what Counsells haue decreed what custome hath confirmed and what the Pope his vnlawfull soueraignetie hath established which seemeth to vs all one as if he had said The Scriptures are to no purpose or as good as nothing Of which opinion was Cardinall Hosius who in his booke De expresso Verbo Dei Fol. 242. in lit F. writeth thus Vanus est labor qui scripturis impenditur It is but lost labour that is spent in the scriptures Nos Dei de caelo sententiam potius expectabimus VVee will rather expect Gods pleasure from heauen Scriptura enim creatura est egenum quoddam elementum For the Scripture is a creature and a certaine needy element And in conclusion he pronounceth Sentence definitiue in this wise in Epilogo ad Sigismundum regem Poloniae Quod Ecclesia docet expressum Dei verbum est quod contra sensum et consensum Ecclesiae docetur expressum Diaboli verbum est That which the Church teacheth by the Church I trow meaning the Pope and his Cardinalls is the expresse worde of God what is taught against the meaning and consent of the Church is the expresse word of the Deuil And long before him Guido editus An. 1495. hee which compiled that sottish booke Manipulus curatorum to iustifie the whole matter stuffe of Confirmation putteth this downe for a Maxime infallable truth In Tract 3.1 Par. 2. de mat confir Licet non inueniatur in canonicis epistolis Diui Petri tamen Dominus Papa habet in decretis Romanae ecclesiae c. That though it bee not found in the canonicall Epistles of S. Peter yet our Lord the Pope hath it in the decrees of the Church of Rome this mounteth farre aboue and beyond all other authoritie whatsoeuer Thus Christ must Surrender to Beliall the Spouse must giue place to Babilon Truth to falsehood and the written worde to vnwritten verities humane traditions must be hote and liuelie letters and the scriptures cold dead Elements if wee hunger our meate must bee chaffe in steed of wheate and if we call for drinke it must come from their broken and puddlepits full of mire and filth Ier. 2.13 which neither haue nor are able to hold the water of power to refreshe the withered soule of man for the veines of the fresh and cleare springing waters they haue stopped vp that by this drift the sayings both of Ieremy and Esaie verified in the Iewes as well pore as rich haue beene brought on vs. The Elders of the Iewes saith Ieremie sent their little ones to the wells and they finding no water with shame and confusion returned with their vessels emptie The poore and the needye saith Esaie 41.17 sought water but no where found they any their tongue was euen withered with thirst Euen so these men by breaking in peeces the pipes and conduits and by damming and choaking the fountaines of liuing waters with dirte and mire haue brought the people of God into a pittifull thirst and this was a misery and a rufull state we haue felt it let vs beware We are counselled if we will follow counsell and we are warned if we will take warning to beware of such deceiuers least otherwise it come to passe that as the Serpent beguiled Eue through his subtiltie so our minds should be corrupt from the simplicity that is in Christ 2. Cor. 11.3 If they bring with them Esaies commission and crie as he doth Heare and hearken for the Lord hath said Let vs receiue them as embassadours sent vs from God and let vs beleeue them Otherwise if they breed suspition let vs make proofe as did those noble men of Beroea noble not so much for birth as for courage in embracing the word of God with all readinesse and as they did Act. 17.11 let vs searche thr scriptures daylie and diligentlye whether the thinges which they teach be so or not And then if vpon due trial proofe wee finde that they bring vs counterfet coyne that they come with the Reuelations of men which flow not from the mouth of the Lorde what countenance soeuer they carry where they Angells from heauen that did vs the message by the commandement of Saint Paul to the Galathians 1.8 let vs hold them accursed And yet there are that say and will say The Lord hath said it when the Lord neuer spake the worde Such are the Prophets of Antichrist not vnlike vnto those of Israel which Prophesied after their own fantasie and said the Lord saith it albeit the Lorde had not spoken Eze. 13.7 But beholde what the worde of the Lorde is against such Prophets which follow their owne spirite and teach the people the counsailes of their own hearts I am against them mine hand shal be vpon the Prophets that see vanitie diuine lies they shall not be in the assemblie of my people neither shall they bee written in the writing of Israel Verse 8.9 to wit in the booke of life in which the true Israelites are written neither shall they enter into the land of Israell and that because they haue deceiued my people saying peace which Ieremie 6 14. calleth a sweet word but it was not so for there was no peace one built vp a wall and others daubed it with vntempered morter Eze. 13.10 But saith the Lord Ver 13.14 I will destroy the wall which they haue daubed with vntempered morter and bring it downe to the ground by a stormy wind which shall breake forth in my wrath and by a greate shower in mine anger and hailestones in mine indignation so that the foundation thereof shall be discouered and it shall fall they shall be consumed in the midst therof and shall know that I am the Lord. Thus will the Lorde accomplish his wrath vpon the wall and vpon them that daubed it with vntempered morter euen with their own deuises vnder the authoritie of Gods word If then the Lord will thus deale with the wall and with the daubers that daubed it with vntempered morter let the builders take heed how they build the wall and the daubers howe they daube it least the Lorde pull downe both wall and morter Ver 15. and they say the wall is no more neither the daubers thereof And this much of the first part namely how Esaie by way of exclamation hath inioyned by the commaundement of God the heauens to heare and the earth to hearken vnto the message which hee is willed to doe vnto them from the mouth of the Lord. Nowe the Prophet goeth onward with the Lords most lamentable complaint concerning the ingratitude of his people for whome he had done many and great good turnes The complaint is this I haue nourished and brought vp children but they haue rebelled against me A most grieuous complaint which consisteth of two partes In the first he expresseth his benefits bestowed vpon them In the second hee declareth their ingratitude and rebellion against him Hee expresseth his benefits towardes them in
sana Gloria secli Haec via certa Vna manebit Haec via pastus Arx paradisi Diriget omnes Caetera fumus Hâcque beatas AD VRSVLAM THOMAE Fulfordiconiugem Orthodoxam Vrsula funesto flerem tua carmina fata Biblia si scirem te coluisâ—e parum Ast munit contra falsi praeludia mundi Messiae pectus pagina sancta tuum AD EANDEM Lesbia cantabat lasciua poemata Sappho Vrsula coelestis clara trophÄ™a Dei. Lesbis amica chelyn Phoebo dedit Vrsula Phoebo Vota feret fido pectore clausa suo Vrsula Sola Deo tua sit seruire voluptas Gaudia vera putes gloria sinis erit AD EANDEM Vrsula collectos cernis flaccescere flores Et verno nitâ—das deperiâ—sse rosas Anglorum spectas marcescere lilia peste Quae fuerant oculis lilia digna tuis Hinc subolere potes quaenam sit gloria mundi Quae tacitè tenues soluitur in cineres IT IS VVRITTEN IN the first Chapter of the Prophet Esaie 2. 3. Heare O heauens and hearken O earth for the Lord hath saide I haue nourished and brought vp children but they haue rebelled against me The Oxe knoweth his owner and the Asse his Masters Crib but Israel hath not knowne my people hath not vnderstand OF these you expect the interpretation and meaning but first let vs pray together that God of whome is euery good giuing and euery perfect gift may giue vnto you eares to heare his worde with frut may open vnto me the dore of vtterance Coll. 4.3 to speake the misterie of Christ that I may vtter it as it becommeth mee to his glorie to your comfort to the increase of his church O Eternall GOD and mercifull father wee thy poore seruaunts present our selues before the throne of thy Diuine Maiestie entirely desiring thy fatherly goodnes to graunt that thy worde may take such deepe roote in our hearts that it may fructifie bring forth an hundreth sixtie or thirtie folde so much as shall seeme best to thy heauenly wisedome And next vnto this we pray thee O Father to bee gratious and mercifull to thy whole militant Church dispersed farre and wide vppon the face of this earth especially to the two principall members of the same 1. Tim. 2. 1.2 England and Ireland And whereas by thy holy Apostle Paul we are willed to make praiers and supplications for all men for Kings and Princes and for all that are in authoritie we humbly and hartily pray and beseeche thee to blesse and preserue thy chosen seruaunt our dread Soueraigne Elizabeth by thy grace of England France and Ireland Queene defendresse of the true auncient and Apostolike faith and in all causes and ouer all persons within these hir Maiesties Dominions next and immediatly on earth vnder thee supreame Gouernesse Blesse O Lord we beseech thee both hir and all hir most Honourable Councellors against all domesticall and forren foes that thy Church so prosperously begunne may bee builded and fullie finished according to the platforme of thy most sacred and holy word And to this ende wee pray thee also O Lorde to visite comfort and cherrish with the spirit of thy grace the Archbishops Bishops and all other inferior Ministers to whom thou hast assigned the preaching of thy Law and the charge of thy chosen that they may bee found good Stewards oâ— thy will and true disposers of thy secretes and that by their labours sanctified of thee thy poore sheep which wander and goe astray in the vale of darkenes and shadow of death may bee brought home to thy sheepe sold vnder one shepheard thy sonne Christ the great shepheard of the sheepe and Bishop of our soules Wee recommende likewise to thy fauour and goodnes O Lord all the Rulers and Commons of this Realme that the Rulers with courage and in a reuerent feare of thee according to the trust committed vnto them may carefully and truely iudge thy people at all seasons and that the Commons in their seuerall degrees may liue and abide in Christian duety and obedience toward their superiors and in Godly loue and charitie one towards another We beseech thee O Lord that in like measure of thy grace thou wilt vouchsafe to water with the dewe of thy blessing the two notable Vniuersities of this Lande Oxford Cambridge that from age to age they may send forth Bezaleels and Aholiabs filled with the spirit of wisedome vnderstanding and knowledge to worke together with all the wise hearted all maner workemanship for the seruice of the Sanctuary for the vniting of the Saints for the worke of the Ministery and for the edification of the body And here O Lord for as much as we are all thy children sheep of thy pasture we call vppon thee for all our poore and afflicted brethren which by any meanes any where do grone vnder the Crosse for the testimony of thy eternall truth that according to thy promise it woulde please thee to giue them the fulnes of consolation patience and constancie that they may chearfully abide whatsoeuer fierie tryall it shall please thy heauenly wisdome to put them vnto that both by their life and by their death thy truth may be sealed Antichrist that man of sinne ashamed and the Kingdome enlarged of thy deare sonne Iesus Christ For these and all other thy graces what so euer which thou knowest to be needfull and necessary for vs and thy whole Church we make our humble hearty praier vnto thee our God and father which art the father of mercies and the God of all comfort according to that maner and forme which Christ thy sonne our Master in his Gospell hath taught vs. Our Father c. A SERMON PREACHED AT EXETER Esaie 1. verse 2. 3. Heare O heauens and hearken O earth for the Lord hath saide I haue nourished and brought vp children but they haue rebelled against me The Oxe knoweth his owner and the Asse his Masters Crib but Israel hath not knowne my people hath not vnderstand THese words which I haue read vnto you Men Fathers and BrethreÌ„ beloued in the Lord diuide themselues into two parts an exclamation and a complaint The exclamation is conteined in the first part of this second verse and is made not vnto men but vnto the heauens aboue and vnto the earth beneath Heare O heauens saieth the Prophet and hearken O earth For because the Iewes refused to tread the paths of the Lord and to walke in his waies because they were like vnto the serpent the deafe Adder that stoppeth his eare at the voice of the charme rcharme he neuer so wiselie Psal 58.4.5 Therefore now by the Lords appointment hee speaketh vnto deafe and dumbe creatures and saith Heare O heauens and hearken O earth As if he should haue saide because the ingratitude and impietie of men is such that they will not heare nor hearken vnto the voice of the Lorde I will speake vnto the heauens and earth and the heauens though
promised with the mouth what of it Christ if hee were here on earth should not neede so much a whip to driue them out of the Church so fewe come there as hee should neede a great sort of whips and that good ones to driue them thither As for the Bishops which they wished to be remoued mitred ones were thrust out of their holdes sooner than they thought and exiles and other very zealous men placed in their steads But what of those then and of their successors now Euen as of the Bishops and Elders of the Churches in saint Pauls time Reuiled euill spoken off made Os pericatharmata tou cosmon as the filth of the world 1. Cor. 4.13 Panton peripsema the ofscowring of all thinges vnto this time the very practise of auntient Sectaries who by dispraising and reuiling others sought to purchase fame and glorie to themselues But this is not all for Captaine Cuffe of the bouncing band of all Surebies the olde sheep ebiter which pricketh at the bodie and spareth not the fleece will haue their Mannors and landes to make his brats Gentlemen Their houses must goe downe their liuings must be clipped or clean taken away and they set to petrie pensions The Captaine with the helpe of his surebies like an other Xerxes will suppe vp whole countries before him and snatch vp houses and woods dales and mountaines vallies and hills people and all into the budget of his wrath Hauocke must be made of the Churches inheritance without contradiction either of Prince or people els the trumpet soundeth à stylo ad macheram Tertul. de prescrip pag. 110. Sect. 15. Sirs no more words but blows and al for Church patrimony vnder the colour of religion Captaine Cuffe belike in his Itinerario or Kalender of miles smelt that Abbey lands c. so well pretended to be employed to the inriching of the King maintaining of schooles and releeuing the poore were vnto some very sweete and the best feather of their taile who perhaps hauing spent the better part if not the totall vppon backe and belly himselfe could bee content to consume in like proportion the remnants that are left Heare ye this O Elders and hearken ye all inhabitants of this Citie whether such a thing hath beene in your daies or yet in the dares of your fathers The Palmer worme hath his part and so hath the Grashopper and canker worme and now residuum erucae the residue of the canker worme 〈◊〉 the Caterpiller eate if hee may Such is the thankefulnes which these and others yeeld both to the Lorde and also to them who haue ministred and to this day doo minister in his sanctified labours It is presupposed that some Clergie men haue too little some too much and some nothing at all to liue by and therefore very requisite that iust and equall diuision were made that all might bee sufficiently prouided for A deepe charity dipped in as deep hypocrisie But Sirs of the corporation of Mal-contents who shall make the diuision There is iust cause why we may stagger at putting the Church patrimony to arbitrement lest while diuision bee pretended some Quintus Fabius adiudge the better part thereof to the Senate of Rome Cicero Offic li. 10. Et ita erit nouissimus error peior priore And so shall the last errour bee worse than the first Matthew Chapter 27. verse 64. But all this is the wicked working of Satan the moulder of mischief whose drift hath been euermore to decay learning that there should be none learned in the Scriptures to commit the flockes vnto which hee attempted to accomplish First by seducing spirits Secondarily by force of tyrants and now lastly by impayring the liuings of the Ministers of the worde to the intent that they oppressed with pouertie should forsake the Ministerie so the little miserable flocke of Iesus Christ left destitute of the foode of life should become in time like vnto the horse and mule which haue no vnderstanding Psal 32.9 In regard whereof what good Christian is there which may not vpon so iust occasion iustly cry out in the bitternesse of his heart O tempora O mores O times O manners seeing the times so dangerous and men in their manners so monstrous whome the Lorde notwithstanding hath nourished and brought vp as his children and yet doth but they rebell For in what one point can they more significantly expresse and make knowen their rebellion against the Lorde than by battering the walls and shaking the foundations of his Church than by annoying his seruaunts the Prophets contrary to his commaundement touch not mine annointed and do my Prophets no harme Psal 105.15 than by diuiding mangling and impairing the portions of the Leuites as in the daâ—â—s of Nehemiah cap. 13. vers 10. which caused them for that they receiued not according to the Lawe prouided in that case to forsake the house of God as not able to execute the worke any longer and to flee euery one away to his owne Land This it was and will be when the Lords portion is pinched the mouth of the Oxe musled that treadeth out the corne it must needs breed and bring Anarchy and confusion euen the riune vtter ouerthrow of all good learning and true religion For take away once the patrimonie and maintenance of the Church at which that Axe of theirs striketh especially as at a sweete and pleasant roote and intreate the Lords Ambassadors as Hanun did Dauids messengers 2. Sam. 10.4 ye take away learning take away learning ye take away teaching Dauids messengers sent to comfort Hanun must of forc tarry at Iericho with shame inough vers 5. vntill their garments bee lengthened and their beards growen when will that be when the children of Ammon vers 6. band themselues and hire other to worke them if they may some further despite And so you may lightly coniecture what will become of the Church of Christ For where no vision is the people decay Pro. twentie nine Chap. and 18. verse Howbeit beloued we hope better trust that the Lord of Hoasts in his accustomed mercye will continue a strength vnto Israel and a defence for Iudah yea wee trust that Iehouah will so blesse vs out of Zion Psal 128.5 that we shall see our Ierusalem to flow with prosperity peace plenteousnes and true religion all the daies of our life that the destroyers of the vineyard Psal 80.13 and young Vine which the Lord hath made so mightie and strong for himselfe shall perish in their appointed time at the rebuke of the countenance of our God But if so be the Lords arme bee stretched out toward vs if his wrath be kindled against vs if matters fall out in the ende otherwise than well let vs burden and blame no man but our selues for wee are a crooked and rebellious nation as badd as euer were the Iewes if not worse and looke what sinnes raigned among them Ezec. 16.49.50 and we haue exceeded