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
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 vestraÌ„ 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 paiÌ„teth 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 theÌ„ 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 Pharisâ—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
any labour of their owne handes So that all preachers of the word of God haue authoritie power not to worke but so to be maintayned that they may wholy and altogeather attend upon their Ecclesiasticall functions Further also that the Preachers of Gods word ought to be so maintained as they should not neede to worke labour with their hands is most evidently proved in the sixt of the Acts where all the twelue Apostles with one consent say Acts 6.2 It is not meete that we should leaue the word of God to serue the tables For if it were meete that the preachers of the word of God should be imployed or occupied in any worke or busines in the world What imployment would be fitter then that holy labour of attendance vpō the poore And marke these words of the holy Ghost pronounced with a full consent of all the Apostles That we should leaue the word of God say they whereby they plainely declare that they must needes haue left the preaching of the word of God if they should haue attended upon any other bvsines whatsoever Now if the Apostles covld not doe it what Bishops or Pastors are able to performe it Can Satan so blinde their eyes that they should think themselues wiser and endued with greater graces and guifts of God then all the Apostles of Christ so that they can performe more dueties offices and functions then the Apostles were able to doe And marke the conclusion of their words in the same place And we say the Apostles will giue our selues continually to prayer ver 4 and to the ministration of the word Where note well this word continually And S. Luke saith this thinge pleased the whole multitude v. 5 whereby we may see that the whole multitude vnderstoode that he which preacheth the Gospell ought not to be entangled with any other busines And herevnto I will further add the words of Chrysostome speaking in the defence of a sufficient maintenance for the Pastor preacher of the word of God upon the Epistle to Titus cap. 2. Vide quaeso quanta rerum absurditas Chrys in Tit. ◠num ille debet carere ministro Vt sibi necesse sit incendere ignem et aquas afferre et ligna perfringere atque in foro sepe necessario ingredi potest esse maior perversitas maiorque confusio At sancti quidem illi viri Apostoli eum qui doctrinae insisteret neque ad viduarum ministerium applicari voluerunt verum id opus indignum arbitrati sunt c. See saith Chrysostome I pray you how great absurditie there is of these things should the Pastor be with out a servant to tend upon him so that he must make his fire himselfe and fetch water breake his sticks for his fire and goe often to the market for things necessary can ther be a greater perversitie or a greater disorder Those holy men the Apostles thought it an vnmeete thinge that he which should attend vpon the word should be imployed so much as to the service of the poore widdowes Ye see how this auncient Father Chrysostome applyeth the same place of the Acts to this purpose and vehemently defendeth that he which attendeth upon the word that is he which preacheth the Gospell that he should be able to keepe a man to attend vpon him And herevnto agreeeth the example of the Prophets who being extraordinarily called had far lesse neede of any ordinary assistance of service God himselfe immediatly commanding other to sustaine them and the very foules of the aire to feede them Who havinge power to commaund fire to fall from heaven upon their wicked adversaries and power to raise the dead to life againe for their beloved frēds God so providing for them that one handfull of meale a litle oyle in a cruse should grow and increase to such abundance that it sustained them and other a long time And not onely in matter of bodily sustenance but also even to the payment of their debtes to their poore frends so to multiplie the creatures of God for them that they had abundance both to pay their creditors and to sustaīe themselues These Prophets therefore a man would thinke should haue litle neede of ordinary attendance of a servant to waite upon them yet God would haue it that each of them should haue such ordinarie maintenance that they should be able to keepe one man to attend upon them That they might be freer from the busines and affaires of this life and to attend whollie and continually to prayer and administration of the word As Eliiah had by the appoyntment of God Elisha to waite upon him and to power water upon his handes As it is written in the 2 of Kings the 3 chap 2 Kings 3.11 and the 11. verse By the which words of powering water upon his hands the holy Ghost signifieth the free attendance of such a one as we call a serving man which waiteth upon his Master and serveth him even in the least matters And likewise Elisha had his servant Gehazi attending upon him as he went by the way and waiting upon him in his chamber which the Shunamite had prepared for him so had Ieremie Baruch and no doubt all the rest of the Prophets though their names and service be not so expresly set downe in the text But heere I can not but rest a litle upon that memorable historie of the Shunamite a woman as the text saith of great estimation an honorable person which had no neede to make suite or craue any thing either of King or Captaine In what reverent sorte she entertained the Prophet and with care she provided althings necessary for him and with all how Elisha was able to doe for hir both with the King and genenerall captaine 2. Kings ◠9 10 I knowe saith she to her husband that this is an holy man of God Let us make him a litle chamber I praye thee with walls and let us set him there a bed a table stoole a candlesticke that he may turne in thither when he cōmeth to us She saith not let vs make readie the great chamber and let vs consider that he commeth with fortie or fiftie or threescore men whereof many be gentlemen of good account so that all the chambers we haue must be well furnished trimmed up But she prepared for him a studentlike lodging in which he might be lodged when he came Heere you see the meane estate wherein the prophet kept himselfe and which all godly persons thought it meetest for him to continue in Notwithstanding that he was in so great favour both with many Noble personages and with the King himselfe And specially with the King who so loved and honored him that being sicke the King in his owne person came vnto him wept upon his face and cryed out saying O my Father my Father the charet of Israell and the horsmen of the same And yet he allowed him
not foure or fiue thowsand pounds by the yeare nor made him a Lords grace nor an Archprophet but let him liue in-such a meane estate as hath been before declared and as the Prophet thought meetest for himselfe to continew in And not unfitly heerevnto may be joyned the history of Constantin the great and his singular loue and favour towardes the Ministers and Preachers of the word of God in his time that we may see together what was the estate both of the Prophets in the old Testament and of the Preachers of the word of God in the New And how Kings Princes maintayned thē which most dearly loved them In the life of Constantine thus it is written Dei vero administros ad se accersitos semper honore praecipuo dignos censebat et omni officio prosequebatur Vit. Const apud Euseb nihil circa devotos addictosque numini benignitatis aut humanitatis omittebat Homines quidem de vultu ornatuque tenues alia tamen apud eum nota convictores erant haud asseclae The Ministers of God being called unto him he ever thought them most worthy of speciall honor and did reverence them withall duetifulnes and he omitted nothing towards them who were devoute and dedicated to God which pertained to loving kindnes or curtesie yet they were men indeede in countenance and garnishment but poore but in another note they were familiar companions with him and not waiting servants I neede not to amplifie this matter ye see as I haue saide the estate of the Ministers of Gods word both in the old Testament and in the New vnder those Kings and Princes which so highly favoured honored and so dearely loved them And yet never made thē Lords nor Archlords nor maintayned them in any pompous or lordly estate And heere I will ad the example of Athanasius who must needs haue been extolled and lifted up unto a Lordly dignitie by that great and mightie Emperour Constantine if he had not thought it vtterly unlawfull so to exalt any Bishop in the world Being the onely man aboue all the rest among all the three hundred Bishops in the Counsell of Nice which confuted and confounded the horrible heresie of Arius which then was readie to overrunne the Church of God in so much that he was called Oculus mundi the eye of the world And whose Confession is set up and received even to this day in all christian Churches and called Athanasius Creed yet when he was accused to haue turned the corne which the Emperour sent unto the Citie to other uses then the Emperour had appoynted The Synod of Alexandria in their Apologie for Athanasius maketh this answer Synod Alexan. Apol 2. Quid Athanasio remotius a crimine qui si vel in ipsa Alexandria fuisset quid tamen ipsi cum negotiis prefecti What could be further of from fault then Athanasius Which if he had ben at that time even in the Citie of Alexandria yet what had he to doe with the affaires of the Magiistrate And further they say Nec fieri posse vt homo privatus et pauper tantum virium haberet Neither could it be possible that such a private and poore man should be able to doe it Heere you see the estate that Athanasius the most famous Bishop in the world at that time was in and how the Bishops themselues and the most godly Princes and Emperours thought fit for thē to liue in All these things being considered I conclude that the Pastor or Preacher of the word of God ought to be so maintayned that being freed from all other busines he might haue one man at all times to waite upon him Whereunto a convenient proportion of living as the state and rate of thinges stand at this day in England cannot be lesse then one hundred pounds by the yeare considering that he may not attend upon any other occupying affayres or busines but onely and continually upon prayer and administration of the word Wherefore I say at the least one hundred by the yeare for so the sound judgment of reason requyreth Howbeit if some one be aboue other charged with many children or other wayes A reasonable proportion for a Pastors maintenance or in speciall sorte with excellencie of guifts be found worthy to be preferred before other the living unto such may ought to be encreased yet so that none exceede the revenues of two hundred or there about Which thinge agreeeth well with the words of his Majestie in his second booke of his Basilicon Doron where he saith As some will deserue to be preferred before other pa. 44. so chaine them with such bonds as may preserue that estate from creeping to corruption And surely a foule and shamefull corruption it is that any Ecclesiasticall person should be maintained upon and by any Ecclesiasticall lyving exceeding the reasonable estate and proportion before named For so he is both corrupted himselfe and also robbeth other of that which by right belongeth unto them while the one is lifted up to a Lordship and the other kept under in a beggerly estate Now to goe forwarde with the proceeding and growing up of Antichrist and his Babilonish whore When the Bishops had taken a degree aboue the rest of the Pastors and had the name of Papa as it were written one their foreheads and usually given them in their titles and their regiment creaping up to whole Cities Diocesses So that some of them began to maintaine themselues as Lords and to claime a Lordly estate The godly learned Fathers not seeing the mischeifes that were alreadie by a generall and common consent crept in whereby it was imposible to keepe out the foule corruptions following not onely tollerated the foule abuses brought in but also they themselues in their simplicitie with a zeale of God though not accordyng to knowledge brought in many bald Ceremonies and corruptions which for brevityes sake I will passe over and onely set downe the words of our English Father George Alley Bishop of Exeter of the corruptions in the Sacrament of Baptisme brought in by the auncient Fathers Alley Whereby we may see the weaknes even of the first times and former ages Tertullian writeth saith he that when we come to the water we stay somewhat before in the Church vnder the hand of the Preist and doe protest that we will renounce the Devill his pompe and all his Angels After that we be thrise dipped in the water de coron militi◠answering no more then the Lord hath determined in his gospell And then being taken out we tast of milke and hony And from that day we abstaine from being washed by the space of a whole weeke Here you may see saith our Bishop of Exeter by the words of Tertullian what rites were added unto Baptisme as abrenunctions three immersions tasting of milke and hony abstinence from washing lib. 15. in Esa In his first booke against Martion he maketh mention also
the spirit A Church therfore I do finde is taken 2 wayes in the holy scriptures First for the cōpany of all those who in asure firme faith do beleiue in Christ their only head This is scattered through the universall world Who knows this church Only God But what shall we say of the Pope Cardinalls and Bishops which come togeather into a Counsell Are not they also the Church the Church militant I answer they are only members of this Church if so be it that they beleiue in Christ acknowledg him for their head If they beleiue not they belong not to the Church at all So farr of it is that they should be the church Synods But thou wilt say they are a Church Representatiue Of this I find nothing in holy scriptures out of mens devises any man may fayne any thing We rest on the holy scripture against which thou wilt not attempt any thing if thou be a christian Secondly a Church is taken for the severall congregations A visible Church which conveniently meet together in some one place for the hearing of the word and receaving of the Sacraments The Grecians call these Parikias Parishes Of this manner of a Church Christ speaketh Mat. 18. saying Tell the Church And so Paul useth the name of the Church 1. Cor. 1. To the Church which is at Corinth etc. And Furthermore afterward Quid audio Episcopus ne solus excommunicare potest Putabam Ecclesiae esse datū What doe I heare May a Bishop alone excommanicat I had thought that had been appoynted to the Church But perhaps they will say a Bishop onely is the Church Christ saith tell the Church doth a Bishop then or an Abbot signifie the Church Excommunication belongeth not to one man whatsoever person he be but to the Church For Christ sayd not we should refuse the company of a man when he had contemned an admonition or twayne therfore one onely man cannot excommunicat but then at the last when he hath despised the admonition of the Church therefore no man but that Church can excommunicat wherin he dwelleth which by his sinne hath offended vnto the Church the Pastor of the Church belongeth this right of pronouncing sentence of excommunication against the offender And further he saith Tradunt excommunicationem ab Episcopo latam Ecclesiae esse excommunicationem Art 31 Sed observandum supra ea quae octavo articulo diximus Ecclesiam in scripturis accipi aut pro omnibus christianis qui in istis terris visibiliter nunquam conveniunt soli Deo noti atque in hac ecclesia omnes sunt qui Deo patri per Christum fidunt et nituntur et haec est ecclesia quam in articulis fidei profitemur aut pro singulis quibusque ecclesiis quas paraecias vocant Conventiculum ergo et conspiratio personatorum istorum Episcoporum sub ecclesiae nomine comprehendi non potest nec id possunt ex scriptutris ostendere quod ipsi sint ecclesia etiam sirumpantur Ecclesia ergo nequaquam sunt Cui ergo ecclesiae offendens pcccator indicari debet Ad ecclesiam universalē Christus nimirum nos ire non mandat nam haec nusqua hic coit corporaliter They hold that the excommunication by the Bishop is the Churches excommunication But saith he those thinges are to be observed which before we haue spoken in the 8 article that the Church in the scriptures is eyther taken for all christians which upon the earth do never visibly meet together which are only knowne unto God and in this Church are all they which beleeue in God the Father and cleaue fast vnto him through Christ and this is the Church which we acknowledg in the articles of our faith or else it is taken for every perticular Church which they call parishes Therefore the conventicle and the cloked conspiration of these disguised Bishops cannot be comprehended under the name of the Church Synods neither can they proue it by the scriptures that they be the Church though they would burst therefore it is cleare that they be not the Church unto which the offending sinner ought to be shewed for it is manifest that Christ doth not command us to go tell the universal Church for this Church never meets together bodily And agayne he saith Quis enim omnes pios congregare posset restat ergo ut ecclesiae iubeat Christus indicandum peccatorem quam paraeciam vocamus For who can gather together all the faithfull therefore it can be taken non otherwise but that Christ commandeth the offender to be iudged by the Church which we call a parish Now let us goe forward to heare what the rest of the excellent lights and Angells or Messengers which God hath raysed in this our age set up upon the golden candlesticks among which Christ himselfe walketh in Germanie Helvetia Savoy France c. concernyng the pulling downe of the whore of Babell and the reformation in the poynts of religion a foresayd Wherin if there be any that thinke some speaches before or hereafter to be uttered be over bitter let them marke what M Luther sayth upon the Epistle of Peter a foresayd Now their be many sayth he that can well inough abide to haue the Gospell preached so that their might be no exclayming and speakyng against the Wolues I meane so that the Preachers in their Sermons would forbeare exclayming and taunting against Prelats But although I Preach sound doctrine and that which is true and though I feed and teach my charg the sheepe well and rightly yet is not that sufficient for it is further requyred at my hands to keep the sheep from danger and to haue a carefull regard unto them that Wolues come not among them to driue them away out of their fertile and wholesome pastures For to what purpose is my building if when I haue couched and orderly layd my stones an other straight wayes come and hurle them downe as fast agayne and I seeyng him forbid him not The Wolfe is well enough contented that the sheepe be well fed and fatted in good Pasture because the fatter they be the pleasanter and daintier pray he thinketh to make of them But that Doggs should incessantly barke and baule at him that he cannot abide Such barking doggs they cannot abide but dumb doggs they can beare well enough with all The next light set vp among the golden Candlesticks of Germanie to shew forth the darknes of Antichrist and the blindnes of the Romish Babilon was M. Bucer Bucer pag 2148 edit 1570. col who for his learned excellency was sent for by K. Edward the Sixt and appoynted to be the Divinitie Reader in Cambridg of whom M Fox in our booke of Martyrs saith He brought all men into such admiration of him that neither his frends could sufficiently prayse him neither his enimyes in any poynt find fault with his singuler life sincere doctrine How earnestly M