A SERMON PREACHED AT PAVLES CROSSE THE IX OF NOVEMBER 1589. By WILLIAM IAMES D. of Diuinitie and Deane of Christes-church in Oxford 1. Ioan. 4. Ne cuiuis spiritui credatis sed probate spiritus an ex Deo sint Queniam multi pseudoprophetae exierunt in mundum Beleeue not euery spirit but prooue the spirits whether they are of God or not For many false prophets are gone out into the world Iacob 1. Si quis videtur religiosus esse inter vos qui non frenat linguam suam sed aberrare sinit cor suum huius vana est religio If any man among you seemeth religious and refraineth not his tongue but deceiueth his owne heart this mans religion is in vayne Hieron ad Pammachium Foelices inquit Faebius essent artes side ijs soli artifices iudicarent Happy saith Fabius were the Arts if they onely who are skilfull in them might iudge of them IMPRINTED AT LONDON by GEORGE BISHOP and RALPH NEWBERIE 1590. TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE MY ESPECIALL GOOD LORD AND MASTER Sir CHRISTOPHER HATTON lord Chancellour of England Knight of the most noble Order of the Garter and Chancellour of the Vniuersitie of Oxford c. IT pleased your good Lordship to require a Copie of my sermon which I preached lately at Paules crosse which albeit I had denied to my lord of London diuers others before yet seeing it pleased your good lordship at your leasure to vouchsafe the reading of it I haue now at my returne hither put it downe as neere as I could and I thinke almost verbatim as I vttred it VVherein as my chief purpose was to asswage if it might bee and for my small measure I endeuoured it the contentions stirred vp amongst vs so haue I not kept backe my opinion nay my conscience touching the man that troubleth vs and the matter by him entended VVherein I protest before God that as I flattered not the Church gouernment of I owe to no bishop therein for any benefite receiued any thing farther then dutie and good will so if it had bene my last speach that euer I should haue had euen for the dutie I owe to Gods Church either this or what so euer God should haue giuen to this sence should haue bene sayd I am sory and it grieueth mee to see the heapes of Nouelties that in her Maiesties most gracious raigne and in so plentifull a light of the Gospell our inconstant Islanders haue brought into the world It argueth that the enuious man sleepeth not but hath sowed tares and that they fructifie and laboureth by all meanes by sea and land to make Proselites There was a time when a learned ministerie a thing much to be desired as also your Lordships great care in bestowing the liuings in your gift and the regard which they haue whom your Lordship putteth in trust by preferring learned men and Graduates of the Vniuersities doeth testifie to all the world that your Lordship doeth seeke the like was by the wisest and most zealous thought sufficient But if our brethren in zeale thinke that this can not be done but by extinguishing the ancient names and functions of Bishops in the Church a calling begunne and continued from the Apostles time vnto this day and ouerturning the estate established I will say with the Apostle zelum habent sed non secundùm scientiam It is no way to bread a learned ministerie either to pull downe the reward that should encourage them or the meanes to maintaine them when they are bred If any Bishops haue transgressed in their callings especially in admitting of insufficient Ministers as it must be confessed they haue done be it that he were an eie though blind in this that is a chiefe one or but a hand or a foote that is of a lower place surely it is ill physicke for this bleard eye or for this sore hand or foote to choppe off the head or kill the body It is hard that nothing can please these men vnlesse the Church possessions in deede their mothers bowels be pulled out and the cause why they begin with vs is this they must first haue a footing somewhere and here they see the hedge is lowest It is pitifull to see howe to this purpose in many places of this land he is thought the onely zealous learned and godly preacher that can finde most faults pretend most wants neuer giuing God once thankes for the aboundance of his blessings vpon this Church and nation which for these 32. yeeres hath bene yea euen at this day is a nurse nay rather a mother to all the Churches almost in all Christendome And whereas we ought to teach repentance amendement of life faith to God obedience to superiors and charitie one to another to rebuke pride couetousnes wantonnes newfanglednes slaunderings backbitings and the like if none of these be once named but our spirituall Pastors torne and traduced our owne vices not once touched but the Church and Church-men paid home then is he in many mens iudgements a zealous man a childe of God neuer man spake on this wise In this simple sermon I did cast in my mite if it perswaded I haue my hearts desire and God I trust hath the glory if it but a litle staied any but to make a pause some Apollos may water it and some others may build vpon it If it offended I knowe the trueth doth not alwaies purchase friendes and that nulla medicamenta tam faciunt dolorem quà m quę sunt salutaria Surely as my meaning was not to sowe pillowes vnder any mans elbowes so was it not to grieue any or to be contentious For my owne part Liberaui animam meam This I here haue sent submitting it and my selfe wholly to your Lordships good pleasure humbly beseeching Almightie God to guide your Lordship to the glory of his name the good of his Church and Common wealth and of this Vniuersitie not the meanest member thereof From Christes-Church in Oxford the 17. of December 1589. Your Lordships Chaplaine humbly in the Lord to be commanded W. IAMES 1. Cor. 12. 25 Least there should be any diuision in the body but that the members should haue the same care one for another 26 Therefore if one member suffer all suffer with it if one member be had in honour all the members reioyce with it 27 Now yee are the body of Christ and members for your part THe Apostle S. Paul hauing planted a church at Corinth and now labouring with the glad tidings of the Gospel to lightē the hearts of the Philippians or as some thinke the Ephesians who sate in darkenesse and shadow of death absent from Corinth in bodie though present in spirite in the meane time it is not credible what tares the enuious man sowed in the Lordes field among the Lordes wheate neither how many rauening wolues entred not sparing the flocke Hence there arose in their religion in some Apostasie and falling from God starting a side like a broken
where he sowed not so oft me thinketh that I see a miserable ruine first of the Vniuersities and so consequently of the Church It is a thing woorth the marking that at this day in our Vniuersities many either altogether leaue the Vniuersitie or if they stay yet doe shunne the studie of Diuinitie some studie Physicke some Lawe dat Galenus opes dat Iustinianus honores It is truely said by Cicero honos alit artes omnésque incenduntur ad studia gloria iacéntque ea quae apud quosque improbantur Honour nourisheth artes and all men are stirred vp to studie with glorie and those things are left alone which are reproued of all men It is a prophane speech they say But no man goeth a warfare at any time at his owne charges There is a goale for them that runne and to them that striue and striue lawfully there is a crowne prepared After seede time there is a haruest Wee may not mussel the mouth of the oxe that treadeth out the corne The Elders that rule well are worthie of double honour For if they sowe spirituall things is it a great matter if they reape temporall things This practise hath already deterred many from the ministerie some that haue entred one steppe it hath caused to leaue their calling and yer long be it will cause that fewe will addict themselues to the studie thereof Although I doubt not that there be in England 7. thousand that neuer would bowe their knee to Baal that neuer will take their hand from the plowe that would followe Christ through good report and ill report that would accompt all as dung to winne him men that knowe as the Apostle saith egere abundare to lacke and to abounde For what shall I doubt what they would doe when I see what they haue done veterani milites olde souldiers nay most valiant captaines yet forasmuch as nemo nascitur artifex no man is borne his craftes master seeing that Christians are made not borne fiunt non nascuntur Christiani seeing men are not nowe immediatly taught of God but as the Apostle saith they must attendere lectioni attend to reading and forasmuch as the parents hand and heade is chiefe in the education of this childe whose endeuour for the most part is to leaue them a name to posteritie here vpon earth what can we thinke to be the ende of this I might vse many examples to this purpose I will onely shewe you this one There is a notable storie recorded of the mother and of the sonnes of Zebede the mother of an holie kinred if any were it is like she and hers were well taught the children the seede of the faithfull she asketh they aske shee asketh that her sonnes may sit the one on the right hand the other on the left The Apostles Iames and Iohn the sonnes of Thunder elected by Christ to that place taught by God they make the same request as the answere You know not what ye aske manifestly sheweth Nowe if so good a mother as the mother of the sonnes of Zebede make this suite for her sonnes already elected already possessed of the Apostleship if the Apostles touched no doubt with a good measure of Gods spirite for they had left all they had and followed him yet dreamed of an earthly kingdom what shal vve thinke that animalis homo the carnal man vvill doe Surely in this case Demas vvill forsake tvventie Paules and the yong man in the Gospell although he vvill bragge of doing all things commanded him and that from his youth yet if it come to suffer affliction vvith Christ nay if it be but to sell all and follovv him vvill depart from him sad and heauie The parents gather for their children not the children for their parents What parent vvill gather miserie beggerie Who vvill lay out these deare pledges to reproche and ignominie The best mother must yeelde to the mother of the sonnes of Zebede the best schollers that are are inferiour to Iames and Iohn yet both mother and sonnes desire the right and left hand What may wee then thinke of our tender plantes our yong nouices that may be turned into what their parents will who as in duetie they are bound depend wholy on their parents care and prouidence Phisitions when they deliuer any pils or the like medicines to prouide that they might not offend either the taste with bitternes or the sight with the vnpleasantnes of the matter wrappe them commonly in gold or sugar and so draw on the patient to receiue the medicine euen so in the worke of the ministerie Christian Magistrates as good Phisitions to stirre men vp to that calling whereunto vix quisque idoneus scarse any man is fit haue wrapped the outsides thereof in golde or sugar that is with recompence after long labours whereas in deede within if men duely wey the burthen thereof there is nothing but that which is heauie and bitter In poperie the chiefest families were drawen hereunto in hope to make their children Cardinals Bishops and great men and with vs it was vsuall and in Fraunce it is in euery second brother almost in euery great house surely many among vs did it of a zeale although it were but blind But what shall I say of these that vnder pretence to reforme seeke to ouerthrowe all abusing the zeale and credulitie of the simple who among them hath with Anna dedicated her one Samuel to serue the Lorde or once to encounter the common enemies To speake what I thinke and to speake my conscience freely they that with Martine seeke the ouerthrow of all doe offer sacrifice to their god their owne bellie and although they would seeme the most sincere yet in this seeking after the church spoiles they are in deed the greatest idolators seruing their god Mammon And these are they that stirre vp these tragedies men whome nothing can satisfie and yet they enuie the ministerie if without them or their charges by the Lordes blessing they may liue If Ananias and Saphira for keeping backe but halfe that which was their owne were stroken stone dead what may they looke for that to reape where they sowed not seeke to ouerthrowe all The deuill also plaieth his part in this tragedie For as Pharao thought that there could be no more ready way to destroy Gods people then by killing their male children so the deuill seeing in the Primitiue Church that some resisted vnto blood and that some others most notable men as Cranmer sometime Archbishop of Canterburie Ridlie Bishop of this See Latimer Bishop of Worcester Hooper Bishop of Glocester Farrer Bishop of S. Dauis Bradford Saunders Philpot and others in the middest of the flames to haue giuen testimonie to the Lorde Iesus and albeit he see and perceaue that by our contention hee hath profited much yet seeing not all things to succeede after his minde he returneth ad ingenium Pharaonis to kill the male children of the Hebrewes euen in their swadling
world and although as Tertul. saith that Christs kingdom is not conteined in any bounds as the Germans Britons others are but whither soeuer you go his name is beleeued on his power stretched out that although ye go to the Indians to the Moores or whither soeuer els euery where you shall find In the beginning was the word and the word was with God that word was God yet notwithstanding of al these although thus far distant yet while they obserue the vnitie of the spirit in the bōd of peace as of the 5000. in the Acts of the Apostles there is Cor vnum anima vna one heart one soule This is the prerogatiue of the Church to make that they who are in bodies many and diuers yet being vnited in spirit make all one mysticall body vnder their head Iesus Christ This is that catholike Church which we beleue this is that communion of Saints which not flesh blood but our father which is in heauen hath gathered together This is that body whereof our Apostle here speaketh whose head is Christ whose mēbers we are wherin the Apostle laboureth for agreement confort and that therefore Least there should be any diuision in the body Dissention diuision is a most miserable thing whether ye respect the Church common welth or priuate families The contention of the Apostles of our Sauiour sauoured of those things which are of the world and not of God The dissentions betweene Paul and Barnabas although the Lord turned all to his greatest glory yet gaue the Church a shrewd blow euen in her swadling clothes The strife betweene the East and West Churches about the feast of Easter armed the enemies of both against both The quarels betweene Theophilus and Epiphanius Chrysost Augustine Ierome Ruffinus caused Christ and his kingdom to be ill spoken of Clem. Alexandrinus Strom. li. 7. saieth the Heathens were wont to obiect on this maner Ye Christians dissent among your selues and maintaine so many sectes which although euery one doe chalenge to it selfe the title of Christianitie yet euery one doeth hate condemne another For this cause said Chrysostome wee are become ridiculous both to Iewes and Gentiles while the Church is rent into a thousand pieces The familie of Loue in reproch in their writings call vs the deuided people Chrysostome on the Actes noteth that some were woont in his time to say I would be a Christian but I know not to which side to cleaue The one saieth I say true the other saieth I say true Which if euer it were true in any age in this of ours is most true By this wee see many obstinate confirmed in their errour many weake to be kept backe and many wicked to take occasion hence to say in their hearts Non est Deus There is no God For albeit our contention be not so bitter as it was in Poperie among the Dominicans and Franciscans and that whole vnholy rable euery one striuing pro aris focis one crying out Loe here is Christ another loe here is Christ which euery one hath seene in euery angle of euery great temple at euery sacring of euery masse all which controuersies Iesuitisme hath almost swalowed vp yet as long as we with the Corinthians hold one of Paul another of Apollos another of Cephas are we not carnall doe we not make a rent in the body I am sory that these things and greater then these may be spoken of vs. Paul Apollos Cephas were excellent men in the church of God adorned with most excellent rare gifts yet did the apostle reprehend the Corinthiās for depending on them for diuiding the church for them If the Apostle might in these our dayes reuiue see our strife what itching eares we haue how we heap vp teachers to our owne liking how that is holy that wee will and as long as we like how like straying sheepe we forsake our owne sheepfold and like foolish chickens flie frō vnder the hens wings how in this citie sundry assemblies in diuers places are thought far more holy then this daies assemblie or any other at this place or the like what may we thinke he would doe or say Be it that they are which God knoweth they are not as Paul Apollos Cephas yet as long as for them or by them the church is rent vntill Paul Apollos Cephas if any such be take away the scandall the stumbling blocke is there not dissention in the body So long as euery one draweth disciples after him seeking our owne and not Christes glory So long as in giuing honour we go not one before another So long as we giue not due food in due season but as crowes feed on carrion so we fill our auditors eares with the supposed faults of other men So long as we see not the beame in our own eie but are euer hagling at the mote in our brothers eie So long as we put our faults into the hinder part of the wallet and lie prying into our brethrens which we hang before vs So long as we doe nothing but with cursed Cham lay open our fathers nakednes while we speake not to the heart of Hierusalē So long we make a schisme a dissention in the body so long Christ dwelleth not in our hearts by faith So long we may seeme zelous but not for good So long we grieue the good spirit of God wherwith we are sealed against the day of redemption and heape wrath vnto our selues against the day of wrath As oft as I consider a notable fruit of this contention which is in deed the contempt of the ministerie I thinke of it oftentimes so oft I cannot but tremble at the heauie iudgements which haue befallen so godlesse people What befell Mary Moises sister for her murmuring Chora Dathan and Abiram that set themselues against Moises the boyes that mocked olde Elizeus what became of the holy citie Hierusalem Niniue Corinth Galatia Ephesus Colossa Laodicea and others now heapes of stones now dens and cages for vncleane birdes and beastes now of Churches planted by the Apostle become slaues and bound to Mahomet and infidelitie are things to all the world manifest and need not any further explication As oft as I heare men for their age reuerend for their learning excellent for their conuersation without iust reprehension examples of the flocke elders that rule well worthie of double honor to be reprochfully traduced to be made laughing stocks to men and angels and being such as haue left all for Christ yet to be termed Antichrists sometime in the pulpit sometime at your tables sometime in lewde and shamelesse libels and euery where to be handled vnworthily to be enuied at that kings haue bene their nursing fathers and queenes their nursing mothers As oft as I behold his platforme whome I am lothe to name that personatus histrio Martine who thirsteth at the ouerthrowe of Bishoprickes and Cathedrall Churches like vnto him that reapeth
cloutes that is by taking away the reward of their labour and studies to drawe men by litle and litle from the studie of Diuinitie and so to make their desire and zeale lesse earnest For although there be nowe many the Lord be praised that can and dare meete this enemie in the gappe yet he hopeth for a day and that yer long be when there shall be none to barke at the wolfe when he commeth Principijs obstat he seeketh to hinder the very beginnings Dum seges in herba est while the corne is in the blade and greene he maketh readie both sieth and sickle He indeuoureth to stoppe and choke the first springs before they breake out into any streames His care is to writhe and wrest the trees while they be but yong before they get either toppe roote or great strength This mysterie of iniquitie hath not now first begun to worke and shewe it selfe nay it hath bene seene and noted in all ages and to leaue off multitude of examples of auncient time I will onely bring three witnesses of famous memorie omni exceptione maiores of our age who in the spirite sawe what monsters these latter daies should yeelde three notable learned men Caluine Brentius and Gualter Caluine in an Epistle extant to that most reuerend father Cranmer Archbishop of Canterburie exhorting him to haue a care that in England there might be established a certaine forme of religion whereunto saith he as all other that beare rule there must by common endeuour applie themselues vt praecipuae tamen sint tuae partes yet so as that the chiefe care must lie on your shoulders Vides quid locus iste postulat vel magis quid pro muneris quod tibi iniunxit ratione abs te suo iure exigat Deus Thou seest saith he what this thy place he meaneth of an Archbishoppe requireth nay rather what God may exact at thy handes by reason of the office which he hath laid vpon thee Summa est in te authoritas c. There is in thee the chiefe authoritie which not onely thy place of honour but also the opinion of thy wisedome and integritie hath purchased with all men Vnum tamen apertum obstaculum esse intelligo quod praedae expositi sint Ecclesiae redditus malum sanè intollerabile Yet I vnderstande that there is one open let or hinderance that the Church reuenewes are laid open for a pray A mischiefe truly intollerable What thinke you would he haue said if he had seene Martines plat-forme Brentius in an Epistle to Iohn Schopper Abbat in Heilsbrunen prefixed before his Homilies on the acts of the Apostles saith on this wise I thinke saith he that not onely Antichrist by his impietie the Turke by his crueltie threaten the destruction of the church but those also to seeke the vtter subuersion thereof Qui occupationibus direptionibus facultatū ecclesiasticarū quas maiores nostri ad conseruanda studia religionis contulerunt adolescentes à studio sacrarum literarum deterrent Who by inuading and spoiling the Church possessions which our ancestors haue bestowed to conserue maintaine the studies of religion deterre and driue away yong men from the studie of Diuinitie I know saith he that the church of Christ is builded on a sounder rocke thē that it can bee ouerthrowen with any storme although neuer so vehement that the Church which resteth on the power of the holie Ghost greatly needeth not the aide of externall riches tamen quia hi qui facultates Ecclesiasticas diripiunt in priuatum suum vsum transferunt depraedationibus suis id efficiunt quo pauciores sacris literis operam dent ad obeunda publica Ecclesiae munera erudiantur profectò Ecclesiam Christi quantum in ipsis est euertunt deuastant Yet forasmuch as they who spoile the Church possessions and turne them to their priuate vse and by their robberie bring to passe that the fewer doe studie Diuinitie and be trained vp to doe the publike functions thereof truely as much as lieth in them they ouerthrow lay waste the Church of Christ And a litle after Non ferenda barbaries est vt ea organa per quae Christus incrementum suae conseruationis effudit tam foedè conculcentur It is a barbarisme not to be suffred that those meanes and instruments whereby Christ had spread into the world the increase of his kingdome shoulde be so filthily wasted Gualter on the 21. of S. Lukes Gospell in his 183. homilie speaking vpon the occasion of the poore widowe that cast in two mites to the treasurie and our Sauiours preferring her before the richer and those that offred greater gifts forasmuch saith he as Christ is wont to behold such things we must remember that he also seeth them qui opes ecclesiasticas sacrilega audacia adse recipiunt aut saltem illas in vsus illicitos atque prophanos conuertunt Who with a sacrilegious boldnes take the Church goods vnto themselues or els conuert them to vnlawfull and prophane vses Graue ergo illorum scelus omni detestatione dignum sacrilegium est opes illas in vsum alienum conuertere siue id publicè fiat siue priuatim Hainous therefore is their offence and a sacriledge worthie by all meanes to be detested to conuert those possessions to any other vse whether it be done publikely or priuately yet it is too too vsuall frequent And first he sheweth how in the papacie these things are abused But to let them passe But among them saith he qui Euangelij nomine doctrina gloriantur religionis reformatae sectatores videri volunt impudentissimè the sauri illi sacri distrahuntur Who glorie in the name and doctrine of the Gospell and would seeme followers of reformed religion those holy treasures are most impudently wasted some snatching part to their own priuate vse other some casting all that is left into the publique treasurie or checker to make thereof vayne houses to erect towers and bulwarkes and munitions to make gunnes and other engines to shed Christian blood to pay wages to bloody souldiours It commeth then saieth hee to passe Vt alijs ex ecclesia ditescentibus qui huius labes macula dici poterant ministri eius fideles cum inopia fame conflictentur scholae frigeant doctissimi quique dilabantur pauperes item c. that some waxing rich of the Church reuenues who are in deed the spots and blemishes thereof that the faithfull ministers striue with famine and penurie schooles are euery where cōtemned learned men as water slide away vnrewarded and the poore to the great reproch of the Gospell are constrained from doore too doore to beg of them who hate them and their profession Did not these men thinke we in the spirite foresee the Martines and Macheuils of this our age or is not this the same spirite that possessed the pretensed reformers in their dayes did Caluine Brentius or Gualter either maintaine