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The Ecclesiastical polity and other works of Richard Hooker
The Ecclesiastical polity and other works of Richard Hooker Author:Richard Hooker Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: new generation of restless men, that by company and clamours became possest of a faith which they ought to have kept to themselves, but could not; men that were ... more »become positive in asserting, " That a Papist cannot be saved:" insomuch, that about this time, at the execution of the Queen of Scots, the Bishop that preached her funeral sermon (which was Dr. How- land, then Bishop of Peterborough) was reviled for not being positive for her damnation.f And besides this boldness of their becoming Gods, so far as to set limits to his mercies; there was not only one " Martin Mar-Prelate," but other venomous books daily printed and dispersed: books that were so absurd and scurrilous, that the graver Divines disdained them an answer. And yet these were grown into high esteem with the common people, till Tom Nash appeared against them all; who was a man of a sharp wit, and the master of a scoffing, satirical, merry pen, which he employed to discover the absurdities of those blind, malicious, senseless pamphlets, and sermons as senseless as they. Nash's answers being like his books ; which bore these titles, " An Almond for a Parrot," " A Fig for my God-son," " Come crack me this Nut," and the like; so that his merry wit made some sport, and such a discovery of their absurdities, as (which is strange) he put a greater stop to these malicious pamphlets, than a much wiser man had been able.J And now, the reader is to take notice, that at the death of Father Alvey, who was Master of the Temple, this Walter Travers was Lecturer there for the evening sermons, which he preached with great approbation, especially of some citizens, and the younger gentlemen of that society; and for the most part approved by Mr. Hooker himself, in the midst of their oppositions. For he continued Lecturer a part of h...« less