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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A06135	A sermon preached at Torceter in the countie of Northampton the 8. of Iune, Anno Dom. 1588. at the visitation of the right reuerend Father in God, the Bishop of Peeterborow, by Iohn Beatniffe preacher of the woord of God in Brackley.	Beatniffe, John.	1590 (1590)	STC 1662; ESTC S116644	12,021	38

A SERMON PREAched at Torceter in the Countie of Northampton the 8. of Iune Anno Dom. 1588. at the visitation of the right reuerend Father in God the Bishop of Peeterborow BY IOHN BEATNIFFE Preacher of the woord of God in Brackley 2. Cor. 22.28 Beside the thinges which are outward I am cumbred daily and I haue a care ouer all the Churches LONDON Printed by Iohn Charlewood for Roger VVard 1590. To the most reuerend Father in God my Lords grace Archbishop of Cāterbury Sir Christopher Hatton knight Lord high Chauncellor of England Sir William Scicil Knight Lord Burleigh Lord high Treasurer of England Sir Christopher Wray Knight Lord chiefe Iustice of England and to al other which sincerely fauour the word of God Grace and Peace be multiplied in Iesus Christ AMongest the manifold calamities and griefes of hart that fall vppon the Church in this old age of the world right Honorable and welbeloued in the Lord this is not the least that the peace of the Church is daily broken in peeces and that by such as chalenge to themselues the name of the Churche which crie as did the Iewes Ier. 7 4. The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord but I feare me be as Christ sayeth The congregation of Sathan for they dispise Rulers Reue. 2.9 Iude. 5.8 2. Tim. 1.4 and speake euill of such as be in aucthority They delight in questions and endles genealogies which gender strife rather then Godly edyfying which is in Faith These men as they trouble the publique State of the Church with Schismes so doe they also disquiete the consciences of many good Soules by making doubts and ambiguities in matters that be most plaine and easie They draw so many as they can frō obedience of the Godly Magistrate denouncing all those to be execrable cursed and abhominable which bee not of their faction yea they be growen to such grosnesse which they call Puritie that as they say they dare not defile their cleane vndefiled and regenerat Soules by ioyning in Praier with such as hold of the reformed state of this Realme So by this means they deface so much as in them is our Church our Ministery our Orders and Praiers in the Church That which they say is good that order which they obserue is godly howsoeuer it bee they dislike all others but themselues and their followers But what is this truly euen the verie practise of the false apostles in the time of Paul for they to maintaine gentilisme among the people defaced Paul and made them beleeue that hee was not the apostle of Christ euen so these men by the instigation of Satan to ouerthrow our Church and the godly gouernment thereof disgrace Paul and deface our Preachers and al to wound weake consciences and to make cōmendable themselues their new-fangled deuises This their sinister dealing hath done yea and doth at this day much harm in the church for besides the thinges forenamed it hindereth many good and godly men from dooing that good which they would I considering with my self of the disposition of these men of their manners and marke which they shoot at being by aucthority called to preach at a visitation of the right reuerende Father in God the Bishop of Peeterborrow did there as the time then serued my office the nature of my Text required resolutely defende that which they so greatly dislike that is our church and Ministerie the order of our excommunication and our praiers Since which time I haue bin often greatly vrged by dyuers good men many of my welwillers to make it publique for the benefite of the whole Church Seeing their request to be reasonable and that my office bindeth me not onely exhortari per sanam doctrinam Titus 1. verse 9. but also cotradicere maledicentibus I have satisfied their honest request and suffered it to bee published Most humblie crauing that your Honors and all others which fauor the Gospell and this our godly gouerment under our most gratious Soueraign to patronize and defende the same so shall I and others be the more encouraged to execute our offices in the Church The Lord who is the onely giuer of aucthoritie protect and defende your Honours to the glorie of his name and the benefite of this common wealth Most desirous of your Honours prosperitie Io. Beatniffe THE TEXT 1. Peter Cap 5.2 Feede yee the Flocke of God The holie Ghost by the Apostle S. Peter in these words read unto you welbeloued in the Lord doth set down a commaundement to all Pastours Ministers to all those which have cure and charge of soules committed unto them diligently and faithfully to feede the flocke of God In saying feede the flocke metaphorically hee exhorteth his fellowe labourers unto whome he speaketh to teach the Church and people of God with sounde and wholesome doctrine now whereas the holy Ghost useth so many figures in so few wordes hee sheweth what manner of man he would have ouer his flocke what manner of men hee would have to teach his Church that is to say such as be well acquainted with his speeches such as be learned in the tongues and thereby be able not only to exhort with wholsome doctrine but also to couince and stop the mouthes of aduersaries and with facilitie find out the wrettings and false enterpretations of subtil enemies which doctrine of the holy ghost doth impugne is fully against all those whatsoever they bee What countenance soeuer they carie which would perswade or beare the worlde in hand that they be able soundly to teach and utterly to conuince all erroninous doctrine Anabaptisticall factions and Papisticall opinions and that without art but what do these men Verily nothing but euen tread under their feete the excellent gifte of God I mean learning which is the ordinary meane which God in his wisedom hath appointed to true preaching They set themselues unto idlenes and so through their want of skill being set forward through a blind zeale they breede iarres in GODS Church and thereby greeue the Spirite of God by whome the Children of God are sealed vnto the day of redemption Feede I. Metaphorically teach out of the which word of the Apostle there be foure thinges to be considered First the care that God hath ouer his Church Second who they must be that muste feede Third with what they must féed Foure what they must féede Where the holy Ghost by his Apostle sayth féede I gather that he pretendeth a care ouer his Church which appeareth heerein that he doth not onelie prepare food but also giueth commandement that it may be destributed in due and equall manner procureth meanes from time to time as I may say by succession which will faithfully doe and accomplish theyr Masters message This is moste apparant for when God had chosen his Church the seede of Abraham the chosen Israell he did not onely giue them a Lawe as a Rule to leade them by and

will take you one of a Cittie and two of a Tribe and will bring you to Sion and I will giue you Pastors according to mine owne hart which shall feede you with knowledge vnderstanding Marke here he saith he will choose them one of a Cittie and two of a Tribe and hée will bring them into Sion that is into his Church hee will giue them pastors after his owne hart these be lawful I trow for he chooseth none but those that bee meete you may knowe them for they feede with knowledge and vnderstanding Whether wee do thus in the church of England or no iudge yee Touching the second that wee want discipline therefore we are no church I deny the argument but they say wee haue not the discipline of the primatiue Church therefore no church It is a non sequitur for although we haue not the discipline of the primatiue Church yet wee haue discipline and therefore they slaunder vs. But alasse these men that say so they knowe not what they say for discipline is no essentiall part of the church men and women be the Church not discipline so that discipline is a wall about a citie or a hedge aboute a vineyard wherof though a peece sometime be broken downe yet a citie yet a vineyard I graunt discipline to be as necessary in the church to kéepe the people within the railes of Moses law as a wall about a cittie to defende the citizens from the force of their enemie and for my part I know none that denieth it but onely those that make the most to doo about it wee haue so much that they them selues complayne crye out of it I maruell what they would do if we had that which they themselues séeke for I cannot tel what they would haue wee fynd fault with the sinnes of the people wee excommunicate notorious offendors if you aske by what authority I answere euen as Paul did 1. Tim. 1.20 so do we Hymeneus and Alexander haue made shipwracke of faith quos ego tradidi Satanae vt discant non blasphemare whom I saith he haue deliuered to Sathan that they might learne not to blaspheme It is the iudgement of the best learned that euer I read of Act. 5. that Peeter did excommunicate Ananias and Saphira after the which they yéelded vp the ghost I would here for my learning very gladly know who did helpe Paul or Peter to excōmunicat because these slaunderers of our Church do say it is not lawful for any man to excommunicate If it had not bin lawfull surely Paul would not haue done it neither yet Peter Tertulian sayth that excommunication Tertul. in Apolog. or seperation from the Church was in his time which was thirteeene hundreth yeares agone in the handes of the Bishops and of the Priestes Origen commaundeth him that hath bene thrise admonished Orig. hom 7. an Ios and will not repent to be cut of from the body of the church per ecclesiae presides or by the rulers of the church wher also he declareth what these rulers are for sayth he the priests sparing one that had offended and neglecting their priestly authority did goe about the distructiō of the whole church so that Origen thought it was a decay to the Church that excommunication should goe out of the handes of the Priestes Euseb lib. 6. cap. 34. Eusebius sheweth that Fabian did excommunicate Philip the Emperour Ambrose did excommunicate Theodosius the Emperour Trip. histo lib. 9. cap. 30. for that slaughter which was done in Thessalonica anno Dom. 391. is at this day greatly commended therefore of the learned godly These examples prooue the lawfulnes of our excommunication which is practised vppon such like occasions and is also executed by such kind of meanes and therfore not to be found fault withall neither yet that our church should be slaundered either for the want of it either yet for the practise of that which wee haue Touching the third wheras they say wée haue no lawful prayers in our Churche and therefore no Church that is a most abhominable slaunder not to bee tollerated Of these kinde of people that say so there be two sortes the one be the Papistes and they come in with their old lying antiquityes and say that the seruice in the church of England is nothing lyke to the vse of the primitiue Church for it hath no set order of prayers saue a little imitation of the old Mattins and Euensong and that in Schisme and heresie and therefore not onely vnprofitable but also damnable The other sort they say that there be no praiers at al in the church of Englande they say so in effecte for they say we do all read praiers already made to our hands which by their sayings are no prayers neither yet do edifie at all for say they reading is but bare féeding yea and as all as playing vpon a stage and worse too But to these I answere as I did before they slander the church for wée pray truly as God hath commaunded in his word and as our Sauiour Christ hath taught vs we pray to God the Father and to none but to him onely Wee come to him in the name of his sonne Iesus Christ and in his name onely and therefore I conclude that we pray truely Thus haue I as God hath mooued me and at this time hath affoorded vnto me declared vnto you the sence and meaning of this holy Scripture The Lord graunt that it may worke that which I looke for that is the aduancement of Gods glory a zeale and care of Gods ministers ouer the flocke of God committed vnto them The florishing estate of the Gospel of Iesus Christ and the vnitie peace and quietnes of the church that antichristianity and factiōs being defaced we may with one hart and one voice glorifie God the Father in this world and in the world to come raigne with him eternally by the meanes of his Sonne Iesus Christ to whom with the Father and the holy Ghost be al praise glory dominion and power both now and for euer world without end Amen