Dr. Pierce HIS PREACHING Exemplified in HIS PRACTICE. OR, An Antidote to the poison of a surrilous and Libellous Pamphlet Sent by N. G. to a Friend in London, and Printed without Licence.  
In a Letter from a Friend of Truth and Justice unto a worthy Divine of Cambrige.  
Printed in the year 1663.   

SIR,  
THough I am yet a stranger to your Person, I have heard so much of your Integrity and candour, and zeal for God and all good men, that I cannot but believe you will think yourself concerned in the news which at present I mean to send you. It will suggest an opportunity of doing some right to the noless injured then excellent Dr. Pierce, Precedent of S. Mary Magdalen College in Oxford. How great a blessing his Example and Government have been unto that flourishing Foundation, since his Prince's favour and his own eminency of merit fixed him there, they that envied all have been so unable to conceal, that attempting oft to find a fault, where their utmost malice had not wit enough to descry one, they thought fit at last to accuse his virtues, and in stead of blasting his matchless reputation, have by that very project undone their own. The Terrae Filii (who mistake it for a part of their office to revile Authority, and be factiously Scurrilous,) had a design to traduce him this last Act, (as they did, to some purpose, many more of great Rank, besides the King himself, and my Lord of London.) But the one of them was so loudly hist and exploded for his pains, that we could not well understand by what he had a mind to expose himself. The other, with an impudence great as his profanation, in a place no less Sacred than S. Mary's Church, and before an assembly of both Universities, and other persons of quality, spoiled the Ballad I am here enclosing, by turning such plain English into worse Latin, and not fearing to abuse the Text and Sermon both together, still concluded his ribaldry with an [Ab initio non fuit Sic.] Ought it not to be for a lamentation, that a Sermon made public by most express command from his Majesty, and for its extraordinary worth and usefuless translated into foreign languages, & countries abroad, should be thus set up as a Mark at home, for most unclean & envenomed Tongues to shoot their arrows at (even bitter words,) whilst the Romanists themselves were but examining their quiver for much more civil and Christian Shafts? That God's Word and Servant should be thus blasphemously trampled on by Professors of the Religion they presume so to shame, and resolve to wound through one of its stoutest Champion's sides, rather than allow him the barely-just honour of having preached and published its vindication? Others there are, who madly spurning at the bonds which they know not how to break or to cast off from them, are so vexed at the strictness of his impartial and Christian discipline, that (like the proud enraged waters, still foaming against the Banks which restrain their Insolency,) finding how much he hath lessened the Drunkard's company, they would needs make him their Song, and be revenged upon him in rhyme. So much of it as hath been gathered piecemeal, I here present unto your view; when I shall first have assured you, that the cutting down of the Walnut-Tree, objected in the fourth Stanza, was not by command of the Precedent, but, without his knowledge, by order of the Bursars, (who are entrusted by the College with affairs of that nature;) much less is the Bowling-green made a Turnip-garden (as some Cambridge-men and others, whose curiosity was tempted by the confidence of that report, to let their own eyes undeceive them, can abundantly testify:) though (for very weighty reasons, and upon serious deliberation,) it was voted down by the far major part of the whole Society; which is the very same power that does commonly lease out the College Lands, and sure much rather may freely dispose of their Recreations. All else here mentioned (by such as have hated to be reformed, and would not choose the fear of the Lord,) was apparently done in such perfect conformity to the Statutes of the College, the Canons of the Church, and the Law of the Land, that if I had not before told you so, you would have concluded this charge to have proceeded either from the Alehouse, or the Antipodes. And therefore I leave you for a while, to read and pity these Poetasters, who thus have gratified the Papists, and shamed themselves.  

NEar to the Ford o'er which an Ass,  
Or an Ox at least did pass,  
And where the once blessed Magdalen  
A Sinner is possess't again,  
The man that sets up Innovation  
By th' Primitive Rule of Reformation,  
And preached down Popery too in hope  
To be in time Himself a Pope,  
Makes new Religious Modes to grow,  
Which from the Beginning were nothing So.   

Demyes, and Fellows too, they say,  
Are in the Chapel brought to pray,  
As often as the Organs blow:  
But from the Beginning it was not So.   

The Founder's Laws are so set up,  
That Scholars when they dine and sup,  
Must bandy Latin to and fro:  
But from the Beginning it was not So.   

The Tree which walnuts forth did shoot,  
Is voted down both branch and root;  
And where Bowls ran, there Turnips grow:  
But from the Beginning it was not So.   

Demyships which were bought and sold,  
Cannot now be had for Gold,  
And Things called Merits currant go:  
But from the Beginning it was not So.   

Fellowships eke are nothing worth  
Which eightscore Pieces did bring forth,  
And a Gratuity too, I trow:  
But from the Beginning it was not So.   

A Bellyful now for a Feast must suffice,  
Whilst by an Abatement of Plumbroth and Pies  
Men are taught to be Temperate: But yet we know  
That from the Beginning it was not So.   

Depraved manners now must be  
Reformed by Easter-Scrutiny,  
Where none must his Accuser know:  
But from the Beginning it was not So.   

In time of Term 'tis lately said  
That weekly Preachments must be made,  
Whether the Preacher will or no:  
But from the Beginning it was not So.   

Gold is now wrested from the Fists  
Of all the late Spurroyallists  
Sent Prisoners to the Tower, as though  
From the Beginning it had been So.   

The Grammar-School hath also cause  
To say New Lords do make new Laws;  
Though Busby's followers needs must know  
That from the Beginning it was not So.   

Amongst the other modern Fashions,  
All men are brought to Disputations,  
Both great and small, from Top to Toe:  
But from the Beginning it was not So.   

If a good Fellow be Maudlin drunk,  
Speak verba Brigosa or keep a Punk,  
He strait must out of Commons go:  
But from the Beginning it was not So.   

If thereupon he make Appeals  
For having fasted all those Meals,  
He never must have Commons more:  
But from the Beginning it was not So.   
AND now, Sir, I hope you do not imagine that Satan's Journymen have in earnest so far befriended Mr Precedent as to give you a perfect catalogue of the numerous Reformations which he hath wrought; and which however stomached at by the Scandalous and incorrigible, are by Them that sincerely love God and Goodness looked upon with great kindness & veneration, I will add, with Thanksgiving unto so Exemplary a Governor, who under God is the Author of them. To reckon up his Contrivances and Methods of advancing the College Interest and honour, and the many ways he hath studied of promoting piety and learning within the walls he hath adorned with rich patterns of both, would make my Letter become a volume. That I be not so tedious, let me desire you to inform yourself as well of the Clemency as Justice which hath been shown to Dr Yerbury, out of the Narrative that was printed for private use, (if at least you can come by a Copy of it,) whilst I give you no more Account of the Drunkard's Darling then will consist with my own and the Carrier's haste.  
This overgrown Bachelor of Arts, nicknamed a Doctor, having an early ambition to climb above his betters (the first temptation, wise men think, to his other crimes,) did disloyally scrape an cringe to Cromwell's Vicechancellor for a Degree, and (as if he had at the same instant bid defiance to authority, when he bowed thus low to court-Usurpers,) at the election of the Precedent he earnestly endeavoured to frustrate the Letters of the King, affirming to the face of the then Bishop of London, that he could not vote for whom he thought worthiest, (however sworn so to do,) because the King in those letters had commanded him to do it. Yet so far was the Precedent from loving Yerbury the less, that he seemed to favour him much the more. I do not mean the more for his Enmity to the King, but for opposing his Removal to Oxford, who had lately set up his Rest in Kent. Insomuch as the Precedent hath often said, That if he had ever broken his Oath by not executing the Statutes, or by showing partiality to any member of the College, Dr. Yerbury was the man, out of Lenity to whom he had so offended. I cannot give a better instance then in the several gross Cheats and Defraudations, which in the President's first Audit he could not choose but discover in Dr. Yerbury. For in a Bill (at one time) of above Ten pounds, he did not only give an unstatutable Account, but an Account so sadly Scandalous, that neither the Precedent Dr. Oliver, nor the Vice-President Mr. Foreman, were able to write their Approbations. Which although Dr. Pierce who succeeded Dr. Oliver was not able not to observe in his very first entrance upon his Office, (which fortuned to be in a time of Audit,) yet he was able to forgive it, and pass it by, without compelling him to refund it, (as by Statute he should have done,) for fear an Act of mere Justice should be mistaken for Revenge, by being done upon a man who had been against him. Thus one crime in Dr. Yerbury had made it safe for him to commit many more. For, as than it did appear by another Bill (of nine pounds wanting thre● pence,) he had pocketed up the College money, of which he gave no Account, yea he publicly confessed (when an Account was required of him) that he was utterly unable to give up any. In which case, notwithstanding there was Furtum notabile, which according to Statute was to be punished with Expulsion, besides the restitution of so much money; yet so tender was the Precedent of this unthankful man's honour and safety too, so unwilling to be doing Corrective Justice immediately after his Instalment, especially on a person who had opposed his being there, (such was the benefit of offending against a Merciful man, who took a great delight in forgiving Enemies,) that making the best of so bad a matter, he only made him make Restitution, not of all the whole Sum, but of less than half. Would you not think that so much goodness should have led this Fellow to better life? at least to gratitude towards a Governor who had been so excessively sparing to him? Indeed he promised no less when he protested his Amazement at so much Goodness. But what can be looked for from one who at once is a Cromwellian and an Italianized Doctor? Had I time to show at large how he hath taken all occasions to affront and revile his obliging Governor, (to whom he swore due Reverence and Obedience;) how he hath all along conspired with a Factious Party in the College, whom Thomas Goodwin left behind him unconverted to the King, and whom the King hath suffered there by his gracious Act of Oblivion only; how, with them, he hath acted against the Welfare and Peace of that noble College, especially for the supporting of the Maudlintide Market, buying and selling of Resignations, and of Suffrages in Elections, (for the putting down of which this Precedent will be thanked in the next Generation, though he is envied for it in this;) how he that charged good Subjects with disloyalty, did scruple to vote against a Regicide, whom yet he basely underboard had discovered to be such; how he hath impudently boasted of his Dissimulation, confessed Slanders and Lies which he was proud not to retract; how he showed himself void of common honesty, by Embezelling the Revenue of that charitable place, which had so long allowed him bread, and yet was so immodest as to pretend he had a right to a place of Trust; first contending for a Bursarship, to gratify his Avarice; then for the office of a Vice-president, to stop the mouth of his Ambition; I say, had I time to enlarge on these, and on a very great number of other Crimes, which are as notorious as they are loathsome to such as knew him in the College, you would admire at their Impudence who have dishonoured themselves by his Commendations, and though you never had heard of his multiplied 〈◊〉, yet you would need nothing more to make you perfectly convinced, that there were too many causes of his Expulsion.  
Leaving him to repentance, and his Abettors to reproach, and you to make what use you please of this short Intelligence, I crave the favour of your acquaintance, (at least for his sake, in our Zeal to whose cause we so well agree,) and your  leave to write myself,  
Your affectionate Servant J. F.