Father and the Holy Ghost be ascribed all honour and glory for ever and ever Amen Jehovae Liberatori FINIS THE PERSECUTION AND OPPRESSION Which as Solomon saith is able to make a wise man mad OF JOHN BALE That was called to be Bishop of Ossory by the sole Election without any other mans Motion of that pious King Edw. 6. AND OF GRUFFITH WILLIAMS That was called after the same manner to the same Bishoprick by the sole Election without any other mans Motion of that most excellent pious King and glorious Martyr Charles I. Two Learned men and Right Reverend Bishops of Ossory LONDON Printed for the Author 1664. I. THis John Bale was a great Schollar and a Doctor of Divinity in the University of Oxford in the time of King Edward the sixth and he himself wrote a Book which the Right Worshipful and my much honoured Friend Sir James Ware lent me wherein he setteth down the vocation persecution and deliverance of himself and out of that Book I have drawn this Abstract of his life and persecution and expulsion from that very house from whence I was also expulsed and for which I am still oppressed and troubled 1. His Vocation was by the meer good will without any sollicitation of any other of that good King Edwards when he saw him in South-hampton he sent unto him by divers of his Nobility to bid him prepare himself to go to be the Bishop of Ossory which he obediently did and transported himself and his Family into Ireland and being consecrated at Dublin though with some opposition by reason of the Popish inclination of the Catholick Clergy he presently went to Kilkenny where 2. His Persecution did begin for he no sooner began to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ which he incessantly did but the most part of his Prebends and the Popish party opposed and contradicted him and within a very little while after the death of King Edw. 6. he was exceedingly persecuted by Barnaby Bolger and the Popish Priests and others that sought his death in his house this Bishops Court alias Holms Court Rich. Foster a Deacon Rich. Headly John Cage and the Maid where he saw five of his houshold Servants four men and a maid of sixteen years of age killed before his face and so had he been slain also had he not shut the Iron Grate of his Castle and kept the Kearnes out until the good suffereige of Kilkenny with a hundred horsemen and three hundred footmen brought him away in the night time and so delivered him out of their hands and forthwith sent him to Dublin from whence his life being there likewise hunted after he was conveyed away in a Marriners apparel and in his passage to Zealand was cruelly tossed by tempests and was taken at sea and carried to St. Ives in Cornwall where a wicked fellow named Walter accused our Bishop Bale of High Treason before the Justices there yet being not able to prove any thing against him the good God delivered him out of their hands And yet not long after one Martin an English Pirate did most falsly accuse him of many hainous crimes as the pâ—â—ting down of the Mass in England caused Doctor Gardiner Bishop of Winchester to be imprisoned and poysoned the King and many other hainous things which brought him abundance of troubles and vexations with the Captain of the ship wherein he passed towards Holland as himself relateth at large from fol. 38. of his Book of his persecution unto fol. 42. And because they are so fully exemplified and expressed by himself there together with the rest of his troubles and persecutions which he had in Ossory in Dublin and in his passage by Sea towards Germany in the Book that himself printed of his Vocation to the Bishoprick of Ossory and his persecution in the same I will set no more down here but refer my Reader to that Book II. GRiffith Williams born at Carnarvon at fourteen years old was sent to Oxford from whence by reason of the hard usage of him Junonis ob iram by an angry Juno that was his Unckles virago he was fain to betake himself within two years after alienas visere terras and failing to pass into France where he intended he was forced to retire into Cambridge where having no friends nor money a Country Gentleman of Harleton named Mr. Line having but one little Son about eight years old took affection unto me and entertained me into his house and table to tutor and teach that young Child and being there I got my self admitted into Jesus Colledge where as it came to my course I kept my Exercise and within two years after having gotten a Certificate from Christ-Church in Oxford of my study and good carriage there for two years before I had my degree Bachelour of Arts and within three years after I took my degree Master of Arts at 21 years of age and being admitted into the holy Orders of a Deacon by the Reverend Bishop of Rochester and of Priesthood by the Bishop of Ely after I had been a while Rector of Foscot in Buckingham-shire I became a Preacher and Lectorer in St. Peters the Proud in Cheapside and in the Cathedral Church of S. Paul For I found it so And then printed my first Book intituled The resolution of Pilate and my second Book intituled The delights of the Saints for the full space of five years I Lectored upon St. Pauls Epistle to the Romans and then began my persecution by the Puritans as they were then called and Fanaticks of those daies saving a little opposition that I formerly had by the same generation while I was Curate of Hanwel in Middlesex for now the more pains I took to study and to preach the truth boldly unto them as I ever did without fear the more mad they were against me and so mad that not only forty as they were against St. Paul but I believe above twice forty conspired together to work my death and most falsly accused me of such things as I never knew never did and never said yet they prosecuted the same so maliciously that I was bound over and they did their very best to hinder me to get any bayl to answer for my life at the Sessions house upon the Goal delivery of Newgate where I might demand tantenae animis terrestribus irae But he that dwelleth in the Heavens and knew mine Innocency and the cause of their malice laughed them to scorn and became to me as he is alwaies to them that fear him Deus in opportunitatibus a present help in trouble Who seeing that they would prefer no Bill against me quitted me and said they had forfeited and should pay their Recognizance as they well deserved to the King See the Epistle to the Reader before the seven Golden Candlesticks and delivered me with credit and honour out of the mouth of those Lions that were exceedingly blamed and checked by that worthy Judge
all But though it be not amiss to make known the injustice and the faults of Great men that there may be a redress of them yet who dares complain and speak of the Vices of their Superiours An tutum est scribere in eos qui possunt proscribere I have read how the Mice held a Consultation The Fable of the Mice how they might escape the fury of the Cat and one wiser than the rest said it might easily be done if there were but a Bell tied about the Cats neck for so they might heare her coming and they might get away and all liked well and applauded the device but to this day they could never agree which of them should tie the Bell about the Cats neck So all the poor and inferiour Clergy all sigh and groan and complain of their Taxes and Pressures and Oppressions by the Bishops and Archbishops and Archdeacons and their Suffragans and all that come to Censure them but not one of them all dares tie the Bell about the Cats neck and complain of these Great Powers unto the Higher Powers to have their abuses redressed for fear of a worser consequence no less than to be crusht and torn all to pieces Yet I remember what Seneca saith that he which is careless of his own life may when he will be Master of another mans life so he that is careless of his own state or promotion and regards not the confluence of wealth and worldly things may without fear do things that other timorous men dare not venter to do The manifold deliverances of the Author And truly I must confess that since the great Jehovah my continual deliverer hath delivered me from that multitude of those malicious Enemies that sought after my life when I was scarce budded in the world and ever since hath preserved me so many times from such great and so unimaginable dangers as from Captain Flaxen when I was carried Prisoner to North-hampton from Captain Beech when I was taken prisoner at Sea from the drunken Captain that would have delivered me to the Power of the Parliament hard by Aber-ystwith from Sir John Carter and Courtney that would have clapt me in prison when I preached for his now Majesty at Conway from the wicked Committee of plundered Ministers that said I deserved rather to have my head cut off than to have any Articles performed with me from so many desperate Sea-voyages and Land journeys that I passed through and from Captain Wood when I was under his hands in the Parliament Ship from the Great Antichrist the Long Parliament and especially from the devil himself when he threw me down at West-Wickham and God said unto him as he did of Job He is in thy hand but save his life I never feared what man could do unto me but as the Prophet David said the Lord delivered me from the mouth of the bear and of the Lion and he will deliver me from this uncircumcised Philistine So I say the Lord that preserved me so many times from so many dangers will still preserve me while with a sincere heart I endeavour to discharge my duty especially seeing the Lord saith I even I am he that comforteth you and who art thou that art affraid of a man and of the son of man that shall be made as grass and forgettest the Lord thy Maker that hath stretched forth the heavens and laid the Foundations of the Earth and hast feared every day because of the fury of the oppressour as if he were ready to destroy Therefore as I have been alwaies resolute and in a manner desperate in the judgment of the timorous as it appeareth by the three Books that in the behalf of our late King I printed in Oxford and the three Books that I writ of the Great Antichrist while the Long Parliament and the false Prophet were in their greatest prevalency and by the Sermons that I preached at St. Nicholas and other Churches in Dublin at Conwey before the Judges at Llaâ— Sannan and in all places So now in mine old age when I am so near my grave I have less reason to fear and more cause to be resolute to say the truth to discharge my duty and to implore my most honourable Friends my Lords Grace of Canterbury my Lord of London and my old familiar Acquaintance my Lord of Winchester whom God hath placed so near his Majesty and hath raised to that eminency of dignity pre consortibus above their brethren not so much for their own sakes as for his honour and service and the good of his Church and like so many religous Josephs to relieve their distressed Brethren to joyn in mine assistance most earnestly to beseech and most humbly to petition to his Sacred Majesty that he would be graciously pleased to relieve and help the Church of Ireland in those threefold grievances that I have foreshewed as that 1. Seeing the Lands and Revenues of the Church were I am sure in many places of my Diocess given for their reward that fought against his late Majesty and that by reason of their wealth and great friends to uphold them therein they do possess them and we that would erect our Churches therewith are disinabled to do it without our means that are so forcibly with strong hands and by such friends detained from us his Majesty would be pleased to cause them or some others some waies and by some means to have the Churches of God for the service of Jesus Christ to be erected and repaired * Especially the Bishops Cathedral Church in Kilkenny and not to the scandal of our Religion which the Jews Turks and Gentiles would not do to suffer our very Cathedrals and so many other Parish Churches to lie so ruinous and so rooted up as they are 2. That seeing so many great and goodly Impropriations are taken away from the Church of Christ and from the service of God and are held in the hands of such great persons and powerful men that will not part with them as I shewed to you before and the poor Vicars of such Rectories impropriate have scarce so much means belonging to the Vicaredges as will put bread into their mouths whereby they are constrained for the relief of their Families to take Farms and other Lands to occupy like Lay men and to neglect their duties and the service of Gods Church and to suffer the poor people either to be instructed and to have their children baptized married and buried by the Popish Priests or to have no Priests at all and we that are the Diocessans by reason of the small values of those Vicaredges can find no men that are worthy and able Ministers that will come and accept of those slender maintenances and those that do accept them we cannot make them by reason of their smalness to discharge them And seeing as I said the Churches are down and the Lands Livings and Revenues of the Church are thus as I
EIGHT SERMONS DEDICATED TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE HIS GRACE The Lord Duke of Ormond AND To the most Honourable of Ladies the Dutchess of Ormond her Grace Most of them preached before his Grace and the Parliament in Dublin By the Right Reverend Father in God Griffith Lord Bishop of Ossory The Contents and particulars whereof are set down in the next Page LONDON Printed for the Author Anno Dom. 1664. Imprimatur Geor. Stradling S. T. P. Rev. in Christo Pat. D. Gilb. Episc Lond. à Sac. Domestic Ex Aed Sab. Jul. 1. 1663. THE DESCRIPTION AND THE PRACTICE Of the four most admirable BEASTS Explained in four SERMONS Upon REVEL 4.8 Whereof the first three were preached before the Right Honourable JAMES Duke of ORMOND And Lord Lieutenant of IRELAND his Grace And the two Houses of Parliament and others very Honourable Persons By the Right Reverend Father in God Gr. Lord Bishop of OSSORY London Printed by Tho. Roycroft for Philemon Stephens and are to be sold at the Golden Lion in St. Pauls Church-Yard 1663. The particular Sermons and Contents of the whole Book THe description and the practice of the four most admirable Beasts upon Revel 4.8 In four Sermons The only Way to the Kingdom of Heaven upon Matth. 6.33 In one Sermon The Saving Serpent upon John 3. In one Sermon The only Way to preserve Life upon Amos 5.6 In one Sermon The ejection or destruction of Devils upon Mat. 17.21 In one Sermon but prevented to be finished Whereunto is added The persecution and oppression of two right Reverend Bishops of Ossory TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE Duke of ORMOND His GRACE WHen the Parliament out of their love to Christ and respect to the Reverend Bishops his Servants humbly moved his Majesty for some augmentation to be made to the means of divers of them and had omitted the Bishop of Ossory out of their List as a man that either needed it not or cared not for it seeing he never moved any man as some others did to seek for any augmentation for him Your Grace was the only Advocate to put his Majesty in mind of the Bishop of Ossory and to add four hundred pounds per annum for his augmentation to the perpetual Obligation of the present and succeeding Bishops of that See to your Grace and to all your succeeding Family But what your Grace hath then so graciously begun I humbly beg your Grace would be pleased as graciously now to finish and perfect that pious work which you have so religiously begun not so much in regard of my self who after I was cast down to the dust and there lay wallowing a long while and was at last beyond my desert and any certainty of expectation lifted up again to mine Office and restored to mine Honour and Dignity have vowed and resolved to spend what God hath restored to me for the Honour of God and the service of the Church of Christ that is besides my necessities to repair his Church to relieve the distressed to punish perjurers and such high Malefactors * Which is equal to the relieving of the distressed and to do my best to hinder any man that fought against that most Excellent pious King Charles the First under the Standard of the Beast to carry away and injoy any part of the inheritance of the Church of Christ for his reward for that transcendent wickedness And therefore I spent already about four hundred pounds in repairing the ruinous Cathedral and above three hundred pounds more in seeking the right of the Church out of the hands of Hucksters and the Adversaries of King Charles the First And I do profess that having food and rayment and to defray my necessary occasions I weigh not one straw either of mine augmentation or of any other supportation that I have †I dare take my oath I am not to this day one penny the richer for my Bishoprick When as the reparation of the Church and Bishops house the Suits in Law to recover the revenues of the Bishoprick and the printing of my Books for the service of the Church and the good of Gods people hath consumed all that I received God is El Shaddai a God all-suficient for me as he hath been hitherto But I beg this of your Grace in respect of the poor See of Ossory and the succeeding Bishops that perhaps shall not pass through so many storms as I have done and therefore shall not be so well able to abide the weather and to endure the wants that I did but will be most willing to do God that good service which God and such good men as the King and your Grace will inable them to do And I doubt not but as your Grace hath alwayes been so sweet a Friend and so bountiful a Benefactor and Patron both to my self and many more of the Servants of Christ so your Grace without any motion of mine will do far better things and things far better then I can prescribe or imagine And therefore craving pardon for my presumption I rest Your Graces daily Orator Gr. Ossory TO THE Most vertuous and the most honourable of Ladies THE LADY ELIZABETH Dutches of ORMOND Her Grace Elect Lady YOur dayly Orator that formerly hath written Books and Epistles to mighty Kings and most honourable Princes doth now beg leave to dedicate these ensuing Sermons unto your Graces view I know many Scholers expecting their preferment will not be wanting to express the noble Acts unparaleld Fidelity and most justly deserved Honours and Praises of the thrice honourable your dear Husband the Duke of Ormond's Grace but my age bids me expect my dissolution and not worldly promotion and therefore onely challengeth that presumption to dedicate these few Sermons unto your Graces view not as some others use to do to beg for any patronage or defence for any thing that I have said therein for what is good will justifie it self and what is amiss let it be justly blamed I will never protect it but to shew unto the world how highly I do honour your Grace and would needs finde out by what wayes I should propagate and perpetuate your Graces Worth Piety and Vertue to the indelible view and remembrance of all your Off-spring for their glory and the glory of all their Posterities for their example throughout all the remainder of these last Ages of the World for I believe that I may truly say it without errour that neither Gorgonia nor Trasilla nor any other of those glorious Stars that in their times shined in the Firmament of the Church and which are registred to Posterities for their everlasting praise by Saint Nazianzen Saint Jerome and other Fathers of the Church were comparably so blessed in the choicest of the blessings of this life * Id est in their Husbands and Children nor were they so patient in their afflictions so pious in their conversation so humble and so meeke in their demeanour towards the worthiest of
and humbly pray to God to grant us these eyes with these beasts continually to behold and to consider all these things that we may escape the dreadful doom of the wicked and attain to everlasting happiness through Jesus Christ our blessed Lord and onely Saviour to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be ascribed all honour and glory for ever and ever Amen THE FOURTH SERMON REVEL 4.8 And they rest not or ceased not day and night saying Holy holy holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come AFTER that the holy Evangelist had described these Beasts he sets down their practice and the exercise that they used Touching which we are to consider 1. Their Constancy They ceased not or rest not day and night 2. Their Harmony saying Holy holy holy c. The which Harmony consisteth of six special parts That is 1. The mystery of the Trinity of persons in the Vnity or one essence of the Deity 2. The sanctity purity and equity of God in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. The power authority and dominion of God in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4. The knowledge sight and providence of God in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 5. The strength and omnipotence of God in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 6. The continuance and eternity of God in the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And these six Points cannot well and fully be explained by any humane wit they all and every one of them being as God is ineffable and incomprehensible And therefore as Synefius saith as the Geographers use to draw the great Vniverse and Compass of the world in a little Map so I can speak and express but very little of these great and unspeakable Attributes of the great God 1. For their constancy in the service of God it is said they ceased not day nor night to sing this heavenly harmony saying Holy holy holy Lord God c. and it was not wearisome unto them continually to praise his glorious Names but it was rather their whole joy and felicity to glorifie their God and to magnifie him for ever for they are so satisfied with the sight of his presence the beatical Vision of God and so ravished with the love of his Majesty that they can never leave to praise him And this should teach all the Saints of God to be like these beasts and to do the like to be never weary of well doing but to be like King Therons Horses that as Pindarus saith were never weary of running so should the Servants of God be never weary of serving God but to continue constant in the performance of the duties of their profession night and day without ceasing because as St. Bernard saith Bern. Epist 129. Absque perseverantia nec qui pugnat victoriam nec victores palmam consequuntur without perseverance and continuance in well doing neither can they that fight obtain the victory nor the Victors get the Garland of honour for to triumph And St. Augustine saith He doth not truly believe in Christ that doth not continue constant in his profession unto the end Quia credere vere Aug. tract 106. in Joh. est credere inconcusse firme stabiliter fortiter ut jam ad propria non redeas clam relinquas because that to believe truly is to believe without wavering firmly and strongly so that you return not to your carnal and worldly desires and leave the things of Jesus Christ And therefore the Prophet David describing the blessed man Psal 1.1 2. saith He will not only withhold himself from walking in the counsel of the ungodly and from standing in the way of sinners and from sitting in the seat of the scornful but his delight is also in the Law of the Lord and in his Law will he exercise himself both day and night and so the Lord saith unto Joshua Let not this Book of the Law depart out of thy mouth but meditate therein both day and night that thou mayst observe and do all according to that is written therein Whereby you may see that perseverance and continuance in Gods service and preferring the duties of our calling is not to be done by fits but alwayes and especially without ceasing Alexand. Hal. secund 2. in tract de apostat without apostacy which is Temerarius à statu fidei vel religionis recessus a starting aside like a broken bow from that faith obedience and profession that we have formerly made How men relapse from their duties And such a one was Ammonius Alexandrinus the Master of Origen that being bred a Christian from his childhood and applying himself wholly to Philosophy did quite forsake the orthodoxal Faith And so Ecebelius at the first was a zealous Christian and in the reign of Julian a great persecutor of the Christians and after his death he became a Christian again and for his apostacy cried out and casting himself to the ground at the Church-porch Socrat. l. 3. c. 13. said Calcate me salem insipidum O tread upon me as upon unsavoury salt And how many men have we that like Ecebolius were very loyal and faithful Subjects and good Protestants in the time of Charles the first and when they saw the power of the Parliament increasing they became arrant Rebels and Traytors against their King and amphibolous in their Religion and within a while when God did cut in pieces that gâ—rdian knot and scattered those Rebels like a summers Cloud Who seem more faithful to Charles the second then these Schollers of Ecebolius that ever whirled with the strongest wind and yet they do not with Ecebolius fall down to the earth and cry out with him in true repentance Calcute nos salem insipidum but most of them jet it up and down in pride and shew themselves rather like the Borussians that being perswaded by Boleslaus Crispus King of Poland to imbrace the Christian faith What the Borusâ—ians did Cromerus lib. 6. within a while after renounced the same and told their Prince Se omnia ejus imperata excepta religione facturos they would be obedient to him in all things but only in the profession of his Religion for so these men profess themselves now to be good Subjects but they cannot endure our Ecclesiastical discipline and our Church service And therefore seeing many men do relapse with the Borussians from the true profession of faith or serve God by fits like those that are taken with the fits of an Ague or be like the Laodiceans neither hot nor cold and that we ought to be like these beasts serving God and discharging our duries without ceasing it behoveth us to preach in season and out of season and to do as we are required by the Lord himself Cry aloud ne cesses and give not over but lift up thy voice like a trumpet and shew my people their transgressions Esay 58.1 and the house of Jacob their
Gentry of the Country Clergy and Laity to meet on a certain day in Llan-geuenie to consider what we should best do for the defence of our Country and though that Doctor White and my self Mr. Jo. Gruff and Mr. Morgan and Mr. Michael Evans drew an Oath of our faithfulness and Allegiance to his Majesty and the defence of our Country to the uttermost hazard of our lives and fortunes against the rebellious Parliament so full and so well as our Wits and Learning could devise and all that were there excepting Mr. O. Wood of Llan Gwyven took it without any scruple yet before any one drop of bloud was spilt or many daies were past the Gentry Articled with General Mitton to yield up that Island into his hands and he did set Garrisons where he pleased then I conscious of what I had done alwaies and every where against the Rebels durst not trust to the mercy and truth of the Parliament but gave ten pounds to Captain Roberts that Mr. O. Wood had appointed over the Garrison in Holy Head to suffer me to pass in a Parliament Ship for the King had none in those parts into Dublin and the Master of the Ship that carried me said he durst not set me on shore any where but bring me to Captain Wood that was then Vice-Admiral to the Parliament in the Bay before Dublin yet I thought it was better for me to trust that God would deliver me from that wood than to stay among the bryars of the Long Parliament so when we came to the Bay and neer the Vice-Admirals Frigot it being late in the Evening I told the Master that I was very ill as I was indeed and I gave him a 20 s. piece of Gold for carrying me over and desired that I might stay in my Cabin there till next morning which he readily yielded And early the next morning when I thought all the Seamen in Captain Woods Ship excepting the Sentinel that kept the Watch were asleep lest any of them should know me I desired to be sent to the Vice-Admiral and so I was And when I came there I gave 2 s. 6 d. in silver to the Sentinel to tell Captain Wood that here was a Kinsman of my Lord of Yorke whom I knew was respected by all the Parliamenteers because he had besieged the Castle of Conway for the Parliament and was the chief man that called Mitten into the Country and the only instrument to bring Anglesey to submit unto him and he had a Pass from Holy Head to go to do a little business in Dublin and when he had finished his business to return with as much speed as he could unto my Lord of York again and I thought this was a fair tale and indeed I thank God it took effect for Captain Wood came to me and after he had examined me about divers things and I had answered him as warily as I could he searched me and though I had in my Pocket a Letter from his Majesty in my behalf to my Lord of Ormond yet because I had so artificially set it on the backside of a Pocket-glass and Comb-case betwixt the leather and the glass he suspected no such thing though he beheld his own face in the glass and so conceiving no ill thought of me but that I was a very good friend of the Parliament being a Kinsman of my Lord of Yorke and of his name too he called for a good Glass of Clarret-wine and drank to me and to my Lord of York and I drunk it off every drop and put on a bold face as I was wont to do every where knowing that degeneros animos timor arguit And then he sent me to shore towards Hoeth and before we came to Land we should see three or four Souldiers runnagadoes that were desirous to go to the Parliament ship but I gave five shillings to the Rowers to put me to land a pretty way from them and when I was set on land the boat-men turned away presently and would not receive the Souldiers into their boat which the Souldiers seeing called unto me to come to them How I escaped the runnagado Souldiers or to stay for them but I would not tarry but went away as fast as I could and they seeing that presented their Guns as if they would shoot at me yet I still ventured to go on knowing that being no standing mark it was but a chance to hit me if their pieces were charged and they shot at me and when they saw their vain threatning did not frighten me they began to run after me as fast as ever they could and I began to run from them as fast as ever I could and being a pretty way before them and seeing some Irish men reaping not far off I made towards them and thought I could get to them before they could overtake me and so I did yet running so fast and so far I was all of a sweat before I came unto the Reapers who kept off the Souldiers that they durst not come near me Thus was I saved from those that I assured my self would have robbed me if not kill me Then I went to Dublin and stayed there and preached often untill Ireland was surrendred upon Articles unto the Parliament and I being by name to have the benefit of those Articles and having received a very fair and considerable sum of money by the hands of Sir George Lane from my Lord of Ormond that had alwaies shewed himself a most honourable friend and a bountiful helper and benefactor to me I resolved to live upon that small temporal means which I had about twenty pounds a year in Wales But after I put my Books and Cloaths and houshold-stuff How I was taken prisoner and robbed by Captain Beech. And nothing troubled me so much as the loss of a paper Book which I had written full of Sermons which vexeth me to this very day and all the Money I had and my self into the Packet-boat to pass to Holy Head our ship was taken about the middle way by Captain Beeche and I was robbed of all that I had in it Cloaths Books Money and Houshold-stuff and with a great deal of intreaty and favour I prevailed with Captain Beeche to cast us all his Prisoners upon a little Island called Irelands eye and making there a fire that we brought with us from the Ship we had a boat that carried us into Hoath and from thence we went all to Dublin where Doctor Loftus very friendly gave me as much money as carrried me to London and there I petitioned to the Committee for Sequestred men to be restored according to the Articles of Anglesey and of Ireland to my means and one of them named Scot that since hath been hanged demanded if I had not written the Grand Rebellion and I answered I did then said he and do you come for performance of Articles that deserve rather to have your head cut off No no said
of them and do you think that this value is sufficient to maintain an able Ministery to supply all these Churches and Parishes as they ought to be or that Popery shall be supprest and the true Protestant Religion planted amongst the people by the unition of Parishes and the diminution of Churches without any augmentation of their means Credat Judaeus Apella non ego Object But you will say his Majesty hath most graciously provided and it is confirmed by the Act of Settlement that a very ample augmentation is added to all the meanest Bishopricks of Ireland and he hath most royally and religiously bestowed all the Impropriations forfeited to his Crown upon the several Incumbents unto whose Churches they did belong Answ I answer That when God placed man in Paradice the devil was ready to cast him out and when God maketh our paths straight and easie Satan will straight put rubbs and blocks in our way to stumble us so though I gave above fifty pounds for Agents money to follow the Churches cause and spent above thirty pounds to procure a Commission to gain that augmentation which his Majesty was so graciously pleased to add unto the Bishop of Ossory yet presently there comes a Supersedeas to stop the proceeding of my Commission How the devil hindereth all intended good and I am not the better either by Augmentation or Agents so much as one penny to this very day and some devil hath put some great rub for a stumbling block in my way untill God removes the same and throws it where blocks deserve to be And though his Majestie hath been pleased to bestow his Impropriations upon the Incumbents yet my Lord Lieutenant and the Council thought it fit to take forty pounds per annum out of those Impropriations for the better provision of the Quire in Dublin and so by that means the Clergy of Ossory are not the better by one penny that the Clergy might be like unto their Bishop for I find but four impropriations forfeited to his Majesty and bestowed upon the Church in all the Diocess and these being set by Mr. Archdeacon Teate to the uttermost pitch that he could they did not reach to forty pounds the last year And to say the truth without fear of any man we are not only deprived of the Vicarial Tythes and offerings by the Farmers of the great Lords Impropriate Rectories but our Lands and Glebes are clipped and pared to become as thin as Banbury Cheese by the Commissioners and Counsel of those illustrious Lords for though his Grace our most excellent Lieutenant the Duke of Ormond is I say it without flattery a man of such worth so noble so honourable and so religious as is beyond compare and for his fidelity and Piety and other incomparable parts scarce to be equalized by any Subject of any King and so many other great Lords are in themselves very noble and religious yet as Rehoboam in himself considered was not so very a bad King but had very bad Counsellours that did him a great deal of dishonour and damage so this most honourable Duke And thus as Christ was crucified betwixt the good thief and the bad so are we betwixt the good Lords and their bad Agents But let them fear least by making their Lords great here on earth they do make themselves little in heaven and other great Lords may have as I fear some of them have such Commissioners and Counsel that as well to make themselves a fortune as to enlarge their Lords revenues will pinch the Parsons side and part the Garments of Christ betwixt themselves and their Lords as my Lord Dukes Agents have distrained and driven away my Tenants Cattel for divers great sums of Chieferies and challenged some Lands that as I am informed were never paid nor challenged within the memory of man And who dares oppose these men or say unto them Why did you so Not I though they should take away my whole estate for as Naboth had better have yielded up his Vineyard than to have lost his life so I conceive it better to yield to their desires quietly than to lose both my Lands and my labour by such a Jury as will give it away though never so Unjustly whereof I have had experience and a sad proof non sine meo magno malo Yet The Civility and Piety of the 49 men I confess the 49. men have been very civil and shewed themselves very fairly conditioned and religious both to my self and as I understand to all other Clergymen and I wish that all Noblemens Commissioners and Agents would be so likewise that their doings may bring a blessing and not a curse upon them and perhaps upon their Lords and Masters Lords and Masters shall answer to God for the oppressions that their servants do under their power that must give an account to God for the ill carriages and the oppressions of the poor by their servants who dishonour their Lords and make them liable to Gods wrath for the wrongs that they do to make them the greater and so receive the greater condemnation for great men must not only do no wrong themselves but they ought also to see that none under their wings and through the colour of their power and authority do any wrong unto the poore But to deal plainly and to shew what respect favour and justice we the poor Bishops and Clergymen have from the great Lords and Courts of justice in this Kingdom I will instance but in the example of my self who after I had exposed my self to the dayly and continual hazard of my life by my preaching and publishing so many Books against the Rebels and Long Parliament which I have unanswerably proved to be the Great Antichrist and had for all their Reign served duram servitutem and suffered more hardship than any Bishop and upon my restitution to my Bishopprick by the happy restauration of our most gracious King having spent above four hundred pounds to gain the Bishops Mansion house where Bishop Bale saw five of his Servants kill'd before his face and himself driven to flee to save his life and which was given to Sir George Askue by Cromwel for his service to the Long Parliament I have fully shewed the favour and the justice that I had at the Kings Bench though I must ingeniously confess my Lord Chief Justice dealt as fairly and as justly as any Judge in the world could do And I do pray to God that both Judges and Jury and all the pleaders may have better at the Bar of the King of Kings Then letting pass the proceeding of the Court of Claim that gave away the Lands and Houses that were in my possession while I was in London though a chief Member of that Court promised that nothing should be done against the Church untill I returned home and acknowledging the civility and fair respect that was shewed me by my Lord Chief Baron and the other
their superimendents would not be negligent of my duty to do according to my Lords Grace his Order but I sent my Apparitor to all the particulars of my Clergy mentioned in the Schedule to come and make satisfaction for their Procurations or to expect what might succeed which they were better like wise men to prevent And they when they came unto me shewed me their Acquittances under Mr. Juxe his hand that they had already paid them So I thought this storm was over Yet within a while I heard that about some ten poor Parish Clarkes and five of the Clergy were cited to appear at Dublin a journey to some fifty or sixty miles in the short Winter daies and over waies as foul as any is in Ingland to answer Articles that should be objected against them Then divers of the Clerks came crying to me that they had rather leave their Clerkeship than to take such a journey to Dublin and one of the Clerks the Archdeacon Bulkley had given a Licence to and yet cited him to Dublin to shew his Licence the which when he shewed the Officers of the Court said they mistook it and dismist the cause and yet afterwards sent a Citation for the Fees And my Clergy entreated me to intercede for them that did not know wherein they had offended nor what could be objected against them and I answered them all that I would neither meddle nor make in their business but if they have done well then all would be well if otherwise let them suffer for it I would never excuse their negligence nor Patronize their offence then some of them appearing at Dublin expecting their Charge and desiring earnestly to be dispatcht Archdeacon Bulkley answered Your Bishop is writing of Books for he had some inkling of mine intent and will not apply himself to my Lords Grace to intercede for you Yet my Lord Archbishop very nobly and graciously willed the Archdeacon to take their answer and to dispatch them that they might go home and the Archdeacon Bulkley willed them to confess their faults and to submit unto the Court and they should be discharged and I hearing of this advice willed them to confess the truth but not of any guilt wherein they were innocent And therefore when they had their Articles ten or twelve read unto them for they had no Copy of them they saw they were but meer suggestions and not any thing in any of them that could any waies touch them or prejudice them in any thing and they presently made their answers unto them And when they had answered and confest no fault that they committed upon the payment of their Fees for the charges of the Court they were dismist Whereby it seems to me that if they were guiltless and nothing could be proved against them they might as well cite all the Clergy and all the men in Kilkenny and suggest Articles against them to bring them unto Dublin to pay Fees to enrich the Officers of the Court and that being done to send them home glad that they are dismist Then after this the Churchwardens of S. Maries in Kilkenny having very justly as I understand presented divers persons at the Archbishops Visitation Canon 65. and 67. they were contrary to the Canons cited to appear at Dublin forty seven miles to make good their Presentation as the Churchwardens informed me which was so ill resented that we could hardly get any that would take the Churchwardenship upon them for fear of the like troubles if they presented any man But when I demanded of the Archdeacon why the Churchwardens were cited to make good their Presentment He answered it was not so but they retained a Proctor to prosecute against those that refused to pay the Church taxes and they not following their suit they were sent unto either to come and prosecute or the Defendants should be dismist which if so I blame not the proceeding but let the Churchwardens suffer for their own errour when they sue out of my Court without a dismission or an appeal Yet out of all my former discourse it appeareth what an heavy burthen and an infinite charge this last triennial Visitation of the Archbishop hath been to the indigent Clergy of Ossory both in their threefold Procurations their manifold Sequestrations and long Winter journeys to procure their Relaxations and the manifold losses that they sustained by their Tenants that by reason of the Sequestrations were disappointed of those tythes that they had taken from the Incumbents which makes me think that we do not follow our Saviours Counsel and Precept to S. Peter To feed his flock nor what we learnt in the old Adage that saith Boni pastoris est pecus tondere non deglubere for certainly these foresaid things do seem deglubere pecus non tondere and to cause his shepwards to starve and not to enable them to feed his Lambs And therefore as the sin of Solomon moved God to raise up Hadad the Edomite and Rezon the Son of Eliadah and Jeroboam the Son of Nebat to vex Solomon for the sins of Solomon 1 Kings 11.14 23 26. So I do not wonder that God suffereth the devil to stir up Presbyterians and Quakers Why God suffereth Sectaries to vex the Bishops and other Anabaptistical Sectaries to vex the Bishops for these and the like sins of the Bishops against God and his poor people when they suffer and countenance their Commissaries Registers and other Officers to be like a talent of lead upon the necks of Christ his Sheep But I do therefore demand if these things Whether the foresaid abuses ought not to be redressed and all the things I shewed to be amiss in this Treatise ought not to be reformed and amended I know some will say they ought not thus to be published to the World to discover the weakness and imperfections of our Brethren to make them more contemptible in the eyes of the scoffers of our Calling than they are and therefore will much blame me for this my publication of these things But as Caligula was so wicked and his life so beastly Reynolds in the life of Caligula fol. 31. that some Historiographers have been in doubt whether it were best to bury them in oblivion or commit them unto memory and it is answered by mine Author That seeing it is profitable to the Readers and to Posterity to know the evil doings of others and the disgrace they have thereby to make them affraid to do the like evils lest in like manner they should be published to their shame therefore it is far better to discover the faults of Governours and great men than to conceal them because it is done Why great mens faults ought to be discovered not with any desire of any evil to the doers of those evil deeds but out of an earnest endeavour to amend them and to prevent the like carriages in all others not to disgrace any but to prevent the disgrace of
shewed in the hands of the great and powerful men and rich Cities and we can as easily pluck the club out of Hercules hands as get any of them out of their fingers when the poor men dare not scarce aske their dues of them or if they sue for them the remedy will prove far worse than the disease to go to Law with Corporations or with mighty men to spend their money and commonly to go without their right as they have a plain-example in my proceedings with Sir George Ayskuâ— and the detention of all my Procurations which as Bishop Bale saith in the Page of his Book was almost half the Revenue of the Bishopprick of Ossory by the foresaid great men and Cities ever since his Majesties restauration and I know not how to get them it is no wonder to me that Popeâ—â— should not only continue but encrease more and more and the Service of God decay more and more and injustice Idolatry and wickedness abound in this Kingdom more and more and I tell you herein the plain truth let who will be angry and let others think what they please And further seeing that beside the payments and taxes that they are bound to pay to his Majesty by the hand of their Bishop and to their Bishop and Archbishop and all other payments for their Churches they are frequently contrary to the Acts of Parliament exceedingly molested taxed and distrained for the same taxes which they have formerly paid by the Lay Collectors and the trouble to be discharged from those unjust Taxations is worse then the repayment of them again when as excessit medicina modum the remedy is worse than the disease Therefore that it would please his Majesty for the honour of God and the good of the poor people and the poor Clergy likewise to cause the Churches to be built * Especially the Bishops Cathedral Church at Kilkenny and some competent means and sum to be deducted out of those Impropriations and to be added for the augmentation and better support of the poor Vicars and some fairer and easier way to be devised for the poor Clergy to recover their right and a prohibition of the Layty under a Subpaena to recharge them for those payments which they are charged with and enjoyned by the Act of Parliament to pay to their Diocessans 3. That seeing three or four Visitations that may be of the Archdeacon Bishop Archbishop and Primate in one year cannot choose but be a grievance and a great burthen unto the poor Clergy that are poor enough without the charge of so many Visitations added unto the rest of their taxes That it would please his Majesty to cause the Government of the Church of Ireland to be brought to the same form manner and fashion that is used in the Church of Ingland that is for the Archdeacon to Visit for two years and the Bishop to visit every third year and then the Archdeacons Visitation to cease for that year the Bishop visits and the Archbishop to visit once in his time and both the Archdeacons and the Bishops Visitations to cease when the Archbishop shall visit And thus the Clergy and the Church-Officers shall have but one Visitation quot annis in every one year which I think is very sufficient for the rectifying of all abuses and for the far greater ease both of the Clergy and Layty and which I believe none should be against the same unless it be such as are too miserably covetous for a small matter unto themselves to bring a heavy grievance to very many which for my part the Lord knoweth that I never liked it and I suppose it should be for the honour and praise of the Chief Governours and Fathers of the Church as we are stiled to deal with our Clergy as with our Children to ease them what we can and not to make them fast for our feasting And I find great reason that we should in all things here in Ireland conform our selves to the Church of Ingland for as Polydor Virgil wriâ—e h that Pope Adrian Polyd. Virg. l. 13. Hist Angl. and after him Alexander moved S. Christian the famous Bishop of Lismore their Legate to call a Synod at Cashel wherein they defined eight Articles whereof the last was That forasmuch as God hath Universally delivered the Irish into the government of the English they should in all Points Rights and Ceremonies accord with the Church of Ingland and Gelasius Campians hist of Ireland l. 2. c. 1. Primate of Ardmagh in the presence of King Hen. 2. gave his consent to those Articles And therefore I wonder what hath altered or hindered this our conformity with the Church of Ingland unless it be pride covetousness or ambition aviditas dominandi which are weeds fitter to be rooted out of Churchmens hearts than to be cherished in the Primates of Gods Church and which I verily believe are now far enough from the thoughts of our most grave and most religious Archbishops who as I hope will most easily yield to this conformity that neither the Bishops be so abridged in their Jurisdictions nor their Clergy so much oppressed in their Visitations as they have been Yet here I would not have my Reader to imagine that I speak for the ease or remittance of the Procurations Taxes or other Impositions of them that hold the Abbies Priories and Impropriate Rectories which they have for nothing and as it appears to me contrary to all divine right and therefore should pay the same continually every year to them that do the Service of God but I speak it only for the ease and benefit of the poor incumbent Rectors and Vicars that labour and take pains for the good of Gods people and for the saving of their souls that hold their means from them And if this may not be done to reduce the Government of the Church of Ireland to the same form and after the same manner as the Church of Ingland is governed yet that the Archbishops and Bishops should take special care to see that their Surrogates Chancellours and Deputies should not any waies to enrich their Friends Officers and Servants and to feast themselves oppress the poor Clergy and others the poor Servants and Officers of the Church of Christ I doubt not but the Bishops and the Archbishops are all just and merciful and tender-hearted towards all their inferiour Clergy and can no waies be justly blamed for the faults of their subordinate Officers or Deputies which they are ignorant of And I do profess without flattery and in the word of a Christian that my Lords Grace of Dublin in all that he did or said was so noble just and gracious towards those honest Clergy men whom his Archdeacon so severely trounced that the least shadow of the least blame cannot be laid upon him And I believe Archdeacon Bulkley would never have done what he did but to satisfie the mind and desire of a most unworthy person