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A18922
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Henoch Clapham his demaundes and answeres touching the pestilence methodically handled, as his time and meanes could permit.
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Clapham, Henoch.; Re., Pere.
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1604
(1604)
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STC 5343; ESTC S108006
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28,520
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38
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to be tryed by Gods worde for already it is vnder the tryall of the Bishops sworde Only heere thus much 1. The Leper was not put off till his disease were throughly seene tryed and censured But our sicknes are shaken off without tryall often tymes vpon false suppositiôn 2. The Priest then was tyed by dutie to take such tryall But the Priest ordinarily with vs is of the rest furthest from that shaking off not only the sicke but the sound also 3. The Priest and people got the Leper conveyed to some place apart providing sufficiently for him that so his lothsom body might bring no grievance to the Congregation But the most of our Priestes and people haue beene so farre from convaying forth the sick so provided as they rather haue put out them selues providing for themselues and leaving the sick behinde them 4. The Leprous house and garment came also vnder the Priestes tryall and censure will our Priestes do the like I will hardly beleeue it till I see it 5. The Leprous garmentes were to be burnt and the houses pulled downe will they deale so with pestilenced houses and garmentes Then downe with all England Haue I not these circumstances remembred had iust cause to complayne of abuse committed against the Ceremoniall law of Leprosie Sub Iudice lis sit Let the Church of God all abroad iudge it As for any Rules of Politicall decency or safetie to be drawen frō Levit. 13. or any other scripture nether haue I nor I think any scholler ever excepted against And as farre from my thought it was Contemptuously herein to oppose vnto the doctrine of Leprosie published in the booke of Orders for the Wednesdayes Fast besides that my said Epistle was published before that book som dayes if not weeks at least in my iudgement as they haue vnder my hand and oth nor could I euer from Pawles Church-yard or otherwise learne the contrarie But inough of that Parenthesis When men be vnwilling Tolay downe their liues for their Brethren to giue their liues for their flocke to preferre bodies to soules eternall life to temporarie what Law of God man will bind them What evasions will not be devised And what transgression will not of such be iustified euen somtymes to the harming of such as haue beene conscionable obseruers of the Law This chapter then I will finish with other mens wordes * One saith thus Let not Gentlemen and rich Citizens by flying vnlesse they fly likewise frō their sinnes thinke to escape scot-free Another writes thus It is a great shame for a Christian man to be afrayde of the plague of pestilence as to fly from them that he is bound to serue by Gods commaundement Another writes thus They that fly for meare feare ought to acknowledge their want of faith and to bewayle it as those that consider neither of them selues nor of the hand of God that stricketh perswading them selues that staying is the only daunger and that flyinge is the only meane to escape Such men do as litle Children that flye from the Fathers Rodde and so make him more angrie Againe another writes so They must summon them selues vnto the iudgement feate of God and looke on the plague as on the messenger of Gods wrath which can not be avoyded with change of place but by repentance and amendment of life So farre they From such authorised sentences let the Reader collect that howso ever all departure be not gayn-sayed yet no such departure is graūted as whereby Relatiue duties be omitted and cast aside or Barbanitie may ensue for the least euill may not be done to the ende that good may come thereby for to such saith the Apostle Damnation is iust From the beginning of the world God knoweth all his workes and therefore neither needeth nor craueth nor alloweth the helpe of our false finger Let vs striue in all estates to be helpefull one to another and blessed is that servant who when his maister Christ cometh is found so doing Dixi. Epilogue EQuall is that Pentameter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euery forced busines is grievous Almost a yeare is passed at the penning hereof So long forbearance was much and onerous specially in so even a cause If my Aduersaries scorpions haue by lashing enforced this Cry and thou thereby bettered Deo gratias giue God the prayse who out of a flint can fetch fier and of stones rayse vp children to Abraham Meane tyme be assured it had beene more ease for me not to haue beene so vrged But though I were slaine I must with Iob hold fast myne innocencie Innocency By how much the more it is innoeencie by so much the more I should by silence haue borne false witnes against God his Church and myne owne soule But if it bee remembred what horride reportes were scattered abroad of me both touching Fact and matter of Faith notwithstanding all orderly suites and protestations subscriptorie and iuramentall yea against the tendering Royal purpose of our Soueraigne to the possessing of Magistrates eares with vntruthes to the perverting of Ministers and people for bending all against me and so the sword of Gods holy Angell yet vn-sheathed gainst all damming vp the course of my Ministerie cutting of my bodies liberty propounding my life to daunger breaking the heart of my family consumed the substance I had paynefully earned to the gladding of fooes sadding of friends procuring murmurations c. and al for praying preaching visiting and good-doing to all sortes pestilenced when almost none els would if all this be layd to heart am I Iron that I should not feele or am I lead that I should not sound Nay is it reasonable though I bee therefore cōmitted close prisoner yea should dy the death but I should speak and write for clearing of myne innocencie Wherein I haue fayled and who is it that in nothing sinneth not thou that art stronger helpe to sustayne me at least simpathize so my estate as I may be helped by thy feeling and harty prayers And so with reference of my cause to the iudgement of God his Church in England Scotland France Ireland and wheresoeuer I end This 18. of September 1604. The Lord most vnworthy HENOCH CLAPHAM A Letter to a friend YOu desire to heare by what Law I was committed and so am still continued in prison I protest in the presence of God I know not by what Law all this is done There is a Law that toucheth som concerning iudgement and doctrine of the Pestilence It is layd downe in the booke called the Queenes Orders for the Pestilence I speake of our late sweet Soveraigne now gone vnto God The same booke since as I take it was published last pest-tyme in his Maiesties name and this is it verbatim Order 16. Item if there be any person Ecclesiasticall or Lay that should hold and publish any opinions as in som places report is made that it is a vayne thing to
HENOCH CLAPHAM His Demaundes and Answeres touching the Pestilence Methodically handled as his time and meanes could permit 1. Iohn 4. 1. Try the spirits whether they are of God 1. Thessa. 5. 21. Try all things keepe that which is good 1. Iohn 3. 16 Hereby haue we perceaved loue that the namely Christ layd downe his life for vs therefore we ought also to lay downe our liues for the brethren Phil. 2. 4. Looke not every man vpon his owne things but every man also on the things of other men 1604. To the Church of God wheresoever dispersed Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father vnto Sanctification of the Spirit through obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Iesus Christ apprehended with true faith Grace peace be multiplied vnto you all Amen CHristian Reader it was wy lot to light vpon these few leaves And being pervsed by som that had in times past bin acquainted with the author him self And so finding in this canvasing coÌ„ference such sound satisfaction for matters of doubt which in the other Epistle of the pestilence were short brief learned and scholerlike reasons still striving to bring out the kernel of knowledge which lay couched vnder the shell of obscuritie And the further he ripped and reached to make Gods glorious power knowen which others so long had masked it caused many questions to bee mooved which in this canvasing conference is answered to the full I my self being an eare-witnes to som part of that doctrine which was as strange to many at the first as it was to the men of Athens in Mars street which counted Paul but a babler because he preached vnto them Iesus and the Resurrection But I heare the Author is in prison And why Because som Ministers complayned that he preached a doctrine which they could neither begin nor end past the boundes of their knowledge But Henoch wher are thine accusers hath the finger of God written their faults easie to be read doe they not stand out to accuse thee Then I hope the learned will not condemne thee that haue trod out the corne before thee in the same path So was the doctrine of possession likewise distilled out of the cloudes and so high past every lay mans reach that the layety were driven to their Pastors for satisfaction in the doubt of that doctrine because the Priestes lippes should preserue knowledge but they being found nonresidence in those studies one made answer thus I am no Prophet I am no Apostle Miracles are ceased c. These hearers could not be at the beginning ending of all these Sermons which was the cause they rested vnsatisfied and so they began to expounde the doctrine them selues according to those parcels which they had gleaned by peece meale from the author never vnderstanding the Author as he meant But whosoever thou be that will take vpon thee to say all before thou heare all shall be sure to lye all And so damnable speaches were bruted abroad before either of the doctrines were finished but the last Sermon of possession made all plaine and so plaine that since that time to the glory of God be it spoken I never heard of any about London nor elswhere that were so extraordinarily possessed But ordinary wicked persons that are never dispossessed of a wicked tongue like the Athenians which gaue them selues to nothing els but either to tell or heare som Newes but in the end M. Marbery set in foot to maintaine the same doctrine vpon Christes Temptation in the Wildernes affirming that If no going in no coming out So did the last Sermon of the Pestilence make all attentiue hearers satisfied These circumstances considered I tooke it for duty once towards the Church who is the piller and ground of truth as also for profitable acquaintance heretofore had with the Author I could do no lesse but diuulge it And so much the rather for that therein is cleared what in all points is to be held touching the Pestilence A doctrine hetherto over-confusedly and slenderly handled of many If my iudgement fayle me not Thine in Christ Iesus Amen P. R. The Authour to the Reader THE last great Pest-time I speak of the Great plague in London for otherwise it is now the greatest Pest-time in the country and throughout his Highnes Dominions it pleased God to give me affection and strength to continue hold out my Ministerie to the end publikelie teaching and privately comforting the Lords poore flocke abyding in the Citie of London as occasion here and there night and day was administred what time the Citie was much infirmed for Civill governement and well-nigh emptied of due ecclesiasticall cure Satan The accuser of our brethren maligning the happy successe of my labors he gets som vnwise Spirits to bruite abroad that Clapham taught The plague not to be infectious and that All that dyed of the plague were damned as dying without faith The first accusation came readily to the present Lo. Bb. of London but the second it seemeth not so For about som 34. wekes after my first CoÌ„mitment the said Lo. BB. and Sir Edward Stanhope in Court did publikely affirme that they had not heard of that bruite before what time I my selfe then first vttered it in their court that so then in the face of all by-standers it might be checked so well as other slauÌ„ders forged only for obscuring myne innocency The BB. beleeving the first tale he without sending for me or talking with me caused me to be taken euen presently vpoÌ„ a Sermons ending wherin I had opposed to such insensible reportes and so was conveyed to the Clinck prison Passing by some inter-currentes which in som other my writings are layde downe he at the eleven weekes end convented me theÌ„ signifying that I had bene imprisoned for teaching That the plague was not infâ—ctious as also for publishing An Epistle concerning the Pestilence and that in contempt of the booke of Orders for the Wednesdayes fast authorized by the King To both I answered Negatiuely if so by Plague they vnderstood not that stroke of the Angel termed of the Holy-Ghost Deber but that which grew from corruption of the Creature Well to the Gate house prison I was sent and to my booke and the contentes I should answere in another place To passe by the second Convention it being to no other end then the former the weeke before the Archb. death I was called to Lamboth There after assurauce had of certaine Articles their compasse I tooke my othe to answer truly to them The next Monday at the Registers office I did so The answere was sent to the BB. of LondoÌ„ He seeing it made not to his purpose did not convent me but without all adoe he let me ly in prison still as afore My wordes nor writings prevayling any whitt I complayned to the King on Easter monday who appointed the same to be conveyed to the BB. And he thereto