allowe of very meane Clarkes so did they in the beginning of hir Maiesties raigne But Martin his complices hauing a desire to throwe out of the Church the booke of common prayer would rather haue the Churches serued by none then by such as by prayer and administration of Sacraments shoulde keepe the people together in godly assemblies But this Libeller being as a botch in the body wherunto all bad humors cōmonly resort fewe good was cōtent to take this report of this poore man and not at all to make mention as he might haue done of that precise straite order vvhich the Bishoppe obserueth in making Ministers For most true it is that the saide B. admitteth none to orders but such as he himself doth examine in his owne person in points of Diuinitie that in the latin tongue in the hearing of many vvhereby it cōmeth to passe that none lightly come at him but such as be Graduats of the vniuersities But Martin neither himselfe nor his cole cariers seeke for any thing that is cōmendable but like the spider that gathereth all that may turne to poyson Further for lacke of true matter M. Maddockes must be brought in by the Libeller to furnish his railing comedy It were inough to say of that thus much that the most reuerent Father the Archbishop of Canterburie examining that matter betweene the Bishop Maddockes with some other Bishops assisting him founde the matter to make so sore against the Bishop that Maddockes himself was content before them to aske him forgiuenes and to promise that hee would euer after haue a reuerent regard of his duetie towards the said Bishop as his Ordinarie For if he should so vntruely haue played with the name of Aelmer by turning it into the name of Mar-elme hee shoulde haue spokē against his conscience as he himselfe knoweth and all the Court and her Maiestie her selfe can testifie that it vvas a most shamefull vntrueth blased abroad by one Lichfield a Musicion vvhich is novv departed Heere might bee noted hovv Doctor Perne being at no meane mans table hearing of such slanderous rayling of felling of the Elmes at Fulham he asked one of the company being an ancient Lavvyer hovv long the Elmes of Fulham had bin felled Said the Lavvyer somehalfe yere past Novv truely saide D. Perne they are marueilously grovven in that time for I assure you I vvas there vvithin these foure daies they seeme to be tvvo hundred yeeres old And master Vicechamberlaine at her Maiesties being at Fulham tolde the Bishop that her Maiestie misliked nothing but that her Highnesse lodging vvas kept from all good prospects by the thicknesse of the trees Lo you may see hereby that the
Libeller to set out his Pasquil raketh all things by all reportes from all the Sycophants in the vvorld and maketh no choise of man or matter so that it may serue his turne And for any Letter vvritten by the maister of Requests so iestingly as the Libeller reporteth Maddockes hath deceiued him for there vvas no such matter nor the man for vvhom the Bishop vvrote vvas none of his seruant nor is Novve commeth in Dame Lawson to frumpe the Bishoppe vvith impudent and vnwomanly speech and vnfit for that sexe vvhom Paul vtterly forbiddeth to speake in the congregation But considering the circumstances of time place and persons it is to bee thought that Dame Lawson came at no time to the bishoppe in that brauerie for if shee had the bishop is not so soft but shee shoulde haue felt of Discipline and of the Queenes authoritie Surely the Bishop and such other of the Reuerend fathers that are so bitten by this Libeller may comfort themselues by the exāple of Athanasius and others as I before haue said which vvere most shamefully accused by the heretikes of murder robbery enchantment whoredome and other most detestable crimes to deface them to the worlde to the ende that their heresies might be the better liked of But Martin remember that saying Vae homini per quem scandalum venit and that Iude saith that Michael when he disputed with the Deuill about the body of Moses the Angel gaue no rayling sentence against him but said the Lord rebuke thee Satā And if it pleased you to remēber that booke that is fathered vpon Ignatius in Greeke which attributeth so much to the bishops you would be good master to bishops against whom so vnreuerently you cast out your stomacke And for your iesting at the Bishop for bovvling vpon the Sabboth you must vnderstande that the best expositor of the Sabboth which is Christ hath saide that the Sabboth was made for man and not man for the Sabboth and man may haue his meate dressed for his health vpon the Sabboth and vvhy may he not then haue some conuenient exercise of the body for the health of the body You vvill take small occasion to raile before you will hold your tongue If you can charge the Bishop that euer he withdrew himself from Sermon or seruice by any such exercise you might bee the bolder with him but contrariwise it is wel knowen that he and his whole familie doeth euery day in the weeke twise say the whole seruice calling vpon God for them selues the State and the Queenes Maiestie praying for her highnesse by that meanes deuoutly and heartily many times I pray God you do the like But oratio animae maleuolae non placet Deo The prayer of a malicious heart neuer pleaseth God Martin vvith his bitter stile of malicious Momus dipt in the gall of vngodlinesse proceedeth in a shamelesse vntrueth touching the Bishops ansvvere to the executors of Allein the Grocer as though he shoulde flatly denie the payment of a certaine debt due to the sayde Allein vvhich is as true as all the rest of Martins vvritings is honest and sober For bee it that at the first demaunde the Bishoppe vvas somevvhat mooued to heare his name to bee in the Merchants bookes vvhich hee euer so precisely auoyded that commonly he sendeth to them vvhom hee hath to doe with vvarning them to deliuer nothing in his name without his ovvne hand or ready money vsed peraduenture some sharpe vvordes in a matter that was so sudaine and so strange to him Yet most certaine it is that though not at that time yet very shortly after the debt was discharged as shall be prooued long before Martins railing booke vvas heard of or seene ten pound excepted which the sayde executors for a time respited But this fellovve vvill trauaile farre before he will lacke matter to furnish a lye Another mountaine that he maketh of molehils for such is all his blasphemous buildings is that one Benison a poore man vvas kept in the Clincke I cannot tell howe long vniustly vvithout cause c. The trueth is this Benison comming from Geneua full fraught with studie of Innouations and vtterly emptie of obedience vvhich Beza that learned Father had or might haue taught him as by his Epistles appeareah both to the Queene and the gouernors of the Church set vp in London his shop of disobedience being maried in a contrary order to the booke and vsage of the Church of England abusing good M. Foxe as hee himselfe in griefe of heart after confessed After that the said Benison gathering conuenticles and refusing to goe to his owne parish church seeking to set al in combustion with schisme in the Citie was long before the B. heard any thing of him called before Sir Nicholas Woodroofe a graue Citizen the Recorder who found him in such an humour that they meant to haue sent him to prison But because hee was of the Clergie they thought good to commit him to his Ordinarie who trauailing with him most earnestly to bring him to the Church and become orderly when he coulde profite nothing with him sent him againe to the Sessions to the Lord Maior and the Iudges After they had dealt with him and could finde at his hands nothing but railing they sent him againe to the Bishop and he finding him in vnspeakeable disobedience to her Maiestie and her Lawes offered him the oath which he contemptuously and spitefully refused Which being certified according to order he was sent to the Queenes bench was condemned and thereupon sent to prison And this is that wonderfull tragedie wherin this fellow so greatly triumpheth wishing belike as his whole Libell seemeth to desire that no malicious schismatike shoulde be punished for moouing sedition in the lande But to this vnbrideled tongue it may be sayd as the Psalme sayth Quid gloriaris in malitia tua c. Where hee courseth the Bishop of London with the lewde lying Epithete of Dumbe Iohn fetched I cannot tell from what grosse conceite either as willingly stumbling vpon Dumbe for Don or for that he preacheth not so oft as hee and other of his crewe babbling in their verball sermons vse to doe or from whence else I knowe not vnlesse it please his wisedome to play with his owne conceite and minister matter to the Prentises and Women of London to sport himselfe in that pretie deuised and newe founde name If the Bishop shoulde ansvvere for himselfe I knowe he might say somevvhat after this sort Good charitable Martin hovv olde are you how long haue you knowen the man what reports in the booke of Martyrs in Master Askams booke of his Schoolemaster and in some learned men that haue vvritten from beyond the Seas haue you heard of him Master Foxe saith of him that hee vvas one of the fiue and novve onely aliue that stoode in the solemne disputations in the first of Quene Mary with a hundred hauberdes about his eares the like whereof you threaten
thought conceiue nor his wordes include any such matter But what doeth not malice enuie and spite vtter against the most innocent person that is The bishop of Winchester hath openly more impugned the vices of this age heere in the Church of Englande then the vvhole broode of them that are of the Anabaptisticall Conuenticles and the residue of these Libellers Woe bee to them saith Esay the Prophet that speake euil of good and good of euill and put light for darkenesse and darkenesse for light sweete for sowre and sowre for sweete Dauid had great cause to crie domine libera animam meam à labijs iniquis à lingua dolosa And Salomon cogitatio stulti peccatum est abominatio hominum Detractor The deuise of a foole is sinne and all men abhorre the backbiter or Slaunderer If any man vvill reprooue the Assertion before written God vvilling he shall be ansvvered so that he rayle not This may be a sufficient answere to the vntrueth fathered vpon the B. of Winchesters words that hee is not for the same iustly tearmed Monstrous and flattering hypocrite speaking against his owne conscience But I see in these wordes the reproch not only of the bishop but much more amalicious spite against this Church of England and that so deepely setled in their hearts that their eares cannot without griefe he are any good spoken of it Therefore I thinke my selfe in Christian dutie bound somevvhat farther to follovve this matter and with some signification of thankefulnesse to acknowledge and confesse those excellēt blessings which it hath pleased God of his great mercies to bestowe vpon the same as vvell in King Edward the sixts dayes as much more in her Maiesties reigne that now is and first to beginne with that which is the principall that is the sinceritie of doctrine and all branches of true religion receiued professed taught and established in this Realme In which point I thinke it very superfluous needles for me to recite the particular branches and to make a nevv catechisme or to pen a new confession of the Church of England seeing they both are so sufficiently performed that vvithout enuy be it spoken there is none better in any refourmed Church in Europe For a Catechisme I refer them to that which was made by the learned and godly man Master Nowel Deane of Paules receiued and allovved by the Church of England and very fully grounded and established vpon the vvorde of God There may you see all the parts of true Religion receiued the difficulties expounded the trueth declared the corruptions of the Church of Rome reiected But this I like not in our Church that it is lawful to euery man to set foorth a nevve Catechisme at his pleasure I read that in the Primitiue Church that thing did great harme and corrupted the mindes of many simple persons with soule errours and heresies I see the like at this day for thereby many honest meaning hearts are caried avvay to the misliking of our manner of prayer and administration of Sacraments and other orders vvhereby it is made a principall instrument to maintaine and increase discorde and dissention in the Church For a sound and true confession acknowledged by this our church I refer them to that notable Apologie of the English Church written not many yeeres since by that Iewel of England late Bishop of Sarifburie Wherein they shal finde all parts of Christian religion confessed proued both by the testimony of the canonicall scriptures and also by the consent of all learned and godly antiquitie for the space of certain hundred yeres after Christ For the integrity and soundnes for the learning and eloquence shewed in the same Apologie they that contemne that notable learned man because hee was a Bishoppe may haue very good testimonie in a litle Epistle vvritten by Peter Martir vnto the said bishop and nowe printed and in the latter edition set before the same Apologie where they shall finde that hee speaketh not for himselfe onely but for many other learned men of the church of Tygure and other places Nowe as this learned Bishop doeth acknowledge and confesse for this Church all trueth of doctrine so doeth hee reprooue condemne and detest all corruptions brought into the same either by the church of Rome or by any other ancient or newe heretikes whome he there particularly nameth yea and to the great comfort of all them that are members of the same church and acknowledge the same confession hee prooueth and euidently sheweth that the testimonies of the Scriptures whereon that confession is grounded for the true interpretation of them haue the witnesse consent of all the learned antiquitie as I haue saide for certaine hundred yeeres Which I take to bee a very good comfort and confirmation to all honest consciences in these captious and quarelling dayes That which I meane I will declare by some particulars What is more euident certaine and firme for the article of the person of Christ in his Godhead manhood then those things that the ancient Fathers decreed out of the canonicall scriptures in the Councels of Nice Constantinople Ephesus Chalcedon some others against Arius Samosatenus Apollinaris Nestorius Eutiches and those heretikes that were termed Monotholetes c Therefore whosoeuer do teach contrary to the determination of those councels as some do in these dayes they do not iustly hold that principal article and foundation of Christian religion Moreouer as touching the grace and benefite of Christ the beginning whereof riseth from the eternall loue of God toward vs and from the free election to redemption and eternall saluation and proceedeth to our vse and benefite by the dispensation of Christ once offred vpon the Crosse by effectual calling wrought by the holy Ghost in preaching of the Gospell by our iustification sanctification and the gift of perseuerance and continuance in the faith thereby in the end to obtaine resurrection and eternall life touching I say this free grace of God another principall ground of Christian religion what coulde be or can bee more certainly or abundantly layde downe out of the holy Scriptures then was determined in the Councels of Carthage Mileuitane Aurasicane c. against the Pelagians and other enemies of the free grace of God in Christ Iesu our Sauiour Especially if you adde the writings of August and other ancient Fathers for defence of the same As to that which is necessarie to be knowen touching the true Catholique Church a matter of great importaunce euen at this day vvhat can be more copiously or with more perspicuitie declared then is by that learned father Augustine as well in other places as principally in his bookes against the Donatists Likewise for the matter of the Sacrament of the Lordes Supper if simple trueth coulde content men what is more euident then that doctrine which hath bene laid downe by the ancient Fathers Iustine Irenaeus Tertullian Cyprian Augustine Theodorete and a number
of other For proofe whereof I referre you to B. Iewell in his worthy booke wherein he answereth Hardings reply against his 27. questions proposed at Pauls Crosse c. I remēber touching this matter of the Sacrament Occolampadius a man of great reading godlines saith of S. August Is primus mihi vellicauit aurem He did first put me in minde of the true vnderstanding of this Sacrament These foure principal Articles I haue laid downe for example that the Christian Reader may the more easily perceiue vvhat comfort it is to any Church to haue the grounds of their faith and religion so established vpon the holy Scriptures that for the interpretation of the same they haue the testimonie consent of the Primitiue Church the ancient learned Fathers From which Consent they should not depart either in doctrine or other matter of weight vnlesse it so fall out in them that we be forced thereto either by the plaine wordes of the Scriptures or by euident and necessary conclusions following vpon the same or the Analogie of our faith Which thing if we shall perceiue we ought safely may take that liberty that themselues especially Augustine hath vsed requireth other to vse Nec Catholicis Episcopis c. Wee must not consent saith Augustine so much as to Catholike Bishops if they be deceiued and be of opinion contrary to the Canonicall Scriptures Againe I am not tied with the authoritie of this Epistle For I haue not the writings of Cyprian in like estimation as I haue the Canonicall Scriptures but I measure them by the rule of the holy Scriptures If I finde any thing in his writings agreeing to the Scriptures I receiue it with commendation and reuerence if otherwise with his good leaue I refuse it The like you haue Epist 48. 111. 112. In Prooemio li. 3. de Trinitate and many other places Otherwise to reiect the testimonie of the ancient Fathers rashly is a token of too much confidence in our owne wits It was noted as a great fault in Nestorius and a chief cause of his heresie that contemning the Fathers hee rested too much vpon his owne iudgement The like confidence drew many learned men and of great gifts to be Patrons of sundry foule and shamefull errours How came it to passe that after that notable Councell of Nice so many detestable heresies arose against the Deitie the Humanitie of Christ against the vniting of both natures and the distinction of the properties of them c. but onely out of this roote that they contemned the graue sentences interpretations determinations of those famous Confessors and great learned Fathers as were in the same assembled and had too much liking in their owne wits learning But woe be vnto them saith Esay that are ouerwise in their owne conceite Vigilius in his first booke against Eutyches saith thus These cloudes of fond and vaine accusations are powred out by them chiefly which are diseased either with the sickenesse of ignorance and of a contentious appetite and while they being puffed vp with confidence of a proud stomacke for this only cause they reiect the rules of faith laide downe by the ancient fathers that they may thrust into the Church their owne wauering deuises which they haue ouerthwartly conceiued This sentence I would our vncharitable accusers troublers of the Church would well weigh and consider with them-selues Therfore good reader I protest for my selfe and for the residue of this church that we dare not in conscience nor thinke it tollerable with contempt to reiect the testimonies of antiquitie in establishing any matter of weight in the Church We leaue that to our hasty Diuines that in three yeeres study thinke themselues able to controll all men to haue more learning then all the Bishops in England And for this cause vvil they giue no credit to ancient writers against their new found equality For with them it is a foule fault once in a sermon to name an ancient father or to alledge any testimonie out of his workes Novve good Christian Reader seeing by the good blessing of God vve haue all parts of Christian fayth and Religion professed and taught in this Church and the same grounded vpon the canonicall Scriptures vvith the consent and exposition of the Primitiue Church and ancient Fathers What a vaunting pride is it as Cyprian speaketh vvhat an vnthankefulnesse to God vvhat vncharitable affection toward the Church of their naturall Countrey that they cannot abide any good to be spoken of it pretending nothing but the priuate faultes and vices of some men or the disagreeing from them in some orders and partes of Gouernement which they vvill neuer be able to proue by the word of GOD to bee of necessitie In other reformed Churches vvhome they so greatly extolle and vvould make paterne to vs haue they not imperfections Haue they not foule faults and great vices among all sortes of men as well Ministers as others Surely their worthiest writers grauest Preachers doe note that they haue And if they woulde denie it the world doth see it and many good men among them doe bevvaile it I vvill not stay in the other blessings of God vvhere with he hath adorned this Church I shall haue occasion to speake somewhat more of it hereafter and God send vs grace that we may vvith true thankefulnesse acknovvledge it But this I may not omitte vvithout great note of vnthankefulnesse towarde our mercifull God vvhich hath not onely preserued maintained and defended the State but also appoynted this Church to be as a Sanctuarie or place of refuge for the Saints of God afflicted and persecuted in other Countries for the profession of the Gospell for whome I am persvvaded vvee doe fare the better at Gods hande And I doubt not but in that respect al reformed Churches in other places feeling the blessing of God by vs thinke reuerently of our State and pray to God for vs as all good men vvith vs ought to doe for them that the true linke of Christian charitie may soundly knitte vs together in one body of right faith and Religion If some fevve persons thinke amisse of our Church I impute the cause thereof only to the malicious vntrue reports made by some of our owne Countreymen vnto them Which persons if they did vnderstande the true State of this our Realme would thinke farre othervvise as diuers of the most graue learned writers haue already euidently declared This also is not the least blessing of God as well in the time of K. Edward as in the reigne of our gracious Soueraigne that this Church hath had as ample ornamēts of learned men Rumpantur vt Ilia Momo as the most reformed Churches in Europe farre more plentifully then some place whose state they seeke to frame vs vnto Only I except those excellēt men whō God had prepared in the beginning to be the restorers of his Trueth doctrine of
the Gospel in those parts Namely we haue had B. Cranmer Ridley Latimer Couerdale Hooper diuers other vvhich were no Bishops as M. Bradford M. Sanders M. Rogers M. Philpot D. Haddon c. Most of vvhich as they haue left good proofe of their learning in vvriting so did they confirme the same vvith their blood in the ende The like I may iustly say of them vvhome God hath sent to restore his Trueth since the beginning of her Maiesties reigne hovvsoeuer it pleaseth the Broode of the Martinists to deface them as Bishoppe Coxe Pilkington Grindall Sands Horne Iewell c. vvhich haue good testimonie of their learning giuen them by as graue learned and zealous men as any haue liued in this age among vvhome for certaine yeeres they liued A nomber of other haue proceeded out of both our Vniuersities vvhich though Martin Momus will say the contrary deserue singular commēdation for their learning and haue declared the same to the vvorlde in ansvvering and confuting the opprobrious writings of the common Aduersaries In vvhich their ansvveres without enuie and displeasure be it spoken there appeareth as sufficient learning as doeth in the most workes at this time published by the vvriters of forreine Countreies If Englishmen at this time so greatly dispraysed vvere giuen vvith like paynes to set foorth the exercises of their studie and learning as in other places they doe they vvoulde dravve as good commendation of learning to their Countrey as most other Churches doe To vvhich nomber of ours I adde also some of thē vvhom certaine occasions haue caried away to the misliking of the present state of this Church vvhich I knowe haue receiued of God singular good giftes which I pray earnestly they may vse to his glory and the procuring the vnity peace of the Church vvhich our Hastie Diuines of M. M. his brood seeke to breake and disturbe This testimonie I thought my selfe bounde in conscience to yeelde to that Church of my naturall Countrey in vvhich and by vvhich through the mercie of our gracious God I am that I am The godly I trust vvill interprete all to the best the residue I looke not to please The B. of Winchester is further charged in this maner He said that men might find fault if they were disposed to quarrell aswel with the Scriptures as with the booke of common prayer Who could heare this comparison without trembling Let the Libellers whatsoeuer they are remēber Os quodmentitur occidit animam At that time in S. Mary Oueries church in a large discourse he did answere the obiections that many make at this day against the booke of common praier towarde the end vttered these words If it could be without blasphemie they might picke as many as great quarrels against the holy scriptures thēselues For euen the best writings are subiect to the slanderous malice of wicked men This assertion was found fault with all by a Iesuite or Massing priest at that time in the Marshalsey therfore the B. the next Sunday following expounded his meaning and at large shevved that that might be done which beforetime was done by a great number and that he was not so far beside himselfe as to compare the booke of common prayer vvith the holy scriptures in dignity trueth or maiestie He leaueth such blasphemous dealing to the Papists the Family of Loue some other Sectaries but he compared them in this as it is before saide that the Scriptures themselues vvere subiect also to slaunderous and deprauing tongues and yet not therfore to be reiected wherof he recited sundry examples Celsus that heathenish Epicure against whom Origen writeth in his booke called Verax doth powre out many railing slaunderous reproches not onely against the holy Scriptures but also against the course of Christian Religion as that they receiued their religion doctrine of the barbarous Iewes that is out of the bookes of Moses and the Prophets The like did Porphyrius an other Philosopher and in his bookes reprooued the Scriptures in many places for hee wrote thirtie bookes against Christian religion That scoffing sophister Libanius and his scholler Iulian the Apostata vsed the like blasphemies against the Christian faith and the Scriptures out of which it was prooued as appeareth in sundrie auncient Writers Who knoweth not that some Heretikes reiected the most part of the olde Testament as false and fabulous The Valentiniane Heretike sayeth Tertullian Quaedam legis Prophetarum improbat quaedam probat id est Omnia improbat dum quaedam reprobat The Marcionists receiue onely the Gospell of Matthewe the other they reiect And likewise they admitte but two Epistles of Saint Paul that is to Timothie and Titus and as Hierome sayeth to Philemon Tatian also depraueth the Scriptures reiecteth the Actes of the Apostles and picketh sundrie other quarrels against them There was neuer any Heretike but that to giue countenance to his opinion hee would seeme to ground it vpon the Scriptures And what is that but wickedly to father lies vpon the Scriptures And for this cause you know the Papists thinke it no sure ground to rest vpon the scriptures onely affirming blasphemously that the Scriptures are darke vnperfect and doubtfull because they may bee wrested cuery way like a nose of waxe or like a leaden Rule Wherefore Christian charitie and modestie woulde not thus maliciously and slanderously wrest and wring the words of the Bishop tending to a good and godly meaning Of like trueth it is that he burtheneth the Bishop of Winchester to affirme that it was heresie to say The preaching of the worde was the onely ordinarie way to saluation which he neuer thought or spake either thē or at any other time of his life But in handling of that controuersie Penrie spake things so strangely obscurely that he seemed to attribute that effect to the preaching of the word only not otherwise vsed by reading And being vrged with that question by occasion of reading the Scriptures in Churches his answere was such as hee euidently shewed himselfe to meane that that effect of saluatiō could not be wrought by hearing the worde of God read with some other wordes giuing suspition of worse matter And then indeede the B. rose not out of his place as these honest men doe carpe nor spake in such cholerike maner as they pretend but quietly said My Lord this is not farre from heresie What were the words that Penry vsed especially moued the B. to speake hee doeth not at this time remember but sure he is they were as far from that which is laide downe in the Libel as falshoode can be from truth I wonder that mē which professe God yea or that beleeue there is a God can with open mouth so boldely powre foorth such heapes of vntrueths Detractor abominabilis est Deo The counsell of the Prophet is good He that would gladly see good dayes let him refraine his tongue from euill and
and states of the Church of Christ one onely forme of outward gouernment Secondly that they will note and name some certaine particular Churches either in the Apostles time or afterward wherein the whole gouernement of the Church was practised onelie by Doctours Pastours Elders and Deacons â—nd none other and that in an equalitie without superioritie in one aboue an other If this bee done soundly and truely without any wresting or double vnderstanding of the places of Scripture I protest they will shake that opinion that nowe I haue of this present gouernement of the Church of Englande Yet vnder correction I will not say that I know but I am surely perswaded that they will neuer be able to doe it Moreouer I woulde wish them vnfaignedly to declare whether all the Churches at this day reformed in Europe where the light of the Gospell was first restored and specially of Saxonie and High Almaine haue this gouernement which by these men is nowe required and none other If they haue it is a good preiudice for their cause if they haue not it is hard that the example of two or three Churches shoulde ouerrule all the residue in which the light of the Gospell beganne before them And it may bee well sayde Did the Gospell beginne first with you Wee may not pull downe one Rome and set vp an other Surely as graue learned meÌ„ as most that haue written in this time euidently affirme the contrarie do make good proofe of this proposition That one forme of Church-gouernment is not necessarie in al times and places of the Church that their Senate or Segniorie is not conuenient vnder a Christian Magistrate In Denmarke they haue bishoppes both in name and office as it appeareth in certaine Epistles of Hemingius written to some of them In which hee sayth They are greatly troubled vvith continuall visitation of their Churches In Saxony they haue Archbishoppes and bishoppes in office but not in name For proofe heereof I alleadge the testimonies of that learned man Zanchius in the Annotations vpon certaine parts of his confession In the Church of the Protestants saith he in deede they haue bishops and Archbishops which chaunging the good Greeke names into ill Latine names they call Superintendents and generall Superintendents c. The same Zanchius in the same his confession hath these words By the same reason those thingâ— that were ordained in the church touching Archbishops yea and the foure patriarchs before the Counsell of Nice may bee excused and defended These vvordes and some other were misliked by one famous learned man who wrote to Zanchius of the same But Zanchius was so farre from altering his iudgement that in the foresaid Annotations hee writeth a large defence of it out of Bucer in Epist ad Ephes vvhich is also found in a little Treatise vvhich the same Bucer hath vvritten De vi vsu Ministerij And Zanchius in the same place shewed the reason why hee is so grounded in that opinion I beleeue saith hee that those things which were concluded and determined by the Godly Fathers assembled in the name of the Lorde with common consent and without contradiction to the Scriptures proceede from the holie spirite of GOD and therefore I dare not inconscience improoue them And what is more certaine by the Histories Councels and writings of the Fathers then that those orders of the Ministers of which wee haue spoken haue bene receiued and allowed by the common consent of Christedome And I pray who am I that I should reprooue those thinges which the whole church hath allowed Neither durst all they that bee of our time hee meaneth the learned men of Germany reprooue the same In the foresaide place of his Annotations when he hath spoken of the gouernement of the churches of Saxony he addeth touching other places Euen there where they haue neither the good Greeke names nor the euill Latine termes yet haue they certaine chiefe men in whose handes well neere is all authoritie Seeing then we agree in the things why should we haue controuersie about the names and titles This man vndoubtedly knewe the gouernement of all the Churches in Germany For hee had beene a reader and teacher in diuers of them He had bin in Geneua he taught at Argentine eleuen yerees after at Clauenna foure yeres Again after that at Heidelberge ten yeeres And lastly by Cassimire appointed at his town at Newstade where yet he liueth an olde man if God of late hath not taken him out of this world Those places of high Almaine wherein most zealous preachers and learned men haue remained with whome in doctrine wee most nighly agree haue not one maner of gouernment nor formes of Discipline In Tygâ—â—e it is wel knowen they haue no Senate of Elders nor thinke it tollerable vnder a Christian Magistrate nor the Discipline by Excommunication which they more mislike I thinke it be not much differing at Berne one of the gretest Churches as I gather by Aretius in sundry places At Geneua and some other places especially such as haue had their beginning from thence they haue a gouernmeÌ„t not much vnlike that platforme which is desired to be with vs and is nowe in Scotland I might say the like for some ceremonies outward orders In Saxony and at Basile they kneele at the Lords Supper At Tygure they sit and it is brought to them In other places they go and receiue it for the more expedition as they passe The like libertie and diuersitie vse they in some other externall things which I am not willing for some causes to lay downe in writing All those Churches in which the gospell in these dayes after great darkenesse was first renewed and the learned men whome God sent to instruct them I doubt not but haue beene directed by the spirite of God to retain this liberty that in external gouernment other outward orders they might choose such as they thought in wisdome and godlinesse to bee most conuenient for the state of their Country and disposition of the people Why then shoulde this libertie that other Countries hauevsed vnder any colour bee wrested from vs I thinke it therefore great presumption and boldenesse that some of our nation and those whatsoeuer they thinke of themselues not of the greatest wisedome and skill shoulde take vpon them to controll the whole Realme and to binde both prince people in necessity of conscience to alter the present state and to tie themselues to a certaine platforme deuised by some of our neighbours which in the iudgement of manie wise and godly persons is most vnfit for the state of a kingdome or to bee exercised vnder a Christian Prince that defendeth the Gospell as in part experience already hath taught in some I pray God they looke not further and haue not a deeper reach then good subiectes that loue their Prince and countrey should haue Lastly I would wish them leauing the long discourses where unto
Doctor Bridges was drawen by some of their strange and intricate assertions they woulde briefly without corruption lay downe his arguments and allegations touching the supreme authoritie of the Prince and the superioritie of bishops and modestly and soundly answere the same not reiecting the testimony of the ancient Writers and Historiographers especially such as were within 400. yeeres after Christ so farre as they may bee Testes temporum For if they shall otherwise deale and seeke to shift off the matter with reproches scoffes and slaunders they wil discredit their cause and make good men thinke that the spirite with which they are carried is not the milde spirit of Christ but the spirit of him that is condemned for the father of lying murdering and slandering from the beginning The reason that mooueth vs not to like of this platforme of gouernment is that when we on the one part consider the thinges that are required to be redressed on the other the state of our countrey people and common weale we see euidently that to plant those things in the Church will drawe with it so many and so great alterations of the State of gouernment and of the lawes as the attempting thereof might bring rather the ouerthrowe of the Gospell among vs then the ende that is desired The particulars hereof in some fewe things in steade of many doe here follow and hath bene opened to you before if reasonable warning would haue serued First the whole state of the lawes of this Realme will be altered For the Canon lawe must be vtterly taken away vvith all offices to the same belonging which to supply with other lawes functions without many inconueniences wilbe very hard The vse and studie of the Ciuil law wil be vtterly ouerthrowen For the Ciuilians in this Realme liue not by the vse of the Ciuill law but by the offices of the Canon law and such things as are within the compasse therof And if you take those offices and functions away and those matters wherewith they deale in the Canon Lawe you must needes take away the hope of rewarde and by that meanes their whole Studie And matters of Tithes Testaments and Matrimonie iudgements also of Adulterie Slaunder c. are in these mens iudgements meere temporall and therefore to bee dealt in by the temporall Magistrate onely Which as yet haue eyther none at all or very fewe lawes touching those things Therefore the Temporall and Common lawe of this Realme must by that occasion receiue also a very great alteration For it will bee no small matter to apply these things to the Temporall lawe and to appoynt Courts Officers and maner of processe and proceedings in iudgement for the same Beside this the Iudiciall law of the Iewes especially for such offences as are against the lawe of God must bee brought into this Common weale For to this opinion doe they plainely incline For they say already flatly that no Magistrate can saue the life of a blasphemer stubborne Idolater murderer Adulterer Incestuous person and such like which God by his Iudiciall lawe hath commaunded to be put to death The same assertion must haue like aucthoritie for the contrary that is that a Magistrate ought not to punish by death those offences that God by his Iudicial lawe hath not appointed to be punished by death and so may not our lawes punish theft by death nor diuers other felonies and so some of them haue openly preached The lawes also mainteining the Queenes supremacie in gouerning of the Church and her prerogatiue in matters Ecclesiasticall as vvell Elections as others must be also abrogated Those lavves likevvise must bee taken away whereby Impropriations and Patronages stand as mens lavvfull possession and heritage In these Impropriations and Patronages as I doe confesse there is Lamentable abuse and vvish the same by some good Statute to bee remedied so howe the thing it selfe can vvithout great difficultie and danger be taken away being so generall as it is in the state of this Realme I leane to the iudgement of the vvise and godly The lawes of England to this day haue stoode by the aucthoritie of the three Estates vvhich to alter now by leauing out the one may happily seeme a matter of more vveight then all men doe iudge it If there vvere no more then this one thing vvhich hitherto I haue spoken of that is the alteration of the state of all the lawes of this Realme I thinke there is no wise man but seeth what daunger may followe in these perillous times not onely by fulfilling the thing but also by offering to doe it It hath beene alwayes dangerous to picke quarrels against lawes setled And I pray God that the very rumour hereof spread by these mens bookes haue not already bred more inconuenience then without hurt will bee suppressed I may not put all that I thinke in writing The fourme of finding of Ministers by Tythes must with the Canon lawe be abolished For it was not vsed in the gouernment of the Apostles time nor a great many of yeeres after and therefore may seeme Papisticall and Antichristian There must bee some other order for this deuised Which with howe great alteration it must bee done and how hard it will be to bring to good effect I thinke there is no man but he seeth For the liuings of bishoppes and Cathedrall Churches whereat they carpe though they were all that way bestowed will not serue the third part If this gouernment whereof they speake be as they say necessary in all places then must they haue of necessitie in euery particular parish one Pastor a cōpany of Seniors a Deacon or two at the least and all those to be found of the parish because they must leaue these occupations to attend vpon the matters of the church But there are a number of parishes in England not able to find one tollerable minister much lesse to find such a company The remedy hereof must bee to vnite diuers parishes in one wherof this inconuenience will follow that people in the countrey must come to Church three foure or fiue miles off whereas now they that dwel in the same town can scarcely be forced by any penalties of Law orderly to come vnto the church to seruice or sermons so that they will growe to barbarisme in many places Whereas it is required that the people shoulde choose their Pastours Elders and Deacons it is greatly to be feared that it wil be matter of schisme discord and dissension in many places or that one or two busie heads shall leade the residue to what purpose they will to the great disquieting both of the Church and of the common weale Examples heereof did commonly appeare in the olde Churches while that manner of Election did continue as the ecclesiasticall histories in manie places doe declare And that inconuenience caused Princes and bishops so much to intermeddle in that matter The common people through affection and want of right iudgement
be true I praise it not I defend it not I excuse it not and I thinke the fault more in inferiour Officers then in Bishops themselues But in whome soeuer the fault be that cannot be so great and hainous that Bishoppes of England may iustly bee accounted Antichristian Prelates Petie Antichrists Subuice-Antichrists c. as some in the heate of their zeale doe tearme them But God I trust in due time will coole their heate with the spirite of mildenesse and gentlenesse If many Bishops haue gained by this kinde of Dispensatiō I maruaile Surely I know some that neuer receiued pennie in that consideration but haue giuen strait charge to their inferiour officers neuer to dispense with that matter but vpon great and weighty cause such order is now generally taken But good Christians here is the griefe that moueth all this grudge that euill persons when either to cloke their whoredome or to preuent another of his lawfull wife or some other like purpose will marrie without orderly asking in the Church they bee for the same conuented punished by the magistrate This they be grieued at count it great extremitie for because they see the lavvfull Magistrate vpon good considerations sometime to dispense with this order they thinke it as conuenient for them vvithout leaue of their ovvne heads to vse the same to the satisfying of their vnlavvfull lust or other lewde affection For such is novv the state of this time that vvhatsoeuer an Officer specially Ecclesiastical may do by lawful authoritie the priuate subiect thinketh he may doe the same at his owne vvill and pleasure And if he be brideled thereof why then it is Lordlinesse Symonie Couetousnesse and Crueltie And I pray God the like boldenesse grovve not tovvard other Officers and magistrates of the Common vveale also Surely vve haue great cause to feare it for the reasons vvhereon they ground their doings may be applied as vvell to the one as to the other Obiection Another Argument of couetousnesse in bishops is farre vvorse as it is said then the former that they prohibite marriage at certaine times most contrary to Gods worde that is say they a Papistical practise to fill the Cleargies purse yea it is a doctrine of Antichrist and of the deuill him selfe prohibiting Marriage euen in Laye men contrarie to S. Paules wordes who sayth Marriage is honourable in all persons Answere Surely for my part I confesse and before God and the vvorlde protest that in my conscience I thinke that who soeuer forbiddeth Marriage to any kinde of men is tainted vvith the corruption of Antichristian doctrine and hath his conscience seared with an hot iron bearing the marke of the beast spoken of in the Apocalypse but I am clearely resolued that the Bishoppes of Englande are free from any touch of that opinion and doe account it no lesse then a token of Antichrist noted by Daniel to prohibite lavvfull Matrimonie Their doctrine openly taught and preached and the practise of their life doth shevve it to be so that no man vnlesse hee bee blinded with malice vvill impute that errour vnto them Who seeth not that by exercise of mariage in their ovvne persons they cast themselues into the displeasure and misliking of a great nomber in that onely they bee married contrary to the corruption of the Popish and antichristian Church Wherefore I pray you good Christian readers weigh and consider with your selues what vnchristian and heathenish dealing this is toward the ministers of God of purpose onely to deface them and bring them in misliking by sinister interpretations to cast vpon them the filth and reproche of that corrupt doctrine of Antichrist vvhich most of all other they doe impugne in their teaching and withstand in their doing Is there feare of God in those hearts that can doe this Obiection Why they will say It is euident that Mariage is prohibited by them at certaine times of the yere and thereby occasion giuen to weake fraile persons to fall into whoredome and fornication or to burne in their consciences with great danger of their soules Answere Vndoubtedly this must needs be thought a captious and rigorous interpretation to say that a stay of mariage for certaine daies and weekes is an vnchristian forbidding of mariage vvorthy so grieuous blame as is cast vpon bishops for it For then it is a Popish disorder also and Antichristian corruption to stay marriage for three weekes vntill the Banes bee asked for in that space light and euill disposed mindes may easily fall to offence And yet this order both is and ought to bee accounted of them a godly and necessary order in the Church Obiection They will ansvvere that it is Popish and superstitious to tye the order of Marriage vnto any time or season more then other For the thing beeing good and lawfull by the worde of God why should it bee say they assigned to any time or place There is no place more holy then Paradise was nor no time so good as was before Adam fell by his disobedience c. Answere I ansvvere if any man appoynt Marriage to bee vsed at this or that time and place for conscience sake or for holinesse as though the time or place coulde make the thing eyther more or lesse holy surely I must needs condemne him as superstitious and cannot thinke well of the doing though all the bishoppes in Englande shoulde affirme the contrarie For to make holy or vnholy those things that God hath left free and bee of them selues indifferent is one of the chiefe groundes of all Papisticall corruption But I suspect no bishop in this Realme to be of that iudgement and I dare say there is not A thing left by Gods lawe free and indifferent may bee accounted more conuenient comely and decent at one time and place then at another but more holy it cannot bee All meats are free at all times by the law of God for nothing is vnclean that is receiued with thankesgiuing neither doeth any thing that goeth into the mouth defile a man And yet because it is now a Positiue law in this common vveale not for holinesse but for orders sake it is not so comely and conuenient for an Englishman to eate flesh on Fridayes and Saturdayes or in the Lent as it is at other times Obiection Heere they will crye and say that both the one law and the other is superstitious and naught and proceeded both out of the Popes mint and there were coyned and had their beginning and therefore that the Bishops doe wickedly and like to popish Prelates that so retaine in the Church and common weale the dregs of Antichristian corruption Answere This is the voice opinion of them only vvhich thinke not any thing tollerable to be vsed that hath bin vsed in the church before time were it of it selfe neuer so good These vvill haue no Font but christen children in basons They wil weare no caps nor surplices many of
them vvil not vse the old pulpits but haue nevv made they wil not accept a collect or praier be it neuer so agreeable to the vvord of God I maruaile that they vse the Churches them selues then which nothing hath bin more prophaned with superstition and idolatrie They should do that Optatus Mileuitanus writeth that the Donatists were wōt to do that is when they obteyned a Church vvhich before had bene vsed by Catholikes they vvoulde scrape the walles therof and breake the Communion tables cups But it may appeare that the learned father August vvas not of that opinion For in his epistle vvritten to Publicola a question was mooued vnto him whether in destroying the idoles temples or their groues a Christian might vse any part of the wood or water or any other thing that did apperteine vnto them His answere was that men might not take those things to their priuate vse least they run into suspicion to haue destroyed such places for couetousnes but that the same things might be imploied in pios necessarios vsus But I recite not this to defend that law whereby mariage for a time is forbidden For I thinke it not a matter of such necessitie neither is it so greatly pressed as they pretend I thinke there is no lawe remaining that is so little executed as that is The other law of forbearing flesh on Fridayes in Lent and other dayes for the state of our countrey I thinke very conuenient and most necessarie to be vsed in Christian policie I woulde to God those men that make so small accompt of this lawe had heard the reasons of the grauest wisest and most expert men of this realme not only for the maintenance of this Lawe but also for some addition to be made vnto it How God hath placed this land there is no reasonable man but seeth The Sea are our walles and if on these walles we haue not some reasonable furniture of ships we shal tempt God in leauing open our countrey to the enemy and not vsing those instrumēts which God hath appointed There is no state of men that doeth so much furnish this realme with sufficient numbers of mariners for our nauie as fishers doe And how shall fishers be maintained if they haue not sufficient vtterance for those things for which they trauell And howe can they haue vtterance if euery daintie mouthed man without infirmitie sickenesse shall eate flesh at his pleasure They cannot pretend religion or restraint of Christian libertie seeing open protestation is made by the lawe that it is not for conscience sake but for the defence and safetie of the realme Therefore this crying out against this lawe is not onely needelesse but also vndiscreete and factious Obiection But there bee other matters that more nighlie touch the quicke and if they be true can receiue no face of defence They make lewde and vnlearned Ministers for gaine they maintaine pouling and pilling courtes they abuse the Churches discipline c. Answere As touching the first if they make lewde Ministers it is one great fault if they doe it wittingly it is farre a more heinous offence if they do it for gaine it is of all other most wicked and horrible and indeede shoulde directly proue deuilish simonie to be in them That some lewde and vnlearned ministers haue bene made it is manifest I will not seeme to defend it I woulde they had had more care herein that the offence of the godly might haue bene lesse And yet I knowe all their faults in this are not alike and some haue smally offended herein And in them all I see a certaine care and determination so much as in them lyeth to amend the inconuenience that hath risen by it Which thing with professours of the Gospell shoulde cause their fault to bee the more charitably borne least they seeme not so much to haue misliking of the offence as of the persons themselues for some other purpose then they will bee openly knowen of But if they shoulde doe as they be I trust vniustly reported of that is to make lewde and vnlearned Ministers for lucre and gaine truly no punishment coulde be too grieuous for them Which way that should be gainefull to Bishops I see not The Clarke or Register I knowe hath his fee allowed for the writing of letters of Orders but that euer Bishop did take any thing in that respect I neuer heard neither thinke I that their greatest enemies be able to proue it vpon many of them Therefore this may goe with the residue of vncharitable slanders Or if there hath bene any one such euil disposed person that hath so vtterly forgot his duetie and calling that eyther this way or any such like in making of Ministers hath sought his owne gaine and commoditie it is hard dealing with the reproch thereof to defame the innocent together with the guiltie and to distaine the honestie of them that neuer deserued it There is no Magistrate in this land so sincere and vpright in his doings but that by this meanes his honesty and good name may be defaced Obiection It will bee sayde that all this is but a glose or colour to hide and turne from you those great crimes that you are iustly charged withall For the worlde seeth and all men crie out against you that you to the great hurt and hinderance of the Church vpholde and maintaine an vnlearned ministerie and wil not suffer any redresse or reformation to be made therein Hereby commeth it to passe that the people of God bee not taught their duetie eyther to God or to their Prince but by their ignoraunce are layde foorth as a pray to Sathan For by that occasion they bee ledde away to euill with euery light perswasion that is put into their heads either against God or their prince so that it may bee iustly thought that all those mischiefes that of late haue fallen foorth haue sprung out of this onely roote aswell in them that haue slidde backe and reuolted from religion as in those that haue conceiued attempted the wicked murthering of our gratious Prince and bringing in of a stranger to sit in her royall seate You are therefore the principall causes of all these mischiefes Answere This is surely a grieuous accusation but God I trust will iudge more vprightly and regard the innocencie of our hearts in these horrible crimes laid to our charge These accusers to satisfie their misliking affection towarde our state not onely suffer themselues to bee deceiued with false and captious reasons but dangerously also seeke to seduce other Logicians among other deceitfull arguments note one principally A non causa vt causa that is when men either to praise or dispraise doe attribute the effects of either part to some things or persons as causes therof which indeed are not the true causes Which false reasoning hath done great harme at all times both in the Church of God and in common weales After the
ascension of Christ whē God sent his Apostles and other holy men to preach the Gospell of our saluation in Christ and the same was among men vnthankfully receiued God did cast sundry plagues punishments vpon them as dearth and scarcitie famine hunger the pestilence and sundry other diseases warre tumult earthquakes and great deluges in sundry places The causes of al this very slāderously blasphemously they imputed to Christian Religion and therby raised those dreadfull persecutiōs which at that time were exercised against the Christians This errour was the cause that Saint Augustine wrote his notable worke De ciuitate Dei and that Orosius by the counsell both of Saint Hierome and Saint Augustine vvrote his historie vvherein he ansvvereth this false argument and shevveth that God in all times had sent the like plagues for the sinnes and offences of mankinde and for the reiecting of his vvorde and trueth In the fourtie foure Chapter of Ieremie The Ievves deceiue themselues with the like argument to confirme their conceiued superstition and idolatrie But we will do say they whatsoeuer thing commeth out of our owne mouth as to burne incense to the Queene of Heauen to powre out drinke offerings vnto her as we haue done both we and our Fathers our Kings our Princes in the Cities of Iudah and in the streetes of Hierusalem for then had we plentie of victuals were well and felt no euill But since wee left off to burne incense to the Queene of Heauen and to powre out drinke offerings vnto her we haue had scarcenesse of all things haue bene consumed by the sword and by the famine In these vvordes you see to the hardening of their owne hearts they attribute the good giftes of God to their idolatrie and their dearth and trouble to the preaching of Ieremie and other Prophets vvhich indeede were not the true causes thereof In like maner reason rebellious subiects in common vveales when they seeke to make odious the Princes gouernors vnder whom they liue vniustly imputing to them the causes of such things wherwith they finde thēselues grieued So reasoned the rebels in the time of King Richard the second against the King against the Counsell and chiefe Nobilitie of the Realme against the Lavvyers and all other States of learning therefore had resolution among them to haue destroyed and ouerthrovven them all and to haue suffered none other to liue in this Realme with them but the Gray Friers onely Seeing therefore this manner of reasoning is so perillous it behooueth all them that feare God and loue the trueth and will not vvillingly be caried into errour to take diligent heed that they be not abused herewith And so I pray God they may doe vvhich at this time so earnestly seeke to make odious the state of the Clergie of England imputing to them the causes of those things vvhich they most detest and abhorre For if they vvill see the trueth and iudge but indifferently they shall finde that there is no such vnlearned Ministerie as they complaine of neyther such vvant of preaching as may iustly prouoke the wrath of God to send such plagues punishments vpon vs as they recite This I dare iustifie that since Englande had first the name of a Christian Church there was neuer so much preaching of the vvorde of God neuer so many in number neuer so sufficient and able persons to teach and set forth the same as be at this day hovvsoeuer they be defamed and defaced There bee I confesse many vnlearned and vnsufficient Ministers but yet I take it to bee captious and odious in respect of them to name the whole Ministerie vnlearned or ignorant For the simplicitie and charitie of Christian iudgement doth giue the name of any Societie according to the better part and not according to the vvorse There were in the Church of Corinth many euill persons aswel in corruption of doctrine as wickednesse of life and yet Saint Paul noteth that Church to bee a reuerend and holy congregation The Church of Christ militant heere in earth hath alwayes a great number of euill mixed vvith them that be good oftentimes the worse part the greater yet were it reprochfull and slaunderous to call the Church vvicked In like sort may it vvell bee thought vncharitable to call the ministerie of the Church of England ignorant when that thenkes be to God there bee so many learued and sufficient preachers in this lande as neuer vvere before in any age or time and the same adorned with Gods excellent good giftes and comparable to any other Church refourmed in Europe If men would cast so curious and captious eyes vpon the Ministers of other countreyes and note the blemishes and imperfections in them as they doe in our owne I am perswaded vnder correction they would not thinke so meanely of the state of the Ministerie of England as they doe But this is the generall disease of vs Englishmen to haue in admiration the persons and states of other foreine countreyes and loath their owne bee they neuer so commendable or good I speake not this to note with reproch any refourmed Church in forreine countries or to diminish the commendations of those excellent giftes which it hath pleased God plentifully to powre downe vpon them as the first renuers and restorers of the Gospel in this latter age to whome in that respect we ovve great loue and reuerence But yet they see and acknowledge that they haue imperfections and cannot haue churches in this world without blemishes Notwithstanding it is not free among them no not for the best learned or of greatest authority in publike speech or vvriting to vtter those things vvhich may tend to the generall reproche of their Church or common weale as it is commonly vsed vvith vs at this day Or if they doe they are sharpely dealt vvithall for the same For as vvise gouernours they see that such doings is the very seede of dissention discorde and faction the very pestilence of all Churches common vveales and societies Wherefore in most Churches they doe tollerate some imperfections setled by order at the beginning least by change of lavves there shoulde bee greater inconuenience Obiection Yea but all their Ministers are learned and able to teach Answere Of that I doubt in some places by good testimony I know it not to be true That is easie to be had in a free Citie that hath no more congregations but those that be within the Citie or within a fevve villages about vvhich is not possible in so great a kingdome as this is replenished with so many Villages almost in euery place as scantly you haue two miles vvithout a Towne or Village inhabited And yet that men doe not conceiue euill opinion of the Bishops for that which cannot bee remedied it behooueth the vvise and godly to consider that the state of this Church is such as of necessitie there must bee some of very meane abilitie in
comparison of that perfect rule of a Minister that S. Paul requireth It is wel knowen as it is before recited that there be a number of parishes in this Realme the liuings vvhere of are so small that no man sufficiently learned will content himselfe vvith them In some one meane shire there bee aboue foure score Chappels to be serued onely by Curates with very small stipends To place able men in them is vnpossible For neither sufficient number of learned men can be had nor if there coulde woulde they be contented to bee to such places appoynted And to leaue those parishes and places vnserued of common prayer and administration of the Sacraments were an inconuenience as great on the other part For it bringeth men to an heathenish forgetfulnesse of God To ease this matter by combinations and ioyning of many parishes together as some deuise besides other inconueniences the thing is not in the Bishops authoritie nor possible for him to doe Euery parish hath a sundrie patrone which wil neuer bee brough to agree to that purpose and to forgoe their patrimonie and heritage Nowe to attempt the matter by making a law for that purpose woulde be occasion of so great troubles and alterations as would draw with them more inconneniences then would stand with the safe state of this common weale as the wiser sort doe see and were easie for me to declare if it were pertinent to this matter here to lay them downe in writing The only remedie that necessitie beareth is to tollerate some of the meaner sort of Ministers hauing carefull consideration so much as diligence can doe that the same may be of life behauiour honest and godly and such at the least as may bee able to instruct the parish in the Catechisme And surely I hope by the care of the Bishops that they haue alreadie vndertaken this thing will be either altogether or in a good part brought to effect ere long time passe Obiection But some will say that all this is but a cloake of colourable reason to hide an vnexcusable fault For that no necessitie can excuse a man to breake the law of God and Gods holy commandement is vttered by Saint Paul that among other properties a Minister shoulde bee Aptus ad docendum that is able to teach and therefore no Bishop can bee borne with in making an vnlearned Minister For he may not doe euill that good may come thereof Answere For answere hereunto it cannot bee denyed but the rule which Saint Paul giueth is an exact rule and such an absolute description of a Minister as is according to Christian perfection and therefore that all Ministers ought to bee correspondent to the same And so much as they want thereof they lacke of their perfect state Yea and ecclesiasticall gouernours shoulde carefully see so much as humane frailtie and the miserable state of this worlde will suffer that al Ministers of the Church of God be such And when they doe faile heerein they offend and goe from that perfection that the worde of God requireth But yet I doubt not but God of his great mercie in Christ our Sauiour will gratiously consider that he hath to doe with flesh and blood and that euen his best children liue not here in an heauenly state but in a miserable and wretched world and specially when hee seeth that they offend not of negligence or malicious wickednesse but are carried with the necessitie of this earthly frailtie For if GOD shoulde measure all things done in his Church by the perfect rule of his word who should be able to stand before him We may not therefore either condemne other or esteeme our selues condemned before God if through the frailtie of the worlde we be not able to frame all things in his Church to such perfectnesse as his holy word appoynteth As the description of a Minister deliuered by Saint Paul to Timothie and Titus is perfect so doth it containe many branches properties to the number of I thinke twentie or aboue As that he must bee vnreproueable the husband of one wife watching temperat modest not froward not angrie one that loueth goodnesse righteous holy harberous apt to teach holding fast the wholesome worde according to doctrine able to exhort with wholsome doctrine and conuince them that say against it not giuen to much wine no striker not giuen to filthie lucre gentle no quarreller not couetous one that can rule his owne house keeping his wife and children in honest obedience not a yong scholler least hee be puffed vp with selfe liking well reported of graue not double tongued holding the mysterie of the faith in a pure conscience If they will admit no Ministers as lawful but such as shall haue fully all these properties Surely they will cut from Churches the greatest part or all the Ministers that they haue Euen that one propertie which they so greatly call vpon as of all other most necessarie that is that hee shoulde be apt to teach that is as Saint Paul expoundeth himselfe to be sufficiently able to teach them that bee willing and to conuince the aduersarie If it be pressed to the extremitie and rigour thereof it comprehendeth so much as it will exclude a great many of Ministers and Preachers which in their measure doe good seruice in the Church of God The best writers that euer I did reade vpon that say That to the performance of the same a man must haue readie knowledge in the Scriptures the vnderstanding of the tongues the reading of the ancient Fathers and histories of antiquitie If a great many of them woulde looke into their owne bosomes and measure themselues by this rule of sufficiencie they woulde not iudge so rigorously of other nor be so rash to condemne them Wee see in the Scriptures that God sometime beareth with breach of his cōmandement falling by the necessitie of our fraile life God gaue in charge as before is sayde that none shoulde eate of the Shew-bread but the Priestes And yet in necessitie Dauid did eate of it though he were no Priest The Machabies fought on the Sabboth day contrary to this commandement Thou shalt keepe holy the Sabboth day and yet it is not read that God was therfore displeased with them or tooke punishment of them though the Scripture mention that one without necessitie gathering stickes on the Sabboth day was stoned to death Christ himselfe may seeme to giue the reason for their defence when he saith The Sabboth was ordeined for man and not man for the Sabboth Yea in a morall cōmandement of God touching mariage we see God to vse a maner of dispensation in respect of the frailtie of mans nature The Scripture saith precisely Quos Deus coniunxit homone separet and yet in the lawe wee finde this dispensation or qualifying thereof When a man hath taken a wife and married her if she finde no fauour in his eyes c. then let him make
a bill of diuorcement and put it in her hand and send her out of his house Of this mercifull bearing of God with the breach of his commandement Christ shevveth the reason Math. 19. saying in this wise For the hardnesse of your hearts God suffered you to put away your wiues but from the beginning it was not so Heere we learne that our gracious and mercifull God for the shunning and auoyding of a greater mischiefe among stubborne people suffered his seruant Moses to giue foorth a more fauourable interpretation of his iust and perfect Lavve and to suffer diuorcements in such cases as the right and rigor of his iustice in itselfe had forbidden This haue I written not of purpose to incourage men to breake and alter the Lawes and ordinances of God but rather to comfort those consciences whith in this case may bee troubled and to put away that opinion wherewith some are led to thinke that that Congregation is not vvorthie the name of a Christian Church nor meete vvherein a good Christian man shoulde abide as Minister where all things are not reformed to the perfect rule of Gods holy worde Surely the auncient Fathers of the primitiue Church doe not seeme to be of that iudgement For they did all find fault with many enormities in their time as vvell in outvvarde ceremonies as corruption of life yea in some point of doctrine also and yet it is not read that they did therefore separate themselues from the Churches or thinke that they could not as faithfull Ministers serue in them Saint Augustine sheweth of himselfe of Saint Cyprian very notably as in many places so chiefly against the Donatists who were infected with that errour but most plainely of all other places De Baptismo contra Donatistas Lib. 4. Cap. 9. Where at large he disputeth this question which place is vvorthie diligent reading and consideration Cyprian had blamed the Bishops and Ministers in his time of Couetousnesse Extortion and Vsurie And yet saith Saint Augustine Cyprian writeth vnto Antonianus that before the last separation of the wicked and the Godly no man ought to separate himselfe from the vnitie of the Church because of the mixture of euill persons What a swelling pride is it sayeth hee what a forgetting of humilitie and mildenesse what a vaunting arrogancie that hee can thinke himselfe able to doe that which Christ woulde not permit to his Apostles that is to separate the weedes from the Corne c. Yea and S. Paul himselfe as before I haue saide iudgeth the Church of Corinth an honorable blessed Church of God though there vvere in the same not onely some blemishes and imperfections but many great enormious faultes Wherefore to returne againe to my purpose though our Bishops through the necessitie of time neither at the beginning had nor novv can haue perfect good Ministers in euery parish within their charge I see no cause vvhy they may not vse such as vvith their best diligence they may haue especially if they order the matter so as the fault bee not in their ovvne negligence or corruption That you may the better conceiue that an vnlearned Ministery for want of preaching of the Gospel is not the cause of the backesliding and reuolting of so many in these dayes nor of sundry other inconueniences imputed to the same you shall easily vnderstand if you will call to your remembrance that when there were fewer Preachers and lesse teaching by great oddes then oflate yeres hath bene the people did not reuolt as now they doe There is therefore some other cause if we will with vpright mindes looke into it There were fevver Preachers and lesse teaching in the dayes of that King of blessed memorie Edward the sixt and yet did not the people then reuolt as novv although the reformation of the Church was then but greenely setled They had the same imperfection and want of Ministers which wee haue novv and that in greater measure in so much as they were faine to helpe out the want with reading of Homilies as you knowe Which deuise although it be greatly misliked and inueighed against in these dayes as intollerable yet did that reuerend and learned father M. Bucer highly commend the same and shewed his good liking thereof willing moe Homilies to bee prepared for that purpose And vvhat were they that were then Preachers and in the state of gouernment of the Church Surely such persons as did diligently obserue those orders in outwarde thinges vvhich the Bishops now for feare of further inconuenience desire and studie to maintaine In the first ten yeeres of her Maiesties most gracious reigne there was little or no backsliding from the Gospell in comparison of that now is yet was there not then so much preaching by the halfe nor so many Preachers in the Church of England by 1000. as now there are And since that time I speake of good experience and better knowledge then gladly I would that in diuers places where there hath beene often preaching and that by learned graue men there haue bene many that haue reuolted and litle good effect declared among the residue You will aske me then what I thinke to be the true cause thereof Surely the causes are many but I will note vnto you onely two or three that bee of greatest weight First to haue the fruites of the Gospell setled in the consciences of men and declared in their liues It is not sufficient to haue often and much preaching but also to haue diligent and reuerent hearing Though the Preachers be neuer so learned and discreet if it bee not heard as the worde of God it is to no purpose But in these dayes as in all other men be easily induced to disburthen themselues and lay the whole fault vpon the Ministers and Preachers Obiection Oh say they if wee had good and zealous Bishoppes and godly Preachers such as the Apostles were vndoubtedly this doctrine of the Gospell woulde haue had better successe and would more haue preuailed in mens hearts For they are not zealous nor seeme to bee mooued with the spirite of God therefore it cannot be that they should moue other Answere Though this reason seeme somewhat plausible to some kind of men and to be of great force to excuse the common people yet I aduertise all them that haue any sparke of the feare of GOD in their hearts that they take heede of it beware that to their own great dāger they be not caried away with it For it hath bene seldome or neuer heard or read that the people of God among whom true doctrine hath bin preached as the Lorde be thanked it hath bene with vs did euer vse such allegations for their ovvne excuse and defence It hath beene alwayes the pretence of the reprobate and wicked to colour their owne obstinacie and contempt of Gods word vvhen they vvere offered the light of the Gospell and called to repentaunce But that these kinde of
men may not flatter and deceiue themselues I let them vnderstande that the Scriptures in no place teach them that the offences and faultes of the Ministers are alwayes the onely cause why the word of God doth not take place in mens hearts It is more commonly and almost alvvaies imputed to the waywardnesse vnthankefulnesse and obstinacy of the people that heare it Therefore it vvere good for alsortes of men of what calling soeuer to looke into their owne bosomes carefully to consider whether the fault thereof be not in themselues For they knowe right vvell that the master may bee learned and diligent and yet the scholler not thriue by reason of his owne dulnesse The Physition may bee honest and skilfull and the obstinate Patient make light of his vvholesome counsaile The seede may be good and the seede sower a paineful and skilfull husbandman and yet the fruite not to bee ansvverable to his trauell because of the naughtinesse and barrennesse of the ground This our Sauiour Christ teacheth vs in the parable of the Seede-sovver Matth. 13. The Sower sayth he went foorth to sowe his seede and some fell in the high way that is to say into the heartes of them that vvere continually trampled vvith vvicked and vngodly cogitations so that the seede coulde not sinke into their hearts but by those birds of the deuill vvas caried avvay vvithout fruite Some fell into stonie ground that is into such hearts as wanted the good iuice and moysture of Gods holy spirite and therefore when the heate of persecution ariseth or some great temptation assaulteth them their zeale is withered and they reuolt from the trueth Some fell into busshie ground that is into the mindes of them that were troubled with the cares of the worlde with the loue of riches and with the pleasures of this life which wholly choked vp the good seede of the Gospell of Christ so that it could not in any wise prosper and bring foorth fruite Heere you may perceiue that for one fourth part of good grounde that yeeldeth fruite of the doctrine of God there are three greater partes of euill ground wherein it nothing at all prospereth But in these our dayes amongst vs we haue a fourth sort of men which obstinatly at al refuse to heare the word of God and do shut vp their eares not onely against preaching but against priuate exhortation also If there were lesse store of these euill groundes in this land at this day vndoubtedly wee should see more successe of the Gospell and more ample fruite of our teaching then novve wee doe It were good for men to looke that these quarrellings at other mens liues bee not one of the coardes of vanitie that Esay speaketh of Woe be to them saith God by his holy Prophet that drawe on iniquitie with coardes of vanitie and sinne as it were with a Cart-rope that is Woe bee to them that imagine excuses and coulours to nouzell and mainetaine them selues in contempt of Gods vvorde and vvant of repentaunce Let men take heede of such dealing that such Coardes of vanitie pull not on iniquitie so fast that it draw them to the vtter contempt of God and his trueth Example where of is seene at this day in too many to the griefe of all good mens hearts For the schoole of Epicure and the Atheists is mightily increased in these days The like effect Esay noteth to haue fallen out among the Iewes at that time For this he maketh them to say in derision of the preaching of the Prophets Let God make speede and hasten his worke that wee may see it Let the counsell of the holy one of Israel drawe neere and come that wee may knowe it And in like manner dealeth the wicked in Ieremie Chapter 5. They haue denied the Lorde and sayde It is not hee Tush the Sword and the plague shall not come vpon vs neither shall we see it The threatnings of the Prophets are but wind the true word of God is not in them They vtter their owne fantasies and these things shall come vnto themselues Euen with like contempt and derision many at this day abuse the Preachers of Gods worde When we lay before them the terrible threatnings of Gods wrath and indignation if they reuolt from the trueth of the Gospell or suffer the same to bee betrayed into the hands of the enemie saying that God wil for sake them that he wil take his defence from them that he will set his face against them that he will bring strangers vpon them to destroy their countrey and possesse their great landes and goodly buildings Oh say they These Preachers make great outcries they put strange expectations into the peoples heads they are vndiscreete they medle with matters which doe not appertaine vnto them if matters goe amisse the greatest fault is in them selues But I haue sufficiently spoken of this maner of intertaining of Ministers alreadie shall speake of the same hereafter The second and in deede a chiefe cause of backsliding and reuolting is the schisme faction and dissention vvhich for the space of these fifteene or sixteene yeeres hath exceedingly growen betweene the Ministers and Preachers of England For the like hath in all ages bene a cause to many of falling both from the trueth of God and to wickednesse of life Basile speaking hereof saith Ob haecrident increduli fluctuant qui modicae sunt fidei ambigua est fides ipsa The effects of this schisme hath bene as in part I haue declared in other partes of this treatise First that not only in sermons publikely but also in common table talke priuately yea and in writing and treatises spredde abroade into all mens handes wickedly vehement and bitter inuectiues haue beene made against the Bishoppes and other Preachers of the Church of England to the discredite not only of their persons but also of the doctrine which they haue taught Yea the whole state and gouernment of this church the Liturgie and booke of Common prayer and the administration of the Sacraments established by Lavve and authoritie the externall rites and ceremonies layde downe onely for order sake haue beene publikely misliked depraued and condemned as directly contrary and repugnant to the worde of God Men haue not onely deliuered foorth these inuectiues against the whole state of our Church and all the partes thereof but in the face of the vvorlde against Lavve against authoritie haue taken vpon them to alter all thinges according to their ovvne pleasure Which dealing you may bee sure cannot bee vvithout great offence of an infinite nomber as the worlde euidently seeth it hath beene Moreouer many persons both vndiscreete and vnlearned because they will not bee accompted Dumbe dogs haue taken vpon them to preach without license or triall and entring into discussing of matters nowe in controuersie betweene vs and the aduersarie haue handled them so coldly nakedly and vnperfectly that many haue beene grieued to heare them some brought in
doubt of their consciences which neuer doubted before Many strange Assertions either plainly false or as Paradoxes true in some rare and extraordinarie sense haue beene by sundry persons and some of them well learned vttered and taught to the troubling of many mens mindes and specially such as were not able to reach to the depth of them As for example that it is a grieuous offence to kneele at the receiuing of the Communion A gentleman of good countenaunce hath affirmed to my selfe that hee woulde rather hazard all the land hee had then bee drawen to kneele at the Communion An heauie burthen to lay vpon a mans conscience for an externall gesture The doctrine of the Lords Supper hath bene so slenderly taught by some that a number haue cōceiued with themselues that they receiue nothing but the externall elements in remembrance that Christ died for them And these their cogitatiōs haue they vttered to other to their great misliking Priuat baptism yea publike also if it be ministred by one that is no preacher hath bin so impugned as if it were no sacrament at all whereby questiōs haue bin raised by sundry persons what is become of them that were neuer baptized otherwise Or whether it were not necessary that all such persons as are certainly knovven not to haue receiued any other baptisme thē that was priuatly done ought not to bee baptised againe because the other is esteemed as no Sacrament The article of the common Creed touching Christes descension into hell contrary to the sense of all ancient writers hath bin strangely interpreted and by some with vnreuerent speeches flatly reiected These and a number of such other haue vndoubtedly bred great offence and wounded the hearts of an infinite number causing them partly to reuolt to Papistry partly to Atheisme and neglecting of all Religion as is seene by the liues of many to the exceeding griefe of all them that feare God and loue his trueth As I haue talked with many Recusants so did I neuer confer with any that would vse any speech but that he hath alleadged some of these offences to bee cause of his reuolting And some haue affirmed flatly vnto me that in seeking to presse thē to come to our Church and seruice we do against our owne consciences seeing our most zealous preachers as they be taken openly speake and vvrite that as well our seruice as the administration of the sacraments are contrary to the word of God I beseech Almightie God of his great mercie that he vvill open the eyes of them vvhich thus eagerly haue striuen against the present state of this Church to see vvhat hurt and hinderance hath come to the profession of the Gospell by these vncharitable and needelesse contentions And vndoubtedly if God moue not the heartes of the chiefe Rulers and Gouernours to seeke some ende of this Schisme and faction vvhich nowe renteth in pieces this Church of England it cannot bee but in short time for one Recusant that now is wee shall haue three if the increase of that number which I mention be not greater For I doe heare and see those things that it grieueth my heart to consider What hurt and trouble Satan hath at all times raised in the Church of God by occasion of dissention and discorde mooued not only by heretikes false teachers but also by them vvhich othervvise haue bene good and godly Christians the Ecclesiasticall Histories doe euidently declare What should I recite the Schisme between the East and West Churches for the obseruation of the feast of Easter vvhich continued a great number of yeeres and grevv to such bitternesse that the one excommunicated the other What shal I say of the Schismes and grieuous contentions in the East Church and especially at Antiochia and Alexandria betweene Paulinus and Flauianus Lucifer and Eusebius the Meletians and Eustathians all at the beginning good Christians and imbracing true doctrine And yet did they vvith great troubles eschevve one the others communion as you may reade in Epiphanius lib. 2. Theodor. lib. 1. cap 8. c. Socrat. lib. 1. cap. 23. Sozom lib. 2. cap. 18. for the space of 80. yeres and aboue I omit the great strife betweene Chrysost of the one part and Theophilus Cyrill and Epiphanius on the other for the burning of Origens bookes They vvere all good and learned bishops and vve doe worthily reuerence their memory yet fel this matter so foule among them that because Chrysost vvould not consent to the burning of Origens bookes Theophilus and Cyrill vvould scantly euer acknovvledge him to be a lavvfull Bishop I mention not a great number of other like factiōs vvhich grew in the same age to the trouble and hinderance of true Christianitie as many godly and learned men did then complaine And sundry graue authours vvhich haue written in this our time and before iudge that these wayward contentions in the East Church vvere the chiefe causes that brought vpon them afterward the heauie wrath of God that tooke his Gospel from them and cast them into the tyrannie of Saracens Turkes as we haue seene novv these many yeeres A notable example to vs good Christian Readers to take heede in time and earnestly to pray vnto God that he will so blesse vs with his holy Spirite that wee may be all like minded hauing the selfe same loue being of one minde and of one iudgement that nothing bee done among vs through strife and vaine glory but that in humblenesse of minde euery one will thinke of other better then of himselfe that vve may growe together in one heart and minde against the common aduersarie to the glory of God and the promoting of his Gospel the safetie of our gracious Prince naturall countrey Of such discord in the church S. Basile grieuously cōplaineth When I was growen saith he into mans age often going into strange Countries fel into troubles I obserued and found that in other Artes there was great concord agreement betweene them that were the chiefe of those Artes and Sciences Onely in the Church of God for which Christ died and vpon which he had plentifully powred downe his holy spirit I saw great vehement discord aswell among themselues particularly as in things contrarie to the holie Scriptures And that which is most horrible I sawe them that are the chiefe of the Church so drawen asunder in diuersitie and contrarietie of opinions that without all pitie they did most cruelly teare in pieces the flocke of Christ so that if euer nowe it is verified that the Apostle speaketh From among your selues shall rise men speaking peruerse things that they may drawe Disciples to followe them The third cause and the principall of all other is that the ramping roaring Lion that goeth about seeking whome he may deuoure and watching all occasions to doe mischiefe in the Church of God hath taken the opportunitie of this Schisme diuision among our selues And therefore euer since that began he
not be saued by shame might haue his saluation wrought by reproch For a great thing it is to one that hath any feare of God to haue reproch in the face of the Church And to this interpretation the most of the ancient writers agree Obiection They will reply that at that time there were manie Presidents as it were and gouernours of the Church together with the chiefe Ministers in euery Congregation Answere I grant it was so But it doth not follow thereupon that it is a commaundement that for euer in all places and times it should be so I am not of that opinion nor euer was any of the auncient Writers no more are sundry learned men of great credite at this time Quòd vna semper debet esse oeconomia Ecclesiae that is that the externall gouernement of the Church should alwayes in all places be one and specially by a college or company of Elders When Christ said Tel the Church there was as yet no Christian church established but Christ took his speech according to the state of the Iewes Church that then was as in another place he â—aith If thy brother trespasse against thee leaue thine offering before the altar If they will gather by the former speech Tell the Church that of necessity they must haue a company of Elders as then was in the Iewes church why let them make like collection of the latter that of necessitie there must be altars in the church of Christ the absurditie whereof will bee greater then any good christian man will easily receiue Obiection They will say the Apostles afterward and the Primitiue Church did practise the same Answere That is not yet proued but let theÌ„ struggle while they lust theysh al neuer find a commandement in the scriptures charging that it shuld for euer be so It were to great a bridle of christiaÌ„ liberty in things external to cast vpoÌ„ the church of Christ So loÌ„g as the church of God was in persecutioÌ„ vnder tyrants might well seeme to be the best and fittest order of Gouernment But when God blessed his Churche with Christian Princes the Scriptures doe not take away that libertie that with the consent of their godlie magistrates they may haue that outwarde forme of iurisdiction deciding of Ecclesiasticall causes as to the state of the Countrey and people shall be most conuenient And that libertie haue diuers reformed churches since the restoring of the Gospell vsed Now as when other churches in their externall order of gouernment differ froÌ„ ours we neither do nor ought to mislike with them so if ours differ froÌ„ theirs retaining still the sinceritie of the gospel and trueth of doctrine I trust they will euen as charitably thinke of vs. If any desire further aunswere in this controuersie of church gouernment I refer them to the reply of D. Bridges vntill they haue with modestie and grauitie answered his booke It is obiected also against Bishops that they abuse Ecclesiasticall Discipline I take Ecclesiasticall Discipline to consist in reprouing correcting and excommunicating such as be offendors in the Church And I thinke their meaning is here that bishops their officers abuse Excommunication in punishing therewith those persons which obstinately with contempt refuse either to appeare when they bee called to aunswere their offences or when they appeare disobey those orders and decrees by Ecclesiasticall officers appoynted Howe this part of Church Discipline was abused by the Pope it is well knowen and that hee made Excommunication an instrument to bring the neckes of Emperors and Princes ynder his girdle and to make the whole world subiect to him For this was almost the onely meane whereby he became so dreadfull to all men and got to himself so great autoritie The perpetual course of the histories euen such as were written by his owne Parasites and chiefly of this Realme of England declare this to be most true For triall hereof reade the historie of Thomas Becket But I thinke no man is so caried with the misliking of our Bishops that he wil accuse them in this sort to abuse Excommunication seeing by their preaching they haue binprincipall instruments to ouerthrow the same in the Church of Rome They cannot say that any Bishop of this church euer since the restoring of the Gospell indeuoured to excommunicate the Prince and gouernours of purpose to make them subiect to their authoritie in the Church And happily that may bee a fault yea and a great fault that is founde with them in these daies that they do not so and constraine the prince and Rulers to doe that which by perswasion they will not doe But howe expedient this maner of Excommunication is for this time I leaue to the wise and godly to consider Sure I am that some of the most zealous churches reformed haue it not nor thinke it tollerable And yet such a maner of Excommunication it is that many striue at this day to haue brought into the Church vnder the name of Discipline But how easily it would grow to abuse and what danger it might bring in this state of time I thinke there is no wise man that doth not foresee vnlesse it be such as to bring their purpose to passe and to settle their deuise in the Church thinke no danger to be shunned As for the Excommunication practised in our Ecclesiasticall Courtes for contumacie in not appearing or not satisfying the iudgement of the Court if it had pleased the Prince and them that had autoritie to make Lawes for the gouernment to haue altered the same at the beginning and set some other order of processe in place thereof I am perswaded the Bishops and Clergy of this Realme woulde haue bin very wel contented therewith Gualter a learned man of the Church of Tygure writing vpon the first to the Corinthians hauing shewed the danger of this other Excommunication speaketh of a maner of ciuile discommuning vsed in that Church Which or the like good order deuised by some godlie persons if it might bee by authoritie placed in this Churche without danger of further innouation I thinke it woulde be gladly reciued to shunne the offence that is taken at the other and yet surely vnder correction the Law of alteration woulde breede some inconuenience But the perpetuall crying of many to haue a mutation of the whole state of the Clergie and a number of other thinges in the Church beside which must needes draw with it a great alteration in the state of the Realme also maketh the Prince and other Gouernours to bee afraide of any mutation For they knowe what daunger may come in these perillous dayes by innouations And if they shoulde once beginne things are so infinite shat they can see no ende of alterations Therefore eeing wee haue a Church setled in a tollerable maner of reformation and all trueth of doctrine freely taught and allowed by the authority of this realme yea and the aduersaries of trueth by lawe
the patrones haue bene more chargeable in one yeere then they haue gained by all the benefices that they haue bestowed since they were bishoppes or I thinke will doe while they bee bishoppes They haue iniurie therefore to bee so openly slaundered in the face of the worlde If there bee any bishoppe that corruptly bestoweth his liuinges by sute of Maister Chauncellor or Maister Steward or any other looke what punishment I woulde haue any lay-man in that case to sustaine I woulde wish to a bishoppe double or triple Obiection But now I must come to that which toucheth bishops most nighly that is that they be carnally disposed and not euangelically and this their affection and corruption they shew to the world by hoarding of great summes of money by purchasing lands for their wiues and children by marrying their sonnes and daughters with thousands by increasing their liuings with flockes and heards of grased cattell by furnishing their tables with plate and guilded cups by filling their purses with vnreasonable fines and incomes c. Answere Wee heare in this place an heape of grieuous offences indeed if they be true wel worthy such lamentable outcries as are made against theÌ„ But the godly must consider that where lauishing tongues and pennes be at libertie to lay forth reproch without feare of correction or punishment that the best men in the worlde may be slandered and brought in danger especially where through enuie and malice men haue conceiued displeasure against any State Eustathius a godly and chaste Bishop by conspiracie and false suggestion of certaine Heretikes and Schismatikes was not accused onely but vniustly also condemned of adultery and by the Emperour Constantine cast into banishment into a citie of Sclauonie Cyrillus a good and learned father Bishop of Hierusalem and an earnest patrone of the true faith of Christ was by the heretike Acasius his friends in the Court accused to the Emperor Constantinus that he had imbezeled the church goodes and had solde to a player of Enterludes a rich garment giuen to the Church by his father This false accusation so much preuailed that the good bishop was for it deposed c. I noted you the like before of that blessed man Athanasius and other and might bring a great number of examples out of the Ecclesiastiall histories writers For it was the vsuall practise of all such as did endeuour to further any heresie or Schismaticall faction were they of the Cleargie or Laitie by all meanes they could through infamie and discredite to pull downe such as did withstand their euil troublesome attempts in the Church not onely to raile at them to deface them with false and vniust reports but also to draw to their reproch their best and most Christian â—oings as the charitable dealing of Cyrill was so wrested that it brought him to great daunger And surely I cannot but feare that the deuill is euen now in hatching of some notable heresies or some other hid mischiefes which hee woulde bring foorth and thrust into the Church of England therfore prepareth the way for the same by defacing discrediting the best learned of the church that both would and should resist them This wee see alreadie in that peeuish faction of the families of the loue which haue bin breeding in this Realme the space of these thirty yeeres and now vpon confidence of the disgracing of the state of Bishoppes and other Ecclesiasticall Gouernours haue put their heades out of the shel and of late yeeres haue shewed themselues euen in the Princes Court The like I might say of the Anabaptists and other Sectaries as bad as they As touching this present point of the accusation of Bishops I haue to admonish the godlie Reader that in Christian charitie and wisedome they consider aswell what diuers of those persons which now bee Bishoppes haue beene before time as also in what state they are nowe in this Realme and howe they are beset on euery side with aduersaries and euill speakers of diuers sortes and then to weigh with themselues whether it bee likely that all is true which is vttered against them or rather that for despite and displeasure many things are spoken falsly and slanderously and manie other meane and small blemishes amplified and exaggerated to the worst more then trueth That those which now bee or of late haue beene Bishops in this Church shoulde be so carnally and grosly giuen ouer to the world and the cares therof as they are by some defamed my heart abhorreth to thinke neither will the feare of God suffer me to iudge it to be true I see what they are presently in all truth of doctrine I see how earnestly and zealously they teach and defend the same in their preachings I see howe carefully they beate downe the grosse superstition of Antichrist and his ministers I call to remembraunce that of late yeeres in the time of persecution when the most of them were in state wel able to liue that they were contented for the freedome of their consciences and that they might enioy the doctrine and liberty of the Gospel to forsake their liuinges to leaue their friendes to hazard their liues to be accompted Traitours and to sustaine all those miseries troubles that might followe vpon banishment and casting out of their Countrey And I see nothing in them if God as wee by our vnthankfulnesse daily deserue should cast the like scourge vpon this Realme againe but that they would be most readie to do the same although happily prosperitie in the meane time may drawe them to some offences May any christian heart then conceiue of them although there be faults in them moe then the worthinesse of their office requireth that they be so carnally fleshly giueÌ„ ouer to the world as the immodest accusations of many their aduersaries do make them Mans nature is corrupt fraile and therfore may fal to much euil but that so many learned men trained in the schoole of the Crosse continuing in teaching preaching of the trueth should bee so vtterly caried away from God I can not beleeue I trust God shall giue some enident token of the coÌ„trary If there now be or before time haue bene such as haue giuen iust occasion in such things as they are accused of I cannot but blame them and wishe to the residue more feare of God and care of their calling I neuer entred into other mens hearts to see their consciences I neuer looked into their Cofers to see their treasures I neuer was desirous to be priuie of their secrete doinges I must therfore by that I see heare know iudge the best Hee that shall charitably consider the state of Bishops as they are by the authoritie of the Prince and lawes of this Realme will not thinke it impiety in them against the time of necessary seruice of their countrey to haue some reasonable summe of money before hande gathered in
true or false laide abroad before mens eies Why is the perfect rule of their office calling according to the patterne of the Apostles time required at their hands onely Is God the God of ecclesiastical ministers alone Is he not the God of his people also doth he require his word to be exactly obserued of bishops and ministers alone doth he hate vice and wickednes in them alone Or doth he lay downe the rule of perfect iustice to them onely and not comprehend in the same all other states of his people as well as them Yes truely I thinke no Christian is otherwise perswaded Obiection Perhaps they will say that all other States do wel and liue according to their calling The worde of God is sincerely euery vvhere imbraced Iustice is vprightly in all places ministred the poore are helped and relieued vice is sharpely of all other men corrected there is no corruption no couetousnesse no extortion no Simonie no vsurie but in the Bishops and in the Cleargie There are no Monopolies in this Realme practised to the gaine of a fewe and the vndoing of great multitudes that were wont to liue by those trades All courtes be without fault and voyde of corruption sauing the Ecclesiasticall courtes onely All officers are vpright and true dealers sauing theirs None other doe so carefully and couetously prouide for their wines and children They onely giue the example of all euill life Answere I would to God it were so I would to God there were no such euils as are recited but in them Yea I woulde to God there were no woorse then in them on condition that neuer a Bishop in Englande had one groate to liue vpon The want surely of the one would easily be recompensed with the goodnesse of the other What then is the cause that Bishops and Preachers haue in these dayes so great fault founde with them Forsooth it followeth in the next branch of a certaine Accusation penned against them Obiection They haue Temporall landes they haue great liuinges They are in the state of Lordes c. The Prince ought therefore to take away the same from thē set them to mean pensions that in pouertie they may bee ansvverable to the Apostles other holy Preachers in the Primitiue Church vvhereby the Queene maye bring 40000. markes yeerely to her Crovvne beside the pleasuring of a great many of other her faithfull subiects and seruants Answere This is the end why bishops and other chiefe of the Clergie are so defaced why their doings are so depraued why such cōmon obloquie is in all mens mouthes vpon them raysed that is to say that the mindes of the Prince Gouernours may thereby be induced to take away the lands and liuings from them and to part the same among themselues to the benefite as some thinke and to the commoditie of their countrey and common weale But it behooueth all Christian Princes and Magistrates to take heede that they bee not intrapped with this sophistrie of Satans schoole This is that Rhetorike that he vseth when he wil worke any mischief in the Church of God or stirre vp any trouble or alteration of a state in a common weale First by defaming and slandering hee bringeth the parties in hatred and misliking and when the peoples heads be filled therewith then stirreth he vp busie and vnquiet persons to reason thus They be wicked and euill men they are couetous persons they oppresse the poore they pill other to inrich themselues they passe not what they doe so they may grow to honour and wealth and beare al the sway in the countrey Therfore bring them to an accompt let them answere their faults pul them downe alter their state condition let vs no more be ruled vnder such tyrants and oppressours we are Gods people as well as they Did not he deale thus in Corah Dathan Abiram did he not by them charge the milde and gentle gouernour Moses and his brother Aaron the chosen Priest of God that they tooke too much vpon them that they lifted themselues vp aboue the congregation of the Lord behaued themselues too Lordly ouer his people that they brought the Israelites out of a lande flowing with milke and honie of purpose to worke vnto them-selues a dominion ouer the people and to make them to perish in the wildernesse By this meanes they so incensed the hearts not onely of the common people but of the Noblemen also that they led a great number with them to rebell against Moses and Aaron and to set themselues in their roomes and offices In like maner and by like policie hath hee wrought in all common weales in all ages and times as the histories doe sufficiently declare In this Realme of England when the lewde and rebellious subiects rose against K. Richard 2. and determined to pull downe the state to dispatch out of the way the counsellers and other Noble worshipfull men together with Iudges Lawyers and al other of any wise or learned calling in the Realme was not the way made before and their states brought in hatred of the people as cruell as couetous as oppressours of the people and as enemies of the common weale yea a countenance made vnto the cause a ground sought out of the Scriptures and word of God to helpe the matter At the beginning say they when God had first made the worlde all men were alike there was no principalitie there was nor bondage or villenage that grewe afterwardes by violence and crueltie Therefore why should we liue in this miserable slauerie vnder these proud Lords and crafty Lawyers c. Wherefore it behooueth all faithfull Christians wise Gouernours to beware of this false and craftie policie If this Argument passe nowe and bee allowed as good at this time against the Ecclesiasticall state it may be you shall hereafter by other instruments then yet are stirring heare the same reason applied to other States also which yet seeme not to be touched and therefore can be content to winke at this dealing toward Bishops Preachers But when the next house is on fire a wise man will take heed least the sparkes therof fall into his owne He that is authour of all perillous alterations and seeketh to worke mischief by them will not attempt all at once but will practise by little and little and make euery former feate that hee worketh to bee a way and meane to draw on the residue For he seeth all men will not be ouercome with all temptations nor will not be made instruments of all euill purposes though happily by his colours and pretenses he bee able to deceiue them in some The practise hereof wee haue seene in this Church of England to the great trouble and daunger thereof At the beginning some learned and godly Preachers for priuate respectes in themselues made strange to weare the Surplesse Cap or Tippet but yet so that they declared themselues to thinke the thing
indifferent and not to iudge euil of such as did vse them Shortly after rose vp other defending that they were not thinges indifferent but distayned with Antichristian idolatrie and therefore not to bee suffered in the Church Not long after came forth an other sort affirming that those matters touching Apparell were but trifles and not worthie contention in the Church but that there were greater thinges farre of more weight and importance and indeede touching faith and religion and therefore meete to be altered in a Church rightly refourmed As the booke of Common prayer the administration of the Sacraments the gouernment of the Church the election of Ministers and a number of other like Fourthly now breake out another sort earnestly affirming and teaching that we haue no Church no Bishops no Ministers no Sacraments and therfore that all they that loue Iesus Christ ought vvith all speede to separate themselues from our congregation because our assemblies are prophane vvicked and Antichristian THis haue you heard of foure degrees prepared for the ouerthrow of this state of the Church of England Now lastly of all come in these men that make their whole direction against the liuing of bishops and other Ecclesiasticall ministers that they shoulde haue no Temporall landes or iurisdiction that they shoulde haue no stayed liuings or possession of goods but onely a reasonable Pension to finde them meate drinke and cloth and by the pouerty of their life contempt of the world to be like the Apostles For say they riches and wealth hath brought all corruption into the Church before time and so doth it now Answere Novv is the enemie of the Church of God come almost to the point of his purpose And if by discrediting of the Ministers or by coumenance of gaine and commoditie to the Prince and Nobilitie or by the colour of Religion and holinesse or by any cunning he can bring this to passe as before I haue signified hee so reseeth that learning knovvledge of good letters and studie of the tongues shall decay aswel in the Vniuersities as other wayes which haue bene the chiefe instruments to publish and defend the doctrine of the Gospell and to inlarge the kingdom of Christ And then of necessitie his kingdome of darkenesse errour and heresie must rise againe and leaue this land in worse state then euer it was before But to perswade this matter more pithily to couer the principal purpose with a cloake of holinesse it is saide and in very earnest maner auouched and that by the word of God that neither the Prince can giue it them nor suffer them to vse it without the danger of Gods wrath and displeasure nor they ought to take it but to deliuer it vp againe into the Princes hand or els they shal shew them selues Antichristian Bishops vaine glorious lucres men not ashamed professing God to continue in that drossie way and sowre lumpe of dough that corrupteth the whole Church and brought out the wicked botch of Antichrist This doctrine as it is boldely affirmed God himselfe hath vttered Christ hath taught his Apostles haue written the Primitiue church cōtinued the holy Fathers witnessed the late writers vphold as it must forsooth be prooued by the whole course of the scriptures of the old and new Testament But good Christians be not feared away with this glorious countenance and these bigge wordes of a bragging champion I trust you shall perceiue that this doctrine is neither vttered by God nor taught by Christ nor writtē by his Apostles nor witnessed by ancient writers nor vpholden by learned men of our time but that it is rather a bolde and dangerous assertion vttered by some man of very small skill countenanced with a fevv wrested Scriptures contrary to the true meaning of God the father Christ his sonne and of his holy Apostles and a little shadowed with vaine allegations of writers either of no credite or little making to the purpose And surely how great and earnest zeale how vehement loftie wordes so euer the vtterer of this assertion vseth it may be suspected that either he is not himself soundly perswaded in true religion or if he be that of simplicitie negligence or ignorance he was abused by some subtile and craftie Papist that woulde set him forth to the derision of other to thrust out into the world and openly broach this corrupt and dangerous doctrine Wherefore it were good that they which wil take vpon them to be the furtherers of such new deuises should better looke to their proofe witnesses vnlesse they wil seeme to abuse al men to thinke that they liue in so loose negligent a state that nothing shalbe examined that they speake but that al things shalbe as easily receiued as they may be boldly vttered But I trust those that haue the feare of God and care of their soules will not be afraide of vaine shadowes nor by and by beleeue all glorious brags but take heed that they be not easily led out of the way by such as wil so quickly be deceiued themselues I do not answere their vaine Arguments because I feare that any discreete or learned man wil be perswaded with them but because I mistrust that the simple and ignorant people or other that be not acquainted with the Scriptures by the very name and reuerence of the word of God will be carried away without iust examination of them To descend something to the consideration of the matter marke I pray you the Proposition that is to be proued It is not that they may be good Bishops and ministers of the Church which haue neither glebe nor temporall landes to liue on It is not that there were in the primitiue Church and nowe are in sundry places churches well gouerned which haue not lands allotted vnto them It is not that the Apostles had no lands nor any other a number of yeeres after Christ For these poynts I thinke no man will greatly stand with them But this is the Assertion Obiection No Prince or magistrate by Gods worde may lawfully assigne lands to the ministers of the church to liue on but ought to set them to pensions Nor any of the Ecclesiasticall state can by the Scriptures enioy or vse any such landes but should deliuer them vp to the Prince c. Answere Looke I pray vou vpon this Assertion and consider it well Doe you not see in it euen at the first euident absurditie Do you not see a plaine restraint of Christian liberty as bold and as vnlawfull a restraint as euer the Pope vsed any Do you not espy almost a flat heresie as dangerous as many branches of the Anabaptists errors It is no better then an heresie to say that by the word of God it is prohibited for Ministers to marry It is no better then an heresie to affirme that Christian men by the lawe of God may not eate flesh or drinke wine Saint Paul doeth consecrate these to be Doctrines of Deuils
priestes of God but of Antichrist Is there no more reuerence and feare of the maiestie of Gods Prince and sacred minister then by such grosse absurdities to seeke to seduce her If this be a conclusion of such necessitie then let them go further for by as good reason they may God sayeth to Aaron Thou shalt not drinke wine nor strong drinke thou nor thy sonnes that are with thee when ye goe into the Tabernacle of the Congregation least ye die Letit be a Lawe for euer throughout your generations In an other place commaundement is giuen to the Priestes That they may not eate of that which is rent of wilde beasts And in the same chapter If the Priestes daughter bee married to any of the common people shee may not eate of the hallowed offerings but if shee be a Widowe or diuorced from her husbande and haue no childe and is returned into her fathers house againe shee may eate of her fathers meate as she did in her youth but there shall no stranger eate thereof In the 21. of Leuiticus it is sayde Speake vnto the Priests the sonnes of Aaron and say Let none bee defiled by the dead among their people And a little after Let them not make baldnes vpon their head nor shaue off the lockes of their beard And againe Let him take a Virgine to wife but a widowe a diuorced woman or a polluted c. shall he not marry Now if the obseruation of the orders appoynted by God to the Priests and Leuites of the olde Law be a thing so necessary in the church of God Why then the Ministers of the Gospell may not drinke wine or strong drinke they may not suffer their daughters married forth if they come vnto their houses to eate any of the tenths and oblations whereby they liue they may not come nigh a dead body nor bury it they may marry no widowes but maydes onely And so likewise shall you bring in by as good authoritie infinite numbers mo of Leuiticall orders into the Church and make it rather like a superstitious Synagogue as the popes church was then like a sincere vndefiled Church of God as you would pretend to do But let vs descende further into this allegation and see howe they ouerthrowe themselues in their owne purpose If vpon this proofe it be so necessarie that bishops and other ministers shoulde not liue by landes then as the negatiue is necessarie in the one branch so is the affirmatiue in the other When God hath sayd Thou shalt haue no inheritance in their land he addeth Beholde I haue giuen the children of Leui all the tenth of Israel to inherite for the seruice which they doe c. Then it is of necessitie by the Lawe of God that bishops and preachers shoulde liue vpon tenths and offerings neither may this order be altered by any authoritie And here is an other errour of the Papists that tenths and offerings are in the Church Iure diuino by the lawe of God and not by any positiue Law of the Church Thus we see that these men are not able to stand to their positions but they must ioyne arme in arme with the Papists in their greatest and grossest errors And if it be of necessitie that ministers must liue by oblations and tithes and no otherwise howe can the prince by Gods Lawe take away their Landes and set them to meere pensions in money Or if princes haue libertie by the Lawe of God according to their discretions to appoynt the liuings of ministers by pensions of money contrary to the order that God hath prescribed to his priests in his Law why haue they not like authoritie by the same worde of God if they see it conuenient for the state to allot vnto them some portion of temporall Landes and much more to suffer and beare with that order being alreadie setled in the Church By this it appeareth that the assertion of the aduersaries doeth not hang together in it selfe but that the one part impugneth and ouerthroweth the other But mee thinkes these men deale not directly but seeme to hide and conceale that which maketh against them For in the same place of Iosua by which they will prooue that bishoppes and ministers may not haue any possession of Landes because hee saith To the Leuites he gaue no inheritance among them Immediatly hee addeth Sauing Cities to dwell in and the fieldes about the Cities for their beastes and cattell And in like manner The Lorde sayde to Moyses Commaunde the children of Israel that they giue vnto the Leuites of the inheritaunce of their possession Cities to dwell in And yee shall giue also vnto the Cities Suburbes hard by their Cities rounde about them the Cities they shall haue to dwell in and the Suburbes or fieldes about their cities for their cattell and all manner beastes of theirs And the Suburbes of the Cities which you shall giue to the Leuites shall reach from the wall of the Citie rounde about outward a thousande cubites c. And you shall measure on the East side two thousande cubites and on the West side two thousande cubites c. In the twentie one Chapter of Iosua The number of these Cities is mentioned And the lotte came out of the kinred of the Caathites the children of Aaron the Priest which were of the Leuites and giuen them by lot out of the tribe of Iudae Simeon and Beniamin thirteene Cities And the rest of the children of Caath had by lot of the kinreds of the tribe of Ephraim Dan and halfe the tribe of Manasses tenne cities And the children of Gerson had by lotte out of the kinred of the Cities of Isachar Aser Nepthaly and the other halfe of the tribe of Manasses in Basan thirteene cities And the children of Merari by their kinreds had out of the Tribes of Ruben Gad and Zabulon twelue cities The whole number therfore of the cities assigned to the Leuites in the lande of Iurie amounted to fortie eight Nowe I woulde demaund of indifferent Christians that vvere not obstinately set to maintaine an euill purpose Whether the state of inheritance without rent of fortie eight Cities in one Region no bigger then England with the fieldes almost a mile compasse may bee thought in trueth to bee temporall possessions or no Surely I thinke there is no man so wayward that will denie it to be most true Wherefore eyther the worde of God must bee found vntrue which is blasphemie to thinke or els that boulde assertion that is made of the contrary is found vaine and the argument to prooue it false and deceitful They that had to their portions fortie eight Cities with the fields thereof did not liue by tithes and oblations onely You see therefore good Christians howe they vnderstand the Scriptures that in such immodest and confident maner take vpon them to be masters and controllers of other and by how fleight allegations absurde arguments they seeke to
are shamelesse dogges that neuer are satisfied the sheepheards also haue no vnderstāding but euery man turneth his own way euery one after his couetousnesse with all his power Out of Ieremie also are alledged these wordes I will giue their wiues vnto aliens and their fieldes to destroyers for from the lowest vnto the highest they followe filthie lucre and from the Prophet to the Priest they deale all with lies The prophet Ezechiel also is brought in to helpe this matter where hee terribly thundreth against negligent naughty and corrupt shepheards that deuoure the flocke and feed it not Thou sonne of man prophecie against the Sheepheards of Israel woe bee vnto the Sheepheards of Israel that feede themselues shoulde not the Sheepeheardes feede the flockes ye eate vp the fat ye clothe you with the wooll the best fedde doe you slay but the flocke doe you not feede the weake haue you not strengthened the sicke haue you not healed the broken haue you not bound together c. but with force and cruelty haue you ruled them Wise and discreete christians that in iudging of things feare to be deceiued and looke to the direct proofe of that which is in controuersie will marueile to see these testimonies alleadged to the end before prefixed that is that bishops may not enioy any temporall Landes For there is nothing in these places of the Prophetes that toucheth it But if the ende were onelie to make an inuectiue against the negligent corrupt and couetous liues of Bishops or other Ministers in deede these allegations might seeme not altogether to bee vnfit for the purpose And happily that is it that is especially intended by such meanes to make them contemptible and odious And yet this is no sincere handling of the Scriptures to apply those places to the particular blaming of some one sort of men which the Spirit of God directeth against many Who beeing acquainted with the Scriptures knoweth not that by the words Watchmen and Shepheards in the Prophets are meant not only bishops priests and Leuites but also Princes Magistrates and Rulers Vpon the place of Ezechiel aboue recited Hierome sayth The speech is directed to the Shepherds of Israel by which we ought to vnderstand the Kings the Princes the Scribes Pharises the masters of the people And againe vpon these words The fat they did eate by a metaphore sayth hee the Prophet speaketh to the Princes of whom it is said in another place Which deuoure my people as it were bread Yea when God himselfe sayth in this same place of Ezechiel with force and crueltie haue yee ruled them It may euidently appeare that he speaketh not there to ecclesiastical ministers only but to princes iudges rulers also which sucke the sweete from the people of God and do not carefully see to their defence and godly gouernement but suffer them to be spoyled of their enemies and to wander from God and his true worship But what should I seeme to proue that which all learned knowe to bee most true The Spirite of God speaketh to the same purpose by these Prophets vnder figuratiue wordes that he doeth by other prophets in plaine speech O yee Priestes sayeth Osee heare this O yee house of Israel giue eare O thou house of the King Iudgement is against you because you are become a snare in Mispath and a spreadnette in Mount Thabor that is you as hunters lay wayte to snare the people and to oppresse them by couetousnesse extortion and briberie and your corrupt manners is as a nette to take other in by your euill example And likewise sayeth Micheas Heare this O yee heades of the house of Iaacob and yee Princes of the house of Israel they abhorre iudgements and peruert equitie They build vp Sion with blood and Hierusalem with iniquitie The heades thereof iudge by rewardes and the Priestes thereof teach for hire and their Prophets prophecie for money These bee the ordinarie voyces of the holie ghost vttered by the prophets in sharpe and earnest reproouing not onely for the people for their wicked reuolting from God but also yea that chiefly for the princes rulers magistrates iudges bishops priests ministers and other whome God hath set in place of gouernement For God hath appoynted them as Shepheards as guiders and patrons of his people to direct them to keepe them to defend them in his true worship and right seruice and if they will bee wandering from him eyther by errour in Religion or by wickednesse in life to instruct teach them and by all meanes that may bee to call them home againe or if they will not bee ruled by authoritie to bridle and restraine them yea and by punishment to correct them Now if the watchmen and Shepheards that is the guiders and rulers of the people whether they bee Ciuill or Ecclesiasticall shall waxe ignoraunt and vnskilfull of their dueties shall become negligent and carelesse of their charge shall be giuen ouer to voluptuousnesse and pleasure of the world or to couetousnesse briberie and extortion to iniurie violence and oppression and in their gouernment seeke their owne pleasure and commoditie and nothing regarde either the benefite of the people or the glory of God then I say these speeches of the Prophets lie directly against them and may well be vsed to declare the wrath of God towards them But what maketh this to the purpose pretended howe hangeth this reason together God by the prophets earnestly reprooueth the Gouernours aswell of the Church as of the common weale for their wickednesse couetousnesse and extortion therefore bishops and ecclesiasticall ministers may not by the word of God enioy temporall landes possessions Or this God blameth the priestes of the olde lawe for couetousnesse therefore the bishops of the church of Christ may haue no landes and possessions They that wil be perswaded with such reasons wil easily be caried away into error If it were certaine and did of necessitie followe that all they which haue great liuings and possessions must needes be couetous then happily this reasoning might bee of some force But I thinke there is no reasonable man that wil graunt it and therefore this reasoning is without all reason The Priests Leuites as themselues confesse had no great lands and lordships and yet wee finde them often in the prophets accused and blamed for couetousnesse therefore it is not the want of temporall lands and liuings that can bring a poore heart and contented minde voide of couetousnes Wee see often as couetous and greedie hearts in meane mens bosoms as in the greatest landed Lordes in a whole Countrey And on the contrary part we find in them that haue very great possessions as humble and as contented mindes as farre from the affection of couetousnes as in the meanest man that is Iob was of great wealth and possessions and yet wee reade not that hee was euer blamed for couetousnesse Yea hee beareth witnesse of his
owne free heart and liberalitie and saith Hee neuer set his heart vpon Gold nor saide to the wedge of Golde Thou art my hope nor reioyced of beeing rich nor because his hande had founde abundance c. Abraham also was riche and God had blessed him with great possessions and yet surely his heart was farre from the loue of money Ioseph had no small possessions and was in place of honour and yet fewe in the meanest state or degree did euer keepe a more humble heart or put lesse delight in honour and riches then hee did I might say the same of Dauid though a king and of Daniel though in very high estate and in great authoritie and as it may bee thought in liuing proportionable to the same When Christ in the gospell had saide that it was as vnpossible for a riche man to enter into heauen as for a Camell to goe through the eie of a needle and his Disciples had wondered at that saying hee aunswered That which is with man impos-sible is possible with God Albeit mans corrupt nature as it is generally giuen to all ill so it is chiefely inclined to couetousnesse and delight of the worlde Yet the good grace of Gods holy Spirite doeth so guide the heartes of his faithfull that in the middest of greatest abundaunce of his plentifull blessinges they can retaine the feare of God and contempt of the worlde Wherefore it is great rashnesse and presumption to condemne all them to bee giuen ouer to couetousnesse and delight of the worlde whome they see by the state of the Commonweale or by the goodnesse of the Prince or by any other lawfull and iust meanes to haue landes and possessions or wealth and riches according to their state Such persons as so rashely deeme of other may seeme rather to bewray the sicknesse and ill disposition of their owne mindes then to iudge truely of them whome in such case they condemne It is the pouertie and humblenesse of Spirite and minde it is not the pouertie and basenesse of outwarde estate and condition vnto the which Christ imputeth Gods blessings If couetousnesse be a desire to haue for feare of want and scarcitie as some learned men haue defined it then is a poore estate to a corrupt minde a greater spurre to couetousnesse then lands and plentie of liuing can bee Before that bishoppes and Ministers had any Landes assigned vnto them yea when they were yet vnder the Crosse of persecution in the time of Cyprian wee reade that he findeth great fault with many bishoppes which leauing the care of their charge went from place to place vsing vnlawful meanes to get riches practising vsurie and by craft and subtiltie getting other mens lands from them In like manner complaine Hierome Augustine Chrysostome Basile and other auncient Writers and Histories of their time Yea in the Apostles time wee see some giuen ouer to the worlde and ledde away with couetousnesse when Ministers as yet liued onely vpon the free beneuolence of the people Wherefore it is not pouertie or a lowe and contemptible state in the face of the worlde that can bring a satisfied and contented Spirite And surely I am of this opinion that a poore and straight state of liuing in the Ministerie especially in these dayes woulde be a greater cause of euill and inconuenience in the church and a more vehement temptation to carrie away their myndes from the care of their Office then nowe their ample and large liuinges are I could and will when God shall giue occasion declare good reason of this my opinion which for some considerations I thinke good at this time to lette passe If our bishops and other chiefe of the Cleargie beeing nowe in the state of our church by the prouidence of God singular goodnes of our Prince so amply prouided for be so vnthankfull vnto God and so giuen ouer to the worlde as they are bitterly accused to bee surely their fault must needes bee the greater neyther will I or any other that feareth God in that poynt excuse them but praie to God if there bee any such that these odious reportes spredde vpon them may bee a meanes to put them in remembraunce of their duetie and to amend But vndoubtedly good christians I speake it with my heart me thinketh I doe foresee at hand those dayes and that time when GOD of his iustice will both condignly rewarde our vnthankful receyuing of his Gospell and contempt of his Ministers and also giue to them iust occasion to declare vnto their aduersaries and euill speakers that they are not such bond-slaues of the world nor bee so lead away captiue with the lusts of the flesh as they are defamed Yea I thinke this crosse of contempt slaunder and reproch that now is layde vpon them is Gods fatherly admonition to warne them and as it were a meane to prepare them to that day that is comming which day vndoubtedly will bee a day of wrath a day of trouble and heauinesse a day of vtter destruction and misery a darke gloomy day a cloudie and stormie day a day of the trumpet of the alarme against the strong cities On that day will the Lorde search Hierusalem with Lanthorns and visit them which continue in their dregges and say Tush the Lorde will doe no euill Therefore their goods shal be spoyled their houses shall bee layd waste they shal build gay houses and not dwel in them they shall plant vineyardes but not drinke the wine thereof In that day the Lorde will visite the Princes and Kinges Children and all such as weare gay cloathing and all those that leape ouer the thresholde so proudly and fill their Lordes houses with robberie and falsehoode On that day God will bring the people into suche vexation that they shall goe about like blinde men and all because they have sinned against the Lord and contemned his worde Wherefore I most heartily pray vnto God that we altogether both Prince and people honourable and worshipfull ecclesiastical and lay persons preachers and hearers may ioyne together in the faithfull remembraunce of that day and to consider that it can not bee farre from vs and therefore that it is full time and more then time to turne vnto God by hearty repentance and faithfull receiuing of his worde For surely the sentences of the Prophets of some men partially and affectionately applied to the Clergy and ministers only do in right true meaning touch vs al of al states and conditions But I will returne to my matter againe The testimonie of Malachie vsed of some to like effect as the other before I haue purposely left to this place because it speaketh particularly of priestes and therefore will they haue it more nighly to touch our bishops c. And nowe O yee Priests sayth the Prophet this commandement is for you c. And a litle after making comparison betwene Leui and the priests of that time The lawe of
violence and extortion shall wrest more vnto him of the landes and substance of the people then lawe and right requireth I see no cause warranted by Gods word that the inferiour subiectes can rebell or resist the Prince therein but that they shal euidently shew thēselues to resist the ordinance of God For they haue not the sword of correction committed into their hand and oftentimes God by euill Princes correcteth the sinnes of the people Wherefore if subiects resist the hard dealings euen of euill Magistrates they doe in that respect striue against God himselfe who will not suffer it vnpunished Wherefore Ieremie willeth the Iewes to submit themselues to the obedience of Nabuchodonosor a wicked and cruell king and Baruch teacheth them to pray for the good estate of the sayd Nabuchodonosor and his nephewe Balthasar And Saint Peter and Saint Paul will Christian subiects not onely to bee obedient to the heathen tyrants vvhich vvere in their time as Nero and such other but also to make most humble and heartie prayers for them that his people might liue vnder them a quiet and peaceable life vvith all godlinesse and honestie Tertullian also shevveth the same to haue beene the practise of the primitiue Church euen towarde the enemies and cruell persecutours of the faith of Christ A Christian saith he is enemie to none and least of all to the Emperour whome he knowing to be ordeined of God must of necessitie loue reuerence and honour and wish to bee in safetie together with the whole Romaine Empire And againe We pray for all Emperours that God woulde graunt vnto them long life prosperous reigne strong armies faithfull Counsell obedient Subiects c. We may learne then by this that Christian duetie of a subiect consisteth in louing in reuerencing in obeying the Prince and Magistrate in all things that lawfully hee commandeth and in those things that he commandeth vnlawfully not by violence to resist him though the same touch our goods our lands yea and our life also As touching our duetie towarde God wee owe vnto him our selues whollie both body and soule and all things and partes to the same appertaining according to that his Lavve requireth Thou shalt loue God with all thy heart with all thy soule with all thy minde and with thy whole power For wee are his creatures and hee is our Lorde and maker But forasmuch as Princes Magistrates Rulers Parents Masters and all superiours haue a portion of Gods authoritie ouer vs as his officers and Lieutenants in their callings therefore God doeth permit vnto them some part also of his honour but so farre and in such things and such maner as before is declared retaining vnto himselfe our faith and religion vvith all the partes of his diuine vvorshippe consisting in Spirite and in trueth the calling vpon his blessed name the confession of his holy trueth and the obedience of his morall Lavve vvhich thinges hee doeth not make subiect to any Princes authoritie And if any Prince or Magistrate by violence and crueltie shall breake into the boundes of our duetie towardes God I saie not that priuate subiects may by violence resist it but surely they may not obey it but rather yeelde into his handes goods landes countrey and life too For so did the Prophet Daniel so did the yong men his companions so did the whole number of the martyrs of God by whome the Church of Christ increased as Augustine saieth Non resistendo sed perferendo not by resisting but by suffering And Hierome The Church of Christ was founded by suffering reproch by persecutions it increased by martyrdomes it was crowned To this ende saith Tertullian also Semen Euangelij Sanguis Martyrum This is the true doctrine of the wordes of Christ before mentioned by which wee are taught to put a difference betweene our duetie towards God and that we owe towarde the Prince yeelding to each that vvhich is his A doctrine most profitable and necessarie to all Christian Churches and common weales But who can gather of this that the Ministers of the Church of Christ liuing vnder a Christian Prince fauouring and defending the Gospel must of necessitie giue vp into the Princes hands those landes and possessions which by the graunt of the same Prince and the Lawe of the Lande is assigned vnto them For if the land be Caesars and therefore must bee deliuered to Caesar then are all goods Caesars and must be also yeelded into his hands God saue vs from Princes that will vse like violence and tyrannie towarde our Landes goods and bodies as these men vse to the worde of God I haue not as yet noted vnto you good Christians the very grounde of this corrupt interpretation of the doctrine of Christ and the mischiefe that is hid vnder it I pray you therefore consider to vvhome doth Christ speake in al those places of his doctrine before mentioned Whome doeth he teach whom doth he instruct that they shoulde not hoarde vp treasure vpon earth that they may not serue God and Mammon that they may not bee carefull what to eate and what to drinke that they must sell all that they haue and followe him that they must renounce all that they haue if they will bee his true Disciples And lastly that they must yeelde to Caesar that which is Caesars Are these things spoken to Ministers onely doeth Christs doctrine pertaine to Bishops and Ministers onely Is it his will that they onely shoulde followe his godly instructions and commaundements Then of likelihoode as hee came onely to teach Ministers and to bee example of life to them alone so hee came to saue Ministers onely But what a wicked vanitie were it so to speake or thinke Now if Christes doctrine bee generall to all the faithfull as in deede it is that beeing the true interpretation that they vvoulde haue to bee it must of necessitie followe that no true Christian can keepe landes and possessions nor abide in any wealthie or rich estate which is the very ground of the Anabaptists doctrine as all learned men do know In so much that all the famous men that in this our age haue expounded the Scriptures or written against the Anabaptistes doe note that by this interpretation of the speeches of Christ before mentioned they doe grounde their communitie and taking away of proprietie and possession of goods with sundry like other doctrines We may see therfore it is time to take heed of it how sathā vnder pretences seeketh to thrust the spirit of the Anabaptists the groūds of their learning into this church of England The inconuenience then of this kinde of reasoning is either that these sentēces of the gospel touch bishops and ministers only and all other are left free which is a very great absurditie or els that the same doctrine gathered out of these places in the same sense that they vse doth belong to al christiās which with the Anabaptists taketh away al
broughtin who saieth in the Actes to the poore â—ame man Siluer and gold haue I none c. Loe saie â—hey S. Peter was a right Apostle was in so poore â—ase that he had neither siluer nor golde no not so â—uch as hee could bestowe a meane reliefe vpon a poore begger His example should our rich bishops and Preachers followe And S. Paul to Timothie Hauing food and rayment we should therewith be content Here we may learne say they what manner of liuing Ministers of the Church shoulde haue that is so much onely as will prouide them meate drinke and cloth whatsoeuer is aboue that is superfluity more then Gods word requireth Who seeth not good Christians whereat these men shoote and what state of the Ministerie this earnest zeale that now is pretended woulde settle in this Church that is more miserable and worse prouided for then any other state of the lande beside Those heartes wherein is true deuotion and the right loue of the Gospell are rather ouer bountifull toward the Preachers thereof then too sparing For they are thus affected that they thinke nothing too deare for theÌ„ yea if it were possible they would giue their eyes vnto them out of their heads as Paul saith to the Galathians What spirit this is therefore that would so hard ly pinch wring the ministers of the church it is euidently to be gathered The principall purpose at the beginning was to proue y t the Ministers might not by the word of God inioy any temporall lands but now forsooth through the goodnesse of their cause in the vehemencie of their reasoning and fulnesse of their proofe it falleth out so that Ministers may not haue so much as any peny in their purse to prouide them sustenance but must liue vpoÌ„ the charitable almes of the people coÌ„tent theÌ„selues with meat drink and apparel onely as the Apostles did For they are no spiritual men say they that haue temporall liuing Yea of the very tithes they ought to claime no more then may serue them to meat drink cloth And if the same be denied them they may not by law sue for it For if their coate be taken from them they should deliuer their clokealso This doctrine doth very wel iustifie the couetous and vncharitable dealinges of many Parishioners which partly by violence partly by craftie meanes detaine from the Ministers their portioÌ„ of tithes appointed by the lawe This doctrine giueth good countenance to corrupt patrones who wil not bestow their benefices but by composition of a good part of the fruits to their owne vse commoditie And when the liuing shall be worth 100. pounds by the yeere they will aske whether thirtie or fourtie pounds bee not a sufficient portion for the Parson This dealing before time hath bin accounted little better then sacrilege or simonie but now it may be thought if this doctrine be good allowable that it is lawfully done and according to the worde of God yea and that the minister is a couetous worldling and worthy great blame that will not content himselfe with such a rate as they willingly shall allow him What care they which thus reason haue I wil not say of the preaching of the gospel but of the state of learning and knowledge in the Church of Christ all men may euidently perceiue Either they iudge as I haue before written at large that men be Angels without corruption and will followe the course of learning for conscience sake though there be no hope of reward to allure theÌ„ or els they think that God wil miraculously giue knowledge to such as he shal incline to the Ministery as hee did in the primitiue Church to his Apostles and other As touching the example of Saint Peter it is before declared what cause Christ respected in the choosing of so poore Apostles and leauing them in so base state and condition of life that is that the worke of winning the whole world to the doctrine of saluation by so simple and poore instruments as in the iudgement of men they seemed might bee the greater glorie to God as Saint Paul saith Especially seeing he did set them forth and furnish them vvith the heauenly riches of his holy spirite that is to say extraordinary knowledge rare giftes of vertue and povver to worke miracles But vpoÌ„ this extraordinary dealing of God in the fouÌ„ding of his church to ground a general perpetual rule to bind the Ministers of al places times is such maner vsing y e scriptures as must needs breed great inconueniences among the people of God As for the words of Saint Paul there is no man I thinke but that hee may perceiue they are spoken generally and not to Ministers onely as they are iâ— this place applied Remember the place viewe the circumstances consider what goeth before and what commeth after and you shall vnderstand it to be true For S. Paul there speaketh to the same purpose that Christ doth Matth. 6. when he willeth meÌ„ not to bee carefull what to eate what to drinke or what to put on but that they should seeke the kingdome of God and the righteousnesse thereof and al other things should by the prouidence of God bee cast vnto them So I say S. Paul exhorteth men not to be in loue with the riches of this worlde which they shal neuer cary away with theÌ„ that they should not practise wicked waies to gaine but accouÌ„t godlines their chiefe gaine coÌ„moditie holding them-selues contented with those things that the necessitie of nature requireth that is foode apparel For whatsoeuer is aboue that may seeme to be superfluous This wholesome doctrine the spirit of God in the scriptures doth often cast vpon the consciences of Christians as a necessary bridle to stay the wicked affection of couetousnes greedy desire of the world wherto the corruptioÌ„ of our nature is giuen And yet he doeth not condemne riches or a more plentifull life as euill in it selfe It is the heart the minde and the affection that God would haue staied and kept vnder in his obedience and not the forbearing of the externall creatures as before is at large declared Iob in the middes of his greatest wealth had as poore and as contented a heart as he that had a small liuing and did no more exceede in gluttonie or other riotous excesse then hee did which had not a peny more then to prouide meate drinke cloth This doctrine as it doeth generally pertaine to all Christians so I denie not but it very nighly and chiefly ought to touch Preachers ministers of the Church Wherfore I must do confesse that so much as our bishops and Clergy want of the performance hereof they want of that perfection that by the word of God they should haue But how caÌ„ it be proued hereby that they may not haue more ample or large alowance then shal suffice theÌ„ for necessarie foode apparell
set vp Antichrist aloft in his throne and wrought him the dominion of the church which I pray God may be more carefully looked vnto amoÌ„g vs then yet I perceiue that they haue bene especially if we meane so earnestly to keepe away from vs the returne of his corruption as many now would seeme to do The first cause that aduaunced Antichrist was Schisme and here sie in the Church for the space of 200. yeres and more together with the barbarous irruptions which before I spake of The secoÌ„d cause was the generall decay of learning especially of the knowledge of the Scriptures and of the tongues Thirdly the vsurpation of Ecclesiasticall Discipline practised against Emperours and Princes by which hee conquered more then by all other meanes The helping causes to these principall were these two first the negligence the vnskilfulnesse the vnworthinesse of many emperors and gouernours giuen ouer rather to wantonnesse and voluptuous pleasures then to the care of their charge and secondly the superstitious deuotion of the people maintained by corrupt doctrine But the graund cause of al causes was the iust iudgement of God for the generall vnthankfulnesse of the worlde in receiuing the knowledge of his gospell which he sent among them And this cause was vniuersall in all estates and kindes of persons as well ecclesiasticall as other The bishoppes and Ministers were giuen ouer to maintaine factions and hereticall doctrines Princes looked more to their sensuall pleasure then to the godly gouernment of their subiects the people were bent wholly to superstition and wickednes of life so that a smal number only excepted none did study howe in life and godly conuersation to frame theÌ„selues to the good wholesome doctrine of the Gospel which at the hand of many godly men they at the beginning had receiued SuÌ„dry of these or the like causes haue we now also growing encreasing among vs and therfore haue we great cause to feare the like iust iudgement of God that eyther shal cast vs againe vnder the tyrannie of Antichrist or bring vpon vs some plague no lesse grieuous then that is Our ministers and Preachers breake out to Schismaticall factions and curious doctrines The people in steed of superstitious deuotion haue conceiued an heathenish contempt of Religion and a disdainfull loathing of the ministers thereof Vice and wickednesse ouerwhelmeth all states and conditioÌ„s of men None almost vnlesse it bee some that God reserueth to his secrete knowledge studie to shew themselues thankfull to God and in life to expresse that which in doctrine they will seeme to approue I pray God that by abusing this long suffering of the Lorde we heape not vp wrath for our selues against the day of wrath God hath dealt as mercifully with this land as euer hee did with any I beseech him that in time we may repent with Niniue and turne to him in sackcloth and ashes while hee may bee founde and while hee stretcheth vnto vs the hande of his gracious goodnesse least when it is too late and hee hath turned his face from vs we crie vnto him with vaine gronings and mourne with vnprofitable sighings Hee sent the light of his trueth into this Realme first in the time of King Henry the eight and brake the power of Antichrist among vs but because hee sawe neyther thankefull receyuing of the Gospell nor any thing studied for by men generally but the benefite of Abbey lands and possessions to enrich them-selues hee by and by cut off the comfortable sweetnesse of his worde with the bitter sauour of the sixe articles and sharp persecution of them that professed true religion His iustice in deede coulde no longer abide the full ripenesse of the superstition idolatrie and wicked life of the Monkes and Friers and such other swarms of Antichristian impietie but our vnthankfulnes deserued not to haue the same turned to our benefite nor the freedome of his Gospel to be continued among vs to our further comfort In the time of that gracious Prince king Edward the sixt hee gaue vs a larger taste of his word and a greater freedome of all points of sound true christian doctrine to our vnestimable benefite if wee could haue receiued it accordingly But euen then also hee perceiued that wee sought not so much the increase of his glory or to frame our liues according to our profession as wee did studie vnder countenance of religion by al meanes we could to worke againe our owne worldly benefit commoditie And therefore did hee the second time take from this realme his fatherly blessing cast vpon vs that heauie scourge of persecution which immediatly followed keeping vs vnder the rodde of his correction by the space of certaine yeeres Neuerthelesse as a mercifull Father declaring that by his chastening he sought not our confusion but our amendment euen for the glory of his names sake onely beyond all hope expectation he shewed vs againe the light of his countenance and that more fauourably bountifully then euer he did before raising for vs as it were out of the dust of death a noble Queene a gratious Prince as a nurse or protectresse of his church Vnder the shadow of whose wings although but a virgine he keepeth vs in great safetie quietnesse against al the ancient enemies both of his church of our natural countrey Notwithstanding al this our old vnthankfulnes and forgetfulnesse of our duetie stil continueth we shew our selues the same men that euer we did before And therfore beside the earnest preaching of his word calling vs continually to repeÌ„tance vvho seeeth not diuers times he hath shaken the rod of his displeasure ouer vs as in the Northren rebellion in many signes tokens from heauen thereby if it were possible to waken vs out of our sinful security wherein we sleep so confidently Yea and the more to keep vs in feare he hath made vs to nourish in our bosomes the apparant instrument of his wrath by whoÌ„ we could not choose but see that in a moment he might haue taken froÌ„ vs both the comfort of his Gospel the freedom and happinesse of our state Here must I put you in mind again of his exceeding mercies shewed toward vs eueÌ„ in these few months deliuering vs froÌ„ the bloody cruelty of our enemies But to what effect I pray you commeth all this carefull working of our mercifull God by fayre meanes and foule meanes thus labouring to drawe vs vnto him Doth it quicken in vs the care of our saluation doth it increase the feare of his displeasure doth it stir vp any more zeale and â—oue of his Gospell hath it any thing diminished our uncharitable strife contentioÌ„ doth it any thing abâ—â—e the obstinacie of the aduersary hath it any way diminished the loosenes of our liuing hath it taken from vs our pride in apparell our daintines in feeding our wastfull and pompous building hath it made lesse any euill among vs and
not rather increased euery thing to an higher degree then euer it was before Shall we thinke then that this our vnsensible dulnesse and vnthankfulnesse can bee without imminent punishment Surely me thinketh the song of Esay the Prophet painteth out our state and condition with the euent that will follow of it The Lord hath chosen this lande as his beloued vineyard hee hath mounded it with his gratious fauour and diuine protection hee hath stoned it by casting out the rubble of the Synagogue of Antichrist the broken stones I meane of idolatrie superstition false doctrine and corrupt worship of God hee hath planted among vs the sweete grape of his most wholesome Gospel and the true vine Christ Iesu he hath set vp a watch Tower of Christian gournement and a wine presse of earnest preaching of repentance to presse and wring mens hearts if it were possible to yeelde foorth the sweete iuice of the fruits of the gospel to the glorie of God And he long hath looked for these his great benefites that wee should haue brought foorth sweete grapes and we haue yeelded nothing but sowre and stinking fruite discord and dissension among our selues couetousnesse oppression extortion drunkennesse banquetting voluptuous pleasure whoredome adulterie securitie in sinne contempt of God disdaine of his Minister despising of his worde selfe-liking in our owne â—oings confidence and trust in our owne wisedome and policie c. I pray God therefore in time wee may take heede of that heauie iudgement that followeth I meane that hee will take away the â—edge and breake downe the wall of his mightie protection whereby onely wee haue hitherto remayned safe and that hee vvill lay vs waste that the beastes of the fielde may ouertrample vs that hee vvill take from vs the teaching and preaching of his Gospell vvherevvith in vayne hee hath so long digged and delued in our barraine heartes that hee vvill forbidde the cloudes of his heauenly prouidence to rayne dovvne vpon vs his great and manifolde blessings vvhich beforetime hee hath giuen vs so that wee shalbe left as a desolate ground breeding nothing but bushes and brambles of ignorance errour idolatrie superstition heresie and vvicked life and bee made subiectes and slaues vnto our greatest enemies The Lorde turne away that which our vnthankfull hearts may iustly feare to be at hand c. By this that I haue written as I doubt not but the godly may perceiue it was not riches and vvealth of the Cleargie that first set vp Antichrist in the vsurped throne of his dominion ouer the Church but that there vvere other more true and right causes that bredde that mischiefe so likewise that conscience that feareth God and vvithout affection looketh into the state of this time among vs and rightly weigheth and considereth thinges may easily iudge that it is not the Lands and great liuings of bishops Ecclesiasticall persons but other matters more heynous more grieuous that wil hasteÌ„ the wrath displeasure of God against this realme which indeed it behoueth bishops principally and all other in their states and conditions to haue care of and in time while wee may by all godly meanes to preuent it The affection of them which at this day speak so much against the Landes and liuinges of Bishops and other Cleargy men is much like the dealing of those persons that murmured against Marie of Bethania which in the house of Simon the leper in testimonie of her thankfulnesse for the great mercies that shee had receiued of Christ powred vpon his head the precious oyntment of Spikenarde For euen in like manner our gracious Queene vvhen God had deliuered her out of the iawes of the greedie Lyons and cruell wolues that sought her blood and by his mighty hande had set her in the throne of this her Fathers kingdome to testifie her thankefull minde and to shewe her liberall and bountifull heart towarde the Church of GOD shee powred vpon it this plentifull gift towarde the maintenance of the Ministers and Preachers of his woorde that shee might declare to the worlde that in imbracing the Gospel and restoring the same to this Realme shee had not that minde and affection which some other haue shewed that is vnder colour thereof to make the increase of her owne benefite and the commoditie of her Crowne But as then Iudas and some other Disciples murmured at Marie and vnder pretence of holinesse and charitie towarde the poore found great fault with that superfluous excesse as they thought it euen so nowe many Disciples among vs with like colour of religion and holinesse and of zeale towarde the perfection of the Church forsooth murmure at the liberal benefit of our prince which she hath bestowed vpon the Church think the same a great superfluitie that might bee better imployed sundry wayes to the benefite of the common weale Whatsoeuer is pretended I pray God the cause of the griefe bee not the same that Iohn mentioneth to haue beene that which first began the murmuring at that time But whatsoeuer is the cause of this reproouing of the liberalitie of our gracious prince and soueraigne if the time did now serue I coulde with better reason and authoritie prooue the Contrary Proposition to that which they take vpon them to maintaine that is That it is not lawfull to bestow such liuings vpon Lay men as are appointed by godly lawes for Ministers and Preachers of the worde of God But the shortnesse of the time wil not now serue to follow that course ⧠Imprinted at London by the Deputies of Christopher Barker Printer to the Queenes most excellent Maiestie 1589. Matth. 9. Matth. 12. Iohn 8. Tertul. Iustin Melito c. 4. Reg. 17. 18. 4. Reg. 24. Matth. 23. Luke 13. Apolog. In 2. epist ad Tim. 2. 1. Matt. 10. De zelo liuore Nom. 16. Mal. 2. 2. Cor. 5. Ephes 2. Esay 57. Chrysost in 2. ad Cor. Chrys in 2. ad Timoth. 1. Tim. 5. Nom. 16. 1. Thes 1. Matth. 5. 1. Pet. 2. Rom. 14. Matth. 12. Chrys in epist ad Rom. Eccle. 3. Chrys in Epist ad Rom. In Matt. 8. homil 27. Hest 3. 4. Matt. 11. Iohn 8. Tertull. Apolog in Epist Mar. Collec apud Euseb Theol. lib. c. 26. Athan. Apol 2. Socrat lib. 1. cap 30. Theodor. Socra lib. 1. cap. 35. Libel pag. 1. Answere Libel Pag. 3. Answere Libel pag. 10 Answere Libel pag. 15 Answere Libel pag. 21. Answere Libel pag. 22 Answere Libel pag. 23 Answere Pag. 24. Pag. 25. Libel pag. 26. 27. Answere Libel pag. 31 Answere Pag. 32. Pag. 34. Libel pag. 37 Libel pag. 44. Answere Libel pag. 50 Answere Prouer. 24. Psalm 55. Esay 5. Psal 120. Pro. 24. De vnitate Eccle. cap. 10 Contra Crescon lib. 2. ca. 31. Lib. 1. contra Celsum Euseb lib. 6. cap. 19. Socr. lib. 1. cap. 9. In Praescript Tertul. Eusebius Euseb lib. 4. cap. 28. Epiphanius Theodor. Psal 34. Epist lib. 7. Epist 44. Super Canâ— Serm. 24. Moral
gouernours of Prouinces to be punished if they neglect to execute the same But I wil make no longer discourse herein Such as doe doubt hereof and desire to be better satisfied I referre them to a Treatise which Maister Beza hath writtē for that matter I haue taried the longer in this part for that I am desirous to let the indifferēt christian reader vnderstand that it is but an assectionate iudgemēt of some when they impute the only cause to be in bishops why there is in these dayes so great back sliding from the Gospell so great mischiefe deuised against the Prince the State It appeareth their mindes are blinded with affection that they cannot see the trueth AN other crime layde against Bishoppes is that they maintaine pilling and pouling and as some in despite terme them bawdy courts If they maintayne courtes for the administration of Iustice in such thinges as are vvithin their charge they doe as I am persvvaded by Gods law they may doe and as by the lawes of this Realme and state of this Church they ought to doe But if they mayntaine pouling in their Courtes that in deede is vvorthy blame and by no pretence can bee salued For as all Magistrates ought to deale vprightly and vvithout corruption so principally such as be Spirituall and of the Church of God But hovv is it prooued that Bishops maintaine pouling Courtes Surely I knovve not For they doe not lay it dovvne in particulars If they did I thinke the matter might easily be answered vvith good reason It may bee they thinke the vnder-Officers take money and bribes where they should not For that is polling and extortion If it bee so it is euill and not to be suffered and vpon proofe the Lavve appoynteth sharpe punishment Though it bee true that they surmise in this case that Officers are so corrupt it is one thing to say The Officers vse pouling and another to say The bishop maintaineth a pouling Court A bishop may haue an euill Officer vvhome yet he vvill not maintaine no nor suffer if he knevve it and be able to redresse it I am in persvvasion there is no bishop in this Realme but if it be complayned of and proofe made vnto him that his officers take more then is prescribed by order and lavv that they may doe but wil mislike with the thing and doe his best to see it redressed Or if hee will not I fauour not their State so much but that I could vvish him to be punished himselfe But if a Bishops Officers shall be counted to poule when they take no more then the ordinary fees and duties by Lawe allowed the bishop when he beareth with the same shall bee called a maintainer of a poulling Court this is a matter in a slaunderer to be punished and not a fault in a bishop to bee blamed By this meanes all the Courtes in Englande may bee defamed and called poulling Courtes and the Officers or Iudges vnder whose authoritie they stande may bee reprooued as mainteners of poulling Courtes Bee it that there is vnlawfull taking in many Courtes of this Realme as happily there is in some by greedie Officers were it therefore the duetie of christian godly subiects to spread libels against the Prince or chiefe gouernors as mainteners of corruption briberie and pouling An hard matter it is in so corrupt times for anie magistrate to warrant the doinges of all inferiour officers I pray God this making of exception to Courtes and officers goe no further then to the officers of bishops and of the Cleargie Whatsoeuer they pretend the very root of the matter is this The whole state Ecclesiasticall by the loosenesse of this time is growen into hatred contempt all inferiour subiectes disdaine in any poynt to be ruled by them And therfore when they be called conuēted and punished for such things wherin they haue offended or be brideled of that they would do disorderly they grudge at it their stomackes rise against it and thinke al that is done to be vnlawfull though it be neuer so iust And because they are not able otherwise to be reuenged they crie out that they be cruel and poulling Courts Obiection To cut off the whole matter it wil be said that by the word of God it is not lawfull for bishops to haue such Courtes nor to exercise such iurisdiction Answere Yet truly I must answere that it is lawful for christian subiects to obey it and vnlawfull for them to kicke and spurne against it seeing it standeth by authoritie of the Lawes and of our Christian and gracious prince by whom God hath sent to vs and doeth continue with vs the free course of his Gospell But why may not a bishop exercise iurisdiction haue a Court to iudge determine and ende matters Surely Saint Paule sayth to Timothie Against a Priest or Elder receiue no accusation vnder two or three witnesses Here is an accuser Heere is a person accused here are witnesses examined heere is a iudgement and deciding of the matter therefore here is an exercise of iurisdiction and a manner of a Court. They will say It was not Timothies Court onely but ioyntly exercised with the residue of the Elders that had the gouernement Vndoubtedly there is no such thing there in that place The words are directed to Timothie only the adioyning of some other is but the interpretation of some fewe vpon which to build the necessity of a doctrine in the Church of Christ is but hard dealing and not sufficient to ground mens consciences vpon And yet here note you that by this place it is euident that ecclesiasticall persons may haue and vse iurisdiction To prooue that bishops may not alone exercise iurisdiction they adde Christes saying Matthew 18 If thy brother offend thee go and tel him his fault between thee and him alone If he shal heare thee thou hast wonne thy brother but if he wil not heare thee take yet with thee one or two if he wil not heare then Dic Ecclesiae Tell it to the Church Here say they we are willed to tel the Church but the Church cannot be vnderstāded to be one person as the bishop or such like First I answere that by the consent of most interpreters that place speaketh not of the exercise of publike iurisdiction but of a charitable proceeding in priuate offences And Christes large discourse which immediatly following he maketh vnto Peter touching the forgiuing of them that doe offend vs doth very euidētly iustifie that meaning If some do interpret the place otherwise as I haue before said Christians shoulde not build thereupon a generall doctrine of necessitie It will be asked what Christ meant when he said Dic Ecclesiae As some interprete it he meant Tell the Gouernours of the Church After some other Tell it openly in the Church or congregation as Hierome saith Vt qui non potuit pudore saluari saluetur opprobriis that is that hee which could
repressed they thinke it better to beare with some imperfections then by attempting great alterations in so dangerous a time to hazard the state both of the Church and of the Realme And the like toleration in some meane things I vnderstand vpon like consideration hath bin vsed in other churches reformed beyond the Seas Obiection An other crime is obiected not onely against ishops but against all other of the Clergie that is Ambition and greedie seeking after liuings and promotions If a benefice fall voyde say they then rideth hee then writeth hee then laboureth hee then inquireth he who can doe most with the Patrone And if hee be a Lay-man then at the least a reasonable composition will serue And if the Bishop haue the gift then Master Chancellor or Master Steward or my Lords Secretarie or my Mistresse his wife must helpe to worke the maâ—ter Answere Doe you not see how this malicious spirite passeth ouer all the good giftes that God hath in these dayes bestowed on a number of learned men to the great ornament of this land and of purpose onely to deface the Church taketh holde of those imperfections and blemishes which the corruption of mans nature specially in so perillous times and so large a Church must needes worke in a number Well writeth Basile Quemadmodum vultures c. As vultures or carren Rauens flie away to stinking carcasses and passe ouer many sweet medowes and many sweete sauouring places And as the flies shun the whole and sounde places of the body and rest only vpon scabs and soares out of which they suck matter to norish them euen so the enuious malitious and backbiting spirite passeth ouer all the ornaments worthy commendations of the liues of meÌ„ carpeth biteth at those things that he findeth worthy blame This Realme of England neuer had so many learned men nor of so excellent gift in deliuering the word of God It is the greatest ornament that euer this church had For my part surely I do reuerence and maruell at the singular gifts of God that I see in many But these things bee wincked at and passed with silence and the ambitious doings of some few brought in as matter to discredite the whole number of Preachers Diogenes seeing the cleanly furniture of Plato his house got vp vpon his bed and trampled on it with his dirtie feete saying Calco fastum Platonis that is I contemne tread vnder my feet the pride of Plato True it is quoth Plato sed alio fastu with another pride worse then mine So these men in rebuking ambitioÌ„ reach at an higher authoritie and power then any bishop in England hath or will vse Ambition I knowe and confesse is very wicked hath euer beene a perillous instrument of the deuil to make mischief By this he drew our first pareÌ„ts to the disobedience of the commandement of God perswading them not to be conteÌ„t with that happy state that God had placed them in By this he incensed Corah Dathan and Abiram with other to rebel against Moses and Aaron By this he thought to ouercome Christ when hee sawe he could not preuaile by other meanes By this he hath always raysed discorde dissention rebellion warre and tumult not onely to the troubling and disquieting but to the shaking and ouerthrowing almost of all common weales that euer haue beene and thereby also hath wrought the murther and destruction of an infinite number of the creatures of God By this he hath froÌ„ time to time raised many schismes heresies in the Church of Christ By this vndoubtedly I thinke he worketh no small euill nowe at this day in this our Church of England But what then Doe they thinke that if the bishoppes landes and the rich liuings of the Cleargie be taken away that they shall extinguish Ambition in the heartes of the ministers Was there no Ambition in the Church before that bishops had lands or before preachers had so large liuings No man can so thinke but they that are ignorant of the ecclesiasticall histories What was the first root of the troublesome schisme of the Donatists Whereof sprang first the heresies of the Nouatians at Rome What gaue the first occasion of the pestilent heresie of the Arians What maintayned and continued it was it not Ambition and seeking of preheminence But what shoulde I number vp any more examples Fewe schismes and heresies in the Church but had their beginning out of this roote And many knowe that a repulse of a dignitie desired was the first cause that our schisme brake forth hath so eagerly continued Surely though I confesse that I see and knowe in our church more corruption that way then I am gladde to beholde and so much especially in some kinde of Ministers as I praie GOD by some sharpe order may bee diminished yet this I dare stande to iustifie that all the enemies of the bishoppes and better sorte of the cleargie shall neuer be able to proue notwithstanding the daunger of this corrupt time that there is at this day in this Realme such heauing and shoouing such canuasing and working for bishoprikes and other Ecclesiasticall liuings as I will declare vnto them to haue beene in the ancient time aboue a thousand yeeres since in the best state that euer was in the church from the Apostles age vnto this time That there is no Ambition vsed among vs as I haue saide I dare not affirme but surely if there bee any there can be no Ambition on the one part but there must bee corruption on the other therfore let them looke vnto themselues that haue authoritie to bestow the liuings The best sorte of the ecclesiastical liuings are in the disposition of the princes authoritie And those honorable that haue to doe therein and are counsailers to her Maiestie be not so vnwise but they can espy Ambition in him that sueth and laboureth for them And if they do perceiue it they are very greatly to blame if they suffer it to escape without open shame or other notable punishment and thereby bring suspition eyther vpon themselues or vpon those that be about them As for the corruption in bestowing other meaner liuings the chiefe fault thereof is in patrones themselues For it is the vsuall manner of the most part of theÌ„ I speake of too good experieÌ„ce though they may haue good store of able meÌ„ in the Vniuersities yet if an ambitious or greedie minister come not vnto them to sue for the benefice if there bee an vnsufficient man or a corrupt person within two shires of them whom they thinke they can draw to any composition for their owne benefit they wil by one meanes or other finde him out And if the bishop shall make curtesie to admitte him some such shift shall be found by the lawe either by Quare impedit or otherwise that whether the bishop will or no he shalbe shifted into the benefice I know some bishops vnto whom such sutes against