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which I most heartily require you; which is, that charity and concord is not among you, but discord and dissention beareth rule in every place. S. Paul saith to the Corinthians in the thirteenth chapter: Charity is gentle. Charity is not envious. Charity is not proud, and so forth, in the said chapter. Behold then, what love and charity is among you, when one calleth another Heretic and Anabaptist, and he calleth him again, Papist, Hypocrite, and Pharisee. Be these tokens of charity amongst you? these signs of fraternal love between you? No: no. assure you, that this lack of charity amongst yourselves will be the hinderance and assuaging of the fervent love between us, as I said before, except this wound be salved, and clearly made whole. I must needs judge the fault and occasion of this discord to be, partly by negligence of you, the fathers and preachers of the spirituality.

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"I see here daily, that you of the Clergy preach one against another, envy against one another, teach one contrary to another, without charity or discretion. Some be too stiff in their old mumpsimus, and others too busy and curious in their new sumpsimus. Thus all men, almost, be in variety and discord, and few or none preach truly and sincerely the Word of God, as they ought to do. Shall I judge you charitable persons, doing this? No no. I cannot do So. Alas! how can the poor souls live in concord, when you, preachers, sow amongst them, in your sermons, debate and discord? Of you they look for light, and you bring them to darkness. Amend these crimes, I exhort you, and set out God's Word, both by true preaching and good example-giving; or else, I, whom God hath appointed his Vicar and High Minister, ['tis a wonder he did not call himself High Priest] here will see these divisions extinct, and these enormities corrected, according to my very duty, or else I am an unprofitable servant, and an untrue officer.

"Altho' 1 say that the spiritual men be in some fault, that charity is not kept amongst you, yet you of the temporality be not clear and unspotted of malice and envy; for you rail at Bishops, speak scandalously of Priests, and rebuke and taunt Preachers, both contrary to good order and Christian fraternity. If you know surely, that a Bishop or Preacher erreth, or teacheth perverse doctrine, come and declare it to some of our Council, or to Us; to whom is committed by God the High Authority to reform and order such causes and behaviour; and be not judges yourselves

of your fantastic opinions and vain expositions; for in causes you may lightly err. And altho' you may be permitted to read the holy Scripture in your mother tongue, you must understand, it is licensed you so to do, only to inform your consciences, and instruct your children and family, and not to dispute, and make Scripture a railing and taunting stock against Priests and Preachers, as many light persons do. I am very sorry to know and hear, how unreverently that most precious jewel, the Word of God, is disputed, rhimed, sung, and jangled in every alehouse and tavern, contrary to the true meaning and doctrine of the same; and yet I am even as much sorry, that the readers of the same follow it, in doing, so faintly and coldly. For of this I am sure, that charity was never so faint amongst you, and virtuous and good living was never less used, nor God himself, amongst Christians, was never less reverenced, honoured, and served.

"Therefore, as I said before, be in charity one with another, like brother and brother, love, dread, and fear God; to the which I, as your Supreme Head and Sovereign Lord, exhort and require you; and then, I doubt not but that love and leave, that I spoke of in the beginning, shall never be discouraged or broken between us." Hall's Chronicle, quoted in the Parliam. Hist. of England, Vol. III. p. 205.

REFLEXIONS.

Thus the Royal Preacher exerts his oratorial talents, and displays the whole stock of his eloquence, only to recount, in the conclusion, (what he could not remedy) the dire effects of his own most godly and goodly reformation, under the following heads.

First, the want of Charity amongst all sorts of people, whether church or lay men. For of this I am sure, that Charity was never so faint amongst you.

Secondly, an almost total disuse of virtue and piety. Virtuous and good living was never less used.

Thirdly, the scandalous abuses and vile prophanations of the holy Scriptures in alehouses and taverns, contrary to the true meaning and doctrine of the same.

Fourthly, a visible decay of the worship and service of God: God himself, amongst Christians, was never less reverenced, honoured, and served. And all these complaints, it seems, are grounded upon certainty and conviction: For of this I am sure.

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Fifthly, Bishops were disrespectfully treated, and railed Priests and Preachers were publicly rebuked, taunted, and ridiculed. And by this means, both the Clergy and their functions were rendered despicable in the eyes of the populace.

Lastly, dissention, like a deluge, overspread the face of the land! Discord and dissention beareth rule in every place! A frightful picture of the confused and tumultuary state of religion in those unhappy days, tho' drawn by the hand of a King!

And since the death of this High Minister of the Church, may it not be questioned, whether our morals have acquired any great matter of improvement, or our religion either, excepting only in the article of variety? In which particular, it must be confessed, we have succeeded perhaps beyond expectation, perhaps to the wonder and astonishment of all Europe!

To conclude, if this King had reason to complain, that even in his time almost all men were in variety and discord, can we safely say we have no grounds at present for the like complaint? Does it appear that our religious affairs are in a more amicable posture now-a-days? Is it not fact, that a prodigious variety of religious opinions is, at this time, professed and propagated within the precincts of this island? And is it not a fact too, that they are productive of no small discord amongst us? And to whom do we stand indebted for these signal advantages, but to the Great King Harry? This is the godly and goodly Monarch, who, out of his excessive goodness and generosity, has bequeathed to us and our heirs for ever the precious legacy of variety and discord!

Add to this, that his breaking down the fences of the Church, to let in a rabble of New Gospellers; his maltreating the Bishops and Clergy, and his bullying them out of their properties; his disincorporating Religious Societies, and demolishing their houses, are facts, glorious facts; and such as, beyond all peradventure, will powerfully recommend to the latest posterity the immortal memory of King Henry the Eighth.

No. XVII.

Cranmer's Ordination Faculties: extracted out of his Commission.

"EDWARDUS SEXTUS, D. G. Ang. Fra. et Hib. Rex F.D. ac in terra Eccl. Ang. et Hib. Supremum Caput. Revmo. in Christo Patri, Thomæ Cantuariensi Episcopo, salutem. Quandoquidem omnis Jurisdicendi Authoritas, atque etiam Jurisdictio omnimoda, tàm illa quæ Ecclesiastica dicitur quàm Sæcularis, à Regia Potestate, velut a Supremo Capite, emanat. Ad ordinandos igitur quoscunque, infra Diæces. tuam Cant. ad omnes, etiam sacros, et Presbyteratus Ordines promovend. Vices nostras, Tenore Præsentium, tibi committimus, ac liberam Facultatem concedimus, teque licentiamus per præsentes, ad nostrum beneplacitum duntaxat duraturas. In cujus rei testimonium præsentes literas inde fieri, et sigilli nostri, quo ad Causas Ecclesiasticas utimur, appensione jussimus muniri. Datum 7 die mensis Feb. 1546, et regni nostri primo."

See the Commission itself at full length, (and comprehending all the duties of a Bishop) in Burnett's Collection of Records, Book II. No. II.

No. XVIII.

The Rubrick.

THE Minister shall take so much bread and wine as shall suffice for the persons appointed to receive the holy Communion, laying the bread upon the corporas, or else in the patten, or in some other comely thing prepared for that purpose. And putting the wine into the chalice, or else in some fair and convenient cup prepared for that use, (if the chalice will not serve) putting thereto a little pure and clean water." p. 22.

"For avoiding all matters and occasions of dissention, it is meet that the Bread prepared for the Communion be made through all this realm after one sort and fashion : that is to say, unleavened and round as it was afore, but without all manner of print, and something more larger and thicker than it was, so that it may be aptly divided in di

verse pieces, and every one shall be divided into two pieces at the least, or more, by the discretion of the Minister, and so distributed. And men must not think less to be received in Part, than in the Whole, but in each of them the whole Body of our Saviour Jesus Christ." p. 43.

See the Form and Manner of consecrating and administering the Holy Communion, according to the Liturgy of King Edward VI.-Printed at London by Edward Whitchurch, anno Dom. 1549, mense Maii; and reprinted by H. Parker 1717.

BP.

No. XIX.

P. Burnet, in his History of the Reformation, Vol. I. Book II. p. 172, confesses thus much of Cranmer and his opinions." It is true he [Cranmer] had some singular opinions about Ecclesiastical Functions and Offices, which he seemed to make wholly dependent on the Magistrate, as much as the civil were." And to do honour to his Athanasius, our singular Historian has took care to preserve these singular opinions in his own most singular Collection of Records; where (among many other exotics) we meet with the following remarkable Questions and Answers, in a Paper intitled:

"The Resolutions of several Bishops and Divines, of "some Questions concerning the Sacraments, &c." of which the following only are to our purpose.

9th Question.

"Whether the Apostles, lacking a higher power, as not having a Christian King, made Bishops by that necessity, or by authority given by God?"

Cranmer's Answer.

"All Christian Princes have committed unto them, immediately of God, the cure of all their subjects, as well concerning the administration of God's Word, for the cure of souls, as concerning the ministration of things political, and civil governance. The Ministers of God's Word, under his Majesty, be the Bishops, Parsons, Vicars, and such other Priests, as be appointed by his Highness to that ministration.-All the said officers and ministers, as well of that sort

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