publick and the further it extends it gives the greater Lustre Whereof the Candle put upon the Hill that could not be hid was his own Example directing his Clergy to their Duty by his own often Preaching Injunctions Articles Orders Advertisements and the like I have heard wise Men say expire with the Prince's Life that appointed them saving that their Prudence and Equity do never expire But Canons oblige till they be lawfully repeal'd The first Canon among us that I know past by Convocation and confirm'd by Royal Authority is that of 1571. That all Bishops should diligently teach the Gospel not only in their Cathedral Churches which they govern but also in all the Churches of their Diocess where they shall think it most needful And principally they shall exhort their People to the Reading and Hearing of the Holy Scripture c. Which Canon this Bishop did awake in his frequent Practice He had good Gifts to preach withal and good Gifts are given to prosit others None of God's Talents must be hid in a Napkin nor in a Rochet And who doth hide them Qui percepto dono sub otio torporis abscondit says Gregory Past cu. Lib. 1. c. 9. Which Sin had been the greater in this great Divine who was so apt to teach so able by found Doctrine to exhort and to convince Gainsayers Who excell'd his Brethren in that Faculty as much as he did transcend them in Dignity It is not to set him forth at an Hyperbolical rate but that this Testimony may be given him that the best that were famous in the Pulpit might learn Method and Perspicuity from him He had not his fellow in that Point of Art And he spake as one that deliver'd the Oracles of God 1 Pet. 4.11 His Notions were not vulgar but found and weighty smelling of Pains and of Piety Many a Sabbath-days Journey he took to the adjacent Towns to let them see and hear their Diocesan not omitting the Punctilio of the Canon to stir them up to the Reading and Hearing of Holy Scriptures but taught it with much variety from Luk. 16. v. 31. If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded though one rose from the dead The sound of Aaron's bells were to be heard when he went into the holy place and when he came out that he died not Exod. 28.35 Iram judicii exigit si sine sonitu praedicationis incedit says Gregory again Lib. 2. c. 3. Be it that place be eminently meant of Christ our High Priest who was heard of God in his Mediation and of the People in his Instruction Yet it belongs by way of Pattern to all them whom Christ hath sent as his Father sent him Sweet is the Sound of their Golden Bells Gold doth not give a shrill noise like sounding Brass or tinkling Cymbals but it is rich and precious The Multitude by ill custom look for Clamour strong Lungs and weak Doctrine But happy are those Auditors that can try which is a golden Bell upon the Touch-stone of their Understanding and run not giddy after them whose words are hot in the Mouth and cold in digestion Those Ages did afford the best Disciples that learnt their Principles from the gravest Fathers And the People did profit most where the Bishops preacht most As St. Austin says that so long as he staid at Millain every Sunday he heard the great Doctor St. Ambrose Millain or any other City Bethany or any Hamlet would forsake others to hear them It was so with us in England to the brink of our great Change High and low of all sorts and degrees came with their greatest Attention to hear the Sermon of a Bishop Their very Habit which set them forth with Comeliness did affect some the Authority of their high Calling did move others the Contemplation of their Learning and Wisdom which had advanc'd them did work more their painfulness in their Duty did please all Upon which of these hinges the Delight of the People did turn I dispute not It is enough that it was apparent that the Message of God was heard with most reverence when it was deliver'd by one that look'd like an extraordinary Embassador Above all those chief Pastors were the best Trumpets to sound a Retreat from Innovations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As I take it from Longinus p. 10. New-fangledness makes us giddy at first and in time mad and none were so powerful as the good Prelates to warn the People of them Experience and Age and Knowledge did plead on their side that they best knew the Tradition of the Fathers 42. Nor could it but have sped well if it had been consider'd that constant or at least frequent Preaching would have made our Bishops been rightly understood that their Judgments adhered to the Doctrine of the Church of England as it is settled in opposition to Popery Some of our Reverend Fathers that stated our Controversies moderately and with no more than due distance which is an infinite advantage to a Disputant were had in Jealousie for almost Apostates by those that shot wider from the Mark which both aimed to hit A Jealouâ—ie which some Diligence in the Pulpit had prevented For when did you hear of a Lecturer suspected for it But this is the Imperfection of mortal Affairs that when one inconvenience is removed another will rise up in the room For the good Office of Preaching perform'd often by a Bishop was call'd Puritanism by some in those times that fomented such a Faction that made the Name of Puritan the very Inquisition of England Not using it as formerly to preserve the good Order and Discipline of the Church but to cast any Man out of Favour that was so innocent as not to be able to be charged with any thing else Thrust a worthy Man between the first and second Censure and how hard did we make it by such uncharitable Traducings to live evenly in the indivisible Point of Protestantism This Bishop being not indiligent to preach the Gospel for which St. Paul and our own Canons had provided was decipher'd to the King for an upholder of Non-conformitants Neque sapere Principi potest quod his praegustatoribus non ante placitum sit probatum Bud. Pand. Lib. 2. c. 14. The King's Tasters had disrelish'd him to his Majesty with that unsavory report that he could not be believ'd with proof sufficient made against the prejudice Which made no alteration in him but that he would follow the Plough to which he had put his Hand Like the Resolution of Alexander Curt. Lib. 9. that would not be deterr'd with Rumors from finishing his Expedition in Asia for says he Fugissemus ex Asiâ si nos fabulae debellare potuissent So stout Lincoln would give no ground to Scandals taken but mistaken No Discouragements could remove him from great Designs from two especially The former that he began and purpos'd to go on to write a Comment in Latia upon
foolish in their several Extreams of Years I prostrate at the Feet of your Princely Clemency Which was granted as soon as the Paradox was unridled to pitch upon them Another Gust that blew from the same Cape I mean from the Pulpit began to be so boisterous that it came very cross to his Majesty's Content Our Unity among our selves was troubled in Point of Doctrine which was not wont The Synod of Dort in the Netherlands having lately determined some great Controversies awakned the Opposition of divers Scholars in our Kingdom who lay still before Learned and Unlearned did begin to conflict every Sunday about God's Eternal Election Efficacy of Grace in our Conversion and Perseverance in it with much Noise and little Profit to the People The King who lov'd not to have these Dogmatizers at Variance us'd all speed to take up the Quarrel early that our Variances might not reproach us to them that were without For there was that in him which Pope Leo applauded in Marcian the Emperor Ep. 70. In Christianissimo Principe sacerdotalis affectus He was a mixt Person indeed a King in Civil Power a Bishop in Ecclesiastical Affections After he had struggled with the Contentious Parties a while and interposed like Moses Sirs ye are Brethren Acts 7.26 and that this rebated not the keen Edge of Discord he commanded Silence to both Sides or such a Moderation as was next to Silence First Because of the Sublimity of the Points The most of Men and Women are but Children in Knowledge and strong Meat belongs to them only that are of full Age Hebr. 5.14 St. Austin subscribed to that Prudence Lib. 2. de porsev c. 16. Unile est ut taceatur aliquod verum propter incapaces Secondly Because the ticklish Doctrine of Predestination is frequently marr'd in the handling either by such as press the naked Decree of Election standing alone by it self and do not couple the Means unto it without which Salvation can never be attained or by those that hold out God's peremptory Decrees concerning those whom especially he hath given to Christ and do not as much or more enforce the Truth of Evangelical Promises made to all and to every Man that whosoever believeth in the Son of God shall not be confounded Now let the Reader consider all the Premises and he shall find how the Instructions that follow depend upon them Which in Form and Stile were the Lord Keepers in the Matter his Majesty's Command and were called Directions concerning Preachers 101. Forasmuch as the Abuses and Extravagancies of Preachers in the Pulpit have been in all Ages repressed in this Realm by some Act of Council or State with the Advice and Resolution of Grave and Learned Prelates insomuch as the very Licencing of Preachers had his Beginning by an Order of the Star-Chamber 〈◊〉 July 〈◊〉 Hen. 8. And that at this present young Students by Reading of late Writers and ungrounded Divines do broach Doctrines many times unprofitable unfound Seditious and Dangerous to the Scandal of this Church and Disquieting of the State and present Government His Majesty hath been humbly entreated to settle for the present either by Proclamation Act of Council or Command the several Diocesans of the Kingdom these Limitations and Cautions following untill by a general Convocation or otherwise some more mature Injunctions might be prepared and enacted in that behalf First That no Preacher under the Degree and Calling of a Bishop or Dean of a Cathedral or Collegiate Church do take occasion by the Expounding of any Text of Scripture whatsoever to fall into any Discourse or common Place otherwise than by opening the Coherence and Division of his Text which shall not be comprehended and warranted in Essence Substance Effect or natural Inference within some one of the Articles of Religion set forth 1562 or in some one of the Homilies set forth by Authority in the Church of England not only for a Help to the Non-preaching but withal for a Pattern and a Boundary as it were for the Preaching Ministers And for their further Instruction for the Performance hereof that they forthwith read over and peruse diligently the said Book of Articles and the two Books of Homilies Secondly That no Parson Vicar Curate or Lecturer shall Preach any Sermon or Collation upon Sundays and Holy Days hereafter in the Afternoon in any Cathedral or Parish Church throughout the Kingdom but upon some Part of the Catechism or some Text taken out of the Ten Commandments or the Lords Prayer Funeral Sermons only excepted And that those Preachers be most encouraged and approved of who spend this Afternoon's Exercise in the Examining of the Children in their Catechisms and in the Expounding the several Heads and Substance of the same which is the most ancient and laudable Custom of Teaching in the Church of England Thirdly That no Preacher of what Title soever under the Degree of a Batchelor of Divinity at the least do henceforth presume to Preach in any Popular Auditory the deep Points of Predestination Election Reprobation or of the Universality Efficacy Resistibility or Irresistibility of Gods Grace but leave those Themes to be handled by Learned Men and that moderately and modestly by way of Use and Application rather than by way of positive Docttine as being Points fitter for the Schools and Universitles than for simple Auditories Fourthly That no Preacher of what Title or Denomination soever under the Degree and Calling of a Bishop shall presume from henceforth in any Auditory within this Kingdom to Declare Limit or bound out by way of positive Doctrine in any Sermon or Lecture the Power Prerogative Jurisdiction Authority or Duty of Sovereign Princes or to meddle with Matters of State and the References between Princes and the People otherwise than as they are Instructed and Precedented in the Homily of Obedience and in the rest of the Homilies and Articles of Religion set forth as before is mentioned by Publick Authority but rather confine themselves wholly to those two Heads of Faith and good Life which are all the Subject of the ancient Sermons and Homilies Fifthly That no Preacher of what Title or Denomination soever shall causelesly and without any Invitation from the Text fall into any bitter Invectives and undecent raising Speeches or Scoslings against the Persons of either Papists or Puritans but modestly and gravely when they are occasion'd thereunto by the Texts of Scripture free both the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England from the Aspersions of either Adversary especially where the Auditory is suspected to be tainted with the one or the other Infection Lastly That the Arch-Bishops and Bishops of the Kingdom whom his Majesty hath just Cause to blame for former Remisness be more wary and choice in Licensing of Preachers and revoke all Grants made to any Chancellor Official or Commissary to pass Licenses in this kind And that all the Lecturers throughout the Kingdom a new Body severed from the ancient
by inch somewhat may be gotten out of small pieces of business nothing out of supervacaneous And Sir says he I would it were not true that I shall tell you Some of the Commons are preparing a Declaration to make the Actions of your Government odious if you gallop to Scotland they will post as fast to draw up this biting Remonstrance Stir not till you have mitigated the grand Contrivers with some Preferments But is this credible says the King Judge you of that Sir says the Bishop when a Servant of Pymm 's in whose Master 's House all this is moulded came to me to know of me in what terms I was contented to have mine own Case in Star-chamber exhibited among other Irregularities And I had much ado to keep my Name and what concerns me out of these Quotations but I obtain'd that of the fellow and a Promise to do me more Service to know all they have in contrivance with a few Sweetbreads that I gave him out of my Purse What is there in all that the Bishop said especially in the last touch that look'd not like sober Warning Yet nothing was heeded The King saw Scotland and I know not what he brought thence unless it were matter to charge the five Members of Treason who were priviledg'd from it with a Mischief His Majesty being returned to London Nov. 26. That which the Commons called The Remonstrance of the state of the Kingdom came forth by their Vote Decemb. 15. to besoil His Majesly's Reign with studied bitterness And this was a Night-work and held the Members Debate all Wednesday night and till three of the Clock in the Thursday morning Synesius spake his worst of Trypho's Tribunal Lib. de Prov. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he did not administer justice in the day-time but in the night a time more proper for thieves to go to work and for the beasts of the forrest to come out of their dens and get their prey if the loyal part had staid it out who appeared the greater number in the beginning of the question they had cast it out for a vile desamation but the one half of that part had slunk away and were gone to bed as st Peter stood to his Master stoutly till midnight but railed him by the second crowing of the Cock If these had kept the wise Rules of the Roman Senate the one part had been frustrate in all they obtained in the dead of the night and long after Says Budaeus Senatus consultum ante exortum post occasum solis nullum fait lib. 1. in Pand. p. 231. And the other part had been fined for departing away Senatori qui non aderit aut causa aut culpa esto Cic. de Leg. But their Apology is That those were no Juridical hours either for a Roman or an English Senate Birds of Day keep not time with Screetch-owls But these Libertines had leave to sit as long as they would by night or day Magna sumendo majora praesumimus Sym. Ep. p. 9. Great Concessions are the cause of greater Presumptions 156. During some part of the time that the King was in the North Miseries came trooping all at once upon the Church The Reverend Fathers every day libelled and defamed in the Press durst not come in to help The Times did make it appear what Blood was about mens Hearts They that feared to diversifie from the received Doctrine and Discipline of the Church before dreading Ecclesiastical Consistories and the High-Commission Court encreased into so many Sects almost as there were Parishes in England And as Aventine said lib. 8. Annal. of the Schoolmen newly sprung up in his days Singulae sectae judicio multarum sectarum stultitiae cowvincuntur But what were we the better when every Spark kindled another to make a general Combustion Our Case in God's House was as bad as that of the Gauls in Caesar's time lib. 6. Bel. Gal. Non solùm in omnibus civitatibus atque in omnibus pag is partibusque sed in singulis domibus factiones sunt The Parliament which saw the Body of Christ wounded look'd on and passed by on the other side Luke 10.32 as if they did but smile at the variety of Throngs and Dispositions I think they durst net pour in Wine or Oyl to heal the Wounds of Religion for that reason which Dr. Owen gives Praef. to Vind. p. 36. For by adhering to one Sect professedly they should engage all the rest against them Only Lincoln for all this universal Contempt of Episcopacy visited his great Diocess in October not by his Chancellor but in his own person Naequid expectes amicos quod tute agere possies so cited out of Ennius Trust not to your Friends when you can do your Work your self A Bishop is lazy that doth his Duty by a Proxy Pontificium significat potestatem officium says a Critick Heral in Arnob. p. 115. The Etymology of a Pontificate imports Power and Office They are both Yoke-fellows Says another Critick and a good Judge indeed Salmas in Solin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Age of Christian Emperors were Visitors that went from Church to Church like Paul and Barnabas to set things in order who long before that were Physicians that were sent from Village to Village to cure the Sick This Labour our Bishop undertook personally to heal the Maladies of Brain-sick Distempers at Boston Lester Huntington Bedford Hitchin the last Visitation that was held in either Province to this day And God grant he might not say as Synesius did of his Diocess of Ptolomais when he and all the Bishops of Aegypt were ejected by a conquering Party 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O my Ptolomais am I the last Bishop that ever thou shalt have But I hope better things Hope is the common Revenue of the Distressed they have much of that who have nothing else I go on with our Bishop who so long as he was in Place and for a while that his Words were remembred brought those Counties to a handsom state of quietness Cocus magnum abenum quando fervet paulâ confutat truâ When a Cauldron of hot Liquor boils and is ready to run over a Cook stays it by casting in a Ladle of cold Water No man could comprize his Exhortations in better Harmony than this Oratour and set several Instruments in tune one to another and the Voice to them all Eloquium tot lumina clausit Meta. l. as Mercury lull'd Argos asleep with all his Eyes for says he much to this meaning Countrymen and Neighbors whither do you wander Here are your lawful Ministers present to whom of late you do not refort I hear but to Tub-preachers in Conventicles There is a Penalty for this and no Power can protect you against the Statutes in force which are not yet repealed but you are bound in Conscience to keep those Laws which are not Fetters upon your Hands but Bracelets they are the
The second thing called Culpable in him but was not was pick'd at by the cross Humours of some in the end of Q. Elizabeth's Reign They were of the old Stock of Non-conformitants and among the Seniors of his College who look'd four upon him because he was an Adherent to and a Stickler for the Discipline and Ceremonies of the Church of England these laid their Heads together to exclude him from Preferment but their Plot would not hit Others that were the most orderly Sons of the Church were not pleased with him because he frequented Reverend Mr. Perkins his Congregation It is true he was his constant Auditor while Mr. Perkins lived so early his well-kneaded Judgment took delight in clear and solid Divinity And he that is discreet will make his Profit out of every side or every Faction if you like to call it so 11. At the close of the most happy Reign of Q Elizabeth he Commenced Batchelor of Arts. And to make that Degree sit upon him with the better Credit within a Month he was made Fellow of his College with the advantage of that Seniority which promised him the Proctorship of the University if he lived to it according to the constant Order of that Society Filii prunae exultant volare Job 5.7 He was full of warmth and tended upward I find in a Letter which he wrote to King James 22 years after wherein he remembers the King That His Majesties Gracious Letters confer'd that Blossom of the first Preferment upon him He was no heavy Log to be lifted up to a Fellowship with a Court-Leaver But the Place being extraordinary for it was pregnant with the Pretorship there needed some Engine from above to settle him Without disparagement to his Merit it shall not be concealed that some of the Seniors did make resistance against him whose Suffrages are requisite by Statute for the Election of Fellows One or two of them were observed to stop the Advancement of all the most sharp Wits as far as they could Men not to be compared with the sweet Philosopher Plato but like him in this That Plato would not admit Homer into his Commonwealth for he was too great a Citizen for his City This was a Grief apparent that Mr. Aluy though himself departed into Ireland had left of his Spirit among them a Spirit devious from the Quiet and Happy Way of obeying our Church Discipline And this did season a few with a wrong Zeal to depress such whose Learning and prudent Behaviour did promise that they would be Champions for Conformity But he that was then the Pinacle of the Codege far higher then the low-roost Building of the rest was Dr. Playsere one of the Public Professors of Divinity and of most celebrated Eloquence let me carve a good Figure for his Memory in this Structure it was he that opened the stiff Soil and planted this young Sprig in his Fellowship and led him in his hand out of the Throng of Contradiction You may guess that the young Batchelor did Glory in it and had the sense of Juily in his mind when he said He had rather be Praised by Cato then have a Triumph voted to him by the Senate 12. Now our young Graduate began to run the Race of three years Course to the Degree of Master a time of loitering with too many but not with him It was his common Theme even when he was a Bishop if young Students were at his Table to inveigh gravely against Batchelors of Arts because commonly they mis-spent that Triennial Probation and left upon that place a Vacuum of doing little or nothing He that least of all committed that Crime might best set Judge upon the Guilty For his own part now his Clay was upon that Wheel it turn d about as Peripateties say of the highest Sphere with a most rapid Motion He surrendred up his whole Time to dive into the Immense Well of Knowledge that hath no bottom He Read the Best he Heard the Best he Conferr'd with the Best Excrib'd committed to Memory Disputed he had some Work continually upon the Loom And though he never did so much in this unwearied Industry as himself desired he did far more then all that did highly value him could expect Ingenium caeleste suis vâ—lecius amns surgit Ovid. His Equals of the same time began to find his Discourse far above their pitch in weighty Judgment and what was look'd for from him in his Public Exercises might be perceived by the Throng that come to Hear him and that none at the parting but Admired him All perceived that a Fellowship was a Garland too little for his Head and that he that went his pace would quickly go further then St. John's Walks 13. He that will dig diligently for Wisdom God will provide a Mine for him to Recompence his Labour my Proof lies thus Here was a Student that would take any pains to know much and God supplied him with as good Men in that Age as ever Cambridge afforded before or since that were able to teach him A Scholar can have no taste of Natural Philosophy without some conditement of the Mathematicks See the good luck of it that he had Mr. Edward Briggs within the Walls of the same College for his Master by whom he was initiated into the Principles of Geometry which never departed out of his tenacious Memory Yet he did but kiss the Cup of those Sciences and drank not deep Fruit that is next the Sun may change the colour but unless it hang long on the Tree it comes not to maturity He frequented Mr. Lively and Mr. Downes Duo Scipiadae the Professors of the Hebrew and Greek Tongues in the Publick Schools from whose full Breasts he suck'd most excellent Skill in those Learned Languages He had also other choice Praeceptors to perfect him in the Sacred Tongue Mr. Robert Spalden a modest and no less Learned Divine Fellow of St. John's and Rabbi Jacob a Jew born whom I remember for a long time a Commorant in the University with the Instruction of these two he dived far into the Mystery of that Holy Language But chiefly he did heartily acknowledge that the Hand of God did go with him that Dr. Overal was the King's Professor in the Chair of Divinity in his Years of soft Wax from whom he took such a right Orthodox Impression of stating Theological Controversies I ask'd him on a time what it was that pleased him in Dr. Overal above all others whom he heard to handle Determinations of Divine Points in a Scholastical Form He gave me this Answer because First Dr. Overal was used to prove his Conclusion out of two or three Texts of Scripture at the most and no more being such Places upon whose right Interpretation the judgment of the Cause did chiefly depend Secondly That above all Men that ever he heard he did most pertinently quote the Fathers both to the right sense of their Phrase which few did understand
Church under the Persian and Macedonjan Monarchies together with the Seleuctan and Ptolemaeâ—n Princes he had it at his Fingers ends But after that the Barren brought forth more Children then the Fruitful since the propagation of the Christian Faith among the Nations the Books are infinite which have compiled Occurrences of Evangelical Memorials yet our indefatigable Undertaker was not disheartned to read over all that was preserv'd but ransack'd Rolls and Libraries for all that was hid or lost Of such as faithful Custody had brought to light none escap'd him They are not the Divines of Magdepurg nor Baronius Annals though twice read over by him which furnished him with the Title of his Skill He knew more then they had observ'd from the Originals out of which they had digged their Ore Especially he was cunning in all Transactions done in the old Asian Churches and no less in the Greek even to the time of their Decay or Ruine rather under the Turkish Tyranny And because General and Provincial Councils the most Pure of them having been Celebrated in the East were the brightest Lanthorns of this kind of History he had observ'd in them as much as his Wit could penetrate into I say as much as he could for none was more ingenuous then he to confess his Defects And he did deplore when discourse of that Learning was on foot that the meaning of the Greek Canons nay nor of the Latin likewise was not opened to the World by an Artifice that was able to try their Metal That all Glossators hitherto had mistaken the Phraseologies and Terms of Imperial Laws and quaint Words having allusion to popular Speech in those days which are couched in them And since he minded me of such abstruseness in the Contexture of those Canons I have accused mine own oversight to my self that I thought I had known more of the true sense of those Canons then now I perceive I do There wants a Scholar like an Hound of a sure Nose that would not miss a true Scent nor run upon a false one to trace those old Bishops in their fuse A Divine he ought to be of the first Magnitude a Critic that should be an Hercules in the Greek Tongue a rare Canonist a most Learned Civilian mightily acquainted with all Pristine Ceremonies of a strong and inquisitive Judgment And since the matchless Salmasius is lately dead the Man whom I would have trusted with such a Work before all others who is sufficient for such a Task 19. The Histories of the Occidental Churches of great Bulk but little Credit he knew were both Partial and Adulterated many of them no better Authors then Luit prandus though it was his ill hap more then his Fellows to confess his Knavery for he says in his third Book that he set himself to write Ut de inimicis sumat vindictam landibus extollat eos qui se multis 〈◊〉 affâ—erant Such as this plain-dealing Fellow and all after him that struggled to raise up the Grandeur of the Româ—n Court Mr. Williams had read them and had hanged them all upon the File of his Memory and could vouch each or them to King James when a Question was ask'd about any of their Contents as if it had been the freshest thing in his Mind which he had perused but an hour before I think bonâ side there was no Man born more like to Eumâ—es in our Divine Poet Mr. Spencer's Description Recording all Things which this World doth weld laying them up in his Immortal Scrine where they for ever Incorrupted dwelt Let the Reader if he be not struck enough into Wonder already be advertized further that he could as readily and as dextrously recite Things which had been done in our British and English Churches from the first Infancy of them to his own days as if it had been written in the Palm of his Hand He carried in his Mind an Universal Idea of all Synods and Convocations that were ever held in our Land of all our Cathedrals their Foundations Conditions of Alteration Statutes Revenues c. As he had spared for no Travel to purchase this Skill so to fill his Vessel brim full he received all that Sir Harry Spelman Sir Robert Cotton and Mr. Selden his dear Friends could pour into him Some will say his Mind was set upon this Church and every particular of it might in some occasion concern him I will satisfie him that so proposes it that there was not a corner of an History Sacred or Secular in any Kingdom or State in Europe which he had not pried into and wherein he could not suddenly enlarge himself whether they were their Wars or Leagues of Amity whether their Laws Inheritances of their Crowns and Dignities their Lineages Marriages or what not The Chronicles of the Empire and German Princes the great Partidas of Spain all the Pieces of Antiquity he could rake out of French Abbies he was expert in them all as if he had got them by heart The issue of his Life bewrayed his End therein for he made this Study pay him Wages for all his Labour For he discerned his own Abuities to be fit for Publick Employment therefore he search'd into the notable Particularities of all Kingdoms Republicks and their Churches with all the Importances that hung upon them And he guessed right that King James would give all he could ask for such a Minister 20. The Tertia of his Industry and happy Studies and the Top-sail of them was the reading of the Fathers Greek and Latin Great was his Diligence in them marvellous was his Devotion to their Volumes These were the casting Counters with whom he reckoned all the Items of Christian Truth The least stood for a Pound the best for an hundred These were the Champions that first took the Field to fight the Lord's Battel all of them the Worthies of David whereof the stoutest had lifted up his Spear against 800 2 Sam. â— 23. and chased them These were after the Apostles the first-born Sons of the New-Jerusalem to whom by the Blessing of Primogeniture God had given the double Portion of Wisdom and his Spirit Mr. Williams remembred and would remember others of it when they needed such Advice that a Disciple of the Church of England must be their Disciple and would often cite out of the Canons concluded in Convocation an 1571. That Preachers should teach nothing in their Preaching which they would have the People Religiously to observe but that which is agreeable to the Doctrine of the Old Testament and the New and that which the Catholic Fathers and ancient Bishops have gathered out of that Doctrine This is our Directory Let our Adversaries make the best of it to their advantage as the Funambulatory Jesuit Câ—mpian presumes Ad patres si 〈…〉 ctum est praeliuns Let him crow over Capons we have long laugh'd at his Arrogancy 21. I have here a Passage to insert as well for the Good of others
as for the Praise of this Man of God He was as free as Water that runs from a public Conduit to lay open his Knowledge to all that would listen to his Discourse If I must give Precedency to this Charity to any before him it shall be only to that Glorious Servant of God the Marrow of Learned Communication the Lord Primate of Armach But to our present Matter thus he would say as my self and many others have heard it come often from him That his Contemporaries in Cambridge delivered to him by Tradition which was given to them in the name of Dr. Whitaker's Resolved Rule By Proviso first of all sift the Chaff from the Wheat mark whom Valla Erasmus and others have bored in the Ear for Counterfeit Pieces and for the rest acquaint your selves with the choicest and least corrupted Editions The Protestants to their great Commendation had given no cause to suspect them in either kind They that had notoriously more than all others vented false Wares were Italian Huckiters for beâ—de those good Authors Coins Medals Monumental Inseriptions in Stone and Brass nay nothing of Archaique Value had escaped their false Fingers Having separated the Viâ—e from the Precious expect that all the Leaven of the Fathers is hid as the Gospel speaks in three Measures of Meal They are very witty and exuberant in Allegories which are the Windows of the House they serve well for Light but not a jot for Strength Another share of their Works is taken up in maintaining Ecclesiastical Decrees grounded upon Canons and prudent Orders for Decency and Discipline And a good Moiety of their Writings presseth only such Matters as are settled by no more then Canonical or Humane Authority No wonder if now adays we hold such Obligations but in a slip Knot Variableness of Customs alternation of Manners sundry new Products in new Ages gives power to dispense so we abuse not our Liberty to a scornful Licence But it is approveable in Musick to set new Tunes if we keep the old Gammut The 34th Article of the Church of England decides it gravely That every particular or National Church hath Authority to Ordain Change and Abolish Ceremonies and Rites of the Church Ordained only by Man's Authority so that all Things be done to Edifying Now these Canonical and Human Decretals are Butteresses to the House of God they are raised up without the Walls but all that is within is the stronger for their Supportance The third Part of the Heavenly Extraction of the Fathers the Pearl growing between the two Shells premised is Dogmatical their Doctrine of Faith and Works necessary to Selvation In any of which when many of them consent we may well presume that the Spirit of Christ breathed in them For the Martyrdom of soms the Humility Self-denial and Sanctity of them all will attest that they intended the Truth and one Point of Success that those who gainsaid them never took Root or prosper'd will perswade you that they found the Truth Neither is there any Reverence towards them diminish'd by this distinction that what they sowed in the Field of God saving here a little and there a little was sound Wheat but all that they mowed down were Weeds or Heresies without exception Thus far He or rather Dr. Whitaker whose Antagonist Duraeus would seem to ascribe more to the Fathers indeed it is but a seeming Says he We assent to all the Doctrine of the Holy Fathers to all of it without exception A mighty Concession but his Hand slacks immediately Nâ—que patres censentur cum suum aliquid quod ab Ecclesiâ non accepâ—â—â— vel seribunt vel docent For if they write or teach any thing which they have not received of the Church they are not to be esteemed Fathers As like to Plato's Sophister as one drop of Water to another who would prove that no Shoe-maker did ever make a bad Shoe for he that made a bad Shoe was not Master of his Crast he was not a Shoe-maker 22. I will invite the Reader but to the notice of one Thing more upon this Title This Man was the least Distasted so far as I have known Men among all of his Profession with a Scholar that was divers from him in a Theological Debate And this he said he learn'd from the moderation of the Fathers who were zealous Upholders of the Glory of the Blessed Trinity of Christ and of his Mâ—diatorship and of the Covenant of Grace for the Redemption of Penitent â—ners but for differences of Questions which were not so prime and substantial they caused no angry Contract about them much less a Separation of Churches St. Cyprian is praised for this Candor by St. Austin De Bap. con Donat. lib. 3. c. 3. in this wise Cyprian was not to be removed from a darling Opinion of his own too much his own about Re-baptizing of those that had been Baptized by Heretics yet so as Nominem judicantes nee à jure communioâ—s aliquem si diversum senserâ— amovâ—ntes I like this Concordance says Austin with two Explanations 1. In iis quaestionibus quae nondum eliquatissimâ perspectione discussae sunt 2. Exceptis iis quae jam sunt dâ—sinita in totâ Ecclesiâ First Not to think the worse of any much less to make a Rupture for maintaining Opinions which were not discuss'd so far to be convincing and conspicuous Secondly To be the bolder with them if they were the Tenets of some Men only and not the Definitions of the Church Univeral O that many living Stones now scattered from one another were cemented together with this Mortar O that such as are rigidly addicted to their own Fancies would desine less and leave more charitable Allowance to their weak or at least dissenting Brethren O that there were less Inclosure and more common Pasturage in the Church for poor Cottagers And I wish again that it were wisely considered that a good Conscience may continue in our Brother though he be not so found in some lesser Truths Then you would not deny him your Love because he submits not his Wit and Reason to all your Perswasions Many hot Opiniators of our Age are little better then the Sâ—maritans as describ'd by Epiphanius Haeres 61. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They thought it piaculous to touch a Man that did not Dogmatize as they did Therefore how many Slanders must they put up quietly who were of Mr. Williams his Equanimity sociable with them that are at point blank contradiction in some Quarrels of Polemical Divinity nâ—y as ready to prefer the one side as the other how sure is this to be called by our Fâ—riâ—sâ—'s lukewarm and undigested Christianity I have seen the Life 〈◊〉 Renowned Frier Padre Pâ—â—lo of Venice written in Italian by his 〈…〉 and 〈◊〉 tersely and faithfully into English by that Gentleman 〈◊〉 great and elegant Parts Mr. 〈…〉 Secretary to this Heâ—oical Prelate of whom I write when he was Lord-keepeâ— Out of that Piece I
new Chancellor and that His Majesty would constrain him to hold it whosoever it were that the Congregation agreed upon The Heads were yet in a Quandary and knew not well what to do because the King was not more Particular and seemed to be ill pleased with the Proctor that he had dived no further into His Majesties Meaning For they feared to fall upon a new Rock because His Majesty had pointed at no Person nor disclosed His Meaning by any Decipher or Intimation Nay says the Proctor I shall help this Mistake before you stir from hence Certainly there is one Clause in the Royal Letters which sets up the White at which all our Votes should aim For none hath declared a flat Refusal of this vacant Place but the Earl of Northampton therefore none else can be meant in this Passage That whomsoever we Choose the King will constrain him to hold It were not proper to think that any Grandee in the Realm beside that Lord should need to be constrained by the High Power and Prerogative of our Sovereign to be our Patron The Riddle being so luckily Unfolded by this Oedipus the Business was concordiously dispatch'd and then the King confess'd that they had hit upon the Interpretation of his secret Meaning Which abounded to the Praise of Mr. Williams's Solertiousness and indeed in an hundred Instances more he was as dextrous as in this to hunt upon a Fault and to recover upon a Loss But as Cicero says Orat. pro Cecinnâ cujus prudentiam pop Romanus in cavendo nunquam in decipiendo perspexit The Lord Privy-Seal soon after took his Oath with due Solemnity to be our Chancellor and gave civil Entreaty when the Esquire-Beadles or other Ministers of our Body came to him And we can boast of no more that came from him who went out of the World before his Sickness was suspected Jun. 15.16 14. The Golden Mountains we hoped for and promis'd to our selves from his Liberality came to nothing and the University was not the better for him by the worth of a Barly-Corn 29. There remains one Passage more justly devolved to be last and lowest for it had more of Success then of good Success in it in my judgment Dr. Clayton the Master of St. John's College died a good old Man about the beginning of June His Breath no sooner expired but the Fellows who have all Right of Election first began to Confer and then to Canvas for a Successor It was soon discovered that the swaying Men and that were fit for the bandy of such a Business meant to set up Mr. Owen Gwin one of the Senior Fellows Others look'd out for one that was Simplicitor optimus and they hit him It was the Darling of Divines Dr. Morton then Dean of Winton now Lord Bishop of Durham the Polycarpus of our Smyrna the Church of England whose Piety and Humility are Incomparable his Learning most Admirable and his long Age most Venerable Almost all the true Children of the Muses bless'd their Endeavours that acted for such a Man saying with the Psalmist We wish you good luck in the name of the Lord. But this Patriarch as I may call him was not like to carry the day by the Consent of the most Too few stood up for him too few by one especially and that one was Proctor Williams O how could one of his deep Reach and passing great Love to his Society prefer an obscure one scarce to be named before the Man that had all good Men's Applause Dr. Morton If there be any thing to be said to make it look fair on his part on one side it is this Mr. Gwin had been his Tutor A high Spirit of which he was guilty will rather Trespass then not repay the least Benefit it had receiv'd Nay a wise Man dare not incur such a Folly as to be Ingrateful Says Comines lib. 2. Mihi absurdum quiddam esse videtur hominem prudent em ingratum esse posse For great Ones before they will collate a Favour to make a Man and raise him up will desire to be satisfied how he hath carried himself to other Obligations What Fidelity hath he shewn to former Benefactors Ecclus. 3.34 He that requiteth good turns is mindful of that which may come hereafter The relation of Pupilship prick'd on Mr. Williams to do any thing that was in his power for him that had so much Interest in his Breeding But while he was struggling and wooing his Friends to advance that Choice he solicited Mr. Sen. house a very rare Preacher as Floury as the Spring-Garden afterward Bishop of Carlile who bespake him fairly again Sir if you desire my Voice to confer the Mâ—stership upon your self I will not deny you I know you though a young Man right worthy of it but your Tutor shall never have my Suffrage while I can say No. After he had prevailed to set Mr. Gwin over that great Society his Fortunes carried him away but he heard so much that he quickly dislik'd his own Work For there was another in that College whose Name is best conceal'd that was a robustious driver of Canvasses who took the whole Rule from Mr. Gwin a soft Man and given altogether to Ease into his own hand and was like the Major Domo by whom all Suits pass'd and every Student stoop'd to him for his Preferment To compare great Things with smaller such another as Victor says Mutianus proved after he had advanced Vespasian to the Empire by his Cohorts Fiduciâ meruorum factus insolens sawcy to meddle with all because he had deserv'd so much and nothing would content him unless nothing were denied him Mr. Williams heard of these Passages too late when he could not help the harm he had done But because he endured much compunction of Mind for it I will only commit him for this Fault to the castigation of the wise Poet Horace Qualem commendas etiam atque etiam aspice ne mox Incutiant aliena tibi peccata pudorem Horat. Lib. 1. Ep. 12. 30. It was time for him after the Settlement of these great Places upon others to look to his own Place in the ensuing Commencement which was even approaching The Inceptor-Masters by Prescription have the Right to choose out of the two Proctors whom they please to be the Father of the Act as we Cantabrigians call it It is a strange Aenigma that the Sons should beget their Father It lights commonly as if it were Postulatum Mathematicum upon the Senior But because he that now was the Elder if ever he had Polite Learning fit for such a Performance had out-grown it therefore because he was no Elder that could Rule well the Inceptors gave the Younger the double Honour This Commencement was as Gay and full of Pomp by the great Concourse of Nobles and Gentlemen as ever I saw The Acquaintance and Fame of the Proctor drew the most The Welch Gentry were enough to fill the Scaffolds Beside such as repair'd
then himself For why should he render himself as an Hostage to Fortune when he needed not Or what could mend his present Condition but a contented Mind Pol si est animus aequus tibi satis habes qui vitam colas Plaut Aul. He that hath much and wants nothing hath yet as little as comes to nothing if he wants Equanimity It was generously spoken of Esau Gen. 33.9 I have enough my Brother And they that lose a good Portion which they had before because their Appetite did over-drive them let them look upon Children playing at a petty Game they will not stand but ask for another Card which puts them out Though these things were so maturely considered an Occasion came about which did lead him quite aside yet it was in the King's High-way He was at Royston in Attendance on the King and in the Marquess his Absence The King abruptly without dependance upon the Discourse on foot asked him When he was with Buckingham Sir says the Doctor I have had no business to resort to his Lordship But wheresoe'er he is you must presently go to him upon my Message says the King So he did that Errand and was welcom'd with the Countenance and Compliments of the Marquess and invited with all sweetness to come freely to him upon his own Addresses Who mark'd rather from whom he came then to whom he was sent And gather'd from the King's Dispatch That His Majesty intended that he should seek the Marquess and deserve him with Observance From henceforth he resolved it yet not to contaminate his Lordship with Bribery or base Obsequiousness but to shew himself in some Act of Trust and Moment that he was as sufficient to bring his Lordship's good Ends to pass as any whom he employed both with readiness to do and with judgment to do well Which thus succeeded to his great Commendation My Lord Marquess was a Batchelor and ripe for a gallant Wedlock His Youth his comely Person his Fortunes plentiful and encreasing his Favour he held with the King being as much or more then the Cardinal-Nephews in the Pope's Conclave What Graces could be sweeter in the Girdle of Venus that the Poets speak of Cestum de Veneris sinu calentem Martial He could not seek long to be entertained who was so furnished for a Suitor The Lady with whom he desired to match was Lady Katherine Manners Daughter and only Child surviving to Francis Earl of Rutland Hereby he should marry with a Person of Honour her Family being very anciently Noble and draw to his Line an access of Wealth and Revenue as the like not to be expected from the Daughter of any Subject in this Realm The Motion was set on foot in the beginning of the Year 1520 which stuck at two Objections The Earl of Rutland was slow or rather fullen in giving way to this lusty Woer who came on the faster directed it seems by Proverbial Wisdom That faint Heart never won fair Lady Certain it is that he kept not such distance in his Visits as was required Which put the Earl into so strong a Passion that he could not be mitigated though great Ones had attempted the Pacification In this distraction Dr. Williams took the opportunity to go between the great Men and to Umpire the Controversie He had often in former times made Journeys from Lincoln to visit the Earl at his Castle of Belvoir who was Lord-Lieutenant of the County of Lincoln and held some Leases of that Church whereof the Doctor was a Residentiary and Precentor The Earl had found him so true and fortunate in many Offices of Service which he had manag'd for his Lordship's sake that he prefer'd him before all his Neighbours for Wisdom and Fidelity Therefore he gave him very patient Hearing to his Propositions about the Lord Marquess his Amours and took down the heat of Inflammation with cool Advice All youthful Dalliances were clear'd from sinister Jealousie and had Allowance to be inoffensively continued To speak all together The Doctor brought the Earl about so dextrously with his Art and pleasant Wit that his Lordship put it into his hands to draw up all Contracts and Conditions for Portion and Joynture which he did to the fair satisfaction of both sides the noble Earl being so glad of a good Understanding between him and the Lord Marquess that the Counsellor at his Elbow induced him to settle more upon the Marriage then the Marquess and his Mother had demanded The first Door that was shut against the young Lord in Cupid's Court was thus opened to him Nothing is so good to soften that which is hard as the Language of a discreet Man Therefore the old Gauls did carve the God of Eloquence not after the shape of Mercury but of Hercules says Lucian carrying his Club in one hand his Bow and Shafts in the other But innumerous small Rings were drawn through his Tongue to which a multitude of Chains were fasten'd that reach'd to the Ears of Men and Women to which they were tied meaning by this Picture that he performed all his hard Labours by his Tongue and not by his Club 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And that which the Doctor brought to pass in the preceding Matter is fit for the Application of the Apologue Of whose Performance the Mother-Countess her Noble Son with the Ladies of the Kindred gave the best Account to the King that Thankfulness could make 51. The King commended it and was right glad that they were well out of the Mire where they all stuck before And now the Progress of the Suit seemed so easie as if a pair of Doves might draw the Chariot of Love when His Majesty put a strong Spoke into the Wheel which I may call The Second Obstruction For the Lady Katherine though she and her Family were not rigid forbearers of our Church yet she was bred a Papist This was no Straw at which the King stumbled For he knew it would sad the Spirit of some good People most tender of the Religion established when they should hear that the Noble-man in whom His Majesty did most delight was wedded to a Lady of that disaffected Superstition Therefore he liked not that the Marquess should proceed in that Marriage till the Lady were tried with sweet Perswasions to serve God together with her Husband constantly and without Hypocrisie after the Confession of the Reformed Church of England So His Majesty called for Dr. Williams and laid his strict and highest Commands upon him to use his best Skill upon the Conscience of that tender Lady misled by Education to make her a true Proselyte Before that was done He would be loth to give his Blessing to the Nuptials This He required of him before all his other Chaplains as well because he had the Ear of the Family more then any Man of his Coat whereof Proof was made in his late Actions as because he knew he had the Gift of Wisdom mixed with Learning to cure
a Corruption in Opinion Sir says the Doctor I obey Your Commands with all my heart and with belief of some Success But in case upon the first or second Conference I bring the young Madam to some Access towards the Church of England without a total Recess from the Church of Rome will Your Majeshy discomsit a good Beginning and stay the Marriage whose Consummation is every day desired because the Party is not brought to the perfection of an absolute Convert To which the King answered I know that commonly Grace proceeds by degrees in conception and building up its Features as well as Nature but though you walk slow walk sure I cannot abide to be cozen'd with a Church-Papist So the Doctor received his Commission chearfully from His Majesty the rather because though he cunningly concealed how far he had entred yet he had assayed before to bring the Lady Katherine into a good liking of our Church with many strong and plausible Arguments and found her Tractable and Attentive She easily perceived that Conjugal Love would be firmest and sweetest when Man and Wife served God with one Heart and in one way and were like the two Trumpets of Silver made of an whole Piece Num. 10.12 And quickly she was confirmed by divers and solid Representations to confess that our Cathechism was a plain Model of Saving Truth and the Form of Matrimony in our Liturgy pleased her abundantly being as pious and forcible as any Church could make to bind up a sanctified and indissoluble Union And after some Prayers made to God for his secret Breathings into her such easie Demonstrations were spread before her that she confess'd our Ministers were fit Dispensers of the Ordinances of God and all Gospel-Blessings from Christ Jesus So the second Obstruction was master'd by the good Spirit of God and this Doctor 's Industry The Remotion of two such Impediments is not commonly accompass'd by one Head-piece Sometimes it is seen as Macrobius says yet very seldom Ut idem pectus agendi disputandi facultate sublime sit Lib. 2. de Som-Scrip c. 17. Now all things being made smooth for Love and Concord on the 16th day of May 1620. the Nuptials were celebrated between the Lord Marquess and his Bride the Lady Katherine Manners at Lumly-House on Tower-Hill where the Earl of Rutland lay Dr. Williams joyned them together with the Office of our Liturgy all Things being transacted more like to Privacy then Solemnity to avoid the Envy of Pomp and Magnificence I have been no larger then there was cause in this Report for the Negotiation in this Marriage said the Negotiator often unto me was the last Key-Stone that made the Arch in his Preferment 52. It behoved him therefore to spare no Pains nor Study to season the new Marchioness with such a measure of Knowledge as might keep her found in the Integrity of Truth He needed not a Remembrancer to keep his Diligence waking Yet the King was so intent that the Lady should become an upright and sincere Protestant that he proposed to his Chaplain now her Ghostly Father to draw up a pretty Manual of the Elements of the Orthodox Religion with which she might every day consult in her Closet-Retirements for her better confirmation A Book was Compiled accordingly but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 put forth and not put forth Twenty Copies were printed and no more and without the Author's Name in a Notion common to many By an old Prebendary of the Church of Lincoln The Copies were sent to the Lord Marquess and being no more are no more to be found for I have searched for one but with lost Labour I can truly say I have seen one and read it about 30 Years since which being in a negligent Custody is miscarried It contents me better that I have a written Copy out of which it was printed by which the Author could set it in order for the Press surer then I can now If I should miss to digest the Expunctions Interlinings and Marginal References as they were intended I should make the Work differ from it self though quite against my will But because it is a Golden Medal and sit to be worn like an Amulet against Seducers when this Web is spun and woven which I have in hand I will try my best Skill though a weak Aristarchus to fashion it into Native Contexture And if I can truly affirm it to be the very Mantle which fell from Elijah it shall be forth-coming in a Wardrode in the end of the Book If I fail in that I do not despair let this Letter sent with the 20 Copies to the Lord Marquess discover what sappy Kernels were in that Pomegranate My most Noble Lord MY most humble Duty and all due Respects remembred I have at the last according to His Majesties Intimation and your Lordship's made up for my Ladies private Use a little Stock as it were in Divinity and divided the same into three small Treatises The first to furnish her how to speak unto God by Invocation The second how to speak unto her self by Meditation And the third how to speak unto those Romanists that shall oppose her by way of Answer and Satisfaction Prayers are the most necessary for the obtaining Principles for the augmenting and Resolutions in these days for the defending of her Faith and Profession I held these three in some sort and more I held not to have been necessary The Prayers I have Translated from ancient Writers that her Ladyship may see we have not coyned a new Worship or Service of God Of the rest I received my best Grounds from His Majesty and such as I protest faithfully I never could read the like in any Author for mine own satisfaction If I be out in my Descant upon them I hope your Lordship will the rather pardon it because the Book is but private whereof 20 Copies only are imprinted and as many of them to be suppressed as your Honour shall not command and use I make bold to send these Books to your Lordship because I hope they will be more welcom and acceptable to both the great Ladies coming immediately from your Honour I humbly thank your Honour for affording me this occasion to do your Lordship any little Service who am in all affectionate Prayers and best Devotion Your Honour 's true Creature and Beadsman JOHN WILLIAMS From Your College at Westminster this 28th of November 1620. 53. I perceive by the Date of this Letter that the Book was printed six months after it was bespoken which could not be help'd because the Author was taken up almost all that Summer in making a progress to survey the Lands of the College of Westminster whereof he was become Dean by the Lord Marquess's Favour and Installed July 12. 1620. Dr. Tolson who preceded a man of singular Piety Eloquence and Humility in the March before had the Approbation of the King and the Congratulation of good Men for the Bishoprick
it was happy for him when five years after Lime-Hounds were laid close to his foot-steps to hunt him and every corner searched to find a little of that Dust behind his door Eut it proved a dry scent to the Inquisitors for to his Glory and the Shame of his Enemies it could never appear that the least Bird-lime of Corruption did stick to his Fingers And now I have shewn what was the rich Portion which he brought when he was wedded to the Office of the Great-Seal these are convictive and day-light Evidences To one or two Writers of late that have gone another way I have nothing to answer because in those things wherein they calumniate they address not themselves to prove any thing Enough to give them up to the censure of that Infamy which they merit Qui notitiam viri non ex bonis gestis dictisque sed ex minus probabilibus fieri volunt quo quid nequius says the Author called Zeno of Verona When such candid Authors as Sir T. Moore Sir J. Hayward S. Daniel and Renowned Camden wrote the Lives of Princes they drew the Characters of Men by their Actions and Speeches not out of Obloquies and Suspicions the Brats of rotten Fame that have no Father But in Sick or rather Pestilentious Times when no Wares are set forth so much as Untruths and Malice too many are not more bold to Lie then confident to be Believed Never with no People under the Sun did Veracity suffer so much as by the Pen of Sir A. Wel. whose Pamphlet is Perpetuus Rhotacismus one snarling Dogs-Letter all over which I condemn therefore as Philoxenus the Poet censured Dionysius the Syracusan's Tragedy A fronte ad calcem unâ liturâ circumduxit Correct it with one Scratch or Score from the beginning to the end 66. Such as he are not in my way why then should I loiter one Line to jostle them out Yet since discreet Persons and they that extol'd the Dean and confess'd that his Soul carried a great freight of Worth did think their Exceptions weighty against his undergoing that great Office I will not dissemble as if I were a Stranger to them The Words of the Wise are as Nails fastned by the Masters of Assemblies Eccles 12.11 Yet some Nails are not so fast in but they may be wrench'd out Many alledged that he had Dedicated himself to the Church in an holy Calling Why should he take his hand from his own Plow to preside in Secular Affairs Indeed when the Harvest was great and the Labourers few it was the Summum bonum of a Labourer to ply that Harvest for nothing could be better then to Plant the Gospel among those that had not believed But where an whole Nation is gained so far as to believe in Christ and the Message of Salvation known to all that Church is preserved unto Christ by other means beside Preaching They that attend their Charge in Prayer Exhortation and dispensing the Sacraments in all Quarters of the Land had need to have some of their own Coat in Places of Power and Dignity to preserve their Maintenance from Sacrilege and their Persons from being trodden down with dirty Feet Such as God hath bless'd to go in Rank with the Chiefest to help their Brethren whether in public Office or in Attendance on their Sovereign in his Chappel Closet Eleemosynary Trust or the like they are as much in the Harvest as they that labour in the Pulpit St. Ambrose in his sundry Embassages for his Lord the Emperor the Father of Gr. Nazianzen a Bishop of whom his Son says in his Epitaph that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 employed in Pre-eminency and Honour and Government Euseb de vit Constanti l. 4. c. 27. Sozom. l. 1. c. 9. mention the Rescript of Constantine to Ablavius the Praetorian Praefect Ut pro Sanctis semper venerabilibus habeatur quicquid Episcoporum fuerit sententiâ terminatum idque in cansis omnibus quae vel Praetorio vel civili jure tractantur Which large Concession of Constanstine was restrained indeed by Gratian and Valentiman an 376 Ad causas quae ad Religionis observantiam pertinebant All the Prelates to whom the Emp. Constantine the Great referred the Hearing of Causes by Appeals which they discharged to the gaining of great Love and Praise these were not out of their Sphere but served the Church when they did that which ingratiated the Church and made the Christian Name to be venerable Some never speak of Secular Policy but as of a Prophane thing whereas a worthy Man may manage a Civil Tribunal with that maintenance of Virtue with that galling of Vice and evil Manners so as many good Pulpit-Orators put together might give God thanks if their Success were equal Councils it is true may be produced as to be brief the Quin-Sext in Trullo can 11 which forbids Priests and Deacons it names not Bishops 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to handle worldly Principalities I am struck with Reverence to the Council but not Convicted by its Reason which is fetch'd out of one Scripture that no Man can serve two Masters Tell this to the Ecclesiastics of Rome who are wholly buried in Things not only different but contrary to the Ministry Instituted by Christ Opposite Masters cannot be served by one faithful Servant subordinate may for we may love both and hate neither The King's Service in a Righteous way is not opposite to Christ's Evangelical Administrations but co-incident And a Supreme Governor doth not lose his Right in a Subject that is made a Priest or Bishop but may employ him under him as he pleaseth since the compacture of the whole Commonwealth together is but one Christian Oeconomy ABP Spotswood p. 299. In the Articles proponed to the Parliament at Sterling by Mr. Andrew Melvin an 1578. this is the 17th of the 11th Cap. We deny not that Ministers may and should assist their Princes when they are required in all things agreeable to the Word of God whether it be in Council or Parliament or out of Council providing always that they neither neglect their own Charges nor through flattery of Princes hurt the public State of the Church A Caution that their own Charges be not neglected is most Pious otherwise the Indulgence is very indefinite Many Zealots are as kind to themselves in England to serve their own turn I never saw any of our Ministry more abstracted from their Studies continually progging at the Parliament-Door and in Westminster-Hall for many years together having no Calling but that of an Evil Spirit to raise Sedition then those that were most offended at a Bishop for bestowing some part of his Time in a Secular Place And yet a considerate Judge will not say that the Lord-Keepership is an Employment merely Secular To mitigate the strict Cases of the Law with the Conscience of the King in whose Place he sits is it not as fully Ecclesiastical as a Consistory of teaching and ruling Elders
which serv'd exceedingly to sweeten the general Opinion They that could dive furthest into Court secrets had found that it was a preferment that came to hand of it self neither lured to nor whistled to never sued for never sought for but as Mamertinus said of the Consulship which Julian bestowed upon him of his own Grace and proper Motion non modo nullum popularium deprecatus sum sed ne te quidem Imperator quem orare praeclarum cui preces adbibere plenissimum dignitatis est 'T is humane to wonder at such a Fortune 't were divellish to Envy it It qualified also that no detection could be made then or thereafter that he bought this Greatness unless in Claudian's sense Emitur solâ virtute potestas But this Place was pointed out by the King not for him that would give but to him that would not take to one that pretended to make no more requital than to serve God in his Calling to be True to the King and no Exactor upon his people If a Jearer shall cast in that no marvel if he paid nothing down to his up-lifter for he was low in Coffers and Credit and not worth a Bribe such a one says the same Truth that I do to the main but he Collects it falsely For the Dean was never Richer in present Coin in his Life than he was at that time which came to appear upon this Account that as soon as he was warm in this New Honour e'en within two Months after William Earl of Pembroke his Noble Friend made the Bargain with him to purchase his Grand-Fathers Lands in Wales which were slipt aside by ill Husbandry for which he disbursedten Thousand pounds not much more being to be added to the Seller which he borrowed wherein he Explained two things to the World by this one Act that such Monies as lay by him he gave not for his Office and those that he laid out he got not by his Office This was not his Forecast but the Lords above who takes care for every Sparrow He little thought to live upon that pittance in his Old Age. But God provided it that when the wide Throat of Sacrilege had swallowed down more than ever was devoured at one Gulp when the pleasant Vine of the Church of England with all the Fruitful Branches were cut down with the Pruning Hook of an Ordinance than this little Gourd in Wales should shadow over the head of our Jonah It was well said of Plato That a Prudent Man would lay by somewhat in Store to supply him neither was it superfluous though it did survive him for says he I had rather leave somewhat though to mine Enemy when I Die than stand in need of my Friends who may prove no Friends while I live 71. I am yet in the lingring Season of the Parasceve or induction preparative before the Candidate carried the Palm in his hand wherein he proceeded as far as the Line of a good Wit would let him run to gain public Equanimity to the Kings intentions For he besought His Majesty to clog the Grandeur of that place with such Terms and Conditions in his person as might comprize it in a less Size than it was ever before Received by any All which were his own Invention and his own seeking as it is somewhat detected in the Cabal pag. 56. but more largely drawn out in his own Papers and offered only to be Engross'd in an Act of Council First That the King would continue no Chancellor in that place above three years thenceforth which should first be put in practice in this Mans person Secondly That he should be admitted in the Nature of a Probationer for one year and half and if it appear'd the Charge of the Office to be above his Abilities yet doing Justice equally to his best power he should be Rewarded with an Arch-Bishopric or one of the best Bishoprics at the End of that Term. Thirdly If upon the expiring of one year and half it were found that he discharged the Trust to His Majesties contentment the Royal Pleasure should be signified to continue him to the Triennial Period Fourthly When three years were finish'd to have no further expectance to hold that Office but to give it over with a peremptory Resignation so I may say like Saladine the Great He carried the Winding Sheet of his Honour before him as a Banner Fifthly He moved earnestly that the Court of Chancery might have a Master of the Rolls of exact knowledge and judgment to sit with him Naming Sir Robert Heath the King's Solicitor but it was hindred by some that would try how he could Walk on such slippery Ground without a Staff to lean upon Sixthly He Petitioned for some of the principal Judges of the several Benches whom he Named that two at least should always assist him submitting himself humbly as a young Tree to be kept steady with such supporters A Prudent way to have many Sage Heads concur to produce one Act of Wisdom To say in the contrary it is best to leave the entire matter to one if he be of sound Intelligence is as gross a Flattery as that of the Orator in the Panegyric to Maximianus quid opus erat multitudine cum ipse pugnares What needed an Army in the Field when Maximian himself did Fight Now so many of the Orders forecited as concern'd the Mortality of that Office and set the period of his duration in it were Mortal Laws and utterly forgotten for he continued as he began without interpellation above four years till he was annihilated by his frown whose favour had Created him The Complication of those Restrictions served only for a Method of discretion in a due Season to keep that Dignity low shorn in appearance that it might not be blasted with the Lightnings of Envy Yet these things so dispread were more confirm'd in Vogue and Opinion by a Speech which he made to the King in the Audience of all the Lords of the Council when the Great Seal was actuall delivered to him at Whitehall July 10. which followeth Verbatim 72. Most Dread and Mighty Sovereign if I should think my self any way worthy or sufficient for this Great Place wherein Your Majesty is pleas'd to make Probation of me I were the most unworthy and insufficient Wretch in all the World But in good Faith I do not But as Conscious of mine own Weakness as I am quite astonish'd at Your Favour and Goodness I do not therefore trouble my Head to find out the Reasons of this Advancement because I take it for no Ordinary Effect but an extraordinary Miracle Deus qui Deo proximus tacito munera dispertit aribtrario beneficiorum suorum indignatus per homines stare judicium mavult de subditis dedisse Miraculum I must only lift up mine Eyes unto Heaven and beseech that God who some Ten Years since brought me like Elisha to be Servant only unto that Elias who under God and Your
which he had in a Monastery called Becc in Normandy and that Hospitality kept him when he fled out of England and all the Revenues of his Mitre failed him Stephen Gardner Bishop of Winton and Lord-Chancellor held the Mastership of Trinity-hall to his Dying-day and though he gave forty better Preferments to others he would never leave his Interest in it and did not conceal the Cause but said often If all his Palaces were blown down by Iniquity he would creep honestly into that Shell They that will not be wise by these Examples Ia Teâ— I will send them to School to a Fable in Plautus Cogitato mus pusillus quà m sit sapiens bestia AEtatem qui uni cubili nunquam committit suam Qui si unum ostium obsideatur aliud perfagium quaerit So in the upshot he said Walgrave was but a Mouse-hole yet it would be a pretty Fortification to Entertain him if he had no other Home to resort to He was not the only Prophet of that which is fallen out in these dismal Days many such Divinations flash'd from others who saw the Hills of the Robbers afar off who have now devoured the Heritage of Jacob and say they are not Guilty and they that have sold us and bought us say Blessed be the Lord for we are rich Zech. 11.5 74. Whom I leave to a Day of Account having an Account to give my self how Prosperous the Lord-Keeper was in the King's Affections at this time to whom His Majesty measured out his accumulated Gifts not by the Bushel or by the Coome but by the Barn-full It was much he had compacted his own Portion to such advantage but it was not all for being warm in Favour he got the Royal Grant for the Advancement of four more who are worthy to be named He spake and sped for Dr. Davenant to be made Bishop of Salisbury who had plowed that I may allude to Elisha 1 King 19.19 with twelve yoke of Oxen and was now with the twelfth when this Mantle was cast upon him Twelve years he had been Public Reader in Divinity in Cambridge and had adorn'd the Place with much Learning as no Professor in Europe did better deserve to receive the Labourer's Peny at the twelfth Hour of the Day Beside what a Pillar he was in the Synod of Dort is to be read in the Judgment of the Britain Divines inserted among the public Acts his Part being the best in that Work and that Work being far the best in the Compilements of that Synod The Bishopric of Exon being also then void it came into the Lord-Keeper's head to gratifie a brace of worthy Divines if he could attain it his old Friends who had been both bred in the House of Wisdom with the Lord-Chancellor Egerton Dr. Carew who had been his Chaplain a man of great Reason and polish'd Eloquence and Dr. Dunn who had been his Secretary a Laureat Wit neither was it possible that a vulgar Soul should dwell in such promising Features The Success was quickly decided for these two prevailed by the Lord-Keeper's Commendation against all Pretenders the Bishopric of Exeter was conferred upon Dr. Carew and Dr. Dunn succeeded him in his Deanery of St. Paul's The See of St. David's did then want a Bishop but not Competitors The Principal was Dr. Laud a Learned Man and a Lover of Learning He had fasten'd on the Lord Marquess to be his Mediator whom he had made sure by great Observances But the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury had so opposed him and represented him with suspicion in my judgment improbably grounded of Unsoundness in Religion that the Lord Marquess was at a stand and could not get the Royal Assent to that Promotion His Lordship as his Intimates know was not wont to let a Suit fall which he had undertaken in this he was the stiffer because the Arch-Bishop's Contest in the King's Presence was sour and supercilious Therefore he resolved to play his Game in another hand and conjures the Lord-Keeper to commend Dr. Laud strenuously and importunately to the King 's good Opinion to fear no Offence neither to desist for a little Storm Accordingly he watch'd when the King's Assections were most still and pacisicous and besought His Majesty to think considerately of his Chaplain the Doctor who had deserved well when he was a young Man in his Zeal against the Millenary Petition And for his incorruption in Religion let his Sermons plead for him in the Royal Hearing of which no Man could judge better then so great a Scholar as His Majesty 75. Well says the King I perceive whose Attorney you are Stenny hath set you on You have pleaded the Man a good Protestant and I believe it Neither did that stick in my Breast when I stopt his Promotion But was there not a certain Lady that forsook her Husband and married a Lord that was her Paramour Who knit that Knot Shall I make a man a Prelate one of the Angels of my Church who hath a flagrant Crime upon him Sir says the Lord-Keeper very boldly you are a good Master but who dare serve you if you will not pardon one Fault though of a scandalous Size to him that is heartily Penitent for it I pawn my Faith to you that he is heartily Penitent and there is no other Blot that hath fullied his good Name Vellcius said enough to justifie Murena that had committed but one Fault Sine hòc facinore potuit videri probus You press well says the King and I hear you with patience neither will I revive a Trespass any more which Repentance hath mortified and buried And because I see I shall not be rid of you unless I tell you my unpublish'd Cogitations the plain Truth is that I keep Laud back from all Place of Rule and Authority because I find he hath a restless Spirit and cannot see when Matters are well but loves to toss and change and to bring Things to a pitch of Reformation stoating in his own Brain which may endanger the steadfastness of that which is in a good pass God be praised I speak not at random he hath made himself known to me to be such a one For when three years since I had obtained of the Assembly of Perth to consent to Five Articles of Order and Decency in correspondence with this Church of England I gave them Promise by Attestation of Faith made that I would try their Obedience no further anent Ecclesiastic Affairs nor put them cut of their own way which Custom had made pleasing unto them with any new Encroachments Spotswood p. 543. Marquess Hamilton the King's Commissioner in the last Parliament that ever he kept in Scotland having Ratified the Five Articles of Perth by Aâ—â— of Parliament assured the People that His Majesty in his days should not press any more Change on Alterations in matters of that kind without their Consent Yet this man hâ—th pressed me to invite them to a nearer conjunction with the
or improper to him and his Calling he is to be Acquitted by a formal Pardan as an Innocent but if he were acting in Indebitâ materia when he did it then it is to be gathered that God did give him up to that mischance that he might be disciplined for his Extravagancy by the Censure of the Church Now take the Illation That the Arch-Bishop fell into this Misfortune being unduly employed many Synods having prohobited Hunting to all Species of the Ministry Maldonatus lib. 2. de Sacr. p. 254. Quod nonnulli dicum irregularom esse Saccrdotom qui dâ—ns operam â—nationi juod illi non licebat homimm intersecit putans se feram intersicere falsum esi Sir H. Martin answered That Employment in undue matter is to be understood of Evil simply in it self Non de malo quia prohibitum not in a thing clearly lawful if it were not prohibited Are Clerks restrained from Hunting No wonder So they are by some Synodical Rules from playing at Tennis What mean such austere Coercions Nothing but to keep them from excess of Pleasure and Idieness which turn to be Avocations of their Studies and Attendance on the Church of Christ That in particular Hunting is no Unpriestly Sport by the Laws of England may thus be proved For every Peer in the higher House of Parliament as well Lords Spiritual as Temporal hath Permission by the Charta de Forcstà when after Sunmons he is in his Journey to the Parliament and not else to cause an Horn to be sounded when he travels through any of the King's Forests and to kill a brace of Bucks signification being given of his Intent to the Verdurers 78. The King had persect knowledge how these Things were discuss'd He saw that whether the Person of the Arch-Bishop were tainted by this Fact or not yet his Metropolitical Function was unsettled in many men's Opinions he heard that the Acts of Spiritual Courts were unsped and came to no end till Sentence were pronounced one way or other by the Supreme Authority Therefore a Commission was directed from His Majesty to ten Persons to meet together for this purpose about the beginning of October These were the Lord-Keeper the Bishops of London Winton and Rochester the Elects of Exeter and St. Davids Sir Harry Hâ—bart Lord-Chief-Justice of the Common-Pleas Sir John Dodderidge one of the Justices of the Kings-Bench Sir H. Martin Dean of the Arches and Dr. Steward esteemed the Papinian of Doctors-Commons These began to lay their Heads together upon the Third of October and then Conser'd upon the manner of their Proceeding The Lord Hobart and Sir H. Martin affecting that his Grace should send Counsel to Plead before them from which the rest dissented First Because no such Privilege was allowed him in the King's Letters directed to the Commissioners Secondly Because the Honour of the King and the Seandal of the Church which as yet made the adverse Party have no Counsel on their side Thirdly Because His Majesty required Information from those ten upon the nature of this Fact relying upon their Knowledge Learning and Judgments but not referring the Matter to their final Decision and Determination Indeed their Work to prevent Excursions was laid out in three Questions which they were commanded to Resolve and to Act no further And those were Debated till the 27th of that Month and in the end Decided with great Disagreement of Opinions The first Question Whether the Arch-Bishop were Irregular by the Fact of Involuntary Homicide The two Judges and the two Civilians did agree That he was not Irregular and the Bishop of Winton who was a strong Upholder of Incontaminate Antiquity coming to the same sense said He could not conclude him so The other five held He was Irregular The second Question Whether that Act might tend to a Scandal in a Church-man The Bishop of Winton the Lord Hobart and Dr. Steward doubted All the rest Subscribed That there might arise from such an Accident Scandalum acceptum non datum a Scandal taken but not given The third Question How my Lord's Grace should be restored in case the King should follow the Decision of those Commissioners who had found him Irregular All agreed it could no otherwise be done then by a Restitution from the King In the manner they varied The Bishop of Wiâ—châ—sâ—er Lord Hobart Dr. Steward were of one mind to have it done immediately from the King and from him alone in the same Patent with the Pardon The Lord-Keeper Bishops of London Rochester Exon and St. Davids to be directed to some Bishops by a Commission from the King to be transacted in a foâ—mal Absolution Church-wise Manu Clericali Judge Dodderidge and Sir Harry Maâ—â—in were willing to have it done both ways for abundant Caution The whole Business was submitted to His Majesty to determine it who took the shortest course to shew Mercy Sprevit caelestis animus humana consilia as Velleius said of C. Caeâ—ar So by his Broad-Seal He assoiled the Arch-Bishop from all Irregularity Scandal or Infamation pronouncing him to be capable to use all Metropolitical Authority as if that sinistrous Contigency in spilling Blood had never been done A Princely Clemency and the more to be Extoll'd because that Arch-Bishop was wont to dissent from the King as often as any man at the Council-Board It seems he loved him the better for his Courage and Sincerity For it was he that said to Jo. Spotswood Arch-Bishop of St. Andrews telling His Majesty That if he wrote an History of the Church of Scotland to which Labour he was appointed he could not approve of his Mother in all things that she did Well says the King speak the Truth and spare not Words after Salomon's Praise which are Apples of Gold in Pictures of Silver 79. But because when our Arch-Bishop's Unfortunateness was recent it appeared far worse to some scrupulous Ecclesiastics then it did in process of time therefore the Lord-Keeper with the two other Elects cast themselves at His Majesties Feet and besought Him That since they had declared before God and the World what they thought in that dubious Case they might not be compel'd by wounding their Consciences to be Consecrated by him but be permitted to receive that Solemnity from some other Bishops which was warrantable by His Majesties Laws This was easily granted and the Lord-Keeper was Consecrated in the Chappel of King Henry the Seventh at Westminster on the 11th day of November following by the Bishops of London Worcester Ely Oxford Landaff And the Elects of Sarum Exeter St. Davids in the Chappel of the Bishop of London's Palace Nov. 18. by the same Reverend Fathers From hencesorth the suspicion of the Irregularity was brought asleep and never waken'd more Mr. H. L. is quite mistaken pag. 71. of his History ' It is true the Arch-Bishop an 1627. was Commanded from his Palaces of Lambeth and Croydon and sent to a Moorish House in Kent called Foord but not as he conceives
angry at the least Slackness of his Ministers and was us'd to say They might provoke him with Negligence but never molest him with double Diligence for he could read as much in an Hour as they would write to him in a Week Mr. W. Boswel his Secretary and Custos of his Spirituality and chief Servant under him in this Work was all in all sufficient for it eximious in Religion Wisdom Integrity Learning as the Netherlands know where he was long time Agent and Embassador for King Charles Through Mr. Boswell's Collection and narrow Search the Diocesan of so large a Precinct together with the Names of every Parson and Vicar was able to speak of their Abilities and manner of Life which I think no Memory could carry away but that it is credible he had some Notes affixed to every one of their Persons For he could decipher the Learning of each Incumbent his Attendance on his Cure his Conformity his Behaviour as well as most men knew them in their respective Proximities I do not say he had a passive Infallibility but that he might be abused with untrue Relations But for the most part a good Head-piece will discover a counterfeit Suggestion and crush the Truth out of Circumstances The Sum is He did as much as a Bishop could do while for the space of four Years and a half Necessity would not suffer him to reside with his Clergy whom they knew not that they mist him till he removed from London to live among them and made a large Amends for his Absence when he setled at Bugden In the mean time his Apocrisarii they to whom he had committed his Trust and Authority were among them to hear their Complaints and to Judge Right Now it is a good Rule in St. Cyprian to a laudable Purpose though the Father applies it for once to a Bad Epist 61. Non potest videri certasse qui vicarios substituit qui pro se uno plures succidaneos suggerit He that fills his Office with a good Co-adjutor his Absence may be dispenc'd with for a time upon reasonable Cause For a good Substitute is not a Shadow but a Substance Howsoever whether his Abode were within his Diocess or without it he knew that the Calling of a Bishop went along with him in every Place And whatsoever the standing Weight of his Business was that lay upon him he remembred to stir up the Gift of God that was in him by the Putting on of Hands He Preached constantly in the Abby of Westminster at the great Festivals of our Saviour's Nativity Resurrection and Whit-Sunday On which high Days he sung the Common Prayers Consecrated and Administred the Sacrament the Great Seal of the Righteousness of Faith besides the Sermon which he Preach'd every Lent in the King 's Royal Chappel Which was Work indeed being so learnedly performed For when he put his Hand to that Plough no man cut up a deeper Furrow that came into the Pulpit 99. Such Examples of Preaching were necessary for this time but very ill follow'd For there were Divines more Satyrical than Gospel-spirited chiefly some among the Lecturers in populous Auditories that were much overseen Banding their Discourses either under the Line or above the Line against the quiet Settlement of present Government Some carried their Fire in Dark-Lanthorns and deplor'd the Dangers that hung over us Some rail'd out-right and carried the Brands end openly in their Mouth to kindle Combustion Both did marvellously precipitate slippery Dispositions into Discontents and Murmurings The Treatise about the Spanish Match was the Breize that bit them and made them wild That was such a Bugbear that at the Motion of it some that were conscientious and some that seem'd so thought that the true Worship of God was a Ship-board and Sailing out of the Realm True Religion is the Soul of our Soul and ought to be more tender to us than the Apple of our Eye But we all know what will grow out of that Religion when it is marked with Charity It is not easily provok'd thinketh no evil beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things 1 Cor. 13. It is not distrustful of it own fastness as if so good a Fortress could be push'd down with a bruised Reed It will not raise Tumults and Tragedies from Misapprehensions that float upon the idle Lake of Suspicion That the Orthodox Church of England should totter upon this Occasion God be thanked it was not in proof nor could be made evident Sometimes Jealousie is too watchful sometimes it is fast asleep When the French Marriage was in Treaty when it was concluded when the Navy was under Sail to Land the Royal Bride the Preachers were modest and made no stir not one Zealot complain'd of for jerking at it with unadvis'd passion And yet the Daughter of France was a Daughter of the Roman Chair no less then Donna Maria. She never had Commerce nor ever like to have with the Hugonots The Swarms of her own Train all Papists by Profession were ready to abound in our Land far more than from the Spanish Coast Because of the short and easie passage from Calis to Dover their Shavelings would fly over as thick as Wasps about a Honey-Pot This was mightily dreaded when the Mariage was in some forwardness between Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Anjoy and opposed strongly by some that were hot in the Mouth to their cost But now no Leprosie was suspected but from Spanish Popery Which was aggravated with such Insolencies by some Ecclesiastical Fencers against the King's Honor and the Sincerity of his Oath which he had taken to maintain true Religion that they were at the height of Rage to profess Come and let us smite him with the Tongue Jerem. 18. Vers 18. So that his Majesty rouzed up like a Lyon silenc'd some of the Offenders imprison'd some threatned to arraign some for their Lives Yet after he was come to more Serenity of Passion the Lord Keeper who thought as hardly of their Indiscretion as the King himself did was Advocate for them all undertook to settle their Brains and procur'd them their Liberty and their Livings Among the rest he invented a merry Contrivance in the behalf of a very learned and misguided Scholar a Prisoner upon that score He told the King that he had heard that some idle Gossips complain'd of him grievously and did not stick to curse him Why What Evil have I done to them says the King Sir says the Lord-Keeper Such a Man's Wife upon Tidings of her Husband's Imprisonment fell presently in Labour and the Midwifes can do her no good to deliver her but say it will not be effected till she be comforted to see her Husband again For which the Women that assist her revile you that her Pains should stick at such a Difficulty Now Weal away says the King send a Warrant presently to release him lest the Woman perish There was none that was worse to be tamed
did now Imprison and Execute the Rigour of his Laws against the Roman Catholics I must deal plainly with your Lordship our Viperious Country-men the English Jesuits in France to frustrate those pious endeavours of his Majesty had many Months before this Favour granted retorted that Argument upon us by Writing a most malicious Book which I have seen and read over to the French King Inciting him and the three Estates to put all those Statutes in Execution against the Protestants in those parts which are here Enacted and as they falsly inform'd severely Executed upon the Papists I would therefore see the most subtle State-monger in the World chalk out away for 〈◊〉 Majesty to mediate for Grace and Favour for the Protestants by Executing at this 〈◊〉 the Severity of his Laws upon the Papists And that this Favour should 〈…〉 Toleration is a most dull and yet a most devilish misconstruction A Toleration looks forward to the time to come This favour backward to the Offences past If any Papist now set at Liberty shall offend the Laws again the Justices may Nay must recomm◠him and leave Favour and Mercy to the King to whom they properly belong Nay let those two Writs directed to the Judges be as diligently perused by these rash Censurers as they were by those Grave and Learned Men to whom his Majesty referred the Penning of the same and they shall find that these Papists are not otherwise out of Prison then with their Shackles about their Heels sufficient sureties and good recognizances to present themselves again at the next Assizes As therefore that Lacedaemonian opposed the Oracle of Apollo by asking his Opinion of the Bird which he grasp'd in his hand whether it were alive or dead So it is a matter yet controverted and undecided whether these Papists clos'd up and grasp'd in the Bands of the Law be still in Prison or at Liberty Their own demeanour and the success of his Majesties Negotiations are the Oracles that must decide the same If the Lay-Papists do wax insolent with this Mercy insulting upon the Protestants and Translating this favour from the Person to the cause I am verily of Opinion that his Majesty will remand them to their former State and Condition and renew his Writ no more But if they shall use these Graces modestly by admitting conference with Learned Preachers demeaning of themselves Neighbourly and Peaceably praying for his Majesty and the prosperous success of his Pious Endeavours and Relieving him bountifully which they are as well able to do as any other of his Subjects if he shall be forced and constrained to take his Sword in Hand Then it cannot be denied but our Master is a Prince that hath as one said plus humanitatis poene quam hominis And will at that time leave to be merciful when he leaves to be himself In the the mean while this Argument fetch'd from the Devils Topics which concludes a concreto ad abstractum from a favour done to the English Papists that the King favoureth the Popish Religion is such a Composition of Folly and Malice as is little deserved by that Gracious Prince who by Word Writing Exercise of Religion Acts of Parliament late Directions for Catechising and Preaching and all Professions and Endeavours in the World hath demonstrated himself so Resolved a Protestant God by his Holy Spirit open the Eyes of the People that these Airy Representations of ungrounded Fancies set aside they may clearly discern and see how by the Goodness of God and the Wisdom of their King this Island of all the Countries in Europe is the sole Nest of Peace and True Religion And the Inhabitants thereof unhappy only in this one thing that they never look up up to Heaven to give God Thanks for so great an Happiness Lastly for mine own Letter to the Judges which did only declare not operate the Favour it was either mispenned or much mis-construed It recited four kinds of Recusants only capable of his Majesties Clemency Not so much to include these as to exclude many other Crimes bearing among the Papists the Name of Recusanties as using the Function of a Romish Priest seducing the King's Liege people from the Religion established Scandalizing and Aspersing our King Church State or present Government All which Offences being outward practises and no secret Motions of the Conscience are adjudged by the Laws of England to be meerly Civil and Political and excluded by my Letter from the benefit of those Writs which the bearer was imployed to deliver unto my Lords the Judges And thus I have given your Lordship a plain Accompt of the Carriage of this business and that the more suddenly that your Lordship might perceive it is no Aurea Fabula or prepared Fable but a bare Narration which I have sent unto your Lordship I beseech your Lordship to let his Majesty know that the Letters to the Justices of the Peace concerning those four Heads recommended by his Majesty shall be sent away as fast as they can be exscribed I will not trouble your Lordship more at this time c. Your Lordships I. L. C. S. 105. The Letter as it exceeds in length so it excells in Judgment Yet thrusting into the midst of the Throng to part the Fray he got a knock himself For because he was principally employ'd by his Office to distribute the King's Favours to some of the adverse Sect he was Traduc'd for a Well-willer to the Church of Rome nay so far by a ranting fellow about the Town that he was near to receive a chief promotion from that Court no less than a Cardinals Hat At the first Bruit of this Rumor the Scandal was told him and one Sadler the Author discover'd which he despis'd to prosecute and pass'd it by with this moderation ' That the Reporters saw the Oar under Water and thought it was ' Crooked but he that had it in his hand knew that it was whole and streight An admirable Similitude to reconcile contraries to a good meaning for the Eye were not right if the Oar under Water did not seem broken to it And the Judgment were not right if it had not a contrary Opinion So the people that are upon the Shore judge one way for they look upon things beneath the Water But States-men judge another who work at the Oar or guide the Bark The Error of the former is tolerable the Sense of the other is Magisterial and unquestionable So great were this Lord's disaffections to that corrupt and unfound Church that he watch'd their Ministers more narrowly then any Counsellor when they shot beyond the Mark of his Majesties late indulgences It was ever the unlucky diligence of those that were Proctors to agitate the Recusants Cause to importune his Majesty for those things which they did not hope to obtain but the very offer of them with their Arts and Graceless Carriage would make the Council Table odious contribute much to embitter the Subjects
and to raise divisions So they dealt now For they put a Paper into my Lord of Buckingham's hands to assist them for the Erection of Titulary Popish Praelates in this Kingdom A most Natural superfaetation with the motion whereof the Lord Marquess being amuzed he sent to the Lord Keeper for advice who damned the Project with these Reasons ensuing First it will set all the Kingdom on Fire and make his Majesty unable to continue those Favours and Connivencies to peaceable Recusants which he now most Graciously affords them Secondly It takes away from his Majesty an Hereditary Branch of the Crown which the Kings of this Land have ever enjoy'd even before the Conquest and hath never since the days of King John been so much as Challeng'd by any Pope to Wit the Investitures of Bishops Thirdly It is a far greater mischief in a State I mean in regard of the Temporal but not of the Spiritual good thereof then an absolute Toleration For a Toleration as we see in France doth so divide and distinguish Towns and Parishes that no place makes above one payment to their Church-men But this invisible Consistory shall be confusedly diffused over all the Kingdom that many of the Subjects shall to the intolerable exhausting of the Wealth of the Realm pay double Tithes double Offerings and double Fees in regard of their double Consistory And if Ireland be so poor as it is suggested I hold under Correction that this invisible Consistory is the principal cause of the exhausting thereof Fourthly If the Princes Match should go on this New Erected Consistory will put the the ensuing Parliament into such a Jealousie and Suspition that it is to be feared that they will shew themselves very untractable upon all propositions Fifthly For the Pope to place a Bishop in this Kingdom is against the Fundamental Law of the Land and the King will be held unjust and injurious to his Successors if to his utmost power he should not resist and punish This Draught was brought to the King who was glad such Pills were prepared to purge away the redundancy of the Catholic Encroachments And his Majesty gave Order to him who had confected them so well to Administer them with his best skill to the Spanish Embassador That they might work gently with him the Lord Keeper at his Visit made shew that he was startled at a heady motion that came from Savoy as he thought taking no notice of any Spanish Agent that had his Finger in it And besought his Excellency to send for the Savoyan and to wish him to throw aside his Advice for Titulary Bishops least it should hinder the King of Spain's desire in accomodating the Catholics with those Courtesies which had been granted which took so well with the Spanish Embassador his own indiscretion being not Taxt but the Folly laid at another Door that the motion sunk in the Mud and was seen no more I will add but one thing how distastful it was to him that the Papists should have so much as the shadow of a governing Church in this Realm taken out of a Letter Cabal pag. 81. Written to my Lord of Buckingham being then at Madrid dated Aug. 30. 1623. Doctor Bishop the New Bishop of Chalcedon is come to London privately and I am much troubled at it not knowing what to Advise his Majesty as things stand at this present If you were Shipped with the Infanta the only Counsel were to let the Judges proceed with him presently Hang him out of the way and the King to blame my Lord of Caterbury or my self for it Surely this doth not favour of addiction to the Purple-Hat or the Purple-Harlot Ovid. Nunquid ei hoe fallax Creta negare potes Nay it was a Pang rather then a Passion to the welfare of this Church which forc'd sentence of Blood out of his sweet and mi'ky Nature 106. Yet well fare those good Fellows that did not defame him for a Papist Much otherwise they charg'd him with a loud Slander and a long Breach for it continued in his days of Sorrow that he was a Puritan of what Colour Siâ—s Blew or Black Both these might he false so they were both could not be True David says of God's Servants whom he Tried as Silver is Tried in the Fire that they went through Fire and through Water Miseâ—ies of Repugnant Natures So Sometimes they pass through Defamations inconsistent and as contrary one to another as Fire and Water The Old Non conformists were call'd by the Nick Name of Puritans in Queen Elizabeth's days I know not who impos'd it first whether Parsons the Jesuit or some such Franion I know it grew not up like Wild Oats without Sowing But some Supercilious Divines a few years before the End of K. James his Reign began to Survey the Narrow way of the Church of England with no Eyes but their own and measuring a Right Protestant with their streight line discriminated as they thought fit sound from unsound so that scarce ten among a Thousand but were Noted to carry some Disguise of a Puritan The very Prelates were not free from it but Tantum non ni â—piscopatu Puritani became an Obloquy At the Session which these Arislarchusses held near to the Court in the Strand the Lord Keeper the most Circumspect of any Man alive to provide for Uniformity and to countenance it was scratch'd with their Obeliske that he favour'd Puritans and that sundâ—y of them had Protection through his Connivency or Clemency All the Quarrel in good Sooth was that their Eye was Evil because his was Good Such whom the Aemulous repin'd at as he cast it out himself were of two Ranks Some were of a very strict Life and a great deal more laborious in their Cure then their Obtrectators Far be it from him to love these the worse because they were Stigmatiz'd to the Offence of Religious and Just-men with a by word of Contumely Pacatus the Orator inveighed against it for a Rank impiety in his Panâ—g Quod Clarevati Matrorae objicicbatur atque 〈◊〉 exprobrabatur mulieri vi luae nimia Religio diligentius culta Divinitas I will lay it open in one particular The Lord Bishop of Norwich Dr. Harsnet a learned Prelate and a Wise Governour bate him perhaps a little roughness began to proceed in his Consistory against Mr. Samuel Ward a Famous Preacher in Ipswich who Appealed from the Bishop to the King And the King committed the Articles exhibited against him to be Examined by the Lord Keeper and by him to be Reported to his Majesty The Lord Keeper found Mr. Ward to be not altogether blameless but a Man to be won easily with fair dealing So he perswaded Bishop Harsnet to take his Submission and to continue him in his Lecture at Ipswich The Truth is he found so much Candor in Mr. Ward so much readiness to serve the Church of England in its present Establishment and made it so clearly appear that he had
gained divers Beneficed Men to conform who had stumbled at that Straw that the Lord Keeper could do no less then compound the Troubles of so Learned and Industrious a Divine And I aver it upon the Faith of a good Witness that after this Bishop Harsnet acknowledged that he was as useful a man to assist him in his Government as was in all his Diocese Another Rank for whose sake the Lord Keeper suffer'd were scarce an handful not above three or four in all the wide Bishoprick of Lincoln who did not oppose but by ill Education seldom used the appointed Ceremonies Of whom when he was certified by his Commissaries and Officials he sent for them and confer'd with them with much Meekness sometime remitted them to argue with his Chaplain If all this stirred them not he commended them to his Old Collegiate Dr. Sibbs or Dr. Gouch Who knew the scruples of these mens Hearts and how to bring them about the best of any about the City of London If all these labour'd in vain he protracted the hearing of their Causes de die in diem that time might mollisie their refractory Apprehensions But had it not been better said some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to stop the mouth of the unruly Tit. 1.11 I Answer Their mouth was slept in St. Paul's meaning Estius hath begun the distinction and it is easily made up Alind est silontium indicere quod est imperamis Alind ad metas saciturnitatis reduccre quod est docte redarguentis They were not imperiously commanded to be silent but enough was spoken wifely to their Face to put their Folly to silence Men that are found in their Morals and in Minutes imperfect in their Intellectuals are best reclaimed when they are mignarized and strok'd gently Seldom any thing but severity will make them Anti-practise For then they grow desperate Facundus Dominus quosdam aâ—fugam cogit quosdam ad mortem says Seneca And they are like to convert more with their sufferings then with their Doctrine He that is openly punish'd whatsoever he hath done he shall find Condolement But I will spend no more Words to wipe away this stur of Puritanism it needs not a laborious Apology 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Proverb is in Athenaeus Let Lubbars Talk of it over a Winter Fire when they Droll out Tales 107. Yet I want not matter how to wash out this spot of Jealousie by great Actions In this year 1622 he began to expend a great Sum upon St. John's College the Nurse of his hopeful breeding A right stampt Puritan is not a Founder but a Demolisher of good Works He laid the platform of his Beneficence on this Wife Four Scholars he Added to the 40 Alumni in the College of Westminster For their Advancement he provided and endowed four Scholarships in St. John's College upon their Maturity and Vacancy of those places to be Translated to them Two Fellowships he Newly Erected in that House into which only out of those four the best were to be chosen Withal he purchas'd the Patronage of four Rich Benefices to receive those Scholars and Fellows of his Foundation upon the Death or other Cessation of the Incumbents But the Chief Minerval which he bestowed upon that Society was the Structure of a most goodly Library the best in that kind in all Cambridge And as he had pick'd up the best Authors in all Learning and in all plenty for his own use so he bequeathed them all to this fair Repository This was Episcopal indeed to issue out his Wealth as the Lord brought it in in such ways This is the Purse that Mr. H. L. says he Ran away withal after he had departed with the Great Seal wherein we see how far the Portion of over-flowing wast which 〈◊〉 from Great Ones and is spilt if it were sav'd and well bestow'd would 〈◊〉 the Land with all sort of Monumental Bravery What a good Steward he was for his Master Christ Jesus's Houshold and how provident to put none into part of the Care but such as were Obedient to Civil and Sacred Rulers appears most in his happy choice of those upon whom he confer'd the livings that fell into his Patronage They were ever pick'd out of the best Learned the best Qualified the most Cordially affected to our most Godly Liturgy and to the Government of the Prelates Within these Apostatizing times wherein so many have departed from them without Cause I cannot remember any of his preferring but kept their Traces and to their best Power never run out of the Ring I have a short Story to tell and then I leave this Subject Among the poor distressed Protestants in Bohemia many of them were Braziers by their Occupation These sent sent some messengers from them with a Petition to his Majesty that they might Transplant a Colony into England London especially Men Wives Children and their full Families Signifying that they would bring with them to the Value of two hundred Thousand Pounds in Coin and Materials of their Trade That their Substance and Labour should be subject to all Customs and Taxes for the King's profit They desired to live in a Body of their own Nation and to serve Christ Jesus in that Church Discipline which they brought with them from Bohemia Though they had inclin'd his Majesty to admit them being a great Swarm of People and bringing Wax and Honey along yet the Lord Keeper diverted it from the Example of the Dutch and French that were setled among us These brought commodious Manufacture into the Realm but they brought a Discipline with it according to the Allowance of their Patent which was a Suffocation to the Temperate Crisis of our own Church Government Which Peril of Distemper would be increased by the Access of the Bohemick Congregation A great Forecast to keep our Hierarchy found from the Contagion of Foreigners and he was more Religious to keep the Church of England in its Sabbath and Holy Rest than to help out the Neighbours Ox that was fallen into the Pit Yet I have somewhat to alledge in the Behalf of the Bohemians I have in my little Library a Book printed 1633 eleven years after the Lord Keeper appear'd against their Petition called Ratio Disciplinae ordinisque Ecclesiastici in unitate sratrum Bohemorum Their Platform in that Piece comes so near to the old Protestant Church of England above all the Reformed that for my part I wish we had had their Company This is sufficient I am sure against those Opposite and Self-overthrowing Aspersions Let them do their worst there is one Metal that will never be the worse for them of whose Property this Lord partak'd It is Gold of which Pliny writes Lib. 33. N. H. c. 3. that nothing makes it more precious Quam contra salis aceti succos domitores rerum constantia The Spirits of Salt and Vinegar the most biting and sowrest Reproaches cannot hurt it with their Tartness That which corrodes all
effected Mellino had a good Course for it though Cardinal Barberino catcht the Hare and was as near to the Papacy and as publickly cry'd up as Cardinal Sachetti in the late Contestation of the tedious Conclave wherein the now inthroned Alexander the VII had much ado to step before him But Mellino lost the Day and thereupon Am. de Dominis his Cake was Dough who set his Rest upon a Card before it was drawn Yet that was the least part of his Folly he remains for an Example of the most besotted Cast-away that ever I read Ita se res habet ut plerumque cui fortunam mutaturus est Deus consilia corrumpat says Paterculus The Judgment of Blindness fell upon Sodom before the Vengeance of Fire How durst this bold Bayard look the Court of Rome in the Face upon any Terms whose Writings were more copious against the Amplitude of the Papacy than ever came out of the Press An Italian never forgives an Injury But Indignities written and with the Pen of a Diamond against the Sublimity Pontifical are more unpardonable with them than Blasphemies against Christ Had Cardinal Mellino his Confident been elected Pope the Pope would have forgotten all that the Cardinal had promised him What had Fulgentio the Servite done to be compared with his Scopuli and such jerking Books He had maintained the Venetian just Laws against Paul the Fifth's Abrogations yet ever abode in the Bosom of the Roman Church He had wrote the Life of Frier Paul whom they hated to the full pitch of his Praise But what were these Toys to the Ecclesiastical Republick of Antonius de Dominis Yet after twelve years that Fulgentio had provok'd them he having obtained safe Conduct to go to Rome under the Fisher's Ring and Berlingerius Gessius the Apostolical Nuntio at Venice pawn'd his Faith to the poor Man for his Incolumity yet he was cited before the Inquisition Condemn'd and Burnt in Campo di Flora And his Ashes were scarce cold when this daring Wretch came wittingly into the Den of the Lion 111. I forbear a while to tell his Disaster for a third Reason remains of the retrocession of this Crab whose Brains were fallen into his Belly He protested he came hither and returned to the Place from whence he came for the same end to finish the Work which G. Cassander began to compose a Method of Concord for the Eastern and Western Churches Greeks and Latins for the Uniting of the Northern and Southern Distractions of the Reformed Evangelical Divines and the Papalins That this had been his Design within his own Breast for twenty years and that his Studies were now come to that Maturity that he saw no Unlikelihood to prevail But what if the Arch-Bishopric of York had fallen into his Mouth which he gap'd for Certainly he would have forgot his Trade of Composing Churches and cast Anchor upon this Shoar for ever for his Religion was a Coat that had all Colours but wanted Argent and Ore Yet if a Mountain of some such Promotion had stopt his way I do not dis-believe him but that he was traversing in and out to attone the Differences of the most principal Christian Sects So Mr. Camden understood him under whose Hand I find this Note among his Diary Records Accingit se aditer Romam Versus nescio quâ spe convocandi generalis concilii rem religionis componendi He was packing for Rome in hopes to see a General Council call'd to cure the Distractions of Religion I appeal also to the Writer of the best Appeal Bishop Morton our Holy Polycarpus who told me that he dehorted Spulat from his Vagary into Italy to accommodate Truth and Peace for the Italians would never be perswaded to retract an Error Spalat takes him up for it churlishly An putas Papam Cardinales diabolos esse quod non possunt converti Says our Bishop again Neque puto Spalatensem Deum esse ut possit eos convertere Further When he was convented before the High Commissioners Mart. 30 he requested their Lordships to think charitably of him that his Departure hence was not that he took any Dislike at the Church of England which he held to be sound and Orthodox and that he would avouch before the Pope Grackan c. 85. to whom he was going Etiamsi hoc fiat cum discrimine vitae meae though it cost him his Life And it will not cost you less says the Lord Keeper for you may propound to the Pope the Conciliation you drive at but you will never be suffered to live to prosecute it God's Will be done says the other I do not fear it yet I suspect it the more that so wise a Man presageth it The same had dropt from his Pen Lib. 7. Eccl. Reip. c. 7. ar 133. Conciliation and Union to reduce Christ's Flock to feed together without Schism is so brave a Work Ut pro hôc negotio si contingeret nobis vitam cum sanguine fundere praeclari martyrii laudem apud Deum Ecclesiam mereremur For all this sew believ'd him that he was in earnest He that is untrue in many things is justly presum'd to be bad in all But I am brought over by palpable Evidences to suspect him of so much Honesty that he followed that good Work with all the Might of Wit and Labour to bring the Churches of Christ together which were withdrawn from one another in Hatred and Hostility And it was an easie thing to him to surmise it feasible because he was of so loose a Religion Nay He thought it was so near to be effected that it was already as good as done if both sides would take prudent notice that it was done For he builds upon this Bottom 7 de Rep. Eccl. c. 12. a. 13. Nihil sive in dogmatibus sive in ritibus in alterutrd parte adeo intolerabile esse invenw ut propterea separatio facienda sit aut schisma fovendum On all sides all Opinions were so tolerable in his Presumption that the White and the Black Church were both of a Colour For Example these Instances which follow and many others may be found in that 12 Chap. rashly slubber'd over We may communicate with them that hold Transubstantiation for it destroys Nature rather than Grace it is an Error of a good Mind not out of Dishonour to Christ but out of Devotion For Image-worship it is the least thing of an hundred to be past over for as when the Bible lyes before us and we Pray out of the Psalms we do not adore the Bible no more do they the Crucifix that is plac'd before them The Supremacy of the Pope is no necessary Cause of Divorcement for John and Cyriacus of Constantinople took to themselves the Title of Universal Bishop yet Gregory the Great who highly inveighed against their Error kept Unity with that Church And so should we do upon like Provocation Art 117. Thus he patcheth up the Rents but it was
beyond his Skill to draw up the Pieces Another of his Reconciliatory Devices is in Art 119. That the most of Reformation consists in the right Direction of our mental Intention which God only sees Et Ecclesia non judicat de occultis As a Protestant may be present at Mass and do his Duty at it kneel down with the rest and pray to God but not adore the visible Host Chiefly as Lib. 12. c. 6. He relies much upon this Distinction Alia est ecclesia manca alia monstrosa That the Church of Rome is not mutilated for want of any integral Part of Faith but monstrous and luxuriant in too much which is superadded Which Deformity they that are strong may bear with since they are enlivened with all the saving Faith that we profess and we need not partake with their Redundancies Therefore he perswades Art 21 that without any Offence to Conscience you may abide in either Church keeping a good Purpose of Mind and Heart But he speaks with the wide Mouth of a compleat Libertine Lib. 7. c. 17. Art 120. Rideo illos ego qui ingenti incommodo periculo ab unâ ad aliam partem solus conscientiae causâ trasfugiunt What then Make it his own Case Was it not Conscience that remov'd him hither Not a jot for it follows in the same Sentence Illi soli prudenter id faciunt qui de abusibus alterutrius partis liberi disserere scribere ibi volunt ubi nullum impedimentum inveniant We thank him for his Company It seems he took Refuge in England not out of Conscience to leave the Roman Church but out of Prudence to write safely against their Errors and to draw up the great Schism to an Overture of Concord among merciful Men that would not persecute him for his Good Will I will represent him in a Line or two that he was as indifferent or rather dissolute in Practice as in Opinion For in the same Cap. Ar. 35. this is his Nicolaitan Doctrine A pluralitate uxorum natura humana non abhorret imò fortasse neque ab earum communitate Thus leaving all Differences of Religion indeterminat in vago he thought it would be his great Honour to be the Conciliator of Christendom All 's made ready to shake Hands For you need not lick any Point into the Shape of a distinct Conclusion but involve all in the Lump of an indigested Concord Therefore though he was posted up for a Shittle-cock in all Universities and even Balladed by Boys for his Inconstancy they were mistaken For both Churches to him were one and when he was in one he was in both In his Passage hither and thither he made no Salt from one Religion to another but he was still walking in his long Gallery sometimes with his Face to the East sometimes to the West 112. There is such a fag end which remains to piece this out after I have brought the unhappy Man to his Friends at Rome that sent for him that the Judicious will find upon it that he juggled with himself rather than with us He would have bless'd God if he had been us'd with that Lenity there which he found in England For our High Commissioners made this end with him Mart. 30. 1622. That since he had ungratefully reproach'd his Majesties Liberality prosessing that he was hired to depart for a better Stipend Since he held Correspondence with some of the Popes great Council by Name with Cardinal Mellino who are presumed Ill-willers if not Enemies to the King and this State Since he profess'd open Adherence to the Romish Church and did not renounce the Missatical Corruption of their Priesthood against whom our Laws have Decreed the utmost Punishment therefore Sentence was given to Deprive him of all the Spiritual Preferments which he held in this Realm with a strict Command to depart out of the said Realm within Twenty Days and never to return again into any his Majesties Dominions upon pain of undergoing the Penalty of the Statute against Priests and Jesuites 'T was too late for him to Reply So on the 18th Day of April Count Suartzenburg Ambassador Extraordinary from the Emperor Ferdinand after he had been very splendidly entertain'd for the space of 16 Days return'd homewards and took Shipping at Gravesend in whose Company but in another Vessel Spalat cross'd the Seas and coming to Brussels after a little stay the Eagle flew away with the Buzzard and dropt him at Rome After he was setled there the first News we heard from him was his Book call'd Consilium reditus How wonderfully doth he appear in that Book to be a chang'd Man He defies the Church of England backbites picks new Quarrels nothing in it that favour'd of Cassander the Moderator of Contentious Disputes but of Eudaemon or some such Jesuite His other Works being prohibited so strictly and minatorily that Bishops might not read them this last abortive piece born out of due time was thought to be his Doctrine by the Ultra-montans and nothing else I do not say it was not his Pen to my Sense the Style bewrays him but to be his Mind and Judgment I oppose it to this hour He wrote it in a noisom Prison despairing of Liberty for ever unless he could release himself by impudent Forgeries and Contradictions Ultimum malorum est ex vivorum numero antequam morierâ—s exire says Senec. de Tran. c. 3. 'T is an unexpressible torment to be shut up close in a stinking Hole and to be buried quick He was kept in continual fear to be burnt as if he were torn with an Harrow of Iron and made to pass through the Brick-kiln 2 Sam. 12.31 What would he not do to escape that Death who was better prepar'd to spend an Ounce of Ink in the Devils Cause than a Spoonful of Blood for Christ Therefore I reckon that Book to be the Issue not of this Man but of his carnal fear A Subscription to Articles in time of Duress and strict Custody what is it worth in Law I am sure one of the best Sconces in Europe Sir Nic. Throgmorton ascertein'd Mary Queen of Scotland Cessionem in carcere extortam qui justus est metus planè irritam esse Camd. Elizab. An. 1567. Take it likewise from the Judgment of the great Athanasius Ep. ad solit vit agen p. 839. The Pope Liberius stood to Athanasius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when he was free to do what he would But being thrown out into Banishment and hunted to be destroy'd as a Partridge in the Mountain he subscrib'd against his own Hand which yet did not prejudice Athanasius his Innocency 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Those things which Liberius acted against his first Judgment were not his doing that was awed with fear but the results of those that compell'd them with Tyranny And that our M. Antony was cudgel'd into a Recantation with the impendent fear of an horrid Death will be made clear because after
5. to be wasted over into Italy in his Bark Thus he went on with other flatuous Disparagements One Copy of this and no more came to the Leiger Embassador of the Catholick King of which the Lord Keeper had the Use and would never deliver it again but wrote to my Lord Marquess April 20th to bid the Earl of Bristow to take care either to stifle it if it were not divulg'd or to cause it to be called in if it were published Such Scriblers should be informed against in the Ragguaglia's of Pernassus and amerced to pay for the the Loss of our Time 133. Aste the gaudy Days of the Royal Welcome were past over my Lord of Buckingham obliged the Lord Keeper greatly unto him with a Letter Dated March 26 and came about the Declining of April for the Comfort of the Contents which were these My good Lord HOwsoever I wrote so lately unto you that I have not since received any Letter from your Lordship yet because you shall see that I let slip no Opportunity I do it again by this Conveyance and must again tell you the good News of his Highness's being in perfect Health I cannot doubt but many idle and false Rumors will daily be there spread during the Absence of his Highness which I know your Lordship and the wiser sort will easily contemn and believe only that which you shall find avowedly advertised from hence And here let me thus far prevent with your Lordship any sinister Report that shall be made in the main Point which is the Prince's Religion assuring you that he is no way pressed nor shall be perswaded to change it for so is it clearly and freely professed unto him I hope I shall shortly be able to advertise your Lordship of the Arrival of the Dispensation which will be the Conclusion of our Business And thus wishing your Lordship all Honour and Happiness c. The Pearl which came in this Letter is that Satisfaction purchased of God with the Prayers of all devout Men that the Prince should not be inveigled in Conferences or unquieted with Disputes to strip himself of the Wedding-Garment of that incorrupt Faith in Christ which he had professed from a Child for that Wedding sake which he came to conclude How impudently have some Trash-Writers out-faced this Truth as if the Prince had been beset on all sides to make Shipwrack of his Religion in the Gulph of Rome Ar. Wilson of all others is the most forward Accuser and therefore the Falfest Tast him in these Parcels P. 230 that the Earl of Bristow insinuated it with this crafty Essay to his Highness That none of the King 's of England could do great things that were not of that Religion Yet he interfears in that same Page That Gondamar prest the Earl of Bristow not to hinder so pious a Work assuring him that they had Buckingham's Assistance in it Then belike Gondamar was jealous of Bristow that he was contrary to that which he called a pious Work the Prince's Perversion Certainly he knew Bristow as far as a Friend could know a Friend And as many Bow-shots wide is he from my Lord of Buckingham's Sincority in that Action as a Lyar is from Heaven Is not his Lordship's Hand-writing so solemn'y mention'd an uncontroulable Testimony The same Author slanders Conde d'Olivares and makes him utter that which never came from him That if the Prince would devote himself to their Church it would make him â—th way to the Infanta's Afflictions and if he seared the English would rebel he should be assisted with an Army to reduce them The Conâ—e Duke carried no such threatning Fire in one Hand nor at that time any of his Holy Water in the other For he committed nothing to offend his Highness's Ears in that â—ind till his Passions made him forget himself about three Months after Not contented with this he makes the Prince say that which he never thought as that when the Conde Duke propounded That if his Highness would not admit of a sudden Alteration and that publickly yet he would be so indulgent to litten to the Infanta in Matters of Religion when they both came into England Which the Prince promised to do But what says true hearted Spotswood P. 544. That the Prince was stedfast and would not change his Religion for any worldly Respect nor enter into Conference with any Divines for that purpose Utri credetis Is there any Choice which of these two should rather be believed I am careful to praemonish conscientious Readers against Serpentine Pens least their nibling should ranckle A Serpent you know from the beginning was a Lodging for the Devil Gen. 3. and so is a Slanderer The Manual of Romish Exorcisms says Instruct 2. that it is presumed for a sign that he is possest with a Devil Qui linguam extorquet miris modis eandem exerit ingenti oris hiatu I translate that to the Manners of the Mind which is meant there of the Body And let the Living learn the dead Man whom I speak of can take no Warning it is a divelish thing to loll out the Tongue of Contumely These being fore Times to out-face the Truth and willing to listen to Defamations no marvel if some take the Liberty to Lye and have the Confidence to be believed But that Sectaries that have quite overthrown the Church of England a right and pleasant Vineyard of Jesus Christ that these should be the Men who for the most part have challenged the Prince and the chief Ministers that laboured to effect the Spanish Match for being luke-warm at the best and unfastned from the Religion then profest is very audacious The Accused were Innocent and never gave ground to any pernicious Alteration but themselves the Accusers have trodden down that Religion of which in their deep Hypocrisy they would seem to be Champions The Prince and Buckingham were ever Protestants those their Opposites you know not what to term them unless Detestants of the Romish Idolatry As if all were well so they be not Popified though they have departed from the Church in which they were Baptized and a Church I will not say as sound as it was in its Cradle in the Apostles Times but as pure and Orthodox in Doctrine and Government as far as they were maintained to be of Divine Right and Constitution as it was in its Childhood in the time of their Disciples even that next succeeded them And are these the Declamers for Religion and the Temple of the Lord Ex isto ore Religionis verbum excidere an t clabi potest as Tully said of Clodius Orat. pro domo suâ ad Pontif. and so I give them no better Respect at parting 134. But what will be said when one that is greatly affected to our poor demolish'd Church doth concur with those Snarling Sectaries of his own accord That in the flagrant expectation of that Match some for hope of Favour began to Favour the Catholick
Keeper did not unforesee how far this Cord might be drawn And that those Discontents which were but Vapours in common talk might thicken into a Thunder-Clap in an ensuing Parliament Which though it assembled not in 14 Months after yet this Prometheus had learn'd his Lesson That Safety is easiest purchas'd by Prevention An Instrument that is strung may be us'd upon a little warning Having thus studied the Welfare of the Duke he spake to him to this effect My Lord YOur Mother is departed out of the Bosom of the Church of England into whose Confession of Faith she was Baptiz'd a strong Schism in any to go away from that Society of Christians among whom they cannot demonstrate but Salvation may be had I would we could bring her Home so soon that it might not be seen she had ever wandered For it is a favourable Judgment among Divines Hormisda in Epist ad Anastasium Imperatorem Propè ab Innocentiâ non recedit qui ad eam sine tarditate revertit He seems almost not to have faln from Innocency that returns into it without delay But my Care I cannot dissemble it is more for your self Your Integrity My Lord is wounded through your Mothers Apostasie Perhaps you hear not of it For I believe it is late before any Truth meets you that is offensive It is one of the greatest Miseries of Greatness which Pollio imputes to Gallienus Nemo ei vera nec in bonis nec in malis nuntiat But it is time to let your Lordship know That the Mouth of Clamour is opened that now the Recusants have a Potent Advocate to plead for their Immunity which will increase their Number When this is banded in the High and Popular Court by Tribunitial Orators what a Dust it will raise I have touch'd a Sore with my Finger I am furnish'd with an Emplaster to lay upon it which I presume will Lenifie Only measure not the Size of Good Counsel by the Last of Success My Lord Your Mother must be invited or provoked to hear Debates between Learned Men speaking to those Points of Controversie that have staggered her Let her Ladiship bring her Champions with her Entertain her with many of these Conferences Let them be solemn as can be devised the King himself being ever present at the Disputes and the Conslux of great Persons as thick as the Place will permit Let your Lordships Industry and Earnestness be Conspicuous to catch at every Twig of Advantage much more to give Applause to every solid Reason which may bring your Mother home to a sound Mind again If her Ladiship recover of her Unstableness by these Applications you have won a Soul very precious to you and will raise your self up into the Fame of a Sincere Protestant But if the Light within her be Darkness and that she frustrate all hopes of her Reparation the Notice of your Lordships Pious Endeavours will fill the Kingdom with a good Report and will smell to every good Nostril like a sweet Savour My Lord Courage I set my rest upon 't that this Counsel will not deceive because you will labour your Mothers Conversion not as a Stratagem of Counterfeacance but upon my Knowledge from the very Mind of your Heart The Conferences went presently to work His Majesty singularly versed in Polemical Theology was Superintendent The Champion in whose Sufficiency the Lady most affied was Fisher the Jesuit With whom Dr. Francis White then Dean of Carlile first encountred and gave him Foil after Foil as the Colloquy did let the World know most impartially publish'd But Female Weakness was not evinced by Manly Performance The Logick of the Serpent had strong force upon Eve and that Infirmity is descended upon her Daughters Another Meeting was prepared wherein the Lord Keeper entred the Lists with Fisher because he had advised to those Disputes he was willing to be Active as well as Consultative As the old Rule would have Precept and Example to go Hand in Hand Cum dixit quid faciendum sit probat faciendo He had observ'd when he was an Auditor at the former Conflict that if divers of the Jesuits Postulata were yielded to him datis non concessis that the Church of England repurging it self from the super-injected Errors of the Church of Rome would stand inculpable So he labour'd to evidence if unnecessary Strifes were discreetly waved what little was wanting to a Conclusive Unity Ut quae non licuit per omnia ex necessariis partibus allegentur as the Emperor Justin wrote to Pope Hormisda The King did greatly commend his Charitable and Pacificatory handling of Controversies which gentle usage though it put the Jesuit out of his ordinary trot yet he fell into a shuffling pace and carried away the Lady behind him The Lord Keeper exposed not his part in Print as Fulgentius says of Frier Paul That he writ nothing with Intention to publish it unless Necessity constrein'd him The third 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that contended with the Jesuit both for the Palm of Victory and to bring Eye-Salve to the dim-sighted Lady was Dr. Laud then Bishop of St. David's who galled Fisher with great Acuteness Which the false Loiolite traduced and made slight in his Reports Whereupon the Bishop for his just Vindication Corroborated all that he had delivered with very strong Enlargement paying his Adversary both with the Principal and Interest and divers Years after finish'd it with an Auctarium which hath rendred it a Master-Piece in Divinity But all this labour was spent in vain as to the Countess's part and she left to be numbred among those of whom Christ foretold that they loved Darkness more than Light Qui scis an prudens huc se dejecerit Atque Servari nelit Horat. Art Poet. Yet on my Lord her Sons part that which was desir'd was Atchieved He had appeared in the Field an Antagonist to her Revolt whom he Honour'd and Observ'd with the most of Filial Duty So she was less Valued ever after and sent from the Court for her Obstinacy But he was Blazed abroad for the Red-Cross-Knight that was Unàs Champion against Archimago Yet it was not Printed to be Read and Judg'd of till the Parliament Sate which was now call'd 179. And lest the precedents of the King's Writs should be lost as his Houses and Revenues are embezel'd here follows the Copy of the Summons directed to the Lord Keeper under the Signet James Rex TRusty and well beloved Counsellor we Greet you well Whereas we are Resolv'd to hold a Parliament at our Palace of Westminster the Twelfth day of February next ensuing These are to Will and require you forthwith upon the Receipt hereof to Issue forth Our Writs of Summons to all the Peers of our Kingdom And also all other usual Writs for the Electing of such Knights Citizens and Burgesses as are to serve therein And withal to issue out all usual Writs for the Summoning of the Clergy of both Provinces
Wherein the Lord Keeper interceded with the Duke to the incurring a mighty Anger as may be seen by the Letters of Decem. 24. and Jan. 4. Cab. p. 99. If Threatings had been mortal Shot he had Perisht for he never had such a Chiding before but he kept his Ground because he held the fairer side of the Quarrel Dr. Meriton the Dean of York was lately Dead and much Deplor'd For he was an Ornament to the Church My Lord Duke entreated by great ones named a Successor that had no Seasoning or Tast of Matter in him one Dr. Scot But a Doctor Inter Doctores Bullatos for he never stood in the Commencement to approve himself beside too many Faults to be ript up I have known a Scholar in Cambridge so bad a Rider that no Man for Love or Price would furnish him with a Horse I would have thought no Man would have furnisht such a Scholar as this with a Deanery chiefly of York It came about strangely Scot was a Prodigal Gamster and had lost upon the Ticket to a Noble Person far more then he was worth Which Debt his Creditor knew not how to recover but by Thrusting him aided with my Lord Dukes Power into this Rich Preferment The Casuists among all the Species of Simony never Dream'd of this which may be called Simonia Aleatoria when a Gamester is Installed into a goodly Dignity to make him capable to pay the Scores of that which he had lost with a bad Hand And yet the Man Died in the Kings-Bench and was not Solvent The Lord Keeper intending to put of Dr. Scot from this place besought for the remove of those most worthy Divines Dr. White or Dr. Hall or to Collate it upon Dr. Warner the most Charitable and very Prudent Bishop of Rochester But he was so terrified for giving this good Counsel that he writes now he knew his Graces Resolution he would alter his Opinion and would be careful in giving the least Cause of Jealousie in that kind again Yet it is a received Maxime Defuturos eos qui suaderent si suasisse sit periculum Curt. l. 3. Certainly with others this might work to his Esteem but nothing to his Prejudice And I dare confidently avouch what I knowingly speak that I may use the Words of my industrious Friend Mr. T. F. in his Church History That the Solicitation for Dr. Theodore Price about Two Months after was not the first motive of a Breach between the Keeper and the Duke the day-light clears that without dusky conjectures no nor any Process to more unkindness then was before which was indeed grown too high The Case is quickly Unfolded Dr. Price was Country Man Kinsman and great Acquaintance of the Lord Keepers By whose procurement he was sent a Commissioner into Ireland two years before with Mr. Justice Jones Sir T. Crew Sir James Perrot and others to rectifie Grievances in Church and Civil State that were complain'd In Executing which Commission he came of with Praise and with Encouragement from His Majesty that he should not fail of Recompence for his Well-doing Much about the time that the Prince return'd out of Spain the Bishoprick of Asaph soll void the County of Merioneth where Dr. Price was Born being in the Diocess The Lord Keeper attempted to get that Bishoprick for Dr. Price But the Prince since the time that by his Patent he was styled Prince of Wales had Claimed the Bishopricks of that Principality for his own Chaplains So Dr. Melburn and Dr. Carlton were preferr'd to St. Davids and Landaff And Asaph was now Conferr'd upon Dr. Hanmer his Highness's Chaplain that well deserv'd it A little before King James's Death Dr. Hampton Primate of Armach as stout a Prelate and as good a Governor as the See had ever enjoy'd Died in a good old Age. Whereupon the Keeper interposed for Dr. Price to Succeed him But the Eminent Learning of Dr. Usher for who could match him all in all in Europe carried it from his Rival Dr. Price was very Rational and a Divine among those of the first Note according to the small skill of my Perceivance And his Hearers did testifie as much that were present at his Latin Sermon and his Lectures pro gradu in Oxford But because he had never Preach'd so much as one Sermon before the King and had left to do his calling in the Pulpit for many years it would not be admitted that he should Ascend to the Primacy of Armach no nor so much as succeed Dr. Usher in the Bishoprick of Meth. To which Objection his Kinsman that stickled for his Preferment could give no good Answer and drew of with so much ease upon it that the Reverend Dr. Usher had no cause to Regret at the Lord Keeper for an Adversary Neither did Dr. Price ever shew him Love after that day and the Church of England then or sooner lost the Doctors Heart 214. It is certain that all Grants at the Court went with the Current of my Lord Dukes Favour None had Power to oppose it nor the King the Will For he Rul'd all his Majesties Designs I may not say his Affections Yet the L. Keeper declin'd him sometimes in the Dispatches of his Office upon great and just Cause Whereupon the King would say in his pleasant Manners That he was a stout Man that durst do more than himself For since his Highness's return out of Spain if any Offices were procur'd in State of Reversion or any Advouzons of Church Dignities he interpos'd and stopt the Patents as Injurious to the Prince to whose Donation they ought to belong in just time and preserv'd them for him that all such Rewards might come entire and undefloured to his Patronage Wherein his Highness maintain'd his Stiffness for that foresight did procure that his own Beneficence should be unprevented And he carried that Respect to the Dukes Honour nay to his Safety for notice was taken of it that he would not admit his Messages in the Hearing of Causes no not when his chief Servants attended openly in Court to Countenance those Messages to carry him a-wry and to oppress the Poorest and whose Faces he had never seen with the least wrong Judicii tenax suit neque aliis potiùs quà m sibi credidit as Capitolinus makes it a good Note of Maximus He would believe his own Judgment and his own Ears what they heard out of Depositions and not the Representation of his best Friends that came from partial Suggestions Such Demands as are too heavy to ascend let them fall down in pieces or they will break him at the last that gives them his Hand to lift them up In this only he would not stoop to his Grace but pleas'd himself that he did displease him And being threatned his best Mitigation was That perhaps it was not safe for him to deny so great a Lord yet it was safest for his Lordship to be Denied It was well return'd For no Arrand was so privily conveyed
hopeful Marriage When the Eyes of all our 〈◊〉 were set upon the Infanta of Spain he took into his House as it is formerly remembred a Spaniard by Birth and a Scholar John Taxeda by whose Conversation he grew expert in the Spanish Grammar in the Castilian Pronunciation and in the Knowledge of those Authors that in Ten Weeks he could not only understand the most difficult Writers of that Nation but was able to Entreat with the Ambassadors without an Interpreter How much will Fruit upon in one Mans Intellectuals before anothers who hath the advantage of so much Sun and Warmth in his Brains Now when the Glorious Nuptial Torch was in Election to be lighted from the Neighbour Kingdom of France he endeavour'd to make himself expert in that quaint and voluble Language and by parling often with a Servant whom he had listed into the Check of his House for that purpose a Frenchman that was continually at his Elbow in Three Months he was as ready at it to Read Write or Speak as he that had lyen Liegier Three years for it at Paris And to Evidence that he had a publick Soul in every thing where he put his Finger as he had caused a Translation of our Liturgy out of Latin into Spanish to be finish'd by Taxeda and Printed it at his own Costs so to go no less in his Preparations for this French Association he encourag'd a most able Divine Mr. Delaun Minister of the French Church in Norwich to turn that Excellent Liturgy into his Country Language which was effected and the accurate Translator greatly both Commended and Rewarded Hereupon how it hapned that our Liturgy now made legible to the French did clear the Church of England even to the Conscience of its Enemies especially from the gross Slanders of Fugitives that had gone out from us is a passage that may challenge Publication with the Attendance of its Circumstances 216. His Majesty having in the behalf of his Son begun the woing part to Madam Henrietta Maria with due Ceremony of State The Queen Mother Moderatrix of this and all other Solemn Negotiations in France at that time bethought seriously to have this Happiness and high Honour setled upon her Daughter And her First prudential forecast was not to loiter out time with a Spanish Pause nor to endanger the forfeiture of a Bond of such Royal Love for want of payment of Courtesie at the due day Therefore she dispatch'd Marquess Fiatte afterward the great Financer and Monsieur Villoclare one of the principal Secretaries Embassadors extraordinary into England to remove all Obstructions by their Commission and wise management of it and to entwine the Rose and Lilly upon one Matrimonial Stem When they Landed the King had removed himself from New-Market to Trinity College in Cambridge where he gave Audience to those Embassadors providing to their welcom this Grace more then ordinary That he receiv'd them where his choicest Darlings the liberal Arts were round about him Now that the Conferences about this Marriage were gone so far and seemed as it were to be over the last Fire and sit for Projection his Majesty would have the Lord Keeper taken into the Cabinet and to make him known by a Mark of some good Address to the French Gallants upon the return of the Embassadors to London he sent a Message to him to signifie that it was his pleasure that his Lordship should give an Entertainment to the Embassadors and their Train upon Wednesday following it being Christmass-Day with them according to the Gregorian Prae-occupation of ten days before our Account The King's Will signified the invitement at a Supper was given and taken Which was provided in the College of Westminster in the Room Named Hierusalem Chamber but for that Night it might have been call'd Lucullus his Apollo But the Ante-past was kept in the Abby as it it went before the Feast so it was beyond it being purely an Episcopal Collation The Embassadors with the Nobles and Gentletlemen in their Company were brought in at the North-Gate of the Abby which was stuck with Flambeaux every where both within and without the Quire that strangers might cast their Eyes upon the slateliness of the Church At the Door of the Quire the Lord Keeper besought their Lordships to go in and to take their Seats there for a while promising in the Word of a Bishop that nothing of ill Rellish should be offered before them which they accepted and at their Entrance the Organ was touch'd by the best Finger of that Age Mr. Orlando Gibbons While a Verse was plaid the Lord Keeper presented the Embassadors and the rest of the Noblest Quality of their Nation with our Liturgy as it spake to them in their own Language and in the Delivery of it used those few Words but pithy That their Lordships at Leisure might Read in that Book in what Form of Holiness our Prince Worshipp'd God wherein he durst say nothing savour'd of any Corruption of Doctrine much less of Heresie which he hoped would be so reported to the Lady Princess Henrietta The Lord Embassadors and their Great Train took up all the Stalls where they continued about half an Hour while the Quire-men Vested in their Rich Copes with their Choristers sung three several Anthems with most exquisite Voices before them The most honourable and the meanest persons of the French Attended all that time uncover'd with great Reverence except that Secretary Villoclare alone kept on his Hat And when all others carried away the Looks of Common Prayer commended to them he only lest his in the Stall of the Quire where he had sate which was not brought after him Ne Margarita c. as if had forgot it 217. At the same time among those Persons of Gallantry that came into England to make up the Splendor of the Embassage and were present at this Feast d'Amours as some of themselves call'd it there was an Abbat but a Gentleman that held his Abbacy â—lla mode de France in a lay Capacity He had receiv'd the Gift of our Service Book and to requite the Doner having much of a Scholar and of ingenuous Breeding he laid aside all other business to read it over Like a Vowed Person to another Profession he was not hasty to praise it but suspended his Sentence till he might come in Place to see the practice of it It was well thought of by him that the Tryal of the soundness in Religion consists not all together in the Draught of a Book but in the motion likewise and Exercise of it The Abbat made his mind known to the Lord Keeper by Sir George Goring now Earl of Norwich that he would gladly be present in the Abby of Westminster upon our Christmass Day in the morning to behold and hear how that great Feast was solemnized in our Congregations which heard very ill beyond the Seas for Profaneness Whereas the Book for Uniformity of Publick Prayer which he had receiv'd though
it was not set off with much Ceremony to quicken Devotition yet it wanted neither a stamp of Reverence nor the metal of Godliness Yet he would be careful in Launching out so far in Curiosity to give no Scandal to Catholicks whose Jealousie might perhaps suspect him as if he thought it lawful to use both ours and the Church of Rome's Communion Therefore he made suit to be placed where none could perceive him and that an Interpreter of the Liturgy might assist him to turn the Book and to make right Answers to such Questions as fell by the way into his Animadversions None more forward then the Lord Keper to meet the Abbat in this Request Veritas oculatos testes non refermidat The Abbat kept his hour to come to Church upon that High Feast and a Place was well fancied aloft with a Latice and Curtains to conceal him Mr. William Beswell like Philip Riding with the Treasurer of Queen Candace in the same Chariot sate with him directing him in the Process of all the Sacred Offices perform'd and made clear Explanation to all his scruples The Church Work of that ever Blessed day fell to the Lord Keeper to perform it but in the place of the Dean of that Collegiate Church He sung the Service Preach'd the Sermon Consecrated the Lords Table and being assisted with some of the Prebendaries distributed the Elements of the Holy Communion to a great multitude meekly kneeling upon their knees Four hours and better were spent that morning before the Congregation was dismiss'd with the Episcopal Blessing The Abbat was entreated to be a Guest at the Dinner provided in the College-Hall where all the Members of that Incorporation Feasted together even to the Eleemosynaries call'd the Beads-men of the Foundation no distinction being made but high and low Eating their Meat with gladness together upon the occasion of our Saviours Nativity that it might not be forgotten that the poor Shepherds were admitted to Worship the Babe in the Manger as well as the Potentates of the East who brought Rich Presents to offer up at the shrine of his Cradle All having had their comfort both in Spiritual and Bodily Repast the Master of the Feast and the Abbat with some few beside retired into a Gallery The good Abbat presently shew'd that he was Bred up in the Franco-Gallican Liberty of Speech and without further Proem defies the English that were Roasted in the Abbies of France for lying Varlets above all others that ever he met We have none of their good word I am sure says the Keeper but what is it that doth empassion you for the present against them That I shall calmly tell your Lordship says the Abbat I have been long inquisitive what outward Face of God's Worship was retein'd in your Church of England What Decorums were kept in the external Communion of your Assemblies St. Paul did Rejoyce to behold good Order among the Colossians as well as to hear of the stedfastness of their Faith cap. 2.5 Therefore waving Polemical Points of Doctrine I demanded after those things that lay open to the view and pertain'd to the Exterior Visage of the House of God And that my Intelligence might not return by broken Merchants but through the best Hands I consulted with none but English in the Affairs of their own home and with none but such as had taken the Scapular or Habit of some Sacred Order upon them in Affairs of Religion But Jesu how they have deceiv'd me What an Idea of Deformity Limm'd in their own Brain have they hung up before me They told me of no composed Office of Prayer used in all these Churches by Authority as I have found it this day but of extemporary Bablings They traduc'd your Pulpits as if they were not possest by Men that be Ordein'd by imposition of Hands but that Shop-keepers and the Scum of the people Usurp that Place in course one after another as they presum'd themselves to be Gifted Above all they turn'd their Reproaches against your behaviour at the Sacrament describing it as a prodigious Monster of Profaneness That your Tables being furnish'd with Meats and Drinks you took the Scraps and Rellicks of your Bread and Cups and call upon one another to remember the Passion of our Lord Jesus All this I perceive is infernally false And though I deplore your Schism from the Catholick Church yet I should bear false Witness if I did not confess that your Decency which I discern'd at that Holy Duty was very allowable in the Consecrator and Receivers 218. My Brother Abbat says the Lord Keeper with a Smile I hope you will think the better of the Religion since on Christ's good Day your own Eyes have made this Observation among us The better of the Religion says the Abbat taking the Words to relate to the Reformed of France nay taking all together which I have seen among you and he brought it out with Acrimony of Voice and Gesture I will lose my Head if you and our Hugenots are of one Religion I protest Sir says the Keeper you divide us without Cause For the Harmony of Protestant Confessions divulg'd to all the World do manifest our Consonancy in Faith and Doctrine And for diversity in outward Administrations it is a Note as Old as Irenaeus which will justifie us from a Rupture that variety of Ceremonies in several Churches the Foundation being preserv'd doth commend the Unity of Faith I allow what Irenaeus writes says the Abbat for we our selves use not the same Offices and Breviares in all Places But why do not the Hugonots at Charenton and in other Districts follow your Example Because says the Lord Keeper no part of your Kingdom but is under the Jurisdiction of a Diocesan Bishop and I know you will not suffer them to set up another Bishop in the Precincts of that Territory where one is establish'd before that would savour of Schism in earnest And where they have no means to maintain Gods Worship with costly Charge and where they want the Authority of a Bishop among them the people will arrogate the greatest share in Government so that in many things you must excuse them because the Hand of constraint is upon them But what constreins them says the Abbat that they do not Solemnize the Anniversary Feast of Christ's Nativity as you do Nay as we do for it is for no better Reason then because they would be unlike to us in every thing Do you say this upon certainty says the Keeper or call me Poultron if I feign it says the other In good troth says the Keeper you tell me News I was ever as Tully writes of himself to Atticus in Curiositate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apt to search narrowly into Foreign Churches and I did never suspect that our Brethren that live with you were deficient in that Duty For the Churches of the Low-Countries of Heidelberg Helvetia Flassia Breme and others do observe a yearly Day to the
Memory of our Saviours Birth I conceive the like for Geneva For when Calvin had retir'd to Basil some mutation about Holy Feasts was made in Geneva Upon his Return thither again Hallerius both in his own and in Musculus his Name complains that the Celebration of that Memorable Feast was Neglected Calvin Returns him Answer the Epistle is extant dat anno 1551. Jan. Sancte testari possum me inscio ac ne optante quidem hanc rem â—uisse transactam Ex quo sum revocatus hoc temperamentum quaesivi ut Christi Natalis celebraretur vestro more But will you have the Judgment of Protest out Divines when they were in a Globe and Collection together from all Quarters At the Synod of Dort convened about six years past all the Divines with the Assessors from the States intermitted their Sessions against the Feast of Christ's Nativity with 〈◊〉 Suffrages and the Reason is given in plain Words Sessio 36. Decem. 1â— Quia to tempore Festum Natalis D. N. Jesu Christi instabat propter cujus celebrationem c. It will be the harder for those of the Religion in France to Answer for this Omission Yet Judg more Charitably then to think they do it only out of Crossness to disconform to your Practise He that runs backward further then he need from his Adversary plays his Prize like a Coward And I use to say it often that there ought to be no secret Antipathies in Divinity or in Churches for which no Reason can be given But let every House sweep the Dust from their own Door We have done our endeavour God be Praised in England to Model a Churchway which is not afraid to be search'd into by the sharpest Criticks for Purity and Antiquity But as Pacat. said in his Paneg in another Case Parum est quando caeperit terminum non habebit Yet I am confident it began when Christ taught upon Earth and I hope it shall last till he comes again I will put my Attestation thus far to your Confidence says the Abbat that I think you are not far from the Kingdom of Heaven So with mutual Smiles and Embraces they parted 219. Paulo Majora The next was the greater grapple upon Terms Political and Scholastical between the Lord Keeper and Mounsieur Villoclare who is mention'd before The King was now at White-Hall and the French Agents plied it to concord Conditions for the Royal Marriage And who so busie to trouble the Scene with a new part not concern'd in the Plot of the Comedy as our Nimble-headed Recusants The Secretary Villoclare was accounted and not mistaken to be a servent Zealot in his own Religion which our English had learnt by resorting daily to Mass in the Embassadors House These found Access unto him and sighed out their Grievances before him that their Priests who adventur'd to come to them for their Souls Health were Executed for Traytors and themselves were set such Fines for their Conscience that they were utterly impoverish'd How happy should that Honourable Person be that would skreen them from the scorching of this Persecution That his Lordship had Opportunity for his Power and his Piety could not want will to enter into a Motion for a relaxation of their Miseries among such Articles as were to be Granted for the Honour and Happiness of the approaching Nuptials The Secretary heard them and condoled with them promis'd his Pains and to be an earnest Proctor in their Cause holding it most meritorious to go or run on such an Errand And he sell to his work in good earnest and ask'd such large concessions for his Clients or rather challeng'd such Grace with horrid Liberty then Petition'd for it that the King was observ'd to begin to be cooler in the Treaty for the Marriage then he had been The Lords that plied it beyond the Seas at the Lâ—â—r had not discouraged the Embassadors before they set forward but rather pleased them with hopes of English Courtesies and condescentions And I fear they were perswaded into too much confidence for I have heard it often from the Followers of the Earl of Carlile that after Articles had been drawn and Engross'd some things were Erazed some things Interlaced which never had his Lordships Approbation Our Courtiers at White-Hall through whose Counsels and Resolves the Grants of Monsieur Villoclare were to pass though directly they did dot yield to him yet his driving was so furious that they declin'd to deny him and shift for themselves that the first Storm of his Passion might not fall upon them Therefore they told him they could not assure him he had prevail'd till he had spoke with the Lord Keeper whose Duty it was to Examine such things upon his Peril what were sit or not sit for the King's Conscience Honour and Safety before the Great Seal were put to The Keeper heard of all this and sent to the Duke as he had wrote to him before Cab. p. 95. I shall be in a pitiful perplexity if his Majesty shall turn the Embassadors upon me altogether unprovided how to Answer But he cast it up into this short Sum that the disappointment of this Vexatious Solicitor so far engag'd must light upon himself and the displeasure of all the French that wish'd it good speed He was not to learn that a Magistrate in his Place must have a strong back to bear the Burthen of Envy So he Collected his thoughts into rational preparations and was provided for a Bickering which began on the Eighth of January and held long And it must be warned that the Report of it which follows extends the length above that which past between them on that occasion The Secretary Villâ—are after he had parted from the Lord Keeper and brought his business to a justifiable Maturity through the direction of some of our best Lawyers as the way was chalked to to him had Audience with the King and Entreated with his Majesty upon Terms of greater moderation then formerly he had done which he confest was brought about from a Conference with the Lord Keeper And told his Majesty That Counsellor had given him small content in a long Argument vext between them for he had Preach'd to him till he was weary to hear his Divinity tho' it was Learned and of more Acuteness then he expected in that Cause but unsatisfactory to Catholicks as could be fram'd Yet he made him amends with such Counsel in the end that now he knew upon what Ground he stood what Laws and Statutes were in force against that model of Mercy which he had urg'd and how the Clemency and Power of his Majesty was retrench'd by them Therefore as he hoped to find his Majesty Sweet and Gracious so his Majesty should find him tractable that the Thrice Noble and Primary design about which he came might not hover any longer in suspence Blessed be the Reduction of things to this good pass said the King And that Aequanimity might not slip the Knot his
extract advantage out of it But wherein lies the way You shall have better Heads then mine to help you if you please to be directed by me None can furnish you with the right Art of it but some of our sage Counsellors of our Common Laws I wish you therefore my Lord to proceed with the special knowledg of the Roman Catholicks that stir most in this Project Let them cull out some of the Learnedest Practisers together Let the King's Attorney General make one for my sake For the rest let your Clients pick out as they like An hundred Crowns among them that is a Fee of five pounds a Man will not be ill bestowed upon them Let them lay their Heads together And I will lose all I am worth if you do not thank me for having referred you to those who will fetch out by their Skill so much to be Granted that you will never be put to Contestation hereafter that you obtain'd much of the King and are never the nearer The Courtiers with whom alone you have had to do to this time have Complemented with your Lordship So could I do likewise give you Large concessions in Words and in Wax but in effect nothing Like Galley Pots Entitled with the Name of Cordials but have Cob-Webs in them and no more My Lord all that I have to say is no more but this will you be lead by me or will you wander still Sir says the Embassador Use me honestly I am a Stranger and while I am in England I will surrender up self to your Directions Nay I will possess our Virtuous and Illustrious Madam that you are a clear dealing Man and of good Faith and most worthy of her Trust when she comes into a strange Land And after a very civil Farewel at the present Mounsieur Villoclare made use of those Instructions For though he Climbed not so High as he looked yet he Climbed better for he stood sure where he could not fall 228. Which Papers came to the King with more satisfaction as he was pleas'd to say then he could have expected Not any Line of Wisdom or Learning could be lost to him who saw as far and as soon as any Man into the Intellectuals of another For as the Lord Bacon wrote his Majesty had a light of Nature which had such readiness to take Flame and blaze from the least occasion presented on the least spark of anothers knowledg deliver'd as was to be admir'd And this was the last present in that kind that the Lord Keeper sent to the King who finding some indisposition of Health retired for fresh Air and quietness to his Mannor of Theobalds VVhere Jacob gather'd up his Feet into the Bed and yielded up the Ghost Gen. 49.33 The Lord Keeper on March 22. being Tuesday receiv'd a Letter from the Court that it was feared his Majesties Sickness was dangerous to Death which Fear was the more confirm'd for he dispatching away in all haste met with Dr. Harvey in the Road who told him That the King us'd to have a Beneficial Evacuation of Nature a sweating in his left Arm as helpful to him as any Fontinel could be which of late had failed And that argued that the former Vigour of Nature was low and spent This Symptome of the Kings Weakness I never heard from any else Yet I believe it upon so learned a Doctors Observation And this might well cause a Tertian Ague and a Mortal when the Spring had Entred so far able to make a commotion in the Humours of the Body and not to expel them with accustom'd vaporation After the L. Keeper had presented himself before his Lord the King he moved him unto chearful Discourse but it would not be He continued til Midnight at his Bed-side and perceiv'd no Comfort but was out of all Comfort upon the consultation that the Physicians held together in the Morning Presently he besought the Prince that he might acquaint his Father with his Feeble Estate and like a faithful Chaplain mind him both of his Mortality and Immortality which was allowed and committed to him as the principal Instrument of that Holy and necessary Service So he went into the Chamber of the King again upon that Commission and Kneeling at his Palat told his Majesty He knew he should neither Displease him nor discourage him if he brought Isaiahs Message to Hezekiah to set his House in Order for he thought his Days to come would be but few in this World but the best remained for the next World I am satisfied says the Sick King and I pray you assist me to make me ready to go away hence to Christ whose Mercies I call for and I hope to find them After this the Keeper now of his Majesties Soul kept about him with as much Diligence as a Body of Flesh could endure He was ever at hand helpful not only in Sacred but in every kind of Duty never from that time put off his Cloaths to go to Bed till his Master had put off his Tabernacle which appear'd in his Looks on Sunday Night when he return'd to VVestminster employed himself Night and Day unless the Physicians did compose his Majesty to rest in Praying in Reading most of all in Discoursing about Repentance Faith Remission of Sins Resurrection and Eternal Life To which the King made Answer sometimes in Latin always with Patience and full of Heavenly Seasoning which Hallowed Works were performed between them on VVednesday as a Preparation to the Passover on Thursday the Fortifying of his Majesties Soul against the Terrors of Death with the lively Remembrance of Christ's Death and Passion in the Holy Communion At which the King made most humble Consession of his Sins craved Absolution rendred the Confession of his Faith before many Witnesses Profess'd he Died in the Bosom of the Church of England whose Doctrine he had defended with his Pen being perswaded it was according to the mind of Christ as he should shortly Answer it before him 229. All this while God did lend him such Strength to utter himself how well he Relish'd that Sacred Banquet of Christ's Body and Blood and how comfortably the Joy of the Holy Ghost did flow into his Soul as if he had been in a way of Recovery And his mournful Servants that saw and heard it rejoyced greatly that unto that time Sickness did not compress his Understanding nor slop his Speech nor Debilitate his Senses and submitted more willingly to God to have their Master taken from their Head because they believed the Lord was ready to receive him into Glory The next day his Soul began to Retreat more inward and so by degrees to take less and less Notice of external things His Custos Angelus as I may call him his Devoted Chaplain stirr'd very little out of the Chamber of Sorrow both to give an Far to every Word the King spake in that extream condition and to give it him again with the Use of some Divine
that they kept Centinel at all Hours and Seasons to expect the second coming of the Lord Jesus Arch-bishop Spotswood tells us of the like Anno. 510. p. 11. That St. Mungo founded a Monastery in Wales and took order that the Monks had day and night divided among them one Company succeeding another so that there were some always in the Church praying and praising God In which and in all the rest What was there offensive Nay What not to be admir'd To leave it off or to lessen it for the Girds of lavish Tongues were like the Man in the Dutch Epigram That would eat nothing but Spoon-meat for fear of wearing out his Teeth God be glorified for such whose Prayers were powerful and uncessant to pierce the Heavens The whole Land was the better for their Sanctity They fasted that Famine might not be inflicted upon our common Gluttony They abridg'd themselves of all Pleasures that Vengeance might not come down upon the Voluptuousness of this riotous Age. They kept their Vigils all Night that the Day of the Lord might not come upon us like a Thief unawares that sleep in security The whole World was the better for their Contempt of the World As Philostratus says of the Hilobii Lib. 3. vit Apollonii 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They were in the World not of the World All their Practice was heavenly a great deal of it had some Singularity by the Custom of our corrupt ways who do not strive to enter in at the strait Gate to come to Blessedness 51. The Fame of the Dispensations of this worthy Family the further it was heard abroad the more it sounded like Popery Envy or Ignorance could guess no better at it but that it was a Casa Professa a Convent pack'd together of some Superstitious Order beyond Seas or a Nunnery and that the Sufferance of it look'd towards a change in Religion After the Sentence of Salust Boni quà m mali susâ—ectiores sunt semperque aliena virtus formidolosa est A Crew of Bawds and Gamesters might have set up a Standing with less prejudice than these Devotionaries But God help us if the best Protestants for these may be called so do look like Papists Had they been hired with Gold that so mistook them they could not have done more Credit and Honour to our Adversaries Speak Sir Cenjurâ—r we the true Children of the Church of England were we not without departing from our own Station capable of Mortification of vowing our selves to God of renouncing the World of Fasting of Vigils of Prayer limited to Canons and Hours as any that say and do not that call themselves from St. Basil St. Bennet or such other Institution Not our Reformation but our Slothfulness doth indispose us that we let others run faster than we in Temperance in Chastity in Scleragogy as it was call'd The Diocesan and their Neighbour to this Family in a few Miles was asham'd at these Scandals which he knew to be spiteful and temerarious He knew the Occurrences of his Precinct as Apelles was wont to fit behind the Pictures hung up in his Shop to hear what Passengers that went to and fro did approve or discommend These were known to the Bishop by right Information from the time that they sealed a Charter among themselves as it were to be constant and regular in their Spiritual Discipline But their Heavenly mindedness was best discover'd to him when two Sons of Mrs. Farrar the Mother and Matron of the Houshold treated with the Bishop to endow the Church with the Tythes which had been impropriated this was in Sept. 1633. as appears by a Smack of that which fell from the Pen of the Donor as followeth Right Reverend Father in God THE Expectation of Opportunities having some Years whealed me off from the Performance of this Business I now think it necessary to break through all Impediments and humbly to present to your Lordship the Desires and the Intentions of my Heart Beseeching you on God's behalf to take them into your Fatherly Consideration and to give a speedy Accomplishment to them by the Direction of your Wisdom and the Assistance of your Authority The rest is too much to be rehearsed save a little of her Prayer to God in the end of the Papers BE graciously pleased Lord now to accept from thy Hand-maid the Restitution of that which hath been unduely heretofore taken from thy Ministers And as an earnest and pledge of the total Resignation of her self and hers to thy Service vouchsafe to receive to the use of thy Church this small Portion of that large Estate which thou hast bestowed upon her the unworthiest of thy Servants Lord redeem thy Right whereof thou hast been too long disseized by the World both in the Possessions and in the Person of thy Hand-maid And let this outward Seizure of Earth be accompanied with an inward Surprizal of the Heart and Spirit into thine own Hands So that the Restorer as well as that which is restored may become and be confirm'd thine Inheritance c. The Bishop pray'd to God that many such Customers might come to him so commended her free-will Offering to God and confirm'd it To make them some amends for their Liberality to the Church he devised how to give them Reputation against ad Detraction Therefore in the Spring that came after he gave them warning on what Sunday he would Preach in their Church whither an extreme Press of People resorted from all the Towns that heard of it In his Sermon he insisted most what it was to die unto the World that the Righteous should scarce be saved that our right Eye and our right Hand and all our fleshly Contentments must be cut off that we may enter into Life All tended to approve the dutiful and severe Life of the Farrars and of the Church that was in their House After Sermon the Bishop took their Invitation to Dine with them But they were so strict to keep that day holy that they left not a Servant at home to provide for the Table Yet it was handsomely furnish'd with that which was boil'd and bak'd that requir'd no Attendance to stay any one from Church to look to it By this visit the Bishop had the Means to see their way of serving God to know the Soundness of Doctrine which they maintain'd to read their Rules which they had drawn up for Fasts and Vigils and large Distributions of Alms In which he bad them proceed in the Name of God and gave them his Blessing at his departing From thenceforth these faithful ones flourish'd in good opinion For it is certain what Quintilian hath stated in Gratory Lib. 5. Nulla sunt firmiora quà m quae ex dubiis facta sunt corta The more a Case was doubted the clearer it is when the Doubt is resolv'd 52. Yet nothing is so sound but in time it will run into Corruption For I must not hold it in that some Persons in Little Giding
be done to in my Temptations what you will not admit I should do to another as in the Case of Fornication or Adultery shall I do in that case what I desire to be done to me And therefore the Rule is not so safe as it is represented Yea but then if you will any thing as this Rule would have you to will you must will voluntate rationali discretà saith Alexander Ales with a rational and discreet will and then you shall not miscarry Or you must do as you would have Men do homines non bruta as you would have Men and not Beasts do unto you saith Albertus magnus But those that will do unto you any such filthiness as you speak of are as St. Paul calls them Men after the manner of Beasts And therefore in all your Actions whatsoever remember still this little Sentence as you desire to avoid those other Sentences some in this Life and some in the Life to come Which is all I shall say unto you my good Friends and Neighbours of the Laity 60. Now that particular thing which I am to recommend to you my Brethren of the Clergy not falling properly within the Limits of a Visitation but put off by my self for a Year or two in hope of this or the like opportunity is Subsidium charitativum which so as it tend to a publick and no private end Bishops by Law may move unto their Clergy It is a charitable Benevolence or Contribution for St. Paul's Cathedral Church seated in London which as you know is our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he said he of Athens our England of England and our Landskip and Representation of the whole Island For here strangers no sooner arrive but they first take unto themselves and then vent abroad unto others a Scantling and Platform of the British Government as well in Matters concerning the Church as in those that touch upon the State and Commonwealth Here if God's worship be decently perform'd his Word learnedly Preach'd his Sacraments reverently administred his material Houses polish'd and repaired especially this great and huge Fabrick the City as it were of the City it self and a place of continual resort both to our own and other Nations then presently omnes omnia bona dicere the Mouth of Detraction is quite stopped the Priests and Jesuites are blank and silenc'd the Government in Church and State is generally approved And which is more considerable than all the rest God himself is magnified and glorified for giving a Nation Eighty years of Peace and Plenty which had the Heart to return some little Share somewhat at the least unto him again But should this Minster still remain as of late it did a great heap of mouldering Stones or rather a little Mountain of Dust and Rubbish were our Churches in the inner places of this Isle never so repaired as I doubt it much yet would Strangers out of Error and Seminaries out of Rancour possess the World That since the Reformation God's Houses in England are become the Habitations of Dragons and a Court for Owls that Satyrs do dance in them and Beasts of the Field do roar in them Lastly That when Pater Noster had reared them up to touch the Heavens Our Father hath pull'd them down to the Dust of the Earth And is it nothing thus to become a Reproach and Proverb in all places Nothing that God's Glory should be thus impaired Nothing that his Gospel should be thus blasphemed God forbid but we should all be sensible of it And thus it must needs be unless these great Fabricks reared at the first for the main of the Work by Indulgences and Superstition be repaired again by the bountiful Devotion of King and People But the Misery of it is this that People in all Ages are sound to be People that is far more easily noosed and cheated than taught enlighten'd or perswaded Whereas the Case God be thanked is otherwise with you my Brethren of the Clergy whose advantage of Breeding makes you better understand a Motion from your King so vigilant and attentive to any Motion of yours especially when it comes upon you as this doth backed and accompanied with all the Reasons and Demonstrations of Piety and Policy Beside that the Care of our Metropolitan hath been such that your Contribution may without offence be so minced and distributed to Years and Half-years as that it shall become very easie and portable doing good abroad without hurting at home or impairing in any sensible measure your private States or Fortunes I will leave it thus unto your own Considerations without accumulating more Reasons or Motives left I might seem to doubt of your Affections to any reasonable Proposition whom I have found for these Fourteen years as loving a Clergy to any Motion of mine as I have been unto you by reason of some Misfortunes an unuseful and unprofitable yet a most affectionate Bishop 61. Thus he ended and thus was the Visitation perfumed with the sweet Gums of his Eloquence Perhaps the Smell is too strong for them that lov'd him not and whose contumelious Writings and bitter Words eat into his Credit like Quicksilver They will be wiser when Truth and Charity meet together in them which Graces they had need to pray for Envy like a Kite sits upon the top of the tallest Tree in the Wood. A drowsie Bishop that had bestirred himself in nothing to be known to Posterity no better than a silly Consul that served for nothing but to know the Fasti by his Name this man should have scap'd the Lash it may be had the good word of our common Jeerers but offer another unto them that hath lived in Action and Renown as our Prelate did they will pull him out of his Grave as one Pope served another to censure him How ready have they been either to raise or take up Reports to wound him Reports spread far and wide by the King 's unfortunate Regiments that reveli'd it with all kind of Insolency round about him in Wales whose ungovern'd looseness the Bishop could not endure but oppos'd them stifly wherein it may be he lost his Judgment considering their Strength and Rudeness He loved the King's Cause but not his Army whose debauched Carriage and little Hope of Success methinks I read in Tully's Epistles lib. 7. epist 3. to M. Marius concerning Pompey's Sword-men Extra Ducem paucosque praeterea de Principibus loquor reliqui primùm in bello rapaces deinde in oratione it a crudeles ut ipsam victoriam horrerem Maximum aes alienum amplissimorum virorum Quid quaeris nihil boni praeter causam These are they that brought up Tales and Tidings of the Bishop in their Knapsacks to London and on such Stuff our History-men Ecclesiastical and Civil are pleas'd to insist Why did they pretermit the noble parts of his Episcopal Government digested in this Work in so many Paragraphs which are so unquestionable that they were seen
Parliament and had stood up to defend him where there was openly such defiance of Enmity between them he had been censur'd by all Judgment for double-mindedness or sawning And as Lanfrank charged one of his Predecessors Remigius Bishop of Lincoln Quod officio emerat Episcopatum So the World would have censur'd this Prelate that he kept his Place by Service Simony as Mr. Fuller calls it And with what Safety and Liberty he could appear let one Passage demonstrate The Duke demanded that the Attorney-General might plead for him in the House of Peers against the Charge transmitted by the Commons which was opposed because the Attorney was one of the King 's Learned Council and sworn to plead in Causes concerning the King and not against them And the King is supposed to be ever present in the noble Senate of the Lords It was rejoyn'd That His Majesty would dispense with the Attorney's Oath It came to be a Case of Conscience and was referr'd to the Bishop's Learning Some of them judged for the Duke that this was not an Assertory-Oath which admits no alteration but a Promissory-Oath from which Promise the King if he pleas'd might release his Learned Counsel Bishop Felton a devout man and one that feared God very learned and a most Apostolical Overseer of the Clergy whom he governed argued That some Promissory-Oaths indeed might be relaxed if great cause did occur yet not without great cause lest the Obligation of so sacred a thing as an Oath should be wantonly slighted And in this Oath which the Attorney had taken it was dangerous to absolve him from it lest bad Example should be given to dispense with any Subject that had sworn faithful Service to the Crown for which plain Honesty he was wounded with a sharp Rebuke And the reverend Author told me this with Tears Yet the Archb. Abbot said as much and went farther for whom Budaeus would stand up a great Scholar and a Statesman De Asse lib. 3. fol. 102. Neque turpe esse credo cos homines observare quibus apud Principem gratiâ slagrare contigit si non cosdem apud populum ordines infamiâ invidiâ slagrare videamus As who would say it is Duty to love a Favourite for the King's sake and it is Duty to desert him when he becomes a publick Scandal For no man will be happy to stick to him who is so unhappy to become a common Hatred All that Parliament was a long Discontent of eighteen weeks and brought forth nothing but a Tympany of swelling Faction and abrupt Dissolution whereby the King saved that great Lord who lost His Majesty in some expeditions Honour abroad and the love of his People at home This was another Fire-brand kindled after the former at Oxford to burn down the Royal House and the most piously composed Church of England For a wife Oratour says it is Isocr Orat. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 243. The cause of an Evil must not be ascribed to things that concur just at the breaking out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but to the forerunning Mischiefs which were soaking long to ripen the Distempers Well was it for Lincoln that he had no hand in this Fray for as the Voyagers to Greenland say When the Whale-fishing begins it is better to be on the Shore and look on E terrâ magnum alterius spectare laborem than to be employed in the Ships to strike them and hale them to Land 71. Say then that he neither did harm nor receive any by being shut out of this turbulent Parliament Yet his Advice had been worth the asking because of the Plunges that His Majesty was put to upon the Dissolution but he heard of no Call to such a purpose For no man looks on a Dyal in a cloudy day when the Sun shines not on it God's Mercy was in it for he sate safer at home than he could have done at the Council-Board at this time where much Wisdom was tryed to help the King's Necessities out of the Peoples Purses by a Commandatory Loan and with the least Scandal that might be for not to run into some Offence was unavoidable Pindar the Poet was call'd out of his House to speak with some Friend in the Street Castor and Pollux says the Tale-teller searce was his Foot over the Threshold when the Building sunk and all that were within perish'd Thus upon a time the least Shelter gave the most Safety as did the lesser Honour procure this man the more Peace But as Camillus in Livy thrust out of Rome and retired to Ardea prayed that they that had cashier'd him might have no need of him so this forlorn Statesman would have been satisfied to have his place at the Council-Table supplied by others if the King's Affairs had not wanted him at this instant when he suddenly slid down from his former value in the love of this People The Bishops most likely it came from them advised His Majesty first to fly to God and to bid a publick Fast first at Court then over all the Land about the fifth of July Bish Laud whose Sermon was printed preach'd before the King upon the 21st Verse of the 17th Chapter of St. Matthew This kind goeth not out but by Prayer and Fasting The Preface of the Book and the Exhortation publish'd to the observing that solemn Fast stirred up all good Christians to entreat God not to take Vengeance on the Murmurings of the People to keep their Spirits in Unity to divert the plague of immoderate Rain like to corrupt the Fruits of the Harvest and chiefly to preserve us from the Bloody Wars that Spain intended against us Intended says the Book for depredation of Merchants Ships was the worst they had done us Let the Reader gather this by the way That a publick Fast had not been indicted before by the Supreme Authority upon the Alarums of our Enemies Preparations In Eighty eight an Order came out call'd A Form of Prayer necessary for the present Time and State to be used on Wednesdays and Fridays that is certain Collects to be added to the Common Prayer Yet no Fast was bidden saving thus far That Preachers in their Sermons and Exhortations should move the People to Abstinence and Moderation in their Dyet to the end they might be more able to relieve the Poor c. The first Form to be used in Common Prayer with an Order of publick Fast for every Wednesday in the week for a time was set out by Queen Elizabeths special Command in Aug. 1563. when the Plague called The Plague of New-haven was rise in London In which Book is a passage to illustrate our Common-Prayer-Book for the first Rubrick prefixt to the Order for the Holy Communion That so many as intend to be Partakers of the Holy Communion should signifie their Names to the Curate over night or else in the morning either before the beginning of Common Prayer or immediately after That immediately after means that in
worse to answer for I will depart with this mournful matter adding only that the Duke being taken away our Bishop never desisted to do Observance and such Help as he could to his desolate Kindred and Family which the Countess of Denby his Sister would often confess to me and speak of it to his great honour At this time presently upon the dismal Tydings he dispatch'd a most melting Letter to the Countess his Grace's Mother whose Answer to his begins thus My Lord IT is true Nobleness that makes you remember so distressed a Creature as I am and to continue a true Friend in harder Fortunes You give me many Reasons of Comfort for which I kindly thank you for I have need of them all The rest is long and very choicely endited under her own Hand which I pass over more willingly because her Ladiships revolting to the Romish Religion was none of the least causes that brought her Unfortunate Son into the distaste of the People Pace tuâ fari haec liceat Rhamnusia Diva Catullus 81. The Duke being now at rest in his Grave it was conceived this Good at least would come of it that the next Session of Parliament would be very quiet which began on the 20th of January Yet they that thought the Ship was lightned of Jonas saw the Storm encreased Let them that will know the occasion of a wide Breach read it in the Histories and Life of King Charles especially in His Majesty's Declaration to all his loving Subjects printed 1628. wherein the intelligent shall find that the Commons were rather stubborn than stiff rather violent than eager against the King's Affairs and that the King was so provok'd with the heat of one morning that he would not allow a day nor an hour to let them cool again but dismist them with Menaces and thrust them away from him with such displeasure that in twelve years he sent out no Writs to call another Parliament It is too late to wish it had been better then it is not too late to give Warning that it may be better hereafter Who did best or worst many will take the liberty to determine as their addictions carry them to loyal Duty or popular Liberty I judge neither so high above me in their potential Orbs but relate what the Prudent did observe upon their Passages This was the Bishop of Lincoln's Opinion who wept the ruine of the State and was able to see through the present to the future that it was ill in the People to offend so good a King and unhappy for the King to close again no sooner with a bad People The open face of both these shall be seen The Commons were no sooner come together but like Ajax's Rhetorick in the Poet Proh Jupiter inquit they were as hot as an Oven in their exordium and spake loudly That the Petition of Right was not maintain'd because Tonnage and Poundage were taken and Merchants Goods distrein'd for non-payment a Revenue not due to the Crown till pass'd by Bill The King's Council shew'd Presidents that it had been taken in a provisional way before the Parliament had granted it but that His Majesty did desire to receive it by the Grant of his People and pray'd a Bill might confirm it to remove this Block out of the way in which all Controversies would be sopited Hereupon it was promis'd it should be considered and the framing of a Bill be referr'd to a Committee yet they drew back their Hand till they had gather'd a Particular of things distasted in the Ecclesiastical and Civil Government An Affectation which Appius Claudius discover'd in the Tribunes Liv. dec 1. lib. 5. Qui semper aegri aliquid in Rep. esse volunt ut sit ad cujus curationem à vobis adhibeantur Which the King hath put into English Declar. p. 25. Like Empericks that strive to make new Work and to have some Diseases on foot to keep themselves in request Their Inspections about Religion were not only troublesome to make the Bill stick in the Committee the only means to keep all quiet but so inauspicious that I fear God was not near Arminianism was complained of that it was openly maintain'd not suiting with the Articles of the Churches of England and Ireland A strange Spell which raised up the Spirit that it would conjure down As they that mark the encrease of Nile can tell at what day it will begin to overflow so they that watcht the encrease of Arminianism say considently that from this year the Tyde of it began to come in Then they complain'd that the Bishops of London and Winton prevail'd to advance those to great Preferments that spread those Errors while the orthodox part was deprest and under inglorious disdain Never was this verified by a clear and notorious distinction till this Challenge was made That all Preferments were cast on that side Then it began to be palpable that there was no other way to fly over other mens Heads in the Church but with those Wings And here the forlorn part might say to the Parliament as Balak said to Balaam What hast then done unto me I took thee to curse mine Enemies and behold thou hast blest them all together Numb 23.11 Thirdly They did regret at the obtruding of some Ceremonies which waxed in more request and authority upon that opposition as some Flowers open the more when the Wind blows strongest upon them I believe such Remorse as was in Joseph's Brethren would make some of them say We saw the arguish of the King when he besought us and would not hear therefore this Distress is come upon us that all our Counsels are improsperous The prosecution of Civil Grievances miscarried as much and as wise men guess'd because Sir John Ellict stood up to manage them Few lead on to remove the publick Evils of a State without some special feelings and ends of their own Nor was it any better now so far as an action may be known by vulgar passes and every bodies Discourse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says Menander High Probability is the second degree of Truth Sir J. Elliot of the West and Sir Tho. Wentworth of the North both in the prime of their Age and Wits both conspicuous for able Speakers clasht so often in the House and cudgel'd one another with such strong Contradictions that it grew from an Emulation between them to an Enmity The L. Treasurer Weston pick'd out the Northern Cock Sir Thomas to make him the King's Creature and set him upon the first step of his rising which was Wormwood in the taste of Elliot who revenged himself upon the King in the Bill of Tonnage and then fell upon the Treasurer and declaimed against him That he was the Author of all the Evils under which the Kingdom was opprest Some body must bear that Burden as the Duke had done yet this Lord was not like to be the man who had been in his great Place but about six months
was aware It was upon a nice point the Levy of Ship-money wherein the L. of Lincoln was very provident to do nothing to displease for the Adagy could tell him Verendum est dormienti in ripâ ne cadat He that sits upon the Cliff of the Sea had best take heed he do not nodd and tumble down The King 's Streights did compel him to levy this Impost of Ship-money for the defence of the narrow Seas being startled with a Motto newly devised by Cardinal Richilieu Florebunt lilia ponto The Exchequer would not supply the rigging of a Navy though never better husbanded than at that time by Dr. Juxon Bishop of London held by all to be a good man wherefore I cannot pass him by without a word out of Sidon Apol. lib. 4. ep 4. Cum vir bonus ab omnibus censeatur non est homo pejor si non sit optimus The French Hangers on in the Court devoured so much that all his Thrift which ammassed much was gulp'd down by those insatiable Sharks None but they made K. Charles a poor King These are the Gallants that disdain every thing that is English but our Gold and Silver Alexander Ad Alex. lib. 3. c. 23. tells us a Wonder But shall we believe him That from P. Aemylius's Triumph to the Consulship of Hirtius and Pansa a full 130 years the People of Rome paid no Tribute What a Revenue Parsimony can both preserve and gather But if that frugal Senate had maintained a French Court the Quaestors would soon have found a vacuum in their Coffers Now see what Sir R. O. did hammer out to despight his Bishop upon this Impost He laid a very unequal Levy upon the Hundred wherein Bugden stood the Bishop wrote courteously to him to review and rectifie the Levy and he and his Neighbors were ready to see it collected and paid Sir Robert rides up to the Court and complains bitterly that the Bishop had utterly refused the Payment of Ship-money and animated the Hundred to follow him Being easily convinced before the Lords of the Council that the Bishop had carried himself dutifully and discreetly in the matter yet Sir R. O. had no Check the Bishop no Reparation the Levy no Reformation Why the worst Men the worst of Infidels the worst of our Enemies have a Communion of Natural Right with others to receive no Injury to be satisfied upon them that do them wrong and damage What a pickle was a poor Prelate in that was not so considered that was laid naked to every Slander and Oppression still he look'd for better and would never lay aside his Privy-Coat of Trust and Confidence in God He that will learn that sanctified Art from an Emblem which is a Riddle in a Picture let him take it out of Pliny lib. II. Nat. Hist c. 24. Incremento omnium futuro telas suas araneae altius tollunt The Spiders that have made their Webs in Trees upon a Bank side remove them higher when the Spring-Tydes come in That is lift up the Soul and advance it higher to God and his Protection when the Floods of Oppression rage and threaten to overwhelm us 94. One Quarrel commenc'd upon no ground continued to this day by the Animadverter on the Church-History of Britain and elder than the Troubles with Sir R. O. was thus Anno 1632. in the declining of November Dr. Theodore Price Sub-dean of Westminster College was cut to be cured of the Torment of the Stone his Wound growing dry his Present-death was presaged Mr. James Molins his Chyrurgion gave intelligence that his Patient did discover to some Visitants of the Romish Faction when he thought Mr. Molins did not hear him his Affection and Devotion to their Church That a Table was prepared covered Plate set on with a Wax Light and a piece of Gold laid by it this is his punctual Relation all being dismist and none remaining in the Room but Dr. Floyd a very skilful Physician and a Papist who is yet living and a little old man seen there but once before who continued together about an hour The Bishop being at Bugden informed of all this came in the depth of Winter in all haste to Town and when he had lighted before he would go to his own Lodgings he went to the Sub-dean whom he found in sad plight not like to continue so without more ado he offer'd to pray with him at the Bed's-side and was spoken to by the Doctor to forbear Says the Bishop Cousin you have need of holy Assistance will you entertain any of the Prebendaries or some other Church-man to do this Godly Office for you belonging to the Sick He stifly refused them all The Bishop propounded that his weak state might be remembred to God at the Evening Prayers in the Abby No says the other I do not desire them Will you have no communion with us of the Church of England says the Bishop Not any says the Sub-dean God give you a better mind says the Bishop But Cousin will you have any thing with me before we part Only my Lord says he that you will be no more a Trouble to me and that you will take my poor Servant being unprovided into your Care and Family Which was not forgot for the Bish received his Servant whom afterward he preferr'd in Means and Marriage in the City of Lincoln for he was more careful of the Children Alliances and Relations of his Friends when they were dead than of themselves when they were living The E. of Pembrook L. Chamb. to the King being Steward of the College and City of Westm the Bishop made him acquainted with every word that had pass'd between him and Dr. Price how at his last gasp he had disclaimed the Church of England and the L. Steward related it to the King which was then interpreted and the Scandal is lately renewed as if the Bishop had feigned all this yet it pass'd before Witnesses to wound Bishop Laud who endeavour'd to make the Revolter Bishop of Asaph There had been little Salt in that Stratagem for Lincoln himself had sent this Price Commissioner for the King into Ireland moved to obtain for him the same Dignity of Asaph in the former vacancy when Dr. Hanmer stept in before him sticked passionately to advance him before renowned Usher to the Primacy of Armagh upon the death of Dr. Hampton Reader you will say the Bishop was much deceived in his Cousin neither do I defend him he did more than once miss in his Judgment in some whom he preferr'd Humanum est And it was a ranting Speech which Salmasius ascribes to Asclepiades in his Preface to Solinus That he would not be held a Physician if he were ever sick To deliver thus much in the behalf of both the Bishops Dr. Price's Patrons that would have been the man was of untainted Life learned in Scholastical Controversies of a reverend Presence liberal courteous and prudent above many and seemed very fit to
ten degrees backward upon their Dyal they knew it That Abner gave good Counsel to Asahel not to pursue a valianter man than himself and a Captain of the Host but lay hold on one of the young men and take his Armour 2 Sam. 2.21 they knew it Yet they had shuffled the Cards that they knew they should win somewhat by the Hand for if the Bishop gave no Answer to this Challenger he was baffled and posted upon every Gate about London for a Dastard If he return'd them their own again then pull him to the Stake and worry him in the Star-chamber where he was struggling for Life at this time in which fatal juncture the King must be told that he was an Enemy to the Piety of the Times and the Good Work in hand So that this Spaniel was to put up the Fowl that the Eagle might fall upon the Quarry But it was soon decided for rather than forsake a good Cause and a good Name Lincoln chose to use his Pen to maintain his innocent Letter though malicious Subtlety had made it manifest that nothing could fall so moderately from him in that cause which would not be subject to perverse exposition The Athenians had deserted their old Philosophy Cum imminente periculo major salutis quà m dignitatis cura fuit Justin lib. 5. Therefore a Mind that was not degenerous had rather provide for Dignity than Safety None writes better than Budaeus upon such a case de Asse lib. 1. fol. 10. Tanta fuit vis numinis ad stylum manum urgentis ut periclitari malis quà m rumpi degeneri patientiâ Some divine Spirit did so strongly stir him up to write that he had rather run any hazard than smother such an Injury with cowardly Patience 98. I have cleared the rise of the Controversie which follows That a Letter of the Bishop's was sent to some few persons nine years before to stop a Debate in a private Parish and to make Peace in the place This was published by Dr. Heylin with a Confutation and censur'd for Popular Affectation Disaffection to the Church Sedition and for no better than No Learning And the Plot was as Concurrencies will not let it be denied to pop out this Pamphlet when the Bishop's Cause in Star-chamber was now ripe for hearing And this was the Pack-needle to draw the Whip-cord of the Censure after it But what was this about Take the Substance or rather the Shadow that was contended for out of the Letter in an Abstract The Vicar of Grantham P. T. of his own Head and never consulting the Ordinary had removed the Communion-Table to that upper part of the Chancel which he called the Altar-place where he would officiate when there was a Communion and read that part of Service belonging to the Communion when there was none And when the People shewed much dislike at it because it was impossible as they alledg'd that the 24th part of the Parish should see or hear him if he officiated in that place he persisted in his way and told them he would build an Altar of Stone upon his own cost at the upper end of the Quire and set it with the ends North and South Altar-wise and six it there that it might not be removed upon any occasion A Complaint being made against this by the Alderman and a multitude of the Town the Bishop contented himself at first to send a Message to the Magistrate and the Vicar that they should not presume either the one or the other of them to move or remove that Table any more otherwise than by special direction of him and his Chancellor that in his Journey that way he would view the place and accommodate the matter according to the Rubrick and Canons There being no certain day set when the Bishop would come the Inhabitants of Grantham prevented him and came with open cry to Bugden against the Vicar who was among them at the Hearing Some Heat and sharp Impeachments against each other being over the Bishop did his best to make them Friends and supp'd them together in his great Hall while himself retired to his Study and bade them expect that he would frame somewhat in a thing so indifferent to him to give them content against the Morning So he bestowed that night in writing and made his Papers ready by day As the Panegyrist said to Constantine of such Celerity Quorum igneae immortales mentes mintâ—â—e sentiunt corporis moras p. 303. The Secretary gave a short Letter to the Alderman in which that which concerns the case in hand is this little That his Lordship conceived that the Communion-Table when it is not used should stand in the upper end of the Chancel not Altar-wise but Table-wise But when it is used either in or out of the time of Communion it should continue in the place it took up before or be carried to any other place of Church or Chancel where the Minister might be most audibly heard of the whole Congregation What can a Critick in Ceremonies carp at herein What else but that the end and not the side of the Table should stand toward the Minister when he perform'd his Liturgy Is this all And must a Controversie as big as a Camel be drawn through the Eye of this Needle But more of the same comes after in a larger Script which the Bishop at the same time willed to be delivered to the Divines of the Lecture of Grantham to be examined by them upon their next meeting-day that their Vicar being one of their company might read the Contents and take a Copy for his own use if he would but to divulge it no further Herein the Bishop derives his Conceptions from the Injunctions Articles and Orders of the Queen from the Homilies and Canons from Reports out of the Book of Acts and Monuments and from the Rubricks of the Liturgy and shews out of these that the Utensil on which the Holy Communion is celebrated ought not to be an Altar but a joyned Table that the Name of Table is retained by the Church of England and the other of Altar laid aside that the Table without some new Canon is not to stand Altar-wise in Parish-Churches and the Minister be at the North end thereof but Table-wise and he must officiate at the North side of the same that this Table when holy Duties are not in performing at it must be laid up in the Chancel but in the time of Service to be removed to such a place of Church or Chancel the over-sight of Authority appointing it wherein he that officiates may be most conveniently seen and heard of all They that would peruse the whole Letter are referred to it in Print but the sum of it is already laid before them And the Author was so little over-weening tho' in a frivolous case that he prays the Divines to whom he sent it that if they found mistakings in his Quotations or had met with any Canons
was that if he would be bandied no more in Star-chamber 1. He must leave his Bishoprick and Deanry and all his Commendams and take a Bishoprick in Ireland or Wales as His Majesty pleased 2. He must recant his Book 3. Secure all his Fine 4. Never question any that had been employed by His Majesty against him Strange Physick as ever was prescribed for it was a Pill as big as a Pumpion and whose Throat could swallow it down Non est pax sed servitutis pactio Tul. Philip. 12. The worst that all the Courts in England could do could not impose such Terms upon him Beside to yield thus far were to fly the Field and to receive an inglorious wound in his Back Then he falls upon other Thoughts that he would please the King by making an unparallel'd Submission to him And were it not best to be content with half a Ruine to prevent a whole He must be a loser yet a man spends nothing that buys that he hath need of So he wrote back to the same Earl that he would lay his Bishoprick and Deanry at His Majesty's Feet but excused his going into Ireland To the second That he could not recant his Book which contain'd no Doctrine that he was not ready to justifie To the third He would pay his Fine as he was able To the fourth he submitted Not this not all this was accepted The very L. Drusus in Paterculus Meliore in omnia ingenio animoque quà m fortunà usus His noble Wit and good Parts were still destituted by Fortune He received this Return from the Earl That His Majesty was not contented to receive his Bishoprick and Deanry from him his Residency in Lincoln and Rectory of Walgrave are requir'd to be voided and to Ireland or no Peace To the second No Doctrin should be recanted but Matters of Fact c. The Bishop wonders at this who look'd for Praise that he had stoop'd so low yet rather than contest with his Soveraign he resolves with David Adhuc ero vilior And the common Rule of Polybius was observ'd by all men lib. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of two good things chuse the greatest of two Evils chuse the least He offers to resign all he hath in the Church of England but still will live in England for the Book he pleaded so well for it that the King was satisfied with a conditional submission as If any thing contained in it offended His Majesty he was sorry But to the third about the Fine he found very imperfect and unsolid Proposals and No Ground that 's good is hollow Since he must be stript of all that he had in the Church he would know how much should be left him of his Lands and Leases to live upon that the King 's Fine-gatherers might not snatch up all And he craves an Answer whether that Pension of 2000 Marks per ann bought of the E. of Banbury by His Majesty's Direction and for his Service and Profit being then Prince of Wales and 24000 l. in Arâ—ears for the same should be consider'd towards the King's Payment The Rejoynder began at the latter Clause That Pensions are not paid to men in disfavour the E. of Bristol being the Example for it For the Proportion what he should have to live upon rising out of his own Estate he must know nothing till he had wholly submitted From that hour the false Glass wherein the Bishop saw a shadow of Peace was broken And he writes to the Earl in the Stile of a man That it were a tempting of God to part with all he had willingly and leave himself no assurance of a Livelihood That his Debts if he came out of the Prison of the Tower would cast him into another Prison no better provision being made for them than he saw appearance for That he would never hazard himself into a condition to beg his Bread Truly he had cause to look for better Offers and since they came not he would lay his Head upon the Pillow of Hope till he had slept his last He had not suffer'd as an Evil man his Conscience bore him witness whereby he was not obnoxious to Infamy Majore poenâ affectus quà m legibus statutum est non est infamis a Maxim of Reason and of Law in our Kingdom To surrender up all he had were to suffer as a Fool. Plato is made the Author of the Saying That he had rather leave somewhat to his Enemies when he died than stand in need of his Friends who might prove no Friends while he lived But this is surely Plato's in Apol. pro Socr. That when Socrates was ask'd how he felt himself affected when he was wrongfully condemn'd he said he could give no Answer till he met with Palamedes and Ajax 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 till he had ask'd them how they took the Sentence of unrighteous Judges he was not fully provided to satisfie them Our bishop consulted day and night at his Study with Histories of Saints in by-past Ages and knew they had suffer'd more than he had done and was sorry for his human frailty if they could bear it better Now I am confident that the Prudent will collect that this Bishop was never deaf to Conditions of Agreement and that no man living could offer a greater Sacrifice than he did for a Peace-Offering unless he would have stript himself of all and not have left off his own two Mites in all the World to cast into the Corban 129. But if the Parly for Peace were nothing but Thunder and Thunder-bolt how will the Bishop endure it when it comes to strokes God be praised his Warfare in these Causes was at an end Flebile principium melior fortuna secuta est Metam lib. 7. The Chamber of Horror and its Star did not shine malignantly upon him again A time and times and half a time had pass'd over and these things were finisht Dan. 12.7 For three year and half he continued in the Tower and in that space lived as if he had drank of Homer's Cup Odyss 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if he had represented and not felt the part he acted For except that so many Suits interrupted his Studies he lack'd nothing that could be perceived of Health Solace and Alacrity Benè dormit qui non sentit quà m malè dormiat a Fragment of Publius Mimus He wanted not good Society for I must ever praise his constant Friend Dr. Alabaster who took up a Lodging in one of the Mint-master's Houses to be with him continually While he was so many months shut up from the action of the World he began to hear of some Occurrences abroad which made him not dread his chief Enemy at Lambeth at all The Archbishop had entangled himself in his own Webb nay the King and all England and Scotland with him In illa liturgiâ infelicissimè ad Scotos missâ says wise Mr. Selden de Syn. Jud. par 2. His Majesty's Expedition into the
plausible and may run well with the close of Beza's Epigram in Parodie Quod tu fecisti sit licet ingens At quod non saceres hoâ— ego miror opus 134. But the Injuries done to private Man were Trifâ—les to the great Affairs that were in hand His Majesty's Affairs which were in great decadence took him up wholly and how could he be safe A good Subject cannot make any difference between the King's Fortunes and his own A full Declaration of the Storms that were rais'd concerns not this piece It was apparent that the Scotch were at one end of the Fray in the North and the Presbyterians about London at the other end in the South both confederate to root up cast down syndicate controul and do what they lust and let them have their own will it would scarce content them Our wise Church-man knew that he that fears the worst prevents it soonest Therefore he did not lose a minute to try all his Arts if he could quench the flame amongst the heady Scots whose common sort were like their Preachers Tumidi magis animi quà m magni as Casaubon notes it in the Atherians Lib. 1. Athen. cap. 20. rather of a swelling than a noble Spirit Their own polite Historian says more Dromond Jam. 5. p. 161. That Hepburn Prior of St. Andrews the Oracle of the Duke of Albany told him That he must remember that the People whom he did command for he was Regent were ever fierce mutinously proud and know not how to obey unless the Sword were drawn What hope then of their Submission when they had framed Covenants Articles gathered a Convention no less in Power no less in Name than a Parliament without their Prince's leave and became Assailants to maintain that and what they would have more with the Sword Let all Ages remember that this sprung from no other occasion but that the King invited them to prayer in publick in such a Form of Liturgy as himself used putting no greater burden upon their Conscience than upon his own The Peccatulum was that there wanted a little in mode and usual way to commend the Book unto them Perhaps the Error went a little further that King James his Promise was not observ'd as the Reverend Spotswood doth not conceal it p. 542. That the Lord Hamilton King James his Commissioner having ratified the Articles of Perth by Act of Parliament assured the People that his Majesly in his days should never press any more change and alteration in matters of that kind without their consent Admit this Promise calculated for the days of King James was obliging as far as the Meridian of King Charles yet nothing was presented to them against true Doctrine or Divine Worship for all the Learning of their Universities could never make the matter of the Liturgy odious And let it be disputed That the Book was not authoritative without the publick Vote and Consent of the Nation in some Representative Yet if a Prince so pious so admirable in his Ethicks did tread one inch awry in his Politicks must the Cannon be brought into the Field and be planted against him to subvert his Power at Home and to dishonour him abroad was it ever heard that upon so little a Storm Seamen would cut Cabble and Mast and throw their Cargo over-board when there was no fear to shipwrack any thing but Fidelity and Allegiance God was pleased to deprive us of Contentment and Peace for our own wickedness or Civil Discords that lasted near as long as the Peloponnesian War had never risen from so slender an occasion The merciful and soft-hearted King could have set his Horse-feet upon their Necks in his first Expedition which stopt at Barwick if he had not been more desirous of Quietness than Honour and Victory I guess whom Dromond means in the Character of Jam. 3. p. 118. That it is allowable in men that have not much to do to be taken with admiration of Watches Clocks Dials Automates Pictures Statues But the Art of Princes is to give Laws and govern their People with wisdom in Peace and glory in War to spare the humble and prostrate the proud Happy had it been if his Majesty had followed valiant Counsel to have made himself compleat Conquerour of those Malapert Rebels when they first saw his face in the North. But the Terms of Pacification which they got in one year served them to gather an Army and to come with Colours display'd into England the next year which was the periodical year of the King's Glory the Churches Prosperity the Common Laws Authority and the Subjects Liberty Threescore and eighteen years before when England and Scotland were never at better League Abr. Hartwell passeth this Vote in his Reginâ literatâ more like a Prophet than a Poet Nostráque non iterùm Saxo se vertat in arva Non Gallus sed nec prior utrôque Scotus 135. And what could Lesly have done then with a few untrain'd unarmed Jockeys if we had been true among our selves The Earl of Southampton spake heroically like a Peer of an ancient Honour That the Bishop of Durham with his Servants a few Millers and Plowmen were wont to beat those Rovers over the Tweed again without raising an Army If the People had not imprudently chosen such into our Parliament as were fittest to gratifie the Scots day had soon cleared up and Northern Mists dispersed But our foolish heart was darkned and any Scourge was welcome that would chastise the present Government we thought we could not be worse when we could scarce be better We greedily took this Scotch Physick when we were not sick but knew not what it was to be in health An Ounce of common Sense might have warned us That a Kingdom may consist with private mens Calamities but private mens Fortunes cannot consist with the ruin of a Kingdom The Love of Money is the Root of all Evil. Many in England thought they sat at a hard Rent because of Ship-money and would fire the House wherein their own Wealth was laid up rather than pay their Landlord such a petty Tribute as was not mist in times of Plenty but in short time their Corn and Plate went away at one swoop when their stock was low The exacting of Ship-money all thought it not illegal but so many did as made it a number equivalent to all And a Camel will bear no more weight than was first laid upon him Nec plus instituto onere recipit Plin. lib. 8. cap. 18. This disorder'd the Beast and being backt with some thousands of Rebels march't on as far as Durham made him ready to cast his Rider The Royal part was at a stand and could go no further than this Question What shall we do As Livy says of the Romans catch't in an Ambush at Caudis Intuentes alii alios cum alterum quisque compotem magis mentis ac consilii ducerent In such a Perplexity every man asks his Fellow What 's best
to be done and being dozzled with fear thinks every man wiser than himself Lincoln spake what was fit for Comfort and did what he was able for Redress He lookt like the Lanthorn in the Admiral by which the rest of the Fleet did steer their Course And as Synesius gives a Precept to a Bishop Ep. 105. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To do as much work as all his Clergy beside So this Man bestirred himself and ran before the most diligent in this Chase When he was a Courtier he had ever declined Acquaintance with James Marquess of Hamilton now he made him his most Intimate waited on him at his Lodgings went in hand with him to the King tried him every way what Counsel he had in his Breast to breed Loyalty in the Scottish Army that the Contagion might not breed the same Rudeness in the English and would give an even poise to such uneven Humors The Bishop knew not what to make of this Marquess Incertum Lar sit an larva whether he were a good or a bad Genius Only he said he found every thing in him contrary to the Vulgar Opinion which esteemed him cunning and false For he took him to be no false one had will enough to help the King neither did he find any great Cunning in him but rather that he wanted a Head-piece So he laid him and aside but used him sparingly because he could not frame things of any great concernment from him Then he gets acquaintance with Mr Alexander Henderson and some of his Disciples in Commission with him presents them feasts them offered good pay to them and the Heads of their Faction as much as the King could spare which was the only Bait to catch his Country-men who were needy and ravenous for Prey Which is well set out in Salust p. 187. Feras omnis generis quò magis sunt attenuatae penuriâ cò magis praecipites â—ffraenatas ruere in perniciem videmus All Beasts will venture their Lives to devour what they can get when they are hungry The Bishop was sure he dealt with such as were bare and necessitous from the Orcades to Berwick and that it was part of their Errand into England to carry away Gold and to get Pensions But the House of Commons that knew their half famisht Fortunes as well as the Bishop voted such a Mass of Money to them by a word which coâ—t England dear called Brotherly Assistance that the King with all his Exchequer and perhaps his Credit was not able to raise it far less to out-bid it Yet Lincoln gave not over to perswade their headstrong Party to have no quarrel with the Church of England to draw no hatred upon themselves by reaching at the Subversion of the Episcopal Dignity which was never wanting here since the Nation received the Gospel of Christ Bade them remember what Vows their Kirk had made and printed them in their Common-Prayers never to unquiet the Peace of this Land since Queen Elizabeth Anno 3. of her Reign did beat the French out of Leith and compelled their Forces to return home conducted under the best Souldiers of France whose purpose it was to drown the Protestant Religion in the Blood of their Lords of the Congregation Hereupon some of Henderson's Assistants stagger'd and bade leave our Church to its own staple Order when at the same time in their private meetings they began to forsake this moderation They saw how their Debt of Brotherly Assistance would be paid the better if the Revenues of the Prelates were confiscated They look'd upon their own Work that they had dethron'd Bishops in Scotland and so long as England kept up that Dignity it cried Shame upon their Confusion And if Bishops lived at Durham and Carliste so near to their Borders they suspected the like would creep in again at Glascow and Edenburg And their intention was to shape our Church as ill as their own to make us as odious to the King as themselves that both our Offences might grow higher than the hope of a Pardon could fly unto So in fine our Bishop perceived that he dealt with men that made no scruple to shift from Promise and to break Faith Diodorus lib. 3. tells of strange men in the Island of Taproban Divisam linguam habentes eodem tempore duobus hominibus perfecrè loquntur I would such double Tongue had lived as far off as Taproban that we had never known them The end of this Conflict was when Entellus could not overcome Vastos quatit aeger anhelitus artus Aen. lib. 5. 136. No sooner had the Northern Carles begun their Hunts-up but the Presbyterians flock'd to London from all quarters and were like Hounds ready to be entred They had struggled in the days of Q. Elizabeth and K. James to set up their Discipline Patriae communis Erynnis but in vain After twenty Repulses they began afresh Tantus novelli dogmatis regnat furor Prud. de Coron and though their Liquor was stale and sowre as dead Wine they broach'd it now again to set out Teeth on edge The Stings of Wasps once lost are never repaired but these were like Staggs that had cast their Horns often but new ones sprouted up The Independants the same Creature with the Brownists but had shed their upper Coats and look'd smoother these had not yet a Name And as Alexander spoke neglectfully of the Cadusians Quod ignoti sunt ignobiles sunt nunquam ignorari viros fortes Curt. lib. 4. so these were of no reckoning in the first sally of the tumultuous times and such Ignotes were not courted but pass'd over as a Pawn at Chess that stood out all of Play The wise Bishop turned his Skill upon the Presbyterians being less distastful to them in his Person than any that wore a Rochet He laid down his Reasons to them in many Conferences with such prudence such softness and lenity that they confess'd for his part he deserv'd a great Place of Pre-eminence And some of the chief Lords of that Knot made him such Offers of Honour and Wealth for his share if he would give way to their Alterations that they would buy him if his Faith had been salaeble with any Price The worst Requital that could be propounded to an honest man and of the narrowest to scantle their Blessing to him alone that labour'd for a Publick Good As Ben. Johnson hath put it finely into his Underwoods p. 117. I wish the Sun should shine On all mens Fruits and Flowers as well as mine When they saw he was not selfish it is a word of their own new Mint some of their Ministers that were softened with the dewy drops of his Tongue eased their Stomachs with Complaints against the Courts Ecclesiastical and the rugged Carriage of certain Prelates Lincoln knew their Censures had somewhat of Truth and much of Malice but seemed to give them great attention in all for he had rather bring them over to the King than
would witness against me for my Council-Table Opinion I would say to him as Gallus did to Tyberius Caesar Good Sir speak you first for I may mistake and you may witness against me for it in the next Parliament Some did make Laws with Ropes about their Necks What Must men give their Counsel as it were with Ropes about their Necks Solomon says When thou comest to a rich man's table put a knife to thy Throat But what 's here When we give Judgment as we are able among the Lords of the Council must we put an Ax to our Necks Beware of such Traps pittying the case of human Weakness 145. The fourth Question is thus comprized Whether some Members of the House of Commons may be present at the Examination Judicially they cannot the Judicature is in your Lordships but whether organically and ministerially is the Scruple to be satisfied I will be brief in my Conceptions what is against the claim of the House of Commons and what is for them This is not for them That 50 Edw. 3. one Love was a Witness in Lord John Nevile's Case Love denied what he had confest before two Knights Members of the Lower House The House of Commons send them to the Lords to confront Love which they did and Love was thereupon committed Now their being here was only to confront not to assist the Lords either judicially or ministerially Many things make for them why they may be there ministerially at least First Originally both Houses were together and so the Commons heard all Examinations Considerent inter se Modus ten Pl. and sate so till Anno 6 Edw. 3. by Mr. Elsing's Collections which are not over-authentick Secondly After that time they have all the House of Commons been present when Witnesses were sworn here Anno 5 Hen. IV. Rot. 11. swears his Fealty before the Lords and Commons and two or three days after by the same Oath and before the same persons clears the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Duke of York from a Suspicion of Treason laid to their charge The Commons were by and heard all this The third Reason is Mr. Attorny-General if this Lord were arraigned of Treason as I pray God bless him from deserving it would be by and observe his Defence and such Witnesses as he should produce for himself and would no doubt bring Counter proofs Sur le Champ and upon the sudden against the same if he were able The House of Commons is in this case the King's Attorny who make and maintain the charge So far out of brief Notes for take them to be no other you have a strong Judgment pass'd upon four Questions Says Tully in his Brutus of Caesar's Eloquence Tabulam benè pictam collocat in bono lumine He draws his Picture well and hangs it out to be well seen So here 's a Piece well drawn and placed in the light of Perspicuity His next Argument is very long but of that use to the Reader that he shall not sind so much Learning in any Author on that Theme that I know a Scholar would not want it They that fostered deadly Enmities against E. Strafford laboured to remove the Bishops from the hearing of his Cause This Bishop and his Brethren minding to him all the Pity and Help they could shew him the Opposites began to vote them out of Doors and would not admit them in the Right of Peers in this Cause because it was upon Life and Blood Lincoln maintains that the Lords did them Injury and that Bishops in England may and ought to vote in causâ sanguinis That they were never inhibited by the Law of this Land never by the Peers of the Land before this time That their voluntary forbearance in some Centuries of the Ages before proceeded from their Fears of the Canons of the Court of Rome and by the special Leave of the King and both Houses who were graciously pleased to allow of their Protestations for their Indemnity as Church-men when the King and Parliament might have rejected their Protestations if they had pleas'd And much he insisted upon it that the opponent Lords grounded their Judgment upon the corrupt Canons of the Church of Rome Indeed I find in my own Papers that the Monks of Canterbury complain'd against Hubert their Archbishop to the Pope for sitting upon Tryals of Life and Blood They could not complain that he went against the Laws and Customs of England but their Appeal was to the Pope's Justice and it was more tolerable for Monks to rake in the Rubbish of the Roman Courts than for English Barons And say in sooth must not Divines of the Reformed Church meddle in Cause of Blood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Amph. Would they be laugh'd at for this Hypocrisie or abhorr'd For who more forward to thrust into the Troops of the late War than the Ministers whom they countenanc'd Have I not seen them prance about the Streets in London with Pistols in their Holsters and Swords by their sides And so for Edg-hill and Newberry c. Could they rush into so many Fights and be clear from cause of Blood Nay the Pontisical part make but a Mockery of this Canon for anno 1633 a Book was printed in Paris sill'd with a Catalogue of Cardinals Bishops and Priests who had been brave Warriours most of them Leaders in the Field the Author a Sycophant aimed to please Cardinal Richlieu and a Fig for the Canons Reason Canons Parliamentary Privileges nay Religion are to corrupt men as they like them for their own ends Now hear how this Bishop did wage his Arguments for the affirmative 146. It is to be held for a good Cause against which nothing of moment can be alledg'd such is this concerning the Right of Bishops to vote in causâ sanguinis First It is not prohibitum quia malum not any way evil in it self no more than it is an evil thing in it self to do Justice Secondly It was in use from the Law of Nature when the eldest of the Family was King Priest and Prophet Thirdly It was in use under Moses's Law and so continued in the Priests and Levites down to Annas and Caiaphas and after Christ's death till the Temple was destroyed as appears by the scourging of the Apostles by the stoning of Stephen and commanding St. Paul to be smitten on the Mouth Fourthly It was in use in the persons of the Apostles themselves as in that Judgment given upon Ananias and Saphira in the delivery up to Satan as most of the ancient Fathers expound that Censure to be a corporal Vexation And generally in all the Word of God there is no one Text that literally inhibits Church-men more than Lay-men to use this kind of Judicature For that Precept to be no striker 1 Tim. 3.3 is no more to be appropriated to a Bishop distinct from the rest of Christian men than that which is added not to be given to Wine that is immoderately taken Proceed we
Bishops Dispensations only but Mandates also And those Bishops have been fined at the Kings Bench and elsewhere that absented themselves from Councils in Parliament without the King 's special leave and licence first obtained Thirdly When they are forbidden interesse to be present the meaning is not in the very Canons themselves that they should go out of the room but only that they should not be present to add Authority Help and Advice to any Sentence pronounced against a particular or individual Person in cause of Blood or mutilation If he be present auctorizando consilium opem vel operam dando then he contracts an irregularity and no otherwise saith our Linwood out of Innocentius And the Canon reacheth no further than to him that shall pronounce Sentence of Death or Mutilation upon a particular Person For Prelates that are of Counsel with the King in Parliament or otherwise being demanded the Law in such and such a Case without naming any individuum may answer generaliter loquendo That Treason is to be punisht with Death and a Counterseiter of the King's Coin Hostien lib. 2. eap de fals monet allowed by John Montague de Collatione Parliamentorum In Tracta Doctor Vol. 10. p. 121. Fourthly These Canons are not in force in England to bind the King's Subjects for several Reasons First Because they are against his Majesty's Prerogative as you may see it clearly in the Articles of Clarendon and the Writ of Summons and therefore abolished 25 H. 8. c. 8. It is his Majesty's Prerogative declar'd at Clarendon that all such Ecclesiastical Peers as hold of him by Barony should assist in the King's Judicatures until the very actual pronouncing of a Sentence of Blood And this holds from Henry the First down to the latter end of Queen Elizabeth who imployed Archbishop Whitgist as a Commissioner upon the Life of the Earl of Essex to keep him in Custody and to examine him after that Commotion in London And to say that this Canon is confirm'd by Common Law is a merry Tale there being nothing in the Common Law that tends that way Secondly It hath been voted in the House of Commons in this very Session of Parliament That no Canons since the Conquest either introduced from Rome by Legatine Power or made in our Synods had in any Age nor yet have at this present any power to bind the Subjects of this Realm unless they be confirmed by Act of Parliament Now these Canons which inhibit the Presence of Church-men in Cause that concerns Life and Member were never confirm'd by any but seem to be impeach't by divers and sundry Acts of Parliament Thirdly The whole House of Peers have this very Session despised and set aside this Canon Law which some of the young Lords cry up again in the same Session and in the very same Cause to take away the Votes of the Bishops in the Case of the Earl of Strafford For by the same Canon Law that forbids Clergy-men to Sentence they of that Coat are more strictly inhibited to give no Testimony in Causes of Blood Nee ettam potest esse test is vel tabellio in causâ Sanguinis Linw. part 2. sol 146. For no Man co-operates more in a Sentence of Death than the Witnesses upon whose Attestation the Sentence is chiefly past Lopez pract crim c. 98. distl 21. and yet have the Lords admitted as Witnesses produced by the House of Commons against the Earl of Strafford the Archbishops of Canterbury and Armagh with the Bishop of London which Lords command now all Bishops to withdraw in the agitation of the self same Case Bishops it seems may be Witnesses to kill ont-right but may not sit in the Discussion of the Cause to help in case of Innocency a distressed Nobleman Whereas the very Gothish Bishops who first invented this Exclusion of Prelates from such Judicatures allow them to Vote as long as there is any hope left of clearing the Party or gaining of Pardon 4. Conc. Tol. Can. 31. And by the beginning of that Canon observe the use in Spain in that Age Anno 633. as touching this Doctrine Saepe principes contra quoslibet majestatis obnoxios Sacerdotibus negotia sua committunt Binnius 4. Tom. Can. Edit ult p. 592. Lastly In the Case of Archbishop Abbot all the great Civilians and Judges of the Land as Dr. Steward Sir H. Martin the Lord Chief Justice Hobart and Judge Doderidge which two last were very well versed in the Canon Law delivered positively when my self at first opposed them That all Irregularities introduced by Canons upon Ecclesiastical Persons concerning matters of Blood were taken away by the Reformation of the Church of England and were repugnant to the Statute 25 II. 8. as restraining the King 's most just Prerogative to imploy his own Subjects in such Functions and Offices as his Predecessors had done and to allow them those Priviledges and Recreations as by the Laws and Customs of this Realm they had formerly enjoy'd notwithstanding the Decree de Clerico venatore or the Constitution nae Clerici Saeculare c. or any other in that kind 150. The only Objection which appears upon any Learning or Record against the Clergies Voting in this Kingdom in Causes of Blood are two or three Protestations entred by the Bishops among the Records of the upper House of Parliament and some few Passages in the Law-Books relating thereunto The Protestation the Lords now principally stand upon is that of William Courtney Archbishop of Canterbury 11 Rich. 2. inserted in the Book of Priviledges which Mr. Selden collected for the Lords of the upper House In the Margin whereof that passage out of R. Hovenden about which we spake before about Clergy-mens agitation of Judgments of Blood is unluckily inserted and for want of due consideration and some suspicion of partial carriage in the Bishops in the case of the Earl of Strafford hath been eagerly pressed upon the Bishops by some of the Lords in such an unusual and unaccustomed manner that if I my self offering to speak to this Objection had not voluntarily withdrawn the rest of the Bishops and I had been without hearing voted out of the House in the agitation of a Splinter of that Cause of the Earl of Strafford's which came not near any matter of Blood An act never done before in that honourable House and ready to be executed suddenly without the least consideration of the merit of the Cause The only words insisted upon in the Protestation of Courtney's are these Because in this present Parliament certain matters are agitated whereat it is not lawsul for us according to the Prescript of holy Canons to be present And by and by after they say These matters are such in the which Nec possumus nec debemus interesse This is the Protestation most stood upon That of Archbishop Arundel 21 Rich. 2. is not so full and ample as this of Courtney's For the Bishops going forth left their Proxies with the
adversum Salust p. 109. Sic est vulgus ex veritate pauca ex opinione multa judicat Cic. pro Dom. And Grotius proves out of the Caesarean Law in Matt. 27.23 That when Pilate enclined to hear the People who would have Christ condemned he acted contrary to Caesar's Law Vanas populi veces non audiendar Imperatores pronunciarunt O those of the right Heroical Race were dead and gone who would not have endured to be directed by the Off-scourings of their greatest Enemies Nec bellua tetrior ulla est Quam vulgi rabies in libera colla frement is Claud. in Eutrop. The other catch of the Pincers was their Lordships Legislative Vote and their odds in number above the Bishops if you counted men by Noses Power should be a divine thing this was only Strength as Aristotle says 2 Rhet. c. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Tully hath put in good sence and good words pro Quinc Arbitrantur sine injuriâ potentiam levem atque inopem esse Some think it is not Power unless they make us feel that it can do an Injury Now methinks their Lordships should have mark'd that their House was alter'd in its Visage very much when the Bishops sate no longer with them And Hippocrates says That sick man will not recover whose Face is so much changed that it is drawn into another fashion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And did the Lay-Peers look to last long when the Aspect of their House was so metamorphos'd It is a vulgar Error If you pluck up a Mandrake you will dye at the Groan of it Though it be but a Fable let them remember it that are for Extirpation and ware them whose turn is next Take away one Leg from a Trevit it may make a scurvy Stool to sit on but it is no longer a Trevit And take away the third Estate of Bishops be it nominal or real a Convention it may be but I doubt whether it be a Parliament And as a bungling Painter said of a Beast he had not drawn well It would not make a good Lyon but he could turn it into a good Calf There was a time when the whole Academy of Philosophers was banish'd out of Athens but they were soon miss'd and he was well fined that was their Enemy Sequenti anno revocati multa 5 talentorum Sophocli Archonti indita Moeur fort Att. p. 65. But for them that thrust the Bishops out of their ancient Right the Injury avenged it self upon them for it was not long when the Commons served the Temporal Lords in the same kind Nec longum laetabere te quoque fata prospectant paria AEn lib. 10. They were not only thrust out but an Engagement like a Padlock clapt upon the Door to keep them out for ever and to their great dishonour the other House made to resemble the Peers of the Land Duxit Sacerdotes inglorios Optimates supplantat Mark their Sympathy in the words of the vulgar Latin Job 12.19 Which retribution measure for measure the Bishops did neither wish nor rejoice in but committed their Innocency to be justified by the Holy God Seek no other reason why they had so many Enemies but because Christianity was mightily faln among us both as to the credenda and the agenda A mighty part had a Religion I mean equivocally called so that was a Picture looking equally upon all Sects that pass'd by it and as indifferent as Gusman â—s Father that being taken by the Pirates of Argiers for quietness sake and as one that had not the Spirit of Contradiction renounced Christ and turned Turk But when the Cause of the Bishops for other Immunities and to keep their undoubted Right and Place in the Lords House was in the hottest dispute Sentence ready to be call'd for and like the last bidding for a thing at the Port-sale York at a Committee of the Lords stands up for his Brethren Murique urbis sunt pectore in uno Sil. lib. 7 and delivers him in the long Harangue that follows 159. I shall desire as much Water or Time of your H. Lordships as your Lordships can well afford in a Committee because all I intend to speak in this business must be to your Lordships only as resolved for mine own part to make hereafter no Remonstrance at all to His most excellent Majesty for these several Reasons First That I have had occasion of late to know that our Soveraign whom God bless and preserve is I will not say above other Princes but above all Christian men that ever I knew or heard of a man of a most upright dainty and scrupulous Conscience and afraid to look upon some Actions which other Princes abroad do usually swallow up and devour I know for I have the Monuments in my own custody what Oath or rather Oaths His Majesty hath taken at his Coronation to preserve all the Rights and Liberties of the Church of England and you know very well that Churchmen are never sparing in their Rituals and Ceremonials to amplisie and swell out the Oaths of Princes in that kind Your Lordships then know right well that he is sworn at that time to observe punctually the Laws of King Edward the first Law whereof as you may see in Lambert's Saxon Laws is to preserve entirely the Peace the Possessions and the Rights and Privileges of the Church And truly I shall never put my Master's Conscience that I find resenting and punctilious when it is bound up with Oaths and Protestations to swallow such Gudgeons as to sill it self with these Doubts and Scruples My second Reason is That if His Majesty were free from all these Oaths and Protestations I duâ—t not without some fair Invitation from himself advise His Majesty to run Shocks and Oppositions against the Votes of both these great Houses of Parliament Lastly If I were secretly invited to move His Majesty to advise upon the passing of this Bill yet speaking mine own Heart and Sence and not binding any of my Brethren in this Opinion if I found the major part of this House to pass this Bill without much qualification I should never have the boldness nor desire to sit any more in any judicial place in this most honourable House And therefore my H. Lordships here I have sixt my Areopagus and dernier Resort being not like to make any further Appeal which makes me humbly desire your Patience to speak for some longer time than I have accustomed in a Committee in which length notwithstanding I hope to use a great deal of brevity some length in the whole and much shortness in every particular Head which I mean so to distinguish and beat out that not only your Lordships but the Lords my Brethren may enlarge themselves upon all the particulars which neither my Abilities of Body can perform nor doth my Intention nor Purpose aim at at this time I will therefore cast this whole Bill into six several Heads wherein I
and Representation of the Clergy a third estate if we may speak either with Sir Edw. Coke or the ancient Acts of Parliament have been in possession hereof these Thousand years and upward The Princes of the Norman Race indeed for their own ends and to strengthen themselves with Men and Money erected the Bishopricks soon after the Conquest into Baronies and left them to sit in the House with their double Capacities about them the latter invented for the profit of the Prince not excluding the former remaining always from the beginning for the profit and concernment of the poor Clergy and the State Ecclesiastical which appears not only by the Saxon Laws set forth by Mr. Lambert and Sir H. Spelman but also by the Bishops Writs and Summons to Parliament in use to this very day We have many President upon the Rolls that in vacancy of Episcopal Sees the Guardian of the Spirituals though but a simple Priest hath been called to fit in this Honourable House by reason of the former Representation and such an Officer I was my self over that See whereof I am Bishop some 25 years ago and might then have been summoned by Writ to this Honourable House at that very time by reason of keeping the Spirituality of that Diocess which then as a simple Priest I did by vertue of the aforesaid Office represent And therefore most noble Lords look upon the Ark of God's Representative that at this time floats in great danger in this Deluge of Waters If there be any Cham or unclean Creature therein out with him and let every man bear his own Burden but save the Ark for God and Christ Jesus sake who hath built it in this Kingdom for saving of People And your Lordships are too wise to conceive that the Word and Sacraments the means of our Salvation will be ever effectually received from those Ministers whose Persons shall be so vilified and dejected as to be made no Parcels or Fragments of this Common-wealth No faith Gregory the last Trick the Devil had in this World was this that when he could not bring the Word and Sacraments into disgrace by Errors and Heretical Opintens he invented this Project and much applauded his Wit therein to cast Slight and Contempt upon the Preachers and Ministers And my noble Lords you are too wise to believe what the common people talk that we have a Vote in the election of Knights and Burgesses and consequently some Figure and Representation in the noble House of Commons They of the Ministry have no Vote in these Elections they have no Representation in that Honourable House and the contrary Assertions are so slight and groundless as I will not offer to give them any answer And therefore R. Hon. Lords have a special care of the Church of England your Mother in this point And as God hath made you the most noble of all the Peers of the Christian World so do not you give way that our Nobility shall be taught henceforth as the Romans were in the time of the first and second Punick Wars by their Slaves and Bond-men only and that the Church of God in this Island may come to be served by the most ignoble Ministers that have ever been seen in the Christian Church since the Passion of our Saviour And so much for the first thing which this Bill intends of sever from Persons in Holy Orders viz. Votes and Representations in Parliament The next thing to be severed from them by this Bill is of a meaner Mettal and Alloy sittings in Star-Chamber sittings at Council-Table sitting in the Commissions of Peace and other Commissions of Secular Affairs which are such Favours and Graces of Christian Princes as the Church may have a being and subsistence without them The Fartunes of our Greece do not depend upon these Spangles and the Soveraign Prince hath imparted and withdrawn these kind of Favours without the envy or regret of any wise Ecclesiaâ—ical Persons But my noble Lords this is the Case our King hath by the Statute restored unto him the Headship of the Church of England and by the Word of God he is Custos utriusque tabulae And will your Lordships allow this Ecclesiastical Head no Ecclesiastical Senses at all No Ecclesiastical Person to be consulted withal not in any circumstance of Time and Place If Cranmer had been thus dealt withal in the minority of our young King Josias King Edward the Sixth of pious memory what had become of the great Work of our Reformation in this flourishing Church of England But I know before whom I speak I do not mean to Dine your Lordships with Coleworts the harsh Consequents of this Point your Lordships do understand as well as I. The last Robe that some Persons in Holy Orders are to be stript of hath a kind of Mixture of Freehold and Favour of the proper Right and Graces of the King which are certain old Charters that some few Bishops and many Ancient and Cathedral Churches have purchased and procured from the ancient Kings before and since the Conquest to inable them to live quiet in their own Precincts and close as they call it under a Justice or two of their own Body without being abandoned upon every slight occasion to the Injuries and Vexations of Mechanical Tradesmen of which your Lordships best know those Country Incorporations do most consist Now whether these sew Charters have their Foundation by Favour or by Right I should conceive under your Lordships savour it is neither Favour nor Right to take them away without some just Crime objected and proved For if they be abused in any particular Mr. Attorney-General can find an ordinary Remedy to repair the same by a Writ of Ad quod damnum without troubling the two Houses of Parliament And this is all I shall speak to this Point 165. And now I am come to the fourth part of this Bill which is the manner of Inhibition heavy every way heavy in the Penalty heavier a great deal in the Incapacity For the weighing of the Penalty will you consider I beseech you the small Wyres that is poor Causes that are to induce the same and then the heavy Lead that hangs upon those Wyres It is thus If a natural Subject of England interessed in the Magna Charta and Petition of Right as well as any other yet being a Person in Holy Orders shall happen unfortunately to Vote in Parliament to obey his Prince by way of Counsel or by way of a Commissioner be required thereunto then he is presently to lose and forfeit for his first offence all his means and livelyhood for one year and for the second to forfeit his Freehold in that kind for ever and ever And I do not believe that your Lordships ever saw such an heavy weight of Censure hang upon such thin Wyres of Reason in an Act of Parliament made heretofore This peradventure may move others most but it does not me It is not the Penalty
that saving unto themselves all their Rights and Interests of Sitting and Voting in the House at other times they dare not Sit or Vote in the House of Peers until your Majesty shall further secure them from all Affronts Indignities and Dangers in the Premisses Lastly Whereas their Fears are not built upon Phantasies and Conceipts but upon such Grounds and Objects as may well terrifie men of good Resolutions and much Constancy They do in all duty and humility protest before your Majesty and the Peers of the most Honourable House of Parliament against all Laws Orders Votes Resolutions and Determinations as in themselves null and of none effect which in their absence since the 27th of this Instant-month of Decemb. 1641 have already passed As likewise against all such as shall hereafter pass in that most Honourable House during the time of their forced and violent absence from the said most Honourable House Not denying but if their absenting of themselves were wilful and voluntary that most Honourable House might proceed in all the Premisses their Absence or this Protestation notwithstanding And humbly beseeching your most Excellent Majesty to command the Clerk of that House of Peers to enter this Petition and Protestation amongst his Records They will ever pray to God to bless and preserve c. Subscribed by Joh. Eborac Tho. Dunelm Ro. Cov. and Lich. Jos Norwicen Joh. Asaphensis Gul. Bath Wellen. Geo. Hereford Rob. Oxen. Matth. Elien Godfr Glocestr Job Petroburg Maur. Landoven 169. Hear and admire ye Ages to come what became of this Protestation drawn up by as many Bishops as have often made a whole Provincial Council They were all call'd by the Temporal Lords to the Bar and from the Bar sent away to the Tower Nonne fuit satius tristes formidinis iras Atque superba pati fastidia A rude World when it was safer to do a Wrong than to complain of it The People commit the Trespass and the Sufferers are punish'd for their Fault 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athen. lib. 9. A Proverb agreeing to the drunken Feasts of the Greeks If the Cook dress the Meat ill the Minstrils are beaten That day it broke forth that the largest part of the Lords were fermentated with an Anti-episcopal Sourness If they had loved that Order they would never have doomed them to a Prison and late at night in bitter Frost and Snow upon no other Charge but that they presented their Mind in a most humble Paper to go abroad in safety Ubi amor condimentum inerit quidvis placiturum spero Plaut in Casin Love hath a most gentle hand when it comes to touch where it loves Here was no sign of any silial respect to their Spiritual Fathers Nothing was offer'd to the Peers but the Substance was Reason the Style lowly the Practice ancient yet upon their pleasure without debate of the Cause the Bishops are pack'd away the same night to keep their Christmas in Durance and Sorrow And when this was blown abroad O how the Trunch-men of the Uproar did fleer and make merry with it But the Disciples of the Church of England took it very heavily not for any thing the good Bishops had done but for that they suffer'd for a Prisoner is not a Name of Infamy but Calamity Poena damnati non peccati Cic. pro Dom. Estque pati poenam quà m meruisse minùs Ovid. lib. 1. de Pont. Nothing can be more equal than to lay the Objections the Lords made and York's Answers for the Protestation together as they go from Hand to Hand to this day in Town and City And let the Children judge what their Fathers did if they read this hereafter Obj. 1. That the Petition is false the Lords did not sit in Fear as my Lord of Worcester Winchester London Nor was it the Petition of all the Bishops about London and Westminster not of Winchester London Rochester Worcester 〈◊〉 If this were true yet were it not Treason against any Canon or Statute-Law but the Fact is otherwise First the Fear complained against is not for the time of their Sitting in the House but for the time of their coming unto and going from the said House and it is easie to prove they were then in Fear Secondly They know best whether they were in Fear or no who subscribed or agreed to the Petition And my Lord of Winchester agreed in it as much as the rest and instanced in the cause of his Fear his chasing to Lambeth Thirdly For the other part of the Objection the Bishop of London was then at Fulham Rochester in Kent Worcester at Oxford nor doth the Title of the Petition comprehend them as not being about London and Westminster Winchester did agree thereunto and came thither to subscribe and it was resolved his Name should have been called for ere ever it was to be solemnly preferred to the King which was never intended to be but when the King sate in the Upper House of the Lords which the Bishops intended to pray His Majesty to do And this appears by the Superscription of the Petition Obj. 2. The nulling of all Laws to be made at this time that the Kingdom of Ireland was in jeopardy was a conspiring with the Rebels to destroy that Kingdom and so amounted to Treason or a high Misdemeanour 〈◊〉 1. A Protestation annulleth no Law but so far as the Law shall extend to the Parties protesting Nor so far but in case that the Parties protesting shall afterward judicially prove their right to annull that Law So that it was impossible any Protestation of the Bishops should actually intend to hinder the Relief of Ireland 2 The Relief of Ireland by 10000 Scots and 10000 English was voted and concluded long before this Protestation and all the Particulars of that great business referr'd to a Committee of both Houses and the Bishops unanimously assented thereto So that the Relief of Ireland comes not within the Date and Circumscription of this Protestation And the Bishops call God to witness they never conceived one Thought that way 3. The Bishops protested against no Laws or Orders at all to be annulled absolutely and for all the time of this Session of Parliament simply but for that space of time only wherein they should be forcibly and violently kept from the said Parliament by those rude and unruly People So that as soon as the King and the Lords did quiet their passage unto Parliament which the Lords did do before this Petition was read in Parliament and that any of the Bishops were present there the Protestation was directly null and of none effect so as indeed the Protestation was void and dead in Law before the L. Keeper brought the Petition in question into the House because the Bishop of Winchester and some others had even then quiet access unto that Honourable House And the Bishops conceived the Protestation void in such a case and do most humbly wave and revoke the same and humbly desire both