an idole ministerie or serue Mammō or their owne belly when thus they bewailed and reprooued in the old Martinists this shamelesse Church robbery But whereunto shall we ascribe this vpstart insolencie Cyprian saieth that idlenes and long peace haue corrupted the discipline which the Apostles left Euseb by much libertie and ouermuch indulgence our maners bee depraued and discipline corrupted while we enuie one another while wee derogate one from another while we bite and accuse one another and stirre vp warre and strife among our selues Vnthankfull to God who hath vouchsafed vs so great blessings vnthankfull to our soueraigne to make a rent in her kingdome who hath protected vs in so great dangers Herein we shew our selues most like the Vipers brood who neuer are brought foorth but by renting their mothers wombe Or to yong Mules of whome Plinie writeth that they being well fed all to beate their dammes with their heeles for recompence Or to those beasts of whom Aristotle writeth that hauing sucked vp their dammes milke are not contented vnlesse they may sucke vp their blood also Whatsoeuer the pretence is if this course may run on a while neither shall God haue that glory nor the prince that honour nor learning that reward nor the Church that peace nor the common wealth that gouernment that in the feare of God all good lawes and all conscience appertaineth to them all Of these I may say as Seneca some time sayd of the like lib. 2. de Ira cap. 9. Sitantum irasci vis sapientem quantum scelerum indignitas postulat non irascendum illi sed insaniendumest If you will haue a wise man to be so angry as the hainousnes of the offence doth require hee must not be angry but he must be mad To haue eaten an apple as Adam did to haue looked backe to Sodome with Lothes wife to haue made an Ephod as did Gedeon to haue receiued a reward as Gehezi did to haue denied Christ to haue doubted of the resurrection to haue kept backe halfe a mans owne in most men had bene matters not of so great moment but in Adam Loths wife Gedeon Gehezi Peter Thomas and Ananias they were most hainous and grieuous offences If Papists Atheists Turkes or Infidels should attempt this it were but a matter of small waight but that they who are armed with the name of the Church doe fight against the Church Ecclesiae nomine armantur contra ecclesiam dimicant as Cyprian saieth that filij sponsi the children of the bridegrome that Inimici eius domestici eius that they of his owne house should be his enemies nay that hee who dippeth his hand in the dish with vs a man of our owne peace that is called a brother should doe this should slaunder the brethren should seeke the subuersion of the Church is to others incredible in him intollerable What is this but as our Sauiour saieth Percutiam pastorem dispargentur oues I will strike the sheepeheard and the sheepe shal be scattered nay what if it come to this passe eyther to make no sheepeheard at all or els to make that the sheepeheard shall be pastor idolum Take away the reward lay open reproch and ignominie and then see who will put his hand to this plough Who will then say with the Prophet En ego domine mitte me Loe here I am Lord send me The Lacedemonians finding a boie delighted in picking out birdes eyes put him to death for they foresawe that hee would prooue in time a most dangerous citizen The Romanes seeing one that in his walke did euer vse to chop off the heads of the Poppies adiudged that in time he would cut off mens heads What shall we thinke they would doe or say if they might see what is shot at by these men who aime not at the heads of poppies or birds eies but at bishoprikes and cathedrall Churches which they planted not the most renoumed monuments through Europe What will be the end the Lord onely knoweth but for the one vniuersitie I can speake of knowledge that Sathan and these master builders haue profited thus much that where as there were in some Colleges and Halles where they liue at their parents charge an hundred or more there are now in many not half the number in some scant twentie in other Colledges where there is allowed maintenaunce although the number be not much diminished yet many change their studies and most doubt what is to be done what course is to be followed If Sathan may transplant these yong plantes if hee may drie vp these fountaines and welsprings if he may cut off this tender corne in the greene blade what can we then looke for but Barbarisme a sinke of all mischiefe to ouerflow all It is truly said of Aristotle Finis intentione primus executione vltimus The end although it bee last attained yet it is first intended and we here liue among men Non cum perfectis not with perfect men and therefore they are to be drawen on by humane meanes Martine Senior braggeth of an hundred thousand whom he termeth not a few nor of small reputation but in maner the strength of our land the sinew of her Maiesties royall gouernment whom yet he reprehendeth both Preachers and people that they suffer these things There are many I am sory to see it and I must confesse it whom this vanitie hath led aside many that do reuerence and admire this mans doings vnto whom what greater euill could a man wish then as he sayd of a couetous man Vt diu viuat so to them none other greater then this that with their owne mouthes they should lay open their owne reproch The euill man out of the euill treasure of his heart bringeth out euil things and who so priuily slandreth his neighbour him will I destroy saith the Lord. Michael the Archangel contending with the deuil about the body of Moises gaue no reuiling speeches but said The Lord reprooue thee Neuer did any godly man write or speake on this maner None of the fathers of the primitiue Church euer delt in this sort no not with most damnable heretikes None of the most wicked heretikes vsed such reprochfull taunts against the fathers It cannot proceed from Gods spirit to lay open Gods children to be derided of Gods enemies No man that by reading of holy scriptures praying or meditating talketh with God can speake with a spirit so void of God O holy Patriarchs Prophets and Apostles holy bishops Martyrs Confessors haue ye so wonne kingdoms to Christ conuerted nations planted faith Is this to reuile our brethrē to make a scorne of the Lordes ministerie to haue all our speech powdered with salt Is this to minister grace to the hearers Is this to edifie the Church Is this to beare one anothers burthen In this lauish and vncharitable reproching of fathers and brethrē I must say to them as Seneca in an epistle saith Similes sunt canibus rabidis qui plusquam
A SERMON PREACHED AT PAVLES CROSSE THE IX OF NOVEMBER 1589. By WILLIAM IAMES D. of Diuinitie and Deane of Christes-church in Oxford 1. Ioan. 4. Ne cuiuis spiritui credatis sed probate spiritus an ex Deo sint Queniam multi pseudoprophetae exierunt in mundum Beleeue not euery spirit but prooue the spirits whether they are of God or not For many false prophets are gone out into the world Iacob 1. Si quis videtur religiosus esse inter vos qui non frenat linguam suam sed aberrare sinit cor suum huius vana est religio If any man among you seemeth religious and refraineth not his tongue but deceiueth his owne heart this mans religion is in vayne Hieron ad Pammachium Foelices inquit Faebius essent artes side ijs soli artifices iudicarent Happy saith Fabius were the Arts if they onely who are skilfull in them might iudge of them IMPRINTED AT LONDON by GEORGE BISHOP and RALPH NEWBERIE 1590. TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE MY ESPECIALL GOOD LORD AND MASTER Sir CHRISTOPHER HATTON lord Chancellour of England Knight of the most noble Order of the Garter and Chancellour of the Vniuersitie of Oxford c. IT pleased your good Lordship to require a Copie of my sermon which I preached lately at Paules crosse which albeit I had denied to my lord of London diuers others before yet seeing it pleased your good lordship at your leasure to vouchsafe the reading of it I haue now at my returne hither put it downe as neere as I could and I thinke almost verbatim as I vttred it VVherein as my chief purpose was to asswage if it might bee and for my small measure I endeuoured it the contentions stirred vp amongst vs so haue I not kept backe my opinion nay my conscience touching the man that troubleth vs and the matter by him entended VVherein I protest before God that as I flattered not the Church gouernment of I owe to no bishop therein for any benefite receiued any thing farther then dutie and good will so if it had bene my last speach that euer I should haue had euen for the dutie I owe to Gods Church either this or what so euer God should haue giuen to this sence should haue bene sayd I am sory and it grieueth mee to see the heapes of Nouelties that in her Maiesties most gracious raigne and in so plentifull a light of the Gospell our inconstant Islanders haue brought into the world It argueth that the enuious man sleepeth not but hath sowed tares and that they fructifie and laboureth by all meanes by sea and land to make Proselites There was a time when a learned ministerie a thing much to be desired as also your Lordships great care in bestowing the liuings in your gift and the regard which they haue whom your Lordship putteth in trust by preferring learned men and Graduates of the Vniuersities doeth testifie to all the world that your Lordship doeth seeke the like was by the wisest and most zealous thought sufficient But if our brethren in zeale thinke that this can not be done but by extinguishing the ancient names and functions of Bishops in the Church a calling begunne and continued from the Apostles time vnto this day and ouerturning the estate established I will say with the Apostle zelum habent sed non secundùm scientiam It is no way to bread a learned ministerie either to pull downe the reward that should encourage them or the meanes to maintaine them when they are bred If any Bishops haue transgressed in their callings especially in admitting of insufficient Ministers as it must be confessed they haue done be it that he were an eie though blind in this that is a chiefe one or but a hand or a foote that is of a lower place surely it is ill physicke for this bleard eye or for this sore hand or foote to choppe off the head or kill the body It is hard that nothing can please these men vnlesse the Church possessions in deede their mothers bowels be pulled out and the cause why they begin with vs is this they must first haue a footing somewhere and here they see the hedge is lowest It is pitifull to see howe to this purpose in many places of this land he is thought the onely zealous learned and godly preacher that can finde most faults pretend most wants neuer giuing God once thankes for the aboundance of his blessings vpon this Church and nation which for these 32. yeeres hath bene yea euen at this day is a nurse nay rather a mother to all the Churches almost in all Christendome And whereas we ought to teach repentance amendement of life faith to God obedience to superiors and charitie one to another to rebuke pride couetousnes wantonnes newfanglednes slaunderings backbitings and the like if none of these be once named but our spirituall Pastors torne and traduced our owne vices not once touched but the Church and Church-men paid home then is he in many mens iudgements a zealous man a childe of God neuer man spake on this wise In this simple sermon I did cast in my mite if it perswaded I haue my hearts desire and God I trust hath the glory if it but a litle staied any but to make a pause some Apollos may water it and some others may build vpon it If it offended I knowe the trueth doth not alwaies purchase friendes and that nulla medicamenta tam faciunt dolorem quà m quę sunt salutaria Surely as my meaning was not to sowe pillowes vnder any mans elbowes so was it not to grieue any or to be contentious For my owne part Liberaui animam meam This I here haue sent submitting it and my selfe wholly to your Lordships good pleasure humbly beseeching Almightie God to guide your Lordship to the glory of his name the good of his Church and Common wealth and of this Vniuersitie not the meanest member thereof From Christes-Church in Oxford the 17. of December 1589. Your Lordships Chaplaine humbly in the Lord to be commanded W. IAMES 1. Cor. 12. 25 Least there should be any diuision in the body but that the members should haue the same care one for another 26 Therefore if one member suffer all suffer with it if one member be had in honour all the members reioyce with it 27 Now yee are the body of Christ and members for your part THe Apostle S. Paul hauing planted a church at Corinth and now labouring with the glad tidings of the Gospel to lightē the hearts of the Philippians or as some thinke the Ephesians who sate in darkenesse and shadow of death absent from Corinth in bodie though present in spirite in the meane time it is not credible what tares the enuious man sowed in the Lordes field among the Lordes wheate neither how many rauening wolues entred not sparing the flocke Hence there arose in their religion in some Apostasie and falling from God starting a side like a broken
rest vntill as Aristotle teacheth there be elementum praedominans a prÄ™dominant element that ruleth all the rest yet al the rest so serue and obey it so consent all to the good of the bodie the water asswaging the extremitie of the fire the fire warming the coldnes of the water and so of the rest euery one abating others exceedings euery one supplying others wants that albeit as is in the prouerbe nothing be more contrarie then fire and water heate and colde yet as Physitions of diuers deadly poisons make one wholesome medicine and as Bees of diuers noisome flowers make one sweete honie so nature the best scholemistres of many contraries hath made one the most sweete and pleasant mixture in the bodie And that therefore lest there should be any diuision in the bodie In this similitude of the Apostle albeit the head be placed as the watch-tower the eies eares as watchmen the handes as champions the shoulders and sides as walles or bulwarkes the feete as proppes to support or as quicke postes to dispatche the tongue as an Interpretor or Ambassador yet they all head eies eares hands and feete so consent and agree euery one lending helpe to another that that which toucheth one is regarded and cared for of all Barnarde in his meditations to shewe howe easily euery man might be directed and amended by himselfe saith that euery one hath in his owne house accusatorem testem iudicem an accuser a witnesse and a iudge Accusat me conscientia te stis est memoria ratio iudex My conscience is mine accuser my memorie the witnesse my reason the iudge The like hath S. Basill on these wordes attende tibijpsi so that farther then to himselfe to his owne house to his owne conscience to his owne memorie to his owne reason man needes not to seeke the most certaine censurer of himselfe In like manner the Apostle S. Paule to make manifest to the Corinthians what a mischiefe contention was in the Church sendeth them to no other place then to their owne bodies as if he should say If contention and strife can not be betweene the head eies handes and feete without the danger nay destruction of the whole bodie much lesse in the Church vvhich is the bodie of Christ Ye are the bodie of Christ and members in part This is that leauen which we with the Corinthians must purge out before we can be svveete bread These are those workes of darkenes which we with them must cast off before we can put on the armour of light This is that olde man with his deceaueable lustes which we must lay aside before vve can put on the nevv man Christ Iesus vvhich after God is shaped in righteousnes and true holines God is charitie and he that dwelleth in charitie dwelleth in God and God in him Our God is the God of peace our Christ is the prince of peace his Gospell the Gospell of peace his Apostles preachers of peace The Prophets prophecied of him that in his daies peace should flourish the Woolfe and the Lambe the Leopard and the Kid the Calfe and the Lyon should dvvell together that they should in his daies turne their svvordes into plovve shares their launces into sithes or sickles their speares into spades In his natiuitie the Angels sang peace Glorie be to God on high and in earth peace His vvhole life vvas an example of peace euery vvhere pax vobis His commission to his Apostles a commission of peace Into vvhat house soeuer ye enteter say Peace to this house In his departure hence he left peace My peace I â—â—â—e you my peace I leaue you Gregorie Nissen expounding these vvordes Pater noster qui es in coelis As oft saith he as vve say Our father which art in heauen so oft vve must remember of vvhat stocke linage we are namely sonnes of the almightie and whither wee ought to aime and direct all our thoughts and deeds namely to the highest heauens where our father dwelleth otherwise as bastard children wee shall beate the aire and shoote at an vncertaintie In like maner as oft as we consider what a God our God is what a Christ our Christ is what a Gospel our Gospell is what Apostles our Apostles were how that his birth life death and all these resounded nothing so much as peace so oft as Chrysostome noteth we must labour Vt similitudinem patris indicet actus prolis that is that we may be fatherlike that if wee will be coheires with Christ we as Cyprian saith see that we abide in the peace of Christ For seeing we haue all one and the same father redeemer comforter all one and the same milke of the word and food of the Sacraments Seeing we all inhabite here one and the same vale of miserie the valley of teares hauing all one and the same sworne enemie the olde malicious and canckred serpent Seeing there is but one God one faith one baptisme Seeing we are all branches of the same vine drawing all iuice moisture alike from the same roote all seruants of the same master children of the same father and as the Apostle saith all members of the same body why do we either contemne or contend one with another Seeing we all runne for one gole we all wrestle for one garland we all striue for one crowne a crowne immarcessible Seeing as this our Apostle saieth that by one spirit we are all baptized into one body whether we bee Iewes or Graecians whether we bee bound or free and haue bene all made to drinke of one spirite Why forsake we one another why despise we as the Prophet saieth the sonne of our mother the sonne of our heauenly father Chrysostome expounding this place of the Apostle in his 30. homilie on this epistle saith that the Apostle vsed that word To haue drunke of the same spirite in most apt and fit maner for as we see saieth he in gardens herbes and plants all although of diuers qualities yet to be all watred with one and the same raine and all to fructifie and encrease so we although of diuers nations of diuers callings yet haue all bin partakers of the same spirit haue all tasted of the same grace If therfore one spirit haue fashioned vs all and haue made vs all one body and fed vs with one the same heauenly table haue watred vs all with one heauenly deaw from aboue which all are to haue drunke of the same spirit If it haue vnited vs who were before so farre different one from another If the members then make one body when they all as it were do grow and knit theÌ„selues together why dreame we of any the least dissention the least difference And a litle after albeit the members be many and diuers yet this is the prerogatiue of the body to make all those although many and diuers yet all one In like maner albeit the ChristiaÌ„s be many scattered farre and wide throughout all the