his Doctrine to wit not to worship those Images with the worship of Latria nor otherwise simply but with relation to the Prototype So that for ought we know the Authour implyeth that some kind of adoration may be either giuen to the Image respectiuely to the Prototype or at least before the Image to the Prototype Againe he saith They that are worshippers of Idols or representments of false Gods This clause is wholly Iesuiticall See the Doway translation on Exod. 20. where the Iesuites allow none other Images to bee forbidden in the second Commandement but onely Idols and those forsooth are say they the Images of false Gods Iust so our Author here As if Angels or Saints being worshipped in and by their representations were not turned into false Gods Or as if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Idolum Simúlachrum an Idol and Image were not all one See Polyd. Virgil. de Inuent rerum Lib. 5. Cap. 13. Againe They that are worshippers of Saints Images and out of a false opinion of promeriting the protection of the blessed Uirgin or any other Saint of God doe giue a religious adoration to those vsuall representments which be made of them Now in all this he speakes nothing against Poperie and so all his flourish is but a meere froth while he would seeme to say something against it For howsoeuer Popish practise is yet they teach not that Adoration of Images or Saints in them is meritorious So that the Authour leaues it as granted that a man may vse Images in their Saint-inuocation so he account it not meritorious Thus he is rather for Poperie in this point then against it Vpon the fourth Commandement he saith They offend vnder a pretence of seruing God more stâ—â—â—tly then others especially for hearing and meditating of Sermons doe by their Fasts and certaine Iudaizing obseruations condemne the ioyfull festiuitie of this high Holy-day which the Church allowes as well for the necessarie recreation of the body in due time as for Spirituall exercises of the Soule Here we come more plainly to discerne the Wolfe in the Sheeps skinne or in the Sheepherds cloke For here he breakes down a gap and whistles out the Sheepe that straying hee may deuoure them Yea in this speech he goes about to set open the verie Flood-gate of all profuse prophanesse First All truly religious and conscionable seruing of GOD he makes to be but a pretence Hypocrisie and dissimulation But the maine marke his enuie and malice shootes at is especially Hearing and meditating of Sermons By this verie speech a man that neuer saw nor knew the Authour may easily conclude whether he be a Resident vpon his Cure or no a faithfull Sheepherd or no. Hearing and meditating of Sermons hee cannot away with they are a burthen vnto him These he ranketh with I wâ—t not what Fast and some certaine but vncertaine what Iudaizing obseruations But the worst is that by such exercises as hearing and meditating of Sermons especially such persons condemne the ioyfull festiuity of this high and holy day which the Church allowes as well for the necessary recreation of the body as the spirituall exercises of the soule Well yet he acknowledgeth the Sabbath or Lords day to bee an High and Holy day Let him hold him to that But what be those ioyfull Festiuities of this High and Holy-day He mentioneth not But seeing he shuts out none we may well conclude hee meaneth all kinde of Festiuity and iollity and iouialty such as hee â—eâ—â—nes necessary recreations for example Rush-bearings Whitsun-Ales Morice-dances setting vp of May-poles hearing of a play or seeing of a Maske or Dicing and Carding or bowling or bowsing or whatsoeuer other Glosse the carnall vulgar may make of this vnlimited ioyful Festiuity or necessary recreation But he saith that this ioyfull Festiuity the Church allowes What Church surely none other as throughout his whole Booke but his holy mother Church of Rome Indeed that Church allowes a most liâ—entious vnlimited latitude of all such ioyfull Festiuity and especially on the Lords day as may feed the humours of the carnall and prophane multitude That Church indeed reckoneth hearing and meditating of Sermons among Iudaizing obseruations But the Church of God doth not neuer did allow such ioyfull Festiuity as the Author allowes â— S. Aughstine saith Iudaei c The Iewes do seruilely obserue the Sabbath day to luxury and drunkennesse how much better were it for their women to spin wooll and vpon that day in their New-Moones to dance Farre be it my brethren that we should say they keepe the Sabbath And againe Qui in obseruatione Sabbati c. They who keeping the Sabbath doe not continue in good workes and prayer which is to sanctifie the Sabbath and sanctification is where the holy Ghost is are like to those little Flies ingendred in the mud which disquitted the Egyptians And De Consensu Euang. lib. 2. cap. 77. speaking of that flight in winter and on the Sabbath day mentioned Luke 21. by Winter he vnderstands the Cares of this life and by the Sabbath surfeiting and drunkennesse agreeable to Christs admonition ver 34. Quod malum Sabbati nomine c. Which euill is therefore signified by the name of the Sabbath because this was as now it is the impious custome of the Iewes vpon that day to flow in delights all one with our Authors ioyfull Festiuitie or necessary recreation while they were ignorant of the spirituall Sabbath And de Genesi contra Manichaeos lib. 1. Iudaei carnaliter obseruando Sabbatum non nouerunt The Iewes by keeping the Sabbath carnally knew not the Sabbath But our Author allowes of ioyfull Festiuity and necessary recreations in their due time onely not in time of diuine seruice Neither did the Iewes omit their diuine seruice in their Synagogues both Maâ—ins and Euenâ—ong And yet spending the rest of the day afterwards in such ioyfull Festiuity as the Author allowes as done in due time S. Augustine cals them prophane and impious and that they might better spend the rest of the day in spinning For the worke of a mans honest and lawfull calling is at all times to be preferred before the workes of the Diuell that come not within the compasse of any Christian mans Calling being renounced and disavowed in our Baptisme And because the sanctification of the Lords day is so mightily impugned and cryed downe not onely by such Ministers of Sathan as are Popishly affectâ—d by their precept and precedent by the prophane rabble rout especially in those places where there is not a settled Ministry of the word Let me adde a word or two more in Gods cause that we may not so easily suffer prophane wretches like swine to trample the Orient pearle of Gods glory so prophaned on his owne day in the mire S. Augustine saith againe Prâ—ponitur Dies Dominicus c. The Lords day is preferred befode the Iewes Sabbath in the faith of the Resurrection and not in the
nothing during the Fast. Nothing at all If our Fast be for a day we are to eat nothing till night when the Fast is ended Such was Nineueh's Fast. Nor can that be a Fast of fourtie dayes in which space any thing is eaten or drunke But is that a Fast to eat no Flesh and to fill the stomacke with good Fish and the best Wine To eat no Butter but the purest Oyle To eat no Egges but the most restoratiue Figges Sint tibi Iâ—iunia pura casta simplicia moderata non superstitiosa saith St IEROME Quid prodest c. What auailes it not to eat Oyle and to seeke out meats hard and troublesome to be gotten As dryed Figges Pistacke nuts Almonds Dates Meale and Honey Tota hortorum cultura vexatur vt cibaria non vescamur pane dum delicias sectamur a regno Caelorum retrahimur All the Gardens and Orchards must bee troubled to serue our palate And while wee follow such delicacies wee are haled away from the Kingdome of Heauen And why should our Authour impose vpon vs such a Lent-Fast as a matter of Religion and a speciall part of his Deuotion Whereas this Noble and Religious STATE doth not prescribe or inhibite the vse of any Creatures but out of a ciuill regard and for a ciuill end In that case doe not men take Licences from the Exchequer And doth not the KINGS Proclamation inioyne forbearance of Flesh during that time of the Spring and that expresly for the increase of Cattle But if our Authour will needs vrge the Authoritie of the Church for the Lent-Fast I doe but referre him to the Order of Pope VRBAN the third afore cited We know no such constitution in the Church of England Neither after CHRISTS Resurrection wherein all Iewish ceremoniall obseruation of dayes was abolished remained in Scripture any one day in the weeke or weeke in the moneth or moneth in the yeere to be religiously and yeerly obserued of Christians but onely the Lords day The Church of Galathia intangling herselfe in Iewish Ceremonies the Apostle sharply reproueth them saying Ye obserue dayes and moneths and times and yeeres I am in feare of you least I haue bestowed on you labour in vaine This was as he tells them to begin in the Spirit and to end in the Flesh. And Col. 2.16 17. Let no man iudge you in meat or in drinke or in respect of an Holy-day or of the new Moone or of the Sabbaoth-dayes which are a shaddow of things to come but the Body is Christ. Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the Rudiments of the World Why as though liuing in the world are ye subiect to Ordinances Touch not tast not handle not which all are to perish with the vsing after the Commandements and Doctrines of men c. But now they that goe about to destroy or at least to defalke from the due obseruation of the Lords-day consisting in all religious exercises both publicke and priuate excluding all prophane pastimes and licentious mad mirth so as Christians being thereby inured to a religious conformitie of life in all seemely sobrietie haue the lesse need of superstious obseruations to be imposed or obtruded vpon them for their priuate humiliation seeing the whole tenure of their life is a constant walking in a sober and moderate course not mad to day and sad to morrow for fashion so adding drunknesse to thirst and neuer well as we say full nor fasting whereas euerie day to a true Christian is a day of sobrietie and all his life a Lent while all along his life is seasoned and sanctified with a conscionable keeping of the Lords day wherein he prouides his store for euerie weeke I say they that goe about to cut away a a great part from the religious and sober keeping of the Lordsday no maruel if they would fill vp the want of true Religion with some satisfactorie Superstition of mans deuising and so to expiate all the yeeres prophanesse with the seeming sanctitie and superstitious solemnitie of a pretended Lenten Fast which indeed is no Fast as men doe vse it And yet for all it is so abused it hath monopolized and ingrossed to it selfe all other true Fasts wherein Gods people in time either of any present publicke calamitie or eminent danger ought to be humbled in making their peace with God deprecating as the sinne so the punishment the consequent fruit of it But the Lent-Fast must keepe out all beat downe all other Fasts Good Lent either fast as thou pretendest thou shouldest or giue place to other Fasts which being performed as they ought may stand in the gap to turne away that wrath which thy Superstition and Hypocrisie is like to bring vpon vs. But the Authour cites St IEROME to proue the Quadragesimall Fast to be an Apostolicke constitution Indeed we read of one ABDIVS who tells strange Tales of St MATHEVV the Euangelist and among the rest that he taught that Saints must looke to goe into Heauen by their Merits That the time of Lent must be kept with abstinence from Flesh from coniugall beneuolence or else a man becomes polluted and commits a haynous offence which must be washed away with many teares These and other the like be so likely to be true as it may be lawfull for vs to belieue St MATHEVV wrot one thing and spake another But we must know that the Misterie of Iniquitie began to worke euen in those prime times while Satan wanted not his Instruments to lay the foundation thereof in superstitious Deuotions the strongest supporter of Antichrist As for S. IEROME and other of the Ancients who knowes not that many things of this nature haue been foysted into their Workes Neither is it necessarie that we should either labour in all things to cleare the Fathers nor in euerie thing to follow them But howsoeuer our Authour would draw down the Lent-Fast from the obseruation of the Church although he still meanes the Church of Rome yet wee know that the ancient Churches which were no members of the Church of Rome but as all then were ioynt members of the Catholike did obserue their Quadragesima after a different sort both for the time and manner Socrates who was much about the time of S. Ierome saith that in those dayes Qui sunt Roma c. They that are at Rome do Fast three weekes before Easter the Saturday and the Lords day onely excepted In Illyria and all Greece at Alexandria they begin their Fast 6 weekes before Easter and call that time Quadragesima Others begin their Fast 7. weekes before Easter although they keepe their Fast but 15. of those dayes scattered â—mong the rest and yet they call that time Quadragesima too Nor differ they onely about the time but about the maner of abstinence For some eate Fowles and Fishes as both comming of the water Others abstaine from shel-fruits and eggs some feed onely vpon drie bread and others
this And for the better boulting out of the truth and satisfaction on both sides my Chaplaine also shall be here to answer to such things as yours shall except against For I must tell you Madam my Chaplaine Master Diotrephes doth as much applaud this Booke as yours doth disallow of it Ch. Madam I doubt not but my Chaplaine is able to shew good grounds for any thing that he shall except against But I like it very well that your Ladiship is pleased to appoint your Chaplaine to be here Both I and my Chaplaine God willing will be ready at your time appointed to attend your Ladiship But Madam if I may be so bold with your Ladiship will your honour be stirring so soone as by eight in the morning Cur. Nay God helpe vs Coâ—rt-Ladyes 〈◊〉 in the Countrey haue but a poore conceit of vs to thinke vs such idle Hous-wines as to lye a bed till eight of the clocke in the morning But we must beare all with patience Char. Madam if we in the Countrey thinke so of the Court it is but because we are willing to hope that all the idle Hous-wiues be not in the Countrey But before I take my leaue of your Ladiship for this time 〈…〉 me leaue a little to shew my learning and to try 〈◊〉 that our Chaplaines may not seeme to carrie all 〈…〉 away let me obiect one verie materiall 〈◊〉 â—n the Booke to your Ladiship Cur. Nay God a mercie Madam For I wis if we women as light account as men make of our learning and iudgement might but as freely as men dispute and if the fashion were but ones on foot they shall find that we haue not onely words but wit at will and perhaps as smart and shrewd arguments as the most Scholasticall among them But I pray thee Madam let vs heare your obiection Char. Madam I am possessed with an exceeding wonderment that this Booke should find such entertainment and approbation in the Court especially among pardon my rudenesse you Court-Ladyes being so full I say not of complements but of many imployments chiefely your selfe Yea the verie curiosities of Courtly attires and the varieties of fashions which not onely must be followed with the first but studied also to vphold the Court credit are they not enough to take vp all one forenoone And then Madam where will you find time for your Matins and other houres of Deuotion which this Booke imposeth vpon you What Will the Author of this Booke make the Court a Monasterie or Nunnerie Would he haue the Ladyes and Mayds of Honour to turne Nunnes What Nothing almost but euerie houre of the day to turne ouer and ouer your Beads This were a strange Metamorphosis for Courtiers thus to keepe holy day And therefore Madam I wonder that the Court of all other cryeth not downe such a Booke as this Nay Madam seeme to approue it as much as you will yet you can neuer perswade the simplest Rusticke that you Courtiers are or can be euer a whit the deuouter for all this Booke For it is impossible for you to practice one quarter of it And taking vpon you the obseruation of such canonicall rules as standeth not with possibilitie to keepe either you must get a dispensation to remit the rigour of them and to admit of such a practise of deuotion as either your Court-leasure or disposition can conueniently or but indifferently performe Or otherwise you must be driuen of necessitie either daily to goe to shrift for absolution or to chawke vp all your defects and failings for your generall shrift Wherein and for which such penance may be imposed vpon you as you shall hardly determine whither of the two is more grieuous to obserue the rules for your deuotion or to satisfie for the penaltie Cur. Surely Madam you argue verie vnhappily nor doe I thinke your Chaplaine or any man can say more to this Booke then you haue done But Madam what would you haue vs to doe in this case We poore Ladyes Protestants of the Court are in a great strait We are pressed on the one side with importune impossibilities as you say On the other with the vrgent examples of Romane-Catholicke Ladyes among whom we conuerse who presse vs with their exemplarie practise of pietie and deuotion in their Religion putting vs and our Religion to shame if we doe not equalize at least if not outstrip them in point of deuotion Char. Madam all such Romish practise of deuotion is not worth Godamercie or that it should stand in the least competition or comparison with true deuotion The Priests of Baal what a stirre kept they what zeale shewed they in launcing of their flâ—sh what vnwearied deuotion in the repetition of their prayers and that euen vntill the euening Sacrifice fulfilling almost all their canonicall houres and yet all to no purpose Whereas Elias Gods Prophet vsed onely a short prayer which preuailed with God Doe you thinke Madam that your Roman-Catholicke Dames are euer a whit regarded of God for all their turning ouer their Beads or saying ouer their Beadrowes of Pater-nosters and Aue-Maries and they wot not what Alas Madam blessed be God we are not so childish after so long a bringing vp vnder the Word to account such Baby-deuotion worthy of our least emulation much lesse of Apishimitation Therefore Madam if I may aduise you away with this idle Apish Booke of Popish Deuotion suffer not either your Court or your Christian libertie so to be imposed vpon with such obseruations as are either impossible and at the best perhaps vnprofitable as whereof it may be said Who required these things at your hands But I feare I am too bold with your Ladiship Thus you see a Fooles bolt soone shot I will take my leaue Cur. Madam I will detaine you no longer my attendance also calling me away Therefore till the set time adiew Madam Remember Friday morning Char. Madam I will not forget The next meeting on Friday morning Charis MAdam God giue you good morrow Cur. Welcome Madam I was euen expecting of you Haue you brought your Chaplaine with you Char. Madam I haue who is ready to tender to your honour such satisfaction as he hath in his iudgement conceiued to be conuenient Cur. Master Iohannes I would intreat you here to spend a little familiar conference with my Chaplain Master Diotrephes about that Booke which your Lady hath acquainted you with I suppose you come sufficiently instructed what to say therein Iohannes Madam I must craue pardon for my boldnesse in this my rudenesse hoping that wherein I shall offend my Ladies command in bringing me hither will helpe to excuse me For as for this Booke I confesse I was loth to meddle with it but vpon her ouer earnest pressing of me And besides my time hath beene verie short to informe my selfe sufficiently touching all the particulars of this Booke which perhaps a more iudicious eye vpon better deliberation might more fully discouer Nor did I
yeeres agoe He indeed sets downe the Seuen houres in the Title of his Chapter iust as truly as our Authour in the Title of his Booke deriuing the same from some spring of antiquitie and namely the Agathen Councell Prouinciall in France which was some 800 yeers before his time But the Pope there committed a foule errour in setting downe Seuen canonicall houres for two The Agathen Councell mentioning but two houres of prayer the morning and euening So that the best authoritie and hoariest antiquitie for your Seuen canonicall houres is GREGORY the Ninth Pope of Rome This is that ancient Church wherein this practise appeareth first to be decreed and solemnely obserued This Pope then first decreed the Seuen canonicall houres But of whom to be obserued Namely of the Priests Friers Monkes and such like holy-day-persons for the most part Male feriati homines as Rome could afford â—now Of others he saith nothing saith the glosse although it say Others seeme not to be bound but surely they are But the Priests Monkes and other Votaries were specially bound to keepe them constantly Which seemes to be the reason why it is probable that some haue coniectured PELAGIVS the Second to haue beene the first institutor For about his time did all kind of Monkes and such like Orders begin exceedingly to be multiplyed many of them taking vpon them such a strict discipline as might admit yea in some sort necessarily require so many Canonicall Houres of Prayer at least to refresh the tediousnesse of that austeritie wherewith they exercised their extreame patience Some Monkes were called Insomnes for their continuall watchfulnesse And what could they doe better but pray to entertaine the tedious nights and vacant daies Some did so macerate themselues with immoderate fasting and course faire of small quantitie that they made themselues vnable to doe any thing but pray if that Others coopt themselues vp in such short and narrow and low Cells as vneath they could either lye along or stand vpright so that the best and easiest posture for them was to be on their knees praying Others forsaking humane societie and liuing among the wild Beasts called therefore Armenta Droues or Heards feeding on roots and grasse and lodging sub Dio or in the Caues what could they doe else but if they had so much sense left them pray Now seeing our Authour will needs reuiue and recommend to the Church of England these his seuen Canonicalls Vpon whom will hee impose their obseruation Vpon Courtiers Alas they are taken vp with a thousand thoughts perhaps how to rise higher perhaps how to keepe their standing perhaps how to preuent and take off enuie perhaps how to appease such an Opposite perhaps how to purchase such a Friend perhaps how to compasse such a preferment but specially the Female sex incombred with a thousand womanish Ceremonies if not State-proiects or their owne honours as I heard once a great Lady of the Court say there was neuer a day went ouer their heads but once at least their heart aked so as they cannot attend such tedious Canonicall Seruice Or Citizens or Countrey-men They haue their vocations to follow which if they should intermit to say ouer this Booke of Deuotion daily and duely as it prescribes how should they liue Except ye could perswade them to a thinner diet and courser habite too good an allowance for an idle life Or will you impose it vpon the Priests or Ministers of the Church But you know our golden Priests I meane in the best sense are not like those woodden Ones in the Church of Rome who hauing little else to doe but to say ouer their Masse or a few Mattens had need to be exercised with Canonicall houres to keepe them at least from worse exercises But you know most Ministers in the Church of England are labourious in their calling who if they should precisely â—uerie day say ouer your Booke of Deuotion they should haue little time left to prepare conuenient Food for their Flockes on the Lords day Although perhaps you could be content to dispense with that Nay rather if yee will needs inforce your Houres vpon vs lay them vpon dumbe Priests such as either cannot or dare not or at lâ—ast will not preach the Word to their people These being the men that cry so much for long prayers and short preaching you might doe well to bring them to a Canonicall obedience of your Canonicall houres and that they performe the same not by Proxie or Curacie but in their owne persons Otherwise if you cannot find Holy-day-men enough to take your Booke to taske what doth it import else but a necessitie of bringing in Monkerie and so of erecting Cells againe for the practise of your Deuotion Which I trust all your Deuotion will neuer bring to passe In the second place from the practise of the ancient Church the Authour descends to defend his Septiformious Deuotion to be Much after the manner published by authoritie of Quéene ELIZABETH 1560. Much after the manner is indeed a prettie qualification of the matter Much-what not so altogether But for your Much Distingue tempora Distinguish the times That Horarie the Authour speakes of was set out neere the first yeere of her Raigne when as Poperie was not buried nor the Gospell out of her Cradle That noble Queene of euer blessed memorie in the beginning of her Raigne did for the present prudently conniue at and act some things which afterwards by degrees she suffered to vanish For the purpose In the verie beginning of her Raigne before her first Parliament she set forth a Proclamation inhibiting all Ministers in and about London and else-where to preach at all lesse or more but onely to read Seruice vntill further order from her Maiestie Is this a good argument for the Author or any his Fautors by his seeming deuotion of making many long prayers to sholder preaching out of the Church or to wayne the people from hearing because forsooth QU. ELIZAB. once by Proclamation prohibited preaching and allowed onely reading of Seruice But how long lasted this restraint No longer then the Parliament approaching wherin was most happily established the liberty of preaching the Gospell and administring the Sacraments Take another example in the dawning of the Gospell in England before her time in King Henry 8. his raigne The Lord Cromwell in his English Primer 1535. in the Preface before the Letany apologizing his leauing out of the Letany in his former Primer saith wherefore for the contentation of such weake minds and somewhat to beare their infirmities I haue now at this my second Edition of the said Primer caused the Letany to be printed and put into the same c. Marke for the contentation of weake mindes Thus in the Primitiue Church some things were tolerated during the infancy of it which afterwards were quite abolished as Act. 15. The abstaining from blood and strangled was inioyned the Gentiles for a time And why for
perfection And now when all is done would the author with his bring vs backe at least to the brinke borders of Popery againe by his Canonicall houres and the like Being now men of ripe yeeres would he haue vs to become children againe And after we haue begun and gone on so farâ—e in the spirit now to be made perfect in the flesh by turning back to beggerly rudiments After the cleare meridian Sun-shine of the Gospell would he reduce vs to those duskish dawning shadowes out of which that first Horarium was but newly peeped but to last no longer then till time might more fairely shake hands with all Popish shadowes As the Iewish Ceremonies had a time euen after the establishing of the Gospell for their solemne obsequies But to conclude the plaine truth is to such a passe is Popery now come in these our dayes that if euer the Church of England ought henceforth to haue the least correspondence and conformity with it yea to be so farre from renewing any old acquaintance with it as vtterly to shake hands and if any ragges or reliques of that Whore haue beene patched to our Mothers Robe we ought to rip it off and strip our selues of it Rome is now fully reuealed to be the Whore of Babylon the Pope the head thereof to be that man of sinne that grand Antichrist which for any learned man not to see in these dayes of the Gospell is to stumble at Noone-day yea to be strucke blinde at the cleare light It followeth in the Title Taken out of the holy Scriptures the ancient Fathers and the diuine Seruice of our owne Church Here be three authorities the least whereof not to be contemned The first is that he saith his houres are taken from the holy Scriptures His quotations are strowed all along the booke but so as if we amasse all the generall precepts and particular practises of prayer in Scripture into one Canon or rule there should not be one houre or minute throughout the day and night which we should not spend altogether in prayer So that the abusiue vnderstanding of Scripture in this kinde was that which brought the Euchetâ— to do nothing else but pray The Scriptures commend to vs specially two times of publicke prayer for the day the Morning and the Euening prayer the one about our nine in the forenoâ—ne the other about three in the afternoone which our Church followeth these two were called the Morning and the Euening Sacrifice Hence it is that Christ began to bee offered from the Morning Sacrifice to the Euening Sacrifice as sanctifying all our Sacrifices of Prayer and Prayse Morning and Euening in that Sacrifice of himselfe But he speakes here of Priuate houres of Prayer And where will he find in Scripture any such practise as the obseruation of his Seuen Canonicall houres DANIEL prayed three times a day Yes DAVID saith Seuen times a day will I prayse thee But that 's of Prayse And though it may be meant also of Prayer it signifieth onely his frequent praying farre from a superstitious obseruation of Canonicall houres in those dayes not hatched or heard of But of Prayer he saith Euening and morning and at noone day will I pray c. But for all this mans colouring the matter with Holy Scripture he hath no other Scripture for his Canonicall houres but the Popes Scripture in his Decretalls where the Pope takes all his Canonicall houres from the actions about CHRIST in his death As in the Glosse Haec sunt septenis propter quae psallimus heris Matutina lâ—gat Christum qui crimina purgat Prima replet sputis causam dat Tertia mortis Sexta cruci nectit latus eius Nona bipaertit Vespera deponit tumulo Completa reponit Indeed the Scripture doth so command this excellent dutie of Prayer to vs as that no time should exempt vs from it but that we should be diligent in the practise of it vpon all occasions and especially keepe constantly ouâ— morning and euening sacrifice priuate and publike also as the day requireth Yea to let no oportunitie slip wherein we are not breathing out some eiaculations out of a sense and feeling of our manifold infirmities and necessities But nowhere doth the Scripture prescribe a set septenarie forme of Deuotion as the Authour would impose vpon vs. In the second place he nameth the Ancient Fathers But these faile him as much for his purpose as the Scriptures doe Indeed the Fathers doe euerie where following the Scriptures inculcate and prâ—sse the incessant practise of Prayer Hora nulla a Christianis excipitur quò minùs frequenter ac semper Deus debeat adorari c. saith CYPRIAN No houre is exempted from Christians that God might not frequently and alwayes be adored And he saith indeed that in his time the times and exercises of Prayer were much encreased Yet hee no where setteth downe seuen Canonicall houres Yea CLEMENS ROMANVS a great Authour with him though misquoted in his Constitutions which euen Pontificians themselues haue confessed to bee counterfeit yet fayle him at least in two of his houres as Câ—mplene and the last Onely GREGORY the Ninth fayles him not being as I said his first complete Authour of his seuen Canonicalls But after the Ancient Fathers in the third place hee nameth the Diuine Seruice of our owne Church out of which his Houres are taken Now surely for ought that euer I could learne out of our Seruice Booke I can find but two set Houres of Prayer besides certaines priuate Prayers recommended to priuate Families for Morning and Euening with a godly Prayer to bee said at all times in the latter end of the Booke Vnlesse out of this Prayer to bee said at all times hee would picke out his seuen Canonicall houres But whereas hee seemeth to ground the forme of his Deuotion vpon the Diuinâ— Seruice of our owne Church On the contrarie hee offereth foule violence to that more exact and profitable forme prescribed in our Liturgy For whereas the forme of Prayer in our Communion Booke is so compiled as that by a daily practise thereof the whole or most part of the OLD TESTAMENT is read ouer once in the yeere and the NEVV TESTAMENT three times and the whole Booke of PSALMES once euerie moneth The Authour or Authours of this Booke intruding a new forme of Deuotion hereby coozen GODS People of their allowance in the SCRIPTVRES while in stead of the whole hee cutteth out here a peece and there a peece here a quarter of a Chapter and there a quarter Herein crossing the Communion Booke which in the Preface fâ—atly reproueth this verie practise of the Authour in these words Now of late time a few of the Psalmes haue been daily said and oft repeated and the rest vtterly omitted And is it not so in this Booke of Deuotion Doth he not confine vs to a narrow circle of so many Psalmes so many peeces of Chapters so many Lawâ—eâ— as he calls them
fashion of Refection 〈◊〉 in the Licentiousnesse of drunken Songs And ibid It is questioned whither a man must not fast on the Sabbath but not whither he must not reuell it on the Sabbath which neither is done on the Lords day of those that feare God although they fast on that day And deuout Bernard Obserue the Sabbath which is to exercise thy selfe in the Holy-dayes so as by the Râ—st present thou mayest learne to hope for that which is eternall And that a prophane person may not flatter himselfe as though his voluptuous keeping of the Sabbath may teach him to hope for those eternall and true ioyes in heauen Heare the same Bernard or rather Gillibert whose Sermons are added to fill vp Bernards vpon the Canticles inserted in Bernards workes where mentioning Esay 58. hee saith Non dicit c. He saith not onely that the Sabbath is a Delight but he addeth And Holy and Glorious to the Lord that these things may not bee in the confusion of thy Glory Non sit desidiosum Sabbatum tuum operare in Sabbato tuo opera Dei Let not thy Sabbath bee idly spent but in thy Sabbath worke the workes of God Opus Dei in die siâ—o And surely the Lords day is not called so for nought If it be Christs day sanctified and founded in his Resurrection as S. Augustine saith then what workes are proper for that day whereby it may bee sanctified of vs and wee of it but such as are the fruits of those that are risen with Christ from the graue of sin to newnesse of life and not those which with the swinâ— would lead vs backe to our wallowing in the mire And is not the hearing and meditating of Sermons a speciall part of the sanctification of the Lords day How come we to be sanctified but by the word of God Sanctify them with thy truth thy word is the truth saith Christ. And as we noted before that Deuotion is blind whose lampe is emptie of oyle to supply the light A plaine argument that the Authors whole booke of Deuotion is but a meere counterfeit And to inuy or inueigh against the due sanctification of the Lords day what is it but to raze the very foundation whereon all true religion is built To heare Sermons and not to meditate of them is to receiue water into a Sieue to be an vncleane creature that chowes not the cudde to receiue the seed vpon the highway side where it being vnharrowed and vncouered is by the fowles of the ayre that fowle spirit that raignes in the ayre and in the vnsetled hearts of aery and windy braines to be deuoured The Lords day is the Marketday of our foules He that stands idle in the marketplace is justly reproued Or he that buyes those spirituall commodities needfull for his soule in hearing of the word and goes presently and squanders it away and brings it not home to dispose of it for his weekely vses is an vnprouident housekeeper a prodigall vnthrift of grace because he heares not for afterwards for the time to come Such are they that either are carelesse of hearing the Word or when they haue heard goe and dance it away about the May-pole or walke and talke it away in idle prate or any kind of prophane or profuse recreation Those are like the Wolfe who neuer attaine to any more learning of God then to spell Pater but when they should come to put together and to apply it to their soules in stead of Pater they say Agnus their mindes and affections running a madding after the profits and pleasures of the world Such are enemies to all Godlinesse and expresse their enmitie in nothing more then in their proâ—anation of the Lords Holy-Day If any man would know of 〈◊〉 estate and condition of any Parish in generall in 〈◊〉 Land whether it bee religious or no let him buâ—â—â—quire what conscience they make of the due sanctification of the Lords day That 's the true touchstone of a truely religious man And although all are not that sincerely whereof they make outward profession for there will euer be some hypocrites among sound Professors yet none can be a true and sound Christian who makes not speciall conscience of a religious and sober keeping of the Lords day For this day well kept sanctifies to a man the whole weeke The seuenth day sanctifieth our six as the tenth of our goods doth all the other nine As Elias his meate made him strong to trauell forty dayes and forty nights to Horâ—bâ— so the hearing and meditating of sound Sermons on the Lords day ministers strength to our soules to serue God all the weeke in our particular Callings But I may not transgresse the bounds of my proposed breuity For Conclusion of the Commandements among other offenders against the sixt Commandement he reckoneth those that be sowers of strife and sedition among any men whatsoeuer Now how farre the Author is guilty hereof or whether he may not merit to be put in the forefront with the most grand Authors of strife and sedition not onely to set priuate men together by the eares but the whole Church and state of England in a most fearefull hurly-burly and combustion I referre to all wise men to judge that doe but read this most pernitious pestilent and Popish Booke As it followeth Of the Sacraments of the Church What Sacraments trow we are these The Sacraments of the Church This is written I am sure fiylo 〈◊〉 This title is no where learned but from the Church of Rome from the Councell of Trent and from the shop of Iesuiticall Catechists He learned not this of his Mother Church of England if so he account her his Mother and not rather that other Church to which he intitles his Sacraments for the Church of England sets downe the title simply Of the Sacraments saying also Sacraments ordained of Christ. So that she intitles the Sacraments vnto Christ the sole Author of them But let vs heare what those Sacraments of the Church be or how many Namely Two and Fiue which put together as euery Arithmetician can tell make seuen Now England thou art come to thy seuen Sacraments againe This euery Papist can now bragge off And haue they not reason for there is more in it then the bringing of vs backe to the seuen Sacraments againe he would hereby knit vs fast againe to be one Church with the Church of Rome For these seuen Sacraments he calls the Sacraments oâ— the Church Oâ— what Church surely no Church euer held seuen Sacraments but the Church of Rome nor doe I read of seuen Sacraments beâ—ore Peter Lombard set them downe All the ancient Fathers knew but two Saint Ambrose writing six bookes of the Sacraments could find but two The Greeke Church neuer held but two yet saith our Author the Church holdeth them yea the Catholicke Church of Christ as before in his Preface Whereupon here he concludes