a Reformation according to the Word of God and the Primitive practice but in all your book there are but three instances of the conformity of the Reformation to the rule of the Sacred Scriptures and they are only in point of Doctrine and not in Discipline or Worship The first instance is p. 49 of your History of Edward the sixth where having mentioned an Act of Parliament declaring that it is according to Scripture that the Sacrament be administered to all Christian people under both the kinds of Bread and Wine you spend a great many lines borrowed out of Bishop Iewel to prove that this Declaration of Parliament and the words by which it was enacted do every way agree with Christs institution no Protestant not John Calvin your great eyesore will deny you this The second instance is p. 66. where you mention the Popish exceptions against the Act confirming the Common Prayer not to be upon any other account but because it was in the vulgar tongue and then you run out into a large discourse to prove that prayer ought to be made in a tongue understood of the common people the like you do p. 157. part 2. Calvin and Cartwright that firebrand as you call him will conform Mr. Doctor to this Reformation The third instance is p. 67. where you take notice of an Act for advancing the work of Reformation which took away all Laws forbidding Ministers marriage in allowance whereof you spend many lines in this Mr. Doctor the Calvinian and Zuinglian faction concur with you These are all the Presidents of Scripture or Primitive practice you alledge in your whole book for the Reformation of the Church and in matters of this nature so evident and clear out of the word of God amongst all the Zuinglian Gospellers as you call them you shall not have one dissenter or Nonformist And because you mention a memorable challenge publishled by Bishop Iewel against the Romish Clergy who injuriously you say pag. 129. part 2. upbraided the Church of England with the imputation of Novelty and charged it with teaching such opinion as were not to be found before Luthers time the Calvinian and Zuinglian faction which you so blot with your learned pen will willingly be his seconds in this challenge Nay Sir the Zuinglian Gospellers do renew this Challenge against the sacred Hierarchy as you call it in the same terms as you deliver the stout and gallant challenge of that Learned Prelate Iewel against the Romish Clergy The Zuinglian Gospellers challenge If any learned man of our Adversaries be able to bring one sufficient sentence out of the holy Scripture or any one example of any Bishop Minister or Martyr either in the time of King Edward the sixth viz. Cranmer Latimer Ridley Hooper Farrar Philpot Bradford Taylor or any other or in the times of Queen Elizabeth out of Reverend Jewel who do directly and ex professo plead for and commend the present Liturgie in the frame of it or that Episcopacy is Jure divino or for Adoration toward the Altar Bowing at the name of Iesus signing with the sign of the Cross wearing of Caps and Surplices kneeling at the Sacrament or for the exercise of Church power by lay-Chancellors if you Reverend Sir or any other be able to produce any such authority or example contending as you do professedly for these things the Zuinglian Gospellers will be then content to yield and subscribe These are the things M. Doctor which administer trouble to the Church of God at this day Satisfie but our consciences that these things ought to be continued in the Church we have done We beseech you read this passage of Reverend Iewel in a Sermon preached by him in St. Maries in Oxford it is in the beginning of the Book called his Defence of the Apology pag. 6. This only saith he will I speak and that in a word They which brought in Transubstantiation Masses calling upon Saints sole life Purtory Images Vows trifles follies bables into the Church of God have delivered new things and which the Scriptures never heard of whatsoever they Crie or Crake they bring not a jot out of the Word of God And these as I have said are the things wherewith the Church of God is disquieted at this day upon these lieth the watch and ward of the Church These they honour instead of the Scriptures and force them on the people instead of the word of God upon these men suppose their salvation and the summ of Religion to be grounded And that which is much more grievous notwithstanding at this present by the great goodness of God religion is restored note Mr. Doctor almost not to the lustre you Mr. Doctor imagine to her former dignity and light yet poor and pitifull fouls they set great store by these things they to them again and teach them do you see Mr. Doctor as though without them the Church could not be in safety O if the Word of God might be heard among so many clamours and in so great a Hurly burly if we would suffer God himself to sit as Judge in his own case the matter would be passed over with less tumult a great deal and more easily might we agree about the whole matter Wherefore if all the worship of God all godliness all religion be to be sought out of the word of God if the institutions of men have miserably perverted all things in all times let us my Brethren beware Doctor unto whom the office of teaching is allotted Consider how dangerous a thing it is to speak more and let all who will be and will have themselves accounted to be Christians remember how dangerous a thing it is to believe more You say Mr. Doctor pag. 130 131. Reverend Iewel in his learned writings is a magazin of all sorts of learning and that all our Controversors have since he wrote furnisht themselves with Arguments and authorities from him If you have been so well acquainted with his writings as you pretend to in your history you would not have presented the Churches reformation to be so glorious and splendid as you have done and would have pitcht it on a better bottom then the authority of two acts of Parliaments the members whereof you have rendred in your history to be too much swayed in their votings and actings by wordly Popish and politick respects We do highly reverence the memory of our first Reformers but is it meet to Idolize them why should not the Parliaments of succeding times do the work of the Lords house according to the light and temper of their generation as well as they did in theirs and why should not the present Bishops who according to the character of his most Excellent Majesty our Gracious Soveraign are known to be men of great sufficiency for Learning prompt them and put them on such a work Is it not a dishonour to the Church of England after so many years standing to be fed with the
PLVS VLTRA OR Englands Reformation Needing to be Reformed BEING An Examination of Doctor Heylins History of the Reformation of the Church of ENGLAND WHEREIN By laying together all that is there said by the Dr. about the Reformation of the Church and by many testimonies of Reverend IEWEL Bishop of Salisbury and by several Observations made upon the Whole it doth evidently appear That the present state of the Church of ENGLAND is no way to be rested in but ought to proceed to a farther Degree of Perfection Written by way of Letter to Dr. Heylin by H. N. O. I. Oxon. Dan. 5. 27. Thou art weighed in the Balances and art found wanting Luke 19 22. Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee Heb. 6. 1. Let us go on unto perfection LONDON Printed for the Authors and are to be sold in St. Dunstans Church-yard in Fleetstreet 1601. To the Christian Reader Courteous Reader THou art not we presume ignorant that Dr. Heylin hath lately writ a History of the Reformation of the Church of England His Learned name is of such great credit that it doth not only invite but bespeak his Readers approbation and acceptance The love we bear to the Reformation of the Church of England and an earnest desire to be satisfied about it led us forth to the view and consideration of that History wherein we labored to follow our Reason more then our Fancy and the truth of the Story more then the cry of Fame as not being willing to have any mans person in admiration All that the learned Doctor hath storied about the Reformation in many parts and parcels of his Book having interwoven it with variety of civil Occurrences both Forraign and Domestick thou wilt finde here Methodically put together and shalt have a full view of it at once which by several skips and leaps thou wilt be put to search for in the Doctors History We could heartily wish the Doctor would have saved us this trouble and put together the parts of this goodly Building as he is pleased to call it that we might at once have gone round about it and viewed the Towers and strength thereof This thou shalt finde faithfully done to thy hand wherein thy patience is intreated to stay and consider the several particulars lest by overmuch haste thou lose the fruit of these few lines We have here laid before thee the Evidence the Doctor brings for the Reformation with some Observations out of his own Book Reverend Jewel and others of our own upon it and the judgement is left to thy own breast We can assure thee thou art candidly dealt withal in all that we alleadge either out of the Doctors Book or any other His Printer hath mis-numbred some Pages thou mayst be at some loss if thou compare some of these quotations with the Doctors Book through the neglect of Printing but otherwise thou shalt finde the Page the words many times as they lie or at least the substance of the Doctors sense faithfully communicated to thee We suppose the Doctor cannot desire a fairer way of Tryal in the particular of the Churches Reformation then when himself in his Book and the testimonies he brings be upon the matter constituted Iudges of it we hereby conceive that any person not byassed by interst will conclude from the Doctors premises that Englands Reformation is sadly defective There was a time when there was no Smith found in Israel and the Israelites went down to the Philistims to sharpen their Weapons We contend not for Victory but for Truth and if in this contest something may be laid hold on even in the Tents of an Adversary for the advantage and advancement of it we shall not scruple to undergo the shame of our own weakness and the discredit of our own poverty as being fain to borrow both the shop and tools of an Adversary to vindicate it and support it Reader we leave these few sheets with thee desiring thy prayers for the Churches through-Reformation which is their sole desing To the Worshipfull Peter Heylin Doctor in Divinity Reverend Sir YOu have lately presented to the World an History of the Reformation of the Church of England Your historical abilitiesare sufficiently known and it is presum'd you have said as much as can be spoken upon this Subject for what can the man do that cometh after Docotr Heylin Si Pergama Dextrâ Defend◠possent etiam hâc defensa fuissent If Troy could have been presery'd Thy Hand of any best had serv'd It is not the purpose of these lines to vie abilities of learning and language with you Take to you the deserved praise of a learned Doctor and police Orator But the work at present is to scan over some passages in your History of the Churches Reformation and in such a season as this a Convocation now sitting to press onward toward perfection And in the pursuit of this design please you to take along the judgement of that Reverend Bishop Iewel Bishop of Salisbury in the reign of Queen Elizabeth one whom you often mention with deserved honour in your last History You stile him pag. 123. in the latter part of your History The right Learned Mr. Iohn Iewel Pag. 129. Reverend Iewel that learned Prelate Pag. 147. The right Reverend Bishop Iewel pag. 155. His Book which he wrote in defence of the Apologie of the Church of England against that foul-mouth'd Caviller Harding is yet extant in most Churches in this Kingdom and next unto the Bible their best Ornament From this Book and some Sermons of this reverend Bishop bound up with it and several passages in your own something is tendered to your judicious consideration Whether the reformation of the Church of England be or were at any time so compleat and in such Primitive lustre as you phrase it in the close of your History that nothing is more to be done for the perfection and beauty of it Be assured learned Sir the World shall not be abused with false quotations with wrested interpretations either out of your Book or this blessed Bishops you shall have the page the words quoted without the least prevarication And first of all Sir What a soul blot doth your pen cast upon the Reformation when you tell the world That you cannot reckon the death of King Edward the sixth for an infelicity to the Church of England They are your own words in the fourth pag. of your Epistle to the Reader That he was ill principled in himself and that his Reign was unfortunate pag. 141. part 1. And the ground of your account is Because it is not to be thought had he lived but that the rest of the Bishopricks before sufficiently impoverished must have followed Durham and the poor Church been left as destitute of Lovers and Ornaments as when she came into the world in her natural nakedness This Vein runs throughout your whole Book You tell us in the history of Edward pag. 33. that
the Grandees of the Court began to entertain some thoughts of a Reformation on an hope to inrich themselves by the spoil of the Bishopricks You tell us pag. 48. That the first Parliament in the first year of his Reign though it consisted of such Members as disagreed among themselves yet they agreed well enough in one common Principle which was to serve the present time and preserve themselves that they came resolved to further such a Reformation as should most visibly conduce to the advancement of their several ends and to prepare a way for exposing the Revenues of the Church unto spoil and rapine You tell us pag. 95. That the alteration of Altars into Tables and the disfurnishing of the Altars of the Hangings Palls Plate and other rich utensills was taken up by some great men about the Court on hopes of profit You tell us in the fifth year of King Edward pag. 99. Gardiner was lifted out of the wealthy Bishoprick of Winchester to give the Courtiers opportunity to inrich themselves by the spoil thereof And in pag. 101. That one Iohn Poynet succeeded him to serve other mens turns And in the same page That the Pyrates of the Court were intent upon all advantages to inrich themselves You tell us in the second year of Queen Elizabeth page 121. That the Bishops Sees were kept void till the best flowers in the whole Garden of the Church had been cull'd out of it That the Queen and her Hungry Courtiers had alienated many fair Mannors from the rich Sees of Winchester Elie and indeed what not Thus Sir you have muddied the first Springs of the Reformation by casting into it the abhorred filth of covetousness But Sir Did your pen and your heart agree together when you said you could not reckon it for an infelicity that Edward the sixth died so immaturely or which in plain English is 'T was good for the Church he was taken out of the way The Preface to the Book of Homilies makes an honourable mention of him And when our precious Iewel had occasion to speak of him page 359. Of his defence these are his words That noble Prince of blessed memory King Edward the sixth Was it not an infelicity to the Church to lose her chiefest stay and pillar To have the hopes of a glorious Reformation nipt in the very Budd To have a fearfull Deluge of blood and idolatry rush in upon us by the succession of Queen Mary in whose Reign more precious blood was spilt then in all the times of her Predecessors The persecution under her Reign and the carriage of the Papists in it you relate out of Bishop Iewel page 81. of your History You have given a large testimony of King Edwards Learning before he wes eight years old page 12. Of his tenderness to consent to sign the Warrant for the execution of Ioan of Kent page 89. Of his great zeal for God in resisting the tolerarion of Popery only to his sister the Princess Mary though pressed to it by the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London resolving rather to venture lite and all things else which were dear unto him then to give way to any thing which he knew to be against the truth expressing his inward trouble by a stood of tears page 103. Of his Piety and fervent Charity in his last godly Prayer wherein he calls upon God O my Lord God! Bless my people save thy chosen people of England O Lord God! Defend this Realm from Papistry and maintain thy true Religion that I and my people may praise thy holy Name for Jesus Christ his sake As you have related it page 140. What better qualities and Principles could be desired in a Prince And what greater felicity in that kinde could the Church enjoy then so gratious and Godly a King And do not you Mr. Doctor shake hands with the shameless rayler Harding against our glorious Iewel When you hear him call'd Rayler be not displeased Look on that large Catalogue of hellish slanders poured out on that blessed man summ'd up by himself immediately before his decease This is offered to you the rather because when you have occasion to mention Harding a base Apostate and grand enemy of the Gospel it is with terms of honour and reverence viz. Dr. Iohn Harding one of the Divines of Lovain and the most learned of the Colledge page 128 in the latter part of your History But when you speak of those glorious lights of the Reformation Luther Zuinglius Calvin it is barely Calvin or Iohn Calvin as all along your History is evident That Rabshakeh Harding dipt his Pen in the same gall and speaks your sence page 31. of the Defence Did not saith he your Religion begin first of covetousness And for your â—ear of the poor Chruch being left destitute of Lands and Ornaments your Right learned Prelate Iewel gives you a corrective in page 567. of his defence c. Ye say saith he to Harding Your Bishops are gay and gallant attended and guarded with Princely routs behinde and before And thereof ye make no small account specially in respect of our estate which you call beggarly In such disdain the Heathen sometime said That Christ was the beggarliest and poorest of all the Gods that were in Heaven Howbeit our Bishopricks saving that certain of your Fathers have shamefully spoil'd them are now even as they were before certainly the poorest Bishoprick in England as it is reported is better in revenues then some three or four of your Popes Italian Bishopricks in the Kingdom of Naples Howbeit the Gospel of Christ standeth not by riches but by truth In comparison of the one we make small reckoning of the other Had that glorious King lived to perfect the Reformation which you would have accounted an infelicity to the Church and taken away more of her Patrimony yet if you will believe the Right Learned Prelate Iewel he might have revok't in all those grants made by his Predecessors See his Defence page 639. If our Kings in that darkness and blindeness of the former times gave them these things of their own accord and liberality for Religions sake Now saith he when the ignorance and error is espied out may the Kings their Successors take them away again seeing they have the same authority the Kings their Ancestors had before For the gift is void except it be allowed by the will of the Giver and that cannot seem a perfect will which is dimmed and hindered by error The next thing Mr. Doctor to be spoken to is the Reformation it self whose History you present to us And in p. 34. p. 1. you write That neither to lose time nor press too much at once upon the people it was thought fit to smooth the way to the Reformation by setting out some preparatory injunctions this to be done by sending out Commissioners accompanied with certain godly Preachers who when they went from the people left behinde them Homilies to
in the Word against them and there is an express command to obey the laws and constitutions of our Superiors and therefore obedience is due though not for the things themselves yet for the Authorities sake enjoyning them In answer to this weighty objection we shall propose these Queries Whether the talent of Authority be faithfully and rightly laid out and improved in making that necessary which God in his Word hath in silence past by and so left indifferent We do not dislike Dr. Pierce his Scala of Obedience mentioned pag. 33. of his Synodica Concio à Synodo ad Regem à Rege statim ad Deum that we must proceed in the path of our obedience from the Convocation to the King from the King immediately to God we are very well pleased with this order though the Doctor would have it otherwise pag. 39. We know God hath tied every soul to be subject unto the higher powers Rom. 13. 1. and God requires the higher powers to be subject unto himself Deut. 17. 18 19 20. Whether by parity of reason Authority may free us where God hath bound us as bind us to observe such things where God hath left us free Whether if Authority judge it meet to bind us to indifferents such things be to be enjoyned which administer offence to the Reformed Churches abroad and to many good men at home and link us in a conformity to that Church from which in many other things we have separated We shall take a little liberty to debate upon this last Querie waving at present the two former We shall speak first to the first branch First therefore we say that the things before mentioned Liturgy Vestments c. have been an offence to the Reformed Churches abroad You tell us pag. 79. part 1. That Bucer who was sent for over to be Regius Professor in Cambridge was not well satisfied in some particular branches of the Liturgy you tell us he had given an account to Calvin of the English Liturgy desiring a Letter from him to the Lord Protector which you say pag. 80. proved the occasion of much trouble to the Church and Orders of it In this Letter you say Calvin approving well enough of set forms of Prayer descends particularly to the English Liturgy and makes it his advice it is wholsome counsel Mr. Doctor and for this alone your rash pen flings so much scorn on that learned and blessed man that all these Ceremonies should be abrogated that he should go forwards to reform the Church without fear but not as you say without wit without regard of peace at home or correspondency abroad such considerations being to be had in Civil matters but not in matters of the Church wherein as you quote his own words in latine in your Margin not any thing is to be exacted which is not warranted by the Word doth not Jewel say so and in the managing whereof there is not any thing more distastefull in the eyes of God then worldly wisdom either in moderating cutting off or going backwards but meerly as we are directed by his will revealed You tell us in the same page he toucheth on the Book of Homilies permits them very faintly for a season you say but by no means allows of them for along continuance or to be looked on as a rule of the Churches or constantiy to serve for the instruction of the people Would you have it so Mr. Doctor The Church and people of God are then little beholding to you The Churches rule is the Word of God and the people of God have found far better helps for their instruction by painfull and able Preachers and hope it shall be so still then the reading of a Homily by a simple non-preaching Curate You add concerning Calvin pag. 80. That he must needs trouble the Protector about the Ceremonies that he writes to him you quote his own words in the Margin to this effect you say That the Papists would grow insolenter every day then other unless the differences were composed about the Ceremonies But how say you not by reducing the opponents to conformity which it seems you would have but by encouraging them rather in their opposition and that he solicited the Protector in behalf of Hooper who was then fallen into some trouble about the Ceremonies Do not you see Mr. Doctor that these Ceremonies have ever been the occasion of trouble You tell us next of Peter Martyr a great and eminent Divine as you report him pag. 97. part 1. yet pag. 92. you tell us That Caps and Surplices were utterly opposed by him That he thinks it you quote his own words in your Margin most expedient to the good of the Church that they and all others of that kind should be taken away And he gives you say this reason for it That where such Ceremonies were so stifly contended for which were not warranted and supported by the Word of God there commonmonly men lay your hand upon your heart Doctor were less solicitous of the substance of religion then they were of the circumstances of it and you say he tells of himself in one of his Epistles that he had never used the Surplice when he lived in Oxford though he were then a Canon of Christs-Church and frequently present in the Quire You tell us pag. 107. part 1. That Calvin desiring esteem here in England as well as in other places writes to King Edward after the Refomation had gone as far forward as ever it went that many things were still amiss in England which needed Reformation Thus Sir by your own confessions Liturgy and Ceremonies have been an offence and trouble to the Reformed Churches abroad Martin Bucer Peter Martyr and Calvin the glorious lights of these Churches men of renown in the Church of God have strugled and born witness against them The last but not the least of which three worthies for he is the chiefest of the three Mr. Iohn Calvin then whom the Church of God since the time of the Apostles never had a more choice and happy instrument both for learning piety wisdom moderation and diligence you and most of the sacred Hierarchy as you stile it do still decry and vilifie as Iosephs Brethren did him because he brings your evil report amongst the Churches and cries down your Diana Liturgy and Ceremonies as not warranted by the Word and so not to be endured in the Church of God Never shall you or any man by all your starcht Oratory bring Mr. Calvin out of credit in the Churches of God they have tasted such a soul edifying and strengthning sweetness in his learned and happy labours that you may assoon perswade the Church of God that the Sun is dark and Honey bitter as that Mr. Calvin was not a heavenly spiritual holy man But this is no new thing Mr. Doctor to hit men desirous to see the Church perfectly reformed in the teeth with Calvin and Zuinglius as if they were a couple
Cloyster lined with manifold favours your zeal for the Church cannot want its recompence but sir it is good to remember your latter end you know not but that your conscience may be then awakened and read over this history you have written and pinch you for the Errata's of your zeal and charity against your poor Brethren we are confident that much of that you have laid into the foundation of the Reformation of the Church of England though you and others judge it gold silver pretious stones will be found wood hay and stubble when he appeareth who is like a refiners fire There is one very naughty passage in your book pag. 38. part 1. utterly unbecoming the mouth of a Christian much less a Doctor of Divinity where you are not ashamed to say That because in the twenty fourth Injunction in King Edwards time that upon Holy and Festival dayes it shall be lawful for men to labour in harvest you extend this liberty as well to the Lords day as the Annual Festivals and then you quote an Act of Parliament to authorize this liberty and say that by that Act any man either in harvest or or at any other times in the year when necessity shall so require who will not pretend necessity may labour ride fish or work any kind of work at their pleasure upon the Lords day And you tell us what was done at Court on that day Sir we are confident that the intention of that Act did not reach to allow so gross a prophanation of the Lords day and you that are so versed in Acts of Parliament for they are the only sphere wherein Liturgy and Ceremonies move cannot you find an Act of Parliament restraining this abuse If you cannot which we know you may it had been the duty of a Protestant Reformed Doctor of Divinity to have discovered the evil of such abuses and to have laboured with all your might that such an Act may pass Oh Sir must Jesus Christ our Lord have no preheminence above our Lady and must Iohn Baptist be lifted up to an equality with him whose shoe-latchet he confessed he was not worthy to unloose What! have Peter and Paul and Philip and Iacob done as much for us as Jesus Christ and where is the least hint that one hour is to be set apart to their honour Must every paltry holy-day be set in equality of reputation with the Lords day which Christ sanctified by his resurrection the accomplishment of a far greater work then that of Creation and his Apostles instituted by their constant solemn Assemblies upon it You say in page 38. part 1. in the latter times the Lords day began to be advanced into the reputation of the Jewish Sabbath If by latter times you mean the Apostles times it is true for then it began and when ever it began why should not Christians be as zealous to advance the Lords day unto the highest pitch of reputation that ever the Jewish Sabbath was in abateing the Ceremonious rigor have not Christians greater obligations greater encouragements to glorifie God and lift up his name which is Holy Holy Holy Oh Mr. Doctor the time past may suffice you for this folly You need not have now told us that men may do any thing at their pleasure if they say they have necessity on the Lords day and seek to establish this mischief by a Law We would be loth to be in your coat in the day of the Lord for your debasing the Lords day for the best preferment the Church of England can give us We say to you as Bishop Iewel said to Harding Arripe severitatem Christianam palinodiam cane Well Sir to go on with our reckoning you have seen one Non-conformist and Ridley's recantation for his Prelatical rigor which amounts to another and so he is to be taken off the file and you have two less then you had We shall pass on with more speed in the numbring up the rest You tell us page 93. part 1. of one Trins a Deacon who refused to wear the vestments appointed to be worn Of one Mr. Iohn Rogers Prebend of Saint Pauls and Divinity Reader of that Church who could never be perswaded to wear them The like aversness as you call it you ascribe unto Mr. Iohn Philpot Archdeacon of Winchester who suffered in Queen Maries time So that here you have Hooper Ridley when in his cold blood Trins Rogers and Philpot all disgusting these Ceremonies Many more there were but these you have left upon record with your own pen. To proceed to the times of Queen Elisabeth you have heard Iewels testimony in part who was the glory of her Reign for learning and you will see it more fully by and by You tell us page 120. part 2. that one Whitehead who had been Chaplain to Anne Bollen the Queens mother was offered the Archbishoprick of Canterbury but you say he refused it because he was more inclined to the Presbyterians then the Episcopal form of Government And page 123. part 2. you say Coverdall waved the acceptation of the Bishoprick of Oxon or any other then vacant out of a disaffection to the Habit of that Order And page 124. part 2. you say Alexander Nowell Dean of Saint Pauls Preaching before Queen Elisabeth spake irreverently of the sign of the Cross for which she from her closet window immediately checked him commanding him to retire from that ungodly digression And page 165. part 2. you tell us that Father Iohn Fox the Martyrologist being called on to subscribe appeared before the Bishop with the New Testament in Greek To this said he I will subscribe and if this will not serve take my Prebend of Salisbury the only preferment I hold in the Church of England and much good may it do you You tell us of Sampson Dean of Christ-Church who was deprived you say pag. 164. part 2. for refusing to wear the Habit belonging to his place You tell us also of one Hardiman page 115. part 2. a Prebend of Westminster deprived also for throwing down the Altar and defacing the vestments And in the same page you say both the Professors of divinity in the two Universites and Whitington Dean of Durham were Non-conformists These instances are your own and so you have no reason to except against them We have not wronged you as far as we know in a syllable and now Sir we leave it to you to judge Whether the point of conformity to such Ceremonies which have been a continual occasion of offence to the Reformed Churches both at home and abroad be still to be pressed with accustomed rigor A second branch of the third Querie was Whether such Ceremonies which link us in a conformity with that Church from which in many other things we have justly separated be to be continued and enjoyned We say that the Church of England having renounced Communion with the Church of Rome in all material points of Doctrine ought in point of
Mr. Doctor In such a state as a flock is in which hath no Shepherd as the ship which hath no Pilot to guide it or the sucking-child which hath no nurse to feed it even in such state are your souls if you have not the Ministery of Gods Word Laborers they must be and not loiterers for Christ compareth the teaching of his people to things that be of great labor as to plowing to planting Therefore if they be Pastors let them feed the flock if they be Doctors consider Sir let them teach the people This is the way to build up the Church of Christ Common-prayer will not do it This is the only instrument wherewith we may cut down and have in the harvest of God For all mans devices acts laws or commandments good Doctor let the Convocation know so much be the authority thereof never so great yet are not sufficient to content one mans conscience why then Mr. Doctor do you talk of obstinacy and willfull humour Aristotle the great wise Philosopher on a time being sick when the Physitian came to him to minister him a potion and shewed him not what was in it began to chafe and take on with him why said he heal not me as thou wouldft heal an Ox or a Horse but shew me what thou givest me Even so must the people be healed of their errors Fides faith Berâ— suadenda est non imponenda faith may not be compulsed by force or rigor but gently brought in by perswasion Saint Paul saith Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God Let us follow him in his next Sermon on Luke 11. 15. He casteth out Devils through Beelzebub c. The Religon of the Jews was the true worship of the only God yet Pliny saith it was Contemptus omnium numinum the despsing of all the gods The Jews suffered no images to be in their Churches because God had forbidden them yet Cornelius Tacitus said they worship their God in the form of an Ass others said they worship a God whom they call Sabaoth in the shape and fashion of an Hogg and therefore that they were forbidden to eat Swines-flesh others that they worship Saturnus because they were com manded to keep holy Saturday The wicked and cruel Haman to bring the people of God into hatred with the King Ahashuerus made his complaint of them in this wise May it please your Majesty saith he to understand you have a people here in your Realm that useth a new kind of Religion and will not be ordered by your Graces Laws This is Gods holy will that for our exercise whatsoever we say or do be it never so well it shall be ill taken Iulian the Apostate found fault with the simplicity and rudeness of Gods Word Tertullian saith the Heathens in the time of the Primitive Church were wont to paint out in mockery the God of the Christians with an Asses head and a Book in his hand in token that the Christians professed learning but indeed were Asses rude and ignorant And do not our Adversaries the like this day against all those that profess the Gospel of Jesus Christ O say they who are they that favour this way None but Shoemakers Taylors Weavers Appren tices such as never were in the University but be altogether ignorant and void of Learning Thus you have been born in hand that you might be brought to mistrust the Go spel Saint Paul was counted a pestilent fellow and a mover of sedition Tertullian saith that in his time the Christians were called hostes publici that is enemies and destroyers of all common States And these reports they did not only scatter among the common people but also dropt them into the Magistrates and Princes ears that they might have an ill opinion of Christian Religion and suppress Note Sir the Ministers and Preachers of it So unkind commonly men have been towards the Messengers of Gods Word In these latter times it hath been laid to Preachers and Professors of Christs Gospel that they have been Godless seditious rebells despisers of good orders Such things as would not be believed spoken of a thief or murtherer will soon be believed of him that professeth the name and Gospel of Jesus Christ. Despise not good Brethren despise not to hear Gods Word not a word of the Liturgy as you tender your own souls be diligent to come to Sermons WE might Sir have been much more plentiful in our gatherings out of this holy Bishop there is not a waste line in all his Sermons Some we have not touched upon at all but so much we thought good to present unto you that you may see both the complexion and constitution of the Church of England in the time of Queen Elisabeth You see by the judgement of the best Bishop the rarest Iewel the Church of England ever had who was an eye-witness lived and preach ed and writ in the prime of his age for he was not full fifty years old when he dyed a good part of her reign the Church of England to be full of blindness disorder prophane con tempt of the Word of God yea to have something of Rome remaining in her of necessity to be purged out And truly Sir when we have read over the Sermons of this Reverend Bishop and your History we should rather judge you to be the Pupil of Doctor Harding whom you would be thought to oppose then of Bishop Iewel whom you do seem to reverence Bishop Iewel doth not think he fouls either his tongue or his pen in naming the Gospel of Jesus Christ But how oft in your History do you by way of scorn tell us of the Zuinglian Gospellers as if this were some reproach to them and you had nothing to do with the Gospel which in an hun dred places your Doctor Harding upbraids Bishop Iewel with There are some parcells and odd passages in your History which we shall only mention and refer you to learned Iewel to answer your self out of him page 53. part 1. you say The Zuinglian Churches were in an error in that they deny ed a Real presence and held there was nothing else in the blessed Eucharist but signs and figures and that Ridley whom you encline to affirmed That in the Sacrament are truly and verily the body and blood of Christ made forth effectually by Grace and Spirit Sir Harding saith the very same as you do See Iewels reply to Harding page 235 in the Article of Real presence and there you shall see how Iewel takes him up and you will understand to speak more like a Protestant Doctor and in page 262. of the Defence saith he to Harding You call our doctrine naked and cold for that we say the Sacrament is a figure You will there see how pitifully he baffles Harding Mr. Doctor it was wont to be said sursum corda but now it is deorsum corpora your stickling for a Real presence effectually made forth by Grace and
Spirit doth very well sort with your low postures and cringings to the holy Altar which was a thing unknown to Bishop Iewel You shall find these words in his answer to Mr. Hardings Preface page 5. You say we have overthrown Altars verily Mr. Harding we have overthrown nothing but that which Gods good will note Sir was should be overthrown Christ saith Every plant that my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up An Altar we have such as Christ and his Apostles had the Table of the Lord and stood not at the end of the Quire but in the midst of the people as many wayes it may appear You say also page 140. part 2. That the Zuinglian Gospel lers or the Genevian party why cannot you call them Prote stants did rejoyce at a lamentable accident which happened to Pauls Steeple and there you fall into the praises of that Idolatrous Fabrick and to quit it of the displeasure of heaven you have got a tale by the end of an old Plumber who confessed that woful accident came by his negligence in leaving carelesly a pan of coals in the Steeple when he went to dinner We shall be as careless of examining the truth of this story as your plumber was of his coals and shall only tell what Iewel saith in his Treatise of the Holy Scriptures bound up with the Defence page 30 speaking of Kingdoms and Coun tries which were in times past Heathenish mentions England also and saith he Here in England Pauls Church in ` London was the Temple of Diana Peters Church in Westminster was the Temple of Apollo In ten of your last lines you threaten the world with a Presbyterian History for the carrying on of whose designs since the dayes of Calvin you may say Luther as well they have most miserably you say imbroyled all the States and Kingdoms of these parts of Christendom the Realms and Churches of great Britain more then all the rest Mr. Doctor where was your conscience and modesty when you writ thus Where was your Loyaltie and Obedience to your Dread Soveraign which you profess in your Epistle Dedicatory Will not your bitter spirit be conjured down neither by Royal command nor Soveraign example Sir you know or may know that Bishop Iewel is fain to Apologize for the Church of England to wipe of that slander you have cast upon the Presbyterians page 10. of his Defence They cry out upon us faith he at this present every where that we are all Hereticks and have forsaken the Faith and have with new perswasions and wicked learning utterly dissolved the concord of the Church And again page 15. That we labour and seek to overthrow the state of Monarchies and Kingdoms Nay Sir do not you shake hands with that Varlet Harding pag. 18. Before Luthers time saith he before Calvins time say you all Christian people came together peaceably into one Church in one accord but after c. That which this Reverend Bishop returns to Harding by way of answer to these filthy slanders will very well serve to take out that blot your unhappy and uncharitable pen flings upon the Presbyterians We will not justifie the seats and passions oppression makes a wise man mad of every individuum of that perswasion but having been all this time rather standers by then actors and seriously weighing their rule by which they desire all Church concernments may be regu lated and considering that you as the mouth of the Hierarchy have pleaded nothing but two Acts of Parliament the Members whereof you more then once tell us were led mostly by politique and Popish considerations in what they did for authorizing and confirming all the matters in difference we are bold to say they are got upon the better ground though the wind be against them and their advantages for inward peace though not for outward preferments are so much greater as the Word of God is greater then an Act of Parliament and the authority of God then the authority of men Oh Mr. Doctor when shall the voice and authority of Christ be heard and bear sway in the Church of God Non est Ecclesiae loqui saith Beza sed meritum loquentem audire Good Mr. Doctor consider these words of Beza in his Epistle Dedicatory before his Annotations on the New Testament Hic vero mihi in mentem venit vox illa hominum ut sibi quidem videntur acutissimorum qui non transformandam sed reformandam Ecclesiam arbitrantur Reformationem vocant eorum rituum qui florente ut loguuntur Ecclesiâ obtinuerunt sublatis nonnullis quae temporum injuriae velut rubiginem quandam ills obduxerunt restitutionem Quae nisi à nobis admittatur Ecclesiam transformari penitus suo decore Note Sir privari contendunt Bella certè speciosa oratio sed à satanae spiritu profecta qui tum demum se prodit quum adrem ventum est Tum enim nihil adeò turpe est Quòd si qui objiciat no omnia ab Apostolis vel à Luca fuisse perscripta Quaeso cur ita censent An quia pauca continent Imò verò utinam eâ paucitate contenti fuissent qui se Apostolis jactant successisse Neque enim voluit abrogari Dominus Mosaicos ritus ut alii substituerentur etsi Iudaizâ—re non licuit multo minus Gentilizare oportuit quod si veteribus Episcopis in mentem venisset Christiana religio neque tam citò neque tam turpiter primum Note Sir in Ceremonias vanas Ludicras Liturgias deinde etiam in manifestissimam superstitionem ac tandem in Atheismum degenerasset Mr. Doctor we are sorrie that having travailed over your History we must say of you as Reverend Iewel said of Harding in his Preface to the Reader of his Defence When Scriptures fail then discourse of wit must come in place of your Acts of Parliaments and when wit and discourse will not serve then good plain round railing must serve the turn Then he discourseth and flingeth now at his Lutherans now at his Hugenotes now at Brown now at the Puritans now at Bale now at Illyricus Now at the Calvinists now at the Zuinglian Gospellers Thus he saith Iewel jumpeth and courseth this way and that way as a man roving without a mark or a Ship fleeting without a Rudder Thus he sheweth us a mountain of words without substance and a house full of smoak without fire and imagineth that his little Elder-pipe by discourse of 〈◊〉 will resemble the sound of a double Canon When 〈…〉 we may say of him as the poor man said that shore 〈…〉 Here is a great crie and little wool Bring us but the authority of Scripture that wisdom that is from above to justifie our obedience in these points in difference you shall find us gentle and easie to be intreated But if you resolve to turn us off as you say Weston did Mr. Iohn Philpot and the five other Divines page 30. part 2 It is not saith he the Queens pleasure that we should spend any longer time in these debates and ye are well enough already for you saith he have the Word and we have the sword if you resolve to assault us with this Argument the Lord put on you the bowels of mercy and on us the Armour of patience FINIS You tell us in your Epistle to the Reader what study and diligence you used in the performance of the work p. 10 Note Note Note Note Note Note Note Note Note Note Note Note Note Objection Concio Synod pag. 29. Solution 1 Cor. 14 40. explained Object Dr. Pierce his Concio Synodica pag. 37. Sol. Note If Dr. Pierce be pleased to read the right learned Prelate Iewel he may learn from him we hope he will not take it in scorn to learn less upon tradition and more upon the Word of God Note Note Note See Dugdales History of Pauls Cathedral p. 5. We say also help O King Fully verified in our gracious King Note See Dugdales History of Pauls Cathedral page 3. Note Note Note