Affections for the present but insensibly deprave both Body and Mind and deprive them of many real and great Advantages which a prudent Discipline and well regulated Education would have furnished them with Certain it is that the admired things of the World do not satisfie but Dropsie-like increase the Thirst and so intangle Mens Minds more and more in worldly Affections which the design of Christianity is to divest us of The genuine Christianity is the most Divine and only compleat Philosophy that ever appeared among Men. And a true Church of Christ is a Society of Men selected out of the World not corporally but in their Souls and Affections and certain Institutions and Manners and particularly amongst others by Renunciation of the Pomps and Vanities of it Such a Church debauch'd by the Spirit of the World becomes a Whore in a spiritual sense according to the phrase of the S. Scriptures And when the lust of those things is excited by this Spirit of the World to the Rage of Persecution of the Members of Christ it becomes then a compleat Antichrist Thus the Great and Famous Church of Rome the Mistress of all the Western Churches being debauch'd became the Great Whore and the rest were only as Servants to her or Members of her And such was the Church of England till she deserted her Service at the Reformation and set up for her self Then indeed she began to reform many of the Corruptions of her Mistress but her State and Grandeur she thought she might retain without Detriment or Danger to her Integrity little suspecting that this was the Root and principal Occasion of all the Corruptions of that once famous and truly honourable Church and the more easily overlooking the Corruptions of which much of that State and Grandure doth consist though it be very plain and obvious if duly considered For it is plain beyond all contradiction that our Episcopacy as it stands modelled to this day however we magnifie our Church upon it even to the unchurching of almost all others is no genuine Institution but a Mungrel Constitution of Antichistian Original and of very pernicious Consequence both to Church and State It is a truth which at least after divers more gentle Admonitions I must speak out for I see no hopes of any good from it unless the Corruptions thereof be reformed A principal part of what is reputed peculiar to the Episcopal Office is taken from our Bishops and committed to Laymen viz. The Administration of Discipline This as a piece of State in imitation of the Grandees of the World was heretofore committed to the Chancellors as a matter below their Dignity to execute themselves so that to this day they remain deprived in effect of a considerable part of their Office of which Bishop Beadle had so just a resentment that he endeavoured the restititution thereof And as their Office in part is taken from them so they on the other side are not a little taken from their Office by Secular Business in Parliament besides other Secular Business in the Countrey Which to me seems a greater piece of Sacriledge than the alienation of part of their Revenues and application of it to secular uses Being thus in part deprived of their Office and in part abstracted from it it is but agreeable to the rest that they are partly also deprived of their Churches Where they have Seats indeed left them but the Cathedrals in all or most places if I mistake not are not in the Power of the Bishop but of the Dean and Chapter consisting of a number of Prebends who are obliged to be resident some certain but no long time as three weeks or a month in the Year and having Cures remote and commonly out of the Diocess are of little Use or Benefit to the Church or City if at all to any part of the Diocess Thus is the ancient venerable Body or Society of the Bishop and his Presbytery with us divided and distracted and rendred in a great measure useless and insignificant to the Ends of its Original Institution and the Damage thereof to the Church not only covered and concealed but augmented also by the Addition of secular Titles and Employments through the subtilty of that Wicked spirit A plain Mungrel Constitution instead of the ancient simple Christian Form That these things are not of Christian Institution is plain from the Sacred Scriptures and the Writings of the Christians of all former Ages before they were introduced And that they are of Antichristian Original is as plain from the Writings of those Ages when they were introduced but both may be made manifest to all Men by a much shorter and easier way And that is by considering the different Ends and Designs of the Spirit of Christ and of the Spirit of Antichrist and the Tendency and Subserviency of these things to the End and Designs of the one or the other The End and Design of Christ and of his Spirit which doth animate and guide all true Christians is to withdraw Men from the World to train and exercise them to an entire Subjection of the whole Man to God and to exalt and unite them who are dependant Beings to him who is their only Center of Repose and Happiness On the contrary the Aim and Design of the Wicked One the Spirit of Antichrist called also the God of this World is to withhold and withdraw the Minds of Men from God and in order thereunto to intangle their Affections with the false appearances of the things of this World and distract their thoughts with multiplicity of Superfluities and Impertinences thereof that being unhinged from their proper Centre they may center upon some false bottom and set up themselves for little Deities Gerentes se pro Centro mundi which being the very state of the Devils doth necessarily involve them in their Condition and engage them to their Party amongst whom they must unavoidably be subject to such as are more powerful than themselves Accordingly our Saviour when he was pleased to converse with Men in the habit of a mortal man was pleased to appear in a mean Condition without House or Lands without other Attendants than his Disciples and those chosen out of the meanest sort of people His Speeches and Discourses weighty and comprehensive but plain and without any affectation either of Oratory or exactness of Method his Institutions for Initiation and Confederation of his Disciples and Worship of God few and simple with little Ceremony though very significant His Doctrines few and plain that he was the Son of God the Messias or Christ anointed by his Spirit to be a Prince and a Saviour to all Nations and that of his Fulness of the Divine Spirit we all who believe in him and obey him should receive and so be partakers of the Divine Nature His Precepts likewise few but very extensive and easily intelligible to love God with all our Powers and Faculties and our Neighbour who is equally
THE SPIRIT OF The Church-Faction DETECTED In its Nature and Operations More Particularly in The Mystery of the Convocation-Book Lately Published and Exposed To the View and Censure of the World by the late Arch-Bishop of Canterbury And in The Progress of the Faction And the Mischiefs thereof The late Civil War and our present Disappointments LONDON Printed in the Year MDCXCI Lately publish'd by the same Author AN Admonition concerning a Publick FAST The Just Causes we have for it from the full Growth of Sin and the near Approaches of God's Judgments And the Manner of Performance to obtain the desired Effects thereof Which ought to be other than our Common Forms and with stricter Acts of Mortification than is usual amongst us An APPEAL to Heaven and Earth against the Christian Epicureans who have betrayed their KING and Countrey and Exposed them to the Judgments of GOD Drawn up in Questions Theological and Theologico-Political A CAVEAT to the READER IT is certain that Mankind is commonly very prone to that Folly of running out of one Extream into another And it is as certain and apparent that the Christians all over the World being divided into several different Parties are generally where they have any Zeal at all more zealous for their own particular Parties and for those things which are peculiar to them than for Christianity it self or the Great matters of it in which all agree and that accordingly they are generally more led and swayed by the Comments and Doctrines of their Teachers and leading men of their respective Parties and the Opinion they have of them than by the plain Text of the S. Scripture and the Authority thereof though they do not apprehend so much themselves All this might be proved by many Evidences of Fact but that would be too long for this place and besides it is needless For all acknowledge it to be so in all parties but their own which is sufficient Evidence as good as need be against all for their own Confession against themselves is not to be expected And all acknowledge it to be a Fault wherever it is This I note for Caution and to prevent that ill Vse which might be made of what I have here written for a good End viz. that the Church of England might be moved to Reform of her self what is amiss to cast out all Abuses and extirpate all those pestiferous Weeds and Roots of Faction and in case that God for her Negligence should a second time leave her to the Correction of any other Party that they may not again overshoot themselves and by inconsiderate heat instead of Reformation put all into Confusion or by Severity against their fellow Servants provoke the Judgments of their common Lord against themselves For all have their Faults and very considerable ones too and most have some Good almost peculiar to themselves which the rest either overlook or neglect if not oppose or obstinately refuse Even that very party which hath most Weeds of all may and if I be not deceived often doth produce such Fruit amongst those Weeds as can hardly be matcht by any of the other which must therefore have the more to answer for that under a better Culture they do not bring forth better and more mature and excellent Fruit. Had we been as carefull to retain and improve what was good and to restore and repair what was lost or decayed as we were to cast out all that was bad our Work had been more compleat and successfull But while Heat of Contention makes all Parties apt to take the matters in Controversie for the great Matters of Religion what are really the Great Matters of Religion are the less regarded by any and what are taken to be so but are not are prosecuted and pressed further than they ought to be by each respectively when they get the Advantage for it Such were the Superstitions and superfluous Rites whereby the genuine Simple and most Proper and Decent Christian Worship of God was in the Church of Rome corrupted and obscured like good Wheat in a Great heap of Tares and Chaff that many to avoid them have run into a contrary Superstition avoiding and neglecting even natural expressions of Reverence and Decency in it and little less than Prophaneness This justly moved some of our Bishops and Dr. Laud especially when he came into favour to labour as he saith That the External Worship of God so much slighted in many parts might be preserved and that with as much Decency and Uniformity as might be But it was pressed too far in unnecessary matters in a kind of arbitrary manner without an equal concern for the promotion of real and internal Piety nay with obstinate refusal and opposition of Reformation of other great Abuses in Discipline Non-Residence Pluralities c. and with Opposition even of some Means of the promotion of Religion the Observation of the Lords Day Lectures And the purchase of Impropriations as if it was the only thing necessary or it and absolute Subjection to the Will of the Prince under the Notion of Loyalty was the summe of all Religion And this again on the other side made it be looked upon as meer Formality and a Project to prepare us for the readmission of Popery and so raised a greater Antipathy against it which at last cast all out but in its place brought in Indecency Prophaneness and Confusion But we have now a Choice of such Bishops as I hope will make a better use of what I have written and do their parts to make this Caution needless For the Readers better satisfaction concerning the near agreement of the Nature and Genius of our Church-Faction with that of the Church of Rome I recommend to his perusal and Consideration Dr. Barrow's Account of the Inconveniences of the Papal Pretences pag. 201. to pag. 214. Of the Popes Supremacy THE SPIRIT OF THE Church-Faction DETECTED c. I Have formerly taken notice of a certain Difference between the Church-Faction and the True Church of England and the ingenious Dr. H 〈…〉 hath larely acquainted the Honourable House of Commons and the World since in a Sermon now in Print with a notable and very true distinction between the Spirit of God and the Spirit of the Church of England which must be understood of the Church-Faction which arrogates to it self the Name of the Church of England as its Mother the Church of Rome doth the Name of the Catholick Church and with as good Right and Reason every whit Of this Faction I say it must be understood for the True Church of England owns no Spirit for its Guide but that of God And since he hath furnished us with so usefull and remarkable a Distinction to whom can we more properly have recourse to understand the Nature of this Spirit than to him who professeth himself possessed of it and besides is very free and apt upon all occasions to afford Experiments and plain Demonstrations of its natural
related to God as our selves and to keep our selves pure and unspotted of the World And accordingly his Apostles and Disciples those who had not the things of the World sought them not but were contented with Food and Rayment and that they often sought by their own labours and those who had more distributed what they had to such as wanted On the contrary Antichrist is described in the Scripture 1. With great Pomp State Grandure Power and Dominion 2. With much Subtilty and strong Delusions 3. With great Violence and Cruelty being drunk with the Blood of the Saints And if we well consider the Methods which have been used for the suppression of the Christian Religion through the Instigation of that Wicked Spirit which rules in the Hearts of all wicked Men and too often prevails in such as are not of his party if not well purified from carnal and terrene Affections and very vigilant and circumspect we shall find that the first was indeed by open Violence by the Jews and the Heathens But as soon as that appeared not to be sufficient for his purpose he made use of his Subtilty and transforming himself into an Angel of Light set to work by his Instruments to corrupt the simblicity of the Christian Doctrine with subtile Notions and under pretence of Zeal for the true Faith to raise Dissentions and divide the Christians into different parties and set them one against another And by this Means he prevailed mightily among the Greeks who were addicted to Speculation and Oratory But when his first Method of Force wholly failed him and the Roman Emperours became Christians neither had his second Method that effect among the Romans as it had with the Greeks they being more addicted to Pomp and Grandure and Dominion than to Notions and Speculations he presently attach'd them with those things which were more agreeable to their Disposition and instigated them to express their Zeal for the Church by conferring as much of this kind upon it as might be and their Bishops as greedily to catch at it This is that which St. Augustine and the Bishops of that famous Council in Africa noted and gravely and sharply reproved in the then Bishops of Rome that they introduced Typhum Seculi in Ecclesiam the Pomp and Grandure of the World into the Church And when they were once tainted and levened with this Poyson of the Spirit of the World they were easily instigated to the use of Force and Violence against any who never so justly opposed their Ambition as that Council did till at last they proceeded to Blood and all kind of Cruelty in after Ages And now for the Tendence and Subservience of these things of the World so much neglected by Christ and his true Disciples and so greedily sought after by others to which of the Ends before mentioned it is most and the Effects and Consequences of them upon Men 1. It is plain that they do for the most part strangely insinuate themselves into the Affections of those that acquire them insomuch that what is commonly said of one of them Crescit amor nummi quantum ipsa pecunia crescit may truly be said of all much would have more and the more men have the more they still crave and so easily observable every where that I need say no more 2. These Affections to the things of the World are apt continually to occupy and take up the Mind and to avert it or detain it from God its proper Object partly by Complacency in them and partly by Distractions about them 3. And this doth easily proceed to a kind of Trust and Confidence in them and Reliance upon them with Acquiescence and Repose whereby they become such a false bottom to it as I mentioned before an Idol instead of the Living God 4. And this must needs partly chill if not extinguish all true Devotion and Affection to God and cause a Narrowness of Soul as to any generous Acts for his Service or the common Good of Men and partly infatuate it with False Security and Presumption of the Favour of God grounded upon such External Blessings and a formal outside Religion according to its own Disposition 5. And then lastly All is soon compleated with that height of Pride Arrogance and Indignation and Severity against all who oppose or refuse to stoop and pay Reverence to so Worshipful a Being All which is directly contrary to the intire Subjection of the Creature to the Creator which is the very End of our living here upon Earth and of the Conduct of the Divine Spirit and insensibly leads into the State and subjects it to the Power of the Devils And for the Effect and Consequence thereof upon others the Ostentation of those who have some share of these things is apt to provoke the Emulation of those who have less and that instigates them first to Care and Pains to get as much as their Neighbours though otherwise they may perhaps have enough for themselves and their Families if they would but conform to it and so robs them of much precious Time and distracts their Minds from their proper Object by unnecessary Care for Superfluities and so also gives advantage to the Spirit of the World to insinuate the deeper into them And Secondly if honest Pains and honest Gains will not satisfie the Emulation it instigates further to indirect Means as Frauds Cheats Exactions Oppressions secret Stealth and open Robbery wherewith particular Persons are wronged and molested and many undone many Arts Projects and Practices of Covetous and Ambitious Officers Courtiers Statesmen and Princes whereby States and Governments and whole Nations are disturbed and often involved in great Troubles and most of that various Wickedness which we daily see punished with the untimely Death of so many Malefactors But besides those grosser Evils which are apparent to every ordinary Observation there is another more subtile Evil Consequence which falls heavy upon a great part of Mankind and so makes the Curse much worse than ever God made it It keeps down many Young and many honest industrious People that with all their Care Labour and Industry they are hardly able to get an honest Livelihood and Subsistence for their Families and makes Necessity a great Temptation to many These are great Evils under the Sun such as do greatly strengthen and increase the Kingdom of Darkness and such as the Christians of the Reformed Churches as we call them have much to answer for before God But it would require a longer Discourse than is fit for this place fully to explain them I shall therefore only add that the Great Instruments of this Mystery of Wickedness are the Great Men of the World the Stately Dames and all that either prosecute the things of the World with Greediness and without measure retain them without use or use them with Ostentation in Attire in immodest Fashions such as our Womens Fioccoes fitter for Fore-horses heads than for the Foreheads of
Christian Women in great Tables Curious Furniture Attendants and Prodigality at Inns and Taverns to Servants upon their Pleasures and other matters forgetting the Account they must one day make for these Talents But no greater Instruments do I know in this Mystery than such Clergymen as forgetting the Design and Precepts of the Gospel and the Example of our Saviour and the ancient Christians by a contrary Example in seeking Preferments in making Provision for the flesh and Ostentation of the things of the World in themselves their Wives and Children and by too close following and thereby authorizing and encouraging the Fashions and Modes and Finery and State of the World render themselves the Devils Journeymen to expose and recommend his Wares and his Servants to spread his Snares who should as the Ministers and Servants of Jesus Christ by their Example recommend the noble Simplicity of our Christian Profession as well as by their Doctrine inculcate the Exactness of a true Christian Conversation and the Strictness of the Account we must all one day give of what we have done in the Flesh And yet some there are who as if their Compliance and Encouragement to these things by their Example were not enough scruple not to be Advocates for them even in their Pulpits and in Printed Books and teach People by Pharisaical Glosses to elude the plainest and most express Texts of Scripture and instead of Religious care to conform their Manners to them to study and invent such Comments for them as may least thwart their corrupt manners little considering that the Precepts of the Gospel were designed for Mankind with respect to a Common Good and that many things which considered in themselves or as the acts of a particular Person may seem little yet considered with all their Circumstances and Consequences when become Common to a whole Nation or to many Nations are very pernicious and therefore all participation in them dangerous to particular Persons Nor do I see how the Pompous Titles and Vestments of our Bishops can be excused from recommending these false Wares instead of the genuine Ornaments of the Gospel as Motives of Respect And certain it is that those Bishops who in the beginning of Queen Elizabeths Reign were the Principal Reformers of the Church of England thought them fit to be reformed nor was that opposed upon any consideration of Religion but reason of State and that not well considered as the event hath proved And I my self have discoursed with Bishops now living who have expressed to me the same sense of these things and I doubt not but would willingly consent to a reformation of them But for their Revenues I should not wish any abatement thereof provided they were but conferred in such manner as might not continually fill and pester the Church with worldly Factious Men and so used as they ought to be as Talents whereof an Account must be given for the real Service of Religion that they who have Riches were as rich in Good Works that so the People might be taught by their Example as well as by their Doctrine the true Use and Value of Temporal things and the danger of Riches otherwise Only whereas in the first Ages the Stock and Revenues of the Church were imployed partly for the Maintenance of the Bishop and Clergy in common not of the Bishop alone and partly for Works of Charity for such was then the Frugality and Piety of the Clergy that their Charity often extended to very remote parts and whereas afterwards our Ancestors in this Nation to say nothing of other Parts so ordered the Matter that besides an ample separate Revenue for the Bishop all Parishes had a competent Maintenance for the inferiour Clergy belonging to them and it was one of the notorious Abuses of the Papacy to rob the richer Parishes of their maintenance for their own Clergy and therewith augment the Revenues of the Bishops or of the Monasteries which was the Original of Impropriations I do not see how our Bishops and Deans and Chapters can with good Conscience retain such Impropriations and see the Parishes out of which they receive such Revenues deprived of competent Maintenance for able Ministers or enjoy so ample Revenues as many of them do and make so little use of it for the promotion of Christianity either abroad or at home contrary to the constant Doctrine of the Christians of all former Ages that a Clergyman may not use the Stock of the Church or the Revenues of his Benefice but only as his Moderate need requires and is obliged to employ the residue in Pious Uses and of the Casuists and Doctors of later Ages generally agreeing it to be a Sin in a Clergyman to mispend what exceeds his moderate Necessity and many to be such a Sin as obligeth to Restitution for the Service of the Church and Religion Which savours much of the genuine Christian Spirit But this Faction is of a contrary or quite other Spirit They have little zeal for or sense of any pious Uses Great Zealotes they are indeed for the Church but it is but for the Pomp and Grandure of it which consumes all and can spare nothing for any truly pious Uses and like the Capernaites who followed Christ for the Loaves only for the Preferments of which they hope for a share And therefore it is that their Zeal and Jealousie is very warm against Dissenters whom they look upon as their Rivals or their Adversaries be they never so sober so Religious and so Industrious for promoting of Piety and Vertue but against the most Profane Contemners of all Religion if they but favour the Faction nothing at all And no less Zealots for the State and Government under the specious Name of Loyalty But it is in truth only for the obtaining the Preferments which are not to be had without favour at Court. And therefore they can easily be content to sacrifice the Rights of their Countrey for their own Preferment and betray their Trust for Pensions and Gratuities and their Kings too by base Compliances and by evil and pernicious Counsels into such Courses as make their Government no less uneasie to themselves than to the People and after all desert them when they see occasion to save themselves if they have not before made their own case desperate A just punishment I confess for such Princes as will not consider or be perswaded in time that they who will betray their Country to gratifie them will not fail to betray them also for their own Advantage and to desert them in case of greatest Danger This plainly is the property of a deceitful Harlot contrary to the Duty and Qualities of a truly loving and faithful Wife And if we enquire into the Original of these Amours it will be easie to trace them to the very beginning and first entrance of the Scotch Race into this Kingdom King James his Heart was undoubtedly as is usual in such cases mightily lifted up with
and the Fraud being detected I leave the rest to every one 's own Observation And 3. This is done with the greatest Solemnity and Formality that could be in a Convocation of the Clergy in the Form of Canons and Decrees and those severally passed as upon particular Debates with a Placet eis to each and attested to have passed with one consent under the terms of Constitutions by Bancroft for the upper House of the Province of Canterbury by Overal for the lower House and by Thornborough for the Province of York whereas those Canons of that Convocation which were published passed only the Convocation of the Province of Canterbury And now to consider the Consequences of it How scandalous and impious it is to the Christian Religion and how scandalous and derogatory to the Authority of the Church of England and Convocations of our Clergy I leave to the Consideration of others Likewise how pernicious it might have been to the Civil Government of Soveraign Princes and their States by sowing the seeds of Dissention between them had this Convocation Book been published and obtained Authority or Reputation in the World But what Work it might have made in the World may be perceived by what it hath actually made in these Nations which I will briefly note in some few Observations concerning the Progress and Success of it and of this Regal Ecclesiastical Faction Whether Archbishop Whitgift had before had any hand in laying down the Plot or not he lived not to have any share in the Management of the Convocation That Dr. Heylin Life of Laud Anno 1610. p. 63. attributes solely to his Successor Bancroft who had before manag'd A Secret Corrrespondence with K. James in Scotland insinuating unto him the Necessity of Consorming both Kingdoms in Government and Forms of Worship and laying down a Plot for restoring Episcopacy to that Kirk without Noise or Trouble But that Faculty of laying down Plots he notes in them both and the great Intimacy there was between them And another special Qualification in Bancroft for such a Work may be observed from that Author viz. a close management of his matters without noise and forbearing upon occasion to appear in them himself I have already noted p. 27. the Complaints of that Parliament against the Higher Clergy for writing Books and the Inferiour Clergy for inveighing from the Pulpits against them and pa. 29. that Book of Dr. Cowels published not long after the passing the Convocation Book which may all reasonably be judged the Effects of this Work of the Convocation Thornborough himself had before written one for which he was questioned in Parliament And though Bancroft published none now yet he failed not to promote the Work otherways not only by close Insinuations but by open plain Assertions whereof Coke's 12. Report pa. 63. hath a considerable Instance and by encouragement of such Principles in the Court the Universities and all parts And doubtless his Project of a New Colledge at Chelsey for which he had gotten an Act of Parliament was principally designed for a Seminary of Champions for this Cause and being Chancellor of the University of Oxford he would not fail to leven and prepare many there for the purpose But Death put an end to his Progress and Project 2 Nov. 1610. But the Faction died not with him Nor was the Propagation of the Doctrine even by printed Books neglected There was one published that Year and dedicated to him by Dr. Carleton afterwards Bishop of Landaff which hath divers passages in it to that purpose and others it seems there were which occasioned new complaints in Parliament the same Year And yet so hotly was it still maintained and promoted that within few Years after was Bishop Neile who by the Power and Mediation of Bancroft was made Clerk of the Closet That standing continnally at the Kings Elbow he might be ready to perform Good Offices to the Church and Churchmen Heyl p. 60. for seditious Speeches questioned in Parliament till by many tears and a submissive behaviour he got off But he so gained the Favour of his Master that he was preferred to the Deanry of West minster afterwards successively to the Bishopricks of Rochester 1608. Lichfield 1609. Lincoln 1613. Durham 1617. by K. James and of Winchester 1628. and York 1631. by King Charles after he had been again complained of in Parliament All which Promotions gave him Opportunity to promote the Work for which he was an apt and active Agent in all parts of the Nation Such another Zealot for the Cause was Harsnet Bishop of Chichester who in Parliament time preached such a Sermon at Whitehall upon the Text Give unto Caesar c. as gave such Offence that King James was constrained to call the Lords and Commons to the Banqueting House and calm them with Good words and the Sermon was burnt but the Bishop was afterwards preferred to Norwich by K. James and after that to York by K. Charles The like was done by Dr. Roger Mainwaring Chaplain in Ordinary to the King in two Sermons before the King and Court at Whitehall and after published for which he was impeached in Parliament and charged with a wicked intention to seduce and misguide the Conscience of the King touching the Observation of the Laws c. sentenced to be imprisoned fined a 1000. li. disabled from Preferments c. and his Sermon suppressed by Proclamation declaring the Censure and Sentence just Yet was he soon after pardoned preferred to the Rectory of Stanford Rivers void by the promotion of Mountague to Chichester and had a Dispensation to hold it with that of St. Giles's in the Fields afterwads to the Deanry of Worcester and finally to the Bishoprick of St. Davids which was highly resented by the Lords so that the King commanded him not to come to the Parliament nor send any Proxy And this brings me to the Top of all the Faction who promoted it to its Perfection or rather Confusion viz. Dr. Laud against whom then Bishop of Bath and Wells Complaint was made to the Commons that he had warranted these Sermons to the Press and Mainwaring was no sooner censured but Lauds Cause was called to the Report But all further Proceedings against him at that time were soon stopped by Dissolution of the Parliament 26 June and 1. Jul. had he his Conge d'eslier for Bishop of London and soon after other Favours of which more hereafter These Sermons were preach'd in pursuance of certain Instructions drawn up by him at the Command of the King for promoting an illegal Imposition under the name of a Loan and being preached at Court upon such an Occasion by a Chaplain in Ordinary he had no doubt some special Instructions Directions or Advice in it In other places the Preachers did their parts according as they were required by the said Instructions amongst whom 〈◊〉 Beale was taken notice of and Sibthorp Dr. of Divinity and in Commission of the Peace advanc'd the Service