Bishop who together with many others his reverend Brethren of the last edition and perdition now with God as Usher Hall Morton Davenant Prideaux Winniffe Westfeild Potter and others were as far from being drones and idle bellys Tyrants and oppressors Popish or antichristian as those are who are the most unjust calumniators of them and their Episcopal dignity which hath been so antient and universal in the Church of Christ and is so necessary for the polity and well being of any Church and was by themselves so abundantly deserved yea and worthily managed § I well know how provoking a thing it is to some mens eyes and eares to read or hear the praise of any man who is not of their party and faction There are many who have no patience to behold a Bishop carried to his grave in peace and laid in the bed of honour It is their Hell to see a pious Prelate conveyed to Heaven as it was Dives his regret to behold Lazarus in Abrahams bosom Some have sought to make the very name of Bishop a crime and to render the order degree and honor of it odious when the first is Scriptural and given to Christ first next to the Apostles and their cheif Successors the second is Ecclesiastical of Primitive Catholick and Apostolick use § There are that wish all Bishops out of the world with all their hearts but withal they would have them buried in silence and obscurity For they are scared to see them walk after they are dead as much as Herod was least John Baptist whom he had beheaded in a most wanton and frolick cruelty had been revived in Christ Some are afraid least while the names and merits of our excellent English Bishops remaine they might recover damages for all the losses they have sustained but in this I can secure their Excexcutors and Administrators that if they can give God and their own consciences a good account none of these good Bishops who are now departed in peace and have seen the Salvation of God will ever trouble them being got above the affronts injuries indignities and indigencies of this world § I know the formation of such a Statue as must resemble Bishop Brounrig so burning and shining a light must needs dash the unwelcome sparks and strictures of his well known worth in all Antiepiscopal faces just as an iron flaming from the forge doth when wrought on a firme anvel by a strong arm It is the miserie of many virtutem videant intabita bescantque relicta first to want worth in themselves next not to be able to bear it in another If envie against worthy Bishops is to be burst in pieces this piece will do it if sober moderate minds are reconcilable to venerable Episcopacy as I believe many nay most ministers and people now are this will further invite and confirm them to study the Churches peace and the honor of the Reformed Religion no less than the comfort of their own calling by returning to such temperament and patterns of Episcopal presidency as were to be seen in Bishop Brounrig and in many others of his order in England in which were as worthy Presbyters and as excellent Bishops as ever blest any Church since the Apostles daies for whom we have cause ever to bless the Divine benignity and mercy to this unworthy Nation § I have otherwhere erected Trophies and inscribed them to several Bishops of holy honorable and happy memory in England yea and I have demonstrated by a familiar and plain emblem the vast disproportions that are in all histories and successions of the Church to be seen between the goodly floridness and fruitful procerity of Christianity in all times when it was preserved protected and prospered by Episcopal eminency authority and unity which kept Bishops Presbyters and people in a blessed harmony compared to the modern shrubs of novelty variety discord which later ages have produced § Nor could I forbear upon this occasion to set forth the industry learning eloquence gravitie wisdom moderation patience unspottedness and holy perseverance of this excellent Bishop by way of pleniary opposition and full confutation of that Idleness illiterateness barrenness levity imprudence riggidness passionateness deformity and inconstancy with which some men have been overgrown as with a Manage or Leprosie in this age by their too great itching and scratching against all Episcopacy even till they fetched blood and brought such a festring tetter and sore upon us as is not easily healed § Wherein I have come short of Bishop Brounrigs worth your unanimous pleadings and potent eloquence full of reason and justice of learning and religion of order and policy may best supply my many defects indeed there was need of another Brounrig to have described him § Wherefore knowing my own disproportions I thought it the best way I could take to releive them first by seriously studying of this great pattern next by flying to your protection whose honor is now inseparable from this worthy Bishops no less than his ashes are from your antient Temple which since its first consecrating by Heraclius Patriarch of Jerusalem Anno Christ 1185. in the 31. of Hen. the 2. to this day had never any deposite of greater learning then your famous Selden or of greater piety and veneration than your and our reverend Brounrig who as little needs any Apology to be made for him as the age greatly needs repentance for treating him so much below his worth and myself a great Apology for my adventuring on so great a work § If it be necessary for me further to disarm or lessen that envy which possibly may befall me for the honour of this service which I have done to the name memory and merit of this worthy Bishop and in him to all good Bishops I am willing to conclude as St. Bernard doth in his modest and humble oratory upon a like occasion Dignus sane ille qui laudaretur sed indignus ego qui laudem if the fire of Antiepiscopal anger must still be fed with some fewel Parcite defunctis in me convertite ferrum let them spare the dead and fix their talons or teeth on me who am yet living who am content not to be commended by them or any malevolent Reader yet I am sure this reverend Bishop was most worthy to be commended by me and all good men which is then most effectually done by your selves O worthy Gentlemen and all equanimous Readers when his piety prudence zeal courage humility charity and judicious constancy in Church and State are most exactly imitated by your selves and others which is the just and serious ambition of Your very humble servant in Christ IOHN GAUDEN Ian. 1. 1659. ERRATA PAge 5. Line 8. read are for is p. 8 l.13.r audible p. 33. l. 12. add when yet p. 24. l. 4. by for lie p. 45. l. 1. r. Moenis p. 56. l. 20. Oracles for creeds p. 58. l. 28. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p.
any Parents It was stoning to death Deut. 21.20 by which God would have the honor of the meanest Parents though poor and old weak and simple asserted against their sturdy and proud children while yet under their roof and discipline § Next these Princes and Magistrates have the name as of Gods and Lords so of Fathers Patres Patriae and of nursing Mothers after these the Priests and Prophets of old were called Fathers So the King of Israel returns the very same compellation to Elisha dying which he gives here to Eliah thus in the Gospel St. 1 Cor 4.15 Paul owns his merit so far though you have had many teachers or instructers yet not many Fathers for he had first begotten them to the faith by his preaching the Gospel to them so in the antient Christian-Churches though they had many Presbyters as Instructers or Consecrators yet the Bishops were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a special honor as Successors to the Apostles in paternal inspection and authority as begetting Sons to the Church by instruction and patres minores lesser Fathers or Presbyters by Ordination called Patres then also Patriarchs were Patres patrum which by way of gemination brought in the two first syllables Pa Pa not from the Syriack Abba transposed but from the first syllables of Pater and Patriarcha or Pater Patrum into the Church as before into the Imperial State from Pater Patriae to make up Papa which title the Bishop of Rome hath monopolized when of old it was given to other Patriarchs and Bishops § This is certain The duty as well as dâ—gnity implyed in the name Father God that communicates the name of Father to Magistrates in State or Pastors or Bishops in the Church doth withal teach and exact the duties imported in the name Father First Father in Magâ—stracy Both Governors in Church and State should delight rather in that exercise which is Paternal than despotical fatherly than imperious or Lordly much less tyrannick to remember they govern sons not slaves and for Gods glory not for their own profit pomp and pleasure their design and work must be to glorifie God and by doing good with a fatherly freedom and indulgence to deserve the love of others Although they cannot have it from ingrate and ungracious children yet they shall finde God a Father to them when they have carried themselves as Fathers to others Specially Church Governors which were of old in England Fathers in the ministry of the Church and in all Christian Churches Bishops as chief Fathers chosen by the Presbyters approved by the people and endowed with estate and civil honor by Christian Princes these as such must not in their greatest eminency affect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 5.3 to exercise dominion after the way of the secular sword and severity over Ministers or people but only as Fathers and Spiritual Lords for edification not destruction with gravity not austerity with meekness of wisdom not rigidness of passion yea and as to that civil Dominion which is consistent with spiritual jurisdiction when any are both Bishops and Soveraign Princes which may very well meet in one man for what hinders a Prince as George of Anhalt to be a Bishop or Preacher of his Gospel who is Prince and Priest of his Church here they must the more make the world to see they bear the double name of Father to their people such paternal Bishops we had heretofore in England and such indeed was this worthy Prelate and such Fathers we might have had still if that had not been fulfilled among us Filius ante diem c. some Sons are impatient not to antidate their Fathers death and destinies or longer to expect the reversion of their estates § It is true that double honor which the piety and munificence of Christian Princes and States had bestowed on Bishops as Fathers in chief and other Ministers of the same relation though a lower station in the Church both as to ample revenues and some secular jurisdiction or dignity to give them greater advantages to improve their spiritual and paternal authority more to the glory of God and the good of Christian people as to instruction protection and relief these ought not in any sort to leaven or overlay those condescending Graces and paternal tendernessse which are the greatest eminencies of any Church-man and which may with all pious industry humility charity and hospitality be maintained and exercised by them without any diminution of their civil dignity or ecclesiastical authority as was frequently evidenced by our learned religious hospitable charitable and honorable Bishops in England when they lived both as Lords and as Fathers governing and doing good § Of civil honour added the Fathers the Church So that it cannot be other than a most partial and sinister perverseness in men of evil eyes and envious hearts to fancy that no learning study devotion diligence and prudence in any Minister or Clergyman is capable to merit or enjoy either such honorable estates and salaries or such eminent places and dignities as Counsellors and Senators as Lords and Peers in Parliament to which we see many mens meer riches and worthless money or their lower abilities and industries in legal and civil affairs or their military hardiness and prowess may actually advance them yea and this in a civil intestine War where victory it self is sad and untriumphant yet we have lived to see many short-lived Gourd-Lords created in a chaos of times from very small principles or preexistency of birth estates breeding or worth and this in one day by a kinde of superfetation of honor and these to sit as right honorable ones in another House and to supply the vacant Seats of the antient Barons of England which were Peers in Parliament and consisted of Lords Spiritual and Temporal who had not either forfeited their honor or deserted their places and duties but were driven out by such power as they could not withstand § But not to touch that harsh string too hard we see the Bishops of England have had no great cause to envy those that cast them out as to that honor of having a place in Parliaments since from that time the Nation hath scarce enjoyed one good day nor themselves that fulness and freedom that honor and happiness which of old belonged to the majesty of English Parliaments § This is certain that the name of Lord did not as it ought not to make a venerable Bishop of the Church forget his former name and softer relation of a Father the first is now confined much to denote civil order and secular dignity but the second implies not only natural temporal and humane but spiritual divine and eternal endearments importing that plentitude of paternal love and goodness as is never to be exhausted scarce obstructed for what such unworthiness was ever in children which the benignity and bowels of a Father is not ready to forgive and
those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Horsemen and Charioteers these were but in lanienam for spoil and prey for slaughter and captivity till after-ages from the Roman stoutness and Arms learned to fight more like men on foot trusting more to their own strength of which they were more Masters and could better manage it than to the fierceness of horses who take up half the man to rule them and is a vain thing to save by his much strength Psalm 33.17 as the Psalmist tells us The Scripture gives us many historical instances The weakness of secular Chariots and horses alone what great Expeditions and executions were begun and carried on by multitudes of chariots and horsemen what great defeats the Lord of hosts had given them Exod. 1â— 7 9. as Paroah with his Chariots and Horses which pursued the Israelites into the red Sea by a most presumptuous malice which no miracle could moderate or humble So Sisera with his nine hundred iron chariots â—ud 4.3 that is falcati currus armed with iron sithes and instruments of execution no less than with plates or shields of iron for defence were scattered and destroyed at the blasting of Gods displeasure both the horses and riders did fall Hence David a great and good Souldier ever great when good and prosperous while pious who received more wounds and detriment by one woman and his own wanton lust than by all the Gyants and Armies the horse and chariots he ever encountred he by long experience tells us how far the pride and confidence of the world was from true safety Some put their trust in horses and some in chariots Psalm 25.7 but we in the name of the Lord our God It is better to trust in the Lord Psalm 118.8 than in Princes and their Armies which easily are discomfited when God ariseth against them one of his heavenly Militia an Angel Isa 37.36 can smite in one night an Hundred fourscore and five thousand to the ground stark dead of Senacheribs insolent Souldiery yea and one of his earthly spiritual Militia his Prophets and Ministers as Eliah and after him this Elisha so Micaiah and others by lifting up their hands and prayers as Moses and Jehosaphat to heaven were able to strike terror and confusion to an host of men chariots and horses 2 Chron. 20.22 when they were a million of men and horses For these fight in virtute Dei altissimi in the power and name of the most High and Almighty God these Angels both in heaven and earth God useth as he did Elisha afterwards to give check to the counsels and powers of Kings 2 Kings 18.14 as the King of Assyria confessed and the King of Israel found it true while he had mountains full of Horses and chariots of fire attending of Elisha 2 King 26.17 and under his command so that the King gives him this same honor dying sensible what a loss it was to Church and State to lose such a Prophet more than to have lost all his chariots and horsemen § God that is on the side of his true Prophets and faithful servants as the visible Fathers and Guardians of his Church and Family hath his great Militia and thus sets it forth to humane capacity Psalm 68.17 The chariots of God are twenty thousand even thousands of Angels the Lord is among them as in Sinai when he appeared in terror to give the Law even so will he execute it and avenge the breaches of it by the Ministry of Angels at the last day And our Lord Jesus Christ who is trumphantly ascended on high is now Lieutenant General of all power in heaven and earth Psalm 8.18 Heb. 2.10 for the good of his Church the Captain of whose salvation he is who hath conquered and is still to conquier till all enemies are subdued to him even he takes care to furnish his Church in all ages with some that are as the chariots and horsemen of Israel either such Christian Kings and Princes or such Bishops and Ministers or such religious Noblemen and learned Gentlemen or such honest yeomen and humble Pesants yet good Christians that they are as the Soldiers and Armies of God in their several ranks and orders some as the chariots and horsemen others as the infantry or footmen The highest honor in the Churches Militia is given to the Prophets and Ministers because they have most power with God they open and shut heaven they bind and loose souls by Gods command and commission As every good Christian so those of the Clergy above others are either publicum lucrum or damnum as they live or die As it was said of St. Ambrose Bishop of Millan he was both ornamentum munimentum urbis orbis O what gallant chariots and horsemen were those Primitive Bishops and other eminent both Preachers and Writers such as Iraeneus Cyprian Athanasius Austin the Cyrils Basils Gregories Chrysostom Epiphanius Origen Clemens Jerom and others innumerable who did so stoutly incounter and rout those Amalekites of Heathen Idolaters and Philosophers of Hereticks and Schismaticks which pestred the Church as Grashopers and Locusts or oppressed it as Tyrants and Persecutors Two things from these honorable names which Elisha gives to Eliah we may observe First What the Prophets and Ministers of the Church ought to be according to their eminency in parts or place Secondly how they ought to be esteemed and treated First 1 What Warriers the Prophets and Ministers ought to be in the Church 1 Their courage What they ought to be to the Church and to their Country fortes animosi pugnaces ordinati bold as Lyons in Gods cause valiant couragious ready and orderly to fight the battels of the Lord the good fight of faith but bello incruento sanctis non sanguineis praeliis by an holy but harmless war saintly not sanguinary unbloody unless their own blood be to be shed they must make no wounds but on mens consciences They must be undaunted by any greatness policy or power that opposeth it self against God as St. Stephen was so was Apollos Act. 6. and 7 so St. Paul so Timothy and others who as good Soldiers sought to please not themselves or men by ease and idleness by flattery and chmpliance but him that had called them to his Ensign and Standard Their armature and weapons were that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 evangelical harness 2 Their Armour which the Apostle prescrbes of the helmet of salvation Eph. 6.12 13 14 15 16. the sword of the Spirit and Word of God the shield of Faith and the brestplate of righteousness their fighting must be by preaching convincing praying reproving by doing good and suffering evill Their Enemies are to be not only flesh and blood that is 3 Their Enemies not the persons of men but the ignorances errors malice policy pride and prophaness of the evil world yea of Principalities and Powers of Devils and evil Angels
false in their lives love not to be brought to the touchstone at their deaths Indeed some mens lives actions and memories are like their carkasses best when least stirred and most hidden from the sight of others Psal 112.6 But the just shall be had in everlasting remembrance and enjoy this reward even among men to have their name as a precious ointment poured out Eccles 7.1 Cant. 1.3 Mat. 26.12 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not preparatory to but contemporary with their interment or burial that so the sweet odor of it may not only accompany as the spices which Mary bought for Christ their coffin and corps but fill the whole house the place the Parish the Church or the Temple where they either lived or are buried FINIS MEMORIALS OF THE Life and Death OF BP. Brounrig I Have done right honorable and worthy with the Text read unto you I know your piety and civility now expect that I should if not largely comment yet fairly paraphrase or gloss upon that Text which lies dead before you the corps or earthly remains of that reverend Father in God Dr. Ralph Brounrig late Lord Bishop of Excester It were too great an injury to you at once to lose the honor of his presence and the happiness of his example § Of the honour of Bishops as Fathers and Lords I call him stilo veteri a Bishop a Father and a Lord without offence I hope to those old and new Lords Temporal who less able to endure the honor and society of Bishops as Lords Spiritual have by depluming these very much moulted their own feathers nor do I use these Titles by an arrogancy but a justice being due to him by the Laws of England as well as by ancient Ecclesiastick customs nor any way that I know forfeited by him or by other worthy Bishops who however hated and despised by the supercilious and popular spirits of some men whose neither mind nor manners exceeded such Bishops in any point of true nobleness and worth yet God forbid that one hair of their venerable heads should fall to the ground by my neglect of paying that filial love respect and honor which I have learned from the Apostles canon and pious antiquity as due to the Fathers of my Ministerial power and Ordination who have ruled well and labored too in the Word and Doctrine § Which tribute of double honor hath ever been willingly paid to learned grave and venerable Bishops of the Church not only by all humble and orderly Presbyters but by all sorts of Christian people great and small and most by the best even by Gentlemen Noblemen Princes Kings and Emperors who so soon as the Church had rest not only endowed many Bishops with ample revenues but added to them those civil honors which made them Peers to the Senatorian order or Patrician dignity ever since Constantine the great 's time which is now one thousand three hundred years A very long prescription and valid prejudice against modern levellings of the Clergie and Episcopacy § Not that I think it the part of a grave Divine or a reverend Bishop to affect secular honors and civil titles but rather to deserve them and to live above them as the primitive persecuted Bishops did who wanted not real honors among good Christians when they had no favour from Civil Laws and Secular Powers § But in a Nation professing to honor the Lord Jesus Christ I see no cause they should deny that double honor to the chiefest of his Servants Stewards Messengers Ministers and Embassadors which by the rule of Christ is due to them as in his stead Nor is it a great matter if those partake of mens civil and temporary honors who impart to them the way of true and eternal honor especially in a land of plenty and so of vulgar petulancy where no Authority in Church or State is to be preserved unless it be adorned with such ensigns of visible honor and estate as may not only keep off contempt and insolency but conciliate respect and reverence § I confess I cannot to this day understand by what partial policy and unreasonable reason of State in a Christian and civilised Nation the gate of Honor should be open to Gentlemen to Lawyers to Soldiers to Merchants to meer Mecanicks who by valour or industry or money or meer favour without any signal merit may ascend to the honor of Lords and of sitting in Parliament as Counsellors of publick and grand affairs of whom one day adventured to bring forth a whole house full and yet this gate of honor must be shut against all Divines and Church men only even then when they were worthy to be made Pastors and Bishops of the Church whose learning vertue wisdom and every way useful merit is no less contributive to the publick happiness than any other order of men yea perhaps more on which merit that Apostolical Canon for double honor is undoubtedly grounded which includes such Estates as may make them hospitable and such respect as owns them venerable as persons that are stiled Angels by the Spirit of God Rev. 2 and 3. being in a degree of heavenly service and holy office above ordinary mortals § But I shall not need further to assert the honor of this and such like Bishops against the vapor and vanity of some men who seeing Bishops lightned of their estates will it may be with more patience endure the empty title of Lords to be given them Certainly all just and ingenuous persons will abhor injurious indignities offered to deserving Bishops as a most undutiful sacriledge when they are satisfied of the many meritorious claims which they had to true honor by that eminency of worth which is in them whereof I could not have had in any age a more convincing and notable instance capable to to split in sunder as Daniel did Bel and the Dragon of Antiepiscopal envy than this excellent Bishop whose Funerals we this day celebrate § His publique conspicuiâ—ie and eminency A person of those ample and cubical dimensions for height of learning and Understanding for depth of Humility and Devotion for length of all Morality and Vertue and for breadth of all Humanity and Charity that it is hard for me to contract or epitomize him One cannot tell as Nazianzen speaks of Cyprian Or. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whether the variety in allor the excellency in every vertue was most to be admired in him He is like an excellent Book full of remarkable sentences that hath nothing in it which is not worth noting He is as a fair large and fruitful field affording both freedom to expatiate and plenty to gather He is as a solid mass of gold pure precious and ponderous malleable also to a great extent as well as of great weight and worth Being always as Chrysostom speaks Innocentia infans virtute juvenis obedientia filius charitate frater gravitate pater