aboue the Apostles which would not be taken for Lords that had authoritie to command but for Ministers serving the will of the Lord. And a non after he sayth Thirdly that Elders Bishops and Pastors be all one it is manifest by that which we doe read in this wise And sending messengers from Miletus to Ephesus Acts 20 he sent for Priests or Elders of the Church and when they came unto him he sayd you know that from the first day c. And a litle after Looke therfore to your selues and to all the flocke in which the holy spirit hath set you Bishops to feed the Church of God c. The same which Luk calleth the Priests or Elders of the Church of Ephesus those Paul calleth Bishops and sayth that they be set there to that intent to feed the Church of God So we do see manifestly that Priests or Elders Bishops Pastors be all one And that there was in one selfe same Church ioyntly together many Bishops and that appoynted by the holy spirit as we may see also by that which we do read in the Apostle saying Paul and Timothie the servants of Iesus Christ to all the Saints in Christ Iesu which be at Philippos together with the Bishops and Deacons Lo there were many Bishops togeather also at Philippos And touching the questions in Baptisme thus he intreateth thereof Augustine saith If we will in wordes declare that the litle children doe know in godly matters which do not yet understand worldly matters I feare least we shall seeme to doe wrong unto our very senses in so saying whereas the playne evidence of the truth doth easily surmont all that strength and meanes of our sayings I know what Augustins answer was unto this question to Boniface the Bishop Aug. epis 57 ad Dardan where he writteth in this wise It is answered that the Child doth beleiue which hath not yet any affection of faith It is answered that it hath faith because of the Sacrament of faith Thus saith he he calleth baptisme the Sacrament of faith But in case that the Sacrament of faith be faith how is it said that the infant hath faith which hath not yet baptisme and is therefore demanded whether that he doth beleiue to the intent that he may receaue baptisme Agayne the question is not whether he hath the sacrament of faith or not but whether he doth beleiue The question is of faith and not of the Sacrament of faith yet for all that it cannot be truly reported that he hath faith therefore And so it is a very feeble answer that this great man maketh in this matter for asmuch as the infant when he is thus demanded hath neither faith neyther the sacrament of faith For how should he haue that which he hath not receaved But yet thus they are compelled to answer the matter which will needs maintayne and keepe this custome used in the Church without any ground of it And this beyng so fond a custome that it cannot be defended risen first of this that the Bishops did disorderly apply that forme of baptising of such as were of perfect yeares of understanding unto the baptising also of infans and so began to demand of infants of the abrenouncing of Satan and of the faith in the holy Trinitie as well as they did of them that were of yeares of full age In my iudgment it were more convenient if the Father of the infant that is to be baptised were present at the font to require baptisme for his child and that he should be openly examined of his faith by the Minister in the presence of them that stand by of the faith not which the infant hath but which he himselfe hath in Christ our Lord and Saviour and whereunto he will bring up and teach his infant Unto M. Musculus succeeded M. Gualter who upon the Prophet Zephaniah that prophesied onely in the time of King Iosiah which was the cheifest reformer of religiō that ever raigned among the Iewes Gualter yet notwithstanding this Prophet sent of God was such a vehement taxer of the defects in the reformation of religion remnants of Baall and relicks of superstition left in Iosiah his time that non of all the Prophets did more exclame against the reliques that were left or threatned greater plagues for lack of full reformation Whereupon M. Gualter in his first sermon upon the Prophet Zephaniah useth this spech in the name of the Lord. My servant Iosiah removed away many thinges But because through your ungodlines many thinges yet remaine being contrary to my lawes Gualt upon Zepha ser 1 verily I my selfe will bring forth Broomes much more rough where with these abominable relickes with their Patrons or defendors shal be cleane purged c. And in his second sermon a litle before the end he thus concludeth But let us consider the degrees of superstition which the Prophet in this place maketh mention of The first is when the remnant of superstitions is kept when God granteth libertie to reforme things craftie dissemblers do attend uprn these superstitions whereunto they beare good will and by litle and litle spread them a broad by and by after followeth open Idolatry but least they should seeme to forsake God altrgother first theris invented a certaine mixture but the same at the length degenerateth to a playne defection or falling from God and these things certainely even at this day are seene every where Behold England and do we as yet marveil at the wrath of God hanging over our heads Let us learne therefore to attend and waigte upon the word of God to flie all occasion of evill O that our Prelats of England would attend wait upon the word of God and so flie all occasion of evill cōsidering the degrees of superstition how they increased even in King Iosiahs time namly by retayning the relicks of superstition and not to invent a certaine mixture wherby must needs follow a degeneration to a playne defection and falling from God For every country man can tell that if a crab tree be graft with the sweet apple called the apple of paradice or with the most excellent apple that is in the world although the graft doe grow and flourish marvelously well yet if the sients be suffered to grow by litle and litle within a while the crabb tree sients will so prevaile and the graft of the good fruit so decay that the whole tree will turne againe to be a crabb tree and beare no fruit but crabbes So in King Henrie 8 time the Popes supreame head was cut of and the graft of Gods word was set up in every Church through out England which graft as Iames saith is able to saue our soules if it be receaved with all meeknes and all filthines layd a part Iames. 1. But King Henrie 8 suffered almost all the boughes upon the stocke beneath the graft to grow King Edward pared of many of them Queene
to the institution of Christ and his Apostles If he haue bread wine a table and a faire table cloth let him not be solicitous nor carefull for the rest seeing they be not thinges brought in by Christ but by Popes unto whom if the Kings Maiestie and honorable Counsell haue good conscience they must be restored agayne And great shame it is for a Noble King Emperour or Magistrat contrary to Gods word to detaine and keepe from the Divell or his minster any of their goods or treasure As the Candles vestiments crosses Altars for if they be kept in the Church as thinges indifferent at length they wil be mainteyned as things necessary If a Preacher now I will not say before a King but before a Lord Bishop should so plainely affirme that vestiments surplices and crossing are of the Divell he should be sure himselfe with his wife children not only to be turned out of doores like dogs but also from preaching of the Gospell of Christ As many excellent Preachers haue been of late yeares though many hundred dumme dogges haue and doe keepe their place within this Realme of England And of the Ceremony of kneeling at the Communion he saith ib. post The outward behaviour and gesture of the receiver should want all kind of Superstition shew or inclination of Idolatrie Wherefore seeing kneeling is a shew and external signe of the honoring worshiping and heretofore hath grevous and damnable Idolatrie ben committed by the honoring of the Sacraments I could wish it were commanded by the Magistrates that the communicators receavers should do it standing or sitting but sitting in my opinion were best And afterward he proveth the same by the example of Christ who together with his Apostles receaved it sitting And agayne in his third Sermon before the King Sermon 3 he saith Yet doe I much marvail that in the same booke it is appoynted that he that will be admitted to the ministerie of Gods word or his Sacrments must com in white vestimēts which seemeth to repugne plainely with the former doctrine that confessed the onely word of God to be sufficient And certainely I am sure they haue not in the word of God that thus a Minister should be apparelled nor yet in the Primitiue best Church And in his first Sermon upon Ionas Sermon 1 he saith This is the note and marke to know the Bishops and Ministers of God from the Ministers of the Divel by the preaching tongue of the Gospell and not by the shining clipping vestiments and outward apparell And in his Epistle to the Kings Majestie Epistle to King Edw. he saith And a thowsand times the rather shall your Maiestie restore agayne the true ministerie of the Church in case ye remoue and take away all the monuments tokens and leavings of papistrie For as long as any of them remaine there remaineth also occasion of relapse unto the abolished superstition of Antichrist And to the poynt matter of Excommunication in his Apologie against them that accused him to be a mainteiner of such as cursed Q. Mary which Apologie was set forth and allowed according to the order appoynted in Queene Elizabeths Injūctions 1562. If they knew Gods lawes saith M. Hooper as they doe not indeed they should see and finde that no ordinary excommunication should be used by the Bishop alone but by the Bishop and all the whole parish c. Also when the incestious man was excommunicated S. Paul alone did not excommunicat him but Saint Paules consent and the whole Church with him A declara of the 8 com And to the Lordships of Bishops upon the eight commandement these be his words They know that the Primitiue Church had no such Bishops as be now a dayes as examples testifie untill the time of Silvester the first A litle and a litle riches crept so into the Church that men sought more her then the wealth of the people And so increased within few yeares that Bishops were made Prinees and Princes were made servants So that they haue set them up with their almes and liberalitie in so high honor that they cannot pluck them down agayne with all the force they haue what blindnes is there be fall in the world that cannot see this palpallie that our Mother the holy Church had at the beginning such Bishops as did preach many godly sermons in less time then our Bishops horses be a brideling c The Magistrats that suffer the abuse of these goods be culpable of the fault And anō after he saith They should be reasonably provided for and the rest and over plus taken from them and put to some other godly use Looke upon the Apostles cheifly and upon all their successors for the space of 400. yeares And then thou shalt see good Bishops and such as diligently applyed that painfull office of a Bishop to the glory of God and honor of the Realmes they dwelt in Though they had not so much upon their heads as our Bishops haue yet had they more within their heads as the Scriptures and histories testifie for they applyed all the wit they had unto the vocation and ministery of the Church wherunto they were called Our Bishops haue so much wit that they can rule and serue as they say in both states viz. In the Church and also in the civill pollicie when one of them is more then one is able to satisfie let him doe alwayes his best diligence If he be so necessary for the Court that in civill causes amd giving of good counsell he cannot be spared Pope and all the Popish apparell before his death And first in his letter to M. Grindall he saith We Pastors many of us were to cold and bare to much alas with the wicked world Ridley Acts Mo pag 1902. edit 1570. our Magistrats did abuse to their owne worldly gayne both Gods Gospell and the Ministers of the same And anon after hc sheweth how earnestly he maketh his prayer for them that were banished for the word of God for all those Churches which haue forsaken the kingdome of Antichrist professed openly the puritie of the Gospell of Iesus Christ Where marke that he prayeth for them that professe not onely the Gospell but even the puritie of the Gospell In his Epistle to M. Hooper himselfe Epistle Rid. to Hooper he acknowledgeth his former fault with these wordes Howsoever in times past in smaler matters and circumstances of religion your wisedome and my simplicitie I confesse haue in some things varied c. Now I say c. I loue you and the truth for the truth sake which abideth in us But most plainely he acknowledgeth his fault when it pleased God to draw him neerer unto himself by scourging him with the same whippe wherewith he had whipped his fellow Elder M. Hooper Act. Mon pag 1677 edit 1570 as he himselfe calleth him in his Epistle For when M. Ridley was commanded to
Non a minoritis sed a maioritis incipiendum est For where the Counsell pretēded to make a reformatiō in the Church one stood up and sayd the reformation must begin at the Fryer Minorits that is at the litle ones no sayd the Emperour not at the litle on s but at the great ones meanyng that they ought to begin not at the beggerly Fryer Minors but at the pompous and proud Prelats and Popes And Ieremiah the Prophet speaking of the beggerly sort and great men saith Ierem. 5.45 Therefore I sayd surely they are poore they are foolish for they know not the way of the Lord nor the iudgment of their God I will get me unto the great men and will speake vnto them for they haue knowne the way of the Lord and the iudgdment of their God but these haue altogether broken the yoke and burst the bonds And in the 23 chapter he sayth speaking of the Prophets which were the cheifest and in highest degree of all Ecclesiasticall persons in that time Chro. 23 15 Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts concerning the Prophets behold I will feed them with wormwood and make them drinke the water of gall for from the Prophets of Ierusalem is wickednes gon forth into all the land Now let us heare what M. Bucer saith touching the great livings of the Lord Bishops and the poore estat of the parish Ministers First to the Lord Bishops he saith in his second booke of the kingdom of Christ Agnoscant igitur tādem gravissimam suam culpam Episcopi quod ecclesias tam diu iam tamque horrende non tam neglexerunt quam vastaverunt Let the Bishops at the last acknowledg their most grevous fault that now so long time they haue not onely neglected but violently robbed the Churches And in the 13 chapter he toucheth againe the restoring unto the poore Parishes that which the Bishops by injurie and rob berie had taken from them Si vero parochiis non sit tam multum reliquum vt inde prospici queat fidelibus earum ministris tum certe vti et supra diximus ab Episcopis et ditioribus sacerdotiis petendum erit unde et his despoliatis parochiis consulatur Hic communio sanctorum exercenda erit vt egentibus ecclesiis succurratur ab iis quae abundant If there be not saith M. Bucer so much left unto the Parishes as therof there may be made a sufficient provision for their faithfull Ministers then certainly as we haue sayd before there must be taken from the Bishops and richer benefices where with these parishes that haue been so spoyled may be sufficiētly provided for For heerein the Communion of Saints ought to be exercised that the Churches which stand in need may be helped by them that doe abound And a non after he sayth Valeat itaque Domini lex dignus est opera rius cibo suo et mercede Item duplici honore digni sunt presbyteri qui bene praesunt ecclesiis maxime qui laborant in verbo et doctrina Debent autem hi et suo docere exemplo reliquos Christianos ut cum eis datur quibus alantar et tegantur his sint contenti valeat et lex spiritus sancti vestra abundātia sublevet illorum inopiam et illorum abundantia sublevet vestram inopiam quo sit inter vos aequalitas Therfore let the law of the Lord take his force which sayth the worke man is worthy of his meate and his wages and also the Elders which rule the Churches well are worthy double honor cheiflie those which labour in the word and doctrine And these also ought to teach all other Christians by their example and when there is given unto them foode and rayment with that let them be content And also let the law of the holy Ghost stand in his full force let your abundance vp hold their need that there may be equalitie I neede not to put the reader in any remēbrance what to obserue in these wordes they are playne enough that the Lordly livings of Bishops should be taken from them and they thēselues should not liue like Lords but in a meane estate as well as the rest of the Ministers Bucer in mathew 18.7 And touching the rest of the popish reliques he sayth vndoubtedly as there is no agreement at all between Christ and Beliall so sinceare and unfeined christians can by no meanes suffer themselues to be clogged with any whit of Antichrists trash and trumperie c. Wherfore so soone as true godlines and the right worship of God hath been preached and professed of many Antichrists Ceremonies and rites ought by and by to be abrogated and the reformation therof may not be prolonged c. These are indeed saith he over mild and to soft and sober Christians which can beare with such Antichristian trash like unto them who at Corinth knowing that an Idoll was nothing did eat thinges offered unto Idols and boasted as these our men doe in this wise In outward matters we are free What is that to me that another useth those thinges naughtily I will use them well c. Thus do they for sooth provide goodly for the weake ones yea they serue their owne bellies seeking to gratifie such as are either Christs enimyes or else backsliders for no man besids these will earnestly contend for Superstitious Ceremonies this is their modest bearing and delaying whereby they are so far from furthering of the Gospell that by litle and litle they do utterly abolish it Thus you heare M. Bucers judgment that noble light set up by God in Germanie and by King Edward brought into England and made the divinity Lecturer in Cambridg both for the establishing of the Discipline set downe by Christ and his Apostles in the first Churches for the taking away of the Lordly estate of Bishops and for the utter abolishing of all our vayne and beggerly Ceremonies which he calleth Antichristian trash Unto him I will joyn Peter Martyr his combresbyter or fellow Elder P. Martyr brought into England also by King Edward and made the Divinitie Lecturer in Oxford Whose departing from Argentine in Germanie was greatly lamented he was saith Sleidan a man there exceedingly beloved for his sincere judgmēt his great mildnes and modestie and for his incomporable learning In his Epistle to the Lords of Polonia professors of the Gospell and Ministers of the Church there when they began to make the reformatiō of religion in the rite of administring the Sacraments saith M. Martyr That manner is most to be imbraced which shall be most playne and most removed from the Papisticall trifles and Ceremonies and which shall come neerest to the purenes which Christ used with his Apostles Christian minds ought not to be occupied much in outward rites Ceremonies but to be fed by the word to be instructed by the Sacraments to be inflamed unto prayers to be confirmed in good works and excellent examples of life