Cloyster lined with manifold favours your zeal for the Church cannot want its recompence but sir it is good to remember your latter end you know not but that your conscience may be then awakened and read over this history you have written and pinch you for the Errata's of your zeal and charity against your poor Brethren we are confident that much of that you have laid into the foundation of the Reformation of the Church of England though you and others judge it gold silver pretious stones will be found wood hay and stubble when he appeareth who is like a refiners fire There is one very naughty passage in your book pag. 38. part 1. utterly unbecoming the mouth of a Christian much less a Doctor of Divinity where you are not ashamed to say That because in the twenty fourth Injunction in King Edwards time that upon Holy and Festival dayes it shall be lawful for men to labour in harvest you extend this liberty as well to the Lords day as the Annual Festivals and then you quote an Act of Parliament to authorize this liberty and say that by that Act any man either in harvest or or at any other times in the year when necessity shall so require who will not pretend necessity may labour ride fish or work any kind of work at their pleasure upon the Lords day And you tell us what was done at Court on that day Sir we are confident that the intention of that Act did not reach to allow so gross a prophanation of the Lords day and you that are so versed in Acts of Parliament for they are the only sphere wherein Liturgy and Ceremonies move cannot you find an Act of Parliament restraining this abuse If you cannot which we know you may it had been the duty of a Protestant Reformed Doctor of Divinity to have discovered the evil of such abuses and to have laboured with all your might that such an Act may pass Oh Sir must Jesus Christ our Lord have no preheminence above our Lady and must Iohn Baptist be lifted up to an equality with him whose shoe-latchet he confessed he was not worthy to unloose What! have Peter and Paul and Philip and Iacob done as much for us as Jesus Christ and where is the least hint that one hour is to be set apart to their honour Must every paltry holy-day be set in equality of reputation with the Lords day which Christ sanctified by his resurrection the accomplishment of a far greater work then that of Creation and his Apostles instituted by their constant solemn Assemblies upon it You say in page 38. part 1. in the latter times the Lords day began to be advanced into the reputation of the Jewish Sabbath If by latter times you mean the Apostles times it is true for then it began and when ever it began why should not Christians be as zealous to advance the Lords day unto the highest pitch of reputation that ever the Jewish Sabbath was in abateing the Ceremonious rigor have not Christians greater obligations greater encouragements to glorifie God and lift up his name which is Holy Holy Holy Oh Mr. Doctor the time past may suffice you for this folly You need not have now told us that men may do any thing at their pleasure if they say they have necessity on the Lords day and seek to establish this mischief by a Law We would be loth to be in your coat in the day of the Lord for your debasing the Lords day for the best preferment the Church of England can give us We say to you as Bishop Iewel said to Harding Arripe severitatem Christianam palinodiam cane Well Sir to go on with our reckoning you have seen one Non-conformist and Ridley's recantation for his Prelatical rigor which amounts to another and so he is to be taken off the file and you have two less then you had We shall pass on with more speed in the numbring up the rest You tell us page 93. part 1. of one Trins a Deacon who refused to wear the vestments appointed to be worn Of one Mr. Iohn Rogers Prebend of Saint Pauls and Divinity Reader of that Church who could never be perswaded to wear them The like aversness as you call it you ascribe unto Mr. Iohn Philpot Archdeacon of Winchester who suffered in Queen Maries time So that here you have Hooper Ridley when in his cold blood Trins Rogers and Philpot all disgusting these Ceremonies Many more there were but these you have left upon record with your own pen. To proceed to the times of Queen Elisabeth you have heard Iewels testimony in part who was the glory of her Reign for learning and you will see it more fully by and by You tell us page 120. part 2. that one Whitehead who had been Chaplain to Anne Bollen the Queens mother was offered the Archbishoprick of Canterbury but you say he refused it because he was more inclined to the Presbyterians then the Episcopal form of Government And page 123. part 2. you say Coverdall waved the acceptation of the Bishoprick of Oxon or any other then vacant out of a disaffection to the Habit of that Order And page 124. part 2. you say Alexander Nowell Dean of Saint Pauls Preaching before Queen Elisabeth spake irreverently of the sign of the Cross for which she from her closet window immediately checked him commanding him to retire from that ungodly digression And page 165. part 2. you tell us that Father Iohn Fox the Martyrologist being called on to subscribe appeared before the Bishop with the New Testament in Greek To this said he I will subscribe and if this will not serve take my Prebend of Salisbury the only preferment I hold in the Church of England and much good may it do you You tell us of Sampson Dean of Christ-Church who was deprived you say pag. 164. part 2. for refusing to wear the Habit belonging to his place You tell us also of one Hardiman page 115. part 2. a Prebend of Westminster deprived also for throwing down the Altar and defacing the vestments And in the same page you say both the Professors of divinity in the two Universites and Whitington Dean of Durham were Non-conformists These instances are your own and so you have no reason to except against them We have not wronged you as far as we know in a syllable and now Sir we leave it to you to judge Whether the point of conformity to such Ceremonies which have been a continual occasion of offence to the Reformed Churches both at home and abroad be still to be pressed with accustomed rigor A second branch of the third Querie was Whether such Ceremonies which link us in a conformity with that Church from which in many other things we have justly separated be to be continued and enjoyned We say that the Church of England having renounced Communion with the Church of Rome in all material points of Doctrine ought in point of
Prudence and Conscience to reject conformity with her in Worship and Discipline for the same reason which moved us to depart from her doctrinal corruptions binds us to leave her to her self in the superstitions of her worship and discipline The reason why we reject Communion with the Church of Rome is for that the Popes Supremacy Infallibility Transubstantiation Merit of good works Invocation of Saints Purgatorie Latine Service Worshipping of Images half Communion and such like which are the Pillars of the Romish Fabrick cannot be proved and made good out of the Word of God And is not this reason of like force against the Ceremonies of that Church yet in use among us Is there a scriptum est for one of them without which authority the Devil the father of lies pretends not to be believed and adored Though Doctor Pierce in his Synod concio p. 44. be pleased to lay the maintenance of the Ministry Infant Baptism the Sanctification of the Sabbath yea the Personalities of the Godhead in an even levell of authority with the Orders of the Church about Liturgy and Ceremonies as if the one as well as the other must depend on his Traditionis fulcimentum his shore of Tradition and would all otherwise fall to the ground Yet we can by no means give way to this Traditional unscriptural assertion if he will please to produce but one Text of Scripture as fairly concluding for Service-Book and Ceremonies as have been and can be produced in great numbers for those four things we will never put him to the trouble of a hard word more and we shall be as ambitious to advance the reputation of the Ceremonies as well as of the Sabbath You may possibly say these Ceremonies are small matters far from the foundation and if men had not more of humour and will in them then reason or conscience they might down with them well onough We might reply that any action especially conversant about the worship of God not undertaken in faith is sin and faith hath no ground to stand upon but Divine Authority But we refer you to Bishop Iewel in the 11. page of a Sermon of his preached upon this Text Ioshua 6. Now Iericho was shut up c. which is bound up in the same Book of his defence in the end of it Ioshua saith that learned Bishop suffered nothing to stand he burnt all together he left nothing remaining were it never so little In Religion no part is to be called little a hair is but little yet it hath a shadow in the body a little disquiet is often-times cause of death The Ciniphes are but little yet are they reckoned among the great plagues of God Paul saith a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump I speak not this because I think nothing at all may be left to any special purpose For even in Iericho where was made a general destruction God himself commanded that all silver and gold and vessels of brass and iron should be saved and brought into the Lords Treasury Howbeit the things that may be reserved must not be dust or chaff or hay or stubble but gold and silver and iron I mean they may not be things meet to furnish do you see Doctor and maintain superstition And if you will know what he accounts superstition he tells you in his Reply unto Hardings Answer page 310. in the ninth Article of the Canopie Moses saith he was commanded to make the Tabernacle neither durst Moses or his work-men add or diminish to do any thing more or less otherwise then God had appointed him Solomon built the Temple but he followed not therein any part of his own fancy but only that self-same plat and proportion that God had given to his father for so saith David I Chron. 28. Here mark good Christian Reader saith he in these examples God hath bridled our devotion and hath taught us to worship him not in such sort as may seem good in our eyes but only as he hath commanded us Yet Mr. Harding by his cunning would make use of these examples to prove that we may honour God in such sort as we of our selves can best devise This was saith this learned Bishop evermore the very root of all superstition Therefore Mr. Doctor I wish you would learn of that antient worthy Father Chrysostom as Iewel quotes him page 280. in his Defense Discamus Christum ex ipsius voluntate honorare Nam qui honoratur eo maxime honore laetatur quem ipse vult non quem nos optamus And because you see Chrysostom cited give us leave to pass an observation upon one passage you let fall in page 123 part 2. you are there admiring the beauty of the face of the Church of England and this is one part of her comeliness that the Priests as you call them executed not any divine Office but in their Surplice a vestment set apart for Religious Services you say in the Primitive times as may be gathered you say from Chrysostom for the Eastern Churches and from Saint Hierom for the Western But Sir what if this vestment come not from the Primitive times but from the usages of the Heathen Then either Chrysostom and Hierom were mistaken in saying so or you have abused their names in fathering an heathenish vanity on them and the Primitive times Pray you hear the Right Learned Iewel page 281. of his Defense Neither saith he to Harding may ye justly and truly say take heed of lying Doctor you have received none of your orders and usages from the Heathen Nicolaus Leonicenus saith Isidis sacerdotes in Aegypto utebantur lines vestibus semper erant detonso capillo quod etiam per manus traditum ad nostra usque tempora pervenisse videtur siquidem ii qui apud nos divino cultui sacris Altaribus praesident barbam comamque nutrire prohibentur in sacris utuntur lineis amictibus The Priests of the goddess Isis in Aegypt used to wear linnen Surplices rub your eyes Doctor and evermore had their head shaven which thing seemeth to have been derived from them unto our time from hand to hand for they that among us minister Gods service and serve the holy Altars are forbidden to suffer the hair of their head or beard to grow and in their divine Service they use linnen garments And Sir to draw to a conclusion in this argument we say it is unlawful for the Church of England to retain either in Doctrine Worship or Discipline any Conformity to the Church of Rome And because we know this will hardly go down with you by any reasons we can lay before you We shall commend it to you under the credit of your Right Learned Prelate Iewel please you to peruse page 325 326. of his Defence The learned and godly men at whose persons it pleaseth you so rudely to scoff saith Jewel to Harding Mr. Doctor Harding used to scoff at Calvin and Zuinglius and to upbraid Jewel
greater disorder can be in the Church of God then when Antichrist shall come and sit in the place of God I know many are offended to hear the Pope pointed out for Antichrist and think it an uncharitable point of doctrine therefore I refrain to use any such names and only will report to you of others by what tokens Antichrist may be known when he cometh Gregory as it were in the Spirit of Prophesie writing against Iohn Bishop of Constantinople saith Rex superbiae prope est quod dicinefas est sacerdotum est praeparatus exercitus The king of pride is at hand and which is unlawful to be said an army of Priests is prepared by these tokens saith Gregory you may know him he shall be the Prince of pride and he shall have an army of Priests to wait upon him In another place he saith Quisquis se universalem sacerdotem vocat vel vocari desiderat in Elatione suâ Antichristum praecurrit Whosoever calleth himself the Universal Priest or desireth so to be called in the pride of his heart is the fore-runner of Antichrist When the woman of Samaria saw the Miracles that Christ had done and heard some men doubt whether he were the Messias or no Why quoth she when Messias shall come shall he do more signs then this man hath shewed So may we say by the Bishop of Rome when Antichrist shall come shall he work more signs then they of that See have done Shall he work more disorder in the Church Shall he do more to the dishonor of God and against Christ We desire you would at your leisure read page 480 481. of his Defence and page 365. where and in many other places you will find this Right Learned Prelate not so shie as in this Sermon to pronounce the Pope Antichrist And we put this Reverend Bishop in the scales with Gr. Williams Bishop of Ossorie and leave it to you to judge who weigheth heaviest in in this point If one be as you call him Right learned then the other must be Wrong Let us go on Sir with this Sermon page 8. Here saith he must I touch the causes that withhold men from the building of Gods Temple The first seemed to be despair of the cause for they saw it was a long travel from Babylon to Ierusalem Others charged them with sedition and said if these men may once recover their City they will pay no more tribute Look in your Chronicles and you shall find that the Jews have ever been traitors Even so when the man of God Luther was raised up by God to reforme the Church a friend of his said unto him O Father Luther you shall never be able to prevail the Pope and Princes and all the world are against you the matter is past recovery go into your study and say Deus misereatur nostri Even now that it hath pleased God to restore his Gospel they that are of the contrary part of which side are you Doctor cry out these men be rebels they would have no Magistrate they would have all things in common behold what they have done in Helvetia behold what they have done in Germany look out your Chronicles you shall find that all the uproars and seditions which have been these forty years have been stirred up by some one of them But all this discouraged not the good Prince Zorobabel some confess many things are out of frame but they say it is no time to fall a building we must look for a general Council Some others say it is not yet time the Bishops be they should redress the Church would to God they would for they should be lux mundi the light of the world they should be Shepherds and Watchmen they should be builders of Gods Church but what if the light become darkness What if the Shepherds become Wolves What if the Watch men lie asleep What if the builders become overthrowers Ieremy saith the Pastors have overthrown the Vineyard and is it likely they will reare it up again I pray God lighten their hearts with his holy Spirit and make them to be that they profess themselves to be the light of the world and true labourers in Gods Vineyard and faithful builders of his house Amen In the mean season let us remember that in the old Law whensoever the Bishop grew out of order God raised up sometimes Prophets sometimes Princes to reform the Church For the Prince is Keeper of the Law of God and that of both Tables as well of the first that pertaineth to Religion as of the second that pertaineth to good order By that authority Moses rebuked Aaron the Bishop Ioas redressed the riot of the Priests Salomon put down high Bishop Abiathar and set up Sadoc After the coming of Christ Constantine a godly Emperor threatned the Bishops if they would not be ruled he would take upon him to see them punished as having indeed authority and power over Bishops Other impediments there be that keep men from building of Gods house but that which God complaineth of by the Prophet is that every man fell to build his own house and left the house of God unbuilded Oh that Aggeus the Prophet were now alive and saw the rearing up of Gods Temple here in England he doth not mean the repairing of Pauls Church but teaching and feeding Gods people what think you he would say You build your own houses and leave the house of God forsaken nay he would say you build your own mansions and pull down the house of God The Masters of the work build Benefice upon Benefice and Deanry upon Deanry as though Rome note Sir were yet in England The poor flock is given over to a Wolfe the poor children cry out for bread the bread of life and there is no man to break it to them The Noble man or Gentleman the Patrons of Benefices give presentations of Benefices either to be Farmers themselves or else with exception of their own tenths or with some other condition that is worse then this The poor Minister must keep his house buy him books relieve the poor and live God knoweth how and so do you too O good my Lords and Brethren I come not hither to be a patron for money matters God seeth my heart before whom I speak it but I see Gods Temple by this means is forsaken There lack Ministers throughout the Realm to teach the people here is not a word Sir of the Liturgy and to build up the walls of Gods Church one poor hireling is driven to serve two or three Parishes If there be none to be found nor hope of any to be hereafter be you well assured good Doctor consider this that Acts of Parliament and Proclamations are not enough to content the conscience of the people and to build up the Temple Oh that the Queens Majesty knew the great scarcity and miserable need of Ministers that is abroad And I beseech you good my Lords and