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
yet by the tenour of the Act you mention it doth appear first That there was nothing contained in the said first book but what was agreeable to the Word of God and the Primitive Church Secondly That such doubts as had been raised in the use and exercise thereof proceeded rather from the curiosity of the Minister and mistakers then any worthy cause they are the very words of the Act as you quote them And therefore Mr. Doctor you might have spared your pains p. 108. in seeking the names of those good and godly men by whom it was altered for bona fide there was no alteration at all if you will believe your own Book You tell us p. 121 122. part 1. of the hand the Convocation had in canvasing the Articles of Religion but you question whether they had any such hand in reviewing the Liturgy and you speak of digesting of such alterations as were considered and resolved on but shew not what they were in the least and possibly you say it might recieve the like authority from the Convocation you cannot say it did receive as the book of Articles had But whether so or not say you it received as much authority and countenance as could be given unto it by an Act of Parliament by which it was imposed you say upon the subject under penalties A worthy foundation for divine service And then page 121. p. 1. Mr. Doctor you begin to triumph as if you had got a firm bottom for the Liturgy the Liturgy you say thus setled and confirmed in Parliament was by the Kings command And p. 123. you say we have seen a reformation made in point of doctrine and setled in the forms of worship the superstitions and corruptions of the Church of Rome entirely abrogated good news if it were true and all things recteifed according to the Word of God How prove you this Sir and the Primitive practice we can see nothing but an Act of Parliament This is all account you give us in your History of the Reformation of the Church in the time of King Edward the sixth saving that p. 125. you speak something of Holy dayes and Fasting dayes which were to be abolished or retained But possibly more may be behind we shall not follow you in your History of the Church in the reign of Queen Mary when the Reformation by your own confession went down the wind and the professors and assertors of it persecuted in all parts of the Nation We shall therefore pass on with you to the times of Queen Elizabeth and see what was more done to the repairing and carrying on this work And when we consider what you say in the 103. page of your History of her reign that she retained such as had been of privy Council to Queen Mary her sister to be of her Council of which according as you have set them down there were thirteen of which one was an Archbishop and adding but seven to them it cannot in reason be imagined that Church reformation should be so far from growing to perfection that it is more likely to decrease and wither And so it proved for the Parliament that was summoned which passed an Act as you say p. 110 111. for recommending and imposing the Book of Common Prayer and administration of the Sacraments took care to revise the book and to make alterations and corrections now Mr. Doctor we have found some alterations in the Liturgy and what are they why say you p. 111. great care was taken for expunging mark Mr. Doctor all such passages in it as might give any scandal or offence to the Popish party in the Letany you say the Pope and his detestable enormity were expunged as giving offence and in the delivery of the Sacrament though by Calvins means as you say some Reformation had been made in the second Liturgy in King Edwards time now it is returned back into the first form and besides you say a whole Rubrick was expunged as not favouring the figment of Transubstantiation and not only so but there was made alteration in the Bread of the Sacrament in Alters and the standing of them in gestures vestments musick and what not by which compliances with Rome your plain dealing is commendable the book was made so passable you say p. 111. amongst the Papists that they repaired to our Parish Churches without scruple And to give us a more full account of the State of Religion in these times you tell us p. 172. part 2. Such a well tempered piety did at that time appear in the Devotions of the Church of England that generally the English Papists still resorted to them moreover you tell us p. 131. that Queen Elizabeth doing all this in the form and fashion of our devotions did so far satisfie the Pope then being that he shewed himself willing to confirm all by his Papal power and that Parpalio was instructed to offer in the name of his Holiness that the English Liturgy should be confirmed And now you triumph again p. 173. part 2. as if the matter were past all doubt telling us Thus we have seen the publick Liturgy confirmed in Parliament with divers penalties on all those who either did reproach it or neglect to use it or willfully withdrew their attendance from it But pray you Sir look back to what you say of this Parliament which confirmed the Liturgy p. 107. there wanted not say you some rough and furious spirits in the house of Commons who eagerly opposed all propositions which seemed to tend unto the prejudice of the Church of Rome of which number none so violent as Story Doctor of the Laws and a great instrument of Bonners butcheries others there were say you and doubtless many others also in the house of Commons who had as great a zeal as he to the Papal interest Thus Mr. Doctor we have travailed over your History and have pickt up and laid together the several pieces of this goodly building as you call it that you and others may have the full prospect of it at once and for the integrity of this action in these quotations we appeal to the great searcher of hearts And now Sir would you have the world satisfied in such a Reformation Can the conscience of a Protestant comfortably repose it self on such a foundation as you have here laid We gladly embrace the reformation of Doctrine contained in the book of Articles because we see blessed be God they have a clear and full authority from the Holy Scriptures but Sir you have dealt very deceitfully with your readers in your History in jumbling Doctrine Discipline and Worship together as if because there was a Reformation in Doctrine and that grounded upon the Word of God there must also be a Reformation in the rest too which was little or not at all and that grounded upon the Word also this deceit runs through your book you tell us ever and anon of
with them that refuse either to go in your apparel or otherwise to shew themselves note Sir like unto you have age sufficient and can answer for themselves Notwithstanding thus much I may say in their behalf Neither do they commend any manner of apparel as holy nor do they condemn any apparel as unholy They say not therefore that the apparel is either holy or unholy but they may truly say the same apparel on your part hath been fouly abused to filthy purposes They may justly say they would not gladly in any appearance good Doctor note this shew themselves like unto them that have so untruly and so long deceived the world And herein they are not without sundrie Authorities and examples of the godly Fathers Saint Augustine saith his mother left bringing of Wine and Cakes to the Church but only for that she was warned it was a resemblance of the superstition of the Heathens and so she left it Saint Gregory speaking of the three sprinklings or dippings into the holy Font saith thus In unâ fide nihil officit consuetudo Ecclesiae diversa Tamen quod Haereticiid fecerint negant idem esse à Catholicis faciendum The faith being one but it is not so between us and Rome the diversity of customs hurteth nothing yet forasmuch as Hereticks have thus done they say the Catholicks may in no wise do the same Tertullian reasoneth vehemently That a Christian man ought not to go with a Laurel Garland upon his head and that for none other reason but only for that the Heathen used so to go Whereupon Beatus Rhenanus giveth this note Non solùm ab his remperandum fuit quae manifestam praese ferrent impietatem sed etiam ab illis quae possent indifferentia vocari hoc est quae essent neque bona neque mala Partim pray mark Sir ne quisquam infirmior ex Christianis offenderetur partim ne ethnici did not Calvin say the Papists would grow more insolent in suis erroribus confirmarentur dum rectius putant esse quod etiam Christianos observare vident It was meet for them to refrain not only from such things as have a manifest shew of wickedness but also from such things as might be called indifferent that is to say neither good nor ill Partly left any of the weaker Christians should be offended Partly also lest the Heathens we say Papists should be encouraged in their errors thinking that thing for that the Christians themselves do it to be the better You may read more to this purpose There is one particular which we know you will very much distaste and that is the Divine Right of Episcopacy which we deny and you with great confidence assert page 51. part 1. for there mentioning one Act of Parliament you say The contrivers of that Act did intend by degrees to weaken the authority of the Episcopal order by forcing them from their strong hold of Divine institution We hope Sir you will not assume so much upon you in the Divinity school wich is given to Aristotle in the Logick that your Dixit must suffice us We might produce the unanswered Treatise of Mr. William Prinne a fast friend to Monarchy and as earnest an Antagonist to your Ius Divinum in his unbishoping of Timothy and Titus to batter your strong hold but that learned and pious Gentleman being a Lawyer and also a sufferer under your Ius Divinum is very low in your thoughts and whatever comes to you in his name bath little credit with you as being lookt upon to be either the fruit of his ignorance or desired revenge And therefore we shall oppose the judgment of a Bishop an English Bishop one whom you in your History do very much extoll for his great learning from whom you say all Controversors have furnisht themselves being a Magazin of all sorts of learning page 131. part 2. with arguments it is Reverend Iewel from this Magazin we will take some weapons and Artillery to assault and batter your strong hold Sir you are no stranger to the distinction of Episcopus praeses and Episcopus princeps the former we allow as being for order and decency in the government of the Church but Episcopus princeps which is Prelacy and not Episcopacy this as you contend for so we to this oppose the judgment of Bishop Iewel Harding page 196. of the Defence pleading against the sufficiency of the Scriptures and for the credit of Traditions among these Traditions he reckoneth the distinction of a Bishop and a Priest and saith that they that denied this distinction between a Bishop and a Priest were condemned of heresie in the Margin over against these words in the letter R. Iewel saith it is an untruth that ever any were condemned for heresie for denying this distinction of a Bishop and a Priest for if it were so saith he both St. Paul and St. Hierome and other good men are condemned of heresie Afterward page 202. of the Defence having taken notice and answered what Harding had said against the sufficiency of the Scriptures and for Traditions he comes at last to the forementioned words and saith But what meaneth Mr. Harding here to come in with the difference between Priests and Bishops Thinketh he that Priests and Bishops hold only by Tradition he meaneth not the distinction but the office Or is it so horrible an heresie as he maketh it to say that by the do you see Doctor Scriptures of God a Bishop and a Priest are all one Or knoweth he how far and unto whom he reacheth the name of an heretick Verily Chrysostom saith Inter Episcopum Presbyter um interest ferme nihil Between a Bishop and a Priest in a manner there is no difference St. Hierom saith somewhat in rougher sort Audio quendam in tantam erupisse vecordiam ut Diaconos Presbyteris id est Episcopis anteforret cum Apostolus perspicue doceat eosdem esse Presbyteros quos Episcopos I hear say there is one become so peevish that he setteth Deacons before Priests that is to say before Bishops whereas the Apostle plainly teacheth us that Priests and Bishops be all one St. Augustin saith Quid est Episcopus nisi primus Presbyter hoc est summus sacerdos what is a Bishop but the first Priest that is to say the highest Priest So saith St. Ambrose Episcopi Presbyteri una ordinatio uterque enim sacerdos est sed Episcopus primus est There is but one confecration of Priest and Bishop for both of them are Priests but the Bishop is the first All these and more holy Fathers saith learned Iewel together with St. Paul the Apostle for thus saying by Mr. Hardings advice must be holden for Hereticks Doth not your strong hold shake if not fall before the face of these Authorities Doctor However we will charge once more see page 100 and 101. of the Defence But Mr. Harding saith the Primates had authority over other inferiour