XXXII. 1 THE PREACHER AND THE PLOUGHER.1 AND wel may the preacher and the ploughman be lykened together. Fyrste for their labour of all ceasons of the yere. For there is no tyme of the yere, in whiche the ploughman hath not some speciall worke to do, as in my countrey in Lecestre Shire, the ploughe man hath a tyme to set furth and to assaie hys plough, and other tymes for other neceffari workes to be done. And then they also maye be likenede together, for the diverfitie of workes and varietie of offices that they have to do. For as the ploughman first setteth furth hys plough and then tilleth hys lande and breaketh it in furroughes, and fometime ridgeth it vp agayne. And at an other tyme harroweth it, and clotteth it, and fomtyme doungeth it, and hedgeth it, diggeth it, and weedeth it, pourgeth and maketh it cleane. So the prelate, the preacher hath mani divers offices to do. He hath fyrst a busie worke, to bringe his parishioners to a ryght fayth, as Paule calleth it. And not to a swarvinge fayeth, but to a fayeth that embraceth Chrifte, and trusteth to hys merites, a lively fayth, a juftifying fayth, a fayth that maketh a man rightuous wythout refpecte of workes. As ye have it, verie well declared and fet furth in the Homilie. He hath then a bufie worke I fay, to bringe his flocke to a ryght fayth and then to confirme them in the fame fayeth, Nowe caftynge them downe with the lawe, and with threateninges of God for fynne. Nowe ridgynge them vp agayne, with the gospel and with the promises of Gods favoure. Nowe weedinge them, by tellinge them their faultes, and makynge them forsake fynne. Nowe clottinge them, by breakynge their ftonie hertes, and by makyng them fupple herted, and makyng them to have hertes of fleshe, that is soft hertes, and apte for doctrine to enter in. Nowe teachinge to knowe God ryghtly, and to knowe theyr duetie to God and to theyr neyghboures. Nowe exhorting them when they knowe theyr duety, that they do it and be diligente in it: so that they have a continuall worke to do. Greate is theyr busines, and therfore greate shoulde be theyre hyre. They have great laboures, and therfore they ought to have good livinges, that they maye comodiously feade theyr flocke, for the preachynge of the worde of God vnto the people is called meate, scripture calleth it meat. Not ftrauberies, that come but once a yeare and tary not longe, but are fone gone: but it is meat. It is no deynties. The people mufte have meate that muste be familier and continuall, and dayly geven vnto them to fede vpon. Many make a ftrauberie of it, miniftringe it but once a yeare, but fuch do not the office of good prelates. Hugh Latimer. N XXXIII. A NATION OF WORTHIES.1 LORDS and Commons of England, consider what Nation it is wherof ye are, and wherof ye are the governours: a Nation not flow and dull, but of a quick, ingenious, and piercing spirit, acute to invent, futtle and finewy to discours, not beneath the reach of any point the highest that human capacity can foar to. Therefore the ftudies of learning in her deepest Sciences have bin fo ancient, and fo eminent among us, that Writers of good antiquity, and ableft judgement have bin perfwaded that ev'n the school of Pythagoras, and the Perfian wisdom took beginning from the old Philofophy of this Iland. And that wife and civill Roman, Julius Agricola, who govern'd once here for Casar, preferr'd the naturall witts of Britain, before the laboured studies of the French. Nor is it for nothing that the grave and frugal Tranfilvanian fends out yearly from as farre as the mountanous borders of Ruffia, and beyond the Hercynian wildernes, not their youth, but their stay'd men, to learn our language, and our theologic arts. Yet that which is above all this, the favour and the love of heav'n we have great argument to think in a peculiar manner propitious and propending towards us. Why else was this Nation chos'n before any other, that out of her as out of Sion fhould be proclam'd and founded forth the firft tidings and trumpet of Reformation to all Europ. And had it not been the obftinat perverfnes of our Prelats against the divine and admirable fpirit of Wicklef, to fuppreffe him as a fchifmatic and innovator, perhaps neither the Bohemian Huffe and Ferom, no nor the name of Luther, or of Calvin had bin ever known: 2 the glory of reforming all our neighbours had bin compleatly ours. But now, as our obdurat Clergy have with violence demean'd the matter, we are become hitherto the latest and the backwardeft Schollers, of whom God offer'd to have made us the teachers. Now once again by all concurrence of figns, and by the generall instinct of holy and devout men, as they daily and folemnly expreffe their thoughts, God is decreeing to begin fome new and great period in his Church, ev'n to the reforming of Reformation it felf: what does he then but reveal Himself to his fervants, and as his manner is, first to his English-men; I fay as his manner is, first to us, though we mark not the method of his counsels, and are unworthy. Behold now this vaft City; a City of refuge, the mansion house of liberty, encompast and surrounded with his protection; the fhop of warre hath not there more anvils and hammers waking, to fashion out the plates and inftruments of armed Justice in defence of beleaguer'd Truth, then there be pens and heads there, fitting by their ftudious lamps, mufing, fearching, revolving new notions and idea's wherewith to present, as with their homage and their fealty the approaching Reformation: others as fast reading, trying all things, affenting to the force of reafon and convincement. What could a man require more from a Nation so pliant and so prone to feek after knowledge. What wants there to such a towardly and pregnant foile, but wife and faithfull labourers, to make a knowing people, a Nation of Prophets, of Sages, and of Worthies. We reck'n more then five months yet to harvest; there need not be five weeks, had we but eyes to lift up, the fields are white already. Milton. XXXIV. THE LIFE OF MAN. OUR revels now are ended. These our actors, And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, Shakespeare. |