A73023:143
M. Perkins, his Exhortation to repentance, out of Zephaniah preached in 2. sermons in…
M. Perkins, his Exhortation to repentance, out of Zephaniah preached in 2. sermons in Stourbridge Fair. Together with two treatises of the duties and dignity of the ministry: delivered publicly in the University of Cambridge. With a preface prefixed touching the publishing of all such works of his as are to be expected: with a catalogue of all the particulars [sic] of them, diligently perused and published, by a preacher of the word.M. Perkins, his Exhortation to repentance, out of Zephaniah preached in 2. sermons in Sturbridge Faire. Together with two treatises of the duties and dignitie of the ministrie: deliuered publiquely in the Vniuersitie of Cambridge. With a preface præfixed touching the publishing of all such workes of his as are to be expected: with a catalogue of all the perticulers [sic] of them, diligently perused and published, by a preacher of the word.
London: printed by T. Creede for William Welby, 1605
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
In a word, if all our Ministers were such as this Treatise describeth, or came but as near it as the Author hereof did, and if all our great ones did use and esteem good ministers as you do, we should then soon pull the Ministry from under that foot of contempt, with ⟨image 71⟩which this profane age doth daily tread upon it. The Church of Rome, who are far wiser in their kind then the children of light, have taken other & strange courses to magnify the Clergy. They teach, that the state Ecclesiastical, is so far more excellent then the Civil, as the Sun is then the Moon, & that not in spiritual only, (for that we deny not) but in temporal power, pomp, and estate: and that therefore the Chief of their Clergy, is as far above the mightiest Emperor, as the Sun is above the Moon; and as the Moon borroweth her light from the Sun, so doth the Emperor is state and power from the Pope.
In a word, if all our Ministers were such as this Treatise describeth, or came but as neere it as the Author hereof did, and if all our great ones did vse and esteeme good ministers as you do, we should then soone pull the Ministerie frō vnder that foote of contempt, with ⟨image 71⟩which this prophane age doth daily tread vpon it. The Church of Rome, who are farre wiser in their kinde then the children of light, haue taken other & strange courses to magnifie the Cleargie. They teach, that the state Ecclesiasticall, is so far more excellent then the Ciuile, as the Sunne is then the Moone, & that not in spirituall onely, (for that we deny not) but in temporall power, pompe, and estate: and that therefore the Chiefe of their Clergie, is as farre aboue the mightiest Emperour, as the Sunne is aboue the Moone; and as the Moone borroweth her light from the Sunne, so doth the Emperour is state and power from the Pope.
They teach, that the Clergy is a state so distinct, & so absolute of it self, as it hath not to do with the Civil stat•, yea they exempt their Clergy, from being any way subject to the temporal Magistrate. And though their crimes, be never so many or monstrous, yet the Prince, or civill authority, hath nothing to do to take notice thereof, much less to punish them: and hereupon great volumes are written, and many Acts and decrees are made in their Cannon Law, De exemptione Clericorum. They extol their Clergy above the Temporality,