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tion to those held then by the Papists; since Dr. Wiclif's works in print and written hand are still preserved, and to be found and read a in the English libraries.

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"b John Wiclif was the most renowned man of that

age, both for learning and piety, as appears by his "works above mentioned. Whether he maintained the "doctrine of the Waldenses or no, certain it is, that it "received new lustre from his learning, and those who "joined with him in defence of the truth in opposition to "the Popish errors and superstitions. Of these he made "a very particular discussion, in which we meet with a great knowledge of holy Scripture, and great skill in anCo tiquity, whose authority he makes use of to confound "the Romish novelties; we likewise discover there a "great strength in his way of reasoning, and an extraor"dinary method in his consequences, so that he seems to "have fully penetrated the weakness of the Roman cause; "there being scarcely any articles controverted between "the Church of Rome and the Protestants to be met "with, which Dr. Wiclif has not touched and handled, " and that with sufficient exactness too."

It was with the same view, that I undertook to collect and write the following Life of Doctor Reynold Pecock, the learned Bishop of Chichester, a candid and moderate opposer of the Wiclifists; in doing which I have followed the Archbishop's example, who "professed not to use his 66 own words, where he could have the use of the words `" of others; because that manner of writing seemed much 66 more accommodated to the truth of the narrative, and "the proof of the things which are told or related." I

a A particular account of them, and where they are reposited, may be seen in the Life of Dr. Wiclif, chap. ix. p. 179, &c.

In 1722, in the famous University of Oxford, lived one Thomas Hearne, who gave the following character of this great and venerable man; qui revera rebellis impiusque erat: and for proof of it recommended false and bitter Popish libels on that University, printed 1623, as a great rarity. Forduni Scotichronicon. See Advertisement before the Life of Dr. Wiclif, edit. 1723.

have therefore copied the Bishop's arguments and opinions from several tracts or books of his, which are still preserved in MS. in our libraries.

Waterland.

By this method we see the state of the controversy betwixt the Papists and dissenting English Lollards in our Bishop's time; by what pleas these latter justified their separation from the established Popish Church, and what answers were returned to them. We have likewise a view of all or most of the changes, and reigning abuses, and corruptions of Popery brought into the Church of England before the happy reformation of it. To use the words of a very learned and judicious friend, who saw and perused Dr. Daniel the following papers, "while the Bishop defends these "abuses, complained of by the Dissenters, in such a way 66 as he could, he at least owns the facts, which is very "considerable. The Wiclifists might be suspected of falsifying, or however of aggravating; and it has been 66 pretended, that no credit ought to be given to the re66 ports of adversaries. But our Bishop was a friend of "the Papacy, and a very sincere one; what he therefore "owns and confesses cannot well be suspected of being "false or misreported."

The reader will also see a farther proof of the vanity and falsehood of the late and former shameless brags and boastings of our Popish emissaries, that the doctrine called Popery is as ancient as Christianity. So far is this from being true, that during the first six hundred years after Christ there was no such thing in the world as what is now called Popery. Nay, Doctor Wiclif maintained, that it had no being till after the loosing of Satan in the second millenary; and so much was ingenuously owned by Cardinal Quignonius, that "by little and little a de"parture had been made from the very godly institutions "of the ancient fathers." The learned John Beleth of Paris observed, that "heretofore the sacrifice was cele- D. Offic. Expl. c. 42.

The shortest Way to end Disputes about Religion, 1716. viz. to have an implicit faith in an infallible judge and guide.

lib. ii. c. 2.

"brated by the Apostles, and apostolical men in the pri"mitive Church, with wooden vessels and vulgar gar"ments; for then, as is commonly said, there were "wooden chalices and golden priests, but now is quite the

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contrary." Instead of vulgar garments are now introduced and used an amess, an alb, a surcingle, a maniple, a stole, and a chasuble; all which are distinctly blessed or consecrated, and supposed to be "watered "from above by God's grace, and purified, blessed, and "consecrated by the humble service of the Bishop, and by "those means to be made meet and blessed for divine "worship and holy mysteries; and that the Bishops, "Priests, and Levites being habited with them, may de66 serve to be guarded and defended from all attacks or "temptations of malignant spirits."

Here in England, or rather in Great Britain, so far were either the Clergy or people from conforming to the Church of Rome in Venerable Bede's time, and acknowledging a dependency on the Pope as their supreme head, Hist. Eccles, that he tells us, "the British Bishops and Doctors pre"ferred their own traditions to the Romish customs and "usages, particularly as to the time of the observation "of Easter, and the manner of administering Baptism, "which they seem to have had from the Greek or eastern "Churches, by whom their ancestors had been converted "to the belief of Christianity; and did or practised a great "many other things, contrary," as he represents it, "to the "unity of the Church of Rome." Insomuch, that the Britons had this character given of them in a council held at Catal. L. L. Rome, in which the Pope himself presided; Britones, qui MSS in omnibus contrarii sunt; the Britons who are contrary to all, or who differ from all of the Church of Rome. Of bridge, p. this the reader will be furnished with many instances in the following papers, relating to the doctrine, worship, and discipline of the Christian Church; and thereby will,

Bibl.C.C.C.

in Cam

28.

Not one of these vestments was retained in the Church of England after the Reformation, nor any other consecrated vestments.

c. 23. Obj.

I hope, be convinced, that changes have been made in them, from what they were at first. Doctor Wiclif called the barbarous doctrine of transubstantiation a new heresy; a full and convincing proof of which are the Saxon or old English sermons, printed by Archbishop Parker's order in the original and modern English, and entitled, A Testimony of Antiquity. The same learned man observed that leges de confessionibus expressæ in Scriptura per Dial. lib. iv. mille annos et amplius suffecerunt, the laws of confes- of Freres, sions expressed in Scripture sufficed for a thousand years c. 16. MS. and more; and imputed the introducing other laws or rules to the loosing of Satan out of prison. So that we may with much more truth return this man his own language, and defy him, as he defies us, to "mark us out "one single province, town, or even family, in Christen"dom, where the Popish religion, either established by "law at Rome, or as it is modelled by the Pope's bulls or "councils, was publicly professed and published, as it is now, a thousand years after Christ."

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The learned John Beleth, before mentioned, assures us, that "in the primitive Church it was forbidden to any one Expl. D. "to speak in an unknown tongue, unless there was some "one to interpret it. For," said he, "of what use is it to

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Officio.

A. D. 1408.

speak, if what is spoken be not understood?" Certainly of none at all. Our learned martyr and archbishop Cranmer observed in 1540, that "it was not much above an Prologue. "hundred years ago, since Scripture hath not been ac"customed to be read in the vulgar tongue, or in English, "within this realm; and many hundred years before that, A. D. 680, "it was translated and read in the Saxon tongue, which "at that time was our mother tongue, whereof there re"main yet diverse copies, found lately in old abbeys, of "such antique manner of writing and speaking, that few 66 men now ben able to read and understand them. And

e Jacobi le Long bibliotheca omnium ferme sacræ Scripturæ editionum ac versionum secundum seriem linguarum quibus vulgatæ sunt.

A complete History of the several Translations of the holy Bible and New Testament into English, the second edition, 1739.

"when this language waned old, and out of common "usage, because folk should not lacke the fruit of reading A. D. 1880." the Scripture, it was again translated into the newer "language, whereof yet also many copies remain, and be "daily found."

We may here likewise observe, how far a bitter zeal and persecuting spirit will carry those who are so unhappy as to be acted and governed by it. No one could express a truer affection for the Established Church than our Bishop; insomuch, that he was led by it to vindicate" some of its grossest corruptions, and to be an advocate for usages, for which in truth there was nothing to be said in their defence. And yet, because he did not insist on the authority of the Church, or the Clergy, and the infallibility of their determinations, (the test and shibboleth of a true Churchman at that time,) because he thought that the people, as ignorant as they were, knew better than to believe it; and supposed that the Clergy, as well as other fallible men, might possibly be mistaken in their determinations; therefore was our Bishop exclaimed against as an enemy to the Church, which he so strenuously laboured to defend, and an encourager of the Dissenters in their new separation from it, whom he took so much pains to reconcile to it. For his only supposing that he could reclaim the dissenting Wiclifists, without having recourse to the infallible authority of the Church, he was reproached himself as an heretic, and treated with an illnatured scorn and contempt. Nay his enemies, who were but poorly qualified to be his judges, never left him, till, having the Court on their side, whom the Bishop seems to have disobliged, they got him, though contrary to law, deprived of his bishopric, and confined a prisoner in an abbey for life.

This is the account which I have here to give of the following performance; which, if it be any wise useful to convince men of the falsehood of those absurd and dangerous fancies, that the fierce wrath of man worketh the righteousness of God; or that truth may be imprinted on

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