Officers who were the very worst of men that with renewing Leases and putting years into lives they would have raised as great sums of money yet reserving the Rents and Inheritance to the State as now they have done by selling the Inheritance and truly we were very provident in improving the Church revenews I am at this time in wants I would desire of God no more to live upon then what I have raised and improved in Church Rents and what I have done together with others that I might have but according to my proportion so that in a maner pro tanto we were in effect Founders of the Church for we might have converted our improvement to our own private uses And that posterity might judge of the Clergy at this time that we were not so faulty or wanted courage which might occasion our Ruine there are two Common Lawyers who have done very ill offices to the Church Mr. Selden and Mr. Pryn and truly I did once think to have answered them both but when I considered that we did differ in the course of our Studies in our Method in our Style so that we should not have the same or the like weapons to encounter each other I did therefore forbear yet some of my intimate friends did it For Mr. Pryn he is pleased to write as bitterly as he could against Bishops yet could he not charge any one of them with Corruption or Bribery or any great sin no man is accused for ignorance or unworthiness yet it cannot be denied but the Gentlemen who were imployed for the buying of Impropriations whereof I conceive Mr. Pryn was a principal man did tempt Bishops with bribes with no other intent but to accuse them and to me in particular they sent twenty Angels in the business of Cicester but I thank God for it I had the grace to refuse it If a man were to write against other Professions suppose the Lawyers as God forbid any man should he might have found a hundred times more and worse faults then Mr. Pryn hath done against Bishops And on the contrary I dare boldly say that many Bishops in their own particular persons have done so many acts of Piety of Charity of Goodness as all the enemies of the Church taken together have not done the like They that did impeach us of high Treason onely for entring a Protestation they would never have spared us if they could have â—…ound any just cause of complaint against us Yet I confess that God would never have permitted us to have suffered in such a manner as we have done had we not provoked him with our sins and that I may be our own accuser I think our greatest offence did consist in these two things First that many of us did not spend our Church-means in a Church-like manner but converted them to our own private uses or otherwise misimployed them therefore God justly takes them away and permits Sacriledge we our selves having first offended in the same kinde for certainly Church-means should have relation as well to the uses as to the Persons and a Church-man in mis-spending them commits Sacriledge And whereas many excuse it in regard of their Wives and Children God forbid but regard should be had of them yeâ—… still with moderation I cannot excuse the excess of Apparel and some other courses of expence Yet this I must testisie â—…or a truth that speaking privately with some Bishops they told me and I beleeved them that they laid not up one farthing of their Bishopricks and this may appear â—…or many of them died very poor as Worcester Hereford Peterborough Bristol and not unlike but others will do â—…o Another great fault in the Church was the intolerable abuse of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction therefore God hath made us now uncapable of any Jurisdiction so just and wonderful is God in all his Judgements I confess in mine own particular I did as much desire and labour to reform it as any man could do yet I could never prevail Herein a little to excuse the Church I have it and can produce it at this time under the Kings own Hand and Seal wherein he forbids that any Church-man or Priest in holy Orders should be a Chancellor and this was the occasion of all the corruption of the Spiritual Court for the Judges at the Common Law have their Pensions and Allowances but Chancellors have none at all they live onely upon the Fees of the Court and foâ—… them to dismiss a cause it was to lose so much blood Now if they be naughâ—… in themselves then they must for their own advantage and prosit have Instruments and Agents accordingly so the Registers Proctors Apparators they were pessimum genus hominum Whilâ—… the Spiritual Court was onely governed by Church men and Priests as it ought to be and hath ever been so heretofore they haâ—… their Spiritual Benefices and Dignities to live upon and did scorn the Fees of the Court besides the holiness of the Profession kept them from bribing and corruption Little do men think how much they suffer by this one position That Church-men should not interpose in Civil and Moral affairs Whereas formerly Bishops and Church-men were onely trusted with Last Wills and Testa ments and granting out Administrations and certainly if therâ—… be any honesty amongst men it must be supposed to be rather in them then in others but there having been such an abuse it must be acknowledged that God is most just in all his wayes and what hatâ—… befaln us it is according to the deserts of our sin And now at length my good Brethren I will be no further troublesome unto you but onely make this small motion which proceeds out of my love Your Statutes do allow the Fellows to travel beyond Seas to see the state of the Christian world to better their experience whereby they may be fitter to do the Church and the State service at home Now I would fain adde some encouragement iâ—… this kinde and perswade you to be forward thereby to learn Languages and to enable your selves to do the State service and while you are in your Travel though you are not publickly imployed yet to do your Countrey what good office you can by way of information This is my suit to the Fellows in general but I do earnestly intreat the Master and the Seniors that they would be so far from abating any part of their allowance as that they would rather give them some addition towards their charge besides all brotherly assistance and furtherance This is the onely motion which I make but if any of your Members should offer me his help in my Study now that mine own sight and memory do fail me for I would very fain finish my intended course to give satisfaction to Natural Reason in all the Mysteries of Christian Religion truly if ever God should enable me I would reward him So GOD BLESSE YOU ALL. I rest Your loving Friend and Brother Godfree
suffered so much in such several kindes so unjustly in proportion as my self have done though things are onely known to God and my self and I have as fair Testimonials for my innocency as any man hath or can have in this world I have been now five years petitioning for a hearing if at length by your Lordships good favour I might prevail you should for ever oblige me that either I might know my offence or otherwise that I might have some means out of mine own to subsist The hearing cannot possibly take up half an hour and I hope to dispatch it in less then half a quarter for I will demand nothing for what is past but do as heartily forgive all men as I desire God to forgive me And I will likewise make this motion in behalf of my Brethren the Clergy that what hath been violently taken from them their cause never heard or what a Committee hath done being no Court of Record being not upon Oath and their power lasting onely during the Parliament that men upon slight pretences might not lose their Freeholds to the great prejudice of the Liberties and Laws of this Nation and Sequestrations which are but for a time might not be continued for ever contrary to their own nature but that men upon submission and satisfaction might be restored to their own possession until some just cause be shewed to the contrary in a legal way Hereby your Lordship shall do God good service discharge your own conscience you shall for ever engage them and give an earnest of your Justice and compassion So humbly craving pardon for my boldness with my prayers to God for your health and happiness MY LORD I am Your most humble Servant Godfree Goodman Bishop late of Gloucester June the 4. 1653. being the Eve of Trinity Sunday To the Reverend Master the Fellowes Scholars Students and all the Members of Trinity College in Cambridge My good Brethren I Do give God most humble thanks that I had the happiness to have my education and breeding in your College where I found the seeds of Religion and learning the good example of others and truly many favours in mine own particular I did ever resolve in token of my thankfulness to give you some memoriall not of any great value or price but onely out of a desire that I had wherewith I did acquaint some of your Fellowes that you would conform your Studies to the present occasion and necessity of these Times for whereas before your Studying of Philosophy did only serve for your Disputations and your keeping of Acts for your degrees now I could wish that they might tend to some practise whereby they might be more usefull and serviceable unto you in the course of your lives and therefore I had thought to have given you all the Mathematicall Instruments and some things which belong to Chymistrie together with Optick Glasses and Herballs and whatsoever else did tend to the Practise of Philosophy for seeing Man is not wholly spirituall therefore I would not have him to content himself onely with the Theorie the charge I confess had not been great but whatsoever it was I am now so utterly plundered that as yet I am able to perform nothing In stead of giving I am now become a suitor unto you while I was in your College I began a quarrell and it was against the Socinians and the Antitrinitarians and truly the rather for namesake because our College is dedicated to the honour of the Blessed Trinity and therefore we are bound both to the adoration and to the defence of that high Mysterie now in my old age upon some occasion this quarrell is again renewed and as it is usuall in all duels to have a second so I do desire your College to second me and being very old I cannot live long for I have now been these nine and twenty yeers together the Ancientest Bishop of your College I do therefore leave you this Legacy to be the Heires and Successors in this my quarrell and to continue a deadly fewd with the Socinians and Antitrinitariants and not only to spend your Inke but to adventure your blood in the cause Thus I have done my uttermost endeavour I have desired the secular power to asssist me by way of punishment and your selves in point of Learning and Religion to stand in defence of our Faith and cause for it concerns as your souls health so in effect no less then the foundation of your College This is all my business and here I should take my leave of you but in truth out of my love and affection I cannot so soon and so easily part with you but I must claim the privilege of old men to speak of things which are past and by calling them to minde to renew them and so to continue them ad perpetuam rei memoriam It is now much about 54 yeers since I came to your University and even then both the Church and Learning had many enemies and they raised up many malitions and false reports yet during all my time I may truly say for though I was a young Scholar yet I might fee and know the actions and carriages of my governors there was not an University in Christendom nor any City or Corporation better governed neither can I conceive how it could be better governed without Religious Vowes And for our College in particular I may truly say that as the Members were not inferiour to any others for their Learning and Studies so for their discreet carriage and behaviour for their wisdom and Prudence in worldly and temporall affairs I did verily believe that no society in England whether of Churchmen Lawyers or Citizens did exceed them I was then in the hardest times when the College in effect was new built when we could not get chambers or lodgings and the debts were great in regard of the building yet then did they flourish exceedingly and had much credit and reputation And because I was a Member of several Cathedral and Collegiate Churches which are now dissolved lest posterity may hereafter blame them and think their offence to be great I shall therefore give them this Testimony that I take God to witness I did never see any thing amongst them but what did proceed from Piety Charity and Goodness I was a very diligent observer and truly in their Chapters things past with as much wisdome and discretion as ever I did see business pass in the Lords House of Parliament What charity did we shew to our Tenants in accepting such small Fines by our counsel we sometimes made them good husbands very often we prevented the sale and preserved the Lease for the true Heirs especially if Orphans And in a word they lived better under us as Tenants then ever they will do as they are Land-lords and I do verily believe that if the Parliament had been pleased to imploy the Members of the Church in stead of their Committees Surveyors and other
last resurrection and these not done in secret but in the sight of multitudes and thousands all testifying the truth of things done the Jewes acknowledge the Gentiles confess the Apostles proclaim the Evangelists record many Millions of Martyrs seal with their bloud and all the world with joynt consent and harmony beares witness seen by our fore-fathers and left unto us together with their memory for the salvation of our own soules then these undoubted miracles must argue a supernaturall power in things naturall which if Reason confess as herein she is convinced that the wisdom and power of the teacher was supernaturall then must there be some supernaturall object though not appearing in nature yet answerable and agâ—…eeable to this supernaturall knowledge and power here then at length we have opened a gap to let in all the mysteries of our Christian faith and Religion yet lâ—…st we should be left to our own conjectures and presumptions lest the hardness of our heart should not easily condescend to things above our reach and capacity therefore truth beares evidence to truth the wonders of nature to the mysteries of grace as his deeds and actions were much above nature so it cannot seem strange if his Doctrine and Precepts far exceed our naturall understanding for his Words as well as his Actions were much above nature and therefore did aâ—…gue a powâ—…r above nature which is God himself Christ Jesus God and man the second Person in Trinity who came down and took our nature upon him to satisâ—…ie for our sins he it is that hath revealed these mysteries that so by Faith and Belief as our first Fathers fell from God by unbelief and presumption we might come unto him and through his mercy obtain our everlasting salvation Here I did examine all the miracles and the most remarkable things in the old Testament and first I did reduce all the Ages of the world to the Deluge where I did infer by many probabilities what past before the deluge for that it could not stand with the Mercies of God who created all things to begin with such an heavy Judgement as an universall deluge and because we have no other Records of those times but the Testimony of Scripture I did therefore produce necessary and demonstrative arguments for the proof of the Deluge and of Scripture together with some remarkable Tokens I did insist upon which must needs point out some former times before the deluge here I made good proof that the Eastern parts of the world must needs be the first parts inhabited I shewed the greatness of their Monarchies their continuance and dissolution I shewed how all other Nations issued from them and how they borrowed their Customes and Manners I shewed how the Hebrew was the originall Tongue of all the Eastern Languages by the roots and by the proprieties of that Tongue I did instance in all the Ancient Monuments and made it appear that the world could not be elder then the time related by Moses for the Creation For the Histories before Christ I did use Torniellus Pererius Salianus and all the rest for the time since Christ I had such Authors as were extant but especially I did rely most upon Baronius and Bibliotheca patrum and I do heartily wish that some younger man would undertake that task for I am aged and my short time which remains cannot suffice for such a work besides I have the infirmities of old age my memory failes me and I am past all imployments neither can I so put off all naturall passions but I confess it doth grieve me to thinke that heretofore having alwayes liv'd in great plenty God reward my founders for it that now I should be reduc'd to such poverty and wants but I hope God will raise up some other to compose such a History And leaving that task for them I will now only instance in the miracles of Scripture for confirmation of mysteries and first for the truth of Scripture it is a demonstrative proof to me that it should be the most Ancient of all writings and many ages exceeding the heathen Authors or Poets and this is an undoubted argument of truth for truth is the most Ancient and that which doth accompany truth that others should give Testimony to truth and none to oppose it for in these Ancient Poets we find somethings borrowed from the Jewes which makes for the confirmation thereof and none in effect did ever oppose them for had they so done surely we should have heard of their Writings as we do of their Warres and their Histories and no doubt there were many enemies which would not have omitted such an opportunity at this day the Jewes the Christians the Mahumetans all do acknowledge Scriptures without any manner of contradiction for in effect the heathen are utterly vanished and not to be seen or to stand in opposition It is true that at this day heathen there are but they no way partake with the Ancient Heathen neither in the same gods nor in the number of their gods nor in the manner of their worship only like upstarts because they must have a Religion for they cannot â—…ook upon heaven without some kinde of adoration therefore every one frames a Religion to himself and according to his own phansie either agrees or differs from others But because the blessed Trinity hath been only expresly revealed in the new Testament I will therefore insist only in the miracles of the New Testament and reserve other proofes and evidences for confirmation of other mysteries that we may take all by degrees and not spend our whole stock and store at once so then to instance only in the miracles of the New Testament if these had fallen out only in the Person of Christ there might have been cause of suspicion but the whole Law was only a preparation to his coming such Types Figures and Prophesies and in a word the scope and intent of the Law had no other relation and this will appear for that it seems scarce reasonaâ—…le that God should be served with the slaughter and offering up of unreasonable Beasts had they not relation to the sacrifice of his only Son and such infinite variety of strange ceremonies would never have been admitted had they not pointed out some extraordinary holiness to succeed this did likewise appear in the cessation of the Law for about a full age before the coming of Christ there was a cessation of Prophets and neither did God appear either by speciall messengers or by miraculous victories That the minds of men not being withdrawn nor having any other solace or comfort might wholly intend the expectation of the Messias whose immediate forerunner was Saint John Baptist and therefore whatsoever is ascribed unto him tends unto Christ as being his forerunner for he gives testimony to Christ and that three severall times in this one first Chapter of Saint John verse the 27. When the Priests and