Selected quad for the lemma: england_n
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A30956
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A remembrancer of excellent men ...; Remembrancer of excellent men
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Barksdale, Clement, 1609-1687.
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1670
(1670)
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Wing B806; ESTC R17123
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46,147
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158
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upon a general charge imputing to the Church of England the great crime of Schism and by this they thought they might with most probability deceive unwary and unskilful Readers for they saw the Schism and they saw we had left them and because they consider'd not the Causes they resolved to out-face us in the Charge The Bishop now having an Argument fit to employ his great abilities undertakes the question and in a full Discourse proves the Church of Rome not only to be guilty of the Schism by making it necessary to depart from them but they did actuate the Schism and themselves made the first separations in the great point of the Pope's Supremacy which was the palladium for which they principally contended He made it appear that the Popes of Rome were Usurpers of the Rights of Kings and Bishops that they brought in new Doctrines in every Age that they impos'd their own devices upon Christendom as Articles of Faith that they prevaricated the Doctrines of the Apostles that the Church of England only return'd to her Primitive purity that she joyn'd with Christ and his Apostles that she agreed in all the sentiments of the Primitive Church 18. The old Bishop of Chalcedon known to many of us replyed to this excellent Book but was soon answer'd by a Rejoynder made by the Lord Bishop of Derry in which he so pressed the former Arguments refuted the Cavils brought in so many imimpregnable Authorities and probations and added so many moments and weights to his Discourse that the pleasures of reading the Book would be the greatest if the profit to the Church of God were not greater Whenever men will desire to be satisfied in those great questions the Bishop of Derry's Book shall be their Oracle 19. I will not insist upon his other excellent Writings but it is known every where with what Piety and acumen he wrote against the Manichaean Doctrine of fatal necessity which a late witty man had pretended to adorn with a new Vizor but this excellent person washed off the ceruss and the meretricious paintings rarely well asserted the Oeconomy of the Divine Providence and having once more triumph'd over his Adversary betook himself to the more agreeable attendance upon Sacred Offices and having usefully and wisely discoursed of the Sacred Rite of Confirmation impos'd hands upon the most illustrious Princes the Dukes of York and Glocester and the Princess Royal and ministred to them the promise of the Holy Spirit and ministerially established them in the Religion and Service of the Holy Jesus 20. And one thing more I shall remark that at his leaving those parts upon the Kings Return some of the Remonstrant Ministers of the Low-Countries coming to take their leaves of his great man and desiring that by his means the Church of England would be kind to them He had reason to grant it because they were learned men and in many things of a most excellett Belief yet he reproved them and gave them caution against it that they approached too near and gave too much countenance to the great and dangerous errours of the Socinians 21. He thus having serv'd God and the King abroad God was pleas'd to return to the King and to us all as in the days of old and we sung the Song of David In convertendo captivitatem Sion When King David and all his Servants returned to Jerusalem this great person having trod in the Wine-press was called to drink of the Wine and as an honorary Reward of his great Services and Abilities was chosen Primate of this National Church He had this Remark in all his Government that as he was a great hater of Sacriledge so he professed himself a publick enemy to non-residence and religiously against it allowing it in no case but of necessity or the greater good of the Church 22. There are great things spoken of his Predecessor St. Patrick that he founded 700 Churches and Religious Covents that he ordained 5000 Priests and with his own hands Consecrated 350 Bishops How true the story is I know not but we are all witnesses that the late Primate whose memory we now Celebrate did by an extraordinary contingency of Providence in one day consecrate two Archbishops and ten Bishops and did benefit to almost all the Churches in Ireland and was greatly instrumental to the endowments of the whole Clergy and in the greatest abilities and incompararable industry was inferiour to none of his most glorious Antecessors 23. The Character which was given of that Learned Primate Richard of Armagh by Trithemius does exactly fit this our Father Vir in divinis c. He was learned in the Scriptures skilled in secular Philosophy and not unknowing in the Civil and Canon Laws in which studies I wish the Clergy were with some carefulness and diligence still more conversant He was of an excellent Spirit a Scholar in his Discourses an early and industrious Preacher to the People And as if there were a more particular sympathy between their souls our Primate had so great a veneration to his Memory that he purposed if he had lived to have restor'd his Monument in Dundalk which time or impiety or unthankfulness had either omitted or destroyed So great a lover he was of all true and inherent worth that he loved it in the very memory of the Dead and to have such great examples transmitted to the intuition and imitation of Posterity 24. At his coming to the Primacy he knew he should at first espy little besides the ruines of Discipline a Harvest of Thorns and Heresies prevailing in the hearts of the people the Churches possessed by Wolves and Intruders mens hearts greatly estranged from true Religion and therefore he set himself to weed the Fields of the Church He treated the Adversaries sometimes sweetly sometimes he confuted them learnedly sometimes he rebuked them sharply He visited his Charges diligently and in his own person not only by proxies and instrumental deputations he design'd nothing that we know of but the Redintegration of Religion the Honour of God and the King the restoring of collapsed Discipline and the renovation of the Faith and the Service of God in the Churches and still he was indefatigable and even in the last Scene of his life not willing that God should take him unemployed 25. The last of January God sent him a brisk alarm of Death whereupon he made his Will in which beside the prudence and presence of Spirit manifested in making a just and wise settlement of his Estate and provisions for his descendants at midnight and in the trouble of his sickness and circumstances of addressing death he kept still a special sentiment and made confession of Gods admirable mercies and gave thanks that God had permitted him to live to see the blessed Restauration of his Majesty and the Church of England confessed his Faith to be the same as ever gave praises to God that he was born and bred up in this Religion and prayed
preached in the beginning of every year Brief determinations of Theological Questions in the Schools very many and written with his own hand Fuller and more exact determinations of questions at the Commencement of the same number with his Latin Sermons a Book against Stapleton De originali peccato written fair and prepared for the Press The loss of these we may impute to his Immature Death For by a winter Journey to London and immoderate watching he contracted a Disease whereof he died peaceably breathing out his Spirit sweetly as an infant and saying He desired to live no longer unless for Gods Honour and the Churches service He was honourably buried in his Colledge having been Regius Professor An. 16. Head of St. Johns An. 9. Decemb. 1595. AEt 47. IV. Dr. Andrew Willet From Dr. Peter Smith 1. THere is no way more expedite of instruction to good life as Polybius wisely observeth than by the knowledge of things past and of the noble acts of famous Worthies their Histories are our Documents and their honours our incitements whereas Fame contemned brings contempt of Virtue We are not easily moved with Precepts Examples are more powerful Wherefore I have adventured briefly to sum up a few remarkable passages of the Life and Death of the Laborious and Learned Dr. Willet whose worth in the full Latitude cannot easily be expressed and my guide herein shall be either certain knowledge or most credible relation 2. It was ever esteemed no mean blessing to be well descended and though thy Fathers goodness shall avail thee little if thou beest not good yet it availeth much to make thee good Such a good Father had this worthy man by name Mr. Thomas Willet a grave Divine who in his younger time was Sub-Almoner unto that Reverend Prelate Dr. Cox Eleemosynary and Schoolmaster unto Edward VI. our Englands young Josiah of most blessed memory After whose death Dr. Cox being in Exile during the Reign of Queen Mary this Mr. Willet was not only deprived of his Service but enforced for his Conscience to forsake his first Promotion in the Church of Windsor and to betake himself to the House of a truly noble Gentleman who was a faithful Obadiah and hid him in those days of persecution But when Dr. Cox by Queen Elizabeth was advanced to the Bishoprick of Ely his antient Chaplain then repairs unto him is lovingly embraced and preferred to a Prebend in his Church And afterward when a Messenger told the good Bishop the Parson of Barley in Hartfordshire was dead the Bishop replied He is not dead And when the party avowed he was dead the Bishop again replies I tell you the Parson of Barley is not dead for there he sits pointing at Mr. Willet who was then sitting at the Table 3. The Rectory being thus added to his other means did now enable him to do works of Charity and as he had freely received so he freely gave He remembred that he had been the Dispenser of a Princes Alms and still retained a magnificent mind that way His Wife was as nobly minded and as free In her elder years when her Children were disposed of in the world her manner was to call her poor Neighbours in and feeding them to say Now again have I my Children about me Thus they laid up blessings for their seed were preserved upon an unexpected accident befalling a Proctor of their Colledge undertook his Office at the Commencement and being as Thucydides saith of Themistocles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 very dexterous and ready to perform any thing well upon the sudden his Orations were such as gained the approbation and applause if not the admiration of all his Auditors both their own and strangers who knew the straits of time wherein he was confined 7. After he had spent 13 years in that University his Father now grown old resigned his Prebend in the Church of Ely which by the Favour of Queen Elizabeth sede vacante was conferr'd upon him Hereupon he left his Fellowship and betook himself to the Society of a Wife of the Kindred of old Doctor Goad Provost of Kings Colledge In this estate God bless'd him with a numerous Issue 8. His manner was to arise early in the morning and to get half way on his Journey before others could get out he came down at the hour of Prayer taking his Family with him to Church after he was preferred to the Rectory of Barley upon the death of his Father there Service was publickly read either by himself or his Curate to the great comfort of his Parishioners before they went out to their daily Labours Prayers being ended he returns unto his task again until near dinner time then he would recreate himself a while either playing upon a little Organ or sporting with his young Children and sometimes he would use cleaving of Wood for exercise of his Body At his Table he was always pleasant to his Company telling some pretty Apothegme or Facete Tale and seasoning it with some profitable Application After dinner his custom was to refresh himself a little sometime sitting in Discourse sometime walking abroad and now and then taking some view of his Husbandry after which straightway to his better employments again till supper time so that commonly without extraordinary avocations he spent no less than eight hours a day in his Study 9. By which long continued course he had read the Fathers Councils Ecclesiastical Histories c. and published Books to the number of 33 besides nine more unprinted He hath much variety of matter in his larger sixfold Commentaries where he hath collected and judicially disposed those things which you have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 scatteringly in many several Books and saving the Readers cost and pains hath molded up together the choicest flour of Commentaries old and new that appear upon those parts of the Scripture but his Synopsis Papismi carrieth away the prize before all other Writings wherewith Dr. Willet hath adorned our Church being now the fifth time and that by special Commendation from his Royal Majesty published Justly is he numbred by Bishop Hall sometime his Collegue in the Service of Prince Henry among those Worthies of the Church of England to whom he gives this Elogy Stupor mundi clerus Britannicus 10. Amidst all his pains of Writing and his other Studies he never omitted his usual exercise of Preaching In his younger time he read the Lecture for three years together in the Cathedral Church of Ely for one year in St. Pauls in both with singular Approbation of a most frequent Auditory Sometimes he preached in Cambridge both Ad Clerum and Ad Populum discovering himself to be the only man Quem rus non infuscavit whom the Country had not stained and therefore at his last Degree was chosen to answer in the Divinity Act. 11. This being over he returns to his people again daily teaching them and instructing them in a plain Familiar way applying himself to their capacity and