his delivery who always preached in good earnest as well as he took great pains would have deceived a very judicious Auditory to have believed they were premeditated and penned His design was neither to over-preach his audience nor under-preach his matter but to fit both so that neither the Text nor the people should have cause to think themselves slighted This I observe on the by as to his conversation and discourse § To his learned and ready abilities were added the blessing of a very happy historick memory which by a latitude commensurate to his understanding and judgement had not swallowed up and crammed it self with all he read or heard but having weighed the worth and credit of all historick passages had discreetly treasured up so great variety of very remarkable things both old and new experiments that he was both by his sufficiency or store as Condus in laying up and by his prudence as Promus in bringing them out rarely fitted for all company and occasions that were worthy of his owning § Nor was he a penurious or illiberal speaker but as fons sitientem vincit the living fountain overcomes the most thirsty soul so did he study to shew a Princely and Fatherly munificence in his speech Neminem unquam tristem à se demisit as was said of that good Emperor he never sent any one away sad or unsatisfied who was not peevish impenitent and unworthy none but such could come nigh him and not be bettered by him so communicative and courteous he was to all Among other memorable passages which I have heard from him A strange story related by Bishop Brounrig I cannot but here represent to the Reader one story which being sealed with the credit and veracity of so grave a person who was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man of great integrity may not be unworthy of observation § His Lordship a few weeks before he died told me together with Dr. Bernard his very faithful friend and servant that his Lordship was assured from the relation of a Dutch Minister of his particular acquaintance having lived long in England a man of good learning and of a most religious plain-heartedness in his life That this Dutch man coming from Ireland and being cast away by storm far from shore he floated not knowing how to swim on the face of the deep as despairing of life and half dead yet not forgetting to invocate Gods mercy After two hours distress lying now on his back and tossed at the pleasure of wind and waves a vessel came by him under sail and took him up when he was aboard the ship the charitable Mariners helped to relieve him with dry clothes and while they were looking on him as a drenched and almost drowned man to their great wonder they saw on the back of his coat toward the middle a perfect print of a mans hand which by its different colour shewed it was dry as indeed it was like Gideons fleece when the flore was all wet about it This the good man himself when he had pulled off his apper garment saw admired and blessed God acknowledging that he seemed as upheld by a Divine hand from sinking all that time he was floating and helpless on the sea this he averred on his faith to God and man to this excellent Bishop whose belief of it makes me think it not only credible but true and worthy of memory He could never be perswaded to set forth any thing of his own in print Why he would never Print any thing Although my self and others have oft moved him while yet he had vigor and leisure enough either to take this pious revenge on the age which had injured it self most by laying him aside or to give the better world this great satisfaction either as to some elaborate pieces he had made and by word of mouth published in Sermons or Determinations and other Speeches at Commencements Or as to his judgment in some grand cases of dispute in which he had a great happiness to comprehend things fully to state the controversy exactly and to express himself both clearly and compendiously full of Scripture strength of Councils weight of the Fathers consent of Historick light of Scholastick acuteness and inclining to no side but where God and truth were § That which made him more averss to the Press was partly a spirit too active and vigorous to be confined to that tedious and plodding way which is required in those that list to write and not scribble Next he was so severe an exacter of all perfections in what ever he did that it was hard for him in a great work to satisfie himself without which he had no great hope to satisfie the learned world nor pleasure to gratify others Lastly he would oft complaine as many wise men have done and yet added to the number of the surfet of Books as an incurable disease in an age whose droppy makes it thirst and drink the more He thought latter writings do but divert men as acornes do Deer from their better feed on grass from reading the antients who were so far the best as they were both nearest the fountaine of primitive purity and remotest from the passions prejudices and partys of our later and worser times Nor did he believe that those in England who most needed the direction or correction of his judgment would trouble themselves to read what he wrote Since he saw as men act and fight so they both read and write according to their studie of sides as the opinion or party sways to which they are addicted So that he concluded the antidote or plaister would be quite lost The whole not needing them and the sick never using them § This made him wrap up himself in silence as to any way of printing Leaving the debates and scuffles of the times as to Church and State either to younger men who were more daring and could better endure the heat and burthen of the day or to be answered and fully in time confuted by the effects of their own ignorance rashness and folly which he ever thought would be as they then were horrid confusion and bitter uncharitableness Or at best a sottish and lazy superstition with which common people are at length willing to acquiesce as drunken men falling asleep after they have wearied themselves with the frolicks of their heady opinions and intoxicating disputes about Religion § Yet will it not I presume be any regret to his blessed spirit if those pieces which remain perfected by his own hand be redeemed from the darkness or twilight of Manuscripts and brought forth to the day and sunshine of Printing that in their light we may see some genuine beams of that burning and shining light which was in the soul of Bishop Brounrig And certainly if he had after the example of the best of Emperors and Heathens that ever lived Marcus Aurelius his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his own observations and peculiar
to be cloathed So our Saviour breathed on the Apostles Ioh. 20.21 22. when he said Receive the Holy Ghost So the Apostles used imposition of hands to denote their ordained Successors 1 Tim. 5.22 and 4.14 Heb. 6.6 which ceremony the Church of Christ in all ages hath observed in the successive Ordinations of Bishops Presbyters and Deacons as one of the fundamentals of the Churches polity order and power Not that these outward Rites and Ceremonies are of the essence of the duty of the divine power but for the evidence of that order and authority which is necessary that there may be nothing dubious or doubtful or confused or upon bare presumptions and conjectures in the Churches sacred Ministry but such an authority as is both powerful in its efficacy and pregnant and signal in its derivation and execution that none might undertake the work who is not constituted to be a Workman nor any withdraw from it who is rightly furnished for so worthy a Work as the Apostle calls the work of a Bishop either the minores Episcopi which are orderly Presbyters or the majores Presbyteri which are the paternal Bishops We see Eliahs spirit falls on none but his annointed Successor The spirit and power follows the lawful succession nor was any so fit for the appointment and succession as Elisha a man indeed of plain breeding of a country yet honest way of living which is no prejudice or impediment when God intended to furnish him with Eliahs spirit 1 Kings 19.19 with extraordinary gifts and endowments with the power from on high as Christ did his fishermen when he made them fishers of men Luk. 5.10 This was in one hour more to their improvement than all Schools and Vniversities all literature and education all languages arts sciences and Scriptures But when these special gifts which were miraculous are not given nor needful in the ordinary ministration propagation and preservation of Religion there reading and study and diligence and education and Schools of the Prophets are the conduits of Gods good and perfect gifts conveyed by holy industry and prayer to those that study to shew themselves workmen that need not to be ashamed 2 Tim 2 15. when once they are sanctified or set apart by God and the Church as here Elisha was In whom doubtless God and Eliah had seen something that expressed a very gracious and sincere heart by an humble holy Elisha's fitness to succeed Eliah and unblameable life We never finde that men of leud or scandalous lives are called to be Prophets of God or allowed to be made Preachers and Bishops of the Church wherein the antient Canons of the Affrican and other Churches were very strict and circumspect whom when and how they were ordained Bishops Presbyters or Deacons St. Paul requires that they should be not only unblameable but of good report even among the Heathens and unbeleivers as to matters of Justice Morality and common honesty as well as sound and orthodox in the Christian faith § Elisha discovers an excellent spirit and fit for a Prophet of God 2 Kings 2.2 4 6 not only by his individual adherency to Eliah three times piously disobeying his commands when he bade him leave him As the Lord liveth and as thy soul liveth I will not leave thee The love of good company is a good sign of a good conscience a very good way to a good life and a ready means to make us partakers of spiritual gifts but further Elisha shews a most devout and divine soul in him fit to make a Prophet to succeed Eliah when first he doth not preposterously and presumptuously obtrude himself upon the holy Office and Succession but attends Gods call and the Prophets appointment of him Secondly When he sees it is the will of God and his father Eliah he doth not morosely refuse or deprecate and wave the imployment as some had done Moses and Jeremiah after though he knew it would be heavy and hot service in so bad times but submits to that onus no less than honos burthen as well as honor God imposeth on him Thirdly In order to his support and encouragement in the work he doth not covetously or ambitiously look to the preferment or honor or profit which might easily follow such an imployment especially if merchandise might be made of miracles as Gehazi designed and of the Gospel if Ministers turned Sucklers and Hucksters of the word of God as the Apostle taxeth some who were greedy of filthy lucre no but his earnest and only desire is for a double portion of Eliahs spirit to be upon him not that he might have more glory but be able to do more good 1 Kings 9. â—4 Iames 17 with more courage and constancy with less dejection and melancholy despondency than Eliah who was a man subject to like human passions and sometimes prone to fall not only into despiciencies and weariness of life but even to despair as to the cause of God and true Religion It is as Chrysologus calls it a commendable emulation to imitate the best men and a pious ambition to desire to excel them in spiritual gifts and graces which the Apostle St. Paul excites all to covet in their places which the more bright and excelling they are like the light of the sun the more they dispel all the vapors mists and fogs of humane passions or pride which by fits darken the souls of holy men I cannot here but own my desires The defective and dubious succession of Evangelical Ministers very deplorable and deplore the state of our times which forbids me almost to hope their accomplishment as to any orderly and meet succession of Evangelical Prophets and Pastors Bishops and Presbyters in this Church our Eliah's dayly drop away I do not see any care taken for Elisha's to suceed them in such compleat clear and indisputable ways of holy Ordination and Succession as may most avoid any shew of faction novelty and schism and be most uniform to the Antient Catholick primitive Apostolick and uniform pattern which never wanted in any setled Church either Presbyters to chuse and assist the Bishops or Bishops after the Apostles to try ordain oversee and govern with the Counsel of Presbyters and all other degrees and orders in the Church Darkness disputes divisions distractions dissatisfactions and confusions must needs follow that Army or City that knows not who are its Commission officers or lawful and authorised Magistrates so must it needs be in the Church when Christians know not who are their Fathers their Stewards their Shepherds their Bishops or their Presbyters There is nothing next the fundamentals of faith in which the Church should be more clear and confidently ascertained than in this the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 10.15 Ordination and succession of their Evangelical Prophets for how shall they preach or rule unless they be lawfully sent and set over the houshold of faith Christs
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
reflections written either as to Gods Providences to himself or gracious motions and operations in his heart or as to the more large and publick dispensations to former and latter ages which afford an ocean of matter and meditation to such a studious and judicious soul as his was from writers things and events they could not but be very excellent collections in themselves and of great use to others for his spirit was like a refiners fire what passed through it was the better by his taking notice of it and thereby recommending it to others He was always when in health as chearful as far as the Tragedies of the times gave leave as one that had the continual feast of a good conscience and as content His chearfulness in all estates as if he had had a Lords or Bishops estate no less than a Princely mind All diminutions and indignities which some mens pragmatick effronteries were not ashamed to put upon so worthy and venerable a person he digested into patience and prayers Such as were not worthy to stand under his shadow yet sought sometimes to stand in his light yea and to put out so burning and shining a light at least to put it under a bushel that their farthing candles might make the better shew but he out-shined them all like the Sun nothing could put a total eclipse upon Bishop Brounrig yea and he buried all personal injuries done to him in the grave of Christian charity when he considered the indignities and affronts which his blessed Redeemer suffered from people wantonly wicked who made a sport to buffet strip spit upon and crucifie the Son of God and Lord of glory Thus he was in some degree to be conform to Primitive Bishops which were poor and persecuted yea to the great Bishop of our souls who for our sakes made himself of no reputation This excellent Bishop in his latter years when motion was tedious His oft changing his aboad and noxious to him by reason of his calculary infirmity and corpulency yet was put upon various tossings and removes too and fro sometimes times at London at Bury at Highgate at Sunning and other places to which he was driven either in order to repair his crazy health by change of air Where at least unwonted objects entertaining the fancy with novelty seem to give some ease either by the pleasure of variety or by a diversion from thinking of our disorders and pains or out of an equanimous civility to his many worthy friends that he might so dispense his much desired company among them that no one might be thought to have monopolized such a magazine of worth to the envy of others And sometimes it may be he changed his quarters out of an ingenuous tenderness of being or seeming any burthen to those that were most civil to him knowing that there is prone to arise in us a satiety even of the best things that want doth quichen our appetites and absence give a fresh edge to our welcomes These or the like prudential motives suffered him not to fix very long or constant in any one place willing to appear as he thought himself and was treated in this world a Pilgrim and stranger never at home nor owning any home till he came to Heaven which was his fathers house where he should find better natured and more loving brethren than those that as Joseph's had without cause stript him and cast him into a pit of narrowness and obscurity to dye there Yet before he left this world His last residence in the Temple God would have him as Moses to get up into a mount to be set in some such place of prospect and conspicuity which might make the English world see that all mens eyes were not so asquint on Bishops or so blind or blood-shotten as not to see the eminent worth of Bishop Brounrig which could not be buried in darkness or extinguished in silence without a great addition to the other sins of the Nation and shame of the times And since some men had taken from him and others their estates and lands as Bishops unforfeited by Law only to defray the charges of War and to ease the taxes it was thought by others a better part of good husbandry to make use of those excellent gifts they had and were more willing to communicate than to have parted so with their estates § Hence the Providence of God so ordered affairs that he was about a year before he died invited with much respect and civility to the Honorable Societies of both Temples to bless them as with his constant residence so when his health would permit with some of his fatherly instructions and prayers To shew the reality of their love and value to his Lordship they not only allowed an annual Honorary recompence to express their thanks but they provided handsom lodgings and furnished them with all things necessary convenient and comely for a person of his worth § It was some little beam of joy to his great soul to see that all sparks of English generosity were not raked up or quite buried by the rubbish of faction when no Nation heretofore either more reverenced or better provided for their Bishops and Clergy than England He was glad to see so much courage in persons of that quality as to dare to own and employ a Bishop it being as bold an adventure as to some mens esteem to hear a Bishop preach as for a Bishop to preach in so publick a place And indeed the nobleness of the Templers carriage toward his Lordship had a great resentment of honor among all pious and generous minds both in City and Country who had either known the worth or heard of the renown of Bishop Brounrig § T is true the Antiepiscopal leaven and sowreness liked not well the motion or transaction but being then much crest-fallen confounded and dis-spirited by reason of their ragged successes in all things civil and sacred not able to wind up into any scain or bottom of good order and setled government the knotty threads or broken ends they had been spinning for many years they would not shew their teeth where they could not bite nor seem much concerned to oppose what they had no cause and no great power to hinder § The last Easter Term 1659. The good Bishop came to his Lodgings in the Temple and applied himself to answer the expectations and desires of his hospitable Gainsses who were so much satisfied both with his paines and presence that such as could hear him preach rejoyced at the gracious words and fatherly instructions which he gave them prepared with elaborate diligence and expressed with affectionate eloquence such as for the crowd could not come nigh enough to hear him yet had not only patience but pleasure to stay and behold him conceiving they saw a Sermon in his looks and were bettered by the venerable aspect of so virtuous grave and worthy a person which at once