I cannot so properly call them a Text of my choice as of my acceptance for I know not any other that could stand in competition with it It would be no digression if the time would permit me to shew you in the first place how well the Text might be accommodated to the Day In the one we have a battel on earth that brought St. Paul to Heaven and on the other a war in Heaven which was revealed to St. John on earth Michael and his Angels fighting with the Dragon and his Angels in the Epistle for the day But because it is the occasion rather then the day that hath caused our present assemblie at this place I shall confine my discourse only to that and then the first thing I shall observe from my Text is that it is a part of an Epistle sent by the Apostle St. Paul to Timothie an Apostolical person and a man of an Apostolical office whom he had ordained the first Bishop of Ephesus written at such a time when his departure was at hand upon occasion of those corruptions which he foresaw would afterward be brought into the Church by those that would turn away their ears from the truth and would be embraced by the people of itching ears that would not endure sound doctrine but would heap to themselves teachers after their own lusts and the end why the Apostle wrote it was to forewarn him of this mischief and to instruct him what he should do upon this occasion and to strengthen and incourage him by proposing his own example against whatsoever he should suffer for the performance of his duty in this particular in preaching the word and being instant in season out of season in reproving rebuking exhorting with all long suffering and doctrine And let us but look back one eight dayes and we shall clearly see how well these very words would have become this Reverend person whose Funeral hath this day occasioned our meeting to have spoken to every one of us here present whether Lay or Clergy whether such as are in danger to be infected with those corruptions that are now got into the Church which are the very same for nature and in a very high degree with those that are here foretold by St. Paul or such as by their office and calling in the Church are bound to oppose them seeing he was a Bishop that is a person of an Apostolical office and such an one whose care as well as duty it was to oppose and beat down whatever was contrary to sound doctrine and to instruct others what to do upon the like occasions and that not only by his doings but also by his sufferings not only by his pen and preaching but also by his Episcopal and Christian conversation and that good example which he hath left us for our imitation of him both in his life and death Let us then suppose to our selves what we may reasonably presume he would have said to us so few dayes ago or let us but imagine we hear his Hearse preaching now to us what he would then have taught himself and what doctrine can we more likely expect from him then what my Text will afford us if we consider it with those circumstances I have already mentioned Believe it the Hearse of a person of his Sacred order and Exemplary piety will be a powerful preacher to any devout soul that duly considers it and seriously layes it to heart and therefore do but listen to that as supplying what was so proper and likely for himself to have spoken and you may have a Funeral Sermon though I should hold my peace even from the words of my Text I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith Henceforth c. But yet that I may give you some assistance for your meditations and some directions for your practise let me desire your patience and attention while I consider these words 1. First as I finde them in my Text laid down by St. Paul 2. As they may very fitly be accommodated to this Reverend Bishop 3. As they may be applyed to our selves The first consideration will represent them to us as a Sermon the second as a Funeral Sermon proper for this occasion the third and last as a Funeral Sermon useful to our selves 1. These words as they were written by St. Paul contain in them these two general parts answerable to the number of the verses wherein they are contained 1. The work ver 7. I have fought a good fight I have c. 2. The wages ver 8. Henceforth is laid up for me a Crown c. 1. The former consisteth of three several actions 1. Fighting a good fight 2. Finishing his course 3. Keeping the faith 2. In the latter we have 1. The wages it self 2. The pay-master and 3. The payment 1. The wages are described 1. A Substantia it is a Crown 2. A Qualitate it is a Crown of Righteousness 2. The pay-master is described 1. From his person the Lord. 2. From his office the Judge 3. From his attribute Righteous Judge 3. Concerning the payment we may consider 1. The title we have to it in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 give or rather render 2. The time whence it is payable Henceforth that is from the day of his death 3. The time when it will be actually payed In that day that is the day of Judgement Here is too large a task for so short a time as is ordinary for this exercise and therefore I must confine my discourse only to the former general part of my Text and be brief in that too More will not be necessary for let us but take out this lesson well and we need not be much solicitous for the other let us but carefully and conscionably perform the work and we may safely trust God for the wages And in this point that I may speak clearly as well as briefly I shall consider the words first joyntly together and then severally apart in relation to the three several actions already mentioned 1. As they are taken joyntly together we may observe that as very often elsewhere so here in particular the Apostle alludeth to the manner of performing the Olympick Games among the Grecians for my whole Text is a continued Allegory taken from those sports and consequently all the principal words which are in it if we consider them in the literal sense must be understood as terms altogether Agonistical And therefore as in those Olympick Games there were several Champions that contended in fighting or cuffing or wrestling or driving of Chariots in such a place of ground or upon such a stage for some Honorarie or reward as a Crown of Olive or Lawrel or the like before such a person who sate there to judge of the sport and crown him that got the victory so here in my Text 1. The Agonist or Champion is St. Paul 2. the stadium
weighty office of a Bishop almost 44. years in which respects I think he hath not left his equal behinde him in Europe but especially considering that there is hardly a day in those years nor scarce an houre in that day whereof some good account may not be given if I should go about such a thing And therefore seeing I must of necessity omit much that might be said in this case according to custome I shall confine my discourse to that which cannot be omitted without violating my Text and prevaricating in a good cause And for the rest if God permit I may have occasion hereafter to give the world an account in some brief narrative of his Life You have seen the copy already in St. Paul I shall now endeavour to shew you how well it was transcribed by this Reverend Bishop who was as great an admirer of him as I have known though indeed no man can sufficiently admire him It is this Apostles exhortation to us all to be followers of him as he was of Christ and it was the special care and endeavour of this pious Bishop to yield obedience to that exhortation we have already seen as far as my Text led me to it how well this Apostle followed Christ it now remains I should shew you how well this Bishop followed the Apostle in those particulars I have already insisted upon And here in the first place if I would allow my self that liberty of wandring from my Text which too many others assume in the contrary cause I could bring my first parallel from their offices in the Church the one an Apostle the other a Bishop and shew you even from St. Hierome himself whose authority is so much urged against Bishops how little difference there is between them seeing as that Father tells us Bishops succeed the Apostles in the Church as a Son doth his Father in his inheritance and consequently that Bishops do now sustain the place of the Apostles or to come closer to my Text that a Bishop is to us instead of St. Paul But this is a subject too large for this time and neither proper for the place nor suitable with the Text and my present intention For it is their actions and sufferings their fight and their course and not their place or their office which my Text leads me to to make up the parallel and even in that I must stint my discourse from those limits which I first intended When I first observed in St. Pauls fight the substance and the quality of it branching the former into his actions and sufferings and the latter into the justness of his cause and justifiableness of the way of managing it and that again both as an Apostle and as a Christian my intentions were to have shewed you in the parallel what this Reverend Bishop did and what he suffered both as a Bishop and as a Christian and again how good his cause was the cause of God and his Church and how Christianly it was managed without running either to the God of Ekron or to the Witch of Endor without worshipping the golden image or vailing the bonnet to Baal Berith without committing murder in the fear of God or shutting up Churches for the propagation of the Gospel And then in the second place my intention was to have extended the parallel to his imitation of the Apostle in the whole course of his life in running with him the same race that was set before them both and then last of all to have shewed you how well he kept the faith till his last gasp both in his fighting and running And I hope I shall say something to all these particulars though neither so largely nor so methodically as I once intended The first thing mentioned by the Apostle here in my Text is the good fight which he fought and the like according to the proportion of his ability was performed by this Bishop 1. His whole life was a fight even as he was a man Militia est hominis vita super terram but a far greater fight as a Christian because it was not against flesh and blood but against spiritual wickedness in high places The greater the difficulties are against which we strive the greater is the fight and the victory the more glorious and so the case was with him considered as a Christian and so it still is and ever will be with us For our enemies in this battel are the Devil the World and the Flesh and all of them compleatly armed the world with power the flesh with treachery and the Devil with subtilty Yet such hath been the power of Gods grace in this great Champion that he hath got a clear conquest over them all and left us his good example both for our encouragement and imitation 2. But these enemies being common to others with him though seldome subdued by any so well as by him I shall rather divert my discourse to the other branch which I proposed and shew you what a hot encounter he did undergo in respect of his office in the Church as a Bishop and that both in what he did and what he suffered And in this God was pleased to deal very graciously with him as indeed he did in all other things for while he had strength he wanted not opportunities to be doing something for the good of the Church and when that began to decay God was still graciously pleased to assist him with a plentiful measure of his grace to suffer patiently for righteousness sake In all ages the office of a Bishop was enough to engage the person that sustained it in a fight of action and of late the very name of a Bishop was more then enough to engage him in the fight of suffering I pray God forgive them that occasioned it They might have foreseen at first whither it naturally tended and cannot but now see what it hath undoubtedly brought upon themselves as well as others since the quarrel was improved against all the other offices of Ministery in the Church which at first was commenced only against the Bishops Nay the very Church it self if we look upon her as a branch of the Holy Catholick Church of Christ which we profess in our Creed is now at last assaulted by those that will allow of no Churches but of their own gathering which is a thing of more dangerous consequence then most are aware of I pray God I may be a false prophet in this thing when I tell you my fears that the end of it if not timely prevented is like enough to be confusion and Atheism which begin already to flow in upon us or rather to overwhelm us How worthily this our Champion hath carried himself in this fight is a thing so well known as I shall not need to inlarge my discourse upon it Witness those many learned Volumes he hath written against all the adversaries of this poor afflicted
adoration this day and from henceforth for ever more Amen Amen Amen A SUMMARIE ACCOUNT OF THE HOLY LIFE AND HAPPY DEATH Of the Right Reverend Father in God THOMAS LATE LORD BISHOP of DURESEME Added as a supplement to the Sermon preached at his Funerall By the same Author Eccles 7 1. A good name is better then precious Ointment and the day of Death then the day of ones Birth Claudian Antiquos Evolve duces assursce futurae Militiae LONDON Printed for R. Royston at the Angel in Ivy-lane 1660. The LIFE and DEATH OF THOMAS Lord BISHOP OF DURESME The Preface 1. AS the death of Gods Saints is precious in the sight of the Lord So will the memoriall of their lives also be in the hearing of all that are really his people And of all his Saints none can be more precious to him nor should be to us Then those that are most peculiarly honored with that title by the spirit of God in holy Scripture Those that are by him called unto and imployed in some holy office as well as qualified with Sanctifying grace like Aron who was Gods high Priest and for that reason is emphatically stiled the Saint of the Lord. 2. If there had not been something that is sacred in the office of a Bishop even as it is distinct from the order of Priest-hood the generall councell of Chalcedon could not as we know it did have adjudged it Sacrilege to take down a Bishop to the degree of a Priest And whatsoever that was it was in this person over and above his sanctity of life and sacredness of his other inferiour orders of Ministery in the Church And therefore I may represent this reverend Bishop to the world as a Saint or holy person for his Calling as well as for his life without any prejudice to the truth and thereby oppose that current of Sacrilege which some of late yeares hath much improved who will not allow him the title of a Saint nor none else that is not of their own sect or faction I have already upon another occasion made some short essay of it and this is only to supply what the largeness of the subject and shortness of the time would not then permit me to speak 3. And in this I must disclaim all thoughts of by ends or any other designe then only by asserting the truth to be just to him and charitable to others That neither his enemies may wrong his good name nor his friends want some small preservation of his memory Nor both of them the benefit of his good example 4. I know his charity while he lived had a speciall eye upon his enemies and so shall mine have now he is dead in convincing them also as far as I am able of their great injustice as well as uncharitableness against him and the rest of his Reverend Brethren in vilifying their persons and contemning their sacred function to the high displeasure of Almighty God the great scandal of Christian Religion and the extream hazard of the Church of England by opening so wide a gap to Schisme and Heresy and even Athesme it self 5. How those that so zealously affect the exterpation of Episcopacy can arrogate to themselves the title either of Christians or Protestants is a thing that may justly be questioned seeing Bishops were planted in the Church together with Christianity even by the Apostles themselves as is evident from the concurrent suffrages of all antiquity And that the first Protestants from whom all the rest derive that title did clearly profess in their confession of Auspurgh their willingness to submit to their Bishops even of the Romish Church provided they would not impose upon them such new and unjust burthens as had not been received by the custome of the Catholick Church Which none of our present English Bishops ever did but the quite contrary was objected against them for their greatest crime 6. I know that many of the seduced people have repented of these errours already and I hope the rest may be brought to repentance when they see what persons they were both for life and learning who sustained the office of Bishops at that time when the cunning and malice of the Divell did so unjustly incense the rude multitude against them I shall confine my self to this one instance leaving the rest for others as occasion shall require who was in as great an hazard of his life in one of those tumults as any and yet there was as little objected against him by those that raised them as against any of the rest 7. And in what I say of him I shall keep my self to the exact rule of truth both for his sake and my own and the Readers and the end I cheifly aime at without either flattering his memory or omitting those passages of his life which may cheifly qualify his example for our imitation Only I must beg my Readers pardon if the length of his life and multitude of his imployments and greatness of his learning and christian concealement of much of his piety necessitate me to omit many things I could not learn and pass over somethings I know and fall much below his merit in what I relate for brevities sake 8. Having premised thus much I presume the Reader will expect no Panegyrick but only a bare and that also a short narrative of his life for the information of posterity and conviction of his enemies rather then for any solace to his friends who could not but know him well enough seeing he was a burning and shining light for so great a number of yeares here amongst us And what I say shall for methods sake be reduced to these three heads 1. A plain Narrative of the principall passages in his Life 2. A breif Catalogue of his works 3. A short Character of his person and Qualities CHAP. I. A plain Narrative of the principall passages of his Life 1. HIs Coat armour and pedigree will shew him to be of the same Originall and Stock with that eminent prelate and wise states man John Morton Bishop of Elie and Lord Chancellor of England afterward Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and Cardinall by whose contrivance and management the too Houses of York and Lancaster were united Whereby that issue of blood was stopped which had so long and plentifully flowed within the bowells of this our Native Country And from hence the judicious Reader will conclude his Ancesters could not be obscure at lest since this Cardinals time for such persons as he was seldom left their kindred without some considerable preferments If I were so good an Herald as to trace up his pedigree to those times it is possible it would reach to Thomas or John Morton whom the Cardinall made his Heires as being Sones to two of his Brothers Sure I am that Sir Thomas Morton of Dorsetshire who reckoned his descent from one of them sought him out and acknowledged his kindred and desired his
not spoken by way of boasting in himself but of consolation to his Disciple Timothy For when we consider what a heavy charge he had laid upon him to preach the word c. together with the reasons of it taken from those corruptions that would in time infect the Church which would require in him a great measure of labour and watchfulness and patience in suffering afflictions we may well think it was now high time to comfort him with the words of my Text and the rather because this heavy burthen would lye more heavily upon him now then ever it had done before seeing the Apostle himself was then ready to be offered up and the time of his departure was at hand and this he doth by proposing his own example in the work and his confident hope of the wages I have fought c. Henceforth is laid up c. How tender hearted this holy person Timothy was will appear by his Tears upon a small absence of St. Paul from him and therefore it will not be denyed but that both it was necessary to comfort him upon this occasion and that the words of my Text were very useful to that purpose But the question may still perhaps be insisted upon how St. Paul could propose these words as a ground of comfort to his Disciple Timothy before he had actually done that work which is represented by them and upon which that comfort was to be grounded St. Augustine puts the objection into my mouth and a part of the answer to it Quomodo potuit haec dicere cui adhuc restabat ipsius passionis quam sibi jam impendere dixerat tam magna conflictio tam molestum grande certamen How could St. Paul say he had fought a good fight when in the words immediately before he saith that the time of his departure was but at hand which implieth that the greatest brunt of his battel was still to fight when he spake these words To which I answer 1. That I will not dispute whether these words are to be understood of St. Pauls first answering for his life before Nero which was a thing then past without all dispute or of his second which was then to come If the former as some very learned men are of opinion it was the doubt will quickly vanish of it self but seeing he speaks of his departure as a thing then at hand and not at 9. or 10. years distance I shall for peace-sake take the latter as granted and answer 2. That he had so good assurance and confidence in Gods mercy as to his constancy and final perseverance as he looks upon the work as done already in effect while it was but yet a doing and himself as comprehensor while he was only viator or as a conquerour before the fight was fully ended Quod futurum esse praesumpsit tanquam factum fuerit judicavit sayes the same Father in the same place But then for the ground of this assurance and confidence to make that appear the more clearly we must as before distinguish between the work and the wages for these being at several distances will require several Telescopes to represent them to our understanding 1. For the work or fight he foresaw it plainly as a thing then at hand both by what he saw contrived against him at Rome in Nero's Palace and also as being instructed therein by divine Revelation as some learned men are of opinion and as Historians tell us the like of others since that time as for instance St. Cyprian and St. Chrysostome in ancient times and Bishop Ridley and Bishop Jewel of late 2. But then for the victory and wages I must be cautious in what I determine upon it For I dare not say though St. Anselm doth that he foresaw this by any supernatural revelation of his own Predestination and Election such an opinion as this if it were once swallowed and applyed to our selves might make us look so high into Gods unsearchable counsel as not to see the rubs and precipices in our way to Heaven I rather incline to those that direct us to cast our eyes downward upon our selves and to look inwardly into our own bosomes and they will tell us that this confidence as it relates to the wages proceeded ex fiducia bonae conscientiae from the testimony of a good conscience grounded upon the goodness and sure mercies of God in Christ Jesus as it was in the case of St. Ambrose upon his death-bed who was neither unwilling to live nor afraid to die only quia bonum habemus dominum because he knew he served a gracious master All this while I have spoken of the ground of his confidence and not at all of the medium by which the evidence of what he affirmeth was conveyed to him for whether that was a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or full assurance of Faith or only of Hope is a question both too ticklish and too large to dispute at this time and needless withal seeing it seems to me to be determined by St. Augustine long ago whose authority is very great in a case of this nature and his words at large will confirm the substance of what I have delivered upon this whole point Ideo talibus verbis speaking of the latter verse of my Text certus securusque gaudebat Paulus quia de victoria futuri tanti certaminis certum eum securumque jam fecerat qui eandem passionem jam illi revelaverat non re certissima sed spe plenissimâ haec dixit c. From which words you may observe 1. That St. Augustine understands the words of my Text as an effect of St. Pauls joy to comfort his Disciple Timothy gaudebat Paulus and not by way of boasting in himself 2. He tells us God had revealed St. Pauls sufferings to him passionem jam illi revelaverat that is his work but speaks not a word of revealing his wages but the contrary For 3. the confidence he had of that he tells us proceeded ex spe firmissima from a full assurance of Hope And let this suffice to have spoken of the Agonist or Champion St. Paul 2. I proceed now to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or fight it self which we are to understand as I formerly told you 1. both Actively for what he did and Passively for what he suffered and this again 2. is called a good fight both for the justice of the cause and justifiableness of the way and means by which it was managed and 3. last of all this good fight was fought by St. Paul both as a private Christian and as an Apostle of Christ 1. As an Apostle he fought Actively in what he did and in this particular he is set out unto us as a singular Champion to be admired in some things rather then imitated by us He sustained and that dayly the care of all the Churches he preached Christ
his words and acknowledged his thankfullness to God for it and the unworthy instrument that reached it to him and to all that any way assisted him in it and even after his speech failed him he signified with his hand his assent to what was spoken to him or prayed for him and I doubt not but his Devotion as well as his Understanding continued as long as his breath though neither his tongue nor hand could at last express it I need not insist any longer upon these passages at his death though they be very excellent and remarkable because many here present were eye-witnesses of them I have been thus particular for their sakes who had not the happiness to be then with him that they may learn by so good an example what it is to have a soul within them and a God above them and with what care and courage they ought both to fight and to run and with what constancy to continue in both till they also obtain that Crown of righteousness which henceforth is laid up for him in the Kingdome of Heaven 3. And that we may all of us be followers of him in these duties as he was of St. Paul and both of Christ I beseech you suffer one word of Exhortation by way of Application to our selves which was the third and last way wherein I proposed to handle my Text and then I shall dismiss you And in this I shall keep my self so close to my undertakings as not to use any other motives to you then what St. Paul useth to his Disciple Timothy for the imbracing of this doctrine in the words immediately before my Text I am ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand For 1. if this was so powerful an argument to perswade Timothy to be watchful in all things to endure afflictions and to fulfil his Ministrie and again 2. if it was so strong a motive wherewith to forewarn the people to walk warily in those approaching evil times wherein men will not endure sound doctrine but after their own lusts heap to themselves teachers having itching ears Then surely it cannot but have some influence upon every one of us whether Lay or Clergie that hath any care or sense of his soul and eternal salvation so as to work in us a sincere endeavour to perform those duties which are here required of us respectively by this great Apostle when we seriously lay to heart that not only St. Paul but this Reverend Bishop also are not only ready to be offered but are offered already and that the time of their departure is not only at hand but actually past now when we are already fallen into those perillous times which the Apostle in this place did only foresee at a distance Give me leave I beseech you yet a little more distinctly to apply my motives severally to the Lay and Clergie here present And first for you my Reverend Brethren of the Clergie let me desire you to mark well the force of the Apostles argument to his Desciple Timothy I am ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand so that hereafter thou canst not have either my counsel direction or assistance and therefore do thou watch in all things c. which is as if he should have said the duty which hitherto hath been required from us both will hereafter lye wholly upon thee alone to perform and therefore be thou the more careful to use double diligence in the performance of it Let us of the Clergie I say but take the Apostles argument in this sense and seriously lay it to heart and then without all doubt it will pinch us to the quick when we consider how great a blow it was to a tottering Church to have so great a pillar removed from it as this learned and laborious Bishop was Certainly now is the time and this the occasion if ever when we must watch in all things and pray unto Almighty God for his grace to enable us to fulfil our Ministerie and his strength to fit us for enduring afflictions And more particularly to lift up our prayers for the remnant that is left And to be instant with God that he would call to remembrance his tender mercies and still continue to this poor afflicted Church his loving kindness which hath been ever of old and that he would be favourable and gracious unto Sion and build up the walls of Jerusalem that it may be no longer an habitation for Ziim and Iim Owles and Satyrs birds of darkness and beasts of filthiness and other monstrous creatures of prey and rapine but that men may dwell there and have it in possession even the men that he hath chosen to come near unto him that peace may once again be restored and setled within her walls and plenteousness within her places and that his Priests may be clothed with righteousness and his Saints sing with joyfulness And I hope there is none here present either so negligent of his own Soul or so careless of the salvation of others that will not heartily say Amen to this prayer 2. And then again Right honourable and the rest my dearly beloved brethren of the Layty let me apply my discourse in one word unto you and beseech you also to mark well the force of St. Pauls argument to Timothy in these words I am ready to be offered my self and yet the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine c. And therefore as it is necessary I should give thee a solemn charge before God and the Lord Jesus Christ to preach the word and to be instant in season and out of season so is it seasonable I should give it thee now when the time of my departure is at hand that as the weight of the charge presseth thee so the seasonableness of it may have the better influence upon the people to whom thou art sent As if he should have said though the duty be great which the people are to learn from thee yet it will be the more willingly listened unto if thou doest tell them I left it in charge with thee at this very instant when the time of my departure is at hand seeing the words of a dying man are so strong and powerful Let them therefore know that this is my last exhortation to them and then they will the more easily suppose me as present with them whensoever this doctrine is preached unto them And if we look upon the Apostles argument under this consideration I have still one parallel behind between him and this Reverend Bishop which is fetcht not only from the words of a Dying man but even of a dead man and if the Rich mans Logick was good when he desired Father Abraham to send Lazarus to his Fathers house to preach to his five brethren because if one should come unto them from the dead they would repent
I cannot but hope that what I have yet to say in the person of this dead Prelate will have so much influence upon you all especially of the Laity as not to return without some fruit I confess I have done with my own Sermon it is more then time I should but I have still another to preach to you from this Reverend Bishop and in this I can easily presume upon your patience though I have almost wearied it already When I call this a Sermon which now I am to deliver I speak not without my warrant For when St. Gregory preached his Forty Sermons upon the Gospels he penned them all but read no more of them himself then eighteen by reason of some bodily infirmities the rest were read by his sub-Deacon or Notarie and yet all of them were then received and ever since esteemed and reputed as St. Gregories Sermons and in this sense it is that I call that which now remaineth the Bishop of DURESMES Sermon though I read it to you It is indeed the most solemn and elaborate Sermon he ever made being a profession or Declaration of his Faith with some wholsome instructions and directions to all good Christians within the Church of England though it be more particularly directed to those within his own Diocess By the time you have heard it you will finde it to be a rich supply for many things which otherwise I could not have omitted to speak concerning him It is a thing he did with much deliberation and not without some consultation with some of his Reverend Brethren and others as to the form and manner of it and when it was fitted exactly according to his own thoughts and desire he solemnly published signed and sealed it in the presence of five witnesses and annexed it as a Codicil to his Will and afterward when the shrinking of his small estate compelled him to alter his will to what it is now at his death he declared this to be a part of it which before was only a Codicil in the presence of other witnesses so that upon second thoughts it was not only owned by him but also ratified and confirmed more solemnly then before It followeth in these words 1. IN the first ages of the Church it was a very excellent custome that whensoever any was Consecrated Bishop of any Patriarchal or chief see he should by an Encyclical Epistle give an account of his Faith to his Brethren of the same order and dignity for the better strengthening of that Catholick Communion which the Bishops and Churches then had and still should preserve among themselves And this by the way was an homage as well payed as received by the Bishops of Rome in those times which is a sufficient evidence of a Coordination but could never have consisted with their now challenged Monarchy in the Church 2. And though the reason be different the design is no less necessary in this last and worst age of the Church for all Bishops whomsoever to leave some Testimony of their Faith to the world when it shall please God to take them out of it that so neither their Names may be traduced after their death nor any weak Brother misled by fathering any false opinions upon them whereof they were no way guilty 3. And this I think will be as necessary for me to perform as any other of my order in some respects though not so necessary in some other which is the cause both why I leave this short account of my self to the world and why it is no larger 4. For though I have sufficiently declared my self to the world both by my life and labours to be a true Orthodox and sincere Christian and Protestant according to the Doctrine and Discipline of the Primitive Church professed also and practised in the Church of England seeing I have been a writer above fifty years and have passed through all the orders of the Church Deacon Priest and Bishop and have been Rector of three Churches Prebendary in one Dean of two and Bishop of three Diocesses successively yet I cannot think my self secure from the malignancy of false and virulent tongues and pens after my Death more then I have been in my life and the rather because I have sustained the heavy Office of a Bishop so many years in the Church which some perverse people make criminal in it self and have by my writings discharged a good Conscience in asserting the truth against the opposites on both sides for which the Father of Lies will not be wanting to stir up enemies against me 5. I do therefore here solemnly profess in the presence of Almighty God that by his grace preventing and assisting me I have alwayes lived and purpose to die in the true Catholick Faith wherein I was Baptized firmly believing all the Canonical Scripture of the old and New Testament and fully assenting to every Article of all those three Creeds commonly called the Apostles Creed the Nicen or Constantinopolitan Creed and the Athanasian Creed which in the ancient Church were accounted the Adequate Rules of Faith and have accordingly been received as such by the Church of England 6. As for Counsels that are free and general consisting of competent persons lawfully summoned and proceeding according to the word of God Such as were the foure first viz those of Nice Constantinople Ephesus and Chalcedon I do reverence them as the Supream Tribunals of the Church of Christ upon earth for judging of Heresies and composing differences in the Church And as I utterly condemn all Heresies that have been condemned by any of them so I heartily wish that all the present differences in the Church of God might be determined by such a free general Counsel as any of those foure were already mentioned 7. The composers of those ancient differences in the Church were Bishops as it cannot be denied concerning which order I profess to believe that â—t was instituted by the Apostles who were infallibly inspired by the Holy Ghost and approved by Christ in the Revelation of St. John and consequently to be of Divine institution as I have made it evident by a little Treatise already printed and could still further manifest it by some papers not yet committed to the Press And I had never sustained the burthen of that Office above 40 years in the Church if this had not been alwayes my judgment concerning Bishops I pray God restore them again to those poor afflicted parts of his Church where either the Office or the Exercise of it is wanting 8. That the Bishop of Rome hath any more power over Bishops then other Primates and Patriarcks have in their several Sees respectively is a thing which I have often and largely disproved in my writings All that the Ancient Church did allow him was a priority of order but no supreamacie of Monarchical power And I heartily wish that this and all other differences now on foot between us and