soever the office vocation and charge of preaching of the word is allotted let him speake as the words of God which caveat and lesson ought most carefully to be taken heed unto that no man presume to Preach and teach any thing wherto he hath not expresse word of God for his warrant and except he be most certaine that the same be directly to be avouched out of the sacreed scriptures Which being so what may be thought of the Pope and his dirtie dreggs and traditions Here you see M. Luthers judgment that all traditions which haue not the expresse warrant of the word of God are but dirtie dreggs and Popish traditions And marke it well that what traditions soever is brought into the Church which hath not the expresse word of God for it the same is to be nombred among the Popes dirtie dreggs I say except the same be most certaine and directly to be a vouched out of the sacred scriptures And anon after he saith againe A Prelate or Bishop ought to doe nothing in the Church vnlesse he be certaine and sure of the warrantise thereof by Gods word For God cannot abide to haue his service umbled and mingled at pleasure with every foolish gewgawe and light trumpery You see how this beginnyng of the day light whereby God shewed himselfe agayne unto the world doth cōstantly affirme that a Bishop ought to doe nothing in the Church unlesse he be certaine and sure of the warrantise thereof by Gods word no not to bring in a ceremonie nor a light guegawe for God saith M. Luther cannot abide it nor suffer it to be used in his service And yet not so content he goeth farther saying And therefore we are straightly forbidden not to relie unto nor to allow whatsoever decree or constitution the Bishop list to obtrud and enioyne unlesse they stand upon a sure groūd that the things which they doe are allowed of God yea don of God himselfe and unlesse the be able to say doe this for it is the will and Commandement of God and we haue his expresse word and commandement for our warrant If they be not able to say thus they ought to be accounted as lyers deceavers much lesse ought any Christian to yeelde unto them therein any obedience or subscription No Christian saith M Luther ought to subscribe nor obey to any of the Bishops Canons Subscriptiō unlesse they be able to say do this for it is the will cōmandement of God and we haue his expresse word and commandement for our warrant Thus doth this Angell or messenger of God write who having a liuely faith by this faith he being dead with Abell yet speaketh this unto all the world and even unto England in playne English whereby yee may perceaue he was no sleeping Sardian Angell nor rich luke warme Laodician but like the Angell of Ephesus could not forbeare them which were evill and was himselfe poore with the Angell of the Smirnians and far from the pompe and pride of the Laodician Angell which lived like a Lord and rejoyced he was encreased in riches and had need of nothing But if this excellent messenger of God were now in England and would refuse to subscribe to a number of Canons and many light guegawes which are neither commanded of God nor haue the expresse warrant of the word of God he should surely be turned both out of his preaching and out of his living though many hundred sleeping Sardian Priests and blind unpreaching Ministers should keep their place But let us go forward with M. Luther upon the fift chapter of the same epistle thus he saith When S. Peter or any other of the Apostles came into any Cittie wherein Christians were 1. Peter 5. they ordeyned some one or other of them such as lived honestly and unblameablie and had wife and children and also skilfull in the Scriptures of God to to haue the superintendencie and charge over the rest And them they called Seniors or Elders whom afterward both Saint Peter and also S. Paule called Bishops whereby we may note that Bishops were none others then the very same that were Elders Touching this purpose we read in the Historie of S. Martine how a certaine man came into a place in Aphrica and there in a poore Cottage found an elderlie man whom they thought to haue been some playne Countriman Within a while they saw many people come flocking to him to whom he preached and expounded the word of God wherby they perceaved that he was their Pastor or Bishop For in those dayes there was no difference either in apparrell or manners betweene the Bishops and the residue of Christians In which saying of M Luther these three things are to be observed First that there was no differēce in the word of God and by the doctrine of the Apostles between a Bishop and an Elder or Minister or as he is now called a Parish Priest in the latin word taken out of the Greeke Presbyter for in the new Testament as you haue heard before he is never called Sacerdos that is to say a Priest as in all the old Testament it is ever englished But heer you see plainly by the judgmēt of M. Luther that a Bishop by the word of God and doctrine of the Apostles is nothing else but the Minister of a Parish And you heard before how precisly and violently he rejected whatsoever ordinance in the Church hath not the expresse word of God and commandement for it And therefore he saith touching all constitutions of Bishops without this expresse warrant we ought to take them for lyers deceavers and by no meanes to subscrib unto them Seeing this he speaketh not onely of Ceremonies and other traditions but even of the goverment orders of the Church as in the same place within a few words he plainly and vehemently expresseth For saith he there is nothing so pernicious nothing so monstrous 1 Pet 4.11 nothing so beastly as to goe about to governe the Church of God without the warrant of Gods owne word and worke And therefore S. Peter saw great reason to ad this much thereby to teach how the Church ought to be governed And in the fift chapter he doth in a mannner repeate the same againe for taking occasion from the care and diligence that every Bishop and Pastor ought to haue of every particular within his owne flocke In chap 5 Heereby saith he we may well perceiue and know that a Bishop is even the same that is here ment by an Elder And therefore it is not true which some say that a Bishoprick is a dignitie and a Bishop onely he that weareth a forked Miter Episcopacie is not a name of dignitie but of Office Which thing he also affirmeth in divers places as in his booke contra Papatum he saith Bishops wheresoever they be in all the world are equall to our Bishops or Parish Ministers and Preachers Of none can it be said one is
this day that over Levites there must be Priests vnto Priests there belong Aulters vnto Aulters Sacrifice All which things yet in the old Testament were knowne to be but figuratiue shadowes yea head hornes and all and when he hath once gotten in though he may be as plainly seene according to the proverb as a mans nose of his face yet he so maintaineth the possession that he hath once gotten both by faire foule meanes by religious pretences and rigorous defences that it is allmost impossible to get him out againe As for example who seeth not in these our dayes at the least where the light of the Gospell doth shine the horrible abhominations of the vnpreaching ministery Non-residencies Pluralities Impropriations excōmunication for euery trifle the pompous and lordly estate of Bishops together with those rotten and beggerly Ceremonies which haue so long burdened troubled the Churches Nay Kinges and Princes are made beleeue that their state could not indure nor their Kingedome stand yea that heaven and earth would be confounded if these thinges should be reformed But alas it is lamentable to behold what curious carvers what trustie tasters are used in bodily meates how great care is taken that a moate fall not into our earthly cuppes But though the toe or foote of * A Toad a paddocke fall into the foode of our soules wee are not afraid to swallow it though we se it But let vs proceede in opening farther the thinges which were done in the Churches and the abuses that crept in shortly after Saint Iohns time vntill Antichrist his great whore of Babell came up to the toppe of their glorious dignitie Now Sathan having sowed his tares among the good corne which the holy Apostles had sowne which tares grew so fast in the hartes of many Sardian sleeping Angels that pride and ambition pricked them to be lifted vp aboue their fellowes And as many hundred yeares after Gregorie the Bishop of Rome himselfe said of Iohn Bishop of Constantinople In this pride of theirs what other thing is there betokened but that the time of Antichrist is even at hād For he followeth him saith Gregorie that despising the ioye of equalitie amonge the Angels labored to pearke up to the top of singularitie For they thought it a base thing not to be lifted vp aboue their fellow Pastors or Elders so that they procured by agreement and consent among themselues that some one among the rest in every assemblie should be called a Bishop where before that time all the preachers Pastors and Elders were generally called Bishops so that Bishope Pastor or Elder were Synonima wordes of one and the selfe same signification But now they agreed that one of them onely in every assemblie should be called a Bishop and he onely and singularly should be so termed wheras all the rest were so called before which injurious dealing with the rest of the Ministers went yet more forward namely as at the first agrement one only in every Congregation or assemblie should be called Bishop so this devise of Sathan with in a while grew so fast that onely one in every Dioces was so called and all the rest were called Ministers Elders and Pastors and not Bishops What injurie this was to all other Pastors Elders yea to the holy Ghost himselfe which gaue them all as well as to any one that reverent name of Bishop he that hath eyes in his head may easily see For as poore christians should haue great injurie if it should be made vnlawfull to call any man a Christian or a christian man but only a Prince a Lord or a Noble man so all the pore Pastors and Ministers haue great injurie that one Lord in a Citie or Dioces onely should be called Bishop seeing Gods owne word calleth all Pastors and Ministers of the word Bishops as well as all faithfull people Christians And thus within a while these Bishops did not only take to themselues the name wealth dignities which God forbiddeth them but they tooke from other such names wealth and dignities as God had appointed them Shewing themselues plainely disobedient to God and injurous towardes men and namely towardes their brethren and fellow servantes in one and the selfe same function appoynted by God And heere touching this matter take the wordes of M. Calvine that excellent and learned Divine upon the first chapter to Titus Porro locus hic abunde docet Calv in epist ad Tit. cap 1. 7. nullum esse Presbyteri et Episcopi discrimen c. Verum nomen officii quod Deus in commune omnibus dederat in vnum solum transferri reliquis spoliatis et iniurium est et absurdum Deniquc sic pervertere spiritus sancti linguam vt nobis eaedem voces aliud quam voluerit significent nimis profanae audaciae est This place of the Apostle to Titus saith M. Calvine doth very evidently teach that there is no difference betweene a Bishope and an Elder or Minister but the name of an office which God gaue to them all in common to transfer it onely to one among many of them spoyling or robbing the rest thereof is both injurious and absurd To conclude saith M. Calvine soe to pervert the tongue or language of the Holy Ghost that the same wordes or names should signifie an other thinge vnto vs then he would haue it It is a point of too prophane or heathenish bouldnes Heere-vnto I will add the wordes of M. Musculus in his Common Places being translated into English and dedicated vnto Parker Arch-Bishop of Cāterburie Musc Com. pla fol 166 in the dayes of Queene Elizabeth his wordes are these When that temptation of greatnes and superioritie gat once into the mindes of the Priests Pastors and Doctors then men began to chose some one of the Elders which should be set aboue the rest and advaunced vnto higher degree and be called a Bishop and thus he should onely and singularly be called as all the rest were commonly called before Whether this device doth any good to Christs Church that Bishopps are become rather of custome as Ierome saith than upon any truth of the Lords appoyntment greater then the Priests it is better declared in these latter times then when this custome was first taken up which we may thanke for all the pride wealth and tyrannie of the Princly and riding Bishops yea for the corruption of all Churches which if Ierome sawe no doubt he would acknowledge it to be not the device of the holy Ghost to take away schismes 〈◊〉 it was pretended to be but of Sathan himselfe to decaie and destroy the old Ministerie in feeding the Lords flocke Whence it is come that the Church hath not true Pastors Doctors and Elders or Bishops but under the couller of these names we haue idle bellies magnificall Princes Beza in Phil cap. 1. 1 Wherevnto I ad also the words of M. Beza upon the first chapter to
the Philippians Episcopos igitur intelligit quicunque verbo et gubernatio ni praeerant puta pastores Doctores et presbyteros c. Haec igitur olim erat episcoporum appellatio donec qui politiae causa reliquis fratribus in caetû praeerat c. Peculiariter dici episcopus caepit Hinc caepit Diabolus prima tyrannidis fundamenta iacere in Dei Ecclesia c. En quanti sit momenti a Dei verbo vel latum vnguem deflectere The Apostle saith M. Beza meaneth by Bishops all those which were appointed to rule in the word and goverment of the Church namely the Pastors Teachers Elders This was of old time the denomination of Bishops vntill he which for pollicy sake was preferred in the assemblie before the rest of the brethren began only or peculiarly to be called Bishop heerof the Devill began to lay the first foundation of tyranny in the Church of God Behold saith M. Beza of how great waight or moment it is to decline from the word of God yea though but a hairs breadth Here is also to be noted how Ierome many yeares after often times putteth the Bishops in remembrance of their originall estate and titles even when long custome had established the same As in his epistle ad Evagrium and in his Commentarie upon the Epistle to Titus and divers other places you may read Ierom. ad Evag. and in Tit. Let Bishops know saith he that rather by custome then by any truth of the Lords appoyntment they are become greater then the Elders or Ministers and the Church ought to be ruled in common And this 〈◊〉 Augustine also acknowledgeth in his Epistle to Ierome whom 〈◊〉 himself was a Bishop and a man in that degre of the highest note in the world saying to Ierome who was then but a poore Minister nor never would be other Quanquam secundum vocabulum August epist 19 quod vsus obtinuit Episcopus maior est presbytero Hieromimus tamen in multis maior est Augustino Although though saith Augustine according to the terme which vse hath brought in a Bishop is greater than an Elder yet Ierome in very many thinges is greater then Augustine And this former saying of Ierome is commonly alleadged and allowed by all the excellent writers in the defence of the gospell to the same effect as you may reade in the Harmonie of Confessions Con. Helve 2. sect 11. Tit. Of the Ministers of the Church Wher their words be these So the Bishops must know that they are aboue Priests rather by custome than by the prescript rule of Gods truth and they should haue the goverment of Gods Church in common with them Thus far Ierome Now therfore no man can forbid by any right but that we should returne to the old apoyntment of God and rather receaue that then the custome devised by men And this conclusion in the Harmonie of Confessions every man may see is plainely grounded vpon the confession of the holy Apostles Peter and Iohn saying Acts 4 9 whether it be right in the sight of God to obey you rather than God iudge ye A man would thinke it impossible that any Christian should deny that we ought rather to receaue the appointment of God then the custome devised by men Which custom as M. Musculus saith we may thank for the pride wealth and tyrannie of our Princely and riding Bishops and for all other corruptions of the Churches as shall more plainely appeare heerafter Heere the Prophet Isaiah saith of them that fought against Sion staye your selues and wonder they are blinde Isai 15 9 10 and make you blind they are drunken but not with wine they stagger but not by stronge drinke For the Lord hath covered you with a spirit of slumber and hath shut up your eyes the Prophets and your cheife Seers hath he covered And before I proceed any further I will say with Isaiah the Prophet stay your selues and wonder at an admirable worke of God For as soone as this first foundation of tyrranie as M. Beza calleth it was laide in the Church of God and that the name of Bishop which God had given to all the Ministers of his word in common was transferred to one alone among many the rest being robbed and spoyled thereof even quickly after was written upon the forhead of this Bishop a mystery a strange and vnknowne name even the very name of Antichrist that is to say Papa a-Pope For straight way in generall all the Bishops were called by the name of Papa or Pope taken as some learned men suppose of the Greeke Syracusane word Pappas signifiyng a Father The Papists themselues seeking for the Etymologie of this word are soe astonished therein that some of them say it was taken from Papé the interjection of wonder Howsoever a word it is fecht out of the bottomles pit of hell that it might be a marke to make difference between a Minister and a Bishop and betweene a Pastor and a-Pope as the word Missa was devised by the Devill to disguise the Communion withall and to supersubstantiat the blessed bread of the Lords Supper into the cursed Idoll of the Popes masse And from hence arose at last that one Pope of Rome overall of whom they say in their glose Papa stupor mundi the Pope is the wonder and the admiration of the world neither God nor man but a thing between both Some haue thought it might be taken of Pappa which some say the latine children vsed to call their Fathers by as our children call Dadd othersome haue imagined it should be taken from these two words Pater Patriae which the Romaines used to write by way of abreviation thus Pa. with a pricke and Pa. with another pricke So that the prickes in the middest being left out there remained Papa Such far fecht follies and ridiculous dotages the Papisticall crue are faine to seeke for to find their holy Father Papa the Pope But this is certaine and evident that as soone as it was agreed vpon that one onely among many Ministers of the word of God should be called a Bishop and the rest should be robbed of that name which the holy scripture hath geiven them this singular and peculiar Bishop set up as it were with a higher degree and name then the rest was straightwaye called in a speciall sort Papa As Cyprian one of the most auncient Fathers was vsually termed Cypt. Epist 2.7 The Elders Deacons of Rome writing to him doe set downe the superscription of their Epistle in these words Cipriano Papae presbyteri et Diaconi Romae consistentes salutem To Pope Cyprian the Elders and Deacons of Rome wish health And in the latter end and conclusion of the Epistle they say vnto him Optamus te beatissime ac gloriosissime Papa in Domino sēper bene valere et nostri meminisse We wish thee most blessed most glorious Pope ever good health in the Lord and
this vseth our reverend English Father M. Nowell in his great Catechisme Nowell Catech. where commending and speaking of the Discipline of the Primitiue Church he saith But this Discipline since long time past by litle and litle decayed as the manners of men be corrupt and out of right course specially of the rich and men of power which will needs haue impunitie and most free libertie to sinne and doe wickedly But to returne to Ierome ye see wherevnto the superiority of Bishops was come even then and what fruite this corne of evill seed being then but newly sowed hath brought forth vnto this day a man may easily judge And this is the cause why Ierome so often as hath been before declared putteth the Bishops in remembrance that they are greater then other Elders or Ministers by custome and not by any truth of the Lords appoyntment and that they ought to rule in common But the Discipline liked them much better whereby they might haue free liberty to sinne and that no man might dare or be so bould to reproue them much lesse to punish them Yet Ierome in his Epistle to Nepotian is bould with the Lordship of Bishops saying Illud etiam dico quod Episcopi sacerdotes se esse noverint non dominos This also I say that Bishops should know that they be preists and not Lords And further he saith to Nepotian Negociatorem clericum et ex inope diuitem et ex ignobili gloriosum quasi quandam pestem fuge A man of the Clergy saith Ierome that is an occupier and that is become of a poore man a rich man and of a man of low degree to be a man of honorable estate flye from such a one as it were from a certaine pestilence And touchyng his owne estate he saith being then one of the most famous christian Pastors in the whole world and in many things greater better learned then Augustine Altaris oblatione sustentor habens victum et vestitum his contentus ero et crucem nudam nudus sequor I am susteined by the offring of the Altar and having food and rayment Epistlo 11. and being a naked fellow my self I follow the naked Crosse of Christ And in his Epistle to Augustine he saith Ego in paruo tuguriolo cum monachis id est cum compeccatoribus meis de magnis statuere non audeo I in my poore litle cottage saith he with certaine monks that is to say sinners dare not determine of high matters You see how far Ierom was from Lordly estate he lived not in a Princly Pallace but in a poore litle cottage Yet for the excellencie of his fame and learnyng inferior to none which then lived For proofe whereof and for the worthynes of the matter I will set downe one example though I shall make there in a litle digression Algasia a gentle woman of Fraunce dwelling at the least as far from Ierom as England from the Iles of Canarie hearing of his excellent learnyng and knowledg in Divinity sent purposely vnto him from the borders of the Ocean sea and the furthest part of all Fraunce and passing by Rome she sent unto him dwellyng at Bethleem to be resolved in divers poynts of the scripture Among which the Eleaventh question was how she should vnderstand the words of the Apostle speakeyng of Antichrist 2 Thes 2 ca. In answering which question Ierom saith Ad Algas q. 11 Nec vult aperte dicere Romanum inperium destruendum quod ipsi qui imperāt aeternam putant vnde secundum Apocalipsim Iohannis infronte purpuratae meretricis scriptum est nomen blasphemiae id est Romae aeternae Nether would the Apostle saith Ierom say in plaine termes that the Empire of Rome should be destroyed which they that raigne there thinke to be eternall where upon accordyng to the Revelation of S. Iohn in the forehead of the purple coulered whore there is written the name of blasphemie that is of Rome eternall A religious and right noble Lady In which discourse diuers things of speciall note are worthy to be observed As first the great zeale carefull diligence of that Noble gentlewoman seekyng so far to know and understand the scriptures O that our Ladyes and gentleweomen of England were so carefull to seeke after God that their soules might liue Secondly that she passed by Rome beyng right in the way to Bethleem with the proud Pope which boasteth himselfe to haue all knowledg within the coffer of his owne breast together withall his colledge of Carnalls and seeketh after Ierom the poore Minister of Bethleem Thirdly of how great fame poore Ierom was for his knowledg and learnyng in Divinity Fourthly that the name of Rome eternall is the name of blasphemie which is written upon the forehead of the purple coulered whore Now to returne againe to the state of the Church in Ieroms time leaving him to his poore cottage with his Monkes Hom. against peril of Idolatry part 2 let us see in what lordly estate Augustine liued and what his judgment is concernyng the same of whome it is written in the Homilie of our English Church that he was the best learned of all the Auncient Fathers And Possidonius testifieth of him Posid de vit Aug cap. 31. how excellent and dilligent a Preacher he was Verbum Dei usque ad ipsam suam extermam aegritudinam impraetermisse alacriter et fortiter sana mente sanoque consilio in ecclesia praedicavit He preached the word of God in the Church saith Possidonius without pretermission with sound mind and advised judgment even vnto the time of his extreame sicknes Where marke the word impraetermisse without pretermission how far the Lord Bishops are from this dilligence in our dayes Now touchyng this matter Augustine saith lib de Pastor cap ◠Vnde enim vivitur c. It is of nessitie saith he to take so much as the Pastor may be able to liue on and charitie requyreth so to be given unto him not as though the gospell were a thing to be sould and that should be the price thereof which they take that preach it for so they should indeed sell a great thing for a smale price but they ought to take of the people the sustentation of their necessitie and of the Lord a reward of their stewardship But let us heare what Augustine and all the Bishops of that parte of the world with him not onely say but also in full assemblie decree in the third Counsell of Carthage And first touchyng their titles Canon 26. Carth Coun 3. Vt primae sedis Episcopus c. We decre say they that the Bishop of the first seate shall not be called the cheife preist or hie preist or any such manner of thing but onely he shal be called Bishop of the first seate And marke that they say nor any such manner of thing And also these words but onely by which two wordes they clearly
they verily unto the Realmes with their Counsell as the Wolues unto the sheepe or the Foxes unto the geese And therefore in another place of that booke he saith As thou Canst heale no disease except thou begin at the roote 16 pag 114 even so canst thou Preach against no mischeife except thou begin at the Bishops Which saying of M. Tindale agreeth well with that the Prophet Ieremie saith From the Prophets of Ierusalem is wickednes gon foorth into all the land Iere 23 25. From the false Prophets before Christ as from the fountaine wickednes went forth over all the land and so from the false Bishops of the new Testamēt as from the roote wickednes groweth over all the Churches And speaking of these false Bishops M. Tindall saith They say that Peter was cheife of the Apostles verily as Appelles was called cheife of the Painters for his exeellent conning aboue other Pract. of prelats pa. 343. even so Peter may be called cheife of the Apostles for his activitie and boldnes aboue the other but that Peter had any authority or rule over his brethren and fellow Apostles is false and contrary to the scripture Christ forbad it in the last even before his passion and divers times before and taught alwayes the contrary as I haue rehearsed But saith M. Tindall the Popes kingdome is of this world For there one sort are your Grace your Holines your Fatherhood another my Lordbishop my Lord Abbot my Lord Prior c And in his defence of the English translation against that famous Papist More speaking of the names of Bishops Elders and Priest he saith All that were called Elders or Priests if they so will were called Bishops also though they haue devided the names now which thing thou maist evidently see by the first chapter of Titus and Acts 20. other places moe And when he layeth Timothie unto my charge how he was young then he weneth that he hath won his guilden spurres But I will pray him to shew me where he readeth that Paul called him Presbyteros Preist or Elder I durst not then call him Episcopus properly as he doth For these Overseers which we now call Bishops after the Greeke word were alwayes byding in one place to governe the Congregation there And touching unpreaching Ministers thus he writeth In what case stand they then expo Mat. 5 that haue benefices preach not Verely though they stand at the Altar yet are they excommunicate cast out of the living Church of Allmightie God And againe he saith Bishops and Preists that preach not are none of Christs nor non of his anoynting Obedi of achr pag 135 expo Mat 5 but servants of the beast whose marke they beare And touching the Election of Ministers he sayth Every man then may be a common preacher thou wilt say and preach every where by his owne authoritie Nay verely No man may yet be a common Preacher saue he that is called and chosen therto by the common ordinance of the Congregation And for Pluralities thus he speaketh even to the King and his Lords Now I appeale to the consciences of the Kings grace Pract. of prelats pa. 374. and his Lords what answer they will giue when they come before Christ in the last iudgment for their robbing of so many parishes of Gods word with holding every man so many chaplines in their houses with Pluralities of Benefices Obed. of achristi man pag 122. Now furthermore let us heare what this excellent light of the Gospell saith of the Oath yet in our spirituall Courts called the Oath Ex officio his words are these Let them iudge and condemne the trespasser under lawfull witnesses and not breake up into the consciences of men after the example of Antichrists Disciples and compell them either to forswere themselues by the Allmightie God and by the holy Gospell of his mercifull promise or to testifie against themselues Which abomination our Prelats learned of Caiaphas Math. 26. saying to Christ I adjure or charge thee in the name of the lyving God that thou tell us whether thou be Christ the Sonne of God Let that which is secret to God onely whereof no proofe can be made nor lawfull witnes brought abide unto the comming of the Lord which shall open all secreats If any malice breake forth that let them iudge onely for further authoritie God hath not given them And agayne in the same booke he saith I warned the Iudges that they take not an ensample how to Minister their offices pag 178 of our spiritualty which are bought and sold to do the will of Satan but of the Scripture whence they haue their authoritie Let that which is secret abide secret till God open it which is the iudge of all secreats For it is more thē a cruell thing to breake up into a mans heart and to compell him to put either soule or body in ierperdie or to shame himselfe If Peter that great piller for feare af death by forswering forsooke his Master ought we not to spare weake consciences And heerein I cannot but presently joyne the wordes of our booke of Martyrs where M. Fox with M. Tindall soūdeth the trumpet of most vehement words against the abomination of this Oath Ex officio where he saith Fox pa 625. edit 1570 The like law and statute in the time of Dioclesian and Maximinus was attempted as before appeareth pag 117 And for the more strength was written also in Tables of brasse to the intent that the name of Christ should utterly be extincted forever And yet the name of Christ remaineth where that brasen law written in brasse although it differ in manner and forme from this statute Ex officio yet to the end and crueltie to spill the bloud of Saints there is no difference betweene the one and the other Neither is there any diversitie touching the first originall doer and worker of them both For the same Satan which then wrought his uttermost against Christ before he was bound up the same also now after his loosing out doth what he can though not after the same way yet in the same intent For then with outward violence as an open enimy he did what he could Now by amore covert way under the title of the Church he impugneth the Church of Christ ussing a more subtile way to deceaue under gay pretended titles but no lesse pernitious in the end whereto he shooteth as well appeareth by his bloudie statute Ex officio But to returne to M. Tindall one thing more I will set downe of his and so goe forward vn to other lights of the Gospell set up among the golden Candlestickes of England where he discourseth of the words Church and Congregation used in the translation of the new Testament saying An answ to Sir Thomas More Dial p 250 col 2 Wherefore in as much as the Clergie as the nature of those hard and indurat Adamantstones is
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
vpon the Church of Sardis as a theife in the night and that they should not knowe vvhat hower he vvould come vpon them And to conclude that he vvould spue the luke warme Laodicians out of his mouth All vvhich greuous plagues in a short time fell vpon thos Churches of Asia And shall vvee escape if now in this great light of the Gospell vve retaine and maintayne any filthines of corruption in our Churches No God is not partiall neither vvith him is any variablenes neither shadowing by turnning Besides heer also it is vvorthly to be noted that among these seaven Churches of Asia representing all other thereis not one word spoken of an Archangel Archbishop or Lord Bishop that might over rule or governe all the rest vvhich in these our times are some of the greatest and most noisome corruptions vvhich doe overflowe all To vvhich purpose I heere set downe the vvords of M. Fox speaking of the first Primitiue Churches his vvords are these Act Mon. p 36 It is evident saith he to all men that haue eyes in their head c. that there was not then any one Mother Church aboue other Churches One Vniversall Church Militāt Invisible but the whole vniversall Church was the mother Church under which uniuersall Church in generall were comprehended all other particular Churches in speciall as sister Churches together not one greater then another but all in like equalitie c. But this ring of equalitie being broken all flewe in peeces Howbeit of this more shall be spoken God vvilling hereafter There remaineth now to speake of the third generall thing vvhich Christ heere commaundeth his servant Iohn to vvrite of namely Revel 1.19 the things that should come to passe cōcerning the Churches of God after the Apostles time to the end of the vvorld And how the Synagogue of Sathan and the vvhore of Babilon by litle and litle should creepe in and vvith her filthines endeavour to envenime the Churches till at the last she should become that glorious vvhore described in the 17. chapter clothed in scarlet and purple guilded vvith gold pretious stones and pearles and having a cup of gold in her hand full of abominations filthines of her fornication sitting upon the scarlet coullered Beast having seavē heads ten hornes and by her glorious power should banish the true Churches of God and make make them flie into the wildernes that is into secret places hidden and vnknowne vnto men But leaving the high estate of the Babilonish whore vvhich is the great Cittie that in Iohns time reigned over the Kings of the earth vvhich all men know vvas the Citie of Rome and now calleth her selfe the Catholique Church Leaving her as I haue said in her magnificence I vvill shew how by litle and litle she crept in and so at the last got vp vnto that her high estate Now this beginnyng of corruption both in doctrine and Discipline made no long delaye after the Apostles time Eusebius Hist Eccle For as Evsebius in his Ecclesiasticall History lib 3. cap 32. saith Vt vero et Apostolorum chorus c. As soone as the company of the Apostles and all that age which had received the hearing of the Lords owne liuely voyce was departed out of this world then as it were into an emptie house the wicked error of false doctrine thrust in and plunged her selfe Which thing also is euident by all Ecclesiasticall Histories as the heresie of Cerinthus sheweth about the yeare of our Lord 70. Which taught that the vvorld vvas not made of God but of Angells and that Circumcision vvas necessary to be observed and that the kingdome of Christ after the resurrection should be vpon the earth And likewise the heresy of the Ebionites about the yeare 85. Which taught that Christ vvas very man both by Father and Mother and that Moses law vvas necessary to be observed Thus daily many heresies and foule corruptions crept in so that by the time that Augustine and Epiphanius lived they vvrote speciall books against heresies to the number of an hundred severall heresies of note cōtayning all of them great corruptions some in doctrine and manners some in Discipline and orders of the Church Which corruption in Church-Discipline was often times the cause of the hereticall doctrine And heerin I purpose God assisting me cheifly at this time to insist shewing what the auncient Fathers of the Primitiue Church did practise teach in these pointes of religion now controversied among vs and likwise what the lightes of the gospell the blessed Martyrs of God from age to age since even vnto this day haue also practised and taught touching the same And this I doe the rather because many excellent men haue alreadie by manifold reasons grounded and taken out of the word of God proved that there ought to be a full reformation both in Doctrine and Discipline according to that order in the Church which Christ and his Apostles left Which must be acknowledged to be the onely sure ground of proofe for all pointes of controversie in the Church of God But because the enimyes of ful true Reformation of religion doe yet after the old fashion rest vpon custome antiquitie and auncient Fathers I haue thought good to follow this course before named that it might be plainely seene both how the cheife of the auncient Fathers and also of the principall lights set vp by the Lord in the deapth of the darknes of Antichrist with one voyce agrement taught practised and proved the same both by the scriptures and manifold reasons grounded thereon touching the matters of reformation now desired And heerin I thinke good for example before I enter into the rest to set downe out of Epiphanius the heresie of Audianus which heretickes were afterward called Anthropomorphits who being thrust out of the Church as simple men in time lacking learned teachers fell into a perswasiō and beleife that God was like vnto a man whereof they tooke the name of their heresie Erat autem vir a Mesopotamia oriundus clarus in patria sua c. Epiphanius de Heres Audianus saith Epiphanius was a man by birth of Mesopotamia a famous man in his owne Countrie for the sinceritie of his life and of faith and Zeale towards God which often beholding the things that were done in the Churches he did oppose himselfe against such evills even to the face of the Bishops and Elders and did reproue them saying These things ought not to be soe done these thinges ought not to be soe handled as a man studious of the veritie and of such thinges as are spoken by men which lead a most exacte life and are vsually spoken for loue of the truth Wherefore Audianus seeing such thinges as I haue said in the Churches he was driven to speake and confute it and kept not silence For if he saw any of the Cleargie to seeke after filthy luker whether he were Bishop or
Elder or any other he spake altogeather according to the rule of Gods law And if he saw any maÌ„ livyng in voluptuous pleasure and delicates or any man corrupting the Ecclesiasticall preaching and the lawes of the Church this man could not beare it but by wordes did reprehend it as I haue said And this was very grevous to them that were of a lewd life and for this cause he was despited with contumelies and suffered contradiction he was hated and suffered himselfe to be vexed and thrust out and tollerated shamefull ignominie continuing soe a long time in the Church among them vntill such time as certaine men violently rushing upon him droue him out for the same cause But hee would not suffer himselfe so to be driven out but rather endeavored himselfe to speake the truth and not to depart and breake the bonde of the vnion of the Catholicke Church Audianus was no Heretike nor his present company But their Successors were Anthropomorphits But when he had been often beaten both he and his companions and had suffered very greivous thinges lamenting exceedingly he tooke to himselfe the necessities of iniuries for his Councellour for he seperated himselfe from the Church and many togeather with him departed and so made a division having nothing different in the faith but did beleeue most rightly both he and all his company Thus farr Epiphanius touching the sect of these heretickes called Audiani and of the cause occasion meanes wherby it grew and thus farr was the shamfull corruptions in the order and discipline of the Church growne at that time which was about one hundred yeares before Epiphanius Neither may we thinke that the Bishops and cleargie of that age did without cloke or colour in plaine termes defend their Lordly pride and ambition but even as they doe now vnder the pretences of vnitie conformitie and peace of the Church For who can dreame or immagine that they would say these men ought to be thrust out of the Church because they speake against our pompous proud ambitious govermeÌ„t but no doubt their pretence was the breach of vnitie conformitie and refusing to subscribe to such orders pollicy of the Church as they had devised to maintaine themselues withall and their pompous estate without the which they pretended the Church could not be well governed But this place of Epiphanius I leaue to the reader further to consider of wishing him to obserue the integritie of life the sinceritie of faith the necessity that compelled them to speake the exceeding loathnes to make any schisme or to depart from the Church that was in these men vvho were so violently thrust out and this vvas not yet 300. yeares after Christ Herevnto I may joyne the pride and ambition of Paulus Samosatenus Bishop of Antioche who also was long before the time of Epiphanius of whom Eusebius saith Cum prius egens fuerit et pauperrimus Euseb Eccles histor lib 7 caâ— 26 et neque ex parentum successione neque vllam questus occasionem habuerit honestam nunc ad summas divitias pervenerit non aliunde nisi ex sacralegiis et ex his quae per fraudem diripuit When before he was a needie fellow saith Eusebius and a very poore man and neither by succession from his parents neither had any iust meanes of gaine he got vp to very great riches none other way but by sacriledge and of that which he gat by fradulent meanes Who is so blind that seeth not this Bishop Paulus to be a-perfect patterne of the L. Bishops of our dayes who coÌ„ming for the most part of poore parentage by hooke or by crooke become Lord-Bishops abounding in riches worldly honor Which thing Polydorus Virgilius being other wise himselfe a great fautor and maintainer of Lord-Bishops yet speaking of the pride of Paulus Samosatenus he saith Vnde propter hominis arrogantiam plerique Christi religionem detestabantur Polydor Virgill lâ—b 8 ab hoc Paulo opinor nostros pontifices pomparum ordinem quem nunc ducunt accepisse Whereby saith Polydor through this mans ' arrogancie many men detested the religion of Christ Wherefore it is that Polydor concludeth with these wordes Ab hoc Paulo opinor nostros pontifices pomparum ordinem quem nunc ducunt accepisse Of this Paule I suppose our Bishops or Prelates haue taken the order of Pompe which they now carrie Thus farr and thus plaine speaketh Polydor Virgill And Eusebius in the place before of this Bishop Paulus saith Directio quoque praeeuntium et constipatio insequentium qùam plurima querebatur ita vt omnes qui videbant horrescerent et detestarentur per illius arrogantiam religionem divinam He sought also to haue troopes of men to go before him and traines of many to follow him in so much that all men which saw it did vtterly abhorre it and through his arrogancie detested the religion of God Thus you see how the Dragon that old subtile Serpent even then practised to corrupt the religion of Christ and so to bring it into vtter detestation But to returne neerer to the first originall corruptions that began immediatly after the Apstles time you shall find in all the most auncient Fathers a great libertie taken to leaue the very wordes of the Holy Ghost and insteed of them to vse such improper speaches names and words as they thought fit and convenient to expresse the same thing as to call the Ministers of the word of God and the Pastors of the Church Sacerdotes Priests the Deacons Levites the table of the Lord an Aulter the whole action of the Supper of the Lord a Sacrifice and at the last they cald it Missio and then Missa a Masse Vnproper speaches likewise they called a Diocese a Province by the name of a Church and at last the whole Vniversall multitude of ChristiaÌ„s throughout the world by the name of the Catholike Church As also their Teachers Gouernors by the name of Bishops All which are very improper speaches And thes improper speaches are as frequent and as commonly vsed among the auncient Fathers as the wordes of the Holy Ghost are vsed in the scripturs Wherin we may obserue out of what smale beginnings and litle sparks of error great flames and horrible corruptions doe growe as a line beginning from the very Center to be drawne never so litle a wrie maketh a shamfull error when it commeth to the circumference so the Fathers at the begiÌ„ning vsing these termes thought full litle that such a foule Idol as the God of the Masse such a spirituall tyrant as a Vniversall Bishop should haue growne out of them but they spake alluding vnto the Church Priests Levites Aulters Sacrifices of the law in the old Testament which were indeed figures shadowes In which mistaking Satan that old serpent had his drift to set up his Idoll in processe of time thus reasoning vpoÌ„ these termes as our Papists doe yet to
that thou alwayes be mindfull of vs. August epist â—â— Likewise Ierome writing to Augustine saith Domino vere sancto et beatissimo Papae Augustino Hierenimus in Domino salutem To the right holie and most blessed Pope Augustine Ierome wisheth health in the Lord. The very same words also are vsed vnto Augustine in his epistle 21. And so likewise in the rest Neither doe I speake these things to condemne those excellent auncient Fathers who otherwise many yeares were singular instruments profited greatly the Church of God but to shew how great a buses crept in duringe the most pure times like as hath been before said even in the time of the Apostles themselues and after more more vnto the full setting up of Antichrist the Pope that great Papa the Bishop of Rome who alone gat this naÌ„e Papa Pope at the last to be peculiar proper to himselfe Thus growing vp by little and litle from the first beginnyng of the petie Papa vntill he and all his cleargie with him came vp vnto their full perfection and papisticall dignitie Which time when it drew neere errours and most enormous and shamefull abuses crept not in by litle and litle but were throwne in by shouelles full and cart loads And further I noted it to set forth the wonderfull providence of God without which nothing is done in heaveÌ„ earth or hell To set such manifest charecters and markes vpon the first beginnings of mischeife which although it could hardlie be discerned in the beginnings thereof yet in the event and full high estate wherevnto they grew a very child might vnderstand perceaue and see it So that at the lenght when the new light of the gospell should shine even the old and first originall errors might therby the better be corrected For in Prophecies mysteries it must alwayes be obserued which that most auncient Father Ireneus saith in his 4. booke 43. chapter Omnis enim prophetia priusquam habet efficaciaÌ„ c. All prophecies saith he before they haue the effect be as it were riddles ambiguities vnto men but when the time is come and that is come to passe which is prophesied then the prophesies haue a cleare and vndoubted exposition So we see in this mysterie of Papa or Pope when it first began it was such an aenigma as was almost vnpossible to vnderstand wherevnto the old Serpent ment to bring it But now the event thereof being come and the Angell betweene heaven and earth preaching the everlastinge Gospell and setting up the new light thereof in many Nations and Churches every man that wincketh not may see it Now therefore to proceede as Augustine saith in his 18. booke and Second chapter of the Cittie of God That it may the better appeare how Babilon the first Rome keepeth her course with the Citie of God whom shee maketh a pilgrime or stranger in this world When the name of Pope had thus possessed the Bishops whereof many were both godly and learned yet they never drempt of the mischeif that followed nor of the great Papa the Pope that man of sinne even the sonne of perdition that exalteth himselfe against all that is called God and sitteth in the temple of God sheewing himselfe that he is God The mystery of which iniquity began to worke even in the Apostle Pauls time How be it the godly Fathers as I said little suspecting any such matter laboured tooth and nayle to keepe under the Pompe pride and ambition of the Bishops Pastors of the Church which they saw now began to grow both in riches and regiment and which after their time grew in few yeares beyond all measure But because I shall haue occasion to use the examples and doctrine of the auntient learned and godly Fathers against the poÌ„pe pride and lordly estate of Bishops A sufficient maiÌ„tenance is due to the ministery And what it may be least I should seeme to be injurous and prejudiciall to the sufficiencie of honor living and maintenance which both by the word of God and by the iudgment of the auncient Fathers doth of right belong vnto all Pastors Bishops or ministers of the word and which the authority of all christian Magistrats Princes ought to provide for theÌ„ I will adventure to set downe a proportion of such estate and living as I am fully perswaded doth of right and by the law of God appertaine vnto them and ought by Princes and Magistrats to be appoynted and provided for them Wherein I cannot but obserue the most excellent and honorable advice and charge which the Kings Majestie in his owne booke giveth vnto his Sonne our Noble Prince As first in his preface he saith I exhort my Sonne to be benificiall vnto the ministrie Basilicon doâ—oÌ„ praysing God that there is presently a sufficient number of good men of them in this kingdome of Scotland and yet are they all knowne to be against the forme of the English Church And in his second booke his Majestie chargeth him that he should see all the Churches within his Dominions planted with good Pastors the Scholes the Seminarie of the Church maintained the doctrine and Discipline preserved in puritie according to Gods word and sufficient provision for their sustentation It perteineth therefore to the duety of Princes to see that there be a sufficient provision for the sustentation and maintenance of their Pastors and suerly Gods law doth expresly requier it And as the law of God doth evidently forbid them a Lordly estate so it doth vtterly condemne the beggerly and miserable estate of the Pastors and preachers of his word Wherefore the law saith Beware that thou forsake not the Levite all the time that thou shalt be vpon the earth Vpon which place M. Calvine saith Deut 12 Moses addeth That the people should beware in any wise that they defrauded them not of their right And not without cause For as I haue told you before saith M. Calvine God had appoynted them of purpose to serue him Calvin and the greater parte of them also to teach his people that his law might be knowne Seeing it was so it was good reason that they should haue wherewith to finde and maintaine them For in very deede aparte of the inheritaunce belonged to them because they were descended of the linage of Abraham But God put them from it to the end they should not be troubled neither with tilling of the ground nor with any other businesses but onely giue them selues wholly to the doeing of their office And it is not without cause that Moses plainly exhorteth the people to doe their duety in this behalfe for wee see the vnthankfulnes of the world They Idolaters can finde in their hearts to mainteine their Preists and they spare for no cost but as for them that serue God purely there is commonly no account made of them as hath been seene in all times And further he saith And if it were in the worlds
choice it had alwayes lever to maintaine a whole Covent of Munks and Canons to houle out with full gorge than to find one Preacher that would speake as he ought to doe And surely it is plainely seene at this day in the Popery and in such places where such reliques of Popery are left that they had rather maintaine their Lord Bishops all though they be unpreaching Prelats with many thowsand pounds of yearely revenues then good Pastors and diligent Preachers with a hundred or twaine Prov. 30.6 But to this purpose the words of Agur in the 30 of the Proverbes are worthy to be noted Where he saith Every word of God is pure he is a sheild to those that trust in him Put nothing vnto his words least he reproue thee and thou be found a lyer Two things haue I requyred of thee denie me them not before I dye Remoue far from me vanity and lyes Giue me not povertie nor riches feed me with foode convenient for me least I be full and denie thee and say who is the Lord Or least I be poore steale and take the name of God in vaine And marke that he saith deny me not them before I dye that is grant me these two things not for a day or a time or for a yeare or two But that I may enioye them Lavater in Proverbs and obserue them all the dayes of my life Which thinge Lavater in his Commentarie upon those wordes rightly understandeth Saying Nec tantum postulavit ad diem c. Neither doe the Prophete to this purpose make this request for a day or for a Moneth or for a yeare or two but for all the time of his life For this it signifieth which he saith denie me not vntill I dye that is to say as long as ever I shall liue In which words it is manifest that Agur in his Prophecie speaking as he was mooved by the holy Ghost setteth downe himselfe as a patterne for all the Prophets Pastors and Teachers of the word of God What manner of state and living they ought to desire and of right ought to be given vnto them Namely a meane estate betweene poverty and riches neither to set them vp like Lords nor to tread them downe like beggers neither to pamper them with the abundance of many thowsands nor to abase them with lesse then one hundred And this the Apostle Paule doth plainely confirme in his Epistle to the Corinthians where he saith Doe ye not knowe that they which minister about the holy things â— Cor 9 13 14. eate of the things of the Temple And they which waite at the Alter are partakers with the Alter So also hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the Gospell should liue of the Gospell Vppon which place saith M. Musculus and with him to the same effecte all the best Commentaries both of the Protestants late writers Musc in 1. Cor. and also of the auncient Fathers Vivant inquit Victus necessitas vivendi verbo expressa est vt intelligas tantum victus deberi ex evangelio Christi ministro quantum ad necesiariam vitae sustentationem sufficere potest non quantum delitiae et luxus exigunt Should liue saith he the necessitie of foode sustentation is expressed by the word liue that thou shouldest vnderstand that such a lyving is due for the preaching of the Gospell vnto the Minister of Christ as may suffice to the necessary sustentation of life and not such a living as delicacie requiers And old Barnard upon the same place Bernard which though according to the proverbe he saw not all yet saw he so much that he saith Vivat de altari iuxta Apostulum alimenta et quibus tegatur habens his contentus sit vivat non superbiat non luxurietur denique non ditetur nec ex clericatu ditior fiat He ought to liue of the Alter as the Apostle saith that is having foode and rayment let him there with be content he should liue of the Gospell saith Barnard and not to be puft up and not liue delicatly not be made rich of the gospell to conclude by his Ecclesiasticall office he should be made never the richer And here I thinke good likewise to set downe touching the same matter the words of our blessed Martir and reverent Father Doctor Barnes answeryng them that sayd they sold not the word of God but receaved the reward of their labours Barnes pag 265 Tell me saith D. Barnes ye that be without shame if you doe sell but your labours Is it not a soare and vnlawfull price to sell it so deare what Bishop can deserue by his labour a thowsand poundes by the yeare and yet some of them haue a great deale more and labour nothing at all How deare would these men sell their labours if they should be Tanker bearers they would make water dearer then wine Yea tell me what labour there is within the Realme that is halfe so deare sould as their idlnes is But O you bellie gods did not Christs Apostles take paines and labour about the ministration of the word And in fulfilling of their office more in one day then you doe in all your liues and yet was it not lawfull for them more to receiue then a living For our M. Christ said the worke man is worthy of his meate so that our Master would that they should receaue noe more but that was necessary Also S. Paule saith Our Lord did ordaine that they which preach the gospell should liue on the gospell Now which of you all doth preach the gospell Not one and yet will you enioye those innumerable possessions S. Ierome saith one this same text Chrys in â— Tit. 9 You must liue of the Gospell but not be rich Also Chrisostome saith I say bouldy that the Bishops and Prelats of the Church may haue nothinge but meate and drinke and clothinge least they should set their affections uppon those thinges Heere haue you plainely saith Doctor Barnes that if you did labour faithfully and truely in the gospell you could haue but a living thereon and no Lordly possessions And thus far D. Barnes one of our owne English Ecclesiasticall reverend Fathers and blessed Martir of God Now the Apostle in the same chapter proueth that the Preachers of the Gospell ought to haue not onely a bare living but also maintenance when he saith 1 Cor. 9.3 4 5 6 My defence to them that examine me is this Haue we not power to eate and drinke Or haue we not power to leade about a wife being a sister as well as the rest of the Apostles and as the brethren of the Lord Cephas Or I onely and Barnabas haue not we power not to worke By these words it is most manifestly and cleerly proved that the Preachers of the Gospell with their wiues and houshoulds should haue such a sufficiency of lyving as might maintaine them in good sorte with out
not foure or fiue thowsand pounds by the yeare nor made him a Lords grace nor an Archprophet but let him liue in-such a meane estate as hath been before declared and as the Prophet thought meetest for himselfe to continew in And not unfitly heerevnto may be joyned the history of Constantin the great and his singular loue and favour towardes the Ministers and Preachers of the word of God in his time that we may see together what was the estate both of the Prophets in the old Testament and of the Preachers of the word of God in the New And how Kings Princes maintayned thē which most dearly loved them In the life of Constantine thus it is written Dei vero administros ad se accersitos semper honore praecipuo dignos censebat et omni officio prosequebatur Vit. Const apud Euseb nihil circa devotos addictosque numini benignitatis aut humanitatis omittebat Homines quidem de vultu ornatuque tenues alia tamen apud eum nota convictores erant haud asseclae The Ministers of God being called unto him he ever thought them most worthy of speciall honor and did reverence them withall duetifulnes and he omitted nothing towards them who were devoute and dedicated to God which pertained to loving kindnes or curtesie yet they were men indeede in countenance and garnishment but poore but in another note they were familiar companions with him and not waiting servants I neede not to amplifie this matter ye see as I haue saide the estate of the Ministers of Gods word both in the old Testament and in the New vnder those Kings and Princes which so highly favoured honored and so dearely loved them And yet never made thē Lords nor Archlords nor maintayned them in any pompous or lordly estate And heere I will ad the example of Athanasius who must needs haue been extolled and lifted up unto a Lordly dignitie by that great and mightie Emperour Constantine if he had not thought it vtterly unlawfull so to exalt any Bishop in the world Being the onely man aboue all the rest among all the three hundred Bishops in the Counsell of Nice which confuted and confounded the horrible heresie of Arius which then was readie to overrunne the Church of God in so much that he was called Oculus mundi the eye of the world And whose Confession is set up and received even to this day in all christian Churches and called Athanasius Creed yet when he was accused to haue turned the corne which the Emperour sent unto the Citie to other uses then the Emperour had appoynted The Synod of Alexandria in their Apologie for Athanasius maketh this answer Synod Alexan. Apol 2. Quid Athanasio remotius a crimine qui si vel in ipsa Alexandria fuisset quid tamen ipsi cum negotiis prefecti What could be further of from fault then Athanasius Which if he had ben at that time even in the Citie of Alexandria yet what had he to doe with the affaires of the Magiistrate And further they say Nec fieri posse vt homo privatus et pauper tantum virium haberet Neither could it be possible that such a private and poore man should be able to doe it Heere you see the estate that Athanasius the most famous Bishop in the world at that time was in and how the Bishops themselues and the most godly Princes and Emperours thought fit for thē to liue in All these things being considered I conclude that the Pastor or Preacher of the word of God ought to be so maintayned that being freed from all other busines he might haue one man at all times to waite upon him Whereunto a convenient proportion of living as the state and rate of thinges stand at this day in England cannot be lesse then one hundred pounds by the yeare considering that he may not attend upon any other occupying affayres or busines but onely and continually upon prayer and administration of the word Wherefore I say at the least one hundred by the yeare for so the sound judgment of reason requyreth Howbeit if some one be aboue other charged with many children or other wayes A reasonable proportion for a Pastors maintenance or in speciall sorte with excellencie of guifts be found worthy to be preferred before other the living unto such may ought to be encreased yet so that none exceede the revenues of two hundred or there about Which thinge agreeeth well with the words of his Majestie in his second booke of his Basilicon Doron where he saith As some will deserue to be preferred before other pa. 44. so chaine them with such bonds as may preserue that estate from creeping to corruption And surely a foule and shamefull corruption it is that any Ecclesiasticall person should be maintained upon and by any Ecclesiasticall lyving exceeding the reasonable estate and proportion before named For so he is both corrupted himselfe and also robbeth other of that which by right belongeth unto them while the one is lifted up to a Lordship and the other kept under in a beggerly estate Now to goe forwarde with the proceeding and growing up of Antichrist and his Babilonish whore When the Bishops had taken a degree aboue the rest of the Pastors and had the name of Papa as it were written one their foreheads and usually given them in their titles and their regiment creaping up to whole Cities Diocesses So that some of them began to maintaine themselues as Lords and to claime a Lordly estate The godly learned Fathers not seeing the mischeifes that were alreadie by a generall and common consent crept in whereby it was imposible to keepe out the foule corruptions following not onely tollerated the foule abuses brought in but also they themselues in their simplicitie with a zeale of God though not accordyng to knowledge brought in many bald Ceremonies and corruptions which for brevityes sake I will passe over and onely set downe the words of our English Father George Alley Bishop of Exeter of the corruptions in the Sacrament of Baptisme brought in by the auncient Fathers Alley Whereby we may see the weaknes even of the first times and former ages Tertullian writeth saith he that when we come to the water we stay somewhat before in the Church vnder the hand of the Preist and doe protest that we will renounce the Devill his pompe and all his Angels After that we be thrise dipped in the water de coron militi◠answering no more then the Lord hath determined in his gospell And then being taken out we tast of milke and hony And from that day we abstaine from being washed by the space of a whole weeke Here you may see saith our Bishop of Exeter by the words of Tertullian what rites were added unto Baptisme as abrenunctions three immersions tasting of milke and hony abstinence from washing lib. 15. in Esa In his first booke against Martion he maketh mention also
of oyle S. Ierome testifieth that wine was added to the milke he writeth in his commentaries after this manner The Lord did provoke vs not only to buye wine but also milke which signifieth the innocencie of infants which manner and type is even at this day observed in the west Churches that wine milke be given to them that be borne againe in Christ S. Augustine in certaine places of his works doth shew that divers prayers and manners were vsed about Baptisme he maketh mention of Exorcismes and Exufflations against the contrary power he speaketh of Godfathers which promise faith for the infants he maketh mention also of oyle wherewith the christened were annoynted After Augustine Rabanus Maurus Bishop of Mentz maketh rehearsall of many moe Ceremonies in Baptism as to signe him that was Baptised with the Cross in the forehead and in the breast to blesse salt and to put it into his mouth of a white cloth which we call the Chrisome All those things and many such other were added from time to time by men But if antiquitie may seeme to defend the manner of these rites who dare deny the authority of the Apostles far to excell their authorities for the Apostles were longe before them Therefore it shall be best to cleaue to and follow the steppes of the Apostles as well in the ministerie of Baptism as in other godly ministrations Thus far our Bishop of Exeter And as these foule corruptions and other such like were even then brought into Baptisme so likewise in the Supper of the Lord many other orders of the Church As namely the filthy vermin of Monks in the time of Augustine and Ierome grew to be almost innumerable which although at that time they had very coulerable pretenses and great shew of vertue and holines yet had they noe ground in the word of God and so by the event we now manifestly see that they were nothing else but the very Locusts which even then began to come out in the smoke of the bottomles pit spoken of in the 9. chap. of the Revelation Yet these auncient Fathers tolerating and bringing in these and many other follies and Humane inventions laboured with might maine to keepe downe the poÌ„pe pride and stately regiment which they now saw grew so fast and without measure in the Bishops Pastors and the rest of the clergie as things in the Church which they saw to be most intollerable and most cleerely against the word of God And therefore they fought against them both by their examples of life by their doctrine and by generall constitutions and decrees made in their assemblies and Counsells Basil moral 70 cap. 28 As Basilius Magnus which saith Quod non oportet eum cui concreditum est predicare Evangelium plus possidere quam ea quae ad necessariuÌ„ ipsius vsum sufficiant That it is not lawfull for him to whom the preaching of the word of God is committed to possesse more then that which may suffice for the necessary vse of this life And to shew the practise of his owne life thervnto according vpon occasion being threatened with the confiscation of his goods he answereth Siquidem horum nihil me cruciari poterit equidem opes non habeo Zoz lib. 6 ca. 16 praeterquam vestem laceram et paucos libros sicque terram incolo quasi semper ex ea migraturus Certainely saith Basil none of these thinges can greatly vex me for surely I haue no riches more then a ragged gowne a few bookes and so I dwel vpon earth as looking ever to depart out of it And Gregorie Bishop of Nisse in his funerall oration in which he did celebrate the prayse and memory of this his brother Basil the great saith Placuerat ab initio nihil quicquam possidere et paupereÌ„ esse tanquam petra immota atque inconcussa stabile firum Impress Basil Anno 1562. pag 347 id iudicium fuit concupisebat per puritatem appropinquare Deo It pleased him saith Gregorie Nissen to possesse nothing at all and to be a poore man and this his judgment was stable and firme as a rocke that could not be removed and he coveted by puritie to drawe neere unto God Marke well what a Puritane this Basil the great was who had his addition of greatnes not for the greatnes of riches but for the greatnes of his learnyng vertue and purity of life And marke how the Bishop of Nisse also numbreth these things among his excellent vertues namely that he lived in a meane estate which he calleth povertie in comparison of pompous dignitie and Lordship As he that may dispend but one hundred pounds by the yeare is but a begger in respect of him that may dispend three or foure thowsand Thus much of Basil the great And Ierome complaineth and cryeth out against the Lordship of Bishops of his time in his Commentary upon on the booke of the Preacher saying Hoc autem propterca evenit quia nemo peccantibus Episcopis audet contradicere nec statim Deus scelus ulciscitur Ierome sed differt paenam dum expectat penitentiam This mischeife commeth to pass saith Ierom because wheÌ„ Bishops doe naughtily no man dares speake against them and God doth not straight way take vengaunce of the abominable wickednes but he deferrs the plague expecting their repentance Heere we may see by these few wordes of Ierome how the Lordly state of Bishops was even then crept up what thinke yee Ierome would say if he saw their magnificent estate in our age Alas the poore proud Bishops of Ieromes time if they should be compared with these the comparison would be as between Mountaines and moule hills But straight way after in the same place Ierome saith further Nemo quip pe audet accusare maiorem propterea quasi sancti et beati et in preceptis Domini ambulantes augent peccata peccatis For indeede saith Ierome no man dareth to accuse him that is greater then himselfe and therefore as though they were holy and blessed men they goe foâ—â—â—rd and heape sinne upon sinne And heere it is worthy to be noted how Ierome againe in this place girdeth at the superiority that Bishops then had got aboue other Ministers of the word For saith he no man dares accuse him that is greater theÌ„ himselfe and therefore they goe boldly from one wickednes to another and this is indeede all the advantage that they get by their superiority But if that mischeife came of that small superiority what a world of wickednes commeth of the Lordly estate wherein the Bishops now are But Ierom in the same place goeth forth saying Difficilis est accusatio in Episcopum si enim peccaverit non creditur et si convictus fuerit non punitur It is a difficult accusation against a Bishop saith Ierome for if he offends no man belieues it yea if he be convicted yet is he not punished And agreeable speech vnto
reject the titles of Archbishop Primate c. And touching their Lordly estate in life and livyng Carth. Coun. 4 In the 34 Canon of the fourth Counsell of Carthage they decreed that a Bishop should not suffer a Minister or an Elder to stand when he himselfe did sitt and in the 14 Canon of the same counsell they decree thus Vt Episcopus non longe ab ecclesia hospitiolum habeat That a Bishop should haue his litle poore dwellyng not far from the Church Heere you see that as Ierome dwelt in his Tuguriolum So Augustine bindeth himselfe and the rest of the Bishops to their Hospitiolum So far Bishops ought to be from their princely Palatium But Augustine and the rest of the Bishops with him seeyng the mischeife of Bishoplike pompe growyng so fast seemed to thinke that no wordes could be spoken or decreed plaine enough to pull it down Therefore in the 16 Canon of the same Counsell they say decree thus Vt Episcopus vilem supellectilem et mensam ac victū pauperem habeat et dignitatis suae authoritatem fide et vitae meritis quaerat We decree say they that a Bishop shall haue base houshould stuffe his manner of livyng and his table poore and let him seeke the authority of his dignity by faith worthynes of life By what more effectuall words were it possible for Augustine and his fellowes to pull of the Lordly Cappe of maintenance which the Lord Bishops doe weare and how could they more violently stampe it under their feete Yet heere perhaps some will say we cannot deny but Augustine by way of doctrine decree condemneth the Lordship of Bishops yet he himselfe lived like a Lord and so doth the Pope also call himselfe and writeth himselfe Servus servorum Dei The servant of the servants of God Yet liveth he like a Lord of Lords both spirituall temporall raigneth like a Prince by his spirituall Lordship over the soule and by the temporall over the body Well then let vs see how like a Lord Augustine lived Possidonius Bishop of Calamine well acquainted with Augustine Possid de vit Aug. himselfe beyng a Bishop writeth the life of Augustine where he so highly commendyng his worthy life nombreth these things also among his excellent vertues First he saith Docebat et praedicabat ille privatim et publice in domo et in ecclesia He taught and preached both publikely and privatly both in the house and in the Church And as hath been before declared without pretermission he never failed to preach the word of God in his Church even unto the extremitie of sicknes And touchyng his houshould estate and the rest of his life Possidonius saith Mensa vsus est frugali et parca quae quidem inter olera et legumi na etiam carnes aliquando propter hospites vel quosque infirmiores continebat Ibidem cap 22. He vsed his table sparynge and frugall which among beanes pease and such like poore mens fare somtime also it had flesh thereon for strangers or for some that were sicke Behould this Lordbishops ordinary diet and daintie fare perceaue ye not by his cheare how like a Lord he lived But let us go forward Cochlearibus tantum argentis vtens cetera vasa quibus mensae inferebantur cibi vel testacca vel lignea vel marmorea erant Vsing saith Possidonius onely silver spones the rest of the vessels in which meate was brought in to his table were either wodden or earthen or marble Here I might reason thus he lived not like a Lord for he eate his meate in wodden dishes and one the other side he lived not like a begger for he used to eate with silver spones Neither was he driven to doe this by the beggery of necessity but by a willyng purpose of heart And also saith Possidonius he ever kept good hospitalitie marke that Possidonius beyng a Bishop also commendeth him for this hospitalitie Further he saith to Augustines commendation ib. cap 12 Et in ipsa mensa magis lectionem vel disputationem quam epulationem vel potationem diligebat And at his very table he loved more readīg or disputation then either eatyng or drinkyng But heere perhaps some cunnyng caviler will say it may be he lived so sparingly to gather the more and to in rich his childrē or heires or those on whom after his death he would bestow that he had But let such a shifter heare what Possidonius saith further Testamentum autem nullum fecit quia unde faceret pauper Christi non habuit He made saith Possidonius no testament for the poore christian saith he had nothing to make a testament of And to conclude he saith Domum vero vel agrum seu villam nunquā emere voluit Augustine would nether buye house or felld or farme We see here Augustine both in full resolution of iudgnēt and in the whole practise of his life vtterly condemneth the Lordship of Bishops Yet rather then they would follow him they would plainely reject him saying it is but one Doctors opinion forgetting that which is said in our English Homilie and commaunded to be read and declared to all our people that Augustine was the best learned of all the auncient writers Nor remembring that which hath been before proved namely that not only Augustine alone but all the whole assembly of Bishops and auncient Fathers in the Counsell of Carthage doe with him with one voyce and consent fully condemne and treade under their feete their Lordly estate But let us heare what other Doctors also say to this matter Ambrose upon this place of Paule to Timothie Ambros in 1 Tim. cap. 5 The Elders that rule well are worthy of double honor especially they which labour in the word and doctrine saith Non vt abundet sed vt non desit Dicit enim scriptura Non infrenabis bovem triturantem dignus est operarius mercede fua Tanta merces debet esse evangelizantis regnum Dei qua neque contristetur neque extollatur Not that he should abound saith Ambrose but that he should not want For the scripture saith thou shalt not mousell the mouth of the Oxe that treadeth out the corne and the laborer is worthy of his reward So great a reward ought he to haue that preacheth the Gospell of the kingdome of God by which he should neither be greived with neede nor lifted vp with abundāce What could be more plainely spoken for the meane estate of the preacher and for the vtter condemning of the beggerie of a Minister and the Lordship of a Bishop who are both comprehended under the name of Preacher of the Gospell Not that he should haue a bundance saith Ambrose but that he should not be in neede that he should neither be grieved nor exalted but with a meane and a reasonable sufficiencie to content himselfe And againe on the first epistle to the Thessalonians cap. 5. he saith Hoc
est quod dicit et in alia epistola Presbiteros duplici honore honorandos c. This is that the Apostle speaketh in another epistle that the Elders are worthy of double honor which labour in the word and doctrine For it may greiue him which suffereth through neede to keepe the exercise that may profite the hearers For what is one the better to haue honor without profite or how is it a great matter to offer him carnall thinges which giveth him spirituall things For as riches beget negligence of salvation so needines while it seeketh to be satisfied declines from iustice And therefore the Prophet Agur in the Proverbs of Solomon Prov. 30 desireth to be made neither over rich nor extreame needy Behold heere the excellent moderation of lyving estate which Ambrose so precisely setteth downe for the preacher of the word of God And this memorable saying of Ambrose in the Counsell of Aquilegia is commonly aleaged by the best late writers against the popish pride and Lordship of Bishops Gloriosa in sacerdotibus Domini paupertas Poverty is an excellent or glorious thing in the Preists of the Lord. And as M. Fox and many of the best Protestant writers affirme Fox pag 1263 edition 1583. In the time of Ambrose this proverbe tooke his originall that sumptuous pallaces did pertaine unto Emperors and Churches unto Preists And marke that it was growen then to a proverbe that is to a speach which the common people used and was perswaded generally to be true And these wordes of Ambrose also are commonly aleaged Et intra Palatium certare non possum qui secreta palatii nec quero nec novi And within a pallace saith Ambrose I cannot dispute Sarav de minist grad cap 2â— who neither know nor seeke after the secreats of a pallace And for Ambroses diligence in preaching wherein he so fare differeth from our Lord Bishops it is worthy to be noted which Augustine himself saith of him Aug confes 6 â—8 Et enim quidem in populo verbum veritatis recte tractantem omni dominico audiebam And I heard Ambrose saith he every Lords day publickely and soundly preaching the word of truth And now to his Lordly estate of life and how like a Lord he lived and surely if ever any Bishop might haue lived like a Lord Ambrose might haue best done it beyng set up by the Emperour before he was Bishop into a lordly and noble estate So. lib 5 even to be the Emperours Lieftenant in the great Citie of Millaine Where his authority and countenance was such that commyng into the middest of the people where the rage of contention between the Arians and Catholiques was very great of all sides the rage ceassed And with one voyce they all chose him to be their Bishop saith the story all the Bishops that were present said that the vniforme voyce of the people was the very voyâ—e of God and therefore he ought not to refuse it So thaâ— the consent of the Emperour being had he was presently made Bishop of Millaine Costerius And Costerius writing his life saith that Valentinian the Emperour wrote thus familiarly vnto him after he was made Bishop Macte igitur virtute esto c. Be of good courage saith the Emperour vnto him doe that which belongeth to thy office take care that the christian affayres continew safe souÌ„d and that the discipline of the auncient religion persevere and continue uncorrupted c. And afterward fol. the 6. the Emperour hath these wordes of Ambrose Cuius ego authoritatem tanti facio vt is solus sit queÌ„ ego Episcopi nomine dignum censeam Whose authority saith Valentinian the Emperour I so highly esteeme that I thinke him the onely man worthy the name of a Bishop Not withstanding all this Costerius concludeth of his Lordly estat with these words Non satellitio aut clientelis stipatus neque potentiae magnitudine formidabilis sed rebus ac censu pauper He was not saith Costerius invironed or beset with a great retinue of men nor with a company retayned to guard his person neither was he dreadfull or to be feared for his greatnes but in substance revenues he was poore And a non after speaking of ambition and covetousnes saith Costerius Verum is ab hac peste adeo liber fuit c. He was so free from this pestilence that after he had spent all that he had in vertuous and godly uses having now nothing in his house which he might either giue to helpyng of the poore or to the redeemyng them that were in captivitie he brake in peeces the vessels of the Temple for the same purpose Thus much of Ambrose both of his dignity before he was Bishop and of his poore estate afterward Now let us see what Chrysostome writeth and teacheth concernyng the Lordship of Bishops Chrysostome Socra schola lib. 6 ca. 3. The Emperour Arcadius saith Socrates Ecclesiasticus with the generall consent both of preists and people sent for him And to the end his consecration might be of more authority by coÌ„maundement of the Emperour there were present many other Bishops Where first note that Chrysostome was so famous a man that not onely the Emperour and the Clergy but also the common people who kept vntill that time yea and many yeres after even as long as remained any face of a true Church their right and interest in the election of Bishops and Ministers had intelligence of Chrysostom worthines to be their Bishop of whoÌ„ he was generally called for his eloquence excellency of speakyng teaching the goulden mouthed Doctor Let us heare then what this goulden mouth vttereth for the Lordly estate of Bishops upon this place of Mathew Math. 10.10 The work man is worthy of his meate Cibo suo dixit Christus ne Apostoli plus aliquid querant Marke saith Chrysostome that Christ saide the worke man is worthy of his meate signifiyng thereby that they ought to take no more but their food And upon these words in the first Epistle to the Corin. 9. ca Who goeth a warfare any time at his owne cost c. Hom 2 1. EtiniÌ„ militis sortitudinem exhibere oportuit et agricolae diligentiam et pastoris curam et cum eis omnibus nihil supra necessitatem accipere For the preacher of the gospell ought to shew forth the valiant courage of a Souldier the dilligence of a husbaÌ„dman and the carefulnes of a Shepheard and withall these to take no more but that necessity requyreth And in the same place immediatly he saith Recte quidem non de agnis sed de lacte loquutus est vt ostenderet parvo lucro magistruÌ„ contentum esse oportere et solo victu necessario The Apostle saith Chrysostome speaketh well of eatyng the milke but not of eating the Lambes that he might shew that a Teacher ought to content himselfe with a small gayne and
onely with a needfull lyving And againe he saith Sed quēadmodum sacerdotes c. Like as the Preists liue of the holy service and Alter so they that preach the gospell ought to liue of the gospell and as they doe eate so these take their livyng but they doe not abound nor gather any treasure And upon the second chapter to the Philippians sermon the 9. Even speakyng in the defence of the Pastors maintenance he hath these words Dic quaeso sericisvestitur multitudinem sequentium et concomitantium habens Circa forum arroganter incedit Equo vehitur Domos edificat habens vbi maneat Si ista facit et ego reprehendā et non par cam imo ipsū sacerdotio quoque indignū dico Quomodo enim admonebit ne superfluis istis vacent cum se ipsum admonere nequeat Si vero necessarium victum abunde habuerit ideo ne iniustus erit Sed circum ire oportebat et mendicare Et tu vt discipulus nihil inde dic quaeso pudifieres At pater quidem carnalis si hoc faceret turpe putares Si vero spiritualis ad hoc cogatur non quaeres pre pudore latebras Tell me I pray thee saith he is the Pastor clothed in silke having a great number followyng accompaning him Goeth he proudly about the Market place Is he a horsebacke or at his foote cloth doth he build houses having already an habitation to dwell in If he doe these thinges I my selfe will reproue him neither will I spare him yea I my selfe also say that such a one is vnworthy of the Preisthood For how shall he admonish other men that they giue not over themselves to those superflutious things seeyng he cannot admonish himselfe But if he haue a plentifull necessary lyving shall he therefore be counted uniust Thou wilt say he ought to goe up and downe and begg And I pray thee tell me wouldest thou not be ashāed to be the Disciple of such a one If thy fleshly Father should doe so thou wouldest be ashamed Now if thy spirituall Father should be driven therevnto doest thou not for very shame hide thy selfe If Appelles with his pensill should haue paynted out this matter he could never halfe so liuely haue paynted out the Lord Bishop and the Parish preist of our dayes as this goulden mouth in these wordes hath done condemnyng both these extreames as shamefull and abominable But I leaue it to the reader that winketh not but openeth his eyes to behold the state of the Church in our time and to compare it with that time In his 50 Hom. vpon the Epistle to Timothie the 5 chap Chrys in 1. Tim. he discourseth in these words Honorem hoc in loco obsequium c. In this place saith Chrysostome honor is taken for readines to doe the thing that a man is willed to doe and for needfull liberalitie For that which followeth thou shalt not mousell the mouth of the Oxe that treadeth out the corne and the laborer is worthy of his reward sheweth that to be the Apostles meanyng for when he also commandeth that widowes should be cherished with honor it must needes be referred to a necessary livyng c. Therefore saith he if any man be a delicat fellow or negligent in his office he is surely worthy of no reward except he be an Oxe that treadeth out the corne except he draw the yoke even against the thornes and the frost shrinke not away he is unworthy Therefore unto the Teachers a necessary livyng ought plentifully to be ministred least they should faint or be discomforted neither that being occupied in the smallest thinges they should depriue themselues and other of great things that they might worke spirituall things having no regard of secular affaires For such were the Levits which had no charg of worldly busines as the lay men had Yet to the Levits some care of such thinges was permitted and by the law there was appoynted unto them revenues tithes first fruits vowes and many other things but unto them by the law these thinges were worthelie permitted as unto them that sought things present earthly Now Chrysostome concludeth with these words Yet I saith he will speake it bouldly that the cheifest Prelats of the Church ought to haue no more but onely foode and rayment least their affectiōs should be drawne away to thes worldly things He saith not that they should haue thē yet not set their affections upō thē but he saith they should not haue thē least their affections should thereby be drawne to loue them Thus haue ye heard both the judgment practise of all the principall cheifest of all the auncient Fathers which are called the Docters of the Church which lived under the most godly and christian Emperours in that three hūdreth yeares whch our booke of Martyrs calleth the florishyng time of the Church In which time although many ceremoniall corruptions steps towards the Hierarhie were brought in yet the Lordship of Bishops was by them all with one voyce and consent and with one vniforme practise of their life vtterly condemned as most wicked and abominable Fox pag 406 edit 1563 But as M. Fox saith speaking of the time betweene Augustine and Barnard And this while saith he still the regiment and riches of Bishops encreased and thereof ensued a monstrous regiment Yea blind Barnard himselfe saw plainely that the Lordship of Bishops with their riches great livyngs and magnificent estate was a wicked and monstrous regiment And that all men might knowe these thinges to be so plaine that even a blind man could see it therefore I will heere set downe som few of his sayings touchyng that purpose as in his 77. Sermon upon the Canticles in the title De malis pastoribus of evill Pastors Vnde hanc illis ex vberare existimas rerum affluentiam vestium splendorem mensarum luxvriem congeriem vasorum argenteorum et aureorum 〈◊〉 nisi de bonis sponsae Inde est quod illa pauper et inops et nuda relinquitur facie miseranda inculta hispida exangui Non est hoc ornare sponsam sed spoliare non est custodire sed prodere non est defendere sed exponere non est iustituere sed prostituere non est pascere gregem sed macctare et devorare Whence trow you doth this abūdance of riches flow unto them saith Barnard as that bravery in apparell the voluptuousnes of their tables their cubbards of gold and silver plate but of the goods of the spouse of Christ Here of it commeth that she her selfe is left poore needy and naked with a miserable face vndressed rude and terrible to see as pale as a dead corse This is not to garnish beautifie the spouse but to rob and spoyle her this is not to keepe her but to destroy her not to defend her but to thrust her out of dores not to instruct her but to make a whore of her this is
not to feede the flocke but to kill and devoure it It was not possible that Barnard in those blinde dayes who was himselfe so blinde in many other things could so plainly haue seene this if the thing it selfe had not been as playne as a packe staffe And it is worthy to be noted that he saith Inde est quod illa pauper et inops et nuda relinquitur facie miseranda etc. Heerof saith Barnard even of the great riches great livynges and high estate of the Prelats the Spouse of Christ that is the Church of God becommeth so poore needy and naked with such a withered and miserable face For he could not complayne in the middest of popery that their temples lacked were not garnished with Surplices Vestiments silke glistering in gold and glory like the firmament pouderd with bright starres and the full Moone in the midest of the night But his complaynt was that the Lord Bishops and other the great Prelats by the devise and consent of Antichrist the Pope and of the Kings and Princes which were become his vassalls slaues had gotten into their hands the livings that belonged to the Pastors preachers of the word of God And thereupon lived like Lords accounting the parish Ministers single sole Sir Iohns and hedg preists who being robbed and spoyled of their maintenance left themselues the Church without all the divine spirituall ornamēts which Christ her Bridegrome at the first had given her and appoynted by his word commaundement to haue her adorned garnished withall to the end of the world Namely 〈…〉 with learned preachers graue and discreat Elders and faithfull distributyng Deacons the one sorte with all dilligence to attend vpon the word and doctrine and continually to feed the Church with bread of life the other to attend with the former upon the Discipline and to see that no man giue over himselfe to leaudnes of life And the third distributyng the almes of the Church unto the poore to procure sufficient sustenance for them to see them liue in such order as they ought to doe and this is to beautifie adorne and garnish the Church of Christ But contrarywise that a few proud Prelats and Lord Bishops should take the goods of many Churches vnto them selues and liue therevpon like Lords and magnificent princes whereby the spouse of Christ is vtterly destitute of the functions and offices which Christ her bridegrome had appoynted unto her This is as Barnard saith not to beautifie her but to rob and spoyle her and to make a whore of her For the offices appoynted by God whereby she should be governed being taken from her and she by nature being given to spirituall whordōe following her naturall disposition embraced the inventions of men and the Idolatrous superstitions which Antichrist and his wife the great whore of Babell vsed And this is as Barnard saith not to feed the flocke but mactare et devorare to kill and to devoure it 〈…〉 And therefore in another place he saith Vae generationi huic a fermento Phariseorum quod est hypocrisis si tamen hypocrisis dici debet quae iam latêre praeabūdantiâ non valet et praeimpudentia non querit etc. Woe be to this generation saith Barnard for the leaven of the Pharises which is hipocrisie yet if it may be called hipocrisie which can no longer be hidden for the very a boundance therof nor yet seeketh to be covered for the very impudency of them that use it Ministri Christi sunt et serviunt Antichristo c. They be the Ministers of Christ and yet they serue Antichrist Inde splendidae mensae et cibis et ciphis c. And by serving this good master thēe saith Barnard commeth their tables so sumptuously decked both with meates and cuppes And to set forth their shamelesse impudency a non after he saith Pro huiusmodi volunt esse et sunt Ecclesiarū praepositi Decani Episcopi Archiepiscopi For such manner of fellowes they would be coūted and such are indeed the Prelats the Deanes the Bishops and Arcbishops And therfore in his epistle to one that would be made an Archbishop to teach him to liue like a Bishop and not like a Lord he saith lib. ep D. Bar ep 2 Tom. 2 Conceditur ergo tibi vt si bene deservis de altario viuas non autem vt de altario luxvrieris ut de altario superbias vt inde compares tibi fraena aurea sellas depictas calcaria de argentaria varia griseaque pellicia a collo et manibus ornatu purpureo diversificata Denique quicquid preter necessarium victum ac simplicem vestitum de altario retines tuum non est rapina est sacrilegium est It is therfore granted vnto thee that if thou serue wel thou shouldest liue of the Alter But not that thou shouldest liue voluptuously of the Alter that thou shouldest wax proud of the Alter that thou shouldest get thy selfe gilted bridles wrought saddles silvered spurres divers sorts of furrs and graie furres made with variety of purple garnishmēt at the coller and hands To conclude whatsoever thinge from the Alter thou doest retayne besides a needfull lyving and simple clothing it is not thyne it is playne theft and Church robbery Thus you see though Barnard saw not all yet he saw that the Lordship of Bishopes was ough for the Church of God a good Preacher often turned out of his place for not useing a beggerly ceremony To conclude then the holy regiment of the Churches of Christ standing in the simplicity and playnens of Pastors Elders Deacons began utterly to be defaced the little sparke Papa brake forth which at the first stuck but as a small spot upon the forhead of the Bishop no man thinking it to be any bleamish not knowing from whence it came nor whervnto the old serpent called the Deuill and Satan meant to bring it Now this monstrous regiment takinge place and the regiment appointed by Christ and his Apostles restyng cheifly in spirituall excellency the glory wherof could not be seene with outward fleshly eyes beyng counted for the simplicity plaines thereof to base a regiment for the glorious strumpet she tooke into her handes her paire of bellowes of pride and ambition and never left blowyng with all her might and maine upon the litle sparke Papa aforesaid till it grew to a flame that reached up to heaven in which infernall flame the great Papa himselfe sheweth forth his face Takyng that name to himselfe only as being from the beginnyng thereof appoynted unto him by the old serpent Sathan his father And as beyng now of full age he himselfe alōe would weare it though in his minority other were permitted to use it Now this great Antichrist Papa the Pope raigneth florisheth exaltyng himselfe against all that is called God or that is worshiped so as he doth sit as God in the Temple of God The
highest Ecclesiasticall corruption tyranny shewyng himselfe that he is God And for the maintenance of his high exaltation he thought it requysite aboue all other to take care of these two thinges First how to keepe under the temporall Princes Lords which had long raigned before him and to set up his spirituall Lords as his owne creatures which should be apperteyning and beholding to himselfe onely for all their Lordly estate The highest ecclesiastical corruption and tyranny that at the last both the Lords temporall spirituall might serue him to his great glory Now this great Antichrist reignyng over his temporall Lords and Princes who by the ordinance of God were appoynted to reigne themselues to the honor of Christ and not to the glory of Antichrist and specially triumphing by his spirituall Lords as his owne creatures created unto their Lordships and Archlordships by himselfe onely and not ordeyned therevnto by God but by him appoynted for his speciall gard and defence of his owne person and of his wife the great whore of Babell It pleased the Almightie God which created heaven and earth in the time by him appoynted reformation beginyng to rayse vp againe agreeable unto his first institution certayne poore Ministers Bishops Pastors to whom he committed the word of God which is the sword of the spirit therwith to fight against this glorious Antichrist and all his spirituall Lords And therefore as you haue heard before the auntient Fathers utterly condemning the great livyngs and Lordly estate of Bishops both by their doctrine decrees and practise of their owne lyues Now likewise let us heare what these men thus newly raysed up of God hold and affirme also in the practise of their owne liues approue touching the same Lordship of Bishops and other unwritten Traditions of men And first of Wickliffe of whom our booke of Martyrs saith This is out of all doubt Iohn Wicleffe Act. Mon pag 323 edit 1570 that at that time all the world was in most desperat and vile estate and that the lamentable ignorāce and darknes of God his truth had overshadowed the whole earth this man stepped forth like a valiant Champion Vnto whom it may be iustly applyed that is spoken in the booke called Ecclesiasticus of one Simon the sonne of Onias Even as the morning starre being in the middest of a cloude and as the Moone beyng full in her course and as the bright beames of the Sunne so doth he shine and glister in the temple and Church of God This Wickliffe in his answer unto King Richard the second as touching the right and title of the King and the Pope joyning old Barnard before named with himselfe saith How could the Apostle giue unto you that which he had not himselfe Harke what he saith Not bearing rule saith he as Lords in the cleargie but behaving your selues as ensamples to the flocke And because thou shalt not thinke it to be spoken only in humilitie and not in veritie marke that the Lord himselfe sayth in the Gospell The Kings of the people doe rule over them but you shalt not doe so Heere Lordship and Dominion is plainly forbidden to the Apostles and darest thou then vsurpe the same If thou wilt be a Lord thou shalt loose thine Apostleship or if thou wilt be an Apostle thou shalt lose thy Lordship For truely thou shalt departe from the one of them If thou wilt haue both thou shalt lose both or else thinke thy selfe to be of that number of whom God doth so greatly complaine saying They haue reigned but not through me they are become Princes and I haue not knowne it now if it doe suffice thee to rule without the Lord thou hast thy glory but not with God But if we will keepe that which is bidden us let us heare what is sayd he that is the greatest among you saith Christ shall be made as the least and he that is highest shall be as the Minister and for example he set a child in the middest of them So this then is the true forme and institution of the Apostles trade Lordship and rule is forbidden ministration and service is commaunded Ye heare what this bright mornyng starre which is likened to the full Moone in her strenght and to the sun-shining in the Church and temple of God sayth and concludeth that Lordship and rule is forbidden to Bishops and ministration and service is commaunded And in another place he saith To enrich the Cleargie is against the rule of Christ Fox tom 1 art 31 pag 55 16 art 34. Silvester the Pope and Constantine the Emperour were deceaved in giving and taking possessions into the Church And in another article he saith The Pope with all his Cleargie having those great possessions as they haue be heretikes in so having and the secular power in so suffering of them doe not well And touching the practise of his owne life It is written of him that he went in a simple russet gowne Fox tom 1 pag 526. and yet he was specially favored mainteined by the great Duke of Lancaster sonne to King Edward the third with the Lord Henrie Percie high Marshall of England and many other Lords and men of great account who esteemed him as an excellent learned man true Preacher of the gospell imbraced his doctrine even to the danger of their owne liues were able enough to maintaine him like a Lord or at the least to haue put him out of his simple russet gowne into a Mathematicall capp with foure angles deviding the whole world into foure partes as our booke of Martirs termeth it with a great and large sarcenet scarf about his necke and a wide sleeved gowne with a standing coller as an Archdeacon if he or they had thought it meete for him to haue been so like a Lord or pettie Lord mainteyned The next that we read of which God raysed up after Wickliffe was Iohn Husse Iohn Husse who being of so great reputation amonge the Bohemians that they came to the Counsell of Constance to make his defence for the gospell of Christ He was accompanyed and assisted besides others of his frends with divers Noble men of the Bohemians who stood by him and spake boldly in his defence even to the day and time of his Martirdome yet was he never nor would be mainteyned with the great living and high estate of a Lord Bishop as plainely appeareth by his last farwell to his deare frend brother Martin farwell saith he in Christ Iesus with all them that keepe his law Acts Mo. to 1. p. 747. My graye coat if you will keepe to your selfe for my remembrance but I thinke you are ashamed to weare that gray colour therefore you may giue it to whom you shall thinke good My white coate you shall giue the Minister N my scoller To George or else to Zuzicon 60 groats or else my gray coate for he hath faithfully served me
Lord and other a Servant Where Luther useth this word vel parochis which must needes be englished either after the Popish phrase Parish priests or in better English parish Ministers Which you see heere M. Luther maketh as great a Lordbishop as a Diocesan Bishop or Bishop of a Diocese and unto this rule he pulleth downe the proud Pope himselfe and so breaketh the necke of his Popedome For he saith that Bishops in all the world are not other in right and truth but Parish Ministers and that the one ought not to liue like a Lord and the other like a Minister or servant And upon the 5 chapter of Peter aforesaid he saith Furthermore S. Peter calleth it peculiarly the flocke of Christ In chap 5 2. as though he should say Thinke not that the flocke is any of your owne ye are but onely Servants and Ministers to looke unto it ye ye are no Lords nor Masters over it And further afterward he saith For we haue but one Lord Iesus Christ and he it is which governeth over soules Elders Pastors haue no further charge then to feed And heere in one word S Peter overthroweth all the kingdome of the Pope and concludeth that no Bishop hath any authority so much as in one word to clogg and tye the consciences of the faithfull to the observation of their precepts For they themselues ought to be servants and Ministers and to say thus saith the Lord and these be the words of Christ it is not we the words are none of ours and therefore ye ought to doe that which is here commanded According to that which Christ saith Luke the 22. The Kings of the Gentiles reigne over them and they that beare rule overthem are called gratious Lords but ye shall not be so Contrary whereunto the Pope boasteth and brageth saying we ought to be Lords and to us onely it belongeth to excercise cheife rule and supreme authoritie The second thing that I speake of to be observed in the former saying of M. Luther is this That the state of Bishops in those dayes was such that a Bishop could not be knowen by any Lordly countenance or attendance from a plaine man of the countrie The third thing is that in his apparell he differed nothing from the common sort of men he had not on his head as our booke of Martyrs of a certaine Bishop saith a Geometricall that is to say a square cap although his head be round nor a white rochet vpoÌ„ his blake coat nor a priests cloke nor a formall gowne For by those Mathematicall marks he must needs then haue been knowen froÌ„ a plaine man of the Country as that foresaid Bishop in Africa was not Yea though he had been an unpreaching Prelat and so could not haue been knowen by his preaching But let us heare what M. Luther further saith In our booke of Martyrs many thinges are specified which are most worthy to be noted concernyng him Fox Edition 1570 to 2. pag 976. Election of Ministers ought to be by the Church to whom they belong but for brevities sake I will onely obserue this one thing namely that he affirmeth the voyces of the people ought not to be severed from the choosing of Ecclesiasticall persons in which poynt all the auncient Fathers doe with one voyce agree with M. Luther they were also chosen themselues in that manner and so caused other to be chosen And so likewise all the Protestant writers and lights of the gospell do generallie affirme in their writings that by the law of God and by the holy Scriptures it ought to be still observed in the Churches of God And yet at this day it is exploded out of many Churches as namely here with us that professe the Gospell as a thing that cannot stand with a Christian common wealth wherein I will onely recite the wordes of our booke of Martyrs and one worthy sentence and also one notable example out of auncient Fathers and so leaue it to the consideration of the Christian reader and to the consciences of all christian Magistrats that profess the Gospell with myne owne prayers to God that this Apostolicke order of chosing of Ministers may be againe restored to all Christian Churches Fox pa. 5 ed. 1570. col 2 After which time of the Apostles saith our booke of Martyrs the election of Bishops and Ministers stood by the Cleargie and the people with the consent of the cheife Magistrate of the same place and so continued during all the time of the Primitiue Church till the time and after the time of Constantine the fourth Emperour which Emperour as writeth Platina and Sabellicus Enead 8 lib 6 published a law concernyng the election of the Romane Bishop Platina Sab. Ene 8. lib 6 that he should be taken for true Bishop whom the Cleargie and people of Rome did chose and elect without any tarying for any authoritie of the Emperour of Constantinople or the deputie of Italie so as the custom and fashion had ever been before that day anno 685. And a non after in our booke of Martyrs it is thus written â—owsons â—â—uralities of â—enefices likewise vowsons and pluralities of benefices were things then asmuch unknowen as now they are pernicious to the Church taking away all free election of Ministers from the flockes of Christ Heerunto I add touching this matter as I promised first a most worthy senteÌ„ce out of Cyprian who florished about 260 yeares after Christ He in his 68. Epistle saith â—yprian Epi â—8 iuxsta â—amelium Plebs obsequens preceptis Dominicis et Deum metueÌ„s a peccatore preposito seperare se debet nec se ad sacrilegi sacerdo tis sacrificia miscere quando ipsa maxime habeat potestatem vel eligendi dignos sacerdotes vel indignos recusandi Quod et ipsum videmus de diuina auctoritate descendere vt sacerdos plebe praesente sub omnium oculis deligatur et dignus atque idoneus publico iudicio ac testimonio comprobetur The people beyng obedient unto the commandement of God and fearing God ought to seperat themselues from a wicked Pastor or Minister and not to joyne themselues to the sacrifice of a sacrilegius Priest seeing the People it selfe cheiflie hath power either to choose priests that are worthy or to refuse those that be unworthy which thing we see doth come from the authority of God that the Priest may be chosen in the presence of the people that he which is worthy and meete for the place may be allowed with a publicke judgment and testimony And a litle after he concludeth saying Et sit ordinatio iusta et legitima que omnium suffragio et iudicio fuerit examinata And let the ordination be just and lawfull which is tryed by the judgmeÌ„t and voyce of all Athanasius And now as I said take one example namely of Athanasius the great The confession of whose faith is read in our Churches of England
at this day and holden for undoubtedly true in all the Churches of Christendome who lived in the most tumultuous time times of greatest contention that ever was in the Church even in the time of publike broyles and strife between the Arrians the Catholiques when the manner of election by the people must needs if ever be most dangerous unto the quietnes of the common wealth unto the estate of Kings and Princes Yet when Athanasius was chosen Bishop of Alexandria and the matter brought in questioÌ„ before the Emperour whether he was lawfully chosen which his enimyes denyed the Synod of Alexandria make rheir Apologie for his defence in these words Aiunt igitur post obituÌ„ Episcopi Alexandri cum paucissimi essent qui Athanasii mentionem facerent Synod Alexandr apol 2 sex vel septem Episcopos clanculum et in loco obscuro eum in presulem elegisse c. Nos autem contra cum tota civitate et universa provincia testamur omnem multitudinem populuÌ„que Catholicae Ecclesiae in vnum coactum quasi in speciem unius corporis et animae clamoribus vociferationibusque postulasse Athanasium Ecclesiae Episcopum dari They say that after the death of Bishop Alexander when there were very few which made any mention of Athanasius six or seaven Bishops privily and in an obscure place did choose him to be Bishop But we contrary wise with the whole Cittie and generally with all the Province doe testifie that the whole multitude and people of the Catholique Church beyng gathered to gether in one as it were in the forme of one body and soule with exclamations and out cryes requyred to haue Athanasius to be given unto them the Bishop of their Church If six or seaven of our Lordbishops with their traines of twentie thirtie or fortie horse apeece should meet together about an election with such of their frends as they could gather togeather in their assemblie trow you the thing might be sayd to be don obscurely and in a corner or may we thinke that those christian and most mightie Emperours had neither witte nor knowledg how to governe their coÌ„mon wealthes Or that Athansius the great and all the excellent Fathers of the Primitiue Church and Luther and Zninglius and all the lights of the Gospell set up by Gods wonderfull worke in this our age for the casting downe of Antichrist and the great whore of Babell upon all the golden Candlestickes in Germanie Helvetia Savoy France Scotland and the Lowcountryes and many other places understaÌ„d not what by the word of God ought to be done in the election of Bishops and Pastors and onely the Lord Bishops of England by their Lordly looks upon their learned bookes or by some secreat inspirations haue the contrary reveled unto them But if all the christian Emperours and all the auncient Fathers did thinke this manner of election might well stand with the godly goverment of the Common wealth and ought not to be altered and that both the election of Bishops Pastors and Ministers and excommunication also ought never to be don without consent of the people even wheÌ„ the Bishops were growne up to be litle petie Lords and the regiment of a Bishop was crept to the limits bouÌ„ds of a Dioces and over whole Cityes where by the reason of the exceeding greatnes of the multitude there must needs follow great sturres and troubles with what facility and easines might this order be brought in agayne if the Bishops were reduced unto the pristinat estate appoynted unto them by the word of God and by the holy scriptures namely to be the Bishop or Pastor of one congregation onely Upon which poynt I will set downe breifly the words of that excellenr light Francis Lambard joyned by God with Luther in Germanie touching the limits of a Bishops regiment F. Lambard together with the right of election of the Pastors and excommunicatioÌ„ of the offendors and of Zuinglius the first light set up by God among all the golden caÌ„dlesticks of Helvetia This noble and famous Francis Lambard in the preface of his booke intituled The sum of Christianitie translated into English and dedicated unto the most Noble Queene Anne mother to our late Soveraigne Queene Elizabeth In his Epistle to the Noble Prince of Lausanna he saith Nor you shall not marvaile that I sayd there be many Bishops of one Citie for verely every Citie hath so many Bishops as it hath true Evangelists or Preachers for every Preacher of the truth I say of the truth that doth not preach lyes decrees inventions dreames lawes and counsells of men but the most pure and simple word of God is a true Bishop although he be not called so of many the Church of God hath no other Bishops but these And a non after he saith For verely every Parish ought to haue his proper Bishop the which should be chosen of the people and confirmed by the Comminalty of the Church of every place and to doe this thing they haue no need of letters rings seales tokens and such other of this kind very much used cleane contrarie to the word of God And so long they should be accounted for Bishops as the preach most purely the Gospell of the kingdome of God From the which if they swarue one iote teach strang doctrine they ought to be deposed and put out of theÌ„ by whom they were elect and chosen that is to say of the comminalty of the Church a forenamed and other more fit for the purpose to be elect And in the fift chapter in the sayd booke of the Summe of Christianity he hath these words It is the most greevous crime by no meanes to be suffered that many childreÌ„ of perdition do depriue the people of God of their right iust title that is to choose them a Pastor And afterward he saith All Canon of the world caÌ„not lawfully choose one Bishop of the Church of Iâ—suâ— Christ And agayne he sayth Deacons of the Church be those that the faithfull choose for to gather and distribute to the poore the almes of the faithfull And a non after The Church of God hath no Ministers besides these Bishops and Deacons Zuinglius Artic 8 explanat Now to the words of Zuinglius he in a certaine place sayth thus A multis iam seculis ad nostra usque tempora quae sit Ecclesia certamen fuit ortum nimirum ex regnandi cupiditate Nam hoc sibi quidam arrogarunt ut se dicerent esse Ecclesiam c. There hath been contention what a Church is from these many ages untill our times which verily hath risen from the desire of bearing rule For some men haue arrogated this unto themselues to say that they are the Church that all thinges might be ordered by their hand But omitting the devises of men wheroÌ„ som in this cause doe rest we will write of the Church out of the holy scriptures and the minde of
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
scripture there are no more degrees or orders of them that are appoynted to preach the word of God but Pastors Doctors Wherein these are his words Zanchius cōfes fid cap. 25. Art 9. Plures autem ministrorum verbi ordines a Christo in Ecclesia institutos non agnoscimus quam quos Apostolus in epistola ad Ephesios ex pressit c. We doe not acknowledg more orders of Ministers of the word instituted by Christ in his Church saith M. Zanchius then those which the Apostle in his Epistle to the Ephesians hath expressed That is Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastors Doctors of which the first three Christ would not haue to be appoynted to any certaine places but now heare now there either to collect or plant Churches which the Apostles did or to water nourish and confirme those Churches which the Apostles had so planted and gathered together which the Prophets and Evangelists did and therefore might not be perpetuall in the Church but the two latter Christ would haue to be consecrated unto Churches that were certaine to governe preserue them that is to say Pastors and Doctors and that to be observed unto the end of the world which therefore we use to call perpetuall and ordinarie Ministers Of which in the next Article he saith Art 11 The Doctors did only teach and the Pastor did not only teach but also Minister the Sacraments and governe the Church By these you may plainly see M. Zanchius judgment that Christ hath appoynted in the Church no mo orders of them that preach the word of God but only Pastors Doctors which should remaine as perpetuall ordinarily called in the Church of which the one did only teach and the other which is the Pastor both preach and Minister the Sacraments and governe the Church And although afterwards he would defend or as he himselfe termeth it excuse those Fathers others which brought in more orders into the Church yet in the same chapter he saith that all those thinges were turned to tyrannie and ambition and concludeth with these words Quae causa est cur quo propius acceditur in iis etiam ordinibus ministrorum ad simplicitatem Apostolicam eo magis etiam nobis probetur atque ut vbique accedatur dandum esse operā iudicemus Which is the cause saith he why we iudge the neerer men come to that simplicity of the Apostles even in those orders of Ministers in the Church the more it is to be allowed and approyed and that in every place men ought to endevor themselues to attaine unto it Is it most evident that Zanchius condemneth and not justifieth the Lordship of Bishops in our time And the titles Metropolitans Archbishops Diocesans and the rest which long since haue been brought in by custom not by any truth of the Lords appoyntment according to old Ieromes saying Which words and judgment of Ierom Zanchius in the 11. Article commendeth alloweth and acknowledgeth himselfe to be fully of the same opinion And in the 25 chapter and the eleventh Aphorisme he endeth thus Interim quēadmodum non improbavi patres in ea re de qua est questio Sic etiam non possum nostrorum Zelum non amare qui ideo illa nomina oderunt quia metuunt ne cum nominibuus vetus eti am ambitio et tyrannis cum ruina Ecclesiarum revocetur In the meane time saith Zanchius like as I haue not condēned the Fathers in this matter in which the question is of the names and titles of Archbishops Metropolitans and so forth so also I cannot but loue the zeale of our men which therfore hate these names least with them the old tyrannie and ambition with the destruction of the Churches should be brought in agayne Can he be called a favorite of them which loveth them the better that hate those names Or can he be acounted to alow of those fūctions which saith as you haue heard before that the simplicitie of the Apostles alowed not of them Which simplicitie he saith is best to be alowed and in every place men should endevour to attaine unto it Although the Fathers did it for honest causes saith he perteyning to that time in which age the discipline of the Church kept them under from the wealth pompe and pride wherein they afterward lived and now liue For the Ecclesiasticall persons were bound by their Discipline Cap. 25. Art 38 Huius partes hae erant praecipuae c Of which Discipline the principall parts were First that they should abstaine from many pleasures delights which otherwise in laye men might in some sort be tollerated such as are many fleshly delights braue pompe great cheare costly housholdstuffe a great company of temporall servants and such like But howsoever he handle the matter beside which 1 Having set downe the true and lawfull Ministerie of the Gospell Theses Genevenses 71 which the Sonne of God ordayned and by his spirit divided into severall functions it now remaineth that we adioyne the false Ministerie of the same to the end that contraries being laid one against another may be better manifest 2 In the true Ministery of the Gospell there are three things which distinguish the same from the false The one that the authoritie of their callings proceed from the Sonne of God as being ordained either immediatly by himselfe or mediatlie by his Apostles The other is that the calling be lawfull that is such a calling as is squared according to the prescript lawes of the doctrine and Discipline of the Apostles The third is the prescript administration of the holie callings Now all these we advouch to haue been by litle and litle utterly overthrowne by the Papisticall tyrannie which with the Apostles we may iustly call the mysterie of iniquitie 3 And first we affirme that the callings of the Popish Cleargy which they expresse by that proud title of Hierarchie are in part altogether false that is such as haue at the first been invented by man and afterwards became meerelie diuelish and in part counterfeite that is such as onely retained the names of true callings which they abolished indeed 4 These functions following we hold to be altogether false and destitute of all true foundation namely the Primacie of the Bishop of Rome over all Churches the Cardinalship Patriarkship Archiepiscopalship breifly that whole Episcopall degree of Lord Bishops over their fellow Elders I wish the reader well to marke the first three poynts not to forget the fourth set downe by speciall name that is that these functions or offices following are utterly false and haue no manner of true foundation that is to say the office of Popes Cardinals Patriarkes Archbishops and to be short the whole Bishoplike degree over the rest of the Elders or Ministers The like may be sayd of Lausannae and the Universitie therof and so in many other parts of Savoy But I will onely ad some few sayings of Calvin Viret Beza
he would not medle with it not because the thing it selfe was evill or that it was evill don to appoynt those which were indifferent But to shew that he was come and sent of God his Father for greater thinges he left that office unto Cesar and to his officers And was content with that his Father had committed unto him And the same Commission he had in that behalfe he gaue to his Apostles Now one word of Marlorat Agayne saith he what are these reverend Cardinalls Marlorat exp one the Revel cap 17 3 Archbishops Archprelats Patriarks Primats Presidents Deanes Cannons Archpriests Archdeacons Abbots Priors or Masters Cōmendators For like as Antichrist hath his names of blasphemy even so they that be in office under him and are bound unto him by oth haue also names by themselues which the scriptures know not of In deed the Primitiue Church had Ministers Stewards Elders or Overseers Apostles Prophets Evangelists Shepheards and Teachers as you may perceaue by these places 1. Cor 4.1.12.4.5.6.7.8 And Ephe 4.11 But all these were names of service and labour and noe stiles of pride And upon the 9 chapter he hath these words For the tayles of Antichrist are Bishops Officials Commissaries Deanes Registers Chancelours Proctors and Somners which are like unto venemous serpents Now somwhat also touching these matters of Religion and Hierarchie of the Church Beza as they call it out of M. Beza whom M. Peter Martyr and many other learned men not without cause do so greatlie admire for his sinceritie in judgment and excellent gifts as you may read in many of their epistles and workes But I will heere set downe the testimonie of that singular divine and most noble patrone of the Gospell among our English writers D. Fulke who against Gregorie Martin that conning Papist and false accuser defendeth Calvin Beza and Viret by these words The bookes saith D. Fulke of Calvin Beza Uiret keep themselues within the compasse of the holy scriptures Fulk 7. in epist ad Ro◠and hold no blasphemous or other erronious opinions that derogate any thing from the glorie of God or be hurtfull to the salvation of men as your slaunderous and malitious pen supposeth Now therefore let us heare what Beza saith whose books keep themselues within the compasse of holy scriptures and hold no erronious opinions as D. Fulk testifieth First touching the election of Ministers upon this place of the Acts. Acts 1. ◠2 3 And when they had ordained them Elders by election in every Church and fasted they commended them to the Lord in whom they believed where upon in his Annotation he hath these words Paulum ac Barnaham sciamus nihil privato arbitrio gessisse t. Let us know that Paul Barnabas did execute nothing upon their owne private choyse nor exercised any tyrannie in the Church and to be short they did not any such manner of thing as do now a dayes the Romish Pope and his serving men which they call Ordinaries Some had rather referre this unto the laying on of hands which also is necessary and catching this pretence they say that our vocation is voyd because the Ordinaries and defiled with infinit superstitions But som man will say these be auncien things I grant they be auncient but much more auncient is the simplicitie of the Apostles under which simplicity the Church florished And for the signe of the Crosse he saith Whatsoever use was made thereof in the old time it is now but an execrable superstition And touching the questions in baptisme he answereth Itaque sicut Chrisma et exorcismus quantumvis vetusta c. Therefore like as the Chrisme and exorcisme or coniuration although they be very auncient by very good right are abolished so we would wish this interogatiō being not onely vayne but also flolish were left out And towards the latter end of the same Epistle he saith Aiunt quoque excommunicationes et absolutiones in curiis quibusdam Episcopalibus in Anglia fieri non ex presbyterii quod nullū ibi sit sentētiâ etc. They say also that in England excommunications absolutions are done in certaine Episcopall courts and not by the iudgment of the Presbyterie which is not there to be had Whereunto we answer that it seemeth to us almost uncredible to see such an abuse of most perverse manner and example yet to be used in that kingdome where the puritie of doctrine doth florish for it is out of doubt that the right use of excommunication before the Papisticall tyrannie was never in the power of one man but perteyned to the right of the Presbyterie not utterly excluding the peoples consent Heereunto I will agayne anex the testimonie and defence of D. Fulke against the Papists and other which with such contempt reject the sincere judgment and excellent learnyng of M. Beza Whatsoever account you make of M. Beza he shall notwithstanding saith D. Fulke with all godly learned men be accounted as he deserveth Fulke def of the English tran cap 5. One who hath more profited the Church of God with his sincere translation and learned Annotations then all the Popish Seminaries and Seminarists shal be able to hinder it Iangle of grosse and flase Translations as long as you will Thus passing over allmost infinite other lights of the Gospell both of the most auncient and late writers abroad which speake to the very same effect in these poynts of religion with us in question Onely I will set downe further the wordes of Danaeus and Tilenus two famous learned men among the reformed Churches of France which are exceeding many in number and almost excellent in reformation of Christian religion Who according to the judgment of them all Danaeus in Tim. 5.22 doe speake thus of the Election and Ordination of Ministers Ex his omnbus apparet quam nulla sit c. By all this it appeareth that the calling of those Ministers of Gods word or Pastors of the Church is none or not lawfull which are made and chosen by the authoritie letters seales commandement and iudgment of the King onely or Queene or Patron or Bishop or Archbishop That which is yet done agrevous thing in those Churches even in the middest of England which haue notwithstanding and doe follow the pure word of God It is marvaill that the Englishmen otherwise wise wittie and very godly should yet wittinglie and willingly be blind in the acknowledging and tollerating of these relicks of Popish Idolatry and tyrannie Therefore they iudge excellently which condemne or takyng away and would haue taken away out of a Church reformed according to Gods word * Omnem il laem chartulariam et Episcopaticā curionum et pastorū c. all this way of makyng Curates and Pastors of the Church by Bishops and their letters of Orders and the calling of the Ministers of the heavenly word their approbation and their entrance by the onely consent and letters of the
Bishop Because so the order prescribed by Gods word in the ordination of such persons is omitted and violated as it may most plainly appeare Even because all the right and voyce giving both of the Ecclesiasticall Senat and of the christian people is most wretchedly taken away from them by this meanes in this kind of Ecclesiasticall callings and with great tyrannie and abuse translated to one certayne man the Bishop The Lord God of his great mercy amend these corruptions which are yet and are defended in his Churches which surely will at length draw 〈…〉 great ruine of Gods Church and will make the holy Ministery of Gods words either mercenary or altogether contemned and base Which God turne away D. 〈◊〉 Answer to the Count. Laval quest 3. After him we will ad D. Tilenus his iudgment unto the Earle of Lavall in France Who demanding whether the calling to the Ministery be necessary and from whom Calvin had his calling Tilenus answeren First that it is necessary And then that Calvin had his calling from the Church of Geneva and from Farell his predecessor who had also his from the people of Geneva who had right and authoritie to institute and depose Ministers For so declareth S. Cyprian saying that the people obeying to the commandements of God should seperat themselues from a wicked guid Câ—pr epist 〈…〉 and not to meddle with the sacrifices of any Sacrilegious Priest considering that the sayd people haue chiefe authoritie to make choyse of worthy persons and to reiect the vnworthy This was so practised by the people of Geneva and in divers other parts of Evrope where in these latter times they did forsake those sacrilegious Priests and sacrifices of the Pope for to establish faithfull Ministers and proclamers of the Gospell To be short the Reformed Churches had their calling and sending partly from God and partly from the people and partly froÌ„ the Church of Rome From God as the chiefe cause from the people as by lawfull instruments from the Church of Rome as by a corrupt instrument God gaue the essence and the forme interior to this sending the reformed Church gaue testimonies and approbations and the exterior forme the Church of Rome hath added thereto abuses and corruptions which our suceeeding Ministers haue renounced There resteth now for further proofe of these matters before spoken of to rehearse the judgment and words of divers of our owne English writers and blessed Martirs which agree with those Fathers and lights of the Gospell in other Countries before cited And first having sufficiently spoken alreadie of Wicklife that first light of the gospell set up with us in the middest of the Antichristian darknes L. Cobham Fox pa 669 edit 1570 I will begin with the noble Martir the Lord Cobham who in defence of the sayd Wickliffe saith As for that vertuous man Wickliffe whose iugdments ye so highly disdayne I shall say heere for my part both before God and man that before I knew that despised doctrin of his I never abstained from sinne But since I learned therein to feare my Lord God it hath otherwise I trust been with me somuch grace could I never find in all your instructions And what the doctrine of Wickliffe was and how like a Lordly Prelat he lived I referre the reader to that which hath been before spoken of him pag 57. But the Lord Cobham beyng charged with the decrees of holie Church answerd I know none holier then Christ and his Apostles And as for that determination I wote it is none of theirs for it standeth not with the scriptures but manifestly against theÌ„ If it be the Churches as you say it is It hath been hers onely since she receaved the great poyson of worldly possessions not afore And a non after agayne he saith For since the venime of Iudas was shed into the Church ye never followed Christ neither haue ye stand in the perfection of Gods law Then the Archbishop asked him what he meÌ„t by that venime The Lord Cobham said your possessions and Lordships For then cried an Angell in the aire as your owne chronicles mention woe woe woe this day is venime shed into the Church of God Heere you see plainely by this noble Martirs iudgment that the Lordship of Bishops and their possessions was the very curse of God vpon the Church and the very poyson that turned her froÌ„ And in his Practise of Popish Prelats Prelats appoynted to preach Christ Pract. of prelats pa 342 may not leaue Gods word and Minister temporall offices but ought to teach the lay people the right way and to let them alone with all temporall busines And aftherward he saith They that haue the oversight of Christs flocke may be no Emperours Kings Duks Lords Knights temporall Iudges or any temporall officer or under false names haue any such dominion And a none after he saith Mathew the 20. Christ called his Disciples unto him and said Ye know that the Lords of the heathen people haue dominion over them and they that be great doe exercise power over them howbeit it shall not be so among you But whosoever wil be great among you shall be your Minister and he that will be chiefe shall be your servant even as the Sonne of man came not that meÌ„ should Minister unto him but for to Minister giue his life for the redemption of many Wherefore the officers in Christs kingdom may haue no temporall dominion or iurisdiction nor execute any temporall authoritie or law of violence nor haue any like manner among them And in his booke of Obedience he saith Let Kings take their dutie of their subiects and that necessary unto the defence of the Realme Obed. of achr pa 124. let them rule the realmes themselues with the heelp of lay men that are sage wise learned and expert Is it not a shame aboue all shames and a monstrous thing that no man should be found able to governe in a worldly kingdom saue Bishops and Prelats that haue forsaken the world and are taked out of the world and appoynted to preach the kingdome of God Christ saith that his kingdom is not of this world Ioh. 18. Lvke 12. Vnto the young man that desired him to bid his brother to giue him part of the inheritance he answered who made me a judge a devider among you No man that layeth his hand to the plough and looketh backe is apt for the kingdom of heaven Luke 9. No man can serue two Masters but he must despise the one Mat 6. To Preach Gods word is to much for halfe a man And to Minister a temporall kingdome is to much for halfe a man also Either other requyreth an whole man One therefore cannot do both well And after in the same booke he saith An other sort of the Prelats are of the Kings secret Counsell 16 pag 152. Woe unto the Realmes where they are of the Counsell as profitable are
put on the Surplice and the rest of the Popish apparell as our booke of Martyrs sheweth D. Brooks Lord Bishop of Gloucester commeth to him with these words saying B Put of your cap M. Ridley put upon you this surplice Ridley ib pa. 1934 pag 1935 ed. 1570. Not I truely B But you must Rid I will not B You must therefore make no more a doe but put this surplice upon you Rid Truely if it come upon me it shall be against my will Br Will you not do it upon you Rid No that I will not Br It shall be put upon you by one or other Rid Doe therin as it shall please you I am well contented with that and more then that the servant is not aboue his Master If they delt so cruelly with our Saviour Christ as the scripture maketh mention and he suffered the same patiently how much more doth it become us his servants And in saying of these wordes they put upon the said D. Ridley the Surplice with all the trinkets appertayning to the Masse and as they were putting on the same D. Ridley did vehemently inveigh against the Romish Bishop all that foolish apparell calling him Antichrist that apparell foolish and abominable yea to fond for a vice in a playe Wherin these fiue things are to be observed in this peece of dialogue First that none of all the Popish attire is named but the Surples and that is named three times that it might not be forgottē Secondly that M. Ridley compares those Popish garments to the attire that in scorne and dispite Herod and the rest of the crucifiers put upon Christ Which thing as you heard before M. Iohn Husse speaketh of saying That when they put the white garment upon him he could not but remember how Herod put the white garment upon Christ to scorne him with all Thirdly that he compareth the very crueltie thereof with the cruell and shamefull dealing against Christ As likwise our booke of Martyrs saith of M. Hooper when he was driven by Ridley and the rest Acts Mo. pag. 667. edit 1570 to weare the popish apparell Thus saith our book of Martyrs He had upon his head a geometricall that is a foure squared cap able it that his head was round What cause of shame saith Master Fox the strangnes thereof was that day to that good preacher every man may easily iudge Fourthly that the same rod of Gods correction was now layd upon M. Ridley which he and the rest of the Bishops had laid upon their fellow Elder M. Hooper Fiftly how vehement the spirit of God stirred him up to detest the surplice and the rest of the Popish apparell calling the Pope Antichrist the surplice with the rest of the Popish apparell foolish and abominable and to fond for a vice in a playe Alas that ever the good learned preachers of the word of God should be compelled either to loose their Ministery or else to be attyred like vices and fooles in playes But let us go forward and heare what this noble witnes and Martyr of God saith in other poyntes of reformation now desired In his treatise wherein is conteyned a lamentation for the change of religion in England Acts Mo. pag 1946. edit 1570 he saith There are in the Papistrie an innumerable rablement of abominations Among which he setteth downe by name dispensations and immunities from all godly Discipline lawes and good order pluralityes and totquots and as he saith a thowsand moe O that dispensations of Nonresidencies pluralities vnions and totquots which M. Ridley nombreth among the rablemēt of Popish abominations were out of England and restored unto the Pope which he so often calleth Antichrist and to his spouse the Church of Rome which he calleth the very whore of Babilon And for the name of Priest in his disputation at Oxford he saith There are but two onely orders of Preisthood allowed in the word of God namely the order of Aaron and the order of Melchisedech but now the order of Aaron is come to an end by reason it was unprofitable and weake Hebr. 7. And of the order of Melchisedech there is but one Priest alone even Christ And generally of all matters of religion speaking of the Church of Rome before she plaied the harlot Acts Mo pag 1939. edit 1570. and maried her selfe to Antichrist he saith If ye will know how long that was and how many hundred of yeares to be curious in poynting the precise number of yeares I will not be to bold But thus I say so long and so many hundred yeares as that sea did truely teach and Preach that Gospell that religion exercised that power and ordered every thing by these lawes and rules which that sea receaved of the Apostles as Tertullian saith the Apostles of Christ and Christ of God So long I say that sea might haue been called Peter and Paules chaire and sea or rather Christs chaire and the Bishop therof Apostolicus or a true disciple and successor of the Apostles How happie were we all our Bishops if by this rule of M. Ridley they might be called Apostolici and true Disciples and Successors of the Apostles which cannot be till every thing be ordered by these lawes and rules which they receaue from the Apostles the Apostles of Christ and Christ of God Cranmer Now although I haue alreadie spoken of Cranmer yet heere agayne I cannot but compare him to Solomon with his many hundred wiues who at the last drew him to Idolatry and all abominations So Cranmer being married to many hundred Churches was at the last driven to subscribe to all abominations of Popery For well may we compare the many hundred wives and concubines of Solomon unto the multitude of Churches subject unto an Archbishop pag 929. ed. 1570. And rightly no doubt it is spoken by one of the blessed Martyrs in our booke of Actes Monumēts that it is as lawfull for a lay man to haue two wiues at once as for a preiq to haue two benefices And Cranmer being the elect child of God with Solomon at the last detested the foulnes of his owne fall First he fired his owne hand for subscribing to all the abominatiōs of Antichrist and so entred through the fire of torments into euerlasting ioye with Christ Iewell The like may be sayd of Iewel Bishop of Salisburie who although he did beare much with the injquitie of the to follow but children and infants And in another place he saith They use them as the marchants use his counters somtime they stand for an hundred pounds somtime for a penie This is the objection which unto this day is commonly made against the reformation which many good men desire to be made according to the original of the primitiue Churches which objection you see heere with what derision M. Iuell rejecteth it as though therby they counted Christ and his Apostles as children and
see his iudgment that they are the Chaplines of Antichrist and not the Ministers of Christ which loue to be distinguished by apparell And touching the apparell M. Fox speaketh most plainly as hath ben in divers places noted before as also where he saith Fox fol 6 edit For diversity of apparrell I haue not now to stand particularly vpon euery kind forme when how by whoō it was inuented Yet because I see that false opiniō of antiquity deceaueth many in generall to speake of the whole I will recite the words written to Carolous Caluus the french King by the whole cleargie of Ravenna about the computation of our Lord 876. Which words shall suffice as a testimonie both to knowe what wee ought to do and what was then done in the Church The words in their Epistle to the King be these Discernendi c. that is We ought to differ from the people and others by doctrine not by apparell in conversation not in vesture in purenes of mind not in garment And touching the surplis by name speaking of a wicked persecutor one Blumfeild he saith But a litle before his death he bragged and threatned a good man one Simon Harlstone to put him forth to the officers because he wore noe surplis when he said service Whereby it is pittie that such baits of poperie are lefte to the enemies to take the Christians in God take them awaie or else vs from them For God knoweth they be the cause of much blindnes and strife among men Edit 2. pag. 2268. vlt. Ed pag. 2065. But let us see further what M. Beacon saith in other poynts that neede reformation against the unpreaching And in his answer to the 30. Article agreeing to that which you heard before of M. Fox where he saith Every Prelat or beneficed person ought to discharge his Cure without deputie or Vicar So saith this noble Martyr of God Iohn Lambard Where you speake of Prelats deputies I thinke that such are litle behouable to Christ flocke it were necessarie right that as the Prelats themselues will haue the Revenues Tithes and Oblations of their Benefices that themselues should labour and teach dilligently the word of God therefore and not to slippe the labour from one to another till all be left pittie it is to see undonne Such doth S. Iohn call fures et latrones theeues and robbers Now to that excellent Martyr and witnes of Iesus Christ M. Bradford M. Bradf Ridl lett to M. Ch Lib Epist Mar pag 69 who with the rest confirming his doctrine with the sheeding of his bloud commended by D. Ridley thus M. Bradford a man by whom as I am assuredly enformed God hath and doth worke wonders in setting forth of his word And in his letter to M. Bradford thus he speaketh to him O good brother blessed be God in thee and blessed be the time that ever I knew thee And as he is so highly praysed for the excellent gifts of God in the wonderfull worke of his preaching so for his continuance and dilligence therein even to the time of his death it is said in our booke of Martyrs For the time he did remaine prisoner in the Counter he preached twice a day continually pag 1780 edit 1570 unlesse sicknes hindred him c. And further it is there said Preaching reading and prayer was all his whole life c. Whereunto I may very fitlie adjoyne the wordes of M. Musculus how to know a true Minister of Christ upon these wordes to the Romanes put apart to Preach the Gospell of God Vis cognoscere verum Christi Ministrum Rom 1 1 Vide an sit c. Wilt thou know saith Musculus a true Minister of Christ Then looke whether he be vtterly so seperated from all other busines that he doth meditate worke or liue in none other thinge whatsoeuer but in preaching and makeing manifest and plaine the Gospell of Christ and serue therein by all and whatsoeuer strength power is in him Act. Mo. pag 1780. edit 1570. Now this blessed Bradford saith our Booke of Martyrs D. Ridley that worthie Man and glorious Martyr of Christ afterward according to the order that then was in the Church of England called him to take the degree of a Deacon which order because it was not without some such abuse as to the which Bradford would not consent the Bishop yet perceiueing that he was willing to enter into the Ministery was content to order him without any abuse euen as he desired c. Wherin ye see both the precisenes of M. Bradford which would not enter into the Ministery because of the abuse in the book and the goodnes of the Bishop in leaving out the abuses But alas such good examples are rarely now to be found either in Bishops or Ministers Further in his letters to all Faithfull Professors he saith lib. Ep. Mar pag 441. If gods worde had place Bishops could not plaie Chauncellers and idle Prelates as they doe Preistes should be other waies knowne then by their shauen Crownes and Tippets And in another of his letters he saith What can the holy Ghost doe to us aboue this to marke us with the congnisance of the Lord of hosts This congnisance standeth not in forked cappes tippets shaven crownes or such other baggage and Antichristian pelfe but in suffering for the Lords sake Act. Mon pag 1178. edit 1. Is it not evident that M. Bradford was such a one as men now call a Puritane Which calleth forked cappes and tippites not onely baggage but even also Antichristian pelfe But he saith in his letters to the Universitie of Cambridge Wilt thou consider things according to the outward shew Was not the Synagogue more seemelie and like to be the true Church then the simple flocke of Christs Disciples Hath not the Whore of Babilon more costly attire and rich apparell externally to sett forth her selfe then that homelie Houswife of Christ And indeed as M. Fox saith in King Edwards time which was the time of M. Bradford as you heard before Notwithstanding saith he the godly reformation which was then begun besides other Ceremonies more ambitious then profitable or tending to edification they did still weare such apparell as the old Papists were wont to weare upon their heades they had a Mathematicall cappe with foure Angles deviding the whole world into foure parts I know not whether M. Fox in these words condemneth the square cap with more scorne and dispite or M. Bradford in calling it Antichristian pelfe Yet what Ceremonies more ambitious then profitable or lesse tending to edification were used in King Edwards time then are at this daye retayned in our Churches of England But let vs goe forward with M. Bradford and let vs see what he saith to the Lordship of Bishops Harpsfild that subtile Archdeacon of London comming to Mast Bradford being in prison and shortly looking for the bitter death of burning Thus reasoneth with
him Tell me saith Harpsfield were not the Apostles Bishops Brad No except you will make a new definition of a Bishop that is giue him no certaine place Harps Indeede the Apostles office was not the Bishops office for it was vniuersall But yet Christ instituted Bishops in the Church as Paul saith He hath giuen Pastors Prophets c. so that I trow it be proved by the scripturs the succession of Bishops to be an essentiall poynt Brad The ministery of Gods word and ministers be an essentiall point But to translate this to the Bishops and their succession is a plaine subtiltie And therefore that it may be plaine I will aske you a question Tell me whether that the scriptures know any difference betwene Bishops Ministers which ye call priests Harpsfield No. Brad Well then goe on forwards and let vs see what ye shall get now by the succession of Bishops that is of Ministers which cannot be understood of such Bishops as Minister not but Lord it Wherein every Reader may obserue these things First that the Apostles were not Bishops for that a Bishop must haue a certaine place and a flocke to feede wherein he must be resident And not like an Apostle or Evangelist to travell from flocke to flocke from place to place Secondly by the scripture there is no difference between a Bishop and a Minister which is so cleere and manifest that the very Papist himselfe is driven to coÌ„fesse it Thirdly that it being true which the most rankest Papist for shame cannot denie that by the scripture Bishops Ministers differ not Then the glorious succession of the Pope and all his Diocesan and Lordbishops are utterly overthrowne For as M. Bradford saith What Lordly estate can any Bishop get when he ought not to differ from the poore and meane estate of a Minister Fourthly that they are Papists which will haue a Minister of the Gospell to be called a Priest for tell me saith Bradford whether the scripture know any difference between a Bishop and a Minister which you call a Priest Heereunto I will annexe some few sayings out of M. Iohn Bale Bale who being in Germanie wrote divers bookes and sent them hither wherby England receaved great light knowledg and was of such name note in Germanie that Pantalio that learned Germaine in his Ecclesiasticall Chronicles setteth him downe among the three speciall Englishmen which together with Bucer Peter Martyr preached the Gospell in England during King Edwards time To whom Queene Elizabeth in her very young dayes when she had translated a booke of French into English sent â—omilies Yet will I hereunto adde one place out of our owne English Homilies appoynted to be read publikely in our Churches at this day Our Saviour Christ saith our English Homilie against wilfull rebellion teaching by his doctrine that his kingdome was not of this world did by example in flieing from those that would haue made him King confirme the same expresly also forbidding his Apostles and by them the whole Cleargie of all princelie dominion over people and Nations and he with his Apostles likewise namely Peter Paule did forbid unto all Ecclesiasticall Ministers dominion over the Church of Christ which words are there referred to these places of scripture Math. 20. d 25. Mar. 10. f 42. Luk. 22. e 25. Math 23 a 8. Luke 9 f 46. 2 Cor 1. d 24. 1 Pet 5.1.2.3.4.5 Seeing therefore Christ and his Apostles both by their example practise course of their whole life and also by their doctrine and all the cheifest of the auncient Fathers in the Primitiue Church likewise by their doctrine practise of life And seeing all the principall lights of the Gospell which God hath set up from time to time in the deepe darknes of Antichrist together with all the godlie Martyrs lights of the Gospell both in other Nations and specially in this our owne Realme of England do so vehemently set forth the deformitie and require reformation of those abuses in this treatise mentioned and spoken of yet in our Churches in England remayning unreformed Doe my Lords the Bishops trow you which stand so fircely in defence of those shamefull enormities against such a cloud and multitude of witnesses being the most learned holy men and Martyrs Doe they yet I say expect till the beasts of the feild the foules of the ayre and the very stones of the streete should crie for reformation What is it possible to thinke that they themselues doe not see and know that the Pluralitie of benefices Nonresidencies the horrible abuse of excommunication and such like are untollerable thinges in a Christian Churche Yet not one of these they list to amend I will hereunto joyne the prayer of that excellent learned man Doctor Fulke in his Sermon at Hampton Court Fulk in Queene Elizabeths time printed dedicated to the Earle of Warwike in which having proved most learnedly the Pope to be the very Antichrist spoken of by the Apostle and Rome to be undoubtedly the whore of Babilon spoken of in the Revelation concludeth his sermon with this prayer saying Let us therefore pray unto Almightie God instantly that all men in their vocation may seeke the utter overthrow and destruction of Babilon that Princes and Magistrats may according to the Prophesies of them hate her with a perfect hatred and utterly abolish whatsoever belongeth to her that they may reward her as she hath rewarded us and giue her double punishmeÌ„t according to her workes and in the cup of affliction that she hath powered forth for us they may power forth double as much to her And looke how much she hath glorified her selfe and lived in wantonnes which was without measure so much they may bestow upon her of sorrow and torments That Preachers and Ministers of Gods word may playnlie and without dissimulation or halting discover her wickednes and earnestly to vrge whatsoever hath need of perfect reformation that all subiects may continue in holy obedience first to God and then to their Prince to the advancing of the honor glorie of God through Iesus Christ c. And surely all men without exception which wil be saved by Christ must in their vocation and degree not coldly but fircely fight against Antichrist And specially now when the first Angell hath powred out his Viall upon the throne of the beast so that his kingdom waxeth darke Rev. 16.10 Even now all men ought to seeke the overthrow and the utter destruction of Babilon and not to be weried with the tediousnes of time nor to giue over for the pleasures worldly profitts of this life And not to say as the wicked did in the dayes of the Prophet Malachi What profit is it that we haue kept his commandement Mal. 3 14 15 16.17 and that we walked humblie before the Lord of hosts Therfore we count the proud blessed even they that worke wickednes are set up and they that