Selected quad for the lemma: england_n
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A43718
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Plus ultra, or, Englands reformation, needing to be reformed being an examination of Doctor Heylins History of the reformation of the Church of England, wherein by laying together all that is there said ... / written by way of letter to Dr. Heylin by H.N. ...
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Hickman, Henry, d. 1692.
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1661
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Wing H1913; ESTC R19961
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41,680
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57
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PLVS VLTRA OR Englands Reformation Needing to be Reformed BEING An Examination of Doctor Heylins History of the Reformation of the Church of ENGLAND WHEREIN By laying together all that is there said by the Dr. about the Reformation of the Church and by many testimonies of Reverend IEWEL Bishop of Salisbury and by several Observations made upon the Whole it doth evidently appear That the present state of the Church of ENGLAND is no way to be rested in but ought to proceed to a farther Degree of Perfection Written by way of Letter to Dr. Heylin by H. N. O. I. Oxon. Dan. 5. 27. Thou art weighed in the Balances and art found wanting Luke 19 22. Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee Heb. 6. 1. Let us go on unto perfection LONDON Printed for the Authors and are to be sold in St. Dunstans Church-yard in Fleetstreet 1601. To the Christian Reader Courteous Reader THou art not we presume ignorant that Dr. Heylin hath lately writ a History of the Reformation of the Church of England His Learned name is of such great credit that it doth not only invite but bespeak his Readers approbation and acceptance The love we bear to the Reformation of the Church of England and an earnest desire to be satisfied about it led us forth to the view and consideration of that History wherein we labored to follow our Reason more then our Fancy and the truth of the Story more then the cry of Fame as not being willing to have any mans person in admiration All that the learned Doctor hath storied about the Reformation in many parts and parcels of his Book having interwoven it with variety of civil Occurrences both Forraign and Domestick thou wilt finde here Methodically put together and shalt have a full view of it at once which by several skips and leaps thou wilt be put to search for in the Doctors History We could heartily wish the Doctor would have saved us this trouble and put together the parts of this goodly Building as he is pleased to call it that we might at once have gone round about it and viewed the Towers and strength thereof This thou shalt finde faithfully done to thy hand wherein thy patience is intreated to stay and consider the several particulars lest by overmuch haste thou lose the fruit of these few lines We have here laid before thee the Evidence the Doctor brings for the Reformation with some Observations out of his own Book Reverend Jewel and others of our own upon it and the judgement is left to thy own breast We can assure thee thou art candidly dealt withal in all that we alleadge either out of the Doctors Book or any other His Printer hath mis-numbred some Pages thou mayst be at some loss if thou compare some of these quotations with the Doctors Book through the neglect of Printing but otherwise thou shalt finde the Page the words many times as they lie or at least the substance of the Doctors sense faithfully communicated to thee We suppose the Doctor cannot desire a fairer way of Tryal in the particular of the Churches Reformation then when himself in his Book and the testimonies he brings be upon the matter constituted Iudges of it we hereby conceive that any person not byassed by interst will conclude from the Doctors premises that Englands Reformation is sadly defective There was a time when there was no Smith found in Israel and the Israelites went down to the Philistims to sharpen their Weapons We contend not for Victory but for Truth and if in this contest something may be laid hold on even in the Tents of an Adversary for the advantage and advancement of it we shall not scruple to undergo the shame of our own weakness and the discredit of our own poverty as being fain to borrow both the shop and tools of an Adversary to vindicate it and support it Reader we leave these few sheets with thee desiring thy prayers for the Churches through-Reformation which is their sole desing To the Worshipfull Peter Heylin Doctor in Divinity Reverend Sir YOu have lately presented to the World an History of the Reformation of the Church of England Your historical abilitiesare sufficiently known and it is presum'd you have said as much as can be spoken upon this Subject for what can the man do that cometh after Docotr Heylin Si Pergama Dextrâ Defend◠possent etiam hâc defensa fuissent If Troy could have been presery'd Thy Hand of any best had serv'd It is not the purpose of these lines to vie abilities of learning and language with you Take to you the deserved praise of a learned Doctor and police Orator But the work at present is to scan over some passages in your History of the Churches Reformation and in such a season as this a Convocation now sitting to press onward toward perfection And in the pursuit of this design please you to take along the judgement of that Reverend Bishop Iewel Bishop of Salisbury in the reign of Queen Elizabeth one whom you often mention with deserved honour in your last History You stile him pag. 123. in the latter part of your History The right Learned Mr. Iohn Iewel Pag. 129. Reverend Iewel that learned Prelate Pag. 147. The right Reverend Bishop Iewel pag. 155. His Book which he wrote in defence of the Apologie of the Church of England against that foul-mouth'd Caviller Harding is yet extant in most Churches in this Kingdom and next unto the Bible their best Ornament From this Book and some Sermons of this reverend Bishop bound up with it and several passages in your own something is tendered to your judicious consideration Whether the reformation of the Church of England be or were at any time so compleat and in such Primitive lustre as you phrase it in the close of your History that nothing is more to be done for the perfection and beauty of it Be assured learned Sir the World shall not be abused with false quotations with wrested interpretations either out of your Book or this blessed Bishops you shall have the page the words quoted without the least prevarication And first of all Sir What a soul blot doth your pen cast upon the Reformation when you tell the world That you cannot reckon the death of King Edward the sixth for an infelicity to the Church of England They are your own words in the fourth pag. of your Epistle to the Reader That he was ill principled in himself and that his Reign was unfortunate pag. 141. part 1. And the ground of your account is Because it is not to be thought had he lived but that the rest of the Bishopricks before sufficiently impoverished must have followed Durham and the poor Church been left as destitute of Lovers and Ornaments as when she came into the world in her natural nakedness This Vein runs throughout your whole Book You tell us in the history of Edward pag. 33. that
the Grandees of the Court began to entertain some thoughts of a Reformation on an hope to inrich themselves by the spoil of the Bishopricks You tell us pag. 48. That the first Parliament in the first year of his Reign though it consisted of such Members as disagreed among themselves yet they agreed well enough in one common Principle which was to serve the present time and preserve themselves that they came resolved to further such a Reformation as should most visibly conduce to the advancement of their several ends and to prepare a way for exposing the Revenues of the Church unto spoil and rapine You tell us pag. 95. That the alteration of Altars into Tables and the disfurnishing of the Altars of the Hangings Palls Plate and other rich utensills was taken up by some great men about the Court on hopes of profit You tell us in the fifth year of King Edward pag. 99. Gardiner was lifted out of the wealthy Bishoprick of Winchester to give the Courtiers opportunity to inrich themselves by the spoil thereof And in pag. 101. That one Iohn Poynet succeeded him to serve other mens turns And in the same page That the Pyrates of the Court were intent upon all advantages to inrich themselves You tell us in the second year of Queen Elizabeth page 121. That the Bishops Sees were kept void till the best flowers in the whole Garden of the Church had been cull'd out of it That the Queen and her Hungry Courtiers had alienated many fair Mannors from the rich Sees of Winchester Elie and indeed what not Thus Sir you have muddied the first Springs of the Reformation by casting into it the abhorred filth of covetousness But Sir Did your pen and your heart agree together when you said you could not reckon it for an infelicity that Edward the sixth died so immaturely or which in plain English is 'T was good for the Church he was taken out of the way The Preface to the Book of Homilies makes an honourable mention of him And when our precious Iewel had occasion to speak of him page 359. Of his defence these are his words That noble Prince of blessed memory King Edward the sixth Was it not an infelicity to the Church to lose her chiefest stay and pillar To have the hopes of a glorious Reformation nipt in the very Budd To have a fearfull Deluge of blood and idolatry rush in upon us by the succession of Queen Mary in whose Reign more precious blood was spilt then in all the times of her Predecessors The persecution under her Reign and the carriage of the Papists in it you relate out of Bishop Iewel page 81. of your History You have given a large testimony of King Edwards Learning before he wes eight years old page 12. Of his tenderness to consent to sign the Warrant for the execution of Ioan of Kent page 89. Of his great zeal for God in resisting the tolerarion of Popery only to his sister the Princess Mary though pressed to it by the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London resolving rather to venture lite and all things else which were dear unto him then to give way to any thing which he knew to be against the truth expressing his inward trouble by a stood of tears page 103. Of his Piety and fervent Charity in his last godly Prayer wherein he calls upon God O my Lord God! Bless my people save thy chosen people of England O Lord God! Defend this Realm from Papistry and maintain thy true Religion that I and my people may praise thy holy Name for Jesus Christ his sake As you have related it page 140. What better qualities and Principles could be desired in a Prince And what greater felicity in that kinde could the Church enjoy then so gratious and Godly a King And do not you Mr. Doctor shake hands with the shameless rayler Harding against our glorious Iewel When you hear him call'd Rayler be not displeased Look on that large Catalogue of hellish slanders poured out on that blessed man summ'd up by himself immediately before his decease This is offered to you the rather because when you have occasion to mention Harding a base Apostate and grand enemy of the Gospel it is with terms of honour and reverence viz. Dr. Iohn Harding one of the Divines of Lovain and the most learned of the Colledge page 128 in the latter part of your History But when you speak of those glorious lights of the Reformation Luther Zuinglius Calvin it is barely Calvin or Iohn Calvin as all along your History is evident That Rabshakeh Harding dipt his Pen in the same gall and speaks your sence page 31. of the Defence Did not saith he your Religion begin first of covetousness And for your â—ear of the poor Chruch being left destitute of Lands and Ornaments your Right learned Prelate Iewel gives you a corrective in page 567. of his defence c. Ye say saith he to Harding Your Bishops are gay and gallant attended and guarded with Princely routs behinde and before And thereof ye make no small account specially in respect of our estate which you call beggarly In such disdain the Heathen sometime said That Christ was the beggarliest and poorest of all the Gods that were in Heaven Howbeit our Bishopricks saving that certain of your Fathers have shamefully spoil'd them are now even as they were before certainly the poorest Bishoprick in England as it is reported is better in revenues then some three or four of your Popes Italian Bishopricks in the Kingdom of Naples Howbeit the Gospel of Christ standeth not by riches but by truth In comparison of the one we make small reckoning of the other Had that glorious King lived to perfect the Reformation which you would have accounted an infelicity to the Church and taken away more of her Patrimony yet if you will believe the Right Learned Prelate Iewel he might have revok't in all those grants made by his Predecessors See his Defence page 639. If our Kings in that darkness and blindeness of the former times gave them these things of their own accord and liberality for Religions sake Now saith he when the ignorance and error is espied out may the Kings their Successors take them away again seeing they have the same authority the Kings their Ancestors had before For the gift is void except it be allowed by the will of the Giver and that cannot seem a perfect will which is dimmed and hindered by error The next thing Mr. Doctor to be spoken to is the Reformation it self whose History you present to us And in p. 34. p. 1. you write That neither to lose time nor press too much at once upon the people it was thought fit to smooth the way to the Reformation by setting out some preparatory injunctions this to be done by sending out Commissioners accompanied with certain godly Preachers who when they went from the people left behinde them Homilies to