The picture of a Puritane: or, A relation of the opinions, qualities, and practises of the Anabaptists in Germanie, and of the Puritanes in England. VVherein is firmely prooued, that the Puritanes doe resemble the Anabaptists, in aboue fourescore seuerall thinges. By Oliuer Ormerod, of Emmanuel Colledge in Cambridge. Wherunto is annexed a short treatise, entituled, Puritano-papismus: or a discouerie of Puritan-papisme.

To them, and to none but them, whome the Puritanes haue laden with contumelies, slaunders, defamations, and oppr▪ bri••us detractions: O. O. presenteth this Picture.

SO greate was the skill of Apelles, Pyrgoteles, and Lisippus, as that Alexander the greate com∣maunded, that none should paint him in colours but Apelles: none should graue him in stones but Pyrgoteles: & none should faigne any part of his princely person but Lisippus.

So cunning was Zeuxis, as that he painted a boy carrying grapes, that the birds came and picked on them, as if they had beene naturall grapes.

So skilfull was Praxiteles, as that he graued in a Marble stone▪ the jmage of Venus, so perfectlye and so liuely in each point, that a certaine young man f••ll in loue with the jmage, and came often in the night, when no man knew, to kisse and to imbrace the jmage of Venus.

Yea, so cunning were Painters in former ages, as that it mooued Saint Crysostome, to break out into this speech: a 1.1 Pictores imitantur arte naturam, et co∣lores coloribus permiscentes, visibiles corporum depin∣gunt imagines, & faciunt homines, & animalia, & ar∣bores,

& Reges, & rusticos, & barbaros, & pugnas, & rixas, torrentes sanguinum, & lanceas, & loricas, & scuta, & sedemregalem, & imperatorem sedentem, & barbarum subditum, & gladium acutum, & fluuios decurrentes, & campos varijs floribus adornatos, & omnia quae videntur, per artem imitantes, mirabilem historiam videntibus praestant.

All which notwithstanding, the painting of a Pu∣ritane is so hard and difficult, as that the ioynt skill of Apelles, Pyrgoteles, Praxiteles, and of al the cun∣ning Painters in Saint Chrysostoms time, will scarse reach this obiect.

For as Proteus changed himselfe into diuers shapes, & appeared sometimes like a flame of fire, sometimes like a Bull, and sometimes like a terri∣ble Serpent: so the Puritane changeth himselfe likewise into diuers shapes, & appeareth some∣times like a Protestant, sometimes like a Papist, & sometimes like an Anabaptist.

It may therefore seeme strange, that I, who ne∣uer before handled the Pensill, would for my first counterfaite shadowe the Puritane. I am (I con∣fesse) at a losse, and know not heerein what to answere: onely this I say concerning this my first picture, as Phydias said concerning his first protrai∣ture: if it be liked, Iwill drawe more besides this; if loathed, none but this.

But to whom shall tender & present this picture? may I not to the dead, as well as to the liuing? are the barres of the graue so vnexorable, as that they cā deny a mā to continue that affection to the me∣mory of those that are dead in the Lord, which he

caried to them beiug aliue?

May I thē present it to the dead and breathlesse corps of our late Queene of famous memory? may I there cry out against the vngratefulnesse of those Ministers, who haue neuer ceased since she was ga∣thered to her Fathers vntill this day, by their cōfe∣rences in priuate, by their Broakers & coursers vp and downe, by their bookes and Pamphlets in print, and by all other meanes that possiblie they could deuise, to depraue her proceedings, & to de∣fame that moste auncient kinde of commendable church-gouernment, which through Gods great mercie and Godly lawes of her Highnes, was ac∣cording to his holy word established amongst vs?

This putteth me in minde of Scipio Affricanus the elder, who made the Cittie of Rome (a 1.2 being in a consumption, and ready to giue vp the Ghost) Lady of Affricke. At length being banished into a base Countric-towne, his will was, that his Tombe should haue this inscription vpon it: Ingrata patria, ne ossa quidem mea habes: vnthankful Countrie, thou hast not so much as my bones.

And doth not the vnthankfulnesse of the Puri∣tan-faction, giue mee iust occasion to make ap∣plycation heereof? How many blessings did the Lord bestow vppon this Church and common∣wealth, in the halcyon daies of Queene Elizabeth?

To name onely one particular, shee made this Church being in a consumption, and readie to giue vp the Ghost, Lady of Europe.

But what is become of their gratitude? How quickely haue they exiled her from their thoughts

and buried her memorable actes in obliuion? In∣grati puritani.

But to leauc the dead and come to the liuing: may I in all humilitie present it to you my Liege Lord and Soueraigne? I cannot conceale from your Highnesse, how that their chiefest writers haue blazed and diuulged abroade, that a 1.3 Christi∣an Soueraignes ought not to bee called heads under Christ, of the particular and visible Churches within their Dominions: b 1.4 that they ought not to meddle with the making of Lawes, orders, and ceremonies for the Church: c 1.5 that their discipline ought to be set up: that all Princes ought to submit themselues under the yoake of it: yea, and that what Prince, King, or Empe∣rour shall disanull the same, hee is to be reputed Gods e∣nemie, and to bee held unworthy to raigne aboue his people.

But who am I, that being not called for, should dare to come before so high and mighty a Prince, & b••ing so small a present?

It was the daunger of Hesters life, though shee was a Queene, to come before the King, vnlesse she were called for. For it was their law, that d 1.6 who∣soeuer, man or woman came into the inner court, which was not called, should die, vnlesse the King held foorth his golden Rodde.

May I present it to you of his Majesties moste Honorable priuie Counsell, vpon whose hands al∣so our late Queene leaned?

The Puritanes which slaunder her Highnesse, cannot but slaunder your Honours, whome shee did associate to her selfe, in administring her go∣uernment.

For shee imi••ated a 1.7 Ahashuerosh the King of the Persians, who did nothing in the re∣mooue of Vashti the Queene, without the aduise of the seauen Princes which saw the Kinges face, and sate first in the Kingdome.

But who am I, that I should dare to interrupt your graue consu••tatiōs with so sleight a schedule? Right reuerend Fathers of the Church, to whome God hath giuen his Vrim and his Thummim, may I present it to you? The Right reuerend & gracious Lord, who not long since was among you, as a Di∣amond set in Gold, had great experience of their opprobrious speeches & peremptory practises, & could haue spoken by experience, as Aeneas did of the troubles of Troy, et quorum pars magnafui. And it is not vnknowne to any of your Lordships, how that the Puritanes blush not to write, that b 1.8 Arch∣bishops and Bishops are superfluous members of the body of Christ: that they are vnlawfull, false, and bastardly gouernours of the Church: that they are the ordinan∣ces of the Deuill: yea, that they are petty Popes, petty Antichrists, Bishops of the Deuil and incarnate Deuils.

But who am I that I should presume to present this to so great Personages? Alas, I am peccatorum maximus, Apostolorum minimus.

Cathedrall Churches, may I tender it to you? I cannot but taxe the rayling c 1.9 Puritanes, for calling you the dennes of loytring lubbers, where (as d 1.10 they say) M. Deane, M. Vice-deane, M. Cannons, or M. Pre∣bendaries the greater, M. Pettie Cannons, or Cannons the lesser, M. Chauncelor of the Church, M. Treasuror, or otherwise called Iudas the purse-bearer, the chiefe

Chaunter, singing men, speciall fauourers of Religion, squeaking Quiristers, Organ-players, Gospellers, Pistlers, Pentioners, Readers and Vergers, liue in great idlenes, and haue their abiding.

But not to forget my Mother, and her Sister, the famous Vniuersities of Cambridge and Oxford: may I present it to you? I holde it an especiall part of my duty, to acquaint you with their slaundering and odious traducing of your Children. a 1.11 There is (saith a fauourer of the new-fangle factiō) a strange manner of preaching in vse in many places, both in the Vniuersities and elsewhere, which no man wel affected, but if he knoweth it, he doth exceedingly pittie it. One, as though the Pulpit were but a Scaffolde, in which hee like a Master of Defence were to play his prizes, and to giue testimony of his wit, playeth vpon euery word, and descanteth vpon euery letter in his text, and as though the Scripture were but a Rattle for children and fooles to make sporte withall, he tosseth it hither and thither, and will not faile to offer it any violence, to frame it to an imagined conceite, and to draw it to an idle purpose.

An other, as if his purpose were onely to amaze the vulgar, and to affright and astonish the multitude, mounteth aloft, and is all in his greate wordes, and new coyned phrases, more fit for a Mimick or Tragedian, then a Minister of the Gospell. A third, to gaine the opi∣nion of a profound man, that looketh into matters of more depth then the commō sorte, rubbeth ouer the vn∣sauory writings of some Moth-eaten Fryer, and by an vncoth fashion of teaching, together with a multitude of allegories and intricate distinctions, amazeth both himselfe and all those whose vnhappy chance it is to bee

his hearers. A fourth, to be reputed a good linguist, and a man of great reading, stuffeth his Sermon with a legion of allegations, and enterlaceth it with many shreddings of Latine and Greeke, and by that meanes though his Doctrine perhaps may be profitable, yet hee confoundeth the memorie of the diligent and attentiue hearer.

To conclude, I present this to them, and to none but them, whome the Puritanes haue (and whom haue they not?) laden with contumelies, slaunders, defamations, opprobrious detractions and vncha∣ritable accusations: asking pardon for my bolde∣nesse, and patronage for these my simple endea∣uours, and beseeching the God of heauen and earth, to multiply his richest bles∣sings, vpon all those that in simpli∣city* 1.12 and Godly purenesse haue their conuersation in the world.

The true affectionate Louer of all that are pure in heart. Oliuer Ormerod.

Notes

• a 1.1

  Chrysost. in Psal. ••0.
• a 1.2

  Exanguē et morituram Ʋal. Max▪ Lib. cap. 3.
• a 1.3

  T. C. lib. 2. pag. 4••.
• b 1.4

  T. C. lib. 1. page. 192.
• c 1.5

  Exhort. to England pag. 91 92.
• d 1.6

  Hester, 4,
• a 1.7

  Hester. 1.
• b 1.8

  Hay any worke. pag. 14. 15. 20. 21. & Mar∣li•• marpre∣late in his Epistle to •• terrible Priestes.
• c 1.9

  Admoni. pag. 224. 225.
• d 1.10

  Ibid.
• a 1.11

  S. H. in his plea. page. 193. 194.
• * 1.12

  ••. Cor. 1. 12