284 LIVES OF THE PURITANS. the same ofthe popish ceremonies,which henever appointed ? If the one called Jewish ceremonies, weak and beggarly elements; why might not the other call the popish ceremo- nies, beggarly and antichristian pomps ? The celebrated Bishop Ridley, once a zealous defender of the ceremonies, when the surplice was forced upon him, bitterly inveighed against it, calling it foolish, abominable, and not,fit for a player on the stage. The excellent Bishop Jewel called the garments, relics of popery. Why then is Mr. Gilby so bitterly censured for saying, they were popish fopperies, .Romish relics, rags of antichrist, and dregs of disguised poperyP. Mr. Gilby publicly declared, adds the above writer, " that if he was suffered to preach some time longer, being so conceited of his popular eloquence, he would shake the very foundations of the English church."+ Whether he was, indeed, thus conceited of his own superior eloquence, and whetherhe ever made any such declaration, it is not now very easy to ascertain. If Dr. Nichols had any authority for what he has asserted, he would certainly have done his own cause no injury, but have conferred a favour upon the public, by bringing it forwards. However, ad- mitting the twofold charge, it reflects no great degree of honour upon the rulers of the church, that so eloquent, learned, pious and useful a divine, should be condemned to silence. This worthyservant of Christ appears to have lived to a very great age, but we cannot learn the particular time of his death. The last of the letters addressed to him, that we have seen, is one from Dr. Sampson, dated March 8, 1584 ; when he must have been living.t His WORKS.-l. An Answer to the Devilish Detection of Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, 1547.-2. A Commentary on the Prophet Micah, 1551.-3. An Admonition to England and Scotland, to call them to Repentance for their Declension and Apostacy from the Truth, 1557.-4. AViewc of Antichrist, &c. already mentioned. -5. A Godly and Zealous Letter written to Master Coverdale, M. Turner, M. Sampson, M. Doctor Humphrey, Mr. Lever, M. Crowley, and others that labour to mote out the Weedes of Poperie, 1570,-6. A pleasant Dialoguebetween a Soldier of Berwick and an English Captain, wherein are largely handled and laid open such Reasons as are brought for Maintenance of Popish Traditions in our English Church. Peirce's Vindication, part ii, p. 8,9. 1- Nichols's Defence, p.21. Edit. 1740. t Baker's MS. Collec. vol. zxxii. p. 442.
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