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A30956
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A remembrancer of excellent men ...; Remembrancer of excellent men
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Barksdale, Clement, 1609-1687.
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1670
(1670)
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Wing B806; ESTC R17123
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46,147
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158
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to God and hoped he should die in the Communion of this Church which he declared to be the most pure and Apostolical Church in the whole world He prayed to God to pardon his frailties and infirmities relyed upon the Mercies of God and the Merits of Jesus Christ and with a singular sweetness resign'd up his soul into the hands of his Redeemer 26. But God who is the great Choragus and Master of the Scenes of Life and Death was not pleas'd to draw the Curtains There was an Epilogue to his life yet to be acted and spoken He returned to Actions of Life and went on in the methods of the same procedure as before was desirous still to establish the Affairs of the Church complain'd of some disorders which he purposed to redress girt himself to the work but though his Spirit was willing yet his Flesh was weak and he was heavy unto death and look'd for the last warning which seiz'd on him in the midst of business and though it was sudden yet it could not be unexpected or unprovided by surprize and therefore could be no other than that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Augustus used to wish unto himself a civil and well natur'd death without the amazement of troublesome circumstances His passive fortitude had been abundantly tryed before and therefore there was the less need of it now his active Graces had been abundantly demonstrated by the great and good things he did and therefore his last Scene was not so laborious but God call'd him away something after the manner of Moses which the Jews express by osculum oris Dei the kiss of Gods mouth that is a death indeed foresignified but gentle and serene and without temptation 27. To sum up all he was a wise Prelate a learned Doctor a just Man a true Friend a great Benefactor to others a thankful Beneficiary where he was obliged himself He was a faithful Servant to his Masters a loyal Subject to the King a zealous Assertor of his Religion against Popery on the one side and Fanaticism on the other The practice of his Religion was not so much in form and exteriour Ministeries though he was a great observer of all the publick Rites and Ministeries of the Church as it was in doing good for others He had the sate of the Apostle St. Paul he passed through evil report and good report as a deceiver and yet true He was a man of great business and great resort he divided his life into Labour and his Book he took care of his Churches when he was alive and even after his death having left 500 l. for the repair of his Cathedral of Armagh and St. Peters Church in Drogheda He was an excellent Scholar and rarely well accomplished first instructed to great excellency by natural parts and then consummated by study and experience Melancthon was us'd to say that himself was a Logician Pomeranus a Grammarian Justus Jonas an Orator but that Luther was all these It was greatly true of him that the single perfections which make many men eminent were united in this Primate and made him illustrious It will be hard to find his equal in all things for in him were visible the great lines of Hookers Judiciousness of Jewels Learning and of the Acuteness of Bishop Andrews He wrote many things fit to be read and did very many things worthy to be written which if we wisely imitate we may hope to meet him in the Resurrection of the Just. Ob. 1663. X. Dr. Jeremy Taylor L d Bishop of Down From Dr. George Rust. 1. HE was born at Cambridge and brought up in the Free-School there and was ripe for the University afore Custom would allow of his admittance but by that time he was thirteen years old he was entred into Caius Colledge and as soon as he was Graduate he was chosen Fellow 2. He was a Man long afore he was of Age and knew little more of the state of Childhood than its Innocency and pleasantness From the University by that time he was Master of Arts he removed to London and became publick Lecturer in the Church of St. Pauls where he preached to the admiration and astonishment of his Auditory and by his florid and youthful Beauty and sweet and pleasant Air and sublime and rais'd Discourses he made his Hearers take him for some young Angel newly descended from the visions of Glory 3. The Fame of this new Star that out-shone all the rest of the Firmament quickly came to the notice of the great Archbishop of Canterbury who would needs have him Preach before him which he performed not less to his wonder than satisfaction His Discourse was beyond exception and beyond imitation Yet the wise Prelate thought him too young But the great youth humbly beg'd his Grace to pardon that fault and promis'd if he liv'd he would mend it 4. However the grand Patron of Learning and ingenuity thought it for the advantage of the world that such mighty parts should be afforded better opportunities of study and improvement than a course of constant Preaching would allow of And to that purpose he plac'd him in the Colledge of All-Souls in Oxford where love and admiration still waited upon him which so long as there is any spark of Ingenuity in the breasts of men must needs be the inseparable attendants of so extraordinary a worth and sweetness 5. He had not been long here afore my Lord of Canterbury bestowed upon him the Rectory of Upingham in Rutland-shire and soon after preferr'd him to be Chaplain to King Charles the Martyr of Blessed and immortal Memory Thus were Preferments heaped upon him but still less than his deserts and that not through the fault of his great Masters but because the amplest Honours and Rewards were poor and inconsiderable compar'd with the greatness of his worth and merit 6. This great man had no sooner launch'd out into the world but a fearful tempest arose and a barbarous and unnatural War disturb'd a long and uninterrupted Peace and Tranquillity and brought all things into disorder and confusion But his Religion taught him to be Loyal and engaged him on his Princes side whose cause and quarrel he always owned and maintain'd with a great courage and constancy till at last he and his little Fortune were shipwrack'd in that great Hurricane that over-turn'd both Church and State This fatal storm cast him ashore in a private corner of the world and a tender Providence shrouded him under her wings and the Prophet was fed in the Wilderness and his great worthiness procur'd him friends that supply'd him with bread and necessaries 7. In this solitude he began to write those excellent Discourses which are enough of themselves to furnish a Library and will be famous to all succeeding Generations for their greatness of Wit and profoundness of Judgment and richness of Fansie and clearness of Expression and copiousness of Invention and general usefulness to all the purposes of a
upon a general charge imputing to the Church of England the great crime of Schism and by this they thought they might with most probability deceive unwary and unskilful Readers for they saw the Schism and they saw we had left them and because they consider'd not the Causes they resolved to out-face us in the Charge The Bishop now having an Argument fit to employ his great abilities undertakes the question and in a full Discourse proves the Church of Rome not only to be guilty of the Schism by making it necessary to depart from them but they did actuate the Schism and themselves made the first separations in the great point of the Pope's Supremacy which was the palladium for which they principally contended He made it appear that the Popes of Rome were Usurpers of the Rights of Kings and Bishops that they brought in new Doctrines in every Age that they impos'd their own devices upon Christendom as Articles of Faith that they prevaricated the Doctrines of the Apostles that the Church of England only return'd to her Primitive purity that she joyn'd with Christ and his Apostles that she agreed in all the sentiments of the Primitive Church 18. The old Bishop of Chalcedon known to many of us replyed to this excellent Book but was soon answer'd by a Rejoynder made by the Lord Bishop of Derry in which he so pressed the former Arguments refuted the Cavils brought in so many imimpregnable Authorities and probations and added so many moments and weights to his Discourse that the pleasures of reading the Book would be the greatest if the profit to the Church of God were not greater Whenever men will desire to be satisfied in those great questions the Bishop of Derry's Book shall be their Oracle 19. I will not insist upon his other excellent Writings but it is known every where with what Piety and acumen he wrote against the Manichaean Doctrine of fatal necessity which a late witty man had pretended to adorn with a new Vizor but this excellent person washed off the ceruss and the meretricious paintings rarely well asserted the Oeconomy of the Divine Providence and having once more triumph'd over his Adversary betook himself to the more agreeable attendance upon Sacred Offices and having usefully and wisely discoursed of the Sacred Rite of Confirmation impos'd hands upon the most illustrious Princes the Dukes of York and Glocester and the Princess Royal and ministred to them the promise of the Holy Spirit and ministerially established them in the Religion and Service of the Holy Jesus 20. And one thing more I shall remark that at his leaving those parts upon the Kings Return some of the Remonstrant Ministers of the Low-Countries coming to take their leaves of his great man and desiring that by his means the Church of England would be kind to them He had reason to grant it because they were learned men and in many things of a most excellett Belief yet he reproved them and gave them caution against it that they approached too near and gave too much countenance to the great and dangerous errours of the Socinians 21. He thus having serv'd God and the King abroad God was pleas'd to return to the King and to us all as in the days of old and we sung the Song of David In convertendo captivitatem Sion When King David and all his Servants returned to Jerusalem this great person having trod in the Wine-press was called to drink of the Wine and as an honorary Reward of his great Services and Abilities was chosen Primate of this National Church He had this Remark in all his Government that as he was a great hater of Sacriledge so he professed himself a publick enemy to non-residence and religiously against it allowing it in no case but of necessity or the greater good of the Church 22. There are great things spoken of his Predecessor St. Patrick that he founded 700 Churches and Religious Covents that he ordained 5000 Priests and with his own hands Consecrated 350 Bishops How true the story is I know not but we are all witnesses that the late Primate whose memory we now Celebrate did by an extraordinary contingency of Providence in one day consecrate two Archbishops and ten Bishops and did benefit to almost all the Churches in Ireland and was greatly instrumental to the endowments of the whole Clergy and in the greatest abilities and incompararable industry was inferiour to none of his most glorious Antecessors 23. The Character which was given of that Learned Primate Richard of Armagh by Trithemius does exactly fit this our Father Vir in divinis c. He was learned in the Scriptures skilled in secular Philosophy and not unknowing in the Civil and Canon Laws in which studies I wish the Clergy were with some carefulness and diligence still more conversant He was of an excellent Spirit a Scholar in his Discourses an early and industrious Preacher to the People And as if there were a more particular sympathy between their souls our Primate had so great a veneration to his Memory that he purposed if he had lived to have restor'd his Monument in Dundalk which time or impiety or unthankfulness had either omitted or destroyed So great a lover he was of all true and inherent worth that he loved it in the very memory of the Dead and to have such great examples transmitted to the intuition and imitation of Posterity 24. At his coming to the Primacy he knew he should at first espy little besides the ruines of Discipline a Harvest of Thorns and Heresies prevailing in the hearts of the people the Churches possessed by Wolves and Intruders mens hearts greatly estranged from true Religion and therefore he set himself to weed the Fields of the Church He treated the Adversaries sometimes sweetly sometimes he confuted them learnedly sometimes he rebuked them sharply He visited his Charges diligently and in his own person not only by proxies and instrumental deputations he design'd nothing that we know of but the Redintegration of Religion the Honour of God and the King the restoring of collapsed Discipline and the renovation of the Faith and the Service of God in the Churches and still he was indefatigable and even in the last Scene of his life not willing that God should take him unemployed 25. The last of January God sent him a brisk alarm of Death whereupon he made his Will in which beside the prudence and presence of Spirit manifested in making a just and wise settlement of his Estate and provisions for his descendants at midnight and in the trouble of his sickness and circumstances of addressing death he kept still a special sentiment and made confession of Gods admirable mercies and gave thanks that God had permitted him to live to see the blessed Restauration of his Majesty and the Church of England confessed his Faith to be the same as ever gave praises to God that he was born and bred up in this Religion and prayed