Thirst for Persecution. "ONE of this sorte of this new kynde of prechers beyng demaundyd why that he usyd to saye in his sermons about, that now adayes men prechyd not well the gospell, answered that he thought so, bycause he saw not the prechers persecutyd, nor no stryfe nor busynes aryse upon theyr prechyng. Whiche thynges, he sayd and wrote, was the fruyte of the gospell, bycause Cryste said Non veni pacem mittere sed gladium: I am not come to sende peace into the world, but the sworde. Was not this a worshypfull understandyng, that bycause Cryst wolde make a devycyon amonge infydels, from the remenaunt of them to wynne some, therfore these apostels wolde sowe some cocle of dyssensyon amonge the Crysten peple, wherby Cryst myght lese some of them? For the frute of stryfe amonge the herers, and persecucyon of the precher, can not lyghtly growe amonge Crysten men, but by the prechynge of some straunge neweltyes, and bryngynge up of some new fangell heresyes to the infeccyon of our olde fayth."-SIR THOMAS MORE'S Dialoge, ff, 39. Defiance of Authority, "SOME have I sene whiche when they have for theyr paryllous prechynge ben by theyr prelates prohybyted to preche, have (that notwithstandyng) proceded on styll. And for the mayntenaunce of theyr disobedyence, have amended the matter with an heresy, boldely and stubburnly defendynge, that syth they had connynge to preche, they were by God bounden to preche. And that no man, nor no lawe that was made, or coulde be made, had any authoryte to forbede them. And this they thought suffycyently proved by the wordes of the appostle, Oportet magis obedire Deo quam hominibus, As though these men were appostles now specyally sent by God to preche heresyes and sow sedycyon amonge Crysten men, as the very appostles were in dede sente and commaundyd by God to preche his very faythe to the Jeves."-SIR THOMAS MORE's Dialoge, ff. 38. Scripture not needful. "THE fayth came in to Saynt Peter his harte as to the prynce of the appostles, without herynge, by secrete inspyracyon, and into the remenaunt by his confessyon and Crystes holy mouthe; and by theym in lyke maner, fyrste without wrytynge by onely wordes and prechynge, so was it spredde abrode in the worlde, that his fayth was by the mouthes of his holy messengers put in to mennes eres, and by his holy hande wrytten in mennes hartes, or ever any worde therof almost was wrytten in the boke. And so was it conveny ent for the laue of lyfe, rather to be wrytten in the lyvely myndes of men, than in the dede skynnes of bestes. And I nothynge doubte, but all had it so ben, that never gospell hadde ben wrytten, yet sholde the substaunce of this fayth never have fallen out of Crysten folkes hartes, but the same spyryte that planted it, the same sholde have watered it, the same shold have kepte it, the same shold have encreased it.”—SIR THOMAS MORE's Dialoge, f. 46. Dinner Hour. "By my trouthe, quod he, I have another tale to tell you, that all thys gere graunted, tournyth us yet into as moche uncertayntye as were in before. Ye, quod I, then have we well walked after the balade, 'the further I go, the more behynde,' I pray you what thynge is that? For that longe I to here ere yet we go. Nay, quod he, it were better ye dyne fyrste. My lady wyll I wene be angry with me that I kepe you so longe therfro, for I holde it now well towarde twelve. And yet more angry wolde waxe wyth me, yf I sholde make you syt and muse at your mete, as ye wolde I wote well muse on the matter, yf ye wysta what it were. If I were, quod I, lyke my wyfe, I sholde muse more theron nowe, and ete no mete for longynge to knowe. But come on than, and let us dyne fyrst, and ye shall tell us after."-SIR THOMAS MORE's Dialoge, ff. 61. Holiday Sports. lady, your wife, Popess too. Well, quod I, then sholde she devyse for nuns. And as for me, touchyng the choyce of prestys, I could not well devyse better provysyons than are by the laws of the Chyrche provyded allredy, if they were as wel kept as they be well made. But for the nomber, I "In some countries they go on hunting sholde not have such a rabbell, that every wolde surely see such a way therin that we commonly on Good Friday in the mornmean man must have a preste in his house ing, for a common custom. Will ye break the evil custom, or cast away Good Friday? to wayte upon his wyfe, which no man almost lackett now, to the contempt of prestThere be cathedral churches into which hed, in as vyle offyce as his horse-keeper. the country cometh with procession at Whitsuntide, and the women following the That is, quod he, trouth in dede, and in worse too, for they keep hawkes and dogges: cross with many an unwomanly song, and that such honest wives as out of that proand yet me semeth surely a more honest cession ye could not hyre to speck one servyce to wayte on an horse than on a such foul rybaudry word as they there sing laws of the Chyrch which Luther and Tyndogge. And yet I suppose, quod I, yf the for God's sake hole rebaudous songs as loud dall wolde have all broken, were all well as their throat can cry. Will you mend that observed and kept this gere sholde not be lewde manner, or put away Whitsuntide? Ye speak of lewdness used at pylgrymages; thus, but the nomber of prestes wolde be is there, trow ye, none used on holy days? the better. For it is by the laws of the moche mynyshed, and the remenaunt moche And why do you not then advise us to put them clean away, Sundays and all? Some Chyrch provyded, to the entent no preste wax dronke in Lent of wygges and crack-sholde unto the slaunder of presthed, be nels; and yet ye wolde not, I trust, that dryven to lyve in such lewd maner, or And thus it that he did it in the defence of his own master, and the most innocent man that ever was. And unto this they lay, that syth the time that Christen men first fell to fyghting, it hath never encreased, but alway mynyshed and decayed. So that at this day the Turk hath estrayted us very nere, and brought it within a right narrow compass, and narrower shall do, say they, as long as we go about to defend Crystendome by the sword: which, they say, sholde be as it was in the beginning encreased, so be contynued and preserved, only by pacyence and martyrdome."-SIR THOMAS MORE'S Dialoge, ff. 145. The Bible. Sir Thomas More's Opinion. "WHERE as many thynges be layde against it, yet is there in my mynde not one thyng that more putteth good men of the clergy in doubte to suffre it, than this that they se somtyme moche of the worse sorte more fervent in the callyng for it, than them whom we fynde far better. Which maketh them to fere lest suche men desyre it for no good, and lest if it were had in every mannes hande, there wold grete parell aryse, and that sedycyous peopl sholde do more harme therwith, than good and honest folke sholde take fruyte thereby. Which fere I promyse you nothynge fereth me; but that who so ever wolde of theyr malyce or foly take harme of that thynge that is of itselfe ordeyned to do all men good, I wold never for the avoydynge of ledde out of the ryght way, do rather fall "SURELY for the most part such as be theyr harme, take frome other the profyte thereto of a lewde lyghtnesse of theyr owne whiche they myght take, and nothynge deserve to lese. For els, yf the abuse of a mynde, than for any grete thynge that good thynge sholde cause the takynge awaye theym. For we se theym as redy to bymoveth theym in theyr mayster that techeth therof from other that wolde use it well, leve a purser, a glover, or a wever, that Cryst sholde hymself never have been borne, nothynge can do but scantely rede Ennor brought his fayth into the worlde, nor God sholde never have made it neyther, yfwysest and the best lerned doctor in the glysshe, as well as they wolde byleve the he sholde for the losse of those that wolde realme."-SIR THOMAS MORE's Dialoge, ff. be dampned wretches, have kept away the occasyon of rewarde from them that wolde with helpe of his grace, endevoure them to deserve it."-SIR THOMAS MORE's Dialoge, ff. 114-5. Luther's Declaration against War. "LUTHER and his followers among their other heresies hold for a plain conclusion, that it is not lefull for any Crysten man to fight against the Turk, or to make against him any resystance though he come into Crystendome with a great army, and labour to destroy all. For they say that all Crysten men are bounden to the counsayle of Cryst, by whiche they saye that we be forboden to defende ourselfe; and that St. Peter was reproved of our Savyour when he strake of Malchus ere, all be Readiness of Belief in the Reformed People. 147. www Sectaries at Chelmsford. "THERE was but one church at Chelmsford, the Parishioners were so many that there were 2000 communicants, and Dr. Michelson the Parson was an able and godly man. Before this parliament was called of this numerous congregation there was not one to be named, man or woman, that boggled at the Common Prayers, or refused to receive the sacrament kneeling, the posture which the Church of England (walking in the footsteps of venerable antiquity) hath by act of Parliament enjoined all those which account it their happiness to be called her children. But since this magnified reformation was set on foot this town (as indeed most Corporations, as we find by experience, are nurseries of faction and rebellion) is so filled with sectaries, especially Brownists and Anabaptists, that a third part of the people refuse to communicate in the Church Liturgy, and half refuse to receive the blessed sacrament, unless they may receive it what posture they please to take it.”—Mercurius Rusticus, p. 22. m Dr. Featley's Sermon against Sectaries. and their Precise and Holy Ones, are all met at Prince Arthurs Round Table, where every guest like the Table is totus, teres atque rotundus."-Mercurius Rusticus, p. 167. "THERE are three heads of Catechism and grounds of Christianity, the Apostles Creed, the Lord's Prayer and Ten Commandments. These may be more truly than Gorran his Postills termed aurea fundamenta, which they go about to overthrow and cast down, and when they have done it, no place remaineth for them to build their synagogues or Maria Rotundas, but the sand in the sawpit where their Apostle Brown first taught most profoundly. The Lord's Prayer they have excluded out of their Liturgy, the Apostles' Creed out of their Confession, and the Ten Commandments by the Antinomians their disciples out of their rule of life. They are too good to say the Lord'sprayer, better taught than to rehearse the Apostles' Creed, better-lived than to hear the Decalogue read at their service, for God can see no sin in them,-nor man honesty."-Dr. FEATLEY, Mercurius Rusticus, p. 170. Testimony of our own Lives to the Spirit. "THE Scripture," said Dr. FEATLEY, preaching in those days at Lambeth, "sets forth the true visible Church of Christ upon earth, under the emblem of a great field, a great floor, a great house, a great sheet, a great draw-net, a great and large foundation, &c. The church shadowed out under these similitudes cannot be their congregation, or rather conventicles. For, as they brag and commend themselves, wanting good neighbours, in their field there are no tares, in their floor there is no chaff, in their house no vessels of dishonour, in their sheet no unclean beasts, in their net no trash, on their foundation nothing built, but gold, silver, and precious stones. They have not sate with vain persons, nor kept company with dissemblers: they have hated the assembly of malignants, and have not accom- "IF the Spirit be obeyed, if it reigns in panied with the ungodly: they have not, us, if we live in it, if we walk after it, if and will not christen in the same font; nor it dwells in us, then we are sure that we sit at the holy table, (for to kneel at the are the sons of God. There is no other Sacrament is Idolatry) nor drink spiritually testimony to be expected, but the doing of the blood of our Redeemer in the same our duty. All things else (unless an exchalice with the wicked. Get ye pack-tra-regular light spring from Heaven and ing then out of our Churches with your bags and baggages, hoyse up sail for New England, or the Isle of Providence, or rather Sir Thomas More's Eutopia, where Plato's Commoner, and Oforius his Nobleman, and Castillio his Courtier, and Vegetius his Soldier, and Tully his Orator, and Aristotles Felix, and the Jews Benco-giensis, "be more than what upon trial will hab, and the Manachees Paraclete, and the Gnosticks Illuminate Ones, and the Montanist's Spiritual Ones, and the Pelagians Perfect Ones, and the Catharests Pure Ones, tell us of it) are but fancies and deceptions, or uncertainties at the best."-JEREMY TAYLOR, Vol. 9. p. 158. Covenant and the Number 666. "It will not," says the Querela Cantabri be found true, if we here mention a mystery which many (we conceive) will not a little wonder at, viz., that the Covenant for which all this persecution hath been con "Fœmina morte cadet, postquam terram mala tangent." Hereby hinting his fears of the Queen's life, occasioned by those that now so neglected her authority, (he was speaking of the sectaries;) and his apprehensions of formidable evils that might fall upon the nation after sists of six articles, and those articles of | he said, recurred to his head, though he was 666 words. This is not the first time that not much led, he said, by worldly prophepersecution hath risen in England upon six cies: namely this, articles. Witness those in the reign of king Henry VIII. But as for the number of the Beast, to answer directly to the words of those six articles, it is a thing which (considering God's blessed Providence in every particular thing) hath made many of us and others seriously and often to reflect upon it, though we were never so superstitiously caballistical as to ascribe much to numbers. This discovery, we confess, was not made by any of us, but by a very judicious and worthy divine (M. Geast) formerly of our university, and then a prisoner (for his conscience) within the cincts of it, and not yet restored to his liberty, but removed to London. And therefore we shall forbear to insist any farther, either upon it, or the occasion of it." p. 24. wwwwwwwm Presbyterians win the Women. pre MADAM," says JEREMY TAYLOR (Vol. 9. 314) in a Dedication to the Countess Dowager of Devonshire, "I know the arts of these men; and they often put me in mind of what was told me by Mr. Sackville, the late Earl of Dorset's uncle; that the cunning sects of the world (he named the Jesuits and the Presbyterians) did more prevail by whispering to ladies, than all the church of England and the more sober Protestants could do by fine, force and strength of argument. For they, by prejudice or fears, terrible things and zealous nothings, confident sayings and little stories, governing the ladies consciences, who can persuade their lords, their lords will convert their tenants, and so the world is all their own." Prophecy against Elizabeth. ARCHBISHOP PARKER concluded the last letter which he ever wrote to Burleigh, "with an old prophetic verse, that often as ward. "This old prophecy," continues Strype, the first verse, and had it seems some weight "(whereof the Archbishop repeated only with it in those times, among the better sort that dreaded the issue of the Queens death,) I have met with in the Cotton Library, as pretending some disaster to befall the Queen, and the invasion and conquest of the kingdom by the king of Spain, or some other king. They are an hexastich of old rhiming verses, with an old translation of them into English: as follow. Fœmina morte cadet, postquam terram mala tangent. Trans vada rex veniet; postquam populi cito plangent. Trans freta tendentes, nil proficiendo la |