due respects this one Christian request to your Honours in the behalf of many poor Ministers yea and of the souls of many poor people nay in the Name of your and our Saviour whose work the poorest Minister of the Gospel if able and honest doth perform and so for Christs sake is worthy of his wages and leaving it as a matter of great and publick importance to your pious and wise consideration in due time I cannot conclude better than as I began that so I may compleat the circle of our grateful and just acknowledgments with that eternal veneration praise honour and thanke which from my self and all my Reverend Brethren the Bishops and all the sober Clergy are duly and humbly returned first to the most blessed God whose judgments are unsearchable and whose mercies are everlasting Next To His most Gracoius Majesty for His munisicent and matchless goodness to the Bishops Clergy and Church of ENGLAND Lastly To Your most Noble Selves the Lords and Commons of this present Parliament who have thus taken away the sin reproach and scandal of Sacriledge Schism and Confusion which were by some unhappy men brought upon this sometime so famous Kingdom and flourishing Church of ENGLAND For whose vindication and comfort as the Author was not wanting in her greatest agonies and blackest afflictions publickly to compassionate her sighs and tears so he thought it his duty upon a publick more than private sense seriously to rejoyce and heartily to congratulate with her in this happy restauration which he hath oft prayed for and now lived to see because he is perswaded in his conscience if rightly managed with piety and charity that it highly tends to Gods glory to the honour of our blessed Saviour to the asserting of our true Religion as Christian and Reformed to the establishment of the publick peace in Church and State and lastly to that just and ingenious compensation of good for long endured evil which is highly deserved and justly expected by this Church of England from all its genuine Children not only because it was once well reformed and most flourishing but also because it hath been so grievously and as to man most unjustly afflicted and deformed For without doubt the pious Intentions and prudent Constitutions of the Church of England were such That nothing was or now is wanting in it to make a good Christian perfect to salvation if he be not wanting in himself and to the grace of God offered to him in the Ministery of this Church Every saving truth being maintained by Her Nothing added to or diminished from the word of God as saving or necessary Every holy Duty every divine Institution every sacred Mystery every necessary part of Gods Worship every moral Vertue every Christian Grace every usefully-good Work is either celebrated or enjoined or taught or recommended to every Christian both in private and publique according to their station Nor may any Christian justly blame the Church for any defect but rather their own hearts for want of humility devotion and gratitude to God and men There is holy sap and sweetness in all its Liturgical appointments if men were not surfeited with their own fancies prejudices and pride All things being set forth by the Church without the least tincture of any known Error in Doctrine or Superstition in the substance of Religious Duties and Devotion The outward Form also or publique Reverence and Solemnity of Duties is no other than what without question is left by God to the Liberty Prudence and Authority of every Church and Christian Politie as most consonant First To the Civility and Custome of the Nation Secondly To that outward Veneration which is accordingly due to the Divine Majesty Thirdly To the publick Solemnity and Decency of holy Duties in the Church Fourthly To the ancient Use and Custome of the primitive and best Churches Fiftly No where forbidden by Gods word or by any rule of right Reason Sixthly But chosen used and imposed by this Church within its own Precincts and Politie only under no other Notion than that which is lawful and true 1. In the nature of things circumstantial as still necessary in their general adherency to all outward Actions of need 2dly Yet as free and indifferent still in their nature although cast by authority in to meet Regulations as instances of our outward obedience in them to man for the Lords sake while they continue so appointed 3dly Lawful in the divine Permission Commission and clear Approbation of the Churches Liberty and Authority in such things for publique order and decency 4thly In the necessity of such visible Order Decency and Uniformity fixed by Supreme Wisdom and Authority as most conducing to the Churches outward peace to avoid Faction Schisms Sedition Fury Confusion fires that easily kindle from small sparks if left to vulgar spirits 5thly And lastly all this pious and prudent Politie of the Church of England managed by such apt Overseers and proper Governours as this and all ancient Churches ever used from the Apostles daies under the Titles of Bishops Presidents and Fathers who are according to our Law chosen by the Clergy approved by the Church confirmed by the King as Supreme Governour inabled by Learning Matured by Experience Sanctified by Grace Consecrated by Prayer Devoted by Diligence Assisted by their Brethren of the Clergy Regulated by setled Laws and Canons to do their duty so as God their Consciences and all good men require of them in order to those great and eternal ends of saving their own and others souls besides the temporary blessings of the Churches unity and harmony as in Faith and Love so in Orderliness and Decency without which all Religion runs to Irreverence Faction and Confusion The angry eager and obstinate Quarrels then which some waspish men have long maintained and still do against some mutable words and Phrases in the Liturgy or against some little Rites and innocent yet few Ceremonies used by the Church of England are I fear much more deserved by and due to their own distempered hearts and should in all justice now be turned against the factions proud and pertinacious humours and opinions of those men who had rather quite ruine such an Ancient Famous Reformed and sometime Flourishing Church than rightly understand Her words and meaning or give Her leave to interpret them or than deny themselves in those petty Points of Reputation Opinion and Prejudice to which they may be popularly advanced as beyond a convenient retreat so beyond that humility diseretion meekness peaceableness modesty and charity which best becomes those Presbyters and people who are afraid to contest with their Princes their Bishops and their Countries united Wisdom and Authority lest they be found fighters against the God of order and peace who ought not to take courage from the Kings patience or turn his Indulgence into wantonness Nor have they any cause to be angry that they are not thought wiser than this whole Church and State or because they are not made Dictators to all Convocations Parliaments and Kings Nor should they be so ashamed to come at last from fighting and domineering to petitioning and deprecating or from sinning against God and man to return to their duty to repent and recant the evils the errors and excesses of their ways which God hath wonderfully convinced and confuted by his former blessings on this Church and his present blasting of their new Projects which have froth in their head and blood in their bottom as the water of those men who labour with the stone and Strangury and have their wounds from within What now remains but the Authors particular craving and Your Lordships with the other Gentlemens vouchsafing pardon for the great presumption of such an Orator who conscious to his many defects hath adventured by this grateful Excess to put Your Lordships and them upon the Exercise of Your and Their Noble Patience thereby to give the world a further great experiment of that Gentleness and Candor which adds Lustre to all Your other Honourable and Heroick Virtues of which no men are more witnesses than the Bishops and Clergy of the Church of England not only as wondring Spectators but as thankfull Enjoyers FINIS
and for ever to damne as much as in them lay you and your posterity Other Kings and Princes of this Renowned Kingdome as also many pious Lords and Gentlemen have consecrated many things to God and his Church but his present Majesty hath at once restored all thereby shewing himself to be both Charles le bon le grand A great and good Christian King If I or We for I still presume to set forth the grateful and similary sense of my Reverend Fathers and Brethren the Archbishops Bishops and other Worthy Clergy-men if I say We may with your patience speak any more or indeed were able to say any thing suitable to this so rare so religious and so transcendent a subject his Majesties free and speedy restoring to the Bishops and other Church-men their ancient Honours Dignities and Revenues by your Lordships advice and assent with the Honourable House of Commons It must be in the words of the Psalmist Quid retribuemus Domino Yea Dominis What shall We the Bishops and Clergy of ENGLAND return to the LORD our God and to our Lord the King and to your Lordships and to the Gentry of England or the House of the Commons now assembled in Parliament Give me leave to tell your Lordships and those other Gentlemen not what we would say but what we would do I am sure we should do yea and we resolve to do if we may be assisted with Gods graces and favoured with your Christian Prayers 1. First As to God We do wholly devote our selves and all the advantages we have by his renewed mercies to advance his Glory and the Honour of our Blessed Saviour in the faithful discharge of our duties to the Service of this Church by preaching praying writing living and governing our selves we mean no less than others so as becomes Primitive and Apostolick Bishops so as is on all hands highly deserved of us and justly expected from us according to our places and abilities As it will be easier for us at the great day of account to have wanted these honourable Priviledges than to have abused them so we had much rather not enjoy them at all than not have hearts to use them aright as prime Professors and Patterns of Christianity that is Followers of Jesus Christ and his blessed Apostles in all Piety Prudence Sanctity Charity Sincerity It argued some greatness of mind in some of our Bishops for these many years to have lived contentedly without these temporal and secular advantages not to have sunk and desponded under so long and importune adversities but it will be more of Christian Magnanimity to enjoy them wisely and worthily to overcome the temptation of prosperity to use them not to pride and luxury but to humble and holy industry to discreet hospitality to cheerful charity to the good of the Church and to Gods glory who hath promised to honour those that honour him and to adde all these things to those that first seek his Kingdome and the righteousness thereof Doubtless nothing will be wanting to us if we be not wanting to God his Church our selves and our Brethren of the Clergy who are sober men void of depraved opinions and debauched practices Secondly In reference to his gracious Majesty our resolutions are That none of his Subjects shall more imitate and if your Lordships give us leave cheerfully emulate your and their Loyalty Love and Fidelity to his Majesties safety peace and happiness temporal and eternal than we his Bishops who of all men may least be traytors to his Honour Conscience or Soul who having dealt so bountifully with us cannot but expect from us those honest and faithful things which are most worthy of his Munificence and our Integrity So as may most conduce to his Majesties welfare and the publick peace The first we should basely betray together with our own Souls if we should cease daily to pray for his Majesties happiness if we should fail to set forth the whole truth of God to him and his Subjects Lastly if we should serve sooth or silently flatter any known sin in our selves or any others whatsoever and least of all in those whose sins must needs be as most conspicuous and exemplary so most contagious and dangerous The second of publick peace we shall best serve and secure by well and wisely ordering as Spiritual Captains and Colonels of the Ecclesiastical Militia that Army of Ministers or great company of Preachers in England and Wales which cannot be less then ten thousand men effectivè whose number is great and their influence with their activity much greater being mustred and in spiritual armes at least once every week where getting upon the higher ground and being as in Christs stead they cannot but have a very great stroke on mens and more on womens ears hearts and purses These had need be well disciplined and governed under Christ and his Majesty according to Gods Word the Laws of this Kingdom and the Constitutions of this Church which must be their and all our rules by which they and we must serve God and the King as with truth and holiness so with decency order and uniformity Neither excentrick nor erratick from our proper Spheres nor yet defective or deformed in them The managing of which great Concern being by his Majesty and the Laws chiefly committed to us Bishops it will be most our sin and shame to be wanting in our duty If any man blame us for doing what is lawful and just yea necessary for the publick peace they must withal blame the Laws and by a most egregious folly think themselves wiser than the publick wisdom the Laws and Laws-makers in which their own consent is included and from which no man may lightly be a Renegado Thirdly As to your Nobleness no men shall more study your Lordships true honour and eternal happiness the only sufficient requital of your meritorious love and favour to us who have accepted yea restored us Bishops to be Partakers of your honour Auditors of your wisdom and Spectators of your noblest Conversation in that place where every one studies to put on the best appearance We and our Successors must for ever be faithful Counsellors Friends and Servants to your Lordships and your Noble Posterity who possibly will bear from our age place and quality with greater patience civility and acceptance than from other Ministers those discreet monitions seasonable intimations and wholsome counsels which may be sometimes most necessary for you and them It will always best become us rather to offend you by telling you the truth in a decent manner than to betray you to those sinful infirmities or passions which are your greatest enemies next to your flatterers No men shall be more ashamed than we to see our selves sit in Parliament that is in the Congregation of Princes or mortal Gods if we should not behave our selves in all respects answerable to your Illustrious Society and to your great merits towards us As we are
Government which St Jerome requires and ownes as exors necessaria potestas Episcoporum as a principal and eminent power necessary for the Church of Christ and specially residing in Bishops Indeed in the beginning or infancy of Churches as many learned men have observed the powers or offices of Deacon Presbyter Bishop and Apostle might possibly be resident in and exercised by one man where there was but an handful or little flock of two or three gathered together in Christs name But when Beleivers and Congregations and so their Pastors multiplied then there was a necessity of politie order and wisdom to distinguish and rank these offices and Officers into several politick distributions or helps of Government some to be the flocks others to be the Pastors some to be only as Presbyters praying preaching baptizing consecrating and blessing the people others as Presidents or Bishops ruling over the many Presbyters and people too within their inspection others as Deacons servient to Bishops Presbyters and people And all this to keep such an orderly unity as may best avoid Schismatical Confusions in the Church of Christ which ought to be as an Army with Banners where are the Ensigns of Office and Authority the directives of orderly motion the centers of union and the securers of the common safety by wise commands and ready obedience Nor may the sameness of the Names or of Naturals Morals or Religion as to faith gifts and graces nor the community of some Christian Priviledges duties or offices of charity these may not be pleaded against the primitive distinction of Eminent Honour and Authority among the Clergy any more than all priority and superiority may be denyed among men in respect of Civil Magistracy who are of the same Nature Parentage City Trade and Country or among Souldiers of the same Army or Scholars of the same Colledge and University To be sure that over-seeing presidential and gubernative power which shall authoritatively look to the Eutaxie good order and unity of the Church such as was in the prime and secondary Apostles the first as Oeconomical the second as Metropolitical or Diocesan Bishops such as was committed to Timothy and Titus and exercised by them not only as Evangelists or Preachers but as Presidents and Prelates this power cannot be either regularly or prudently or safely in England committed to any hands but to those venerable Clergy-men whom his Majesty and the Laws shall think fit to constitute as Governours over others and from whom they may have an account of all Nor can it be in better or safer hands than those of learned wise grave and godly Bishops assisted by such sober Presbyters or Ministers as his Majesty and the Laws shall either appoint or permit them to call to their counsel and assistance in their Ordinations or in their exercise of Ecclesiastical Censures and Jurisdiction Not by way of a Consistorian negative which is to alter and unhinge the whole Government turning wine into water and making way for all factions to breed even in the Nest of Church-Government but by such publick presence and venerable conspicuity of many learned and wise Counsellors as may best avoid any mistakes or errors and most contribute by their being witnesses of all transactions to that authority which is necessary to convince men of sin and to convert them from the error of their ways when they see themselves condemned by the censure not of one only but of many worthy and impartial men An Help Ornament and Honour in Church-Government which really for our own part we earnestly desire and ambitiously embrace as that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Ignatius Cyprian and others so magnifie that Fraternal Consess and Ecclesiastical Council which may not only be witnesses of our publick actions but assistants in all such publick dispatches as are not safely committed to any one man nor can discreetly be managed by him without contracting too much envy anger and odium upon him which sense we believe is common with all our Worthy Brethren Indeed no wise Bishop can affect an arbitrary power or an absolute and sole Dominion Nor are we willing to be thus either exposed to others calumnies or betrayed to our selves because we know our selves to be but men and subject to the same infirmities with other sinful Mortals Nor can we be so happy as when we are both compassed encouraged and supported with our aged learned and reverend Brethren of the Clergy who may be every way as able and deserving as our selves Thus sortified and assisted we may by Gods help be capable without too great burthen to discharge the proper duties and offices of Bishops both in and out of Parliaments which is to see Nè quid detrimenti patiatur Religio Ecclesia vera Reformatio c. That our Religion as Christian as well Reformed and as by Law duly established suffer no detriment diminution or debauchery no Apostacy Schism or Division in Doctrine Discipline or Devotion in Sanctity Solemnity or Uniformity either by profaneness petulancy or faction What his Majesty your Lordships and other Gentlemen of other civil Employments cannot so well observe to be amiss in Church or Church-men we the Bishops as publick Watch-men and Over-seers may best inform you of what we cannot amâ—nd by reason of the luxuriancy or obstinacy of some refractory spirits your eminent authority may command and curb according to Law in which the publick wisdom and power safety and honour do concenter In the last place as to the great merits of the Honourable House of Commons and in them of all the ingenuous Gentry with all the Religious and Loyal People of England towards us the Bishops of this Church We shall chuse rather to dye or to be again degraded by the folly and fury of Schismatical envy and malice than not to make good by our actions their good esteem of us or to forfeit by any fault of ours their ready suffrages for us We shall never think any thing added to us by this great favour and honour shewed us if we do not find in them mighty spurs and goads to provoke us more to our duties of sound preaching sober praying discreet governing and holy living which are the solid honours of all good Bishops and true Ministers As they are the debts also which we indispensibly owe to God to this Church and to the least Member of it What may possibly be wanting in the frequency number and tale of our Sermons by reason of our age and infirmity shall be made up in their weight and when we shall not be able to preach at all we will study to live over the best of our Sermons and to preach by our examples when we cannot by our words God forbid we should suddenly forget those late horrid and long conflagrations out of which the good hand of God by the Kings favour and this Parliaments assistance hath snatched us and this whole Church yea God forbid that we the Bishops and all
refuse the obedience due to Civil Magistracy or who oppose the liberty and authority of this particular Church to regulate and govern its own politie agreeable to Gods Word and the practice of all other Churches Our care shall be as not to spend much precious time in things that do not edifie nor to adde the weight of substance to feathers which are but ornaments so nor to expose Religion rude and bare naked and ridiculous to the world much less to sacrifice the publick peace honour and wisdom to private petulancy and pertinacy Yet still we shall make a great difference between the weak and the willful the superstitious and supercilious the scrupulous and scornful doubters and dissenters between the humble Professors and constant Practisers of true Religion in the main of Morals and Fiducials and the turbulent Praters or pragmatick agitators who love to swim against the stream of Authority against right Reason and true Religion established Laws and good Order setled Government and due Subjection We shall first endeavour with meekness of wisdom to satisfie all sober and good men next we shall do as the Law commands against the malipert and obstinate wranglers who make no conscience to deny common Principles to swallow absurdities and reconcile contradictions between their own liberties challenged to themselves and their rigid severities imposed by them upon others There is no reason for them to complain if the same measure be measured to them which they have meted to others every way their equals and in many their betters Nor shall they ever have so much cause to cry out of what they suffer as of what they have done We are not averse from any discrect indulgence which his Majesty and the Law shall see sit to grant to some persons for some time till better instructed and brought off from their prejudices we shall not envy or grudge or deny any honest man those dispensations and forbearances so far as our Charity to private Christians may not be prejudicial to the Churches peace and publick good to which we and all men owe the greatest charity and which may not under any flourishes of zealous praying and preaching or under any pretensions of private conscience be either undermined or overthrown what ever colours of Non-conformity or thorough Reformation men carry before them We know there are many envious eyes upon us and bitter tongues sharpned against us some quarrel that we are no better though themselves be not very good others are grieved that we are not worse This impotent malice of unreasonable or uncharitable men is best silenced and confuted by our just and gentle demeanour toward all And although we are not to be encouraged or over-awed with the weak words of men yet our care shall be that nothing be spoken of us bad but it shall be false The rough tongues of our enemies shall be but as siles and whetstones to our Virtues as their rude hands have been the touchstone of our patience This is the worst and only revenge we intend to take of all our causeless Adversaries either to perswade and win them to sobriety or to overcome and disarm them by our being or doing better then they deserve or desire The injuries and indignities cast upon some of us heretofore and all of us now by the pride improbity or petulancy of any shall but give greater fervour to our industry prayers and charity The former rigors used by some Tyrants Tryers and Inquisitors against Bishops and the Episcopal Clergy shall not carry us beyond the sober bounds of Gods and mans Law nor beyond that Law of Christian charity which is the bond of perfection and which commands us to let our Christian moderation be known to all men and our love even to our enemies We will not less encourage true piety sanctity and sincerity because of the scandal and cruelty of some mens hypocrisie We have not so learned Christ in whose holy footsteps we shall endeavour to tread as the surest evidence that we succeed in his Ministry and exercise his Authority Those Ministers or people whose hearts most misgive them as fearing the return of hard measure from Bishops because of the great evil they have as Pseudo-Presbyters and Apostates done or designed against all Bishops and the whole Church of England We cannot better Answer for their security than as Joseph did to his Brethren when he was now advanced and it was in the power of his hand to hurt them as their own jealous souls justly told them when he replied to their astonishment I am Joseph whom ye sold into Aegypt Be not afraid I fear God c. Thereby implying That he could not meditate or act any revenge but that of Love against his brethren who professed to own and serve the same God and whose mercy had now turned their intended mischief into good Let our greatest enemies heretofore now repent of the evil they have done and designed against this Church and Kingdom no less than against Bishops let them shew their repentance by living so as becomes good Christians and good Subjects As the Lord liveth there shall not one hair of their head fall to the ground by our means We meditate the good of all men and most of those that have been our deluded yea their own enemies and who will now be our friends and their own on any reasonable terms As good Physitians we shall have special care of those who most need our help and cure As Fathers we shall readily embrace those penitent prodigal Sons which return to us We know that nothing will sooner end all unkind unjust and uncomfortable quarrels than the holy and unblamable lives of Us Bishops which as the presence of Christ and the shadows of the Apostles will either cast out the evil spirits that yet remain in some men after all the miracles of Gods providences or else more torment them Our Virtues and Graces shall be the only Revengers as they will be the sharpest Satyrs and severest reproaches yea and the most assured Victors of mens evil speeches and insolent carriages In this holy integrity while we justifie his Majesties Wisdom with Your Honors Counsels and comprobation we shall have none to fear or flatter whose evil designs under any popular and threed-bare quarrels against all Episcopacy Liturgy and Ceremonies are to overthrow both Law and Gospel Church and State bringing all into Anarchy and confusion We shall indeed highly urge conformity especially in our selves and all true Ministers Conformity I say first to the Word of God to the Examples of Jesus Christ and his holy Apostles with all true Saints Next to those Canons and Laws of the Church and State which bind Us and them most to loyalty and duty Lastly We shall so far urge an external conformity in circumstantials and Ceremonies as shall be required of them and Us by Law in order to preserve decency reverence uniformity and solemnity in holy Duties also peace and unity
in Church and State as free God knows from Superstition or Will-worship or unlawful humane Inventions as some other mens affected words and modes ceremonies and forms are in their eyes hands speeches and gesticulations When His Majesty Your Lordships and the Worthy Gentlemen of the House of Commons together with all the sober English World shall see Us Bishops demeaning our selves as they would have Us and as you have deserved of Us in the way of great and good examples proportionable to our pious and venerable Predecessors before and since the Reformation no doubt Your Lordships and all Worthy Persons will be as far from repenting of Your restoring Bishops to their government and jurisdiction also to their ancient honour and capacity of Sitting in the House of Peers and therein of restoring this Church and Christian Kingdom to their pristine honour peace and safety by Gods blessing as some others are from rejoycing or not repining at Gods mercy the Kings benignity this Parliaments generosity and piety as well as policy and discretion in preferring the gray head of primitive and venerable Episcopacy before the beardless striplings of Presbytery and Independency with which new wines if any weak heads in England be still so in love as to chuse them before the old wine which is better certainly they will have this happiness in their unlucky errour as to have no learned and honest man to be their rival If any things have seemingly or really been amiss in any of our Predecessors or our selves through humane frailty or passion which easily besets the best of men in this life as our desire is not to deny or dissemble them so truly they cannot now with any modesty be remembred or objected by these Adversaries against Us or any Bishops heretofore since the covetousness ambition pride tyranny cruelty and implacableness of some Anti-Episcopal and Anarchical spirits have been so excessively insolent and outragious even to a wantonness of wickedness and to all manner of injastice far beyond the worst actions of the worst of Bishops in the worst of times since the Reformation But whatever hath really been amiss our caution shall be to avoid or amend all faults as much as Your charity and Nobleness hath this day covered and forgot both their infirmities and any of our failings What was eminent as much was in many of them and commendable in most of them our endeavour shall be to imitate where we despair to exceed That while Your Lordships or others behold us either in the Parliament or the Pulpit or the Press or the Consistory you may not have much cause to deplore the absence of our famous Predecessors whom you cannot but love and admire as we do for their piety learning industry and charity In sum we shall strive that neither Bishops nor Episcopacy shall be any burthen but a great blessing as it hath been to this Church and Kingdome to King and Subjects to the good and bad to encourage the former and to restrain and amend the latter Which happy effects will easily be attained First If we may be guided and circumscribed by good Laws and Canons beyond or short of which no Presbyter or Bishop may go no not in any exemplary ceremony or affected novelty to a super-conformity Secondly If we may be defended in doing our duties by his Majesties just power without cramping or benumming the sinnews of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction by needless prohibitions Thirdly If we may be still assisted and adorned with your Lordships and the other Gentlemens love and favour Fourthly If we may be duly fortified by the desired counsel and meet assistance of our aged learned and reverend brethren of the Clergy Lastly If we may be daily commended as the Church-Liturgy hath appointed and for which passages it is so unwelcome to many who love Church Lands better than they do the best Church men or Bishops more devoted to prey upon them than for them to the marvellous workings of Gods grace by the prayers of all good Christians which we do not more want than passionately and humbly desire That since we the Bishops of this Church are again brought to this high mountain and thus transfigured our faces may so shine in good words and works that your Lordships and all this Church of England may glorifie our Father which is in heaven That we may abhor that Soloecism of Honor sublimis vita deformis Lordly Titles and Peasantly actions And since there is no greater sign of a thankful heart for mercies which our selves have received than a charitable sense of our Brethrens miseries that in the day of our Exaltation as Bishops to Estates and Honours we may not forget the depressions and afflictions of others Give leave to as many of us as are thus compassionate to present our supplication to your Honours the two Houses of Parliament and by your mediation to his Majesty A great one indeed it is and therefore worthy of so great an address to persons of large hearts and hands who are ready to answer great desires and to effect great designs It is in the behalf of many of our poor Brethren the Clergy of England and Wales That there may be some effectual means used worthy of the Wisdom Piety and Charity of His Majesty and His Two Houses of Parliament to relieve the meanness tenuity and incompetency of their scandalous livings which makes many of them as more needing so less capable of Discipline Objects also of vulgar contempt depressing their spirits starving their studies discouraging them in their duties betraying them to sordidness of living exposing them to many temptations and lastly subjecting them to all popular servilities complacencies and dependancies which are the nests and brests the seminaries and nurseries of all faction There is no way to redeem them their Ministry and this Reformed Church from these burthens and chains that enter into the very souls of many at first ingenious Scholars and hopeful Ministers but by making small livings somwhat competent His Majesty hath set a great example in this kind commanding augmentations to be allowed out of his own and the Churches impropriations But this bounty cometh short of at least 3000 livings which still remain in ENGLAND and WALES as Flats or shallows in the Sea upon which when the necessities of many young men and hopeful Scholars once drive them they seldom ever get off without shipwrack of Morals or Intellectualls However it is such a stop and hinderance to the proficiency of their studies also to the authority and efficacy of their Ministry that they seldom or never make a Prosperous voyage ever conflicting with difficulties and many times conquered by them not only to a meanness but an immorality of living It is a work worthy of His Majesties greatness and your goodness to apply in Gods good time some meet help to this crying Malady which first began by the Popes unhappy alienating of Tythes from the Incumbents or Rectors and annexing them