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A15030	A discourse of the abuses novv in question in the churches of Christ of their creeping in, growing vp, and flowrishing in the Babilonish Church of Rome, how they are spoken against not only by the scriptures, but also by the ancient fathers as long as there remayned any face of a true Church maintained by publique authority, and likewise by the lights of the Gospell, and blessed martyrs of late in the middest of the antichristian darknes. By Thomas Whetenhall Esquier.	Whetenhall, Thomas.	1606 (1606)	STC 25332; ESTC S119728	111,256	168

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

Bucer desired to haue a better reformation of religion in England then was in King Edwards time appeareth evidently in his booke De Regno Christi written to King Edward that most gratious and religious King of England whom both Ridly Bishop of London and Cranmer Archbishop of Caunterburie confessed to haue more divinitie in his litle finger then they thēselues in their whole bodyes as you may read in our booke of Martyrs such an excellent impression of true Divinity had God ingraven in his brest beyng then but a child Who no doubt if he had lived as he had in many things well begun so would he haue made a full reformation of those foule corruptions that remayned and yet remaine to this day and would haue reduced all the Churches in his Dominions unto the Primitiue and Apostolike order and Discipline which M. Bucer in his sayd book of the Kingdome of Christ written unto him for the same purpose so earnestly desireth Whose words in his first booke and 15. chapter are these Vt vero claris Dominus et gravissimis verbis disciplinam suam cum vitae vniversae De regni Christi 1 15 tum agendae penitentiae tumetiam sacrarum ceremoniarum sancivit etc. With what playne and cleare words saith M. Bucer hath the Lord established his Discipline as well of the whole course of life as of shewing publike repentance also of the holy Ceremonies Yet how few shall you find even among those which are coūted men of speciall note among Christians which I will not say desire with all their heart to haue this Discipline restored which is the only Discipline of health or salvation but that thinke it a thing worthy once to go about it They say the times are now farr otherwise then it was when this Discipline florished in the first Churches men are now of an other sorte And it is to be feared least by the restoring of this Discipline the Churches should be more troubled then edified and that more men should therby be frayed from the Gospell then should be brought unto it To conclud that it is to be feared that by this meanes it should grow into a new tyranny of a false Cleargie upon the people of Christ But do not these men even by their owne wordes manifestly convince themselues of their horrible ignorance concernyng the profit of the kingdome of Christ and the true benefitts therof For know not they that the kingdome of Christ is a kingdome of all ages and of all men which are elect to salvation They are ignorant that King Iesus that is to say the Saviour of men and the best Pastor or sheepheard of his owne sheepe hath instituted nothing at all and commanded nothing to those that are his which is not healthfull unto them in all times and places if it be used as he instituted commanded the same Bucer in Ephesians 4. And upon the 4 chapter to the Ephesians he sayth Sathan goeth about to make men beleiue that by the restoring of the disciplin the faithfull Ministers should be thought to seeke ambitiously the same tyrannie which Antichrist did Yee see with what force of wordes M. Bucer lamenteth the lacke of true Discipline in England even in King Edwards time and how vehemently he desired the King to restore and establish the same which in his time could never be performed by reason of his suddaine death in the minoritie of his yeares And afterward in the dayes of Queene Elizabeth the Gospell was receaved aboue 40. yeares and no fault by publik authority amended which King Edward left in the Discipline of the Church wherin by the way I cannot but note one pretie litle poynt of the Dragon that subtle serpent Sathanas for the better safegard of his sonne Antichrist his creedit and his deare daughter Babilon the great whore of Rome for slily and cunningly he so scraped out this peece of publique prayer in all Queene Elizabeths time which both in King Hēries time and King Edwards time was used that it could never be restored unto this day Namely From the tyranny of the Bishop of Rome and all his detestable enormities good Lord deliver us For he knew full well no small number of his owne enormious abominations were yet reteyned in the Discipline of the Church to the great comfort of himselfe and of his sonne Antichrist the Pope and his deare daughter the Church of Rome And it might justly be taken for a Prophesie that we should not in her dayes be delivered from the detestable enormities of the Bishop of Rome left unreformed in King Edwards time But let us heare further what M. Bucer sayth to King Edward in his second booke of the kingdome of Christ and the 1 chapter Primum haud dubito serenissime Rex Maiestatem tuam ipsam videre hanc quam requirimus imo quam requirit salus omnium nostrum regni Christi restitutionem ab Episcopis nullo modo expectandam c. First I doubt not most gracious King saith M. Bucer to King Edward but your owne Maiesty doth see that this restoring agayne of the kingdom of Christ which we require yea which the salvation of us all requireth may in no wise be expected to com of the Bishops seeyng there be so few among them which do understand the power and proper offices of this kingdom and very many of them by all meanes which they possible can and dare either oppose themselues against it or deferre it and hinder it And after in the same booke he concludeth saying De reformando itaque Episcoporum ordine serenissima Maiestatis tuae cum primis animus intendendus Therefore the mind of your most excellent Maiestie must principally be set upon reforming of the order of Bishops Of these places before cited first the reader may plainly see with what vehemency this Angell and starre holden in the right hand of Christ desireth and requyreth to haue the reformation in England which yet cannot be obteyned to be squared according to the first Churches which were in the Apostles time Secondly that the objections which are now commonly made against the reformation are even the same which Satan and his childrē made in King Edwards time the wilfull horrible ignorance wherof M. Bucer manifestly discovereth Thirdly that no hope of this reformation and the restoring of the kingdom of Christ which even the salvation of us all requyreth was to be expected at the hands of the Bishops Fourthly that that the King ought specially to bend his mind to reforme the order or estate of the Bishops And to speake the truth ye might truely affirme that the King began at a wrong end when he began at the parish Priests and leapt over the Lord Bishops for that was a tithing of mint and annis and a leaving of the waightier matters of the law undone It is a memorable and a true saying that Sigismund the Emperour used in the Counsell of Constāce Sigismund

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

Elder or any other he spake altogeather according to the rule of Gods law And if he saw any mā 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 govermēt 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 ca● 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 cōming 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 l●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 Christiās 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 begīning 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 vpō these termes as our Papists doe yet to

with you And touching the election of Bishops and Ministers this bright starre fixed in the right hand of Christ sayth Decad 5 sermon 4 Titus 1. 1 Tim. 5. They which think that all power of ordayning Ministers is in the Bishops Diocesans or Archbishops hands doe use these places of the scripture For this cause I left thee in Creta sayth Paule to Titus that thou shouldest ordaine Elders in every Citie And agayne Lay hands soddainly on no man But we say that the Apostles did not exercise tyranny in the Churches and that they themselues a lone did not execute all things about election or ordination other men in the Church beyng excluded For the Apostles of Christ ordeyned Bishops or Elders in the Church but not without communicating their Counsell with the Churches yea and not without having the consent and approbation of the people And a litle after he saith So undoubtedly Titus though it were sayd unto him Ordayne Elders in every Citie yet he understod that hereby nothing was permitted to him which he might doe privatly as he thought good not having the advise and consent of the Churches Wherefore they sinne not at all that shaking of the yoke and tyrannie of the Bishops of Rome for good and reasonable causes to recover that auncient right graunted by Christ to the Churches And as for Archdeacons he coupleth them with the filthy vermine of Monks Decad 5 sermon 3 saying And when wealth increased there were Archdeacons also created that is to say overseers of all the goods of the Church They as yet were not mingled with the order of Ministers or Bishops and of those that taught but they remayned as stewards or factors of the goods of the Church As neither the Monks at the begining executed the office of a Priest or Minister in the church For they were counted as lay men not as Clearks and were under the charge of the Pastors But these unfortunat birds never left soaring untill in these last times they haue climed into the top of the Temple Archdeacōs and haue set themselues upon Bishops and Pastors heads And touching the Leviticall apparell and the Lordly estate of Ministers he precisely cōcludeth thus The misticall attire and garments of the Priesthood he neyther did commend to his Apostles nor leaue to his Church Decad 3 sermon 18 but tooke them away with all the Ceremonyes that are called the middle wall betwixt the Iewes and the Gentiles The Lord himselfe and his Apostle Paul will haue the Pastors of his people clad with righteousnes and honestie and doe precisely remoue the Ministers of the Church from superioritie and secular affaires Now if the Lord himselfe and his Apostle do precisely remoue the Ministers of the Church from superioritie and secular affaires I wish it might also be remembred precisely followed which the Kings Majestie saith in his first booke to his Sonne our Noble Prince for saith our gratious King Basilic dorō 1 part In any thing that is expresly commanded or prohibited in the booke of God you cannot be over precise Decad 5 sermon 4 And for a full conclusion in this matter M. Bullinger saith That order or function instituted by Christ in the Church sufficeth even at this day to gather governe and preserue the Church on earth yea without these orders which in these last ages new inventions hath instituted For that doth the thing it selfe witnes and the absolute perfection of the Primitiue Church a voucheth it And therefore at the last he useth this exclamation Oh happie had we been Sermon 3. if this order of Pastors had not been changed but that auncient simplicitie of Ministers that faith humility and dilligence had remained uncorrupted But in processe of time all things of auncient soundnes humilitie and simplicitie vanished away whilest some things are turned upside downe some things either of their owne accord were out of use or else are taken away by deceit some things are added to c. The authors desire Whereunto I will ad the exclamation of myne owne soule saying Oh happy should we bee if it might please his gratious Majestie to restore unto his poore subjects of England the auncient orders of the Ecclesiasticall Ministers set downe by Christ and his Apostles without any other orders which mans invention hath instituted for that order and function sufficeth even at this day to gather governe and preserue the Churches of God upon earth without any of these orders and such like which mans invention hath brought in namly Archbishops Diocesan Lords Archdeacons Deanes Commissaries Officialls which are brought in by mans invention not once mentioned in the scripture And so I will proceed to M. Musculus set up also as an excellent light of God among the golden Candlesticks Musculus of Tigurie and the Swicers I haue already shewed out of Musculus that in playne wordes he sayth That the device of men pag 14.15 that Bishops should be greater then other Ministers was such a mischeife to the Church that we may thank the custome thereof for all the wealth pride and tirannie of our Princely and riding Bishops and for the corruptions of all Churches which if the aūcient Fathers did now see The Devils invention they would no doubt acknowledg it not to be the device of the holy Ghost as it was pretended But of the Devill himselfe to take away the true Ministery of the Church of God set downe by Christ and his Apostles Now further in his booke of Common places Tit. Of the Ministery of the word of God he saith It is not meete that a Bishop do convert the power of his Ministery to other Churches but to Minister faithfully in the same wherein he is elected and confirmed like as it was not convenient for the Apostle to convert his Apostleship to a Bishopricke and to be restrained to one Church onely As also it is unto Iames. The like is to be said of Titus Tim. Mark Evāgelists Chry. Tit. 1. which is falsly attributed unto the Apostle Peter Wherefore let the Bishops looke to themselues which wheras they doe not lawfully Minister in one Church yet they do extend their power not to a few Churches but unto whole Provinces also Let them read Chrysostome upon the Epistle to Titus the first chapter By Cities he sayth Indeed he would not haue a whol Iland committed unto one man but every man to haue his charge and care alone And a non after he saith Yea the impudencie and state of Bishops is become so great that a nomber of Bishoppricks be swallowed up in the gurmandise of som one Metropolitan Bishop such as there be many now a dayes And the Bishop of Rome even like the Devill paynted with his wide mouth devoureth up all the Bishopricks and Churches of the world And a litle before he saith They that boast themselues to be the successors of the Apostles ought not to extoll themselues

Marlorat Danaeus and Tilenus leaving all the rest of the French Churches and learned men there which are exceeding many in number but all with one consent agreeing with those last a fore named lights of the gospell both in their doctrine Discipline and practise of life And first of Calvin which was as famous a Pastor in the Citie of Geneva as Augustine was in Hippo Calvin or Ierome in the towne of Bethlem yet lived he not like a Lord but like Augustine and Ierome and as hath been before shewed in a very meane estate whereof I my selfe haue been an eye witnes The author Ioh. Cal. vita ante eius epist and as in the Historie of his life and death ye may also read Where it is written Testari certe potest Senatus quū perexigua essent eius stipendia c. The Senate of the Citie can testifie that although his stipend was very small yet was he so far frō being discontent therwith that a more ample allowance being freelie offred him he obstinatly refused it And a litle before his riches and wealth that he left behind him are set downe in these words Cuius bona omnia c. All those goods his librarie also being dearely sold came scarselie to three hundred French Crownes which a mounteth not to one hundred pounds of our mony but lacketh about some ten pounds thereof and yet all that he left came scarselie to so much And according to this his practise both publicklie privately he taught and wrote as you may read in his Instistutions lib. 4. cap. 4. Where he saith Heereby also we iudge what use there was and what manner of distribution of the Church goods Ech wher both in the decrees of the Synods among the old writers it is to be found that whatsoever the Church possesseth either in lands or mony is the patrimonie of the poore And a non after he saith But sith it is equitie and established by the law of the Lord that they which imploy their service to the Church should be fed with the common charges of the Church and also many priests in that age consecrating their patrimonies to God were willingly made poore the distributing was such that neither the Ministers wanted sustenance nor the poore were neglected But yet in the meane time it was provided that the ministers themselues which ought to giue example of honest sparing to other should not haue so much whereby they might abuse it to riotous excesse or deliciousnes but only wherwith to sustaine their owne need Har. Evang. Mat 20 25 And upon the 20 of Mathew 25 verse he saith Ye know that the Lords of the Gentiles haue dominion over them c. He declareth that there shal be no such superioritie in his kingdom as they did striue for They therfore are deceaved which do stretch this saying to all the godly in generall when as Christ onely teacheth of that matter in hand that the Apostles were very fond to make any question of degree of power or of honor in their estate and calling for the office of teaching whereto they were appoynted had no likelihood wtth the Empires of the world And after he saith The purpose of Christ was to put a difference between the spirituall regiment of his Church earthlie Empires least the Apostles should apply themselues to courtlie graces and fashions For as every one among the Nobles is beloued of Kings so he climeth up to wealth and offices But Christ set Pastors over his Church not to beare a Lorlie rule over them but to Minister So the error of the Anabaptists which doe banish Kings Magistrats from the Church of God because Christ sayd they were not like his Disciples is overthrowne For the comparison is not made heere between Christians and prophāe men but between offices And anon after he saith So David Ezekias and such like when aswillingly they became the servāts of all mē yet were they adorned with the Scepter Diadem Thrōe and other such ensignes But the goverment of the Church admitteth no such thing For Christ gaue no more allowance to the Pastors then that they should be Ministers and that they should altogether abstaine from Lordlie government I need not to make any explanation of his words for they are plaine enough further for the election of Bishops Ministers M. Calvin saith Truelie this is a most foule example Bishops made at the Court a soule mattes that out of the Court are Bishops to possesse Churches And it should be the worke of godly Princes to abstaine from such corruption For it is a wicked spoyling of the Church when there is thrust unto any people a Bishop whom they haue not desired or at the least with free voyce allowed And upon the the 14 of the Acts he saith Paul Barnabas are said to choose Elders Do they this alone by their private office Nay rather they suffer the matter to be decided by the consent of them all therefore in ordayning Pastors the people had their free election And upon the 6 of the Acts where the seaven Deacons were chosen by the people these are his words As touching this present place the Church is permitted to choose For it is tyrannous if any one man appoynt or make Ministers at his pleasure Therefore this is the most lawfull way that those be chosen by common voyces who are to take upon them any publicke function in the Church And concerning Nonresidencie and Pluralities of benefices he saith Instit 4. 8 Non obiiciam verbum Dei c. I will not obiect against thē saith M. Calvin that the word of God doth in every place cry out against it which long since amongst them hath ceased to be in any manner of account Neither will I obiect many most severe constitution in many Counsells that hath been ordeyned against this wickednes For these Constitutions also as often as they list they stoutly contemne But I say that both these things are a prodigious or monstrous mischevous wiekednes utterly against God against nature against the Ecclesiasticall governement that one arrant theefe should sit over divers Churches together that he should be named unto Satans kingdom But also unlike to the earthly kingdomes which are governed by good civill pollicie Therefore Iesus Christ said that he came not to be served but to serue and to shew unto his Disciples the difference that they should put betweene the worldli● kingdomes and their estate And his Church and the estate and government of the same c. He saith the Kings of the nations c. And a non after he saith When Iesus Christ sent his Apostles he said unto them As my Father sent me so send I you For he medled not nor tooke upon him to raigne as a worldly Prince But when the people sought him to make him a King he hid himselfe And when he was requyred to devide an inheritance between two brethren

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

A DISCOVRSE OF THE ABVSES NOVV IN QVESTION IN THE CHVRCHES OF CHRIST OF THEIR CREEPING IN GROwing vp and flowrishing in the Babilonish Church of Rome how they are spoken against not only by the scriptures but also by the ancient Fathers as long as there remayned any face of a true Church maintained by publique authority And likewise by the lights of the Gospell and blessed Martyrs of late in the middest of the Antichristian darknes By Thomas Whetenhall Esquier Pro. 24.24.25 He that saith to the wicked thou art righteous him shall the the people curse and the multitude shall abhorre him But to thē that rebuke him shal be pleasure and vpon them shall come the blessing of goodnes Imprinted 1606. THE PRINTER TO THE CHRISTIAN READER CHristian Reader it is well knowne to all men how odiously the adversaries of the Churches reformation in England do accuse and defame the seekers of the said reformation with Noueltie Singularity Schisme Error and with many other such like most foull crimes The iniquity and vntruth whereof will through Gods blessing well appeare to euery one that shall read and pervse this present most profitable Discourse following Wherein two maine and principall matters to witt The Inventions and Traditions of men in Church affayres and the overreaching Clergy beyond the condition of ordinay Pastors wherevnto all the particulars now in controuersie are easily reduced are observed in all ages and times since the Apostles to haue ben held by some godly persons and faithfull Witnesses of the truth to haue ben hainous transgressiōs against the ordinances of Christ in his New Testament So that heerby men may see that it is noe new thing that the servants of Christ and the louers of his ordinances should striue now against these Corruptions For if this be Schismaticall now I say to striue against these Corruptions then surely all the holy Martyrs and pillars of the Gospell in all ages past but chifly since the discovery of Antichrist were Schismatiks For they then travayled laboured as by this Discourse we may see in one and the same cause wherin now the true seruants of Christ doe also labor But if in former times those were faithfull men the true louers of the Gospell of Christ who hated all mens Additions in matters of the Church then doubtles soe are these now and it will be manifest to all good men that they are wrongefully traduced and accused in such wise as is before mentioned To which end and purpose this ancient Christian Gentlman hath worthily observed gathered and giuen out to the world as his last service to God to his people these testimonies of sundry old and new writers The which comming vnto my hands I could not in loue to thee good Reader but communicate the same vnto thee The rather considering how many thinges dayly are spoken written to the contrary by the adversaryes to dazell the eyes of Gods people in these causes The Lord Iesus inlighten the minds of all his true Children in all his wayes who only is the way the truth and the life and grant us his peace Amen A TABLE OF THE PRINCIPALL MATter 's contained in this Discourse False Accusations against the seekers of Reformation 166 The Apparel of Ministers did not differ from the apparell of other men pag 70 129 130 164 Neither ought it to differ 163 164 170 171 175 176 Audianus was no Herjtike though his successors were pag 6 B The ordinary name of Bishop is common to all Ministers in the New Testament pag 13. 14. 15 16 Bishops chosen in and proceeding from the Court are the cause of al corruption pag 123. Ordinatiō made by a Lord Bishop is void pag 127 128 131 132 The like Excommunication is no better pag 77. 78 C The Ceremonies in question are vnlawfull for vs pag 85. 86. 87. 98 113. 114. 149. 150. 172. 173 When how Ceremonies of mans invention were first brought into Gods worship pag 33 Civill rule in pastors is vnlawfull and contrary to Gods word in the New Testament pag 58 90 91 92. 95. 96. 97. 98 107. 108. 110. 122. 125. 126. 136. 137 143 151 152. 159. 161. 174. 175. 180. Corruption in the Churches tooke place immediately after the Apostles pag 4 The time of the highest Ecclesiasticall corruption tyranny p. 56. 57 What a visible Church is pag 76. 77. 140. 141. 142. Churches are all equall in power jurisdiction spirituall rights pag 2. 3. One Pastor cannot be but to one Church See Pluralities Church government belongeth wholly and only to each Church By no meāes to any one man either within or without the same pag 70 89 124 The Churches government ought to depend only on Gods word pag 69 99 108 109. The signe of the Crosse pag 130. Custom without Gods word is pernicious pag 106. D Discipline in our Churches is necessarie to be restored p. 108. 109 The folly of them who now think orherwise pag 80. 81 87 88. 90. It is necessarie to salvation ibidē E False Ecclesiastikes pag 92. An Eldership pag 94 95 97. 118. 124 130 131. Election of Ministers ought to be by that Churches free consent to which they belong pag 71. 72 73. 74. 75. 98. 107 108 109 118. 123. 127 128 131 132 138 173. Election of Ministers by the free liking of every Church is a thing easy and no way inconuenient in a civill Monarchie p. 74. 94. 100. Excommunication is in each Churches power in none other touching any member therein pa. 77 78 89 90 94 128 130. 150 151 Church Government see before in Church and Discipline I Questions to the Infants in their Baptizing are vaine pa 101 102 130. K Kneeling in receaving the Communion ought to be reformed pag 149 150. M Maintenance ought to be reasonable and liberall for a Minister Yet not superfluous 21 c. 42 54 59 117 121 122 133 135 143 178. VVhat a reasonable Maintenance may be pag 21 132 135 Ministers of mans Institution are unlawfull pag 61 62 94 98 99. Mingling of mens inventions in Gods worship is very pernitious pag 103. 104 105 106 111 113 114 120 124 125 129 147 148 150 167 168 175 184 187 188. 189. N Non residents very wicked pag 146. 152 160. 168. 169. 172. 174. O The Oath ex Officio vnjust and tyrannous pag 138 139. 140. P The name Papa Pope was aunciently common to all Bishops pag 17 18. 19. Pastors are all equall pag 109 112. see Superioritie in Pastors Churches are all equall Ignorant Pastors and bare Substitutes a deadly evill pa. 92. 93. 118 138 145 152 169. 170. Paulus Samosatenus a stately Prelat like those of our times pa. 7. 8 The first beginning of true reformation ought to be in reforming the Prelats pag 83 137 152. No amendment to be expected from the Prelats pag 82 Pluralities damnable pa 123. 129. 138 152. 156 157 160. 168. 169 172. Pompe and riches in the

Cleargie is cause of corruption and error in all pag 62. 151. 175. 176. A Prayer for the King and State pag 191 192. Good Christians fasly called Puritanes 166 167 R No man ought to forbid Reformation in any Church state after the Originall orders in Gods word pag 112. 116 117. 181. 183. 184 Excuses against Reformation were the same heeretofore which are nowe But still most vaine pag 81. 143. 144. 159 160 185 186 188 189 Reformation when it began pag 57. which hitherto hath stil proceeded but by certaine degrees so shall till the full co uming of Antichrist Open Reprehension of our present Church Corruptions at this time is necessary in every faithfull Minister pag 79. A Representatiue Church no where found in the New Testament pa. 76. S Superioritie unlawull in Pastors and Lordship is tyranny Either is simplie unlawfull pag 13. 14. 15. 16. 40. 50. 58 68 69 75 76 94. 96. 98 100. 101 109 112. 118 120 135 137 138 142 145 146 151 159. 161. 162 172 173. 176 177 178 179 190. 193. The Surplice pag 158 154 155 162 163 164 171 184 T Ecclesiasticall Traditions unwritten are unlawfull and contrary to Gods word both Ministeries and Ceremonyes c. pag 66 67 70. 75. 111 112. 113. 114. 115 120 124. 125 126. 128 129 130. 133 134. 147 148 149 152 157. 158. 165 167 168 175 V Vnproper termes very dangerous and cause of error in doctrine pag 9 11 13 14. 15. 16. Refer these 2. points following to the letter I. before placed The fashions of Idolaters being of themselues things unnecessary ought to be abolished in the exercise of true religion pag 162. 163 164. 165. Images of mans devise in religious use are simplie unlawfull and yet no more unlawfull then Ceremonyes of like institution in the like use 186. 187. A TABLE OF THE AVTHORS ALLEAGED in this Discourse A Alley pag. 33. Ambrose pag. 45. Athanasius pag. 73. Augustinus pag. 16. 19. 20. 40. 45. 101. 163. 164. 165. 167. B Bale pag. 177. 178. 179. Barnes pag. 25. Basilius Magnus pag. 34. Beacon pag. 170. 172. Beatus Rhenanus pag. 163. Bernard pag. 24. 50. 52. 53. Beza pag. 15. 127. 130. Gabriel Biel. pag. 163. Bradford pag. 174. 175. 176. 177. Bucer pag. 79. 80. 85. Bulinger pag. 93. 99. 168. C Calvinus pag. 14. 22. 121. 125. Chaucer pag. 54. Chrysostom pag. 25. 27. 47. 49. Lord. Cobham pag. 133. Coelestinus Papa pag. 164. Costerius pag. 45. Cranmer pag. 157. D Danaeus pag. 131 E Epiphanius pag. 5 Eusebius pag. 4. 7. 30. F Fox pag 3. 44. 50. 70. 71. 79. 92. 134. 139. 140. 143. 153. 154. 155. 157. 173. 175. 176. 181. Fulke pag. 11. 127. 130. 142. 181. 187. G Genevenses Theses pag. 120. Gualter pag. 102. Gregorius magnus pag. 13. Gregorius Nysen pag. 35. H Harmony of confessiōs pag. 16. 112. 113. Homilyes pag. 180. 186. Hoper pag. 111. 148. 149. 150. 151. 152. Husse pag. 59. I King Iames. pag. 21. 32. 99. Ieronymus pag. 16. 36. 37. 38. 112. 164. 193. Iewell pag. 157. 158. 159. 160. 161. 162. 163. 164. 165. 166. 167. The Queenes Iniunctions pag. 114. Ireneus pag. 20. L Francis Lambert pag. 75. Iohn Lambert pag. 173. 174. Latimer pag. 142. 143. 144. 145. 146. 147. Lavaterus pag. 23. Leaver pag. 168. 169. Lindsey pag. 54. Luther pag. 63. 65. 67. 68. 71. 79. M Marloratus pag. 126. Peter Martyr pag. 86. 92 Musculus pag. 14. 24. 99. 102. 174. N Nowell pag. 37. O Origen pag. 164 P Pantaleo pag. 178. Platina pag. 71 Posidonius pag. 39. 41. 42. Procopius Magnus pag. 61. R Ridley pag. 153. 154. 155. 156. 147. S Sabellicus pag. 71. Saravia pag. 45. Sigismund Emperor pag. 83 Socrates pag. 45. 46. Sozomenus pag. 35. Synodus Alexandriae pag. 31. 73. Carthag pag. 3 4 40. Constance pag. 83. T Tilenus pag. 132 Tindall pag. 134. 136. 137. 138. 139 140. 141. Tertullian pag. 33. 163. V Valafredus Abbas pag. 164. Polyd. Vergilius pag. 8. Viretus pag. 125. W Whitaker pag. 113. 114. Wicklife pag. 57. Z Zanchius pag. 115. Zisca pag. 61. Zuinglius pag. 76. THe Lord Iesus in the Revelation of himselfe to his servant Iohn commaundeth him to write to the 7. Churches of Asia the things which he had seene Rev. 1 1● 19 and the things which are and the things which shall com heereafter Wherein 3. points are to be considered First he here commaundeth him to set downe the Majestie of God in his Christ who Revealed these thinges vnto his servant Iohn by him to be delivered vnto his Churches where he saith I am Alpha Omega the first and the last c. That they might thereby knowe with what feare and carefull attention the things so written should be read searched out and observed namely in that they were commaunded to be written and sent vnto them by so high a Majestie Secondly heere he sets downe the present estate of the Seaven Churches in the Country of Asia representing by them the estate of all Churches visible vvhich then vvere gathered in their severall places throughout the vvorld In vvhich poynt touching the present estat of all these Churches three things are specially to be observed First that they were the true churches of Christ the Golden Candlesticks vpon vvhich the light of the Gospell was set and their Pastors Bishops or ministers like stars holden in the right hand of Christ as Angels or Messengers of the same Churches or Congregations and Christ himselfe walking in the middest of them Secondly notwithstanding this excellent estate wherein they vvere yet heere it appeareth that many foule corruptions vvere even then crept in both in the Pastors Churches and scarsly any one Church found to be free from foule abuses As you may plainly see in the discourse of the seaven Churches of Asia if you read the 2 3 chapters of the Revelation Wherevppon this objection may and doth arise Namely that seeing such abuses and corruptions vvere in the most pure and sinceare Primitiue Churches why should we not then at this day staie our selues though many foule disorders abuses and corruptions be found to be retained in our Churches Whervnto may iustsly be answeared that contrary-wise the holy Ghost hath set downe the example of these most holy pure and Apostolicke Churches vvith their faults and imperfections and also their threatnings that all Churches following unto the end of the vvorld should be the more vigilant carefull that no corruption should crepe in among them seeing those most pure and vncorrupted times in comparison of the times following vvere vvith so great difficultie preserued from such dangerous mischeifes and never the lesse vvere threatened of God with such terrible plagues vengance for suffering the same As the removing the golden Cādlesticke from Ephesus the fighting of Christ himselfe vvith the Svvord of his mouth against the Church of Pergamus The casting of the Thyatirians into the bed of great afflictions and that he vvould come

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

that thou alwayes be mindfull of vs. August epist ●● 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 nāe 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 heavē 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 efficaciā 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 pōpe pride and lordly estate of Bishops A sufficient maītenance 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 thē 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 do●ō 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

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 pōpe 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 necessariū 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 pauperē 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 whē 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 fo●●●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 thē 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

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

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

Surely this was but apoore Lord Bishop that went in such a graye coate as M. Martine his frend might be ashamed to weare it yet was he the principall preacher of the gospell in all the kingdome of Bohemia and a true and christian Bishop but how farre unlike he was unto the Lordbishops in our time every man may see even as far as a coate of course russet cloth is frō a coate of fine black velvet and yet he lived not so miserably as our Parish Ministers commonly doe for it is evident by his request that he had an honest servant or twaine And heere it is also worth the noting that the Minister should haue his whit coate which was not a surplice but a coate to be ordinarily worne as was likewise his gray coate Wherby we may evidently see that a white coloured garment was at that time amonge them a graue couler and meete for a Minister as it is a mong us stage like and meete for a player specially when a white coate is put upon a blacke gowne But this Preacher of the gospell excellent Bishop Iohn Husse in his poore estate more profited the Church of God in his time then a carte loade of the Lord Bishops in our time with all their great livings sumptuous estate And God so blessed his labours that almost the whole kingdome of Bohemia receaved the gospell and God for the mayntenance thereof sent unto them the invincible captaine Zisca Who if he now lived it is very like he should be called a Puritane for so precise he was as saith his history that he would not suffer any image or Idoll to be in the Churches Zisca Acts Mo. to pag 766. neither thought it to be borne withall that Priests should Minister with Copes or vestiments for the which cause he was much more envied amongst the States of Bohemia And a litle after upon his Tombe in his Epitaph it is thus written Eleaven times in ioyning battaile I went victor out of the feild I seemed worthily to haue defended the cause of the miserable and hungrie against the delicate fatt and glottonous Priests and for that cause to haue received helpe at the hand of God This cause is worthy to be noted for the which Zisca thought himselfe to be defended of God And after Zisca God for the maintenance of his gospell raysed up another who like a victorious Prince was called for his noble acts Procopius Magnus which feared not himselfe to come to the generall Counsell of Basill Procopius Magnus and there boldly and openly mainteyned the Gospell professed by him and his Bohemians so that it being objected against them as a great crime that they had taught the invention of the begging Fryers to be Diabolicall Acts Mo. to 1. edit 2 pag 779 Then Procopius rising up sayd It is not untrue For if neither Moses neither before him the Patriarks nether after him the Prophets neither in the new law Christ nor his Apostles did institute that order who doth doubt but that it was an invention of the Devill and a worke of darknes This rule and maxime of Divinitie being true and out of all doubt as the noble Procopius affirmeth then whēce commeth Pope Cardinall Patriarke Legate and likewise Metropolitanes Primats Archbishops Diocesanes Archdeacons Deanes Commissaries Officialls and such like but out of darknes and from the Devill for neither Moses nor the Patriarks before him nor the Prophets after him neither Christ nor his Apostles after him appoynted or instituted any such orders to be in the Church And in the fruitfull exhortation which the Bohemians wrote to all Kings Princes they all likewise say And if ye knew them as we know thē ye would as diligently destroy them as we doe Acts Mo. to 1. edit 1570 pag 775. For Christ our Lord did not ordayne any such order and therfore it must needs come to passe that shortly it shall be destroyed as our Lord saith in the Gospell of S. Mathew the 15 chapter Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shal be rooted up And a non after they say As long as they haue such goods they will never cease to be at strife with Lords Citties neither will they begin to teach you the true foundation of truth For they doe as a dogge which as long as he holdeth a bone in his mouth and knaweth it so long he holdeth his peace and cannot barke Even so as long as they haue this bone of pleasant riches they will never preach the Gospell truely Thus much of these Angells Messengers of God and bright starres sent of him into Bohemia to lighten the world with all which although through the iniquitie of the time they tollerated many corruptions yet they all agreed that the Lordly estate of the Prelats was the cause of all mischeife in the Church and according to the saying of M. Fox before noted pag 5● by the geeat encrease of regiment and riches of Bishops there ensued agayne a monstrous regiment For within short time after although there remained in Bohemia certaine sparks raked up in the Ashes of those blessed Martyrs Wicliffe Husse Ierome of Prage that monstrous regiment of the Church grew to be far worse then it was before And the great Antichrist with his spouse the great whore of Babell both in glorious reigning cruell sheeding of bloud in all the parts of Christendom made all Kings and Princes his slaues and buchers and his spirituall Lords and Archlords as his owne creaturs devised and instituted by himselfe alwayes to be the Lords of his privie Counsell to the effectuall working of all his abominations For the time was not yet come appoynted by the high providence of God Revel 16 when the viale of the wrath of God should be powered out upon the throne of the beast But after one hundered yeares according to the Prophesie of Iohn Husse Ierome of Prage God raysed up Luther in the yeare of our Lord 1516. Luther being just one hūdred yeares after the burning of the sayd Iohn Ierome in the Counsell of Constance which was in the yeare 1416. Then according to their prophesie as it is writtē great Babilon came in remembrance before God to giue unto her the cup of the wine of the fiercenes of his wrath Revelat 16 But before this great worke of God should be wrought it pleased him to giue unto her three notable preparatiues wherby her purging following might be so violent that even her bowels liver lungs heart life should at the last by continuall purging depart from her By these preparatiues I meane first the battaile between three Popes continuing almost fortie yeares fighting for the glorious throne of the Popedome whereby the whole world began to see that they were some of them knaves all And the very Counsell of Constance doth plainely affirme the same de heere S Peter prescribeth namely unto whom

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 vpō his blake coat nor a priests cloke nor a formall gowne For by those Mathematicall marks he must needs then haue been knowen frō 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 ●owsons ●●uralities of ●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 sentēce out of Cyprian who florished about 260 yeares after Christ He in his 68. Epistle saith ●yprian Epi ●8 iuxsta ●amelium Plebs obsequens preceptis Dominicis et Deum metuēs 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 judgmēt 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 questiō 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 obitū 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 populūque 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 cōmon 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 understād 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 whē the Bishops were growne up to be litle petie Lords and the regiment of a Bishop was crept to the limits boūds 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 excommunicatiō of the offendors and of Zuinglius the first light set up by God among all the golden cādlesticks 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 thē 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 childrē 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 cānot lawfully choose one Bishop of the Church of I●su● 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 wherō som in this cause doe rest we will write of the Church out of the holy scriptures and the minde of

but it shall not be so among you And being requyred by a certaine man to command his brother to devide the inheritance with him said who made me a judge over you Shewing that it agreeth not with his vocation while he remaineth upon the earth to haue authoritie to devide heritages And after the same manner ought Ministers to iudg themselues to be sent even as he was sent Moreover Paul informeth his Timothie and instructing him as touching the holy ministerie saith No man that warreth entangleth himselfe with the affaires of this life where he useth an Argument of comparison to wit from the lesser to the greater even so as if he should say if it be not lawfull for them which are bound by the office of warfare to take upon them other busines or trade of life much lesse ought they which are bound to the holie ministery intermedle thēselues with other charges for their vocation requyreth the whole man because they must not only twise or thrise in the yeare execute their office but it is necessary that as the Apostle warneth they preach the Gospell earnestly apply thē selues to reading doctrin both in season out of season And yet more expresly in his Cōmentary upon the 13 chap. to the Romans he saith They will answer that Ministers indeed haue not the sword in asmuch as they are ministers but haue receaved it from else where that by iust title possession Christ indeed did serue his vocation for he came in humilitie by his passion and death to redeeme mankind but his example is not to be followed in all things Otherwise no christian ovght to beare the office of a Magistrate for Christ beare it not Wherefore they affirme that he left an example onely to men tending to perfection such as are Monks and begging Friers which as they say haue renounced the world Neither can they a bide that Peter should prescribe unto his successor when he said that he had neither gold nor silver but that he left onely a patterne of perfection unto them which so order their life as he did who forsaking all that he had followed Christ that he might the rediler serue him But these men should remember that not onely examples but also cōmandements make one our side For Christ saith The Kings of the Nations beare dominion over them but so shall not yee And these words are to be understanded singularly and particularly of the Apostles and Ministers and not of all men universally c. Further who seeth not that these two functions doe so hinder the one the other that he which exerciseth the one cannot execute the other For it is an hard matter to find one so prompt and readie that can rightly and orderly administer but even one of these functions And agayne in his Common places the 4 part and 13. chapter section 12 he saith But our false Ecclesiasticks will be Princes and reigne and yet Christ would be no King And when he was sought for to the end he should be made a King he utterly refused it yea rather he plainly confessed that his kingdom is not of this world he sayd also unto the Apostles Princes of the Nations do beare rule over them but ye shall not so doe Peter also whose successors these men professe themselues to be warneth Ministers that they should not excercise dominion over the flocke And upon the second booke of Samuell the 6 chapter he saith Arca ista per allegoriam non incommodam refert nobis ecclesiam Dei This Arke by a fitte allegorie doth represent unto us the Church of God which ought to be caried and borne at this day upon the shoulders of the Bishops But now many Bishops do even the same thing that these Levites did of whom we spake For when they would seeme to be pillers of the Church in the meane time they giue themselues altogether to idlenes and pleasures and lay the Arke upon their Uicars Suffragans Commissaries which oftentimes a man can call nothing else but brute and most blockheaded beasts And in the 12 chapter of Samuell speaking of Archbishops and Bishops he sayth Admoniti officii sui respondent se habere substitutos et vicarios qui ista curent Ita labor aliorum est et proventus ipsorum vtque est in libro Iob Boves arant et Asini pascuntur When they are admonished of their dutie or office they answer that they haue vicars substituts which take the care charge of thos things pag 1275 edit 1570. so other men take the paynes they take the profite as it is in Iob the Oxon plow the ground the Asses are fead I might here not unfitly set down the words of M. Fox in his book of Martyrs wher he saith Every Prelat or beneficed person ought hīselfe to discharg his Cure without deputy or Vicar Now let us proceede to other of the excellent lights that God hath set up in the middest of the deepe darknes of Antichrist upon some of the golden Candlesticks of Helvetia or Swicerland Of Zuinglius somewhat hath been said alreadie whom M. Bullinger that excellent learned mā succeeded whom Pantaleo in his Ecclesiasticall Chronicle calleth one of the Fathers lights of the Gospell Bullinger whose Decads and Sermons being translated in English and set forth by publike authority in Queene Elizabeths time to be read eyther privatly or publikly as appeareth in the preface and for the commendations therof it is sayd that they are fit to be read out of the pulpit unto the simplest and rudest people of this land the doctrine of them very playne without ostentation curiositie perplexitie vanitie or superfluitie very sound also without Popery Anabaptisme Servetianisme or any other heresie And afterward in the conclusiō of the preface it is sayd These sermons of M. Bullingers are such as whether they be used privatly or read publickly whether of Ministers of the word or other Gods children certainly there wil be found in them such light and instruction for the ignorant such sweetnes and spirituall comfort for consciences such heavenly delights for soules that as perfumes the more they are chafed the better they smell as golden mines the deeper ye digge them the more richer they shew so these the more dilligently ye peruse them the more delightfull they will please and the deeper ye digge with daily studie in their mynes the more golden matter they will deliver forth to the glory of God Now therefore let us heare what this Angell and light of the Gospell set up by the Lord upon a golden candlesticke of Helvetia saith And first of the Eldership or Elders in every Church to be used Decad 5 sermon 10 Like as the Lord saith M. Bullinger would haue the transgressing Ministers privately to be admonished corrected so doth he extend the commoditie of the same admonition and correction to the whole Church And therefore the Auncient Church had

a holy Senat of Elders which dilligently warned thē that transgressed in the Church corrected them sharply yea and excluded them out of the Ecclesiassticall fellowship namely if they perccaved that there was no hope of a mendment to be looked for in them But in the latter times the Popes Bishops tyrannically taking that kind of punishment into their hands and excercising it sacrilegiously contrary to the first institution haue turned an wholsome medicine into an hurtfull poyson making it abominable both to the good and bad Behold what fruit this alteratiō of Gods order ordināce in the Church hath brought by taking away the Eldership from the Church or Congregation and committing it unto the Bishops who by their Lordly authority tyrannically saith M. Bullinger tooke it from the Church into their owne handes and that even in some places where the light of the Gospell is set upon the golden candlesticks thereof whereby they haue turned an wholsome medicine into an hurtfull poyson making it abominable both to the good and bad as in all Queene Elizabeths time we might see heere in England that by their Lordly power oftentimes for such a trifling matter as an honest Magistrat would haue been a shamed to laye a man by the heeles they were not a shamed to commit a christian to the Devill And shewing what the Elders were he sayth Wherefore the Elders in the Church of Christ are either Bishops or otherwise prudent learned men added to Bishops that they may the more easily beare the burden layd upon them Decad 5 sermon 3 and that the Church of God may the better and more conveniently be governed For Paule saith The Elders that rule well let them be counted worthy of double honor most specially they which labour in the word and doctrine 1 Tim ● There were therefore certaine other in the Ecclesiasticall function who albeit they did not teach by and by as did the Bishops yet were they present with them that taught in all businesses Perhaps they are called of the same Apostle elsewhere Govenours 1. Cor. 1 ●● that is to say which are set in authority concernyng discipline and other affayres of the Church And in this poynt with Bullinger M. Peter Martyr most playnely agreeth He that ruleth well etc. Martyr in Rom. 1 2 This me thinketh saith M. Martyr is most fitlie to be understood of Elders not in very deed of them which had charge of the word and of doctrine But of those which were appoynted as assistants unto the Pastors they as being the discreter sorte indeed with a greater zeale godlines were chosen out from among the laitie Their office was cheifly to attend unto Discipline c. And touching the Lordship of Bishops where it is objected against thē that think Bishops should be no Lords that they would mainteine the Anabaptisticall opinion which deny Magistracie and the authoritie of Kings and Princes M. Bullinger confuteth the Anabaptists with the selfe same reason and scripture whereby he proveth that Bishops should be no Lords Decad 2 sermon 9 And unlesse that Christians saith Bullinger when they are once made Kings should continue in their office and governe kingdoms according to the rule and lawes of Christ how I beseech you should Christ be called King of Kings Lord of Lords Therfore when he said Kings of nations haue dominion over them but so shall not ye be He spake to his Apostles who stroue among themselues for the cheife and highest dignitie As if he should haue sayd Princes which haue dominion in the world are not by my doctrine displaced of their seates nor put besids their thrones for the Magistrats authority is of force still in the world and in the Church also The King or Magistrate shall reigne but so shall not yee ye shall not reigne ye shall not be Princes but teachers of the world and Ministers of the Churches Thus breifely saith he I haue answered to the Anabaptists obiections And againe upon the very same matter in like sort in the 5 Decade and 2 sermon citing the lik place of Peter Not as though ye were Lords over Gods heritage saith he Peter speaketh not of any Empire and Lordship yea by expresse words he forbids Lordly dignitie For even as he is appoynted of the Lord a Minister and an Elder not a Prince and a Pope so also he appoynted no Princes in the Church but Ministers and Elders who with the word of Christ should feed Christs flocke And upon that place of Luke the 22 The Kings of the Gentiles raigne over thē they that beare rule over thē are called gratious Lords c. Decad 3 sermon 3 This simple and playne truth saith M. Bullinger shall cōtinue invincible against all the disputations of these Harpyes The most holy Apostles of our Lord Christ will not be Lords over any man under pretence of religion yea S. Peter in playne words forbiddeth Lordship over Gods heritage and commandeth Bishops to be examples to the flocke Marke how M. Bullinger applyeth this place of scripture and how bitterly he speaketh agaīst the Lordship of Bishops calling them Harpyes that is monstrous birds having maiden visages and talens of a mischevous and marveilous capacitie But before in the same sermon he sayth In the order of Bishops and Elders from the beginnyng there was singular humilitie charitie and concord no contention or strife for prerogatiue or titles or dignity For all acknowledg themselues to be the Ministers of one Master coequall in all thinges touching office or charge He made them unequall not in office but in gifts by the excellencie of gifts And therfore in the first Decad second sermon he saith Did not Christ himselfe refuse a crowne upon earth And did not he that is Lord of all minister Doth not he himselfe disallow that any Minister should seeke any prerogatiue no not in respect of Eldership He that is greatest among you saith he let him be as the yoūger He therefore commandeth an equallitie amongst them all And therefore S. Ierom iudgeth rightly saying that by the custom of man and not by the authoritie of God some one of the Elders should be placed over the rest and called a Bishop wheras of old time an Elder or Minister Bishop were of equall honor power and dignitie And it is to be observed that S. Ierom speaketh not of the Romish Monarchie but of every Bishop placed in every Citie aboue the rest of the ministers And to answer the objection which is made in defence of the Lordbishops that they take not upon them civill offices and Lordly dignities but by their Princes Magistrats it is layd upon them and given them he saith Shall we beleiue that Peter would haue receaved secular power with imperiall goverment if the Emperour Nero had profered it him No in no wise for this word of the Lord tooke deepe roote in his inward bowels But it shall not be so

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

to draw all to them had appropriat unto themselues the terme that of right is common unto all the whole Congregation of them that beleiue in Christ and with their false and subtile wiles had beguiled and mocked the people and brought them into the ignorance of the word making them understand by this word Church nothing but the shaven flocke of them that shore the whole world Therefore in the translation of the new Testament where I found this word Ecclesia I translated it by this word Congregation Even therefore did I it and not of any mischevous mind or purpose to stablish herisie as M. More untruely reporteth of me in his Dialogue where he rayleth on the translation of the new Testament And where M. More saith that this word Church is knowne well enough I report me unto the consciences of all the land whether he saith truth or otherwise or whether the lay people understand by Church the whole multitude that professe Christ or the iugling spirits onely And when he saith that Congregation is a more generall terme if it were it hurteth not For the circumstance doth ever tell what Congregation is ment Never the lesse yet saith he not the truth For wheresoever I may say a Congregation there may I say a Church also as the Church of the Devill the Church of Satan the church of wicked men the Church of li●rs and a Church of Turkes thereto For M More must grant if he will haue Ecclesia translated throughout all the new Testament by this word Church that Church is as cōmon as Ecclesia Now is Ecclesia a Greeke word and was in use before the time of the Apostles and taken for a Congregation among the Heathen where was no Congregation of God or of Christ Concio Populi● And also Lucas himselfe useth Ecclesia for a Church or Congregation of Heathen people thrise in one chapter even in the 19 of the Actes where Demetrius the gold smith or Silversmith had gathered a company against Paul for preaching against Images Howbeit M. More hath so long used his figures of Poetrie that I suppose when he erreth most he now by reason of a long custome beleiveth himselfe that he saith most true Or else as the wise people when they dance naked in nettes beleiue that no man seeth them even so M. More thinketh that his errors be so subtilly couched that no man can espie them Up on which matter it is worth the note of remembrance first that M. Tindall sheweth the reason why the Cleargie would haue this word Church used in the English rather then Congregation And it is thus that like hard hearted adamants they might draw all thinges to themselues and appropriate to themselues only the terme that of right is common to the whole Congregation of them that beleiue in Christ desiring to make the people understand by this word Church not the whole congregatiō of God but themselues onely And surely it is well knowne that the lay people unto this day doe commonly understand was at his owne privat studies c. ordinarily winter and Sommer at two of the clocke in the morning Let us therfore heare what this golden mouth saith in the foresaid poynts of reformation yet desired and not obteyned As touching the Lordship of Bishops he saith Right Prelating is busie laboring not Lording M. Latimer Sermon 4. at Paules And a non after he saith But thus much I dare say that since Lording and loytering hath come up preaching hath come downe contrary to the Apostles time For they Preached and Lorded not And now they Lord and preach not For they that be Lords will ill go to plough it is no meete office for them It is not seeming for their estate And further he saith And no marvell for if the ploughmen that now be were made Lords they would cleane giue over ploughing they would leaue of their labors and fall to Lording out right and let the plough stand And thus both ploughes not walking nothing should be in the common weale but hunger For ever since the Prelats were made Lords and Nobles the plough standeth there is no worke done the People starue They hauke they hunt they card they dice they pastime in their Pallacies with gallant gentlemen with their dancing Minions and with their fresh companions so that ploughing is set aside And by their Lording and loytering preaching and ploughing is cleane gone And thus if the ploughmen of the Country were as negligent in their office as Prelats be we should not long liue for want of sustenance And agayne a litle after As dilligently as the husbandman plougheth for the sustentation of the body so diligent must the Prelats and Ministers labour for the feeding of the soule both the ploughes must still be goyng as most necessary for man And wherefore are Magistrats ordayned but that the tranquillitie of the common weale may be confirmed limitting both ploughes But now for the fault of unpreaching Prelats me thinks I could gesse what might be said for excusing of them They are so troubled with Lordly living they be so placed in palaces couched in Courts rusting in their rents dauncyng in their dominions burdened with Ambassages pampering of their panches like a Munk that maketh his Iubillie munching in their mangers moyling in their gay mannors mansions and so troubled with loytering in their Lordships that they cannot attend it They are otherwise occupied some in Kings matters some are Ambassadors some of the privie Counsell som to furnish the Court som are Lords of the Parliament some are Presidents and controwlers of mints Well well is this their dutie Is this their office Is this their calling And yet further anon after he saith It is also a slander to the Noble men as though they lacked wisdom and learning to be able for such offices or else were no men of cōscience or else were not meete to be trusted for such offices And a Prelate hath a cure and charge otherwise and therefore he cannot discharge his dutie be a Lord President too For a Presidentship requireth a whole man and a Bishop cannot be two men A Bishop hath his office a flocke to teach to looke unto and therefore he cannot meddle with another office which alone requyreth a whole man He should therefore giue it over to whom it is meete and labour in his owne buisines as Paul writeth to the Thessalonians Let every man doe his owne buisines and follow his calling Let the Preist preach and Noblemen handle the temporall matters And afterward speaking of those which about a King do hinder the reformation of religion calling them Blanchers he saith Therefore say they all things shal be well but not out of hand for feare of further busines Blanchers These be the Blanchers that hitherto haue stopped the word of God and hindered the true setting forth of the same There be so many put offes so many put bies so many respects

and considerations of worldly wisdome And I doubt not but there were Blanchers in the old time to whisper in the eare of good King Ezekias for the maintenance and to haue no living at their hands For as good preachers are worthy double honor so unpreaching Prelats be worthy double dishonor But now these two dishonors what be they If the salt be unsaverie it is good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden of men By this salt is understood preachers such as haue cure of soules What be they worthy then Wherefore serue they For nothing but to be cast out c. Another dishonor is this Ut conculcentur ab hominibus To be trodden under mens feete not to be regarded not to be esteemed For saith he take away preaching and take away salvation And yet agayne after ward But I say if one were admitted to veiw hell thus and to behold it throughly the Divell would say On yonder side are punished unpreaching prelats I thinke a man should see as far as a kenning Sermon at Paules cross and see nothing but unpreaching prelats And touching Nonresidence he preferreth the Divell before a Nonresident For saith M. Latimer he is ever in his Parish he keepeth residence at all times ye shall never find him out of the way And afterward he saith Therefore ye unpreaching prelats learne of the Divell to be diligent in doyng of your office Learne of the Devill And if ye will not learne of God nor good men for shame learne of the divell Ad erubescentiam vestrā dico I speake it for your shame If ye will not learne of God nor good men to be diligent in your office learne of the divell And therefore before in milder termes he speaketh thus They haue great labours and therefore they ought to haue good livings that they may commodiously feed their flocke for the preaching of the word of God unto the people is called meate Scripture calleth it meate not strawberies that comes but once a yeare and tarrie not long but are soone gone but it is meate it is no dainties The people must haue meate that must be familiar and continuall and dayly given unto them to feed upon And touching the name of Priest in his answer at Oxford he saith A Minister is a more fitt name for that office for the name of Priest importeth a sacrifice Acts Mo. pag 1624. edit 1570 Serm. 3. bef the King And speaking generally of the remnants and relickes of Popery which yet remained unreformed in King Edwards time Germanie saith he was visited 20 yeares with Gods word but they did not earnestly imbrace it and in life follow it but made a mingle mangle and a hotchpotch of it I cannot tell what partly popery partly true religion mingled together They say in my countrie when they call their Hogges to the swyne trought come to the mingle mangle com pir com pir even so they made mingle mangle of it They could clatter and prate of the Gospell but when it commeth to all they ioyned Popery so with it that they mard altogether they scratched and scraped all the livings of the Church and under a couler of religion turned it to their owne proper gaine and lucre God seeing that they would not com unto his word now he visiteth them in the second time of his visitation with his wrath For the taking away of Gods word is a manifest token of his wrath We haue now a first visitation in England let us beware of the second we haue the ministration of his word we are yet well but the house is not cleane sweapt yet Behold with what odious and opprobrious tearmes this blessed Martyr of God paīteth out the mixture of religion which is indeed no lesse odious in the sight of God then he discribeth it unto the eares of men We may say with M. Latimer that we haue the first visitation let us beware of the second which is the wrath of God for the house is not cleane sweapt For how can the house of God be sayd to be cleane sweapt where there lyeth on the one side the filthy dounghill of ignorant and scandalous Prelates on the other side a poysoned heape of Nonresidencies on the third side the manifest mischeife of Pluralities on the fourth side a sacke full of rotten and beggerly Ceremonyes and in the middest as the maine post upholding all the rest a pompous estate of Lord Bishops I beseech the Lord Iesus Christ which walketh in the middest of the golden Candlesticks of England to avert and turne away from us the second visitation which M. Latimer speaketh of which also shortly after according to his threatning did thē fall upon this land Now let us go forwards with some other of the principall lights and blessed Martyrs of God touching these matters M. Hooper of whom our booke of Martyrs saith Of all those virtues and qualities requyred of S. Paul M. Hooper Acts Mo. pag 1675. edit 1570 in a good Bishop in his Epistle to Timothie I know not one saith M. Fox in this good Bishop lacking Which bright starre fixed in the right hand of Christ shineth not onely over England but also beyond the seaes So that Gesnerus that famous learned man in Germanie among other of his prayses saith Aureus Hooperus c. Flammae instar lucens lucebit dum stabit orbis Golden Hooper shining like a flame of fire who shall not cease to shine so long as the world standeth In his Epistle to King Edward likewise as before is said of M. Latimer Epistle to King Edw. speaking of the mingling of popish relicks with the Preaching of the gospel saith Against these minglers patchers of religion speaketh Elias the Prophet the 3. of the Kings 18 How long saith he will ye halt on both sides If the Lord be God follow ye him if Baal go ye after him Even so we may iustly say if the Priesthood and Ministery of Christ with his notes and marks be true holy and absolutely perfect receiue it in case it be not follow the Pope Christ cannot abide to haue the leaven of the Pharis●s mingled with his sweete flower he would haue us either hote or cold the luke warme he vomiteth up and not without cause For he accuseth God of ignorance and foolishnes that intendeth to adorne and beautifie his doctrine and decrees with humane cogitations Behold how fearfull a thing it is though the intent be never so good even to adorne and beautifie the institutions decrees and ordinances of God with any device of man without the appoyntment of God in his word Yea it is no lesse abominable in the sight of God then if a man should accuse him of ignorance and foolishnes Sermon 6 And therefore in his sixt sermon before the King speaking of the Communion and Supper of the Lord he saith The outward preparation the more simple it is the better it is and the neerer

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

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

otherwise then God had appoynted c. Heere marke good christian reader saith he in every of these examples God hath bridled our devotion hath taught us to worship him not in such sorte as may seeme good in our eyes but onely as he hath commanded us Yet such is the unbridled pride of mans deuotion that let God say what he will he shall not be served onely as God commandeth but at the least with some Ceremoniall suprerogations of mans meere invention being worse then Horses or Mules whose stiffe neckes are pulled in with bitte and bridle that weake and wreached man hath ten of him 2 Chro. 17 3 4 5 And the Lord was with Iehosaphat because he walked in the first wayes of his Father David c. and not after the trade of Israell And it followeth Therefore the Lord stablished his kingdom in his hand and all Iuda brought presents unto Iehosaphat so that he had of riches and honor in a boundance Where this word therefore is a word of speciall note for many wicked Kings Princes haue given them of God riches and honor even abundance but when it is given them of God therefore because they walked in the first wayes of their Father David that is because they had returned to the first and originall foundation and restored the religion even to that perfection wherin David not Solomon yea Christ the Sonne of David left it Then are they truely blessed of God Otherwise as it is written Their table shalhe made a snare and their prosperitie their ruine We will heerunto ad that excellent mans testimonie M. Thomas Leaver M. Leaver M. Bullinger speaking of the banished christians in Queene Maries time which were come to Tigurie commendeth by name M. Leaver in these wordes There came unto us English students both godly and learned they be receaved of our Magistrate Bul. epist to Hoper ten of them dwell together the rest remayne heere and there with good men Amongst the other M. Thomas Leaver is deare unto me and familiar Now M Leaver preaching before King Edward speaking of Non residents saith unto them T Leaver bef K Edw Now my Lords both of the laitie and of the Cleargie in the name of God I advertise you to take heede For when the Lord of all Lords shall see his flocke scattered spilt and lost if he follow the tracke of bloud it will leade him even straightway unto this Court and unto your houses whereas those great theeues which murther spoyle destroy the flocks of Christ be receaved kept and maintayned For you mainteyne your Chaplines to take pluralities and your servants mo offices then they can or will discharge fie for sinne and shame And for further confirmation therof he saith For if their duetie be undone then can no man excuse them if it be done then it is by other and not by them and then why doe they liue of other mens labours He that preacheth the Gospell should liue of the Gospell as God hath ordayned Qui mollibus vestiuntur in domibus Regū As for those which goe gaye in Kings houses and either mousell the labouring Oxe or else spoyle the poore Parish in the Country be of the Devils ordinance This mouselling of the Oxe that treadeth out the corne which is the taking away of the livings from the poore Ministers in the countrie and the poore people in the Parishes who pay their tithes to Nonresidentes you heare that it commeth not of God but of the devills ordinance From which we beseech allmightie God to moue his Majesties heart that he may shortly deliver us And speaking of putting unpreaching Prelats out of their place Yea say they and it were great pitie seeing they haue payed the first fruites unto the Kings Maiestie and no small reward unto other men And perchaunce bought their offices deerely Now to put them out of these livinges with the losse of all those charges which they haue bestowed in rewardes or other wayes to gett such livinges were great extremitie But wo wo saith M Leaver unto you hypocrites that stumble at a straw and leape over a blocke that straine at a gnat and swallow up a Camell c. And well may it be said they stumble at a straw and leape over a blocke or they straine at a gnat and swallow up a Cammell which for pittie suffer unpreaching Ministers to continue in places for is their any comparison between the losse of a dumbe dogges living and the losse and great damage of many hundred soules But M. Leaver goeth forth bouldly threatning both those spirituall and temporall Lords and saith God will pull you downe rather then maintayne or suffer you in so high authoritie to use such uncharitable ungodly and cruell pittie Which heavie wrath of God even according to M. Leavers threatning very shortly afther fell upon thē all a wofull tragedie and worthy to be remembred To conclude M Leaver escaping from the tragicall furie of Queene Maryes time in his letter to M Bradford being prisoner in the Tower speaking of the excellent reformed Churches where he was then conversant writteth thus I haue seene the places noted the doctrine and Discipline and talked with the learned men of Argentine Basill Zurich Berne Lausanna and Geneva and I haue seene the experience in all those places of sincere doctrine godly order and great learning Happie are the Churches that are so well reformed and worthy to be so highly commended Th. Beacon To M Leaver I will joyne M. Thomas Beacon a man to my selfe very well knowne to be for his vertue learning and dilligence in preaching the word of God most worthy to be honored Who suffered great persecution in K. Henrie the eights time And agayne in Queene Maries time and lived and died at Caunterburie a diligent writer and preacher of the word of God in Queene Elizabeths time In his booke intituled nomb 118 The Actes of Christ and of Antichrist he saith Christ breathed upon his Disciples and gaue them the Holy Ghost saying take yee the Holy Ghost that they being endued with his spirit might bring forth the fruites of the same and thereby knowen to be his Apostles But Antichrist doth breath the spirit of Satan into his shavelings and will that they be knowne to be his chaplaines by their long gownes nomb 42 shaven crownes horned cappes staring tippets c And agayne he saith Christ saide that men should know his Disciples by their charitie if they loved one another as he had loved them But Antichrist causeth his chaplaines to be knowen by their habits vestures by their long gownes and shaven crownes and punnisheth them if they vse not their habits And yet againe he saith Christ saith the kingdome of God cometh not with waiting for that is to say with outward observances and externall ordinances at the appointment of men Antichrist saith weare this cappe or that coule this gray habit or that white habit Ye

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 cōfesse 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 ●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 punishmēt 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

tempt God yea they are delivered Then spake they that feared the Lord saith the Prophet every one to his neighbour and the Lord hearkened and heard it and a booke of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord and that thought upon his name And they shal be to me saith the Lord of hostes in that day that I shall doe this for a flocke and I will spare them as a man spareth his owne sonne that serveth him This is ever the condition of those that forsake God they repent of any good beginning if they see no worldly profit but rather troubles to come thereof And speciallie if they see wicked men preferred com to promotion they repine of the continuance in the serving of God seeing there is neither profit nor promotion that way to be gotten But every one that feareth God saith the prophet though he be never so privat a person yet speaketh even the truth boldlie to his neighbour And the Lord hearkeheth and heareth him and their wordes are written up in a booke Gods remembrance and they shall enjoye the sweete heavenly promisse for although they be but weake and sinfull men yet will the Lord spare them as a Father spareth his sonne that serveth him Neither ought the Preachers in their place to be silent nor to count it a wearines to serue the Lord in his temple like the Priests in the dayes of Malachi or to make light of it nor to offer vp that which is torne and lame and sicke Mal. 1.13 or any of the whore of Babilons dregges but plainely without dissimulation or halting and earnestlie to urge whatsoever hath neede of perfect reformation untill all corruptions and abuses in the Churches of England be restored againe into the first puritie and never cease to call upon God with teares and sorrow of heart and upon the Prince with humble sute of speaking writing and preaching untill he abolish whatsoever doth belong to that whore of Babilon But it is said in the Revelation that after the seaventh Angell had powered out his Viall Rev. 16.19 and the horrible earthquake was come upon the earth the great Citie was devided into three partes This great Citie can be taken for none other but for the territorie dominion of all Nations Kingdomes and People bearing the names of Christians and subjectes to the great Antichrist of Rome upon whose throne the first Angell hath powered out his Viall of the wrath of God wherby the glorie of his kingdome waxed darke And through the voyces lightnings thundrings and horrible earthquakes that came by the powring out of the seaventh Angells Viall That whole great Citie under the Papacie and the whores government is devided into three parts The first parte are they that doe professe the Gospell and utterly renounce the Pope and all the appurtenances of his Church of Rome which S. Iohn calleth the great Whore of Babilon which hath fullie forsaken Christ maried her selfe to Antichrist This first parte is so divided from the whore hateth her with such a perfect hatred that they cannot abide to kisse or any part of her neither finger hand nor foote much lesse her filthy parts which are not to be named Hos 2.17 according to that which is written I will take away the names of Balaim folke in hande that men may beare with the time granting that men may well cut of the thinges that are utterly intollerable and manifestly against God but yet avouching that the thinges may well be borne with which are either Indifferēt or not utterly evill I say that they which speake after that fashion doe shew full well that they haue no right meaning in them nor any desire that ther should be any reformation as were meete to be had And not withstanding the world is full of such disguisers which would faine haue a particoulored fashion of serving God and a religion that were neither fish nor flesh as men say but halfe of one sute and halfe of a nother Heere I would aske these indifferent men and particoulored disguisers of religion whether Images are not thinges indifferent I trust they will not denie but the Image and superscription of Ceasar may be giuen to Ceasar and yet I trow they will not say that it is lawfull for Ceasar to set vp Images publikly in the Churches Let Let them heare what our Engliw Homilie saith which all the Lordbishops doe mayntaine to be not onely true and good doctrine but also publikly to be read in the Church We should not haue saith our Homilie Images in the Temple Hom part 1 against per. of Idol though they were of themselues thinges indifferent And yet againe our Homilie saith expresly though they be thinges indifferent to be used in civill matters yet are they wicked abominable to be used in the Church The wordes of our Homily are these Our Images in Churches haue been be and ever wil be none other but abominable idols part 3. and be therefore not thinges indifferent he meaneth in religious use And where the common cloke is for Images like as for all the rest of superstitious Ceremonies that the people by doctrine are taught not to use them superstitiously and therefore they may safely be used in the Church Against this pild cloake our Homilie thus concludeth To conclude saith our Homilie it is evident by all stories and writings ibedem and experience in times past that neither Preaching nor writing neither consent of the learned nor authoritie of the godly nor the decrees of Counsells neither the lawes of Princes nor extreeme punishments of the offendors in that behalfe nor any other remedie or meanes can helpe against idolatrie if Images be suffered publickely And this conclusion of Images may be by the selfe same reason made as well also of the signe of the Crosse the surplice and other Ceremonies which serue for religious signification and haue ben with further Idolatrie and superstition used by our forefathers yet are still so used by our papistes that remaine in England and by all other the Popish kingdome of Evrope But in the same Homily it is rightlie said of Images Take them cleane away and then is all the danger gone for none worshippeth that which is not and the very same may be justly said of all the rest As for that intrepretation of the great Citie wherein Antichrist hath so long raigned and yet boasteth to be the head thereof if any doe mislike it let him know that this is not myne interpretation onely but of many that are of singular learning and sincere iudgment As namely Doctor Fulke whose wordes are these in his Commentarie upon this place of the Revelation Fulk Cōm in Rev. 16 19. They which in times past with one consent haue worshipped the beast are now divided into three sects For some of them doe from their very hearts abhorre and detest his tyranie others doe remaine in the

same slauerie still and the third kind of men doe sticke to neither part But haue fallen either to Epicurisme or Atheisme Unto D. Fulke I will heere adde also the breife note upon the margent in our Bible of the Geneva translation where you shall find this annotation upon the margent cap. 16. 19. Meaning the whole number of them that shall call themselues persevere without corruption For true doctrine without true discipline and gouernement is like good corne sowed amonge the thornes that choke it Now if the Lordbisshopes sometime preach which is but seldome yet being Lords ouer Gods heritage rather then ensamples to the flocke what profite cometh thereof eyther to them selues or to their hearers Therfore even the Apostle him selfe sayth I therefore soe runne not as vncertainely so fight I 1. Cor. 9.26 27. not as one that beateth the ayer But I beate doune my body bringe it into subiection least by any meanes after I haue preached to other I my selfe should be reproued For a right good preacher leading a lewd life is like the Angell of Sardis who hauing a name that he lived yet was he dead himselfe and carried his flocke into the same destruction Or like the Angell of Laodicia who beinge rich in worldly wealth yet was he indeed poore miserable blind and naked And verily our owne English Homilie saith The true Church is built vpon the foundtion of the Apostle and Prophets Hom. serm vpon which part 2. it hath allwayes three notes or marks whereby it is knowne Pure and sound doctrine the sacramentes ministred accordng to Christs holy infiitution and the right vse of ecclesiasticall dicipline Here marke that my Lords the Bishops doe say even in the Church Homily that the true Church builded vpon the foundation of the Apostles Prophets hath allwayes this marke or note of right vsing the ecclesiasticalll discipline built vpon the foundation laide by the Apostles aswell as of pure sound doctrine and the Sacraments Ministred according to Christs institution It were good therefore happy for them if they would leaue all their ecclesiasticall discipline which is neither built vpon the doctrine or practise of the Apostles nor vpon any foundatiō which they haue laid in the scriptures And I wish that they and all other that professe the Gospell of Christ in what degree or vocation soever they bee might haue it imprinted in their harts that it is the expresse commandement of God and the words of the holy Ghost which saith of Babilon Rev. 18.4.6 7 Goe out of her my people that ye be not partakers in her sinnes and that ye receaue not of her plagues Reward her even as shee hath rewarded you and giue her double according to her workes and in the Cup shee hath filled to you fill her the double In asmuch as shee glorified her selfe and liued in pleasure so much give ye to her torment and sorrow Goe out therefore and touch no vncleane thing Which words of the holy Ghost and the very commandement of God bindeth not only princes and Magistrats by their authority and lawes but also all Gods people euery one in his estate degree and vocation both to hate detest and vtterly to abhore the filthy whore of Babilon with all her implements and to reward her double according to her workes and in the Cup that she hath filled to vs of superstition Idolatry an innumerable abominations to fill her the double in detestations and abhorring even the very printes and stepes where she hath gone Thus committing my selfe and all Gods people vnto his mercies obtayned vnto vs by Christ Iesus our Lord I end with the prayer for his Maiestie taken out of the publique service appointed for the Church in Queene Elizabethes time after the terrible earthquake whē mens hearts were a wakened out of securitie and trembled at the presence of God And now Lord particularly we pray vnto thee for thy Churches of England Scotland France Ireland that thou wilt continue they gratious favour still towards us to maintaine thy Gospell still amongst vs and to giue it a free passage that it might be glorified And to that end saue thy servant our gratious King Iames grant him wisdome to rule this mightie people long life quietnes round about him detect all the trayterous practises of his enimies devised against him and thy truth O Lord thou seest the pride of thine enimies and though that by our sinnes we haue iustly deserved to fall into their hands yet haue mercie vpon vs and saue thy litle flocke Strengthen his hand to strike the stroke of the ruine of all superstition to double into the bosome of that rose coloured whore that wich she hath poured out against thy saynts that he may giue the deadly wound not to one head but to all the heads of that cruell beast that the life that quiuereth in his dismembred members yet amongst vs may vtterly decaie and wee through that wholesome discipline sweet yoke and comfortable scepter of Iesus Christ may inioy his righteousnes that the Church may florish sinne may abate wicked men may hang their heads and all thy children be comforted Strengthen his hand and giue him a swift foote to hūt out the Buls of Basan deuouring beasts that make hauoke of thy flocke And because this worke is of great importance assist him with all necessary helpes both in giuinge him godly wise and faithfull Councellers as also in ministring to him inferior rulers officers as may sincerely vprightly and faithfully doe their dueties seeking first thy honor glory then the common wealth of his Realmes dominions that we may long enioy thy truth with him and all other thy good blessings which in so great mercie thou hast bestowed vpon us with groweth in goodnes gaine in Godlines and dayly bettering in sincere obedience Amen Hierom. Lib. 2. Epist 2. Paulino Malens aliena verecunde dicere quam sua impudenter ingerere Willing rather with modesty to speake other mens words then impudently to thrust forth his owne T. W. Ierom concerning some Bishops in his time Nihil grande est pacem voce pretendere et opere destruere Aliud niti aliud demonstrare Verbis sonare concordiam re exigere servitutem Volumus et nos pacem et non solū volumus sed et rogamus Sed pacem Christi pacem veram pacem sine inimicitiis pacem in quâ non sit bellū involutum pacem quae non vt adversarios subiiciat sed vt amicos iungat Quid Dominationem pacem vocamus Et non reddimus vnicuique vocabulum suum It is no great matter in word to pretend peace and in deede to destroy it to make shew of one thing and to demonstrate another to talke of concord and indeed to require a servitude We also desire peace and we doe not only desire it but we intreat for it But it is Christs peace it is a true peace it is a peace without enmitie a peace wherein no warre should be infolded a peace which should not bring under adversaries in subjection but joyne friends togeather What Doe we call a Lordship peace Why doe we not giue to every thing his proper name Hierom. ad Theophil adversus Iohannem Ierosolymitanum Tom. 2. pag. 184.