From Anglorum speculum, or the Worthies of England, in Church and State by Thomas Fuller, G. S. (London, J. Wright [etc.] 1684):

For Proverbs. One is peculiar to this County, viz: The Vicar of Bray, will be vicar of Bray still. Bray is a Village here, named from the Bibroges, ancient British Inhabitants. The Vivacious Vicar living under Henry 8, Edward 6, Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth was a Papist then Protestant, then Papist then Protestant again. He found the Martyrs fire (near Windsor) too hot for his Temper, and being Taxed for a Turn-coat, Not so, said he, for I always kept my Principle, to live and dye the Vicar of Bray. General Proverb.

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From Athenian Sport: or Two Thousand Paradoxes Merrily Argued, To Amuse and Divert the Age by John Dunton (London: B. Bragg, 1707)

Paradox LXXXVIII.
Vicar of Bray : Or a Paradox in Praise of the Turncoat Clergy.

THAT Clergymen are changeable, and teach
That now, 'gainst which they will to morrow preach,
Is an Undoubted Truth ; but that in this
Their Variation they do ought amiss,
I stedfastly deny : The World we see,
Preserves it self by Mutability ;
And by an Imitation each thing in it
Preserves it self by changing ev'ry minute.
The Heavenly Orbs do move and change, and there's
The much-admired Musick of the Spheres ;
The Sun, the Moon, the Stars do always vary,
The Times turn round still, nothing stationary :
Why then shou'd we blame Clergymen, that do,
Because they're Heavenly, like the Heavens go?
Nay th' Earth it self, on which we tread (they say)
Turns round, and's moving still ; then why not they?
Our Bodies still are changing from our Birth,
Till they return to their first Matter, Earth.
We draw in Air and Food, that Air and Food
Incorporates, and turns our Flesh and Blood :
Then we breathe out our selves in Sweat, and vent
Our Flesh and Blood by Use and Excrement :
With such continual Change, that none can say,
He's the same Man that he was yesterday.
Besides, all Creatures cannot chuse but be
By much the worse for their Stability ;
For standing Pools corrupt, while running Springs
Yield sweet Refreshment to all other things.
The highest Church-things oft'nest change, we know,
The Weathercock that stands o'th' top does so :
The Bells when rung in Changes best do please ;
The Nightingal, that Minstrel of the Trees,
Varies her Note, while the dull Cuckoo sings
Only one Note, no Auditory brings.
Why then shou'd we admire our Levites Change,
Since 'tis their nat'ral Motion ? 'Tis not strange
To see a Fish to swim, or Eagle fly ;
Nor is their Protean Mutability
More worth our wonder, but 'tis so in fashion,
It merits our Applause and Imitation.
But I conclude, lest while I speak of Change,
I shall too far upon one Subject range ;
And so become Unchangeable, and by
My Practice give my Doctrine here the lye.

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From The Tatler, or Lucubrations of Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq Vol. 4, by Richard Steele (London: C. Bathurst et al., 1710).

The Church Thermometer, which I am now to treat of, is supposed to have been invented in the reign of Henry the Eighth, about the Time when that religious Prince put some to Death for owning the Pope's supremacy, and others for denying transubstantiation. I do not find, however, any great use made of this instrument, until it fell into the Hands of a learned and vigilant Priest or Minister, for he frequently wrote himself both the one and the other, who was some time Vicar of Bray. This Gentleman lived in his Vicarage to a good old age; and after having seen several successions of his neighbouring clergy either burnt or banished, departed this life with the satisfaction of having never deserted his flock, and died Vicar of Bray. As this glass was first designed to calculate the different degrees of heat in religion, as it raged in popery, or as it cooled and grew temperate in the Reformation, it was marked at several Distances, after the Manner our ordinary Thermometer is to this Day, viz. "Extreme Hot, Sultry Hot, Very Hot, Hot, Warm, Temperate, Cold, Just Freezing, Frost, Hard Frost, Great Frost, Extreme Cold."